The Dunwich Horror (Abyssal Jaws)
This story is part of the community effort on the Abyssal Jaws chapter.
Joseba was not a happy woman right about now, especially now that her prized frigate the Jet Serpent was now sporting several new smoking holes from the Sea-Guard patrol's lascannons and it's auspex array had been completely shot up. It also didn't help that any of the city-ships she could have gone to now had their port authorities looking for her so she had to take the ship in to the stormy edges of the Maelstrom. She looked down with steely eyes to the meekly bowed heads her crew. "Who would like to explain our recent... intelligence failure... hmmm? Why was there a Sea-Guard patrol there? This was SUPPOSED to be a simple job, those rich tourist fucks were SUPPOSED to be unguarded, easy pickings! So to whom must I give my thanks for being forced to cower in this storm for? HMMM?"
The small group of men and women before her offered no answer. Before they had a chance to speak up though a voice came on through the ship's intercoms. "Cap'n... you're uh.... gonna wanna see this," the raspy jittery voice gulped before continuing. "It's... uh... welll... I dunno where it came from."
Josebe grabbed a comm from her vest with a scowl, the lot before her letting out a sigh of relief. "Oh for the sake of the deep stop your blubbering Estebe, what'd ya see now? Another ghost ship?"
There was a loud, poignant pause followed by another gulp, "It's... it's.... I think it's the Dunwich cap'n." The gather instantly started whispering nervously amongst themselves.
A grin slowly crept over Joseba's face, "What're you lot blubbering for? We're pirates! This is the best thing we coulda asked for! What better place to hide than in the 'ghost' city!" The group immediately turned to look at her with a mix of fear and trepidation, like she was out of her mind. "Gutless lot. Estebe take us in," Joseba ordered as she strode off to the bridge.
"...right cap'n..."
"FUCK! Where is it?" Joseba shouted out as she crouched behind a weather beaten wall, her laspistol gripped tightly in her hands as she scanned the almost skeletal remains of the outer sectors of Dunwich.
One of the raiders crouching behind her turned to her, "Should of never come 'ere cap'n! Should of never c- URRGGHHK." His death was quick as the clawed hands of the horror reached over the crate he had been resting against and gripped his head to crush it like an overripe fruit.
"SHIT!" Joseba called out as she rolled back and out of the way, hoping it'd give her enough time to flee from the nigh invisible amalgam of fish and man that had been hunting her and her crew for the past hour. Thankfully the blood of her crewman gave its position away, allowing her to fire off a few shots into the thing's color-shifting hide.
The beast roared in pain as the laspistol's beams seared into its flesh, filling the air with the scent of burnt fish. It threw the bloodied corpse aside and shifted its colors before it gave chase once more.
Joseba clutched the comm on her vest, "Estebe! ESTEBE! COME THE FUCK IN!" She snarled as only static greeted her, the interference from the superstructure being too much for the device to handle. She simply ran, ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the winding hallways of the ghostly city-ship, she could swear out of the corner of her eye that there were 'things' watching her flight. Things with empty white eyes that started at her, and if the sound of blood coursing through her veins hadn't been all she could hear, she might have noticed the dread whispers and metal groans that hung in the air like a miasma.
Suddenly the crackling of static gave way to a sniveling panicked voice, "CAPTAAAAIIN! CAP'N ARE YOU THERE BY THE DEEP ANSWER ME!"
Joseba fumbled to snatch the comm to reply, "Drop whatever you're doing and get the Serpent ready NOW." There was a crash of metal and the thud of something heavy slamming into the floor. "Anyone not on board when I get there gets left!"
She ran until her lungs burned and her legs felt like they were being eaten by the Jaws themselves, spurred on by the pounding echoes of bestial feet hot on her heels. She didn't bother to look back, it wouldn't have helped anyway. She couldn't see it when they had wandered into its den looking for some relic or artifact she could pawn off back at the Serpent's Den and she definitely couldn't see it when it ripped her most trusted and capable lieutenant Oroitz into a meaty pile of gore.
Joseba turned to rush down an alley near the docks, an alley that had been scrawled with warnings on top dread graffiti in broken Low Gothic that sent chills down her spine. Behind her the beast roared again and swiped at her only to graze against the leather of her vest. "GET DOWN!" a voice shouted out from ahead.
Joseba dove forward with everything she had and slide off the moss covered gantry walkway to crash into the water several meters below as the ship's autoguns lit the alleyway with gunfire. The next thing she remembered was being hoisted out of the water in a net with the beast's disturbingly human face only centimeters away from hers, its eyes a dead cloudy white as its mouth gaped open like a dying fish as its blood spilled out freely.
She could only stare into its eyes as they lifted her over the deck. As the net was cut loose and she feel onto the deck with a painful thud, her ears were willed with a hundred discordant voices that rung out with a mournful cry from all around. It was definitely clear they had overstayed their welcome and the crew of the Jet Serpent were all to eager to comply.