The Frozen North

[Firetooth]

"You idot!" Firetooth screamed. He'd let the brotherhood down, he was furious. He leapt at redtail, beyond reason, and started assaulting him, screaming and hissing "None of your fancy moves will work on me, fool!" to emphasize this, he pushed his elbow against redtail's windpipe.

[bjornredtail]

In the struggle to free himself from the enraged wildcat, the Captain dropped his sword. It clattered across the deck, and into the hatch, falling below decks. Redtail clenched Firetooth and pushed him back far enough to get a fighting space. However, the cat was an accomplished fighter. Before the weasel could land a punch the cat delivered a savage kick that sent Redtail flying into the railing. Winded, the weasel scrambled back to his feet. As the weasel staggered towards aft rail, the wildcat set upon Redtail once more. This time, Redtail was ready, blocking a number of blows while retreating past the ship's wheel...

[Firetooth]

Firetooth could tell he was up against a strong fighter, but they were unarmed and he was physically stronger. He grabbed on to the steering, spun it around and launced a two-foot kick at the weasel. He then launched down and carried on the struggle, but he realised the ship was sinking FAST.

[bjornredtail]

Redtail took a devastating kick from the cat, flying into the port side railing. Here he noticed something most disturbing. The charges had shattered the sheet ice, along with the pressure ridge that they had been placed in. The prow of the ship was floating in a pool of seawater. A smalls stream of bubbles hit the surface as the crew scrambled back towards the ship, attempting to board by the still intact ski assembly that still rested on solid ice, toward the end of the ship. Redtail tried desperately to evade the cat, scrambling toward the hatch. He almost made it, before the cat tackled him to the deck. Wielding a stray block of ice, Redtail tried desperately to free himself, momentarily beating back Firetooth, before dragging himself down the hatch, slamming and latching it behind him.

"I simply don't have the time for this..." Redtail cursed to himself, dropping the bloodied block of ice, and with shaky paws grabbed a coil of rope that was stored within reach of the ladder. Running the rope between the hatch and the ladder he rigged the hatch shut. The crew would have to deal with the 'guest' above, as this would only slow him down. Dashing back to his bunk, Redtail grabbed a caulker's kit from below his mattress, dashing forward as fast as his bloodied body would allow. He made his way through one bulkhead, over stacks of cargo that had been dislodged in the recent commotion, past another bulkhead, counting ribs all the while... Until his foot his a puddle of the coldest water he had ever felt.

Redtail madly threw cargo aside, attempting to feel where the leak was. The water was so could as to make his feet numb the instant they touched it, making the process that more difficult. The water was still rising around him as Redtail searched. For a moment he doubted... "Did I count right? Is this the place?". At last, he finally found the leak, where a pair of planks had been split by the collision last evening. Digging into his bag of tools he pulled out a length of tarred rope, and a few shards of used sailcloth, a hammer and a flat wooden implement. Starting at one end of the split, he carefully fed the the rope and sailcloth into the crack, using the hammer and the other tool he carried to force the patch into place. He worked quickly and skillfully despite the frigid water and the injuries he had suffered, for he knew that if he failed, the ship would sink, and with it all hope for making it home in time for...

Someone had managed to get the hatch open...

[Firetooth]

Firetooth barrackeded in the hatch, then snapped it in half. He gave a wild roar "just you and me now, a hint, never scam a royal-they get angry!" then he leaped at redtail again, shouting "you're not gonna stop that leak!"

[Sharptooh]

  The small troop of around 40 vermin had become lost, Septimus had ordered they move on south, the fastest way to that was accross a vast expanse of frozen water, even though it seemed many would die he pronounced it as killing off the weak, as of now only one vermin had died, a small weasel named Hayde, apart from that everyone else seemed ok.

  "Press on, if we keep at this rate we can reach southsward by the turn of spring." excellent, we're making good progress Septimus thought to himself, he'd already thought about who to appoint as his first officer, a young lizard named rip, he was the only lizard among the troop of vermin, next to Septimus he was the strongest and fastest among the troop, vital qualities for a right hand man, also he was clever but not too clever, I don't want him trying to poison m.. Septimus' thoughts were rudely cut short by a huge explosion which seemed to ripple through the ice, Septimus could feel the ice creaking underneath him, luckily it didn't fall through, suddenly the vermin could see where the explosion had come from, the huge cloud of snow had been momentarily blasted away from a ship where the explosion must have come from.

