“It can never be easy with us, can it?”
Shane grinned. “Oh come on, where's all the fun in that?”
Alex grinned as well. “Alright, with your permission I'll get things in order. May take up to a week or so, but we're not in a huge hurry. The torpedoes will be the last piece of the puzzle. Let's get everything else together first.”
“Go ahead with it. We'll make sure everything is set on our end. And thanks for looking into new members as well. This might be a good chance to get to know them all.”
“That sounds like a plan. Good luck,” Alex said as he made his exit.
Kelvin looked at Shane. “You just want to play around with our new toy.”
“Don't tell me you weren't thinking about that as well,” he said. “And besides, I have an excuse.”
Kelvin grinned. “Well, that excuse is sounding pretty good right now. And a trip sounds pretty good as well. Even if we're going to have to use the passive travel system.”
“Wonder what kind of time we'll make with four engines?”
He hoped it would be fast, but they needed to think about conserving coal as well. They'd have to resupply at least once if they wanted to make it back to Beylan.
Besides, this was the final element they needed to make the new vessel operate at full capacity. They had waited for this opportunity for a long time. They could wait a little longer if it meant getting things right.
Chapter Twenty-One
Shane was surprised by the sheer amount of power the engines put out. He expected the ship to move quickly, given its hydrodynamic shape and four engines, but it felt like he was helming their much smaller vessel. The ship seemed to dance through the water, turning and covering huge amounts of ocean with ease.
“Am I using too much steam?” he asked Bailey over the phone line.
“No, you're fine. The compound engines really make this thing efficient,” she replied. “And we're only using them at half power. We can go higher.”
“Do you suggest it?”
“Not really. It's a waste of steam and coal. Unless you want to swim for land when we run out?”
“OK point taken.”
He hung up the line and looked around the navigation bridge. Kelvin stood off to one side, looking over a map with Jean. Brandon and Simone stood overhead on the observation deck, Bailey manned the engine room, and Jamie, Ryan and Corey were somewhere aboard the ship as well. They'd go into action if they were forced into a fight.
Shane looked out the bridge windows at the gun turret, encased in an open-topped shell of metal to protect it from the elements and covered with a tarp. It would do little good against anything more than small arms fire, but at least it would keep the seawater out. Corrosion in the wrong spots could disrupt the mechanisms and make it completely unusable.
This ship was going to require a ton of maintenance, he could tell that much, but Shane felt the power it gave them was worth it. This thing could outfight smaller ships and outrun anything it couldn't kill. If they managed to get more of them then they might be able to escort convoys of other ships, keeping them safe from the predations of the guild.
Of course, that assumed they were facing the smaller patrol craft, built for dealing with cargo ships and lightly-armed smugglers. The Iron Guild battle fleet was another thing entirely, and the feeling of invincibility would soon fade if he had to go up against them. If Rising Tide truly wanted to push the guild back they needed to figure out some way to neutralize their enemy's most powerful asset.
But for now Shane felt content. Open seas, clear weather, and not an Iron Guild vessel in sight. That might be a good thing, though he wanted to test out their new weapons. Blue Frog and Rho had assured them they had performed extensive tests on the new systems and ammo. They'd be more than enough to kill a patrol ship with just a few hits. But hearing that and seeing it in action were two very different things.
“Jean, do you mind taking the wheel for a bit?” he called over.
“Sure, that's fine,” she said, stepping over to take his place.
“What are you doing?” Kelvin asked.
“Just taking a walk around the ship for a little while. Seeing how everything is going.”
“What, already bored with this?”
“I'm just fine. But I just want to see how everything else is working,” Shane said. He headed over to the steps and descended onto the main deck level.
That wasn't the only reason he had left the wheel. He wanted the others to get as much experience as possible, especially because they were only mid-level players at the moment. The more they could use their chosen specializations, the better. And there was no better time to do it than now, when they were out on the open water with no one else in sight.
The new arrivals lacked the sheer number of perks that his own group possessed, and they'd have to account for that. He'd be taking the lead during sea battles, manning the helm and steering the ship, but if he was incapacitated he wanted to have someone who could cover for him. Jean might not have enough perks to match his skill, but she'd be better off than someone without the helmsman specialization.
He walked to the forward gun turret and found Corey, Ryan and Jamie sitting along one side, chatting.
“Anything interesting going on?”
“Nothing right now,” Jamie said, standing up. “If we run into trouble, what are the gun crews?”
“What I think we'll do is put you three and Kelvin on the crews,” he said. “You can decide which pair goes to which gun. Jean and I cover the bridge, Simone and Brandon act as lookouts, Bailey is in the engine room.”
“Shouldn't we have two engineers in the engine room during combat? I mean, in case something goes wrong?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah, you're probably right,” Shane said. He wanted to have two lookouts on duty, since gunnery depended on spotting their targets and relaying accurate information to the gun crews, but if they lost their engines they'd be done for. Maybe they needed another crew member, but for now they'd use what they have.”
