Welcome to New Atlantis
Work in progress as is usually with some things with me right now. I really dedicated myself to pushing this out this weekend and I want to turn this into a novella to maybe sell so any feedback is appreciated.
Welcome to New Atlantis
Many fathoms below the surface underwater sprawls a metropolis of eldritch enhanced glass, steel and concrete lighted against the endless of the abyss. Diamond shaped submersibles detailed to resemble stingrays at their smallest and manta rays at their largest glide through the water as the standards ships of the line for both the civilians and the militias tasked with securing the safety of the citizens of New Atlantis from all threats. Sharks swim by overhead as well cephalopods of various sizes as well as other not so well-defined denizens of the deep that defy classification with their myriad of mismatched body parts occurring wholly naturally not in the stitched together manner that such a Frankenstein style entity might suggestion or perhaps alluding to a more Moreau like origin.
Bizarre entities that look like bonnethead sharks sporting a trio of eyes with the third eye situated at the point of the things head and supported by a ring of 8 tentacles not unlike the arms of an octopus set just before its head sized somewhere between a great white shark and its titanic forebearer the megalodon, a sinisterly sentient creature the druids and rangers of New Atlantis have since designated as aboleths, observe the comings and goings around the undersea city-state for reasons known only to themselves. It has been speculated that the very existence of New Atlantis offends the aboleths in some way the political leaders of the city-state cannot discern as, barring attacks from them provoked by territory undefined by its borders but this in and of itself is pure speculation on the part of the citizens of New Atlantis being assaulted as the aboleths themselves have yet to be reached for commentary, the populace of the city-state of New Atlantis have done nothing to provoke such hostility but yet such severe and sometimes violent incompatibilities remain. Scouts of the city-state have observed the aboleths performing rituals that conjure images of entities whose very forms defy easy and definable description but these images thankfully have staunchly refused to manifest themselves in a physical form although summonings designed to unleash monstrous aberrations to breed for battle against the militias of New Atlantis have been far more successful and while few if any of the things summoned have been released to wreak havoc, the mere fact that they exist is the epitome of disturbing to those with the knowledge and wisdom to recognize and comprehend the inherent threats.
Many of the citizens of New Atlantis remain ignorant of the looming threat of the aboleths as the governing council has suppressed all information regarding them to be disseminated among the general populace for fear of a panic but such intel is freely available to the militias and especially the privateers that hunt down infestations of the monsters as soon as they are discovered and in at least one case the privateers actively searching for such things to hunt down and destroy. Captain Kodyax O'Connor is one such privateer as the druid-ranger finds the very presence of the aboleths and their minion aberrations to be an affront to nature itself and is thus worthy of his murderous rancor as he does his very best to eliminate the foul organisms wherever he can find them. The Dark Shark, Kodyax's personal pirate dreadnaught, is rather unique among the vessels used by the privateers earning their letters of marque with the corpses of monsters and treasure gathered from sunken surface ships as it is inspired and was built to resemble a megalodon with an oversized turbine at the tail to push it forward and fins that will wreak havoc when utilized as a weapon against other vessel and monsters with which the privateer submersible picks a given fight with.
Moon pools and teleporter boarding circles allow access to and from the Dark Shark for its crew and guests that it invariably takes on as Kodyax himself is a bit of an abolitionist and when he gets wind of slavers operating in or near the theatre of operations in which he stalks he tends to target them for his wrath and rescues the slaves being transported by them. This has brought him into conflict with more than a few humans on the surface and in New Atlantis, the city-state regulates slaves as property, which rankles Kodyax no end, and open slave markets and brothels operate openly as a result. Purveyors of the skin trade have launched numerous complaints against Captain O'Connor but given that his overall work has been deemed essential to the security of New Atlantis their cries of lament and frustration go largely ignored as many an official turns a blind eye to his extracurricular activities since at least some of them share his sentiments and even if he personally ruffles their feathers on occasion, many to most of them have been benefitted by his actions either directly or indirectly so they see it as being in their best interests as letting him continue his crusades unimpeded.
No humans are allowed by Kodyax to crew the Dark Shark, the captain himself is an amphicyon, a fusion of wolf, bear and human into a single being and an early success of Atlantean genetic engineering made immortal by the unfortunate circumstances that caused the fall of Atlantis, the original one, as he prefers being like himself to keep his submarine up and running. Although he has no problem visiting the brothels and laying with human sex slaves of the feminine variety in fact requests that he breed girls for the benefit of their owners rarely are denied and certain amazons who have challenged him in the arena in the past have been left limbless and pregnant as a result. Taking human women is sometimes easier than his attempts to seduce other members of his own crew of the feminine persuasion as he is oriented towards them far more than his own gender.
Case in point is his own first mate, Takara Yamaha, a tiger-vixen out of the Japanese archipelago who fascinates him and fill him with lustful desire but she has declared herself a lesbian and thus uninterested in male intimate companions, a conviction that has not stopped her from occasionally granting his request for her sexual companionship even if she refutably damns herself for it afterwards and usually blames it on an over indulgence of booze. For her part Takara is conflicted on how she feels about her captain as while his attempts at her affections are often crude, they are none the less sincere as her own familiar, a somewhat sentient ooze creature she often refers to as Ecchi, is more than willing to inform her. The fact that the cheetah-hyena Sahara Zulu is honest competition for a permanent residency in his bed not withstanding even if she is someone she wants to spend more intimate time with and frustratingly teasingly she indulges when the captain is busy with something or someone else.
