Hochi stood in the wheel house looking at the navigation screen, "We should be able to see this Welfaal in the next hour or so." He looked out at the horizon as the Calypso rose and fell with each large wave. He could smell the salty sea air as the gusting wind blew through the open Wheel house. He loved that smell, it was simply enticing better than any home cooked meal . Martin stood behind the large wooden wheel, checking the status of the engines, and making sure they were staying on the right course.

"Yeah we should, been bout a week since we we had to leave that paradise island with those girls, and those margaritas." Martin sighed almost sadly as the memory of that beautiful island flooded his mind. "Why are we even going out of our way to go here in the first place" Its not like we actually need the jobs, we have plenty of money between the two of us, and if we run out you can make us a few diamonds to sell." He generally wouldn't say anything but something about Welfaal, just how pushy the people at that, gem of an island, were. They said that there was a lot of work to be had, every kind of job you could possibly think of. From smuggling, to fishing, to just transporting people from place to place. He usually never said anything because Hochi would always give him a much larger share of the pay. But something about gave him a bad feeling, and his bad feelings were usually right.

"What, why not, its a new place, new people, new everything I haven't been there before. Plus I like meeting new people and making connections," having connections had helped him out of a jam in the past. One time he had gotten into some trouble with a local gang boss. Hochi chuckled as the memory of being smuggled to his ship in a whiskey barrel played in his mind. Took him about a month to get that whiskey smell out of his clothes, even longer out of his hair. "Plus, doing jobs give you a purpose out here. Plus I like keeping busy. but just because you are busy doesn't mean that it keeps you out of trouble." Hochi turned from the nav screen and looked out at the ocean. As he looked out at the rolling waves he caught the glimpse of something. "I think we have something." He grabbed the binoculars and focused them at the large mass ahead.

The large mass of land of what was Welfaal came into focus, it was a massive shoreline indeed. It stretched further than they eye could see. The capitol of Welfaal, which was called something like Inglman city or something like that. He could see large mountains, most of the peaks were hidden above the clouds. As they drew closer to the shoreline he scanned along the shoreline with the binoculars looking for some sign of the capitol. Suddenly a slew of skyscrapers began to appear in the distance just on shore. Just off shore he could also see what looked like a blockade made up of a lot of very large warships. "I see Welfaal, at least I believe it is port looks pretty damn busy, they have half of a fleet of warships just sitting round the port. Some pretty tight security' He lowered the binoculars, "Lets just try to bring the ship in nice and easy. I want to see this city, I also don't want to end up dead for doing something stupid." He smiled at the mere thought of seeing some unknown land. Seeing new customs new cultures, just pretty much new everything. He had never seen buildings built as tall as these, these were thousands of feet tall.

Martin saw that look on Hochi's face, that pure excitement, pure joy. "Aye sir, I already figured that' he spun the wheel as he brought the ship to head for the port and the blockade of warships. Hochi moved to the weapons console and quickly shut off all weapon systems. The closer he got to that blockade the more nervous it made him. He wanted to make sure that he looked as friendly as possible. With the nervousness came the excitement that also grew as they drew nearer to the the city, the mountains grew larger by the minute. They dwarfed the city that they surrounded, he could see snow about half way up the mountains. He had the instant need to try to climb one of them; maybe in a few days he would have that adventure. He smiled as he thought about planting a green flag at the peak of one of those mountains. He shook his head he had other matters to handle, he picked up the com and broadcasted on all frequencies. "This is the Calypso, we are just looking to dock for a few days. So it would be really nice if you guys just let us on through." He put the mic down, it was a few minutes before a voice boomed through the speakers of the Calypso.

"You will shut off your engines, have all crew on deck, prepare to be boarded. If you resist we will open fire."

"Uhhh, well hello to you too' Hochi chuckled slightly turned off at the unfriendly response, "Well they aren't very friendly, hmmm I guess turn off the engines. They would slaughter us if we tried anything different..." he trailed off his eyes going from ship to ship each one had every weapon pointed at them.

