Some pirates used brute force to get what they wanted, some used fear to get what they wanted, and a certain few even used charm to get what they wanted. But Sergei Hankock was different, he used brains to get what he wanted.
He would purposefully wait below the horizon just out of sight from merchant ships, and by the time they saw him, it would be too late.
However on this day this tactic would be useless to him. Sailing into a small harbor off the coast of the island of Cottonland.
As Sergei's ship the Depthstalker approached the harbor, Sergei and the crew began to notice something off.
The smell of fire was prominent and the harbor was covered in a mixture of black and white smoke.
As they neared ever closer the sounds of musket fire, screaming and shouting could be heard, while most were inaudible one voice was heard clearly.
"Kill these thieves!"
The Depthstalker eventually pierced the thick smoke clouding the harbor and in the commotion someone shouted
"Ship! Looks like a frigate!"
"Pirate ship!" Shouted another man.
A small explosion rocked the bow of the Depthstalker knocking a few crewmembers over.
Small shards of wood and flaming embers fell from the impact site, leaving a tiny hole.
Sergei's quartermaster and right hand man Marlo Derry said
"Hand mortar! I had one just like that."
"Is that what that was?" Sergei questioned
"Aye, I'd know it anywhere."
As they neared the moorings of the harbor they noticed many of the other ships in the harbor were engulfed in flames.
The sound of a mast snapping in half was heard and just starboard of Sergei one of the burning ships' mast fell over onto it smashing it to bits leaving it to sink into the ocean.
"Prepare for docking!" Sergei shouted
And as his ship began to dock, Sergei could see soldiers running away with their captain shouting at them.
"Comeback you cowards! We can take these criminals!" The captain berated
He was then pistol whipped from behind by a member of the opposing side. On the opposing side there was a group of armed sailor looking men with women and children cowering back behind them.
Sergei immediately hopped overboard to investigate what was going on.
As Sergei stepped onto dry land the soldiers commanding officer ascended from the ground, Sergei tried to help him up, the man shoved him aside.
"Out of my way pirate! For once I'm not after you and your ilk. My concern for now are these criminals!" The officer shouted
The officer slinked away, after that with one of the men on the opposing side shouting.
"And tell Governor Wilbern to suck a dick!"
Sergei approached the mysterious armed men and one reached out to shake his hand.
"Thank you sir, I don't know who you are but you arrived just in time to save us from those thuggish Green Coats." The man said
"It isn't very wise to pick a fight with the High King nor his minion. If you're really looking for a death sentence fighting Admiral Wilbern is an easy way to get one." Sergei said.
The man they were referring to was Lord Jelco Wilbern, the second most powerful man in the Kingdom, he was the right hand man of High King Opus, Wilbern was the commander of the navy, and governor of multiple different islands.
"I'd rather die than pay this new tax. Governor Wilbern has implemented yet another tax on the merchant class of Cottonland. He's demanding 65 percent of what we make. He'll bankrupt us." The man said
"Well I suppose it's better than 100 percent of what you make. Us pirates will take a lot more than what Wilbern is asking." Sergei retorted
"I suppose so, I just wish there was a place where we could live in peace, free from the thuggery of both pirates and green coated thugs."
"There is one place I can think of. In the far north, on the edge of the kingdom there is an abandoned atoll, still has a crumbling fort on it from the first conquest if I recall."
"I know what you're talking about, and the atoll you speak of lies in the middle of the Sea of Monsters."
"No one could bother you there. There's a reason it's abandoned."
"Maybe, I'll think about it. My name's Tollace by the way. And this is my village."
"Names Sergei."
"It's nice to meet you Sergei on what is surely the last day of my life."
"Don't worry I'll help, surely there's a way I can steal some loot off this."
"There is! Wilbern's treasure convoy leaves port tonight. We can take it, and me and my village will, can sail off to wherever the wind takes us."
"Where's the convoy leaving from?"
"Around the Eastern side of the island."
"We better get going then, It's a big Island, if we're going to get them we've got to leave."
"Alright, I'll join you on your ship, so will the rest of the men of the village. In case you need help boarding the ship."
"Your help is welcomed."
Sergei smiled as he shook hands with the resistance leader.
Later that night the Depthstalker lie in wait for the treasure convoy,
Tollace leaned back against a cannon on the Quarterdeck,
"What are the armaments of the ship Sergei?" He asked
"Forty-five cannon, six gatling guns, four swivel guns, and two torpedoes."
Sergei responded
"Wow, I bet whoever you stole this ship from regrets losing such a heavily armed vessel."
"It was a mercenary frigate named Floating Fire, stole her and gave her a better name. Of course the mercenary I stole her from is still looking for me."
"Ha."
Just then the man in the crowsnest shouted,
"Convoy ahead!"
