That Which We Are Here For
“Scrrkkk! Roarke!”
Roarke raised the soundstone to her muzzle. “Rainbow.”
Jex squinted in time to see a prismatic figure streaking south over the Val Roan skyline. A ruby pulse of light emanated from beneath the distant pegasus' throat.
“If your scaled buddies are still in the partying mood, there's Haman to deal with in the south.”
“Affirmative.” Roarke glanced aside at the naga leader standing beside her. “By chance, would you approve of helping us dispense with the Cartel?”
“As Quezaat is my witness, nothing would bring us greater glory.” He raised a gloved set of claws and hissed into his helmet. “Brothers! Let us purge these skies of filth, once and for all!”
The other lizards grunted in one accord as the sphere and several of its sister ships rotated south, glinting in the sunlight.
“Why haven't we uncoupled yet?!” Haman growled as the Gamma ship still lurched in place, locked with the other vessel in midair.
“There's been significant damage to the port side hull, Boss!” an engineer shouted up from the lower decks. “The bulkheads have hooked together! It will take several minutes to dislodge!”
“Sir!” another imp shouted, holding a spyglass in one hand and pointing north with the other. “All Lounge spheres have redirected course!”
“What?!”
“They're headed this way, sir! All of them!”
“All of them?!” Haman's plump face paled.
The Cartel's crew stared north, quivering in fear. A veritable flock of black spheres soared towards that location.
Haman took a deep breath. He glanced at the other ship stuck against theirs, then at the series of port side cannons. Snarling, he pointed with his flesh hand. “Aim the cannons at the other ship's deck and fire!”
“S-sir?”
“If the hull won't get unstuck, then we'll blast them apart. The skystone will take us far away before the Lounge can intercept us.”
“But... but Boss!” One crew member shivered in place. “There are dozens of goblins on board that ship! Our brothers—”
Haman clamped a metal claw around the gasping imp's neck. “Did I or did I not give you a message?!” Hyperventilating, Haman merely flung the goblin behind him and bounded forward. “Damn you cowardly runts! I'll do it myself!” He stood in the middle of the deck and stretched his metal limbs out as far as he could. This way, he was able to commandeer two cannons—both of which he swiveled towards the deck of the adjacent ship. “Prepare to engage the skystone engines on my mark!”
The engineers working to uncouple the vessels from the other ship looked up. They shrieked in horror and scrambled in every direction.
Glaring, Haman triggered the cannons without remorse, rendering both flesh and metal to ribbons.
P-P-POWWW!
The members of the Cartel flinched all across the gamma Ship as the sister vessel imploded from an enormous plume of flame. Then, with a sickening groan of shattered metal, what was left of the blasted battleship peeled off the Gamma ship, its hulking weight drifting towards the Val Roan apartments below.
“Whoahhhh!” Zaid gasped, his blinking eyes reflecting a bright plume of flame. “Hold your sky horses, blood Goddess!”
Belle stuck her head into the Noble Jury's cockpit. “What in Spark's name is going on now?”
“See for yourself!” Zaid pointed out the windshield.
Belle gasped. “Good heavens! Did the goblins do that to their own ship?”
“What is it, Belle?” Pilate asked, leaning towards the cockpit's door frame.
“Beloved, it would appear that the goblins are panicking at the Lounge's approach,” Belle said. “They just shot their own kind out of the sky.”
“Scrkkk! Hey hey, guys guys!” Props' voice crackled over the intercom. “I just detected a huge surge of skystone energy! Did we take down one of the baddy-bads?”
“Not exactly, Blondie!” Zaid said, gazing at the half-ruptured battleship as it plunged towards the city below. “I think this battle just got ten times uglier.”
Belle gasped. “Oh no...”
Pilate's metal brow furrowed beneath his Ocular Array. “Where's the vessel falling?”
“Those apartments,” Belle murmured. “Who knows how many Val Roans could be huddled inside... hundreds... thousands...”
Zaid switched frequencies on the intercom, eyeing the slender bullet-shape of the Tarkington in the distance. “Hey! Uncle to sexy-legs! Do you see what we're seeing?!”
“Scrkkk! Aye. But our steering is off. We can't get our arses over there in time.”
“In time for what?!” Zaid cackled.
“Why, it's our fault we let the battle get this close to the bloody city to begin with! If I had my way, I'd shove that battleship out of the way, by all!”
Zaid bit his lip. He turned and looked over his shoulder at Belle.
Belle's muzzle had paled. She stared forward through the cockpit window. At last, she felt a gentle zebra hoof on her shoulder, and she exhaled. With steely eyes, she reached forward and spoke into the intercom. “Props, we're going to need full power to the skystone engine... even if it causes the book to short out.”
“Are we doing what I think we're doing?”
“The Val Roans are not going to taste any death today,” Belle said. “Not if we have anything to do with it.”
“Mr. Zaid,” Pilate said. “You think you can pull this off?”
Zaid was already jerking at the controls, bringing the battered ship around. “I was born to pull this off. Blondie! We're gonna need a steam burst on this too!”
“Okie Dokie Lokie! I'll keep you guys informed about the status of the tome!”
Belle and Pilate braced themselves as the ship dramatically spun around, aiming its bow towards the side of the smoldering, drifting battleship. The target was within a hundred feet of the fragile rooftops below.
“Beloved,” Belle murmured, pausing to gulp. “If this doesn't work—”
“We're the Noble Jury, Belle,” Pilate said. “It's going to work.” He drew in close, nuzzling her. “Why else would we be placed here?”
Belle shuddered. “It's just that... I-I want so badly to see Kera again. Rainbow...”
“Shhh...” He smiled, resting his cheek against hers. “Don't panic.”
She shut her eyes, bracing herself.
