The shelling had just started when the two hornets came rushing over the hilltop, bringing Nana and Rei just in time to see the first group of soldiers turned into pink vapor.

Nana bit her lip, overseeing the massacre from their vantage point well away from the violence, wondering what her next move should be, when Rei pointed something out to her. She followed her hand to the tree lines on both sides of the bay, from where several waves of soldiers wee coming, trying to get to the ship with the help of anything that would float.

Nana watched for a time, then realization dawned on her face…

“It wasn’t the guns,” she said to herself.

“Then what?” Rei called over.

“Whoever is behind this… They want the ship.”

“For what?”

“For leveling an entire city. In a matter of hours. Imagine if they sailed this to the Capital.”

“Oh...oh! What do we do?”

Nana sighed, indecisively watching the ebb and flow of battle between them until she found the opportunity she needed. Without another word she sped away, not waiting to see if Rei would follow.

Kaba headed for the bridge, as calm and collected as always and casually gave orders to the crew running around her, asking for guidance as they raced to get their rifles to repel the rappelling boarders.

She watched, with some mild amusement, how her sailors pulled the ladders up, leaving the natives to throw hooked ropes onto the railing, from where her crew had a clear shot.

A volley of gunfire resounded below her, then the sound of people handing their rifles back to be reloaded and getting ready rifles back to continue the defense.

Still, she thought to herself, as she heard another wave of attackers go down to the next volley of gunfire, they were ridiculously determined and seemed to be willing to take blow after blow, as long as the communal goal was achieved.

“I should get me some of those,” she said to herself and closed her eyes when another barrage from the artillery filled the evening air with the acrid scent of gunpowder.

When she opened them again, she saw something moving from the corner of her eyes which she dismissed as a bird, too focused on the outcome of the battle to remember that there were no birds in this part of the world.

Lady Nidekamu, formerly known as Shirosato, stood among the fallen soldiers, twirling one of their swords in her hand and sedately watching the carnage around her.

One of the shells had exploded near her and covered her in a mix of dirt and guts of the unfortunate soul who had caught the artillery piece head on. Nidekamu wasn’t fussed. The lord Dekamu’s fortune teller had told her she would die in childbirth after all, which had solidified her decision to never have any.

She tried a few cuts with the weapon she picked up, found it was harder than the experienced Giya made it seem. She tucked the weapon into her belt, then simply returned to the treeline to find the real commander of the battle, the Lord Dekamu’s son, Kiro, who was not happy to be babysitting a prostitute that had ideas well above her station.

He was standing in the stirrups of his army ant, inspecting the battle, then instructed one of his messengers to send three more waves into the ocean before sitting down.

“They’re dying,” Nidekamu observed mildly.

“That’s better than languishing in obscurity as the Gunari wants. A proud warrior should die to achieve

their lord’s goals.”

“Do they agree, I wonder…”

“You don’t have to wonder,” Kiro bit back, “Whores aren’t paid to think.”

“Is that any way to talk to your father’s future wife?”

She watched Kiro’s hand reaching for the blade at his side, his entire body tensing before he regained the self control to ignore the woman.

“Just a toy,” he said simply, then turned his attention back to the battle.

Rei and Nana dove down behind the ship, disappearing from sight before anyone had the chance to notice them in the chaos of battle.

They made their way to one of the lower walkways, where Nana hopped from her hornet, holding tightly to the hornet’s reins to not fall to the ocean below her. She landed neatly, then tossed the Reins to Rei, instructing the girl to wait for her on the shoreline.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“You don’t need help?”

Nana shook her head, “Even if I did, who’d watch the hornets then?”

Rei nodded then headed to a quiet part of the bay to do as told, leaving Nana to perform her mission.

She listened for the sounds of violence, checked in the water to make sure none of the attackers had decided to outflank the ship yet, then drew her short sword and started her search.

With a little more force than necessary, she threw open a random door and stood eye to eye with a sailor. A girl not much younger than her, still in the process of loading her rifle and getting her uniform on properly. The girl’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came. Nana pulled the bloodied back from her throat and looked for some sign that would tell her where to go.

She quickly came to the conclusion she did not speak their language, let alone read their script and while sighing in annoyance, she threw open every door she came across, mostly finding hurriedly emptied barracks and storerooms.

After seventeen random doors, she found what she wanted. A heavy set of metal steps that led deeper into the bowels of the ship.

