by Greig Beck
“Same right here, Captain,” Joni Baker chimed in. “Where are you? I still can’t see you on the grid.”
“You will when we step out of the cave system. We’re only a few hundred yards from you. Is the situation clear?” Loche asked.
“We had a few nosey visitors, large and small, but we saw them off. Right now, land, sea, and air—above and below is all clear, boss. How’s the team?” Miles asked.
Loche’s lips pressed together momentarily. “We lost Angel, Masters, Edison, Williams, and Archer.”
“Ah, damnit,” Miles replied, and he heard Joni Baker also curse softly.
“But we are bringing in Ally Bennet,” Loche said.
“Say again? The missing American woman?” Miles asked.
“That’s the one. Long story,” Loche said. “Put a drone up and give us eyes in the air. We’re coming in fast. Prep the submersibles, as we are leaving as soon as the hatch closes.”
“Yes, sir,” Miles said with Baker also acknowledging the command.
Loche turned. “Are we ready?”
“Are we ever?” Mike replied.
Jane saw the nods and the mental preparation on their faces—even though there were seven of them, hearing all the names of the fallen brought it home how many had been killed. And then there was the entire Russian squad that had been lost.
She drew in a breath and let it out, feeling the knot of sorrow and regret in her gut. This place ate people, literally. It was never meant for them.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
Mike bumped up against her and looked up. Above them, they saw the dot of the drone appear and this time the soft, almost insect-like whine was comforting.
Matt turned to close the door behind them as instructed.
“That’s our cue,” Loche said. “Croft and I will lead us out—stay tight, people.” He nodded to Croft and the pair began to jog.
They came out from under the overhang and moved fast.
“I see you,” Miles said into Loche’s ear. “Keep moving east. You’re going to enter the tree line for just two hundred yards and then you’ll come out just to the north of where we are berthed.”
“Got it,” Loche said as he led them into the first line of trees.
Inside the jungle, it became dark and humid, but thankfully, there was nothing that jumped out at them, or for that matter anything at all. If Jane didn’t know better, she might have thought it was more a sanctuary than a place of tooth and claw.
In just a few minutes more, they came to the end of the strip of jungle and Loche held up a hand. As Albie Miles had said, looking south, he saw the towers of the two submersibles waiting right where they left them, still moored in the mouth of the broad estuary. And beyond, the red ocean sparkled. For now, it looked calm and only small waves lapped against the bank.
Jane remembered that further down the coast the city of the Y’ha-nthlei would still be there. Had the creatures returned to it? she wondered. Katya seemed confident they had. But then, where were they?
Above them, the drone dropped to just about fifty feet above their heads and dipped its propellor wings in greeting.
Loche touched his ear mic. “Miles, we’re coming in. Take the drone down the coast to the city and see if there’s any signs of life.” He turned to nod to the group. “We’ll be with you in a minute or two.”
Miles confirmed the order and Loche signed off.
“Last lap,” he said, his eyes fixed on the subs. “We’ve got to balance the submersibles. Croft, Ally, and I will go in Abyss-2. I want you civilians in…”
“Hey, no way, I’m sticking with the guys with the guns.” Janus turned to Mike, Jane, and Matt, and shrugged. “No offense.”
Loche exhaled. “Fine, you come with us. Ally, you’re the military guy that gets to accompany the civilians. Any objections?”
There were none.
“Okay, then…”
“Boss.” Miles’ voice was tight.
Loche held up a finger. “Go, Miles.”
“City is empty, but I’m getting some weird readings coming in from the sonar,” the pilot replied. “You seeing this, Baker?” he asked the second pilot.
“Sure am,” Joni replied. “So, it’s not a malfunction if we’ve both got it.”
“Describe what you’re seeing,” Loche ordered.
“Well, if I was at sea, I’d say we were approaching a landmass. But as I’m moored, then it looks like the landmass is coming to us,” Miles replied.
Loche lifted his head to relay the information to the group. “Sonar said there’s something big, the size of a landmass, bearing down on us.”
