Two dredgers sat on Red Barge.
One perched up in a cylindrical tower baked in sunlight...
The other squatting beside a series of metal door-slats leading down into the central strut's lower level.
Both stallions were in the process of munching their way through a midday meal. Seagulls shrieked overhead and water lapped in the distance. Smokestacks flanking the Skag Hole continued pumping more and more smog into the greasy atmosphere.
At last, the guard up in the tower leaned over, hissing. “Psssst. Pssssst! Hey! Jerry!”
“Mrrmfff...” The stallion sitting beside the door slats fiddled with his meal. “Yeah, what is it, Dean?”
“What did you get for nibbles today?”
“Pfffft. What do you care?”
The stallion up in the tower waved his meal around. “I've got the bottom half of a bloated grouper.”
“You don't say...”
“What about you?”
“Mrmmff... dried white rice with a bunch of dead houseflies stuck in it.”
“Oh...” The stallion in the tower looked at his fishmeat, blinked, then leaned over the edge once more with a smile. “Wanna trade?”
Th-Th-Thwisssssh! Several tiny shadows flew down at a sharp angle, slicing through the air.
Cl-Cl-Clankkkk! The air rattled with metallic impact noises.
Both stallions jolted, glancing up. Their ears twitched.
“... … ...the hell was that noise?” muttered the dredger down by the entrance.
“You see where it came from?”
“Idiot. You're the one in a tower!”
“Hold up...” The guard above pivoted about until he was peering east.
His eyes scanned the surface of the central platform. At last, his attention was drawn to a series of pipes emitting a loud hissing noise. Three razor sharp throwing stars had embedded deep in the metal lattices, and they were spewing forth steam and fog in a thick gray column.
“Shit on my face!” the guard spat. “We've got a central pipe leak!”
“What?!” The other stallion used a shark prod to force himself up into a standing position. Fumbling, he pocketed his food away and stumbled forward. “Where?! How?!”
“About two hulls east! I've no clue how!” The guard in the tower shimmied down, landed on all fours, and broke into a frantic gallop. “Here, I'll show you!”
“Ah jeez...” His companion grimaced, picking up the pace. “We better fix this shit before Nixkit finds it.”
“Nixkit? Hell... if Skagra saw the leak, he'd probably shove our muzzles up against it!”
“Just what I always wanted. To become a permanent member of the Skag fan club.”
“Will you shut up and help me contain this leak!”
“I'll go get some sealant!”
“You do that...!”
Once the two figures had left the nearby vicinity, a metal figure dropped down behind them. Slinking into the shadows of the tower above, Keris craned his neck, peering after the two. His hawkeyes narrowed. Once the coast was clear, the griffon took a deep breath, turned about, then sneaked his way towards the slitted metal doors.
The deck of the central platform sloped downwards by about thirty-degrees. Once it was twelve feet below the upper surface, it ended in a series of retractable door slats. A lever loomed to the side, coming out of a rusted wall. Keris stared at it, rubbing his beak. He reached up, gingerly grasping the lever... then giving it a slight tug... then a harder one.
On both tries, the lever refused to budge.
He exhaled, then leaned in for a closer examination.
The Lieutenant spotted a tiny compartment situated right next to the lever. Flipping open a latch, he exposed a circular keyslot on a round diode. The griffon leaned in, peering at the lock up close. He spotted a round fissure—denoting where the lock's panel had been embedded into the surface of the wall compartment itself.
With a flick of his gauntlet, the Lieutenant produced a tiny dagger. Schiiing! With fine finesse, he stuck the tip of the blade into the fissure, shimmied the thing, then stabbed deep behind the body of the lock itself.
This produced a modicum of scraping noises. Working blindly, the griffon glanced over his armored shoulder, looking for bodies shuffling left and right above deck.
He spotted none.
