“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.”

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...”

[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.”

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.

Gobber and Junkers were both chatting animatedly over silly things; trading stories, sharing experiences, and the like. Fishlegs could hear them through the open doors of the Mead Hall. Thankfully, he had managed to finish everything he needed to do before the day was out, and he would actually be able to make his appointment today. As he approached, he recognized this story, and began to chuckle to himself.

“... and then, Astrid just screamed ‘Don’t come in! I’m naked!’” said Gobber. Junkers responded with a hearty laugh as Fishlegs took his seat next to them both. “Oh, here’s Fishlegs,” said Gobber. “Well, don’t mind me, I’ll just be reading. This seems interesting.” He re-buried his head back into Rechkalov’s memoirs.
“Ah, hello,” said Fishlegs, extending his hand to Junkers. “I’m Fishlegs Ingermann, you must be Mr Junkers.”
“That I am, but just call me Hugo,” said the younger man. “So, you said you wanted to talk about the negotiations and then the landing?”
“Yeah. I was at the talks between Hiccup and Millia...”

---

[Twelve years ago]

The meeting in the Mead Hall was tense. Though Gobber had taken several apprentices to help the Iron Maiden’s engineers to repair the battleship in the port, everybody else who wasn’t looking after children was in the hall listening in on the meeting. The important members of the meeting for Berk, Hiccup, Fishlegs, Astrid and Valka were all sat on the side of the table facing the entrance to the mead hall, while Millia had her back to the door.

“So Captain... er, Junior Lieutenant Rechkalov” said Fishlegs. “You say that Drago has been building an army away from us?”
“In short, yes,” said Millia. “Varanus is on the far eastern part of the continent, but the world is getting much smaller.”
“And you say he’s definitely coming for Berk?” asked Astrid.
“Yes,” replied Millia. “He seemed to be obsessed with a map of the Barbaric Archipelago.”
“I thought you were from Ostende, how do you know this?” asked Valka.
“Ostende has good spies,” replied Millia.
“No, I meant you,” clarified Valka. “Why would someone like you be privy to this information?”
“Captain Sukhoi broke protocol and relayed this information to me just hours before Drago hit us.” Hiccup and Fishlegs both nodded.
“I see. I understand,” said Hiccup. “So what you ultimately need, is for us to retake the continent with you?”
“If you can yes.”
“Is there any reason why this plan would work?” asked Astrid. “We have dragons, but so does Drago, and if you’re correct, he’s got an entire army behind him.”
“An army that at this very moment is occupied with trying to take over the western half of the continent,” said Millia. “There is a huge mountain range that cuts straight across the middle of the continent, through which there is one path that a large force can take; they’re currently bottlenecked in Ostende. Only the hardiest dragons can fly over those mountains unimpeded.”
“I see,” said Valka. “I think I know what you might be talking about.”
“Currently, the Varanus navy is trying to blockade the west out, but if we act soon, we can strike well before it is completely solidified, and we can make a landing. The whole of the continent on the west is gearing up for war, so we should be able to pick up reinforcements along the way, including several very experienced crews and airships.”
“You have also neglected to mention what exactly Drago is bringing.”
“Ah,” said Millia. “That would be because our spies are still at work. But yes, there area few unconventional elements to Drago’s army,” said Millia. “Once we land, we will get more details.”

---

“Well, those were the important parts,” said Fishlegs. Noticing Hugo’s furious scribbling he took pity on the man. “I’ll sum up the rest for you,” said Fishlegs. “Millia said that the last place the blockade would be complete was the westernmost tip of the continent. The best place for us to strike would be a place called Land’s End.”
“Land’s End... so that’s where the Iron Maiden first reappeared,” said Hugo.
“Yes,” said Fishlegs. “Millia wanted us to strike there because it was well within reach, and there was a specific airship stationed near there she wanted us to rescue.”
“The Strike Witch,” said Hugo.
“That was her name, yeah,” said Fishlegs. “She said they’d need its help to stand up to something that Drago had brought...”

