Forums » General Roleplay » A Bandit Ship! [1x1]

Daryn Keeble cursed his luck and the bandits that had caught him on a not-so-good day. His uniform was in tatters, his boots scuffed, and one of the chevrons marking his Petty Officer 2nd Class status was missing. His superior officer would have a fit--not just over his current wardrobe, but because of his predicament.

He'd been sent to keep an eye on a suspicious airship patrolling a 'dead air' location, and upon arriving, had found it significantly 'live'. He'd been shot down, of course, and then he'd been taken prisoner. He had been prisoner for the last 48 hours, and he was ready to call it quits. His hands were cuffed in front of him but his pistol had long been confiscated along with his father's pocket watch--a keepsake Daryn never left the ship without. It wasn't doing him much good now, as he was being shoved along the rocky tunnel system the bandits had carved out of the rock around them. There was a reason no one had spotted them out here; they were too well hidden.

He knew where he was going; he'd been down this way twice already and both times he'd been met with pain. He knew this time they would probably kill him if he didn't give them the whereabouts to his own ship.

"Hey Maya! Come over here and take a look at this!" One of the bandits yelled. Maya was a young engineer and gunslinger, and probably the only female present here in the caves. She wasn't one of them, though - she'd infiltrated them in order to shut them down.
Maya has been around the bandits for a couple of weeks now, and they started trusting her several days ago. She hopped down an overhanging platform in the largest cavern in the rock, and graciously landed on a rock beneath it. She walked over to the edge and sat down, legs crossed and dangling over the edge. Her mouth opened slightly as she cocked her head to the right while observing the newcomer. Inside, however, she swore. She'd have to get him out. Her sabotage plan was already set in motion, and if she didn't take this one with her, he'd die along with the others.
"Who's he?" she asked softly.
"A lawman!" one of the bandits yelled, and the others soon joined his triumphant cries of joy.

Daryn scowled as the bandits seemed to make sport of him. They shoved him along, calling him names.

"This could all be over with," said one who seemed to take particular delight in causing pain, "if you'd just tell us where your ship is." The knife gleamed in his hand.

Daryn just narrowed his eyes. "You'd be opening yourself to a slaughter if I told you where my ship was." Besides that, if the bandits did have the upper hand, help would be long in coming for his ship. "As it is, I've learned more than enough about you after the tour." After being trundled up and down the cave tunnels, he'd seen a fair amount of what they encompassed. And he was ready to report all of them.

He struggled with the metal cuffs, drawing the man with the knife closer. Just a little closer...thought Daryn, before he struck with his knee--right to the other man's groin. The knife fell with a clatter and Daryn snatched it, grateful they had bound his hands in front of him. Idiots.

Course, now the cry went out that their 'hostage' was armed. He sprinted forward, down the tunnel he'd just come from.

Maya got up and climbed back upward. Now was her chance, now that the bandits were in disarray due to the lawman's sudden action. She took a set of matches from her pocket and scratched one onto the sulfur until it caught fire. Standing near one of the copper steam pipes, this of course alarmed the bandits.
"Hey! Maya! What do you think you're doing!?" Maya turned her head towards the men downstairs, who were now intently watching her every move.
"Just starting the fireworks." Maya simply replied, before pushing the lit match into a crack she'd carved not long before. A fire immediately started on the inside of the copper tube, which started spreading along the system of tubes and furnaces spread throughout the cave system.

Several bandits raised their rifles and aimed for her, but she'd already sped of into the tunnel to her right. Two men came in view before him. "Stay where you are Maya! Don't think we won't shoot!"
Maya drew her pistols and aimed for the bandits before her. "Don't think I won't, either." She replied, and two bullet's left their respective pistol's chamber, both hitting the bandits in the head. They were thrown backwards and onto the ground, and Maya ran past them without a stop. She turned right, and then left once more. When she was about to turn into the main tunnel that led outside, she heard running footsteps coming from the tunnel, from where the main cavern was. She waited for a while, then jumped out and aimed her guns at whoever was coming out.
It was Daryn. "Oh, it's you." she simply said, and lowered her guns.

Daryn made a pit stop back at the cell, just long enough to be ambushed by two men. He ducked and use the heavy cuffs to knock one man out, and the the other he slashed at violently. A key dropped to the ground and Daryn scooped it up after throwing the knife into the other man's chest.

He unlocked the cuffs and let them drop to the ground, before searching through the two men's clothing. He found a gun and his father's pocket watch. Good enough.

With both items in his possession, getting through the rest of the tunnel was fairly easy. Until he ran into an armed female. He skidded to a halt, his gun half raised until she lowered hers.

