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Futuristic Blacksun (Notorious x C.DEX)

Psy nodded to Casar knowingly as they de-interfaced, himself a lot calmer and actually less crazed than usual. He sat down quietly and awaited the fight, unknowingly taking some of Casar's rationality with him and being able to keep himself calm for a period of time. When locked together the best, and worst, features of eachother were imprinted on the other. For better or worse.


"When you see the whites of its eye." Nyx replied with a smirk. "The area will be lit up by crash site flares. This ship went down about a month ago but the flares are long lasting, using the same luminescence that Anglers use. Creepy bastards." She shivered, "Hopefully the octopus scared them off or any feral sharks. A lot of life on Nisela is intelligent but... Even more species stayed primal, didn't develop big enough brains. First you'll see a glow on the horizon then an abandoned ship. Now don't think like an old wooden ship in a bottle or one of your ancient human ship wrecks, we've studied those enough to know that those fucking sucked." She giggled, "Because we can survive underwater there is an open top deck but the rest is like any ordinary space cruiser, granted... the creature ripped it in half and laid its eggs everywhere. "


"What treasure we find?" Jagar asked, leaning forward between the two seats and looking out the front window. "Come to fight octopus, treasure bonus."


"Well Jaggy, like I said this was a freighter, a transport ship. It was carrying goods from Nehope to Niston. That's across a massive stretch of ocean but only about an hour and a half flight away."


"All things here begin letter N?" Jagar questioned, curious about such a naming scheme. He had picked it up when they arrived in town but hearing another place seemed to convenient.


"Only the best things." She said with a wink. Nyx hadn't hesitated for a second saying that, her wit quicker than most. "Now the good thing about waiting a month after this ship went down is that the octopus is gonna be off its guard. The eggs are getting closer to hatching so she'll be wrapped up around them, unfortunately... That means right where we need to go. Most likely the ship will be filled with valuable pearls, if the octopus didn't eat them. Other than that the perishables will have disintegrated or been eaten by now leaving only the valuables before. Might find weapons, old abandoned technology-" She seen Imille perk up at that. "Schematics for nuclear weapons, porn, you name it then it could be there. You never know when it comes to these hunts!" She chuckled, "It's why I love them! You never really know what's gonna happen, or what you'll get."


"Jagar wish for... Bombs. Jagar been having no bombs lately." He said quietly, "If bombs, Jagar... dibs."


As their ship continued to descend deeper and further forward they began to see the lights Nyx had talked about on the horizon. They were only a few minutes out so Jagar grabbed the harpoons from the back while the others began to get ready.


"We're almost there, I want to see all you air breathers have your helmets on before I get any further. Wouldn't want you to drown."
 
Without hesitance, Casar depressed the button on the side of his neck. His helmet slid up and covered his face, masking the determined expression he'd taken on. If he were honest, he'd taken a bit of Psy's brashness upon himself, using it as fuel for the mission ahead. Bouncing on his toes, he psyched himself up. Still at his neck, his hand slid across from his helmet switch to his light. He pressed it, testing his armor for competence. To his dissatisfaction, the light flickered, and then buzzed out. It figured. He'd have to rely on his own augments to navigate, but that was nothing new. He couldn't expect much more from decade-old raider gear. He wondered if it would even protect him; it was oversized, and not too pretty. Maybe he'd step outside of the ship and then explode. That would be ironic.


Pushing aside slightly panicked thoughts, he hooked his core gun onto his side and worked his way up to the cockpit, where Imille, Jagar, and Nyx were still waiting. The doctor had pressed on her helmet, turning her visage to slightly eerie as well. Her suit was slick and black, with working frontal lights. They dotted her chest like military buttons, with one smack dab in the middle of where her forehead would be. Her rifle hung on her hip, small enough not to encumber her in light of her suit, but strapped into the somewhat raggedy holster it had come with. She stretched out, then looked to Casar.


"Welcome back!" she said, cheerfully. "Welll, you and Psy seem calmer. But you look like a cannibal. Like that's something a cannibal would wear."


"Thanks." Casar replied. "You look like a lumpy eel."


"Fahk you." Imille replied. "I'm sexy, and if anyone should know it, it's a teenage boy. God damnit. Have I lost my edge?!"


