Chaos in Diamondtown

Captain Gibbs was dreaming peacefully that he was on a white sandy beach and a woman who looked just like Teslaimia only with fewer clothes on was fanning him while a woman who looked just like Emily fed him grapes. The Teslaimia of his dreams opened her mouth to speak to him only her voice sounded just like the ship's steam horn blaring seven long sounds with one short sound. The Captain felt the urge to sit up and open his eyes. As the Captain broke free of his dream he realized that it was indeed that very alarm going off, so he threw on his pants and grabbed his jacket racing to the bridge. His adrenaline was pumping as he dashed onto the bridge and saw that it was just barely daylighted outside, "Smitty, give me a rundown?" He pulled his jacket on and took the warm seat from a younger well-built man.

Smitty said in a deep voice, "Spotters have eyes on two large groups of soldiers about to come into battle in our designated drop off point for Lady Connaissance and the Princess."

Nate soon appeared at Captain Gibbs' side with a cup of coffee for him saying, "I double-checked with the spotters they confirmed we are at the drop off destination. They confirmed the location with their own charts."

Smitty nodded and said, "I put us in general quarters, all men should be at their ready stations for combat sir."

Nate pointed at the troops headed in from the West, "Those are the Church's Inquisition troops." He then pointed to the East, "Those are just a little too far off to see, but we are assuming they are HCE forces."

Captain Gibbs frowned, "Well we seem to be in a pickle, if we let the Church's men walk in here and they are hostiles, we'll be putting Lady Connaissance at risk. If we attack them now without any provocation, and they are friendlies here for the funeral, we'll be putting the City at risk for an extended war."

Nate rubbed his chin, "We could always just give them a little warning to stop where they are outside of the city?"

Captain Gibbs, "Good call Nate, Smitty, I want you to grab the flagman get the message up that they are to stay put or risk war with Connaissance. We do have a treaty with HCE for some king of mutual protection right Nate?"

Nate Butler smiled and shrugged, "Probably?"

A few minutes later the Zealous was in the visual range of the Curch force. The flagman was repeating the message, "Halt. Declare your intentions."

*****

Archbishop Josciox was chewing on some bacon as he rode his horse his troops were all scared after seeing the monstrous flying ship appear in the sky in front of them so he ordered them to follow his lead and keep marching. The scared and ghastly looking second in command trotted up to the Archbishop and said, "I recognize those flags. They are used by sailing ships to halt and declare intentions. If we were a ship at sea we would show our own flags."

"I saw. Keep marching. Tell the men to prepare shields in case they start firing arrows at us." The Archbishop commanded.

The second in command looked up and said, "I have seen these balloons, before in other countries. All they can do is throw a few stones at best. I have never seen one this big though, it almost looks like a sailing ship."

*****

Emily yawned and stretched out, she saw that Teslaimia was still wearing her sleep mask and was spread out on the nearby pile of furs. Emily noticed they had left her a glass of orange juice, some fruit, and a coffee on the table. She walked over and had the coffee picking up a soft fruit from the bowl. She took a deep breath and then walked out onto the patio and heard a sound she shouldn't have heard. The distinct sound of a large steam horn sounding. She tilted her head again listening. With a frown, she walked over to her open box of clothing and took out pants, her leather boots, gloves, and a blouse. She walked over and pulled the mask off Teslaimia, "Wakey wakey!"

"Fuck your ancestors!" Teslaimia said groggily, "Why are you waking me up so early."

Emily giggled at how bad Teslaimia was with mornings, "Put some clothes on, I think the Zealous is back, I just heard a steam horn. That shouldn't exist here."

The sound of footsteps sounded throughout the palace as servants yelled waking everyone up, a few moments later the troops of the Holy Chadtom Empire were everywhere getting into a defensive position. A man in an officer's uniform stood at the doorway and bowed, "Lady Connaissance? His Highness sent us here to secure the palace. The men of the zombie worshippers will be here soon. They are attacking our Empire. For your safety we need to get you to our ship, will you please come with us?"

Emily looked at Teslaimia, "You heard the man, we need to go. Get dressed in something you can run around in. No skirts and heels."

A string of swears sounded as Teslaimia rolled out of bed and started to pick out an outfit. When she started to look for her makeup, Emily frowned, "This isn't a ball, come on, we need to run. Leave your stuff here. We can try to get it back after we are alive and safe!"

Teslaimia, "If I see the Prince like this, I am going to die anyway."

Emily smirked and said, "let's go, if we meet the Prince he'll understand the situation."

*****

Captain Gibbs frowned, "Do you think they just can't see our flags or maybe can't read them?"

Nate shook his head, "If we were at sea, we'd have an archer fire a shot over their bow in a warning. I think they saw, and they just think we are no threat at all."

Captain Gibbs paced around the room and then suddenly called out, "Weapons free, prepare to fire."

At once the ship flew into action, in the beehive room the crew pulled open the long doors under the hives. The boilers diverted their steam from propulsion and stored up lethal force for the hives. Once all preparations were done, one of the crew would run over to a tube on the wall and yell into it, "Ready to fire!"

Nate who left the bridge for a moment came back up and called out, "We are ready to fire Captain."

