Station Square Coastline

[Captain Olive]

(FROM Southern Seas)

The Swimming Devil pulled up a distance from the shoreline, just far enough away so that you couldn't reach it without swimming or flying, but just close enough so that as much as possible was within range of the cannons. Captain Olive watched the whole thing from in front of the speakertube.

"All starboard cannons load and prepare t' fire!" Olive instructed, and her crew rushed to load the cannons facing the shore with appropriate amounts of black powder and cannonballs.

Once everything was ready, Olive glanced at the shoreline one more time. "First things first, let's get the attention of those landlubbers. STARBOARD FOXTROT! FIRE!"

At Olive's command, the cannon she'd addressed let out a loud KABOOM, discharging its cannonball. A watchtower placed near the shore took the blow in its supporting framework and toppled over, hitting the ground with a crash and a crack and bursting into flames.

"TIMBER! Aye, I love wreckin' stuff. At ease, crew. Now we wait for our foes t' respond."

[Ayu Kanou]

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

An extremely bad time to be napping. The original burst from the cannon had woken her up, and crawled away hastily when she saw the shot aimed relatively close to her- a matter of yards. Not something Ayu had expected to wake up to. She scrambled to her feet, and in a panicked matter tried to figure what was going on.

"What- the- heeeeeeeeeellllll?!?!?! That nearly HIT-... me..." Her jaw dropped- It took her a while to register that this wasn't an accident, but was due to...

"P-P-PIRATES?!?" She stared at the ship for a bit. "Is- this for REAL?!" Rubbing her eye just to be sure, "That's... not... good." Maybe she was still dreaming?

Ayu took another glance at the wreckage, and trembled at the sight of the ship. This was the LAST time she'd ever sleep on the job. Fumbling around her pocket, she erratically flipped open a communicator; An amazing feat for her, since she had rarely seen one in her life.

"Blast it all, Cride! How the hell do I use this?!" Remembering previous instructions, she hoped that a signal would get out.

"Darios! Cride!" No answer. "Dammit! Answeeeeeeeer!" Static. "There's-friggin'-PIRATES-here! Pee-Eye-Are-Ay-Tee-Eee-Es! Do you HEAR me?!"

At first, nothing, then- "Cride here. Glad you found a way to work that thing. I told Darios giving you a cell-"

"CRIDE! YOU'RE NOT HELPING! YOU HEAR ME?! P I R A T E S!"

"-phone was a stupid thing to do. I'm surprised you even know how to work an alarm clock."

"NOT HELPING! PIRATES! HERE! COAST! NOW!"

A bit of silence. "Are you feeling okay, Ayu? I mean, you've been on Emerald Watch for days now-"

"Perfectly fine, except for the *cough* PIRATE THING!"

"...That's ridiculous, Ayu. There isn't such a thing as 'Pirates' anymore."

Ayu failed to dignify that with an answer.

"...See, I told Darios that you were a looney. Oh, by the way, we are supposed to report to him in three hours. That trip back from Capitol is killing me, my legs are all 'PSSH'- Wait, hang on, I need another cig'."

"Cride! Are you even LISTENING?"

"Oh, hang on, babe, got a call coming in-" with a *click*, the hedgie had hung up. She was gonna have words with Darios- And a few kicks for that idiot Cride. Trembling even more now (out of anger rather than fear now), she crushed the small paperweight to pieces before discarding the phone. She was definitely pissed now. Ayu made a mad dash towards the sea. Practically flying into it, she drifted underwater silently watching the ship. Oxygen was not a problem- And she planned to use that to her advantage.

Not that Ayu Kanou needed to- But she hated interrupted sleep. It's principle.

[GUN Command]

The cannon shot and explosion on the shoreline certainly made quite the racket. In fact, several of GUN's AA crews jumped into full alert at the sound. Guns and missiles were ready and loaded, awaiting only the crew chief's targeting data before firing. But as the crew's scanned the skies, everyone saw that there was in fact no targets to shoot at.