"Stop being creepy." he said, paying no further mind to Imille. Instead, he looked to Jagar. "You should wear your armor. You don't know what's going to be down there. I don't know what you hunted back home, but... it's not good to take a chance." Then, he looked to Nyx. "What do you know about the Kraken? Weak spots? Biological weaknesses? How intelligent is it? Would destroying its eggs make it more pissed off, or distract it?" he probed at last minute, attempting to garner any information that could help them. He turned to the rest of the crew.


"We're reckless enough coming here in the first place. When we get into the water, we focus. I don't feel like evading the Renegades after being enslaved just so I could come to an ocean planet and die to a squid. So, focus. We've said a lot of things about ripping the squid open and prying each other out, but if Imille or I get a breach in our armor because the squid tears us apart before we get to the stomach, we're dead. If Jagar loses his respirator... we're dead, for other reasons. Concentrate. Keep each other in radar range at all times. If something is moving and it's not one of us, it dies. Aqui, Qui'xer, whatever. It dies. I don't care. I think we can do this. I don't want to, but I'll stick with you if it means none of you die."


He cast a look toward Nyx again. And if you fuck us over, you're dead. it said.


"Psy, you ready?" he called, toward the back.


"I'm roarin' to go." Imille said, with a nod. The mage's speech had quieted her, and she wondered briefly if she had been the leader, after all.
 
"Good, someone taking initiative. We might have a chance." Nyx replied, appreciating how serious Casar was taking this. Flirting and joking was all fine and good but when it came to the actual mission they had to be in it to win it. "Listen up. The Kraken is VERY territorial. Even crossing this ridge up here and if it's awake will... Let's just say it'll rip open the ship like a tin can and spray our insides out into the sea. That's why we have to swim from..." She parked the ship, hovering silently over an illuminated valley. They could see the ship from here with no sign of the kraken, save for a single long tentacle hanging outside from the breach in the ship. "Here." The tentacle stretched about half the length of the massive ship, no telling where the rest of the beast was. "While being territorial, it also will defend its children with everything it has. The krakens mate for life and seeing that there is only one here, the other is dead. This is the last of its line, it will do anything to defend those eggs."


"Eggs could be valuable. Or tasty." Jagar growled, looking forward and not moving his eyes away from the beast. "Armor slow me down Cazzer. Trust Jagar. Not first hunt." Casar had learned that Jagar's brutishness came with experience, when he first met him that may have sounded like an insult or a challenge but he was telling him directly. There was something refreshing about a being so forward.


"Maybe both. Worst case scenario we'll take the eggs and sell them to the markets at Nehope. Only the rich dine on such delicacies so that's an option for sure." Nyx added. "The tentacles at first glance would seem like a weak spot but only if you have super heated weapons or blades I-" Next thing she knew Jagar had released his blade next to her face. "That... That will work." She managed to say, although she had gotten to know Jagar pretty well seeing him actually react like that was intimidating. "I'd watch out for them, they're very dexterous and can wrap around you and crush you before you know it. Since you're going in armorless Jagar I'd advise against that, and even for those of us who are armored. Stay either close to the creature or far, middle range is where it excels as it can whip its tentacles faster within that range but will most likely stumble on itself any closer. That brings us to two final weak points that I can think of..."


Nyx was actually quite the strategist to their surprise. She had thought this through way more thoroughly than she gave on when tending to the bar. It made them wonder if she could come up with such plans on the spot or if it was after long deliberation.


"On Nisela these krakens or octopuses are much different than human folklore of your original home world. I've done some research on foreign sea creatures and they say your creatures only had two eyes?"


Psy actually stood up at this, scanning his databanks then saying. "Yes, there were no krakens discovered on Earth during the original space age but octopuses had two eyes." They were kind of dumbfounded at how calm he was after speaking with Casar, but were reminded who they were speaking to. "Well, they did until countless slant eyed fishers reached into the depths and ripped them all out. Then they squishy bastards had no eyes." He suppressed a giggle, thinking of all the dead fish.