Captain Gibbs walked forward and leaned over the railing and yelled out, "Spotters, are we in position to fire yet?"

One of the spotters then answered back, "Captain we are over dead center you are clear to fire!"

The Captain turned to Nate and called out, "All hands, fire away!"

Nate the spoke to a group of crewmen standing at steam pressure release valves, "Hives one through eight, fire."

Each of the crew members turned their handle counterclockwise. The entire ship seemed to have a slight jump as the loudest SHOOSH ever heard erupted from the ship by a sound like popping corn.

Down on the spotters' deck one of the men suddenly violently threw up. Followed by a couple more looking like they were ready to as well. Captain Gibbs looked down there from the railing. "Nate, get down to the spotters' deck, something went wrong."

*****

Archbishop Josciox and his second in command noticed that the ship flying over their heads looked to be changing, slots began to open on the bottom of the airship. A few moments later a loud sound they had never heard before sounded. and then it seemed to be raining, only the rain stung. They all felt wet, and the rain seemed to be warm but as they looked around the men around them would get little red spots all over their bodies and then some of them would lose an eye, an arm, a nose or in the worst cases their head simply fell apart. the Archbishop went to give a command but he suddenly blacked out. The soldiers at the rear of this massive troop march kept moving forward. No officer from the front had told them differently.

Above them, the massive floating ship merely hung there a residue of steam still coming from the holes under the ship. These Church soldiers were hardened from many battles and had full trust in their commanders. So onward they marched. some of the soldiers noticed that they were walking over and past a lot of dead soldiers, but it was a normal thing in a battle to see this, perhaps there were more enemy soldiers defending this city than they imagined.

Five minutes after the first blast from the ship all was still quiet. The soldiers at the front of the lines saw no enemies yet, they only knew it had something to do with the threat above, so they were looking up and not forward. The troops had marched one hundred yards now beyond where they had been at the time of the first attack. The sound of feet stomping was still loud enough to be felt by the people on the ground. The Archbishop had been leading a troop consisting of half a million men. An army to kill a nation.

More and more men were seeing the remains of the forward units a few recognized the officers and wondered who lead the army now, but none spoke up. Onward they marched.

*****

Emily stopped running and looked west, "That was Beehives. The Zealous is taking action." She looked at the officer, "Take her to the ship, I need to get up high to see what's going on."

The Officer frowned, "I can't let you do that, I am under orders to bring you to my ship."

Emily frowned at him and pointed to the West, "The Soldiers I lead are fighting a battle for your country right over there, I am going to take a look. Your orders are your orders, not my orders." She dashed away causing the officer to get a headache.

He called out, "Take this woman to the ship, I will go after her."

*****

Captain Gibbs paced around, "You're saying they are still marching forward after... That? How long until we can fire a second time?"

Nate ran back into the hallway and then came back, "We are waiting on steam, Chief says it's going to be five more minutes."

Captain Gibbs slammed his fist on to the armrest of his chair, "Too long, too long."

A few minutes later Nate called out, "We are ready to fire!"

The Captain raced over to the railing, "Are we in the best firing position?"

One of the spotters called up, "Captain you are ready to fire!"

Captain Gibbs shouted out, "All hands, fire away!"

*****

Emily had just managed to climb up on the roof of a building near the dock, she couldn't see what was being fired on, but she saw what looked like rain from a cloud clinging to the bottom of the massive Zealous. A mist of red could be seen just above the tops of the buildings a few glass windows broke down at street level and then ball bearing struck her in the cheek which felt like someone threw a rock at her.

Emily checked her cheek for blood but seemed to be fine although it hurt. The officer that had been chasing her said a prayer as he pulled up to her side, "What are they doing, this thing just hit you..." He held up the silver ball, "Do your people drop them from the skyship?"

Emily nodded, "Any soldiers underneath of this are no longer living or capable of battle."

A few moments later troops in Inquisition uniforms ran through the town with no discipline. They seemed like an unruly mob only looking to get under cover or away from the scene of the battle. Emily frowned and said, "There are a lot of them left, can your men handle this?"

The officer shook his head, "The Prince and his army will be here by midday until then we are to get you to safety. We are to sail to the East and meet up with the Prince and his troops. Then we will march here to Diamondtown and retake the city."

"What about the people who live here?" Emily asked with concern showing on her face.

"I only have one hundred archers, we can just barely hold the second palace with that."

*****

Nate called up from the spotters' deck, "Captain, the last of them ran into the city for cover. Your orders?"

Captain Gibbs called out, "Smitty give me options here!"

The young muscular man rubbed his nose and said, "I could bring a few of the boys down in the basket and see if we can rescue Lady Connaissance?"

One of the crewmen called out, "Number one boiler reports out of coal." A few moments he later called out, "Number two boiler reports out of coal!"

Captain Gibbs slammed a fist into the rail and yelled down to Nate Butler, "We just lost power to weapons and propulsion. I want you above deck, we are under sail only."

*****

Emily looked up at the Zealous and noticed that the coal smoke that should be coming from the Zealous was no longer billowing out. She cursed under her breath and asked, "How much coal do you keep here in Diamond town?"