Corsairs & Cataclysms

Chapter 5

Regina took William Reed’s body with her when she left the next day. A burial would be arranged once events calmed down. According to her sources, apart from Raven and Hudson, the former Governor of Wisconsin did have some surviving family. It would only be proper to give them a chance to attend.

They might not, it was a strange family.

After her return to Detroit, The Command Centre in the palace had been a busy place over the next few days. Meetings with my lieutenants were frequent. Unfortunately, the bad news continued to pile up.

“We’ve had it confirmed from four different sources now,” LT updated me when I entered the busy room on the morning of the third day post Reed’s news. “The siege of Minneapolis has been lifted. The Wisconsin forces have pulled out and are heading eastwards.”

“Any chance the Minnesotans have decided to harry the Wisconsin retreat?”

“Nah, too busy licking their wounds and repairing defences. They ain’t convinced that this isn’t some trick to draw them out. If we didn’t know what we do, it would be a relevant concern. There will be no help from them.”

I grunted softly, disappointed, but not overly surprised. “How are we doing on recalling the troops?”

“The ships sent into the Great White North are all on their way back. Some of them have already returned to Stormblade Harbour, the rest should be back within the next 24-48 hours. The news is not so good for the crews we sent to scour the East Coast. The weather around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Nova Scotia is bad and getting worse. Hurricane worse. Those who have got that far north already haven’t been able to sail past Boston safely. The captains are willing to risk it if you give the order.”

I shook my head in the negative. Thise ships couldn’t go underneath the waves they way Marena’s Mercy could. “No. They should wait until conditions improve. If we need the manpower we can make a deal with the Boston Adventurer’s Guild. Use their pads to get them back here but hold off on that for now. I don’t want to leave those ships poorly defended. It took long enough to assemble the fleet and I’m not of a mind to lose parts of it so soon.”

LT nodded with approval. “Understood.”

My preference would be to take the initiative. Attack the fragment housing Hudson while he was fresh to his new authority and in the process of reorganising his forces, but we didn’t have the ships to launch that kind of assault. Milwaukee was not the same proposition as Grand Rapids. Marena’s Mercy and Storm Raider would not be enough. Reed had done a much better job of preparing his city against invasion than Luca had.

Speaking of Luca, this brought me to the latest development that had become a pain in the ass.

Turning to my Spymistress, Trisha. “What is the latest report on our fresh problem in the south?”

After learning from Reed what the fragment had done, the first thing we did was send out scouts to gather feedback on any troop movements along the lake coastline not under our direct control. They quickly uncovered a major detachment of warriors moving in our direction.

But they weren’t coming from Wisconsin.

This was a huge mob that had departed from Chicago and were working their way around the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Far enough away from the coast that we couldn’t bombard them from the lake’s edge, which was suspicious in and of itself. Numbers were difficult to determine, but more than one hundred thousand seemed likely.

During the first couple of days of their march, it had been possible they might keep moving east. Then yesterday, the vanguard angled north towards the Michigan state line, and it became much more likely that we were the ultimate destination.

The independent town of South Bend lay between us and them on the other side of the border with Indiana. That could have been their target but if this was the case then the horde brought to bear for the invasion was a massive case of overkill. Last night, South Bend fell. After, the army halted there overnight. We were not left on tenterhooks for long; an official declaration of war from the Outlaw Nation was delivered via podium shortly before midnight.

Well, technically, as a Lawless faction, you couldn’t declare war on the Shattered Storm. Which is why they declared war on the Brotherhood of the Lion’s Claw and anything else as close to it as possible.

Claudia.

They tried to declare war on Claudia because she was Luca’s sister and a Gattosi. That attempt didn’t stick, becoming my bonded core had severed any other ties she had and that included familial. There was still an official Gattosi faction, likely headed up by one of Claudia’s many cousins, but they were in Syracuse in New York state. I couldn’t care less about the declaration against whatever remained of the Lion’s Claw. There had been a few mooks who managed to slip away, mostly guys who had been posted at the edges of Luca’s territory and managed to ignore the pull of my influence. That remnant had nothing to do with us and their existence now proved a mild benefit as they would be the recipient of the Outlaw Nation’s offensive diplomacy. The long and the short of it was that the Outlaw Nation gained nothing and only achieved in outing their intentions.

