Smackdown - Lenora, Muffin and Greyjoys -

Lenora was finally the captain, or rather, acting captain of her own dreadnought. She had thought that the day would never come but now it was finally here - unfortunately it had meant the demise of the former captain in a rather strange event. She had not known what had happened to them but, when they had come through a rather rough storm the weather had been so bad that the captain had been booted over the side.

Of course with the weather being as it was she could not stop and look for him, she would have lost more men and they were all needed to keep the ship running. It was what the captain would have wanted no doubt and because of his sacrifice they had minimal losses to the rest of the crew - only a few who had been working on the outer of the ship.

Sighing lightly as for the first time in days she spotted some concrete landmass in the distance, Lenora smiled lightly to herself and was pleased with her decision as she had adjusted the course of their ship to get to the island formation. They could stop there and take stock of the situation as they had no doubt gotten turned around in the storm, it messing up their systems somehow. As, from her knowledge and the maps they possessed they should have reached the United States by now.

It was troubling but the morale was high as they grew closer to the islands. Lenora noted that they had some kind of formation of boats coming over to the dreadnought and wondered if they were being perceived as a threat. It was highly unusual as she had used the appropriate warning system - contacting them before approaching their water space but there had been no communications reply.

"Allow them up, if they are troublesome restrain them and bring them to me regardless." she instructed through her radio, attached to the shoulder of her uniform.

Patiently she waited for the ships to grow closer and for the men upon them to try mounting the Redrum from the metal rungs on it's side. Lenora stood behind the wheel, a little nervous, but reassured by the presence of her crew. It was her first dealing with a country while acting as captain after all.

Lenora thought that she could hear a minor scuffle from the outer deck and was displeased that the people approaching them were of hostile intent but there was really nothing else they could have been approaching with. If they were kindly then they would have reached out to contact them before they got so close to their ship - unless their communications were broken but that was unlikely. She needed to be hard, make sure they knew not to mess with the British Naval Force.

Seriously, who didn't recognise their flag? Had these people been living under a rock for all these years? It was confusing to Lenora and so when she heard someone approaching the command center she was keen to see if one of these attackers had been brought on board to speak with her. She would hope to end any further fighting but when David brought the man inside and told her of what he had done to one of her crew members her eyes narrowed in a dark glare.

Everyone liked Simmons.

"I trust that Simmons has been taken to the medi-center?" she asked softly, ignoring the attacker for the time being "I will check on him once the prisoner has been interrogated, I hope that his wounds are not serious?"

The words from the prisoner made Lenora's eyebrow raise and she stopped talking to David to simply look at the man for the first time, properly. He was dressed in idiotic clothing, armour it would be described as by some but it was primitive. He was half blind and looked as if the cat had dragged him into her office instead of David. There seemed to be no sign of intelligence, given his remark either. It grated on her and so, very calmly, Lenora unclipped her pistol from her waist and walked slowly towards the man. Without hesitation when she was close enough she brought the butt of her gun down hard, a loud crack filled the air as it connected with the prisoners cheekbone.

"Silence." she replied cooly "I am the captain and you will answer for your actions in attacking our ship and wounding our crewmate. Do you understand the magnitude of your actions? You have attacked a vessel of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which makes you the enemy of our crown. I hope you can explain how all of this is a misunderstanding."

Lenora didn't admit it but she kind of enjoyed seeing David be so liberal with the rules of keeping prisoners by stepping on the man's back and inflicting further harm on him. She had of course done the same herself but there was a difference between watching someone else do it and she doing it herself - in her mind it was needed to prove her strength and keep the First Mate's support. Being weak now wasn't an option.

It was a relief though to hear that Simmons would be well, she really had a soft spot for that man as he made ship life a lot more bearable. Now that he had been injured by this idiotic Viking wannabe she knew that something had to be done about it - incarceration for sure. Apart from that there wasn't much they could do until they got home and he could be tried for assault on an officer. Intent to kill if nothing else.

