First Azurian Eastern Fleet
The Great Sea
May 5th, 1425.
5:45 AM
Water splashed gently onto the ship’s hull, providing a peaceful ambience as Captain Hayvan admired the setting sun. Golden rays skimmed past the water, illuminating the ocean with a beautiful glow as the evening crept into the sky. The Azurian flag flew proudly on his ship’s mast, flying along with the wind without a care in the world. His slumbery, dreamy state was interrupted by one of his lieutenants, who seemed to be quite confused as he tapped on his captain’s shoulder.
“Hey, Captain?” He asked, clutching a spotting telescope.
Captain Hayvan groaned, somewhat annoyed that his peaceful relaxation was cut short. “What is it? Spotted the Dwarven Navy or something?” He joked, as the Dwarven Union has no Navy, being a landlocked country located in the Central mountain ranges of the Celestial continent.
“No, nothing like that. Your jokes are getting old now, sir. I’ve spotted several islands out on the horizon.”
“Islands? There aren’t any out in the Great Sea. Your attempt at humor disappoints me.” The Captain chuckles at his subordinate.
“I’m serious, Captain. Over yonder.” The lieutenant pointed towards the horizon.
Grabbing his own telescope on the hip, Hayvan peered at the direction that his subordinate had pointed. Squinting his eyes, he could make out the silhouettes but there was something off. “They don’t look like islands, the overall shape is too angular. It is likely these are ships.”
The lieutenant viewed the objects again. “Oh! They’re much closer than they were before. They simply looked like islands earlier…” he trailed off. “Captain, shall we investigate? There shouldn’t be any other patrols out here aside from us.”
“Agreed. Helmsman!” Hayvan called out. “Take us northeast, we’re going to investigate the presence of these unknown ships!”
The helmsman complied, and the previously sleepy ship bustled with activity as the Azurian sailors redirected their ship. Rowers below decks helped turn the ship around while sailors on deck adjusted the sails. Captain Hayvan continued to monitor the ships on the horizon, noticing that they seemed to be closing in quite quickly.
By the time his ship had fully turned around, the unknown fleet had become visible, their ships having furled their sails yet maintaining a mind-boggling velocity. Soon enough, they approached his comparatively tiny vessel, and he looked up at the immense shadow of the metal ship before him. He carefully analyzed the vessel, noting that it had two large cannons placed near the bow. What he had previously mistaken for a mast turned out to be some sort of steel structure, complete with windows, spires, strange spinning panels and lights. Several smaller cannons adorned the sides of the vessels, accompanied by tubes and other alien devices. On the hull of the ship, a white phrase presented itself: ‘FES Aletha’. Hayvan surmised that this was likely a designation for the vessel, as other ships had similar, yet different paintings on their hulls.
As the ship approached, Hayvan noticed several beings — humans, to his surprise — aboard waving at him and his crew. He waved back, and the humans aboard the metal ship pointed somewhere behind their vessel. Within a few minutes, the metal ship had passed him, along with four other metal ships of the same make as well as two even larger ships, seemingly forming a defensive perimeter around the enormous ship ahead.
The size of this flat-topped vessel was such that even its large escorts were dwarfed by it. The height of the flat-top was immense; Hayvan stared at the ship with his mouth agape as he attempted to make sense of the size of the behemoth before him. The vessel, a floating fortress to him, was many times the length of his own ship. If he had to estimate, the vessel clearly had the equivalent length of at least 10 times compared to his warship and a height of at least 3 times higher, mast included. The width of the vessel could be compared to 3 or 4 of his own ship, side by side.
“What kind of ship is this…?” The lieutenant asked, a combination of fear and wonder written all over his face.
“It is no ship. Such a massive construct that makes those other giant vessels look like ants… it is like a fortress of steel!” Hayvan exclaimed. “Still, we have a job to do. Contact His Majesty’s Royal Navy Command, they need to know of this. Get the men ready, we shall board them and investigate the vessel.” The Captain said as he regained his composure.
“Already done so, sir. But Captain, how do we even board it?” The lieutenant asked.
He looked the ship up and down, trying to find ways to board this massive vessel to no avail. Just as he was about to give up, a rope netting was dropped to the side of the ship. Hayvan looked to the men above on the flat top, gesturing towards the oversize rope net. “Guess that’s our way up.”
