The Lost Island

The Lost Island

The rough waves were pounding the deck, the iron plated ships' hull groaned as it was relentlessly tossed around on the open sea. This was the mighty H.M.S Dauntless, a uranium-steam powered man-o war, the biggest in her class. Nine hundred metres from stern to aft, ninety metres from port to starboard. She toted four double barrel, one thousand millimetre cannons, each loaded with armour piercing rounds packed with two hundred kilos of high explosive, high yield plutonium. On board her were three souls, Captain Tchovski, Steam Knight Lincoln, and Scientist Elizabeth. All of her systems were automated, she was on an expedition to find the legendary island Marinea. All of this would be nothing compared to what she was about to face.

"This is your captain Tchovski speaking, Sir Lincoln and Elie dear please report to the bridge. We may have a problem" Sighing heavily Tchovski sunk back into his chair, he double checked the charts given to him by Elizabeth. He was getting old, forty years serving in the navy, and ten under his own command, and what good had it done him? Nothing, only a busted knee, broken bones and a bunch of medals. It hadn't been worth losing his wife and children. At least now his daughter was back with him and now he was helping his daughter and finally spending time with her. The charts she'd given to him were old, back from before the Collapse, they supposedly lead to a lost island called Marines, it was fabled that it contained huge reservoirs of that most precious of materials, Black Gold. Before the Collapse it had been called black oil, but now the term oil hardly fit.

He thought back to the ancient history lessons he had learned. The Collapse had been the end of the golden age of Technology and the beginning of the Steam era, man had used up all the oil on the planet and had yet to find a new clean and sustainable source of energy that was efficient enough to serve the seven and a half billion population. Man began using uranium and plutonium to drive their turbines. In the beginning, the haste to build power stations resulted in disaster, failing, and releasing radiation across the world and over time spawning horrible and deadly mutations of animals.

Huge tracts of land became uninhabitable, the survivors were but a mere two billion, a shadow of what the world had once been.
"Captain? You requested me and Sir Lincoln to report to bridge."
"Ah my dear Elizabeth, on time as usual you never cease to amaze me at the fact that you can appear at your destination on time no matter what stands in your way. Sir Lincoln as ever you continue to impress me. This morning our engines were nearly dead, but now only three hours later they are fixed. For that I thank you yet again."
Saluting, Sir Lincoln said "You do embarrass me Captain, I only tightened a few bolts."
"Nonsense Sir, I know as well as you, how hard it is to work on the reactors. Now onto business, we are currently three kilometres away from where Marinea is on the charts. But I am yet to see any sign of it, through my own eyes or through Radar, and this blasted storm isn't helping either." Still grumbling Tchovski limped over to the helm and directed the ship towards where the island was supposed to be. Whistling he turned on the sonar to check for any underwater obstructions.

###

Meanwhile Sir Lincoln and Elizabeth were heading to their respective stations to prepare the ship for approach to land. Sitting down in his command station Lincoln sighed as the pneumatic needles sank into his legs and began pumping him full of vitamins and some rather questionable chemicals, it always felt like he was in heaven. Standing up he strode over to where the O'le girl was. For Twenty years this suit of power armour had served him., twenty years worth of victorious battles. He had replaced every part of her a hundred times over, in truth no part of her were original parts issued by central command. He had handcrafted every single part of her, adding personal inventions, weaponry and it giving it a wicked paint job. Stepping into the sut he remembered all the times men and monsters had tried to defeat him, and every they had challenged him, they had been defeated by the Red, Blue & White Bulie. Stepping outside of the bay he grabbed his plutonium powered laser cannon, grinning under his helmet like a boy with a new toy he headed up to the prow of the ship to get first site of the new land if there was any to be seen at all.

###

Meanwhile up in the laboratory, Elizabeth was packing all the medicine and napalm she could possibly carry in her pack. Pushing her straight brown hair behind her ears she stooped over picked up her bag and put it on, on her way out she grabbed her purse. For good luck. On her way down to the stern of the ship to pick up explosives she heard her father's panicked cry over the intercom "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! BRACE FOR IMPACT! I REPEAT. BRACE FOR IMP-" The desperate cry of her father ended as she heard the bone smashing sound of all the cannons firing at the same time. Once. Twice. Thrice. And then she heard the dreaded sound of metal being forceful ripped apart and the almost sonic boom like sound of the ship's reactor cores being hit and exploding. She only had time to pray for her father, Sir Lincoln and herself before a piece of shrapnel hit her on the back of the head causing her to black out.

###

Moments ago up on the bridge Tchovski was wrestling with the ship's helm, trying to keep her on course, when the ship's early warning systems triggered. Immediately he rushed over to the panel to see what the threat was, to his horror there were several unknown targeting systems trained on the ship. The ship's reactors to be more precise. Swearing a bloody oath, Tchovski targeted all the unknown weaponry directed at him with the ship's cannon, he managed to reach over and activate the intercom only managing to communicate "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! BRACE FOR IMPACT! I REPEAT. BRACE FOR IMP-" He was interrupted as the cannons began firing. Once. Twice. Thrice. He watched where the island was supposed to be and grinned like a mad man as he saw three double explosions lighting up the rainy sky. The grin disappeared from his face as he heard and felt the ship's hull being penetrated by a projectile ripping through the decks, striking the reactors. "Oh dear, God."

###

Standing by the prow of the Dauntless, Sir Lincoln felt like he could take on the world, he was in his power armour, standing in one of the finest ships he had ever had honour to serve on. He breathed in the salty tang of the ocean through his nose and sighed. This was beauty he thought to himself, this was power. He could feel the waves smashing across the prow and onto his power armour, he heard the roar of the raging storm that they were sailing through. Opening his eyes he saw the mighty waves rising around the ship, and laughed like a maniac as the Dauntless plowed through yet another wave. His eyes were drawn to several explosions he saw lighting up the atmosphere and roared battle had begun! It was at that moment that he felt the ship exploding behind him, lifting him up off the deck and tossing him headlong into the sea like a ragdoll thrown by a angry child.