"Okaaaay then... Was good enough with the first sentence. Well, this baby will have eight eyes. All around its head, meaning that it'll be able to see all of us at once most likely. Like I said, very territorial." She stood up and the lights dimmed in the ship. "Blind big mama and she'll be angrier, but more clumsy. She'll be able to feel our vibrations in the water but it will severely handicap her. As for the final spot well, I don't think any of you want to get near its beaked maw. Thousands of sharp teeth protected by the beak, just waiting to sear your flesh off..." Nyx chuckled, "Throw a bomb in and roast mama's innards and we have a good shot at ending this."


They all stood quietly in the cabin for a moment, then Nyx squeezed her way past everyone and went to the back of the ship where the airlock was. "Hope you all don't have thalassophobia. It's a lot different out there then in here, and on top of that... We have to fight a fucking sea monster." She smiled at them then stepped into the air lock, "Now is a good time to tell me you don't know how to swim..." Water began to fill the cabin as she hit a button on the air lock. "Nisela ships fill the cabin with water in order to pressurize everyone inside properly. Hope you didn't expect to stay dry in the middle of the sea." Slowly but surely the cabin filled with water, raising up rather quickly. Before they knew it they were waist deep in it, within seconds they'd be submerged.
 
Casar's resolve disappeared almost instantaneously as the water began to fill up, his arms flailing out and smacking Imille and Psy respectively. There was nothing to grab onto, however, as the claustrophobia he'd felt before deepened. Deep breaths came out from his suit respirator, before they were muffled by the encroaching tide. Then, before he could freak out fully, they were completely submerged. Imille reached out, placing a hand on top of the now-floating mage and grounding him. "Remember what you said, kiddo. You believe we can do it! Don't take it back just because of the water. Remember when you were punching the shit out of Jags? Imagine the Kraken is him, okay? Or, um... Well, I don't know who else you don't like. Imagine it's Arc." she said, pulling the name from the discontented murmurs she'd heard while the mage was out.


Part of him had felt offense at the name, wanting to lash out at the prying doctor. He didn't have the resolve or energy for it at that moment, having had it washed away with the water. One by one, the crew exited the ship, floating out into the abyss. Finally, the techno-mage exited afterwards. His hand grazed the ship, keeping himself magnetized to it. He reminded himself that when he was with the Gaius crew, they couldn't take out a sand worm. Now, they were in alien territory, and while there wasn't a worm in sight, there was a multi-limbed, eight-eyed beast waiting to kill them. It was bigger than the worm, judging only by the sight of the tentacle. He mentally filled in the blanks throughout the ship and pulsed his own radar, attempting to get a gauge on the situation. But it was too far.


"I'm going to stay at long range, then. My weapon should work that far, right?" he asked, looking to Imille. The doctor gave a small shrug.


"It should! If you think you can make the shot. My weapon isn't going to be that accurate from that far, so I think I'll have to go short range. Which, in my opinion, sucks. Jaggy's obviously going the short-range route. Aaand... that leaves you, Psy and Nyx. You gonna go with the superior team short, or lame, dangerless long? Don't you want to get all up in that beak?"


Suddenly, the tentacle that had been hanging out of the side of the ship twisted. The small movement sent undertows through the water that ripped at the crew, hinting to the sheer size of the thing. The water vibrated around them, drowning them out. Their ship shivered in the water, though their root to it had kept them stayed in the water. The small crew, wanting to keep hidden, kept their lights mostly off. They were illuminated only by the schools of fish and the algae that had grown on the underside of the fish, just as well as Cas' bright blue core gun.


Then, the tentacle disappeared. It silenced them in a different way; somehow, someway, the massive beast had either slunk completely into the ship or shimmered away from their vision entirely.


"...Well. That's reassuring." Imille said. "I guess if you don't have bones it makes it pretty easy to fold up..." she murmured.


"It's fine. We shouldn't really be relying on our sight to see, anyways." Casar said, attempting to steel himself again.
 
"I will be your eyes." Nyx said quietly, floating in the water with such skilled precision that none of the others could imitate. Her dark, colorless eyes pierced through the darkness of the sea and what she was seeing was radically different than what the crew was seeing. The dark ocean to her was a colorful and vibrant heaven, each rock and coral having shining colors that didn't show themselves to land walkers. She let out a long sigh, breathing easier in the water than in an oxygenated room. "The way forward will alert the creature and-" She caught what Psy was doing out of the corner of her eye. His legs were firmly placed on the entrance to the ship, his resolve unwavering but he simply could not take a step forward. "What's... What's wrong Psy?"