Apparently, the leader of this group was a man named Augustus Snook, Auggie to his friends, and he had a personal beef with Luca. One that he’d transferred to Claudia as the only surviving Gattosi. Claudia explained that Luca had tried to play both sides of the Chicago turf war and that had pissed Augustus off. He’d sent the head of Luca’s emissary back as a ‘fuck you’ gift.

Augustus was the top dog of the Outlaw Nation; I’d not met him or had any dealings with the gang, but we did have a run-in with their arch-rivals the Street Nation. They were crushed under my boot and that allowed Augustus to consolidate his power base in Chicago. He did so by taking a leaf out of Luca’s playbook and switching to the Criminal Kingpin class when he accrued enough class points. Soon enough, most of Chicago’s gangs had fallen under his sway and that made Auggie a real contender.

What we didn’t know yet was why the hell he had decided to have a crack at us. A grudge against the Gattosi family? I didn’t buy it.

“I’ve heard back from my contacts,” Trisha confirmed. “They are coming for Grand Rapids. Augustus has been giving the hard sell to his people that the city is weak and ripe for the taking after the conflict between us and the Brotherhood.”

“Eh? Maybe if he’d marched the day after we took the city, but that ship sailed months ago. Is he cracked in the head?”

LT grinned in agreement.

“Even factoring in that he probably wasn’t ready then, I don’t think so,” Trisha replied. “Other influences are at play here.”

“The fragment?”

“No,” Trisha disagreed. “From the information I’ve received, this has been in the works for the better part of a month. Augustus has been seen taking meetings with strong unnamed personages during that period. Those meetings have escalated in number over the last week. It does not seem feasible that a fragment-inhabited Hudson could mastermind a takeover of Wisconsin and Chicago simultaneously. I suspect that Augustus has found some like-minded souls in the form of off-world mercenary groups.”

It was at this juncture that Crynn chose to join the conversation. She had been sitting quietly absorbing the data, not wanting to interfere while her status remained in flux within the Shattered Storm. “I thought my father, curse his blasted name, had quashed the contract.”

“Indeed,” I said. “Quinntexxis was able to confirm the Dominarius Consortium revoked it.”

“Nevertheless,” Trisha continued, "We already knew that some of the companies who came to collect have concluded that pressing forward was in their best interest. We must assume they’ve roped the Outlaw Nation into their plans. Whether a mass invasion had always been the goal or if they pivoted to that after the contract cancellation we may never know.”

“Does it matter,” LT snorted. “They still coming, one way or another.”

“True,” she agreed.

“It does matter,” I said after a moment’s consideration. “The Outlaw Nation is being used as another’s instrument or as a smokescreen. If Augustus is being paid or operating under the false assumption that his people won’t meet stiff resistance, then that is something we can work with. Hell, I’d even be willing to pay the fucker off, if it would get him off our backs. We’d recoup it plus extreme interest later when we don’t have world-ending problems to worry about.

“Trisha, redouble your efforts to figure out the who and the how. Use your people and see if Augustus is amenable to a bribe. LT, ready the troops we have available. If Augustus turns us down, we’re going to give this invasion force a bloody nose. I have an idea, a different method of turning them back, something we haven’t utilised thus far. I want to be underway before dark and ready to strike at dawn if he can’t be bought.”

Both my subordinates nodded and rushed off to follow my orders. That gave me a few hours of free time and I left the Command Centre staff to their work. I didn’t make it far before a hand caught hold of the crook of my elbow and halted me in the corridor. I turned around and saw that it was Crynn.

“Torin,” she opened with. “I’ve been thinking it over, and I want to come with you tomorrow. Not just as an observer, but as a proper member of your crew. Part of your canon.”

This was a request I’d been anticipating ever since Titus had disavowed his daughter and I stroked my chin in thought. Adding Crynn to the crew had always been part of my long-term plans. She had plenty of raw talent and aptitude, was eager to participate, and had exhibited the potential to be a good leader. To be fair, she had made some rash decisions, but that was mostly down to youthful exuberance or flawed information. And it’s not like I hadn’t made a few questionable calls myself.

Plus, Nazz came as part of the Crynn package, the Saurian would never abandon her charge and had already demonstrated her credentials as a formidable asset.

