Pirate Solidarity Thread.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

"Are the shipyards sealed?" asked Peregrine.

"Yes, sir."

"Set off."

The tiny click of a switch was quickly drowned out by a wall of sound - the city's massive impellers coming to life. The noise soon diminished to a constant pervasive hum. New Babbage was on its way to Vendigroth. It would take hours to reach the top speed of thirteen miles per hour.

"Has the navigational engine committed the course to its memory?"

"Yes, admiral."

"Excellent. Please step away from the control board."

Pensively, the officer stepped away from the console. He had a vague idea of what Peregrine was going to do.

Ten short cracks rang through the command deck, followed by the chiming tinkle of shattering components. Peregrine had emptied his pistol into the navigational board.

"No diversions." Said Peregrine to the stunned officer, drily.


Elsewhere, a discovery was being made...

"Carvorite, I'm sure." said a geologist, prodding a rock face with his hammer. "This is the most important strike this mine has ever made, no doubt. I know a shipbuilder who'll be very interested in this."

[Bellono]

Bellono glanced to the capitano and the piccolo seniora then back to the Russian through his sights "Onca more i ask you capitano what are the orders?"

[Gentleman-Adventurer]

Burnside had been thinking. He desperately needed to get somebody on board Yastreb's ship, but he also needed Bellono, the only real career soldier on the ship besides himself. He couldn't send Shreds, though. If Yastreb was feeling traitorous, she wouldn't last five minutes. Bellono, on the other hand, had at worst a fighting chance, and at best could possibly take Yastreb and his crew out single-handed, given plenty of ammunition and cover.
"Bellono," Burnside said, eventually. "You'll go with Mr Yastreb to help in his raid. Shreds, you'll stay on board and man the radio on the bridge. I'll need somebody to relay my orders to the rest of the fleet. Now, hurry. We're wasting time."

(OOC: Sorry. Exams etc.)

[ShredsnPatches]

More than a little relieved, Shreds dashed off to the bridge to re-familiarise herself with the radio.

[Storm Rider]

"Prevoshodnyj , come on Italian get your equipment we will leave at once" Yastreb quickly talks into his radio and the launch moves beside the abandon. a gang way is loward to the railing of the abandon. Yastreb then turns to Burnside " give me three days and everything will be set. My fleet will attack the city and act as a screen for any reinforcements that the First Fleet may muster" Yastreb nimbly jumps onto the gangway" I'll see you at new Babbage"he turns and walks onto the launch and waits for Bellono.

(( occ was wondering where will New Babbage be exactly in three days if you were looking at a map or google earth ))

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

"And what exactly is this?" Said Mrs. Harper, the Authority's only female member.

"It's an airship, madame. The most advanced one we've ever constructed."

"Ah. Advanced to the point at which it's actually useless? If I remember correctly, the test crew didn't survive the first flight. Crushed, I believe. By trying to climb too quickly."

"The airship is completely functional and safe. We've fitted a system to preventit from happening in future."

"Excellent. And is the exploding problem fixed?"

The engineer almost wet himself. She wasn't supposed to know about the explosion. "We've solved that by using Carvorite to provide lift, and running the propulsion off the experimental engine..." he mumbled.

The object in question was an oddly-shaped airship, flattened, ovoidal and tapered. Its colour was mostly black, except for the bright new hull plates at the bow. At each corner were four rotor pods, giving it the overall appearance of a mutated tadpole meant for flight.

"Excellent." said Harper. "And when can it take off?"

"As soon as we have the Carvorite, ma'am."


Elsewhere, a host of Admirals and Commodores were huddled around a map of the desert. A tarnished silver coin represented New Babbage, white chess pieces represented the Fleet's battlegroups in the area and a black queen showed the estimated position of the Pirate armada, as relayed by the IFS Feurrader.

"How many?"

"Hundreds."

"Prospects?"

"Peregrine tells us that he's sending New Babbage to Vendigroth. They'll catch up well before that, if they choose to attack. And only one ætheric helix is functioning. I really don't know why he isn't going to Medway."

"Any forces in the area?"

