Not sure about this one/ just thinking aloud: A veteran bosun is overseing the loading of the cargo in the hold, giving hand signals to the men in the hold - and perhaps to the guy operating the crane.
This photo feels like the 70s, but it's a guess. Found it at pinterest.
-I managed to finally contact the HRA division with me to stop firing at your people. For the love of Christ-the-Buddha get your asshole commander away from me she won't stop screaming slurs in languages I don't understand at me over the comms channel we're stuck in
Who in the-?! Oh, wait, shit, that's right, I forgot you were still awake in there. Christ-the-Buddha Almighty, that scared me.
Are you sure that's still Kennedi screaming? She (or, rather, her unconscious - and hopefully not lifeless - body) and her molten wreck of a Caliban have been with us at MSMC-148's drop site for like two hours now, waiting for pickup. Slipshod managed to pry your casket outta that slag heap you used to call a Genghis Mk. 1 and get you connected to a "life support" of sorts on one of their backup generators, but if you can still hear Kennedi's voice screaming bloody murder at you, then your systems might be fried worse than we thought. (No clue if that sort of thing is fixable or not...)
Hopefully the Albatross will be here soon. Our distress beacon is still up and running, and they should more than have our coordinates by now. We'll all be out of here soon. (I hope.)
There is this song that YouTube algorithmed to me. And good job. This is exactly my jam. Tale of the Shadow.
And unexpectedly, my brain wants to make it a Max and El thing.
You should pause and listen real fast.
Okay, you’re back? Good.
Something about El having escaped it before, Henry was trying to use her and the powers she has to try to capture it. Henry got taken, and El barely escaped. Max is the daughter of a privateer, and has been on and off the ocean all her life. She has heard stories about The Shadow for years, Billy has always sworn he’d take it one day. Max meets El in one of the rare seasons she spends on land, this strange, sweet girl who was found on flotsam after a storm.
A year or two later, in which Max has made sure to come to port more often, just to see her friend, she and her brother lose their dad, and Billy inherits the ship, the Camaro. Max hugs El goodbye at the dock and climbs abroad expecting the trip to be rough as she proves to his newly hired crew that she’s more than the young woman they see. It’s worse than she knew. Billy is going after The Shadow, but Max doesn’t find out til they’re at sea.
And, to be fair, Billy does catch it, which few ever do. They board. And for whatever reason, Max is the one to touch the helm. She watches The Shadow kill her brother and his crew before it takes her eyes, and shackles her to it.
Another ship nearby saw them in pursuit of the Shadow, and brings the story back to land, along with the empty and battered Camaro. El is brought a letter that Max wrote after finding out what her brother intended to do. The second crew had the decency to deliver it since they found it while salvaging what they could.
It's an apology, and an explanation of what Billy wants to do. Everyone knows that no one survives the wrath of The Shadow.
But El did. And now it’s taken her friend. Henry was a bad man, but he was smart, and he was sure that El was strong enough to defeat it.
She finds the captain of the ship that hauled the husk of Max’s ship back to shore. She demands they help her. Demands they believe her when she says she can defeat it. Throws an entire fit when they don’t, until the walls shake and thunder rolls, until they see a bit of the power she holds that made Henry steal her and try to use her.
The Captain refuses to put his crew in danger. A few of his crew start to argue for her. The captain holds the line until the scarred sailor with frizzy dark hair who has been fiddling with dice the whole time joins in on El's side. With a sigh, the captain stands, looking to his second in command, a woman with a sharp wit.
And thats how Elle Hopper meets Captain Steve Harrington and his crew. Who are not pirates, but they’re not not-pirates.
It doesn’t matter. She needs them. They sail a few days later, Elle going on the ocean for the first time since Henry, chasing the Shadow, so she can save her friend.
—
This is a Hot potato fic. Add to it if you know more pieces of the story or the world.