Sunless Seas
(March RPG candidate)
I leant on the rail, watching the stars spin on by underneath me. The mist was lifting. Finally. The captain had been crazied up by the weather, probably because it has screwed up his efforts at navigation. For all his bluster, I'd probably spent more hours at sea than him. Seems like anyone with the flash to buy a boat these days fancies himself as some kind of helmsman.
There was shouting from the crew; another vessel had been sighted beneath us. I slammed a carabina onto one of the rails loops and let myself fall over the side. Sure enough, two white sails and a distant flash of light. I climbed the rope back up onto the deck just in time for that kid to run into me.
"What's going on?" he wailed, eyes wide.
"Just a little piracy," I grunted, "Nothin' we can't handle."
A beam of light flashed past us, then one of the masts fell down in a tangle of ropes. The lad looked fit to piss himself. Called himself a mage but I'd be surprised if he was more than a month out of apprenticeship. Guess lasers were more than he could handle.
I span the chambers of my trusty .357. I'd been getting antsy, and this looked just the thing to let me stretch my legs. The pirate ship had risen alongside us and its crew was preparing to board us.
Worse luck for them, really.
I leant on the rail, watching the stars spin on by underneath me. The mist was lifting. Finally. The captain had been crazied up by the weather, probably because it has screwed up his efforts at navigation. For all his bluster, I'd probably spent more hours at sea than him. Seems like anyone with the flash to buy a boat these days fancies himself as some kind of helmsman.
There was shouting from the crew; another vessel had been sighted beneath us. I slammed a carabina onto one of the rails loops and let myself fall over the side. Sure enough, two white sails and a distant flash of light. I climbed the rope back up onto the deck just in time for that kid to run into me.
"What's going on?" he wailed, eyes wide.
"Just a little piracy," I grunted, "Nothin' we can't handle."
A beam of light flashed past us, then one of the masts fell down in a tangle of ropes. The lad looked fit to piss himself. Called himself a mage but I'd be surprised if he was more than a month out of apprenticeship. Guess lasers were more than he could handle.
I span the chambers of my trusty .357. I'd been getting antsy, and this looked just the thing to let me stretch my legs. The pirate ship had risen alongside us and its crew was preparing to board us.
Worse luck for them, really.