Martin frowned he didn't like this at all, he knew Hochi felt the same way. That smile was replaced with a stern stoic expression. He knew that Hochi was trying to figure a way out of this situation. he shook his head killing the engines he could feel the rumbling slowly fade as the ship drifted to a stop. The ship gently rocked back and forth with each wave as they sat there in silence a smaller ship, still heavily armed, headed their way. It quickly made the gap and it came up along the Portside of the ship. The two ships sat there rocking back and forth until a loudspeaker bellowed "All crew must be on the deck! You have thirty seconds to comply"

Hochi frowned as he looked at the ship, there were men on machine guns aiming right at the wheel house. "Lets go before they kill us." He stands up letting Martin exit the wheel house first. He headed onto deck hands up. "Geez! Here we are, don't shoot bloody hell. You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome dontcha." Hochi shook his head as the stepped out onto the middle of this ship.

"This vessel and its crew is being conscripted into military service. Do not resist"

Hochi cocked his head to the side confused, "Did he just say military service" They think they are going to take my ship!?"

"Don't do anything rash, I would rather live longer than a few more minutes. Just do as they say."

"Well no shit, the longer we are alive the more chances we have to get out and escape." Hochi snarled. The other ship lowered gangplanks and a dozen men crossed over. They immediately started to comb through the ship moving in all directions. Two went straight to the wheelhouse. "Make sure you wipe your feet "fore going on my bridge!" He turned back around and suddenly there was a man that was wearing a navy blue Naval uniform. The number of medals and the stripes let Hochi knew this man was upper echelon. The man stepped up to Hochi.

"Are you the Captain of this Vessel, and what are both of your full names?"

"Yes sir I'm Hochi Bird, this is Martin Holmes. Can you tell me what is going on here. We don't want any part of this bloody conscription business. If you just let us on our way that would be great!"

The man chuckled as he wrote down their names, "Oh no there is no getting out of this. You either comply, or we send your asses to jail for however long we deem necessary. Take them into custody, we will drop them and the others off at Fort Khuldan." He motioned for two of his men. Before Hochi could turn around both of his hands were brought behind his back. He was being pushed forward across the gangplank, he struggled as he crossed over and was on this other ship. He was guided down below deck deeper and deeper into bowels of the ship. He and Martin were put into a large room with about another 60 men; the door slammed behind them.

Hochi looked around the dark room at all the faces that were looking back at him. They stood there for a bit, they could feel the ships engines kick on. Hochi looked around for a spot to sit down, he needed to think. Suddenly a very young man came up to Hochi he was so tall he had to duck slightly so he didn't hit his head on the ceiling. The man towered looking nearly 7" tall, he looked younger than Hochi by a handful of years. He shook Hochi's hand and smiled, "ah, you got caught here too, how did they get you? Were you on your way to Welfaal, or did they get you out at sea" Ahh where are my manners, the name is Jonathan.? The tall man smiled brightly shaking Hochi's hand.

((Thank you for reading! More to come!))

"The engines on this boat are ancient I'm surprised that they are even able to push us along. The wiring on this ship looks more like a ball of rubberbands, whoever mucked about with it must have been insane. I saw some gum and foil holding together some wires that were giving power to our primary water pump. Don't even get me started on the so called coolant system that they put on this heap of junk." Jonathan shook his head as he walked beside Hochi. The tall man ducked under doorways as they walked through the interior of the ship.

"Well it's your job to make sure those engines keep pushing us along and well don't blow us sky high' Hochi patted him on the back. "All I need you to do is go down there and fix it up. Just keep them up and running. I will head down there after this briefing, while I am there I will let the captain know about the engines. I will come down after and help out anyway that I can." Jonathan nodded and headed down a different passage. Hochi was hoping he was just exaggerating the state of the engines. His gut told him that he wasn't though he knew that the odds of them getting out of this alive were quickly being stacked against them. Hochi walked into the briefing room, which was really just the galley with a bunch of maps and specifications plastered all over the walls. Most of the maps were of the waters immediately around the Welfaal Continent and the entire coast line. Hochi looked around the room the captains or first officers of the rest of the fleet were on board. He spotted Martin sitting in the back and toward him and plopped down in a chair absently looking at the folder of reports in his hands.