“It’s Dagon,” Jane replied stiffly.
Loche nodded. “Pilot one and two, we are coming in. Prepare for immediate evac.” He signed off, took one last look around, and then waved them on. “Move it.” He began to sprint.
***
The single group burst from the jungle and then split as they crossed the last hundred yards to the submersibles.
The water looked calm and red, but Jane knew what it was bearing down on them from the sea. And she had seen the size of the beast before and knew if it caught them, it would crush the heavily armored mini submarines like tin cans.
Loche got to submersible Abyss-2 first and turned to cover Croft and Janus as they climbed the side and dropped down into the open hatch.
Ally did the same, urging Jane, Mike, and Matt up and over the side. Mike came last and after dropping down inside, pulled the hatch shut.
Ally went directly to the front and sat down. “2nd Lieutenant Ally Bennet. And you must be 1st Lieutenant Albie Miles.”
Miles grinned and saluted. “Yes, ma’am, and welcome aboard. And glad to see you made it.”
“We haven’t made it yet, soldier.” Ally became all business. “We need to get out and away from the behemoth bearing down on us and get to the gravity well, ASAP.”
She half turned. “Everyone else sit down and strap in.” She faced Miles. “What armaments do you have?”
Miles quickly ran through the list of weapons they had, and when he got to the last, the standard and nuclear-tipped torpedos, she stopped him.
“Get them prepped, all of them.”
Miles had already begun pulling away from the shore and pressed a few more switches, which elicited a mechanical sound beneath their feet as the torpedos were armed and loaded on their rails in line for the torpedo tubes.
“Half kiloton load. Just one is enough to sink a battleship,” Miles said proudly.
“Won’t be enough. Just hope between both submersibles we can do enough damage to kill or at least dissuade it from following us.” She exhaled. “And not just piss it off.”
Miles whistled and then checked the sonar. “Big bogey is half a klick and closing fast.” He half turned. “Water drone?”
“Good idea. Launch it,” Ally replied.
Miles pressed a few buttons and reset some dials. Another screen opened beside the aerial drone’s panel and the small craft launched, its camera immediately transmitting underwater images back to them.
Now they had two screens of data—the aerial drone delivered images from several hundred feet above the water’s surface, where the outline of both submersibles could just be made out, and then the next screen showed them below the surface, that was eerily devoid of sea life… exactly as you’d expect if a monstrous predator was in the vicinity.
“Abyss-1, do you read?” It was Loche’s voice in the other submersible.
Ally opened the mic to the entire craft so Matt, Jane, and Mike could hear. “We read you. We’ve launched a seaborne drone, images up now.”
“Got ‘em,” Loche said. “We’re going to try and get behind this big bastard to give us more room to move. I suggest we go in opposite directions so we’re not a combined target.”
“Roger that, sir,” Ally replied. “We’ve loaded up nuke-tipped fish… just in case.”
“Yeah, so have we. If we get a shot
, we take it,” Loche replied. “Opening it up to full ahead. Good luck and Godspeed to all. Over.”
Ally nodded and sighed. “And same to you. All of you,” she added.
Miles pushed their craft to top speed, and on their sonar, they saw their sister submersible heading west at the same rate. And right in between them was something so huge that it defied physical description and was even proving difficult for their instruments to capture.
The splitting of their submersibles had the desired effect as the mass paused.
“It doesn’t know which one of us to chase,” Ally smiled. “Confused, huh? Ya, big dumb brute.” She turned to Miles. “Wait ‘til we both have some space and then turn so we can put a nuke up its ass.”
“Roger that,” Miles said. “Getting images now.”
The first small screen displayed the feed from the airborne drone and showed a shadow in the water now just a quarter-mile from them. It looked like a massive reef, but they knew it wasn’t.
“Here it comes,” Jane whispered.
The seaborne drone sped toward the mass, and they watched while holding their collective breath.
“Something weird is happening,” Miles said.