Lt. Steller, command of one gun crew had initially looked off inland where intel stated was the most likely vector from which the alien space ships might approach from. But after seeing nothing, walked over to the other side of the building which faces towards the shore and took a look for himself to see if perhaps the enemy was coming from the opposite direction. Still the skies were clear. So, using his binoculars he scanned the rest of the view. It didn't take long to spot the smoke rising from the destroyed harbour master's tower.

"So, are we under attack sir?" his gunnery sergeant asked.

"I don't think so... last intel said the enemies artillery could wipe out a whole city block. This looks more like a conventional explosion. It looks like some harbour building was destroyed."

"Hey, what's that speck just off-shore?" One of the assembled crew asked as they all looked out towards the scene.

"It kind of looks like an old sail boat." One soldier without the benefit of binoculars speculated.

"Yeah right. Nobody uses sail boats anymore. Next your going to tell me its a pirate ship." one scoffed.

"Actually, I think it IS a pirate ship. I can see a black flag flying above the sails." the Lt. cut in.

Before long, everyone was taking a look for themselves, and everyone was about to bust their seams with the ridiculous notion of pirates attacking.

"This must be some kind of joke, man"

"Halloween must have come early this year! Ha haha haha!"

"Maybe its some sort of naval demonstration, a reenactment, you know?"

"I better call it in anyways. Who knows, maybe this is the real deal. Not like I think this is any real threat mind you." The Lt. finally stated as he turned to the radio.

"This is Lt. Steller to command. We have an unidentified contact off-shore. Over."

"Roger that. Can you identify it? Is it one of the alien ships?"

"Negative. You're not going to believe this but, it looks like an old pirate ship. I think it just attacked and destroyed a harbour facility building."

"Is this some kind of crude JOKE soldier?!"

"Negative, Sir. Send out a recon team if you don't believe me. I'll send the coordinates now."

"Alight, we'll look into. Get back to watching the skies."

Minutes later a troop laden GUN transport roared down the street. The mood of the troops was rather jovial instead of the usual uneasy silence that preceded a mission. The reason being that the C.O. had told the troops about this 'pirate' ship and as expected, everyone was making a big joke out of it.

That all ended when the vehicle reached sight of the destroyed harbour tower and everyone saw the ship out at sea. "Well I'll be, there really is a pirate ship out here." Someone said to break the silence.

"Alright, team..." The squad Lt. called out. "Lets treat this like a serious situation here. Everyone fall out and take up positions along the sea wall. I'll see if I can make contact and find out what this farce is all about."

The eight man squad filed out of the troop truck and quickly took up their positions as the Lt. calmly walked over to the squad's radio man and took the receiver. "Open it to all channels." He told the radio-op.

"Attention unidentified vessel. Identify yourself immediately." No response. The Lt. repeated the same message and still got no response.

"Maybe they don't have a radio on board?" Someone in the squad suggested.

"Good thinking." The Lt. ran off and grabbed a megaphone from out of the truck. Going against his training and better judgment, the Lt. walked out onto a dock in full view of the ship and called out using the megaphone. "AHOY!!! SHIP AHOY!!! IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY"

[Captain Olive]

((Actually, Olive's ship DOES have a radio. But for the sake of keeping things going let's say nobody was paying attention to it.))

Olive didn't know what to look at, the female who'd just dove into the water or the party of GUN soldiers who'd just shown up. She decided to focus on the latter, because Ayu probably wouldn't have any way of getting on board and didn't look like she'd be able to do much damage to the ship with her bare hands. She leaned against the railing of the deck and yelled back, deciding not to take the fact that they'd never heard of her as an insult.

"You want to know who we are, ya landlubbers? My name is Captain Olive, and this be the Swimming Devil, my tried and trusted vessel. Quite intimidatin', wouldn't ye say? Ye should have seen the look on ye faces when ye saw us! (She let out a jovial pirate laugh.) Starboard Bravo, give 'em something to think about!"