So, with a daring breath, Keris yanked hard on his dagger. Crack! The panel holding the lock snapped free. He sheathed the dagger, pointed the tips of his talons, and manipulated the tumblers of the lock from the inside. Snap! Once the spring inside the lock had clicked, he slid everything haphazardly back into place, then gave the lever a savage yank once more.
Ch-Chtunggg!
The door-slats lifted before him.
Keris turned to face the entrance directly. He immediately wished that he hadn't. A ferociously hot gust of steam blew into his face, carrying with it a grotesque freakshow of pungent odors and fumes. A lifetime of combat experience was all it took to keep the Lieutenant from immediately retching. Nevertheless, he grimaced as he shuffled forward, marching his way down through the fumes.
Once the griffon had descended into the lower depths...
...the shadow of a stallion shuffled around the corner. Ears twitched as he gazed down into the lower level. Then, several seconds in, a grinning set of teeth glinted in the light from a sparkling shark prod.
Keris didn't trust using his wings below the surface of Red Barge. The rising heat was so intense that he was almost certain anything short of a sheer glide would carry him slamming into random walls. The surfaces in question were incredibly rusted, with layers upon layers of steel reinforcement having been hammered between the decrepit iron panels over time in order to keep the entire structure from collapsing. How Red Barge hadn't imploded after years of shoddy craftponyship, the Lieutenant couldn't even guess.
It was difficult to hear his own thoughts along the descending path downward into the steam bath. An incredible, never-ending bedlam emanated from a deep spot down below. For the longest time, Keris was forced to guess what it was. The winding corridor afforded only an occasional glance at webbed metal bric-a-brac or dangling chains. All throughout, a persistent crimson hue permeated the mists, illuminated by unseen torches from the far side of the claustrophobic malaise.
At last, Keris felt the air of the lower interior open up. This only made the place feel even hotter—as Keris became aware of a source of intense heat lingering somewhere down below. He proceeded more slowly now, his talons shuffling over the metal bulkheads with caution. He glanced down, squinting at one of several red stains blanketing the rusted surfaces of the place.
His beak tightened. At last, Keris' hearing tickled at the sound of grinding, rattling metal. He saw a brighter shade of red lingering just beyond a vaporous curtain of rising mists. Curious, he approached what turned out to be a sudden ledge with a loose railing lingering directly above a sheer drop.
All of the sudden, the griffon's hawkeyes could see with perfect clarity. This was due to a series of ventilation ports blowing the hot air in a cyclonic swirl. Descending from a diabolical, greasy engine hanging above was a series of cylindrical drills that stabbed downwards through an immense vertical space. These drills connected with rotating gears that further spun several more moving parts: cogwheels and axels and all manner of deathly huge levers.
But it wasn't any of these details that alarmed Keris, but rather the sweating, haggard, hairless ponies in epic numbers, all collectively marching and pushing and shoving at the various moving parts, giving them their required locomotion so that the age-old mechanism could continue to scrape and claw at an ocean's floor located nebulously below the industrial hellscape. Most of the equines had been down there so long that the sheer exposure to steam and heat had burned their coats right off, leaving naked skin burned red and raw.
Stumbling down the lines of these endlessly laboring ponies, dredgers in tight metal gear shuffled. Water tanks bubbled along their flanks, funneling coolant into their suits as they vented their breaths out through stainless steel masks. Whenever a servant lagged behind, they reached in and shocked him or her with electric shark prods. The ponies shrieked, fought blood and tears, and continued working harder than before.
“Good Goddess...” Keris stumbled back—only to nearly trip on something. He spun about, blinking... sweating.
His talon had bumped up against a strange stalk of organic flesh. It took the Lieutenant several seconds to register the fact that it was a fetlock... and one belonging to a dried up noodle of a corpse lying on its side just two spaces over. It wasn't alone; several other frail figures were stacked up on top of one another like lumber. From the wear and tear on their bodies, Keris was already at a loss to guess how many months... years... decades they had spent down in the harvesting level.
