Setting Sail

The party is getting ready to depart to the southern tower. Draut is pleased with his stockpile. Leoric has a stockpile of black noodles. Draut pays a visit to multiple shops, buying pure alcohol and 5kg of meat.

Sakiran goes to Big Jane's to sell Last Rites. There is a big crowd that has congregated around and she fires a shotgun into the air. There is a big shipment of water. Big Jane asked for her to intimidate and scare them away. She roars and swings Last Rites into the crowd. The crowd runs away, scrambling to get away from her. Big Jane thanks her and asks for her help in moving the water. Sakiran asks if she'll take the sword for money. Jane makes a face and asks if it's her culture. Sakiran makes a face. She gets some red ribbon and ties it, then attaches it to two bones. She asks about Zairan. Jane said he had been in town, and was there to speak to the "human big boss". Sakiran bids her well, saying they might never see each other again. Jane says never say never and smiles at her as Sakiran leaves.

Jaxon is in the bar by himself. He remembered a contact who had worked for the Gratus in the past. His name was Tiber and he was involved in the security office. He is kind hearted, despite working for Pryce. Jaxon decides that he will go to meet him. He goes down a few flights of stairs and sees Tiber standing guard with a few of his troopers. Tiber greets him, saying it is hot. Jaxon agrees. Tiber asks if he is alright, saying he looks troubled. Jaxon tells him that they are leaving the city. Tiber says oh jesus, why are you going there? Jaxon explains that they are going to the southern tower to try and fix the world. Tiber wishes him luck, saying he didn't get too much information but something is obviously happening. He tells him to try not to die. Jaxon says no promises. Tiber then goes away after someone is urinating on a wall.

There is a knock on the bar's door. Leoric answers the door. There is a massive orc. He looks down at him. His arm is as thick as Leoric's body and pushes into the bar. Sakiran asks if they will be coming back or if that is them going. A slender male elf steps out, cursing the orc. Sakiran picks up her sword and gauntlet and gets in the back with Leoric. Sakiran asks if Troff, the Orc, speaks Orc. He is suddenly much more articulate. Sakiran says her Orc isn't very good but her \*associate\* Jaxon speaks it. She turns her head away from him in disgust and stays in the corner away.

Troff offers him Orcish Firewater. Jaxon drinks it and it is like fire, with cinnamon and chilli overtones. Troff asks if it is good. Jaxon exhales a yes. Troff offers it to Sakiran, who refuses the drink. He offers it to the rest of the group. Leoric takes a drink without the nose. His tongue goes numb and he feels the fire burning. He keeps it down, but his breath is spicy. It hurts as it goes down. Draut dips a meatstick into the firewater. Troff winces. The flavour is slightly diffused as a dip, and it is quite pleasant.

They reach the port of the docks, with massive naval transport ships being loaded up. There are legions of orcs with the neural implants. They pull in towards the heavily guarded command area. They pull up next to a tent. The party get out. Pryce is talking to someone on a screen in a very heated argument. He turns the screen off and greets the party warmly. They all take a seat. Sakiran gives him Finisher and the gauntlet. He lingers, looking at the blade. He scratches off some dirt. He hands it to an aide and says to keep it safe.

Pryce says he has a bit of a briefing. He hands Jaxon and Leoric a piece of paper. On them is all of the information they have about Solor, the continent that they are heading to. They have lost all contact with any scouts they send. They will be provided with one troop transport and one of his aides. Troff, Ranius and Amalius. Amalius is skilled with Gratus and Altarnie computers. Troff is an orc. She has a full face mask with Gratus medium armour. She is mute. Draut tries to poke her, but it burns. Draut looks confused. The meat stick sizzles against her flesh and she bursts into flames. Leoric comforts Draut as he is upset. Draut points at Amalius. Sakiran agrees with him. Leoric and Jaxon also agree. Amalius curses his luck.

Ranius stands up and Leoric tries to kancho. A massive flame washes over him and Draut. Sakiran squares up to both of them, telling them to stop and that they don't have time to be doing any of this. Leoric says they were just trying to have fun. Sakiran tells them they don't have time for fun or anything like that. Through the mask, two red eyes glow.  Draut commands her to speak. Ranius projects a low, telepathic message into Draut. Ranius said if she wasn't bound, she would - Then the message ends as she glares at Draut. He glares back at her.