One of the cannons on deck fired. This cannonball demolished a chunk of the dock the lieutenant was standing on, but the lieutenant himself would most likely be left untouched. Starboard Foxtrot had just finished reloading.

[Ayu Kanou]

Ayu swerved around back, swimming towards the aft of the ship. With a burst of speed, she shot out of the surface towards the deck, climbing higher and higher on a make-shift geyser. "Thanks." she muttered toward the column before it dissipated. There was a good chance nobody would've expected her to board the ship that quickly; Ayu had the glint in her eye again, the one that demanded her mischievous havoc-loving self to do what she did best.

"AHEM." She tapped her foot impatiently- Reckless thing to do, jumping in the middle of a crew. She didn't seem to mind. "Who's gonna account for shooting a cannon near me? I want names. I don't take lightly to being attacked, so unless you guys are cruisin' for a bruisin'... I want names." She had to stifle a chuckle; "Been awhile since I've rustled me a pirate. Fifty-something years, I'd say. So, any of you want first shot? I promise... you won't be disappointed." Darios would surely disagree- But she deserved a little bit of fun now and then. So what if he didn't like her screwing around? "He's a moody bastard anyhow."

Ayu readied a Torrent in her left hand, concealed behind her back- Pirates probably didn't welcome visitors, much less the hostile kind.

She waited for somebody to make a move, unaware of GUN's reactions.

[GUN Command]

The Lt. made little to no effort to hide his snickering when Captain Olive stated his ships name. "Pfftt... Your ship is called the ha hah hah! Swimming Devil? HAH HA HA HA... Buster I've heard better. You have to be kidding me. Hah hah!! Do you have any idea who you're messing with?"

Then the cannon ball crashed into the dock nearby, smashing up crates and putting a fair sized hole in the dock planking. The Lt. instinctively reacted by dropping to the deck. But once the dust settled, the Lt. got back to his feet and he looked mad. "Alright wise guy. You want a fight? You have it!"

He walked back down the dock and regrouped with his recon team and grabbed the squad radio. "Command, confirmed hostile surface vessel in Station Square harbour. Hostiles have displayed aggressive behaviour and two warning shots have been fired by hostile surface vessel. I repeat, pirates, real pirates are attempting to launch a raid against Station Square. Requesting additional support."

"Roger, we're dispatching back up now. Hold position. Do not let them enter the harbour."

"Alright men, set up along the sea wall. Machine gun, over there, grenadier over there. If they try to use land I want the grenade launcher and machine gun on them. Keep your heads down and don't let them see you deploy. They'll try to use their ships guns to soften us up. Stay low and be careful. Move!"

As one the recon team spread out, crouching behind the sea wall as they moved to keep the enemy from seeing their movements. It would not take long for them to deploy. Now, it was the pirates move.

[Captain Olive]

Everything was happening at once for the crew of the Swimming Devil. GUN had begun to set up defenses, and that wacko had somehow gotten to the ship's deck in one leap. A normal person would easily have been overwhelmed by all this... but who has ever classified a pirate captain as a normal person?

"All starboard cannons fire at will," Olive instructed the nearest crew member. "I'll take care of this little pest."

"Aye, aye, ma'am. (He rushed to the speakertube.) ALL STARBOARD CANNONS FIRE AT WILL, BY ORDER OF THE CAPTAIN!"

With that taken care of, Olive drew her cutlass and faced Ayu.

"You want names? They call me Captain Olive, and this be the Swimming Devil, my fine vessel. (She paused to flip up her eyepatch.) I take credit for those cannonballs, but to be fair I didn't know you were there at the time. I prefer to take care of visitors to my ship personally... if ye know what I mean."

