“Raaaaaaaugh!” Nixkit jumped high, coming down with a massive swing of his sparkling pole-arm. THWACK!
Bolts of electricity issued outward across the deck, forcing several pirates to hop backwards until they were standing precariously on the edge of the strut.
“Drive them back!” Nixkit hollered, joined by Saxon and several other dredgers as they rushed in at full-force. “Back into the muck with the bastards—!”
Suddenly, five pegasi swooped down, diving high from the northwest. In carefully-timed coordination, they flung a fan of knives down at the dredgers.
Nixkit and Saxon skidded to a stop, gasping, flinching—
Swooooosh! Keris leapt in, rolled, swept up a discarded scimitar, and twirled it with finesse. Cl-Cl-Clank! He deflected the thrown daggers—all but one. Thwap! He caught the last knife in an oustretched talon. Squinting, he exhaled, spun, and tossed the dagger up high.
Schliiink! The blade flew into the neck of one pirate pegasus. Gurgling, he fell like an anvil to the strut below. Keris met his ragdoll body with a downstab of the scimitar, finishing instantly. Thunk!
Nixkit and several other dredgers blinked.
Keris panted and panted. Feathers ruffling, he stood up, leaning his weight against the scimitar's hilt. “They're letting you advance on purpose!” He pointed up at the air. “So long as those wingponies control the skies, they control the battle!”
“Hey!” Saxon frowned. “Who freed the buzzard?”
At last, Digiff and his fellow dredgers galloped up, panting, heaving. “He's... he's...” He slumped against Nixkit, wheezing. “...h-helping...”
“Dammit, Digiff!” Nixkit stepped aside with a frown, letting the bearded stallion slump to the ground. “You had one job!”
“Will you just friggin' listen to him already?!” Digiff growled.
Keris was already hollering to the dredgers. “Fall back! Fall back to the center platform, everypony!”
“Hey!” Nixkit barked. “This is our fight! Who do you think you are?”
“Yeah!” Saxon grinned wickedly. “Last time I knew, birdy, you were supposed to be eating shit! Not spewing it!”
“Don't you see?! It's a trap!” Keris hollered, eyeing the ongoing melee as he spoke. “The pirates know we outnumber them ten to one! They're drawing us to the outer edges while their air support weeds out the rest of the platform! If we keep mindlessly fighting them along the northern and southern platforms, then they'll whittle your numbers away until there's nothing left to defend!”
“Then what would you suggest, griffon?” Nixkit exclaimed.
“It's simple!” Keris pointed. “Put aside your anger and frustration! Be smart about this!” He pointed towards Skagra's lofty office behind them. “Withdraw towards the center platform! We'll force them to draw in and eliminate them at the choke points!”
“If we back away from their troops, they'll just start firing on us again!”
“Doubtful.” Keris shook his head. “They need Red Barge intact if they want to make any profit on the raid. Besides... there's something very valuable to them below deck, isn't there?”
Nixkit bit his lip.
“If we fail to keep our forces alive...” Digiff gulped. “We fail Skagra. Do you want that on your head, Nixkit?”
“Shut up!” Nixkit growled. “I'm thinking.”
“Well, I'm doing!” Keris exclaimed. Schiiing! He picked up a second sword in the other talon and charged into the fray. “Get your stallions inward!”
“And just what do you think you're doing?!”
“Giving you time!” Keris hopped off the flanks of defending dredgers, glided sucidally forward, then dove deep into the meatspace of attacking pirates. Sl-Sliiiiiink! With yelps and sprays of red mist, several pirates fell to the deck, twitching. The brazen attack forced the nearest cluster of attackers to back off, forming a half-circle that faced the agile griffon. “In the name of Verlaxion, stand back! This is your final warning!”
“Stupid Rohbreddenite!” a scarred stallion spat, brandishing a thick metal club. “Verlaxion does not sail these waves—Hrkkkkk!” His dialogue ended at the sharp end of a sword thrown into his muzzle. Splassssh! He fell back into the muck, dead.
Keris exhaled, an empty talon outstretched. “And neither do you...”
