We have begun our journey to the Mayfire Castle. The members of my troop are in their rooms right now. They must have had a pretty grueling journey. Whatever Daniel has done to delay them has been pretty crazy. I have heard only rumors about it, though. If even half of those rumours are true, then I have underestimated Daniel.
Since I am free I might as well explain the hierarchy of the pirates. Now, I am sure you must think that the pirates are one of the most chaotic random powers out there. That is true to a certain degree, but all the successful pirates have some form of this hierarchy. This is a result of the scholars and their research.
Every pirate gang has four types of ships. The first is the crown ship. Every pirate ship has one that acts as a mobile headquarters for them. This is the beating heart of a pirate gang. It is kind of like the head office in that regard. Anything that they need to do has to go through the crown ship. If you manage to destroy the crown ship of a pirate gang, you have essentially destroyed that gang. After all, what is the point of having all these ships if you cannot give them any commands?
The second is the brawlers, slower and heavier ships (though not as slow as the crown ship.) that are meant to be used to fight other gangs and even us. One of our main duties in the soldar plains is to attack pirates. This is where all the real members of a pirate gang (the ones that will be able to fight) are stationed.
The third type is the crawler, slow ships that act as the treasury for the gang. Not every gang has these. For most pirate gangs, their crown ships also tend to act as their crawlers. Only the really rich pirate groups tend to have a separate crawler. After all, if you have a crawler, you need to be able to afford the necessary defenses for it. Otherwise, you are giving others a free meal. Most crawlers tend to be repurposed grain ships. All of the pirate lords in the soldar plains have their own crawlers. (Not that even the scholars can find their locations, though.)
The last type is the patrollers. Small ships that are pretty fast and are used for patrolling and scouting. Most tend to be lightly armored and lightly equipped. These are the most common pirate ships that you will be able to find. They make use of these ships to look for potential targets to loot.
Using patrollers, the brawlers can be reserved for when they are needed. After all, the brawlers that are good at combat are pretty mana-intensive. They will go through mana stones like crazy. That is not something somebody like the pirates can afford.
Also, you can mitigate some of the risks you tend to face when looking for a target, from both us and other pirate gangs. For example, we or other pirate ships might hide in a grain ship, waiting for somebody to attack it. It is a good ambush. Other pirate gangs might be looking at the same ship as a target. If two brawlers were there, it would have led to heavy losses for both gangs. (Loot is the main reason that two pirate gangs fight.) Maybe a traveling expert might be on that ship, destroying you with a single move. (Well, that is an occupational hazard for us all.)
Most patrollers tend to be useless ships, often on the verge of being scrapped. (kind of like the ships we faced up north, incidentally.) The people on it are nearly as useless. Most are recruits or injured crew members. The dead weight of the gang if you will. Most well-to-do gangs have hundreds of such ships. You can lose a hundred of them and you won't notice their loss. You cannot say the same about the brawlers, though.
The reason that I am mentioning all this now is that a patroller is following us right now. It has been following us for a couple of hours now. (Ever since we have left the territory of the hexmountain.) I am sure that most of you do not understand why that is weird.
Most patrollers would have disappeared by now. They would report to their nearest brawlers if they thought I was a target. If I were not a target, they would have still left me alone. After all, they need to find targets as well. Well, the ship has been following me for a couple of hours now. A patroller should not be following us so persistently.
I could attack them right now, but if I miss, that will scare them. If they were to run away now, they would go and inform their pirate gang about my presence. That will mean they might send a brawler after me. I am about to enter an active combat zone right now. Fighting even a weak pirate gang before that is stupid.
As for why this ship has yet to retreat, I have a theory. They must be looking to loot my ship. Their ship is roughly as big as mine, and it has been after us for a while now. I am not driving the ship at its full speed, so it must look like a weak target. (I am entering an active combat zone. There is no way that I am going to risk going at full speed.)
