by Jesse Wilson
He'd seen it many times before with Necromancers that came through the Morglands looking for supplies.
“This ship at least belongs to the Delrax Cult,” Tayne said as he made his way out before he discovered anything else horrible about this ship. “So, the forbidden god has something to do with unicorns? I mean I wouldn't be surprised if old squid face did, but there is no proof Delrax even exists besides a delusional group of necromancers like this one,” Rex said and Tayne nodded.
“Well, these people, if you can call them that, think it does and that's enough for me. After the Blade incident and the Gods actually showing up, who knows what else is lurking out there? I just don't know what he was doing all the way out here. Necromancers don't like the water,” Tayne added and took another look into the ship as Rex did too and unlike the vampire, Rex nearly gagged at what he saw.
“How many people were killed for this, whatever I am looking at?” Rex wondered out loud and Tayne didn't even want to guess. The skin pages were basically wall paper. “We need to let Evie take a look at this, maybe she can see something we didn't,” Rex said and backed away from the vile ship in a hurry.
“Oh yeah, she's going to love that job for sure,” Tayne added and there was only a minute of silence between them as they stared at it. Finally, Rex picked up his communicator.
“Evie, I'm going to need you to come up holding bay two, I have a job for you,” he said into it. “On my way,” she replied almost immediately. Within seconds she was there in a dim column of blue light.
Immediately she saw the black, empty robe of the necromancer on the ground. “What in the hell happened down here?” she asked, her arm was already healed from Boz's Nano shot. “We think a Delrax cultist was on the ship, but it's what we found inside, you're not going to like it,” Rex said to her and took another deep breath. Evie turned and looked at the small ship and walked towards it.
She could smell the death coming out of the hatch long before she got there and blamed the nanites for messing with her senses. Something like this should have alerted her magically right away, yet she felt nothing and still did this close to it.
“Oh Elrox, what in the hell did this freak do?” she asked as she looked in to see all the skin pages pinned to the walls. “We just need to know what it says, if you can't figure it out we are sending this thing to crime labs and they can take it from there,” Rex said to her and Evie hated what she was looking at.
“Alright, I understand. I'll do my best to figure it out but no promises,” she said, took a deep breath and walked inside. “I sure hope she figures something out,” Tayne said quietly to mostly himself.
Evie stepped inside of the Necromancer's ship that was full to the brim with insanity. The first reaction she had was the same one she had when it came all necromancers, disgust. “Vile,” she said to herself, but reminded herself what she was here to do. She waved her hand and summoned a purple light.
“Gyo” she said and hoped for the best. The purple light spread through the chamber and waited. Slowly, the arcane codes engraved on the flaps of skin began to form something that resembled a language. Evie tilted her head and tried to read the words, but she only knew what the language was and not how to read it. “It's Jurlian,” she said to herself in a huff.
“Always Jurlian with these people,” she complained and got back out of the chamber.
“It's typical Necromancer Code, Jurlian,” she said to the two of them. Tayne shook his head “I hate that the Necromancers use a primitive, dead language and can't they make things easy for us?” he asked no one and Rex nodded in agreement. “Well, we don't have any experts on the dead language on board. We need to port this and everything on it to labs back in the city,” Rex said and looked at Tayne.
“We're going to Mocra Industries,” Rex finished and walked away. Evie shuddered, she hated all the things about Mocra, but most mages tended to because of the science and mystical battle that was ever present.
“Fine, but don't expect me to be very nice about it,” she said quietly as he left. “Context I suppose, I found a chip on the bot that is directly connected to the company. We're going there but we don't need to be nice. We have questions that need answers,” Tayne said and Evie smiled, she was happy for that, at least.
Chapter 11
In the sick bay, Nymie and Drask were already awake. “I still don't know what happened, I all remember was a wall of water then everything went black,” Drask said, rubbing her forehead. “Same here. Everything was bad then it went to terrible, the sky fell in and I remember panic,” Nymie agreed and Boz walked over to him. “Well it's good to see you're alright. Some idiot panicked when they saw the explosions of the Pyre horn and deactivated the shield without warning anyone,” Boz said to them and Drask narrowed her eyes.
