The Cursed Fleet: A Sea of Thieves Story

Chapter 7: The Aftermath

     Nearly three weeks had passed since the Wicked Revenge took her first prize, and they hadn't slowed their pace either. Once plundering the brigantine from the Merchant Alliance they had run heists on several other crews since. Taking everything from chests, filled with more gold than one could imagine, to fine cloths and silks carried on contract.

     They were rich.

     However, wealth as a pirate, comes at a cost. They were becoming a recognized name across the Sea of Thieves. Merchant vessels feared them, and other pirates aspired to be them. They'd begun seeing wanted posters, plastered across the outposts they would visit. They all read "Dangerous pirates, wanted for murder, treason, and piracy of the Sea of Thieves" with poorly drawn sketches of their faces, but everyone knew the ship. Her maroon hull now rough around the edges from battles she'd endured, still sported the Jolly Roger, and everyone knew the ship when they saw it. Most ran, but this particular day, one crew, decided to tempt fate...

     "Captain! Sails on the horizon, galleon by the looks of it!" shouted Nicholas, from the crow's nest. "She seems to be headed right for us!" Christopher, who had taken on the name "Blackheart" on the wanted posters, pulled out his spyglass, and looked off the bow, to see for himself.

     "Aye, she's full billow this way. Flying mercenary colors." He said.

     "Mercenary?" asked Les. "Have the Mercenaries finally been contracted to come after us?"

     They were sailing towards Plunder Outpost to cut off a ship before selling her hold, before they encountered these mercenaries, and changed course almost due south, as their pursuer approached from the west.

     "Ready the starboard cannons mates, prepare for a battle." Commanded Les. The air soon filled with cannonballs being loaded into the guns, and primed for fire. John stepped up to the top deck from below, and looked at the captain.

     "And what would you have me do captain?"

     "Do what you do best Master Loobe. Catch them by surprise." Just then, he lunged off the ship and began swimming to the fast approaching ship. "Master Smith, call the shots when you're ready!"

     "Aye captain" he replied. The ship began to turn, showing her broadside to the Revenge. "Now! Open fire!!!"

     Cannonballs flew through the air, blasting holes in both ships. The sound of wood cracking, and explosions filled the air, as they sailed towards Thieves, Haven.

     "I believe I hear a leak below deck, Master Wells, would you care to repair that? I'll jump on a gun and lend aid to Chris on the guns.

     "Aye captain, I'm on it!" Nick ran below deck, as Les grabbed cannonballs, and jumped on the gun, laying into the mercenaries. One after another shots tore through the hull of the mercenary ship. They aimed all over, below the water line, above the water line, and at the top deck, in attempt to knock any gunners off the cannons.

     It was working.

     They began to fire less and less, as they sailed away from the Revenge, and that's when Les stepped off the cannon, and pulled out his speaking trumpet.

     "John! Go now!" he shouted, off the stern of his ship. John, who had been hidden on the starboard ladder of the pursuers heard the command, and slowly climbed up and aboard the mercenary vessel. The upper deck was empty, and the decks below were filled with the sounds of hammers pounding at wood, patching the brutal damage done by the pirate crew. Looking to his right, John spotted the capstan. He ran over and proceeded to release the anchor. After a few seconds of travel, the anchor hit the sea floor, and the ship lurched to a stop, pulling hard to port. This caught the attention of the crew below. They all rushed the deck, weapons in hand.

     "Ahoy mates, seems you've lost the anchor." John said with a smirk. Just then a cannonball crashed through the glass in the captain's quarters of the ship, and into one of the crew members, turning him into a cloud of green dust. The rest charged John with cutlasses. As the fight unfurled on the deck, the Wicked Revenge circled like a shark, firing shots into the hull of the crippled ship, and she began to sit lower and lower in the water. As the water reached the map table on the second deck, John slashed one of the three remaining mercenaries, then turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and seemingly without aim, fired his flintlock at another, turning them both into green dust, as they pass on to the Ferry of the Damned. The last turned to run below deck, to attempt to save the seemingly lost ship.

     "She's gone mate, just give up." Said John. The mercenary turned to John, and was met with a flintlock to the forehead. The shot ripped through the air, and the last crewmate aboard, faded into green dust. John jumped off the port side plank, and swam over to the Revenge just as the ship began to submerge.

     "Fine work Master Loobe!" said Les as John climbed the ladder to the main deck. "We showed 'em what for!"

     "Aye cap'n we showed what fer didn't we?!" Yelled Blackheart, thrusting his tankard into the air, splashing grog onto the deck of the ship.

     "Captain, look in the water! Port side!" shouted Nick. The crew ran for the port railings. There, bouncing on the waves, was a leather book, with a golden coin with a banana on the face, stamped into it. John immediately jumped ship and retrieved the book.

     After a few hours letting the journal dry, the crew gathered in the captain's quarters to read its contents. When Les opened the book, a folded, tattered sheet fell out.

     "What's that?" asked John, as Les reached down to pick it up. He unfolded it, read it aloud.

     "Captain Greene,

          On behalf of myself and my associates, I'm contracting you to destroy the crew of 'The Wicked Revenge' by any means necessary. I'm leaving you my personal log, as I have reason to believe that this crew may be tied to the others my contacts and I have hit, and are likely involved in the deaths of some people very close to me. Bring me some form of proof that you've dispatched them, and you will be rewarded handsomely. Fail, and there will be consequences, should you survive the encounter with them. Be warned though, this crew is not to be taken lightly. In the past month, over twenty ships have been declared sunk, and many are of the belief that they're the crew behind it. We have reason to believe they make port somewhere in The Wilds, but our intel is hard to confirm. Regardless, they must be brought to an end, soon.

          ~ M."

     "Who the hell is "M."?" asked Chris.

     "I'm not sure, but we need to find him, before he finds us." Replied Les. "He seems to have money, and a vendetta against us, and those two things don't bode well for us." He opened the drawer in his table, and dropped the book inside. "I'll continue to read this later, for now we need to make for our prize, we got a little turned around in that fight. Master Wells, get us back on course, Chris, take to the crow's and see if you spot anything. Loobe, get ready for the next fight, we need you in tip-top shape." The crew nodded and ran for their tasks. Les closed the door to the captain's quarters, sat in his chair, and opened his desk drawer, to reveal the journal lying inside. The cover was slightly charred, and embossed into the cover, read the first lead on "M."

     "The Merchant's Menace: Ships Log"