Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Sixty Nine

“What a load of bollocks,” Olzenya muttered as the princess’s speech finished from her position on the Jellyfish’s command chair – having given the order for them to launch Corsairs mere minutes ago.

William didn’t disagree. Even while trying to extort her fellow countrymen in a feigned heartfelt plea to join her little band of traitors, the princess still managed to sound unbearably above it all.

Well, at least now we know why she was back in the city, he thought. And how the North is justifying their attack.

They had a princess in their corner – and through it a semi-legitimate reason for rebelling. Still, annoying as that was, he couldn’t help grinning.

Because this whole situation was perfect.

He grabbed the radio. “Trojan Horse. Start advancing now. Full speed.”

The radio crackled, the slightly muffled sound of one of Yelena’s royal guards coming through. “Say again, Command Two? Advance?”

William nodded, repeating, “Advance. Full speed. Then evacuate as planned.”

There was a pause, long enough for him to get a little worried, before his radio chirped again.

“…Confirmed, Command Two. Ship advancing.”

William didn’t like the delay there. The guardswoman had likely been getting confirmation from ‘Command One’ before she moved. He also noted that she’d not confirmed that she was planning to evacuate either. Which meant his orders could yet theoretically be reversed.

At great personal risk to the guardswoman in question.

He sighed as he stood at the railing of the Jellyfish’s bridge – ignoring the looks he was getting from Olzenya in the command throne. This was at least part of why he would have preferred to make this whole thing radio controlled. Unfortunately, while he could accomplish a lot with his tech, he couldn’t perform ‘magic’. And unfortunately for him a mithril core did require a mage to be present if it was going to keep producing aether. Less so than a Shard core, which would shut off after eight minutes without prompting, but a full sized ship core would still only continue working for a few hours before it needed to once more be prompted to work by a mage.

And unfortunately for him, no one had known when the attack would start, which meant Yelena’s chosen bodyguard had been sitting in the Trojan’s Horse engine room in a diving suit all night – hooked up to the mother of all oxygen tanks.

Fortunately she only needed to be close to the core to activate it, rather than actively touching the thing. Because that would have required some part of her skin be bare – and the stuff she was currently literally swimming in would do nasty things to living flesh with enough exposure.

He grabbed the radio again as he watched the undership keep flying towards the enemy fleet. “Admiral Tyana, if you would please order the fleet to arc some shots towards our ‘defecting ship’?”

“I-” The voice returned, the woman on the other end likely thrown off guard by the presence of her sister and the sudden advance of the lynchpin of their plan. “Are you insane? You’re asking us to shoot at that thing!? This wasn’t the plan!”

William shrugged. “This is the new plan. The better plan. One only possible thanks to your sister’s rather inane plea for us all to go traitor. Alas, one of our ships has clearly taken up her offer and now needs to be brought down before it can join with our enemies.”

A muffled sound of frustration came through the line.“Lord Redwater. Boy. You realize one of our ships breaking ranks might well have encouraged others to do the same? You could have just started a full scale defection in our ranks amongst the… weaker willed part of the fleet.”

Huh, he supposed he might. It wasn’t like the fleet knew about the plan – beyond the fact that they planned to retreat. And if that was going to happen, some ships would need to be part of a sacrificial rear-guard action.

With that possibility in mind, he supposed it wasn’t entirely impossible that Solanna’s plea might have found fertile ground amidst some of the Royal Fleet. And by letting his ship ‘go first’, well, it might have encouraged others.

“I had total faith in the loyalty of our Royal Navy,” he said eventually.

“I’m sure.” Tyana sighed. “And if a shot penetrates our defecting ship – over the capital?”

He scoffed. “It was originally an undership – and you saw how well armored they are. From this angle I consider it unlikely we’ll be able to get any kind of penetration – just so long as you don’t use any enchanted munitions.”

He watched as the ‘Trojan Horse’ continued flying towards the enemy fleet, the bulbous submarine shaped vessel chugging along under the power of its two side mounted propellers. Not terribly fast though – which made sense given just how weighed down it was.

Tyana continued. “…My sister is aboard one of those Northern ships. I know my own feelings on what I want to do about that traitor, but at least I need to get confirmation from-”

“Do as he asks,” Yelena’s voice came over the line – the woman choosing to remain silent until now. “She’s chosen her side. At least now we know why Blackstone and New Haven always seemed to know what was going on in the palace. Your sister must have had contacts amongst the staff.”

Despite her blasé words, there was no missing the… sadness in Yelena’s voice.

Tyana didn’t verbally respond, but in mere seconds a series of flags were raised on the hull of her command ship and the Royal Fleet opened fire at their ‘traitorous ally’.

Again, fortunately the well-armored undership had been given enough time to get some range, and most Royal Navy ships had few if any front-facing cannons compared to their broadsides. He watched as cannon shots arced out and did relatively little beyond plink off the armored hull.

At first.

Because a few went for the obvious weak points of the propellers, and sure enough, one was quickly knocked out of commission. At a decent range at that.

“There’s no denying that the Royal Navy’s well drilled,” he murmured.

The Trojan Horse swerved slightly, thrown off course, and now practically drifting.

…Two-thirds of the way to the enemy fleet.

It was rather unfortunate that they’d not been able to communicate to the fleet for them to shoot, but only to make it look good.

Fortunately, the ship had made it far enough for his needs – and was only drifting closer still as inertia carried it forward. It was… pretty much clear of the capital now.

“Come on, take the bait,” William muttered as he stared at the motionless ships of the Northern fleet. “That’s an entirely new ship for you. With an entire core inside. Maybe even Shard cores as well. I know you have to want it. It’ll even provide some legitimacy to your propped up idiot.”

The original plan had called for the Royal Fleet to retreat after exchanging a few shots while the Shards remained in close proximity rather than rushing ahead to clash between the fleets as was the norm – at which point the Trojan Horse was to suffer ‘engine trouble’ and fall behind once clear of the city. At which point it would have been boarded in passing.

This though? This was so much better and he watched with glee as the forward elements of both enemy fleets moved forward – clearly intending to wrap protectively around the ‘defector’ as they exchanged long-range cannon fire with the Royal Navy.

It was all he could do not to dance about with glee as the battle started in earnest.

————-

Tala stood and watched from aboard the Brimstone as the battle started, both fleets firing probing shots at each other. At this range, they were unlikely to accomplish much unless they got a lucky hit on the propellers.

As had happened to the ship that had tried to defect from the Royal Navy.