Be Gay, Do Space Elf Piracy, Ride a T-Rex: A Warhammer 40k Eldar Corsair Quest

The crew of the Shadow Blade returned to Port Mathemar in high spirits. A relatively quick and easy victory tended to have that effect. We might not have secured the same bulk of plunder that we'd gotten from other targets, but looting an Imperium cruiser gave the more mercenary among our ranks plenty to be happy with, and the others had all enjoyed a quick and painless fight followed by a massive victory party.

The interpersonal conflicts I'd hoped to resolve all seemed to be settled too. Trix'll seemed to be back to her old self, with the obvious exception of no longer blatantly flirting with me. Adra and Cy'trya seemed to be thick as thieves once more, practically never leaving one another's company as they wandered the halls of the ship. From what Trix'll said, the brief dip in performance during Adra's lessons with her had also resolved itself.

Really, the only thing not to like about the whole affair was the two notable absences from our ranks. According to Nillie, Fanya had arrived back in port just two days after she'd finished the operation to attach Captain Calima's new arm. Naturally the captain had wanted to come regardless, but Lady Lathereth and Nillie had eventually managed to convince her to sit the battle out. It certainly wouldn't do for her to lose her arm again after she'd just gotten it back.

If not for Captain Calima's forced convalescence, I wouldn't have been surprised if she met us at the dock demanding a full report. As it was, all I got was a message asking me to report to her residence at my earliest convenience. I obviously didn't intend to keep her waiting long, but the captain wouldn't want me to neglect bringing the ship back into port or settling the crew in. After all, Fanya and I had effectively borrowed her ship. Good manners demanded that we make sure we returned it in pristine condition.

As it was, that largely consisted of an exhaustive meeting with Fanya and Rathnait to discuss what repair work and rearming we would need after the battle (thankfully little of either). As we were wrapping that up the quartermaster sent another notification to my pad. "It seems a visitor is asking for you at the airlock. A Miss Hort'helanye, a bonesinger."

Ah, right, she was probably curious to hear how Grymloq's armor performed in our battle. I saw no reason not to give her an answer when I was already going to pass by her on my way to the captain's estate.

I found her sitting outside our docking slip, casually lounging against a heavily customized jetbike. The bonesinger smiled and waved when she spotted me. "Hey. So, how'd the carnosaur armor work out? Heard you went up against a bunch of mon'keighs." A second later she clarified. "Your ship's second officer kinda made some noise running around port dragging the entire crew off of shore leave. Word gets around. Plus Cy'trya canceled our plans to join in on the whole thing."

Ah, that would explain how she'd heard. "Everything seemed to work well, but we didn't really have an opportunity to test the armor in earnest. It performed well against the human small arms, but I wasn't going to ask Grymloq to stand still and wait for the humans to start hitting him with heavy weapons. As far as comfort goes, there wasn't much beyond a few places where it chafed against his scales. I'll trust your judgment on any adjustments we need to make to address that."

"Yeah, that shouldn't be a big deal," she agreed. "Just bring him by my shop sometime while you're in port and I'll sort it out. Or if it's that small of a job, I could probably just handle it on the ship." After a moment's thought the bonesinger shrugged. "Actually, I'm free for a couple hours right now. I was gonna ask if Cy'trya was free, but I imagine she'll probably be busy with her moms."

I sighed. "I'm afraid I'm not. The captain wants a report on the battle with the humans. I'm sure we can set something up, or—"

"Horty!" Cy'trya bounced out of the airlock behind me with a grin. "Hey! Didn't expect to see you waiting for us when we got in."

The bonesinger shrugged and grinned back at Cy'trya. "I was taking some time off when I got the notification that your ship was back. My voice would give out if I spent all day bonesinging, plus I got your message about wanting some custom work done. I'm assuming you can afford my rates?"

"Of course I can." Cy'trya smirked and playfully elbowed her. "Especially after you give me your best friend discount."

"If you really were my best friend, you'd support my business by paying full price." Hort'helanye chuckled to herself. "You just got into port, there's no way you spent all your plunder in a pleasure house yet. And if it's that bad, you can always ask your parents to pay for it. I'm doing some contract work on their big project—I know they can front you the money to pay for personal wargear."

I was a little curious about what this 'big project' was that Captain Calima was working on, but that was probably a question I could ask her later.

