Fairy Opera Chapter 32: Boarding Party

 

Boarding Party

The Grand Mahogany flew straight towards the Ultimar. Through the chaos of a skyship battle, we managed to thread our way up to the Ultimar. Holding onto a rope, myself, Tae, Jak, and a dozen of our best fighters waited for the perfect moment to cross the gap. When the moment came, I gave a signal. Yelling out a battle cry, we flew across the gap, depositing ourselves onto the deck of the Ultimar. A dozen Imperial sailors surrounded us.

“Here we go!” I pulled out a fire scroll and blasted away a handful of enemy sailors. Several of them tipped over the edge of the ship and fell screaming to the skyfloor.

The real battle began. I slipped underneath an attack from one sailor, stabbed another sailor through the arm, twisted, sliced the leg of another sailor, and rolled to dodge an attack. My back slammed against a mast. I staggered, got up, and just in time I blocked a strike aimed at my neck. I engaged with my assailant. He wore a tricorn hat and held a cutlass in his right hand. He appeared to be a very important person on this ship.

We exchanged blows. My sword was better-suited to the situation than his cutlass. I caught his blade in mine and tore it out of the man’s hands. The sailor backed up a few paces, turned, and ran away. I swept my blade through the air.

Tae came up next to me. “We’re getting there. I think we’ve distracted enough of the crew to give our friends a chance.”

“Time to go down and disable some cannons.” I looked at Tae. “Are you ready for this? I can’t guarantee you’ll survive.”

“I never expected to.” Tae wiped her mouth. “Let’s go.” We grabbed about six of our warriors and headed down the hatch to the second floor, where the top row of cannons were housed. We rushed through the room and engaged with anyone we saw. There were dozens of sailors in there, but only a quarter of them were equipped with weapons. We tore through them. The cannons on the top deck were disabled. The remaining sailors retreated back down to the next level.

We received some reinforcements from a different ship that had sent boarders onto the Ultimar. They were some of Baphomet’s troops, dark elves with scary-looking swords.

We charged through the room and leaped through the hatch at the room’s back to enter the third deck. The sailors were waiting for us, at least two dozen of them.

We engaged. Swords clashed, blood flowed, and I caught the tip of a blade with my shoulder. Blood ran down my arm. We continued to fight.

The dark elves proved to be adept at close-quarters fighting. They gave no quarter and shredded through the defenders. We managed to break through the block of defending sailors and attack the men manning the second floor cannons. At this point, I was surprised that both myself and Tae were still alive. Injured, but alive.

We pressed forward. There were ten decks on the Ultimar. I wasn’t sure if we could go through them all with our forces dwindling after each encounter.

“Secure this level.”

The sailors manning the cannons ran away and hid on the next level down. We secured every entrance and exit.

“Ruby.”

Ruby came out from my pocket.

“Fly over to a nearby ship and request reinforcements.”

Ruby flew up. “Sir!” She left through a cannon port.

We gathered our strength and bided our time on the deck.

About five minutes after Ruby left, the sailors of the Ultimar attempted a counterattack. They poured through the hatch below and the door to the bunks. We faced them, swords drawn. Our forces clashed. Swords clanged against each other. People screamed. Blood flew through the air.

The enemy soldiers and sailors pushed us back to the entrance to deck two. We were losing ground and manpower.

The wall to the second deck burst open and two dozen dark elf sailors leaped through the breach. Ruby flew over their heads.

“I’ve returned, Rock!”

Our enemies were taken by surprise and retreated after a quick, brutal skirmish. They went back through the doors from which they came.

We took the time to treat our wounded. I used a few healing spells to treat the minor injuries, but I didn’t have enough magic skill or power to heal the major injuries. We did the best we could to care for those sailors.

When everything was secured, we turned to the next deck. We would need to be more careful, as they were expecting us. Also, there could be a number of inquisitors on this ship, and even one of those would give us a hard time.

Just as we finished securing the area, just as I had thought, two inquisitors entered the deck. They split up.

Five of our dark elf soldiers rushed the inquisitors. The inquisitors, in a flurry of blades and magic, pushed them back, killing two of the elves.

We faced off, neither side closing in. I held up my hand. “Null Slick. Produce oil!”

A massive puddle of oil spread between us. I took a match out of my pocket. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this.” I dropped the match into the oil. The oil burst into flames, which quickly spread to the rest of the deck.

The two inquisitors looked at each other. They nodded and then pulled out scrolls of their own.

“Apropos! Apropos!” I countered their magic. The inquisitors leaped over the flaming pit of oil and landed right in front of me. As the flames started devouring the walls, the inquisitors fought. We traded blow for blow. Even though the inqusitiors were outnumbered, they managed to hold their own against our advances. The fire turned massive. I held up my hand. “Let’s get out of here!”

