"I think that I can get the gun working," Sarkin says, and then goes about doing just that.

Having therefore scared the living beejeesus out of all enemies on the dock, Raddukk makes for the Kraken where Loki and Sarken seem to have things under control. Realizing their dilemma with the gun, he'll see if he can figure out how it operates.

Barring further technical explanation from Sarkin, there are five bonemetal handles around the breech end of the gun. The breech is open, and is about a handsbreadth in diameter. The breech is in the same chamber as the familiar engine station, with its three seats all around a central bonemetal post.

Reekik makes a dash for the Kraken, then runs up to Sarkin, "Sir, do you want me to take the gun or the engines?"

"Engines, Reekik," Sarkin gives the affirmative, knowing that mobility will be more important in the long run than the BFG. Nonetheless, he will still get the BFG up and running, if he can, in the hopes that it will be more useful in the short run, against the Backwards Elves of the Silfarien. At this moment, the Apotheosis seems to be in full retreat, so Sarkin isn't so much worried about them.

Seeing/realizing/assuming that Sarkin can man the gun, and hearing Reekik's offering of help to Sarkin, Raddukk asks what he can do to help-with the gun, the engines, paddle, whatever he can.

Reekik grabs Raddukk and Kiri, who has followed her, and tells them to follow her down into the Drive Room of the Kraken. The three of them sit around the engine station and feed Power into the pontoon. Those still outside the Kraken can see the water start to churn around the stern as the ship strains against its moorings.

Niktar, seeing the fellow run away and that the others on the dock aren't menacing any longer, hollers to Samas, Hunot and Galdwan. "Get Nikes aboard the Kraken!" He dashes toward the ship himself, and looks about. Seeing Sarkin at the gun, he heads forward to help him with the BFG, thinking the same thing about the short-term. "Everyone else, help Reekik with the engines." He nods at Raddukk, who is already doing so.

Sarkin knows that at least 3 are needed for the gun, so he cries out for a third to help him.

"That will mean waiting for Hunot then," says Niktar. "Wait, or get this thing working to fire? Are there shields, we may need them soon if we have to wait anyway."

"We have no shields," Sarkin yells. "Yes, let's get a third person over here; the engines can wait."

Back on the platform, Mr. Nikes groans and waves an arm feebly at the small amphibious semi-elemental, or does as well as he can considering his position. "Edward, get back here," he groans, probably too softly for the salamander to hear, but as his familiar it should probably make out the general gist.

Galdwan casts a quick Control/Fire spell and scoops up Edward. As Samas seems g to be fairly winded himself, help Nikes, Galdwan takes some of the weight, with a quick whispered, "You owe me." Then the three of them make a dash for the Kraken.

Hunot sinks to one knee. "Watch out, she's going to fire again!" he hollers to the group. "Fortunately, so am I." he adds as a warning. Drawing a deep breath, he sights and fires at an exposed head on the Silfarien.

His bolter spits lightning past the gryphon-carved prow, and an Elf drops, headless, to its decks. As he fires, Hunot's hair stands up on edge. Knowing what's coming, Hunot throws himself headlong to the right.

Once again, the Silfarien fires its main gun, smashing most of the platform into a cloud of splinters and flame. It misses Hunot, who rolls onto the dock by the Kraken with inches to spare. Samas and Mr. Nikes also barely roll onto the dock by Hunot. Galdwan and Edward, however, are pitched over the dock, and land in the churning water behind the Kraken. Edward lets out a "YEEEEP! YEEEP! YEEEEP!" and armadillo-jumps steaming, straight out of the water. He lands on Galdwan's head, and does the four-footed shuffle in the black man's soppy hair, trying to keep as unwet as possible.

The Apotheosis and Silfarien are now out into the main waterway. Picking up speed, the two frigates churn their way out into the main traffic lanes.

Sarkin cries out to Hunot. "Come, Hunot, help us charge the battery. Loki, can you hammer in a bullet?" Four is better than three, Sarkin thinks.

Loki, having not had much experience with guns apart from bolters, does his best to locate something that looks like a bullet. Assuming he does so, and assuming that such an object is indeed within his (considerable) weight capacity, Loki will lift it and slot it into the large tube, hopefully facing the correct way. Then he will see about getting it shut and locked or whatnot, and then stand well away in case it fails to work as expected.

"Give me a moment." Hunot says, boarding the Kraken, and shaking off the debris from the near hit. Kneeling to the deck, he wraps his bolter in his cloak. and pushes the cloak into a snug corner. Drawing a deep breath, he heads over to the battery. "This isn't a good idea." He says to no one in particular. "Nathi don't belong on boats. Especially ones about to sink."

Reekik continues to charge the engines, but reminds anyone who can hear and is not otherwise occupied that perhaps someone should cut the Kraken loose so that it is not just dead in the water.

Loki, having not much to do until the gun is charged and ready to be loaded, wanders over to the Kraken's moorings. He draws the great bastard sword Pen.

Niktar suddenly realizes what Loki is about to do. "Wait, Loki, don't cut the moorings! Use that rope over there instead to fish Galdwan out. Cut the moorings ONLY when everyone is on board, or we'll wind up leaving them behind."

Loki stops, resheathes Pen, and tosses Galdwan a rope. "Come on up, fellows. We're about to leave, you know. Healthy as swimming and clean exercise is, I think now is not the best time for it. Maybe you can do something about these magical doohickeys they're all fiddling with." With ease, he fishes Galdwan and Edward onboard, where they drip, Edward making irate hissing noises from whatever he can find that's dry.

Raddukk emerges from below. Taking in the scene, he realizes that Nikes is still on the dock, probably still a bit weakened from his superb spell casting. Raddukk will do his best to help his companion board the vessel.

"Thank you, Raddukk." For once, Mr. Nikes doesn't have the breath to say much else.

"My pleasure, friend," says Raddukk as he does his best to get Mr. Nikes aboard the ship with the others.

Sarkin looks at the human mages briefly while continuing to charge the gun. "Can you use your blood magic to propel this ship until the engines cut in? Wind, water, something?"

[As with all powered Nathi and Elven ships, as soon as the engines have magic or power applied, they are providing thrust. This is why the Kraken is straining against the moorings at the moment.]

[Do bear in mind that even though the Kraken is a smaller ship, you probably can't see the drive room from the upper stern decks, which is where all the rescued and wet ones are. The drive room is where both the engines and the gun are charged, and takes up the bulk of the rear of the ship. It is directly below the aft decks, and I'm going to have to make up a deck plan at some point, aren't I. Poo. Expect it when you see it. Oh, you need someone at the helm, or the Kraken is just going to go straight.]

The Apotheosis and Silfarien have both made the right-hand turn out into the main lane, and are headed out. The Kraken could easily catch them if it moves quickly. From what little you can see, you'd move out from your dock, make a right turn to follow the frigates, and then it's a few more turns and more or less a straight shot out to the outer docks and the open air. Oh, Reekik also finds a rough map saying pretty much the same thing in the drive room.

Once back aboard the Kraken, Raddukk looks around to see if everyone else is on board. Becoming sure of this, he tries to get his sea legs, as if he ever had any. He takes this brief respite to examine his bow. He recalls that it seemed less than perfect last time he fired. He tries to get it back into fighting trim, which he estimates will take a good couple hours of whatever it is that bowyers do to fix their bows.

Niktar shouts orders, realizing that it's already Obvious that they have stolen their ship back. "Get Loki to steer and navigate, Galdwan, when Loki is at the helm, cut the moorings. Give chase, we'll try to sink the Silfarien when we're charged."

Niktar asks Sarkin, "What's the range on this, and how experimental is it still?"

"Oh, not too experimental," Sarkin grunts out, still focusing on charging up the cannon. "The gun survived better than the ship during its first run, at least. It is the only one of its kind, though." Adjusting the power flow slightly, he continues, "If we can get the human mages to propel this ship with their power, then more Nathi can charge this thing up, which might dissuade others from coming too close."

From elsewhere on the Kraken comes Mr. Nikes's bitter laughing at this suggestion.

Reekik vaguely waves the map she found around and continues to charge the engines. Kiri and Samas join her.

Loki moves to take the helm, taking a few moments to examine the mechanism and assure himself that he knows more or less what all the moving parts do. If he sees something whose function is unclear, he will leave it alone until extreme situations call for extreme measures.

Galdwan slashes the ship free when Loki gets to the helm. The Kraken leaps forward gleefully, as if overjoyed to be back under the control of her makers. Loki then proceeds in a speedy and orderly fashion after the departing Elven ships, also endeavoring to not inadvertantly damage the controls, which are likely built for small, slender Nathi hands and not Loki's Triple-A Jumbo grip.

Galdwan turns his attention to healing Nikes because he's the one with the magic to move, and gives him a lecture on why you do not slash your wrists when casting, especially for so weak a spell.

Loki meanwhile brings the Kraken around in a graceful but speedy turn, which throws off balance those not holding onto anything. The Kraken, under the full charge of three Nathi, easily bears down on the Silfarien, and will probably bump her in the arse at the end of the next turn if nothing happens. The gun is about 2/3 charged, but with only two Nathi charging it, that's to be expected.

The Silfarien and Apotheosis move to opposite sides of the channel, so that they are not both in the firing line of the Kraken. The Kraken's current course will take it right between them, and there are some abrupt curves in the channels ahead, according to Reekik's chart.

Niktar says to Sarkin, "The Apotheosis has a firing range with their gun from forward to about 45 degrees from the front. The Silfarien should have a similar firing range. Likely at the speed they're at now they could turn to hit us anyway, but they don't seem to want to do that quite yet. Stay behind them, and not get too far between them. We want to be closer to the Silfarien. We'll try to hit her engine area, and stop her so she can't turn."

"If this gun is as powerful as you seem to think," puts in Kiri, "You'll not only go through the hull of the Silfarien, but any and all docks, people, and other ships that happen to be in a direct line in front of the ship. do we even know which frigate your girl's on anyway?"

Finished fussing with his bow, Raddukk is ready to help out. "From what I have seen of naval battles, the best shot is the one from the flank, that is if we could approach either vessel from its side we have a wider area to shoot at. But we certainly do not want to get in that dead zone between those two ships."

That having been said, Raddukk asks, "What can I do anywhere here to help?" He will do pretty much whatever anyone in the know directs him to do.

Sarkin gives the appropriate instructions to the appropriate people, shouting out orders to whoever seems in the proper place at the proper time. This consists of: "Raddukk, help us charge the gun! Galdwan, get down here and stand ready to hammer the shot! Nikes, get up to the bow and raise the muzzle cover!"

Raddukk, who was about to appropriately follow the the appropriate instructions, now moves to the gun and helps to charge it.

"Let Nikes rest, I think he needs it." says Niktar to Sarkin. "Galdwan, raise the muzzle cover and then get back here to hammer the shot."

Nikes therefore rests and prepares, if need be, to Swim, or perhaps to Die. Galdwan goes to the covered section of the prow, where he finds a porthole to the front, and a crank. He turns the crank, which raises a chain at the very front of the boat.

"Yeow!" At the helm, on Kraken's rudimentary aftcastle, Loki grips the wheel as the boat surges forward slightly. "This thing's steering is very sensitive. I suspect that it's something to do with the shape, but it may just be that I'm a little tired. That slows your reaction time considerably, you know," he comments to whoever is nearby, even if that statement only includes the wheel itself, "Why, after only about forty eight hours you are officially classified as delusional." The lecture on sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, and the effects thereof is, perhaps fortunately, whipped away in the wind of the Kraken's speed. The three ships round the last turn at slightly more than a safe speed. The Apotheosis in particular, slews into a small fishing boat, knocking it harshly against a dock, where it tips over. The Apotheosis continues on, having noticed this as much as a raging bull elephant would notice a fusilade of marshmallows.

As the Kraken comes within sight of the open sky, those in the drive room can now see the light through the barrel of the gun. Galdwan locks the crank in the open position, and returns to the drive room, where he picks up the shot. It is a metal bullet, about a handspan in diameter and two handspans long. Around the blunt end is a fine crystal tracery, which glows slightly in the proximity of the now fully-charged gun. Loki points the Kraken directly at the Silfarien, lining up a shot right down the keel.

At that moment, the Silfarien abruptly cuts power, and Loki can see for a brief moment the reverse churn it throws up by its sides. He soon has other matters to worry about.

"Yow!" he squawks, throwing the wheel hard to starboard, trying to avoid a collision with the Silfarien. The Kraken comes about to starboard, slewing slightly itself in the abrupt turn.

