002 - A Time to Gain and a Time to Lose

[purplexing]

Truthfully Hesaeth was not a place that Donnie had been in any particular hurry to return to. So much had happened there, such gains and losses in what he felt was comparatively a short amount of time. He'd had mixed feelings about their abandoning the resources, but he still wouldn't have questioned the decision when they had such dire threats bearing down upon them. Resources could be replaced. Lives could not.

And yet, here he finds himself again. At least he has no intention of poking around what's left of the camp itself, and he and the other Corsairs had made sure that the mines would be inaccessible in the wake of their escape. The Empire would have to start all over again, but for now it seems that they're too busy licking their own wounds after their losses from here and against Flotsam.

Their target is one of two downed ships. It's a wonder what some well-aimed guns can do. The vessel's entirety had listed to one side during its descent, driving itself into the nearby cliff-face until its starboard side had been nearly flattened.

"Considering the load capacity of those ships, I'm willing to bet they've got some decent artillery other than their cannons. Probably didn't think they'd need to pull out anything else," Donnie notes as he observes the site from the rail of their own airship while it circles closer.

The entry point is through the rear loading hatch, which had been partially open perhaps in an attempt to evacuate before the whole ship had tipped over, and after rappelling down from their ship, the real adventure begins. Footing is tricky given the steep angle, ensuring that anything not nailed down or secured has been thrown to the starboard side of the ship. Toppled crates, containers and the equipment meant to move heavy loads make up most of the 'floor' they have to navigate across, as well as some dangling machinery hanging precariously by their loading harnesses.


((OOC: Leaving it open as to whether interested parties want to thread together or individually, whichever is easier/preferred! Also, this is a salvage mission so if there's anything anyone else might be in the market for, let me know!))

Comments

open to collaboration or solo thread

[freearcadia]

This wasn't the first time he had gones and salvaged something in this world, and at least this was marginally less risking than doing it underwater.

The pirate was quiet, and thoughtful as he followed Donnie - his expression pensive, Hesaeth looked vastly different from when he and went in disguised as an Inquisitor, or during the prison break - the mines were inaccessible and there was rubble. Familiar, dark thoughts entered his mind about the head until the turtlekin's voice drew him out of it.

"Anything we can find will be of help, be good if we can also grab the ship's logs, might tell us a little more about their operations." Harlock added as he carefully makes his way to the loading hatch. "I know we did some a good gun cache in the sea salvage," He reach a hand up, using the dangling machinery to help keep his balance during a tricky mire of ropes and scattered contents of a tipped over barrel.

*thumbs-up!*

[purplexing]

"Logs...captain's quarters then. We'll check the higher levels later," Donnie said. He made his way along an otherwise non-existent path, jumping from one surface to another once he deemed it to look sturdy enough.

"At least this stuff won't be water-logged. Maybe we can find some dry goods too. Gunpowder, maybe... Give a holler if anything useful catches your eye," he said as he continued to cast an appraising look around, himself. He unhooked the hooded lantern from his belt, its light already bright once he shifted its outer casing open. One of Link's brightblooms was housed inside, and after setting some adjustments, the broad light was honed into a more directed beam.

Re: *thumbs-up!*

[freearcadia]

"Or dealing with sharks," he added offhandedly as Donnie adjusted the beam of the lantern. A little light does help with not tripping over everything, as he nudges a curious object with his foot - a mop from the feel of it - it won't be swabbing any more decks.

Even with the lip, Harlock slows down to let his eye adjust to how dark the interior is. "Looks like this is where they keep their tools and cleaning supplies," He noted out loud, nothing that struck him as a priority search in this immediate area, though at least they had more time to consider their options in this situation. And an imperial ship is likely far more organized than the Arcadia, logically... "Likely the rest of this level is storage," He carefully sniffs the air as he moves, trying to pick up the smell of loose gunpowder or anything chemical - thankful the nightbloom lantern meant they weren't carrying open flame in a potential powder keg.

