Science Fiction Smack Down 2017

02: The Iron Rose

Author's Note:

For Round 1.1, the music inspiration I chose was # 1: The Iron Rose by the Clockwork Dolls.

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Like a whale rising from the deep, the airship Fortune broke through the clouds and into the golden sunlight of the upper sky. The three masts had their sails out, catching the full force of the wind.

Helene VanZant marched onto the bridge with the form and bearing her previous time with the military had granted her. The Captain's hat of ink black atop her head kept her flowing red hair in check. An embroidered rose of silvery silk marked the black patch over her right eye. Her left eye, as clear and blue as the sky itself, looked over the bridge and crew, taking in everything and missing nothing. She intentionally didn't look at Cedric Mayne, her second in command, silently continuing her inspection. Their relationship was still unknown to the crew, and she wanted it kept that way.

"My lady, two ships sighted off the port bow," Mayne reported.

Helene noticed he didn't address her by rank and knew she'd need to talk to him about it later.

"Do you a bearing on them?" Helene asked, taking a seat in her centrally positioned command chair.

"Aye, the HMS Galleon escorting the frigate Caruso," he answered.

"The Caruso? She's a two-hundred ton freighter, and reconnaissance has it it's all spices and tea," she responded. Going silent a moment, she absently tapped the index finger of her right hand against her lips. The Hensyel Merchant Ship designated Galleon was a top of the line battleship, and if it was running escort for the Caruso, the frigate was carrying much more than spices and tea. She dropped her hand to the armrest before directing her one-eyed gaze toward her second in command. "Mr. Mayne, mobilize the crew, you have ten minutes!"

"Yes, my lady," Mayne answered with a quick bow and departed the bridge to carry out his instructions.

Helen's jaw clenched as Mayne once again failed to address her by rank.

"Helm, bring us alongside the Caruso," Helene ordered. "Keep the freighter between us and the Galleon, I don't want those cannons able to fire on us."

"Aye, Captain," the helmsman acknowledged. Turning the great wheel at the front of the bridge, he steered the massive vessel on course.

In the depths of the Fortune, Mayne reached the battle deck. His path from the bridge exited onto the suspended walkway overlooking the open area where his troops would assemble when the call went forth. Taking a microphone from the control panel mounted to the waist high railing, Mayne switched on the power and brought his people instantly into action.

"Men to all crew stations," he ordered, his voice booming outward from a multitude of speakers across the length of the battle deck. "Gunners sight propulsion engines. Boarding party suit up and begin forming ranks."

He paused for an instant before shouting the final order with emphasis. "Raise the Iron Rose!"

A steam powered hoist fired in a burst of white vapor, sending a black flag to the uppermost point of the mighty vessel's center mast where it caught the wind and unfurled. Adorned in silver, the flag bore the emblem of a rose situated above a pair of crossed swords. It was the battle standard of the Fortune and its Captain.

As the troops gathered their weapons and rushed to get in line for the assault, Mayne hooked his boots on either side of the smooth railings of the ladder and slid down from the walkway to the main assembly area. He walked down the line of troops, looking them over one by one.

"You are not men! You are not women!" Mayne bellowed confidently. "You are an unstoppable force! And, we will be reckoned with!"

The boarding party roared their approval of his words, raising their fists overhead.

The crew working on the decks above and below, turned gear mounted wheels to operate the machinery responsible for loading and aiming the ship's guns. They sang a song of battle, the tempo coinciding with their efforts. Even the noise of the machinery and the metal decking around them couldn't muffle their voices entirely, and the song was clearly heard by the assault troops waiting to launch their attack.

"Abandon hope. The Iron Rose comes forth to claim the prize. We seek your goods. We seek your gold. We do not seek your lives. The Iron Maid who rules us, the Iron Rose be rare. Don't fight with us. You will not win, but join us if you dare. The Iron Rose a-flying means danger in the sky. We fight for gold. We fight as one. For we will do or die!"

"Onward!" Mayne shouted to the troops. They marched with him toward the far end of the assault deck, and he yelled the cadence out to keep them in formation. "Left, left, left right left. Left, left, left right left!"

The massive hatch at the end of the deck spiraled open, granting a glorious view of the open sky and the fully loaded cargo ship they were about to capture. The wind came screaming in, but with their masks and goggles in place, the assault teams barely noticed it.

The main cannons fired. Plumes of white erupted from the guns as jets of superheated water vapor propelled spikes of iron across the sky. The engines of the Caruso were smashed to pieces, breaking away and falling out of sight beneath the clouds, leaving the frigate afloat but unable to move.

"Battalions, draw your weapons!" Mayne commanded, unsheathing his own sword. A wall of gleaming blades appeared behind him as his troops did the same.

The secondary guns fired, dragging long lines of highly resilient cable behind metal piercing harpoons. When the harpoons struck, cranks were turned by the gunnery crews to draw up the slack. Hooking onto the cables linking the two ships, Mayne gave a wordless shout and jumped from the deck, followed immediately by the boarding teams. Gold and glory awaited them, and they would take it all.