It is not fast enough, as the retrograde Silfarien catches it on the aft port side with a jolt that throws most everyone in the engine room off balance, and effectively stops the Kraken in the water. The Apotheosis slows, but does not stop completely, nor at the moment does it look likely to turn around.

"...the hells?" mutters Samas, picking himself up and unsheathing Refractus. "Damn elves must be suicidal!"

"They must be right alongside us," says Kiri, righting herself. "At least the gun is still charged." [note: And it will be, so long as one Nathi remains to maintain the charge.]

"How do the shields on those frigates work?" she asks, stopping and looking at Niktar. "Do we need to panic yet?"

"I can maintain the charge here," Sarkin says about the gun. "The rest of you, see what you can do to help change this situation."

Nikes speaks up, his voice still hoarse: "How fortunate that they have played into our hands. Somebody attach our ship to theirs, before they manage to hole ours. Then prepare to board." He drifts back to sleep.

Raddukk moves to Nikes' side. "Your assessment of the situation makes sense, my friend. Your logic is a good as your spell casting." His bow ready, Raddukk takes a position from which he can shoot, and give Nikes some protection. "Rest quickly, we will need you."

Niktar scurries up the ladder from the hold, clearly at home on the waters. He shouts to Loki, "Pull away from the Silfarien, and aim towards the Apotheosis! We'll try to shut 'er engines down..."

He remains at the top of the ladder, ready to shout orders down below on when to fire the BFG. Hopefully there is some cover from arrow-fire nearby.

Loki steers the Kraken away from the Silfarien, which, considering that the Kraken's engine is still churning, and it's much lighter than the Silfarien, is moderately easily done. The Silfarien tries to follow, but it is slower on the uptake, and does not quite make it back into contact with the Kraken.

The Apotheosis puts on an extra burst of speed, and points directly away from the Kraken, so as to show the minimum target.

Niktar waits until they are somewhat clear of the Silfarien - so that no one can cross and board them, and as soon as the Kraken is pointing at the Apotheosis he shouts "FIRE!" As he shouts, three figures leap from the aftcastle of the Silfarien onto the aft deck of the Kraken. One of them grapples onto Loki, and bears him over with his momentum. The other two, Human, land on the deck, tumble and roll, then get to their feet as fast as they can. They then sweep out cutlasses and daggers. One advances on Loki, the other tries to leap at Niktar.

In the engine room, Galdwan shoves the handspan-wide bullet into the breach, then seizes a mallet and drives the bullet deep into the barrel. With a booming THUMP, the bullet is out of the barrel at some respectable multiple if the speed of sound almost instantaneously. Leaving an incandescent trail, it strikes the Apotheosis almost dead center in the back, and doesn't even slow down, as the entire prow of the Apotheosis explodes in a shower of crystal, glass, and bone.

In a 3/4-mile direct line in front of the Kraken, the bullet continues through two support girders, eight docks, five fishing trawlers, two huge freighters, a dock hand named Jim Turpin, who was just finishing up a 14-hour night shift on the docks and was just going home to help his little daughter Allie celebrate her 8th birthday, and finally leaves a sizeable crater on the rock wall of the harbor.

...not necessarily in that order. Needless to say, there's suddenly a lot of screaming and panic, most of which you can't see. The sonic boom echoes back and forth across the harbor, then gently dies away.

The suction from the shot pulls Galdwan rather painfully against the wall over the breach, and he's gonna have a dinner plate-sized welt on his midriff for a while. The recoil, again, stops the Kraken dead in the water, and knocks everyone on board to the floor, except for Reekik and Sarkin, who knew it was coming.

The air about the sides of the Silfarien suddenly glows and shimmers, as the shields go up. It again tries to edge into side-by-side contact with the Kraken.

On the upper docks: "Legends bones onna stick! They're on board, get up here!" Niktar swears. He swings out his cutlass but dashes toward the helm instead of trying to clamber over the barrel of the BFG. He tears up the ladder to the aftcastle, in time to tread heavily on the back of the second assailant's back as he tries to get up off the deck. This one, being one of two attackers up here, slashes at Niktar's leg as the Nathi steps off him. Niktar turns to slice at him, coursing Power through the blade into him as he slices. The blade cuts deep into the man's back, and he slumps back to the deck.

Niktar meanwhile dashes for the helm. He grabs the wheel and hauls it about just in time to avoid the sinking remains of the Apotheosis, which the Kraken passes by close enough for five more people to make the ungainly leap from hulk to Kraken. They all land amidships, on the right side of the BFG.

The Silfarien, which is taking its happy time gaining speed, is still trying to pull aside the Kraken and set it aflame with its shields. Due to Niktar's maneuvering, it is not in as good a position to do so, though it is closer than it was a moment ago.

Not five feet from Niktar, Loki and his opponent wrestle about. Loki, whose wrestling techniques usually rely on being big and strong rather than actually having much knowledge of the art, attempts to fling his attacker away. After some grappling, he shoves the attacker away from him and comes to his feet, drawing out Pen as he does so. The two of them circle briefly, and then the attacker, a black haired man who rivals Loki in girth, if not height, pulls a long black stiletto from a sleeve. Charging in, he amazingly ducks under Pen's prodigious sweep, and stabs Loki in the region of the left kidney.

Loki roars in pain. Dropping Pen and falling to his knees, he flails blindly at his attacker, who, much to the attacker's own surprise and discomfort, bursts into flame. The attacker screams in pain and panic, and and hurls himself overboard, leaving his stiletto still in Loki's side. He lands with a splash and a hiss amidst the survivors of the Apotheosis, seriously concussing one of them.

Loki takes the opportunity to bleed heavily.

Down in the engine room:
Reekik stands up, and helps Kiri off the floor. "Sorry about that, I suppose I should have warned you about the kick. Remind me to tell the designers that we need more handles and some padding. Unfortunately the only way to dampen the reaction would double the size of the ship and has a nasty tendency to explode."

Kiri grunts.

Raddukk gets to his feet as best he can. Seeing the boat had been boarded, he grabs his bow and quiver. He covers the distance between the engine room and the right entrance to the middle decks in five great strides, an arrow already nocked.

Hunot picks himself up from the shock, giving some candid opinions on the captaining of the ship as well as boats in general. He moves over and grabs his bolter and begins to charge it. He addresses the other members, "Well, that's torn it. Somebody go in front of me and let me get a clear shot." He motions to the deck, and covers/follows whomever leaves.

Reekik stares at Hunot for a bit, "Fight? In front, as in cover? I believe you have mistaken me for someone else. Perhaps it would be better for some of us to head to the armory and see if they ransacked everything, this is just not my area of expertise." Reekik will wait for other opinions, but being a meatshield is not in the top ten of her bright ideas.

Hunot stares at Reekik again. "Who are you again? Yes, fight. Whatever you do when you get boarded." He sighs ruefully, and motions to the sword over his back, "Can you use one of these?" He motions to a dagger strapped to his leg, "Or one of those?" He begins wrapping his bolter in somewhat soggy blanket as he talks, taking care to not obstruct the end.

Samas also starts to scramble for his weapons, but Kiri growls at him. "We are the only two people on the engine," she hisses at him. "If you leave, we're dead in the water, because I certainly can't do this by myself..."

Samas gapes at her. "But..." then subsides. Then inspiration hits. "Reekik! You can take my place at the engine and I'll go with Hunot!

Nikes gets up, smacking his lips a bit. "If I were them... and this is just a thing, you know... I'd leave the armory guarded, or at the very least crudely trapped. Best place to blow the ship up from, an armory." He wobbles over to sit against the wall. "And please warn before firing that gun again. My ears will be ringing for weeks."

Sarkin and Reekik go off to find the armory, in the holds. The route to the holds does not take them abovedecks at all, so we'll deal with them in a couple paragraphs. Hunot meanwhile follows after Raddukk, charging his padded bolter.

The first target Raddukk sees is the man that Niktar chose to ignore. He sees Raddukk and ducks, so that the first arrow misses, riccocheting instead off the barrel of the BFG and sailing over the prow. The attacker draws his cutlass and charges in. Raddukk barely manages to get Randarak out in time to parry the blow, but his fast and vicious counterattack beats the attacker back, the glowing crystal sword like a living extension of Raddukk's arm.

Unfortunately, that's when the five people from the Apotheosis, all of them Elves, land gracefully on the deck behind the attacker. With great poise and beauty of motion, five swords come out of their scabbards. Raddukk retreats to the doorway. With somewhat less decorum, the original attacker grins, gap-toothed at Raddukk, and rushes in again.

That's when Hunot arrives behind Raddukk, and with a barely aimed bolter-shot, rids the attacker of many things, including among other things, his chest. The remaining bits slide to a stop at Raddukk's feet.

Sarkin and Reekik take a ladder down to the belly of the ship. Long, low, and somewhat narrow, the hold is filled with all sorts of packaged foods, casks. ropes, tools, sailcloth, places for hammocks, and finally, halfway down the ship, a large rack. This rack contains various spears, a halberd or two, several hooks, three cutlasses, a ranseur, and a couple standard military issue round shields. A chest nearby contains a lot of daggers, and both Sarkin and Reekik's crystalworking kits.

The Kraken glides past the Apotheosis, coming into the center of the channel, morning skies within a few seconds. The Silfarien drops back slightly and drops its shields. The prow emitter begins to glow.

Any Nathi currently holding the Power feels someone nearby, probably off to the right of the Kraken some distance, dropping a series of pulses.

Hunot, kneeling behind Raddukk in the aft door out onto Kraken's middle decks, pulls out his sword, and continues to charge his bolter. Raddukk asides to Hunot, "Three for me and two for you. Or shall we just meet in the middle?"

Down in the holds, Sarkin grabs a shield and a cutlass and runs back up to the deck. Reekik also grabs a cutlass and shield. and trails with slightly less enthusiasm after Sarkin. Taking the route through the prow sections, they emerge onto the middle decks at the Elves' backs. Both of them suffuse their weapons with Power, and fall upon the hindmost of the Elves facing down Raddukk and Hunot.

The Elf parries Sarkin's slash with an almost offhand over-the-back swipe of his sword. The two blades flash red as they meet, and the Elf whirls to face them, drawing another sword. With his two blades whipping around in a crazy metallic dance, the Elf gives a feral grin and advances on them. It is all Sarkin and Reekik can do to keep the whipping swordpoints out of their armpits, and the Elf easily forces them back to the door.

At Sarkin and Reekik's attack, the remaining four Elves break their stance, and rush at Raddukk and Hunot. The crystal sword Randarak blazing red and smoking old blood, Raddukk meets them halfway.

With a lucky stroke, Raddukk cleaves through the first Elf's blade, and then easily passes the Elf's defences to cut out his throat. The first Elf falls, gurgling. The second meets Raddukk's blow, and forces him back while the third circles around to flank.

Hunot fires a snap shot with his bolter, searing the forearm of the flanking elf, who falls back nursing his wound. "I'm doing pretty well back here." He crouches down recharging his bolter, draws a dagger from his right leg and throws it, narrowly missing the Elf facing Sarkin and Reekik.

Up on the aftcastle, Loki draws the stiletto free from his side, and almost passes out from the pain. He fumbles about trying to remember what Blankenshire wrote about first aid in "The Efsential First Aide For Ye Wary Adfenturer", but both his mind and his grip have gone somewhat rubbery. His grasp on reality starts to fade, and the treatise on the near afterlife by the Stoning Monks of Ramphet comes into his mind with perfect clarity.

Coincidentally, Galdwan, after peeling himself from the gun, has rushed to the middle decks of the Kraken. Looking up, he sees Loki, who mumbles emphatically at him. Nimbly avoiding the combat in the middle decks (meaning he ran back into the aft sections and went around the other side,) he rushes up the ladder to the aftcastle and to Loki's side. Using the blood already outside of Loki to magically close the wound, he begins his spellcasting. More on that later, as this will take a while. Loki, meanwhile, enters a vision of the Tunnel Of Rapturous Light, and incidentally, continues to bleed a lot.

Not ten feet from this tableau of mortality, Niktar remains at the helm. The immediate disaster of colliding with the Apotheosis averted, he draws his bolter and begins to charge it. "Full speed ahead!" he screams to whoever is still on the engines. He steers the Kraken around out of this small channel and around the lip, hiding her from the Silfarien if he can.

The Kraken passes out into open waters and the gloom of a westward-facing harbor in the early morning. As it does so, three more figures leap from above onto Kraken's aftcastle, and land heavily right behind Niktar. Fortunately, the mass of supports and the like temporarily hides the Kraken from the Silfarien.

