With the Navy
Yes, you can sail the seven seas
The hull was silent, the stale air hung low within it. Flickering lights watched over the empty interior, a void unoccupied for more than two centuries. A hull straddled by lifelessness and noiselessness. Contrary to the hull was the bridge, a section of the vessel that was recently occupied after being left vacant for more then two hundred years. It was buzzing with lives, seven to be exact, six of them weren't native to the dock, in fact they were technically aliens.
The voice from the PA system denied, "No."
"But what do you need it for? I mean you're not going anywhere with it," Past Tale said.
"You won't understand it honey," called a different voice from the speaker.
"Did you just call me honey ?" Past Tale questioned.
There was a momentary silence among men, mare and ship. Never in their life a battleship had the ability to speak, nor to flirt with a unicorn. Still panting were Scout and Demoman, their faces were pale. Seeing Scout as pale as snow was normal, fighting for a manor with it's own chapel and cemetery proved that, but Demoman wasn't one to be easily spooked. He had fought a wizard before.
"Get a hold of yerself son," Dell shook Scout, "Tell me what happen and where the hell is Solly ?"
Scout slowed down his panting and came with a much clearer answer, "Zombies *pant* downstairs *pant* shooting laser beams *pant* "
What Scout said didn't make sense, but Dell pressed for more answer, "And where's Jane ?"
"Gone*pant*turn to ash," told Jarvis.
Still skeptical about what Scout had said, Dell told the Bostonian and the Scotsman to maintain position within the bridge. He then signaled Misha and Viktor to follow him into the hull of the vessel. Climbing down the steep steps was proven to be difficult with little illumination, their progress of retrieving their comrade was slow. Each step they took was echoed back by tons of steel that surrounded them. Although what the Boston youth didn't make sense, 'zombies shooting laser beams' was enough warning for Dell to tread with cautious within the hull.
Beside their echoed steps, the other thing that was loudly audible was silent. It was all around, an ambience of death, void, and loneliness. And because of that finding Soldier wasn't easy as he was always the loudest among the team, beside Scout that is.
Reaching another corner in the steel maze they roamed, the stillness was shattered an echo that wasn't from their boots. It sounded again, and again.
Dell, Misha and Viktor readied their respective weapon, with the Russian taking the lead, the group moved closer to the source of the sound. They had thrown stealth overboard with the Heavy spinning his Minigun, walking in a slug's pace they no longer move to search, instead they move to intercept. As Misha was about to turn, he collided with the man they were looking for.
"Soldier !" called Misha.
Instead of rejoicing for their reunion, the man who bought a ticket to Europe in order to fight Germans himself covered his ears and took cover along the wall. He made the search team look in bewilderment, they investigate the direction where Soldier had came from. It was clear what he was taking cover from, a door in the hallway they were about to turn to had Jane Doe's tin grenades pinched between the door and a vent cover that was held by his Beggar's Bazooka by positioning it between the cover and the wall.
Quickly the other three men joined Jane in the covering of the ears.
KA-BOOM !
--- --- ---
Earlier
"I apologize for my subordinate behavior," said the voice, "But the answer is still no."
Past Tale harrumphed on the answer, unsuccessful retrieval of the harpoon gun would meant less bottle caps, and with less bottle caps came unhappiness. She approached her cyclops friend and ask, "Do you have any idea what a captain trapped inside his own ship would want ?"
The explosive expert shrugged, "I fought wizard and me own eye turn abomination, not a talking boat lass."
Refusing to surrender to the spirit inside the vessel, the beige mare thought of her situation and how to use it as an advantage, unfortunately it was all in the boat's favor. Then Demoman told her, "What about a trade ?"
"I tried that one before, he didn't want anything I have," said the roving trader.
Demoman stepped forward to the wheel of the vessel and began talking to the boat, "Ae... it's different to from what me Pa used to took me to."
The speaker buzzed to life once more after declining offers from the beige mare, "What kind a boat were you on ?" asked the voice.