"You're late," Martin said shaking his head.

"I'm right on time see they haven't even-." Hochi said before being interrupted by the booming voice of the Captain.

"Everyone have a seat we are starting now! Once you find a seat shut your traps!"

"See right on time" Hochi muttered to Martin, "You're the only one that thinks if your not ten minutes early your late."

"You would be late to your own funeral Hoch." Martin replied.

"No I won't you will make sure that I won't be late." Hochi chuckled and looked toward the front of the room at the spherically shaped captain.

"Glad we are all here, I want to make this quick so we can send you all back to your ships. There is still a lot to be done with the crews that we have. We must drill them over and over to make sure that everyone knows exactly what to do no matter what happens." He looked around the room running his fingers through his thick mustache. "We are heading up to attack the port of Dolos and the Faldrig Isles. So far our primary job is to pull any enemy naval units away from the harbor and have our transports land and attack on the ground. We will blockade the harbor and defend against any counter attack. The Welfaal government will not want to lose their largest port, most likely they will fight to the last man and boat. It won't matter with a fleet this size nothing can stop us."

"This fleet is filled with old barely floating ships. Does he think this is the crown jewel of fleets?" Hochi said covering his mouth up with the folder.

"The Bragheim will lead the initial assault on the port, we will leave skeleton crews to protect the transports. I want the the strength of the fleet to be attack the harbor not protecting the transport ships." The captain went on pointy a meaty finger at the maps and showing the path that they would be taking.

"Of course this ship will be leading the assault. This Captain wants some glory as he can muster, he even name the ship after himself." Martin muttered quietly to Hochi.

"I know, he is going to get us all killed. This plan is just insane a forward assault on the harbor hoping that we might be able to break through." Hochi replied quietly then looked toward the map looking at where exactly that they would be going. "I was really hoping that this was going to be an easy cruise, looks like it will take about a month depending on how fast we can get this fleet moving." Hochi shook his head knowing that the chances of them getting out of here seemed very slim. At least he would have some time to think of a way out of here. Or some way to help improve the odds of them surviving this whole mess.

" It will take us about a month to be in a position to actually assault the harbor and the surrounding areas. Every day I want you to run your men through every drill you can think of. I want you to middle of the night red alerts, I want these men to be the best trained by the time we get there. If you have to beat the snot out of a few conscripts to make sure that your men work even harder, have at it. Remember that they know who is in charge and what happens to those that disobey orders." The captain said looking around the room his eyes seemed to land on Hochi and Martin. Then moved around the room sharply sizing up all the other officers in the room.

"He wants us to flog people for making a mistake or to help pump up the rest of the crew. Sounds more like a maniac than a captain to me." Martin said as the captain's gaze swung away from the pair.

"You will all return to your ships and continue to improve both your crew and your ships. Remember the future freedom of Welfaal is up to us." The captain moved and started to talk quietly with a few other captains. Hochi and Martin both stood up as a passing first officer walked by muttering loudly.

"Third times a charm I guess...just going to send us to slaughter again to see if anything different will happen." "Hey buddy, what were you saying there. They've done this assault before?" Hochi asked looking at the woman.

"Yes two other times, both of them ended in complete defeat. They keep thinking that they can do it. It is never enough, I have to go." She walked away quickly shoulders slumped.

"Well that didn't sound too good, hey think you could fill out this paperwork for me. I told Jonathan I would help him out in the engine room."

"One of these days you are going to have to do your own paperwork for once.? Martin said chuckling as he took the folder from Hochi.

Hochi smiled and headed out the door quickly and made his way deep into the belly of the ship. The farther he went the more derelict the ship looked.