Pryce commands her to calm down as he holds up a small pad. The heat dissipates. Draut begins to laugh as Sakiran conjures Dancing Lights to distract him.

Pryce informed them that they have placed the tracking device back into the vehicle, and they are now conscripted.

They have a new vessel, a boat that will take them to Solor. They have a sailor, named Peters. Pryce tells them to keep an eye on him. Pryce tells them to keep heading south and to watch out, since the sea is very dangerous. He starts with Sakiran and holds his hand out to him. She asks what he is doing. He said in civilised society they shake hands. She did so. He shakes hands with Leoric, who does it with enthusiasm. He then shakes hands with Jaxon with a smirk. Draut clasps his hand with both hands firmly.

They see Retrieval Squads being put together. Leoric sees a familiar looking woman. He excuses himself. Leoric tells the guard he needs to speak to someone. The guard asks why he would want to speak to the walking dead. Leoric pays him 5 rands. He has five minutes. He goes over to Helvia. She notices him, anger flaring in her face. She curses him. Leoric tells her it was just business. He tells her he was seeing about buying her freedom. She says what, I ain't a whore. I'd rather die. He says nothing like that, just she was making their lives better. She points out everyone else. He says his business with her and to promise to keep out of trouble. She looks around and says she doesn't want to die and asks what his plan is. She is staring daggers at him. He goes over to the man who appears to be in charge. He is looking over reports of the retrieval squads. Leoric points towards Helvia and says he needs her for an assignment. He flashes his badge and says he could get Pryce to come over himself. The officer is persuaded and has one of his officers bring her over. He pushes her away. He tells her to get herself back to the lower levels. Helvia thanks him, but is careful to tell him he still hates her.  He goes back to the group and Sakiran leans into him, asking if it was the woman they spoke about. He confirms that it was. She tells him that it was kind of him to do that. Leoric says it was just the guilt keeping him up at night. Sakiran replied that she thought it was more than just guilt, and he was kinder than he thought. Leoric said he always had time to prove her wrong. Sakiran told him that she hoped he wouldn't prove her wrong.

Their APC is being wheeled onto the carrier. Pryce walks to them all, saying he has prepared a gift. He hands out armbands with a Gratus symbol on them. Draut rejects the armbands and questions Sakiran. She tells him if he has something to say then say it. He asks her why she is going along with it. She tells him they are the last chance she has to get her son back. Draut calls her a traitor and throws the band down, walking off. He tells Leoric to watch himself around Sakiran, as a traitor. Pryce tells Jaxon that he is ready to rejoin his people. Jaxon dropped the band and asked if they really thought he would go through with it. Pryce tells two men to take him away. Jaxon says he hopes to see her again. Sakiran says she doesn't.

Pryce turns to the remaining two and says he is glad they have no moral hangups. He hands Sakiran a bottle of Altarnie Ale and she thanks him. He bangs on the back and the boat sets sail.

The ship consists of three decks. The lower has storage, mid deck has bunks and workbenches, the upper has the deck and the control room.

There are a few crewmen on it. It is a very wide ship. The first twenty minutes of the journey are fairly peaceful. Sakiran is able to hold in her sickness to save face. Leoric is also just able to hold in his vomit.

They are now out of Gratus lands and sailing towards the ocean. The mist is starting to crawl in. Sakiran is getting very bad vibes, feeling on edge with a scratching sensation. She decided to stay out on deck, keeping an eye out in the darkness.

Leoric decided to try and disassemble some ammunition and see how it works. When he tries to disassemble it, it slips out of his hand and the tip hits the metal bench. It detonates with a big bang, which Sakiran hears from the outer deck.

Her mind starts to wander as it is featureless, hearing the waves in a calm sea. The mist seems to close in and get thicker as it is harder to breathe. Something brushes against her face, when she swipes there is nothing there. She feels touches on her exposed skin and whips around. She sees a face with two eyes that is swiped away.

