Dragonrider Testimonies - Updated 22nd Dec: Fishlegs' Testimony - Beachead
Posted: 29 Oct 2014, 13:10
by ADFX-01-Morgan
Dragonrider Testimonies
---BONUS: Steel Butterfly Class Aerial Battleship Iron Maiden---
Fishlegs' Testimony - Beachhead (Click Me)
Summary
“Fifteen years ago, a man named Drago Bludvist enabled a coup d’etat of my country Varanus with an army of dragons, and took control of it promising prosperity for us. For the next three years, he built up our armed forces, and once he was ready, he began a campaign of conquest across the continent. The war was bloody, and it seemed that victory for him was all but inevitable. However his armies and armadas were stopped and beaten back with the intervention of a small island called Berk, who fought with dragons of their own. Once the war turned sour, Bludvist simply disappeared from history, never to be seen again, and soon after, Varanus laid down arms surrendered. Many of the Riders of Berk who took part in the war are still alive today, but they have never spoken about the war in much depth before. My name is Hugo Junkers. I’ve come to hear their side of the story.”
Prologue: This is Berk
Prologue
Hugo Junkers gasped awake in his bed as it rattled. The cabin that he was in was dark and smelled a little damp, but it was better than having sunlight blaze through the windows relentlessly while the airship was over the clouds. The rattling meant that the air was being let out of the balloon that kept the transport airship afloat, and that meant that they were approaching the island of Berk.
Normally, Hugo would stay below deck for the landing to pack his bags for these flights, but he was here with a very special purpose; this meant that he would have to join the inevitable throng of children and first time fliers above deck as they sank slowly towards the ground. He had already packed what little he’d brought along with him, apart from a worn pocket notepad and a pen, which he knew he would need as he ascended.
Climbing through the airship, Hugo exposed himself to the light of day, and to the cool fresh Berk air. Taking in a deep breath, he allowed the wind to whip through his hair as a group of ten or so children and their guardians all began to pour out of the cabins below. Finding a spot on the deck away from the children so that he could concentrate without fear of overprotective parents or their overexcited shouting, the lanky scholar prepared to write. The viewing deck area that he was in was a roughly twenty by forty metre area, with chest high chain link railings for safety. The airship’s hull itself was about thirty metres wide, and seventy metres long. Above the deck, dominating the view of the sky straight above everyone’s heads, was the massive white balloon that was keeping them all afloat, with the rigging and tethers crisscrossing overhead and all around the passengers, giving the impression that they were peering at the world out over the top of a basket made of ropes, beams and chains. The chopping and rattle of the propellers at the back of the hull was quieter; they were approaching the isle of Berk after all, and the noise would cause so many disturbances otherwise.
Just then, a flaming shadow swooped in from the port side of the ship. The children all cheered as the shadow drew closer and closer. Hugo soon recognized its silhouette as a Monstrous Nightmare, and atop it, he could see the silhouette of the rider waving to the passengers on deck.
Hugo began to franticly scribble down his thoughts as the dragon and its rider made a flight around the airship to inspect it for damage. Once the rider was satisfied with state of things, he had steered the dragon to just to the port side of the airship. The children all clamoured up to the railings to take a look at the bright red gliding dragon and its master.
While most landing areas used rows of gas lights, or for the really advanced areas, enclosed Tesla coils, Berk was unique in that airship flights were few and far between enough that a dragon and its rider was the most efficient method to guide airship flights. They would direct the airship towards its landing point past the outcroppings and cliffs on the islands that surrounded Berk itself.
As their guide continued, Hugo couldn’t help but find himself drawn to the sight of the Monstrous Nightmare, gliding gently past the mountains a little ahead of the airship, guiding it safely through the Archipelago’s many islands and strange crosswinds that threatened to steer the airship away from or even past its destination.
Before long, Berk itself loomed into view. The village still used traditional construction methods, so their buildings were still built of wood, despite the presence of a large number of pet dragons. As the airship continued its descent toward the water off the coast to make a wet landing, several curious riderless dragons approached the airship too, much to the delight of the children. One of them was excitedly reading off all the species of dragon that he could name to his friend and seemed to be overjoyed at the sight of a bright purple Deadly Nadder flying alongside them and squawking excitedly at the passengers
As the Isle of Berk drew closer and closer, the airship began to descend feet wet into the sea off the coast of the island. From the deck, Hugo could make out a man with what appeared to be a very stiff leg and left arm from his current distance standing on the quay; that was his contact.
The airship gently broke the surface of the water with its wooden hull. There was a lurch as the ship suddenly met more resistance, causing some of the passengers on the upper deck to stumble. The airship’s balloon slowly deflated as well, the structure of the airship creaking as the weight of the vehicle started to redistribute. Eventually, the ship slowed to a stop within sight of the shore. Three five crew tug boats started to blow out steam as they started their engines preparing to assist with docking the airship.
Before long, the tug had managed to pull the airship in close enough for it to dock, and soon passengers started to disembark from the medium sized ship. Hugo disembarked, and he found his contact looking past all the tourists coming to Berk. A man named Gobber; former engineer and blacksmith, now retired and mostly doing administration work. From what Hugo had read up, he’d lost two limbs to dragon attacks evidenced by his peg leg and interchangeable left hand. Despite this, he still had his own dragon, Grump, who, like him, used to work the forge.
“Welcome to Berk,” said Gobber, shaking Hugo’s right hand. “You must be Mister Junkers, the aspiring author. I’m Gobber the Belch, nice to meet you.”
“Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak with all of you Gobber. I know people who’d kill for a chance like this,” said Hugo, before he could catch himself. “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be insentitive...”
“Yeah, well, our enemies have killed for less, as I’m sure everyone will tell you,” said Gobber. Hugo looked visibly uncomfortable, not meeting Gobber’s eyes, and was instead very interested in a porter dragging his one small travelling case to the inn where he was staing. “Ah don’t worry lad,” said Gobber, jokingly slapping Hugo on the back. “I’m only joking. We come from different worlds; we’re expecting to have a few rough moments. Just er, don’t do it too often.”
“I’ll try,” replied Hugo.
The two of them walked through the village of Berk, towards the Mead Hall. Hugo took in the sights, sounds and smells of the village as he walked through, and felt more and more relaxed. As he ascended the hill, there was less steel and more wood in his surroundings. The sounds of steam whistles and the dockers’ crude snappy banter gave way to the sound of sheep and farmers singing. This was a far cry from the smoky dry city that he was used to; the air was fresher, the grass was greener despite the climate, the people were larger and louder, but there was less noise, everyone’s faces were brighter, both figuratively and literally, thanks to the cleaner air allowing the sun to shine through. In Berk, it seemed that earnest Viking tradition met the relentless industrial advance halfway.
“The other Riders are a little occupied with their duties at the moment,” said Gobber. “I’m sure you saw Snotlout guide your ship through the Archipelago.”
“Yes, I appreciate that,” said Hugo. “That was some beautiful flying.”
“Hah, don’t call him beautiful though. Thankfully, I’m old and retired enough to keep you company until the younger ones come back. Their stories are much more interesting than mine, I’ve only got one.”
