Bronze Skies

Chapter One

Cannon fire erupted from every direction as The Raven headed towards the enemies giant Warship. As the looming mass came closer a smile tugged at Captain Roses’ lips. He raised his hand to signal to his gunners to open fire and they were confirmed with the sudden firing of the cannon’s on board.

Opposing The Raven was one of Lundon’s Air fleet best Warships, Excalibur. It was far larger than the opponent. A thick wooden hull that was near impossible to penetrate with standard grade cannon-balls. Excalibur had a total of five decks which held all the necessary equipment to fuel and maintain the enormous Airship.

Powered by four large and powerful rotors, it had the speed and manoeuvrability to easily intercept its prey. The grand ship was armed with over four hundred ballistic Air-Cannons. One round from each cannon could easily shatter a low armoured ship that had the misfortune to be hunted by such a great ship.

On-board Excalibur the captain stared out across the sky and spotted The Raven. She felt her precious Air-Ship tilt slightly as it was hit by the smaller ships powerful cannons. She tripped forwards but managed to catch herself.

“Return fire. Aim at the engine room and rotors. Cut them off before they get to us” Her voice was calm. But her knuckles grew white as she gripped the dark iron side rail.

“Yes Commander Red.” Her first lieutenant nodded and gave the order, a moment later Excalibur’s starboard cannons opened fire. She smiled and cocked her head to the side as all two hundred and fifty cannons fired at The Raven

History books, the ones that survived, never really explained the exact how everything turned out the way they did. Many of them point to the idea that a ‘world war’ broke out. Enveloping every country.

Some other books claim that human colonies located on the moon and other celestial bodies declared war on their home planet. Wanting to break away from the Human Race.

Some think that oil and fossil fuel was to blame. Countries invading each other to get the precious minerals.

There are countless theories to how it all happened. But they all have the same conclusion, the human race almost caused their own extinction.

All of them agree that a war broke out. Destroying cities and ending millions of lives. Countless bombings around the world caused fault-lines to become exposed. Earthquakes were not uncommon.

By the end of the war the human population had been lowered to an estimated five thousand. For another estimated hundred years humans scavenged the land, trying to find ways to survive.

During this time, with the low amount of humans, animals that were becoming endangered due to poaching, such as Elephants, Rhinoceros, Gorilla’s, Tigers and others began growing their numbers.

The only knowledge that the surviving Humans had to the past were books and tales passed down. Teaching each other not to make the mistakes that ‘The Ancients’ did.

After many, many years. Humans were once again the dominating species. With the help from surviving ancient technology they were able to evolve faster than previously. Eventually a ruler was established. King Ronald was the first monarch of the new earth.

Ronald decided to not make the mistakes of The Ancients, and made Steam Power the main source of power. Along with the Technology that was present and the geniuses that worked for most of their lives, the power of steam was now used.