Leoric hears slight scratching against the hull as the crewman are freaking out. They hear knocks on the wall, even though the sea is calm. He hears it coming from the floor. He goes to the command centre and meets the captain. He is a scraggly man with white hair and bad teeth. He asks what he can do for him. Leoric tells him there is something scraping against the hull. The captain says he knows. There are swarms of things around on the radar system. He sees Sakiran whirl and swipe at something that isn't there. The captain says that girl is having trouble. Leoric says he'll see if he can snap her out of it.

Sakiran hears footsteps and readies herself into a fighting stance, ready to attack. Leoric tries to flick her forehead but she dodges out of the way. Sakiran recognises him. She apologises and Leoric says it is fine. He tells her to get some rest after telling her that there are things being picked up all over the radar. As she is heading back to her bunk, she is woozy and the faces of crewmen seem like they are melting. She tries to ignore it and trances in the bunk.

Leoric tries again to disassemble the round. He is able to determine how it was made, but will need to take some time to study it.

The air becomes difficult to breathe down inside of teh cabin as they get closer and closer to Solor. The engine is struggling to move the ship, stuttering. Sakiran hears the crewman around her humming a tune to themselves nervously. They feel the boat latch on and drag as they are thrown against the wall with a crushing of metal. Alarms go off throughout the ship. Sakiran is awakened from her trance. She bursts out of the bunk and sees injured crewmen receiving medical aid. She hears gunfire hitting the water. Down the corridor she sees things coming down the steps, creatures with no defined form. She sees one latch onto the crewman with their tentacles, shredding him completely. She sees things taking fire but not dying.

It starts to speak, a very familiar feeling of her nanophage powers starting to activate. She tries to resist, but the words penetrate her mind as the claw manifests and the spines and tail lengthen. A crewman to her right is firing. In her lost control, her consciousness is pushed backwards so she can still see everything. She sees herself grab the crewman and tear into him with her claws, then pierces another with her tail right through the sternum and rips out his ribcage. She is horrified as she can do nothing to control it.

He sees dead crewman everywhere, then Sakiran is hunched on all fours, covered in blood with bone spines. She is feasting on a corpse. Next to her is a humanoid creature, whose top half is tentacles. It helps her up, grabs her by the hand and points towards Leoric.

Leoric is mortified. He holds his rifle up and shoots the tentacle being twice. It blows out a chunk of flesh. It hunches over but doesn't appear to have done that much damage. Sakiran tried to resist, but cannot break out of the mind. The tentacle being now looks like an old man, that tells her to go play. Leoric sees a creature gently tap her on the shoulder as the red pipes in her body glow fiercely. She is on all fours, using her tail to spring her along.

Leoric shoots down into her leg. He injects the stim and it didn't take. He runs past her, getting in close with the monster. She sees the surrounding of the cold ship fade into the plains. She sees a childish figure run saying "catch me catch me". She realises that the creature has the face of Leoric, and sees that she is in the hallway. She has managed to shake control. She starts hearing in the back her head "join, join, join, join"

She is still shaken, trying to punch into the being but it does not seem to damage it at all. She turns to Leoric and says it is her again. Leoric says the fight isn't over yet, eyes front. She smiles and turns to the monster again.

He unloads all of his rounds into the monster, coolly saying that it messed with the wrong person. In its death throes, it tries to grab him but fails. For a moment, she sees the fatherly face, then it disappears.

Sakiran notices that she has not reverted back yet. She asks that Leoric not look at her. He says don't worry about it, we aren't out of it yet. They make their way towards the stairs, hearing their own voices echo in their mind. Leoric tries his comm device, speaking into it. He asks Pryce to come in. Something comes back as a staticy voice underneath. It is a guttural language they don't understand. He puts it away.

The pair walk up the stairs, blood thick and sticky. It comes off their boots in stringy strands. They are now on the main deck. There is a thick mist, barely able to see a metre in front of them. Leoric activates his heat vision and sees there are flesh tendrils all over the ship. There are thick veins all around the ship. Sakiran looks down and the mist starts to look like beautiful white flowers. Leoric tells her to get a hold of herself and that they should press on.