The New World, Goblin Sea, Eternal City of Burns, Palace of The Burning Hill
Strurruilk, the Mighty King of All Things Under His Feet and Ruler From The Throne of The Burning Hill and Sea Master of Thieves and Giver of All Goblin Life and Conquerer of All Lands and Grand Lord of Magic and Happiness! and the Only Chief of Love and Destruction and Favoured by the Gods! was sitting on his skull throne enjoying being fed by several particularity fat specimens of a female goblin.
He chomped down noisily on squirming fire larvae dropped into his large mouth by his handmaidens as he lounged without a care on his throne. Just as he was about the savor another morsel when a hobgoblin came lumbering in, his fat meaty arms waving frantically in panic.
"My Mighty King of All Things Under His Feet and Ruler From The Throne of... erh... burning hill to the seas... and... and... erm... ah! Master of thieves and goblin lover and conquerer!" The hobgoblin scratched its balding head and paused as he tried to remember the correct greeting. "Great magic and much happy love of destruction!"
Strurruilk frowned as the greeting was all wrong and made him feel he lost his mojo. His expression darkened and his serving maids eyed each other with knowing looks as they saw the change of expression of their master.
Strurruilk sat up straight in his skull throne and puffed up his chest trying to parody a bearing of majestic awe. As he was about to open his mouth to berate the hobgoblin, the very hobgoblin yelled out, "Flying ships! Many flying ships!"
"Whaa?" The rebuke was lost as Strurruilk's mouth opened and closed in confusion. "Flying ships?"
"Yes, Mighty King!" The hobgoblin replied with a grave nod while pointing outside. "Up there!"
Strurruilk had to wiggle his fat ass off the skull throne with the help of his maids, his folds of fats had imprints of skulls and other bones from sitting too long on the throne. With the support of his maids, Strurruilk waddled his way to the nearest opening in his throne cave and struck his head out.
He blinked his beady eyes against the bright sun and as his sight adjusted to the outdoor brightness, he saw a dark rectangular shadow right over his head. He blinked rapidly again, thinking it was just a trick of the sun, as he had stayed too long holed up in his palace.
But not only was one but instead, there were over a dozen dark floating shadows hovering overhead. Strurruilk stared in wide eye wonder at the scene over his ramshackle city that had been rebuilt again after the invasion of the long legs. As he tried to count the numbers, suddenly many winged shapes burst out from the flying objects and Strurruilk cursed as he recognized the winged shapes as dragons. "Its... its a sneaky attack!"
-----
Nhak rode the screaming drake off the side of the aviary airship together with the rest of the fifty man troop. The drakes shrieked and screamed excitedly as they spread their wings wide open, catching the warm air currents that rose out from the smoking semi active volcano.
Three other aviary airships of the Suugon Dynasty Fleet started dropping their winged units as the Suugon Fleet shook itself into a fighting formation against a ground target. Nhak followed the bright yellow banner trailing behind the tail of the wing commander as the whole winged unit went screaming over the shabby looking city underneath their bellies.
Nhak frowned and spat over the side with disdain as he saw the condition of the city they were planning to capture. Not only was it filled with demi beings and monsters, but it also looked so rundown that it made Nhak wonder if the New World was filled only with savages and barbarians.
A red flag was raised by the wing commander, giving the order to attack. Nhak yanked his reins and kicked the flanks of his drake who responded to his commands by swooping down towards the city. His drake's armoured tail slashed through the roof of one of the ramshackle huts, scaring the green inhabitants out.
His drake lashed out with practised moves, each hind claw griping one of the screaming creatures and tossed their broken bodies away. All over the city, Suugon Royal Wing Warriors attacked the city, while the goblins attempted to shoot the small flying dragons down with ballista and crossbows.
The Suugon Fleet fired off its fiery cannons, sending gouts of flames gushing down over the city, bathing the land in flames. Steam ballista popped, throwing steel and wood spears the length longer than a person down.
The airships' flame weapons soon turned the majority of the area around the city into a flaming wasteland, before troop ships started landing and disgorging hundreds and hundreds of armoured soldiers wielding large sabres and shields to finish mopping up any survivors.
-----
The New World, The Isles, First City of the Fleet
Fleet Master Megan lightly ran her fingers over the long smooth iron cylinder tube that sat on a wood carriage on two large fat wheels. She frowned slightly as she tapped the cannon and turned around to face the anxious craftsmen who had gathered around with smiles on their faces.
Megan schooled her expression as she smiled back and asked, "Is this all?"
"Yes, yes! Fleet Master!" The master head craftsman stood forward and replied with pride. "We have thirty of these! Another thirty can be made in another four weeks!"
Megan nodded, opening her fan to cover her disappointment at the quality of their work from showing from her lips. She hoped to at least be able to match the quality of the weapons of the United Nations by half, but realistically she knew it was beyond her craftsmen to fully grasp their knowledge of the thunder weapons.
Already, the Isle's craftsmen could produce something like this was already amazing enough, yet that did not make Megan feel any assurance if she wanted the Isles to be able to at least match the United Nations in naval might.