"Ach' its only a fishin' boot, but it sure can take on rouge wind off of Glasgow," recalled Demoman.
The other voice boasted, "Well this one could take way more than winds compare to your fishing boat."
The first voice grunted, "Of course it will take more," then he asked Tavish, "Say, you don't look like someone that would've spent time on the sea."
"You're true 'bout that can't go out to the water too long I've got me mum to take care of," the Scotsman told them. "Ya know I always like these ships, tell me 'bout her."
The first voice began sharing tale of the Marizona. She and her sister were the only kinds left from a by gone age. She was modified multiple times, fitted with technology most ship her age would've dream of. Not only that, but they were the only ones who were named after cities. The voice told everyone in the bridge it was because most of the steel and builders came from the settlements in which the vessel took it's name from.
Once they were the largest combat able vessels to sail the seas, but as time progress they were dwarfed by newer generation of warships. Although almost obsolete, they were never scrapped as they were deemed too valuable by the Ministry of Wartime Technology and the Ministry of Arcane Magic while the Ministry of Image told the Navy it would be good in posters, pictures and papers. Instead of turning into scrap metals they were patched.
Then the speaker spoke of her sister, the Fillydelphia. One that the speaker said never left her side.
"She's still with you ?" Tavish DeGroot asked.
The speaker went silence. There was no gust of wind and no one kicking, when the door flung open. From where Demoman was standing, the door provided a view of the sunken vessel's he and his co-workers had ran by. Past Tale moved to the Scotsman side, and Scout followed after. They gazed upon the Fillydelphia.
They never left each other side.
"I'm sorry," the voice in the speaker apologized. "My name's Captain Silver Wind."
Then the second one followed, "Lieutenant Spare Bolt the name, but I'm intrigued to what's yours gorgeous"
The beige mare bashfully, "P-Past Tale."
"Tavish DeGroot, in charge o' handling explosive," the Scotsman introduced.
Scout make himself known, "Jarvis...."
The Bostonian introduction was abruptly halted when the speaker they were talking set off a ear piercing whine, then it emitted a static before broadcasting silence once more.
--- --- ---
The smoke and dust roused coughs out of the men, but Soldier only laugh in joy. He handed Dell a strange looking rifle, telling him to hold it for him before running back to the door with pickaxe in hand. Dell observed the thing Jane had gave him briefly, he set it down on the floor, and along with Medic and Heavy, he went after their helmeted colleague.
Before the search party reached the room Soldier blasted into, there were screams. Rushing into the room, they found Jane Doe was running around between bunk beds, swinging his shovel and turning the room into a shipwreck. In the front end of swaying gardening tool, two ponies desperately attempted to avoid direct contact with it.
Running from the two-legged being that was after them turned to be futile. One of the bunk beds had collapsed and trapped them into a corner. Unwilling to let his attacker go, Soldier kept flailing his shovel. His body being held by the fallen bed didn't help in hitting the two ponies. But it did gave the cornered ponies the chance to shout in terror at the top of their lungs.
Although Dell felt he should stop Soldier from maiming two malnourished ponies in blue clothing, his eyes just couldn't veer off the elongated hair that was now visible, coming out of Jane's pants. Medic and Heavy didn't move either, they just stared at Soldier backside.
The scream was enough to snapped them out of the hypnotizing trance of Soldier's new tail. Misha took the lead once more while Medic and Engineer followed. The Russian pulled Jane away from the corner and let Viktor and Dell to rescue the equines. With them so close to them, what Scout had said was right, they do looked like zombies.
One of them showed its gratitude, "T-t-thank y-you, what ever you are...t-that thing it's impossible !"
"You should be fucking dead !" bellowed the other, "DEAD !"
Before anyone can continue to bicker, the speaker in the room came to life. The first thing they heard was moans of pain. Then it voiced its anger.
"I felt that! What the hell did you do ?!" the voice asked impolitely.
"T-t-that thing blew up the door !" said one of them.
"All of you...top side," another voice ordered them.
The ponies said in union, "Aye, aye sir!"