The rest of the pirates exchanged glances, then all rushed in on Keris with an enraged war cry.
“Goddess give me strength—!” Keris jumped backwards, frantically deflecting and parrying the multiple attacks. He threw all his experience and expertise into sheer survival, countering each offensive move as nimbly as he could, consuming the invaders' time and attention.
Digiff spun about to face the superior stallion. “Nixkit?!?”
Nixkit shuddered. He re-gripped his polearm and motioned southeast. “Everypony!” A shrill whistle. “Back to the Skag Hole! Protect your brothers and drag the families back with us!”
“But Nix!” Saxon gasped, eyes twitching. “We can flank them!”
“You can sniff their butts until you die!” Nixkit was already galloping back. “I'm not about to lose the Red Barge to a bunch of upstart barnacle huffers!”
“You heard the dredger!” Digiff screamed into the polluted air. “Fall back! Fall back!”
As more and more stallions answered the call, drawing the line back, Saxon stood alone... quivering. He spat, cussed, and scampered after his brethren in a breath of frustration.
Meanwhile, the attacking pegasi drew into an even thicker formation...
...and swept over the welded hulls of the Barge once again. They tossed blades, chunks of shrapnel, and every other random object that they could muster.
Croche shielded herself as she galloped after Swab. “Mrmmmff... wh-why aren't they tossing more explosives?”
“They probably ran out,” Swab answered, panting. He ran and ran, drawing the two of the deep into the south strut. “Don't you get it? They were just trying to scare us all! They don't have nothing against Red Barge!”
“But... b-but they're pirates—”
“They're starving and desperate.” Swab clenched his jaw. “Just like the rest of us. But we don't have to be like them! We don't have to be like anypony!”
“Wait a second...” Croche suddenly stood her ground, hooves scraping against the deck. She yanked Swab back with the weight of her grip on his tail. “This is all about the stupid Rainbow Rogue, isn't it?!”
Swab panted, standing just a few paces from the descending entrance in question. He pulled and tugged Croche closer to it. “Please. We'll be safe if we just—”
“You idiot!” Croche hissed, tears streaming. “Why didn't you take me back to the hold?! It was closer! We could be there now! Safe!”
“Quint would have just made us fight!” Swab's voice cracked. “Please, just trust m—”
“Swab, look around you!” Croche yelped, waving at the plumes of smoke and the diving pegasi. “This is all the world has for us! This is...” She choked on a sob. “This is what took my parents away.” She sniffled. “And yours—”
“They're waiting for me!” Swab suddenly hollered, making the filly flinch. “Out there! And I-I'm not going to get them b-back by shedding blood!” He shook... heaved. “Don't you understand?! Doesn't anypony understand?! We don't have to be miserable all the time! We... we...” He exhaled with a pitiable squeak. “...we can do nice things in spite of all... of all this...”
Croche swallowed a lump down her throat. “...what makes you think we have a choice, Swab?”
He struggled to find an answer to that. Then—his eyes twitched...
...for he caught the shadow of a pegasus sweeping sharply over the surface of Red Barge. In the shadow's grip was something thick—like a club—and it was swinging straight for Croche.
“Guh!” He gripped the gasping filly's shoulder and swung her around. “Look out—”
The flying pirate's club made contact with Swab's shoulder. WHAP! The tiny colt was knocked aside, where his skull ricocheted hard off the side of a rusted bulkhead. Clang!
“Swab—!” Croche shrieked.
“Mmmmffnghh...” Swab lay limply at her hooves. The shadows of the attackers...
...streaked over the various struts of Barge, including the northern array where a half-faced stallion galloped cowardly over and under steam pipes. With breathless grace, Skagra threaded the needle of the floating sprawl he had memorized since foaling.
The pirates chasing him were far clumsier. Even then—as their pursuing numbers doubled—they struggled to keep up with the top dredger, tripping and fumbling over each other.
“Augh!”
“Dammit!”
“Form a line, you idiots!”
Another pair of attackers rushed in, brandishing blades in their sweaty grasps. “Who're you chasing?! Huh?!”
“Did you find the Rainbow Rogue?!”