Keeping Crynn on team Torin was an easy decision, yet, ideally, I wanted a little more than that. This was the perfect opportunity to strike; Nazz wasn’t around to veto the proposal.

“Signing you to my canon might be problematic while you remain bound to your fathers. Titus is strong, much stronger than me, as much as it pains me to admit. If he fights back, the recoil could leave me out of commission during a time when we can ill afford it.”

“He won’t fight, you remember what he said. I’m dead to him or will be if I ever try to come back.”

“True, but what people say isn’t necessarily what they mean. Titus might prefer maintaining a connection to you, a way to keep tabs on you.”

Crynn sucked on her lip. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

I sucked in a breath over my teeth and sighed. “There is another option. I am a Soulbinder, after all, and I happen to have room for a fresh bond. I’d been planning on offering it to Mia, but she wouldn’t object to waiting a while longer. She isn’t a fighter, and the bond is of limited help for her farming duties.”

“A…A…b…bond,” Crynn stuttered. “Ah, that is…is a bit more than I’d expected.”

“If you aren’t comfortable, we can stick with the arrangement we have. You and Nazz as trusted guests of the Shattered Storm.”

“I, uh, I didn’t say no. Just give me a moment to think it over. A soul bond is a deeper connection than I’m used to.”

Crynn blushed, which for an Acheronian meant our grey skin took on a darker hue. It was cute on her and revealed what was likely bothering her.

“I imagine Titus wasn’t a big fan of you having boyfriends or lovers,” I guessed.

The blush got deeper and confirmed my suspicion.

“You do know that intimate relations are not a mandatory requirement with my bonded.”

Her eyes opened wide in surprise. “Oh, it’s just…you kind of are…you know, with all of them.”

“Sure, I am now, but it didn’t start that way. You should have heard Ana after I claimed her core, not happy would be the understatement of the century. It took time for trust to build between us before we managed to work things out, and she still busts my balls about it in private every chance she gets.”

Crynn chuckled at my confession. “That does sound like her.”

“And Fang Mei was bonded to me for months before things developed romantically. Hey, I’m not going to say that I’m not interested, but there will be no pressure, even if you decide that you never feel the same way. You can ask the others first if you want.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I trust you, Torin. What do we have to do?”

“Take my hand,” I said and put mine out, palm up.

Crynn’s hand wrapped around mine. With physical contact, my will pushed against hers. There was a little resistance at the initial invasion into her private space but that faded away once she instinctively understood this was an invitation for bonding not coercion. Crynn’s lavender eyes locked with the ice-blue of mine and indicated her acceptance. Warmth suffused our bodies, and with a tingling sensation, another bundle of emotions joined those of Shana, Fang Mei, Anastasia, Claudia and Trisha in the back of my consciousness.

The Acheronian woman wobbled on her feet, and I had to steady her briefly.

The notifications whizzed by, normally I would dismiss them out of hand, but there were a couple that needed a bit of attention.

*** Path of the Soulbinder 4 (K)

You have defined your personal path to power. The binding of those with potential is almost as great as your own. Those you have brought close are amongst the most powerful of your allies and you have reaped the rewards. Too many spend their allocated bonds frivolously.

Continue this policy to advance your oath further. Bond another with a character aptitude of Very High or greater.

Success: You bind a suitable subject.

Rewards: 3,400 XP, Soulbinder Tier 3 is unlocked and can be purchased if you have the upgrade points. Future Path of the Binder quests.

A piece of Armour of the Bound that suits your new bond.

Bonus Reward: Should they be bound voluntarily, receive a bonus piece of gear that suits their class.

Failure: If this quest goes incomplete the rest of this quest chain will remain locked and unavailable. ***

There had been a third quest in this chain which I completed when bonding with Trisha earlier in the year. She had received a Cloak of the Bound and a ring that helped improve the efficacy of her sonic shield. This quest had been added to my log when I made level thirty-five and could add a fourth bond.

*** Gear has been awarded ***

Long Boots of the Bound

Leather Armour (Medium)

Damage Mitigation: Low

HP +200 (base of 25)

Stat: +5 (Speed), Skill +10 (Combat Footwork), +175 Hit Points

Item Description: May only be worn by someone soulbound to Torin Carter. All bonuses bar the damage mitigation are increased by Torin Carter’s applicable levels and only utilises one armour slot. Stat and skill bonuses are contingent on bearer’s aptitudes.