The two zombie like ponies made a beeline to the door and ran presumably to the top deck he men thought. As the equines ran, they stayed, fixated at Jane's new tail. Medic was most intrigued in this turn of event.
"That means all of you," the voice restated.
All four men made their way back to the bridge with stopping for the strange looking rifle Jane had gave him. Reaching the bridge, Dell saw Tavish standing in front of the wheel, Scout was at the other end of the compartment, away from their four legged new guests. From all of them, Past Tale was the most comfortable, she was already making conversation with the malnourished looking ponies and offering them the same tins Soldier had found.
Tavish, having missed the conversation while he was straddling the hull, asked the newcomers about their captain, "Where is this cap'n o' yours ?"
The two ponies in blue looked each other until one of them said, "He's the ship."
"What ?"
The other elaborate, "He merged himself and some others who made it with the ship."
Tavish scratched his head at the statement and turned to Past Tale for a simplified answer. She explained, "It means this whole ship is a Soul Jar, this captain merged some part of himself with the ship."
Deciding to stop asking details about jars and souls, Demoman asked the beige mare, "You get these things a lot lass ?"
"I've found some Soul Jars before," she told the Scotsman, "But never as big as this one though."
Once again, the speaker in he bridge emitted sound. Demoman stepped forward to the front of it to continue his conversation.
"So...how about I make you a deal on that harpoon gun ?" Demoman offered.
"No deal !" said Spare Bolt, "You just blew up a door and you expect me to accept a deal ?!"
Silver Wind interrupted, "Hold on, let's hear it, anything to get you all overboard would be good right now."
"It's simple you gave us the gun and I'll give you the sea," Demoman added, "And yer door back."
The speaker went dead once more. And in everyone's mind the two voices must be discussing the seemingly impossible deal the Scotsman had offered the two vessel attached souls. Turning around, Demoman was greeted with faces of disbelief, from men, mare and the two ghoul like ponies in light blue shirt. To many what the cyclops proposed was impossible, Past Tale tried to make sense of the offer. She conclude giving the vessel the sea meant putting it back into the ocean, but answering how, she was clueless.
The beige mare questioned Tavish's plan, "How are you going to put this ship back into the water ?"
"Yes, how exactly are you going to put Marizona back into where she belong ?" Silver Wind asked.
Tavish asked, "What kind o' firepower this thing have ?"
One of the ghoul in blue and had a dixie cap answered, "She got three big sixteens on four turrets, naval guns, torpedo launchers, machine guns, depth charges."
"Whoowee that's a lot o' guns," Dell complimented.
"How 'bout ordnance ?" asked the Scotsman.
"Shells still below deck and everything's in place," the ghoul said.
Demoman grinned.
--- --- ---
From a steel rack, Misha took two bulky depth charges and carried it over his shoulder. The rest rolled one on the deck. They brought the explosives towards the edge of the stern, where the boney looking ponies in blue and the beige mare were waiting.
What Tavish had came up with was crazy and suicide at best to everyone. Silver Wind had granted permission of access to the ship's ordnance to the Scotsman in order to bring back Marizona back to the sea, the plan was to blow the gate separating the ship and the water around Manehattan. He knew cracking it from inside the dry dock would damage the vessel, so the explosives would have to go into the submerged side of the gate. A side accessible only from the docks, and surrounded by giant crabs.
"Uhm...Demo how are we going to get there without getting turned into crab food ?" Jarvis asked.
Demo answered, "We use the moorin' line."
Misha inquired, "How about the bombs ?"
"I think I can handle them," Past Tale announced.
Everyone stared at the beige mare in the brown coat. Her horn started to glow as she closed her eyes and lowered her head. She grunted a few times and commented on how the barrel shaped explosives were unexpectedly heavy. Shakily, she levitated one of the depth charge across the dry dock and above the walkway on top of the gate, reaching it's intended destination, she let go the grip on the depth charge. With a clang everyone on deck flinched expecting a loud and fiery death, which didn't happen.