The enormous doors of the Mead Hall drew into view as Hugo climbed the hill with Gobber along with the statue of the late Stoick the Vast. The doors gave a powerful but welcoming vibe. They were carved with great care, to overlook the rest of the island’s inhabitants
“This is amazing,” said Hugo, as he looked back towards the village from the top of the hill, taking in the view of the sea and Berk. He regretfully tore himself away from the view; sightseeing was not his real objective here. Gobber was already sitting down at the table.
“Heh, most visitors from the mainland have that reaction,” said Gobber. “So, are you ready to start?”
“Yes,” said Hugo, pulling out his trusty notebook and pen from his pocket. “I understand you were there when word of Drago’s war arrived on Berk.”
“Well... it was a cold and snowy day...”
Gobber’s Testimony: The Iron Maiden
Normally, Hugo would stay below deck for the landing to pack his bags for these flights, but he was here with a very special purpose; this meant that he would have to join the inevitable throng of children and first time fliers above deck as they sank slowly towards the ground. He had already packed what little he’d brought along with him, apart from a worn pocket notepad and a pen, which he knew he would need as he ascended.
Climbing through the airship, Hugo exposed himself to the light of day, and to the cool fresh Berk air. Taking in a deep breath, he allowed the wind to whip through his hair as a group of ten or so children and their guardians all began to pour out of the cabins below. Finding a spot on the deck away from the children so that he could concentrate without fear of overprotective parents or their overexcited shouting, the lanky scholar prepared to write. The viewing deck area that he was in was a roughly twenty by forty metre area, with chest high chain link railings for safety. The airship’s hull itself was about thirty metres wide, and seventy metres long. Above the deck, dominating the view of the sky straight above everyone’s heads, was the massive white balloon that was keeping them all afloat, with the rigging and tethers crisscrossing overhead and all around the passengers, giving the impression that they were peering at the world out over the top of a basket made of ropes, beams and chains. The chopping and rattle of the propellers at the back of the hull was quieter; they were approaching the isle of Berk after all, and the noise would cause so many disturbances otherwise.
Just then, a flaming shadow swooped in from the port side of the ship. The children all cheered as the shadow drew closer and closer. Hugo soon recognized its silhouette as a Monstrous Nightmare, and atop it, he could see the silhouette of the rider waving to the passengers on deck.
Hugo began to franticly scribble down his thoughts as the dragon and its rider made a flight around the airship to inspect it for damage. Once the rider was satisfied with state of things, he had steered the dragon to just to the port side of the airship. The children all clamoured up to the railings to take a look at the bright red gliding dragon and its master.
While most landing areas used rows of gas lights, or for the really advanced areas, enclosed Tesla coils, Berk was unique in that airship flights were few and far between enough that a dragon and its rider was the most efficient method to guide airship flights. They would direct the airship towards its landing point past the outcroppings and cliffs on the islands that surrounded Berk itself.
As their guide continued, Hugo couldn’t help but find himself drawn to the sight of the Monstrous Nightmare, gliding gently past the mountains a little ahead of the airship, guiding it safely through the Archipelago’s many islands and strange crosswinds that threatened to steer the airship away from or even past its destination.
Before long, Berk itself loomed into view. The village still used traditional construction methods, so their buildings were still built of wood, despite the presence of a large number of pet dragons. As the airship continued its descent toward the water off the coast to make a wet landing, several curious riderless dragons approached the airship too, much to the delight of the children. One of them was excitedly reading off all the species of dragon that he could name to his friend and seemed to be overjoyed at the sight of a bright purple Deadly Nadder flying alongside them and squawking excitedly at the passengers
As the Isle of Berk drew closer and closer, the airship began to descend feet wet into the sea off the coast of the island. From the deck, Hugo could make out a man with what appeared to be a very stiff leg and left arm from his current distance standing on the quay; that was his contact.
The airship gently broke the surface of the water with its wooden hull. There was a lurch as the ship suddenly met more resistance, causing some of the passengers on the upper deck to stumble. The airship’s balloon slowly deflated as well, the structure of the airship creaking as the weight of the vehicle started to redistribute. Eventually, the ship slowed to a stop within sight of the shore. Three five crew tug boats started to blow out steam as they started their engines preparing to assist with docking the airship.
Before long, the tug had managed to pull the airship in close enough for it to dock, and soon passengers started to disembark from the medium sized ship. Hugo disembarked, and he found his contact looking past all the tourists coming to Berk. A man named Gobber; former engineer and blacksmith, now retired and mostly doing administration work. From what Hugo had read up, he’d lost two limbs to dragon attacks evidenced by his peg leg and interchangeable left hand. Despite this, he still had his own dragon, Grump, who, like him, used to work the forge.
“Welcome to Berk,” said Gobber, shaking Hugo’s right hand. “You must be Mister Junkers, the aspiring author. I’m Gobber the Belch, nice to meet you.”
“Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak with all of you Gobber. I know people who’d kill for a chance like this,” said Hugo, before he could catch himself. “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be insentitive...”
“Yeah, well, our enemies have killed for less, as I’m sure everyone will tell you,” said Gobber. Hugo looked visibly uncomfortable, not meeting Gobber’s eyes, and was instead very interested in a porter dragging his one small travelling case to the inn where he was staing. “Ah don’t worry lad,” said Gobber, jokingly slapping Hugo on the back. “I’m only joking. We come from different worlds; we’re expecting to have a few rough moments. Just er, don’t do it too often.”
“I’ll try,” replied Hugo.
The two of them walked through the village of Berk, towards the Mead Hall. Hugo took in the sights, sounds and smells of the village as he walked through, and felt more and more relaxed. As he ascended the hill, there was less steel and more wood in his surroundings. The sounds of steam whistles and the dockers’ crude snappy banter gave way to the sound of sheep and farmers singing. This was a far cry from the smoky dry city that he was used to; the air was fresher, the grass was greener despite the climate, the people were larger and louder, but there was less noise, everyone’s faces were brighter, both figuratively and literally, thanks to the cleaner air allowing the sun to shine through. In Berk, it seemed that earnest Viking tradition met the relentless industrial advance halfway.
“The other Riders are a little occupied with their duties at the moment,” said Gobber. “I’m sure you saw Snotlout guide your ship through the Archipelago.”
“Yes, I appreciate that,” said Hugo. “That was some beautiful flying.”
“Hah, don’t call him beautiful though. Thankfully, I’m old and retired enough to keep you company until the younger ones come back. Their stories are much more interesting than mine, I’ve only got one.”
The enormous doors of the Mead Hall drew into view as Hugo climbed the hill with Gobber along with the statue of the late Stoick the Vast. The doors gave a powerful but welcoming vibe. They were carved with great care, to overlook the rest of the island’s inhabitants
“This is amazing,” said Hugo, as he looked back towards the village from the top of the hill, taking in the view of the sea and Berk. He regretfully tore himself away from the view; sightseeing was not his real objective here. Gobber was already sitting down at the table.
“Heh, most visitors from the mainland have that reaction,” said Gobber. “So, are you ready to start?”
“Yes,” said Hugo, pulling out his trusty notebook and pen from his pocket. “I understand you were there when word of Drago’s war arrived on Berk.”