At that moment something exploded. The deck ripped upwards, throwing myself, Tae, and several other elves out of the ship through the breach in the wall. The entirety of the Ultimar was flaming. It made a sharp turn away from the battle.

I knew that this wasn’t enough to put an end to the megaship. It was merely wounded.

But I was falling towards the skyfloor. I needed to fix that. I pulled out a scroll and cast a group float spell. Myself, Tae, and the five elves who had fallen out with us stopped descending. I sat on the current of air holding us up and breathed deeply.

“That’s not enough to bring the Ultimar down.” Tae gritted her teeth.

“But they’re withdrawing.”

They were. The fleet that had attacked Gagna was disengaging and retreating from the battle. The skyfloor was littered with sunken ships, but the Ultimar and the majority of the Imperial force was removing itself from battle. About ten minutes later the battle was over. Our forces did not pursue. The Ultimar, its deck still flaming, was covered in sailors attempting to mitigate the damage. They were doing a good job of it, too.

“They’re coming back.” I shook my head. “With even more firepower. We’ve got only a small amount of time to prepare.”

“I’d suggest that it will take about three months to repair that ship.”

I sighed. “Sure.” I used a spell to push us towards the island. When we arrived on shore, the dock was in an uproar. Injured sailors were being brought to the hospital. The ships that were most damaged were receiving immediate triage. Some of our ships had barely made it back from the fight. Members of the Rebellion council raced in between the dock buildings.

Andrew came up to me. “You did it. You saved the Rebellion with your actions. We’re going to give you an award as soon as possible.”

“Give awards to the men and women who fought with me as well.”

Ami rushed through the crowd and hugged me tight. “Rock, you’re an idiot. You almost got yourself killed.”

Amber, coming behind Ami, stopped a few feet away from us, her hands held behind her back.

Amber rocked from one foot to the other. “You’re strong, Rock. You saved me and now you’ve saved everyone else.”

Ami pulled away. “Don’t do anything stupid like that ever again.”

“I can’t promise that.” I turned away. “We’re fighting a war now, and everyone knows that. There’s no way that I’ll avoid going into battle many more times.”

Ami sighed. “Then bring strong people with you. I don’t want you to die.”

Andrew motioned towards us. “We’ve got things to do. Come with me.”

Tae and I followed Andrew. Jak returned to assist with the ships that were still coming in damaged.

Andrew brought us to the castle. He took us into the war room, where a number of Rebellion leaders and generals were discussing something. They all turned to look at us when we entered.

Nalko waved me over. “We’re tracking the Empire’s fleet. They’re headed towards Richmak. There’s a significant port there where they’ll probably repair the Ultimar.”

“We’re planning to strike them while they’re down. You’ve demonstrated your prowess. We want you to lead the mission to sabotage the Ultimar and prevent its repair.”

“Okay.”

“We’ve gathered the fastest ship in our inventory, the Blink.” Nalko turned to his comrades. “You’ll take a small strike force and do as much damage as you can to the megaship.”

I nodded. “Okay. Can I choose who comes with me?”

Nalko nodded. “You’ll have full control over who comes with you. However, this mission is a volunteer mission, and they have the right to refuse you.”

I held out my hands. “There’s just two people I want to ask and they’ll both say yes for sure.”

“Okay. We’ve gathered the best warriors we have, as well as some of the elves from the Lord of Darkness’s army.” Nalko grimaced. “And I hate to say this, but the Syndicate has agreed to assist us with agents at your destination.”

“Okay. When do we depart?”

“As soon as possible. We want to give them as little time as we can.” Nalko turned back to the war table. “God speed.”

Two hours later we were on board the Blink, heading out in the direction that the Ultimar had gone. We followed their trail for about a week. Tae and Jak were on board, as well as a dozen dark elves and a dozen of the best warriors the Rebellion had to offer.

We came to the island of Richmak and waited until nightfall to approach the docks. Using our Syndicate information, we slipped into a small, hidden dock.

Two Syndicate men greeted us at the dock. They bowed.

“Hammer, at your service.”

“Glaston, at your service.”

Both men were dressed in ordinary clothing, and appeared utterly benign in every way. They turned around.

“We’ve already got the explosives you’ll need to blow that ship sky high.” Hammer led us out of the dock and into town. “We’re going to hole you up for a day in a secret room at the town inn. The Ultimar is still under surveillance. Once they relax their guard, we’ll move in.”

We came to a dilapidated inn. Hammer and Glaston led us through the door and into the common room. The place was sparse, with everything covered in smoke stains. A simple chandelier hung over the room’s center. A single barmaid was cleaning the table. She looked up when we entered.

“We don’t have enough rooms for you all.”

Glaston put a card onto the table. “Some fine wine, please.”

The barmaid lifted her eyebrow. “Certainly.” She pulled a lever underneath the table and a door to the basement opened.

Glaston motioned to us. “After you.”