Sighs were emitted from every mouth on the stern. She sheepishly chuckled, but continued the task of delivering six other depth charges. The task wasn't easy for her, as her levitation skill were limited to hauling much smaller items. After drops of sweat and a lot of grunting, all depth charges were above what separated the sea and Marizona.
Dell took a length of the mooring line, aimed and caught the railing on the other side of the ship. With the line secured, Tavish, Jane, Jarvis along with Dell, began scaling the rope upside down towards the gate. Then, they briefly discuss on how to open the gate in one try. Tavish decided it would need some very accurate placing, but no one was willing dip themselves into the murky water, along with the crabs.
Dell hollered, "Throw some more of them ropes !"
The ghoul wearing a dixie cap threw some more ropes. As they tied knots to the depth charges Jarvis shouted a warning, "Those crabs are comin' back guys !"
Dell and Tavish quicken their knot making process, while shots rang from Soldier's shotgun and Scout's scattergun. Finishing the first set of two knots, they threw both charges into the sea but kept it from hitting the sea floor by attaching the loose end to the railing.
As they work, more shots rang, and more giant crabs approached. Seeing his colleagues needed assistant, Misha spun his multiple-barreled weapon and let lead rain on the giant pinching creatures. But all he did was attract more. Deciding they needed help in fending of the disturbance, the beige mare pulled out her rifle and began firing.
As they were about to finish the last knot, one of the giant crabs managed to charge through the group, knocking down Soldier, and left the Engineer clinging to the rail with the sea below him. With two shots from his Loch-n-Load, Tavish blew the charging crab to smithereens before it could make another assault. He extend an arm to the Texan and pulled him back up. By this time everyone on deck was firing their weapons, with the ghoul ponies commandeering a machine gun placed on top of the stern conning tower.
With four charges placed on the joint of the gate and two more in the middle, it was time return to the deck. After everyone scale the rope once more, except for Scout who decided to jump back to the deck with the assistance of his Force-a-Nature, it was Tavish's turn, but his work wasn't finished. Pulling out his Scottish Resistance, he laid down some of the self-adhesive explosives to the submerged side of the gate to act as detonator for the depth charges.
Successfully placing the explosives, it was his turn to return to the Marizona, unfortunately there was Mirelurk charging at him. The Scotsman saw the charge and quickly stepped aside from it's path. He unsheathed his Eyelander.
Whoa, whoa, whoa seafood isn't on my diet !
"Shut yer gob for godsakes yer a sword," grumbled to the possessed sword.
BLAM !
The crab's face was quickly turned into a mushy matter, and let the Scotsman scale the rope back to the Marizona. He turned to face the gate and cried, "KA-BLOOEEYY !"
With a press of a button the sticky bombs detonated and so does the depth charges. The explosion didn't sent the gate flying, it created gaps along the joints on both side and the center, letting water into the dry dock slowly. But the weakened state of the gate shortly succumbed to the the mounting pressure of the ocean, and the Marizona was brought back to her home once more.
--- --- ---
"If I still had a lip I will definitely kiss you," said Spare Bolt.
Instead of answering him she asked, "So we're good on the deal then ?"
"Good doesn't even start," told Silver Wind, "Yes, you can have the gun, Crate will show you where it is."
The ghoul pony without the Dixie cap told her to follow him, she went downstairs to retrieve the harpoon gun, leaving the men inside the bridge. Dell began inspecting the strange looking rifle Jane had gave him, but without knowledge of what he was holding he decided to stop and asked the voice from the speaker about ways off the vessel.
Silver Wind didn't gave much options, Dell was hoping he knew something or at least an escape route, but their option was to wait until the Mirelurks to disperse or to sprint back to the gate of Bucklyn Naval Yard, the latter wasn't the wisest and neither was the first.
Spare Bolt suggested, "Although we can blow the crabs with the naval guns while you run."
With three of their colleagues still missing, and time was at the essence, and they were running out of daylight. Making a run for the gate seemed to be the only option. The beige mare came back, with the gun safely sticking out of her saddlebag. She asked what she missed. Dell answered with the idea of breaking the siege.
