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Description
An Encounter Under Moonlight

The predator sailed on a sea of clouds with the full moon sparkling off the condensation that attached itself to everything this early hour.
But captain Foutmont (called the Foulmouthed by all who knew him) didn’t notice or care about the beauty around him, he was concentrating on the sound powered phone from the two men suspended in a gondola one-hundred feet below the pirate cruiser Gefion.
“Engine sounds from a large ship four points off due East about 5 degrees down.” Came the tinny voice in the phone.
The captain, normally a boisterous man was quiet. Stealth was needed if they were going to catch this prize unawares. He signaled his first mate by throwing a stale roll the cook had brought up hours before. He motioned his hand across his throat and pointed in the general direction the men in the gondola indicated.
The first mate nodded his understanding and whispered to the deck crew “Bosun cut away that jib sheet. You men make ready that boarding ramp. And quietly mates or da’ captain will have danglies as decorations.”
A jib sheet had thus far provided way for the Gefion and as it was cut away the cruiser sunk into the clouds and at the captains direction turned toward its prey the captain intending to catch the liner their informant had told them about amidships, opening her hull with the spar torpedo mounted on the cruiser’s bow and sending over a raiding party on a ramp to take the ship before her watch became aware of the danger.
As the cruiser got lower the cloud bank began to thin.
“There she is, I see her lights! The trimman shouted and got a clout across the back of his head by the bosun.
“Quiet fool.” She hissed.
The bridge crew was awaiting the captain’s order to attack but he just stood there as the ship slowly approached, with a strange look on his face. The first officer at first couldn’t identify the look never having seen the ship’s master deep in thought before.
The captain could also see the liners lights but something wasn’t right.
The ship’s helmsman, an old codger that has spent more time in the air on a dozen or more ships, started mumbling under his breath.
“Steady old bones.” The first officer admonished him.
“Something wrong Mr. Higgs?” the captain inquired in a low voice.
“I don’t know captain, her light look right, but her silhouette is off. She looks to small for a Canard class liner, to sleek, too narrow.” He suddenly snaps his fingers. “She be a warship! Were sailing into a trap captain!”
As if on queue a volley of rockets arched toward the cruiser, bursting well above her mast, reveling the traditional pirates flag flying there and the source of the rockets.
“Gods, that’s the Majestic, twelve inch guns and the pride of the queen’s navy. We’re all dead men!” the helmsman screamed as he spun the wheel away from the aerial battleship.
The captain was reaching for the speed telegraph handles to tell the engineroom to go to emergency full when the first volley of the Majestic’s six-inch guns reached the Gefion.
As the windows of the bridge exploded inward and the ship began to fall, loosing it fight with gravity when it’s Æither tanks were punctured, the captain’s last coherent thought was:
‘They didn’t even bother to use their main guns on us.’

Description
An Encounter Under Moonlight

The predator sailed on a sea of clouds with the full moon sparkling off the condensation that attached itself to everything this early hour.
But captain Foutmont (called the Foulmouthed by all who knew him) didn’t notice or care about the beauty around him, he was concentrating on the sound powered phone from the two men suspended in a gondola one-hundred feet below the pirate cruiser Gefion.
“Engine sounds from a large ship four points off due East about 5 degrees down.” Came the tinny voice in the phone.
The captain, normally a boisterous man was quiet. Stealth was needed if they were going to catch this prize unawares. He signaled his first mate by throwing a stale roll the cook had brought up hours before. He motioned his hand across his throat and pointed in the general direction the men in the gondola indicated.
The first mate nodded his understanding and whispered to the deck crew “Bosun cut away that jib sheet. You men make ready that boarding ramp. And quietly mates or da’ captain will have danglies as decorations.”
A jib sheet had thus far provided way for the Gefion and as it was cut away the cruiser sunk into the clouds and at the captains direction turned toward its prey the captain intending to catch the liner their informant had told them about amidships, opening her hull with the spar torpedo mounted on the cruiser’s bow and sending over a raiding party on a ramp to take the ship before her watch became aware of the danger.
As the cruiser got lower the cloud bank began to thin.
“There she is, I see her lights! The trimman shouted and got a clout across the back of his head by the bosun.
“Quiet fool.” She hissed.
The bridge crew was awaiting the captain’s order to attack but he just stood there as the ship slowly approached, with a strange look on his face. The first officer at first couldn’t identify the look never having seen the ship’s master deep in thought before.
The captain could also see the liners lights but something wasn’t right.
The ship’s helmsman, an old codger that has spent more time in the air on a dozen or more ships, started mumbling under his breath.
“Steady old bones.” The first officer admonished him.
“Something wrong Mr. Higgs?” the captain inquired in a low voice.
“I don’t know captain, her light look right, but her silhouette is off. She looks to small for a Canard class liner, to sleek, too narrow.” He suddenly snaps his fingers. “She be a warship! Were sailing into a trap captain!”
As if on queue a volley of rockets arched toward the cruiser, bursting well above her mast, reveling the traditional pirates flag flying there and the source of the rockets.
“Gods, that’s the Majestic, twelve inch guns and the pride of the queen’s navy. We’re all dead men!” the helmsman screamed as he spun the wheel away from the aerial battleship.
The captain was reaching for the speed telegraph handles to tell the engineroom to go to emergency full when the first volley of the Majestic’s six-inch guns reached the Gefion.
As the windows of the bridge exploded inward and the ship began to fall, loosing it fight with gravity when it’s Æither tanks were punctured, the captain’s last coherent thought was:
‘They didn’t even bother to use their main guns on us.’