"Just me? Who are you?" He glanced over his shoulder. "Nevermind, let's get out of here first." He could smell the burning sulfur, it wouldn't take long for something to explode.

"My ship is close by, follow me."

Maya ran out through the rest of the broad tunnel and turned right as soon as they'd exited. Something started rumbling inside the tunnel. "Hurry up, the fire has almost reached the main furnace!" She jumped onto a rock and over the next one, and landed into a small area cut out in the rocks. She pulled some weeds aside and revealed a small but fast airship with a sail and two engines. She'd made it herself years ago. She got into the controller's seat and fired up the engines. "Get in here!" she yelled at Daryn.

Daryn was hot on her heels, pausing only for a moment to admire the hand-made contraption. "Nice ship; is it fast enough?" he asked as he settled himself on the mini airship and braced himself for the forceful takeoff.

He cast a glance at the sky, trying to remember which way his own airship lay. It had been two or three days so his airship could be anywhere, hiding in the sky waiting for his return. If they thought he'd survived that is.

"Don't worry about fast." she simply replied. Maya pushed some buttons and slowly but surely, the ship started to levitate. "Here we go." the engines suddenly roared, and within seconds, the ship was in a safe distance from the rock.
Back in the bandit's hide-out, the fire had reached the main furnace. It went quiet fot a few seconds, but then it exploded, sending a shockwave in all directions and tearing several pieces from the rock.

Daryn winced as the aftershock caught up to them, then checked over his shoulder. "Well, that should take care of them for a while."

With the pressing matter of capture and escape taken care of, he relaxed a bit and rubbed his wrists from where the cuffs had chafed.

"Thanks for the, ah, help. I'm Daryn." He glanced at Maya, taking in her appearance and trying to gauge her reaction to his next question. "So, I take it you're not working for them?"

"I'm Maya," she replied. "And no, I'm not one of them." She brushed her long white hair backward and slowed down the ship to an easy cruising speed.

"Thank goodness." He settled completely with a sigh; though her white hair was unique enough tht it caught his attention. "So, what were you doing down there with the bandits anyway? Doesn't seem the typical place to run into someone such as yourself."

He chose to scan the sky now, missing out on Maya's reaction as he looked for the massive airship that had sent him out on a fool's mission that had nearly cost him his life.

"I was there to blow it up." she simply replied.

"Oh, is that all?" his tone was dry, sarcastic. "Good thing I didn't get there any later, then." He spotted a metal glint in the distance, obscured by clouds. "You think you could angle us about 24 degrees East? I spotted a ship up there--its probably mine."

Maya ignored his sarcastic comment. when he asked her to turn the ship, sh started turning eastward. "Sure."

"Thanks," he murmured as they headed towards the other airship. It was then he realized they'd need some sort of communications device to radio the larger airship lest they be considered an enemy. "You got a radio around here? Or something?"

He looked for something that might possibly work as a radio, and reached for it, ready to pull back if it wasn't one.

"I wouldn't be much of an engineer if I didn't fit a radio in my airship" He'd found it, so she just let her reach for it while she kept the small vessel on course. "What kind of ship is that?" Maya asked. She wasn't interested in having a run in with another bandit crew. The bandits they'd just left behind said something about lawmen, but, she couldn't be sure enough.

"Engineer huh? That's...handy. Are you working for someone? That ship is the USS Nautilus; one of the finest ships our commander could get his hands on." A smile of pride crossed Daryn's worn face then, as he clicked the radio and then tuned the dial to the proper frequency. Oh how glad he was to have been forced to work the radio back in his midshipman days!

"What's the name of your airship?" Daryn asked before he spoke into the transmitter. Better to have all his facts up front, after all.

"Her name is Windcleaver," Maya replied. She looked up at the Nautilus. My ship could probably fit in it a hundred times...

He grinned at the name. "Good name." He clicked the radio on. "USS Nautilus, this is Daryn Keeble, do you read? Over." He clicked off the radio, waiting for the reply.

It came back strongly. "Keeble? We have a missing Petty Officer by that name. Do you know of his whereabouts?"

"Oh aye," replied Daryn with a roll of his eyes. "You're speaking to him. I'm on the tiny little WindCleaver off your port side. Been rescued by a...friend after some run-ins with bandits. Said bandits are now toast. May we have permission to board? Over."

There was a lengthy pause as no doubt his words were being transmitted up the chain of command. He took this time to offer a smile at Maya. "They'll get back to us eventually. So you're an engineer? How long did it take you to build this?"

"I started building it when I was twelve, by gathering parts over the years. I finished two years ago." she explained. She was proud of what she had accomplished, and didn't mind showing it off to anyone.