Tunnel Rat

Chapter 328: Parley

The runic formation wavered as he lost some of his concentration, then firmed again. Milo had become distracted by the last two crew to come aboard. Both were female dwarves dressed similarly to the crew of Leviathan, and both were quite drunk. That seemed to bother no one. The two cheerfully hurled insults at everyone and moved to the bow of the ship where a large tarp covered a pile of cargo. Or what Milo had assumed was cargo.

The two scavengers untied the ropes holding the tarp down and pulled it off, revealing a huge brass cannon. Milo was sure he'd seen this one, or one like it, before. Narwhale and Boom-Boom had used a cannon like that to blow up both Leviathan and the Sea Hydra. He knew that the Scavengers had looted more than one from the ship they had found. Knowing Narwhale, this wasn't hers. She was very proud of her gun and planned to pass it on to her daughter.

There was certainly a story of how this cannon had come to be mounted on the forward deck of Pike's ship, but Milo wasn't worrying about it now. Quite the opposite! The sight of that shiny brass cannon mounted on a swiveling gun carriage told him that Captain Pike hadn't been sitting around Shadowport fishing to fill his belly. The ogre Monster Hunter had acquired a new ship, more crew, and upgraded his weaponry. His old ship had been equipped with four large ballistae. Milo saw three on each side of this ship along with two in the stern. He approved of the idea of more weapons. Eels were treacherous and hard to kill.

Pike's ship was picking up speed. It was a larger ship with more sails than the two small pirate ships heading toward the fishing fleet. From what Milo had seen of the ships in the harbor, it was also in far better condition. While the large Scavenger Clans kept their ships in better repair, something essential in a steam-powered ship, he'd seen a lot of traditional ships with tattered sails and hulls crusted with barnacles and seaweed. That made sense once Pike had explained the differences to him between the main Scavenger Clans, the lesser clans, and the outright pirates. The situation was confusing, but one thing was clear to him: The two ships they were following were as much thugs as the people he'd fought in the habitat, motivated by profit and not caring who they hurt.

Behind the ship, the scaled head of a large eel broke the surface. Around it was a swarm of smaller eels, like the ones that Milo had seen at the docks. All of them were following Pike's ship, sensing the possibility of blood in the water. That annoyed Milo, since while he didn't want to be in the water he thought there was a large chance of it happening if a fight broke out. Swimming to another ship, or back to shore would be bad enough. Having to deal with that monster attacking from below would be far worse. He'd learned that lesson when Butch had beat him at Jaws4: Megaladons VS. Amity. He waved down to Captain Pike and pointed to where the Eel was following. Pike squinted and gave a thumbs up. Milo was glad Pike agreed with him and began building a Runic Array

, holding the spell ready for when the Eel got into range.

Across the narrowing expanse of water, the people crewing the two pirate ships had noticed they had some competition. The captain of the larger, Bloodybeard Bess, looked through her spyglass at the ship coming up from behind at a fast clip. "Look, alive girls. The damned ogre must be hungry and out of food. He's looking for a snack and wants a share of what's on those boats. Finish your bottles and sharpen your knives just in case he decides to be difficult about how we divvy up the cargo."

Her first mate, Pegleg Peg, took her advice and finished her beer, tossing the empty bottle over the side. Peg was human, like a few of Bess's crew, and couldn't handle the high-proof spirits preferred by the mostly dwarven crew. If she hadn't been a crazed berserker with her axes she'd have never moved up in the crew. But a constant set of gaps in the crew structure had mirrored her rise to second in command.

The Captain wondered at times if she should watch her back more, but Bess knew the dwarves in the crew would never serve under a human captain. The problem was whether Peg knew that or not. Looking at the Monster Hunter's fast-moving ship, she decided it might be time to see just how tough Peg was. "Peg, grab a boarding party and get them ready. Get killers, not looters. If Pike gets greedy, we'll toss him a surprise and then hit him hard."

Peg looked at Pike's ship and licked her lips. "And his ship? If there's anything left, I think I want a ship of my own."

