Sky Captain Victoria Turning, Captain of the Sky

"Come one come all! There's room for any beneath the cover of our magnificent tent. Come and see what wonders wait within!" The man with his metal cone shouted at each passerby enthusiastically, eager to scrape up every bit of money he could before it was closing time for the circus. The woman in a long coat and dusty clothes was not interested in the stunts and parlor tricks like so many of those surrounding her. Her feet carried her straight towards the sky harbor that the circus had been set up specifically to block, so that any coming off transport ships might be enticed by their acts. A large ship made of various light-weight metals and a particularly sturdy sort of lumber sat waiting for her. It's closely-knit crew scurried about readying it for take off as they saw their captain approaching. Victoria took heavy, thumping steps up the wooden plank haphazardly mounted on the ship's side to allow one to ascend to it's deck. She turned and swung the plank up onto her shoulder, then turned to face her second in command with a grin. An unfortunate engineer subsequently face-planted as board met the back of skull.
"When will we be prepared to take off? I nicked a lot of money from that circus, and I think I saw a few cannons underneath that tent housing the major acts."
"Duly noted, Sir. We'll be off within the half-hour."
"Good, take this big thing o' wood, will ya? I've gotta make sure our head engineer didn't forget to pick up fuel again." Victoria pressed the plank of wood into her first mate's chest and started to walk away without waiting for a response. The first mate, Jacob, shook his head.
"He's going senile, I swear it."
The good captain dauntlessly descended into the bowels of the skyship as it came to life beneath her feet with a great racket of machinery running. She quickly spotted a pale old man at work in the engine room, shouting at his younger assistants... more out of a lack of hearing ability and a need to speak over the machines than  actual malice. "Did you remember to get fuel this time, Arthur?" Victoria shouted over the engine as it steadily grew louder until it was deafening.
"Of course, what'dya take me for!?" Arthur smacked a hand down on a leather bag leaden with solid fuel, ready to be chucked into the furnace of the engine and burned up.
Victoria chuckled, the sound only evident by her smile. "A daft old man!"
"Oh, right. Fair enough!" Arthur wiped a sleeve across his forehead and returned to work without another word as one of the younger engineers inevitably made a mistake only he would notice. The captain sauntered off to the deck to oversee their ascent from the harbor, well aware the old man could handle everything downstairs. Victoria reached back over her shoulder and pulled on a hat that had been hanging by a lightweight cord around her neck, shielding her face from the red sun that eclipsed the horizon. Looking at that sun unsettled her. Maybe it was just because it would eat her alive if she didn't apply a healthy amount of block-off and wear thick clothes. That was probably it.
Her train of thought was broken as the ship gracefully lifted off the platform it had rested on, mechanical parts spinning, balloon inflating.
Victoria held her hat down as the ship began to speed away from the harbor and truly fly, grinning once more. The carnival folk hadn't noticed their missing money. Today, they could be the ones to shoot first. Those were the good sort of days.

Victoria sprinted along the deck of the large ship as a machine reminiscent of a mounted chain-gun turned to face her vessel and shoot more than a few holes in it. She and her crew had caught up to the airship that they had been intent on plundering for about a week, but it was slightly better armed than expected. It was carrying some sort of rare metal that one nation didn't want another to get. These aspects of the job weren't worth paying attention to. It was the fine details like getting it without being riddled with bullets or blown up that interested Victoria. She also wasn't particularly interested in sinking the other ship or riddling them with bullets, as that over-complicated things in the long run. Pirates with reputations for brutally murdering people got hunted down. The Good Captain dashed down a flight of stairs and into the belly of her ship as a whirlwind of crew members moved just as swiftly to deal with damages and shoot back.
"Bump 'em!" Victoria yelled while running through the engine room, where the old engineer and the first mate were arguing at.
Seconds later, the hull of Victoria's ship was swinging to slam into the other ship. Neither side had a boarding party ready, unless you counted one person as a boarding party. The Captain sprinted towards a gaping, man-sized hole in her ship's cargo hold that had been created by a cannon shot when she was still on the deck. She dove as the ships crashed together to avoid being knocked over by the impact, landing on her stomach just after. Victoria crawled to a nearby locker and seized the make-shift weapon within. It was supposed to be a flare gun, but had been decommissioned after the production line realized that they had designed something that shot exploding bullets rather than signaling devices. The captain stepped towards the hole in her ship with a confident grin, then fell over as the ships crashed together again. She scrambled to her feet and fired at the ship before they collided again. It was very unpleasant to be standing on the floor when that happened. The kick of the little hand cannon made it fly out of her hand as she held it a little too loosely, but the damage was done. Victoria leaped through the adjacent holes in the ships hulls when they slammed together yet another time.
Now to find the cargo bay.