"The IFS Feurrader is close. As is the Atlantic battlegroup. But they sustained heavy losses at Krakenfell. They can't fight again."

"This will be tricky."

[ShredsnPatches]

Shreds adjusted her headset. The newfangled gadget had been installed when the ship was being repaired at Krakenfell, and she hadn't had a chance to use it yet. She slid the retractable part of the headband into its socket until it fit properly, and tweaked the microphone to level with her mouth.

"Squad One, this is Reckless Abandon calling, do you copy? Over," she said into the mouthpiece.

[Bellono]

Bellono rammed as many spare mags as would fit in his coat into every possible pocket it possesed he also put on under his coat his old Alpini webbing type 1858 (for an idea of how it looks british 1958 pattern webbing but steampunked) leading it will more mags still as well as grabbing emergence 48 hour ration pack and all his usual blades and two knuckle dusters. Bellono was not going to be found lacking in weapons that he was sure of and even if he did he was very well trained in fight with no weapons. He ran to the deck his speed was uneffected by the waight but he lost some of his italian grace. He caususly boarded the Russian ship and immediatly started scoping the vessel for emergency exits weapons and started counting the crew

[ShredsnPatches]

"Squad seven, this is Reckless Abandon calling. Do you copy? Over."

"Miss Shreds! Is that you? 'Ere, boys, it's Shreds!"

A chorus of roughened voices greeted Shreds over the radio - she'd made a lot of friends in Krakenfell by helping to repair clothing and ships envelopes.

"All right there Fred, just checking in. We'll be in touch," she grinned, moving onto the next set of ships.

[Storm Rider]

Yastreb waves to Burnside as the Launch turned and heaed back to the cruiser " Relax ...it is Bellono Yes? we have twenty four hours till we reach the operation area, so relax otherwise you will exhaust yourself" Yastreb smiles as the launch quickly docks with the cruiser. becoming more serious he shouts orders to the crew. Almost imediatly the quick powerful vessel engages it's engines. The Black Horse follows as we spead across the sky. Yastreb guides Bellono around the shp being very courteous. " my fleet all together consists of nearly four hundred ships. mostly destroyers and covrvettes but with a storng backbone of cruisers, carriers and Battleships" Yastreb sits in a leather seat in the ward room. He drinks a cup fo fine coffee" Would you like some? it is an Italian blend" he offers to pour some more coffee.

[Bellono]

Bellono looked at the Russian "No gratsi senior, i have my own drink" Bellono was especially careful when it came to strangers offering him drinks. He had bad run ins in the past.... He pulled out an old military water bottel that was steaming slightly after he opened it..."I preffer tea"

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

The bottle of wine swung through the hot, still air of the desert, and cracked on the black hull plates of the bizzare new airship, where it steamed slightly. The hull was hot.

"Wonderful." Said Harper. "A safe flight to you, captain." With that, she turned and retreated back to the shade of the aerodock. Like most of the Authority, she didn't come above ground often.

The captain boarded his ship. "Activate the lifting cells and bring bouyancy to neutral."

"Aye, sir." The wooden trestles supporting the ship creaked as the weight on them eased.

"IFS Joyeuse under captain Zufar, requestin permission to take off." he said into his radio.

"Permission granted, Joyeuse. Ascend to three thousand feet, then proceed."

Zufar turned off this radio, then strapped himself into his seat - The airship was temperamental.

"Climb to three thousand feet, then make a course due west. Our orders are to pinpoint the exact location and course of the pirate armada, and estimate the number of ships."

As he was pressed into his seat by the force of the acceleration, Zufar felt a twinge of trepidation. The prototype engine for the airship had exploded on the test site, and turned an acre of sand into black glass. On the test flight, the captain at the time had ordered the airship to climb too quickly, causing the crew to be crushed.

"Gentlemen,", he said to the bridge crew "We are in command of the fastest, most advanced airship ever built. Let's try to get this right."