Sahara is very much impressed by her captain between his overall strength and his prowess in casting spells as well as the sheer power of spells he chooses she wants to sleep with him and maybe have him as the father of her children; she has her fun with Taki but Kody is whom she really wants to sleep with. For her part Sahara is a Southern skald, a whirling dervish flashing her scimitars in a dance of doom slashing her enemies to ribbons. Her singing is magical in more ways to one as she is trained in the ways of the occult and while different from Kodyax, she and Takara cast their spells in much the same manner even if their way of casting spells is quite different.
A three eyed frilled, its third eye on a stalk like a crab or a lobster arising from the top of its head and sporting a quartet of crab claws in between the tentacles on either side, shark only slightly smaller than the Dark Shark with a ring of tentacles around its head approaches the pirate submarine and changes into an otter kin before stealing its way into one of the moon pools that allows the crew to swim in and out of the ship without too much trouble. Beyond the moon pool the chamber is completely vacant as it ventures further into the ship for purposes all its own. Moving down the hallway near the moon pool the greater aboleth came through is a wolverine in armored robes like an alchemist or a wizard or possibly both who glares at the otter and growls at him.
"Get back to your designated staging area!" Abraham Blackstar, the ships chief engineer, growls at what to him looks like a new recruit somewhere they shouldn't be. "We're approaching New Atlantis and everyone needs to be accounted for."
"Aye, aye, sir!" The otter kinstates at full volume. "I got lost, can you direct me to where I should be?"
Brom rolls his eyes and points to where he just came. "Back there, just look for more otters and confer with them which group you're a part of."
The disguised greater aboleth nods and does as bid rather than properly respond verbally however as it does so a klaxon starts to sound and the captain's voice comes over the loudspeaker: "Attention all crew! Wards I put on board have alerted me that an aberration has managed to somehow get aboard. Be on the lookout for anyone you do not recognize." The otter's eyes go wide as Abraham pulls out a revolver and adjusts his goggles.
"A greater aboleth!" Abraham screams as the enchanted lenses of his goggles reveal the creature's true form.
Alien eldritch runes surround the false otter before it teleports away to safety as Brom almost fires but then thinks better of if as he grabs a speaking tube to report to his friend just happened. He is shaken a bit but the captain needs to be informed.
"Kody!" Brom yells into the tube. "I found the damn thing! It was a greater aboleth disguised as an otter. It came out one of the moon pools, one we weren't using right now and I thought something was up and then you made your announcement."
"I take it you puled your piece?" Kody's voice inquires with a touch of mirth in his tone. "Where is it now? Or did it do a disappearing act?"
"I saw eldritch runes orbit it before it vanished," Brom reports. "I think it teleported. Can't be sure though, Sahara needs to phone it in to high command."
"Alright on it, Brom," Sahara's voice chimes in.
The greater aboleth swims over to a green and red striped manta ray ship and changes into its Foday Turay disguise, a dark-skinned human who is the captain of the Pharoah Trader making its way to New Atlantis from Africa. He scowls at his crew who think him a diving enthusiast as he looks over their cargo of European slaves, mostly British with a few Italians and Greeks. His all African crew salute him as he makes his way to the bridge.
"Careful everyone," Captain Turay warns. "I saw the Dark Shark before returning. The last thing we need is to have to deal with a bunch of damn pirates. Although if they do attack us, try to take some of them alive, they'll fetch a fine price at auction."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" The crew replies in unison as the captain moves on with a secret grin upon his face as he takes amusement in their loyalty as he thinks to himself: "What fools these humans, they are so easy to deceive I almost regret all of this as it's too easy but not really, we aboleths were created to rule all; especially fools like these."
The Pharoah Trader easily glides into New Atlantis in its usually dock that is kept paid for months in advance by the sale of it illicit cargo to eager clientele both local and foreign. The private warehouse and auction house: "Here Foday; gone tomorrow" is set up to receive its latest shipments as Foday Turay goes over the manifest to see what kind of merchandise he has and who he can probably sequester for later sacrifice to Nylarhotep, the elder god to whom he has sworn fealty and worship. There is a reason his ship is the Pharoah Trader after all.
Meanwhile a yellow and black submarine looking more like the classic depiction of Nemo's Nautilus than anything else, bearing the yellow sign and a script in goblin proclaim the ship as the Razor of Rathus belligerently approaches the Dark Shark before picking up speed as if meaning to ram the other ship which is exactly its intention as it is an attack submarine in the navy of the Horde of the Hobgoblin Empire. Captain Quaykoo Sackey, a bugaboo who has somehow managed to attain the rank of captain over his fellow goblin-kin which is a rarity in and of itself as the oversized and very often overly brutal goblinoid are rarely considered more than cannon fodder by hobgoblins and orcs who are both kin to them and in some respects within the Horde consider superior castes to bugaboos, grips the rails of his station above the goblins, hobgoblins and orcs suffering under his command before equipping his whip to bark orders at his crew. The Razor is already at ramming speed and on course to slice open the Atlantean vessel when he orders spriggans to their own moon pools to try and board the Dark Shark in case they manage to miss their target and while this is highly unusual the order is obeyed instead of questioned as the crew knows better than protest to his face as the captain manages to snag an orc officer by the throat and hauls him to the platform and starts to strangle him as a reminder to the crew to not even think of challenging his orders.
As it turns out the precautions that Sackey barked prove to be well founded as Takara is gazing at her crystal ball and sees the Razor coming and warns Kodyax who bellows at Brom to start taking evasive maneuvers and then has the otters equip themselves with remora grenades and take off to attach them to the hull of the Razor. Trying to engage the Razor is foolhardy mission in Captain O'Connor's estimation and he opens up a bronze clam near him on his own dais and grabs a baseball sized pearl to utilize its magic to watch for invaders as Sahara gives a warning to the rest of the ship to expect boarders and repel them. Blue-white lines of electricity crackle bout his fingers as a lesser spell becomes active and waits release by the caster that conjure them to his hand as Kodyax is personally preparing to join the fray to protect his ship and his crew.