Before he had an opportunity to relax, his eyes were drawn to a shuffling movement. One of the corpses on the very top of the stack was stirring. Breathless, Keris rushed in, grasping the shivering thing's hoof. The hollowed-out muzzle of a body that once belonged to a mare stared up at him. Lips that were turned stone-dry from endless steam bursts struggled to move, and the semblance of a hoarse voice came whispering out: “Sun Sweep... m-my foal's name is Sun Sweep...”
“Just...” Keris' beak clenched. “...just rest easy.” He stroked the creature's bony forelimb. “I'm going to get you somewhere safe—”
“M-make sure... that... th-that she never c-comes down here...” the mare whimpered. “Better off... s-sea foam...” And her eyes—if they could still be called that—rolled back into their dusty sockets.
Keris leaned forward, his beak agape. His feathers ruffled beneath his helmet, and he stepped back with a sneering frown. “Verlaxion, give me strength. There is not enough blood—” He spun around...
...only to be stared down by twenty dredgers with taser-tipped polearms.
“Thirsting for something, chicadee?” Saxon asked, his grin wide, gleaming. “You came to the wrong bird bath.”
Keris took a deep breath, seething. “By the righteous authority invested in me by the Council of Verlaxion...” He tightened his muscles. “...you are all—”
“What? Invited to a dance?” Saxon chuckled hungrily under his breath. Bzzzt! He activated his shark prod, sending cold bonelight shimmering across the mists. “By all means.” He nodded as his fellow associates marched forward. “You lead.”
“Treachery like this cannot stand,” Keris muttered. His eyes darted across every able-bodied dredger. Meanwhile—with great stealth and poise—he propped his left talon over the abdomen of one of the many dead corpses stacked beside him. “When the Rohbredden Magistrates hear about this—”
“You're not going back to your precious continent!” Saxon said, one eye twitching. “Not unless we decide to send you in pieces! Hehehehhh... a message. 'Don't buck with Red Barge.'”
“I doubt your top dredger would appreciate such exposure,” Keris said, mentally measuring the distance between himself and his foes.
“The only one exposed here is you, birdie,” Saxon said. “Go on, boys.” He gestured at the dredgers closest to the griffon. “Cook his goose.”
“Yeah...” A stallion grinned into the glow of his sparkling polearm. “I think a bit of basting is in order, first...”
Keris' magenta eyes glinted. “Couldn't agree more.” With that said, his talons dug deep into the dead corpse's belly. The griffon spun—riiiiiiip!—eviscerating the pony's body and flinging its entrails into the advancing dredgers' muzzle.
“Aaaaaugh!” One flinched.
“Grrkkk!” The other jolted, spitting intestinal fluid from his liips. “Verlaxion's sleet!”
“Httt!” Wings flapping, Keris launched himself forward, pummeling both doused stallions and slamming their bodies to the floor. Thwumppp!
“Open season!” Saxon hollered. The other dredgers charged forward, shark prods stabbing.
Keris faced them. He exhaled, unsheathing his wingblade. Schiiiing! With a grunt, he flung his feathers towards the ceiling—and the blade follow.
Cr-Cr-Crakkkk! Three polearms were severed at once. The dredgers stumbled back, gasping—but not for long. Keris headbutted one with his helmet, kicked the groin of a second, then flung both bodies into the third before he could react.
Three more dredgers pounced on Keris' feline haunches while his back was turned. The Lieutenant snarled, using their weight against them as he made the bodies trip, collide, and form an ever-twitching pile of dizzy stallions on the floor.
Meanwhile, Saxon—grinning like a fool—sashayed away from the fight, disappearing into the lower mists.
“Grnnngh!” Keris slammed his elbow across one thug and then palmed his talon over another stallion's twitching muzzle.
“Stop mucking about, idiots!” a stallion rushed in, shoving his prod hard against Keris' side.
The griffon's armor shimmered all over with electricity. The griffon winced, glaring aside as he slammed his leg out into the stallion's chest. He then spun and flung the other dredger's body into his figure for good measure.
