Lions, Tigers, and Delegates. Oh my!

Roleplay Library Unsorted RP
,
21

As if the jumble of ships and narratives converged couldn’t get any worse…

The Bardoytch navigator sat in his cabin and massaged his temples. “Go explore the ocean, they said. You’ll have fun in the ocean, they said. Discover new islands and people, they said…”

The Gunner’s Mate picked up from across the room. “Don’t worry about freakin’ large storms blowing you off course, they said. Don’t worry, you won’t get lost in the middle of nowhere, they said…”

At this point the two been began to weep uncontrollably.

They were still sobbing when the Captain of the vessel threw open the door. “One of you, the one that took over the Radioman’s job when he fell overboard, set up a signal. Looks like we’ve finally got company. A cluster of ships up ahead, perhaps they’ll know where in the devil we are.”

The Captain looked out the Command Deck window as the ship began to steam faster towards the vessels. The Gunner’s Mate was blabbering into a mouthpiece, struggling to understand the man on the other end. This wasn’t unfortunate. This was hope.

With those vessels lay a future not unfortunate in any way at all.

22

“President Hunter?” came a concerned voice from the other end.

“That’s me…” he replied slowly.

“Oh, thank goodness!” the voice chuckled, "I’m glad I could get a hold of you so easily. I am President Harold Darrence, of the Most Serene Republic of Gollifray, and there appears to have been a mix-up. Your navy captured twelve of our citizens, including our Undersecretary of Defense Edmund Tinian. They may be armed, but I assure you they have no malevolent intentions.

“We’re only trying to keep our nation secure, and Tinian can…well, he can get overenthusiastic at times. If we could negotiate for their release, our country will be most grateful. Oh and in the meantime, please tell your men to be patient with Undersecretary Tinian. He can be a bit…outspoken, at times.”

Tinian stared out the window at the destroyer, growing more and more enraged. Now they had these blasted warships…and being spoken to in such a manner…

“Listen here!” he half-yelled as he leaped out of his seat. A vein in his neck was bulging, and he turned a shade of red, “I will not sit here and be insulted like this. I am not something you ‘get a kick out of’. I am a well-respected government official! And the last thing I wanted to do today when I woke up was to sit here and be grilled by some…” he motioned his hands at the captain, looking for a word that was probably going to be considered offensive, “…some dog-man! I demand to be released right now!”

The eleven other men sat together, watching the Anti-Piracy teams with a wary eye. Their weapons had been confiscated and were piled in a far corner. They noticed that some of them weren’t human. Some appeared slightly fox-like, a few were shorter than the rest. They quickly grew tired of the tense atmosphere, and tried to liven things up. It is a peculiar trait of Gollifrians, that they always seek to make new friends, even with apparent enemies.

“So, um…” one of the men ventured to ask the Anti-Piracy team members, “Do any of you guys like pizza? I know a good seasoning recipe…”

23

Leo looked as more ships piled in even one that dwarfed the size of his. He stared in amazement of the mess.

¨You know Captain, One day you go ride your steam boat and and think to yourself I’m going to find a country and make friends. Next thing you know all the countries be surrounding you and calling you primative.¨

Leo yells at the big ships ¨Can’t a man just ride his steamboat on Sunday!¨

The captain interrupted ¨Wednesday.¨

¨On a Wednesday!¨ Leo corrected.

24

“All that i really have for you right now is he’s under arrest by the Joint-Anti piracy task force, this is a international organization and simply setting him free is not as easy as it sounds, particularly at this late hour.”

[hr]

The captain suddenly snapped to attention in the chair, eyeing the man down.

“Insult my species or race again and I’ll see to it that you spend the rest of your forseeble future in a “foreign” prison. Now, what where your “goal” with surrounding a defenseless ship?”

[hr]

“Alright, let’s get it moving.” A man appeared, obviously appearing senior, and spoke to the soldiers infront of him, who began picking up 6 or so of the “pirates” to the Port Astor via helicopter, the other 5 where transferred to different cells within the Central’s brig.