“Next best thing!” The leader hollered, ducking under a horizontal set of pipes directly ahead. “This shitheap's top dredger!”
“No way?! The Skag himself?!”
“You bet! Got the bastard cornered!” The lead stallion broke off into a gallop down a narrow corridor made out of bundled pipes. “First, we'll ransom him off for the Rogue, and then we'll skin him alive for roasting our mates!”
“Hell, I want in on this!”
“Go! Go!”
“I think I see him up ahead!”
About twenty privateers rushed down the narrow alleyway of metalwork. Their charging warcry caused a massive reverberation to haunt its way through the lattices and pipe frames all around them. At last, they made a sharp left turn, followed by two rights, and another left.
“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh...” One by one, the shouts of the attackers dwindled into a confused whine. Their hooves stopped galloping—in exchange for a limping shuffle. Blinking, the stallions looked around. They saw nothing but a claustrophobic enclosure of cylindrical tanks and adjoining pipes. There was no Skagra.
“Where the Hell did he go?”
“He was just in front of us! I swear!”
“You assmunch! You lost him!”
“No way! He ran down this way! As sure as I bloat!”
“Funny you should say that...”
The stallions jolted in place. Unsheathing their blades, they looked all around for the source of the raspy voice.
“...do you know just what mistake the top dredger before me made? The one that let me take up the Skag hole as my very one?”
Collectively, the pirates looked up. Their muzzles hung open wide.
Skagra leaned casually against a metal ledge directly above the dead-end of metal pipework. Beside him was an instrument panel chock-full of circular valves. “Eh...” He proceeded to twist and turn every single one. “...why don't you go ask him yourselves?”
“...!!!” The stallions panicked. They looked all around them as countless vents opened up, billowing with flesh-roasting steam.
“Just don't hold your breaths,” Skagra snorted. He spun about with a casual shuffle of his hooves. “It's a long line in Hell...”
The response was a cacophonous explosion of shrieks, screams, and wailing voices. Skagra walked away from a veritable column of hot-white clouds... turning red, crimson, and then gray once again as it pierced the air over the Barge. Wary pegasi split apart, flying away from the bloody steam expulsion.
“Hrmmmff...” Skagra scratched his chin in mid-stride. “...what was I doing just a moment ago?”
As if on cue, the deck panels directly below him shifted. The top dredger had to brace himself against a bulkhead while every welded vessel forming the Barge shifted with a massive groan. Before his eyes, the horizon slowly shifted to the right.
“Ah yes...” Half of Skagra's muzzle grinned. “...there's a good corkscrew.”
More groans rattled through the body of Red Barge as its...
...struts rotated counter-clockwise. The stallions within the central control room had finally comandeered the steering mechanisms. The massive platform swirled slowly in a circle, dragging the struts along with it. The west and north struts—where the bulk of the battle had been taking place—dragged from expertly extended rudders underwater. Thus—when the entirety of the Barge immediately stopped spinning, the canals there spread wider than the rest...
...which is precisely what gave Monket and his steamships ample room to navigate.
“Master!” A crew member hollered across the deck. “The struts! They're spreading!”
“Muck my muzzle. Dayum half-mane finally pulled through,” Monket grunted. He tossed his dreads and threw a hoof forward. “Fire the engines! Signal our sister ship to do the same!” He motioned to the various slaves scampering back and forth across his vessel. “Give her a wide berth! We don't want to be too close together just in case the pirates return to—”
P-POWWW! A length of Red Barge bulkheads to the ship's port side exploded, showering Monket and his slaves with flecks of ash.
“Dammit!” Monket gnashed his teeth, ducking low. “Those barnable bloaters are so friggin' predictable!” He hollered over the sound of more shells landing all around them. “Full speed! Go! Go!”
“Aye! Full speed!”
“Full speed!”
The murky waters churned as the powerful engines...
...shoved the two steamships ahead. One after another, they sped their way out of the canal and into the open water, churning up muck and froth.
The five pirate ships drew closer. They concentrated their cannonfire on the northern strut, sending more and more chunks of metal sky-high with wildly aimed payloads of raw dredge coal.
