As may or may not be obvious, it's based off of FFI. I'm going to be taking a lot of creative license here, which is almost necessary considering how anemic FFI's story and setting are. I'll be following the entire journey of the Four Warriors of Light, but there will be more than four main characters. I'm going to go for a heavy spread of action and fighting. I might also do a lot of diverging and side plots, so this may end up being kind of long.
Please alert me to any and all flaws, not just in style and execution but in environmental and characterization issues as well. For instance, this opening chapter is a debauchery of naval warfare. I don't know much about cannons or sailing ships, and figured I could get away with some stuff because it's Final Fantasy. Still, if this is FUBAR, please let me know.
Enough rambling, here it is:
*****
A young officer in the traditional red dress uniform and gold helmet appeared and snapped a smart salute. “General Garland, carrier pigeon from Admiral Faust; the second flotilla is in position and the pirate fleet is trapped in the Northern Strait. There’s nowhere for them to go but on land and-“
Siegfried Garland waved his hand and the soldier stopped talking. “Relay to Faust that our forces are also in position, whether he dies at land or sea is irrelevant. Bikke dies today.”
The two officers exchanged a salute and the captain strode away at a brisk pace. Garland walked up to the top of the hillock and drew his spyglass. Two large contingents of Royal Army forces held the port, cannons were in position and ready to fire on the pirates once they were within range.
This strategy was straight from the king himself, but Garland didn’t like it. While the forces holding the port were heavily fortified, they were stationary targets and vulnerable to Bikke’s swift pirate vessels. The logic was to force a surrender by demonstrating that they had nowhere to go, but Captain Black Beard Bikke was not about to surrender; while he was a coward, he would try a desperate escape before he waved the white flag.
Because pirates invariably hang, no one save for the king expected a peaceful resolution. Most of the fleet would go down fighting, as would any pirates that tried to take the port. Bikke himself would most likely try to run the Royal Navy blockade and escape to Provoka. The chances of doing so successfully were slim to none, and Garland’s only regret was that he wouldn’t have the pleasure of killing him personally.
Garland had proposed a better strategy, of course, one that was sure to eliminate the pirates albeit with less flair and more glory going to the Army than the Navy. He had proposed that the Navy pigeon hole Bikke’s fleet in the strait as per the current plan, but have the Army remain out of sight. Once the pirates went aground at the port, the Army would swarm the town in full force.
A few soldiers were sure to be lost, but less than with the king’s starry eyed plan. Although he was a knight through and through, Garland was also a politician and knew a few dead troops would look a lot better than a lot of dead troops and a few sunken ships.
Garland sighed. The king was an idiot for thinking a show of overwhelming force would win the day. This wasn’t the Elven Navy they were fighting, pirates don’t play by any predetermined rules. He knew how this was going to end. Although victory was certain, it wouldn’t be clean. Lives and ships were going to be lost today, and Bikke would be an unconfirmed kill at sea. Also, it would all end up being Garland’s fault somehow.
He made a fist angrily. It must be nice to be king, he thought. Be a sloppy tactician far from the front and blame it all on your generals when things inevitably go wrong. Garland snorted. I’m not a general, he thought, I’m just a puppet; this is the king’s strategy, not mine.
***
“Yer orders, Cap’n?” One of the less scurvy-ridden buccaneers asked. Bikke just stood there, staring forlornly at the Cornelian Navy ships clogging the strait. His ships were safely out of range at this point, but the margin was steadily shrinking. Also, the knights had taken the port town of Prontera and fortified it with heavy cannons.
Bikke was between a sea snake and a sahagin; but he had been through worse. It wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot. While this wouldn’t be a good day for him or his mates, he was determined to make it a worse day for that idiot Garland and that dried up old Faust.
“Have the Provoka an’ Narciss draw fire from Faust’s dogs.” Bikke growled. “Tell Otis that whatever’e does, don’t lose any more sea to ‘em.” “The rest of us’re gonna lay waste to Prontera. Keep the Nirvana at a safe distance!”
“Aye aye, Cap’n!” The pirate yelled and ran off to relay the orders. Bikke was sending the crew of the Provoka and Narciss to a watery grave; but those were the only ships large enough to make Faust break a sweat. The rest of the fleet was fast and quick, perfect for taking out Garland’s stationary cannonries.
***
Through his spyglass Garland saw the two frigates break and head for the nearest group of Navy cutters. He’s clearing a path, he thought. He’s not even going to try to run aground. Garland sighed, almost disappointed, and then the main sails on the rest of the fleet opened up. The pirate cutters turned and started heading for shore at a brisk pace. Single file, parallel to the coast.
“Blast it!” Garland exclaimed out loud. Bikke was doing a shore bombardment. He motioned to the nearby lieutenant. “Get down there and tell them to fire at will!”
***
Bikke grinned. The winds and the current were in his favor. He couldn’t be going faster if he had a hydra pulling his ship. Below decks his crew had the cannons ready to fire. Although they were a lot smaller than the heavy ones protecting Prontera, they were more than enough to waste the town. The knights would be trying to hit fast moving ships with big guns. The pirates just had to nail the big stationary guns.
“The Sea Troll’s in range Cap’n!” One of the pirates shouted.