Out in front of the city, the Fingers, the huge outstretching docks, fade into the distance, studded with ships, docks, boathouses, and even the occasional warehouse. It looks like a clear shot out to the ocean from here, other than the huge merchantman bearing down on the area, about a minute's sail away.

To the right, the great stone wall of the natural harbor curves around and forward, easily equal to the height of the city. The nearest Finger in this direction is about two hundred meters. To the left, the nearest Finger is about a hundred meters away, and its branching subdocks reach out almost in front of the Kraken. The Kraken has about a minute's travel at this speed before it gets there.

Raddukk continues to battle the elf in front of him, jeering at him such witticisms as, "You call that fighting? My grandmother is better with a sword, and she's been dead for ten years."

The Elf does not dignify this with a response. The two of them trade blows, neither really moving to the limit of their skill. It seems like Raddukk is trying harder than the Elf though. The second Elf circles around between Raddukk and the BFG, and the two Elves force Raddukk back into the doorway.

In the midst of all this carnage and chaos, Raddukk has a lucid thought. "Where's my buddy Nikes? I thought I helped him aboard. I sure hope I did. And, if, if, if, I did, i placed him on this deck with me. Think he was right over there somewhere . . ." but Raddukk is too busy to turn his head, locked in mortal combat as his is with this here tough elf.

As he continues to trade sword blows with the aforementioned elf, Raddukk says as loudly as he can. "You are lucky, you ugly elf. If MY BUDDY NIKES were here, he'd have just the right spell to send you and all your kind, or at least some of your kind to some other place, away from here."

Nikes staggers upward, drawing his sword and staggering up behind Raddukk and Hunot in the doorway. With a reasonably staggering display of skill, the two of them force the Elves back from the doorway.

"Nice sword," Raddukk says. "Glad you could make it," he quips. "Now let's get rid of these pesky elves." The two of them, an Elf apiece, trade blows in a flurry of flashing blades.

The two Elves glance at each other. One of them grins. Hunot whistles tunelessly as his bolter charges. Both Elves suddenly press the attack harder than they had previously. Raddukk is thrown back against the wall, where, due to instincts borne of panic, only takes a scratch down the outside of his sword-arm. Mr. Nikes is forced back into the doorway almost at a backwards run. Edward squawks, and leaps to the ceiling as Nikes stumbles headlong backwards over Hunot, to fall on his back with a crash.

Hunot brings up his bolter at the Elf. The Elf has enough time to blink, then throw himself to the side, before Hunot's point-blank shot deprives the Elf of most of his left shoulder and a good bit of his ribcage. Needless to say, this Elf falls over without ceremony. Mr. Nikes lays where he is for the moment, bleeding from two somewhat deep cuts on his chest, in the shapes of the elf letters 'G' and 'K'.

Raddukk, in his attempts to avoid the Elf on him, rolls and dashes, ending up down the deck, near to Sarkin.

Sarkin continues to attack the Elf in front of him, as Reekik moves around to flank. Both Nathi swords are infused with power, and as the Elf's two blades dance around them, they emit red sparks with each crash.

This Elf smiles too, and lashes out with a double blow down onto Sarkin's sword, which shatters halfway down the blade and flies hard out of Sarkin's hand. almost immediately, the Elf's left-hand blade stabs in and out of Sarkin's left shoulder. Sarkin drops to the ground and attempts to grab the Elf's foot, and gets kicked hard in the side of the head for his troubles.

The Elf then turns to Reekik with a wide grin, both his blades doing a flashy little dance all about her.

"Erp!" is Reekik's comment on the new state of affairs, as the Elf forces her back hard against the wall next to the door she originally came out of. The Elf then catches her blade with both of his, forcing it high above her head. Then he kicks her hard in the stomach. She involuntarily drops her sword and doubles over. The Elf brings down the pommels of both swords hard between her shoulder blades, which drops her to the deck like a stone.

The Elf dances backwards out of the way, facing Raddukk with bared teeth. He sheathes his left-hand blade and fumbles in a belt-pouch, finally drawing out a length of fine chain, which writhes about his hand.

Up on the aftcastle, and with a wonderful view of this all, Loki watches his life flash before his eyes instead. It looks like the index of a public library. There is a buzzing in his ears. Alas, what fools these mortal bees.

Galdwan, continues to work his magic, until Loki is wreathed in the greasy smoke of so much of his blood powering the healing spell. Finally, Galdwan lays Loki gently down on his back, the wound closed, and most of the blood on his clothes burned away.

Galdwan then takes up his sword and shield and stands up to help Niktar with the three new challenges.

Niktar, having heard that people just landed heavily behind him, holds the helm steady, but turns so that he can see behind him, pointing his charged bolter at the closest one.

"Ack!" yelps this one, dropping to a knee and holding up her hands in front of him. She looks to be in her mid to late 20s, is almost as tall as Niktar, or would be, if she were standing, thin, and wearing an immaculate Nathi navy officer's uniform.

"Nik! It's me, don't shoot! Remember me, Ilena, from basic? Your old bud?" She grins impishly at Niktar and stands up. "We felt this ship charging up and came as fast as we can. "This is my pal Roksan," she indicates a younger, dour-faced Nathi with a 5'10" tanklike build, who merely nods. "And you know Captain Craiddags."

Craiddags looks definitely worse for the wear. His uniform is in shreds, and he bears the evidence of a bunch of fresh wounds and bandages. "Good to see you alive," he says with a grim smile. "They butchered us soon as we docked. You lot need any help?"

Ilena draws her cutlass with a flourish, her eyes shining with laughter. "Yeah, we found the captain and figured we'd bail you out. Have you any idea how much power this ship of yours bleeds out? We could feel you a mile off!"

Behind the Kraken, the Silfarien darts out from within the inner docks, its prow crystal glowing bright blue. Its speed is such that it zips past the Kraken, then slows, trying to come about to get the Kraken in a firing arc, but without ramming into a dock itself. It should take about a minute before it can do this. Meanwhile, the Kraken is travelling vaguely parallel with the city, heading towards the leftward Finger dock. The merchantman continues to sail towards them, but seems more to be angling for the Silfarien.

Sarkin, charging his body up with as much power as he can muster, grabs at the ankles of the elf that attacked him before, hoping to char him into nothingness.

Reekik not thinking all that clearly and seeing something that probably haunts the deepest darkest nightmares of a Nathi does the first thing that comes to mind which is roll away from the Elf and the evil scary chains. She'll get back near the door and try and get her breath back before making any other hasty movements.

Immense relief shows on Niktar's face and he swings back around to the fight to the fore, bringing his bolter around, shouting "GET THE ONE WITH THE CHAINS!!! OVERBOARD!!! BY SARKIN!!" He leaves the helm, and steadies himself to take aim at the Elf with the chains. He fires his bolter, and immediately recharges it for another shot. His shot sizzles past the Elf holding the chain. Though he misses, the Elf has to duck, and can do little more at the moment than to step heavily on Sarkin's hand with his boot heel. The Power that Sarkin had been storing to feed into the Elf has to be rechannelled into his hand to keep it from being crushed.

As Niktar recharges his bolter, he says to Ilena and the others nearby, very quickly in one breath: "I have no idea how leaky it is. It was built by friggin' engineers. Capt. Craiddags, would you take the helm? We haven't enough people to charge and arm the ship again but when we can, we'll take the Silfy down in one shot. Keep her out of blast range, she turns wider than the Apotheosis. Looks like that merchanter might be on our side." After the shot, he takes a breath. "Good to see you both."

"Aye, can do that," growls Craiddags. He steps up to take Niktar's place, and eyes the Silfarien warily.

Roksan draws a heavy blade, more of a cleaver than a sword of any recognizable kind, and hops down to the top of the rising dome of the gun barrel.

Loki, pain and near-death serving to focus him for once in his life, sits up with very good intentions, gets very light-headed, and blinks a lot. He picks up Pen, and then, very carefully, lays back down. Maybe he can try that again in a couple minutes. Extreme recent blood loss is not a happy thing.

Keeping an eye on the melee on deck, Hunot tries to turn over Mr. Nikes with his free hand. "C'mon, get up," he says, about as unkindly as he can. "Raddukk needs help. That elf with the chain is a real fighter. Going to cut up Raddukk unless I can help. Keep that one," he points to the nearest elf, "busy so he can't get to me or Raddukk. I'll hit the chained one in a couple seconds and then it'll be three on one. Crouching again, Hunot pulls dagger from his thigh sheath. Flipping it up into his hand, he waits for an opening. Mr. Nikes just lays there for a moment, panting.

The Kraken slows noticeably at this point.

Galdwan unstoppers his bottle, does the appropriate bloody-handed genuflections, and starts to chant. The Elf by Sarkin, instead of delivering the killing blow, backs away, shouting something in Elvish.

The other remaining Elf starts to chant and motion with his one hand, while keeping his sword facing Raddukk. Galdwan finds that suddenly he cannot continue his spell, and he stops, blinking and momentarily bewildered. The Elf with the chain, however, is leaning against the side of the ship, clutching a face that is half burned black.

This of course, gives Raddukk a perfect opportunity to fire an arrow at the Elf who cast the spell, at almost point-blank range. Against all odds, the Elf splits the point-blank shaft with his sword. Almost immediately, Roksan leaps from the top of the BFG onto the Elf's back. The Elf spins around, throwing Roksan hard against the BFG. With a twist, the Elf yanks his sword out of Roksan's shoulder, where it somehow had gotten lodged. Roksan screams and falls back, then over.

Kiri comes running up behind Hunot and over Nikes. "RADDUKK!" she screams. "I need you down in the engine room NOW!" Then, seeing the chaos on deck, "Oh my god..."

Ilena, standing next to Niktar, gapes. "Those Elves...they've got to be Awakened," she says softly. "Nik, what the hell kinda mission are you on, anyway?"

Sarkin meanwhile, grapples at the blackened Elf's leg again. This time, he grabs the elf around the left shin, and feeds in all the Power he can. The Elf screams, mastering himself almost immediately. He throws the chain into the middle of the deck, shouting "Gawaedh!" as he does so. Then, he knees Sarkin in the head with his free leg, raises his sword to strike Sarkin's unprotected back, and then falls as his now smoking leg fails him.

The chain comes alive as it lands on the deck. It coils, raising one end like a serpent. Then, surprisingly quickly, it slithers along the deck, taking a roundabout path towards the nearest Nathi, which in this case is an even split between Reekik and Raddukk. at the last moment, it angles around to the right, and advances, hell-bent on reaching Reekik before she can get to the forward door down into the lower decks. It's about seven feet from her by the end of this paragraph.

Raddukk, his bolter finally charged, sights and takes the only clear shot he has. With a flash and a crack, he shoots at the Elf Raddukk was facing. The Elf, seemingly warned by a sixth sense, aborts his attack on the Nathi, and leaps backwards over Roksan's writhing form. The Elf is not fast enough to avoid Hunot's shot, and loses most of his left arm from the elbow with an incandescent splat.

"Raddukk, I need you here!" Kiri calls again from behind Hunot.

Meanwhile out on the water, the merchantman turns suddenly away from the Kraken. Instead, it faces down the Silfarien, just as the Silfarien's bolter crystal was glowing brightly enough that a shot was inevitable. A collision between freighter and frigate looks inevitable. It is only now that the name "Heffalump" can be read, painted in big black letters across the freighter's prow.

To everyone's surprise, the side of the freighter facing the Silfarien flares suddenly as a warship-grade shield bursts into life. The Silfarien comes hard about, activating its own shield as the two ships broadside each other. The air is filled with the sound like a thousand fireflies dying in an industrial-sized bug-zapper.

The freigter is now directly between the Kraken and Silfarien, and, since it is roughly half again as high as the frigate, blocks it from view. Someone on the freighter's deck waves at the Kraken, then gestures furiously out towards open sea.

Hunot blinks with disbelief at the results of his shot. "Get up. Now." Hunot says to Nikes without taking his eyes off the fighting on deck. "These things are good and we need help." Hunot again drops to one knee to charge his bolter, picking up his dagger and eyeing for openings.

Raddukk glances at Kiri, then at tha chain snaking its way towards Reekik. With his sword he hacks at it. Neither Elf offers any resistance to this, as one is bleeding heavily and turning white, and the other is occupied by Sarkin.. On Raddukk's first hack at the chain, it wraps up around the blade, and starts to spiral upwards towards Raddukk's hand. He has about a third of a second to react.