[Storm Rider]

" Suit yourself. Well we should be passing through my own fleet in just a few mineutes" Yastreb Stands and moves to a very large window. It is late evening and the grey storm clounds of a massive storm front are now tinged orange" there" Yastreb points casually. Emergeing from the eges of the storm front are hundreds of ships. All are of the near solid design of this cruiser, Destroyers with two large turrets one set forward on the top of the hull with two fourteen inch guns. The second turret is set near the rear but under the hull. there are a host of other wepons along with several of the aero torpedo tubes. THe huge air carriers emerge next in a V formation they are three times wider then the Shtorm class cruisers around them that act as their defence picket. Flights of Gyro buzz around the fleet. The massive dark battleships cast shadows  on their smaller brothers, their armanet ment to chews ships apart in long broadside engagments." you may apreciate this Bellono, my flagship the Titan class battleship Ptomekin" there slowly sliding out of the dark clounds is a gargantuan form. With 9 18inch Guns  in three turrets on the deck, 2 16 inch cannons mounted in a 2 cannon mount turret in the under side of the hull at the aft of the hull. 20 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 38 cal, Mark 12  Turreted guns set in the under side of the hull and in the super structure on the upperside of the airship,80 × 40 mm / 56 cal. Autocannon antiaircraft guns equally diesperesd in the hull of the ship and in ball mounts along the keel of the airship, 49 × 20 mm / 70 cal. Krakov gatling antiaircraft guns scatard around the shipt these gatling guns are all electrically driven firing their 20mm rounds at 6000 rounds per mineute. Measuring nearly 900 feet long it's hull is up to 650 mm thick or around 2 feet. Of all the ship in Yastreb's fleet this is the most imposing. on it's ramming blade like hull there is a vast mural painted on the hull. As the cruiser moves past the massive bulk it is clearly a religous one showing a sword bareing angel backed by clouds leads a charge. all the other ships of the fleet are smiliar bareing inspirational religious murals on their keels. All are of a Russian Orthodox style.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

IFS JOYEUSE > VENDIGROTH:
Long-range ÆDAR counts 600 pirate ships, 400 unidentified. Total app. 1000. Co-ordinates to follow.

One thousand ships...

The minister for intelligence spoke up: "I've contacted our spies around the world. They're working on tracking down the people who built those ships, specifications, home ports, communication channels..."

The minister for shipping: "I took the liberty of dispatching ten fully equipped salvage ships to rendezvous with New Babbage. With any luck, we'll have another helix working in two days."

Petrovich spoke over a voice-link: "The African, Indian and Saharan battlegroups are being recalled. This will give us nine carrier groups to work with, as well as twelve ships with advanced weapons."

"All possible preparations have been made, then?" Said their leader.

"Yes, sir. Medway is preparing for a siege, and the ætheric helix defending the aerodock here is prepared."

"Then we wait."

[Storm Rider]

Field Marshall Ivan Krasnov slowly paced the thickly carpeted hallway outside of the council chambers of the Home Parliament. He was an old man but still up right and dignified in his uniform. He looked out of a high arched window onto the city of Arkhangelsk. The city had been but a town catering to the port with its usual trade only 30 years ago. Now it was a massive city and the centre of new and powerful country of Otkrytoe Nebo. He snorts remembering when the new name for the Kingdom of Arkhangelsk was announced. "Open Sky" he spoke in his rough gravelly voice and smiled. Only a poet or a revolutionary would have come up with that name for a country. He remembers now, it was twelve years ago when the sedate feudal country was forcibly shocked into the new industrialised world. King Boris Godunov by then had been limping through life on borrowed time. Throat cancer had robbed him of speech for nearly a decade, his son Crown Prince Piotor Godunov was his voice. For those years his son schemed entranced by the idea of the industrialised world. He was sickened by the rural kingdom he would inherit so he resolved to change it. Over those ten years he increased spending to the military making a massively core of hard corp. military men who owed him much. On the death of his father his great five year plan began. Making secret deals with neighbouring kingdoms who were suffering from famine massive hordes of peasants had been promised parcels of untouched farm land in Arkhangelsk. What they found were work camps. The population of the country swelled form some 8 million to nearly 120. And so it began. The Ural Mountains became like ant hills seething under masses of workers digging out precious raw materials. Arkhangelsk city port became the ship yard for not the normal ocean going vessels but the new all steel and Iron air ships created thanks to the discovery of the mineral Peronight. These ships would be unstoppable since they did not rely on gas envelopes to gain lift. And the Battleship Potemkin would be the new King's personal play thing. The military was on the King's side as we industrialists thrilled with all the free labour and unrestricted contracts. Massive farms were created, a comprehensive road and rail network. And massive manufactories were created in those five years. The 120 million strong workforces dropped to around 80 million from over work, disease and the brutality of the guards.