“OK, so change of plans. I'll designate Brandon as the other gunner.”
“Can we practice?” Corey asked.
“This ammo isn't cheap,” Jamie said.
Shane nodded. “It isn't, but I asked them to load some dummy rounds as well. We can take a few shots with these to test out the guns and make sure everyone's used to them.”
“Got it.”
He turned to leave and get Brandon and Kelvin, but then he remembered the phone line in the gun turret. Shane reached for it and flipped the switch for the bridge.
“Yeah?” Kelvin answered.
“Bring Brandon with you to the forward turret. We're going to get some gunnery practice in.”
“OK, but us?”
“You two have been selected for gunnery duty.”
“Oh. Well, OK, but don't blame me for all the misses.”
Shane grinned. “I still remember that shot you pulled off when we were running from the Iron Guild at Kromus. This should be a lot simpler.”
Kelvin seemed to ignore his quip. “OK, I'll grab Brandon and be right down.”
Shane flipped the switch off, then flipped another switch to the engine room.
“Hello?”
“Hey Bailey, don't worry if you hear gunfire,” he said. “We're firing practice shots to get the crews some practice.”
“OK, I hear you. Mind if I come out on deck? The engines are running smoothly.”
Shane looked at Ryan. “Head to the engine room, and rotate with Bailey. We'll try to get everyone a little practice with this. We never know when someone's going to have to cover.”
Ryan gave him a thumbs up and took off toward the stern.
“Hey Bailey, I'm sending Ryan to you. And Jamie,” he said, motioning to her. She took the hint and headed toward the stern as well. “Have everyone take a few practice shots when they get there. We want to make sure the guns are working properly.”
“Understood.”
Shane hung up the phone line and flipped the switch back. “Well, that's a lot easier than running back and forth or trying to yell down speaking tubes.”
“Much easier,” Corey agreed. “Though we haven't had a ship with phone lines.”
“This is the first one we've owned,” Shane said. “We messed around with a cargo vessel before, but this is the one with fully integrated phone lines. And it makes things a lot easier.”
“What, don't like shouting?” Kelvin said as he and Brandon approached. “So we're gunners now, apparently?”
“Yes, apparently.”
“Why me?” Brandon asked.
“Because gunnery requires good eyes to spot and aim, and you fit the bill,” he said.
Brandon shrugged.
“Looks like you've been replaced as lookout,” Kelvin said.
“Or I want our targets dead as quickly as possible, which means putting shells on target as soon as possible,” Shane said.
“I like that second one better,” Brandon said.
“Good, because that's the reason I'm putting you on gunnery duty.”
“And what will you be doing?”
“Watching,” he shrugged.
“Not practicing?”
“If it's gotten to the point where I have to be a gunner, we're well and truly screwed,” Shane said. “So I'll do my practice later. The experts can get their shots in first.”
BAM!
Kelvin felt the deck reverberate underneath them, though the gun wasn't big enough to rattle the entire ship. He watched with considerable interest as Corey ejected a spent casing from the breach and loaded another.
“You're good,” Brandon said, looking through the gun scope. “Fire on the same coordinates.”
Corey shut the breach and fired.
Kelvin looked at his timepiece. “Ten seconds between shots. And you could probably go faster, right?”
“Yeah, once we get some more practice.”
That meant at least six shells per minute, three times more than a steam gun could fire in the same span of time. And as an added bonus it wouldn't siphon off steam power from the boilers.
But another thought occurred to him.
“Did they say how many round we can fire before the barrel overheats?”
“Haven't tested that,” Shane shrugged. “I don't think that really occurred to him. It's never a problem with steam cannons. Just control your rate of fire. Take your time. It's still faster than what we were working with.”
“We're going to need to find that out, though.”
“They're going to need to find that out,” Shane corrected. “I'm not doing anything that ends with the barrel exploding aboard my ship. And neither should you. You know how much this thing cost us, right?”
“Of course I do. I was the one that purchased all the materials, remember?”
Shane grinned. “See, then you know. It's their responsibility to deal with this. And hopefully we won't need to use these in combat. The plan is to get to Welles Bay, get the blueprints, and get back. The less screwing around the better.”
“In the event of an emergency though, since those seem to happen frequently around us...”
“If it's an emergency then are we really going to care how many shells we can fire before it overheats? Because I'd think we'd be pumping shells downrange.”
“He has a point,” Brandon shrugged.
Kelvin smiled. “OK, but you don't get to blame me if the gun jams. Or the breach blows up in your face.”
“If it happens I'll make sure to complain, just to annoy you.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Kelvin heard another bang from the stern end of the ship and saw a shell splash into the ocean.
“The engineers did a good job,” he commented. “A really good job. Everything seems to be working perfectly. Of course, we won't know until we put a bunch of wear and tear on it. But so far this looks good.”
