Hannibal fastened the belts on his assassin gear, which was oddly enough all white. He liked the colour; it reminded him of the blankness one experiences near death. He's been there too many times to count.
Slowly, Hannibal walked out of the central skull piece of the transport, and looked below. The ship below was reloading its weapons, reminiscent of the clockwork scorpion tanks that Kandarin used to have. Strange... Where would they get such technology?
The weapons were almost all loaded, and aimed at the ship, while Hannibal was trying to figure out a way to get down to the ship without breaking both his legs. However, as the ship fired its salvo, he got an idea. Keeping the speeding projectile in his line of sight, he threw a small canister from his belt down onto the ground. A black fog surrounded him, disrupted only by a sharp purplish flash coming from within. In a blink of an eye, Hannibal vanished from the transport and reappeared on the incoming stone projectile. Dashing around wildly, he jumped off of it, and hopped onto the next charge. Using the salvo as a ladder, he swiftly got down to the cold metal surface of the ship.
Roth looked around. He was on the surface of the gloomy ship, the catapults firing its shots at the bone transport. There was a metal spire in the middle, possibly some sort of a ram or an energy weapon (or both!). There were absolutely no openings of any sort on the ship, save for the holes that supplied the ammo to the catapults - which were too small to fit through. Hannibal walked around a bit, when he noticed an inconsistency of sounds that his footsteps were making. Could there be a hollow space below his feet?
Now treading carefully, Roth sampled each area he stepped on. Some sounded more hollow than others, possibly indicating a bigger space. Slowly, Hannibal lay down on the rusted iron, his ear and his palms pressed against the hull. There was a slow throbbing sound from within the ship. Closing his eyes, Roth became one with the metal... and fell right through it.
Looking around, Hannibal found himself in a dimly lit hallway. There were many sounds surrounding him - metallic clunking, hissing of pipes, the occasional electrical discharge - and, of course, the deep pulsing coming from the depths of the ship. Finding it very odd that the hallways were completely devoid of any people, he continued walking through the corridor.
Suddenly, and at last, he heard footsteps nearby. The assassin quickly leaned to the nearest wall, his suit camouflaging to the texture and colours of the metal behind him. He was practically indistinguishable from the wall.
The two men passing by were chattering in some foreign language:
-"...apocrypham necavere audes? Caudessimus est! Ego enim non... Tacite!"
Both of them stopped and cautiously looked around.
-"Noliquid erat. Vale!"
The other man left, and the first one remained in the hallway. He was studying a panel on the wall, while Hannibal was studying the man himself. He was dressed in all black clothes, with a black-against-red circular insignia on his back. The insignia looked like a very thin dragon tying around itself in a knot. It absolutely didn't make any sense to Hannibal, who has never seen this symbol before. Nevertheless, in order to move anywhere, the uninvited guest must be disposed of. Very slowly, and very silently, Hannibal drew two long blades hung on either side of his belt. Creeping like a spider, Roth sneaked up on the man, and slashed his blade at the person's neck.
What Hannibal thought to be a move to scratch one's neck was actually a defensive maneuver. With a start, the assassin noticed that his blade was blocked by another one, one which he swore was not there a second ago.
-"Necavo tuum... FURCIFER!!!"
Shouting some other incoherent garbage, the man whipped around, sending his empty open palm at Hannibal's stomach. The powerful strike knocked Roth back and down onto the corridor. The dagger was no longer there - somehow, the defender was holding a maul now...
-"Quam stultus es... Quam... parvus... es..."
Panting from effort, the black-clothed man swung the maul right at Hannibal. The weapon struck the the floor below Roth, who was no longer there. Rather, he was behind his victim, holding a blade to his throat.
-"Die..."
The death was quick. Not at all how Hannibal wanted it, but it did justice.
---
Hannibal's opponent was quick and skilled, features that Roth noted for future encounters. Instead, he decided to attempt to avoid any further confrontations. Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be that many people within the mammoth ship. Hannibal scaled entire empty corridors before the came to the core of the ship. What he saw nearly knocked him back as hard as his opponent.
There was a giant beating heart in the middle of the room, blood from it seeping through a grate the floor. The heart was pumping blood ferociously through vein-like tubes protruding from either ends of the room. This must be what makes this thing tick, Hannibal thought.
Treading carefully to avoid the blood, Hannibal crawled up to one of the tubes and sliced an opening in it. Immediately, the heart began to pump faster, probably to compensate for the rift. In response, Hannibal opened up the wound even further, and a large stream of blood was now seeping through the opening. The heart continued to beat at a steady, unchanging rate. Eventually, the blood will seep out... time to get out of here.
Hannibal rushed through the door, and headed for the point of entrance, where he infiltrated the ship. After teleporting outside, he noticed the catapults still firing. Thinking quick, Hannibal jumped onto one of the projectiles. He rode it to the transport, which was still holding. As soon as he was within range, he teleported inside the skull. The ship beneath was already losing buoyancy.