---

“So can you tell us what you know that Drago has for certain?” asked Hiccup. “Anything you could tell us would be helpful.”
“Well,” said Millia. “We were pushed out of Ostende by a long range bombardment from an enormous aerial battlecruiser which we have codenamed Glepnir. We estimate it to be about six times the size of the Iron Maiden, and it could probably annihilate entire battalions if the captain knows what he’s doing.”
“Oh...” said Fishlegs. “So er, how do we beat it?”
“Something that big will need serious logistical support,” said Millia. “We won’t run into her at Land’s End. She’s also going to be very slow, so with a force that can hit hard and fast, we can close her down and sink her.”
“So you already have a plan to take it down?” asked Hiccup.
“It’s a work in progress, but that’s the other reason we need to land at Land’s End frist,” said Millia. “There is a certain airship stationed there that we need to get air worthy and on our side.”
“Anything else?” asked Astrid.
“Grabacr Squadron,” said Millia simply. When met with blank stares, she elaborated. “There is a pack of dragons that seem to deploy every time Drago needs something done. It’s a seven pack of what appears to be six Whispering Deaths and a much larger pale dragon of a similar appearance, that seems to scream to try and disorient it’s targets.”
“He has a Screaming Death?” said Fishlegs.
“We don’t have a name for it yet,” said Millia. “But we’ll call it that, sure. We do know that the Screaming Death is Grabacr’s lead and they will need special attention to remove from the battlefield.”
“What else is there?”
“His Bewilderbeast?”
“We can deal with that,” said Valka, clenching her jaw slightly at the end of that sentence.
“Varanus also has an advanced naval fleet in the water. They’re experimenting with all metal construction battleships, to see if they can apply any of that to their airships too. We know of one ship, the Battlecruiser Tannager. Its fast, well armed and heavily armoured. We know it is very likely to appear at Land’s End, but in the face of the Iron Maiden’s firepower, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Impossible,” said Hiccup. “All metal ships? How will they float?”
“Put enough air in anything and it will float,” said Millia. “Odds are, we’ll run into ”
“I see,” said Hiccup. “Well, we’ll need to discuss this matter in private, but you can expect an answer by tomorrow at the latest.”

---

“As you no doubt know, we said yes later that day,” said Fishlegs. “So then, we geared up, and prepared for battle.”
“That was that? You agreed to do it very quickly if I’m understanding you correctly,” said Junkers.
“Yes, well, we knew what Drago was capable of. He got our previous chief killed, so at the end of the day, we were going to do anything we could to stop him.”
“I see,” said Junkers. “That would be him in the statues all across Berk?”
“That’s him,” said Fishlegs. “Stoick the Vast. Probably the only Viking man I knew that had a name that wasn’t totally embarrassing.” The two of them shared a quick laugh. “He was OK to take that name because they thought the trolls would have a hard time with him. So within the week, we were approaching Land’s End...”
“Wait, within a week?” asked Hugo. “How did the Iron Maiden fix up their ammunition problems? And how did you arrange for all of the riders to make it to the continent?”
“Oh right! There was a supply ship that snuck out from Land’s End, and they managed to drop off an absolute ton of stuff for the Iron Maiden. And we didn’t get every rider on the continent out, we just didn’t have the supplies or gear already made. They chose me and Meatlug because her lava breath is good at destroying armour, which we knew we’d be facing. So yeah, anyway, we were approaching the landing point...”

---

This was a very new experience for Fishlegs. He was currently standing on the open deck of the Iron Maiden, and reaching up to touch the clouds. Meatlug was looking around as well, a little confused as to why she could feel herself floating when she definitely had her legs on the ground.

“Still not used to flying without your wings huh girl?” said Fishlegs patting Meatlug on the head. She grunted back in confusion which garnered a short laugh from the nearest upper deck gunner on the starboard side.
“Don’t worry, in a few minutes, you’ll wish you were back on here,” he said. Out to the port side, Fishlegs could see the rest of the fleet assembled from the various tribes in the Archipelago, a mishmash of colours and banners, being towed by various tidal and boulder class dragons.

The Iron Maiden began to descend; they were anticipating an air to surface battle, and getting the larger guns closer to the water would do wonders. As they continued, Fishlegs saw in the distance the telltale sign of ships in the water; a change in the movement of the waves. Two groups of ships were patrolling; each group consisted of a single large ship in the centre of its formation, with four smaller ships escorting them.