“The new car always looks good when you drive it off the lot,” Shane said. “But then if the transmission falls out after fifty-thousand miles...”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
Their gun fired again, and Kelvin watched the shell splash down. They had little else to do until they reached their destination.
It took them several days to reach Welles Bay, using a combination of the passive travel system and regular in-game time. By the time they reached port they were down to their last reserves of coal, and though Shane hated to pay a premium for it they had no choice.
But the engines had brought them far. With their other ship they would have needed to resupply at least once on the way. Even with four engines consuming huge amounts of fuel, they provided enough power and efficiency to carry a huge amount of tonnage to this location.
Shane pulled his mask on and then strapped on a pair of goggles. He didn't do it to remain anonymous. Welles Bay was an industrial city and a mining hub, but it came with a price. Black soot and dust constantly hung over the area, often blown by the sea winds into huge clouds. Much of the vegetation had been stripped away, making the problem even worse. Dust storms constantly ravaged the area, making travel outside difficult.
But Welles Bay also held a treasure-trove of minerals, and its factories created all manner of gadgets and machines. Those willing to brave the long journey from Beylan could find plenty of valuable items and resources at very reasonable prices. Those willing to venture out into the rest of the island could harvest those resources for themselves, though ferocious predators stalked the wastes surrounding Mount Wyrd, the richest area of them all.
They weren't here for that, but Shane thought about looking into making a purchase anyhow. They didn't have a lot of room in their cargo hold, but carrying something like glimmershard or silver would make their effort worthwhile. If they had made the trip they might as well make a profit on the way back.
Bailey said something to him, but her voice was muffled by her mask and the wind swirling around them. Once again the streets were covered in a thick cloud of dust. Shane could barely seen ten feet in front of him, and the wind pulled at his cloak.
He looked back at her and shook his head. Bailey took the hint and pointed to a doorway. Shane nodded and directed the rest of the group to follow them.
“Well, that was fun,” he said once they stepped inside out of the swirling dust storm.
“Never been here before. Is it always like this?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah, pretty much. It's a terrible place to be, truth be told, but the resources you can get here sell at really low prices, so it's always attractive to traders. It would probably be busier if it wasn't so far out of the way.”
Kelvin pulled his cap off for a moment and shook out the dust. “OK, so we need to get to the marketplace. This is one of the entrances, but it's buried further in.”
“Buried?” Simone asked.
“In a figure of speech kind of way. I meant that this is a pretty big building, and we're going to have to move toward the center.”
“How big?”
“If this was a real city the entire population center would be here,” Brandon told her. “The only thing outside this place are the industrial buildings and the storage facilities.”
“It's that big?”
“It's that big. You can't see it because of the dust storm, but this place has basically been built under a gigantic dome. It's almost like a dome stadium, but it's much bigger. And there's several levels to it as well.”
“Let's go find our stuff,” Shane said, and they headed further into the building.
The halls seemed almost deserted, at least in comparison to the streets around the marketplace at Beylan. Part of that was simply location. Welles Bay was far from the major trade centers, and only long-range craft could hope to make it this far. That cut down the number of players, especially since few were willing to risk a long journey, only to be stopped by the guild and lose everything. They preferred to take shorter routes with less prof
it, but also less risk.
In fact, they only passed a few other players going about their business. A few of them looked at his group curiously, but they quickly moved on when Shane returned the look. He could feel paranoia hanging in the air. Everyone remained on alert for guild spies. Anyone could be a collaborator, willing to sell out other guilds for a bit of coin and some prestige in the guild's eyes.
Those kind of thoughts turned his stomach. The Iron Guild would have far less power if they didn't have such a network of suck-ups and lackeys, but despite their methods they still managed to attract all manner of opportunists and borderline sociopaths into their ranks. The raiders were a major part of it, but at least they displayed their affiliation. The hidden enemies were far more dangerous.
“We have eyes,” Brandon warned as they moved out into a hallway with a vaulted ceiling.
“Where?”
“Second level, following us at a distance. I don't know if they're affiliated with the guild or if they have some other reason, but I thought you might want to know.”
Shane nodded. “Thanks. Keep an eye out, but don't give us away.”
“What do you think I normally do?” Brandon said. He moved back down the line without another word.
Shane tried not to sigh. Even at the other end of the world they couldn't escape the reach of the Iron Guild. Maybe they should start the quest chain so they could access the Four Cities. But according to the rumors that took months, and most players weren't willing to sink that much time and effort, not when there were profits to be made on the high seas.
He wondered how they should deal with the interlopers. Did they have to do anything? This dome was a safe zone, and the streets weren't dangerous either. Maybe if they walked into one of the outlying factory districts, but Shane just wanted to grab the merchandise, load it up, and then head back to Beylan.
But if they were gathering information…
Player couldn't spy on others making purchases, since the system only gave the numbers to the one performing the transaction. But why were they being followed? Were their stalkers just curious, or did they have something more sinister in mind?
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