Spriggans are deceptive force within the Horde as they usually look like normal goblins until they activate their dark gift and enlarge to the height and weight of ogres and a disposition that makes your average ogre seem pleasant in comparison. It's for this reason that the Hobgoblin Empire has such a fearsome reputation, well, one of the reasons, their seemingly unkillable Pharoah Rathus who is the emperor of the empire of evil that rules through and fear and outright banditry and piracy rather than control proper territory as Rathus himself rules from the dread zeppelin Iron Cloud 13 and when he does make a personal appearance somewhere he is dressed in resplendent golden robes and wears a golden skull mask that covers his whole head and face like some kind of gothic gilded helmet rather than a proper crown. His image is on posters all over the Razor like how extreme poster will excessively adorn their abodes in America with Uncle Sam even as the goblinoids of the Horde have a complete Nazi style mindset unto themselves with many prefixing and suffixing their speech with "Hail Rathus!" or "By the will of Rathus!" to convey their absolute faith in the competency of their fearless leader.
In the engine room Abraham Blackstar works his magic to make sure the Dark Shark can deftly dodge the Razor as he sweats bullets while doing so as the actual performance of this task is difficult to pull off but he above most others is only keenly aware of the importance of his task and the stakes of success and failure in this endeavor. He designed the vessel he finds himself upon and oversaw its construction meticulously to make sure every bit of work was up to his own exacting standards as a point of pride and the practicality that he knows every rivet and boilerplate the ship is built from so that its movement is at his command. Kodyax saved him from enslavement and almost certain death when he was just starting out and thus earned his utter loyalty a trust that as the years passed proved to be well placed as his friend is willing to let Brom experiment to his heart's content and helps bring his dreams to reality as much as he can and is thus is a true friend and the best employer he has ever had.
While it might seem logical that the otters and the spriggans might pass each other as they completed their missions, the arcs they take to reach their opposite destinations is such that ne'er the twain shall meet. The spriggans in goblin form are actually shorter than the others so it takes them longer to get where they are going but a necessity since they cannot fit through the moon pools to board the dark Shark as easily in ogre form as it is for them in goblin form; the fact they are swimming over there fully armed doesn't help to make them any faster either. On the other side the otters are sleek and well suited to swimming swiftly so they mount their explosives, set the timers and swim back in practically no time as this is something they have done countless times before.
In terms of sheer numbers there are twice as many spriggans dispensed by the Razor of Rathus than otters from the Dark Shark as six spriggans are making their way to attack as opposed to only three otters. Both teams are used to working as a unit even if they have different missions with the otters setting demolition charges and then racing back home while the spriggans are basically on a suicide mission as the only way they will survive this encounter is if they manage to kill off every single member of the Dark Shark's crew. And as an additional X factor Kodyax is watching as they approach and has already grabbed his pump action shotgun with its cylindrical magazine in anticipation of their arrival and Brom is making sure his level action rifle with its own cylindrical magazine is clean and ready to fire as he waits for the Captain's word on where to advance as Sahara sharpens her scimitars and Takara inspects her ninja-to in anticipation of the coming fight.
"You may want to switch to your revolvers, Sahara," Kodyax says to Sahara in all seriousness. "I don't want you getting too close unless you absolutely have to."
"Aye, aye, captain, my captain!" Sahara shouts as sensually and suggestively as she can manage as she sheaths her scimitars and draws her revolvers and spins the cylinders with a sinister smile.
"Looks like they're moving towards the main moon pool midship," Kodyax announces over the speaker tubes. "All available crew are arm themselves and get ready for a fight."
"Cloak of shadows, cover me," Takara intones as she begins to fade from sight. "Cloud the minds of those that might view me."
"I expected nothing less." Kodyax says with a smirk then looks over at Sahara. "Let's move."
Kodyax makes his way to the moon pool with an axe on his back within easy reach with Sahara close behind obviously strutting along like a gunslinger and while unseen Takara is also behind, walking on the ceiling with a set of kunai in her one hand as she cradles her sword in the other. Abraham sets himself up in a sniper position as he arrives at the moon pool just before the spriggans arrive as Kodyax arrives not long after Brom does and while he waits he uses the power of nature to cause the moisture in the air to temporarily solidify into a float shield that can melt a blast hole and then refreeze at his discretion and Sahara reads a scroll aloud to effect the same sort of shield even if she can shoot around it with her twin revolvers. Takara keeps herself mobile so as to remain unseen although the nature of the spell she cast will cause her invisibility to flicker off momentarily once she makes an attack so she makes sure she will be making only surprise attacks if she can help it.
The goblins emerge from the moon pool as expected and bellow "For the Glory of Rathus!" as part of their transformation and enlarge themselves, going from the small humanoids that everyone expects a goblin to be to a massive hulking version of the same humbly vicious creature. As one they stomp the ground and send shockwaves throughout the vessel, with Takara not getting knocked over only because she was on the ceiling when it happened but Sahara loses her foot and collapses to the floor. Kodyax has to readjust his footing but barely manages to keep on standing despite everything and Abraham is reeling for a brief moment but manages to keep himself from keeling over at the last second.