“If I find out who did that I am going to kill them,” she said angrily. “No worries, the tower fell on the man who did it and killed him instantly,” Boz added and turned away. “Well, good, that saves me the trouble of doing it myself,” Nymie agreed with Drask about killing him and Boz took a deep breath.
“In lighter news we picked up a stowaway, a damaged utility robot that needs repairing,” Boz said and Drask sat up. “Really, that'll give me something to do, why are we moving?” she asked and Boz shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know. You'll have to ask Rex or someone because I've been stuck in here putting you two back together,” he replied to her and kept his cool as best as he could.
Nymie stood up and stretched to make sure everything still worked. Boz pretended not to notice her. “You two better go get caught up and do whatever it is we're doing next,” he said and Drask too stood up. “Yeah, I'll go see about this robot we brought on board. It'll give me something to do,” she said and walked out. Boz turned to face Nymie.
“Hey, if you're not busy later we could get something to eat. I mean barring any horrible emergencies or anything,” he asked her and tried not to show that he was nervous. She looked down as she approached him. “Sure, why not, I'll contact you when I know I'm free,” she replied to him with a slight smile.
Despite being tall for an elf, Nymie made him look short. She was almost eight feet tall and he liked that. She walked off and he did his best not to watch her leave. The sliding doors closed behind her and Boz sighed, he only hoped now no one decided to mention the shield tower incident and ruin this for him. He was kicking himself for lying about all of this but he really didn't want to die at the hands of someone he liked.
Boz had other plans, at least, in his own mind he saw things far in the future that for now only existed in dreams.
Drask made her way to engineering and found a worker sitting on a bench rubbing his throat by the door, he looked scared. She knew who it was right way. “Niver, why are you just sitting there doing nothing,” she asked him without looking. “That vampire Tayne encouraged me to scan some chip he found aggressively, with his hand. He nearly strangled me,” he said, but couldn't bring himself to look at her.
“It won't happen again, take the rest of the day off, unless I need you,” Drask said and walked away from him. “The chip is in scanner three, it's about half way done,” Niver replied as he walked out of the room. “Oh, someone teleported that machine in here, it gives me the creeps,” Niver said as he walked away.
Drask walked to scanner three and looked inside. “Well a Mocra control chip. Looks like a mod job,” she said to herself but didn't exactly know how it worked. Hello, I am Unie, how are you?” the machine asked and Drask jumped, she didn't even hear it approach.
“So you are. Um, welcome aboard the Voltarice and man what happened to you?” she asked looking at the damaged, burned form machine.
“I was attacked by a unicorn. I was damaged,” Unie replied. Drask figured that, she was hoping for more information. “Okay, well I have a repair pod you can use over here you should come with me so we can make you whole again,” Drask said and began to walk. The machine followed her. The two of them came to a
silver pod and with a push of a button it slid open.
“Please, enter. Don't be afraid. I won't dismantle you. I happen to like machines,” she said almost nervously. The machine stepped in. “I know what fear is, but I don't think I know how to express it. I will trust you,” she said, turned around. The silver door closed. Drask pushed a few more buttons and the process began. “Good as new in no time,” she said.
Nymie walked on to the bridge and stood beside Rex's chair. “Hey, what are we planning now?” she asked Rex couldn't help but notice her show up and wasn't surprised. “Glad to see you're alright. We are on our way to Mocra Industries to ask the ones in charge a few questions. Tayne found a chip connected to them. Someone modified it and we need to know who,” Rex said and Nymie shook her head.
“Wouldn't a phone call work just fine for this, it feels like a wasted trip to me,” she replied and Rex laughed.