Two more thugs rushed in, zapping the Lieutenant hard in the side.
“Augh!” Schiiiing! Keris angrily retaliated with a fan of throwing stars. Blood flew, and the two thugs stumbled hard on the ground, clutching their chests and whimpering in pain.
Writhing from the electrical shocks, Keris backed up, shuffling blindly towards the entrance that brought him there. At the sound of shuffling hoofsteps, he spun around, claws raised. “Raaaauggh—!”
An emaciated, steam-burned stallion dangled right in front of Keris. At the sight of the griffon's talons, the helpless slave cowered, gritting his teeth.
Keris froze in place, hawkeyes blinking wide.
It was for one second too long. “Haaaaugh!” Saxon burst out from behind the living shield he held up. He stabbed Keris deep in the gut with his shark prod.
Bzzzzz-zzzzzt!
“Grrrrkk—kkkttnnghh!” Keris winced all over.
Saxon grinned, drooling. He brought the polearm back and then thrusted again. Harder.
BZZZZT!
“Graaaukkt!” Keris fell hard to the floor, overcome with jolts and spasms. He foamed at the beak, rolling over, struggling to crawl away.
“Mmrmfff-hrmmm-heheheheheh...” Saxon tossed the servant aside, then trotted over Keris. Standing directly above him, he used the polearm to knock the griffon's helmet off and then prodded him right in the neck.
BZZ-ZZT!
“Haa-aaaugh!” Keris' eyes rolled back. He twitched on the ground, his armor dancing with electric sparks.
All of the injured stallions limped up to their hooves, gathering in an angry circle around the griffon.
“Mrmmmff... hah!” Saxon spat on Keris' feathery head. “Ya dumb bastard! Our dance floor! Our rules!” He kicked the Lieutenant's pained flesh with his hoof. “Rnnngh! Mucker!”
“Skagra's gonna want a word with this meatsack, Saxon,” one dredger grumbled.
“Yeah... he's seen too much.”
“We'll take him to Skagra alright...” Saxon panted and panted, circling the convulsing griffon with frenzied, hungry eyes. “...but first... let's make sure he's... preheated.” He signaled a stallion up above.
The dredge nodded back, then pulled a lever.
Slowly... coldly... the metal door slats rolled down, sealing off the electrical sparks issuing down below...
...and Keris' agonized screams amidst the steam.
...Damnit.
Of course it wouldn't be that easy. At least he gave it a decent shot...
Anyone else betting he's gonna wind up in a cell near Rainbow? (if he doesn't wind up in front of Skagra first...or completely Kentucky-fried)
WHOA, dude. Keep your fetishes to yourself.
Hopefully Seraphimus learns what's up and unleashes "Verlaxion"'s fury on these jerks. Or maybe Rainbow can break out and rescue him. Still expecting that Rainbow/Keris alliance.
Okay, I can honestly say that none of us Noble Jurists saw that coming. Keris being attacked by Saxon was not anywhere on my list of likely outcomes. And being stabbed in the gut with an electrically-charged weapon? That's practically torture in and of itself.
Based on this new turn of events, I'd say that Keris is going to be imprisoned, then wind up teaming up with Rainbow Dash to escape Red Barge once the 'Perfect Storm' hits. Two deadly warriors, one a professional hunter and killer? I'm already shipping in the next twenty gallons of popcorn.
And, speaking of hunter-killers, have some HK-01:
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/6/64/HK47-NEGD.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071012171301
BUCK!
uh.
Scuze my Tourette's
That awkward moment when yer snooping goes to crap.
Man, this place really is Fillydelphia on the waves, isn't it? Should have focused on making a break for it than fight them all, Keris. You got that whole flight advantage thing. The second you tossed the entrails to distract your ass should have been flying over their heads and out the hatch to go report this shit.