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After considerable efforts scaling the long rope up to the flat top of the massive vessel along with the help of some of the strange men on it to pull him and his inspection crew up. His eyes were greeted with the sight of around two dozen strange metal birds laid neatly along the massive deck, their wings folded up to the sky to make room for more of its kind. The crews on board this vessel were also uniquely strange, many of them wore different colored shirts despite their uniform, some wore red, others green, white and most fascinating of all: purple.
Purple is a highly expensive color to manufacture, only the rich and nobility could afford such a luxurious choice of dye for their outfit. Yet these sailors do not care about such things, as if this is most natural for them. In fact, how do they look so clean?
Sailors throughout the ages have always lived a hard life. Even in a prosperous kingdom like Azuri, they ate hardtack every day, with fresh food only lasting at most a week or two into the voyage. Bathing isn’t an option either, as every experienced sailor knows that fresh water can only be used for drinking, every drop must be saved and a shower is a luxury only afforded to the men whenever the gods bless them with rains.
A group of men escorted Hayvan and his men towards the large tower with windows and skinny metal spires. From this tower, a pair of men dressed approached Hayvan, one in a sharp, dark blue uniform with golden colored stripes running down his sleeves, emanating an aura of authority and the other in a similar outfit, but with no special details beside a long, black piece of neckwear. They were accompanied by several men holding strange wooden and metal staffs, with triggers similar to crossbows built into the wooden and metal construct. This must be a weapon of sorts, similar to what the pirates in the Minato Sea were using recently from the report yet these look far more sophisticated, Hayvan thinks to himself.
The guards’ similarly dark blue outfits signify that they belonged to this ship, however the sand-colored piece of strange fabric covered armor and steel helmet made them stand out from the rest. The big, bold words imprinted on the back of their armor “SECURITY” only confirmed his theory.
Steeling himself forward, Hayvan gave the pair of men an Azurian salute, forming a pointing gesture using his right index and middle finger and putting it against his forehead while using the rest of his fingers to cover up his palm. The salute seemed to have its intended effect as the man in the dark blue uniform gave his salute back to him in a different fashion yet just as sharp.
“Greetings, I am Captain Hayvan of the First Azurian Eastern Fleet. You have entered our territorial waters and we would like to know of your vessel’s affiliation and objective.”
The man in the dark blue uniform eyes widened, breathing a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness, good to know we speak the same language. I’m Admiral Chester Isaac of the Seventh Fleet, belonging to the United Federation of Elysia.” The Admiral said as he introduced the man next to him. “This is Ambassador Anderson, he will speak on behalf of our country.”
“As for our affiliation and objective, our continent was transported here through a massive storm several days ago. I’ve brought documents as well as gifts for your leaders in hopes of establishing diplomatic relations with your country. Several days ago, one of our aircraft had reported an emergency landing on your country’s territory. We sincerely apologize if this incident has caused troubles to your country and the aircraft’s intrusion into your territorial airspace was entirely coincidental.”
“I see, so the rumors of the crashed metal bird in Sunsettia were true then. Please excuse me, I must report our encounter to my superior.”
Hayvan started giving orders to the men following him. The lieutenant pulls out a large, golden colored device from his leather backpack and inserts a small glass bottle containing some kind of yellow-colored glowing rock, turning the peculiar device on. The action attracted the attention of the men on the large flat deck as they stopped what they were doing to watch the scene unfold. The screen on the golden device started glowing to a certain brightness. “We’re good to go, Captain.”
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that this is some kind of portable long range communication device. How it works mattered little to the flight crews and sailors onboard the FES Aletha, they discussed among themselves as they watched the foreign Captain who looked like he came out of one of the old paintings hanging in the Naval Academy’s walls back home.
“... that will be it.” As the Captain finished his communication to the mainland, nods of acknowledgement followed.
“That settles it then.” Admiral Isaac commented, he offered a handshake which was returned in kind by Hayvan, despite his confusion at first.
“I will guide you towards the Eastern Strait where you can anchor your fleet, after that others can escort your delegation to His Majesty’s Capital City: Anzuri.” Captain Hayvan replied with confidence and pride radiating from his body. “Let’s go, Lieutenant. I want all of the Tears of the Wind God supply onboard used up, we wouldn’t want to be overtaken by the vessels we’re escorting.”
“Aye, Captain.”