Session 94

Previously, Across the Horizon...
The Heist, the plan to steal the Frost Fair Blade from the Seventh Dawn, Bast's master plan weeks in the making, one that held up for entire minutes upon arrival at the site, has gone off with an incredibly high number of hitches.
An expected calm walk out and drift down through the air to Meteor has instead become a frantic dive to safety, one that surely would have ended in disaster had Isa not pushed the launch into action far sooner than expected and Diabolos proven their worth as a trusted friend (Yves) and/or a terrifying force of otherworldly nature (the rest of the crew).
Meteor does indeed cut through the skies, leaving Yinha behind, with the haul from the vast vault of the Seventh Dawn stowed aboard, but instead of leaving behind a ship of fools none the wiser, it leaves a dock overrun with food-based criminals, a ship of furies already preparing a pursuit, and a ten-story-high hole in the world with dangling tentacles and an unknowable nature.
With Atomos still blotting out the sun, we join our brave adventurers as they struggle to even catch their breath...
**
Isa holds the control yoke with an iron grip, fighting to keep Meteor on course as the initial boost of speed tapers off, Yves's booster beginning its down-cycle phase. "YVES!" she yells back, "GET READY FOR INCOMING! Linnet!" she says with slightly less volume, as the sylph is actually in the cabin, "make sure everyone's up and ready to fight if this gets nasty."
Yves shouts back toward the cabin, "Don't worry! Everything is very stable here!" There's a steel orb self-glued to the deck making that true for...a bit longer, in any case. Tiny sparks glide across his fingertips as he firmly orients himself toward the direction where pursuit will, presumably, originate. And then, recalling that nothing good lasts forever, he also double-checks his harness and clips.
Linnet salutes Isa and crawls up to the deck, clinging to anything that won't blow away in the wind.
The first thing that hits Bast's nose as he opens his eyes on the deck of the Meteor is the smell of singed fur. Some of his own crackles and crumbles as he drags a weary hand down his face, trying to ignore the insistently stabbing pain in his side. "Well", he says to nobody in particular, pulling himself upright as the rest of the team bustles around him, "shit."
Bast's observation is punctuating by the whine of some very powerful engines behind the fleeing Meteor. The Seventh Dawn is turning, free of its docking restraints, setting a course for Meteor.
Linnet drags a battered Orrey into the cabin and tucks him into a crevice, then re-emerges and tucks her limbs into whatever crevices look least breakable. She starts spinning up her healing spells, because Twelve know this party's gonna need them.
Hand over hand, Bast makes his way onto the bridge and hastily puts on a harness. He tosses off a "They're moving already" to Isa before turning to look for things to do about that on the deck.
"Fantastic," Isa deadpans, before pushing the engines to their unboosted limit and making a wide bank towards their planned escape route.
The Seventh Dawn has a considerably higher top speed than Meteor, but that top speed is contingent on the ship going in a straight line for a considerable distance to build that momentum up. Unless acted upon by an outside force, Meteor is going to easily escape.
Unfortunately, two outside forces drop out of the hull of the Seventh Dawn.
Two airships, each roughly half of Meteor's size, rocket ahead of the much larger battlecruiser, one white, one black, moving in tandem as they approach.
Wrapped in a bit of cabling against the railing of the Meteor, Linnet extends one hand and flicks a pinch of sparkle at Bast, batting a bit of it back at herself with her thumb. Her other hand tosses up a ball of ice and bats it back over her shoulder, whacking into the side of the Waters and leaving a small impact mark.
"Taking fire!" comes the call from Waters.
"Ice, really," is Rhul's dry response.
Rhul brings the starboard cannons to bear, sending a flurry of shots across Meteor, sparks and shards crackling along the deck. Waters maneuvers behind Meteor, moving into position in its blind spot. The cannons on the pursuing ship line up along with Meteor's engines, preparing a targeted strike.
Bast, clipped to the deck, takes issue with Waters lining up for an engine shot and lobs something at their cabin that explodes with a flash and a boom that echoes up and down the dock tower.
"Okay, right," Yves says, mostly to himself. "It wouldn't be polite to--right, right, back to the good old standards, approved by Isa." The tiny sparks flickering across his fingertips are sketched out into the air, swiped back and forth into thunderous ZOT of lighting snapping across the sky to smack the Waters. Just a little bit. A sort of amuse-bouche of an introduction to the sorts of things Yves likes to do to people being impolite to his friends, really.
Waters rocks back and then to port from the two-pronged assault from Meteor's deck. "Taking heavy f-- damage!"
"We appreciate the distinction," crackles the Rhul's radio.
From not quite as far behind Meteor as everyone aboard would like, there is a tremendous thump from the Seventh Dawn.
And then there is the complete absence of sound for the space of a breath.
Directly ahead of Meteor, a void in the world opens, a center-mass of intense gravity, a Black Hole Cannon shot detonating in the open air, placed with pinpoint precision in the escape route.
"Where the fuck did they get that?" Isa asks, pushing the yoke to send Meteor into a dive. Skimming the surface of the water, the ship sends a rooster-tail of spray up behind it as she zigs and zags. "Either someone needs to do something about that, or we're going to lose a lot of ground avoiding it."
"On it!" Linnet flings two icicles directly into the void; they make no sound, just disappear with a minor puff of snow.
"Charming, really," comes the banter from Rhul as it rocks Meteor with another round of cannons. Waters delivers its own blasts, but the Noise Blaster mitigates the absolute worst of the shots toward the engine.
"That wasn't part of the plan," Bast gripes under his breath as he takes aim at the black hole interfering with the course of the Meteor, and then snaps off two shots at the pursuing ships in the same breath, which both go wide.
"A lot of things weren't part of--" Yves jounces into the air at a zig where he was braced for a zag. He yips as he bounces off the end of his tether, and takes a deep, steadying breath. "Right. We planned for this, though." His hands stop their brief shiver to slide another bolt out toward the Waters, a little more loudly than his first. "I think I'm out of practice."
"Tch. Below sixty percent," comes the petulant call from Waters.
"Pull back," Rhul radios over. "You've done enough."
"It's okay, Yves, we've all had a long day. Save your fire for something more dangerous than a couple of TARGET PRACTICE NOBODY SHIPS!" Linnet yells over the side.
As if they could hear Linnet...
The Seventh Dawn fires the Harpoon Cannon.
The harpoon thuds into the side of Meteor, massive chain immediately going taut as massive ship engines compete with a ship's engines that think they're massive and so far don't know any better.
Inside the cabin, Isa lurches to the side as the harpoon strikes. The profanity has become a low muttering in counterpoint to the engines, but then her attention is drawn to a blinking red light. The booster has recharged.
For a moment after she presses the big red button, it looks like it's not going to work. The engines whine, and then roar, and the plume of ocean water starts to boil and raise clouds of steam. And then, the chain creaks, and just like the proverb goes, so does the weakest link. Released from its bonds, Meteor makes like its namesake.
"Gods above," the Rhul utters.
Linnet whoops and hollers and sticks her hand into the steam, flicking off a spell from her fingertips. What was merely fast-moving spray becomes needle-sharp sleet, scouring all exposed faces and hands within splash radius. There is a chorus of angry yelping and some hasty pulling on of gloves and hoods.
Rhul fires another shot into the soaring Meteor, again trying to slow it down, the snapped chain whipping in the air above the plume of frozen water.
Bast pauses to appreciate the misery already inflicted on the Rhul's crew, then taps the pouches at his belt in quick succession to pick something to add to it. The canister fetches up just ahead of the other ship's bridge, and starts spewing vile, viscous smoke even before it does.
Yves eyes the Ruhl dubiously, despite not being able to hear any of its commentary. "...oh, why not," he concludes, as lightning crackles out once more, even as the smoke is starting to hide his target.
"They said apprehend, not be enthusiastically murdered!" comes the Ruhl's tinny protest.
The Seventh Dawn reels the broken chain back, its short-range debilitating cannons out of range as a result of the shocking maneuver from Meteor.
Yves is standing on the deck with a sort of bright fascination to see if these warning shots will need to get serious, next.
At the controls, Isa takes a moment to consider the advantages given to her by the rest of the crew.