Cy'trya grabbed one of Hort'helanye's hands in both of hers. "C'mon, please! I wanna have some money left over. Especially since I'm doing this whole thing as an apology gift. If I blow most of my loot money on this, I won't have any left for having fun. You know, stuff like hitting up the bars or checking out the bike races." She threw a pointed look at her friend's customized jetbike.

While the two of them lightly haggled over pricing, I heard the airlock doors slide open once more. A glance back confirmed Adra had exited behind Cy'trya, which was a bit of a surprise when I'd asked her to remain aboard the ship. While Port Mathemar received the occasional human visitor, I didn't want Adra out in port without myself to keep an eye on her.

I was about to rebuke her when I noticed the way her eyes seemed fixed on Cy'trya and Hort'helanye. Before I could tell her to go back inside the human marched out of the ship and took a place at Cy'trya's side. "Hi! Nice to meet you! Cy'trya, why don't you introduce me to your friend here? I'm always so happy to meet another friend of Cy'trya's. It sounds like you two must be really good friends."

To her credit, Adra's Aeldari was now at least largely correct in the technical sense. The pronunciation was still mangled enough to get a wince out of Hort'helanye, but at least she'd understood what Adra said. The bonesinger turned to Cy'trya with a single raised eyebrow. "Why is there a mon'keigh talking to us?"

Cy'trya frowned at her and took a step closer to Adra. "This human is Adra. And actually, she's the one you're going to be making gear for, so..."

"You're asking me to make equipment for a mon—for a human?" The bonesinger sent a bemused look Adra's way, and received a friendly smile that couldn't quite hide the human's glare in response. "Well, I made equipment for a carnosaur, a human should be easy by comparison. Though it sounds like there's a very interesting story behind this. Why don't you tell me all about how you made friends with a human while we're working out the details of your commission?" Her eyes flicked over to Adra. "Or when we go out drinking?"

"Sounds like fun." Adra looped her arm through one of Cy'trya's. "Let's all go together, Cy'trya. You, me, and your friend here." She looked my way. "That's okay, right? I know you said I shouldn't leave the ship unsupervised, but Cy'trya could keep an eye on me."

How wonderful, I had more centuryling silliness to deal with. Considering Cy'trya's experience the last time we were in port, I wasn't inclined to trust her alone on a night of drinking. Outright refusing them might leave me with a very grumpy ward, though. Especially since she seemed to be just a little jealous of Hort'helanye. Which meant...

I sighed and opened up a link to Nacinde. "Hey love, could you do me a favor…?"


Captain Calima's estate in Port Mathemar was relatively modest compared to that of some corsair captains. The house was still large enough to easily fit a dozen families and featured a large and well-stocked trophy room, but compared to something like Percival's quarters aboard his spaceship it looked positively modest (Not to mention it wasn't covered in tacky gold brocade with an utterly excessive number of skulls and double-headed eagles).

The captain and her wife were waiting for me in their lounge. I was a bit surprised to see Fanya there as well, though perhaps I shouldn't have been considering she'd been the one to retrieve the Shadow Blade from port.

Captain Calima looked well. It was a relief to see her with two arms once more, even if her newly restored right arm was hanging limply in a sling. Her wife sat next to her on a richly padded sofa, her arms wrapped around the captain's good one. The captain smiled and waved for me to take an open seat next to Fanya. "Iranni, good to see you. Please, have some tea. I'd pour it for you myself, but Nillie won't let me use this arm for another week and my other hand is currently occupied."

I chuckled and poured my own tea. "Thank you, Captain." A single sip was enough to confirm that it was a very fine and doubtlessly quite expensive blend.

After giving me a few seconds to settle in and appreciate the tea, Lady Lathreth moved straight to business. "Fanya's already given us a report on what happened. It seems like you handled the situation well and found both a good bit of plunder and secured a new friendly port for us. Fanya also said you played a key role in convincing the enemy leader to surrender."

"Nacinde and Trix'll played a key role in the ground fight," I felt the need to point out. "And I doubt anyone would have surrendered if Fanya hadn't been winning in space."

Calima chuckled and shook her head. "You two are absolutely terrible corsairs, sharing credit instead of insisting that the victory was solely due to your own brilliance and bravery. I hope I can at least get a little swagger and bragging out of Cy'trya or I'll be inconsolable."

"I see." After several seconds of silence, Fanya added in a perfectly flat voice. "Our victory was purely the product of my own brilliance and bravery. Any failures we experienced were because my subordinates were incompetent or plotting against me. Will that suffice?"