Raddukk tries to fling the chain off the sword blade, >in the direction of the water. The chain sails over the side of the Kraken, makes a "whap" noise as it hits the water, and sinks.

Sarkin, feeling injured, spares a moment to channel his energy in such a way as so to heal himself.

Up on the aftcastle, Niktar makes an aside to Ilena. "Oh yeah, we have no shields," he says in a tone of voice that suggests that engineers are idiots. "Mission? Trying to save a frickin daughter of a frickin' general, captured by Sir Orren, yes you heard me right." Niktar takes a shot at the Elf who cast the spell, which is the one bleeding heavily and turning white.

His shot hits the Elf square in the back. The Elf staggers, turning on his heel as he does so. He looks Niktar in the eye, and raises his truncated left arm in salute. Then, with a wide smile of triumph, he falls over and bleeds the rest of his life out onto the deck.

"Are there more down there, Kiri?" calls Niktar.

"No," Kiri calls back up with an annoyed and put-upon expression. "I need at least Raddukk down here thirty seconds ago though, plus anyone else who wants to hear, and with me up here, there's just Samas on the engine."

Raddukk moves with haste towards Kiri, muttering, "Thirty seconds ago i would have brought an unwelcomed friend." He and Kiri disappear belowdecks.

Follow Raddukk...

Niktar mutters, "Bugger." Then he shouts, "If one of you with a soul taker wants to get the crispy one by Sarkin before he outright dies..."

The remaining Elf gapes at Niktar, jerking to his feet in a panic. Sarkin lunges at him, but misses the Elf's foot by an inch. The Elf scrabbles at the top of the seaward wall. Sarkin lunges at him again, and catches the Elf by the ankle, feeding enough power into the Elf to immediately char through his boot. The Elf screams and kicks, eventually tearing his foot out of Sarkin's grasp, and toppling over the side of the Kraken into the water.

Meanwhile, there is a loud crack as the Silfarien apparently discharges its gun into the side of the Heffalump. The Heffalump takes it on the shield, but the Silfarien uses the distraction to pull forward, out of contact. As the Heffalump tries to come about, the smaller frigate lurches forward, and starts to build up speed to get the heck out of the harbor as soon as it possibly can. As it passes out from behind the Heffalump, many small plumes of smoke are visible rising from its deck.

Feeling spent and exhausted, Sarkin attempts to faint. However, he is not quite able to do that, and so instead rolls over to his back and lays, facing the sky, panting, attempting to catch his breath. After a few moments, satisfied that no more elves are around, he'll get up and find something to use as a bandage for his stab wound, and then afterwards will look for others who might be injured. Aside from his own bleeding shoulder wound, he sees that the newcomer that he hasn't found it is named Roksan is the most seriously injured.

Hunot stashes his cloth-wrapped bolter in a convenient corner and heads over to Roksan. "That was a good try," he says, "they're just too good. Sit still for a second." He cuts a few piece of cloth from Roksan's lower legs. "Last time I met up with those things," he says, pressing the bandages into the wound, "I shot them from a lot longer range." Hunot finishes pressing the bandages in. "Can you walk? The floor here is probably not the best place for you to be right now."

"I c'n walk okay," mutters Roksan, "It's my arm that's not gonna be up to speed 'nytime soon." He sits up with a wince, then actually looks at Hunot for the first time. "Hey! You're th' guy who took out an Elf in mid-leap at three hundr'd paces back in the last push against th' Angdain tower!"

Hunot's face is suddenly suffused with pride. "Yeah, that was me. Glad someone noticed. I've been roasting elves for the past couple days and these people haven't noticed." He shrugs. "Eh, what can you do." "Better get inside and get in a safe place. It's probably going to get rough. When this is done, maybe we can swap some stories, eh? I didn't get to see the main attack go off, I was too busy hunting. There was this sneaky little bowman who.... Well, that's for later. Back to work." Hunot heads back over to his bolter and ponders the effects of a metal skeleton on one's ability to swim.

Raddukk returns to the decks, fire in his eyes. "Gather round everyone," he commands in a voice that means it. He seems oblivious to anything around him, almost stunned. Kiri comes up behind him, murder in her eyes.

"I just had a 'talk' with Ferica. Those elves do have her. I heard what I believe to be Ferica's voice, as clear as if she was standing next to me." Seems she's on the Silfarien after all, and Sir Orren is behind the whole thing."

He waves his arms about wildly in frustration. "They made it simple for us. Get lost or they will kill Ferica and everyone else they have."

"I don't believe Orren will kill Ferica," says Kiri, her voice thick with anger. "He's too sick for that. I heard it too though, and so did Samas."

At this point Raddukk spits in the general direction of the Silfarien. "So, the way I see it, we have no choice. Because Ferica is dead whatever we do." He looks off in the distance, and raised his sword to the sky. "She is no good to them dead. We can keep chasing forever, and ever So, I say we attack the mothers. Cause I'd rather she go down our way than theirs. And we can make them pay!"

"How many others do they have, Raddukk?" Niktar asks.

"There was no way for me to tell. I did hear sneering voices in the background. Ferica seemed very frightened." Raddukk answers. "But if we let them go now, we will likely never get this close to them again. If we could, we would have done so already. We'd best act wisely, quickly, and decisively."

"If we're chasing, can we have someone else on the engines?" asks Kiri. "Two's not enough for any sort of speed."

Reekik gets up and staggers down to the engine room. "Thank you," says Kiri crossly. "I'm Kiri Dunbar, by the way. Pleased to meet you."

Nikes speaks. "They have but a single hostage. Their mistake. We have them outgunned, if they are to the point where they would debate killing her. Thus, I propose we offer them amnesty... offer the elves a clean death, the humans a long if somewhat boring life. If that fails, we rush them, trying to take the Nathi hostage into one of our soultakers. If we can capture her thus, they can't kill her, even if they capture the soultaker, unless they have a traitorous Nathi. In any event, it makes things easier for us. We kill them all, we have our hostage and the ships, and we head for your home victorious, and I get to study some interesting Nathi magic. A pleasant ending all around."

Sarkin, moves to help Roksan at about the same time Galdwan does. As he makes his way across the deck, he impatiently barks at any Nathi that he passes, saying that the engines need to be manned if we're to get out of this mess alive. He specifically tells Ilena, "I will help your friend; get down in the engine room and help us."

Niktar interrupts. "No, Sarkin, we need you on the gun. Galdwan, if you would help out Ilena with Roksan, please, before refilling your bottles."

Galdwan goes to Roksan, and starts to chant over the Nathi's wounded shoulder, as Hunot's first aid stopped the bleeding, but little more.

By this time Raddukk is fully incensed. "The cheek of those bastards! Thinking I would just go away." He is barely aware of anyone speaking. "Let's get this tub moving."

Niktar continues to the others. "We have precious little time. I'm inclined to agree. Raddukk help power up the engines, Hunot and Samas please help Sarkin with the gun. Nikes I need you to stand by to semaphore with the merchanter. Are you feeling up for magic?" He doesn't even pause at this, just watches for Nikes' nod or shake of his head. "Capt. Craiddags, when we have power, swing her around behind the Silfy, but do NOT put the merchanter directly behind her. Ilena, I need your tactics. I'm inclined to try to take the Silfarien. What do you say?"

"Engines?" barks Raddukk, Yes, engines. I'll get 'em going. I'll get those babies going like they've never gone before." He storms downstairs, but his voice can be heard clearly. "Tell me to back off, will they. Hold that young girl hostage will they. I did not come this far to turn back..." on and on his voice goes, till it is lost in the depths of the ship.

Niktar calmly, while the others head down to the engines and gun, walks over to the side of the ship, charging his bolter to full. He takes aim, and shoots the Elf in the water. The bolter-shot spatters of the Elf's form, which stops moving. Niktar then returns to the helm.

Loki, having settled with his books almost directly after waking up, turns a final page with a frown. Several tomes lie stacked around him, some with markers in multiple places. He stands and wanders over to Niktar, politely waiting until orders are finished and Niktar has paused for breath.

"I don't know how much help it might be, but I've been checking my facts on the Elven Awakened. According to the most recent surveys and studies, about one sixth of all Elves are Awakened, but only a tenth of that sixth, which makes it one-sixtieth of all Elves, are Awakened Warriors, like the ones we've just fought here. They are pretty rare, in other words. What I'm trying to say, really, which isn't coming out too well because I've been reading some very disturbing things about what these Awakened Warriors can do, things like slaying over forty hardened warriors singlehandedly, or being protected by a sixth sense that warns them of danger, no matter how clever the ambush, but what I'm trying to say is that I think we've been upgraded from Tactical Retrieval Squad to Bigger Fish that Elves Want to Fry. I think we're in trouble, sir."

Down below, Samas, Kiri, and Raddukk sit down and charge up the engines. The Kraken's speed increases noticeably. Meanwhile, the Silfarien has pulled out away from the merchanter, which has barely managed to come about by a quarter turn. The Silfarien makes a straight line towards open sea, accellerating fast. Those with good eyes estimate about a half mile yet before it's clear, and the Kraken is actually starting to gain.

Reekik, Hunot, and Sarkin start to charge up the gun. As soon as they start doing that, though no glow is visible from the Kraken, the Silfarien cuts speed drastically. Without warning, it turns hard to port, cutting directly across the Kraken's path.

"Hoy!" shouts Craiddaigs, as he cranks the wheel hard to starboard, narrowly avoiding a collision. "Someone wants to play, do they?" The Silfarien passes close enough to the Kraken that those on the top deck can clearly see figures gesticulating and genuflecting at them.

Loki examines his harbor maps for anything they could use to outsmart them. Poring over maps and charts, cross-referencing and suchlike, his brow wrinkles in concentration.

Niktar says, "Swing 'er around Captain, we'll fire at them unless Ilena has other ideas. Nikes - can you... magically somehow project a message to them, like they did with us?"

Nikes looks intent, but says nothing for the moment.

Ilena thinks for a moment. "No. My suggestion would be to power down the gun and turn back to the harbor. Let them think they won and let them get to open water. From what I saw we can outrun them and even if we can't this gun looks like it could hit them over the horizon. Firing into either side of the harbor strikes me as a bad idea. They'll keep in the harbor and call our bluff if we threaten them now. Semaphore the freighter to back down too. Once they are in open water, we have some options."

"In the meantime, let's get behind the Heffalump's shield so we aren't sitting ducks. Hopefully they will head straight for open water. If not.." She smiles. "If not, then we can work with that too."

"We have a few things working for us. One, they just tried to bargain. Two, they haven't fired any spells at us - which is unusual. I think they're not sure of this, and maybe even scared. Trouble with getting behind the Heffalump is we can't fire if we need to. I think the best plan would be to swing us around so we point at them, tell them at the same time that we will power down the gun and let them go if they let the girl go in a skiff unharmed.

Then we let them go, as Ilena suggests, pick up the girl, and then chase and sink 'em." Niktar watches Ilena for her reaction to his revised plan. "I think if we charge down the gun before they set the girl free we show that she's worth more to us than I'd like them to think."

Ilena drops her smile and speaks quickly. "Only do that if you don't mind blowing up the girl and another chunk of the harbor if they don't buy it. And you better be pretty damn sure you won't miss because they won't let us try again. Orren sounds like he views the girl as his only ticket out. I doubt he'd trust us to let him go without her any more than we'd trust him to drop her off on shore in return for letting him out of the harbor."

Ilena's grin starts to creep back, although there is no humor in it. "Better decide fast, Nic. If they start coming to bear on us there won't be any choices to make."

Niktar rocks back on his heels, his eyes squinting at the Silfarien as if trying to perceive Orren's thoughts. "Power down the gun and cut speed to 1/3." he orders. "Captain, bring us about to follow them, force them toward open water if we can but stay out of striking range of their gun if possible. Nikes, I seem to recall vaguely from somewhere in training that what I asked is in fact possible. If you need help from Galdwan, then fine, but I want you to get me talking to them."

Loki looks up excitedly, his fingers marking spots in a book and on three different charts. Then, [on a critical success for Awareness, I might add], he notices Nikes start to cast, and figures this might be one time where speech is inadvisable.

Nikes grunts, then stands. Making grandiose gestures, he chants together a fetching montage of Fire, Air, and Spirit. Amidst the smoke of dissolving blood, he stretches out his arm towards the Silfarien. Still chanting, he nods at Niktar.

