The Paela’s engines screamed as it spun toward the Antelarke. The sea-borne vessel accelerated just at the right time resulting in a near miss as the Paela plummeted into the water near its stern.
“Great heavens! What was that?” cried out Lerot.
“It looked like it came from the wall of mist.” said Jonit as they rushed over to the rail to look.
Hatch grabbed their helmsman by the shoulder. “Stop the ship!” he cried out. “The airship just went down. We have to go help them.”
Worther was already pulling a lever putting the engines into reverse. The ship chugged along for a bit before grinding to a halt.
“We still have radio contact?” asked Lerot. “See if we can’t get a response.”
Suddenly Jonit’s suit sounded an alarm.
“Pathogenic material detected. Activating automatic protective measures.”
His helmet sprung up from his suit and enclosed his head.
“What’s happening, Jonit?” asked Leyna.
“I’m not sure.” he said, “But there may be something toxic in the air.”
The main orange cloud was still about 5 kilometers away, but there appeared to be a slight trail of orange leading to the downed airship.
“No radio response”, said Hatch. “You think that orange stuff is toxic?”
“We had better use a bubble spell, just in case,” Leyna said. “Come here, Paern.” She pulled the boy close, weaving her fingers through the air. The air began shimmering around his head.
“Good idea” said Hatch, he closed his eyes and the air around his head began to shimmer as well. The others followed suit. Hatch went over to a speaker and spoke into it. “Attention crew, bubbleheads on, looks like we have some bad air coming in. I repeat bubbleheads on, there's something toxic in the air.”
One of the crew members from the deck below appeared at the head of the staircase to the helm. It was a tan muscular older woman with gray streaked brown hair tied in a braid.
“What’s happening up here? Why are we bangin’ around like this?” she asked. “Worther, you forget how to steer? And what’s this about a toxic event?”
“Oey don’t look at me, Tilda, I jus’ followin orders.”
“There’s a downed Horizon scout airship off starboard quarter.” Hatch said. “We’ve stopped to go render aid.”
“How’d that even…” Tilda began.
Lerot spoke up, taking on a surprisingly authoritative tone. “That orange cloud is approaching fast, also it seems like it’s poisonous or something, so we need to move quickly.” He reached out his hand over the ship’s console. Sparks flew from his fingertips onto what appeared to be a blank black panel. “Now I’ve got a small fast surveyor boat we can deploy to go get a closer look at the wreckage. I’d say it can hold 20 people if you cram in a bit. We’ll keep the main ship moving at a distance in case more stuff comes flying out of that mist.” A loud rhythmic beeping sound started along with a mechanical whir from the front of the ship.
In the end it was determined that Lerot, Worther, Leyna, and Paern would stay with the Antelarke, while Hatch, Jonit, Tilda, and the other two crew members would go on the rescue mission. The rescue team said their goodbyes and good lucks to those staying with the ship and regrouped on the deck below where the survey boat awaited them next to the now open rear of the ship.
Floette was a rather petite slight woman with dark slanted eyes and rather deep reddish hair. Her hair was the closest to black amongst all the inhabitants of Passaway that Jonit had seen thus far. Floette was the cook in charge of the galley as well as the one who kept track of and moved supplies or cargo on and off the ship. This surprised Jonit until he learned that she had the strongest magic out of all of them. Magic apparently sapped physical strength so those who had a high natural conversion rate of calories to magic tended to look smaller physically. Despite the rather stern look on her face, she had a rather relaxed nature.
The final crew member was a rather pale thin violet eyed bespectacled young man by the name of Tommen. The first thing Jonit noticed about him was his rather peculiar messy blue hair. He was the head engine mechanic and overall maintenance crew of the ship. His pale complexion was due to him spending most of his time below deck fiddling with the inner workings of the ship. He was a quiet fellow and often time just blended into the background. His glasses had multiple lenses that he could swivel on or off to enhance his vision in various ways, and he had what appeared to be a contraption strapped to his back with three mechanical appendages: two hands and a flashlight. Alongside the extra limbs he also carried a backpack that contained various tools which he would retrieve with the mechanical arms.