It looked at first like the mass was fraying at its edges, but then they saw that it was in fact smaller objects breaking away from the center mass.
Dagon then seemed to have made a decision and began to move toward Abyss-2, while the hundreds of specks moved in a swarm toward Ally and her team in Abyss-1.
“It’s got to be the Y’ha-nthlei,” Jane said. “Dagon has released its minions.”
“Can’t fire a torpedo into multiple moving targets of that size,” Miles said.
“Try and stay ahead of them. Dagon is still the main game.” Ally leaned forward, read the new data from the screen, and then cursed. “Abyss- 2, Dagon is closing in on your position.”
“We see it,” Loche replied. “Just get yourself clear.”
“There,” Miles said as he glanced at the underwater drone’s screen.
On the image, something began to fill the screen, larger and larger until that was all there was. The last image was of a tentacled mass, and then an eye that must have been fifty feet across. It burned as red as Hades and carried an eons-old intelligence. And a hate. Hotter than the sun. Then the drone’s image vanished from the screen.
“Argh, shit.” Matt winced and placed a hand to his temple. “It’s trying to get in our heads.” He groaned. “It remembers us, remembers you, Jane.”
“I hurt it last time. It wants revenge,” Jane replied, now also feeling the pressure of an intrusion into her own mind.
“Those things are faster than we are,” Miles said. “Can’t outrun them for long.”
“What else have we got in the arsenal?” Ally asked.
“We can set up a shock pulse—burn anything that touches us or set up a shockwave that might stun them from a range of around fifty feet but that means they gotta be real close.” He turned. “One more thing, we can’t fire a torpedo while we are pulsing or we’re liable to detonate the torpedo as it exits the tube.”
“Yeah, let’s not detonate a nuke on our skin.” Ally thought for a moment. “Only pulse if we need to. I want us to retain the ability to fire a nuke when we can.”
Miles shook his head. “Can’t do it while Abyss-2 is in range of the thing. Though we have toughened hulls, the blast shockwave might rupture them.”
Ally threw her head back to look heavenward for a moment. “Come on, give us a break, will you?”
The aerial drone image showed the image of their submersible’s sleek body below the surface like a dark fish. But then just a hundred feet behind it, there were hundreds of objects closing in. By scale, they looked roughly twice human-sized.
“Can they break in?” Mike asked.
“Unlikely,” Miles replied. “But they don’t have to. They could damage some of the external sensors, or worse, they could simply crowd us and clog our propulsion units…render us dead in the water. Or take us to the bottom… and keep us there.”
“And then we’re dead, full stop,” Jane added.
Ally momentarily bared her teeth. “That ain’t gonna happen.” She sat forward. “Prepare for a pulse—full power.”
The female soldier stared hard at the screen, obviously counting down either the seconds or the distance as the first wave of Dagon’s minions bore down on them.
“Swing us past the approaching wave,” she ordered.
Miles did as requested, and as the sleek submersible powered by the front of the approaching horde, Ally pounded a fist down. “Now.”
“Pulsing,” Miles said and pressed a button.
There was the sensation of vibrating beneath their feet and their instrumentation whited out for a second. Then the overhead drone image returned to show the first line of things that had been following them had stopped to hang in the water.
“Got ‘em.” Ally made a fist.
But then the next wave who were outside of the pulse radius began to catch up.
“Damnit, we’ve only bought ourselves some time,” she said, tiredly.
Miles shook his head. “That big bastard is going to overtake Abyss-2. It’s too close to nuke.”
Ally nodded for a moment. “Okay, we’ve got to slow that thing down. Load up an impact torpedo.”
“On it,” Miles said.
Ally got on the mic. “Going to put a standard fish into that thing’s back—hold your breath,” she said.
“Ready,” Miles said with his finger on the launch button.
Ally didn’t hesitate. “Fire.”
Miles pressed the launch button. “Fish away.”
***
“Evasive action!” Loche yelled.
