Issue 1 Downtime

Sean stood on the bridge of his ship the Brittanian airship the Bellerophon. He watched his crew work his uniform immaculate.

The lookout spotted a ship off the bow. It was approaching rather fast, though its colors couldn't be seen yet.

"Take no risks. Signal the approaching vessel to present colors or we will open fire," Sean said hand closing around the hilt of his sword.

The requisite signals were sent, but instead of responding in any conventional way, a pitch black cloud of... something... seemed to roil out from the ship, making rangefinding difficult.

The cloud was obscuring their view of the ship before long, and getting closer.

"Ready all guns and inform crews to prepare for battle," Sean said as he watched the approaching cloud. Sirens went off throughout the ship as the marines currently on watch move to their appropriate stations.

"Fire a warning shot. Give them ten seconds to change course or raise colors if they continue to advance fire the signal flare and open fire."

The warning shot disappeared into the blackness.

And... well, it would have been just off the other ship's bow, but there was no way to tell now.

As the cloud drew near, one thing became clearer.

It wasn't smoke.

It was birds.

He'd... heard of such things.

"The bloody Morrigan," Sean said a grin breaking out on his face. "Have half of the gunners prepare grape shot and to fire a volley. The other guns are to wait until after the first volley of shot and use the gaps in the cloud to sink the fools. Have the marines prepare to repel boarders. We'll show the Morrigan what it means to take on a Brittanian ship of the line. Long live the King."

His words were echoed by the crew on the bridge.

"First mate, the bridge is yours. I am going to check on our cargo."

That was when a tumult broke out somewhere above and a crash later one of the royal marines fell past the window before coming to a sudden jerky stop from the rope tangled around his leg.

Sean watched the man dangling for a moment.

"Cut him loose we can't have have him blocking our view," Sean said, "Make his sacrifice worth something and sink the ones who killed him."

He began walking back towards the cargo hold.

Inside the hold sat a large metal pod with hoses running into it. Every now and then, steam spewed from a pair of circular vents located near the top of the pod. Through a single glass view-port, a menacing metallic visage could be seen.

"The Morrigan is providing us with an excellent opportunity," Sean said as he released the locks on the pod. "An opportunity for an actual combat test."

He opened the pod and placed a glowing had inside.

Steam poured out as the glowing energy from Sean's hand flowed into the chest of the hulking metal monstrosity within. Its eyes glowed an eerie red as it soon began to stir from its slumber.

"PROTOTYPE SENTINEL AUTOMATON, CODENAME TALOS, ACTIVATED," it blared.

Sean smiled as Talos stirred.

"Talos," Sean said, "Repel the mutant attack force."

"BY YOUR COMMAND."

The metal hulk stomped forward, turned, and marched for the giant hold doors. The crew opened them as it approached. Strange propulsion devices of previously unseen design, built into its back and legs, whirred to life with a fiery glow. It then rocketed forth into the sky.

"Godspeed, Talos," Sean said marching back towards the bridge with a grin on his face.

"Oh my stars and garters..." Nailah gasps as the flying metal man comes into view from where she's been fighting off royal marines on board one of the decks of the Bellerophon.

Talos was scanning the sky, looking for the enemy vessel through the cloud of birds. Then it must have noticed, out of the corner of it's vision, the fight on deck, for it turned to face her.

"TARGET LOCATED," it announced before it rocketed toward Nailah's position.

"Whelp!" Nailah lets out and jumps to the side in a dive and going into a roll, trying to avoid the impact of the... thing.

However rather than a heavy impact, Nailah would feel the heat of its engines as it slowed and landed on the deck with a thud. It extended an arm, palm flat. There was a mechanical whir as a gatling gun slid into view and began to spin.

"What's this now?" she blinks.

Her abilities would tell her that now was the time to dodge.

A lot.

On account of the hail of bullets about to exit the weapon.

She has no time for any kind of comment and just jumps out of the way and makes a dash for the railing as wooden splinters explode behind her from the gatling gun ripping into the ship.

The machine's gunfire followed her, indifferent to the downed soldiers caught in its path.

And Nailah dove over the railing into a free fall down the side of the ship.

Talos stopped firing and took flight to give chase.

Nailah was diving down along the side of the ship, opening her wings to catch her fall and swoop upwards once she was under and past the bow of the ship.

It arced after her, but lost some ground.

(So to speak.)

On the other side of the ship Nailah suddenly seemed to be gone. Though the machine would probably notice the bashed in window and the commotion from inside as it rocketed up.

It flew up to the broken window to peer inside.

Just to catch Nailah running out of the room, two disarmed (and somewhat bewildered) marines on the floor.

After a moment of "thought," it flew off to return to the search for the Crow.

The heading on which the Emerald Crow had last been seen when the flock poured from it came up dry, as it often did in encounters with the ship. However with the British weapon in play the time for subtlety was quickly passing, and a cannon volley at Talos revealed that the ship had come around to flank the Imperial one, on a heading slightly below it.

The weapon maneuvered around the cannonballs and rocketed toward the enemy vessel. While large, Talos was still a smaller target than the smallest airship.

Once Talos drew closer, harpoons were fired at it, aiming to tie it down.

Two of the harpoons managed to connect. While one didn't pierced its abdominal plating far enough for the barbs to hook in, the other lodged firmly in its left elbow joint. It looked down at its arm as it tore the other harpoon free. It almost seemed... confused.

The men on the deck madly cranked, trying to reel the metal man in.

Talos was yanked towards the ship. It then grabbed the rope with its free hand and used its engines to pull the opposite direction.

The ship began to drift a bit, the men still trying to reel it in while the harpoons were reloaded and brought to bear.

It stared at the rope holding it. Strange runic circles etched on the outer rings of its mechanical eyes began to glow a fiery red before searing hot beams fired from them, severing the rope. Mage Captain Hall's handiwork no doubt.

And that was when the gunnery crews were finally able to bring a reloaded cannon to bear, firing at the now much closer metal monstrosity.