Chương 56: Chapter 55 - Birds on Buttons.

Of course! Aetherite floats, but if they refined it into Aetherium, stabilized it, and fed it a steady supply of flux… FLYING SHIPS Jets of flux shot out from the side through the stern-facing holes she had found before. Ah so they stabilize it in the air. The "Drift fins" probably do the same thing. CREAKKKKKKK Straight ahead of Nythera the hangar door opened, letting blinding sunlight into the long-sleeping shipyard. She held up her hand to block it out, having long since adjusted to the dim crystal lighting.

What in the blazes is going on? Who the Hel opened the hangar door? Her head whipped down to the hangar control panel. A silver falcon stood on the panel, randomly pressing buttons.

"STOP! STOP!" Nythera screamed.

"This will do you good, have fun" a smug voice entered her mind.

"TALVIK!" She screamed. Rowen had his arms wrapped around the mast as the ship slid forward and out of the drydock. Screaming lizards were riled into a tizzy around them, flying over and around the ship. And then she was falling. Air whipped past her face, the ship was pointed straight down into the rocks below. WE ARE GOING TO DIE. As they reached the bottom, she did what she had to. Time to crank "Stabilization Height" UP She dialed it hard.

The prow pulled up, followed by the rest of the ship as it steadied several meters above the sea. By Thunder, I am going to kill that bird. I'll strangle him while he sleeps and then cook him in Edwin's acid. Rowen collapsed onto the deck, panting. Nythera nearly fell to the floor. WE are alive and thats all that matters. Air rushed past her face, the sea far beneath them, all they could see were distant islands and the vast sky.

"Rowen! Rowen!" she shouted.

"WE ARE FLYING" tears turned to giddiness. The ship rocketed forth smoothly under the momentum from the fall.

"Yes Nythera, we are" Rowen stood, mouth agape. She basked in the glory, the feeling of flight, the speed of the vessel beneath her. I am never giving up a single Aurendorian ship if they can all do this. Nythera eventually pulled herself out of her reverie and slid down the ladder to the interior. Three cannons on either side and two facing the front with hatches in the wall lay waiting in the room with the aetherium crystal.

How they operated was not clear, but there were stacks of shells strapped to the walls in some kind of holding mechanism. There's got to be at least 50 rounds in here, I could blow up a few cities with this. Sadly they were too big for her Culverin. So I deploy them from the tablet on deck, cannons roll or slide or whatever out the hatches, and then I can fire them. But do I need to reload them myself or do they reload on their own?

Nythera swung the ship towards the shore, pulling up parallel with the beach, a half-mile out. Time to see what this ship has got.

"Deploy Cannonry""Fire Portside Cannonry" The left side ignited with a shockwave, nearly throwing her off her feet. Her head whipped to the shoreline, a wave of fire and force ripped through the trees. A great, smoldering crater of burnt and toppled trees now decorated the once pristine coastline. Another button lit up "Reload All Cannonry". The Flux-battery showed depletion and a recharge rate from the "Ambient Flux Intake Rate" was slowly refilling it.

Well that answers that, I have a self-reloading, weapon of destruction that can fly. All I need is shells and to wait while it recharges if I eat the entire battery.

"Nythera, absolutely no one can get their hands on this ship" Rowen said with a somber note.

"Yeah I know, can you even operate it? Here try pressing this button" She pointed to the "Fire Starboard Cannonry" script. Rowen hesitated, then pressed it. Nothing happened. As I figured, blood matters. He pressed it again. And again. He pressed another button. Nothing happened.

"This is so unfair" Rowen said. He paused and pulled out a little metal tab out of his pocket.

"Maybe there's a chance?" He clicked on "Selva Sail Deployment Position". The sails snapped up, hiding the fabric back into the mast as the ship ground to a halt in the sky. Rowen held his hands to his head "I can captain the ship! I have a flying ship! I have a real flying ship!" he chanted to calm himself down. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Watch it, this is my ship kiddo.

"Rowen. We need to have a talk" The ship stuttered to a complete stall, drifting slowly in the air.

"What could possibly be the matter? We have discovered two incredible flying vessels capable of moving at quadruple the rate of a regular vessel, possibly faster, with enough firepower to level a city. We have not even tested how they perform over land but they could …" Rowen trailed off.

"Oh" a thoughtful look reached his eyes. Rowen started again "Ok, I suppose this technology could be very dangerous and easy to abuse, but then, so what? What do you intend to do with it?" Nythera stared straight back at him "I intend to explore with these ships and if a good need pops up, we can give someone the pass and allow them to operate the other ship. I am taking this one as my new flagship" Spinning the ship around, they made way back to the seacliffs.

Lance's eyes are going to pop out of his skull when he sees this one. She snickered at the thought. Nythera cranked up the Aetherium Elevation height to level with the drydock and brought them in to dock and … Slammed straight into the hanger walls, the jolt throwing her to the ground. Steering in the air is such a pain in the ass. Carefully drifting in with the Jet Force set to the minimal, she managed to maneuver back into place.

"Welcome back, you seem to have enjoyed playing with your new toy" Halt said, standing before the hanger controls.