[purplexing]

"Not having to deal with sharks is a definite plus," Donnie concedes. The light sweeps in Harlock's direction at the sound, showing more of the space that lies before him.

"Well, one can never have too many tools," the turtlekin says as he shifts the light again, washing it across the expanse ahead. "Storage can consist of anything. They wouldn't have tried opening the that hatch without reason, and no amount of offloading ballast would have righted a crashing airship." Unless maybe whoever was in here felt they had better chances jumping than staying aboard... That's a grim thought, although it does make Donnie wonder what's become of whoever had remained.

[freearcadia]

The grim thought also crosses his mind, there are stories of people surviving from incredible heights - but they were one in a billion exceptions, and always gravely injured, but he doesn't voice it out loud. "Only thing offloading ballast would do is try to take anyone below with them,"

Kneeling, he pulls cloth away from some crates, frowning as he examines the lettering stamped. "Can you read what this is? The word does not look familiar to me," He's been getting better at reading the local language, but there were some words that clearly escaped his purview. "At least it doesn't smell like there's anything flammable that's spilled out," fires on ships were always bad news.

[purplexing]

Donnie makes his way over, head tilting as he comes around. He's gotten a lot better at reading at least, but this is a word he happens to know well.

"Schwert?" His eyes widen, and he scrambles around to have a better look at the rest of words. "-these are spare weapons for armors!" he says excitedly. "Does that mean they actually had armors aboard the ships?" He sure hadn't seen any deployed, but there really wouldn't have been much use for them given the venue. Still, the prospective has him sweeping his lantern about again.

[freearcadia]

"Either that or this is a supply ship." Army marches on their stomachs, the mechanized army lives or dies on the mechanics and engineers. "But no doubt this will be worth taking. Even if we can't find the corresponding armor, we can supply the ones we got... or {{jerryrig}} them in other ways."

As Donnie sweeps with the lantern, he makes a count of how many crates had 'Schwert' written on the sides, unlike a water salvage, they should in theory have all the time needed to take all they want, but it helps to have a priority in loading - and being mindful of weight. The pirate raised his hand, gesturing for the Turtlekin to still the light when he caught a glinting light under a tarp. He moves over to tug the tarp free to see what it is.

[purplexing]

The turtlekin tries to temper his eagerness at the suggestion, but his excitement is still there. Entire armors or simply the spare parts, it'd all be useful to them.

"Yeah, that's true," he murmurs. "Although I doubt they'd divide their loads like that. I bet that they expected this to be a quick job so they could join the assault on Flotsam once their ground troops secured the mines."

He blinks, pulling the light back over towards where Harlock is.

[freearcadia]

He slowly draws away the tarp. "I suspected you're right - they just didn't expect the parting gifts, or had underestimated them." While the words sounds like they should be flippant, the quiet steel in the pirate's voice made it world-weary.

The object is certainly metal, and shaped - and Harlock recognized it from Donnie's repairing one of the Armors claimed in the raid that it's a piece of the armor... for the Armor. "Were they expecting to do some quick patch jobs before joining the Flotsam assault?"

[purplexing]

"Probably," Donnie nods. He just knows that the Empire thinks highly of itself enough to think anyone could pose a threat to them. He also knows it's just as dangerous to finally be acknowledged as such.

His eyes widen as he comes closer, giving the top of the lantern a turn to let more light filter rather than have it concentrated before he sets it down on the crate Harlock had indicated earlier. "That or pre-battle preparation..." he says carefully, running a hand over the metal surface. "Either way, this is an excellent find. Let's see how much more there might be."

[freearcadia]

Harlock steps aside to let Donnie have a better look at the piece, his own going over the way it's shaped, trying to map it to the armors he seen in the hangar. "It's unlikely we'll piece together a functional armor from what we'll find, but no doubt this will keep the ones we have going for a good while."

The pirate pauses. "What is the energy source for it, Ether? like the air ships?" The man asked, realizing he never really thought about it as he starts to pull off tarps, mostly revealing more crates.