"That's a terrible idea," she said.
"Well you can try finding another one," the Engineer announced, "We still got time, ah' still have to fix that door."
Dell disappeared into the hull along with the ghoul ponies. Past Tale made her way out of the bridge and onto the deck once more. On the stern, she had a clear view of the Manehattan ruins skyline from Bucklyn's perspective. She moved along the starboard side of the vessel, which offered the view of the rest of Bucklyn Naval Yard, centuries old structure still standing to the very day, but some were not. She pondered about looting the buildings to made up what she had lost, but the snap of Mirelurks pincers convinced her otherwise.
The bow offered the same view with an extra, beyond the naval yard was another jagged skyline, she had never ventured this far across the river, and was curious what lay beyond the docks, unfortunately she was on a constraint to get the item to her client and another one to his associate on another place she had heard but not visited.
Moving to the port side of the vessel, and on the far side of the naval yard was the gate. Between it and them were crabs, over-sized, pony killing crabs. Her sight sought for routes relatively safe to tread on. The half submerged ship cradled the flooded dry dock would gave them a chance to restore breath in case the needed it, but there were still too many crabs.
"Hey," called a voice from behind.
Almost jumping overboard, she turned and faced the skinny alien in red, "Don't sneak up like that."
"Sorry," he asked, "Uhm...do you have some o' those...uh...aspirin ?"
She was baffled, "Aspirin ?"
"Yeah the ones in a can," Scout explained further.
"You mean Mint-Als," the beige mare reassured.
"Yeah that's the one, you got any ?" she asked for some.
Her horn lit and a tin of mint-als exited her saddlebag, she opened the tin and dropped some into Scout's open palms.
He asked again, "So any luck finding a way that ain't going to get us pinched ?"
She revealed the bad news, "Sorry, no luck there, we have to make the run back to the gate."
Scout left her to gaze upon the docks and the crabs. Back at the bridge the Boston youth told the rest the situation. Medic asked him whether he still had some of his energy drink. Quickly he confirmed the existence of his favorite beverages. Grin formed on the German's face, a smile which meant something clever had been hatched out of the physician's cranium, or a surgery was in schedule. Scout didn't like the smile.
Dell came back to the bridge and asked, "Ah' need some one to operate that crane on the middle, any volunteers ?"
The door was fixed an hour later, daylight was almost an orange dim, and the moon was faintly visible above them. Men, and mare were above the wooden deck once again, glaring at the yards between them and safety. Everybody were tending to their arms, shells were loaded, syringes were checked, and bolt was pulled back. The ghouls that called Marizona home did the same, entering a shell that had been lifted from the storage, to one of the vessel's many naval gun.
Jarvis asked, "So who goes first ?"
None answered, instead they stared at him.
"Oh no," he denied, "I ain't runnin' across them !"
"But you are ze only vun that could out run them," Viktor explained.
Tavish supported the idea, "Doc's right lad yer the only one proper to take point."
Grunting aloud, the Bostonian brought out one of the remaining Bonk! Atomic Punch out of his duffle bug and quickly gulped it down empty. Double jumping off the ship, Scout immediately attracted some of the oversized crabs' attention. In groups they began to pursue the speeding blur, but each time one of them extended a pincer to try and seize the blur they caught nothing but air. The number grew quickly as Scout kept running.
BOOM !
A shell was ejaculated from the gun, and struck the ground close to the pursuing Mirelurk, blasting them into bits and pieces. The shot was a signal for who where left on deck to make the run, the rest of the men and mare sprint as fast as they could. Albeit the Scout was getting most of the attention, some were directed at the rest of the group. The gun fired again, leaving scorched mark on the ground and throwing seafood onto the air.
Misha noticed one of his colleagues that was definitely faster compared to himself wasn't present in front. He glanced back, the Texan was running at a slower pace with an arm on his ear. Behind him, the Russian saw a crab almost his size. Misha halted, spun and revved his minigun.
