"Yes, sir!!"
At Ethan's hoarse command, the entire Fearless shuddered like a steel behemoth roused from sleep!
"Helmsman! Hard to port, thirty degrees!"
A navigator roared furiously into the speaking tube.
"Understood! Hard to port, thirty degrees!"
Several muscle-bound sailors worked together to turn the massive helm, drawing out a teeth-grating creak.
The Fearless's enormous hull carved an exaggerated white arc across the sea, its bow swinging around to point precisely at the blood-red skull that represented chaos and death on the chart!
"Engine crew! Did you hear me? Maximum power! Push those boilers to the limit!"
"Ohhhh! To the limit!"
Deep inside the ship, the marines manning the engines were bare-chested, crazed grins on their faces.
They shoveled coal into the roaring boilers, load after load. The needle on the steam pressure gauge raced toward the red warning line, letting out a shrill whine.
The entire warship's hull began humming violently from the overloaded engines!
"Charge!!"
"Target: Sin Island! Drag out every one of those pieces of trash worth over a hundred million and offer them to Ensign Lorne!"
"Hahahaha! I can't wait!"
On deck, the marines' frenzied shouts even drowned out the engines' roar.
They showed not a trace of fear. Every face brimmed with eagerness and excitement for the coming battle.
While the Fearless hurtled toward those forbidden waters at an almost insane speed.
Sin Island.
The sky over this island was shrouded year-round in dark clouds as thick as congealed blood, barely allowing sunlight through.
The air reeked of sulfur, gunpowder, cheap alcohol, and blood.
At the center of the island, in a crude square built from countless pirate bones and discarded weapons, a bloody "entertainment" was underway.
"Fuhahahaha!"
A bear-like, powerfully built man with a brutish face and an unkempt red beard was laughing