The chaos of true battle-it was something the Minister was intimately familiar with. Everything seemed to happen so quickly, and his attention was divided trying to put fires out everywhere. Luckily, his subordinates had seemed fairly competent so far. First, he rushed to the opposite side of the ship, ensuring that the marines and various crewbeasts were laying down fire on the ambushing shrews without them being able to board the
Hide, blood streaming down his cheek from the wound. Ralynn was near him, and then suddenly called out that Morgan and Silvertongue were now somehow on
this side of the ship. Casting his eyes down to the water below, he saw both of them surface, blood in the water around them from either one or both being wounded, and soon after, his Bosun had dived into the water with a rope to save them.
‘Gates...what a mess!
The closer shrews in their dugouts were dangerously close to the trio, but there was nothing he could do, if he ordered the marines to fire, it would almost certainly hit the three and seal their fate. Cursing under his breath, he did the only thing he could do and ordered the marines to fire at those approaching from further away to give them a little more time to swim or figure something out. He would just have to hope the noise of the cannon would scare them away or distract them enough for Ralynn to figure something out.
The thunderous booming of cannon could be heard and felt throughout the ship as the rolling broadside bombardment of the village began. Talinn, sheathing his blade and running to the opposite side of the ship, pulled out his looking glass to judge and thrust it towards the shrew village. While the first couple of shots missed, the advantage of the rolling nature of the fire meant that each shot got more and more accurate as the gun crews were able to adopt. Initially, the large formation, rather, more like a mob of shrews seemed to take a few steps back, then stood their ground as the first cannonballs landed harmlessly in the water, and one intrepid would-be leader started some kind of war cry as they raised their spears in the air in defiance.
That did not last long.
Soon the cannon fire began to strike the crowd and the village itself. Large balls of cast iron, thrown forth at remarkable speed, tore through the crowd of shrews like a knife carving a cake, the bloody mist and panicked, pained screaming audible even from all the way over on the Hide, as the snow and mud beneath their paws was rapidly stained red with blood. To their credit, they held against the first few rounds that landed into the thick of the crowd, before their morale broke and they ducked and scattered for cover, many running to their homes and shops to find some kind of cover. This, too, did not save them, as the unhardened structures proved to be an even worse decision than simply standing out in the open. The cannonballs tore through the stone and wood as if they were nothing, destroying critical support beams and burying large amounts of the shrews alive, and fires soon broke out in the village, leading many of those same shrews buried under the rubble to die of smoke inhalation. More than a few shrews caught fire, running around screaming as their fur burned, spreading the flames even further. A few, realizing the hopelessness of the situation, simply dropped their weapons, grabbed their kits that were still alive, and began to run off into the wilderness of snow and ice behind them. Talinn had no sympathy, his pale blue eyes just as cold as the arctic water beneath him as he watched the destruction.
Act like barbarians, get treated like barbarians. I gave you two choices, and you picked the wrong one. Burn here and in Hell.
Suddenly, the entire Hide shook and groaned, and Talinn once again found himself dashing over to Ralynn’s side of the boat, and then glancing down at the water. It was now shimmering and steaming, bubbles of air coming up from underneath the ship. He frowned, then cursed under his breath, knowing enough from his technical advisors’ briefings that the only way that could happen was if something went severely wrong with the engine. No time to question that now-if it had been a boiler explosion, he would have known, and anything short of that could wait.
Glancing over towards the trio, he was surprised to see that the all the shrews closest to the trio were now dead, with no arrows in them either, and the furthest ones were now either dead or retreating. Had Ralynn managed to somehow dispatch them? Good girl, but there was time to figure out how later. The little rabbit he had plucked from Alton Bay had grown into proper Navybeast. Soon enough, the three were hauled to the deck, looking a few moments away from death, with Greeneye, somehow still functioning despite the copious open wounds dripping blood across the deck, joining them.
He was about to order they all be taken to the infirmary, but other beasts beat him to that, and soon he had beasts approaching him for direction and orders. Glancing at Ralynn, who, despite her best efforts to keep a straight face, was clearly wounded and bleeding from numerous shallow wounds herself, he shook his head, and, spotting Finnian out of the corner of his eyes with Swifttail following him with some stoves, he yelled at them to come over.
“Finnian! Fairpaws! Here!”
As the little foxkit and his larger companion came by, he gestured to Ralynn.
“I don’t know what the ‘Gates you are doing, but when you are done, patch our Bosun up!” He saw the look of concern on the little fox’s face as he stared at Talinn’s own wound, but he shook his head.
“It looks worse than it is, get other beasts before me!”
He paused, then glanced at Ralynn and then Gyles
“Permission denied, Bosun, you need to be on deck to handle any damage here. I will personally go to the engine room to try to figure out what went wrong and how damned we are. First Mate Stowett, organize things with the Lieutenant here and get somebeast to go find my dagger, hat, and Aide Songfox's hat!”
Turning to the Lieutenant, he brusquely nodded.
“They are in disarray for now, Lieutenant, and I doubt they will recover soon. Take your time and begin assembling your marines and those crewbeasts still fit to land and establish a base camp near what passes for their docks. I want tents and basic fortifications up as soon as possible. We are going to have to be quick!”
With that, he nodded to all of them, and then made his way to the engineering room. He could have simply asked Fairpaws, but he needed to see how bad it was personally. If the engine was inoperable, speed was even more crucial, if it could be salvaged, things would be much better.
Arriving at the engine room, he looked around for the first beast he could spot, noting one of the newer crewbeasts, a marrble fox, then barked a harsh request.
“Engine status report! What went wrong, how bad is it, and how much time until it is fixed if it can be?”
@Kaii Nashirou @Morgan Liu @FinnianBrightfur @Gyles @SwifttailTheFox @Silvertongue Songfox @Vihmastaja @Ralynn Waverunner 