[purplexing]

"Never know! These airships were deployed for battle, and it'd be too much trouble to transfer equipment like this. I guess there's the chance that they'd keep a ship open to dock damaged armors but realistically, with everything going on, everyone's bound to have their hands full that mid-battle repairs aren't feasible."

Donnie clambers onto the piece itself so he can have a better look over the edge to try and see what else might be buried in this messy treasure trove.

"Yeah, most anything is powered by Ether stones," he confirms. "Maybe there's some spare ones they use for power cores. Now those would be useful..." He squints as he tries to angle his lantern just right before leaving it on the armor so Harlock can still see, pulling out a smaller torch that he clicks on, beaming it into the dimness below.

"Hmmm, what have we heeeeere..." he wonders aloud before dropping down.

[freearcadia]

"Might be an overly paranoid commander who decided to bring these along," he wondered out loud, there's all sorts that end up in positions of command and not always for a good reason, and the pirate suspects in the empire, that's far more common than doing it for the right reasons.

At Donnie's reply, the human pursed his lips thoughtfully - they should consider prying what's left of the stone from the ship's engine - he'll keep that in mind. "I'll keep an eye out for anything that looks like it." He watches as the turtlekin drops down, listening as he examines the crates he can access - looks like mostly ammo, and smaller pieces. He gives Donnie a few moments to orient himself during his crate check before calling out.

"Anything interesting down there?"

[newmemorywhodis]

In response, Link nods in agreement. Even if the ship had managed to offload much of its weight, it's unlikely that they'd have had time to get everything off.

And with that in might, Link makes his way to the hatch. The vertical incline is certainly one that would bother most people, and make even getting to the ship in the first place a serious challenge. Fortunately, Link is very, very good at climbing - so while Donnie inspects the outside of the ship, Link scurries up to the loading hatch. He moves quickly and confidently, making it look deceptively easy.

Once there, he pulls a long piece of rope out of his pack. Ties one end to a beam that's still sturdy and solid. And then drops the other end down. Should help Donnie's own journey up.

[purplexing]

((....you know, I did not realize when I was trying to trim the introduction down that I cut out the part about them rappelling down by airship lol. Oh well, I'll fix that for the main post but I'll go with your tag. There's still a ship on standby.))

Donnie's no slouch for climbing himself, proving himself quite capable of finding handholds and footholds even when there doesn't seem to be much to hang onto. His brothers used to explore just about everywhere along the coast where they lived, and that included plenty of climbing up of steep rock faces and jumping off the top into the ocean waters below.

Unfortunately there's nothing to pad their fall here, so when a rope is provided, Donnie's not going to refuse it. He makes it up the rest of the way without trouble, eyeing the mechanism of the hatch before peering down the opening itself, still plenty wide for them to get in. Squinting into the dimness, he crouches down to slide over the edge, hanging there so he can swing himself in the direction of a nearby support beam.

[newmemorywhodis]

[Haha rappelling from airship would make sense! Perhaps this experience with Link makes Donnie realise it would be a better approach XD]

Link's eyes can't see through the darkness any better than Donnie can. But he tosses a familiar glowing-green flower into the hatch - and wherever the Brightbloom lands, it will grow and release a soft green light.

He glances at Donnie - who looks to be doing okay, swinging on the rope like a vine - before making his own way through the hatch. He doesn't have extra rope, so he just climbs through and clings to the wall just inside, looking around. What's it look like inside?

[purplexing]

At a glance the tilted ship does its best impression of a very stylized cavern, its stalactites formed by hanging equipment and crates in thick rope nets, stalagmites a pile of the unsecured detritus of everything else that formerly sat firmly on the ship's floor.

Crates of every size form mounds and peaks, some busted open from the force of their fall, their contents scattered and mostly as good as lost if they've slipped into the crevices of the jumbled conglomeration that makes up the terrain.

Donnie walks along the length of the beam he'd landed on, pulling out his own lantern, one that employs the same brightbloom source. With a twist, he aligns the mirrors within to focus the light into more of a beam, running it across the piles beneath him as he looks for the next best place to put his feet down.