"Talvik, go grab the sailors, it's time to say goodbye to the Racing Rat, Halt you're riding back on Rowen's ship, make sure he doesn't sail into a cliff" Nythera said while studying the console. A silver shape flew straight out the door "on it". From the stern, the sea lay before her, Volthera struck by lightning in the distance. This will all be mine, my Crown Domain, my people, and I will protect them. And they will arm with weapons of war. Tianshiang, just you wait. …

Rowen and Nythera swung the ships in an arc in sync, pivoting southward. The Racing Rat beneath waited alone, to sink with the next storm. At least it got us to where we were going, good for one last voyage, bye bye Rat. Now for fun. She slammed the throttle to the maximum on "Jet Force". The backrailings caught her ragdolled body as the ship rocketed forward, the sail flapping in the breeze. She crawled forward across the deck. Just. need. To. get. To. the. Panel.

A slight jolt of turbulence threw her all the way back into the railing, pain from her crushed spine radiating through her body. I am going to fall off the edge of the fucking ship! She pulled herself back down, scraping for a purchase on the smooth deck. She pulled out her dagger and jammed it into the deck… to no effect. The knife went flying out of her hands and through the railing at a gust of wind. Shit.

She poised her legs on the railings and pushed forward, barely reaching the base of the panel, forcing her fingers around it, she pulled herself forwards. Reaching one arm up, using the metal pillar as a shield to keep the wind from snapping her arm back she reached over and pulled her head up to the panel. I am never doing this again, where are flux the jet controls? She could barely see through the wind whipping in her eyes. She cranked the Jet Force down to 0. Finally!

And was thrown head first into the metal rod supporting the console. The ship slid along the air, losing momentum. By the blazes… Rowen was a mere blip in the horizon, her vessel had already passed Amplewoods. A voyage that had taken half a day by sea. Done in less than half an hour. The Tarcadian smugglers would cry tears of joy if they got their hands on a vessel like this, the amount of Leaf they could bring out without patrols catching them…

"Get your mind out of money and focus on the ship before you drift off please" Talvik's voice rang true and shattered her delusions. The Flux-battery was almost entirely drained, only the bottom 10% remained. Whoops. Suppose I've got time to wait for the snails while they make their way here. Time to click more buttons!

"Drift Fin Deployment Position" and "Rudder State" were the first two she pushed her greedy finger on. Giant velvety fins expanded from both sides, opening up widest at the stern and narrowing to a point at the prow. The rudder expanded from a wooden plank to a sail in its own right. So this would be for air travel, something to stop the drifting and stabilize the ship. And that would be what the modes are for, air mode deploys all… this. And water mode shrinks it back down.

I am going to need to find a source of both this wood and metal if I want to repair them or make more, but for now I'll have to be happy with NOT damaging the ships. It took 3 hours for Rowen to catch up, which was still remarkably fast given how long it took to make the voyage the first time. Within spitting distance, ropes were tossed over and the ships brought closer.

"Alright, let's head back, we'll land in Grandports sea marina" Nythera said. Rowen nodded.

"We should report to the council about this finding and keep the ships secured with guards at all hours."

"You did well, finding and commandeering these scout ships. The drydock I am afraid, will not help you much, its more of a repair-only facility near Cyclone Way than a proper shipyard." Halt said with what she could swear was a smile. Wait.

"Scout ships? These are caravel-sized and armed to the teeth" Nythera said incredulously.

"Yes, Aurendorian scout ships are appropriately armed for small confrontations and hit and run tactics. The galleons, destroyers, and, dreadnoughts are for military deployment. There were also a few other types, but most Aurendorian ships were built for war. This is not one of them" Halt said nonchalantly.

"You mean there's ships with more and bigger cannons? What the Hel is a dreadnought?" Rowen asked. Halt merely nodded. The Nytheran Royal Armada. Glorious. I just need more passes so people can control them.

"Say, where are these shipyards?" Nythera asked.

"On your map, but the biggest one is in the center of Myrraval, and a lot of the navy was kept in Volkion" Halt said, then tapped his chin "Ah but the flagship project is underneath Myrraval, I'm not certain if they ever finished that one" Get the bigger ships, then use those ships to get the even bigger ones, build a massive fleet, kill the Tianshiang Empire with overwhelming firepower. Seems like a plan.

Talvik's voice entered her mind as a whisper "You may be interested in the non-military use vessels as well, there are a slew of mining ships that they once used to pick Aetherite out of the seas with, and a vast array of other vessels, even Anchorbreaker harvesting platforms". So I need to get my hands on a lot more ships. Sounds good to me. Wait.

Nythera pulled up her domain status Domain Cores (2/2): Myrraval Population: 2, 289 Mistvale Population: 1, 506 Even if I had ten thousand ships, I have no one to work them. Myrraval's population is already split up between four separate towns, most of them no bigger than a few hundred people. They need those workers, those farmers, those delvers.

Shit"I still remember in the olden days, destroyers were the only ships capable of handling the real threat, until they made the dreadnoughts, which pushed back the tide for awhile" Halt reminisced. Huh"Real threat?"