“Well... it was a cold and snowy day...”
Spoiler: click to toggle
[Twelve years ago]
It was a cold and snowy day, even by Berk’s standards. The winter was particularly hard this year, and everyone was opting to stay inside with the warmth of their dragons whenever they could. Thanks to the cold, any trade with the surrounding islands had all but halted, and shipments were delayed indefinitely until visibility cleared up.
This was one of the few times that Gobber appreciated working with forge. At least the heat and would warm up his house. The dragon patrols though? Not so lucky. Hiccup and Valka had to do a lot of organizing to get the patrols ready and co-ordinated enough to work well in the lowered visibility and deathly cold.
At least they weren’t wearing Drago’s dragon armour. That would have made the ordeal even worse.
Gobber looked to his to do list for the day. Everything had been ticked off. Thanks to the weather, everyone was putting off all but the most essential of repairs and requests, which meant that he had finished before midday. Grump was also doing nothing, napping on the floor and about as active as a potato. Sighing, Gobber shook his head and grabbed several additional layers and prepared to stretch his leg and clean out his lungs with a quick walk around the forge before leafing through a few of Hiccup’s abandoned projects; there were several devices that he’d made blueprints for, but ever since their last encounter with Drago three years ago, Hiccup’s duties as chief, plus his marriage not long afterwards reduced the amount of time he spent realizing his designs to practically nil.
Not that it mattered; it turned out that fighting dragons for around three hundred years was bad for the creativity of Berk’s populace, and Berk was lagging behind on its technology. For instance, not even Hiccup in his freer teenage years had the time to experiment and develop steam power, while at the very cutting edge, they were experimenting with internal combustion, to bypass the need for water and steam altogether.
As he opened the door to the outside world though, there were more people on the street than he thought. They were all transfixed at the sight of something out to the sea. Fishlegs was among them, frantically mounting the saddle for Meatlug while staring at the massive shadow that had appeared from around one of the islands. While they were staring, Astrid stepped into the crowd, wearing what must have been two additional layers.
“What is going... oh by the gods...” said Astrid. She had evidently spotted the shadow as it drew into full view through the fog.
“Astrid what’s wrong?” said Hiccup as he followed Astrid onto the scene. He also stopped and stared transfixed at the looming sight before him.
“Hey, Hiccup, please tell me I’m not the only one who sees that?” said Astrid.
“No, I see it Astrid... the weather isn’t helping, but I think that’s an airship!”
“Wait!? Really? But it doesn’t look like anything Johann has told us about!”
“It’s gotta be, there’s no wings at all.”
At Hiccup’s explanation, it seemed to dawn on the Vikings present that no matter what it was, it was not slowing down, and it had plotted a course for the village, getting closer and closer to impact.
“It’s headed straight for us!!” shouted one of the larger Vikings. He seemed to realize that he possibly said something thoughtless afterwards, but before anyone could call him out on it, Hiccup snapped into action.
“All riders, get to your dragons!” shouted Hiccup. “Fire teams, get the water ready, and be prepared for any kind of attack! Evacuate the children to the mead hall. Astrid, round up Eret and Gobber and bring them to the dock.”
“I’m here chief!” said Gobber, waving his left stump at Hiccup. “I’ll get Grump awake and we’ll be ready!”
“That’s one step sorted,” said Hiccup. “Now to find Eret.”
Gobber didn’t hear the rest of the conversation as he rushed back inside the forge. Grump was awake due to the noise outside, and was about to doze off again until he saw Gobber.
“Grump! Get up, we have to go!” said Gobber. The huge Hotburple grunted in response and pulled himself to his feet slowly, grunting as it did so. Gobber banged the nearest table with his fist. “HURRY UP!” The Hotburple staggered forward, and then shook his head before following Gobber out of the larger back door specifically for larger dragons to come in and be fitted with saddles. Toothless shot past Gobber as he arrived back in the square with Hiccup; Astrid had already taken off with Stormfly, and Skullcrusher was beginning to lift off with Eret on his back.
“Gobber! The riders will meet at the dock in five minutes!” said Hiccup mounting Toothless. “I’ll see if I can get Mom back from the other side of the island. We might need her to throw some extra dragons into the mix.”
“Right you are Chief!” shouted Gobber, climbing onto Grump’s back. “Let’s go Grump!”
In the two minutes it took for Gobber to reach the dock, the form of the Airship became more apparent...
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“Why did Hiccup go fetch his mother?” said Hugo.
“Ah, right, well, though she taught us how to communicate with all dragons, instead of just our own, she was still the one with the most experience in it. There were so many riderless dragons that stayed behind after Drago, so Valka decided to help look after them, keep them busy you know.”
“You talk about them like they were her children.”
“Yeah, I think she was guilty about how she wasn’t quite there for Hiccup growing up. Of course, the Chief forgave her a long time ago, but she wanted to do this to forgive herself. Well, anyway, I’d reached the docks with Eret, Snotlout and Astrid...”
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
Astrid, Eret, Gobber and Snotlout had all assembled at the dock with their dragons. Normally they would wait off the saddle, but the situation was urgent enough to warrant the less comfortable seating. All the while, the airship was drawing closer and closer, and more and more details could be made out. As Gobber and Eret both pointed out, it had what looked like guns sticking out of it’s port and starboard sides; their unidentified airship was definitely a warship.
“Chief!” said Gobber as Toothless landed next to Skullcrusher on the dock, opposite Gobber. Barf and Belch touched down next to Toothless while Meatlug gently drifted over next to Grump and plopped down. “Where’s Valka?”
“She’s going to meet us in the air. Lets go!” said Hiccup.
Seven dragons stretched their wings and began to take off from the dock. Hiccup on Toothless lead a three rider flying V formation, with Astrid and Snotlout on Stormfly and Hookfang behind him to his left and right respectively, and with the twins on Barf and Belch trailing behind Snotlout on the right. Gobber on Grump climbed, leading the second flying V with Eret on his left, and Fishlegs on his right.
‘We’re about a mile out... I hope nothing happens.’
Toothless shot a plasma blast into the air above him, signalling to the mysterious ship that was approaching, to which the ship responded by lighting a blue flare. However, that seemed to be the wrong thing to do. At that moment, the ship began to accelerate away from the source of a loud screech that echoed through the archipelago. A scourge of six Monstrous Nightmares appeared around one of the other islands whilst five more physically larger dragons appeared in the distance. Though normally, Gobber would have thought nothing of such a group, at least two of new dragons were glinting slightly in the distance from the scattered sunlight through the clouds. This meant only one thing; they were wearing metal armour. There was only one reason that a dragon would be wearing armour.
“Odin help us...” said Gobber. The airship stopped moving forward, and instead began to turn itself to face its port side to the pursuing dragons. Hiccup and Toothless broke off from his formation, leaving the lead to Astrid. The other three dragons and their riders sped towards the Monstrous Nightmare scourge. Toothless had very quickly flown over to the ship, hovered next to the starboard side. Hiccup had obviously said something to them before rejoining his flight. The Monstrous Nightmares had lit themselves on fire, and turned to meet the Riders of Berk head on.
“Oh no! What do we do!” said Fishlegs.