“No, we were almost killed by someone who figured out how to control a unicorn, we have to do this in person. I'll let you ask the questions if you want. Also, we captured a Delrax necromancer, but once I shot him in the head he kind of lost his ability to answer questions. Inside the ship was filled with Jurlian text that we had to send to a crime lab to figure out what it said, you don't want to know what it was printed on,” Rex said to her and Nymie shuddered.
“Delrax tend to be the worst, but not all necromancers are bad. I've known a couple of good ones here and there,” she replied with a smile.
Rex just smirked, “I'll bet you did,” he replied and continued. “It's going to take about three hours before we get there. We have it covered up here, go take a break or something if I need you I'll be sure to call everyone,” Rex said and Nymie nodded. “Sounds good to me,” she said, turned around and walked off the bridge. She lifted her communicator.
“Hey Boz, I'm free right now. If you're still up for it I'll meet you in the mess hall in a few minutes. I'm on my way there now,” she said to him.
“I'll be there very soon,” he replied to her.
Chapter 12
Boz and Nymie met in the mess hall at about the same time. Boz waved slightly and the two of them met at a table near the center of the room and sat down. “So, how are you?” Boz asked her and Nymie shook her head. “Really, we just talked like ten minutes ago and this is your opening line, what's the matter?” she stared down at him and Boz blinked.
“Uh, no I'm actually just, well I ran out of things to say. I'm not that great at talking you know, it's a flaw of mine,” Boz said as the holographic menu appeared in front of them and the two of them began pressing what they wanted.
Boz only wanted something light, her, on the other hand began to push several buttons. “Damn, you sure eat a lot,” Boz said out loud without thinking. “Yeah, you don't talk much, I eat too much. You of all people should know that Troll biology requires a lot of calories to keep going, at least ten thousand a day according to science,” she smiled and Boz felt like he got a lucky break, he didn't mind a woman who could eat a lot.
Boz was about to say something when all of the sudden the whole ship was rocked to the left. Nymie reached across the table and grabbed Boz before he could fly to the opposite wall. “What in the hell just hit us?” Boz asked, his arm was in pain due to her grip but hitting the wall would have been a lot worse. Six others were not so lucky as they slammed against the medal wall.
“All senior officers to the bridge, we have a problem,” Rex said over the radio. “A problem, really, I never would have guessed. Looks like lunch is going to have to wait,” Nymie said and with ease stood up as the ship began to right itself. “Come on let's there before there is another attack,” Boz said the obvious, Nymie ignored him as they made their way to the door.
“Six injured in the mess hall, get some teams up here. I need to go to the bridge and I will join when I can,” Boz said into his communicator before leaving.
Drask was looking at the chip when suddenly all the alarms began to blare and everything tilted to the left. “What the hell,” she said and hung on to a rail. She looked around and saw that everyone else did too. The ship was already righting itself when she moved towards the status console. “Magical energy detected? What in the hell hit us?” she asked herself as she read to herself.
“Drask, I'm not sure how they did it but we have four necro cruisers surrounding us, our wards are holding for now but we're going to need weapons online,” Rex said to her through a speaker. “Weapons aren't online, who in the hell is running this boat, who doesn't have their weapons online in the out waters all the time?” Drask complained but didn't waste any time. “Get the missiles and laser banks online, now,” she ordered and her crew scrambled to get to work.
Tayne and Evie were walking towards the bridge when the attack occurred. Evie slammed into Tayne but he was able to support and hold her up. “Get us to the bridge,” Tayne said to her and Evie tapped her staff on the floor. Instantly they were out of the hall and on the bridge, the blue light faded away. “We have four necro cruisers. When I broke their toy, they must have got some kind of a signal, we can take them but these are some pissed off wizards,” Rex said and Evie walked towards the viewing screen.
“Can we talk to them?” she asked and Rex honestly didn't even think about that. “Sure, we can try, hail them,” Rex ordered and Tayne ran to the communications station. “Open up all the channels just to make sure we get through to them,” Tayne ordered. “Yes Sir,” the officer replied and did so. “Talk when ready,” the man said.