The gun pressed to the eye patch was taking the brutality a little too far and Lenora placed a hand on David's shoulder in a calming manner;

"As much as he deserves this, there are still rules and if he is to be prosecuted when we return home we will need to show that we have adhered to them. So, no guns." she commanded quietly "I wouldn't mind seeing you throw a punch his way though. What kind of rock have they been living under that they aren't aware of our nation? Are they joking with us, do you think?" she inquired getting another crew members opinion was always good.

Rape and death were the topics that the prisoner brought up and Lenora looked at him impassively as he now sat on the chair he had been hauled up into. She didn't react outwardly but inside she was concerned as to what they had gotten themselves in to. They had the firepower to kill them outright but it didn't mean she wanted to. Yet they left her very little choice here, she couldn't let her crew be threatened.

She gave no concern for herself and his threats of raping her personally.

"I would bite out the veins in your neck before you could undo your belt buckle." she stated calmly, before straightening up and looking dead in his one working eye "You heard the captive David, they are threatening our crew and the ship. In the interests of preserving the soldiers and property of the crown, I authorise the annihilation of the remaining vessels outside."

Taking her radio she issued the command;

"Gun down the boats outside, don't waste the good ammunition on them though. Kill all hostiles who attempt to board the Red Rum."

Very gently she wheeled the prisoner to the window of the command center so he could watch what was about to happen. The turret guns turned to aim at the boats and a second later they opened fire, decimating the horribly constructed boats and ripping apart the men who were upon them. It took two minutes before the battle was over, and when it was, Lenora again looked at the captive. No trace of enjoyment was on her features as she spoke again.

"We want no more bloodshed, but if you continue to threaten us we will have no choice but to cull the rest of your fleet, and cripple your main harbour and base with our long range mortars." she stated, the smell of metallic blood wafting into the command center.

Lenora was completely at a loss here when David seemed to say what she had been thinking. That somehow this men actually believed that they were Vikings and that they had truly never seen the likes of the ship that they were using themselves. It just didn't compute with her that someone could be so eternally ignorant of the world around them - surely they would have seen smaller boats, modern boats, from their pirating?

Anyway, now was not the time to think too deeply on that. At least they seemed to agree and therefore she had to assess that the man was not in the right state of mind. His threats most likely meant nothing and she should lock him away in one of the holding cells and be done with it until she needed to interrogate him further.

"It is so surreal." she replied with a frown on her features "That someone genuinely has no knowledge of the Crown which we serve and the power that they are coming up against. In a manner it is quite sad but obviously his delusions have made him quite...dangerous to say the least. We will have to watch for other vessels which may come our way through the night."

Artfully she ignored the crude comments that he continued to send her way, but made note of the important parts of what he had said. Ironborn, and Salt Wife. Ironborn could be what they called their little rag tag group but Salt Wife she had no idea on what it could be. During her interrogation she would ask in more detail about their little settlement to make a proper judgement.

Watching your ships get blasted to pieces she assumed would not be a pleasant sight but she was completely unprepared for the headbutt that came her way. Gasping sharply, Lenora tried not to let her rush of pain influence her decision but her voice came out as a growl despite her best efforts. The continued threats were no good and she needed to speak with David before talking with this man on her own.

Then she would make her choice.

"Soldiers," she motioned to two other guards who were in the command center "Take this prisoner to one of the maximum security holding cells. I will be there shortly to interrogate him."

Once he had been taken away, Lenora gingerly touched her nose which stung like a bitch before sighing lightly and rubbing at her temples. This whole scenario had given her a headache and she didn't know what call to make, take the offensive or the defensive? She was tempted to say to take the defensive as no significant damage had been done to warrant an attack harming civilians but, such threats had unnerved her.

"So, our choices. Wait to see if this lunatic has the forces he states he does and take them out when they arrive, or, alternatively make a pre-emptive strike. I would suggest the first option - leaves out civilian causalities and based on his perception that he is a Viking, he is clearly not of sound mind." she stated "What do you think?" she asked David.

