"Fire those grapeshots, Drop that corvus now you dogs, JUMP OR ILL DROWN YA LOTS IN A BUCKET FULL OF EELS", the cannons belched out their deadly loads and the spiked bridges were dropped, smashing through wood and bone and locking the two ships into place, dozens of pirates didn’t wait for the shock from that final shot to clear before swinging to the other ship's deck. Swords drawn and slashing at arms and faces.
Blood splattering everywhere, "archers shoot that mage in the nest", the captain's voice was amplified by the magic of virtual reality, Slom picked up his rifle and fired at the now visible mage, the player character fell from the nest and was probably dead before it hit the deck.
Slom put the rifle down and aimed his cannon to the victim ship's aft deck where the defenders were packed too heavily for attackers to gain a foothold, his screen lit up with a list of player names that his shot killed and he quickly ducked below the rail as his crew pushed the cannon back to its ready position.
Today he had a good harvest, the pirates had a good shot at winning this fight if they could finish it fast enough. His cannon was prepared, he picked a wrecker shot this time and fired down to the belly of their enemy, the hollow brass ball smashed against the wood wall and the kinetic dispersion blew a hole in the hold, a timer appeared on his peripheral and he knew this was how long they had to sack the ship before it sank thanks to his efforts.
Defending player characters started logging off and the NPCs were all surrendering soon after, Slom and his friends knew what was coming and had nothing to do about it, the attacking players started rampaging through the surrendered crew, raping, torturing and murdering the poor NPCs, never knowing the truth, or never caring for it.
Winning NPCs were carrying loot to their own ship's holds, Slom was no different in this, carrying a keg of wine when he was stopped before exiting the sacked hold, "so this is the dog that ruined our fun ha? Fucking NPC, how did you manage to bust the ship you cur?", "210m, what does it even mean?", there were five of them, all big chested armed and armored player characters that could snap him like a twig.
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Slom tried to push through like he was told by the mission program but they broke his path, pushed him back down and knocked the keg from his hands, he stood up quickly and was in his waiting position, "hey broke your program little fish? Answer the question", Slom looked at the burly black haired man, "what question sir?" the player looked at him with disgust "what does your name mean?", Slom reacted slow looking at the man's face and answerd "I am designated male number 210, sir", there were only a few ways to avoid what these players were going to do to Slom, the best was to play the dumbest dumb doll to ever be programmed, almost any other behavior will just make it all worse fast.
The big blonde to his right pulled out a knife, the timer showed 17 minutes before the ship sank, plenty of time to be nasty, the knife cut his face, "Im gonna make you pretty", the player smiled as he was cutting a scar from his forhead down his cheek, slashing his eye on the way, Slom could feel the blood dripping down his face as he was struggling to ignore the pain that was sent into his nerve centers.
Slom was cursing this stupid "James Crusher" with all his heart, memorising his player number with every bit of pain that was driven into him, James stabbed his shoulder, and cut a deep gash into his chest before another player pulled Slom to one of the walls, Tanner took out a hammer and nails and crucified Slom to the wall, "gonna sink with the ship you wrecked on us you piece of shit", they picked up the keg and moved away to get more entertainment, other NPCs saw what happened but they knew nothing could be done, this wasnt a battle and these players were on "their" side so they couldnt hit them anyway.
Long before he could die from the bleeding the timer came to zero and he got the message that he had sank the Odacious, it took another 12 minutes before the hold he was in started filling with water and after another 20 minutes Slom realised that the water will not get over his waist, the ship was probably stuck on a reef and he was bound to die from blood loss or some poisoning from his wounds long before a sea creature could eat him.
After hours of agonizing pain Allen's shift was finally over and he could log off, "fucking bastards better hope they die before i get my hands on them". He heard more of his shiftmates cursing as they logged off their shift, some of them probably suffered right along with him, left to die on a ship that wouldnt sink after being tortured and abused.