South Seas Cruise
Bender grabs the handle and opens the door to the bridge. Blood is smeared on the back wall and console and the captain’s seat is crushed on one side. The autopilot is active, the destination a small island in the Philippine archipelago. Gripper tells us that it was set a few hours after their last radio check. He checks the shipping manifest and doesn’t see anything unusual, and no mention of Red Orchid. The roster lists nine crew and the captain. Something is here and we have two options, go looking for it or have it come to us. The easiest and most likely spot something could be hiding is in the cargo hold. If nothing is there it would be a nice place to set a trap. Bender and Static venture back out into the rain as Lynx and Gripper stay in the nice dry bridge.
Static does his little vanishing trick on the way to the bow. Bender notices shell casings from AK-97s as well as those from some small arms. He spots bits of human flesh and blood but nothing that triggers his critter senses. We signal Gripper that we’re in position and Bender opens a link to his cyber eyes for those interested. A moment later Gripper flips on the work lights in the hold as the cargo doors squeal open on rusty hinges. Ah, how I love the element of surprise.
A Chinese sailor walking between the wooden, metal and plastic crates looks up at work lights as the storm rains down into the hold. He begins shouting in Chinese as he turns towards a door in the stern, two bullet holes clearly present on his back. Gripper translates over the comm, “Someone is aboard! Get to the bridge!” Gripper sends out a mental command and distant metallic sounds can be heard around the ship as locks click into place. From the bow, a Chinese sailor with half his face blown off runs toward Bender. The troll aims his Ares assault rifle at the forehead to finish the job. The shot misses and Bender switches to his axe knocking away a fierce blow from the crazed sailor. A crackling sound is the only warning as Static fires a mana bolt at the sailor who takes it full in the chest, the creature shrivels before his eyes. A quick follow up blast leaves the sailor dead and smoking at Benders feet.
Pounding can be heard from the cargo hold as the sailor tries to enter the ship from below. Above, a door swings open onto the deck underneath the bridge and a crewman races up the stairs and pounds on the bridge door. It leers through the window at Gripper who screams in fear as he scampers under the console to hide while his dragon runs around in terrified circles. Lynx readies her Astral Sense and unlocks the door. Gripper locks it. Lynx unlocks it again and Gripper locks it. Lynx unlocks and pulls the door open causing Gripper to shriek. Standing before her is an awakened being, astrally overlaying the crewman is an amorphous jellyfish who notices Lynx right back. Lynx hits it in the face with her magical fist of doom, cracking its skull. Static wounds the crewman in the hold with a well aimed mana bolt as Bender feels a presence in the stern telling him to jump overboard. He turns and looks at the railing judging how far he’d have to jump before thinking, “Uh, how about No.”
The crewman in the hold glares at Static and begins climbing the ladder out of the hold as three of his crewmates step onto the deck to join the party. One climbs the stairs to the bridge catching Lynx off guard with its sinister gaze causing her to recoil and back up toward Gripper still cowering on the floor.
At the bow, Bender feels a sudden chill as two of the crew run past him. One stops and slashes at the air in front of it. Static cries out and a flash of light sends the attacker to the ground. The other sailor turns and stares at Bender who turns and runs in terror from the crazed looking 5’5” unarmed sailor. Static opens his comm., “They can see me! And don’t let them touch you, I feel like I’m slowing down.” The gloom is pushed back as Static summons a fire elemental, the rain sizzling as it hit its flickering form.
On the bridge, Lynx is in full defensive mode, fighting her fear and batting away blows from the crewman swinging wildly at her, unable to strike back. Coming to his senses, Gripper lashes his safety tether around the base of the captain’s chair and lies back on the floor. He looks at Lynx as she fends off her attacker and says, “good luck.” As he enters full VR, he can hear Lynx’s saying, “Wait! I need you.” Gripper takes control of the helm and issues his command, “tip the boat,” which turns the boat away from the wind causing it to slip sideways down the back side of a swell. The next wave crashes into the side of the freighter, flooding the deck and cascading into the hold. The crewman climbing the ladder is caught full in the face as he reaches the top and is thrown back into the hold and crushed by a loose crate. The crewman that attacked Static is carried over the side as Bender and Static grab a railing, alerted only moments ago by Gripper’s warning. The remaining crewman on the bow takes advantage of the Static’s lowered defenses and strikes him in the back - paralyzing him. On the bridge, Lynx casually places one foot on to the wall to compensate for the tilting surface as her opponent falls backward.