Somebody called a challenge she didn’t understand and she stepped back, diving aside just in time to avoid the five bullets that came flying at her.

She considered her options, then put the sword in the door opening and started to count.

Another five shots came at her, three of which penetrated into the hallway and embedded into the wall across from her.

When the sailors started to reload she leaned in, finding that there was a lot of ground to cover between her enemies. She wouldn’t be able to get more than one if she attacked and after she got him, she’d be left a free target, unless…

She pulled back when they took aim again and the five shots once again came or her, several of which she could almost feel when they embedded into the wall she was leaning against.

‘Now or never’ she told herself, then rushed down the first flight of stairs, much to the surprise of the nearest sailor, who was still on one knee to reload his rifle. Nana kicked the weapon from his hands, grabbed his wrist and brought him to a stand, then spun him so he had his back to him. She quickly put one arm around his throat, half pulling him down as he was almost a head taller than her. With her her blade still in her head, she headed towards the other sailors.

The man screamed something at his comrades and for his struggles was rewarded with a slightly more painful grip on his throat.

Meanwhile, the other soldiers weaved around the walkways to the engine room, trying to get a shot Nana who moved quick and unpredictably enough to avoid becoming a mark. As she did, she forced the others gunners back until there were no walkways left, backing them against a door. Now that they had nowhere to go, they aimed their weapons at Nana’s captive.

Nana’s response to this was pushing him into his own. Two of the weapons discharged, one into the unfortunate soldier and the other grazing Nana’s shoulder. In the confusion however, she took out all five an equal amount of cuts.

She bowed to her fallen opponents and tried to step over them. One of the dying clamped a hand around her ankle and with a flash of Nana’s blade the hand was severed. She shook her head, then pushed the door, finding it locked, much to her annoyance.

Complaining, she went through the clothes and tool belts of the fallen sailors, finding five identical keys. To her relief, they fit on the door and with a loud creaking it opened.

She had expected to find a host of machines and other necessities to move the ship, but instead for the lizard people she had seen on the trading post. Save for four of them that had been chosen to chant into an odd looking device that seemed to amplify their words, the Haga were a miserable bunch that lay barely moving on the hard cold floor.

Aside from these creatures, a single human was in the room, who reached for his pistol when he saw the stranger enter. He aimed it her, but it was the sloppy work of an amateur and even before he squeezed the trigger Nana had started her dodge. She heard the bullet slam into the ceiling above her as she ran.

She took the stairs down two at a time and seeing the slave master was slow to respond, she launched herself from halfway down the stairs onto the man. She crushed him to the deck and, not even bothering to dirty his sword with the man’s blood, she smashed his head into the metal floor until he stopped moving.

The Haga, who had stopped chanting, stared at her, though if it was fear or the hope at being released, she could not tell. In fact, it did not matter.

She grabbed the nearest of them by the only thing it wore, a heavy chain around its neck, and brought up her sword. It flinched and tried to struggle until it realized that Nana was not attempting to hurt it, but take off the collar.

It shook its head, which was clearly not a natural gesture to the demihuman, and pointed to the dead slave master with a finger that would be more accurately described as a talon. It made an odd sound between a roar and a squeal. Nana realized she was being stupid, retrieved the key ring from the corpse and pushed it into the Haga's hands.

She had more pressing matters, such as disabling the machines that were still whirring around her. Even with the power source cut off, she would be happier if the machines didn’t work at all. In the end she decided on her tried and true solution to many things… violence.

She rammed her sword into the nearest machine, listened to the crackle of breaking machinery then pulled it out again.

Kaba frowned when the salvo of artillery stopped halfway and turned to her master-at-arms, only arching a brow in question.

He shook his head, “No idea, captain. I’ll go check the engine room.”

“I’ll go,” Kaba responded, feeling something was wrong with her Chrysalis, “You’re in command, mister Knal.”

“Understood, captain.”

Nana was heading back up of the hold when she was overtaken by four of the lizard people, that only stopped to pick up the fallen sailors’ weapons, screaming hate as they went. They were followed a moment later by the sluggish ones that had been sleeping on the hard metal floors.

Rather than getting in their way, Nana stepped aside, somewhat satisfied with what she assumed was oncoming chaos, then frowned when she heard a gunshot coming from the top of the stairs.

She looked up to see Captain Kaba discard her gun and draw another one, along with her sword. Her lips parted in a manic smile.