The Misfits settled into a new routine aboard the Seafarer. Deathberry spent his time examining the magical artifact that kept the ship running. Despite the fact that in 2070 there was less demand for petroleum fuels than historically, there were still a large number of refineries and oil extraction facilities. The difference was that almost all of the work in these facilities was automated. Humans weren't as efficient as their machine counterparts, and therefore, oil tankers, such as this one, were completely automated. With the electrical grid completely halted by Precious One, there was no way that the pirates would have been able to utilize the tanker and so they had found or created a magical device that could turn on the old tanker's diesel engines and run the great ship. From the notes that the captain had made in his log it looked like they had been bound to Brisbane and back to the port city.
When Deathberry and Thag had first taken over the ship while the rest of the crew were fighting, Thag had secured the captain and the crew in the brig. They had put up some resistance, but after nearly being decimated by one of Deathberry's deathbolts, they had decided to surrender without any further fighting. Currently, the crew was secured in the brig and one of the Misfits guarded them at all times. Smashit had been conflicted about what to do with the crew and they decided that they would make a quick detour and drop of the crew before heading further out to sea.
It was going to be a long journey to California, and Smashit worked with Deathberry to make sure he fully understood the sextant and other ancient navigational tools. Unfortunately, since the world Net no longer functioned, the vast array of digital information that Aeon had stored in its database was all they could to use for their journey. They would have to rely upon what Smashit gleaned from online texts about how ancient wayfarers made their way around the earth. GPS satellites no longer functioned and the array of digital tools that the ship had onboard its computer system were largely useless without functioning real time navigation.
Standing in the giant control room of the massive tanker ship, Smashit thought about how vast the sea must have appeared to his ancestors. It was approximately mid-day and he looked out at the ocean through the control window at a completely blue sky that had a shade of violet on the horizon. According to Aeon only part of the world had sustained the damage that the outback near them had sustained, and Smashit hoped that perhaps there were still some parts of the world that were relatively undamaged. Only time would tell, but perhaps their boss Mr. Tiel was safely holed up in his bunker enjoying the amenities of late 21st century life and there would be no more fights with strange mutant creatures. It was a dream but one that sustained Smashit.
They dropped off the crew on an empty shoreline not far from Brisbane a few days later. Making their way out to sea, Smashit tested his tools and evaluated the hard copy maps that he'd printed for the voyage. The tools were crude but there was a resilience to them that digital copies didn't have. Of course, Smashit could access digital tools back at the bunker at any time since he and the Misfits were still there but the game immersion felt so real he sometimes forgot and had to be reminded by Aeon to log off and actually eat.
During their voyage, Smashit noticed that Miles and Emmy had been spending a lot of time together. Since Kevin's betrayal, Emmy had stepped away from the group and become colder and more like the woman he had known when they first met. She never spoke about it but there must have been some terrible occurrence in her past that prevented her from really opening up and letting the rest of them in. While they travelled in game together and helped each other on numerous quests, Smashit realized he didn't really know much about their friend and his fellow tank. She had always been the one he could rely on for competent off-tanking and a support role that bolstered his own confidence when leading the Misfits. He hoped that the two of them would be able to open up a bit for each other. What Smashit knew of his good friend Miles was that he was always a good listener and while he knew that it would take time he hoped that some of Emmy's wounds from the past would heal. Perhaps she could heal his friend's indignities as well. Smashit was totally aware of the hardships that had befallen his friend Miles and his family when he was younger. Despite the fact that his brother Eric had worked so hard to develop his business, it seemed like their family just couldn't catch a break. There was also the fact that Miles had been abandoned by his father. Smashit couldn't really put himself in his friend's shoes since his parents had always been so supportive, but he tried to imagine what it was like growing up without a dad. It must have been a difficult thing to bear as a child and he was sure that Miles still felt incomplete in some ways.
Linca and Seona had become fast friends on the voyage. Seona was such a great listener and he knew that while Linca hid it well, the loss of her close friend Shelly was only two weeks old. It still cut Smashit to realize how badly he'd failed his guildmates by allowing Kevin to betray them like that. While Seona's cognitive behavior therapy had taught him that he couldn't control every bad thing that had happened to their guild or to his friends, he still felt terrible about how Shelly had died. If only he had been the one to take his normal chair. Would Kevin have felt remorse? Maybe not, Smashit mused.