The zebra tilted his head towards the pilot's seat. “Mr. Zaid...?”
“Hope you emptied your stripes,” Zaid said, already tightening his muscles as he steered the Noble Jury towards the bow of the collapsing Cartel ship.
FWOOOOSH! Several Val Roans craned their necks to spot the shattered shape of the Noble Jury rocketing towards the falling battleship. Multiple Lounge ships soared in the same direction, but their skystone engines weren't carrying them half as quickly towards the dramatic scene.
Among the crowd, Floydien stepped forward, his red eyes narrowing.
“Nancy...”
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'Bout that time, eh chaps?
5552617
Don't Panic.
Nancy's done for, unless RD decides to pull of The Iron Giant.
stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4460710/iron-giant-superman-o.gif
Or Donald Duck
cdn.zocoi.com/160/09.jpg
Falling airships aren't that bad. Shell survived one too.
grantdigital.com.au/syndic8/content/2013/11/22/dontpanic_88cab.jpg
5552617 Right-o.
Oh dear.
Gentlemen.
It's been a pleasure to fly with you.
Those are some damn big apartments to fit thousands.
Also, Haman, you may commonsense with the wiping of your ass with the deceased, its probably the only thing you can do right at this point.
This is resolving itself very quickly. Even assuming 50 chapters to say goodbyes and cross the Choke, we've got sixteen more chapters of this to get through...
3.bp.blogspot.com/-oVdcBzKgQOE/Ukx0RH0bf1I/AAAAAAAAK6A/6Bp0GQNJFBM/s1600/Menace+61.png
(art from Hyperbole and a Half)
5552658 What was that rebuttal she gave to Chrysalis back there, if not "TL;DR: I am not a gun?"
Oh... well crap.
Oooooooooooooooooookay...now I think we're at the point where things are going to get sad/ugly.
hrm
think the cartel ship is too big to ram out of the way. but maybe they can act as a tug
Hey, am I late for the 5555th comment?
5552955
5552617
5552727
5552910
Hey, we're all gonna die, sunshine. The only questions are "How awesome is it gonna be," and "How many of those ugly mother fuckers are we gonna take with us?"
Fifty side-straddle hops, ):(. Knock 'em out!
5552727 *plays his voilin as the ship goes down*
5552617
5552727
5553119
...Maybe there's still a bit of book-shield left? Maybe Rainbow can still channel something?
...Oh dear...
Haman continues to show why he is the goblin leader, using his rresources to get what he wants, even when that means running.
I think we are going to see Flloydian, Remember Simon. And throw in a bit of Rainbow Paste as well.
5552617
Everybody lives and everybody dies.
5552727
*salutes*
I'm beginning to fear that this is the end of the ship.
Whelp at least it will be a very good way to go out though.
5552658
Unless the Tarkington gets there first... Prowse better be as integral as Aatxe figured him.
Maybe there's another solution I can't even think of at this moment. :shrug:
I feel this may be the end of the Noble Jury
One last Duty for the most Noble Jury.
Nancy Jane has never failed us. She will not fail us now.
To all things an end.
I predict we'll see more of the Jury once she's been rebuilt... but until then... make that last bit of structural integrity count.
5552727
Don't fuck it up, Mr. Zaid.
Goodbye, fair ship. You have served us well.
5552910
At first I thought that there was no way for anyone to survive but with the Lounge on the way they most likely will save them. (though they are quite a bit away however, so maybe not this time.) So while Nancy Jane will die I have a feeling that the Lounge will rescue the crew, the ship is a total loss though at this point.
Floydien is gonna be pissed
maybe even pissed enough to save everyone and somehow break his mind-lock thing and get his memory back
NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
5553499 Chrissy probably could have saved everyone, had she not ripped her horn off.
Noble Jury's gotta do what the Noble Jury's gotta do. Spark be with you.
5552727
5553513
5553532
Not today. NOT this time. We may lose Nancy Jane, but this time nobody dies. You hear me IC? Not this time!
Props won't be able to buff out these scratches.
"Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell"
-Charge of the Light Brigade
RIP in pieces Noble Jury. I'm sure our resident King and Queen will fund a new one, but it'll never be quite the same.
5554931
Both ships working in tandem might be able to do it, but it would be difficult to pull off. SS&E might surprise us with options that we haven't considered(Until right now) like Axan or Kera. Which makes me doubt Axan now that I think more about Kera.
A Deus Ex Machina like that would have been real cheap at this point and I think SS&E knew that; which is why she pulled her horn off. Her breaking down and surrendering was enough stretching as it was even though he pulled it off with what he had to work with and that makes it all the more beautiful and why we accepted it.
As a work of fanfiction(and on FimFiction; the "pseudo-participation" of commentators), the best authors here know when to listen to an audience and when they need to ignore them. That doesn't mean there are authors who can create on their own with little outside influence, however, I think this site has something unique to even the regular fanction site in which authors just post their completed story and are pretty much done with it.
I'm terrible with words at times. I don't know if enough of my perspective came across.
5555094
Nancy Jane is the only Nancy Jane!!!!
None other like it!
You know, I just realized that I'm 92 chapters behind...
Now I can feel this for a ship I do care for.
i37.tinypic.com/24y7qqu.jpg
MY SHIP
5552780 They're also full of pretty dumb citizens if they still didn't flee the area.
This is it. Possibly the end of Nancy Jane.
-Spirit
Onward to bluer skies. I salute you, Noble Jury. But this isn't the end. Oh no, not by a long shot.
It would be fitting for Nancy Jane to be destroyed now, as the Noble Jury inevitably breaks apart.
Doesn't make it any better, though.
Its a good death.
Dang it Belle, if you die, Floydien's going to kill you.