“Oh God, have mercy on us,” Captain Newman muttered as he saw the two massive tentacles rising up over the port and starboard sides of the Bonime. They dropped onto the ship, shaking the bridge once more, as they wrapped around it. Captain Newman heard the creaking of metal on the verge of buckling and giving way as the tentacles tightened around the ship. Metal screamed as it ripped and caved inward.
The batch of the Bonime’s onboard ordinance detonated. The explosion shook the ship. Flames leaped skyward as pieces of the hull spun away in the blast. It was far from the only explosion. A second erupted towards the ship’s aft section as others ripped along her at midship. Stations blew out all around the bridge. The forward window shattered raining glass over those near it. An officer cried out as a shard of glass buried itself in his back between his shoulders before being flung to the floor of the bridge as the Bonime shook again.
Captain Newman’s XO lay dead not far from his command chair. A piece of the bridge’s ceiling had collapsed, nearly severing the man’s head as it had struck him. His body twitched as blood pooled around his body.
“Abandon ship!” Captain Newman shouted, but he knew it was too late even as he gave the order. If anyone could reach the lifeboats, that thing was still out there, its tentacles still squeezing the Bonime as she burned.
Another explosion knocked Captain Newman from his command chair. He landed hard on the floor, his hands plunging into blood and glass to catch himself. He ignored the pain of the glass shards shoved into his palms by his own weight and scrambled to his feet. Through the shattered forward window of the bridge, he looked into the gigantic, yellow eyes of the Kraken as the monster’s head rose over the front of the Bonime’s bow. He wanted to scream, to run away, but he was so awestruck by those eyes that he froze in his tracks.
The Bonime lurched as the Kraken tugged her downwards beneath the waves. Her bow went down first, raising her aft section skyward. Captain Newman was picked up by the sudden rush of water that poured through the smashed bridge window. It carried him along, slamming him into the rear wall of the bridge. Water rushed into his open mouth and flooded his lungs as the rush of the water held him where he was. And then there was only blackness as the world spun around him and his eyes closed a final time.
Captain Weaver watched as the Kraken pulled the USS Bonime below the waves. It was like seeing something out of a Verne novel come to life before his eyes. The Bonime was burning as the Kraken dragged her down. Numerous explosions had blown holes in her hull and tendrils of black smoke rose from her towards the heavens. Then she was simply gone.
The Mitchell was gone as well. She had lit up the waves in a flash of heat and light that had sent debris flying as she blew apart. The Rigel was sending out distress calls from not only her bridge but several of her decks where crewmen were holed up trying to hold off the squid creatures that were running rampant through her. So far, the Hercules appeared to be holding on with minimal damage. Her captain, Nicholson, had taken the warning he’d been given to heart. Captain Newman was glad that at least someone had truly listened to him and believed. Nicholson had sealed all the entrances to the Hercules’ interior and welded them shut. In addition, he had wisely positioned what troops he had at his disposal to ensure none of the squids would be entering, at least not easily, through the ship’s windows. Captain Nicholson had even had the foresight to move his command to the Hercules’ to a make-shift secondary bridge in her engineering section behind closed bulkhead doors. That was something he hadn’t even thought of doing himself. If they got out of this mess alive, Captain Weaver promised himself that whatever report he wrote would include mention of just how capable Captain Nicholson was.
“Open a channel to all ships of the DESRON,” Captain Weaver ordered.
“Channel open, sir,” his comm. officer replied.
“This is Captain Weaver of the USS Braxton. The Mitchell has been lost and Surface Commander Hoffman with her. As of now, I am assuming command of all still-functioning ships of DESRON 2.”
No reply beyond more cries for help came from the Rigel, but Captain Nicholson responded at once acknowledging his command.
The first order of business was to decide what to do about the situation aboard the Rigel. Captain Weaver knew any boarding boats he dispatched to go to her aid would never reach her. The waters around the ships of the DESRON were so infested with the smaller squid creatures that the sonar couldn’t even give an accurate count of them anymore. But the real worry was the Kraken itself. If the Braxton and the Hercules lingered in an attempt to aid the Rigel, the odds were that they would suffer a similar fate to what had already happened to the Mitchell and the Bonime. That was something he couldn’t afford to risk, no matter how much he wanted to help those left alive aboard the Rigel. The cold, hard truth, he came to accept as he thought things over, was they were on their own.
“Engines at full, Mr. Watkins!” Captain Weaver snapped.
“Yes, sir,” Watkins barked from where he sat at the helm.
“Order the Hercules to follow our lead. We’re getting the hell out of here,” Captain Weaver shouted at Ennis.
“I can’t believe we’re running, sir,” Ennis stared at him. “What about the Rigel?”
“What other choice do we have?” Captain Weaver shrugged. “As to the Rigel, God help those aboard her.”
Spent shell casings flew from the side of the heavy SAW clattering to the floor of the corridor as Lumley hosed the advancing squid creatures with a continuous stream of bullets. The barrage tore and ripped squid flesh, sometimes blowing entirely through the first squid they struck to dig into the squid behind it. The floor of the corridor was littered with the twitching bodies of dying squid creatures and slicked with the black greasy substance that was their blood. The squid creatures kept coming though, seemingly oblivious to the fate of their brethren who lay dead and the losses they were taking. There was no sign of their attack lessening. It was as if their numbers were without limit.
Lumley was caught in a fighting retreat along with Simmons and his CO, Zek. The three of them had survived the massacre on the Rigel’s main deck and fled into the ship’s interior. Lumley wondered if Zek had any clue where they were heading to. There weren’t that many places left to run to if there were any at all. The squid creatures appeared to be everywhere inside the ship. All the three of them could do was stay on the move and keep killing the things as they showed themselves.
“Check your corners!” Zek was shouting over the thunderous gunfire. “Check your corners!”
The Rigel’s main power was failing. The corridors were lit solely by the red glow of emergency backup power. The lights flickered on and off at random intervals, casting shadows throughout the corridors they were running through and making it easier for the squids to get the drop on them as they went.
When they had first fled into the ship, there had been five surviving members of their unit. Love had bought it as they had rounded a corner and one of the creatures had ambushed him there. The thing had slashed his head in half with a single swipe of one of its primary tentacles. Lumley could still see the splatter of brain matter, blood, and bone fragments flying as the man’s skull had been sliced open. Paul had died in just as grizzly manner. One of the squid creatures had been lying in wait, clinging to the ceiling of a corridor. It had dropped onto Paul from above him, its primary tentacles plunging into him, one through each side of his chest. The squid creature had torn Paul’s upper body apart in an explosion of gore as it jerked the tentacles in opposite directions. The worst part of their deaths to Lumley was that they hadn’t been able to retrieve their bodies. They had been forced to leave their fellow soldiers behind to be feasted upon by the squids.