So the other side must be considering me as a potential victim. Anybody with a bit of brain would know to be careful of a lone ship traveling alone in the soldar plains. Then again, greed and stupidity have no limits. Well, to give the other side credit, this might just be their first time. Maybe they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing here. After all, not everybody can be like us, getting to study detailed documents on enemy behavior.
Anyway, I have been studying the ship for a while now. There are only two strong enough mana sources. I can't say for certain, but enhanced with the sensory formation, I am about as confident as I can be. The first is the propulsion formation. The other is most probably some kind of cannon. It is not a strong cannon, of that I am sure. If they had a good cannon, then I would be able to detect it more clearly now. At most, it is going to be a shitty class seven cannon or a really good class eight cannon. (Neither is capable of taking me down in a single shot. Hence why I am so calm.)
So, I can allow them to come closer to me if they are stupid enough to do so. Then I just need to pepper them with my cannons. This is the best way for me to deal with this situation. I will also get to test the patched-up cannon.
I am still making my way to the Mayfire Castle, so having that ship behind me is not hurting me at all. I will continue the log when the other ship ends up doing anything worth noting.
(After about half a day.)
Well, the ship is coming closer to us. I don't know why they suddenly decided to come after us. I swear that for a moment they looked as if they were about to retreat. Right now they are ten kilometers from me.
I need them to come just within five kilometers of me. With that distance, I can just let loose all of my cannons and hit them with certainty. It is a bit risky to allow them to come that close, but it should be worth it. Hitting them from here would mean there is a chance that I will miss them.
At least the other side is not suicidal. They are creeping closer to me, but they are careful about it. The instant that I show them any intent of attacking, I am sure they will bolt away. That is why I am accelerating the ship now. Just enough that they will be baited into chasing after me.
Right now they are nine kilometers away. I mean, I could stop my ship to allow them to come closer, but that is going to spook them away as well. After all, why would a ship suddenly stop mid-chase? Let's just hope my act of trying to run away is good enough to fool them for a bit longer.
This is harder than it looks. The other side is not coming towards us at its full speed. This close, it is more likely to crash into us if they were to do so. They are still accelerating their ships. I am trying to go at a speed that is just a bit slower than theirs. Not enough that it looks like I am stopping my ship just to let them come closer. It also needs to be not fast enough that I leave them in the dust.
Right now they are seven kilometers away from me. I wonder if I should attack them already. Well, I can almost feel their cannons flare up. They are still coming closer. Right now, that means that they intend to come closer to me to shoot at me. Their reasoning on this must be similar to mine.
Well, with the strength of their cannons, I am sure that there will be a few holes in the ship. It is nothing compared to what I am about to unleash on them. It is going to be worth the effort and cost of patching up these few holes if it means I can safely get rid of the other side. There will be way more damage if brawlers get involved. I don't want to get embroiled with a pirate gang before I even find out what exactly is happening at the castle.
Wait a second, if I can sense their cannons, they might be able to sense my cannon as well. Fuck, I did not think of that. If they were to detect my cannons, it would be enough to spook them. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Calm the fuck down, they would have been running away already if that was the case. Now that I have calmed down a bit, I realise that for it to be a problem, they need to have a mana sense first of all. I am sure that most people on that ship have never felt any mana except their vital mana. Well, most pirates in this place tend to be farmers who cannot pay their debts. (Well, there tend to be many reasons for it. A bad crop, a pirate attack, or most commonly, the lord of that region suddenly deciding to increase the taxes.) I tell you that most people on that ship must have held a sword for the first time.
Even if they had mana sense, most people simply don't know how to use sensory formations. It requires a lot of skill to be able to sense as precisely as I can with a sensory formation. Anybody capable of sensing mana would simply be able to tell that my mana has spiked. I am just so used to having a mana sense greater than the average that I don't need to worry about things like this.
Well, the other ship is six kilometers away from us. I need to be ready, so I prepare the coordination matrix. (I get to test it as well.) The instant that the ship is five kilometers away, I will set it off. Already, I am charging up the cannon. (They are on the side with the two fire cannons.)
There it is, the five-kilometer mark. I flex the coordination matrix, feeling it ready as I se....