Chapter 501 - Cleanup (Patreon)

Compared to the short battle on the first ship, the subsequent cleanup of the two central vessels was far more bothersome. Though at first, the crews did their best to make their work even easier than the first had, much to Sami's surprise.

As the Suyana closed in, these crews had still been tense in the face of an unknown enemy. Although they didn't have any cannons aboard, they still used axes and sabers to cut off ropes and used long sticks to push away ladders and prevent a boarding, just like the first had. However, maybe because Sami's people hadn't fired any more cannons beyond the first two warning shots, they stopped fighting almost as soon as the first enemies had successfully boarded the ship.

Rather than panic like the first crew, the sailors instead stood together atop the stairs which led down into the ship's hull. In such a tight group, they could better protect the cargo in the lower decks, as well as each other. Once Sami himself boarded the first of the two ships, their captain quickly spoke up and began to negotiate their terms of surrender.

Though much to Sami's delight, their terms were almost non-existent. As it turned out, most of the people on board had been recruited in Saniya, the only place in Medala with enough sailors who knew how to operate a galleon. Although they were good at their job, their origin also made them less loyal to their bosses from the north. Most likely, the rowdier first crew had some northerners mixed in, which had caused the internal division. These ones, however, were almost entirely made up of southerners. Thus, they hadn't fought very hard to protect the property which wasn't theirs, and they didn't want much in return for surrender either.

All they wanted was to have their personal property aboard guaranteed, as well as free passage back to Saniya, without losing their freedom. They would help Sami transport the new ships back south, and in return, they would also receive double their expected salary for this trip once they arrived in Saniya. Faced with such generous conditions, Sami didn't even bother haggling.

He was very happy to pay a few coins to quickly deal with the trouble of taking over and transporting these new vessels. Not to mention, the cargo on these ships alone would be worth more than enough to compensate all the sailors. So in the end, they wouldn't have to pay anything, and would even make a tidy profit on the operation. Of course, such calculations didn't even consider the value of new ships they had captured.

Thus, Sami gleefully repeated a similar process on the next ship, and even decided to pay the crew of first ship they had taken over without any kind of deal. After all, there was no reason to treat any of these crews worse and risk a mutiny in the process, not when the pay was so laughably low. Still, it wasn't like all of Sami's troubles had been solved in this one action. As soon as the ships had been taken over, the real trouble had only begun.

Although they had now solved the problem of transporting the new ships — since the old crews had agreed to work for them — of course the crews couldn't be allowed to operate their old ships by themselves. In the end, they were still captives after all. What would Sami do if the new crew just ran away with their shiny, new ship during foggy weather, for example? Thus, Qawa would have to spend some time securing the three new ships and binding them together with rope to limit their maneuverability. Not to mention, rectifying their crews represented another mountain of work.

To make any organized resistance from the freshly imprisoned crews more difficult, the quartermaster would mix up the crews — and add some of Sami's own men for good measure. Although it wouldn't keep them quiet forever, it would buy them a lot of time, as the unfamiliar, new crew mates would have to quietly reorganize while hiding from Sami's men before they could even attempt an escape. Since they only needed to prevent a mutiny until they reached Saniya, time was on their side. At least until then, this system would guarantee obedience.

Once this process of recombining the crews was done, the new ships could be integrated into their fleet. Though since Qawa had been put in charge of this reorganization, all Sami had to do was wait. Thus, finally, he could consider the two ships at the front of the merchant formation.

To the benefit of Sami's tensed nerves, Chanca had also done his part and managed to stop the goals of his raid. At this moment, the admiral's 'Kallpa' had anchored herself between two enemy ships, both of which had taken considerable damage. A casual observer would have been astonished. Both ships were much larger than Chanca's, especially the massive flagship of the enemy fleet, a galleon with at least twice the tonnage as theirs. Although it looked a bit silly to have such a tiny ship overwhelm much larger ones, the difference in armaments — as well the difference in specialization — were far more important than the sheer volume of wood and nails.

In the end, these slow merchant ships, built to maximize the size of their cargo hold alone, could never have escaped from their sleeker, faster vessels, even if they hadn't completely botched their response to the raid. By the time they ran into a dead end, the cannons on Chanca's ship made the defeat of the unarmed merchants almost inevitable. Thus, by the time Sami was done with his own work, the Kallpa had already anchored along not one, but both enemy ships, one on each side. The sails of one hung down in worthless strips, while the other had its hull riddled with holes and dents from the cannon fire.

Though now that Sami looked at the enemy's flagship in earnest, it seemed quite familiar. His suspicions from earlier became more and more concrete. Chanca really had been waiting specifically for this fleet, rather than for any easy target. Just to confirm his suspicion completely — and because he had nothing better to do while his men were busy — he ordered Qawa to take over the command for a while, while he took two of his crew and a dinghy to row over to the newly captured capital ship.

Once they came close enough, Sami only had to shout up and identify himself. Shortly after, the new occupants of the vessel let down a ladder to help him aboard. While he was still climbing up to the main deck of the massive galleon, he could already hear Chanca's smug voice. Somehow, he managed to both complain and brag about his most recent achievement at the same time.

"Even if you're not impressed by this raid of mine, the least you could do is fake a clap, right? Do you have any idea how much time I've wasted on you, hiding out in those damned rocks over there? And during the boarding, I got all wet, too. Just look at my boots. That's Llama fur, you bastard! Do you know how expensive that stuff is? And now it's all wet. Don't look at me like a fool. It's your own fault you got boarded, right? So any damage from the boarding is your fault, too. Maybe it's time you realize what happens when you talk back to the wrong man."

Once Sami reached the top of the ladder, he gave the sailor who had lowered it down for him a nod, though just out of politeness. Of course, the second captain of their fleet was let through without a word, so Sami could finally see the scene atop the merchant fleet's flagship.

The sailors of the crew had been lined up along the railing of the merchant ship. All of them were on their knees, with their hands tied behind their backs, while a dozen members of Chanca's crew guarded them, weapons in hand and tough guy expressions on their faces. From the lack of dead — and the lack of blood — Sami judged that the resistance here hadn't been much fiercer than that on the other ships.

For the moment, it looked like things were under control, so Sami could focus his attention of the center of the main deck, where the most interesting things were happening. There stood Chanca, his proud head raised high as he held a machete in his right and a long tuft of bloody, black hair in his left. Even more hair and blood were scattered all around his feet. It wasn't hard to guess where both had come from.

In front of Chanca knelt two men, one thin and short, another stout and tall. Their beards had been shaved off — poorly — and their faces were revealed. There were still some hairs hanging off their chins, and their chins and cheeks were bloodied, in places where the knife had shaved too close for comfort.

Clearly, Chanca hadn't cared about their health when he had provided his involuntary service. Even though it had been almost half a year since they had met, and even without their beards, Sami could identify the victims right away. These were the two northern fools who had bothered them all the way back in Saniya's stock exchange. As expected of the men who would transport a massive fleet full of valuables without any protection, back then they had been dumb enough to proclaim themselves northern spies, and then even dumber when they had offended Ekkoko's son-in-law.

Just as I thought.

Finally, Sami's earlier conjecture had been confirmed. Apparently, they hadn't just waited at the Thorns to ambush any passing fleet they could find. Instead, they had waited specifically on these two fools, just so Chanca could get his revenge.

Hermit's Notes: It took a while to fix up these chapters, since they were a total mess when I finally looked at them again a week or so ago. Honestly would have probably been easier to just rewrite them from the start. Though on the plus side, I also managed to write three-ish new chapters. 

So there'll be another chapter today (and a maybe extra chapter), and then around three or so chapters a week from next week on.