“This is the Voltarice hailing the four necro cruisers that are currently shooting at us, we might have some kind of misunderstanding. Could you please talk to us so we don't have to wipe you out, your ships are no match for mine and you know it,” Rex said.
For a minute, there was no response.
“This is Delrax's sacred water, leave now or be destroyed,” a raspy voice replied to them. Rex, nor anyone else really knew too much about the cult so they had no idea what they held sacred. “Sorry, we didn't know, actually nobody held these waters. I have a question, before we go what do you know about controlling unicorns?” Rex asked them and again, silence for a full minute.
“Nothing, now leave or be destroyed. We may not be a match for your ship but you cannot stand against the whole fleet,” the voice responded and Rex rolled his eyes. “I get it, but we had a run in with one of your group and they fled the scene of a particularly vicious unicorn attack and there was a primitive glass golem there too, so if you didn't do it, someone is framing you. Thought you might like to know,” Rex replied to them. He wasn't going to mention the chip.
“We will send an envoy to your ship once you leave to discuss this more with you, follow the ship out and we will talk,” the voice replied “Lead the way,” Rex replied and nodded to Tayne to shut off the communications. “You're clear,” Tayne replied a second later.
“Well look at that, a reasonable Necromancer,” Rex said and Evie turned. “They aren't all bad, they just follow a different path is all. You have to understand that most of them want to be left alone. There are a few extremists out there who make them all look bad, let's follow them out of where ever we are and keep the peace,” she said and Rex didn't buy much of it, but didn't argue with her.
“Alright, follow that ship and let's see where we end up,” Rex said and didn't know what was coming next, but he was prepared for anything. He'd was going to be upset if the envoy ended up to be a pack of ghouls.
The Voltarice followed the much smaller necro cruiser for twenty-five minutes. Rex didn't know what was going on besides just following this thing and keeping an eye out for anymore traps. “We are here, disable your wards and I will come over to talk to you,” the raspy voice came over the radio. The ones who were on the bridge looked at one another.
“Evie, if you'd do the honors,” Rex said to her and she sighed. “Please don't make me regret this,” she said to herself and closed her eyes to deactivate the outer wards. Seconds later a col
umn of black smoke appeared and when it faded away a man was standing there in an actual nice, black suit. “Nice ship you have here,” he said to all of them in a very different voice than what was on the communicator. “Thanks, but let's make this quick. What do you know?” Rex was quick to get to the point.
“Right, A few months ago a sect of our organization reportedly discovered a blade when the others were unsealed. But this one remained sealed. It was in a cave deep in the black waters. On the way back home, they were attacked by a Hydro Horn, as you'd call it. This sect was mostly wiped out but one remained and out of desperation, presented the blade. The unicorn immediately stopped its attack,” the man in the suit said to him and the others were suspicious. “How do you know so much?” Rex asked.
“My home town was attacked and destroyed by a herd of Hydro horns six days ago lead by some maniac who seemed to control them. He had the blade with him, but it was still sealed. I, and some others escaped, but I saw the whole thing and everyone heard the maniac tell the story to us before he attacked,” the man said and looked down.
“Sixty people were slaughtered and their bodies were dragged away, I don't know why, but I know unicorns usually eat their victims, not take them away,” he added and rubbed his left arm. “So a necromancer is behind all of this, did you get a name?” Tayne asked and the man looked at him.
“The chill weed actually claimed to actually be Delrax. I am sure our God wouldn't kill us, at least I don't think so,” he replied.
“Alright, thank you for your time, we'll investigate this and if you're attacked again call us and we will be there,” Rex said and tossed a communicator to him.
“It's always on, someone will always be on the other end,” he finished and the Necromancer caught it. “A surface dweller would be willing to help us? You're weird, I'll inform the others of your generosity,” he said and Rex nodded. The very human looking necromancer disappeared in another column of smoke. Just as Boz and Nymie walked through the door to the bridge.