After sending the initial shockwave the spriggans split into two groups of three each with the one group advancing towards Kodyax and Sahara with the other team stomping their way towards Brom. Sahara performs a somersaulting back flip to regain her feet and then starts maneuvering about with guns blazing but doing very little in terms of forcing the spriggans back as her bullets seem to just bounce off their hides harmlessly. Brom takes careful aim and pulls the trigger of his weapon which he designed him to hit only slightly less force than a light cannon the bullet strikes the lead spriggan square in the chest and forces him to take a knee as he is severely injured form the sheer blunt force trauma of the shot itself.
Still invisible and dangling from the ceiling, Takara sees how ineffective Sahara's shots were, looks at her kunai before sighing and shaking her head before putting them away and charging up her spirit gun spell as wisps of magic creates a glowing energy construct resembling a cannon covering her entire forearm and continuing about a foot outward from her clenched fist. Thrice the cannon spits out an almost comically oversized kunai made of pure energy that unerringly strike one of the ogre goblins advancing on Sahara and Kodyax but each one barely flinches as there is no way for their tough hides to deflect the damage and as such they can only try to absorb the blows and carry on. Takara sighs and shakes her head but takes some comfort in the fact that none of them can figure out from where those shots came from so at least her cover hasn't been blown yet and their minds are still clouded as to her presence.
Kodyax points at the spriggans and discharges the electricity in his hand paw which lashes out as the crack of a whip made entirely of lightning which hits one of them and then jumps to the other two in the cluster before he discharges his shotgun which belches forth a cone of ordinance at his enemies and growls: "Your time to die has come today; for I am the hunter and YOU are my prey!" which causes all three of them to recoil in fear despite the fact that they tower over him. Razor sharp darts fly forth the slash deep cuts on the flesh of the spriggans as they grimace from the pain as one which gives Kody a reason to smirk with deadly satisfaction as he contemplate switching to his ax but instead cycles the next round into the chamber. As he takes aim he kisses his shotgun and intones a spell: "The sheer power and fury of the storm are held within my hand but I transfer this power to my ammunition so to make sure its power you cannot withstand!" at which point the eldritch runes he himself carved on the barrel of the shotgun light up as he pulls the trigger and the weapon once again belches forth its ordinance but this time the steel pellets crackle and arc electricity between them as they slam into their targets.
Sahara drops her pistols and slaps her forehead as if shouting "Now why did I not think of that?" in reaction to the spell that Takara cast before shaking her head as she knows that exact spell although she manifests it differently. She chants in Egyptian: "By the power of Isis and the treachery of Set I call forth an eldritch engine of destruction in which to enact your doom!" and as she cast the spell and organ grinder gun, also known as a Gatling gun, made of pure energy forms in front of her and she grips the handle and laughs as she starts cranking like a fiend as magic bullet after magic bullet flies out from the imaginary muzzle to strike the lead spriggan and force him to his knees at first before he collapses dead as Sahara just keeps laughing like a maniac. The other two spriggans look at each and level huge flintlock pistols at Sahara and fire as one which shatters her magic shield but cannot penetrate as Sahara just keeps on laughing maniacally.
Brom giggles and shakes his head as he upends a crate and lets its contents drop to the floor and roll towards the spriggans near him with a sinister smile and utters a single word: "Boom!" which causes all the grenades, all of which look like the classic cartoon bombs consisting of a perfectly spherical ball of sheer black wrought iron and featuring a white cord plume that is its fuse, which the spriggans look down and their eyes go wide as all the fuses self-immolate as one as if by magic, which is precisely what happened. The classic "Oh, Shit!" expression plays on their faces as the bombs go off not quite simultaneously but in a kind of sequence reminiscent of the early Atari video game Ka-Boom when the player misses a falling bomb. All three fly back into the moon pool as one with the severe wounds one would expect from having a crateful of old timey grenades explode all around you but while two of them slowly make their way to the edge of the pool to keep up their assault one of them simply drops down to the ocean floor utterly deceased.
The trio of otters use the dead spriggan as a springboard to launch themselves into the chamber beyond the main moon pool and draw rifles like Brom has but not quite as overpowered as a quartet of raccoon-ferret hybrids drop from a grate on the ceiling and shortly following by a random assortment of detritus that ends up impaling one of the survivors from Brom's attack and kills him almost instantly with a falling anvil delivering the final fatal blow which causes the otters to stare in disbelief as Abraham, Sahara and Takara face palm as Kodyax derisively and ruefully chuckles while simultaneously shaking his head. Three of the four have top fur that are styled differently with one having a bowl cut, one having wing tips, one of them has his parted down the middle and the other having no top fur whatsoever. The otters blink at the Stooge brothers, Moses Zachariah, Lawrence Albert, Shempatrick Donovan and Karl Edward, and all four of them wear heavy leather armor as they turn to Kodyax as one and salute him before the oldest, Moses, turns to his brothers and yells: "Alright you mugs, everybody grab a pike and let's get to work!" to which his brothers just nod and they all do as Moses ordered and charge the surviving spriggan of the one group of three that were marching to kill Brom.
"I'm starting to see when you said they exemplify the saying that the gods smile on fools." Brom admits as the Stooge brothers impale the one spriggan and slaughter him with sheer volume of damage inflicted upon him.
"Why do you think I keep them around?" Kodyax inquires of nobody in particular with a sinisterly smug smirk on his muzzle.
"I thought you kept them hanging around as your court jesters." Sahara admits freely as the otter sister take aim as one at one of the remaining spriggans attacking Kodyax and Sahara and kill him with a volley of shots from their rifles.
"You know what?" Kodyax asks of nobody in particular as he switches to his axe, "I Just decided; I want a trophy." He then executes a flying shoulder smash that knocks the last spriggan down before he proceeds to chop off the last opponent's head. "Not much but I will stuff and mount it myself when we get home."