"My sensors are saying I am too heavy to float..." He said, almost shame in his voice. "I can use my boosters to navigate but as soon as I do that big squid motherfucker is gonna see us. I'm... almost sorry." Psy shrugged, "Long range for me. Sugar tits, where is the closest perch for me to cover? My guns can be set to long range and I can keep it distracted. Remember, if I get eaten then well, I can kill it from the inside."


"Would you actually... You know, get ea-"


"Are you fucking crazy fish lady? Of course not! What if it has super stomach acid or something? While the idea of killing it from the inside is fucking METAL! I will not be doing that. Someone has to stay back with Casar and cover him, and I sure as shit don't trust you." He said, not keeping his suspicions to himself.


The tentacle haired woman shrugged, "Suit yourself tin man. You and Cas can stay back while the grown ups do real work, we don't have time for arguments or complaints now. We're here, we're doing it live. Jagar are you-" When they looked around for Jagar he was completely missing from sight. Nyx frantically began to spin her head on a swivel as she scanned for the beast man and was horrified when she seen a lone Jagar charging the ship wreck. "Well, looks like Jagar isn't wanting to plan or talk about this... follow me. I'll get you in position among some coral." Nyx swam so quickly towards the others it was almost maddening how fast the fish woman could actually swim, her speed unrivaled even by the kraken. She grabbed Imille by the wrist and to his displeasure, Casar and began to swim with them in tow. The speed they went forward was staggering, quickly making way towards Jagar.


They passed over a colorful reef bed in which Nyx let go of Casar, leaving him unassisted for the the first time since they were out in the open.


"Breath..." Her cool, hypnotic voice said to him in the calmest voice possible. "Kick your legs and feet gently until you reach the reef then brace yourself against it. Psy, use your boosters now Jagar is getting in range." With that said, Nyx continued to assist Imille with her speed closing in on Jagar as he raised his harpoon high above his head. Psy activated his boosters from the ship and illuminated the entire darkened area, causing a stir in the distant ship. He jettisoned himself until he landed near Casar, landing on the coral they had stationed at causing the whole reef to shake.


The next thing they seen they would not soon forget.


The vanished tentacle soon began to crawl out of the shipwreck. Then another, followed by several more. A wiggling mess of tentacles of massive proportions began pushing themselves out of the ship wreck snaking through the water as if they had minds of their own. Jagar raised his harpoon higher and threw it towards the beast, the harpoon exploding into a blinding light as it activated and splintering into several different harpoon shafts as the energy weapon exploded into a dazzlingly light of colors. Even with sound much quieter under water they felt the vibrations and heard the screeching sound of the Kraken as it fully pushed itself out of the ship wreck. It was monstrous and absolutely frightening looking, massive glowing beady eyes darting everywhere in search for the assailants. Jagar's energy harpoon fragments went raining down on the creature and it screeched even louder as the hunter drew first blood. With Nyx and Imille closing in fast with Psy and Casar just out of reach of the kraken, the battle was going to soon begin. Quite possibly the biggest and scariest hunt of their lives.
 
The Kraken slithered at a frightening speed throughout the water, though to the crew's amazement, its tentacles were so long and wide that even with half of its mass emerging from the shipwreck, the ship still remained completely engulfed by the creature. It was able to fold in on itself well, but now, it was expanding. Reaching out for the disturbance. The team still had a ways to go before they could make proper range, meaning Imille, Jagar, and Nyx were in danger as long as they were still swimming. Luckily for them, and even for Jagar, the assaulting team was significantly smaller than the gargantuan beast. Unluckily for them, it would take that much more effort to kill it. For the first few moments, the sound of the Kraken moving didn't even reach them. Then, it hit them all like a shockwave. Suddenly, Nyx, Imille, and Jagar were all swimming against the heaviest current that they'd felt in their lives. With Imille in tow, the squid-woman was barely able to keep herself placed. It pounded them repeatedly, until the Kraken suddenly froze in place.


Then, black circles began to spot the surface of its body. They melted into other colors, until they completely cloaked its body from sight.


