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- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
- Location
- Jurassic Park
East Dockyards, Radiant City
August 10th, 1893
Captain and Chief Engineer Taira Kane looked at her watch impatiently as she waited for the newest recruit to Jareth Industries’ World’s Hearth hybrid whaler (meaning that it could operate on land, sea and air). She’d busied herself by checking and rechecking the armaments, heavy coolant, food, and much more, but this was intolerable.
She’d assumed the captaincy after Captain Michael Lee died in the Raid on Radiant by the elvish Ananki Confederation and the Olsea Kingdom of the merfolk on June 13th. Taira now looked on at a Radiant still gutted by dragon fire, Kraken footprints, and magic and plasma blasts from the elvish and merfolk soldiers who attacked that terrible night. Apart from the demonstration of its amphibious capabilities in a lake at the Royal Artistic Industrial and Scientific Expedition on the afternoon before the Raid, this was the maiden voyage of a vehicle that was supposed to herald the Caledorian Empire’s economic recovery from the devastating attack that started this stupid Final War, so this was not looking good.
She’d already gotten permission from Jareth Williams himself to delay the launch by a month and five days when the microdampfsteel in the bolts critical to the thrust directors for sea movement and aerial takeoff that doubled as its legs for land movement started warping. She’d been lucky that he understood her concerns, and was probably distracted with running the war footing of the economy in his portfolio as Imperial Finance Minister and softened by his relationship with Imperial Supreme Commander Alice Guthrie; the old Jareth would probably have fired her on the spot.
Either way, it was a rare opportunity for a Gudarian inside the Empire, and a mermaid at that, to captain her own ship, let alone a whaling trawler. (Despite the revelation that Jareth was himself a merman named Adamaris, she kept her own mer heritage a secret, especially now as authorities and vigilantes alike roamed the streets for any hint of disloyalty from merfolk.)
Even a day more of delay, though, and she was sure it would be her hide. Without this job, Taira would probably be waste oil to anyone else she could get a job from, and would have no place else to go.
She would have launched without this tardy bastard, should have even. Unfortunately, he had been sent to procure a shipment of a rare, cleaner burning combination of newly discovered kinetic ice and whale oil called Dioxegenated State-Changeable Oil (or diosco for short) which the ship required to move at all; as in, its engines would seize up and explode if they tried to use conventional whale oil. That was something Captain Kane had complained to Jareth about, loudly, and he took it under advisement, but with the mysterious death of John, his right hand man, things moved more slowly than they used to in Jareth Industries.
But Taira closed her eyes and exhaled to relax as she remembered she could only control her immediate situation and go with what she knew. What she knew and had known best for six years, was ships. At least ships were reliable, and could be fixed if they weren’t.
Once this ship moved, hopefully things would be smoother sailing, to think anachronistically about it. One tank of diosco was supposed to power this ship and other hybrids like it for a whole month, and then the supply would be easier to come by once they gathered the materials for more of it. The kinetic ice they needed would be easy to come by in the Northern Polar Sea. They could get much of the oil from farmed whale calves who would sneeze it out rather than having to hunt vicious adults. And then, once they got back, they’d mix it all together with a secret cocktail of “other chemicals” sent in a tightly controlled manner by armed convoys from the JI Office of Special Projects.
Plus, with the Empire’s capture of the major northern Confederate port of Halanunja in July, the Confederate Navy’s strike capability was significantly reduced in the region. The Kingdom’s undersea soldiers and legions of Krakens still raided ships on the regular, of course, but that was one impetus behind the ship’s ability to go airborne. Taira also outfitted the ship with extra depth charges out of her own paycheck just in case.
Whatever the case may be, however, the recruit was still late. What was his name again?
August 10th, 1893
Captain and Chief Engineer Taira Kane looked at her watch impatiently as she waited for the newest recruit to Jareth Industries’ World’s Hearth hybrid whaler (meaning that it could operate on land, sea and air). She’d busied herself by checking and rechecking the armaments, heavy coolant, food, and much more, but this was intolerable.
She’d assumed the captaincy after Captain Michael Lee died in the Raid on Radiant by the elvish Ananki Confederation and the Olsea Kingdom of the merfolk on June 13th. Taira now looked on at a Radiant still gutted by dragon fire, Kraken footprints, and magic and plasma blasts from the elvish and merfolk soldiers who attacked that terrible night. Apart from the demonstration of its amphibious capabilities in a lake at the Royal Artistic Industrial and Scientific Expedition on the afternoon before the Raid, this was the maiden voyage of a vehicle that was supposed to herald the Caledorian Empire’s economic recovery from the devastating attack that started this stupid Final War, so this was not looking good.
She’d already gotten permission from Jareth Williams himself to delay the launch by a month and five days when the microdampfsteel in the bolts critical to the thrust directors for sea movement and aerial takeoff that doubled as its legs for land movement started warping. She’d been lucky that he understood her concerns, and was probably distracted with running the war footing of the economy in his portfolio as Imperial Finance Minister and softened by his relationship with Imperial Supreme Commander Alice Guthrie; the old Jareth would probably have fired her on the spot.
Either way, it was a rare opportunity for a Gudarian inside the Empire, and a mermaid at that, to captain her own ship, let alone a whaling trawler. (Despite the revelation that Jareth was himself a merman named Adamaris, she kept her own mer heritage a secret, especially now as authorities and vigilantes alike roamed the streets for any hint of disloyalty from merfolk.)
Even a day more of delay, though, and she was sure it would be her hide. Without this job, Taira would probably be waste oil to anyone else she could get a job from, and would have no place else to go.
She would have launched without this tardy bastard, should have even. Unfortunately, he had been sent to procure a shipment of a rare, cleaner burning combination of newly discovered kinetic ice and whale oil called Dioxegenated State-Changeable Oil (or diosco for short) which the ship required to move at all; as in, its engines would seize up and explode if they tried to use conventional whale oil. That was something Captain Kane had complained to Jareth about, loudly, and he took it under advisement, but with the mysterious death of John, his right hand man, things moved more slowly than they used to in Jareth Industries.
But Taira closed her eyes and exhaled to relax as she remembered she could only control her immediate situation and go with what she knew. What she knew and had known best for six years, was ships. At least ships were reliable, and could be fixed if they weren’t.
Once this ship moved, hopefully things would be smoother sailing, to think anachronistically about it. One tank of diosco was supposed to power this ship and other hybrids like it for a whole month, and then the supply would be easier to come by once they gathered the materials for more of it. The kinetic ice they needed would be easy to come by in the Northern Polar Sea. They could get much of the oil from farmed whale calves who would sneeze it out rather than having to hunt vicious adults. And then, once they got back, they’d mix it all together with a secret cocktail of “other chemicals” sent in a tightly controlled manner by armed convoys from the JI Office of Special Projects.
Plus, with the Empire’s capture of the major northern Confederate port of Halanunja in July, the Confederate Navy’s strike capability was significantly reduced in the region. The Kingdom’s undersea soldiers and legions of Krakens still raided ships on the regular, of course, but that was one impetus behind the ship’s ability to go airborne. Taira also outfitted the ship with extra depth charges out of her own paycheck just in case.
Whatever the case may be, however, the recruit was still late. What was his name again?
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