“We get to their ship! Tell them we’re here to help!” said Gobber. “Anything that gets past the Chief, we have to stop!”
“Alright! Skullcrusher!” said Eret, urging his dragon forward.
“Let’s go Meatlug!”
The three boulder class riders were pushing their dragons as hard as they could towards the new ship. The form of the ship was drawing into view, and as it did, Gobber noticed a few things about it; the ship’s starboard side was damaged by fire, with splinters and structural support beams visible due to the damage. The ship also had enough guns to raze an entire village. There were people scurrying about on the ship itself, scrambling to get to their posts.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“So this was when you first saw the Iron Maiden up close?” said Hugo.
“Aye. It wasn’t like anything we’d ever seen,” said Gobber as he downed his third ale. “She was massive, her entire frame when flying was about the size of the Red Death. The hull was like an upside down ship, and tethered to the port and starboard sides were two of those massive sausage balloons, and they had most of the guns goin’ underneath em from the inside. They also had props keeping the craft airborne on the port and starboard bow and the stern too.”
“That definitely sounds like the Steel Butterfly model,” said Hugo. Gobber looked confused at the mention of the name Steel Butterfly. There was a moment of awkward silence before Hugo elaborated. “Ah right. Steel Butterfly was the official name of that particular model before everyone just started calling them Iron Maiden class airships.”
“Well, whatever you called it, the ship was impressive,” said Gobber. Hugo nodded as he continued writing. He had gone through several pages already, and seriously thought that he might have to head to the inn for a bigger notebook once Gobber finished.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
Hiccup and the others had reached the six dragon scourge, by the time that Gobber had approached the ship itself. There were several shouts as Gobber came into earshot from the crew of the ship.
“DRAGONS HO! STARBOARD SIDE!” shouted one of the gunners on the upper deck.
“ITS FINE! I THINK THEY’RE FROM THAT ISLAND!” replied an older looking man.
“WE’RE FRIENDLY!” shouted Gobber to the crew. “WHERE CAN I FIND YOUR CHIEF!”
“YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE BRIDGE!” shouted the man back. “WHY!?”
“I NEED TO KNOW WHY YOU’RE NEAR OUR VILLAGE BEING CHASED BY DRAGONS!”
The reply was drowned out by the sounds of guns firing a volley on the port side. There were bright streaks of hot metal flying upwards through the sky that Gobber could just about see at the five or so strong pack of dragons diving towards Hiccup’s flight.
‘I don’t know what Hiccup said to them, but they’ve caught on fast.’
“CAPTAIN SAYS GET TO THE BRIDGE! BOW OF THE SHIP! THAT WAY! WATCH THE ROTOR!” shouted the older man pointing to Gobber’s right; his own left. He was obviously in charge of the guns on that section of the ship and was fortunate enough to have caught a bit of respite at this moment.
Gobber waved back in acknowledgement, and signalled for Fishlegs and Eret to follow him around the front. The gunfire continued and as Gobber flew past, he could only imagine the furball that was going on off to the port side of the ship. He stuck at around twenty metres off the starboard side, and once he reached the bow, he steered left, and around the starboard balloon, and then climbed. Once he rose over the hull, Gobber saw what must have been the ‘bridge’ of the ship, as they called it. It was a raised platform that allowed whoever was on it to see past the guns on the ship, whilst behind her were two platforms that covered the balloons, that also had several guns. At the helm of the ship’s controls on the bridge was a single dishevelled young woman in what should have been a clean black uniform, who was yelling into a series of communication tubes to her sides, whilst steering the ship and keeping her steady.
She glanced towards Gobber and beckoned him over whilst shouting down the tube. Thankfully, the sounds of the lower deck guns were muffled somewhat by the frame and the balloons.
“You’re from that island right?” shouted the woman. “I’M THE ACTING CAPTAIN!” She had to raise her voice as the guns of the port side fired again. Gobber glanced up, and his eyes widened as he saw a flight of three dragons breaking off and heading towards them. The riders of berk were all intact and still in a massive furball ahead, having thinned the enemy numbers down a little.
“GUN DECKS ONE AND THREE, THREE DRAGONS, COMING IN PORT SIDE AT OUR SEVEN O’CLOCK HIGH. TURNING TO PORT TO BEAR GUNS!” she shouted down a communication tube. She then turned to Gobber, Eret and Fishlegs.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“That girl, she was something else,” said Gobber. “They were already calling her captain at this stage.”
“Military records say that she became captain, then admiral during the war,” said Hugo.
“I’m not surprised. She just lead people. But anyway, back to the story...”
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“YOU THREE! Get keep those dragons occupied, and we can take them down! Then we can do our real jobs and help your friends in that death ball!” shouted the captain.
“RIGHT! FISHLEGS! ERET!”
The three of them flew over the bridge of the ship as fast as they could. Gobber could still hear the captain giving orders again down the tube, telling the gun crews that they were flying overhead.
“I’m going in!” said Eret, seeing the dragons they were approaching. A Timberjack accompanied by two currently blue Hobblegrunts were about to attack the ship, but when they saw the boulder class dragons fly in, they began to recoil and spread out. Skullcrusher wasted no time and shot towards them, preparing to ram them with his armoured head.
“FISHLEGS! Block anyone that tries to get to the ship!” said Gobber. “I’m going in as well!”
“Yes sir!”
Their prey was much faster than they were. The only things that they had which could realistically reach the lighter dragons were Skullcrusher’s initial charge, Grump firing a scattered burst of lava like flame, and maybe Skullcrusher’s own flames. However, their shots were limited, so the only thing they could really do against these enemies was to hope the ship managed to get them off.
The two Hobblegrunts had climbed rapidly, but were exposing themselves to the gunners on the upper deck, who quickly fired back at them, forcing them back. One of the Hobblegrunts was hit by a shell, and rapidly changed colour as it fell towards the ocean. The other one tried to get past Fishlegs and Meatlug, but got a face full of tail for its trouble. As the Hobblegrunt tumbled through the air and out of sight, Eret and Gobber continued to harass the faster Timberjack, redirecting its course several times, forcing it to turn away from the ship several times. The Timberjack seemed to decide it had enough, and climbed after its last failed pass. It then banked around and tried to dive at the ship from above; it was trying to cut through the ship with its wings.
Skullcrusher and Grump both fired at the incoming Timberjack. The spray of fire from the two boulder class dragons was enough to force it to bank at its top speed. However, it exposed its silhouette from below to the port guns, which opened fire at the Timberjack, when faced with a much larger and wider target. The shells blasted through the wings, causing the Timberjack to lose control of itself and plummet towards the sea below. Before Gobber and Eret could celebrate, they saw a fireball fly straight past them. The last Hobblegrunt was still airborne and had fire at the ship. Fishlegs was the first to react, and used Meatlug’s tail to try and block it while firing back at the dragon. Meatlug’s attack hit true, and the Hotburple screeched and retreated. But half of its fireball got through, and managed to graze the side of the ship, knocked out a gun on the port side upper deck, and tore a scar in the port balloon. Immediately, the ship began to shift its position; it was listing.