There wasn't anything more of consequence coming from the fucking viking now so David stood up off of her back and let the two guards drag him away to the brig. Doubtlessly they would tase the man on the way back to the cell for his attempts to escape and also for his attack on crew member Simmons.

Honestly, attack anyone else and there would have been hard feelings but by attacking Simmons the one-eyed savage had managed to royally piss off each and every member of the crew. And he knew that some of them would use any chance that they got to get some kind of revenge on the guy for what had happened to Simmons. If he wasn't an officer he might have joined in but the Captain had ordered nothing too seriously so he would likely have to step in before the man was beaten to death or something equally as appealing right now.

"Permission to say we might not be in Kansas any more Captain?" he joked with a small smile, "They certainly don't sound like any group of people I ever heard of. Ironborn... Iron Islands... ever heard of somewhere using that name before because I'm honestly at a bit of a loss."

Taking out a handkerchief that he had for situations like these, David tilted Lenora's head back slightly to examine her nose before dabbing away a small amount of blood that was beginning to trickle out. He handed her the handkerchief as she was going to need to use it to stem the bleeding,

"I think he's made half the decision for us." he answered with a small shrug, "So my vote? I say we go to their little base. I say we park up outside it, show off our pretty guns, and they'll back down. If they don't... well I guess we fire a warning shot. If they're all like him then they shouldn't have any weapons capable of actually harming us."

Lenora smiled lightly when David offered his handkerchief to her after taking care to inspect her wound from the headbutt, normally she would have said that this was a little bit too close for them to really be considering their stations and what was proper but given the circumstances she thought that propriety could be dropped for the time being. She had just been attacked by a wannabe Viking after all, in the first day of her acting Captain status.

"That makes two of us." she replied to David with a small smile "We would all be lost in this situation I am sure, it is certainly not something I was ever prepped to deal with in training. Attack by an out of touch Viking cult."

Sighing lightly she listened to what he had to say and what David's idea was about the situation at hand. Lenora had to admit that it had its benefits. If they made their way to the Iron Islands first they could hopefully intimidate the rest of the forces into standing down, perhaps even get their captive to convince them it would be a good idea. No doubt he was getting a good hiding for what he had done to Simmons as they spoke.

Good, it would scare some sense into the man. She thought with a small smirk on her lips.

It would keep the men motivated by having them actively doing something against the threat that they had been confronted with today and it would also ensure that they didn't strike without first being provoked. The strategy ticked all the boxes and so, with a nod of her head and a grateful smile, Lenora took his idea and made it happen.

"Right, we will go with your idea David. I think it's the best course of action, ensures that we aren't just sitting here waiting for something to happen - rather we're going straight out into some kind of action. Hopefully our show of intimidation will make them back off, with any luck, our visitor will have been shown sense and he will help stop them from fighting against us." she replied with a confident tone "I knew there was a reason that I kept you around."

That being said, Lenora issued all the commands that she needed to get Red Rum moving towards the Iron Islands, left David to oversee the command center and made her way down to the holding cells. Word was that the prisoner had been introduced to a wonderful device called the taser, and, Lenora hoped this had made him somewhat more compliant.

Taking a seat outside the cell, Lenora calmly looked at the man inside. She waited a moment or two before speaking;

"So, seeing as you're going to be in here for some time, how about we get acquainted? I'm Captain Lenora Emmanuel of the dreadnought Red Rum. Who are you?" she asked as politely as possible, hoping to keep confrontation to a minimum.

Lenora had hoped that her crew would have tazered the man in question and it seemed that they had, perhaps a little too much for her liking although he was much more compliant than he had been beforehand. A part of her felt sorry for this gentleman, so obviously deluded in his mind but it had been his own fault what had happened to him regarding the tazing. If it had been anyone but Simmons people wouldn't have been this harsh and she knew it.

He'd just been incredibly unlucky.