The King was so content in his new citadel that the Marshall now stood in. He had been one of dozens of high level military officers who had been hold over from before these reforms. He had been locked away in a camp along with the hundreds of officers who wanted nothing of this atrocity. There had been thousands of soldiers who had revolted as well close to the end of the great five year plan. Many were killed but right the rest had been put to work in the shipyards. That had been the King's mistake. There the soldiers found a leader. A young and some would call foolish but charismatic man barely 19. For those five years of labour in the dock yards he had spread a massive web of revolutionaries and freedom fighters across the country. These Soldiers were exactly what he needed to enact his master plan. On the final day of the great five year plan the great Titan Potemkin was to be launched. At that launch the King and his closest alleys would attend all in the royal box. As the champagne broke across its hull the king clapped with genuine happiness as one of the forward turrets swivelled around to face the box. He thought it was in salute. the though remained in his mind right until his Royal Highness, his head, his entire personage, the men around him, the entire royal box and a massive chunk of the viewing stands atomised under a full volley form that turret. Yastreb along with his now personal cadre of ex soldiers had replaced the foreign mercenary crew who was set to man the ship that day. He had personally pulled the fire break firing those massive shells into the most hated man in his world. All across the country the walls of the work camps were stormed. The soldiers tried to put up a resistance but with the entire command staff now just a red mist they were broken in two days.

Since those days the country of Open Sky was a thriving industrial power. No less than four fleets of these Iron warships guarded its skies. The Home Fleet, eastern and western fleets were at the moment engaged in the near constant border skirmishes with the neighbouring Russian monarchies. But right now the Southern Fleet with elements from the home fleet was closing on the northern coast of Africa. Marshall Ivan Krasnov was worried. His friend and leader Comrade Leader Alexander Yastreb was there trying to fight the first fleet with pirates. He swore, he should be there with him. Yastreb had asked him though to look after the southern border of the country in its weakened sate. He had been till the central council wanted him to report to them on the state of the border war in person. He sighed looking very much his age in the reflection of the glass. “You know he may believe the name we gave him" Krasnov said to his aid “What do you mean Sir?"  Krasnov smile “you think that naming him Stalin wouldn't go to his head. Man of steel "Krasnov chuffed" I wonder if he thinks he is really made of it?" he smiles again looking out southward to where he hopes Yastreb is still alive. The call came for him to enter the chamber. Straightening his uniform jacket he breathes and entered the chamber.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

Moving under sail, the salvage ships slipped through the air. Ahead was the flat black mass that was New Babbage. Clouds were beginning to form on the leading edge of the city - it was so large that it affected the weather. The ships' engines fired up as they approached the docking promenade, angling the clasps on the bows precisely with the corresponding component on the aerodock.

The ships' cargoes were very expensive, and rather delicate. Twelve ætheric capacitors, twelve banks of tesla turbines, one set of power cables and fifty engineers.

No fanfare awaited the engineers. No security, no checks, no obstructions. The soldiers on the city had been told to expect them. Wordlessly, they went about their business. It didn't take them long to release the broken spires of helix two and fit the replacements.

On the command deck, Peregrine smiled as the green light, signifying the weapon was ready to fire blinked on.

"If all the engineers are clear of the underside, we'll test it."

"Yes sir," Said his leiutenant. "They're all accounted for."

Peregrine crossed the command deck to the control board, adroned by the familiar model bee. Unlike the normal grey functionality of the Fleet's machinery, this was opulent. The control board was made of mahogany and brass.