Florence Xenophon and her sisters Fannie-Mae and Jaqueline present their captain with the dedication plaque containing the name of the vessel they sent to Davey Jones's locker with a measure of pride. Their other sister Cassandra who acted as a look out to make sure they were not interrupted in doing their grim duty soon rejoins them and with a know wink to Sahara and the newly revealed Takara, the Xenophon sisters escort the Stooge brothers out of the chamber with the brothers confused as to what is going on which earns Kodyax scathing looks from Sahara and Takara to which he just shrugs as the two lady fold their arms across their chest and shake their heads. Yes, the brothers are clueless as to what is going on but they'll catch on eventually.
The Dark Shark then proceeds to makes its way to New Atlantis as the Razor of Rathus sinks to the ocean floor behind them taking all hands with it to a watery grave. The sisters are no stranger to this mission and made sure the whole goblin sub flooded from the series of explosions to ensure no survivors. The satisfaction of a job well done is all well and good but Kodyax has the Stooge brothers store the bodies, they shrunk back to goblin size after dying, in one of the ship's holds and Takara prepares enchanted slips of paper and places them on the foreheads of the corpses gathered to ensure none of them suddenly turned into zombies to terrorize the crew, a highly unlikely scenario but it has happened before so one can never be too careful.
First order of business once docking involves Kodyax making his way to the administrative facility for nautical affairs located near enough to the docks that it's a short hike to get there and once there he makes his way to the obscured privateer wing of the building. Officially New Atlantis does not employ privateers in its militia and there are no official records of any vessel operating under this distinction currently or historically. Unofficially the governing council recognizes the fact the city-state would be sitting ducks vulnerable to pirate attacks and the aggressive navies of other nations and thus it is an open secret amongst the citizenry of New Atlantis that there is absolutely a secret militia within the city-state's private navy of volunteer warships that privateers exist and under the very government building Kodyax is in there is a hidden museum honoring privateers of the past and present.
The museum is found easily enough and every citizen of New Atlantis knows exactly where it is and how to access it from the city-state's labyrinth of underground corridors referred to as the undercity of New Atlantis by its residents. Each ship honored in the museum has a scale model of their vessel, a set of blueprints of the submarine in question, a ship's manifest of every member of the ship's crew and a portrait of her captain as well as the name plates of every victim they sundered during the sub's career. When tabulated and credited to Captain O'Connor's account the name plate of the Razor of Rathus will be added to list of ship the Dark Shark has already sunk.
Cassandra Keeley, a blonde human woman in a bondage harness who works various jobs for the governmental congress records his latest kill when she sees that he is overdue to donate a genetic sample as one of his duties as an animalistic citizen of New Atlantis. She blinks and blushes as it is also around this time that one of her contractual obligations is due which naturally coincides with what she needs to gather from Kodyax. Nervously she asks him to join her at the bath house for official business to which Kodyax just nods and smirks as he knows exactly what she is asking for.
As they step into the teleportation circle Kodyax gets very close to Cassandra and as she keys in the location they are going to mystically travel to, he gropes her breasts and given what she is planning on doing with him, Cassandra moans in pleasure as she knows Kodyax is going to be an accommodating client as she also works in one of the brothels and has serviced him there as well. She may not wear a collar but for all intents and purposes Cassandra is a sex slave who performs other duties with her owner being the overseers of the government of New Atlantis making her a public slave. It's not much but there are times like this Cassandra actually likes her lot in life as she gets to have sex with beings like Kodyax and reaches back to squeeze and fondle his package as she is actually looking forward to having him fill her with his seed. If they had more time between their destinations, Cassandra would eagerly kneel before him and give him a blow job but this is a teleportation circle and not an elevator so she will have to wait till they get in their bathing room to service him.
Once they get to the chamber, Kodyax strips himself nude and lays on a table as Cassandra gets out the special shampoo, she will be using to give Kodyax a table shower before he gets to plough her pussy with his prick. Before he can lay down though she kneels before him and suckles his phallus like she needs his seed to survive as her source of protein even if she had a meal of crab cakes before he walked into her office. After she is done he licks and suckles at her tits while fingering her vagina with enough care to her pleasure that he drives her to orgasm from just his touch.
She starts off with his backside scrubbing his legs and feet before moving on to his rear end with special attention given to his tail and tailhole as she moves on to his arms and back finishing that up by walking on his spine, cracking the discs like some folks crack their knuckles. After finishing with his backside she has him flip so she can wash his front paying more attention to his sheath and scrotum than anywhere else especially with his canine cock still out and flaccid against his belly. She applies a special alchemical oil to his spent shaft and scrotum, adding in a special massage to make sore his body absorbs the oil as Kodyax gives a pleasurable moan as he enjoys her attentions.
Kodyax can feel his member quickly return to an upright position even harder than before as Cassandra just smirks as it worked even better with him than it has done with other males that she has used the formula on. She gives him a hand job to get him just a little harder before she impales herself along his length. Cassandra moans as she bounces up and down along his erect phallus and lets her breasts jiggle in just the way he likes as she does her best to get him to climax within her although she is unaware of what to tell him about how she adamant she was to get hard again even as she has the ulterior motive of becoming impregnated as part of a service renewal for her to remain active and not be relegated to the meat makers and be butchered alive to feed the masses.
Unbeknownst to both Kodyax and Cassandra they are being observed by a third party that has zero positive intentions towards either of them as the greater aboleth that almost infiltrated the Dark Shark is a deep underground pool underneath its auction house and warehouse complex silently observing them and shaking its tentacles in barely contained rage. The sheer enjoyment and pleasure they share between them greatly offends the aboleth and inspires a desire to commit harm to someone even as it starts to feel a little bit peckish. A fat Euro human male is escorted into the pool and secured to pair or post near the waters edge and then the servants quickly take their leave of the area as they know what is coming and they have no wish to be a part of it.