  "Come on lads!" Septimus yelled, "We'll this ships crew fall apart then finish them off and claim the ship for ourselves!"

  "Yeah!" the vermin all yelled as they stormed off towards the ship with Septimus leading them.

[Firetooth]

ooc:NICE PIC SHARPTOOTH! A lockheed L10-11 if I am correct?

[Sharptooh]

ooc:Thanks Firetooth, and yes you'd be right it is an L-1011 ^^ glad someone knew what is was.

[bjornredtail]

Redtail quickly drew a small knife and cut the tarred rope and sailcloth as close to the hull as possible. Gathering his materials, he ducked behind a pile of cargo moments before the cat burst into the hold. Above him, he could hear the commotion on deck. His crew was back aboard... "How long before they come down here and dispatch that darn cat?" the weasel though as he hid, before hearing a cry from the deck.
"Creatures spotted off our stern, sir... They look hostile!"

"Looks like it will be a while... At least I have some idea what this cat is doing here now. He intended to simply sabotage us... Just, why? And...   Are the folks above his friends? What about that fox we picked up?" Redtail's mind raced as the cat crept along the passageway. He grasped the knife, and prepared to strike. As soon as the cat had passed him, he would leap out from behind and simply slit the saboteur's throat. However, this opportunity didn't come. After creeping along for a moment, the cat dashed forward again, leaving Redtail's range before he could react. Of course, with the crew above there was no real way off the ship. Within moments the cat would hit the bow and have to either clime up the obstructed froward hatch or turn around. When he turned back, he wouldn't be as careless as he had been going forward.

...............................................................
Meanwhile, on deck, First Mate Rodger Longam turned aft. Sure enough, half a company of well armed creatures were approaching as fast as reasonably possible across the pack ice. "Raise sails, get us under way..." he ordered, "Helm, slight to port, aim for that crack! Seaman, pull that dingy aboard. That cat has not upheld his end of the agreement, nor shall we. All others, get your weapons!"

The ship slowly started to creep forward in the breeze. The helmscreature steered them into the crack, but the vessel was having trouble making headway. With any luck, the bow would simply pop out of the ice, and the ship would resume it's rapid progress to the south. At the moment, the ship was simply pushing two humongous pieces of ice aside, at great effort and with a minimum of speed. "How do I do this? How would Redtail do this? he though, "I'm a marine, not an engineer"

He turned back to the approaching force. They outnumbered the crew and were likely both better armed and were better fighters. His crew were almost all from sailing backgrounds, he was one of the few former solders in the lot. They were not going to be able to run away at this rate... It was time to fight. Then the mate noticed the keg of powder..
"Mr. Swithe, do you think you could hit that keg with a flame arrow?" the mate asked a tall, slender ferret with a longbow.
"Hum... Steady breeze directly towards us, around one hundred fifty paces out... How many shots do I get?" he replied.
"Two, maybe three if you are fast. " the fist mate replied, "Start firing a moment before they get there..."
"Yes, sir." the ferret replied, tending to readying four arrows.

A tense minute passed where the crew could only watch the enemies approach. The sharpshooter ignited his first arrow, and fired, long before the approaching hostiles were close to the keg. The shot went horribly short, and drifted slightly left. Upon observing the landing, he fired another shot, went slightly long, burying itself into the snow twenty paces behind the keg. He then readied the third, and waited a moment, watching attackers approach the keg. He fired the third, and rapidly followed with the fourth, not even bothering to watch the third land. The arrows arced over the vast plane of ice... The third arrow landed directly on top of the keg... A moment later the fourth buried itself into the side. For a moment it seemed that the arrows had harmlessly gone out when they hit as the vermin party ran past, but the flame had already passed into the wooden keg, and in another moment, into it's explosive contents.

An explosion far more massive than the one that had freed the Lady Jacqueline tore a hole in the ice, and sent part of the attack party flying. Although it appeared that they were far enough away to escape major injury, the explosion had winded the party, giving the crew more time to attempt to escape.

[Firetooth]

Firetooth could hear explosions and commotion above. "Hmm, maybe my crew finally came..."he muttered "before I check, lets finish this stoat!" he overturned barrels, kicked over crats and pulled apart anything which could hide someone.
~~
On deck of S.S. Serpant
~~
"Get ready! Team A, get your axes ready and grab those ropes, prepare to board the enemy vessel!" barked out Captain Tom the fox of the armarda "Team B, get your arrows ready and light then end's in fire, Team C, get any weapon you can and BOAARRDD!"