The undertow disappeared with it, allowing at once the crew that was swimming through the water to suddenly break through the wave and thrust out into the water again. Only, they had no objective. The Kraken had willed itself invisible, and despite the ridiculous pressure it had put on the surrounding waters before, it didn't have to do that. No. In the silence that had suddenly took the waters, it was still slinking throughout. Slinking being a relative word, of course, as the massive prongs of protruding arms that had sprouted from its body were anything but dainty.


A shout pierced their communications.


"IT'S RIGHT BENEATH YOU!"


It stilled their hearts. Casar poured his power into his radar. On it, he saw a tentacle rising from the near-abyss below and jutting far up toward Jagar. Even worse still, another jutted up toward Nyx and Imille. He raised his gun. The water around it began to boil, not breaching the confines of his suit and for once, not searing his hand completely. A bright light appeared in Imille and Nyx's distance like an eye of its own. Then, it released. A shot pierced through the water, aiming straight for the appendage tip that reached up for the two women.


He braced himself against the coral, staying himself against the sandquakes beneath him, and following Nyx's advice completely.
 
The energy blast went flying through the water, slowed down only slightly by the sea as it burnt the tip of the appendage that was just about to wrap around Imille's leg. The beast shook once again as the burn was sharp and sudden, surprising the camouflaged beast. Nyx tore away taking Imille with her, heading towards the ship and away from the beast that was slinking around in the open now.


"Nice shot Cas!" Nyx said during all the action, "Can anyone hit a light on that bastard? It wasn't enough he's a big ass monster, she can camouflage too! No wonder no one has been able to take this bitch out!" The discovery of the massive creature's defense mechanism was news to her, no reports of the giant breed of octopus having such an ability. Probably because hardly anyone survived an encounter with one. Nyx looked over to Imille and said, "I'm gonna go piss it off." She then let go of Imille's wrist and then quickly swatted her ass playfully as she took off, giggling into their communications. "You're wrong and Cas is wrong, you haven't lost your edge. Give it hell." She teased as she disappeared into the deep, jetting through the water with precision.


While Nyx plunged deeper into the void, Psy began to fire. The android had both assault rifles in hand, his arms being able to withstand the kick and the weight of the weapons. He had loaded tracer rounds in when the creature camouflaged itself, open firing only for the blasts to mark where he had made contact with the creature.


"THAT'S RIGHT BITCH! WE'RE GONNA SMASH ALL YOUR EGGS AND FUCK YOU IN THE... IN THE.... WHATEVER OCTOPUS HAVE I DON'T EVEN KNOW! YOUR BEAK! YEAH!" He cackled, unrelenting in his fire as he not only suppressed the creature giving the others cover to do what they needed to do but giving them some much needed light in the darkness.


Jagar was busy weaving in and out of the rising tentacles, moving too swiftly for the octopus to latch on to. He had another harpoon in hand, one of many that was strapped to his shirtless back and had an idea. A normal incendiary charge would be negated by the sea almost instantly, a plasma charge however would provide them the edge they needed. He stuck a few charges to the harpoon and waited for the right opportunity. Two more massive tentacles went snaking their way towards the Vekht, swiftly moving to take him out of the battle. Then, she heard it.


Crunch.


Nyx was inside the abandoned ship, stomping on a few of the octopuses' unborn children. They were getting closer and closer to hatching, to have them be killed now so close to life sent the creature into an unparalleled rage. It roared and turned all of its attention towards Nyx only to get an eye harpooned by Jagar, he swam a short distance away and detonated the charges sending a ball of pure energy exploding in the creature's face. It screeched out and swung its limbs wildly, reaching out towards Casar and Psy unknowingly and wiping out the bottom of the reef they were standing on. Soon, they'd either have to sink or swim otherwise they'd be taken out by the flailing octopus.
 
Down on the reef, the mage had seen the tentacle coming. He looked over to Psy in that split second, knowing well that if the android had been caught up by the tentacle, he'd be swept off the reef into the deep oceanic abyss, with not enough booster power in the world to stop him from descending. The thought terrified the mage, who reached out and roughly grabbed the wrist of Psy. He muttered a quick, "Sorry," before diverting enough power through the metallic body of the android to overcharge his boosters. Clinging onto the droid's arm, Casar too had been lifted into the "air", flying upwards along with the shocked android. Just then, the massive, meaty tentacle played jumprope with the lot, clipping Casar's legs and slamming into them with a force that ripped the two apart. No grip had been gotten, luckily, but they'd be a fair ways apart as the mage tumbled haplessly through the water and back down into the destroyed reefbed. When the robot hadn't immediately been in his sight, and when he'd regained his faculties, the mage shouted out.


