It was the last stop, this desert, Karov, for the Bruskti vessel Juniper Skow. The Juniper Skow had a long history and very few of its many planks were originals. It had started as the pleasure craft of Kanaya, a mate of the first Mag Buskt, and heroic Dermag’ol (SkyChief) of the Bruskti warriors. She had only used the vessel in a single battle against the Yyan Gor. Where its front ramming spike had been used to spear a Yyan Gor Houk in the eye and left the enemy vanguard leaderless and in full retreat.
It had been upgraded with artificed cannons, and eventually passed down to her cousins in the Orongol Clan. They used it in battle against the sea kings raiders over many many years. With the end of the rule of the Mag Buskt, the vessels original name was lost to time, and it was renamed the Juniper Skow by the Earther Pirates who stole her, killing her crew while she lay in the neutral port that would one day become Duolos.
The Earther crew only held her for a year before the Nosferatu Buskt’s minions recaptured it and made took it for their own. It was involved in every major pirate war of the next two thousand years. Losing a timber here, a sail there, until every important part of the Juniper Skow was replaced. All except a plasteel sign with its name, that hung proudly, These days it was held up by brown netting and draped rusty chains.
Its final trip had been an honor. Taking the unique gemstone from the court of Mag Buskt to Karov where a traditional headdress might be woven to hold the stone. Then onward to Tla’loc’al where the headdress was also blessed by the Aufgogs of Tla’loc’al. It was protected from fire, and from all things that might sully it.
The mighty headdress so beautiful and noble, was then to be presented to a museum. A time capsule of the traditional Olgog ways.
But the Karovians had demanded to see the final product and then betrayed them all.
If the Juniper Skow was a person she would have told the story of the girl who would one day be Chieftain, Tusk, standing before the dangerous robotic armor. She would recite Tusk’s inspiring speech, “Hear me, my Karovan kin. I am Tusk, the last Mag’ol of the Nomadic Tribe of King Dargor the Hoblok. My tribe was destroyed by the Uthvelor raiders. With no tribe to serve, I serve only one purpose. To bring the tribes of Vima together. What you seek I have put together, with the help of the Unenese, the Brezans, the Tla’loc’alans, and your tribe. What you seek now no longer belongs to any single tribe, but to all of them. If you wish to have it, then fulfil it’s destiny like I intend to … by uniting the Olgog under a common cause. But until then, you are nothing more than greedy thieves who wish to own what is not theirs, using Earthers as your pawns to steal what you cannot earn. I am witness to your betrayal, and may the tribes of Vima forever know the Wild Karovans as betrayers of the Olgog tribes. I stand as the last of my tribe, but I am willing to die to protect our dream to unite the Olgog. So in the name of the Mag Auf Olgog to come, CEASE YOUR ACTIONS”
If the ship were a person, she would tell of how the Wild Karovians hurled their javelins at the young girl anyway. The sky darkened and a snow storm descended down onto the Veskan Robot Armor pilots.
She would tell of how olgogs darted between the shadows disabling cameras with bolts of chill, and how others froze the armors joints to slow them. She would tell of how a missile pod was ripped off the shoulder of one of the robot armors, and it was triggered mid air between them, cutting a line of explosions.
But she wasnt a person, she was but a ship that had survived so many ages. And in that moment as the other Robot Armor pilots began to fire blindly through the explosions, those missiles and gatlin railgun rounds tore into the hull of the Juniper Skow. The crew tried to turn it away, to escape, but the entire front end of ship was cut away, turned to saw dust. A missile struck the nameplate, melting and shattering plasteel. The ship began to break apart.
At that moment, walls of shadows erupted cutting off the Veskan Robot Armor and shutting down those that dared to try and smash through them. From the horizon, the dreaded Kalok Fraytor approached with great speed. The Wild Karovians were driven back by high caliber rifle fire that kicked up sand every time they tried to advance. Bikes and Trucks with the markings of the Outcasts, came up over the duneside. Their guns distracted the Robot Armor, causing more disorder, and causing the Wild Karovians to flee back behind the defense of the VofV pilots.
As the Juniper Skow listed and began to plummet towards the ground, its crew and its revered payload escaped to the Kalok Fraytur. With the Bruskti seemingly in full retreat, and the bikes and trucks of the Outcasts also escaping, the VofV chalked the battle up to a victory.
The Pilots never quite understood that escaping alive was equally a victory for the passengers formerly aboard the Juniper Skow. Thought the skow was now destroyed, scattered across the sands.