Niktar speaks thus, loud and clearly: "Let the girl go unharmed on a skiff, we will keep our gun powered down and let you go on your way. If you do this, you should be able to reach open waters in the time we take to pick her up. If she is harmed, we will hunt you down no matter how long it takes."

The tension is palpable as he waits for any word from those below as to the Elves' response. Meanwhile, Sarkin can be heard relaying commands down in the engine room, and the Kraken slows, powering down the gun.

Craiddaigs brings the prow about, pointing directly at the Silfarien, as the larger frigate straightens out, turning around starboard to face directly out to sea. It then turns, so that it is presenting its aft right corner to the Kraken, and slows down.

The Heffalump has come about by now, the merchanter is frantically skulling up behind the much much smaller Kraken.

Then, from a point to the right of Niktar's face, the reply finally comes. "I am His Majesty's champion, Sir Orren." It is a rich, arrogant voice. If voices had faces, this one would would have an impeccably oiled mustache. "The girl is mine. You lot can get stuffed."

Down in the engine room, suddenly the air is rent by a girl's screaming. Full of terror and perhaps even pain, it just goes on and on...

In the Silfarien, several figures are vaguely seen, suddenly throwing their arms outstretched open towards the Kraken. A whirlpool, indicative of a roaring whirlwind at least half as wide as the Kraken is long, detaches from the Silfarien and moves with surprising speed towards the Kraken. It'll most likely hit in about five seconds. Meanwhile, the Silfarien accelerates again, pulling away, out towards open water.

Ilena takes a split-second glance at Niktar, then starts shouting rapid orders: "Engine room, full speed ahead. Capt. Craiddaigs, aim for the receding edge of the pool unless you can avoid it entirely. Try to ride the eddy around and out of the pool. Mr. ... Nipes?" She gives Mr. Nikes a quick quizzical glance, guessing that she didn't hear the name correctly, before looking back to the onrushing torrent. "If you can, try to smooth our path. And everyone, BRACE YOURSELVES!"

Down in the engine room, at the words "full speed ahead," Hunot moves from the BFG over to the engine. After the cry of "brace yourself," he lunges the rest of the way, looking for something to grab. He makes it to the rail at the engine charging station, and hangs on for dear life.

"Three-quarter speed!" Niktar interjects up above. "Unless you want to ram them."

Down below, Sarkin can be heard relaying the orders.

As Ilena speaks she crouches down on one knee, grabs the side of the helm's railing as close to the deck as possible, and holds on tight, watching as the waters approach.

The whirlpool hits the Kraken, but because of Craiddaigs' best efforts on the wheel, the Kraken enters the whirlpool along the trailing edge. Instead of being spun about and sucked into the water, the rushing winds and the whirlpool grab the Kraken and fling it around in a very tight hairpin turn, before the Kraken's considerable speed carries it out of the danger area. However, it is now heading more or less straight at the Heffalump.

On the top deck, Ilena stands firm, barely moving as the ship is whipped about. Galdwan likewise merely blinks, glancing at Nikes, who is presumed to shrug. Loki and Niktar lose their grip and slide across the deck in a painful tangle. Loki catches the top of the ladder to the middle decks in the gut, and they both tumble eight feet to the decks below, on the other side of the BFG from the recent fighting.

Hunot and Samas both lose their grips on the gun and the engine, and are thrown against the left wall of the engine room, all of them taking some painful bruises. In particular, Hunot feels like one of the cuts on his back has partially reopened.

The whirlpool and whirlwind continues past the Kraken, and engulf the Heffalump. The large merchanter weathers the storm remarkably well, and the spell suddenly ends, amidst a surge of Power from the Nathi onboard.

The Silfarien, meanwhile, picks up speed, and pulls away.

Niktar picks himself up from where he landed, in the middle decks next to the entrance down to the engine room, and on top of Loki. "Or..." he mutters, as he lies in a bruised lump. "I'll be down sooner..." A second passes while he recovers his breath and then he gets his determination back and heads the rest of the way down below, relaying the information he meant to say to Ilena before.

Up on the command deck, next to Craiddaigs, Ilena says "Um... Right..." as Niktar hands over command. She then rallies and calls out so she can be heard in the engine room, "Engines, slow to quarter speed! Craiddaigs, let's keep about to this heading, but move off a collision course with the freighter keeping it to port. Are there any injuries!? What's going on down there!? And could someone who knows how this ship is built come up here!?"

Galdwan meanwhile walks past Ilena and to the stern of the ship, and peers intently at the Silfarien.

The screaming filling the engine room suddenly cuts off, broken by what sounds like a slap.

After a couple moments of dead silence, a male voice, the same one Raddukk had heard before, speaks from out of nothingness.

"Good day to you all. This is Sir Orren...may I call myself your arch-nemesis, or would that be presumptuous?" The voice sounds very tired, but still drips with repressed smarm. "Look, we have here an intolerable situation for both of us. I just want to go home. Is that too much for a guy to ask? I just want to go home, settle back, attend to my estates, and give my king a token of my activities in the war. You lot are going to far to much effort here, just to retrieve a girl, and one who will never function normally in Nathi society again, at that."

In the background, everyone in the engine room can hear a faint sob. Niktar hops down the ladder into the engine room as fast as he can, hoping to catch all of the speech, and heads over to charge the gun as fast as he possibly can. He also motions for Hunot to get back over to the gun.

"Figures." Hunot gives his shoulder another rotation to check for kinks, then heads back over to the cannon.

"So I suggest that it would be better on all sides if you lot would just stop chasing me, and be content that you have your ship back. I look forward to the escalation in warfare that your ship heralds."

Orren's voice pauses. When he speaks again, it is in tones of mild exasperation.

"Look, Talisar is a long way off, and it's going to be even longer with you dogging my steps all the time. While the Elves here think you're all a bunch of blasphemous monsters, I'm just a soldier doing my job, and I want to go home now. The girl's mine, so could you just admit that and bugger off?"

Niktar replies when Orren is done "We're just soldiers here too. I couldn't care a flying fig about your estates. You want to parly, well we gave you that chance. Give us the girl you go free."

Up above, Galdwan suddenly chants and flings out his hand at the Silfarien. On board the elven ship, what could be a small dense cloud swirls around several figures on the deck, who duck back out of sight.

Communication between the helm and the engine room, as has been hinted at, is accomplished by means of a hollow tube mounted in the steering column, and coming out on the front wall of the Engine Room, near the breech end of the big gun. It is into this that Niktar speaks, after nodding to the others.

"Not about that, Ilena, I need your tactics. Orren's talking at us down here. We're charging up the gun, the girl is in those... chains." Dammit. He curses slightly and goes out to find Loki just below the command deck. Whispering, he says to Loki, "Tell Ilena that priority one is not letting them bring this technology back to the Elves and priority two is recovering the girl. If we can do both and get Orren into a soul-taker then great. I'm not seeing that as likely but maybe we can get the girl first."

"Oh, and Loki," he says just before Loki heads back upstairs. "Tell her a) the ship turns wider than a normal ship, b) it goes faster and c) you have to point directly at something to shoot it."

Loki frowns. "I'm still not too happy about that particular change of priorities, but I'll tell her." He collects his scattered maps, clambers back up to where Ilena is standing and gives her a big cheerful smile. He considers saluting, but he's never been too clear on where he stands in chain-of-command anyway, and the recent switching about of who's in charge of what has left things muddier than ever.

"Hello. I'm Loki." He offers a hand, endeavoring not to crush anyone's fingerbones.

Ilena nods to Loki and takes his hand. "I'm Commander Ilena Ameret. Special ops. Please to mee..." But Loki is off to the races by this point.

"...Basically, we're in a whole lot of trouble, but you probably knew that already or else you wouldn't be here, although it's possible that you could have ended up here somewhat accidentally, like myself, but that would be unlikely since you more or less jumped over here on purpose. Anyway, I think our main problem is that our official priorities are supposed to be the Kraken first and retrieving Ferica second, so we're running a pretty big risk for a fairly small return in the eyes of the Powers that Be, but I think it's worth it anyway although I'm not exactly in command of anything. But I've been checking over my maps, or I was before they all got knocked over the edge and me with them, and I think I've found something we can use to our advantage, although it will be kind of dangerous, especially if they throw another of those whirlpools at us. Those are probably very bad for the harbor, since I can't imagine that the sea life around here ever has much..."

Ilena leans over to Craiddags and says, "Pull the Kraken along side the Heffalump."

"Aye, Ma'am," growls Craiddaigs, and pulls the Kraken directly alongside the Heffalump, and presumably, calls for power to be cut.

"...exciting happen to it, as that's rather the whole point OF a harbor, to provide a calm, quiet area to moor ships and such in, and I'd say the bottomfeeders around here think they're living in a nightmare, although that raises the question of whether or not fish even CAN think, or have the ability to compare a memory of how their life was in a past timeframe with how things are at the current point in time. There was a mage once by the name of Ichthyus who tried to establish telepathic communication with a fish. They found him the next morning at the..."

Ilena is fidgeting, looking for some way to escape the conversation, but everyone else has known Loki for a while and isn't going to get involved.

"...bottom of his aquarium. He looked quite happy, really, although there was a bit of a fuss when they tried to take away his breathing tube. Anyway, the main thing I wanted to mention, the thing I found in my maps, is this:" Loki flips through the haphazard pile of paper in his arms, and pulls out the relevant document.

Ilena starts to pay more attention, becoming keenly interested.

"See, here, at the end of the docks the branching piers force ships to go through a bottleneck. If we can slip ahead of the Silfy, which shouldn't be too hard since we're faster than they are, we can blockade the entrance and stop them from getting out to open sea, where our speed is far less of an advantage than their greater maneuverability. If we can force them to stand down, we run a much better chance of getting Ferica back than if we just blow them all to kingdom come and try to fish her out of the wreckage. I think we all saw how well that tactic works in the famous case of the rescue mission sent after Squifferly Squee, about which the less said, the better. Now, there are two problems with this approach. One, we cannot fire at an angle on the Kraken, so our ability to threaten the Silfy with annihilation is rather limited once we move beyond them; we'll need some time to turn fully around, although we could simply stopper the entrance with our ship and force them to turn back into the Heffalump, buying us the time to bring our gun to bear. Two, we have no shields, but I have an idea or two in that direction. AHOY MISTER NIKES! AND GALDWAN TOO! WE NEED THE HUMAN MAGES OVER HERE! See, I think that with two human mages, one of whom is an elementalist, we can work up a shield of some kind. It won't last long, but hopefully it won't need to take more than one hit. Also, Mr. Nikes may be able to stop the Silfarien's movement, at least for long enough to let us get past."

When he finishes, Ilena remains silent with a thoughtful smile on her face.

Galdwan listens to Loki without actually listening, a skill all should have developed by now. "I have a better idea. Plans that are too complicated rarely work. Here is what we do- use the combined power the mages and the gun of the Kraken, and destroy them all. Then we tell them we learned that the girl committed suicide, and, with nothing to hold us back we destroy the elves. Then we can all go home, get paid, and be happy." Galdwan then returns to sniping duty, until someone tells him to stop.

Nikes agrees that Loki's plan has merit, and that Galdwan is a bit of a bloodthirsty sadist, although he doesn't say that one out loud. Still, both Loki and Nikes think it, so technically they agree to it. Ilena replies. "I estimate it will take them about 8 minutes to get to the outer pier. If this ship is as fast as Nik says, we should be able to do it in 6. Until they make it out of the harbor this ship is basically unarmed because I am not willing to blow up the city to sink them, even if it is populated with traitorous vermin." She spits.

"With any luck" (she says this in the same way one would say "When the sky rains fried chicken...") "the Heffalump may be able to spare a few soldiers for a boarding party since it appears to be Nathi military."

"I'm not sure I like the idea of getting in front of them without a full shield and even if we did hold them at BFG-point, the center of the city would be behind them. However, between the mage-shield and the narrow exit, we might be able to get close enough to disable their vessel so they can't escape."

She looks around trying to guess what the knotted chain of command looks like. "At this point, let's see if we can get some help from the Heffalump and then follow the Silfarien at a respectful distance until they get close to the end of the harbor. Then we make our move. If anyone has a better idea, I'm interested."

When the Kraken is within hailing distance of the Heffalump, Ilena calls out, "Ahoy Heffalump. This is Commander Ilena Ameret of the..." (she looks at the helm placard) "Kraken. We've appreciated your help so much I'd like to ask for some more."

