Terror in the Deep: a Tale of PulchraGea

A Good Old Fashion Sea Cruise

Sivarren is a Skull Lord, a high ranking officer within the Skull Syndicate. It was him and his cell that murdered the people in Oasis. I don't know much about him besides his name, and even that might just be a title or something he made up. What I do know is that he and his little group of play-pals are going on a good old fashioned vacation in civilian clothes aboard the Coral Veranda, which is basically a submarine cruise ship, a suboceanliner if you will. It travels back and forth between Bay City and Crescent Island, a resort island of sorts.

So I buy my ticket, fly back to Argentum and pack my bags: a change of clothes, some Dive Gills in case things go underwater, a laser pistol for ranged fighting in corridors, and the Rangersword Champion for close quarters. There are things I want to bring in case combat gets heavy, but I can't without arousing suspicion. What I can do is bring someone to back me up. For a minute the old grief comes back and tears almost fill my eyes and choke me up. To think that a romantic retreat would have made the perfect cover, too. But no, I can't think about it right now. Instead, I pull my scroll out and dial up Douglas, my best friend and fellow Ranger, wielder of the ice-cutlass Frostbite. Within hours, Storm brings him and drops him off at the Bay City Launch.

"Will you require my assistance?" the Sirolhi warrior asks.

"No, we'll be indoors," I reply. "I don't think you'll fit inside."

"I can assume a form more suitable to aquatic environments," she reminds me. I shake my head.

"No, I need your eyes up here," I remind the fighter. "That way you can assemble the Rangers if anything comes up while we're down there."

"That is acceptable", she states. The sun reflected off her purple paint as her antigrav engines began to warm up for take off. The air around her crackled then snapped sharply as her energy shields came to life.

Doug and I turned and walked toward the Coral Veranda's dock at the downtown Cruise Center several blocks down the street. Doug doesn't say anything the whole way, very unlike him, until we're in the boarding line.

"The guy in the red shorts and black shirt," he finally points out quietly. "Been following us since we came out of the Launch."

"I know," I told him. "Law Officer deputy. He's reporting our activity to the Council of Law."

Doug was confused. "Why?"

I patted him on the back. "Just in case they show up and try to wreck the launch of the Veranda."

Doug nodded sagely. "Makes sense," he admitted. "But I don't think they will. I think their attack is planned for during the cruise or after we reach Crescent Island."

I concurred. "It'd be too easy to stop them here. They'll wait to attack until help is too far away to reach them in time."

"Do you think they know we're coming?" he asked. I nodded.

"I hope so, or this Sivarren isn't half the Skull Lord he claims to be," I told him. I shrugged my pack a little higher up on my shoulder. "I mean, when I go somewhere, It's not exactly a secret. But if he knows I'm here, he'll try to take me out with all likelihood; he'll play into my hands and reveal himself."

We handed our tickets to the waiting Deck Officer and entered the swanky atrium. once we enter the second set of bulkheads we enter the main chamber, a mostly open floor plan that sports a majority of hotel amenitites, like a Five-Star restaurant, a casino, a Virtual Reality arcade, a set of minisubs for reef exploration during the cruise, and the famous observation deck for which the vessel is named. My rank as King grants me a room on the Officer's deck, a floor or so down.

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