"You take her, and she's yours, Peg. Signal the other ship and tell them I'll want one of us on either side. Same tactics for them as for us: Take out his sails and board hard."

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"And if Southpaw Sally gets grabby about my new ship?"

"Well, that would be a fight between Captains, wouldn't it? I'd certainly back your right to call her out. But why go worry about that? In the middle of a fight, a lot can happen. Maybe you should pay some special attention to our good friend Sally in that fight?"

Peg laughed and ran off to get her gang together. Bess could see the other ship doing the same, and getting their surprise for Captain Pike ready. Bess wasn't a planner, past instigating a little chaos, she looked forward to what the fight would bring. It would almost be sad if Pike was reasonable about things and just wanted a barrel of fish to grill. "Cut the sails and come around, I want to get him between us for a little talk."

Pike looked at the maneuver and grinned. "They're worried and want to talk things over. Isn't that friendly of them? And putting us in the middle so we can talk to both of them at once. Just darned convenient. Be ready for a pincher maneuver and double-boarding party. I don't think they'll be stupid enough to try it, but who knows? If they do that, rake the gunrails. And don't fire the damned cannon! Those ships get blown to matchsticks by a sixteen-pound ball and I want to be ready for an Eel. We've got one following and other may be more."

The crew nodded and the ogre considered his visitor up in the crow's nest. That was a good spot for the litter feller. He needed him to lure in some big Eels, not get killed in a piss-ant skirmish with pirates. Plus, things blew up around him too often. He looked up and saw that Milo was keeping watch on the Eel moving up from behind. Good, let him play lookout and stay out of trouble. The two pirate ships came slowly around a second time, putting them on a parallel course with Pike's ship, and closed to fifty feet. All three ships were sitting with slack sails and alert crews.

Pike yelled over, his voice booming. "Fancy meeting you and Sally out here, Bessie. Almost like you wanted to buy some fresh fish like I was planning on doing."

Sally wasn't happy that she was talking to Pike's back. "Oh, yeah, we'll buy some fish. But I'm paying with the fees they forgot to pay to my ship for sailing in my ocean. I'll call it even if they hand over half their catch."

Bessie said, "That's my perspective as well. They disrespected my ship and never sent my cut of the revenues so I came out to remind them. If you want in on the deal, say so and we split three ways."

Pike scratched his chin, "Well, there's a small problem there. Sally said this was her ocean, I wonder if she means that. There are quite a few people who think they own a chunk of it and will argue with her. Makes me wonder if I want to be associated with some crazy stunty, wanna-be pirate who dyes her beard."

"I don't dye my beard! That's a lie!"

"Just what I hear, Sal. Just what I hear."

Pike may have underestimated just how seriously a dwarf would take such an accusation. Or, he might not care. Either way, that was enough for Southpaw Sally. She gave a signal, sails dropped and her ship started turning to close with Pike. Bess saw what was happening and yelled at her people. "Get to the rails, Sally's firing off early, as usual." On both ships, a pile of crates and cargo was kicked over revealing small catapults. Crew wearing insulated gloves raced up from below packing smoking ammunition in glass spheres. and aimed at the ship between them.

That got Pike's attention. He ratcheted up his estimation of just how crazy some of the damned pirates were. These two crews went to 11! No one packed hot Clingfire in their holds. That was suicide! "Target the damned catapults! If that shit hits our sails we might burn to the waterline! If it hits you, don't go swimming! It burns underwater. Kill one of them before you die!"

Three ballistae per side fired on the catapults, killing several crewmen, but the weapons were protected by a heavy wooden shield on the front. While some of the crew were dead, they only needed someone to pull the cord and lob their deadly ammunition skyward in a long arc.

Up in the crow's nest, Milo stood up and sneered at the approaching Eel. It was in range and coming fast, and he was ready to put a spell right between its eyes. Then he heard the commotion below and Pike yelling, and the unmistakable sound of multiple ballistae firing. He noticed none of them were targeting the eel. Annoyed, he glanced down just in time to watch both catapult arms slam upward, the slings on the end of the arms releasing fiery death aimed at the main top sail, just below where he was standing.