“That is not good!!!” said Gobber. “FISHLEGS, ERET! Grab one of the struts on the ship and keep her up!” Before that order even left his mouth, Gobber knew it was just delaying the inevitable. Though the sound of the rotors on the port side were starting to increase in pitch, Gobber knew that the ship was limping at best, he rushed up to the bridge as fast as Grump could carry him.
“PORT SIDE, DAMAGE REPORT! NOW!” shouted the captain. As she listened to the report that was audible only to her, her expression began to sink. “I see! Hold it together.” The last of the fight within her seemed to leave towards the end of her order. Once she’d finished, it seemed to take all of her energy and willpower to mutter one last word “Damnit...”
“Captain! Do you have a plan!?” said Gobber.
“Well... first of all, Mister...”
“It’s Gobber.”
“I... alright. Well Gobber, I’m just a junior lieutenant,” said the woman. “Junior lieutenant Millia Rechkalov. Captain Sukhoi died when we escaped from Drago.”
“Drago!? As in Drago Bludvist!?”
“One and the same,” she replied. “You met him?”
“Three years ago. If he’s active again, you should talk to the Chief. He’s the one on the Night Fury in that furball.”
“...”
Millia’s eyes seemed to light up.
“How much weight can your squad of dragons carry?”
“I know that each of them can haul a lifeboat full of men without any trouble.”
“Then we still have a plan,” said Millia. She opened all the communication tubes, and began to bark order again. “ALL HANDS. Prepare for a controlled descent into WET LANDING! Deck One and Deck Three, target the riderless dragons at our nine o’clock! Don’t hit any dragons with riders! Deck Two Guns, stay at your posts! Deck Four Guns, you are on engineering duty! Enginnering teams! Fix up any potential major leakages below our water line! Use a lifeboat if you have to but we MUST remain buoyant, no ifs, no buts!” She then closed the tubes and turned to Gobber. “Gobber, get your dragons and grab the struts on the port bow and port stern rotor arms there and there,” she said, pointing towards the propellers that were barely visible from the top of the bridge. “As long as we stay stable, even as we descend we can provide support for your chief and his team. Get your friend on the smaller dragon to come up and relay my instructions.”
“Alright,” said Gobber. He quickly flew down to see both Meatlug and Skullcrusher already grabbing onto a beam sticking out for the support arms for the rotors. Meatlug was on the port stern arm. “FISHLEGS!” shouted Gobber as he approached. “Switch with me! Fly up there, and guide me and Eret according to the captain’s orders!”
“Oka... INCOMING!!” shouted Fishlegs as Grump clamped its mouth onto the rotor support arm.
From the distance in the direction of the bow of the Iron Maiden came a death ball of about ten dragons, all of varying sizes with the same telltale glint that some of the Monstrous Nightmares had. Before anyone could react though, another formation of dragons appeared. Even from this distance, Gobber could tell that the second formation was being lead by Cloudjumper; Valka had made it. Gobber could see Fishlegs frantically signalling that the new formation was friendly to Millia on the bridge. It must have got through, because no shells flew towards that area. Gobber felt a sudden downward lurch as the ship began to descend.
Gobber dared to take his eyes off Fishlegs in order to look at the battle happening between the Riders of Berk, and the scourge of Drago’s dragons. Though the riders were winning, they were winning slowly, and in a battle against superior numbers like this, the chances were they might lose some dragons. Just as he thought of this, there was a volley of shells from the port side guns again flying towards the furball. Even here, Gobber wsa impressed at their aim, and their ability to pick out targets that were unlikely to endanger friendly targets. Then, it seemed like the port side guns were firing at will. There was a constant boom of shells being fired from the big guns on the port side which was starting to push the ship back with its recoil.
The rotors were creating disturbances in the water’s surface as the ship came closer and closer to touchdown. Very soon, Gobber could see his distorted reflection in the water.
“IMPACT IMMINENT! Brace for wet landing!” shouted one of the crew near Gobber. He didn’t quite see who it was, but was sure that he was in charge of the port side decks. The ship touched down, and created a huge splash in its wake, spraying cold salty water all over Gobber and Eret on the other rotor support arm.
Now that the landing was complete, Gobber looked at the battle in the distance. The furball had thinned significantly since the battleship started firing at them, and he could see Barf and Belch spraying the air with explosive Zippelback gas. The other three had dived out of the furball, and were flying back towards the battleship, whilst Belch lit the cloud of gas. The explosion forced the remaining Monstrous Nightmares to retreat, leaving their fallen dragons behind. Toothless had taken Hiccup towards the second furball developing high above between an assorted mix of around ten or so of Drago’s dragons, and Valka’s own formation of seven dragons including Cloudjumper. Soon, seeing the presence of the second Alpha, they scarpered, and left Berk’s waters.
The battle had been won.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“Then, we all came together, and had the dragons tow that massive thing to port. And not a moment too soon, they were slowly taking on water through the starboard side.”
“So, this was how the Iron Maiden escaped from Ostende to Berk,” said Hugo. “That was quite a journey.”
“Aye, it was. They were almost out of things to burn to keep the engines going. My memory’s not too clear on what happened after she landed; that was more the Chief’s thing, you see. I hope your history books can tell you more about that than I can.”
“Well, it’s not a history book, but Captain Rechkalov’s unedited memoirs were recently published after her military records were declassified. They were found after an anonymous tip to my university.”
“Oh! So everyone has the chance to see how the talks went?”
“Yes, and there’s more to it. I’ve never seen the public take such an interest in a twenty three year old military brat’s diary! Of course, I say that, but I was one of the first in line to snag a copy for myself.”
“Hah! Did you bring it with you?”
“I did. It’s with my belongings in the inn. Would you like to take a look Gobber?”
“Sure! But er, let’s bring it here. I have the feeling that this would make for very interesting reading.”
---It was a cold and snowy day, even by Berk’s standards. The winter was particularly hard this year, and everyone was opting to stay inside with the warmth of their dragons whenever they could. Thanks to the cold, any trade with the surrounding islands had all but halted, and shipments were delayed indefinitely until visibility cleared up.
This was one of the few times that Gobber appreciated working with forge. At least the heat and would warm up his house. The dragon patrols though? Not so lucky. Hiccup and Valka had to do a lot of organizing to get the patrols ready and co-ordinated enough to work well in the lowered visibility and deathly cold.
At least they weren’t wearing Drago’s dragon armour. That would have made the ordeal even worse.
Gobber looked to his to do list for the day. Everything had been ticked off. Thanks to the weather, everyone was putting off all but the most essential of repairs and requests, which meant that he had finished before midday. Grump was also doing nothing, napping on the floor and about as active as a potato. Sighing, Gobber shook his head and grabbed several additional layers and prepared to stretch his leg and clean out his lungs with a quick walk around the forge before leafing through a few of Hiccup’s abandoned projects; there were several devices that he’d made blueprints for, but ever since their last encounter with Drago three years ago, Hiccup’s duties as chief, plus his marriage not long afterwards reduced the amount of time he spent realizing his designs to practically nil.
Not that it mattered; it turned out that fighting dragons for around three hundred years was bad for the creativity of Berk’s populace, and Berk was lagging behind on its technology. For instance, not even Hiccup in his freer teenage years had the time to experiment and develop steam power, while at the very cutting edge, they were experimenting with internal combustion, to bypass the need for water and steam altogether.