"ENGINEER ! GET DOWN!" the Heavy shouted.
Seeing the Russian's enormous weapon spinning and pointed towards him was already a sign he should duck for cover, albeit he couldn't hear anything but ringing in his ears. Lead went pass his head and littered a crab behind the Texan as another shot from Marizona's naval battery echoed through the air. Suddenly a weight over his back restrained the ten-gallon wearing man from getting up.
Past Tale ran back to Dell. She reacted quickly by moving the dead crab over Dell's back. The Texan was on his knees, attempting to be on his feet. He slowly gained his hearing back, the pony in front was yelling something but he couldn't made what it was as the ringing still covered his ears. With heels on the ground again Dell and Past Tale continued their sprint, as a red flare burst overhead dispersing the crabs with out dismemberment.
They reached the gate as the orange sun reached the horizon.
--- --- ---
They entered the ruin just after daylight ran out. The starry night accompanied their steps through Bucklyn. They were there with one thing at mind, rest. First thing they did was walked back to the boat they came with. Upon arrival on where the boat was moored, the giant crabs had already occupied the area, beating them to it. Having no intention to fought more of the pinching critters, everyone walked the other way.
The group wandered to a part of town that was mostly burnt. The street were littered with bones that still had flesh partially attached. Soldier entered one of the structure, as he entered, his nostrils were assaulted by a rotting stench, the veteran combatant took no measure in avoiding the smell. Charging into the stench, he found some more Rad Away. He tried going further into the depth of the building, unfortunately the smell was overwhelming.
Seeing his rocket jumping colleague exited the building hastily, Dell asked, "What's the matter Soldier ?"
"Don't go in there," Jane warned, "It's worse than three weeks old sour cream."
With a warning like that, from a man like Jane, the Texan avoided the building. While Jane continued to fill his new duffle bag, and the others took brief rest from walking, Past Tale followed Dell, both found themselves on the other side of the street. They found a sign, presumably the name of the former area.
Arbu
Finding nothing interesting and of no value, Dell and Tale went back to where the group had gather. On the way back they found their doctor fiddling with one of the bodies. With a lecture tone Medic told them about the damage done to the bones. Which include shattered ribs and a hole in the head.
Past Tale had no idea why the spectacled man in lab coat said that.
After Jane finished his scavenging, all of them went deeper into Bucklyn. Their search for a place to lie down brought them to a large structure. It was similar to those of a factory, a large structure with numerous windows, but it wasn't a factory. Approaching the building, there was a sign left hanging, the intact part had the word 'Field' on it. Entering the structure normally required tickets to operate the turnstile, with no one selling said tickets men and mare jumped over it and pushed on.
The tunnel the dark hallway they followed ended on an opening. The insufficient lightning prevented them from identifying their surrounding. Dell turned on the light on his Pip-Boy, taking the lead, he guided the rest through a series of steps. Ending up with no more steps, Dell turned right and start walking on a flatter surface which terminated on a door.
With a kick from Soldier's boot, the door gave up. The room was considerably small and overviewed the whole dark structure they were in. Lifting his arm to level with a map attached to the wall of the room, Dell found he name of building they were in, inscribed on top of the map was 'Estrade Field'
"Wait here ah'm turnin' on the lights," Dell told them.
The Texan left the group and went back to the steps returning to ground level. Shortly after,one by one, high candlepower lamps illuminated the open space in the middle of the structure. A field, with two fork like metal bars on each end. And benches all around.
The Texan took a seat. He watched Scout and Heavy threw a football back and forth as fire was lit using some of the benches Soldier had taken off it's metal frame. Past Tale took her seat beside Dell, watching the Russian and Bostonian threw hoofball back and forth. She turned her head to see the Texan was already asleep, recollecting what he had done today, the mare thought it would be obvious that the strange creature in red drained his energy already long before reaching where he was now.
The mare rested her head on the ten-gallon wearing man's lap and slowly drifted into the realm of dreams.