"Ahoy back atcher!" A cheery man with a mane of red hair, somewhat reminicent of David Bowie's in the 1980s calls down to the Kraken. "Captain Jacobson of th' Heffalump. What can we do for ya?"

Back down in the engine room, Reekik remarks, "Poor girl is better off dead than a slave to whoever this creep is." She continues charging the gun.

"Our orders were to bring her back alive and recapture on sink that boat, in that order. " Hunot says. "Those were our orders. Didn't say anything about any mercy killings." He shrugs. " So we recapture her or die trying."

Raddukk tells Orren, "No negotiations. We want the girl back." Orren merely chuckles in reply.

To his companions, Raddukk says, "I would rather die trying to save her, even if that might endanger her life. I will not go back to my good friend and tell him I let them keep his daughter." Raddukk adds, "All the more reason I'd rather not talk with him too soon, since he is dead."

Sarkin is completely out of his element at this point; he managed to save his ship, but now he's chasing down some girl. Up to this point, he's been given very little background to the story, but suffice to say that he doesn't like to see people hurt. Not knowing much about the situation, he simply keeps his engine/gun room in working order, and waits for orders from those who know what's going on.

Loki continues to talk to Nikes. "Well, I don't think we quite need to set things on fire. It's generally a good idea to keep random destruction to a minimum; saves wear and tear on the wallet, and fire is bad for my books. I'd guess the relative element would be air, with perhaps some water. What we want is to concentrate a semisolid wall, aimed more at redirection and absorption than sheer toughness. If perhaps you could use the omnipresent water as a power sink, to ground off, so to speak, all the power the air shield would absorb, we have a good shot at this."

Meanwhile, Ilena grins back up at Captain Jacob. "The Elven frigate out there is carrying off a young Nathi girl and we'd like to get her back. Unfortunately it is also carrying Sir Orren and (not unlikely) some awakened Elves so we could use added forces. I am guessing the Heffalump won't be able to catch up with them, but we can. If you have a boarding party to spare, we can get them to the target. I don't know what flag you are flying under but I am guessing you have no love for the Elves. If you aren't Nathi military, we can offer to pay for your services with..." she glances back at the departing Silfarian then turns back to Jacob grinning broadly, "a mostly functional Elven frigate."

"'s good enough for me," calls Jacobs back. "Stand by, we'll toss you a ladder."

He disappears, and the Heffalump draws closer to the Kraken. Then, three men on the freighter throw what is more a 15-foot wide net than a ladder. It cascades the twenty feet down to the Kraken's deck.

Seeing that Loki and Nikes are in deep conversation and Galdwan is doing sniping duty, Ilena calls out, "Roksan, I need your help on deck," and then jumps down to help in secure the ladder.

Roksan grunts, and limps up to the deck, where Ilena whispers in his ear. He nods, and cracks his knuckles overhead, looking up at the Heffalump.

Loki trots to the "ladder" and ties it down securely enough that only Loki or a flamethrower could get it off again. Loki, obviously, will remain on hand to unsecure it when we leave, so as to save the Heffalump the cost of a good ladder-net.

Ilena whispers in Loki's ear when he is bending down to tie this knot (since that is the only time Loki's ear is at Ilena's mouth level), "Just be sure you can untie it quickly if these people aren't as friendly as they seem." She then continues to secure her own part of the net.

With the net secured, twelve men make their way down to the decks of the Kraken. Of them, three are Nathi, and the rest are human. One of the humans has the same midnight-black skin as Galdwan, and nods to him in a familiar manner. He appears unarmed, and clinks as he walks. The rest are all armed with large swords, and a few of them have round shields with a strange emblem slung over their backs. A few are barefoot, including the black man.

One of the Nathi ambles over to Ilena, and fails to salute. "Well, Captain," he drawls, "let's get this over with, shall we?"

Ilena nods. "Loki and Roksan, please unhitch the net," she says. "Craiddaigs, full reverse speed and turn after the Silfarien with all speed possible." She then calls out the the Heffalump, "Captain Jacobson, we appreciate your help again!"

Jacobson waves down at the Kraken. The Kraken pulls around backwards, then around forwards in a perfect three-point turn. It then sets off in pursuit of the Silfarien, which has gained a considerable lead.

As the Kraken spins around to resume the chase she turns back to the Nathi who addressed her. "Which of you is in charge of your unit and what are your specialties?"

"Well, I'm in charge here," says the Nathi, with a slight curl to his lip. He is at least 6' tall and built like a racehorse. "Well, the Nathi are gonna provide spell interference, the humans are gonna hit things, and Gornash here," the black man bows deeply, "is our spell support. You guys got any mages?"

Raddukk has been standing on deck for a while now. "Sounds like a good plan," he says to the Nathi. "Any of you bow men like myself?" He checks the string on his bow, and examines his arrows in anticipation of the battle to come.

Ilena nods as Gornash is introduced and tries to find something unique about the Nathi she is talking to which would hopefully lead to being able to refer to him in fewer syllables than 'Hey, Nathi-who-is-in-charge-of-the-mercenaries'.

"A couple mages," she replies, "along with an assortment of blasters and bludgeoners. For the moment, though, we'll need your spell defense people on the bow to give us a clear path to the target."

She turns and starts walking back to the helm. "Sergeant." she says. When Roksan comes over she quietly requests that he keep the guests politely, but firmly, on deck (as opposed to the engine or gun room).

Ilena then runs back to the helm calling out, "Loki, I need your maps and your brain at the helm. Mr. Nikes, if you could provide us with a following wind and/or current, we need every speed boost we can get." Once on the helm she calls into the speaking tube, "Put as many people on the engines as possible while still keeping the gun charged. Speed is most important now."

Loki greets the newcomers and their leader. "Ah, greetings, good sir. How was this year's Menelkari ale? It's been a year or two since that business with the rats and the centipedes, and I'd had hopes that your quite fine hops had recovered somewhat before this years harvest. It's always a shame to see a good thing go to waste, isn't it? Oh, by the way, I couldn't help but notice the emblem you're bearing. It strikes me as quite unique, or at least an odd bit of hodgepodge symbolism, and as I make a bit of a hobby of such things . . . well, of most things, really, it doesn't matter much as long as it's interesting, and most things are once you find out a bit more about them, but I do know something of heraldry and your particular emblem is new to me, and I was wondering from whence it derives."

The Nathi glances at the emblem on one of the shields, which could possibly be a reptile of some sort, or maybe a stylized tower and moon, but with a lot more hooks than a tower usually needs, . "Yes, I could see how you could wonder about that."

Loki putters around with ropes and such until Mister Leader of Mysterious Menelkari Nathi answers his question.

As it turns out, he doesn't.

Loki then gives up and then moves to navigator/captain's bodyguard/font of useless information position at the helm. To Ilena, Loki replies: "Coming as fast as I can. Just let me finish up here and I'll be right along, and don't you think maybe we ought to worry about their ship's gun as well as their mages? At least if we're going to try and take them on, and boarding proves too difficult, we might want to have a backup option for when they shoot at us."

"Commander Amaret," says the lead Nathi to Ilena as the Kraken picks up speed and pulls away from the Heffalump. "My men are fresh, and are familiar with Nathi ship engines. I and the other two of my Nathi could take your engines, and free up the rest of your crew for their preparations for your attack on the frigate."

Ilena appears to think for a moment then says, "No, you and your Nathi can be most helpful in spell defense, as you suggested. Our engines are fully manned now as it is." (Given that Raddukk has just wandered out of the engine room, she probably even believes this.)

She then addresses Loki and Nikes (and Galdwan if he hasn't wandered to the bow for better sniping position). "How long would it take to set up this mage shield that you mentioned? If it can be done quickly, it can wait until the Silfarian starts to turn towards us. In the meantime we can concentrate magic on speed and spell defense."

"Loki, let's look at those charts again and see if there is anything we can turn towards our advantage."

As Loki unfolds his maps again, Ilena takes another look towards the Silfarien and tries to estimate whether the Kraken will catch up before it leaves the harbor. At present speeds, they probably can, but only if nothing else goes wrong.

Loki, having been asked, answers, and all that implies. Ilena has to interject several times to keep him on course, as the Kraken tries to close the distance between it and the Silfarien.

"Well, as you can see from this map, I think it dates about a hundred years ago, although there's really no way to tell, apart from taking it to a mage and... okay, yes, I'll get to the point. Anyway, the harbor of Havna has evolved considerably over the years. Just look at this map from before the last fire and compare it to this more modern one, and you can see... well, no, there's nothing here to help us, but it is interesting to see how the builders... Right. Anyway, this is the most current map I have, and I would have gotten a new one since we were in Havna anyway but things have been kind of hectic, what with Bob the Finder and Kiri and getting shot at and... right, the map. As I told you before, there's that bottleneck at the end which we can use to get around them and pin them, and they don't know that we won't fire the gun on innocents in the city, after all Orren seems to think we're after him purely for spite at this..."

All twelve of the newcomers are staring at Loki, most of them wondering when this giant ever has time to breathe.

"...point, and I won't deny the man rubs me the wrong way, but... yes. Well, apart from using the tight opening at the end, there's really nothing we can do about our situation. We happen to be in a fairly major vein, and there's no major repair work going on along our way, which is some very bad luck on our part, since they have to rebuild the docks almost constantly. I wonder where they get all the wood from? It would be very expensive to import all of this, and at the rate they build they'd have clearcut any native forests long ago... yes, right, the docks. Well, to be honest, there's really no options. We can go straight ahead and either board them, shoot them out of the water, or cut them off and try to bargain from a superior position, but as it stands we can't outmaneuver them. We really couldn't anyway, due to the Kraken's inferior turning radius, which I imagine could be compensated for but we're on an experimental model and it's not really fair to expect engineers to get out all the quirks and gremlins on the first try... yes, I'm done with the maps of the harbor, I suppose. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. Not a peep. I'll be quiet as a musk-frog during the rainy season."

"..."

"Hey, you can't go there!" Roksan interrupts the quiet and heads off one of the human mercenaries, who is trying to nonchalantly slip belowdecks.

"Arr" growls the mercenary, but nevertheless acquiesces.

"..."
"..."

"You know, there's a theory that the shape of the steering wheel on a ship and the shape of a donut come from the same place. They say that a ship's captain liked to steer personally, so much so that he would often miss meals while enjoying the spray of the ocean and so forth, so the ship's cook came up with a bread roll that the captain could hook onto the wheel itself and always have handy if he needed it but not take up one of his hands to hold if he suddenly needed to turn... I'm sorry. I thought it was interesting, was all. Yes, ma'am."

"..."
"..."
"..."

"Is that an Aldabreshi vessel? Why, I think it is! They have many innovations in the shape of the hull and rudder which increase their ships handling an impressive amount, and even though mostly it's just a further refining of already known techniques they have quite a reputation as tinkerers. Their ships cost a huge amount of money, though, since they spend so much more time and effort on the building. It's an art form, for them, and they take it very seriously. 'Angry as a wet hen' actually refers to the Aldabreshi, since they throw notorious tantrums if they find a leak on a ship of theirs, and 'hen' is a racial slur based on their propensity for... sorry again. Yes, ma'am. I will ma'am. Beg your pardon, ma'am."
"..."

Loki clumps over to Mr. Nikes. "Hello, Mister Nikes. I'm supposed to help you work on the magic shield. Well, actually what she said was for me to go find someone else to bother for just a little while so her head would stop hurting, and I would have told her about the willow bark infusion I have in my backpack except I got the feeling I'd better just go. Had any luck with ideas? I think I have a book on magical theory around here somewhere that talked about shielding, though I think it was referring to protections against demons and such... "

Having listened intently to this explanation, Raddukk now knows all he would ever want to know. He returns to the safe confines of the engine room. "Maybe Orren will call again," he says wistfully.

The nine mercenaries on deck lounge around under Roksan's watchful eye as the Kraken slowly gains on the Silfarien. After some time, the Big Gun is finally completely charged. At that moment, the Silfarien changes course slightly, cutting around another few ships, so that the Kraken no longer has direct line of sight to it. Ilena estimates another minute to catch up with the Silfarien, and another two minutes before it is out into the open sea.

Gornash meanwhile approaches Galdwan in a slow heavy tread. The big black man bows to Galdwan, his right fist over his heart, index and pinky fingers extended. "The dragon smile upon you, homelander," he declares in a clear deep bass. "What will you have me do?" He also nods at Loki and Nikes. Edward makes a loud "PEEP", and hides in Nikes's shirt.

Follow Loki...