Stat: 1 (+1 for every five of Torin’s levels to a maximum of +5)

Skill: 5 (+1 for every three of Torin’s levels to a maximum of +10)

HP: +5 per Torin’s level

Durability: 100/100 (Can always be repaired even if reduced to 0 durability)

The boots were from the standard armour set I received for each leg of the quest chain. I happened to have some spare tokens of the bound in my inventory. They came as rewards from quests and occasionally as drops from beasties I killed. I quickly spent a few of the tokens to improve these boots to the same level as the other pieces of armour. The damage mitigation was improved to medium, so it halved incoming harm and boosted the Hit Points per level to seven which upped it to +270 HP.

Summoning the boots to my hand they were made of dark leather, knee-high, and had a long row of buckles. Proper pirate boots for a lady, if you were dressing up for Halloween, but they would work great for Crynn. I presented her with the boots, and her eyes lit up and proceeded to try them on.

That was not all, and the second item was similarly pirate-themed, but reading through the descriptor did give me pause for thought.

A black tricornered pirate hat with a small lilac feather in the brim which matched Crynn’s eyes and markings. However, this was not made of leather, but the same black chaos dragon scales my armour set was constructed of.

Shattered Dragonscale Captain’s Hat

Chaos Dragonscale Armour (H) (Set 2 of 5)

Damage Mitigation: Very High

HP +300

Stat: +20 Con

Special Bonus: Halves the class points required for the bearer to take the Dungeon Corsair Captain class. (One time use.)

A random deck of Marena’s Mercy (Carter’s flagship) will be copied and added to the Dungeon Ship created by the bearer. (One time use.)

(Can only be worn by an Acheronian Dungeon Corsair sailing under the banners of Torin Carter and the Shattered Storm)

Drawback: All Notoriety losses are doubled. (If this armour is removed the drawback remains in place for three months. This stacks with the other pieces of the set.)

This armour is forged from the discarded scales of Chaos Dragons in the demesne of the Shattered Goddess. When worn, the damage mitigation is applied to the whole of the head and neck area. This hat cannot be knocked off accidentally and will trigger a battle of wills if someone forcibly attempts to remove it from the bearer’s head. Other pieces of armour such as a bandanna can be worn over this extended coverage for their Mana-infused abilities, but the damage mitigation does not stack. (Can only be worn by adherents of the Shattered Goddess)

Durability: 10,000/10,000

This was one hell of a gift from the Framework. An entire extra deck for a dungeon ship was no small boon. The only initial misgiving was whether I wanted Crynn to follow the path of the Corsair Captain. It was fairly obvious that was her dream…but a few instincts were kicking around that I had to suppress. Corsairs and Acheronians could get a bit antsy about ‘others’ in command of vessels in their fleet. Crynn was already soulbonded to me, those kinds of concerns were for lesser captains.

“That’s not all,” I told her when she finished donning the boots and showing them off to me and I presented her with the hat.

“It’s a bit much for my usual taste,” she commented. Up until this point, Crynn had preferred cloth wrappings or bandannas rather than full hats.

However, If I thought her eyes went wide with delight when I gave her the boots, the hat blew everything else out of the water.

“Torin…”

Her eyes welled with tears and a few managed to escape the ducts and run down her cheek.

“This…this…is too much,” she stammered.

“Nonsense.” I wiped the treacherous tear away with the back of my hand took the hat from her hands and settled it on her head being careful to mind her braided hair.

For the second time in as many minutes, Crynn experienced a bout of dizziness as the hat’s one-time special effects were transferred to her.

“There it’s done. Welcome to the team.”

“Glad to the aboard, sir!” she snapped off a chest-thumped salute now the brief wave of dizziness had passed. Her smile was truly dazzling. “This is all I ever wanted. The only frustration is I have to wait until I’m ready to level up, and that can’t happen until the shroud lifts.”

“Damn, I forgot about that.” That would be a serious hindrance. “Hmmm. We might be able to swing something, though. I can bring my bonded to my levelling interviews with the Administrators. When I’m ready for thirty-six, we’ll see if Dean can arrange something. He owes me about a thousand favours for messing with me during my earlier levels.”

Crynn nodded and smiled coyly, her good mood fully restored.

“Right, come along we have a mission to prep for.”