As he opened the door to the outside world though, there were more people on the street than he thought. They were all transfixed at the sight of something out to the sea. Fishlegs was among them, frantically mounting the saddle for Meatlug while staring at the massive shadow that had appeared from around one of the islands. While they were staring, Astrid stepped into the crowd, wearing what must have been two additional layers.
“What is going... oh by the gods...” said Astrid. She had evidently spotted the shadow as it drew into full view through the fog.
“Astrid what’s wrong?” said Hiccup as he followed Astrid onto the scene. He also stopped and stared transfixed at the looming sight before him.
“Hey, Hiccup, please tell me I’m not the only one who sees that?” said Astrid.
“No, I see it Astrid... the weather isn’t helping, but I think that’s an airship!”
“Wait!? Really? But it doesn’t look like anything Johann has told us about!”
“It’s gotta be, there’s no wings at all.”
At Hiccup’s explanation, it seemed to dawn on the Vikings present that no matter what it was, it was not slowing down, and it had plotted a course for the village, getting closer and closer to impact.
“It’s headed straight for us!!” shouted one of the larger Vikings. He seemed to realize that he possibly said something thoughtless afterwards, but before anyone could call him out on it, Hiccup snapped into action.
“All riders, get to your dragons!” shouted Hiccup. “Fire teams, get the water ready, and be prepared for any kind of attack! Evacuate the children to the mead hall. Astrid, round up Eret and Gobber and bring them to the dock.”
“I’m here chief!” said Gobber, waving his left stump at Hiccup. “I’ll get Grump awake and we’ll be ready!”
“That’s one step sorted,” said Hiccup. “Now to find Eret.”
Gobber didn’t hear the rest of the conversation as he rushed back inside the forge. Grump was awake due to the noise outside, and was about to doze off again until he saw Gobber.
“Grump! Get up, we have to go!” said Gobber. The huge Hotburple grunted in response and pulled himself to his feet slowly, grunting as it did so. Gobber banged the nearest table with his fist. “HURRY UP!” The Hotburple staggered forward, and then shook his head before following Gobber out of the larger back door specifically for larger dragons to come in and be fitted with saddles. Toothless shot past Gobber as he arrived back in the square with Hiccup; Astrid had already taken off with Stormfly, and Skullcrusher was beginning to lift off with Eret on his back.
“Gobber! The riders will meet at the dock in five minutes!” said Hiccup mounting Toothless. “I’ll see if I can get Mom back from the other side of the island. We might need her to throw some extra dragons into the mix.”
“Right you are Chief!” shouted Gobber, climbing onto Grump’s back. “Let’s go Grump!”
In the two minutes it took for Gobber to reach the dock, the form of the Airship became more apparent...
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“Why did Hiccup go fetch his mother?” said Hugo.
“Ah, right, well, though she taught us how to communicate with all dragons, instead of just our own, she was still the one with the most experience in it. There were so many riderless dragons that stayed behind after Drago, so Valka decided to help look after them, keep them busy you know.”
“You talk about them like they were her children.”
“Yeah, I think she was guilty about how she wasn’t quite there for Hiccup growing up. Of course, the Chief forgave her a long time ago, but she wanted to do this to forgive herself. Well, anyway, I’d reached the docks with Eret, Snotlout and Astrid...”
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
Astrid, Eret, Gobber and Snotlout had all assembled at the dock with their dragons. Normally they would wait off the saddle, but the situation was urgent enough to warrant the less comfortable seating. All the while, the airship was drawing closer and closer, and more and more details could be made out. As Gobber and Eret both pointed out, it had what looked like guns sticking out of it’s port and starboard sides; their unidentified airship was definitely a warship.
“Chief!” said Gobber as Toothless landed next to Skullcrusher on the dock, opposite Gobber. Barf and Belch touched down next to Toothless while Meatlug gently drifted over next to Grump and plopped down. “Where’s Valka?”
“She’s going to meet us in the air. Lets go!” said Hiccup.
Seven dragons stretched their wings and began to take off from the dock. Hiccup on Toothless lead a three rider flying V formation, with Astrid and Snotlout on Stormfly and Hookfang behind him to his left and right respectively, and with the twins on Barf and Belch trailing behind Snotlout on the right. Gobber on Grump climbed, leading the second flying V with Eret on his left, and Fishlegs on his right.
‘We’re about a mile out... I hope nothing happens.’
Toothless shot a plasma blast into the air above him, signalling to the mysterious ship that was approaching, to which the ship responded by lighting a blue flare. However, that seemed to be the wrong thing to do. At that moment, the ship began to accelerate away from the source of a loud screech that echoed through the archipelago. A scourge of six Monstrous Nightmares appeared around one of the other islands whilst five more physically larger dragons appeared in the distance. Though normally, Gobber would have thought nothing of such a group, at least two of new dragons were glinting slightly in the distance from the scattered sunlight through the clouds. This meant only one thing; they were wearing metal armour. There was only one reason that a dragon would be wearing armour.
“Odin help us...” said Gobber. The airship stopped moving forward, and instead began to turn itself to face its port side to the pursuing dragons. Hiccup and Toothless broke off from his formation, leaving the lead to Astrid. The other three dragons and their riders sped towards the Monstrous Nightmare scourge. Toothless had very quickly flown over to the ship, hovered next to the starboard side. Hiccup had obviously said something to them before rejoining his flight. The Monstrous Nightmares had lit themselves on fire, and turned to meet the Riders of Berk head on.
“Oh no! What do we do!” said Fishlegs.
“We get to their ship! Tell them we’re here to help!” said Gobber. “Anything that gets past the Chief, we have to stop!”
“Alright! Skullcrusher!” said Eret, urging his dragon forward.
“Let’s go Meatlug!”
The three boulder class riders were pushing their dragons as hard as they could towards the new ship. The form of the ship was drawing into view, and as it did, Gobber noticed a few things about it; the ship’s starboard side was damaged by fire, with splinters and structural support beams visible due to the damage. The ship also had enough guns to raze an entire village. There were people scurrying about on the ship itself, scrambling to get to their posts.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“So this was when you first saw the Iron Maiden up close?” said Hugo.
“Aye. It wasn’t like anything we’d ever seen,” said Gobber as he downed his third ale. “She was massive, her entire frame when flying was about the size of the Red Death. The hull was like an upside down ship, and tethered to the port and starboard sides were two of those massive sausage balloons, and they had most of the guns goin’ underneath em from the inside. They also had props keeping the craft airborne on the port and starboard bow and the stern too.”
“That definitely sounds like the Steel Butterfly model,” said Hugo. Gobber looked confused at the mention of the name Steel Butterfly. There was a moment of awkward silence before Hugo elaborated. “Ah right. Steel Butterfly was the official name of that particular model before everyone just started calling them Iron Maiden class airships.”
“Well, whatever you called it, the ship was impressive,” said Gobber. Hugo nodded as he continued writing. He had gone through several pages already, and seriously thought that he might have to head to the inn for a bigger notebook once Gobber finished.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
Hiccup and the others had reached the six dragon scourge, by the time that Gobber had approached the ship itself. There were several shouts as Gobber came into earshot from the crew of the ship.
