Re: Piracy on the Seven Skies (Sky Pirates IC Thread)

[Espresso]

"So...d'ya have any plans for after we're done with this contract? Adventure? Pillaging? Treasure hunting?"

"Plans... eh, not really. The 2000 bits will have me set for a while, so I'll probably just lie low. Maybe to visit family." Vapor chuckles. "Not all of piracy is blood, guts and glory."

"If we hide under this bridge, we should be able to safely wait for the target to fly by before ambushing it from below without risk of being spotted... as well as prevent the ship from trying to flee into Everfree's airspace. We'll just have to try and deal with the eels if and when we encounter them."

"Well- the eels are subterranean. They hate the light, and they only come out for food." Vapour taps her chin thoughtfully. "If we can fend them off with the flamers, that plan might just work."

---

Time passes. A couple hours later, the Huntress glides into view of the designated area - the intersection between the Ghastly gorge and the shipping lane. Vapor Trail brings the ship to a hover, out of sight of the main shipping lane. "We're here. The Hail Mary will be here shortly, so if you want to set up an ambush..." Vapor looks at the group. "Are we going with hiding in the gorge, then?"

[Paper Shadow]

Mori stretches from his resting position. "Sure. That's what you guys agreed on, aye?" Mori was a doctor, not a captain or a pilot, he didn't want to get in anypony's way here and try to make up a plan. Too many cooks and all that. He brings his satchel up to his face and starts preparing his equipment for the hijack...

[AleneShazam]

"I have no objections," Umber says, manning her modified flamer. "As long as I get to use this flamethrower, I'm game."

[jaguargamma]

Frisky Risk pulls a tiny spell book from her pocket, gives it a read, and then zaps the balloon above the ship with her horn. A wave of magic washes over the entire vessel, turning it a color close to that of the wall of the gorge. The smells the crew had become accustomed to are suddenly gone.

"There we go!" she chirps, snapping her tiny book closed. "The eels won't be able to smell us, because now we smell like rocks. And we'll be harder for the Hail Mary to spot."

Actions:

[Faege]

"Magic! Magic is cheating," Vulcan laughs raucously, clapping his claws together. "I like it."

His claws start to heat up, and he wanders close to the edge of the ship. "Worst comes to worst, the pegasus is right - we can just burn the eels off us."

[Senshuken]

Nodding his head in mild approval at the display of magic, Apollo took a moment to ruffle his wings before saying "Right. Now all we need is for the Hail Mary to arrive. Keep an eye out everyone."

[Espresso]

The gang waits quietly. It's almost silent under the bridge, save the slithering and hissing of the quarray eels, lurking in the dark shadows of the gorge. The few times an eel gets curious enough to investigate, it doesn't take much to scare it off with a show of fire.

All in all, the wait is uneventful, but the silence is unnerving.

A storm starts to brew over the Everfree forest as they wait, black clouds appearing out of thin air and clumping together, roiling like a mass of serpents.

"Dark omens," Vapor comments, staring up at the sky.

Then, in the horizon, there's a glint of metal: the bulk unwieldy frame of a merchant ship, and cruising lazily beside it, the lithe knife-shaped hull of a corvette. Like the Huntress, it boasts a light frame and high mobility, but it is a dozen odd feet longer than the sloop, and much deeper, with a full below-deck and two sets of guns both above and below deck. Two balloons keep it afloat, while cloud engines whirr with energy, keeping it gliding along at a steady clip.

"There it is: the Hail Mary." Vapor says, her hooves on the wheel. She glances at the party. "I'm going in. We'll hit them from below, separate the escort from the merchant ship. You do your best to not die until we close the distance."

"If you have any clever ideas... now is the time to say it."

[Faege]

"I'm only useful in a boarding situation." Vulcan rasps, clicking his claws together. "I'm your drake for suppressing the merchant ship, but I'd rather not tangle with a corvette."

He glances over at the crew. "Anyone have a clever plan to take the escort down?"

[jaguargamma]

"Wellll...we could punch holes in their balloons. One of us could fly up, shoot in between the ribs to make a little hole on each side, then punch through to turn them into big holes. Do it enough times, and it'll go down and leave us alone with the Hail Mary."

