Chương 427: Book 7 - Chapter 23 - Flotsam

"So the good news is Magpie had a way to contact the Destiny without using the comms network," I told Spooky.

"The bad news is, the Destiny and the rest of the fleet are still about ten minutes out, and most of them don't have EMP resistance. They're sending samurai that rely on more organic tech, like Mako, ahead, but we'll be on our own at the start." The bear nodded his head.

"The Marsupial is coming up on the site now; let's see what we're dealing with," he said. Spooky flicked his wrist at a nearby bank of monitors, and they all flicked on and started displaying the view from the Marsupial's exterior cameras. The image was terrible, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was because the signal was degraded or if there was actually a bunch of crap floating in the air. After inspecting the feed for a second, I realized it was probably a little bit of both.

Through all the chaff and interference, I just managed to get a look at the Samurai fleet, and when I did, my heart sank into my stomach. One of the leviathans was absolutely going to town on the fleet. It had around a dozen forty-foot-long tentacles and was using them to methodically smash up the nearby ships. Most of the fleet had been destroyed, reduced to scrap and splinters, and the few ships that had managed to survive until this point were being swarmed by smaller Antithesis.

I squinted at one of the cameras for a second, then took control and refocused it on a shape in the background. Even with the high-resolution cameras, it took me a moment to realize what the mishappen mass floating just beyond the fleet was. It was a corpse. At one point, it had probably been some sort of bulbous sea creature, like a whale or something. There wasn't much left of it; its entire upper half had been blown completely off, leaving a slab of meat just floating in the middle of the ocean.

"What the fuck happened here?" I muttered before shaking my head.

"Never mind, we'll figure that out later." I mentally nudged the crew of the Marsupial, causing the ship to dip down, bringing the hypervelocity cannon into line with the nearest tenticles before opening fire. The rubbery appendage exploded, splattering gore over the surrounding ships just a moment before the Marsupial opened up with its missile racks. Dozens of munitions streaked off, blowing chunks out of the other limbs.

The beast apparently didn't appreciate our intervention because its main body surfaced a second later, and several large, spike-covered boils ballooned outward, shooting a wave of quills in all directions. These projectiles bounced harmlessly off the Marsupial's hull, but they ripped through the surrounding ships, causing a ton of collateral damage.

"Fuck! That backfired," I hissed.

"New plan--try and use the Marsupial as a distraction and draw the creature away from the remaining ships. Spooky, do we have anything strong enough to deal with that fucking thing but weak enough to avoid damaging the remaining ships?" Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"The long-range missiles are more of a 'to whom it may concern' weapon—heavy damage, but also major collateral damage. If we get close enough while it's surfaced, we could use the UHRs; however, we still need a couple of minutes before we'd be in range."

"Shit," I grumbled. Even though the leviathan had started focusing on the Marsupial, it seemed that it hadn't completely forgotten about the rest of the fleet, because one of its tentacles came down straight on one of the remaining boats.

"Fuck it," I muttered, before switching over to the command network. [Spooky, redirect all the Ursas back towards the fleet. If they don't have any missiles, have them pelt the leviathan with their primary cannons. I know that if it dives below the surface, it can somewhat limit the damage we can do, but maybe we can push it away from the fleet.] Spooky glanced over at me. [Are you sure? If we do that, it might give the Gene Tender an opening to escape. We're still trying to plug the holes the EMP opened in our net.] I grimaced. [I have a feeling that was the fucking point of this whole escapade in the first place,] I growled, [but yes, I'm sure. We need to prioritize protecting our allies and preserving our forces as much as possible. Even though the net kept the Tender from escaping until now, I'm hoping one of the other Samurai will have a way to track it going forward.] [I understand, redirecting the Ursas,] Spooky replied.

[Heavy, I want you to get the Kodiaks into the air. Get them over to those ships to provide fire support and evacuate anyone that needs it,] I ordered. [If there's another EMP…] Heavy started. [We'll lose a significant amount of both our air support and transports, I know. Fuck it. They're not super useful in this combat theatre, and if they go down, the bears can walk back to shore, and once this shit show is over, I can create some aquatic salvage rigs to recover them,] I said.

[We can replace transports; we cannot replace samurai. Do it.] [Yes ma'am,] Heavy replied. With my orders given, I refocused on the battle. It was obvious that the Marsupial had attracted the leviathan's ire, but because it couldn't reach the ship, it wasn't really attempting to follow. It flailed its tentacles at the gunship whenever the Marsupial dipped low enough but really seemed to be focused on the job at hand. Time for something more drastic.

The next time the Marsupial broke off and began lining up for an attack run, I ordered it to dive under the waves. When it went into submarine mode, I finally got a look at the monster we were facing. I'd really underestimated the size of the thing. From the size of the tentacles on the surface, I'd thought it was some sort of squid, but the truth was it was a titanic creature several stories tall and with Tentacles at both ends. Well, at least it did at one time.

I focused the Marsupial's cameras on the buttom of the creature, where there were a series of light flashes. I discovered Sharron and several other samurai methodically cutting the creature to pieces. They'd already removed most of its subterranean weaponry but seemed to be having trouble penetrating the thick shell around its core. I could definitely help with that. As soon as I saw an opening where none of the other samurai were in the way, I ordered the Marsupial to fire.

The Hypervelocity round streaked through the water, leaving a massive trail of bubbles, before smashing into the creature's shell. The titanic impact sent out a shockwave, disrupting the surrounding area, but surprisingly, the creature's shell only cracked; it didn't break. That was fine, though, because as soon as the other samurai discovered the weakness, they descended upon the area.

All manner of explosives, undersea lasers, sonic weapons, and more were poured into the area, and within seconds they managed to penetrate the weakened armor. I actually watched several samurai swim directly into the wound and start ripping the leviathan apart from the inside out. It didn't take long for the creature to start spasming, flailing its remaining limbs wildly before finally lying still.

I stared at it skeptically and even had the Marsupial fire a couple more rounds into it to make sure before letting the crew continue without my oversight. [The leviathans are down. How's the situation on the surface?] I asked. [The Kodiaks are on site, but the Antithesis are still swarming thick and fast. We're trying to find survivors, but nothing yet.] [Keep at it until the Carrier arrives on site, and I can confer with the other samurai. We'll make a plan then,] I ordered before cutting the connection.

I leaned back and let out a long, low breath.

"Ugh… I can't believe how quickly things have gone to shit," I hissed.

"Time to see if we can recover."