A ridiculously overpowered booster, courtesy of Yves, that has a few more seconds of ludicrous overthrust remaining.

An extremely localized hailstorm, courtesy of Linnet, impeding visibility and engines alike.

A viscous smoke cloud (smoke should not be viscous, ew) courtesy of Bast, providing ample distraction.

And, looming ahead on the horizon, the islets of Ba Nghìn Con Dao.
She banks hard to port, and gains a half-dozen meters in altitude at the same time. The plume of easily-trackable spray dies down, especially in the rather obscured airspace behind. But she's staying low enough to move between the outcroppings, instead of the route overhead that large or sensible ships would take. A few more turns, a bit more luck, and the Seventh Dawn would be left behind, forced to shift from pursuit to search if they wanted any chance at all.
"...returning, Seventh Dawn," comes the final word from the Rhul. "This group came prepared, it would seem, if a bit... inelegant."
"We're efficient," replies Linnet. "Bloody hell, you all made short work of them. Where to now?"
"Hiding?" suggests Yves, shaking out his hands. "I like the idea of hiding. Somewhere that isn't... moving."
"Lay low until we're sure they're gone, then a very careful flight to rejoin the Starfall. I'm sure they're missing us," Isa says without a trace of dramatic irony.
Linnet untangles herself and ducks below deck to burn several healing spells on Orrey.
Bast pushes back from the railing, finally satisfied that the pursuit is done, and gives Isa a satisfied nod. "Yeah. Let's make sure nothing's falling off, and then go see how much trouble the crew has found without us."
And with that... End session 94.