NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: ATTN: Don't post in this thread unless you are a member of this thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513299))

The wave of deep azure crashed over the deck of the Third Rate Lineship, the Cannons were pushed upwards back to firing positions, a volley of cannon fire brought another vessel crashing into pieces, the battle was only 2 minutes in and already the Pirates had lost one of the Caravels, still the enemy fleet held on with its remaining Caravel and the Galleon which was speeding ahead leaving the crippled Caravel behind.

The two Third Rates decided to call evens as they piled onto the remaining Caravel, the screams of the Pirate crew who knew that they were now effectivly doomed, pitched high above the crashing of the choppy seas, a final volley sent another Caravel to the stormy depths, the Captain of the Third Rate Vessel, Domingo, scanned the horizon for the Galleon, it was well out of range, Captain Boris gloomly sighed and turned to take the ship back into port for repairs.

The crew of the Galleon cheered with the loot they had been able to make off with, they happily began to celebrate, pulling out Hookahs and Tankards, the First Rate, Lexin, pulled out from behind the small island and once again a feeling of doom sank over the crew as a shadow cast itself over the Galleon, the quick brutal piercing sound of 64 Cannons hit the ears of the Crew before the shells did.

****

Commodore Briullov knelt before the throne which adorned the Court of Tatyana, She beckoned him to rise and he lifted his head before pulling himself up to eye height, "M'lady." He began, the Queen respected Briullov but still he was tentative of this proposal, "The pirate situation gets worse as the days climb, we have already lost one Ship of the Line and we are losing much trade, I request that we seek out Pirate camps and sieze them, I ask for the command of the RMNS Lexin." The court went quiet, the Lexin was the flagship of the Toopoxican Navy and to think of sending it away on such a potentially risky mission would be foolish.

Tatyana leant over to her Military Advisor, Lord Chistyakov who whispered a response and gave Bruillov a stare of contempt, "Commodore Bruillov, I will entrust you with Two Second Rate Ships of the Line and a regiment of Spearmen, if the campaign continues after 1 month I shall determine whether you require reinforcements or to be replaced." Tatyana stared at Bruillov waiting for him to leave.

(OOC: by the end of this campaign I'm hoping to have secured the following areas...

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/8360/africayz0.png

if ye wanna get involved please do but remember that you have to be a member of this thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513299))

OOC: Love to be involved, I'm waay too far away. I'll keep an eye though, and see what happens when I get closer to Egypt.

(OOC: WARNING: This post contains Racism and scenes of Torture, all comments are however IC, be prepared cos this thread is gonna contain a lot of Racist stuff and I don't wanna be flamed because of it)

Briullov pulled the blade across the skin of the dark mans palm, it bled, the man wept out a response which the translator listened intently to, "He says that you should stop." Briullov pushed his blade deeper as he got to the edge of the hand just to show that he wasn't going to stop until he got his answer.

The man wept out another response, pleading for the Commodore to stop the torture, "The negro says that you already know where his people reside, he wants to know why you don't stop." The translator seemed quite aggressive in the way he spoke of the weeping man, even going so far as to kick him slightly.

Briullov walked over to the nearby fire and grabbed the molten hot poker, he stared at the man, "I want to know everything, naval defences, man strength, weak points, and if you don't tell me then you loose an eye." The translator finished off the last word and the negro prisoner squelled a little, a garbled response came back and the Translator took a moment to contemplate the words, "He doesn't know... He says he doesn't know." Briullov was expecting this response, he was even partially looking forwards to it, he took the hot poker and placed it onto the mans eye which singed causing him to spasm and scream with pain, the man fitted for what seemed for eternity before laying limp on the ground, he was dead.

"It is no matter." Briullov stated, "We know where to attack, what can brigands hope to accomplish against our Spearmen?" Briullov placed the poker back into the fire and wandered off to the docks where he was sure the two vessels would be waiting for him.

Briullov sat at the desk in the back of the Battleship, he scanned the many scattered sheets of paper each of them with a similar code and shorthand written over them, damn scouts always spoke cryptically, there was a knock at the glass panel door and the First mate walked in, he handed over another sheet of paper, "This is the best we've got so far, they've lost two Galleys and one Cannon outpost has been taken out of action, if we're going to attack we should do it now." Briullov took the sheet of paper, he quickly translated in his head and began to formulate his tactics.

If the sheet was right there were 4 Galleys anchored in the bay and 2 Galleys docked, 1 of the 2 Cannons had been stolen by local thieves, which seemed like a boon from the gods, if the blow was struck now the Fleet would stand more of a chance of winning now then they did when they arrived a day ago, the first of the scout reports painted the Port Town as being a rebellious place, brothels and inns dotted about the place with the main defences focusing on the Dock as the Town was surrounded by Mountains, "Bring the ships around, we go in together, in a line."

