Chapter III - First Hours on a Job

“Pirate Hunters! Two of them - left side, left side!”

“Fifty degrees left, full turn and forward! Left shield to full, prepare the Razor Cannons! We’ll take a scratch, that’s fine! Fire right after they do!”

“On it!”

Alchfrid wasn’t worried too much. Two “eagle” class ships weren’t something that could rout his ship without facing significant problems. However, no way in the void he would allow his ship to be surrounded from both sides. Fortunately, the speed in a Threshold was dependant solely on engine quality. That’s why in the speed department “Morning Star” would give trouble to even the best quality ships that normal privateers could deploy.

Still, it was extremely suspicious. Alchfrid didn’t like to assume things. Fighting his ship head-on with only two “eagle” ships was a nearly suicidal idea. If it was a ruse, then disabling one of the ships and leaving, using it as a cover would be a good idea.

“Got hit, Captain! Shields are still holding up!”

“Firing front cannons!”

Two red rays, after a brief delay, hit the privateer’s ship, drilling through the shield. The enemy ship turned to its right, when its left-side shield ran out - rays hit the back thruster of the ship, damaging it enough for a cloud of black smoke and sparks to come out of it.

“Hit them, Captain! Her left is disabled!”

“Never use a Razor before going for evasion… rookie mistake.” Alchfrid shook his head. Whoever these people were, they were no match for the Navy.

The second enemy ship was coming up from behind.

“Power on left side and back, get the left broadside ready! Left turn!”

The disabled ship and its partner fired at the same. Alchfrid cringed - he almost felt the heavy rounds hitting the shields in the back.

Morning Star turned, now moving behind a barely crawling “eagle”. The Captain could see the small silhouettes of people, running on a deck, screaming orders and pointing at his ship. He smiled internally, knowing by experience, what exactly it means - being stuck in the Threshold on a half-crippled vessel.

His gunners did not disappoint. A barrage of heated rounds blasted the ship, tearing its already damaged by Razor Cannons shields to shreds and destroying the thrusters for good. Now they could leave.

“Right turn, ninety, sharp! Full speed ahead after!”

“Aye!”

“Morning Star” was successfully moving further and further away. The second “eagle” had just finished turning and was giving chase. The distance between them was only growing, however.

Despite that, the Control Room crew remained alert.

And not for naught.

“'Wyvern' class, right side! She’s catching up!”

Perpendicular to their ship, a black "wyvern" was rushing in.

“Speed to a crawl, sharp right, prepare left cannons!”

The front thrusters roared, bringing ship speed to a halt.

The captain of the "wyvern" ship was much more experienced than the other two, however. Alchfrid saw the enemy ship turning around as if trying to even out their positions. Captain wondered, what in the void they were planning to do - but then he realized.

They were trying to place their ship parallel to “Morning Star”. Together with “eagle” serving as the distraction, their main objective was to try and force a close-quarters fight - maybe even board their ship. Alchfrid’s suspicions were partially proven, when he saw the second “eagle” trying to cut them off, charging their front cannons.

“Full ahead! Left, fire!”

The pride and glory of the ship, thirty cannon barrage hit the “wyvern” right side with full force. Alchfrid saw their shields whittling down - barely noticeable glass cracks in the middle of the air. Unfortunately, their defenses were holding up - shields didn’t go off.

Red rays scratched a shield at the back and disappeared. The cannon crew on the “eagle” wouldn’t target their mates on the "wyvern", that’s for sure. They would probably try to follow both of them, but the engines on the Morning Star were way more powerful.

Now, the only danger was their immediate neighbour on the left-hand side.

“'Wyvern' entering boarding range! Orders, Captain?”

“Keep up the speed! Make it harder for them! If another ship appears, sound the alarm, I’m going down to the deck!”

Alchfrid turned around and met eyes-to-eyes with an unexpected person. The person that was supposed to be with Ralf right now.

“What are you doing here?!”

*****

“I’m going down to the Weapons crew, you go up to Control Room and do what Captain says!”

Ralf practically vanished from the arsenal, not even giving Joseph any time to answer. That left him with no choice, but to follow the orders. Not like he could do anything else - he never was in a combat situation before.

The platform, where Joe first saw the elevator and stairs, was full of humans and weird creatures, going to their stations. Joseph noticed some familiar snake-cats, a couple of weird deathly-pale people with straight horns on the sides of their heads and terrifying creatures straight from horror stories - very tall, with thin limbs and thin bodies, covered in scales and with giant maws where their faces would be, without eyes or noses. They acted no different from the rest of the crew, going to their designated posts.

Joe did notice that a few members of the crew had a very intense look on their faces (the ones he could read, at least), in contrast to a more focused, borderline relaxed expressions of the others. Some people from the group were even giving directions to the more confused members of the crew, acting as officers.

Joseph shook his head and quickly ran up the stairs, joining a small group. They went to the side doors, one of which was the same one he walked past not so long ago. Joe continued his way up the stairs to the level above, before arriving at the room that looked like an observation deck, with a bunch of levers, panels, and a big, round wheel.