Sergei speeked out of the spyglass and saw three ships, one frigate and two brigs behind it.
"Get ready boys!" Marlo shouted.
"Three ships, we only need to board one. So we sink the other two with torpedoes." Sergei said to himself
"Fire torpedoes! Sink the brigs!" Sergei shouted
Under the bow of the Depthstalker, there were two long cannon halfway submerged in the water, these two cannon were longer than the conventional cannon on the upper deck, these cannon fired long oval shaped cannonballs filled with incendiary liquid.
A crewmember lit the fuse on one of these cannon, the resulting explosion sent one of these torpedoes flying towards one of the brigs.
The torpedo struck the brig causing a massive fireball to tear the ships, the other ships began to turn quicker knowing the bow was harder to hit with a torpedo.
The second torpedo launched from the deck of the Depthstalker, swiftly traveling just beneath the surface and striking the other brig causing it to explode, leaving only the Depthstalker and the Treasure frigate, remaining to fight it out.
Both ships sailed to the side of each other and unleashed a violent broadside.
The roar of the cannon was deafening and the smoke from the made was nearly blinding.
The cannonballs smashed through the wood of the Depthstalker, injuring many of the crew and killing one of them.
The Treasure frigate was hardly fazed by the Depthstalkers barrage, having metal armor on its side.
"It's over we have no way to penetrate their armor!" Shouted Tollace
"I have an idea." Sergei said "Ready for boarding!"
Sergei then turned the wheel of the ship ramming the opposing ship tangling their rigging and getting both ships stuck.
"It's going to be a nightmare untangling that." Tollace commented
"Never mind that now, we're boarding." Sergei said
"My first ever pirate raid." Tollace murmured to himself as he grabbed his musket.
The Treasure ship and Depthstalker continued to exchange cannon fire below the decks, devastating the Depthstalker
Sergei grabbed his swords and as the crew of the Treasure frigate tried to board the Depthstalker he shouted
"Fire the gatling guns!"
The crew of the Depthstalker grabbed the gatling guns and lit their fuses, within seconds the guns had come to life shooting hot lead balls at the Green Coats trying to board the ships, many were gunned down and some were even chopped to pieces by gunfire.
Sergei grabbed a rope to swing from and he and his crew along with Tollace's militiamen boarded.
Sergei landed on the deck of the Treasure ship and was immediately rushed by three green coats. He swung his sword and slashed the throat of one of the men, he stabbed his sword deep into the chest of the second and pulled both out just in time to use both to behead the third one.
Standing on the other side of Sergei was the Captain of the ship, and the man who led the soldiers to the village earlier.
The captain was pulling his sword out of the stomach of one of Sergei's men.
"You should've been after me I guess." Sergei mocked remembering what the man had said to him earlier.
"A mistake I won't make again." The captain retorted
"You're correct."
Both men rushed each other and began to parry each other's blows,
The sound of their swords banging off one another was loud but completely drowned out but the sound of other sword fights going on, gunfire, and screams of pain.
The Captain took one final swing at Sergei but Sergei countered it, by parrying and then grabbing the captain's arm and slinging him overboard.
On his way down the captain smashed his head on a cannon, causing instant death, before he splashed down into the water and sank below the surface into the darkness.
Over with Tollace, him and his militia used the bayonets on their muskets to stab enemy soldiers.
Tollace rammed his bayonet through the throat of one of the green coats.
As the corpse hit the deck, someone shouted,
"They're firing in ranks!"
Looking over Tollace saw the remaining green coats standing in a firing line, some crouching aiming down their sights and some standing.
All ready to kill.
The crouched soldiers fired a volley, striking one of Tollace's men in the heart killing him instantly, several others were downed by the gunfire.
As the soldiers standing readied themselves
Sergei turned to them knowing he was their target, he reached for one of his pistols preparing to die with a gun in his hand when suddenly the entire line of men exploded into a red mist of blood, bone and wet chunks.
The pirates looked over to the deck of the Depthstalker to see Marlo standing there with a hand mortar.
"I found it." He said with a smirk on his face.
The pirates cheered for their victory.
They pillaged the ships of the tens of thousands of gold coins and took many of the cannon, and wood from the treasure ship to repair the Depthstalker, they even took the metal plated armor and put it on the Depthstalker make future battles easier, they finally untangled the Depthstalker and sailed back to the village where they found the remaining ships in the harbor preparing to go.
As Tollace was stepping off the Depthstalker and onto his own ship Sergei asked
"So where will you go now?"
"I was thinking about going to that abandoned Atoll you spoke of. It's dangerous to get there, but if we survive we'll surely be left alone."
"Farewell Tollace." Sergei said as both ships sailed off into the sunrise turning off in opposite directions.