The slave is morbidly obese and extremely nervous which causes him to scream when the greater aboleth rises from the pool to start striking him with its tentacles. Aboleths have never been creatures known to be kind to other types of beings, their internal culture is such that they pretty much view themselves as the only truly sentient beings in the cosmos and view most other creatures they encounter as lesser things created only to serve their aboleth masters. As such the being before it exists only for its own amusement and petty whims and thus its death and destruction are it to decide for its own entertainment.
It strikes at the man's genitals at first tenderizing them before ripping them cleanly from his body as she he screams again in a mixture of terror and sheer pain to which it gives much a mind to as many farmers do when leading their animals to slaughter. Through sheer force of will it alters the molecular structure of its own tentacles making them into whips and shadowy kusarigama on a whim. The screams of the prey are actual enjoyable to its sensibilities at this and it prolongs the agony suffered by the slave for as long as it can as the general receive some fresh stains from all the blood and viscera it rips from its victim until at last it slips into the dark void embrace that is death and with great disappointment it telekinetically releases the corps and drags it into the water to be devoured as an octopus headed creature looking like a human sized and proportioned version of Cthulhu himself, dressed like a gangster from the Jazz Age, enters the chamber to confront the greater aboleth.
"Greetings and salutations, King Kukulu," the aboleth mentally broadcasts to his superior. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
"I have come personally to hear your report." King Kutulu broadcasts in a hostile tone. "What have you learned of Captain O'Connor and his ship?"
"I couldn't learn much," the aboleth conveys to its master. "But I can tell you one thing: He is properly paranoid of your efforts to destroy him. Shortly after I entered in disguise I was detected."
"I see," Kutulu says and strokes his facial tentacles as if in thought. "Good to know but it still counts as a failure and you know the price of failure especially of an assignment of this magnitude. "King Kutulu harpoons its minion and hauls it out of its pool as spinning saw blades materialize and dice the aboleth so that all that is left is a pile of meat that are then gathered by huge blobs of obsidian protoplasm with crab like eyestalks and taken away to be processed in some nameless factory. "And that shall our conclude our business for now." His from shifts and becomes Foday Turay as he walks off. "I will be your stand in until your replacement arrives."
Elsewhere in New Atlantis, Sahara and Takara are at a gourmet seafood restaurant built against one of the glass walls of the city-state itself so diners can look outside and watch local wildlife swim by. Over well-made shark steaks, garlic seasoned rice and a vegetable medley spiced like the rice that include broccoli, carrots and cauliflowers the pair enjoy the atmosphere and each other's company as they marvel at the kinds of animals that let themselves be seen as a megalodon swims a little too close for the comfort of the diners but the girls just smirk as that beast was the inspiration for the vessel they both serve on. More disturbing is the flotilla of jellyfish with indentures in their inner workings that implicate a face gazing through the gelatinous dome of its body and as they observe, they can sense sinister psychic vibes emanating from them in particular.
"I don't know about you, Taki," Sara states in an ominous and fearfully alarmed tone. "But those jellyfish give me the creeps."
"Nazi'Qualle!" Takara growls dangerously. "Kody hates them. He suspects they have some tie with the aboleths but there is no solid proof."
"We're both occult practitioners and the druid is the one that knows about those things? Sara asks incredulously. "Now granted he is a monster hunter which is why he also treads the ranger's path. But still, I've never encountered one of those things."
"I have," Taki shamefully admits. "In my dreams, they re terrible, I don't remember everything but what I do remember scares me and when I told Kody about it he looked at me funny and peacefully interrogated me on the experience. He told me that what I experienced in my dreams matches up with some of the reports he's read from survivors but not everything as some of what I experienced in my dreams has not been reported but at the same time..."
"It pairs up with he knows they have done so he thinks it's entirely believable." Sara finishes for her to which she just nods. "He favors you, you know?"
"I know," Taki says with a wistful nod. "I love him, Sara, I just don't know in what capacity. He's our Captain for crying out loud! He's probably abusing his position by sleeping with any of us."
"Oh, stop!" Sara thunders. "You enjoy taking his knot as much as I do! Yeah, Kody can be a bit of a horndog but the shipmates with benefits position we have with him benefits us all."
"Right," Taki says with a lustful smile and reaches out to caress Sara's breast. "It's not rape if I am open to sleeping with the captain. I just don't know if I like him enough to consider his occasional attempts at courtship and take them seriously." A purplish blob of protoplasm raises itself from the bun Taki keeps her top fur in as a tradition nod to the culture she hails from as Sara gives her a weird look. "What?"
"Please tell me that's your familiar oozing out of your bun." Sara pleads as the slime creature has what looks like a crown of four eyeballs orbiting a shape that can only be described as a disembodied brain.
"Ecchi!" Taki growls loudly. "What have I told you about revealing yourself in public!" Bubbles rise within the slime monster but only Takara can properly hear what it broadcasts to her telepathically and that Sara can sense as she just looks at them weirdly. "You're always hungry. You ate hundreds of rat-roaches when we were on the Dark Shark." More bubbles rise and Taki sighs and shakes her head. "Fine! But be discreet about it!"
"Do I wanna know?" Sara asks to which Taki just shrugs. "That thing eats rat-roaches? And does Kody know you have that thing?"
"Yes, it eats rat-roaches and the captain is aware of existence and as long as it keeps its appetite to just rat-roaches he is willing to tolerate it." Taki admits. "He's not overly fond of the thing but as long as it's not causing a problem, he's willing to turn a blind eye to its existence. Ecchi usually isn't this public mostly because it fears reprisal from the captain."
