Chapter 332: Taking out the Trash

Chapter 332: Taking out the Trash

"Dammit, can't a man just haul in his nets and land a catch anymore? We've already had bad weather, pirates, and exploding ships today, and now the seas are going mad."

A nearby sailor heard their captain and ruefully added, "Aye, and paying too much in 'protection money' with no protection. Every damned Scavenger Captain wants a bit of tribute, the pirates still come at us, and we have to pay the Ogre to guard the docks. At least Pike does his job."

"Oh, he does, and a little bit more. He didn't have to go after those two ships, but he did, and sent them to the bottom of the bay, burning as they went. That was an eerie sight I'd never expected to see." Several sailors made signs to their gods, nodding in agreement. Drowning was a bad way to go and fire was worse, but burning as you sank into the sea was especially gruesome.

"There are big critters out in the middle of the bay Captain. Seems a shame to go through what we have and not make it into port."

"Aye, signal the other ships to pull down most of their sail. We'll keep up just enough to steer and creep along the outer edge and play it safe. We don't want any part of whatever deviltry had been stirred up out there."

As it turns out, the person responsible for stirring up the deviltry was wishing he could have avoided the situation altogether. Milo was getting the hang of skimming across the top of the water, but he wasn't quick enough to totally avoid the eels. Too many of the small ones were coming from different directions, converging on his location and trying to make a snack out of him. He had his tail wrapped around his waist to avoid one of them snagging it and dragging him under.

Three times he'd had to leap and dodge larger eels, and then scramble to regain his stride. Once, when one came directly at him, he'd managed to step on its snout and then run along its back before racing away across the water again.

And while his immediate problem was dodging eels and keeping his footing, ultimately he had to decide where to go when he reached the shore. If he dodged over or around the tight-packed ships he could make it to the shore and sprint into the city. His worry was the eels wouldn't stop at the shoreline. They could do a lot of damage to the city and hurt a lot of people if they chased him through the streets or hunted people when they couldn't catch him.

If he died, he'd be back after a few hours. People in the town didn't have that option. But while he could simply stop running and die, he hated the thought of being killed by an eel. Worse, being eaten by them! There was also the problem of getting to a headstone that was sitting at the bottom of eel-infested waters.

But as he approached land, a third option occurred to him. Maybe he could use a bumper crop of eels and a proliferation of pirates to solve both problems at once.

Pike had given him a new perspective on the problem. According to the Ogre, Scavenger clans could devolve to piracy or pirates could work to become competent Scavengers. Mostly they got worse, but some Captains had lofty goals. They may have fled traditional life in the dwarven holds for the adventure of the high seas, but they still wanted a competent crew and a sturdy ship. Scavengers, for all they complained about Engineers were closer to them than they were to the pirates. Steam-powered submersibles and magi-tech equipment took a high level of skill to keep in repair or build in the first place. They had a disdain for the pirates in their wooden ships similar to how the Engineers looked down upon anyone who couldn't use a #9 Gangley wrench to adjust a subrogator.

Milo scampered across a plank that led to the next ship just as the mass of eels arrived at the docks in hot pursuit.

Aboard the Iron Orca, the gunners on the regular cannon were loading for another round as the Steam Cannons began to fire, spraying out their deadly ammunition toward the mass of eels that seemed intent on chewing through one ship after another as they moved across the last rank of moored ships. Captain Annie's intentions were made clear as she yelled out orders. "Target the biggest if you can, and the center of mass if you can't. Don't worry about the damned ships. If whoever owns those rotten boats gave a crap about them they shouldn't have parked them in our line of fire!"

That attitude seemed to be common as the Captains of the Barracuda,Sea Sleen, and Deadly Barnacle opened fire with their heavy weapons. The decision to fire on the pirate ships was an easy one for them. The Captains of the huge steam dreadnaughts of the Great Clans had already discussed clearing a channel in the harbor when they felt like leaving. That day had just come much earlier than expected with the benefit of an eel hunt.

Milo was determined not to be a casualty of the not-so-friendly fire coming from all around him. In addition to the big guns firing from the steamships, every bar had disgorged a gaggle of pirates and scavengers who weren't about to miss a good fight. As soon as they got anywhere near the docks they began shooting with small pistols or hand cannons that most of them carried. The small arms fire had little effect on the eels but brought a round of curses from the gunners on the ships along with a few return shots.

As he ran from ship to ship, Milo was joined by other sailors also seeing that standing and fighting wasn't an option. Some foolishly climbed to a crow's nest or into the rigging, but the eels were chewing through hulls in their frenzy to get to Milo, and their sheer weight was knocking smaller ships over. The fire from the cannons was quickly killing the mass of eels and destroying ships. The Iron Orca in particular was an engine of destruction. The gunners on the steam cannons were throwing out thousands of shots and wreaking havoc far beyond that of other ships. Captain Annie looked down and liked what she saw. "Keep firing until you're down to 10% of a load. Let's make sure everyone has a healthy fear of what happens if you piss the Orca. And break out the best rum, I don't want any thirsty gunners."

Milo was near the end of the first row of ships. He'd considered doubling back, but that wasn't going to be possible and would not have any effect on the battle. Eels were charging any ship that shot at them now, spreading out in his wake and a few had even charged out of the water. Milo was surprised to see Squint happily carving up any eel that got onto land, leaping at them with no thought to personal safety, leaving that to his annoyed cats.

The last ship in line was much larger and better constructed than most pirate ships. Also better guarded. As he climbed over the rail, he was greeted by three well-muscled Scavengers with fancy beards, top hats, and monocles. Each also had a tattoo of a shark on one forearm and held weapons in both hands. Milo and the two pirates who were following him paused at the sight.

"Get your scurvy hides elsewhere or you can suck a belly full of lead." Behind them, Milo saw that twenty more scavengers in similar hats were loading heavy chests down into the cargo hold of the ship. Something about the hold's curved, metal flooring looked wrong to Milo. The chests were being taken lower in the ship, through a large metal hatch in the floor. Heads snapped around as the laborers saw strangers on deck and weapons were drawn.

The two pirates paled. One apologized and dove back into the eel-infested water. The other charged yelling, "Sharks?! Damned cheating scum!" Whether she would have made it to the three adversaries or not became a moot point as a gunner from another ship put a sixteen-pound cannonball bouncing across the deck, scattering bodies and knocking Milo down into the cargo hold where he lay stunned on the deck next to the opening.

A scavenger pointed a gun at his head but before she could fire, several large eels attempted to reach their ancient enemy by the most direct route, slamming into the hull. Milo was sent flying again, this time into the lower hold, landing on a metal deck ten feet further down. The eels rocked the ship back and forth, dislodging the heavy hatch which slammed down and locked behind him.