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Deathberry's hand startled him as it came to rest on his shoulder, waking him out of his reverie. “How's everything running down below in the engine room? Smashit asked.
Deathberry replied, “Everything is running perfectly. I've spent the last few days and have a reasonably good understanding of how the artifact works. I'm still working on the theory but mana here seems to have replaced the need for electricity. Our Gears work based on the principal of making electrical impulses appear as magic in game. However, that is not how magic appears to be working for the rest of the world that we're now encountering. Precious One clearly has changed some of the laws of physics as we know them. Mana now appears to be the dominant source of energy storage. I've continued to collect more data and Aeon and I are analyzing it. Hopefully, I should have a more complete picture of how things work in a few more weeks. If Mr. Tiel is alive and well in San Francisco, he might also be able to provide some additional answers.”
That was a lot to take in. Smashit asked what was on his mind at that moment. “Do you know enough to recreate what the artifact is doing in the engine room? Could we use this for our own purposes?”
“Theoretically that should be possible; however, I'm still trying to better understand how our Gears are currently functioning. In the world before the AI apocalypse, none of this would have worked. Now the rules have changed and it is unclear to me how it works despite the fact that it is functioning right in front of us,” Deathberry explained. “As humans we are now behind the evolutionary time scale that Precious One is on. Even Aeon cannot fully understand what had been created just yet.”
“Ok, keep working on your tests. Maybe we can figure it out. We're not going to survive for very long on this world now if we are just a throw away species,” Smashit replied. Of course, it had seemed like humanity had passed that point of no return with computers and robotics over a decade ago. It was just a matter of time before they were all rendered obsolescent. Just like Smashit's depression, lingering on that detail wasn't bound to inspire any great action so he shoved it to the back of his mind and focused on what they could do.
Suddenly, the ships alarm sounded. Cheezus came rushing onto the bridge and yelled, “Battle stations! There is a giant fucking squid trying to smash the boat apart.” Linca and Thag were hot on his heels and Seona was not far behind them.
This Misfits ran outside to the main deck behind the bridge. The sky remained crystal blue, belying the danger that they were all apparently in. Over the side of the deck, Smashit spotted four giant tentacles that towered over the massive ship. For those tentacles to be towering over the ship, whatever creature it was attached to must have been absolutely massive. What the hell had they gotten themselves into this time?
“Cheezus are there any weaknesses that you can detect in those tentacles?” Smashit asked. Cheezus shook his head. Looking up, Smashit could see that each tentacle was a Level ? creature so it must be at least a dozen or so levels higher than the highest of their levels which was level 49. And there were four of them on this side of the ship alone. This was going to be a problem.
Seeing the impossibility of their situation he turned to Seona, who was their lowest level guildmate and said, “Please secure one of the lifeboats and get it ready for departure. We'll try to give you as long as we can but there is no way we can defeat this creature that I can see.”
Seona looked at him as if she were going to protest but said nothing and turned away to run towards the nearest lifeboat, which thankfully was not in reach of any of the nearby tentacles. Smashit turned to the rest of his guildies and with a grim look they nodded back. This was going to be a hell of a fight and there was no way they could win. It was going to be a battle to stay alive long enough for Seona to secure their rescue.
Minutes later seemed like hours to Smashit as he threw up his shield wall ability once again now that it had come off cool down. Without Seona there to switch heal, Linca was in emergency triage mode, as she desperately cast her healing spells on him and Thag again and again. Each hit that they took without a tanking or healing cooldown would take off nearly a third of their health and it was only a matter of time before they lost one of them. Finally, he received the message that Seona was in place and they could escape to the life raft. Thag and Cheezus had heard the announcement in raid chat and the three of them acting in concert timed their next stuns to lock the tentacles they were fighting in place and run to the lifeboat.
The next few minutes were a blur as the Misfits ran for their lives. Several times, one of them would be caught by a tentacle and one of the four of them would have to use a stun, shield bash, or the like to get their raid member free and to keep running. Finally, they reached the lifeboat which was already floating in the water below. This was going to be a tricky thing to survive but they were going to have to jump.
Hitting the water was the last thing Smashit remembered.