“DRAGONS HO! STARBOARD SIDE!” shouted one of the gunners on the upper deck.
“ITS FINE! I THINK THEY’RE FROM THAT ISLAND!” replied an older looking man.
“WE’RE FRIENDLY!” shouted Gobber to the crew. “WHERE CAN I FIND YOUR CHIEF!”
“YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE BRIDGE!” shouted the man back. “WHY!?”
“I NEED TO KNOW WHY YOU’RE NEAR OUR VILLAGE BEING CHASED BY DRAGONS!”
The reply was drowned out by the sounds of guns firing a volley on the port side. There were bright streaks of hot metal flying upwards through the sky that Gobber could just about see at the five or so strong pack of dragons diving towards Hiccup’s flight.
‘I don’t know what Hiccup said to them, but they’ve caught on fast.’
“CAPTAIN SAYS GET TO THE BRIDGE! BOW OF THE SHIP! THAT WAY! WATCH THE ROTOR!” shouted the older man pointing to Gobber’s right; his own left. He was obviously in charge of the guns on that section of the ship and was fortunate enough to have caught a bit of respite at this moment.
Gobber waved back in acknowledgement, and signalled for Fishlegs and Eret to follow him around the front. The gunfire continued and as Gobber flew past, he could only imagine the furball that was going on off to the port side of the ship. He stuck at around twenty metres off the starboard side, and once he reached the bow, he steered left, and around the starboard balloon, and then climbed. Once he rose over the hull, Gobber saw what must have been the ‘bridge’ of the ship, as they called it. It was a raised platform that allowed whoever was on it to see past the guns on the ship, whilst behind her were two platforms that covered the balloons, that also had several guns. At the helm of the ship’s controls on the bridge was a single dishevelled young woman in what should have been a clean black uniform, who was yelling into a series of communication tubes to her sides, whilst steering the ship and keeping her steady.
She glanced towards Gobber and beckoned him over whilst shouting down the tube. Thankfully, the sounds of the lower deck guns were muffled somewhat by the frame and the balloons.
“You’re from that island right?” shouted the woman. “I’M THE ACTING CAPTAIN!” She had to raise her voice as the guns of the port side fired again. Gobber glanced up, and his eyes widened as he saw a flight of three dragons breaking off and heading towards them. The riders of berk were all intact and still in a massive furball ahead, having thinned the enemy numbers down a little.
“GUN DECKS ONE AND THREE, THREE DRAGONS, COMING IN PORT SIDE AT OUR SEVEN O’CLOCK HIGH. TURNING TO PORT TO BEAR GUNS!” she shouted down a communication tube. She then turned to Gobber, Eret and Fishlegs.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“That girl, she was something else,” said Gobber. “They were already calling her captain at this stage.”
“Military records say that she became captain, then admiral during the war,” said Hugo.
“I’m not surprised. She just lead people. But anyway, back to the story...”
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“YOU THREE! Get keep those dragons occupied, and we can take them down! Then we can do our real jobs and help your friends in that death ball!” shouted the captain.
“RIGHT! FISHLEGS! ERET!”
The three of them flew over the bridge of the ship as fast as they could. Gobber could still hear the captain giving orders again down the tube, telling the gun crews that they were flying overhead.
“I’m going in!” said Eret, seeing the dragons they were approaching. A Timberjack accompanied by two currently blue Hobblegrunts were about to attack the ship, but when they saw the boulder class dragons fly in, they began to recoil and spread out. Skullcrusher wasted no time and shot towards them, preparing to ram them with his armoured head.
“FISHLEGS! Block anyone that tries to get to the ship!” said Gobber. “I’m going in as well!”
“Yes sir!”
Their prey was much faster than they were. The only things that they had which could realistically reach the lighter dragons were Skullcrusher’s initial charge, Grump firing a scattered burst of lava like flame, and maybe Skullcrusher’s own flames. However, their shots were limited, so the only thing they could really do against these enemies was to hope the ship managed to get them off.
The two Hobblegrunts had climbed rapidly, but were exposing themselves to the gunners on the upper deck, who quickly fired back at them, forcing them back. One of the Hobblegrunts was hit by a shell, and rapidly changed colour as it fell towards the ocean. The other one tried to get past Fishlegs and Meatlug, but got a face full of tail for its trouble. As the Hobblegrunt tumbled through the air and out of sight, Eret and Gobber continued to harass the faster Timberjack, redirecting its course several times, forcing it to turn away from the ship several times. The Timberjack seemed to decide it had enough, and climbed after its last failed pass. It then banked around and tried to dive at the ship from above; it was trying to cut through the ship with its wings.
Skullcrusher and Grump both fired at the incoming Timberjack. The spray of fire from the two boulder class dragons was enough to force it to bank at its top speed. However, it exposed its silhouette from below to the port guns, which opened fire at the Timberjack, when faced with a much larger and wider target. The shells blasted through the wings, causing the Timberjack to lose control of itself and plummet towards the sea below. Before Gobber and Eret could celebrate, they saw a fireball fly straight past them. The last Hobblegrunt was still airborne and had fire at the ship. Fishlegs was the first to react, and used Meatlug’s tail to try and block it while firing back at the dragon. Meatlug’s attack hit true, and the Hotburple screeched and retreated. But half of its fireball got through, and managed to graze the side of the ship, knocked out a gun on the port side upper deck, and tore a scar in the port balloon. Immediately, the ship began to shift its position; it was listing.
“That is not good!!!” said Gobber. “FISHLEGS, ERET! Grab one of the struts on the ship and keep her up!” Before that order even left his mouth, Gobber knew it was just delaying the inevitable. Though the sound of the rotors on the port side were starting to increase in pitch, Gobber knew that the ship was limping at best, he rushed up to the bridge as fast as Grump could carry him.
“PORT SIDE, DAMAGE REPORT! NOW!” shouted the captain. As she listened to the report that was audible only to her, her expression began to sink. “I see! Hold it together.” The last of the fight within her seemed to leave towards the end of her order. Once she’d finished, it seemed to take all of her energy and willpower to mutter one last word “Damnit...”
“Captain! Do you have a plan!?” said Gobber.
“Well... first of all, Mister...”
“It’s Gobber.”
“I... alright. Well Gobber, I’m just a junior lieutenant,” said the woman. “Junior lieutenant Millia Rechkalov. Captain Sukhoi died when we escaped from Drago.”
“Drago!? As in Drago Bludvist!?”
“One and the same,” she replied. “You met him?”
“Three years ago. If he’s active again, you should talk to the Chief. He’s the one on the Night Fury in that furball.”
“...”
Millia’s eyes seemed to light up.
“How much weight can your squad of dragons carry?”
“I know that each of them can haul a lifeboat full of men without any trouble.”