Joni Baker engaged full thrusters and spun the U-shaped wheel, turning the tail rudder hard to maneuver the small craft away from the approaching leviathan.
The impact from the torpedo into the thing was felt as a shudder through the miniature submarine, but the massive beast didn’t even flinch or acknowledge the strike in any way. But what the attack did was draw away all the minions from Abyss-1 to defend their master, so now they had Dagon and his hellish horde all to themselves.
“Come on, come on, come on.” Janus was on his feet. “Get us the fuck out of here, Loche.” He reached over Joni Baker’s chair and grabbed her shoulder.
Loche spun, grabbed his wrist, and jerked his hand off. “Shut up, sit down, and strap in.”
Joni’s teeth were bared from the strain on her arms. “It’s goddamn everywhere. Can’t get around, under, or over it. Need some options, sir.”
Dagon was nearly on them, and now the approaching horde was ringing them in. They were trapped. Loche calculated his options and their odds—none of them worked. It came down to a simple strategy: save some or save none.
“We have just one.” Loche reached for the mic. “Abyss-1…” He drew in a deep breath. “You need to withdraw to safe distance. We’re going for the big burn on this thing.”
Ally came straight back. “We can stay in the fight, hit it from behind again,” she pleaded.
“No, you are to proceed at speed to the gravity well. Get those civilians topside. That’s an order.” Loche felt the endgame coming on. He turned to the large form of Croft sprawling in the chair behind him.
“Oh yeah.” The big man grinned. “Burn that motherfucker down.”
Loche turned back to Joni.
She nodded immediately. “Can’t let this big bastard topside to go on sinking our ships, sir.”
“No, we cannot,” Loche replied evenly.
“Hey, I’m a fucking civilian too!” Janus screamed from behind him. He unbuckled his seat belt. “Don’t you dare fucking do anything stupid. You all work for me, remember?” He grabbed Joni again. “Get us out of here.”
Baker shrugged his hand off. “No can do, mister. It’s already on us.”
“Prepare to launch nukes—both tubes,” Loche said.
Joni Baker smiled. “Can’t miss.”
***
Ally was conflicted and knew her options were limited and shrinking. She could stay and fight, and probably be destroyed. Or she could use the precious minutes Loche was giving her to get to the gravity well and escape with her crew. And maybe live to fight another day.
She turned and looked at the faces of Matt, Mike, and Jane. None showed fear. But all were wide-eyed with apprehension.
“Orders, ma’am?” Miles requested.
If she was alone in this craft, her choice would be simple.
But she wasn’t.
Ally turned away from the small group. “Head to the mouth of the gravity well at full speed. Then wait,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Miles turned the stick hard and the small submersible veered in the water, speeding to the huge column leading up to and then through the boiling red ceiling.
In just a few minutes more, Miles slowed the craft at the base of the huge monolithic column rising from the sea and vanishing into the red ceiling above them. He brought them around.
“Drone is still in the sky.” He craned forward. “Oh my God… look, it’s coming up.”
***
Loche felt a sense of calm come over him. “Full speed ahead.”
“Sir, yes sir.” He saw Joni Baker’s jaw clench and her eyes glistened.
Loche faced front and his eyes were like gun barrels. “Prepare to launch.” He drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs, and then let it out. “Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure to serve with you.”
“And with you, sir,” Croft and Joni responded.
“Fuck this bullshit. Fuck it.” Janus’ voice was like a siren it was so high. The man’s eyes were wide and rolling in his head.
He went to launch himself at Joni Baker, but Croft was out of his seat in a flash, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming him into a chair. He looked deep into the man’s face. “Why don’t we sit here a while, Mr. Anderson. See what happens.” He grinned into the sweating man’s face. “You can pray if you like.”
“You bastards. I’ll… sue!” Janus struggled against the big man’s grip.
Loche half turned in his seat. “You wanted to ride with the soldiers. So, you get to do what soldiers do.” He turned back to the front and watched as the pilot brought the submersible around. “Amplify,” he said.