25

Having edited the introduction the the Federal Republic of Bardoytch, hopefully well enough

The small Bardoytch ship drifted into the crowd, the engine having run out of fuel about fifteen feet before contact. The Radioman had no luck with a signal, and the Captain decided it was best to hail by voice.

Out on the deck, he shouted; “Hello! Nice weather, huh? Can you, uh, give us some aid, please?”

26

Darrence sighed silently, a again rested his forehead on his hand. “Is there any way we can have a voice in the trial? All I want is to bring those twelve men back safe and sound. I don’t want to cause any kind of international trouble, or at least make the present trouble any worse.”

Tinian realized he was overstepping a boundary, and sat back quietly in his chair. He willed himself to calm down, and became aware of a warm fluster in his cheeks that only occurred when he was upset. He spent a minute with eyes closed, breathing deeply.

This was exactly why he was not in charge of international relations.

“I’m sorry,” he did not make eye contact with the captain. “I am…I’m just stressed right now.” He hid his face in his hands to take another sniffing breath, then chuckled. “I mean, I hope you can understand why I’m stressed!”

He received nothing but a severe stare.

“Anyways, our goal was to assess the ship to see if it was, indeed, defenseless. It entered our waters without our knowledge, and we were trying to ensure it would not pose a threat to our people. In essence, we were acting as you are now: trying to defend against pirates and other dangers.”

“Hey guys…” Pizza Seasoning Guy sat with four others in the ship’s brig. They were all glum, understandable. He kept trying to pick them up, but they remained morose. Suddenly, he got an idea. He began to sing:

“Some things in life are bad
They can really make you sad
Other things just make you swear and curse”

This was a national favorite, and the others began to smile and rock their heads to the beat.

“When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help things turn out for the best…
And…”

Now they all joined in:

“…always look on the bright side of life!”

27

“Now what?!” the militia on shore stared through their binoculars at the new ship pulling up to the others. This had a green, white, and black flag printed on it. “Bloody hell, get the president on the line again.”

28

Leo noticed a worn down boat with a man on deck yelling as it drifted in ¨Hello!?¨

29

The Gunner’s Mate/Radioman was still arguing with the many people on the signal about whether or not this was an international crisis, whether or not the respective captains were too busy with other matters, and whether or not the singing from the brig was too loud.

Meanwhile, the Captain kept shouting. “This is really kinda unfortunate, you know? We just set sail to find people and when we find them it seems nobody is happy to see us or anything.” He observed the decks of the surrounding ships, suspiciously bare of personnel. “Hey, Gunny! Try to set up a signal with the National Government, I don’t care if it is weak or what, just let them know what we found!”

As he finished he heard a voice behind him calling out a greeting.

30

Port Astor’s combat command was a hive of activity. Techs had plotted an intercept for an unknown surface contact and attempted communication on multiple radio bands. The chief on watch didn’t like what he was seeing. He ordered the gunship to fire its 20mm chain gun ahead oof the vessel. On board the steamer, Gordy and his boarding party were orders to prepare for engagement.

“On the frakking deck!” The master sergeant barked as the terrifying rip of the gunships cannon echoed across the waves. He shoved the nearest pizza enthusiast facedown and lifted his rifle to the ready. Overheard whistled a 127mm round, a warning shot from the Astor herself
Gordy’s crosshair trained on the figure in the bridge. Don’t make me do it, he thought to himself.
The vessel didn’t slow or attempt to evade.
Gordy pulled the trigger.

31

“Yes sir, Mr. President.”

The Defender put down the phone and hurried back where the other militia were standing, watching all of the ships drifting together in the water. A large group of civilians had gathered as well to see what was going on.

“The president said,” the militia man called to the others, “to mobilize the artillery immediately. He doesn’t know who the other ship belongs to, and it may open fire. All unarmed civilians,” he addressed the crowd, “evacuate inland at once!”

Suddenly, gunfire broke out. Turning around, everyone saw the gunship firing at the newcomer.

“Go!”

The civilians crowded back, and fled to their homes to grab what they could.

“Go get the artillery, hurry!”

32

As the Captain turned to return the greeting, he was suddenly hit by how incredibly LOUD the ocean happened to be. So loud, and he was never good with loud noises. That’s why he wore his earplugs everywhere.