“TALLY HO!” shouted Millia. “Two groups of ten on our eleven and one!”
“Ready up girl,” said Fishlegs. He climbed on the saddle, and prepared himself. Soon, they would need to start the attack, and he would need to be on point for the next battle. There was a line of ships floating casually in the open sea, and they were beginning to turn to face their broadsides towards the incoming Viking fleet. Their fleet was outnumbered, and outgunned. However, there was a blessing. The Varanus blockade ships were made of wood, and it looked like they had no air defences to speak of.
“Ships at eleven o’clock just opened fire!” shouted one of the gunners on the port side. Fishlegs saw the surface of the water distort as several cannons fired at the incoming fleet of quite frankly primitive looking Viking ships. The shells fell slightly wide. Fishlegs could easily imagine the bull headed Vikings on the ships jeering at the battlecruiser crew; it was in their nature. However, there was a worrying lack of return fire from the Vikings: they were in the range of the battlecruiser, but the longboats could not fight back, and definitely could not advance to make the beach landing. As if to respond to this, two Gronkles and a Nightmare took off from the longboats; that was their entire aerial force.
“Fishlegs! When I give the word, I want you to launch, and put a hole in the largest ship in the middle of the formation on our one o’clock! You will be fired at on approach, but stay low and fast and both of you will live.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
“All gun decks! Prepare for combat!” she shouted down the communication tubes. “Decks Two and Four, prioritize the larger ships first! One and Three, clear the air! Engineering teams! Stand by! We are going straight into the fireworks!”

Fishlegs felt the Iron Maiden lurch beneath his feet as it accelerated. The chopping of the rotor blades and the rattle of the engines shook the entire ship’s frame as it cut through the air. Millia had also put on a pair of flight goggles as she increased the speed of the ship. The two groups of ships in the water were drawing closer, and Millia began to turn the Iron Maiden to the port side.

‘Millia’s going to shoot the ships on the starboard side. The ships on the port side are too close to the landing party.’

“DECK FOUR FIRE AT WILL!”

Suddenly, there was a thunderous boom as all the guns on the starboard lower deck fired into the ships below, which futilely tried to retaliate. Though neither side could deal any significant damage to the other in a short space of time, the two groups had been split. This was their chance.

“FISHLEGS! HIT THE FORMATION ON OUR ELEVEN!” shouted Millia.

Meatlug took off from the Iron Maiden’s deck. Unlike the other dragons, as a Gronkle, Meatlug’s vertical take off meant she was suited to actually coming with them aboard the Iron Maiden with the advance party. Her molten lava breath was much better at disabling otherwise very hard targets such as battleships. Crouching down to reduce the target area that they had to hit him, Fishlegs willed Meatlug towards the ship. He was met by a glowing hot steel curtain of fire, which forced him to fly in low.

The steel rain flew overhead. Fishlegs gripped the reins tighter, and directed Meatlug through the ships. The smaller wooden escort ships were spread out thin, and were busy opening fire on the longboats. Worryingly, they were returning very sporadic fire, but they were being distracted by the three dragons that had come with them. Fishlegs would have to act fast.

“Rain down on them Meatlug!” shouted Fishlegs. Meatlug aimed above the decklines. The spray of lava was more than enough to burn through their hulls, and pretty soon, the first ship was aflame and sinking.

“GOOD WORK FISHLEGS!” shouted one of the dragon riders. He thought it was Hoark, but the sounds of cannons near deafened him as the ships returned fire.

‘They have nothing to stop dragons... something is wrong. I thought Drago was at the head of this army. He had traps to stop Zippelback pinwheel attacks.

Fishlegs continued to the next ship, but before he could reach it, he noticed that they were retreating, trying to sail away from the oncoming Viking fleet. The longboats gave chase, and were keeping up; their ships were faster, but still, the Varanus fleet continued to run.

‘If they’re retreating against dragons and ships that can outrun them, then it would be either out of desperation, or to reach something that can deal with us...’ thought Fishlegs.

As he thought this, he heard a whizzing sound as a white hot streak flew straight over Fishlegs’ head, and slammed into a ship behind him. The splintering of the longboat was followed by a thunderous boom in the distance. Several more shells streaked through the air, and landed amongst the ships behind Fishlegs.

“WHAT THE!”

Meatlug tried to escape. Her first instinct was to ascend, but just as that happened, there was a series of very loud cracks in the sky above them, followed by a screech. A black cloud had appeared above them, and from inside, Hoark fell off his monstrous nightmare, tumbling through the sky, his dragon also bleeding. Meatlug froze.

“Meatlug! Don’t panic! Stay low!” said Fishlegs. This seemed to snap the Gronkle out of it, and she stayed low and calm. A red flare was shot out of the Iron Maiden. This was a pre-agreed regroup signal for Fishlegs.

Their reinforcements appeared out of nowhere, and they can shoot at us from that kind of distance? I can’t even see how many there are clearly.

Flying low and fast, Fishlegs made sure to get underneath the bow of the Iron Maiden before he climbed. He landed just behind Millia.