Bender lets go of the railing and looks up. His mad dash has taken him all the way to the stern. There, in the shadow of the lifeboat is a deeper shadow, a dark smokey cloud unaffected by the rain. Suspended inside the cloud is the shape of a man. The shape turns toward Bender and exhales a billowing dark cloud that passes over him. Even holding his breath the cloud burns his eyes and throat and causes his stomach to roil. “Damn, and I thought I had bad breath.” Bender’s Ares is at the ready even before the cloud dissipates. “I’ve been wanting to try this.” Foomp! The grenade launcher sends its payload at the cloud as he follows up with a burst from the rifle. The grenade goes a bit wide but peppers the target with shrapnel about the same time as the bullets do. All of them bounce off. “Ah Crap! I really need to magi-fy my axe.”
Frozen in place Static hears the gunfire and explosions from aft and conjures a mana bolt to deal with his attacker then sends the fire elemental to give Bender a hand. The elemental attacks the cloud but it dodges the blow and sends another breath of cold vapor at Bender. “Oh SH…” Bender takes the cloud full in the face and stumbles backward. He feels his insides start to revolt as he falls to the deck and passes out.
Noticing that Gripper isn’t moving, Lynx’s opponent moves to attack but realizes the live prey might be the most dangerous. It turns back toward Lynx only to walk right into the captain’s chair. Feeling the effects of the fear fading, Lynx decides it time for a little payback. Her victim looks shocked as it stares at her arm protruding from its chest just before it slumps to the floor. Lynx takes the time to send a kick at Gripper’s prone body before running from the bridge to assist Bender. Static levitates into the air and provides covering fire, his mana bolt narrowly missing the target. The cloud creature closes with Lynx but she is ready as it sends its putrid breath weapon toward her. The two engage in unarmed combat and after a half dozen blows neither one can cause any damage. Suddenly the lifeboat crane swings around clocking the creature in the back of the head sending it to one knee. Static hits with a bolt that distracts it enough for Lynx to land a strike that opens it up for a spinning chop that separates its head from its shoulders. For a moment the only noise is the sound of the rain on the deck and Bender retching. Then the lifeboat cranes start to do a happy little dance.
After Bender recovers enough to move, everyone searches the rest of the ship but nothing else is found. After finding a shower onboard Bender joins everyone in the ship’s galley. “Just so you know, I wasn’t running away. I was just advancing in a different direction.” He grabs a seat next to Gripper who has an icepack on his lap for some reason. After discussing the notion of double crossing our Johnson, we decided on a solution that everyone could live with. We radio Captain Teng and while he is roping up on one side of the ship we toss the newly ventilated crates of Red Orchid off the other side. Teng gets the freighter, no one gets the RO, everyone’s happy. Teng’s mate and a skeleton crew man the freighter and Teng ferries us back to the mainland. He tells us he can offer us 100,000Y for the ship. “Each?!” asks Gripper. “No, not each.” Teng also offers us his comm address in case we should ever need his services. As he goes back on deck the rest of us discuss the possibility of making Bender a bit faster. When we arrive at the Hong Kong dock there is a delivery addressed to Teng waiting. Gripper grins mischievously explaining that it is a barrel of rum for the good captain.
We find out pretty quickly that the move to drop the price of Tempo has been underway for a couple of days and already the competitors are taking a huge hit and Tempo is finding its way into mainstream usage. Henry would still like to keep us on retainer for a few more days. He has to attend to some KondOrchid business in Macao, and while he is away he would like us to watch Jorge for him. Well, no rest for the wicked. Besides, how tough could it be to watch a drugged dwarf?