Tilda was a sort of jack of all trades that helped out where she could. She worked mainly on the deck and was a sort of relay between the bridge of the ship and the underworkings. She also fired most of the weapons on the ship. There was a smaller rapid fire weapon near the front of the ship as well as one torpedo tube. Off the sides there were a few harpoons and some nets, but the ship's most unique aspect was the rather large mechanical claw that was used to extract objects from the ocean floor. Tilda was the go-to crew member to work this thing.
And so with the rescue team all on board the survey boat (which they had named Larky) they were off. They sped toward the Paela skating over the smooth glassy ocean. The skyship appeared to be on fire, and there were a few figures thrashing in the water. As they approached, Jonit noticed there was an orange smoke emanating from part of the wreckage.
“Oh gods, what are they doing over there?” Tilda asked, pointing. Jonit looked and saw humanoid figures throwing themselves at others. A few of the Paela’s crew members were using magic to knock them aside, but a few were caught by surprise and fell, thrashing, into the water. As they got near the stern of the tilting ship, they heard a woman’s voice shouting commands.
“Bubble-spells full body, don’t let any of the mist touch you!” It was Captain Henlon. This was their first time seeing her. They could see her short blonde hair bob and spin as she turned, shouting orders and blasting away attackers with magic. She and six other crew members were standing at the raised open bridge of the ship. They were fighting off what appeared to be other crew members. One of her companions fired off a projectile weapon at a crew member below who took it straight to the head, exploding open in an orange bloody mess. However instead of going down, a bloody tendril erupted from the gaping hole where its head was and speared the offending crew member in the neck. Caught by surprise, he grasped desperately at his throat before tendrils erupted from his chest and face killing him. The pair were suddenly vaulted into the water by magic. “These things don’t die, knock them away as far as possible!” shouted the captain.
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They were only a couple meters away now. Hatch cupped his hands to his mouth, the air around his hands shimmered and his voice reverberated like a loudspeaker, “AHOY Captain Henlon! You need help?”
She turned to look at them finally noticing them in the heat of the battle. However, so did two of the mutated sailors fighting her. Another one that was crawling up the side of the skyship also swiveled its head around, bones cracking. It suddenly leapt at their boat with such force that one of its legs tore off.
“I got him.” said Floette as the twisted sailor splattered midair as if hitting an invisible wall. The cook waved her hand as if swatting a fly and the creature flew into the water trailing bloody residue. The other two sailors quickly followed as they made similar leaps for their boat.
“Quick, let’s get them out of there.” Hatch said as he steered the boat closer. “They look like they're running low on magic and weapons.”
Captain Chloe Henlon was shouting something at them and pointing at the water. “...watch out for the water, don’t touch it!”
The water appeared to be clearly tainted by something, it was clouded by oil, but also blood and something orange. Jonit’s headgear tracked something or somethings writhing underneath the surface. A spray of water splashed onto the boat as Hatch swerved to avoid falling debris from the Paela. Jonit and Tilda were caught in the face by a reddish spray. The water scattered off Tilda’s bubble enchantment on her head but drenched her right arm. Jonit’s suit immediately started blaring warnings as the red “water” began extending tendrils, winding around his armor in an attempt to find cracks.
An automated voice from his suit announced, “Pathogenic material detected, decontamination measures strongly advised! Pathogenic material detected, decontamination measures strongly advised!” while a flashing popup appeared on his helmet. He accepted decontamination measures and stepped away from the others as his suit began glowing gleaming white-hot.
Tilda, on the other hand, began swearing profusely and hovering her left hand over her right arm.
“It’s eating into my arm!” She yelled, “Shit-fire I can’t pull it out. Tommen, help a lass out here!”
“...uhm… ok… yess’m” He muttered as he shuffled over, his violet gaze flickering about nervously. He flicked a few lenses into place over his right eye and began concentrating his focus. He began extricating small particles of orange material, collecting them in a small semicircle floating around Tilda’s arm.
Floette made a sweeping motion with her hand, magically pooling the living liquid that had splashed onboard, unrooting writhing tendrils from the railings as she went. She collected it all into an undulating orange ball before lobbing it back into the water.
Chloe and her crew totalled only four people by the time they arrived. She quickly ushered the other three to jump one by one overboard onto Larky. The water began buckling and swaying underneath them. One of the survivors almost fell into the water but Floette caught them quickly and scooped them aboard. The boat stabilized a bit as Floette concentrated on it.