“Good timing! Here’s your orders!” said Millia as she turned the ship towards the source of the new reinforcements. From the vantage point of the Iron Maiden, Fishlegs could see what had turned up; it was a single huge greyish hulk of a ship floating in the water; she was alone. “That huge ship is the Full Steel Construction Battlecruiser Tannager! We’ve got our hands full keeping half the blockade off the landing party so you need to find a way to at least disable that thing!!”
“Yes ma’am!” said Fishlegs. The gravity of the situation was beginning to dawn on him. That ship could single handedly stop the advance, and potentially the entire war effort, in its tracks. He took off from the deck of the Iron Maiden, then dived down so that they were flying within touching distance of the water to avoid the long range bombardment.

‘It might have a huge reach, but there’s no way she can outrun Meatlug, or shoot below deck.’

As he approached the battlecruiser below the deck, he saw the words ‘VNC Tannager’ painted on the side of the ship.

Varanus Naval Cruiser...

“Hit it Meatlug!” said Fishlegs. Meatlug complied and shot a stream of hot lava into the steel plating of the Tannager. However, all he managed to do was scorch the paint, leaving a black mark on the ‘T’ on the side of the ship. “She wasn’t kidding! Making metal ships is worth the effort!” Before he could try again, he noticed the crew were approaching the edge of the deck with guns, and they were ready to attack with whatever they had on hand, however, the Monstrous Nightmare from before had swooped across the upper deck of the battlecruiser, threatening to burn or throw overboard anyone that got in its way, its rider giving a gleeful battle cry as he passed. As helpful as it was, this act was not damaging the Tannager. Using the time that had been bought, Meatlug steered herself around the hull of the Tannager to a different area where there were less crew; if Meatlug was right next to their Battlecruiser, the escort would not fire on them.

‘Damnit! I need to do something about this ship! Millia is counting on me to sink it!’

The ship was far too large to just ram; it was almost double the size of the Iron Maiden’s hull. The metal armour meant that it was far too armoured for him to just shoot with Meatlug. But he needed to do something soon, otherwise it would start landing more kill shots on the Viking fleet.

‘What do I do?’ thought Fishlegs as he continued to circle and dodge attacks from the crew. ‘I can’t see a weak point, and I’ve looked at everything...’ However, his train of thought stopped suddenly. ‘Have I seen everything?’ he thought. ‘I know I haven’t hit everything. I would normally throw lava at the deck, but they’ve got too much firepower on top... then... what about below the water line?’

“Meatlug! Shoot it just above the surface of the water! And be generous!” She growled back, confused with a ‘blargh’, which was cut short as a gunshot flew straight past Fishlegs’ head. Meatlug suddenly complied and fired a stream of lava at the ship a few centimetres above the waves. There was a hiss as the edge of the lava stream cut through the very tip of the cold water, vaporizing it as it then impacted on the hull. What happened afterwards surprised Fishlegs.

The lava spray did manage to heat up the hull; it seemed like Meatlug put a little more into that burst. But more than that, it seemed the metal underneath the water line was much thinner, in order to save on weight, and the lava breath, once it had stuck onto the ship, was about to cause some serious problems. The heat warped the metal, and once the lava breath solidified and sunk away from the hull, the cold sea water rushed back in to rapidly cool the hot patch, boiling as it did so. The rapidly changing temperature weakened it to the point where it cracked and began to buckle.

“It worked Meatlug! Hit it again!”

Meatlug tried again, this time, keeping up a more constant stream spreading the heat over a slightly wider area, aiming as low as they dared. The enormous steam cloud that formed where the lava touched the water’s surface kept them mostly hidden from the deck. The rapid heating and freezing continued to shatter and weaken the hull. Thanks to the increased weight that the ship must have had, the water pressure on the hull itself was enough to cause it to audibly shatter, warp and crack. Judging by the flow of the water around the hole that had formed, it was obviously taking on water much faster than they could handle; the hole that Fishlegs had made was much larger than he had dared to hope.

“Their water line is starting to drop!” said Fishlegs. “I have an idea! Meatlug! Hit it just above where the water is pouring in!” The Gronkle tried to spew out another burst, but she’d run out of shots, instead spewing out a thin trickle of molten lava from her mouth. “Oh, well, never mind girl! Let’s get out of here.”

The damage was done. The Tannager was beginning to sink as Fishlegs flew away from the battlecruiser that was now beginning to list as it took on more and more water. Fishlegs continued to fly out at low level, trying to avoid the angry stream of return fire from the four other escort ships. He noticed that the battlecruiser sinking lower and lower into the sea, and the guns had fallen silent; they were abandoning ship.