****

Night stuck out in the seas which was thrashed by the bright lights of the sinful town, cheers and cries of both ecstacy and fear pierced the sounds of the approaching Vessels, Sailors, Pirates and Brigands alike drank themselves into a stupor and waved away their loot to ladies of the night, each alley and rooftop seemed alive with disorder, the only place where there was any escape was in the seas, specifically on the Toopoxican Second Rates which had now made it into the bay and into plain sight of the Galleys, the crew of which rushed into action loading the Cannons, it was almost too late as a wave of broadsides crunched into the Oaken hull of the Galleys.

The explosion roused the interests of the Pirates who began to snatch up weapons and board the Galleys or wade out to the Second Rates, with one Galley down the other 3 began to approach, approaching on the broadside of the Al Miny were two of the enemy Galleys, each ship priding itself on its side Cannons opened fire simultaniously, the Second Rate was almost definantly going to win this skirmish, enemy cannonballs smashed through the hull of the Second Rate, they might have caused damage but the Toopoxican vessel was made of tougher stuff, the Toopoxican return fire finished off one of the vessels and the Naibe swang round to assist the Al Miny.

The last Galley found itself alone against two Second Rates, it was slowly being cornered as the Toopoxican vessels made their way from the South of the bay to the North, moving round from behind was one of the docked Galleys which blasted out an attack on the rear of the Naibe, in quick response the Toopoxican vessel maneuvered itself so that its very back cannons could just fire in arc of the enemy Galley, the few lucky shots tore down the Galley mast immoblising the vessel, the Al Miny singled out the last undocked enemy vessel and ripped it to shreds before turning its cannons on the last docked Pirate Galley.

With the enemies ability to fight gone the Toopoxican cannons poured out fire on the Town, attempting to avoid the Brothels and civilian targets, the Roar of the Pirates got slowly louder as the fighters attempted to avoid the coastline where most of the shots were smashing, under the cover of fire Spearmen began to make the risky landing, the fire stopped momenterially as the first of the smaller boats made landfall, forming up defensive walls around the streets leading to the Bay, the Fighters, seeing the silencing of the cannons charged back into the fray, the Spearmen got themselves braced as Pirate after Pirate ran into the poles of the Spearmen, pushing slowly upwards and causing the Pirates to fall back the Spreamen became stronger and stronger the longer that they could hold off the Pirates.

Women and children retreated from the conflict as bodies of Pirates shared the same land as Toopoxican corpses and began to pile upwards, the Dock area having now been secured Briullov took his first steps on the Towns cobbled streets, a whore attempted to get close but he beat her off onto the streets, "Sire, we have been able to recover an enemy Galley and two Cannons from the conflict." The Captain of the Soldiers had broken off from combat to update the Commodore, he was saluted by Briullov to whom he returned the complement.

Briullov turned to his first mate, "Convert the galley and send an able crew to return to Toopoxia in order to give our report and ask for reinforcements." Briullov almost whispered, this was a Pirate Town and the walls had sinister ears, Briullov's heart rose when he heard the cheer from the Spearmen, "Huhra" the battle was obviously over and Briullov now had to find a suitable office to plan the next attack and torture any survivors for information.

Awaking abruptly from his dreams of his home in Al Miny, Briullov wheeled about staring out at the sunny port city from the Battleship, unable to find a clean place to sleep and perform his duties he decided to retreat to the Battleship, there was a loud knocking at the door and Briullov threw on his morning robe.

The door was swung open by Briullov who found himself staring at the First Mate and two men he was unfamiliar with, "Commodore, these men are from the Organisation." Briullov was careful not to show his distaste for the group of Lords and Dukes which had a history of screwing over the Monarchy, the reasoning behind their entrance was blatantly obvious but Briullov could not but to give in to courtesy.

The two gruff men from the corporation who had yet to say anything itched in their uniforms to say what was on their mind, "Yes of course." Briullov said to the First Mate who scurried away, "Gentlemen, allow me to get dressed and I will hear your proposal if you will wait for me in the Ready Room, the First Mate will direct you if you unfimiliar with the layout of the vessel." The two men walked off to find either the Ready Room or the First Mate and Briullov closed the door to get dressed in his finest Uniform.

****

Briullov walked in, the two men stood to attention and Briullov asked them to be seated, "If my knowledge of Organisation doctrine serves me right you have a motto, Nunc ad Corporatio, so I will not waste your time, what do you propose?" The two men sat still, seemingly reading Briullov as if he were an object not a man.

There was an exchange of whispers and suddenly the two kicked into action, the first man opened up, "Well I must say we underestimated your knowledge of the Organisation, we had been told that you opposed the Organisation."

