I am tired. This is my third strong coffee. It probably works by placebo effect. I’ve noticed that many things have no physiological effect anymore. I can eat chilis including getting the taste, but the aftertaste vanishes very soon. I did test that yesterday evening. Our cook is Indian on this ship. We have had something to celebrate. It is not every day that your world beats off an alien invasion. No, I did not drink. I simply have not gotten enough sleep. Our captain has considered that. I have two sailors with me whose job it is to keep me awake.
--
Seitenhuber Facility
E: This is it.
He lifts up a thin tube with a conical bottom and a plastic lid.
K: Let’s put this into the analysis chamber for components. It’ll take a bit of time . So we can use the time to check for a salt spike … . Those meatheads have not plotted them. Give me a few minutes to get the samples organized geometrically …
--
The day is turning a bit windy. The navy is taking such things seriously. We’ve just gotten a package with gear for rainy weather. I would check the weather forecast, but we are passing through an evacuated area, no cell service right now. Shall I buy a fancy satellite phone?
--
Seitenhuber Facility
K: Here we are. Wait, that gives us four ritual circles.
E: That little piece of shit looted their corpses
K: Indeed
E: That explains why he could use the weapon. Like many hard men Rademacher had one sentimental feature. He kept his old wands around.
K: No, uncle, remember the report Rademacher gave a weapon to that guy.
E: The report of a mad woman.
K: Yes. Let me play advocatum diaboli. I know you have never been in the field. No offense that was just how things were done then. Fighters in the field; healers in the back. I would just say that this was an ongoing battle and I needed to recover the potions and equipment the fallen carried in their storage spaces. In fact I would loot them under the circumstances.
E: And then „forget“ to return the unused loot and equipment?
K: Well … I want a lawyer.
E: Don’t worry. Like most times we have learned that we need to investigate more. And that we will. I will cut up that bastard von Bülow. He was category 1 though you wouldn’t have learned that from his manners. According to them he was category 5.
K: According to the report He got the cores to go to category 2 when he inherited the house leadership three months ago.
E: Then he was truly a fatherless bastard. Rademacher liked him, though.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
K: You talked about him.
E: Not when I could avoid it. It must have been some Prussian thing. Apparently the thing was mutual. Rademacher even told me that they both had their wands and staffs constructed with a suicide overload beam function.
K: You’ll drive to the morgue now?
E: No, tomorrow right away from home. Today we look at the residuals on that vial. The dead won’t run away.
--
The very first drop of rain hits me. Given the state of our heads I think most people on deck actually welcome rain. Though it makes spotting some monsters harder. No way around that. The wind is getting gusty. Will that harm or hinder the flying monsters? Given our luck they probably enjoy it.
Lightning shines on the horizon. The navy men with me ensure me that it will hit the mast, if it hits our ship. The mast is quite cool. It folds to let us pass under bridges. Dejan and Ulrike are showing up bearing lunch trays. We usually eat it up here, so that I can keep scanning for auras from the place the navy thinks best.
U: You are getting your lunch early because the cook thinks that soon the weather will make a decent meal impossible.
She tells the navy men that they are dismissed.
D: I’ve switched to the interior room for rituals.
P: Good. Let’s eat.
--
Seitenhuber Facility
E: This stuff has decayed quickly. As can happen with looted stuff.
K: We are not getting good readings anyway. For most components I can usually only tell what they are not. For some patterns we are getting no matches at all.
E: I’ve seen this a times or two. Generally speaking.
K: Where?
E: Stuff we had captured from the Cabal.
--
We are in a hurry to finish lunch. Watered down Palak Paneer is not very appealing. It has started raining in earnest. The sailors have put a kind of condom over the gun muzzles. The urge to page Dr. Freud becomes overwhelming, but I suppose you do not want your cannon to rust on the inside. It must be bad for ballistic performance.
The ship even starts swaying a bit. I turn away from them and my chair and slide to face forward in preparation for playing Rose on the Titanic again. I hear a surpressed choking behind me, just as it hits my aura sense.
Ulrike is turning green. And not from smearing Palak Paneer on herself.
D: Morning sickness.
P: I see, can you get her down the ladder?
He supports her from the side and I approach to aid them. That is the moment the ship takes a dip that makes her lose it. It is referring to her lunch. I get my legs vomited on.
What lowers the bow will eventually make it rise again.
The deck of the ship has a surface designed to increase your grip. The gun turret is a hastily built later addition. Its surface is painted steel plate. Rain alone makes it slippery. Palak Paneer and digestive fluids don’t help. I tumble towards them. We fall. Somehow Ulrike hits her head on the edge of the slide. There is quite some blood.
P: Shit! Are you concious?
U: Ouch.
D: Go down the ladder and I’ll lower her to you.
I catch her basically. I am strong now. I can carry a woman in my arms at a sprint, if I have to. Now I have. We are sprinting towards the corpsman in the infirmary.
The corpsman is applying pressure to the wound, staunching the bleeding. „This will need stitches. Any allergies?“ he asks. „No, but she is pregnant“ Dejan replies. „That’s not the part she hit“.
He uses a local analgesic. I should have noticed that. My aura senses are down! I extend them and notice a bronze rank monster aura. The alarm sounds.