Still don't know how Skagra thinks this is going to end in any way that favors him. When Keris doesn't report back there's just going to be four more pissed off griffins on the way, the leader of which isn't as fond of asking questions like Keris is. She's more of a... amputation kind of woman when it comes to investigating.
I've began to forgot just how dark these stories can be. These are the kind of scenes that make you curse how unfair everything is.
6602712
Keris' fate reminds me of Ragini. Hopefully it won't go that far.
6602679
*steps forward*
I DO.
...welp...that's going to leave a mark.
Well.
Shit.
I guess this means the dice are cast. Skagra's gonna blow his fucking lid when he learns about this. But that's what you get when you spend all your time teaching folk that violence is the only thing to be respected: violent folk. No matter what happens to Keris now, Red Barge is fucked. They can't kill Keris for fear of inciting the rest of the Talon, and they can't not kill Keris for fear of the Continent learning just how they source their dredge coal. What a shitty situation for one of the best characters this side of the Choke.
My prediction would be to sneak Keris, unconscious, onto Monket's ship, whenever that rolls back in, and then try to pin the blame on him . . . somehow. Cut out his tongue, eyes, and ears to prevent Keris from denying it? Ugh, please, no.
Feeling like we've gone hurtling way past powder keg here, and I can't wait for the fuse to run out!
Well, Keris... should have made sure they were out cold rather than just tripped up.
With the whole description of his metal armor having the sparks dance over it, I was expecting a sort of enchantment that repelled electricity.
You'd think that'd be a must have for pegasi and griffons that are wearing metal armor. They're going to be flying through storms and the like.
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
New theory: Swab will bring food to Keris from time to time, so Keris will get Swab's impressions of the 'Rainbow Rogue', thereby making him more amendable to her cause.
In addition, Keris, knowing from his meeting with the White Barge that everyone's gunning for the Red Barge (to get the Rainbow Rogue), will use Swab as a go-between for him and Rainbow in order to assertain what kind of mare she is, and to (eventually) coordinate with her so that they can escape Red Barge.
Additional Thought: What timezone are you guys all in?
Welp I figured that was going to happen. Keris is too nosy for his own good. Now he and Rainbow are going to form the dream team and escape, which will make things super-awkward when Seraphimus tries to rend her limb from limb.
I can't wait for the pirates to destroy this barge. Maybe when it's just a flaming pile of rust and scrap, White Barge can move in and take over the last profitable coal shelves in the region without resorting to slavery and terror to do so.
6602766
And then I, Revan, shall reinvent myself as a legitimate businessman, thereby allowing me to eventually rise to the top of White Barge, enabling me to gain a monopoly on coal mining in Robohedron, which will make me a major economic figure once again. Comeback achieved.
...Well, damn. On the plus side, Swab has a real chance to save things. Also, I'm hoping that Flutters' Empath abilities can't pick up what's going on down there. Crap like that would be torture for her.
Where's the rest of the punch line?
6602756 4:54 pm
Thursday the 5th of November.
Called it.
Thankfully, Fluttershy knows enough to help RD heal Keris a little... or just enough to keep him alive.
Methinks Rainbow's gonna have a cell-mate or cell-neighbor soon.
In the first half-hour, 17 comments were posted. That's slightly more than a comment every two minutes.
Once the series concludes, I vote that we compile all the comments on each story into volumes. The comments are essentially a story unto themselves, which are a major portion of the unique experience that is the Austraeoh series.
Anyone second the motion?
My apologies for the sequence of comments by yours truly, but new things keep occuring to me as time goes on, and I find it faster to write them in new comments than to edit preexisting ones.
As consolation, have some HK-24.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/b5/HK-24-KotOR13cover.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070205160914
Soon...
6602756
Right now, it's 3:00 AM for me.
And this is the part on which I realize I'm a fucking moron considering I have to get up for work in like 5 hours. Good job, Khao.
Damn it Keris is really screwed now. I didn't expect him to go down that fast but I guess it's time to meet Rainbow. I mean really thought when the rest of the Talon finds out about this Red Barge is dead.