Oh, duh. The steel plate earplugs, thick enough to stop any bullet from any high-power, military grade rifle. He’d almost forgot he had them in, As he turned around, he simultaneously put the earplugs in his breast pocket, tripped on his own feet, and saw all manner of gunfire erupting before him.

“Peace! Peace!” he shouted, and then he went overboard.

33

The second pass of the gunship wasn’t as benign. The gunner laid the gun from bow to stern. On the steamer, Gordy and his team began to forcibly remove all parties to the RHIBs as additional assets were vectored inbound from the Astor.

34

All members on the steam boat were hugging the floor as shots fired quickly from a location unknown to them.

Leo hears shots from Gordon and looks roughly at the squad leader ¨What the hell is going on!?¨

35

The captain continued a conversation with the Undersecretary, when the ship suddenly lurched hard to port.

“What the hell…” He stumbled over to the nearest communications console mounted in the wall

“Bridge, what the hell is going on?”

“Unidentified vessel isnt changing heading, Astur fired warning shots and we’re about to fire ours…”

He was cut off by a loud THUD that shook the ship, the 57mm rear mounted cannon had fired, soaring over the bow of the oncoming ship.

“Now!”

“I’m coming to the bridge” He signalled two guards to watch the ‘Undersecretary’ and moved out of the room back to the bridge of the Frigate.

36

While the ship rocked, and guns fired outside, the five Gollifrians in the brig kept singing. Their guards had joined in for a while, but now looked worried at the firefight outside. The prisoners had no real choice in what they did, however, so they continued their song:

“So always look on the bright side of death”

They whistled a short tune after this lyric.

“a-Just before you draw your terminal breath”

Again, a simple whistled melody. The boat jolted as a cannon fired.

“Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it
Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true
You’ll see it’s all a show, keep ‘em laughin’ as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you”

37

The Gunner’s Mate and Navigator ran out of the bridge and jumped overboard as well, followed by the rest of the crew out of the portholes. The chef left the galley, looked around, and then followed suit.

The Bardoytch ship then shuddered, the engine seizing up one last time, and then began to unceremoniously sink like no vessel ever had, or would ever again.

The Head Mechanic waved the ship’s white flag in the air, trying to stop the incessant bombardment occurring around them.

38

“Oh my God…” the militiamen whispered as they watched the ship sink, with people jumping off. Two men began running down the small dock to his personal boat.

“Stop!” the others called, “The president ordered-”

One man stopped and turned around, “The president ordered me as a Defender to stay out of the water.” He shed his bulletproof vest, his uniform hat, and tossed his rifle onto the dock. “As a civilian, I’m going to do what I can to save those people!” And he kept going

He started his engine, and roared toward the sinking ship. The other man lowered the national flag that flew atop the sail, and put up a white one, hoping it would be enough to avoid being fired on.

They reached the drifting wreckage within a couple of minutes, and a few people were floating nearby.

“Throw them a liferaft and reel them in!” the boat’s driver shouted. His partner did so. Two people who had been floating nearby grabbed it, and he began pulling them in.

39

The RHIB pulled up among the sailboat, the armed occupants began shouting to the occupant.

“Back off! It’s not saf—…” He was cut off by a explosion from the sinking ship, knocking him overboard. The man was quickly pulled back on by other sailors, and another RHIB pulled any survivors from the water.

“Holy…” exclaimed a soldier on the fast moving RHIB, “Was it terrorists?..”

“Could be” replied the Sergeant. “Or it’s just fuel cooking off, We may or may not ever know. Now get back to fishing survivors.”

40

The two Gollifrians exclaimed as they fell to the deck, knocked over in surprise by the explosion. They lay there for a a minute, dazed, before venturing to stand back up again.

“Oh my God,” one exclaimed, “it exploded!”

“No duh!” the other yelled. “Hurry, we have to get people out of the water!” He tossed the life preserver to a woman.

More of the Defenders were now shedding their uniforms and driving their boats out to the wreckage area. The shock of the explosion drove them back a bit, but still they pressed forward.