The man answered her question and to be honest she blinked at him like he had just grown another head. He was pretty into this delusion she would give him that. She didn't know which out of his many names she should be calling him so she just went with Euron. If he had a problem with that she was sure that he would let her know in due course.

Euron asked her what she wanted and Lenora laughed slightly in disbelief. What did she want? She wanted not to be attacked out of nowhere and have the threat of rape and death put to her and her crew, it was a pretty simple set of demands that most people would have in common she believed. Seeing that he was perhaps a little out of sorts from his tazing, Lenora thought she'd make use of his more co-operative nature while she could.

"I wanted not to be attacked while we were doing nothing threatening to you or your country, I wanted not to have my crew threatened, I wanted not to be head butted and for you to attempt to escape. Seems you don't give a lot of thought to what I want, no, just what you want." she replied with a frown on her face but a calm tone "I don't want to hurt your people, so I hope that when we sail to these Iron Islands they will have good enough sense to stand down."

Shrugging lightly, Lenora changed the subject to something slightly more interesting for herself but probably boring for Euron;

"Do you want a change of clothes or anything? Some medical attention? Looks like that tazer might have caused some serious burns there." she asked.

Lenora sighed lightly, conflicted about what she would have to do to people who she knew were mentally deranged. They didn't deserve to die for their illness but then again her duty was to her crew and if they would not stop their attacks on Red Rum then she would have to ensure that each and every ship was put down into the water. The lives of her crew would always come first - if death could be avoided it would be but it didn't seem to be an option. Especially not if all of these Ironborn believed as Euron did.

"Then they will die in fear and pain." she replied simply "I will protect my crew and if your people continue to attack they will be cut down like the deranged animals they are and you will be the ruler of nothing."

The crudeness of his speech seemed to be something she was getting used to which she could only be thankful for. The talk of sexual assault was never a pleasant thing for a woman in the armed forces but one that she should have been more prepared for than she was. She was safe, there was no manner in which this man could best her or her crew. All his words were empty, she knew this, but the reminder helped to calm her internally.

Maester? She had no idea what one of them was, but she could use her medical knowledge to help him as by the looks on their faces the medical staff were not going to be getting into the cell with him. Nor would she ask them to. This one was on her - too dangerous and unpredictable to be left to anyone else to deal with.

"We do not call them maesters. We call our medical staff doctors." she answered patiently "They do not wear chains, but I have been trained for five years now, I know how to handle a simple burn. If you'll allow me, I'll help you."

Lenora stood from her chair and fished out from the medical case on the wall a large tube of burn paste, it would sting slightly but it would help in the long run if he was insistent on keeping that ridiculous armour on.

Lenora had not been to see Euron since the first time that she had travelled down to his cell, he had been tazed again after he had tried to attack her through the bars of the holding cell that he had been placed in. She was disappointed that he had chosen to make that move but then again it was consistent with what they knew of the race - all pride and fury, no common sense whatsoever. Not even very good at commanding ships.

At this moment she stood on deck waiting for David to bring Euron up to them, so that he might see what was going to happen to his ships and his home. That was if he wasn't able to call off the people who were currently trying to gear up to attack them. Lenora didn't know what they were going to try and do but apparently they weren't going to just give up and go home at their display of power against their pitifulness.

Both David and Euron arrived on deck again and upon seeing Euron 'slip' Lenora sighed lightly and shook her head;

"How clumsy of him." she replied simply "Perhaps your legs would be in better working order if you had allowed me to treat your burns yesterday instead of acting like a child and throwing a tantrum." Lenora added without even sparing him the curtosey of looking at him while she was talking, instead she nodded at the ships that could be seen on one side of the Red Rum.

The guns were loaded and ready to fire but she wanted to give the man one more chance to get the lives of his men spared and so, she personally hauled him to his feet and brought him forwards slightly so he might see better. For a moment she just observed the primitive ships below, all 216 ships that had gathered there. At least 10,000 men.