Niktar steps away from the gun now that it is fully charged and capable of being maintained by the other three there.

He heads over to the speaking tube, on the way saying to those down below, "When we get this sorted out, would it be possible to work on getting some shields on this thing, and maybe figuring out how to shield the Power leak so that they don't know what's coming? Just some thoughts that will make this ship far more effective."

He then speaks into the tube. "Ilena, the gun is full up. I can come up there and help out or stay down here if we'll need to recharge soon - they can charge without me as well if need be, it's just faster with four. What are things looking like?"

Ilena responds into the tube, "I don't imagine they will give us a chance to fire twice, Nik. Keep as many people on the engines as possible, keep a few on the gun to keep it charged. Extra people who feel up for a fight can come up on deck and get ready. Maybe help with spell defense. We'll hit them in under a minute."

She then addresses the congregation of mages. "If the shield will take a little bit of time to set up, better start working on it now. I have a feeling they will turn on us before they get to open water." To Gornash she adds, "Mr. Nikes and Mr. Loki have an idea for a temporary shield in case the Silfarien turns to fire as this vessel lacks them. Unless you have other duties, your help would be appreciated." To the group again, "If we can get a functional shield with two of you while a third keeps the Elven mages too bothered to cast, all the better."

"Madam," declares Gornash, "It shall be done." He bows, and enters into conference with Nikes and Loki.

Loki, who has been idly cataloging the Heffalump mercs' weapons for future reference, suddenly frowns and does a quick recount. He excuses himself from the magical theory discussion and wanders over to Ilena. If she is engaged with the leader, he will politely request a quiet aside. He does his best to speak softly.

"I may be mistaken, but weren't there twelve men who came over from the Heffalump? I see their leader, and Gornash the blood mage, but only nine other men on deck. I'll go check out the engine room, shall I? I think Mr. Nikes and Galdwan can manage without me for a while. I'm not a magician, only a theorist. I do hope they keep adequate records of the spell they use, however. It would be an invaluable addition to some of my research. It's so rare to see a new spell being composed."

Loki steps back and salutes smartly, saying, in a quite audible voice: "Yes, ma'am. I'm glad to see you think an inventory of our armament is a good idea as well. After all, with all these extra hands, we may well be able to board them after all. I'll get started right away!" He then heads towards the engine room, looking as much like a stockboy as possible. Once there, he begins to poke around for the missing merc, although no one on deck will see that part.

Ilena curses quietly and nods at his suggestion.

As he descends from the helm, she calls into the speaking tube, "Nik, how many rounds do we have for the gun?"

Niktar glances around and then says up the speakertube, "At least four more shots aside from the one that's in. I'll come up and give a hand." Which he does, passing Loki on the way.

Those on the middle decks, and those in the engine room can hear Loki screaming his fool head off, "INTRUDERS! SABOTEURS!" The ship slows even more, and then stops entirely.

On the middle deck, the lead Nathi nods to the seven mercs remaining with him. (Gornash is still in conference with Galdwan and Nikes).

As one, they rush Roksan, bearing him to the ground and kicking him hard in the kidneys and wounded shoulder. The leader, two of the remaining Nathi, and a very large human jump up to the top of the BFG barrel and rush at the helm.

Meanwhile, the Silfarien pulls even farther ahead, and the Heffalump pulls closer in behind.

Niktar, seeing All Hell Break Loose, draws his bolter and cutlass, charging the bolter as quickly as he can. Meanwhile, Craiddaigs draws a dagger and turns to face the mages, his glowing eyes speaking death, should Gornash try anything.

Ilena has an almost resigned look on her face as she draws her weapons (her cutlass and a soul taker dagger) and jumps onto the gun barrel. One of the Nathi is the first to reach her. She parries his blow, and his momentum takes him straight onto her soul-taker dagger. He disappears, revealing the large human behind him.

Niktar's bolter cracks, spitting red lightning at the human's face. The human falls off the barrel with a cry, the left side of his face a sizzling wreck. The remaining two Nathi glance at each other, and jump off the barrel to the starboard side, still a bloody marshland from the fight with the elves.

The leader draws a crystal sword and charges it to a blazing red. The remaining Nathi pulls a flintlock pistol. He points it at Craiddaigs, whose attention is completely elsewhere. There is a BANG and a puff of smoke, and Craiddaigs falls to the ground, bleeding from the middle of his back.

Roksan screams in rage, and throws himself off the helm onto the gunner. The two of them roll around on the sticky planks, neither able to gain advantage over the other.

Niktar fires a second shot at the leader of the mercs, who ducks, and catches the shot on his sword, effectively dissipating it.

Mr. Nikes, sighs and starts to chant, circling to get a good line of sight on the leader. Gornash also starts to chant. As Mr. Nikes exhales, a galeforce wind whistling from his mouth and knocking the leader backwards on his behind, Gornash ends his chant with a shout.

An expanding wave of force whips out from Gornash's body, knocking Galdwan hard against the side of the boat, knocking Nikes down to fall on his face at the Leader's feet, pushing Niktar down on his arse, and affecting Ilena not at all, other than to whip her hair and clothes around in a most fetching way. (critical success on the balance roll, woo.)

Mr. Nikes sends a small gout of flame towards the leader of the mercs. The leader catches the spell on his sword, dissipating it. This gives Nikes the opportunity to get away. Rolling and scrambling, he makes it into the door into the rear of the ship, where he meets Hunot, who is waiting for the right time just inside the door.

Niktar takes a moment to blink, his jaw dropping slightly, before he recalls his mind to task. Seeing that Nikes has the leader, he quickly recharges his bolter and takes aim again this time at the mage that attacked Nikes without bothering to stand, although he does get into a better position for firing while charging the bolter.

Gornash, his attention on Galdwan, ducks too late, and lets out a mighty yell as the bolt sizzles across his shoulder and down his right arm.

Galdwan slices his finger and sends a quick burst of power towards Gornash's midriff. Caught between spell and bolter, Gornash folds up at the waist and falls over, bleeding and winded.

After the other Nathi clear off the gun barrel, Ilena turns and charges back towards the helm. Specifically, towards Gornash. The coup de grace blow is almost embarrassingly easy. Gornash is no longer a threat. (Ilena, let me know what weapon you used for that at some point.)

Craiddaigs takes the opportunity to groan, and cough up blood.

Ilena turns to face the leader of the newcomers. He, having seen the tide turn against him faster than anyone could have predicted, turns and runs for the front of the ship.

As he runs, he aims an offhand blow at Roksan, who happens to be on top of the scuffle at the moment. The top of Roksan's head explodes in a spray of blood and bone, and the Nathi he was fighting is left holding a skeleton.

Hunot returns...

As his leader runs, the Nathi Roksan had been fighting scrambles to his feet in a shower of bone. He turns to follow his leader, but then Hunot emerges from the doorway behind him. Hunot's bolter spits lightning,catching the Nathi in the back, who explodes in a starburst of bone and flame

The Kraken starts to move again. The lead Nathi ducks into the forward decks and slams the door behind him.

Hunot turns and rushes back to the engine room. "Watch it - the other ship upstairs turned nasty. Someone with a sword made it belowdecks. I'm going after him." Continuing to charge his bolter, Hunot carefully begins moving out belowdecks, sacrificing speed for care and observation.

Niktar dashes to follow their leader, a fire in his eyes unlike anyone has seen before, and the string of obscenities about Nathi who betray Nathi would be enough to the strip paint off the deck were it in fact painted. "Nikes, follow me," he commands somewhere in the middle of it, though he does not stop his dash to see if Nikes does in fact do so. Follow Niktar...

Mr. Nikes, sensing that no longer is death imminent, "harumph"s, picks himself up, and heads belowdecks to help with any fighting there. Preferably where people don't have spell-absorbing swords.

Seeing that the upper deck has been cleared of attackers that Craidaigs is down, Ilena sheathes her weapons and grabs the wheel. She glances at Galdwan. "If you can, see if you can heal Craidaigs. We need him." She is not smiling at all.

Ilena then calls into the speaking tube to the engine room, "We've re-taken the upper deck. What is the situation down there?"

Samas responds "Quiet, though I dont know how the others are faring. Kiri is still on the engines and the BFG is still primed to fire. The engine room is secure for the moment"

After a bit of experimentation to make sure the helm is responding and to get a feel of the turning radius. She starts weaving around ships trying to make sure the Heffalump doesn't have a clear line of sight. The Heffalump, being a larger ship, tries to follow, its shields up, and once or twice comes close enough to almost clip the Kraken with its shields.

Galdwan picks up the dead Gornash and carries him to Craidaigs. He then begins his healing. Craiddaigs is in really bad shape. The slug entered through his back, and Galdwan thinks it went through the spine There is no exit wound on the belly, and Craiddaigs' breathing is equal parts air and blood.

Even with the wound in his back closed by Galdwan's spell, Craiddaigs breathes less and less. Galdwan fights to both reattatch the spine and fix the Nathi's lungs, which are torn up and filling with blood.

"I'm sorry," coughs Craiddaigs finally, and is still. A cloud of black smoke and a moment later, Galdwan finds himself holding a black skeleton.

"Reekik's here," Kiri calls up the speaking tube from the Engine room. "She's on the engines with me." The Kraken increases speed abruptly, and is now able to easily outrun the Heffalump.

Ilena concentrates to see if she can feel any power buildup, particularly any buildups from the Heffalump or from outside the harbor entrance where Elves might be waiting to jump them. She can feel nothing new from the Heffalump, and certainly nothing from any Elves. There's nothing coming from the Heffalump that would indicate weaponry. She then glances down towards where the human Niktar shot landed to make sure he stayed down.

She continues her weaving course towards the mouth of the harbor (even if she doesn't detect any power being used on the Heffalump - they might have a trebuchet or something). (She will not exit the harbor if she senses power being used outside.)

As the Kraken reaches the end of the last dock, Niktar, Nikes, Raddukk, and Hunot emerge from the forward doors, into the middle decks. They are discussing intently among themselves. A little bit later, Sarkin and Loki emerge. Loki is carrying the Nathi who led the attack, who at the moment looks like he is barely conscious, and badly wounded. Sarkin is escorting a very nervous human, one of the original members of the boarding party.

Seeing Loki bring out their leader and Sarkin following with the human, Niktar excuses himself from Raddukk and Hunot and heads over to them. "Loki, you were the one who mentioned the Reaves. What have you found out about these fellows?" He glowers at the human, his bolter visibly trained on the already nervous man.

Samas calls from the engine room, "Engineering to bridge, do you still want the cannon or shall we drop the charge and boost the engines?" In his own mind he contemplates the possibilities of firing any traitors back to the heffalump through the crystal tube.

Ilena responds down the speaking tube, "Let's keep the gun ready for now. We may still want it. Our current speed is fine for the moment."

Ilena steers the ship towards the harbor opening.

She then calls out to the approaching crowd, "Ok Nik. My plan didn't work. What's our next move?"

Niktar hollers, "Give chase, I guess, leave the Heffalump behind, but if she chases us, we'll sink her. Preferably in open water so we don't hit the docks." He glances to see what the Heffalump is doing in response to Ilena's weaving in and out.

The Heffalump is nowhere in sight.

Loki, engaged in a conversation about ancient crystalwork swords with Sarkin, glances up. "Reaves? Oh, them. Oh, this Nathi here was telling me how they found us and I was about to take him up on deck and get the command staff involved in the discussion, since I don't really know what to do with the information and my ideas don't seem to carry much weight unless I have lots of evidence to back them up, but just as I was going to march him out of the door you burst in and shot him. Apparently the Reaves have too many employees who can't keep their mouths shut, which you'd think wouldn't be so much of a problem in what amounts to a criminal organization, but either the Reaves' security is too lax for their own good or they purposefully let certain facts slip just to screw us over, although that would mean that they're specifically after us and not simply after the boat, since it would hardly make sense to purposefully replace the boat's poorly armed crew with a heavily armed band of cutthroat mercenaries, unless the idea is to remove the boat from official hands so that when they take it back from the mercenaries they can claim rights of salvage or something. At any rate, he's not going to be talking much more now, at least not without a great deal of medical attention."

"Well, let's get them up to the helm where we can all talk." Niktar walks with them as they go. "He didn't say why they tried to take over, did he?" He looks at the human and grins almost ferally. "Are you mercenaries after the ship? Are you on the other side? I assure you, you don't want to give me trouble."