"Psy?! PSY, ARE YOU OKAY?" He asked, into the darkness, pausing only to catch the wind that had been knocked out of him. On their end, the tentacle that they were battling reared up after sweeping the bay, completely intent on smashing the source of the boosters. The mage looked up, and then kicked up off the sand in the direction completely vertical to the tentacle, knowing well that the android would be underneath. He raised his gun, charging another shot for the massive beast. Only, he wasn't trying to save the doctor then. She was on her own. It tore through the tentacle, but the shot hadn't covered enough ground to do anything. He would have to think of something else.


A fear cropped in his mind. What if he'd shocked Psy too badly? Then, a metallic glint appeared in his field of view. The tentacle appeared in plain view above them, though the rest of the Kraken's body remained stealthed. It was an adaptive, intelligent creature, and it didn't want to waste its energy hiding what could already be seen. The lights stuck into the octopus on her stealthed parts still, forming a starmap amongst the darkness.


Imille floated haplessly in place as Nyx let go of her. Still, she fought to move toward the beast, attempting to close the gap and take advantage of the loudness the others had gone in with.


The Kraken lashed out simultaneously toward Jagar and Nyx, with a coordination that rivalled them. The massive tentacle shoved back into the ship where her babies were, filling the room and threatening to crush the squid woman. The arm that shot toward Jagar swept a shockwave over the Vekht, attempting to disorient him while yet another reached up from beneath to tear him from place.
 
Psy didn't respond. A tentacle came crashing down on his last known position only for the tentacle to retract almost immediately, the entire beast shaking and lifting itself off the sea floor as it did so. Psy was on the very dark depths of the ocean, shooting his thrusters back at the tentacle that tried to crush him. Then a rain of gun fire went shooting up at that floating octopus who was trying to fight all of them so far spread out at once, intelligent enough to fight them all but in some areas it had to neglect due to their numbers.


"I'M ALRIGHT BUDDY! I JUST BURNT THAT BITCH BAD! AHAHAHAHA!" The robot was actually laughing in spite of all this, a good sign that he wasn't even close to being done. He began to run on the sea floor, his heavy metal feet sending shockwaves of information of his location to the octopus who seemed to avoid Psy. She could sense he was not of this world or organic, meaning that she'd have to crush him or single him out. She slammed one of her tentacles down onto the floor sending Psy careening through the sea as the shockwave sent him flying backwards. "THAT BITCH IS MAKING ME SPIN SOMEONE STOP HERRRR!" A literal whirlwind was being generated by the tentacle he was facing, keeping him suspended in the water and completely disoriented.


"Si... Fucking Jagar save Si." He heard quietly over the comm's as the hunter sprang into action yet again. He saved his remaining harpoons and dove into action, his horns helping him cut through the water like a knife as he went towards the appendage causing the whirlwind that had Psy out of the fight. The water around Jagar's arm began to boil as he released his holo-blade, brandishing it for the first time and getting in dangerously close to the tentacle. At first it reared back and smacked him away, sending himself toppling backwards through the waves. That didn't deter Jagar, in fact it made him more determined then ever. He grabbed one of the harpoons and fumbled with them until he found one in particular that had a chain to the end of it. He wrapped one end of the chain around his arm and hurled it towards the octopus. It struck firmly, landing in the tentacle's flesh. He then began to pull himself by the chain, right hand, left, right, then again. The Vekht pulled himself in swiftly towards the tentacle until finally he arrived. He struck his blade into the beast and began to dig in at the appendage over and over again ready to cut it clean off.


The beast wasn't having none of it. Thrashing about in the abandoned ship against Nyx was an option, but she cleverly took cover around the eggs. She was trapped, poking at the tentacles with her spear as it drew close. The mother knew exactly where its babies were, taking care not to damage a single one. That's when Nyx broke another. The octopus let out a literal roar as she did so, taking more pain in losing yet another child over losing parts of her own body. She began thrashing around for Nyx who began swimming through the safe areas of the ship, taking cover as best she could.


