There weren't many ships in the air and the ones that were in the air were mostly military in nature. This did not deter Neriena and her crew however, the military dirigibles were mostly for transportation or bombs and therefore didn't have cannons to protect them or anything else that a naval ship would have had. For the most part the crews weren't even armed because no one expected the crew to need to fight. A determined pirate crew armed to the teeth was all too capable of capturing a military dirigible as several captains were dismayed to discover. With these prizes giving them the supplies they needed to stay in the air as well as a little more weaponry, Neriena's pirates were able to relax and master the art of their new element. Neriena still loved the sea more then anything else and it depressed her that they could no longer work there but she knew when her welcome had been overstayed and resigned herself.
Some times they were forced to lower their airship onto the ground, first for maintenance and also because they sometimes were forced to attack ground settlements for things that military airships didn't carry. These were always quick attacks that no one expected since Neriena made sure that they happened at night and that the ship spent most of it's time in clouds where no one could see it. Surprise was after all their greatest weapon and she wasn't going to allow the government to trace their location easily.
When they did perform piracy Neriena was always ordered her crew to go with their heads covered and thick pilot goggles on so that they wouldn't be recognized. She herself always went dressed as a man. Her crew questioned this order but Neriena was very firm about it, she wanted them to be able to return to a legal life whenever they chose. The dirigible they had bought went under constant changes as well as they flew, as dangerous as the job was at that height. Almost all dirigibles looked the same except in paint and Neriena took advantage of this.
Neriena continued with her policy of stealing newspapers and documents when they raided something or somewhere to look for information about what was going to be done about them. The newspapers and the government both seemed to be in an uproar from what she could see, and that made her uncomfortable. If they cared as much as they seemed to it was likely that soon dirigibles for the military would come better armed and they would be put out of operation. They were living well now and her crew was content, but Neriena fretted.
The addition of their gunner was pure luck but it was a happy chance that Neriena would thank her lucky stars for. They were raiding a settlement when they came face to face with what Neriena at the time only thought of as a maniac. A very dangerous maniac at that, he was a human weapon, covered with explosives, with a gun in each hand. It was a small town, not the sort of place anyone of them could have expected to find such a well armed person. The man went after Neriena like a homing missal and Neriena would swear for the rest of her life that she had never been as close to death. She also noticed, in spite of the explosions and blasts that suddenly surrounded her, that the weapons the man used were like none other she had ever encountered.
Had it been a one on one fight Neriena would have lost, she had no shame in admitting it. Neriena's crew was not going to stand back and watch as someone tried to blow up their captain however. While he was single-mindedly putting Neriena's reflexes and instinct to the test her crew managed to get behind the man and knock him out. They were all for killing him for the crime of attacking their captain but Neriena insisted he be taken back to their ship alive and a captive.
To be continued...
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