By now, Olive was carefully adjusting the angle of her cutlass in an attempt to reflect sunlight into Ayu's eyes. If she flinched, Olive would charge forwards and make a lightning-quick slash to Ayu's right shoulder. This was a little strategy Olive liked to refer to as the "Flash and Slash".

Meanwhile, Starboard Hotel and Starboard Juliet, two of the belowdecks cannons, simultaneously discharged their ammo blindly at the seawall, hoping to catch some poor GUN soldier in the crossfire.

((A naval battle and a one-on-one fight at the same time... this'll be fun!))

[Ayu Kanou]

Ayu did much more than a flinch- Her eyes were directed away from the light not by reflex, but by laughter:

"You?! The captain!? Isn't THAT priceless!" Back in her elders' day, a parrot's place was on a shoulder. How ironic that she would come across one that was captain- and 'evolved', as her people would call it.

"Ahaha- Yeow!!" Ayu hadn't expected the lunge- she had to throw herself down to avoid injury, but she was now flat on the deck. "Stupid! Blast first, laugh later!"

[GUN Command]

What affect the bombardment had on the ground troops the pirates would not be able to tell. Too much smoke being tossed up from the cannon ball explosions and the troops maintained their hiding places well. Not only that, but the pirates were only aiming at about eight troops in total, so there was a far greater chance of hitting nothing anyways. Until the pirates attempted a landing, the troops would remain hidden, when they'd spring up and attack with all guns.

Meanwhile about 10 km off shore, just now visible along the horizon the GUN frigate Iroquois sailed intently across the ocean blue towards Station Square. Commander Anton had received orders to run off a rather mis-guided band of antiquated pirates. The Commander had of course been skeptical of such a thing, but orders were orders.

If the pirates in all the excitement hadn't taken notice of the Iroquois yet then a shrill blast of the ships 'all hands to battlestations' klaxon as it approached would certainly give them some warning. And that was precisely the idea. The Commander hoped that just the site of the GUN frigate might be enough to encourage the pirates to leave. If not, well, they were more then prepared to deal with any hostilities.

"Sir, we're in visual range now. Sure enough, some idiots' attacking the shore line in an old 'Man of War'. I still think we should have launched a cruise missile up its rudder back when we were at the 40 km mark." one of the bridge officers stated.

"Nah." Commander Anton replied. "Those missiles are worth a fair bit. This guy isn't worth spending that much on. Not when our own gun will do nicely."

The Commander moved over to the communications station. "Gunner, put a warning shot off the hostiles port side. I want you to give those would-be pirates a nice shower."

"Aye, Sir!" The Iroquois' single, bow-mounted 5 in. cannon rotated about to bring the gun towards the enemy vessel. The gun chief couldn't have a better shot. The enemy's broadside was completely exposed and with the radar-controlled range finder and computer assisted targeting software. The shot was almost guaranteed to land on target. "Going loud!" Another shrill warning klaxon sounded off on deck just before the cannon fired, lobbing the shot across the 10 kilometre's that separated the two ships.

In about thirty seconds the pirate crew was about to get a very abrupt shower, courtesy of the Iroquois.

[Captain Olive]

((Oh, you just HAVE to rub it in that you've got the better tech...))

(Olive)
Why is everyone laughing at me today? What happened to the olden days when pirates were taken seriously?

Seeing Ayu hit the deck, Olive spun around and pressed the point of her cutlass against her back, just enough to cause pain without actually drawing blood.

"CAPTAIN!" came a yell from the crow's nest. "Hostile ship at 9 o'clock! 5.5 knots!"

"That's too far away to hit," Olive responded without turning her head. "Ignore it until it comes into range."

Then the Iroquois fired its shot. Olive's crew was powerless to stop it as it resulted in a soaking of the entire deck. The same crew member from before rushed back.

"Captain, the hostile ship almost hit us from 5.5 knots away! I doubt we'd stand a chance against it. We'd better retreat."

Olive still didn't look away. "It'd be a blow to me pride, but not as much as losing me ship. We retreat!"