"Charge helix two to fifteen percent and fire at the desert floor ten miles away."

"Aye, sir." said the young officer.

Moments later, the characteristic whiteout of an ætheric helix being discharged flared across Peregrine's vision. Now he had a chance at defending his city.

[Bellono]

"Senior, this is some impressive firepower" It was said casually as if it was not the best he had seen however he was awed by the simple functionality of it all. Nothing was austeticly pleasing but all were leathaly efficient. The guns were nasty not artistic, Bellono could appreciate these men now, he had a respect for fighting men whatever their walk or style. And these were fighting men pure and simple

[Storm Rider]

"In two days my fleet will burn the First Fleet form the sky. The Potemkin is carrying special heavy rounds for New Babbage. They are cored with a tungsten carbide rod. By the time the round will hit New Babbage it will have enough force that when it hits it's target the very air will combust and burn" Yastreb grins" Burnside may not want New Babbage to be destroyed but we are going to give it our best" Yastrab checks a chunky steel pocket watch that looks like it was made form scrap metal" get some rest we will hit the operation are in just a few hours. I will send a Colonel Yakov Pavlov to get you. He will be leading the raid and will be personally assaulting the cargo sloop. It is the most important of these seizures. He is of the 2nd Grenadier regiment and very good at what he does"

[ShredsnPatches]

Back on the Reckless Abandon, Shreds kept a watchful eye on the direct line to Bellono. She'd made sure to instruct a deckhand to check his personal radio to see if it was in good working order. If Burnside didn't trust Yastreb, she was damned if Bellono was going in without a way of secretly keeping in contact.

[Bellono]

"I will need time to clean and check my weapons tell your colonel to collect me wen the time comes" Bellono found a quiet corner as far away from any of the Russian crew as he could and started to disassemble his weapons only after he had checked for bugs and any recording devices within ear shot of his position. He then leaned his head to one side and looked down the barrel he'd just taken off his rifle this brought his head close to the transmitter hidden in his coat lapels "Chiaves to Reckless, come in reckless??"

[ShredsnPatches]

The radio buzzed and came to life.

Chiaves to Reckless, come in Reckless

Shreds started up, grabbing a pencil and paper.

"Reckless Abandon receiving loud and clear. Over."

Beside the radio was Captain Burnside's personal intercom. Shreds flicked a switch, allowing the machine to warm up. If Bellono had something vital to pass on she wanted to be able to reach the captain immediately.

[Bellono]

"These men have some of the largest ship mounted weapons ive seen, they also have a very special very powerful type of round, and enough of them to do some serious damage... I will be seeing their boarding fighting skills soon i will re communicate then i would consider these men useful friends but not trustable ones and certainly not ones to cross in a hurry seniora! Pass this on to the Capitano si?"

[ShredsnPatches]

"Si, si, Chiaves. Reckless Abandon out."

Shreds looked at the jotted notes she'd made, and checked the captain's intercom. The little machine hummed, indicating it was ready to use.

Flicking the switch, Shreds cleared her throat.

"Captain Burnside? Chiaves Bellono just reported in. You'll want to hear this."

[Storm Rider]

(( several hours later in the Russian Fleet))
Walking with the metalic clat of steel studded boots Colnel Yakov Pavlov acompanied by twelve soldiers find Bellono " you are the Italian yes? Comrade Stalin says you will join us on the raid" Pavlov is  six feet tall and well built though his hair at his tempels is greying. A triangular burn across his left cheek is pink and puckerd. The men of the revolutionary Grendadiers wear heavy leather versts over their normal battle dress uniforms. Steel plates are stiched into the material. Short half skirts cover the back of their legs and the front of their thighs, these have flat link chain worked into the material. Along the sides of their steel bowel helmets are guilt stylised grenades with a short fan of flames from the top of them " come Italian we are going to the armory to ready our weapons. We will eat their too, the caravan has been spotted by a scout"

[Gentleman-Adventurer]

Burnside turned from the helm, and picked up his personal intercom.
"Chiaves? Report."