"I want to give you one more chance. Call them off. Or they will die." she stated forcefully "I have no desire to kill them but I will do if they continue to threaten my crew and my ship."

Her hand on his upper arm was forceful but not harsh or biting, just keeping him firmly in place.

Lenora felt a weight fall into her chest at the final answer that Euron gave to her, so it was going to come down to the slaughter of so many deranged men because he would not call them off and they would not listen to reason themselves. Well there was nothing that she could do then but allow them to fall to their guns and hope that their deaths were quick. Suffering wasn't something she enjoyed inflicting like this man seemed to.

The horns did seem to be a signal for the ships to start attacking as they appeared to loose arrows at the side of the large metal ship. Honestly it was depressing as they did nothing apart from make a delightful tinkling noise against the metal exterior of Red Rum. A few ships did have catapults on them but Lenora was planning on launching their guns before they would even have a chance to fire on the Red Rum.

Sighing lightly she took the radio from her shoulders and clicked down the button so all could hear her command on the ship;

"Soldiers, take aim." she stated, then paused for a moment until she heard the whirring of the guns turning to face the right direction "And fire." Lenora commanded in a calm tone, she didn't enjoy this. In fact the sound of screaming, splintering wood and splashes as debris hit water made her stomach churn but she reassured herself that this was the right thing to do.

Lenora motioned for two soldiers to come and hold Euron as he no doubt was not happy at the display, well, he wouldn't be after this next volley which would destroy the remainder of his ships. The initial blast had taken some one hundred and fifty out of the equation due to the well aimed shots which took out several ships at once. Sustained fire from turrets kept picking them off while other guns were reloaded.

"Reload and aim on the remaining ships," she commanded again, before pausing in order to give the soldiers time to do so "And fire at will. Ensure no ship is left sailing."

She firmed her jaw as she looked out at the destruction. Lenora hated this, it smelt of blood and death in the air for which she was responsible. No...the pride of this man was responsible not her. No, not her. Lenora clenched her fist and swallowed hard, then she turned and fixed her gaze on Euron until the sound of shooting finally stopped and a communication crackled over the radio; All enemy units down Captain. I repeat, all enemy units down.

"Well done soldiers, very well done that was some excellent shooting. Today we have eliminated a threat to the crown, but, there is one more job that needs to be done. Heavy artillery, aim a shot at the harbour, destroy it." Lenora commanded, and watched as her command was executed with her heart only growing heavier.

Lenora gasped in surprise and turned quickly at the sound of gunshots coming from the deck.

The scene she saw was Euron on the ground with both of his knees shot out and David holding the gun that had done the deed. Immediately she felt the need to rip the gun out of the man's hands until she saw that there was a dagger on the deck as well, no doubt the captive had made a last ditch attempt to try and get some kind of revenge by attacking one of the crew. Most likely herself as she was the one that gave the order to kill his men.

Honestly there wasn't much of a call to make, Lenora knew that they needed to know more information about where they had found themselves and this was the only person who might know enough to help them. Not that he would now that he had been shot, brutally. A foot shot, arm shot or even a singular knee would have been sufficient but two? This was out of line and she hoped that David knew it.

"We keep Euron alive." she stated firmly "Give him medical attention now! Get him under deck and make sure that he is restrained, remove his armour and make sure that it is not given back to him. Give him replacement clothes."

As Euron was taken away Lenora gave her attention to David and she made her displeasure known at what he had done. She would have to write him up for this, if it even mattered any more and calling her Lenora while she had been on deck in front of everyone had not been professional or respectful of her rank. Perhaps it was her mistake, allowing them to get too familiar? Gah, she didn't know.

The screams of such a powerful and strong man were still rattling her, her stomach still sick, maybe she just was not thinking clearly.

"There were other, more appropriate areas that you could have targeted." she stated quietly "And to make two knee shots, the man will not walk again...and you expect him to co-operate now with us? I'll have to deal with him from now on, I doubt he'll want to see you any time soon."