6602785 IC failed to deliver on joke.
I deem this failure to be... unacceptable.
Welp, Red Barge (name keeps getting more and more appropriate) is screwed , the only questions are in what way and to what extent?
Query: Does anyone know what time zone IC lives in?
6602864 I'd say to the extent that RD unleashes harmonic beam on the barge, thereby restoring cutie marks to the seafoam. At which point they revolt, and Skagra is totally screwed.
An hour and we have 30 comments. We're keeping up the pace.
For now.
Ooooo the some shit has hit some fan. Getting exciting, now.
6602867 I'm prreeeeeeety sure IC lives somewhere in the mystical land of Florida. Near the Magical Kingdomtm.
I did not expect Keris to be incapacitated so quickly.
Also, what's Skagra gonna do about this? Just like 6602735 said, he's faced with a pretty impossible choice with the recent turn of events.
Although, if I were Skagra, I'd say the best option now is probably to kill Keris. Because sooner or later the Right Talon's gonna show up, and if they are able to retrieve Keris alive, Red Barge is screwed. Of course, from there, his next best option would be to possibly convince the Right Talon that Keris already left the ship, leading them to fly onward to find him. Whether or not this would work is based a lot on how much the Talon already knows, and how nosy they are. But then he'd still need to contend with the White Barge, since they apparently are on Keris' side on this.
But then, if I were IC, I'd use this moment to bring in some unexpected help into the story. Possibly Bard and Wildcard.
6602756 It's 3:11pm for me now.
6602867 Negative Answer: I don't. Intelligent Yet Probably Wrong Guess: Possibly somewhere around -1 to -3 GMT. Obligatory Remark: Yay Darkstine!
Kinda hard to send letters from a jail cell...and if half of your skin is burnt off.
Though even if one was sent, if Seraphimus has anything to say or do about this, these guys are royally screwed.
But hey, one step closer to our Rainbow/Keris/Swab team!
Whelp. Seraph's gonna be pissed.
Damn Saxon. Charlemagne should've tried harder...
6602968 IC, please post these chapters at more reasonable hours.
6602756 It's 8:53am for me.
Well Keris, you could've come up with a better plan. Then again, RD got herself new cell-mate now
How could this happen to... MEEEEE.... !?
But seriously now, things eventually escalated, it had to happen at some point i doubt that filling the rest of the book with slice of half-life of red barge ponies would have made an all to interesting read.
Skagra is probably going to kill or seriously injure somepony emphasizing on 'pony' because as shitty as the situation is for him i don't think he is so delusional to think that he would be safe anywhere after killing a Talon member, by now its just a matter of time before the rest shows up and he couldn't even prevent one from investigating his place.
So he will probably try to intimidate and question Keris and when that does not work, probably plan some grand accident for him, something that can't be traced back to red barge so he needs to frame someone else outside of the barge and that needs time.
So it rather obvious where Keris will reside while Skagra thinks hard how to un-Kill himself.
Now there is a possibility for a rainbow keris swab team.
and probably croche too because i bet keris now knows her real name.
6603014 I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he posts them after work every day.
Also: I think I'll be in the 'Keris will be imprisoned' bandwagon. Dunno about whether he'd be cell mate or neighbor. (I wouldn't think they'd put him anywhere near Rainbow)
This is going to end very badly for Skagra, methinks...
But at least Rainbow will have a friend in her jail cell.
Welp, soon the gang will be together and the party will begin. Hopefully Dash has had enough time to heal and Swab has had enough time to...do Swab things I guess.
C'mon Keris, RD could beat the shit out of twenty dredgers in her sleep, get on her level.
Well I guess the fried chicken is gonna be spending some time with her anyway, maybe some of her awesomeness will rub off on him.