“Tell ‘em to open fire!” Bikke shouted in return.
The first of the three cutters released a volley of cannon fire. Nearby docks erupted into explosions of foam and splinters, and one of the cannonries was destroyed instantly. Return fire from Prontera caused great plumes of water to erupt on all sides of the Sea Troll but no direct hits. Bikke knew this luck wouldn’t hold all day.
Farther east, towards the open sea, things were going a lot worse for the pirates. Faust’s flagship, an enormous ironclad called the Queen Jayne had blasted the Provoka into driftwood with a single volley. The Narciss had been running interference, but was now on a full retreat. She was crewed by pirates, after all. Not zealots.
***
Garland’s mailed fist slammed the spyglass down, shattering it. The first ship wasn’t even hit, and the port was nearly destroyed in a single pass. Two more ships inbound. He turned to one of his subordinates.
“Where’s the nitro powder!?” Garland roared. The lieutenant looked at him as if he was speaking Lufenian. That magically reactive, crystalline explosive was dwarven in origin and the army had a very finite supply remaining. Of course, Garland saw to it that every cannon brigade kept some in stock, just in case.
“Bring it!” He bellowed. A young soldier in an archer’s uniform ran up to Garland carrying a small gray canister. Garland snatched it and started loping down the hill. “Send a pigeon to Faust; tell him to corner the pirates as close to Prontera as he can!”
***
Bikke didn’t like doing bombardments from the starboard side. They were fighting the strait’s current and fighting the winds. Half speed at best, quarter speed at worst. The Sea Troll was already going down, despite the fact that only a third of the cannons Prontera originally opened up with were still firing. While the Nirvana had the luxury of staying at a relatively safe distance- she was equipped with navy caliber cannons- a stray cannon ball had bounced up and splintered the auxiliary mast and some poor sap’s right leg.
“Fire!” Bikke roared. The Nirvana’s starboard cannons opened up and more fire and smoke plumed out of what was once the port town of Prontera. A return volley sounded, but not from the port. Geyser plumes of foam erupted all about the ship. Bikke looked to port and almost had a heart attack. The Narciss was in full retreat; followed closely by two Cornelian ships, cannons blazing.
“Break to Port!” Bikke screamed. “Set a course bearin’ right down on the Queen Jayne!”
The massive ironclad was all but invulnerable to conventional weapons. Bikke wasn’t planning on attacking her, but running a now broken blockade consisting of the Queen Jayne would only work if he stayed in her blind spot. There was no way she could hit him if he came dead-on from the front.
***
Despite his heavy armor, Garland sprinted quickly through the ruined town. Cannon balls impacted the ground on all sides and Cornelian archers were trying to keep the survivors of the Sea Troll’s crew from making it ashore. All Garland had to do was find a working cannon and a single powder ball. The smoke from the rampant fires would make nailing the Nirvana difficult. But if he used enough powder he wouldn’t even need to worry about accuracy.
Out in the bay, the three surviving pirate vessels were clustered together, taking fire from the remnants of Prontera’s garrison and two Cornelian cutters. One of the cutters was ablaze and going down, but her cannons still fired. Abandon ship! Garland thought. They’re just pirates! You aren’t saving the queen by dying in this travesty!
He spotted what looked like an intact cannon. He ran up to it and shoved aside the corpse of its former operator. Looking around Garland grabbed a powder ball and proceeded to empty it. Hunkering down behind an overturned cart he began to fill the empty shell with nitro. It looked like fine diamond dust, and was almost as valuable. Garland packed every spare gram he could into the ball, then applied a fuse.
Sabers clanged and pistols rang out in the distance. The smoke that he had cursed moments before obscured him from the pirates. While all of the cannonries had been destroyed and some of the pirates had made it ashore this stand alone unit had survived while its former operator had been killed by shrapnel. Garland filled the cannon with powder and applied a fuse. He then lit the fuse on the ball and dropped it in the cannon. Here goes everything, he thought and aimed the cannon in the general direction of the three pirate ships.
He jerked the fuse and fire erupted from the cannon, the red hot ball screamed through the air towards the sea. Garland turned and ran for high ground.
***
Bikke turned abruptly as a deafening explosion sounded behind him. Where one of the Cornelian cutters had been just moments ago was an impossible combination of water and light. The shockwave capsized the other ship and the explosive force tore Bikke’s last remaining ships asunder. What in Pandaemonium was that!? Bikke thought. He grabbed the wheel just as the tidal wave came down on his ship.
The Nirvana swung hard to starboard, but didn’t capsize. The unplanned course adjustment brought her to bear with the Queen Jayne’s cannons, but the ungainly ironclad was busy dealing with unexpected water intake. Bikke spun the wheel hard, and managed to straighten his course. Whatever that blast was, it was his one-way ticket out of this hellish strait.
Bikke reached in his pouch and removed a tiny clear orb of solid crystal. Whatever THIS was, that damned dark elf was going to pay dearly for it. Black Beard had lost all but a single ship and the vast majority of his mates. While Otis wasn’t going to be a problem anymore, Bikke would have a hard time maintaining dominance in the Aldean with a single ship crewed by a dozen buccaneers. Yes indeed, that dark elf would pay.