Ecchi slides down Takara's body, it basically has the consistency of play-dough, in order to seep between the floorboards to the space beneath where cockroaches the size of rats skitter about hither and yon as people of all species eat their food above in content. Rat-roaches use their antennae like whips as they are that steady and long but this proves to be a mistake where Ecchi is concerned as it traps the antennae in itself and drags the rest of the rat-roach inside in order to feast on it. Ecchi has to pause and digest its meal before moving to get another but eventually the rest of the rat-roaches move on for safer venues.
King Kutulu enters the restaurant Takara and Sakura are sitting at and conducts himself as if he owns the place although to his credit, he does utilize the disguise he stole from his minion which causes the two privateers to glare at him unapologetically. They were getting ready to order desert but when the disguised King Kutulu waltzes in they look at each and agree to take a key lime pie to go, pay their bill and leave. At first Sahara wonders why they bought a whole pie to which Takara reminds her date that Kodyax is particularly fond of this confection from the venue they just vacated which puts a seditious grin on her face as they head for the villa, they share with him in the Captain's Quarter.
The Captain's Quarter is a series of mini domes each containing the general contents and space as a mansion on the surface but with a fantastic view of the surround environment as beyond the eldritch etched glass walls there is nothing to prevent the surround ocean from seeping in destroying a given home. The garage as it is consisting of a space underneath large enough to park one of the smaller stingray shaped subs and then swim up to the main facility via a moon pool with the only other way in being a specially coded teleportation circle that can often be blocked without a personal identifier to bypass the dimensional lock that many home owners invest in to prevent unwanted visitors to their private abodes. Both Takara and Sahara are on the list of allowed persons that can access Kody's villa which they utilize to enter the abode with its king-sized bed dominating the top of the villa which offers the best view of the surrounding environs as well as a cold closet to keep food as well as a small table with three chairs for them to sit on.
Sahara puts the pie on the table as Takara retrieves the plates from downstairs and puts them in the dumbwaiter before climbing the ladder and operates the crank that hauls the dumbwaiter up to the level they intend to enjoy the pie. Nazi'Qualle float outside which concerns both Takara and Sahara as the sinisterly psychic jellyfish give them the creeps but the joke is on them as Kodyax was bored one month while Brom was making some much needed repairs to the Dark Shark and to amuse himself he cobbled together a golem in the form of a colossal crab made entirely of coral and infused within it an elemental spirit seeking a vacation in our dimension and it keeps close to the villa because it likes the view here and it seems to derive some pleasure in taking on Nazi'Quale when they decide to trespass on what is considered their private space. Most of the time the golem is content to just lie dormant on the ocean floor and sleep but when it is needed it will usually awaken fairly quickly to deal with a given situation, although at times it does need to be prodded into taking action and Takara knows how to activate its alarm clock.
Concentrating her mind on the task at hand, Takara initiates a wave of thought that she hopes will reach the golem and wake it up. Below them on the coral encrusted oceanic floor something stirs as a colossal crab shaped creature arises from coral and maneuvers about aimlessly at first and then seems to get some sense of purpose as it ascends the rocky sides of the villa to attack the Nazi'Qualle mercilessly. It only takes one or two of their number getting shredded by the construct to prompt the other Nazi'Qualle that finding some other place to congregate is probably a good idea.
After forcing the Nazi'Qualle to move on, the coral golem does a kind of victory dance before going back to where it was and goes back to sleep. While watching this go down both women are highly amused with Takara laughing and Sahara shaking her head ruefully when the golem goes back to sleep. They finish off about half the pie as they discuss the fight.
"It went back to sleep!" Sahara screams as she watches the golem and then gives Takara an annoyed look as the other is giggling up a storm. "And what do you find so fucking funny?"
"How often have we went looking for Kody only to find he's off somewhere hibernating?" Takara asks in a tone that implies her challenge has more than a twinge of irony. "That golem was totally built by the captain."
"OK," Sahara concedes as she holds up a hand paw. "I get the joke now. So what now?" Takara opens her kimono to reveal she is naked underneath and rises from her seat to try and lead Sahara to the bed to which she offers in protest: "We're in HIS villa and you wanna do it on his bed? What if he catches us?"
"If Kodyax walks in on us," Takara says with a lustful smirk. "I don't know about you but I'm going to invite him to join us."
Sahara nods and strips herself nude to join Takara in bed as she is totally fine with Kodyax joining in on their little game and secretly hopes he does as it means she has a chance to get fucked by him. Takara takes the lead and starts to eat Sahara out which she reciprocates in kind as both Takara and Kodyax do an excellent job of pleasing their partner in this manner. However, when Taki grabs a strap-on with a tentacle dildo, Sahara becomes intrigued.
Of course, she has a tentacle dildo, Sahara thinks to herself with a self-satisfied smirk as Takara teases her pussy lips with the bizarre alternative marital aid. Takara is slightly annoyed by Sahara's mirth but does her best not to show it as at least Kodyax was more intrigued than anything else when she used this on him. But once in, Sahara is mostly appreciative of the dildo as it is quite different than anything else she has let inside of her although even as she lets her friend plough her pussy with her faux prick she can't help compare it to Kody's cock and finds the faux phallus lacking.
Kodyax knocks on the window above them which startles both women who look up half in bewilderment and half in anticipatory terror as they regard him with a faux annoyed expression on his face as he looks down at them. Sahara has the expression of the kid that got caught with her hand in the cookie jar as Takara just beckons for him to join them. Takara casually flips him the bird which elicits a darkly bemuse expression on his face as he points to himself while simultaneously returning the gesture with greatly amuses Sahara as Takara's face takes on the "Oh, shit, what the fuck have I just done?" expression as it dawns on her that Kodyax is fully able and even eager to take her up on her offer and she knows it.