Keris witnessed this in between sweaty bouts with a thickening group of pirates. Almost all of the dredgers had retreated to the central platform at this point, leaving the invaders to concentrate their attack on the one idiot still standing before them.
“Get him!”
“Pluck out every feather and stab them in his eyes!”
“I want his beak for a necklace!”
Keris exhaled with a frown. “Charming... but I'd rather cuddle a windigo.” Deflecting a few more rapier stabs, he found himself backing up into a wall of steampipes. Instantly, his feathers flexed, only to be constricted by thick iron bands around his wings. “Damnation!” the Lieutenant hissed. He looked left and right across a wall of angry, sneering faces.
Then—just as the breaths of his foes turned rancid enough to be ascribed texture—he sensed the shadows of multiple pegasi streaking overhead. Looking straight up, Keris didn't waste any time. He jumped to the right, bounced off a pipe, kicked off a bulkhead to his left, then stabbed his scimitar hard into the metal wall behind him. Chtunnng! Growling, he swung his body up from the hilt, avoided the swinging weapons of his enemies below, and threw a talon upwards in time to grip the leg of a flying pegasus.
Thwppp!
The pegasus'' body sagged, forcing him to sink out of formation. Gasping, he looked back to see a flightless griffon gripping his fetlock. With a flick of his other hoof, the pirate produced a dagger and aimed it at Keris' skull.
The Lieutenant responded by digging his talons into the pirate's leg.
“Aaaaugh!” The winged pony shrieked, his whole body curling in pain. He descended, clipping the tops of multiple welded boats. Keris had to swing left and right to avoid jutting smoke-stacks and pipework. At last, the two of them dipped too low, and Keris' body slammed into a jutting metal wall.
“Ooomf!” Keris fell in one direction while the pained pegasus collapsed onto a nearby ledge. Both struggled to get up, with Keris standing first. As the pegasus crawled onto all fours, the griffon charged him, spearing him in the side. The two smashed through a window and landed in a two-story apartment, startling a family of shrieking Red Bargers.
Beak rattling, Keris looked up in time to see the faces of scared foals and fillies flashing before him. Smasssh! The pegasus slammed a random piece of pottery over the Lieutenant's headcrest.
“Gaaugh!” Keris lost balance.
“Rrnnngh!” The bleeding pirate charged into him, knocking the griffon across the room.
Keris tripped over a cowering mare's leg. He fell back hard, landing on his bound wings in the center of a tiny metal kitchen.
Seething, the pirate looked around for a weapon to grab.
Keris struggled to get up. He clamped his left talon over the edge of a kitchen counter, causing a knife-rack to rattle. His hawkeyes darted towards it.
Finally, the pirate picked up a thick metal lamp. An older colt dashed into him in an attempt to tackle the privateer. The pegasus merely punched the foal in the face, then held him up by the neck. Thwissssssh—Thunk! A kitchen knife embedded into his fetlock. “Aaaaugh!” He dropped the gasping kid and looked into the kitchen.
Keris tossed a second dagger, then a third.
The pegasus ducked one projectile and blocked the other with his lamp. After the embedded blade shook to a stop, he peered over—only for his eyes to reflect a furious mass of feathers charging straight for him.
WHUMP! Keris slammed into the pegasus, shoved him across the scream-filled apartment, and finally tossed the two of them out the opposite window. They fell two full stories with Keris ending on top... and his beak around the pirate's neck. SNAP! The pirate's body shook one... twitched twice... and was still.
“... ... ...grnnngh...” Keris opened his mouth wide, dropping the pegasus' raggedy throat from his grip. He wiped the blood from his beak and stared off, panting to regain his breath.
As the Lieutenant's vision came back into focus, he spotted Monket's ships engaging the five pirate vessels in a massive exchange of mortar and cannon fire.
“Mrrrmmfff...” Keris gulped. “...could really use your tenacity here, Commander.” His hawkeyes twitched, then lowered slightly. He blinked, his magenta pupils reflecting several murky light-sources drawing closer and closer to the Barge. “...hmmm, well that's different.”