[AleneShazam]

"I do have a quicker solution to take down the corvette..." Trigger mentions slowly. "It could be amazing. Or I could end up a smear on the sidewalk. Either one."

She taps her guns against the deck of the Huntress. "I could potentially take out their central engine. That'll take them out for sure. And I can do it fast."

[Senshuken]

With a cautious eye, Apollo glanced towards the storm gathering over the Everfree in order to try and judge how likely it was to possible spill over and outside of its boarders...

Shaking his head, he turned to look at the crew as it was offering suggestions before quickly asking Trigger "How long would it take you? If need be we could launch a distraction boarding of the corvette while the rest of the crew and the ship flies to intercept the Hail Mary to cover your actions against the engines."

Dice rolls:

[AleneShazam]

"It'll take me..." Trigger counts in her head. "I think I've got four seconds in me. Perhaps three. That should be plenty."

[Senshuken]

Apollo blinked a little at the mare's statement, confused for a moment as he honestly asked "What exactly are you planning to do to those engines that you can do in less then five seconds?"

[AleneShazam]

Trigger grins toothily. "Trade secret. But in case it doesn't work, I'd say the alicorn has her head on the right way."

[Faege]

"Alright, so... you do your thing," Vulcan points to Trigger. "If that doesn't work, you do your thing," He then points at Frisky. "The griffon and I can run interference, and do boarding on the Hail Mary. If any of us lose a leg, the doctor will keep us from keeling over. Does that sound like a plan?"

[Paper Shadow]

"Works for me."

[Espresso]

"We're going, then." Vapour grins, kicking the ship's engines into action. The pegasi engines roar, and the ship jerks suddenly as the prow angles up, ascending into the sky. By the time the two ships realize what's happening, it's too late - the Huntress forces itself into the gap between the Hail Mary and the escort corvette, separating the two ships.

"Alright, crew, HAUL ASS! GET MOVING!" The pegasus shouts, sending the ship into a spin to avoid the first volley of firebolts that are shot from the escort corvette.

[AleneShazam]

Trigger grins, and she fiddles with her monocular eye for a moment, scanning the escort ship briefly. She tuts, shaking her head. "Mainstream engineers have no sense of flair. What's with that plain hulling? It could at least use another decal..."

She trots over to the edge of the ship, and stretches for a moment. "If I don't make it, tell the Sky I at least died doing something awesome." She calls over her shoulder, before leaping off the Huntress.

A moment later, though, there's an ear-splitting series of crackling explosions as Trigger suddenly shoots towards the corvette, screeching through the air like a comet,  propelled by consecutive explosions issuing from her gun-prosthetics. Electrical energy crackles around her, and in the blink of an eye she's crossed the distance between the two ships, and in another, she's plowed through what she knows to be a weak portion of the hull, and smashes through into the main boiler room of the corvette, still streaming explosions and lightning.

Rolls and Abilities:

[Espresso]

The party watches as Trigger leaps off the ship, apparently to her death. Then she turns into a shooting star, and smashes straight into the corvette.

For a moment all is silent, smoke issuing from the newly-made hole in the ship's hull.

Then an explosion rips through the escort corvette, the bronze and brass of the ship's hull bending out of shape as a pressure wave booms outwards, blowing out the back of the ship and taking out the bulk of the corvette's pegasi engines. With a great terrible grinding noise, the ship starts to tilt, losing balance and spinning out of control. The ponies that don't get thrown off are forced to double down and hold on for dear life, unable to do anything other than grab on to the railings. With it spinning and tilting, it's essentially out of commission.

A myriad of safety parachutes open up as the crew that get thrown off engage their emergency chutes - but there's one that doesn't have a parachute. That being the limp, smoking form of Trigger, as she's thrown out of the back of the ship by the pressure wave, and plummets down into the grassland below.

[jaguargamma]

"I gotcha!"

All that's left of Frisky where she was standing is the cheesy pirate's cloak she was wearing. With little more than a thought, the mage is over the side and streaking toward Trigger like a bullet, deftly avoiding the falling debris. She overshoots her target and brakes, catching the other pony with telekinesis to slow her fall as well.

A surge of magic strengthens Frisky's hold on Trigger as she ascends back to the airships with Trigger in tow, depositing her on the deck of the Huntress.