“Then we still have a plan,” said Millia. She opened all the communication tubes, and began to bark order again. “ALL HANDS. Prepare for a controlled descent into WET LANDING! Deck One and Deck Three, target the riderless dragons at our nine o’clock! Don’t hit any dragons with riders! Deck Two Guns, stay at your posts! Deck Four Guns, you are on engineering duty! Enginnering teams! Fix up any potential major leakages below our water line! Use a lifeboat if you have to but we MUST remain buoyant, no ifs, no buts!” She then closed the tubes and turned to Gobber. “Gobber, get your dragons and grab the struts on the port bow and port stern rotor arms there and there,” she said, pointing towards the propellers that were barely visible from the top of the bridge. “As long as we stay stable, even as we descend we can provide support for your chief and his team. Get your friend on the smaller dragon to come up and relay my instructions.”
“Alright,” said Gobber. He quickly flew down to see both Meatlug and Skullcrusher already grabbing onto a beam sticking out for the support arms for the rotors. Meatlug was on the port stern arm. “FISHLEGS!” shouted Gobber as he approached. “Switch with me! Fly up there, and guide me and Eret according to the captain’s orders!”
“Oka... INCOMING!!” shouted Fishlegs as Grump clamped its mouth onto the rotor support arm.
From the distance in the direction of the bow of the Iron Maiden came a death ball of about ten dragons, all of varying sizes with the same telltale glint that some of the Monstrous Nightmares had. Before anyone could react though, another formation of dragons appeared. Even from this distance, Gobber could tell that the second formation was being lead by Cloudjumper; Valka had made it. Gobber could see Fishlegs frantically signalling that the new formation was friendly to Millia on the bridge. It must have got through, because no shells flew towards that area. Gobber felt a sudden downward lurch as the ship began to descend.
Gobber dared to take his eyes off Fishlegs in order to look at the battle happening between the Riders of Berk, and the scourge of Drago’s dragons. Though the riders were winning, they were winning slowly, and in a battle against superior numbers like this, the chances were they might lose some dragons. Just as he thought of this, there was a volley of shells from the port side guns again flying towards the furball. Even here, Gobber wsa impressed at their aim, and their ability to pick out targets that were unlikely to endanger friendly targets. Then, it seemed like the port side guns were firing at will. There was a constant boom of shells being fired from the big guns on the port side which was starting to push the ship back with its recoil.
The rotors were creating disturbances in the water’s surface as the ship came closer and closer to touchdown. Very soon, Gobber could see his distorted reflection in the water.
“IMPACT IMMINENT! Brace for wet landing!” shouted one of the crew near Gobber. He didn’t quite see who it was, but was sure that he was in charge of the port side decks. The ship touched down, and created a huge splash in its wake, spraying cold salty water all over Gobber and Eret on the other rotor support arm.
Now that the landing was complete, Gobber looked at the battle in the distance. The furball had thinned significantly since the battleship started firing at them, and he could see Barf and Belch spraying the air with explosive Zippelback gas. The other three had dived out of the furball, and were flying back towards the battleship, whilst Belch lit the cloud of gas. The explosion forced the remaining Monstrous Nightmares to retreat, leaving their fallen dragons behind. Toothless had taken Hiccup towards the second furball developing high above between an assorted mix of around ten or so of Drago’s dragons, and Valka’s own formation of seven dragons including Cloudjumper. Soon, seeing the presence of the second Alpha, they scarpered, and left Berk’s waters.
The battle had been won.
---THE IRON MAIDEN---
“Then, we all came together, and had the dragons tow that massive thing to port. And not a moment too soon, they were slowly taking on water through the starboard side.”
“So, this was how the Iron Maiden escaped from Ostende to Berk,” said Hugo. “That was quite a journey.”
“Aye, it was. They were almost out of things to burn to keep the engines going. My memory’s not too clear on what happened after she landed; that was more the Chief’s thing, you see. I hope your history books can tell you more about that than I can.”
“Well, it’s not a history book, but Captain Rechkalov’s unedited memoirs were recently published after her military records were declassified. They were found after an anonymous tip to my university.”
“Oh! So everyone has the chance to see how the talks went?”
“Yes, and there’s more to it. I’ve never seen the public take such an interest in a twenty three year old military brat’s diary! Of course, I say that, but I was one of the first in line to snag a copy for myself.”
“Hah! Did you bring it with you?”
“I did. It’s with my belongings in the inn. Would you like to take a look Gobber?”
“Sure! But er, let’s bring it here. I have the feeling that this would make for very interesting reading.”
---BONUS: Steel Butterfly Class Aerial Battleship Iron Maiden---
Iron Maiden
The Iron Maiden is the first of a new generation of airships called the Steel Butterfly class, named so after the arrangements of the four lift generating rotors on its frame. Ships of this class were designed to be able to operate in a wide variety of battlefields in different roles from mission to mission, or even within the same sortie should the need arise by having weapon hard-points which could take a variety of weapons on the port and starboard upper and lower decks, as well as a launch catapult running along most of the length of the hull that launches a specialized unmanned glider, typically used as an anti ship torpedo, but can be customized with different warheads for different purposes.
A known problem with older models of aerial warships was that as soon as an enemy got above them, they had a serious problem fighting back because their balloons limited the amount of elevation that their guns could achieve, and the balloons themselves were most exposed to attack from above. In order to solve this issue, the Steel Butterfly class was kept buoyant with two long balloons placed side by side attached to the port and starboard sides of the main hull, which narrows towards the top instead of narrowing at the bottom. In order to combat decreased buoyancy that would result from the suboptimal volume to weight ratio of the balloons, four vertical steam powered rotors were mounted at the bow and stern on the port and starboard sides, in order to provide additional lift. They had the fortunate side effect of providing some lateral mobility as well by directing more power to the individual rotors, and allow the ship to pitch up and down slightly.
Though the ship’s airframe is designed to house diesel engines, as a stopgap measure, they have been fitted with two main steam engines driving two series of three propellers through a reversible gearbox in order to accelerate and turn the ship. The series arrangement of the propellers minimizes the air resistance of propellers whilst increasing the total amount of thrust produced. Their wide arrangement and revolutionary reverse capability allows them to produce faster turning speed, especially when co-ordinated with the four rotors that assist with buoyancy.
---A known problem with older models of aerial warships was that as soon as an enemy got above them, they had a serious problem fighting back because their balloons limited the amount of elevation that their guns could achieve, and the balloons themselves were most exposed to attack from above. In order to solve this issue, the Steel Butterfly class was kept buoyant with two long balloons placed side by side attached to the port and starboard sides of the main hull, which narrows towards the top instead of narrowing at the bottom. In order to combat decreased buoyancy that would result from the suboptimal volume to weight ratio of the balloons, four vertical steam powered rotors were mounted at the bow and stern on the port and starboard sides, in order to provide additional lift. They had the fortunate side effect of providing some lateral mobility as well by directing more power to the individual rotors, and allow the ship to pitch up and down slightly.
Though the ship’s airframe is designed to house diesel engines, as a stopgap measure, they have been fitted with two main steam engines driving two series of three propellers through a reversible gearbox in order to accelerate and turn the ship. The series arrangement of the propellers minimizes the air resistance of propellers whilst increasing the total amount of thrust produced. Their wide arrangement and revolutionary reverse capability allows them to produce faster turning speed, especially when co-ordinated with the four rotors that assist with buoyancy.
Fishlegs' Testimony - Beachhead (Click Me)
