“Sorry, dude,” Drago said. He coughed suddenly, the arms and legs of his suit spasming.
“Drago, are you smoking in your suit again?” Lovelace snapped. “I swear to God…”
“Hey, Sarge, I got Lurch to install a smokeless ashtray!” Drago said. “And spare filters. Smoke just went down the wrong way!”
“No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend,” Lovelace said. “You’re too stupid to pick up chicks.”
“I got a girl back home,” Crowley said. “And when we get back, I’m gonna get down on one knee and ask her to marry me.” The dome on his armor swiveled back and forth rapidly and he laughed. “Heh. Just checking.”
“Damn, man, don’t do that to me,” Drago said, his own sensor dome swiveling. “You know not to say maulk like that. It jinxes the mission. Never talk about your romantic plans!”
“That’s just a stupid superstition,” Lovelace said, looking around nonetheless. “Holy Grapping God WHAT IS THAT?!”
20
“COMMAND, COMMAND, COMING OVER THE—”
“Who the hell was—” the CO said, looking up from the video screen that was following the security and science team as it approached the woodline. A herd of large herbivores was moving fast enough that the group was going to have a hard time heading straight back to the boat.
“I don’t know; we don’t have any indicators…” Tactical said as the boat suddenly shuddered. “What… ?”
“Command, Second Bravo!” a half hysterical voice said over the tac-net. “There’s a giant… AAAGH!”
“That was Drago,” Captain MacDonald said, breaking in. “He’s on elevator guar… Oh My God! Command! There’s a giant grapping tentacle attached to the boat!”
The leviathan made a living off of the predators that ate the smaller swimmers around the point. Occasionally it managed to snag one of the dumber land beasts that got too close to the shore.
In this case it wasn’t sure what it had. But it was big, it moved and it had armor so it was probably something to eat. A couple of tentacles had snagged smallish beasts. Their armor had been quite tasty but the insides were gagging. It had eaten them anyway. Food was food.
Now it had big food. It had eaten a couple of large swimmers and the smaller land beasts already so it wasn’t particularly hungry. However, waste not, want not. It just had to get this thing wedged somewhere and wait for it to drown. Then it could feed on it at leisure.
“Holy grapp,” Jaen whispered, his eyes wide.
“Two-Gun, I think you need bigger pistols,” Hatt added.
“Engage space drive!” Spectre yelled as the boat lurched towards the cliff.
“Space drive, aye!” the pilot said as the boat started to tip.
“Sound brace!” the CO said.
“All hands, all hands,” the XO said, keying the 1-MC. “Brace for impact!”
“Move, move!” Lieutenant Tony Berisford shouted. The tall, slender and homely Second Platoon leader had come up through Marine OCS. Like all the junior officers in Recon, he had prior experience as a platoon leader, in his case in the 3rd MEU. But this was the first time he’d seen a giant octopus try to eat a submarine. He responded pretty well, nonetheless.
“Engage the tentacles,” he said. “Careful. Don’t hit the boat.”
Candle-Man had been in reserve, backing the rest of the platoon. Like everyone else he’d been watching the science teams moving across the savannah until the shrill scream from Lovelace. But when he saw the tentacles dragging their ride home off the cliff, it was pretty clear what he had to do.
He’d started sprinting towards the beast, whose shell was just visible peeking over the edge of the cliff. As soon as he got to where he was pretty sure he could shoot it without grapping up the boat he’d taken a knee and engaged with his minigun.
The 7.62 mm rounds, though, just sank into the massive tentacle without any apparent effect. Shifting to where the juncture with the shell was visible, just over the edge of the cliff, wasn’t any better. The large, powerful rounds just sank in and disappeared. Oh, there were chunks of flesh blowing off and violet blood splashing in the air but…
He didn’t notice the tentacle descend on him from above…
Staff Sergeant Summerlin winced as Chandler was picked up and slammed repeatedly on the ground. He’d started for the thing just behind Chandler and was only about ten meters away when the thing picked up his teammate. The tentacle that had Chandler was at least three meters thick and clearly powerful, since the refractory Wyvern armor popped and smashed at the impacts. After several fast smacks, like a sea otter cracking a clam on a rock, Chandler’s battered and blood-streaming armor was flicked through the air to drop over the side of the cliff. There was a crunching sound as the tentacle reached farther out.
Summerlin started backing up, fast, as the tentacle descended. He was on full rock and roll with the mini on his shoulder as the tentacle dropped and he could see the mini blowing chunks out of it, but…
“Grapp!” Berisford shouted as first Chandler then Summerlin were turned into Wyvern au tere. “Team Support Gunners; open fire. Clear that thing off so we can—”
He stopped talking as the boat slid over the side of the cliff. The tentacle that had taken two of his platoon to the depths followed.
“Never mind.”
“Space drive on-line!” the pilot said as the boat hit the water at an angle. Everyone was thrown to the side but the pilot was strapped into his seat.
“Full power,” Spectre ordered, his arm wrapped around a stanchion. “Blow all ballast! Unfurl the propellers! Give me everything!”
The boat suddenly lurched, but downwards, then slammed into the rock wall. Up, down, SLAM! Up, down, SLAM!
“Kill the power!” Weaver screamed. “Quit trying to get away!”
“What?” the CO yelled. “Are you nuts!”
“It’s trying to kill us!” Weaver yelled as the boat hit the rocks again. An alarm klaxon started chattering in the distance.
“Leak in section forty-six!” the XO said.
“Kill all power!” the CO said. “Silent running!”
“All hands,” the XO ordered over the 1-MC. “Silent running.”
As soon as the beast stopped struggling, the leviathan took it deeper. With both vestigial lungs and much more functional gills, the giant crabpus could survive under water whereas prey like this could not.
It settled into a volcanic crevice and wrapped its arms around its prey, pecking away with its mandibles. It wasn’t really hungry, but usually there were some legs sticking out to snack on. So far, nothing… When it got hungry enough, it would take the trouble to crack the beast open and eat the juicy insides.
“Neither laser will bear,” Lieutenant Souza said quietly. The tactical officer was not quite sweating. “And we can’t use the torps or missiles. They’re designed for space battles.”
The CO had gathered the command team and the remnants of the science team in a meeting. The thing hadn’t really tried to crack the boat, yet. When it did, things were going to get bad.
The flooding had been stopped and the boat was functional, if at a cant. But they had to get away from the damned sea monster before they could fly.