Voyage of The Valkyrie

Chapter 1

     "Airship inbound!" The voice dragged Jak away from his thoughts. "A large vessel, newer model, three smaller gunships escorting her."

     Jak dropped the scarps he was holding and looked up for the airships

     "Where are they approaching from?" Jak asked, but before he heard a response his helmet's HUD lit up, pointing out the airships lighting them up red.

     "Approaching from the north. Likely from Ashvale on their way south to Norwick."

     "Have they spotted us?" It didn't look like it, but Jak wasn't sure. Judging by the close grouping, probably not.

     "Does not appear so." Came the response

     "Stay on course, alert me if they break formation." Jak said turning his attention back to scavenging, shifting through the debris of an old airship crash.

     After a couple minutes Jak found a dagger half buried and cover by some shredded sail. It didn't look like much, a simple cross guard, plain black leather, nice and clean. The last bit caught his attention. To be clean after what its been through, the dagger had to be enchanted. He stuck it in his belt, intent on selling it later.

     "Sir, two of the gunships have broken formation, they are approaching rather quickly."

     "Maintain course, I'm on my way." Jak replied shifting his gaze to his ship Valkyrie. Two of the airships had changed course, The Aimless and Captain's Pride. They were closing fast.

     "Bugger." Jak said under his breathe, a word he used often to express his distaste for a situation.

     Jak flipped a switch on his belt and his jetpack whirred to life, blowing dust around his feet. He took off at a run, sprinting up along a large fallen mast. He jumped off the end of the mast, and his jetpack kicked in, shooting him into the clear sky.

     "Valkyrie slow down and let them catch up, i don't want them to get suspicious" Jak said as he rapidly approached, the wind tugging at his armor.

     "Yes sir." Valkyrie replied, decelerating.

     The gunships quickly closed the gap, slowed their speed and changed elevation to hang beside Valkyrie.

     Jak changed course, and slid below the gunships. As he drew close to Valkyrie, he kicked his legs out in front of him, which reversed thrust and rapidly slowed him. He then reduced thrust, and moved slowly upward. He clicked off his wrist thrusters and reached up to grab Valkyrie's exit hatch, and tugged at it.

     It was Locked.

     "Valkyrie, open the exit hatch under the cargo hold." Jak requested, slightly annoyed. The hatch popped open in reply.

     Jak quickly climbed in, using the hatch door as a ladder, and pulling it closed behind him.

     The hatch led to the cargo hold, the lowest room in the Airship. It was a large two story box, with a sort of scaffolding around the walls as a second floor. A large ramp/door took up the entire back wall of the first floor, and a bunch of junk and scraps took up the rest of the space (mainly spare sail and sky iron that he had scavenged). A piece of sky iron had escaped the tethers and aimlessly floated about.

     Jak ignored the metal scrap and raced up the steps to the scaffolding, grabbing the banister to spin himself around and race up another set of steps past the noisy engine room. He flew through the door way at the top of the steps and into the mess hall, flying past a couple of empty tables and chairs, and up a third flight of stairs to the main hall. Again he grabbed the banister, spinning around to sprint up another set of metal steps into the cockpit, taking his helmet off as he entered