Somewhere near the An Giang/Quang Ngai border, Vietnam;
The convoy puttered along slowly. They had set out from their hidden enclave in Nhan Co two days ago, and were still only halfway to Da Nang, along the Truong Son Dong road. It consisted of several Urals, reactivated when the Abyssal crisis first began, along with two BTR-152's. Positively ancient ZPU-2 AA guns mounted onto the armored cars watched the sky, the gunners straining to hear any noise over the wet puttering of diesel engines.
"I don't like this fog, can't see shit." One of the gunners muttered, one of the passengers, an older man, turned to look at him from where he sat on the roof.
"Neither can the Abyssals, you think any of their demon-bats would be able to see us on the ground through this? Now is the best time to move, we'll be able to cover even more distance tonight as long as we don't come across any barricades."
The man had a point. The fog, thick as it was, would cover them from air assault, and probably help mute the noise of their engines. "Hmm, I guess, doesn't make my job any easier, though if I have to do it we are fucked regardless." The younger gunner spit off the side of their vehicle, "You think a pair of ZPU's would manage to kill anything other than bandits?"
"The older man shook his head. "It gives peace of mind to the people here, and that's what matters. helps that they dissuade looters"
"Hey! shut up back there! I can't hear anything through your talking!" The leader of their merry band called out from ahead, "We're coming up on the bridge, keep your eyes peeled!"
The convoy continued, slowing as they neared the natural chokepoint. "Alright, nice and easy, I remember some assholes had a toll booth for food set up here a few months ago, they had old SKS's and a couple of technicals, but they probably won't bother us once they get a good look at the BTR's"
The bridge slowly came into view through the fog, a solid construction of concrete and rebar, it was blocked by a simple toll gate made of bamboo, there were figures standing near it. "Shit, looks like they are still here, signal a halt."
The man next to the leader of the convoy, another older gentleman, blew on his brass Chinese war-bugle, a captured relic from his service during the Third Indochina War, signaling the convoy to halt.
The trucks slowly rolled to a halt, as the convoy's leader signaled some of his men to follow him as he disembarked.
"Alright, let's see what these guys want, they'll probably try to fleece some food off us, though I wouldn't be surprised if they try and swipe one of the BTR's, keep your eyes open." the men nodded.
As they approached the leader called out to the figures "Hoi! We're looking to use this bridge! whats your price!?" The men said nothing, simply standing in the middle of the road in front of the makeshift barricade, rifles slung loosely in their arms. "Hey! I know you assholes can hear me, what is it you want for passage?" Still nothing.
Then they started walking forwards.
"Hey-hey! That's close enough!"
They kept coming, "I'm warning you! we have two BTR's with AA guns looking at you right now!" The men next to the leader raised their shotguns, Mossburg 500's. The men, wearing old and ragged PAVN uniforms, got close enough to see clearly. Their skin was withered and blackened, and black metallic splotches with human teeth seemed to sprout from parts of their equipment.
They finally opened their eyes, letting the blue glow spill from seemingly empty sockets.
" m-m-ma đói, ma đói!" One of the men dropped his Mossberg, sprinting away as fast as he could while the others opened fire, the buckshot traveling through the specters seemingly without effect, merely causing ripples where they passed.
The ghosts returned fire. The 7.62×39mm rounds from their rusting type 56 AK-47's tore through the standing men, and sent the one running to fall flat on his face on the muddy trail, back blossoming red as the BTR's finally got over their shock and opened fire, as the Ural trucks quickly tried to back up.
An RPG rocket smashed into the rear truck, sending deadly shrapnel flying as its burning wreck blocked the rest of the vehicles' escape. The handful of ghosts in front of the formation were shredded, as the ZPU's seemingly had an actual effect, turning the four monsters into slightly glowing chunks that faded away as mud was kicked up from the massive rounds tearing into the wet dirt road around and through them.
The foliage on either side of the convoy exploded into motion, men in old waterlogged uniforms charging the trucks from either side as their occupants spilled out to defend themselves, few were armed but for their fists and whatever came to hand. But enough had firearms that a scattered amount of return fire tore into the approaching wave of bodies, only some seemingly had an effect, the rest having the same lack of apparent effect as the shotguns earlier had.
"W-What are these things!?" The gunner screamed, sending a fusillade of fire into the sprinting apparitions nearest to him as the rocket trail of another RPG-7 sailed past him, narrowly missing the car as it blew a tree to splinters behind him.
"Look out!" The gunner turned to see half of a man climbing onto his vehicle. The ghost, for that was the only thing it could be, wore the top half of a US marine's uniform. Of its legs, there was only a faint glowing outline, naught but shredded cloth from his pantlegs trailing where they would have been.
More noticeable and worrying, however, was the M26 grenade that it lobbed at him. The grenade bounced off the gunner's chest, tumbling down into the turret compartment of his vehicle.
"Grenade!"
...
The attack had been, disquieting, Konnie decided, watching as a handful of the humans were rounded up, the rest simply gunned down by the things Caleuche had summoned. It hadn't been the violence, anyone in New Jersey's fleet quickly became desensitized to that, even in far-flung outposts where she had been stationed, no, what was disturbing was that other than the actual gunfire...