6602699 Actually, it was the outcome I predicted. I knew he would snoop around and be captured or killed. Now the Talon will be on their way. But maybe the storm is already over by the time they arrive, as Keris seems to have asked Elsaack for help at the boat, so he may be around, waiting for a chance to help.
Ah, it's good to finally be caught up again.
Well, I certainly didn't see this coming. On the bright side, now we might get to see Rainbow Dash and Keris team up. That would be cool. Or maybe the desperadoes would return? I still have so many unanswered questions about them. I mean, they've got to come back at some point, right? There wouldn't have been all that vague hinting at their backstories just before they split if they're gone forever, right?
Was that last breath pony, Swabs mother?
Keris has got into real trouble, but Seraphimus said he had a method to commuicate in an emergancy if he needed. I take it he has at least a Dead Talon crystal in his crop, only has to cough it up, and crush it, and the rest of the Claw knows he is badly crippled or dead? And therefore extremely annoyed?
I wonder if Seraphimus is the sould equivalent of Christopher Lee.
Oh, verticle drill string mining array. Reminds me of my Uncle Joe out on the North Sea Oil rigs. Now theres a horribly dangerous job. Because in the depths of winter, with snow, gale force winds, 30 foot waves etc, if you fall overboard, you have less time to live than if you step out of the International Space Station without a suit.
Poor Keris.
Chicken In A Half Bake.
Poor Keris
6603277
Nah it was a female name and she also called her her daughter so unless swab has an unexpected secret i almost expect it to be croches name, she might help them in some way in the future.
...And then Keris gets thrown into jail with our ghost-talking rainbow buddy.
The fight scene was fun to imagine though.
Wait a minute, wasn't Jerry the first guess from Nixkit as to the identity of the "Nasty Mister Somepony" back in Chapter Three? This is Jerry? Frankly, I'm not impressed with my counterpart's supposed Red Barge doppelganger.
Predictably, Saxon goes too far, being the drooling sadistic maniac that he is. I mean, catching Keris snooping is one thing, but frying him? There is absolutely no way that this is ever going to end well for them. If Keris leaves Red Barge, not only would he have their secrets and evidence the Rainbow Rogue is there, but he'll have been subjected to torture at their behest, and that would incite the Right Talon more than their terrible operations ever would. Which means he has to be kept from leaving Red Barge, but stopping his messages would indicate something was up, and the Right Talon would swarm in. Either way, it's game over for Red Barge.
The only thing I can think of for Skagra to do is to hide Keris, while still keeping him alive to send his reports. Assuming the pegasus messenger doesn't want to receive them in person and sees him scorched to a crisp, or that the Talon doesn't have a secret mayday codeword he can sneak in without them noticing. If the Talon do come looking, they won't find him too easily. Furthermore, Chandler would notice the Talon on the move and might be a little more inclined to submit to their extortion to get Rainbow out of there. I suppose they could also deflect the Talon's attention on to the returning Monket, or the incoming pirates. Assuming the pirates don't strike first and Red Barge implodes.
Of course, the only hiding place suitable for Keris is the Southern Strut, where the Rainbow Rogue is currently dwelling, so it seems that I'm to join the prevailing conjecture present in the comments at this moment in time and suggest Keris-Rainbow discourse in the coming chapters. Although any alliance as the people here are suggesting would be tentative at best, considering Keris is the lieutenant of a fanatically devoted religious warrior hit squad and considers Rainbow Dash to be a murderous psychotic heretic bent on defiling his Goddess' gifts with evil magic. Just saying.
Note how elegantly this development avoided turning this into a really unpleasant reality parallel - now that a lieutenant of the Talon has been attacked, it is not longer a question if Rohbredden and the rest in the Talon in particular will retaliate. Had that not been the case, imagine Keris returning to the council and making his report. The Barges still supply the coal keeping all of Rohbredden warm. The well-being and wealth of one continent measured against the misery and exploitation of another for it could not maintain itself without it - remind you of something?
6602712 The narrator made sure to state that flying in there was infeasible.