It doesn't take long for Kodyax to actually get to the chamber they have situated themselves in and get undressed to join them as per Taki's lewd offer. Takara is especially embarrassed at how all this backfired on her and she performs an apology blow job to try to save face and gets him hard and ready to penetrate sooner than she expected t be able to. Sahara and Kodyax share a conspiratorial glance as they both know that she wasn't expecting to actually follow through on her earlier promise which is not hard for Kody to conjecture as he has been trying to court Takara long enough to know how she can be.
A realization hits Takara like a bolt from the blue that this particular harness she chose to don is split so that she can get fucked as she is fucking someone else, a fact that Kodyax knows all too well and uses to his advantage as he wraps his arms around Takara and fondles her breasts as he pushes his prick into her pussy. Moaning against her better judgement to remain silent and not encourage him anymore than she has done so already, Takara feels pleasure that Kodyax is giving her and can do nothing to stop and to be honest she feels guilty to be enjoying his touch so much and her moanings ends up being a point of shame to herself as she does not want to admit how good it really feels to submit he body to the amphicyon and let him do as he pleases since whether she wants to admit it or not, his goal is entirely to give her pleasure with the pleasure he receives in turn being just a side benefit, one that he enjoys but ultimately not important in the grand scheme of things.
Somewhere in the back of her mind the yin-yang becomes prominent in her general perception as it starts to spin as blue white plumes of fire suddenly become ablaze as she enjoys how Kodyax is fucking her and the voice of the kami to which she is beholden begin to become clearly audible as happy noises, something that usually doesn't happen when she is having fun with Sahara and other women. She hangs her head in shame even if she is thoroughly enjoying herself as Kodyax is very mindful of her needs when they have sex and it pisses her off that the one lover she has found that gives a damn about her feelings and making sure she has as much fun if not pleasure that he is experiencing is someone of the gender she long ago swore to herself she was absolutely uninterested in. Her eyes fly wide open when she realizes they're knotted as he fills her with his semen and internally she curses herself for letting him get this way.
It takes awhile till the knot deflates and while waiting Kodyax and Takara lick and suckle on Sahara's tits which fills her with a kind ecstasy even if she is extremely jealous of Takara since Kodyax chose to be knotted with her. The only thing that causes Kodyax to become a distracted is a shape in the distance that seems to becoming directly towards them. When at last he can withdraw, Takara sighs in relief that proves to be all too temporary.
King Kutulu found out where Kodyax lives and has decided to give him a message as he enlarges himself temporarily to become roughly the size of an ogre but still far smaller than the dreaming eldritch horror that crafted him from his dreams to act as his proxy in the real world. The mere sight of the dream spawned clone of Cthulhu garners a mix of reactions from the trio as Sahara and Takara are sufficiently frightened that they hope the monster just passes them by while Kodyax starts thinking where he put the experimental firearm he has been working on because he sure as hell needs it now. When the powerful aberrant creature touches down and the first thing it does is smash the golem that Takara activated earlier it angers Kodyax to the point he is ready to rush off in a frenzy to confront the big bully which causes Sahara and Takara to look at each other and nods as they work together to try to pin Kodyax to the bed.
They know that the entity is far too powerful for them to take on, let alone Kodyax himself as King Kutulu seems to laugh and launch itself away like a bully who breaks someone's toy and then laughs before walking away knowing they will just get away with causing grief to another. Takara knows that Kodyax is blind with his righteous rage and will not understand they are doing this to protect him and clings to him shamefully as she hopes her humility will convince him of her sincerity. For his part, Kodyax can never stay angry at Takara for long because he loves her too much to hold a grudge of any sort against her.
Sahara rubs her snatch over Kody's sheath as a kind of apology of sorts and enact some of her own deep-seated desires within her that he invade her folds and fill her up with his seed instead of Takara. It's a selfish desire and she knows it but she honestly wants him to sire her pups so what else can she do is how she rationalizes it to herself. If she didn't have a friends with benefits relationship with Takara she was would have tried to kill the ninja witch long ago.
Takara is not sure what to think for herself as in this triangle it's Sahara she really wants but know her heart needs her captain and his affections in order to feel whole. Her head wants to keep this strictly professional but her heart betrays her as the way he makes her feel when they make love is a set of feeling she has never received from anyone else she has slept with, male or female. Even sharing this domicile with him proves to some part of her that his presence in her life is essential and not temporary.
Kodyax for the most part is pissed off royally but not at the two females at his side but his rancor is entirely directed at the thing that destroyed the golem that took him so long to build and animate. The golem was like an oversized puppy dog in regards to how it treated him and he loved it as one would cherish a beloved pet. He created against his better judgment and in some ways it was an anathema to his beliefs until he managed to justify its creation as an experiment and way to expand his power and create some much needed security for his villa.
Swiftly is this night's journey to the dreamlands beyond the wall of sleep for Kodyax given everything he has gone through on this day as he body rejuvenates itself as he is soon joined by Takara and Sahara swimming in seas of infinity with their personal mystical prowess allowing them to slip beneath the waves to explore the underwater worlds that exist in this endless subjective reality as they continue on in a shared dreamscape. They make their way to a sunken city on non-Euclidean architecture that seems at once utterly foreign and intimately familiar to them. Blasphemous alien hieroglyphics create terrifying murals for them to view even as Kodyax lingers to study them perchance to learn something that would help him in their future struggles.