If anything could tell him that it was the Control Room, it was definitely it. Captain was there, loudly declaring orders left and right, looking intensely focused.

Joseph glanced outside the window. Two unknown ships were flying towards The Morning Star. He turned his attention to the Alchfrid.

“Fifty degrees left, full turn speed and forward! Left shield to full, prepare the Razor Cannons! We’ll take a scratch, that’s fine! Fire right after they do!”

Ships exchanged the fire. Red rays were an unexpected surprise - laser technology (or was it a laser? Joe wasn’t really sure), used as a weapon of destruction was something that even his world had not achieved yet. They were quite effective, too - one ship was disabled almost immediately.

That would’ve been an entertaining show, or a fun video game combat encounter, if his feet weren’t standing right there on a metal floor, his body wasn’t feeling pressure when their ship was turning around, and sounds of cannon barrage weren’t reaching his ears. Mercifully, the pressure was much weaker, than on a plane, allowing him to freely move around during maneuvering actions.

Their ship was successfully flying away, when the third ship - 'wyvern', apparently - came rushing in to intercept. Joe took a glance at the commotion on a deck and saw members of the crew, armed with all manner of firearms, taking positions behind a steel gunwale on the deck. He saw the enemy crew pulling out big handheld blunderbuss-like firearms with grappling hooks inserted into the end of a barrel.

“What are you doing here?!”

Joe was caught off guard for a moment, before forcing himself to focus up.

“Ralf told me to go here, Captain!”

Even if he acknowledged his words, Alchfrid didn’t say anything. He quickly walked past Joe, gesturing him to follow.

They ran down to the deck. Xander was already there, giving orders.

“Hold down the fire! Wait for them to be closer! Spread out, don’t stay in the open for even a second! After first contact, fire at will!”

The bulwark at the backside of the ship was higher than in the middle, covering a door that was leading inside a ship. Captain gestured Joe to take a cover behind the edge of the elevated wall, while Xander went to the left and stood near an opening in the bulwark. Joe followed him with his eyes until his gaze fell on a back of a huge multi-barrel machine gun with a handle, that was placed in the middle of the opening.

There was no time to be surprised. The hooks grabbed onto their ship, each one had a metallic wire trailing it. Joe felt his fingers tighten on the handle of a pistol. His heart was beating extremely fast; his breath was erratic.

The loud bang came from behind - Xander pulled a trigger.

“Fire!!!”

The loud cacophony of sounds and roars deafened Joe. The air was filled with smoke and smell of powder. He felt his legs shake; his thoughts were a mess, he was disoriented.

The unfamiliar man a couple of metres away from him threw a glance in his direction. He shook his head, reloaded his rifle, stood up from a cover, and shot.

As he was going back down, he suddenly dropped his rifle and grabbed his neck.

Joe saw blood leaking throw the man's fingers.

The man writhed on a deck floor, gurgling and convulsing. His eyes were staring at Joe, begging him to do something, anything at all.

Joseph’s mind was unable to force himself to look away. His legs were frozen, his hands were clutching the pistol to the point of burning pain in his fingers. His vision was fixed on the man’s dying eyes.

Like ones of a dying animal.

An animal…

His body slowly slid down.

The words of faraway past echoed in his mind.

“Do you see how it suffers?! Shoot him in the head, quickly!”

His hand reached out for a rifle. A few bullets fell from a dead man’s pocket.

The dying eyes of a deer were judging him.

He felt his fingers pulling a bolt and putting another bullet in.

“Don’t ever point a gun at a man, you hear me?! We die just as easily as animals do, remember!”

He pushed a bolt back into place.

Just like an animal…

He stood up.

An animal.

His scream was drowned out in the gunfire.

He aimed.

He saw a movement in the smoke.

He pulled the trigger.

*****

From the corner of one of his eyes, Alchfrid saw Joseph sliding down a wall, completely mortified.

Even if he wanted to help him, that was not the time for that. He had to pull through on his own.

Captain turned to Xander, who was busy with a machine gun.

“Should we board them now?!” He shouted.

“We can!” Xander shouted back.

Alchfrid quickly walked to a crew, keeping himself behind a cover. The number of active combatants on another side was reduced to a manageable number. They could board another ship with the strike team, while Ralf and Control Room crew will make sure that the second ship will not intervene.

He heard an echo of a scream, drowned out in the cacophony of shots. Joe shot someone on the other side and pulled back behind a cover. His feet were shacking, he was breathing heavily, but his hands were successfully reloading a weapon - likely entirely on pure instinct. He then waited for a moment, before peaking out again and pulling the trigger again, this time without any sound.

He did pull through, ha!

There was still a job to be done.

“Listen up! Their numbers are dwindling! One last barrage and we’re going in!”

He roared his words as loudly as he could. They heard him - he saw nods and bloodthirsty grins, acknowledging his call.

Alchfrid put his hand on a hilt. The gunshots were heard rarer and rarer. Their ships were almost touching now. The moment has come.

“Lay aboard, lads!”