[newmemorywhodis]

The lantern gets a curious look, from Link - with that concentrated beam, it's brighter than Brightblooms usually are.

But even if it's not strictly needed, Link still draws his bow - and fires off a few more Brightbloom seeds into the space, until there's no more pitch dark spaces. The lantern will still help illuminate the specifics. But this way, they'll at least be able to see the whole space better.

And with that task done, Link drops down to a lower section - to a part where there's lots of crates, broken or otherwise. What's inside those?

[purplexing]

Donnie's not going to argue against having more light. He nods at Link before hopping over to one of the netted crates, clinging to the rope as it swings lazily about as he tries to see if there's any indications of what might be inside of it.

One of the broken crates once held parts, a few random gears still sitting within its remains. Another that seems to have only suffered the splitting of its lid has dried foodstuffs. Link's landing makes some of the pile shift, something sliding off the side before stopping, but the sound of something streaming might catch his attention. It's not liquid in origin but dry, and upon investigation turns out to be a leaking keg of gunpowder.

[newmemorywhodis]

The drief foodstuffs get a curious, close inspection from Link. Despite being a keen chef, he's not actually that familiar with them. The benefits of being able to store ingredients in his enchanted pack mean that Link's used to always having fresh ingredients on hand.

Doesn't mean he won't try these too, though. He'll stuff whatever he can pick up in his pack.

And then...ooh, that's interesting. The inside of the keg's like a bomb barrel. He makes a noise in the back of his throat, to get Donnie's attention.

"Can you patch it?" He says, pointing to the leak in the barrel once Donnie's close. If he can, the barrel will be easier - and safer - to transport.

[purplexing]

The turtle looks over before he plots out the best route to take to get him to where Link is. Eventually he jumps to the neck of some sort of loading crane, sliding down before making another leap to pick his way over to the mound Link's been investigating.

"Hmmm," he muses, setting his hands on the barrel. "Help me turn it." It doesn't seem like the other side is leaking, but the ship's landing probably hadn't done it any favors if the crack there is anything to go by. "Don't have anything on me...Maybe if we find a rag and tie it down tight enough with some rope it should do the trick for a temporary fix."

[newmemorywhodis]

With Donnie on one side of the barrel, and Link on the other, they're able to shift it so that the gunpowder can't leak anymore. But if they need rags...

Giving Donnie a nod, Link leaves the barrel where it is and immediately begins a search. It doesn't take long for him to gather up what pieces of fabric he kind find in the debris - a torn sail here, a worn sack there. All of these, he thrusts towards Donnie while giving him a questioning look.

Will these work?

[purplexing]

Link works quickly and seems more than eager to search for the needed materials, so Donnie leaves it to him while he has a closer look at the damage. When the fabric samples are brought back, he has a look at each as he spreads each piece on top of the barrel. He feels each of them between his fingers and bunches them in testing. The sail's too stiff and most of the sack material is too loose, but he finally finds a piece that looks dense enough but still pliable.

"This should work," he says, wadding it up a bit to stuff it into the seam of the crack. He takes his multitool out to cut off the excess, and then he gets the sail and cuts it down a bit too before setting it over the spot he'd just stuffed. "Okay, so we just need to bind this down and it'll be good to go."

[newmemorywhodis]

Okay. So they need to bind it down.

But...what with?

He doesn't have anything in his pack that could help with that. So instead he looks around, hoping he'll spot something that could be of use...

Aha! There is something - a small box filled with nails. The lid is partly ajar, and many of the nails have likely scattered all over. But there's still a few next. Maybe enough to hold the sail down?

He holds the box out for Donnie.

[purplexing]

If only he'd finalized that experimental adhesive he'd been working on...

Donnie can't help but grin when Link produces the nails. "Oh, that'll work," he says with a shrug, reaching over to take a few. "Hold this down while I start hammering these in."

He has to be careful not to break the thing even more, but between the two of them they manage to get the patch in place.

"We just have to warn whoever's loading it to be careful," he notes. "This area looks pretty sturdy, so we'll keep it here for now until we call in our airship."