Calima and Lathreth chuckled. I would've joined them, but I was too shocked by the fact that Fanya had just told a joke.

Captain Calima cleared her throat after a couple seconds and moved on. "In any case, a report on your latest adventure wasn't the only read I asked you two to come here. As you can see, Nillie was successful in restoring my arm. It shouldn't be long until it's back to full strength, just a year or two for therapy and training. However, between that and the fact we have a baby on the way, I've had cause to reflect.

"I know when we arrived in port I planned to have a little downtime before our next voyage. However…" Calima smiled at her wife and squeezed her hand. "I think I'd like to extend that stay for a bit longer. I certainly have the plunder saved up to take a few decades off, raising our new child and taking my time recovering. I know with Cy'trya there were times I struggled to be a good mother and a good captain at the same time. This time, I want to give my child my undivided attention."

While I fully supported the captain's desire to be a good mother to her child, there were obvious problems with keeping the ship in port for that long. Before I could think of a diplomatic way to raise the issue Lathreth spoke. "We can't ask the crew to stay in port for decades just because we want a break. Most of them would run out of money or simply get bored. However, it would be a terrible shame to see the crew we've spent so much time bringing together split up and go their separate ways. If we want to keep our crew together, there's only one solution: we need someone else to take over as captain of the Shadow Blade."

Ah. That explained why Fanya was here. I turned to her with a smile. "Congratulations."

"They offered," Fanya responded. "I declined."

That certainly wasn't the response I'd expected. "Why?"

"Good at running a ship. Not good at running a crew." Her helmed head turned to face me. "Better to have someone who can talk to people as captain. Someone like you."

"Oh."

"Of course, you'll need to decide on a new first officer," Calima continued, oblivious to the mild internal crisis Fanya's words had caused. "Or a new second officer if Fanya gets the post. Also, there is one condition: you have to keep Cy'trya aboard the ship. I know my daughter won't stay in port with us when she's just starting her own career as a corsair, and I'd feel a lot better if she's on board the Shadow Blade with a captain and crew I trust. I can't imagine you would object too much to that condition, though." She smiled at me. "So, what do you say ... Captain Iranni?"


Captain
[ ] Accept the offer
Calima and Fanya both believe I'd be a good captain, and I'd like to prove them right. Every corsair dreams of getting to be the captain of their own ship eventually, and this is my chance.

[ ] Insist Fanya Accept the Promotion.
Fanya might not be socially adept, but aside from that she has the makings of a brilliant captain. A good first and second officer can help manage her rough edges and make sure she gets along with the rest of the crew.

First and Second Officer
Only relevant if Iranni accepts the offer to become captain, obviously.

Please use plan format if Iranni accepts the captaincy, and make sure to specify who will be first officer and who will be second officer.

Note: Fanya is currently the ship's second officer. Demoting her might be contentious.

[ ] Fanya Tal
While she's not the most socially adept member of the command crew, Fanya's undeniably skilled when it comes to the actual running of the ship. She was Calima's second officer for a reason, and it would be foolish to discard her experience and skill.

[ ] Nacinde
As leader of the Shadow Blade's boarding forces, Nacinde is one of the most important officers on the ship and would be a natural candidate for a command position. However, the fact that she's currently dating Iranni creates complications. Promoting her could easily come across as favoritism. On the other hand, Calima had no issues with making her wife her First Officer. Corsairs don't necessarily expect their captains to follow a strict chain of command and avoid any possible appearance of favoritism.

[ ] Trix'll
The seeress is an unconventional choice, but there are obvious benefits to having a command officer who can see the future.

[ ] Rathnait
Though she's not a particularly adept combatant by her own admission, Quartermaster Rathnait plays a vital role in managing the ship's day-to-day operations. Not every command officer needs to be a brilliant warrior, sometimes what the ship really needs is a capable administrator.

[ ] Nillie
The ship's doctor probably wouldn't be most people's first choice for a senior officer, but the haemonculus has several good leadership qualities. She's smart, can keep a cool head in a crisis, isn't afraid to stand up to the captain, and is popular with the crew. Everybody likes to be on the doctor's good side.

[ ] Cy'trya
The captain's daughter might not have a great deal of command experience, but she's spent her whole life aboard the Shadow Blade and is well-liked by most of the crew. Not to mention Calima would probably appreciate having her daughter groomed for command.