"You should be demoted for disobeying a direct order", Moach was shouting in Ahil's face, "I specifically told you to break the blockade and come back here as soon as possible", red faced with rage was the normal state for Moach in most pirate's experience so Ahil took his reaming stoically, "instead you went out there and lost more than eighty people from your ground troops", Ahil didn't dare say they were betrayed, any attempt to shirk off the blame would be immediate cause for a demotion and he worked too hard to get kicked back down by a legacy screamer.
"Yes sir", was the only acceptable answer and "no sir" when Moach asked if he had any excuses for his insubordinate behaviour, Ahil hated the role playing drama, a good battle where you knew who the enemy was and who would watch your back and then party until the next time, but to make sure he had his clean battles he had to play along in the political table because whenever someone else was in command better troops like him found themselves on the front with an idiot pushing from behind.
"New orders for you Ahil", Moach held out a shief of papers, "I didn't approve them but they came down from the high table so enjoy this while it lasts" he spat on the deck, "at least I got rid of you and most of my ships back or there would be reckoning".
Reading through the papers Ahil couldn't stop himself from smiling, an independent small task force all for himself with secret missions and codes including a special order to find out about the new dragons the lizards seemed to employ, although he got less than a quarter of his previous task force he was under direct command of the thirteenth lieutenant for the emperor Butcher Gene, and that was a step so high from anything he could hope for in the normal conmand chain that he almost burst in tears.
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This was why he played, sailing out to hunt dragons and raid lizardmen, beholden only to the winds and higher powers of the sea, with men he could trust, losing the artillery division was a hard blow, and catching that monster without the Targenator will be an epic task that he will have to prepare for, but while he prepared his other orders were to raid supplies and anything else he thought he could get away with to harass the enemy.
The conference room looked empty with only three dozen people, less than a quarter were comunnications officers as smaller ships tended to be hooked in a vine to their larger counterparts and with limited crewspace they couldn't afford an unnecessary specialist, so he had three other frigates and seven schooners with the rest of them managing whatever ship was available at the dock when they had enough money to purchase them.
Passing their orders down the table he let the others read through before starting the meeting, "we will be back behind enemy lines", starting with the most dangerous news and searching for any disagreement around the table, "disguised as a mercenary fleet selling escort services to merchant convoys just trying to stay above water", before moving to the more interesting bits, "we are going to do a great job", smiling with a pause for effect, "so great in fact that we will get a defensive contract from the shore towns to bolster their outbound defenses", he looked at the gathered men and women smiling back at him, "our real job is to find out anything se can about this new type of dragon", his eyes narrowed "and if its just one monster we are going to butcher it and sell its shiny hide to the highest bidder", he placed a fist sized diamond on the table with an audible thunk, "this is what that thing's scales were made of".