Looking over at the other formation that was battling the Iron Maiden’s starboard side, he could see that several of the smaller ships were moving into position to try and block the Iron Maiden’s attack on their battlecruiser; it seemed like the Iron Maiden was winning that exchange from its elevated position and away from their broadside. Meanwhile, as she continued to close in, Fishlegs could see the port side guns on the Iron Maiden had come to bear on the remaining escort ships from the first formation, and had also opened fire.

‘I figured out their weaknesses on time I think. Better return to the ship to let Meatlug rest, and to tell Millia the tactic to sinking those things.’

As Meatlug landed on the upper deck, Millia was still scanning the horizon. The battlecruiser was looking less steady than earlier, and the surviving Viking fleet seemed to know it. The remaining ships were also beginning to buckle under the flames of the dragons and the Iron Maiden’s fire, and the Vikings, emboldened by Fishlegs’ success, seemed to start making aggressive moves towards the shore.

“What happened!?” shouted Millia.
“I put a hole in the battlecruiser!” said Fishlegs. “Meatlug’s all out though. She needs a rock snack!”
“You did what!?”
“Did something bad happen!?”
“No no, never mind! New orders! There’s a crate full of rocks on the stern! Use that to recharge. Then punch the battlecruiser again! Do it right, and you can capsize the ship!”

Fishlegs nodded, and flew off in pursuit of the Tannager. As he approached, he saw the last Gronkle rider careening into the water as it was hit by the Tannager’s fire.

‘We need to look at what that weapon is. If they solve the issue with hitting low flying dragons, that weapon could render our dragons useless.’

As Fishlegs and Meatlug approached the ship, he could see the water line had definitely climbed on his side. However, the ship’s overall silhouette size against the horizon had not changed very much. He had another sudden brainwave.

‘Their guns are no longer silent, so somehow the leak wasn’t critical. But the ship has definitely tipped over... that must mean that the thinner armour must be more exposed on the other side!’

“Meatlug! Fly around it! We’ll cut it apart with your lava breath girl!”

Meatlug growled affirmatively, and they continued their trek around the ship. However, the tipping of the ship had a few unexpected consequences. Nets and shells flew at Fishlegs. The tipping of the ship to the side had allowed it the depression to shoot at Fishlegs as he approached.

“OH NO!” shouted Fishlegs. The black clouds were getting closer and closer to Fishlegs. He could feel the heat from the explosions as they grew closer.

---

“At that point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it,” said Fishlegs. Hugo was nursing his wrist from all the cramp that he was suffering from writing. “Are you alright?”
“I’m going to have a very strong arm after this,” replied Hugo. “Just continue.”

---

Fishlegs braced himself for the worst. He had to duck out of the way of a shell that was getting a little too close more than once now, and he was sure that he was going to be hit soon. But before that could be come a reality, attacks began to impact the Tannager from above.

The Iron Maiden had finally finished with the smaller ships off to her starboard side, and had turned her port guns towards the Tannager. Though none of the attacks were penetrating the hull, they did have the benefit of causing total and utter chaos on the deck; the guns were falling silent one by one.

Simultaneously, a blue flare went up from the Iron Maiden; that was the ‘continue with the plan’ signal.

Fishlegs didn’t need telling twice. The reduced volume of fire meant that he was given the opening to really build up some speed and flew around the ship’s hull. Just as he suspected, the ship’s port side armour was far more exposed, as the Tannager was listing towards its starboard side. Without prompting, Meatlug painted the thinner sections of the hull with her lava breath, the heat warping and softening the metal. The same freeze shattering effect took hold on that side of the ship too, and the Tannager’s hull was penetrated, and she soon began taking on water.

By this point the guns were completely silent, and there was scurrying as the Tannager’s crew began to scramble for the lifeboats. The Iron Maiden stopped firing on the crippled battlecruiser, and Meatlug began to retreat.

On the shore, the last surviving longboat had landed, and the Vikings were already pushing further inland; the landing was complete. Because there was no ground presence in the western half of the continent, the landing party met only a token resistance, which all surrendered within minutes of seeing their Viking invaders approach on land.

They had won.

---

“Well, that was the beachhead.”
“That... you almost single handedly sunk what was then the world’s most advanced battleship!” said Hugo.
“I don’t like to brag,” said Fishlegs with a smirk. “And I had a lot of help from above. At the time I was just happy to have won a battle though, but, I think that was when Captain Rechkalov started to change, slowly, but surely...”