Actions:

[Senshuken]

Apollo blinked as he watched everything that had unfolded before him in stunned silence. The parts of his brain that housed rational thought and sanity had looked upon the works of the mare with guns for legs and had been dismayed to find that the sheer levels of insanity of what she had just overwhelming... the fact that it had bloody worked only made it worse! It was a combination of sheer stupidity, mind blowing awesomeness and honest to gods gut wrenching terror at the discovering that this was a valid method of ship attack that he had never even considered before.  

As the alicorn of all things safely placed the still living body of Trigger safely on the deck, Apollo shook his head in order to wake himself from the daze and get his head back in the game; Time was money after all. His jetpack roared to live as he took off, soaring towards the Hail Mary at speed in order to begin the boarding action while the crew would hopefully still be awe struck and surprised by the sudden lose of their escort.

He quickly scanned the ship, hoping to spy the captain of the vessel (or failing that, the one standing at the wheel, driving the ship) in order to select a target to crush into that would greatly speed up the capture of the ship. Spying something that looked correct and adjusting his aim, the griffion turned his body and powered up the jetpack in order to launch what would hopefully be a dive tackle that would cripple the Hail Mary's chain of command... through he had full intention of knocking out his target rather then kill them.

Dice rolls and actions:

[Espresso]

Apollo's jetpack takes him across the gap between the two ships with ease, and within moments he's circling above the Hail Mary, looking for a target. Unfortunately, it seems the captain is below deck for the moment - but Apollo can easily get the drop on the helmsman, tackling the earth pony to the ground. To his surprise, though, the earth pony doesn't seem willing to go down without a fight, and after a brief but intense struggle, throws Apollo off, backing off cautiously.

"Who in Tartarus are you?" He spits, sizing Apollo up.

[Faege]

Vulcan watches with a wide, toothy grin as the escort goes down in flames, silently applauding the work of the Brass Sky mare. He briefly considers going to catch her, but the alicorn seems to have that covered, so instead he turns his attention to the boarding attempt.

The griffon has the right idea, taking out the central command, but luck just isn't on his side, it seems. Perhaps he'll lend a helping claw.

Vulcan downs a large gulp of alcohol before sealing the canister and fitting his mask properly over his maw. He focuses, bending the fire within him to his will, and forcing it to escape from between the gaps of his scales. Fire swirls around him for a moment before coalescing behind him, gathering up into the vague shape of two bat-like wings.

Flapping his flaming wings, he propels himself into the air, and follows in Apollo's stead, but instead of tackling from above, Vulcan goes under the Hail Mary and comes up from the other side, tackling the helmsman from behind while he's distracted by Apollo.

Athletics:

Slamming the earth pony to the ground, Vulcan then grabs the pony by the back of the neck and hoists him up to where the whole on-deck crew can see. Flaring his wings out, Vulcan growls out in his dry, rasping voice: "If anyone so much as moves a muscle, they're next."

Just so he's being extra clear, the neck of the earth pony begins to smoke as Vulcan applies just enough heat to sear his coat without doing too much damage.

Persuasion:

[Senshuken]

Apollo had opened his mouth to fire off a wicked one liner in order to try and demoralize the helmspony further and possibly try and get the rest of the crew to just surrender without much more of a fight... only for a surprised, undignified squawk to escape him instead as the dragon with full on fire bat wings came down on the earth pony from behind, knocking him the hell out before lifting him over his head and making his intimidating statement.

Caught flat footed by the change of pace, Apollo almost sheepishly cleared his throat before saying "Y-yeah, you heard the dragon! Surrender now and we'll drop you off on the ground safe and sound."

Persuasion:

[Paper Shadow]

Mori lifts his crystal close to his mouth as Frisky drops Trigger onto the deck. "Great work. Much more than just a pretty mare, you are. Now stand back a step." Mori grabs the crystal with his mouth and lowers it towards Trigger, bracing his face for the magic. Then stops. Eyes squinting, he spits the crystal and carefully inspects the parts of Trigger's body where flesh meets prosthetics. "Damnit, you more metal than pony or somethin'?" he mumbles to himself...

(Trigger's Mechanical blocks me from doing a Heal Check to heal)

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