"How powerful are these?" Megan asked as tapped the cannon with her folded fan.
"At least twice the range of our best ballistas!" The master craftsman said. "It fires a cast iron ball weighing 10 stones."
"It has better penetration capabilities than our ballista bolts of the same weight," The master craftsman explained proudly. "But accuracy... the further away, the thunder cannons' accuracy drops... a lot..."
"How would this weapon fare against those of the United Nations?" Megan asked.
The master craftsman looked at his team uncertainly and Megan sighed, "Just say the truth..."
"Fleet Master..." The master craftsman swallowed and nervously answered. "Truth is... if judging by the accounts of the late Fleet Master Dijon and other... reports..."
"The United Nations' thunder cannons would be at least ten times more powerful compared to ours..." The master craftsman replied. "We can't compare to them at all..."
"But... against any other kingdoms or the goblin pirates..." The master craftsman perked up slightly. "Our thunder cannons will make short work of their navies!"
"So... against the United Nations navy, we are far behind?" Megan summarized. "But against the rest of the world, we are the strongest if our ships are equipped with these?"
The craftsmen all nodded their heads eagerly while the master craftsman quickly added, "There's is one more issue, Fleet Master..."
"We... have to rebuild all our current ships... Or at least reinforce their keels and main structure..." He said.
"Why?" Megan frowned as rebuilding the entire Isles' fleet was something that would require tens of thousands of gold crowns, labor, and time.
"Our ships are built to withstand the recoil and balanced to the weight of the ballistas," The master craftsman answered. "These thunder cannons produce a lot more recoil and stress to the beams and keel of the ship..."
"If we mount these weapons onboard our existing fleet..." The master craftsman explained. "Repeated firing of these weapons would break the ships apart almost instantly!"
"I see..." Megan tapped her chin thoughtfully with her fan. "Is that why the United Nations build their ships out of iron?"
The master craftsman gave a nod, "That could be one reason other than having the iron as protection."
"Are you able to build a ship out of metal?" Megan asked. "Just like the United Nations?"
The master craftsman turned to the rest as they debated among themselves in regard to Megan's question. Megan leaned against the cannon waiting patiently for the answer from the craftsmen.
Finally, the master craftsman turned again and said in a solemn tone. "Fleet Master, we... we believe it is doable! But... we would need time and... many resources to experiment if we are to succeed!"
"If your craftsmen can create and produce an iron ship for the Isles..." Fleet Master Megan gave a charming smile. "Money will not be a problem!"
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The New World, United Nations, Hope Naval Station
"Shhhh!" A small shadowy figure hissed at the rest as the figure stuck his head around the corner of the warehouse. The figure watched the beam of light from the guard tower sweeping across the fence, illuminating the gravel ground brightly before the beam moved to the other side of the warehouse. "Go! Go! Go!"
"Hehhehehe!" A short burst of giggles burst out from the group carrying a wrapped object many times their size over their shoulder. "SHHHHH!"
"Woopsie! Teehee!" The group quietened down as they rushed across the dark ground, keeping to the shadows. "One two! One two!"
"Quiet!" The front most figure hissed again as they came towards the dry dock area. Here the streets between the warehouses and workshops were brightly lit and there were more people moving around. "Act natural!"
The group came out of the shadows and the light from the street lamps revealed them to be a group of goblins in work overalls carrying a large object wrapped in white cloth. The seven goblins started whistling nonchalantly as they walked the guard post, waving their base passes at the Marine guards.
"Kekeke! That was easy!" One of the goblins giggled as they headed towards the massive ship that sat in the middle of the dry docks. They marched up the cargo gangway, their actions barely brought any attention to themselves despite the constant giggles and stiffened laughs.
The group of goblins wandered through the countless passageways and decks before arriving at the bow of the forward hull. There they carefully place the object they were carrying down to one side and started removing tools and ropes. One of them secured one end of the ropes and threw the remainder over the bow. Others grabbed the ropes and started climbing over the rails of the bow and lowered themselves down.
The wrapped cloth was finally removed, revealing a crude looking statue of a grinning goblin poised with one hand at the hip while the other hand was held up showing a middle finger. At the feet of the goblin was a plaque that had cut out strips of metal welded and bolted together, forming the words, "Greg de Great"
The goblins carefully lowered the statue over the bow and the goblins that had already climbed down caught the statue and started welding the statue of Greg over the prow, creating a figurehead for the massive super carrier.
"Kekekekeke!" The goblins giggled as they worked, forgetting to keep their volumes down. Along the sides of the dry docks, workers paused at their work or errands and looked up at the bright sparks trailing off the welders and the giggles of the goblins.
They shook their heads at the antics of the goblins and returned to work and when the group of goblins finally finished their handiwork, they proudly high fived each other and quickly cleaned up the scene before giggling their way off the ship, thinking that they had completed their task without anyone noticing.
"Hehehehe! Oh boy, how surprised they will all be when they see Greg the Great up there! Hehehehehehe!"