There was suddenly another whoosh as an orange trail arced toward them across the sky. Floette raised both arms and there was a thrumming sound as something large bounced off her barrier. Floette was beginning to look fatigued and she stumbled. One of the mist-turned crewmembers from the Paela shot out a tendril at her. Jonit quickly jumped in, raised his left arm and shielded, deflecting the tendril. He followed up in a swift motion with his sword searing through the appendage. It flopped onto the deck writhing about until Tilda, still being healed, began focusing on it. It slowly stopped moving and turned black as if burnt to a crisp and stopped moving.
Finally, the last crew member was safe on the evacuation boat and Captain Henlon leapt overboard, her short platinum hair fanning out around her face. Suddenly a red appendage erupted from her chest. She flailed helplessly as the appendage wrapped around her pulling her back. Floette reached out her arm, but she was too tired and collapsed. The crewmember she had rescued earlier leapt forth to catch her unconscious form while Hatch took over quickly trying to stabilize the boat. Seeing the others unable to help, Jonit powered up his suit and jumped up a couple meters to rescue the captain. He slashed the appendage and deflected two more aimed at them. In a single almost graceful move, he landed safely on the boat with her under his arm.
“Let’s get out of here!” yelled Jonit as the waves became harsher.
Hatch turned the wheel and pushed a lever; the boat turned and revved, churning the crimson waters. Something was holding them in place. He closed his eyes for a moment, probing with his magic. The air had become thickened as the mist was almost upon them. There was a faint heavy thudding sound coming from the encroaching orange wall. Waves crashing in from the sea. Jonit suddenly realized that while a normal planet with a normal sea, waves would have been quite ordinary, the sea here was supposed to be still. This meant something was making those waves.
There was a ripping sound and suddenly the boat lurched away. There was a collective sigh of relief. Jonit settled Chloe onto the deck and bent down to check on her. She was choking on her own blood with a gaping wound in her chest.
“Is there a medic around? Does anyone know how to fix this?” Jonit yelled.
“Our field surgeon was one of the first to turn.” said one of the rescued crewmates as he crouched down next to Jonit. “The rest of us only know basic aid.” Two of the other rescued came over while the last one, who had been saved by Floette, stayed behind still cradling her unconscious form in his arms.
“Tommen go on, I'll be fine,” said Tilda. “Me arm’s mostly good at this point, I can handle the rest.”
Tommen scurried over, flicking the lenses on his glasses and picking his way through the small crowd with the robotic appendages. He muttered a bit to himself and shined the light over the captain’s wound and began working the flesh together with magic. “...uhm c-can someone please keep that spot clear of bl-blood for me…?” he said with a faint nervous voice pointing at the captain’s severed trachea. The Paela’s crew members couldn’t really hear him and looked at him with confusion, murmuring.
“Oh for god’s sake Tommen, speak up!” Tilda hollered, “You heard him! Keep that area clear of blood!” The three of them jumped to action at her commanding tone.
While they worked to save Chloe, Jonit turned to Hatch, “How’s the boat doing, did it take any damage from the attacks?”
Hatch turned his hazel eyes to meet Jonit’s. He had a furrowed brow. “Whatever that mist was, it spread to the water. I tried scraping it off with magic, but I’m running low. Something’s eating away at the bottom of the ship, rusting it away into… something”
The waves were becoming harsher, and the distant thumps were becoming not so distant. There was a whooshing noise and suddenly someone shouted. “Incoming!”
The water next to them burst open with the force of the impact as the boat narrowly missed the projectile. Jonit looked back and then he saw it.
“What in the gods’ name is that?” gasped Tilda.
A massive towering figure emerged from the mist… no it appeared the mist was coming from it. Its body appeared to have numerous bulbous protuberances that spewed orange mist as it moved. The sound of its colossal footstep blasted their ears as it crashed into the sea sending cascading waves over the surface. The figure looked like a large bloody organic mass, gleaming pale and pink in the glaring white sky. It stood easily one kilometer tall with rivers of blood streaming off of it.
They all stood awe-struck at the sight. As the air quieted mid-stride and the giant shifted its weight to take another step, Jonit could hear it faintly: the distant thudding sounds of more in the distance.