Throughout the entire assault, the attackers hadint made a single sound, not even so much as a grunt of pain or shout of anger.
They'd said nothing, not a single word.
Caleuche clapped her hands merrily, stepping out from behind the tree she'd positioned herself behind. "HaHa Ha! Absolutely wo̶̥͑́ͅnderful! An excellent test of their capabilities!" She turned to Konnie and smiled widely, "Shall we take a closer look?"
The Ta-Class nodded nervously, and they picked their way out of the brush. They passed by where the initial ambushers had 'died', shredded, empty remains of tattered and moldy clothes marking where they had been.
"Curious... The Frigate crouched down daintily, scooping up a tattered piece of ghostly cloth, she sniffed it, where a large caliber bullet had torn a hole through. "There is lingering spiritual essence here, some of the weapons the humans here used must have been, relatively, rather old and well-worn."
"What does that mean?" Konnie asked curiously, poking one of the dead humans with the point of her right leg.
"It is the mistake of the ignorant, to think only ships have a tangible spirit, my dè̶̫̻ar." Caleuche simply replied, as an ARVN 'soldier' stooped to pick up an old brass instrument from one of the corpses, hooking it onto his webbing as the others began to search the corpses, what for, Konnie didn't know.
"Come, I will show you an... Example." Konnie trailed behind Caleuche as the wooden Frigate moved towards a gaggle of the cursed men, who themselves surrounded a small handful of surviving Vietnamese, nursing bruises from where they'd been beaten into submission.
"Tell me...New Constrú̶̞͎cts such as you are relatively... well, new, hence the name I suppose. You have a crew, correct?" Konnie nodded uncertainly as Caleuche came up behind one of the human men, who, upon twisting to see her, started gibbering in fear. "Can you feel them? As in one in particular?" Konnie blinked.
"What do you mean?"
Caleuche sighed gently, "Oh come now! Surely you make the distĭ̶̙̿nction between most of your crew and your Captain? Or perhaps your Navigator, or even your powder-monkeys?" Konnie almost pointed out that powder monkey's hadint been athing for a long time, but thought better of it as the white ship continued; "Try to concentrate on one of your crew members, not necessarily anyone important, just... Ầ̶̻nyone in specific."
Konnie did so, closing her eyes and focusing. She had 951 fairies on board, standard for most of her class, she dug deeper, she had her Captain, her bridge officers, technicians...
"Good, good, now concentrate on just one, feel for their presence within you, and concentrate on that above all else."
The Ta did as she was told, fixing her complete attention on a single ensign, currently swabbing the floor in her mess-hall.
"No̶̥͑́ͅw feel her presence, see how she is attached to you, do you feel the strings?"
She did, a tendril, barely a thread, really, seemed to come from somewhere on the fairy, connecting to her and allowing her to feel-
"God-damn Murray, getting me put on cleaning duty, I swear if that bint ever thinks I'll let her have a share of my dessert anytime soon she has another thing coming," I thought, scrubbing under a table furiously, I turned to dunk the mop back into the provided bucket as I-
-Konnie snapped out of her daze, to see Caleuche's face mere inches from her own. She stumbled back in a full-bodied flinch as Caleuche giggled slightly.
"So you managed it I see?" Come, now let me show you the similarities, put your hands on this man's head." Konnie blinked, still slightly mystified at the sudden change in perspective, as she advanced on the human, who was being restrained by the cursed men behind him, she planted her hands on his thrashing head and turned to Caleuche.
"Now what?"
The wooden Frigate put both of her hands gently over Konnies' own before answering; "Now try the same thing, feel for the 'fairy' within this human, there will likely only be one, so you shouldn't have to look too hard. I'll help guide you." Konnie tried, closing her eyes again as she cast her attention towards the man, she felt... something, briefly, but it kept slipping away from her attention's 'grasp'.
Then her focus shifted, seemingly of its own volition.
"I am ḩ̵̟̳̻͐̉elping you, now concentrat̴̟͊e̴̖͊!" Caleuche's voice rang out.
Konnie did so, and suddenly felt as though her hands were touching more than the man's head.
"Excellent, you are learning, now, take a good solid grip on it and P̷̮͐͘ULL, take it within yourself, and you will find you might feel a little... Different." Konnie took a moment, simply feeling the mass of, whatever it was, before in her mind's eye she pictured wrapping mooring lines around it, the shape began to wriggle, and faintly Konnie could hear a faint high-pitched sound, like a ruptured steam-pipe.
She pulled.
Instantly, the... Whatever it was, flew into her, her mind was briefly overtaken by a white flash. When she was finally able to concentrate again, her metaphorical mental hands were now... empty.
"Excellent, now, open your eyes, and tell me, how do you feel?"
Konnie opened her eyes, and her actual hands were now empty as well, Caleuche having stepped back, and the human bonelessly splayed out on the ground, eyes rolled back and foam at his mouth. Konnie felt... Better! Some of the remaining ache from her earlier ordeal on the mountain had faded, and she felt... stronger? it didn't seem like a physical strength but-
"You feel it, don't you? That's the feeling of your spirit strengthening as it cannibalizes his for energy." Konnie looked back at the human, her jaw-dropping in shock.
"I... I ate his soul!?!"
Caleuche started laughing.