After Malakaus finished enchanting the amulets, he got to work gauging the abilities of his group. He quickly discovered that the Bosmer was, at best, a very good liar. A sham at worse. His skills with the sword and bow was only good enough for him to land a death blow on weaken foes, which was reflective on his fighting style; a lot of evasion masked as some sort of technical footwork, striking only when he thought his enemy had no more energy left. But Malakaus wasn't just some drunken highwayman. Once he figured out the Bosmer's tactics, he quickly cornered him and gave him a thrashing. Even the Bosmer's magic was flashy but inefficient. Big explosions, but weak effect. They work better as flares than they did as means of destruction. His restoration ability was decent enough to heal himself after Malakaus beat him within an each of his life though. His armorer skills seemed to at least be fact, as he was formerly a Fletcher and tailor. His name was even Fletcher. But that also meant that, aside from maybe crafting them some arrows or disguises, the Bosmer wouldn't be good for weapon crafting or more intricate repairs. Malakaus set him start pulling the Imperial Emblems off the ship while he dealt with the others.

The two orcs, Harasha And Sheol, were more competent in their fight than the bosmer. Harasha definitely knew how to handle her warhammer, and while Sheol was reckless she was quite able to keep up with Malakaus. However he sensed a certain amount of animosity directed towards him during the meeting. The scars on Harasha suggested that she was once a slave at some point in her life, while Sheol was fairly well-kept for someone who wishes to be a pirate. He didn't know what their backstory was, and they weren't interested in telling him right now. He had them head down into the decks and find all and any dusty metal bits they can find. He had noticed that a lot of the crew was using either iron or steel; that might work for your rank-and-file Imperial Soldier, but Malakaus wanted to make sure that his fighters were better equipped than what their opponents would be.

After sending the two orcs off he went to see the Argonians. He initially had his doubts that they'd be useless to him since they seemed scholarly, but there was a different problem than that; they didn't like each other. When he found them they were having some sort of argument about some loot they found. It was a greater soul gem which they wanted for their own ends. Malakaus solved the issue by taking it for himself. He than made it clear to the two of them that they would be working together for him, or they could both have broken skulls because of him. While he didn't necessarily like threatening people into submission, least of all his subordinates, he was not going to humor their petty grievances. After straitening them out he got them their jobs; he showed them how to use his Enchanting Map as well as Scroll Smithing. Their jobs would be to provide a variety of magical scrolls for the crew to use, as well as enchanting their weapons. For a service fee, of course. He also had them work on some explosive powders he wanted to make for the balistas, or at least to get him a list of what they'd need for that. They'd give him something to use by tomorrow.

The next few days were spent giving his gang, which he called the Typhoon Warriors, and the rest of the underlings orders on getting him spare parts from the ship. This also included their own weapons and armor, which were still of fairly low quality. While he tried not to monopolize them, Malakaus used most of these materials to create new equipment for the crew, as well as given them minor enchantments to give them an edge on their enemies. Since they were sea-faring fighters, he had to ensure that their armor was mostly light; he needed to make sure that they had full mobility while giving them ample protection in the event they do a ship-raid. To this end, he designed most of the armor to have Laminated Wood for those using light armor, and Splitmail for those preferring heavy armor. The Laminated Wood armor was lighter than most of the crew's chainmail (If a bit cumbersome) and would be more resistant to solid blows thanks to using multiple layers instead of a single plate. The same idea was used for the Splitmail; instead of relying on one single metal plate, he broke it down to multiple layers that covered a larger area. While he can't say that they're more protected, this way he had more materials to work with, allowing him to better equip most of the crew. He also upgraded anyone using iron weapons to a more solid steel, using some of the materials he found to create the alloy. But the most important improvement he made was to create and arm each person with a crossbow, if they didn't already have a bow. Most of their battles would be ship-to-ship, and it didn't matter if you could cleave a tombstone in half with your barehands; you can't punch fifty yards away.

In between all the coordinating and the shouting, Malakaus made a bit of a reputation for himself on the ship. He was considered a hard officer to please, and a quick one to anger. But he always rewarded those who did their jobs, and he rewarded them well. He also took the time to try to give them something to work on that they could feel makes them important on the ship. He would, as he tells them, make square holes for square cubes (This was also his own way to subtle call them Squares). Though he has thrown overboard a few crew members who tried to use their kinship with him to get away with work or abusing others. While he always made sure to tie a rope onto them before tossing them overboard, he made it clear that this wasn't favoritism that he was using; it was a simple matter of rewarding them based on their results. Those who tried to cheat their way into his good graces found themselves dangling over the bow of the ship. This made him the enemy of some of the more craftier types, including the crew's smoothtalkers and rogues, while gaining the respect from those in the crew who value hard work and having a staunch code of honor. There was, however, another issue with Malakaus ordering around those working for other Officers. While he's quick to drop the issues, recently he seems to have taken it upon himself to command all underlings, regardless for who's authority they act on.

About three days later after the crew took over the ship, they arrived to Khenarthi's Roost. Small place, barely a city, but it was within the Dominion's waters, if just at it's edge. While his group did what they needed to to be rid of any signs that this was an Imperial Ship, it also left them mostly naked Armor wise. As the although he's the weaponmaster, getting armor for the ship is just as important as getting weapons for it too. To that end he hopes to obtain some elven metal here; while steel would make for a more durable armor, elven is only a little bit weaker but much lighter. Though he imagined that steel would come cheaper, and if they didn't have enough Elven metal here to work into the ship, he'd settle for steel and save the Elven for weapons. He roused his Typhoon Warriors awake and had them armor up. He made it clear to them that they weren't hitting port to (Just) relax off the ship. They could drink and party and get friendly with the locals after their jobs were done. He had them wait on the deck as the ship was getting docked, while he himself put on his full armor. While this may make him seem partly like an invader, last thing he needed was to get jumped by a couple of skooma-addicts thinking him to be an easy target just because he's new here.