Nine Millimeter Vorpal Sword

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 14

After the guard airship had been caught up by an ambush of pirates that outnumbered the Equestrian forces, Nancy had survived the crash and managed to come aboard the floating bait ship. There, she’d killed one marauder to save one of her Equestrian comrades.

She didn't even have time to consider the moment. Though Nancy’s ears were ringing from the sound of the shot, killing the griffon who had tried to take Patina Polish, she heard a door burst open. She was already partway down the stairs from the elevated rear of the ship, and spotted several creatures emerging from below decks.

She must have cut an imposing figure, with blood on her boots and dripping down the stairs. A few of them actually did hesitate when she shouted at them to stop.

Some of them didn’t. The first one to charge was a pony, wielding a sword, and the moment his hoof touched the first step, Patina surged forward from behind Nancy and ran him through with her spear.

Nancy had been within a fraction of a second of killing him herself, finger already taking up slack on the trigger, but shifted her aim to the rest of the crowd, perhaps half a dozen in all. That also distracted her from Patina killing a fellow pony. Was that something Patina thought about? Did all these creatures being outside her own species make it easier for Nancy?

The next one to attack seemed to be about halfway between a griffon and a pony. There might have been a proper name for that kind of creature, but as talons extended towards her face, Nancy had no time to remember it. She barely had time to defend herself, only getting the rifle up far enough to keep the attack at bay, but it was practically knocked from her hands by the impact. A bayonet would have solved the problem then and there, but she didn’t have one, and as the momentum of the attack knocked her backwards, she managed to get one hand down to her pistol. Sharp talons getting closer to her eyes, she didn’t even take the time to aim, just jerking the M9 clear of the holster and firing two rounds point-blank into the stomach of the creature that had tackled her.

Throwing it off her, and scrambling up, Nancy realized the pistol’s slide had scraped her wrist as it cycled. There hadn’t been even a fraction of a second to orient herself in the heat of the moment, but since nothing seemed broken, she reasoned that the injury was a fair tradeoff for staying alive. At least the blood on her vest wasn’t hers.

Hippogriff. That was probably what it was. She didn't look at the body, still squirming even as the creature died, other than to confirm that the threat had been ended.

Patina seemed to have held off the others by the time Nancy got back to her feet, and the rest of the pirates didn’t try anything. Apparently three deaths among their number were enough. Maybe too many.

Nancy and Patina herded the pirates below deck, sweeping to make sure there were none left in hiding. This was not a warship, and there were no cannon ports nor any obvious way of escaping the lower decks aside from the door, so they locked the pirates in and kept watch from the upper deck to ensure they didn’t try anything.

By that time, the battle in the skies wasn’t over, but seemed to be winding down. The wrecked Equestrian airship had nearly finished sinking into the waves. One of the two pirate airships had also fallen into the sea, and in the distance there were a few floating creatures Nancy could see. Those that could fly had apparently continued the battle.

She and Patina watched the other pirate airship with apprehension until a pegasus messenger from the guard came to meet them.

“We took it,” he explained. “Shame about our own, but at least we aren’t swimming home.”

He glanced at the wooden ship they stood upon. “You two did alright for yourselves.”

“Taking a prize was definitely not what I expected to be doing today,” Nancy said. The adrenaline was wearing off, but she was forcing herself to remain alert. This wasn’t quite over yet.

It took a while for the guards to get the unfamiliar airship under control and sort out what would happen next. Prisoners were an issue. The small guard unit had taken casualties. They’d punched far above their weight in the fight, but there were still more captured pirates than remaining guards. Not to mention, if they dawdled here too long, more pirates might be on the way.

Nancy was still a little bit in shock at how a country’s military, even a small unit, could be overwhelmed by pirates. Then again, in her own world, such a thing had sometimes happened, albeit not in the past few centuries.

Ultimately, the bait ship was burned. Not that Nancy cared about the prize value, but it was too much effort to split the remaining guard forces to sail it away. The cargo deck of the captured airship was crammed full of pirate prisoners and most of the remaining Equestrians were set to guard them. The others tried to get the airship to the hippogriff lands as quickly as possible. It was going to take another day, and everyone would be exhausted upon arrival, but as shorthanded as they were, resting was hardly an option.

Even with round the clock care, there was nothing that could be done for some of the wounded, from both sides. The slight bit of good news for Nancy was that no one she knew closely had been among the dead. Even with the bodies they carried, here were still some lost at sea.

Captain Magnus seemed more tense than usual, even after the battle was over. It was a testament to his experience, though, that nothing about his leadership had changed. He wasn't Nancy's boss, directly, but she still felt lucky to have him.

She was doing her part among the other crew, standing watch just like every ship she’d ever been on, when at long last the Hippogriff Kingdom came over the horizon, along with the next day’s sunrise.

The place was called Mount Aris. To Nancy, it slightly resembled the sailboat-shaped hotel in Dubai. If she wasn’t so tired, she might have taken a moment to stare. As things were, it was all she could do to maintain attention on the prisoners.

They were nearly fired upon by the hippogriff security forces because they were flying a pirate airship.

Comments

[Von Voctavia]

Awesome, glad to see they won :D

[artofwar77]

Hah, wouldn't that have been a way to die, succeeding at the pirate ambush only to get killed by the very folks they're visiting.

[Shadowshame]

This chapter has perfect tension