[Sharptooh]

ooc: firetooth where on earth did Tom the Fox come from??? the vermin approaching the boat where my vermin, no other ship/vermin approaching were mention in bjorn's post. Anyway's

IC: Darn Septimus thought to himself, he'd seen that of powder but hadn't thought much of it, then a thought crept into his mind, could it be? The black power from the fortress of helmdon?, no impossible, but anyway he didn't have time to think on that now[/i] Around 3 vermin were seriously injured, most of the others had just slipped on the ice and recieved minor injuries, "Mr Tagg" Septimus yelled while looking at a middle aged well build weasel, "get the injured as far away as possible and try to set up a shelter, as for the rest of you, group one mount your bows and fire at those sails, group two, mount your bows and aim at anyone on board, if they fire at us, fire back", Septimus was hoping to force the vermin abord the ship to surrender, after all they were outnumbered, and probably outrained by his group of vermin.
  Just as Septimus had planned a few of the arrows began to tear through the sails, leaving the ship stranded right were it was, then he saw something very unexpected that shocked him, a wilcat moved on board.
  "wha-wha what?!" Septimus yelled, "stop firing, I think Gulp, I think, ... I think firetooth might be aboard..." all of the vermin stopped immediatly, some shocked, others too deaf from the previous explosion to hear.
  So many thoughts ran through Septimus' mind, should he really go back to the Wildcat's up north? Why had he even wanted to betray them in the first place? Maybe power had got to his head, there was one thing he knew though, he was definitely going back now.
  Him and his troop of vermin flew a white flag while slowly edging towards the ship, he had to be sure it was firetooth, and if it was, he knew what he had to do.

[bjornredtail]

Redtail crouched, clutching the knife he had pulled the toolkit. Although the blade was short, and not designed as a weapon, it was good enough. The cat continued to dig through the piles of cargo, slowly inching his way towards the hidden weasel.

....................................
"Flame arrows! Man the pump!" the First mate bellowed. Four creatures removed a canvas from a four place pump located just forward of midships as the arrows struck the ship's mainsail. One threw a heavy leather hose overboard, as the others started to heave wildly at the handles of the pump. After a moment, as stream of water rose from a brass nozzle mounted on the pump. The water struck the burning mainsail, douching the flames, limiting the damage to a number of rather large holes in the sails.

A rank of archers returned fire, however, due to adverse winds their shots went wide. They reloaded for a second shot when a group of the attackers raised a white flag.
"Cease Fire!" the mate yelled as the archers continued to load, "Cease Fire!"

The ship's archers quivered, then lowered their bows. "Stay sharp, keep your guard up... Pump crew, good work folks, go ahead and shut down." Longam continued loudly, before lowering his voice to address a pair of creatures armed with cutlasses, "Get below deck and help the captain out... If possible take the cat prisoner, if not feel free to kill him where he stands."

The attackers approached, and the First Mate turned to hail them, "Gooday!  What business do you have here?"

[Sharptooh]

  "Ahoy there maties, do you happen to have a wildcat named firetooth aboard your ship? If so we've come here to capture him, our story is long, let us deal with the wildcat and talk later" Septimus yelled back to the first officer.

[bjornredtail]

"Wait one" the stoat officer replied, turning to another armed creature on deck, whispering fiercely "Get down there and make sure the cat is captured alive!"

The creature, a rat, scampered through the hatch with the urgent message...

..........................
Below, Redtail struck, fully extending his legs in a lunge for the cat's throat. The cat, although taken off guard, still possessed keen reflexes. He managed to block the knife that was aimed for his throat, but the weasel still managed to tackle him into the shallow pool of water. They desperately thrashed about, each attempting to push the knife into their opponent, before the three crewbeasts came to Redtail's aid. It took all four members of the merchant crew to subdue the wildcat, amidst shouts of warning that he had to be taken alive. With a small piece of rope, the rat who had been the messenger securely tied the paws of wildcat, who continued to struggle as he was drug towards the aft hatch.

[Firetooth]

He bit the paws of his capturers, and snarledm curses as he desperately struggled to break free, even bound firetooth was still a dangerous opponent, and he lashed out knocking over any beast he could wildy, hoping to somehow free himself.
"You stinking vermin! Your mum has no tail!" Firetooth snarled as he bit a weasel, but then he was clubbed over the head and he felt dizzy, saw colours, then passed out.

ooc: lol I havent posted in here in ages...