Wall of text incoming but it's a story of betrayal, revenge, cunning in the face of danger and a miracle.
Back during the Cursed Sails update, before I had reached my pirate legend status.
I had gathered my usual crew of four to man a Galleon. Mister Brigador, Tellik, Rattuzi and myself in hopes of completing a few final commendations we had yet to unlock! We were no strangers to the skeleton fleets and also accustomed to the recently introduced alliance system. It was almost given that every ship would ally with us during a skeleton fleet battle.
BUT NOT THIS TIME!
As per usual procedure of stocking the ship, getting powderkegs in the crow's nest and setting sail to our destination according to schedule. The following engagement went fair until halfway through when foreign galleon sails reveal themselves upon the waves on a set course towards us.
Once within range they appear to battle the skeletons along with us and strike an alliance, two uncomfortable facts still remain, however.. their crew complement consists of four ghost-clothed, bare-chested legends and one of them insists on staying on our boat to "assist" us. I can scent a backstab from a mile away but I simply can not bring myself to be the one pulling the first trigger.
Not so unexpectedly, on the last wave, their crew had snuck up on our crowsnest and rained our powder supply upon our decks before we had the ability to retaliate. I thought I had kept a clear eye upon the ladder but I guess I was not vigilant enough and that cost us our ship.
THE RETALIATION!
Beaten but not defeated we recuperate and prepare for a do-or-die charge. The rage of treachery fuels our desire for vengence. We set the course with the wind in our backs, looting every nearby fort and island as we pass for enough supplies to sustain a moderate firefight, we were ready before we even reached halfway there.
In our spyglass we sight the legendary galleon and the captain vessel they had just sunk. This was it, no turning back now, no subtle approach. We would slam our ship into their side for an all-in charge with both sides exchanging powder keg blasts. It does not fare well for us as I fall almost immediately, the last thing I hear are the anchors being dropped.
I sit on the ferry with the opposing crewmembers, biting my nails as I wait for the doors to open. One of the legends appear next to me and then two of my men, that's it, three on one, we're done for. All that work for nothing. But then I see two more of the legend crew appear just as the doors open for me along with the best news a captain could ever hear:
"They've sunk!"
I respawn and do indeed see the legend galleon vanish beneath the surface with my second mate, Tellik, frantically working to keep our ship afloat. Naturally I proceed to assist plugging up the last holes. The fourth member of the legend crew was still alive and tried one last attempt at blowing up our ship with our kegs which, fortunately, proved unsuccessful! Our crew respawned, the ship repaired and we proceeded to grab everything we could out of the water for a good ten or so minutes until:
"Galleon sails, east!"
They were back, we couldn't stay. If we lose an engagement now they'll have time to sell all the loot. We didn't want to risk it. The chase was on.
They pursuited us all the way around The Shores of Plenty, all the while we sent constant boarding parties to slow them down without any success. We didn't want to spend the next hours in a battle of endurance so we agreed to try to sell our loot little by little as we passed each outpost.
We grace Golden Sands and prepare two men to disembark but the pursuiting legends realized our plan and immediately turned their ship sideways to fire three of their men from their cannons to intercept ours and, unfortunately, they were successful. Our men were killed and our spice was stolen and sold. We had not foreseen such a clever move.. however I realized I could use reverse psychology and turn this to our advantage.
I explain to my crew that we will pretend to attempt the same thing at the next outpost, they will shoot their guys over but we will do a complete 180 and attack their ship when they have basically no one onboard. Said and done, we grace Sanctuary outpost and as expected we hear three cannons fired, the plan worked!
We turn the ship completely and at the same time send people to board them. We successfully drop their anchor and provide a nasty broadside of over twenty cannonballs as we pass. Sadly it was not enough to sink them but it had at least bought us well enough time to get ourselves back south towards Plunderer's Outpost.
THE FINAL STRETCH! MEGALODON TO THE RESCUE!
With enough distance made between us and the legend Galleon, we planned our next move, how do we most effectively sell our items before they manage to catch up to us? They were still close enough to make any short term stop impossible without confrontation.
And when things couldn't get any worse, our beloved friend Meg emerges and begins circling our ship. We always like to joke around and recognize Megalodon as a loyal pet, following us along our journeys and keeping us company but at a time like this we feared the impending reality of when the beast would decide to scarf down a portion of our hull and send us off course. Should that happen we would be forced to engage and pray for the best.
And then it finally happened, Meg was charging us from behind and all four of us stared from the stern of our Galleon, expressing dread and curses, knowing what it would mean for us. Meg had a slow time catching up as we were still sailing full speed. At a glance I saw that we were coming close to Plunder Valley, I knew from Meg's design that it would stop following you if you were too close to an island. With just enough hope I waited for what I suspected would happen.
And then it happened.
(this is the only screenshot I have of the entire ordeal)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/phob7i2wmlq8kqx/savingmeg.png?dl=0
Meg made a complete 180 mid-charge and instead raced towards the legend Galleon instead. As it happened a sudden cheer burst from our crew, once again going back to praising our dear, loyal follower and pet, Megalodon for saving us. It was nothing short of a miracle. We just watched as there was an explosion of splinters and the legend Galleon shooting 90 degrees sideways. This was just the break we needed.
And so we finally managed to stop at Plunderer's, long enough to sell everything. We were victorious, the legends could sink us all they wanted now. However, when they had caught up to us they just crashed into the island and met us with tankards in their hands and cursed our luck but had a drink with us anyway.
The End.