"We're we're we're," begins the human, shuddering in Sarkin's grasp. "We're not so much on the other side or your side as we're on our own side Sir and we really just thought it would be a good clean easy capture and we've nothing against the Elves and it really wasn't anything personal, and Chief Tabril" he seems to indicate the barely conscious Nathi Loki is carrying "knows much better than I do what we wanted to accomplish can I go home now please?"

"I'm afraid not. But I won't kill you." Niktar's tone of voice leaves the possibility still open, however, the unspoken "yet" hanging in the silence as they head toward the helm. "Sarkin how is this 'Chief' doing?"

"He'll live as long as we want him to."

Samas calls up from the engine room, thus: "The Silfarien is well out to sea now, Bridge. We are leaking power like a sieve so they know we are here, are we going straight after her because we could probably use some more power to the engines and let the gun leak away for the moment - there's no way we are gonna get a clear shot for a while."

Hunot begins gathering up Nathi bones (to be put in the bonechest) and elven bodies (to be put in the ocean.)

Galdwan coughs a bit from the smoke and lays the body of Craiddaigs on the deck. He resumes sniping position, making sure the Silfarien hasn't taken advantage of the distraction. He keeps Gornash with him, and tries to divide his attention between the Silfarien and refilling any lost blood from his vials.

The Kraken darts out into the open sea without any resistance. Ilena has done her weaving better than one might have otherwise hoped, as there are no ships behind or to the sides that might be considered hostile.

After a few minutes of travel, Samas calls up from the engine room, adding to his previous message. A smile appears on his face as he picks up the telltale ripple of power from the Elf vessel. "Got her - half a mile ahead - " Peering through the gunport he strains to try to find it.

True to Samas's word, Ilena and, if they has gone up to the helm, Niktar and Hunot, can see the telltale silhouette of a mastless Elven frigate. It is almost directly ahead, and, as Samas has said, about half a mile away. For the moment, there are no intervening ships blocking line of sight, which is odd, considering how many ships are in the waters around Havna. From the silhouette, it looks like she is moving abeam to the Kraken, and starting to come about to face it. The prow of the frigate lights up in a telltale blue glow as the Kraken sees it.

Ilena speaks quickly, "Nik, are we going to rescue the girl or sink the Elves? They appear to be calling your bluff. We have a low profile, a good speed, and it's a long distance so they probably can't hit us from here, but unless you are planning to sink them from a distance, I think we'd be better off returning to the cover of the harbor."

Loki frowns. "If we return to the harbor now, we'll never catch up with them again in time. Before we can hire another ship and find out their new course and location, they'll be in home territory and nigh-untouchable, unless we come in with a full army behind us, or actually in front of us for preference, since there's no sense being in front of all those dangerous weapons if you don't have to, but I don't think we have an army anyway, unless someone happens to be the leader of a small but loyal populace and just hasn't told us yet. On the other hand, I really don't like the idea of blowing up the ship with Ferica still on..."

Mr. Nikes, who has wandered back to the general vicinity of Loki's constant chatter upon finding few other people to fight, is feeling a bit recovered from his previous spellcasting exhertions.

"...it, although I suppose it's kinder than leaving her to a lifetime of slavery, which I don't think I'd wish on anyone, not even that unpleasant fellow who kidnapped her, since I don't think he'd make a very good slave anyway unless you routinely have a need for a bond servant to kill people and laugh about it, which would probably get you arrested assuming slavery wasn't already illegal wherever you lived, although if you owned slaves it would be silly to move somewhere where they didn't allow it. I do think that we'd have been better off overall if we'd just zipped around them like I suggested instead of slowing down to pick up those mercenaries who tried to kill us after about ten minutes onboard, which is a record even for people with very little patience on a small boat with me and Mister Nikes at the same time, but since we can't do anything about it, I think we'd better go while the getting is good. We need to shoot now or leave Ferica to rot in slavery."

Nikes expresses his own opinion: "I think the wisest course here would be to try and ascertain if the girl is indeed on board that ship. Have any of us seen her? Heard from her? She could be securely bound on another ship heading another direction, while this motley crew simply delays us. If that be the case, I have no compuctions about rending their ship apart and starting all over again. If she is aboard the ship, we may still have to resort to simply destroying it. Her father is dead, yes? No grieving relatives to explain ourselves to?"

"No, no grieving relatives. It was our mission to recover her, though." Niktar rocks back on his heels. "However, she is in the Chains now most assuredly and that is no life. Loki makes a valid point about not being able to catch up with them; we might find out where they were headed -- if any in the city would tell us. I find that highly unlikely since we effectively broke contract, albeit unintentionally, with the one group who might have aided us. If we turn back to the harbor, we have the Heffalump waiting for us."

"I see no way around this, other than to merely shoot the ship and pick up the pieces afterward. Ferica is aboard it, of this I am certain. Perhaps we may be lucky that destroying Orren will give us enough indemnity to killing her. We will, of course, search the wreckage for her afterwards."

Niktar then speaks into the tube down to the engines. "Keep the gun manned; we are going to take them out. Someone will be down to help with the engines." He motions to Hunot, Raddukk and Sarkin. "We'll need all the speed we can get on recharging the gun if we miss. You can put the prisoners in chains down below, I assume you have those, Sarkin?"

"Yes, yes, we have the prisoners." Sarkin is a little distracted. "Oh, chains! I believe we might be able to rig something up to bind the prisoners, but this ship was created for testing, optimized for the new gun, so there wasn't much in the way of a brig beforehand, and who knows how gutted it must have been."

He snaps his fingers decisively. "Reekik, go check to see what we still have; Hunot and anyone else willing to charge the gun, come back to the engine room with me."

"Right," says Niktar, deciding. "Fire when ready!"

Samas, holding the charge on the gun, cannot reach the shells. Kiri obliges, leaving the engines to idle down, and crosses the engine room, picks up one of the shells, and lugs it to the breech. The crystal tracery around the base of the bullet glows as it comes close to the gun port.

"Just hammer it in?" she asks. "Here goes." She picks up a mallet and hammers the shell into the breech with all her strength.

BOOM.

The Kraken stops dead in its tracks with a jot that throws Kiri heavily into the front wall of the engine room. Everyone else, having had time to prepare, is reasonably unshaken.

The shot streaks along just above the waterline, pulling up a small wave behind it, then knifing through a wave, throwing up sheets on either side like Moses parting his hair. It strikes the Silfarien just to the side and below the prow emitter, which spits dejected lightning into the water. The rear of the Silfarien explodes in a shower of lightning, matchwood and crystal, as the frigate pitches forward, its engines hit.

BOOM... booom...boom. The shockwave rebounds back and forth between the cliffs enclosing the Havna harbor, then subsides, rumbling out to open sea. There is a subtle but perceptible shift in the traffic pattern around the Kraken, as every captain for half a mile around them all independantly decide that htey have pressing business anywhere but here.

"Forward on, moderate speed," calls Niktar. "Let's see if she survived that. And make sure we get Orren. All hands except those on engines on deck."

As the Kraken surges forward again and the Silfarien subsides, sinking rapidly arse-backwards into the deeps, figures can be clearly seen leaping off the sides and wounded prow, abandoning ship and taking their chances in the water. Strange though, there seem to be a lot fewer of them than one might expect.

Even at the Kraken's best speed under the circumstances, the Silfarien slips beneath the waves before they can get there. Gliding past the rising bubbles and flotsam, they can only see about five survivors madly swimming away. None of them match the descriptions of either Sir Orren or Ferica. In fact, all of them are Elves.

What follows is very pregnant pause, lasting until about a minute after the Silfarien disappeared.

Then, as everyone starts to breathe again, a man surfaces about a hundred feet off the Kraken's starboard bow. Black-haired and moustached, he gasps, treading water. He looks around, sees the Kraken, and submerges again, swimming as well as he can back towards the harbor.

"Nikes, Galdwan, can you see if Ferica is still by any chance still alive on that sinking ship?" Niktar looks about. "If so, and if you can handle is there a way to slow it's sinking or stop it so that we can dive down and get her?"

He calls down the tube. "Keep one or two on the engines; someone else bring up a harpoon when you come up. Quick." To those above he continues, "And I need a soultaker dagger. We're going to get Mr. Moustache over there." When he has both, he lashes it firmly to the harpoon and heads over to the side of the Kraken, taking careful aim.

Hunot brings his bolter to his shoulder and tracks the black-haired swimmer, looking over at Niktar for orders.

Samas emerges onto the decks. With a shake of his head he moves to join Hunot as he aims over the side at the figure in the water. Cupping his hands he shouts down "Theres nowhere to run.... give it up." Then, he cocks his head to one side as he reaches out with the Power. His face suddenly transforms in recognition. "Soul.Taker. Damn and blast it. HE's Carrying a Soul Taker" Samas voice carries back over the deck to Niktar who is preparing to throw the charged spear. "Hes carrying a charged soul blade. If you hit him we'll loose the weapon......"

"Damn. Well then, he's surely got her and we'll just have to recover her." Niktar sets the harpoon down. "Damn. Any nets here? We should be able to get her and him back, there's how many of us and one of him? Even if he is Orren. Turn her starboard, Ilena, and pull up near enough to him we can take him."

Without removing his eyes from the swimmer Hunot mutters to Niktar, "With due respect, I'm not sure about that, sir. Can I kill him and then we retrieve the dagger by magical means?" He continues to hold his shot.

"You're not sure about what, specifically?"

Hunot looks a little uncomfortable. "Not sure we could all take him, sir."

Nikes, who is looking on at this point, raises an eyebrow. "You do the killing, I'll do the retrieving. Edward! We are about to have another lesson in the cohesive properties of water and the use of this water tension in supporting objects. An enhancement to these properties is simple but effective."

Nikes prepares his spell, and waits for the good sniper to off the swimmer.

Loki, as always eager to help, steps forward. "Can that spell affect more than one person at a time? Only I don't much care for getting wet and I would like to help and I imagine that if they manage to attack Orren and he's not dead when you get down there then there might be some problems that I could help with. In fact, the more people who can go ought to, just to be on the safe side. He didn't get to be an internationally reknowned mercenary just by playing Skree-bop dirges. Hunot, if you had more shooters with you, you'd have a better chance of taking him down in one shot, right? Maybe if all the people who aren't running the engines grab bolters and fire we can make sure that he doesn't pull a fast one. We'd better hurry, though, 'cause if he does have a plan the longer we delay the more time he has to set things up and spring a nasty surprise on us. Mister Nikes and I can probably get the soultaker afterwards; there can't be that many magical items lying on the harbor bottom to foul up a detection spell, or Samas could do whatever he did and find it again that way. The important thing is taking care of Orren before he finds a way to take care of us. He's gotten out of so many rough situations before that I don't want to rely on our hope of him being helpless now."

"Let's try the net first," says Niktar. "Once we have him on board, we soul-taker him as soon as possible." He takes the net that someone has brought him, and makes the appropriate preparations. "Loki, I need you to throw this when we are close enough."

The Kraken is drawing alongside the man, who, despite diving and swimming underwater as fast as he can, is not able to get far enough away.

"Now, Loki!" shouts Niktar. Loki throws the net, even remembering to heep hold of the tether. The net slaps into the water, over the swimmer.

Loki pulls on the tether, lifting the be-netted swimmer, who thumps into the side of the Kraken. About halfway up, a knife flashes, and the swimmer drops into the water with most of the net, leaving Loki with somewhat less rope.

"Damn!" spits Niktar. "Back to the original plan. Nikes, stand ready!"

He snatches up the modified harpoon, checks the the tether, waiting for the swimmer to surface. As soon as the swimmer is visible, a good thirty feet from the boat, Niktar hurls the harpoon with deadly accuracy, the tether snaking behind it.

His aim is true, and the harpoon knifes into the swimmer's back, not even slowing as the swimmer disappears into it."

"Now, Nikes!" barks Niktar, hauling the harpoon back.

With great show and pomp, Nikes begins casting. Taking a bowl of water mixed with blood, he swirls the water, causing a mirror whirlpool to form within the bowl. At the climax of the spell, Nikes plunges his hand into the bowl and then raises his hand high. A glittering speck leaps from the center of the whirlpool in the sea, and arcs gracefully into Nikes' open hand, which grasps it tight.

Lowering his hand, Nikes opens it, revealing a small ring, appearing to be a simple plain gold band. Upon further investigation, however, it is seen that the gold is only a cover; the true crystal ring is within the gold, the crystal exposed along the inner edge, so that the wearer is in contact with it.

The last few bubbles from the Silfarien break the surface, and then are no more. Any crew that survived are doing their best to make themselves scarce.