The rusted motors of our turbo-boats sputtered, then raged to life; our war cries joining the engines in their metallic roars. The odor of gasoline mingled with the spray of salt water. Breathing it in was like breathing fresh air by this point, the all we'd ever known, as all that remained of the world was a yawning expanse of crashing waves and the sea beyond them. We lived by our boats and barges, scrapped together from derelict ships scattered about the long sea-swallowed coastlines.
"Keep er' purring," I laughed against another spray of seawater, "we gotta keep up with the others!" I chambered a century-old round of corrosive 7.62x39mm into my jerry-rigged auto-gat as Mudskip worked the archaic motor; my boat-brother was as squat as he was ornery, all grumbles and curses. Our turbo-boat caught up to the rest of our black-hearted flock, a ragtag band of foulmouthed bastards with more bullets than they'd brains, and that wasn't saying much.
The prize before us, an monumental mega-barge barreled across the waves with a speed that belied its enormity. A floating city, it bore the trappings of luxury: high, glass windows; modern electronics and communications devices; and plenty of room for the people who occupied it. I squinted through the rain, peering at the massive ship, imagining what treasures lay within. I couldn't see much, just dark shapes inside the vessel.
"It's moving too fast," complained one of the pirates, a fleshy man with a scar running along his cheek, "it'll be outta range before we can reach 'em."
"Boost it up! Boost it! We take this mother-ship, we're rich! We're kings! No more rusty gas-guzzlers, no more scavenging for parts! We're set, we're set for life!" I hollered at the other pirates, egging them on; they'd need their spirits if we were to survive the onslaught of the barge's autocannons and its onboard security.
I felt a shuddering propulsion as Mudskip pressed the throttle forward, our little craft speeding over the surface of the ocean like a mad shark. "I'm going as fast as I can, you worthless louts!" he growled.
I saw the bright flash of light from the massive ship's cannon mounted atop the superstructure. My ears rang with the noise of the blast; our boat rocked under the impact of the shot, but it had missed us.
"Well, ain't that just grand!" I shouted with mock delight.
We collectively raced toward the ship with motors screaming and an occasional burst of lead towards the sky; the huge ship was almost upon us. Our boats rode over surges with an grace unbefitting their age and disrepair, as if the old rust buckets shared our passion and fury. Mudskipper and I's turbo-boat was among the first to reach the ship, so we left the others to catch up; I worked at our scrapper's grapple caster, finalizing a few key adjustments to the device's automated boarding system. By an act of some forsaken God, the boarding device blinked online.
The crew inside must have seen us approaching; lights blinked along the superstructure and something large and bulky loomed out from the darkness above our deck. We heard gunfire over our roar as the big guns opened fire on our boat.
My boat-brother hunkered down behind the scrap-armor paneling of our boat, occasionally retaliating with a few potshots. "Hurry, ya scutter!" Mudskip growled, his words slurring into a confused mumble as he cowered, "I'm stayin' here."
I fired off one last round before giving a nod and grappling my way up the side of the mega-ship's hull, soon accompanied by my lagging crewmates; it was an absolute melee. We knew These mega-ships were their own self contained cities. They needed to be. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of people lived upon these enormous vessels, which despite their technologically advanced systems were just as in need of repair as anything else. Lord only knew how many of these cradles of humanity remained, and we'd pilfer em' all, given the chance.
"Blast em!" I shouted over the din of weapons fire and battle cries. The fight was taking place across a series of interior decks and hallways. The thrill of plunder had taken us. It was victory or death, kill or be killed, but little did we know of the true treasure that this mega-barge held.