“Explain yourself, Apprentice! How does this happen?!”
The roar of the bald Chief of the Cannoneer Squad, Master Chief Petty Officer Dowser echoed throughout the cannon deck of the ship docked underneath the base. The subject of his berating’s was Seaman Apprentice Truuni Culveri, as usual. This time, she’d forgotten to lock one of the cannons back in place after cleaning it during the weekly inspection, and it was currently on the other side of the ship, sitting in the place of a cannon that was now on the bottom of the sea floor, one of the other cannoneers currently in the process of swimming back.
Truuni, arms held at her side, gaze lowered to the ground, face red with embarrassment, tried to explain herself, but there wasn’t much she could say; she hadn’t messed up this badly in ages. “Well I...there really isn’t an excuse. It slipped by mind, is all,” Truuni tried to explain, not really feeling that the truth would pass as an explanation in this case. Even though she was called away by Petty Officer Dowser after cleaning the cannon, she still should have had the common sense to lock the cannon back into place.
“Well, now we’ve lost a perfectly good cannon, and I doubt Seaman First Class Zhao is going to be too pleased about his swim,” Dowser grumbled. “I’m going to have to report this to the Commander...” Truuni slumped even lower.
Luckily, it didn’t seem like that would come to pass, or at least not for a while. The door to the cannon deck burst open, a panicked looking runner suddenly spouting, “There are pirates in the Capital! An attack! Lance is ordering his team and the First division at the Plaza as soon as possible!” After the initial gasps of surprise from Lance’s cannoneers, Truuni could make out a bustle of noise from outside, both on the ship and on the docks.
Dowser mobilized his cannoneers as soon as he could. They stormed from the ship, heading to the storeroom of the base, moving through Marines running left and right. They picked up their equipment: mortars and ammunition; far easier to carry and move through town than cannons. As Dowser tried to get in contact with Commander Lance or the Lieutenant for orders on where to set up, Truuni checked her own hand cannon over, wondering if she would get another chance to try it today. She’d just preformed maintenance on it the previous night, so she was a little eager.



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