User:JohnB/Fanfiction/The Capture of "La Belle Marie"

"What do you think?" the admiral asked handing the spyglass to the vice-admiral. "Is it our friend Rashotte?"

The vice-admiral peered into the glass at the galleon as it cruised along with a feigned "Don't-mind-me" aimlessness.

"Who else could it be?" he responded with a now-we've-got-him grin. "Shall I send a reconnaissance team to draw him into a fight?"

"Keep in mind that a freight transport ship doesn't invite trouble," the admiral responded taking the glass and peering again. "He probably thinks we're up to something and would like nothing better than for us to confirm his suspicion. Let's see what he does next before we load his belly full of gravel."

The young Blades operative on board "La Belle Marie", who was later to rescue Decumus Scotti from the brig just in the nick of time, had been keeping the new East-Empire-Company Merchant Marines well informed of the ship's whereabouts. As the least senior member of the pirate crew, he was often sent aloft to the crow's nest to keep a look-out for freight transport ships. This was a hazardous task that required standing for hours on a crossbar near the uppermost end of the main mast, for which it was necessary to strap oneself to the mast to avoid being thrown down as it was swaying.

But little did the pirate crew realize that this operative kept a highly polished adamantium disk about the same size as a salad plate tucked in his clothing. With this, he flashed coded messages to various observation points along the coast. The intelligence filled a thick volume, but the recipients couldn't flash back questions that would clarify or add to the information. Therefore, it was no wonder that Captain Rashotte couldn't shake the feeling that his zig-zag movements over the sea were fooling nobody, but damn him if he couldn't figure out how the authorities were tracking him. And that they were tracking him was manifest in the scarcity of shipping everywhere they sailed. There was shipping going on everywhere, but not where "La Belle Marie" happened to be.

It was as if all commerce had come to a screeching halt. In fact, land routes were being scouted to find ways to transport nonperishable goods overland, but Rashotte wasn't aware of this since the change had been so recent and so sudden. It was a huge relief to him and his crew when the freight transport was finally spotted lying at anchor in the distance. That it should be lying at anchor didn't seem at all incongruous to the pirates because they too would take a breather hiding among some rocks. But shouldn't a transport ship not waste time sailing from point A to point B in order to get the goods to market? And so what ensued was a bit of a cat-and-mouse game as Rashotte tried to get close enough to assess the situation.

Finally, the order was given to hoist the Jolly Roger flag, prepare to cast grappling hooks at the freight ship, then board it and slaughter all the crew before towing the ship back to home port to unload the goods and distribute them on the black market. Easy-peasy! Except that this was not a freight ship but rather a new class of galleon called a "Man-'o-War", armed to the teeth to make minced crab meat of the pirate crew.

"La Belle Marie" was Captain Rashotte's pride and joy. He was in love with a young damoiselle named Marie, so the ship sported a beautifully carved figurehead of her likeness. It was a marvel of workmanship, and some claimed it was one of the Seven Wonders of Tamriel, which would actually have made it eight wonders but who's counting? Anyway, the last thing Captain Rashotte wanted to see was damage done to his remarkable ship, and given the terror that struck the heart of any ship's captain who saw "La Belle Marie" bearing down on him with pirates swinging grappling hooks and clashing cutlasses against their shields, the only way to get off without seeing the crew slaughtered was to surrender without a fight. "La Belle Marie" came out victorious every time.

The East Empire Company realized it couldn't continue to rely on ship captains to sacrifice their own lives for the good of the company. However, the heyday of piracy in the waters around Vvardenfell was over--Velfred the Outlaw had washed his hands of the business only to fall victim to a revenge conspiracy aided by none other than Captain Rashotte himself. Rashotte was now the undisputed boss in the buccaneering business, and that left him wide open to attack because pirate captains of the past used to aid and abet each other, forging alliances for mutual defense--known as the Brotherhood of Davy Jones.

(Note: "This same Davy Jones, according to sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, ship-wrecks, and other disasters to which sea-faring life is exposed, warning the devoted wretch of death and woe." Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle [1751] quoted in Wikipedia)

Battlemages were soon enlisted by the merchant marines to discover an effective means to fight back, and they came up with a new-fangled weapon, a steel canister that could emit fireballs and propel river gravel with devastating effect. And it was to the pirate crew's astonishment that two rows of trapdoors in the side of what they supposed was a freight transport galleon flipped open, and steel tubes suddenly appeared aimed at the side of their own ship.

"Fire!"

There was a deafening roar, and the planks and timbers of "La Belle Marie's" side were splintered into matchsticks.

"Fire!"

There was a second volley that laid waste to the under-deck. Had Decumus Scotti remained on board, there would have been nothing left of him. Having nothing more to hold on to, the ship's rigging on that side gave way, snapping masts as taut rigging on the opposite side pulled them in that direction. "La Belle Marie" was a total loss, and Captain Rashotte was thoroughly stunned.

"Surrender now and we might let you live!" the admiral shouted to the pirates.

They immediately dropped their weapons, and merchant marines swarmed onto "La Belle Marie" clapping shackles onto their prisoners.

The girls of Ebonheart jostled to get a glimpse of Captain Raymond Rashotte, the Flower of Chivalry, as he was marched along with his crew to the prison, but what they saw was disappointing. He was still devastated by the loss of his ship, which had to be scuttled as too unseaworthy to be towed all the way back to Ebonheart, and he was in no mood to strut his stuff in front of the ladies. Duke Dren was also in no mood to conduct a lengthy trial, so he declared them all guilty of piracy, robbery, and murder and ordered gallows to be built immediately.

To this day, the adventures and exploits of this incorrigible Breton, the last of the great pirates, live on in Vvardenfell folklore, as much as revisionist historians, merchants, and the powers that be try to debunk them. After all, nobody remembers the the name of the admiral who brought on Rashotte's downfall, much less that of the intrepid spy who hastened it.

However, let there be no injustice here. Let the spy be remembered: Jacques LeHabile was his name.