HighFleet: The Journey for Salvation

by ARandomLonelyDude

Chapter 1: Contact

Captain Ibrahim sat in the captain's seat on the bridge of his Lightning, feeling restless and unhappy. He had been ordered by the Grand Duke to take his ship and the Skylark to gather intel from outside visual detection range and wait for the main fleet to catch up with them to commence an attack on the enemy. While it was a reasonable plan, he was still unhappy because he had been basically ordered to sit around and do nothing

And the worst part was that they had not picked up any ELINT signature, meaning that the enemy was not a strike group. He knew that he would be able to take on whatever ships there were easily, after all, they were the best fighters in all of Gerat! His crew shared a similar unhappiness with the situation. They were all eager for a fight. It was a chance to wipe the Gathering from the face of Elaat once and for all, but in the end, they had to wait for the Grand Duke to arrive with the fleet.

He had sent a message to the Grand Duke some time back, requesting permission to engage and was still waiting for a reply.

"Captain, it's Captain Agarwal on the radio. They said that they received new orders from the fleet.", the radio operator said suddenly, breaking the silence of the bridge, as he received a transmission from the Skylark.

'Finally!', he thought to himself as a smile formed on his face.

"We've been ordered to enter visual range and if possible, destroy the enemy.", the operator continued.

"What are we waiting for then? Start the engines and get us in the air!", he ordered, eager for the fight that was going to come.

---

Meanwhile in a magnificent castle on top of a mountain that pierced the sky, a princess went about her morning as usual, holding court and making decisions. She wished that she wasn't here and somewhere else, preferably with a pastry to accompany her. In front of her, a noble was giving a speech about how the value of properties in the city were being reduced by the ongoing expansion of the city and how it was bad and must be stopped, lest his mansions become less valuable than they were. The other nobles present were clearly in support of him.

The princess, of course, would not do anything to stop the expansion. The city was starting to get overcrowded with influx of immigrants and the expansion was the only solution available. The only reasonable one, as she remembered how another noble had proposed removing all non-pony beings from the city to make space for the growing population.

She thought that it was silly, that these grown ponies, who had had access to the best education Equestria has to offer, were coming in here to, in her sister's words, give asinine ideas and waste precious time. She agreed with her sister on the fact that the nobility had degraded a lot. She, however, didn't believe in her sister's radical plan to fix the system. There would be too much change at once and Equestria might not be able to handle it properly. She knew that her slow, well thought-out plans were better than any radical, reactionary response. However, she still had this meeting to get through.

"Princess Celestia!", a voice called out suddenly as the doors to the throne room opened. The nobles were clearly unhappy that their important meeting had been disrupted. Celestia, however, was happy that she had a potential escape from the meeting.

A pegasus guard quickly made his way to the throne. Whatever it was must have been important as the guard didn't hesitate to push a noble out of his way.

"Princess! There have been sightings of unknown flying metal behemoths heading straight for Canterlot!"

"What?"

---

Captain Ibrahim watched silently as the ship carefully landed in the docks that had been carved into the mountains. There had been no enemy waiting for them and all they had spotted was the two burning metal piles that used to be ships close by. It was probably the defenders' ships. The docks were also somewhat damaged, probably because the fight took place somewhere above it, but it didn't matter much for the small ships.

He would have to send a message informing the fleet of the damage since none of the bigger ships would be able to land safely in the docks or on the surrounding mountainous terrain.

"Touchdown confirmed. Good work everyone.", he heard the helmsman say as the ship rocked a bit, indicating that it had landed safely without damaging anything.

"Skylark is landing now.", the radio operator informed. The captain turned his head to watch the Skylark descending from the viewport.

'Too fast.', he thought as he watched the Skylark touch down a bit harder than what was safe. Captain Agarwal clearly wasn't very good at her job, being a rather unexperienced mercenary captain who had been hired only because it would take too long for a Skylark to be dispatched from the main fleet of the Romani.

"Skylark has reported damages to the landing gear, should be fixed in half an hour.", the radio operator said. Captain Ibrahim shook his head at the incompetency of the captain. The damage would have been acceptable if it were a larger ship like a Kormoran or even a Gladiator but managing to damage the landing gear while landing a ship such as the Skylark was purely an issue with the captain's skill.

"Send a message to the fleet that there aren't any Gathering ships in the city and that the landing docks are damaged and they may not be able to land the bigger ships.", he ordered, "And order the Skylark to deploy soldiers to secure the perimeter."

The orders were quickly carried out. Captain Ibrahim in the meantime, had made his way to his personal quarters to retrieve his mask. The Elaim's faces could not bear the open air for long. No one knew why it was so but it was theorized that an unknown particle in the air was the cause. What they did know was how to avoid the air and so, the Elaim wore special masks unless in a room where the air was filtered. Most wore simple gas masks while a few wore the traditional ceramic masks which signified noble ancestry.

The air in the lightning was filtered allowing him and his mostly Elaim crew to work without the masks. They wore their masks, that were issued to all Elaim soldiers in service of the empire, during combat or while going outside.

He stepped into the room. It was only a bit bigger than the rooms used by the crew. It had a bed, a desk and a chair. There wasn't much in terms of decoration either, with only a small golden elephant statue on the desk along with some documents. There was also a grey, featureless mask on the desk. He picked it up and put it on. He had a second, more personal mask in one of the drawers but he didn't like it much. The one he was wearing was much more durable and reliable than the traditional ceramic mask.

He exited the room and started making his way to the main ramp. His guards would be waiting there for him along with a transport that will take them to the city.

Within a few minutes, he had reached the ramp. Six guards were standing at attention, waiting for him at the bottom of the ramp along with an armored jeep. He was about to get in the front seat when a shot was fired somewhere close by.

He swiveled his head to the direction of the shot and saw that several soldiers were running to the edge of the docks, towards an approaching convoy of trucks and aiming their weapons. A few more shots could be heard.

"Driver, get us there quickly!", he shouted as he got in the jeep with his guards. The driver complied and quickly drove him to the site. The captain got off as soon as the jeep came to a halt.

He took a better look at the trucks when he got close to the group of soldiers who were firing the warning shots.

"Stop firing!", he shouted as he realized that the approaching trucks were not armed and bore the flag of the empire. The soldiers did as they were ordered and stopped firing. They watched as the trucks got closer and came to a stop about fifty meters from the edge of the docks. There was an uncomfortable silence as they watched a single man, one of the hidden people, get off the truck that was in the lead. The captain could tell by the colorful robe worn by the man, that he was someone important.

The man started walking towards them. The soldiers kept observing the man, ready to shoot him if he tries to attack. No attack came, however, and the man was allowed to pass by the soldiers.

"You must be one of the Grand Duke's men.", the robed man said as he approached Captain Ibrahim.

"Yes, I am. And you must be the doyen-", the captain tried replying but got cut off.

"The doyen is dead, somewhere in the rubble of our city. I am his grandson.", the man said, correcting the captain. "There is much I have to tell you but first I must ask you for aid. There are many injured people in the trucks and many more back at the remains of the city."

"We will render whatever help we can.", the captain said after a moment of thinking.

Author's Note:

hi guys!

Comments

[All2101base]

I like this story so far!
thank you for creating it.