Briullov quickly butted in, "A merchant once told me, know yourself and know your enemy, with only one or the other the battle can only be half won." He shrank away his face to hide his expressions and stop him from showing any weakness, he knew that the Organisation would be playing the same game.

"Yes." The members seemed confused at Briullov's words of wisdom but didn't attempt to figure them out, "Well I am afraid you're a little late, the Organisation dropped that phillosophy after several rushed meetings resulted in a loss of profits, but since you are willing to move this meeting along, we have been dispatched under the orders of Queen Tatyana and the supervision of Lord General Chistyakov." Briullov let slip a sound of contempt which he regretted as it stopped the Representatives mid sentence.

Silence filled the Ready Room, "You do seem to hold a lot of contempt across the high rankers of Toopoxia Commodore." Briullov could no longer play the silent role, he had to fight the men on their own turf by reading them.

"I only hold contempt for those who might harm the crown M'lord." It was a snide response and Briullov felt a swelling of pride over this victory, his pride was sealed when the Organisation members decided to continue as if nothing had happened.

"Well accusations aside we are actually here to purchase this land from your operation, in return we have permission to grant you the RNMS Lexin and another two regiments of Spearmen, aswell as enough funding to last you through your claims on the locations of Pirate bases." Briullov's heart sank as he heard the proposal in full, the Organisation members had him trapped, he needed these forces or the operation would not succeed, so he couldn't turn them down, but if he accepted he might be giving power to an organisation whos goals have always been against the Crown.

"The location of Pirate bases is subject to change, could I have assurance that I would still be paid for new information?" There was a nod from the Organisation and again Briullovs heart sank, they were enjoying his taking time over this, "And how long will it take for these forces to be mustured?" Briullov asked, the Organisation members smiled and laughed a little.

"Obviously you have not been outside nor spoken to your First Mate, please would you take a walk with us?" Briullov stood rather quickly, his heart was now rising, he marched out on deck and the crew saluted his arrival through stares of awe at the mighty sails of the Lexin, Briullov let slide a tear as the sun was blocked out by the tall First Class.

"Alright, you have a deal." Briullov shrunk in stature as he made this deal with devils, he gulped as he thought out possible futures.

It had been a few days, the Spearmen had secured the surrounding areas of the location unofficially known as Port Briullov, fortifications had quickly been erected and Briullov rested inside the newly constructed Fort overlooking the Town, he glanced out upon the fleet of three vessels, the RMNS Lexin gave a glow of competence which put the two Second Rates to shame, he panned over to the Dungeon, the most secure of locations in the City, and home to the bloodthirsty Pirates who had been recently captured, there they would be tortured or ransomed, so far they had revealed the locations of two more Ports but Briullov remained here, sending his Scouts out to find these places had taken some time and waiting for their return with intel was taking longer, the Queen had already asked twice for Briullov to secure more Ports as the Pirates were amassing in number now that word had gotten out that the Lexin was absent.

Briullov panned around past the docks and past the Lexin out to the distant sea filled horizon, paying close attention to a small wooden craft no bigger than the nail on Briullovs little finger, he saw aboard two men, one looked to be a Spearman, Briullov was confused at this, his entire Garrison was in the Port and none had permission to leave, the second man was dressed in a ragged manner and his skin was darkened out, Briullov questioned whether or not to cry out Pirate but he knew that one Pirate was not going to be much of a problem, however he got dressed and marched out to the Docks.

The small lifeboat moored up at the end of the pier, the on duty Spearmen held ready with the 6 foot tall poles, the Pirate placed his hands above his head and the corpse dressed in Toopoxican colours had his hands already above his head which was rocking about the bottom of the craft, Briullov pushed his way past and immediatly gagged on the sight, he grabbed a hold of the Pirate and pulled him ashore, "Unfortuante for you I don't have a translator." Briullov was tempted to just finish the man now as the Pirate began to smile.

(OOC: Bringing this to a close...)

Briullov stared over his terrain, through his entire conquest he had gained these lands through bloodshed and toil, many lives had been lost and many great battles fought on the seas, what layed ahead for him? A life in the navy with no note made of these conquests, the Organisation had already began its conversion of the lands as promised, a little richer now Briullov would be able to buy up some lands in the New Countries and live free for the rest of his life.

Already the Organisation had began to plan the next wave of colonisation, with the South secure they had great plans for improvement in the North and the East, both fertile untouched lands with great room for improvement, besides the only good that these lands were providing was in the luxury of Ivory, fruits and terrible disease, it seemed to them now that the Toopoxians might very well regain control of they Empire they once had.

Lord General Chistyakov mused over the new lands, now under the control of the Toopoxican Organisation and out from the control of the Queen, if these conquests continued as he expected towards the East and North then he would lay down his claim as the greatest General in the lands, Commodore Briullov would faintly dissapear into the history books, neither a great conqueror nor a leader of any note.