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<m key="dc.date">Wed Sep 23 00:56:00 2020
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<p style="Normal" xid="4" props="text-align:justify"><c>“Hey, boss? I think I see something over there!”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="1" props="text-align:justify"><c>Pulling back from your spyglass, you look over to your trusty evil hedgehog companion, following the direction of his finger-pointing and similar such spyglass gazing. Without a word, nor any time to waste, you set your spyglass on target and start a-gazin’.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="2" props="text-align:justify"><c>And oh boy, was there something worth a-gazin’ at!</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="5" props="text-align:justify"><c>The unmistakable shape of an airship freighter, with the unmistakable flown colours and iconography of filthy fucking sky pirates, poking out of the unmistakable sole cumulonimbus cloud around, and diving right back in to unmistakably try and remain undetected.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="6" props="text-align:justify"><c>“Well, well, </c><c props="font-style:italic">well!</c><c props="font-style:normal">” you cheer, sheathing your spyglass with a grin. “That, lil’ G, is what we in the business like to call, ‘filthy fucking sky pirates’.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="7" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Ohh, </c><c props="font-style:italic">man!</c><c props="font-style:normal"> Sky pirates?!”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="8" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Your ever-entertaining accomplice in crime, Grubber, was always at his best at moments like this; getting all worked up and giddy at the thought of mayhem being had.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="9" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">And with the subject at hand being sky pirates, well...</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="10" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Anon, please </c><c props="font-style:italic">please</c><c props="font-style:normal"> tell me we’re gonna book ‘em!”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="11" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">You know it’s good when his eyes start to twinkle.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="12" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Grubber, I’m offended beyond measure that you would even ask such a thing.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="13" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Aaaaaand nope. Neither one of you could make it past three seconds of forced awkward staring without breaking into a snicker fit.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="14" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Take us in, lil’ G,” you say with a pat to his little shoulder. “Fast and furious.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="15" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Aye aye, Commander!”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="16" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Flashing his little salute, he jumps down off the bridge railing and darts on over to the steering wheel. Fishing the key out of his official Storm King branded shirt, he goes about starting the ship back up.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="17" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Of course, while all that happened, you strode over to the opposite set of railings on the bridge. With your hands raised up high, you arrive at the railing in perfect sync with your accomplice’s machinations; at the same exact moment the airship engine roars to life, your armoured hands slam down on the railing like a judge’s gavel.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="18" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Ladies and fucking dickworms, this is your friendly neighbourhood Commander speaking!”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="19" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Every single storm creature present on the deck of your warship </c><c props="font-style:italic">immediately</c><c props="font-style:normal"> stopped what they were doing to look up at you.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="20" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“I know we’ve been having ourselves a </c><c props="font-style:italic">real</c><c props="font-style:normal"> boring patrol today, ladies. But you’re all in luck, because that’s all about to change right now.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="21" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Your face adopts it’s signature evil smile, your tone dropping to match it.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="22" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“‘Cause we’ve got ourselves a code 10-54 in progress.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="23" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">True to form, the effect of your words spreads through your loyal crew members like bubonic wildfire. Nearly all of them were grinning under those helmet things of theirs, a good half of them were chuckling amongst themselves, and there was even one storm creature in the back just pelvic thrusting with pure unrestrained glee.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="24" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Positions, boys. It’s showtime.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="25" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">With a deep, resounding </c><c props="font-style:italic">‘hurrah’</c><c props="font-style:normal">, and one of the most Spartan sounding foot stomping rounds to ever grace the planet Equis this week, your highly trained and excited band of monstrous killing machines immediately sprang into action. Most of them went below deck to get themselves armed up, and the ones that didn’t spent their time dousing and otherwise shutting off all of the lights above deck before heading on down themselves.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="26" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Proud as ever to see your battle strats being executed to the numbers so far, you turn back around and lean up against the steering wheel of the ship, stowing your spyglass back into your armour and retrieving a small, beat-up looking brass monocular.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="27" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Your warship makes good time as it always does, sinking into the always welcoming and </c><c props="font-style:italic">very</c><c props="font-style:normal"> high up storm cloud to be. The enchantments in your ship’s hull, courtesy of the Storm King, went to work right away, churning up and darkening the already grayish looking clouds </c><c props="font-style:italic">very</c><c props="font-style:normal"> rapidly. Barely a minute later, your surroundings had become almost completely black and devoid of sunlight, and rain was beginning to precipitate out of the clouds at a rapid rate.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="28" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Of course, you weren’t affected by any of this. Not just because of some extra enchantments you had put in on your own dime that kept all rain safely away from the deck, but because your attention was lasered in on finding your larcenous prey.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="29" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Helps that you’ve done this shit a million times by now.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="31" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">See, the little brass viewfinder thingamajig of yours had a very neat property to it: it gave you full-blown Predator vision. Full-blown, that is, except for the distinct lack of any kind of HUD, </c><c props="font-style:italic">ridiculously</c><c props="font-style:normal"> wide, near fisheye levels of view angle, and a distinct lack of clicking noises.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="34" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Trying to supply those yourself went a lot better in your head than it did in practice.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="33" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">While the stupidly wide angle of the little device made it pretty useless as part of day-to-day ass kicking, it was super useful in scouting out anyone hiding away in cloud cover like this.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="35" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">And, sure enough, it doesn’t take long at all to find the heat signature of your target. Faint at first, but steadily growing in intensity as the ship neared it.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="36" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“There she is. A good half a click that-a way.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="37" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">You point towards your target, allowing Grubber to immediately adjust his course.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="38" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Wanna go in guns blazing, or do you wanna keep this one quiet?”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="39" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“I’m feeling quiet today.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="40" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“You got it.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="42" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Grubber slows the ship down, pulling a few levers while he does it. Before long, the runes dotting the hull of your ship ceased their glowing and died down, and the rumbling of the engine was cut down to a good sixth of what it once was. Combine all of that with the lights your crew had put out beforehand, and the cover of the now-thundering storm, meant your ship was now effectively in stealth mode.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="43" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">“Here ya go, boss.”</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="44" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal">Grubber, bless his little black heart, already had the old-timey cone microphone at the ready for the fellas below deck. Smiling, you put away your viewfinder and grab the mic.</c></p>
<p style="Normal" xid="45" props="text-align:justify"><c props="font-style:normal"></c></p>
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