As Psy began to get his bearings as the whirlpool had ended, the octopus continued to thrash towards him and even towards Casar. With him floating where he was the motion from the giant beast sent him helplessly floating away from the battle and dangerously close to the furthest reaches of the creature. Looking closely at the tentacles revealed sharp points at each end, she was trying to push him out for a kill shot. Psy began to open fire without a word, spamming the octopus with energy blasts before it was too late.
 
The Kraken screamed out again, the sheer sound of its voice vibrating the water around it and reaching out above the surface for miles upon miles. The beast's attention was then divided between two places; Psy, Jagar, and Casar for the first, and Nyx for the second. The latter was given a more delicate touch, so to speak, while the group on the opposite end of the Kraken had been subjected to the violent torrent of a thrashing sea beast.


The Kraken, knowing well that it couldn't get to Nyx from the front hole without endangering its children further, opted for a more stealthy way of getting at the child-murderer. Another tentacle wrapped around the back of the ship, pressing through the halls and corridors before extending its length fully to press into the sheared opening at the back of the large 'room' that Nyx had been in, attacking her from both sides. Suddenly, both tentacles stabbed forward in a sudden attempt at pinning the intruder between two sharp barbs, where she could be disposed of more carefully.


It was as if a second brain controlled the other assault, and as its attention had been drawn from four areas to two, the massive beast seemed to get more intelligent as it did not have to spread itself as thin. A massive limb reared up from the depths, bracing the base of the tentacle that Jagar was on. It metaphorically swept the mosquito away, violently wrapping around its own limb in a throttle and then sliding it down all the way to the barbed tip, attempting to rip the chainlocked Jagar off in the process.


Down on the reef, Casar had yelled out through telecomms. "JAGAR, LET GO OF IT!" He screamed, warning the Vekht of the incoming sweep. As he had, yet another appendage began to sweep the reef. Only this time, the mage and android were split up too far to help each other. Lacking boosters on his suit, the massive appendage slammed into Casar.


Dazed, the mage hung on for dear life, his fingers sinking deep into the fleshy porous mass that had just steamrolled him. Psy would have been next in line, if it weren't for the fact that the Kraken had begun to avoid him. At the last second, and with Casar hanging on tight, the Kraken lifted up her limb, practically skimming the head of the robot. Underneath the mage's palms, the skin of the Kraken began to crackle.
 
With Casar yelling through the comms, Jagar looked just in time to see another tentacle coming down to sweep him away. Thanks to the warning Jagar jumped off the tentacle and timed his landing just right to land on another. Just like his previous assault he had begun to dig into the creature again, carving his way into its flesh as he furiously punched the beast over and over again while his blade dug deeper and deeper. He seen that Casar was stuck on one of the limbs and ironically it was one of the safer spots in the battle at the moment until the octopus figured out that she could simply slam him to the ocean floor and be done with him. Jagar wasn't stopping that easily, he was still attached to the former tentacle by the chain and he ripped his arm out from it otherwise risking losing it. The chain whipped with the octopus as it yanked back, the chain dangling from the embedded harpoon freely.


"Oh fuck me." Nyx said, dodging the barbs as best as she could. One grazed her stomach, a thin cut letting out just a small trickle of blood. It barely had even gotten close, showing how sharp the barbs actually were. "Avoid the ends guys, I nearly just got gutted." She said, shivering as she said so all the while she was being attacked on two fronts. "Okay you bitch... Bring it!" Reaching to her side she pulled out two energy pistols she had dangling from her hip and immediately open fired directly on the barbs. The creature responded in full, slamming the stingers into anything she could as it tore up the ship as Nyx went full auto on her. Holes began forming in the octopus' tentacles, its blood pouring out into the ocean. Then she heard the familiar crack again, Nyx had begun shooting the eggs.


"You know Nyx, you have a thing for killing babies." Psy commented, watching from a distance as plasma bolts hit eggs in plain view. "That's REALLY fucked up. And if I noticed it, we all noticed it."


"NOT NOW PSY!" She cried out, swimming out through a window and narrowly avoiding the octopus' attack. She had brought the heat of most of its attention on her, giving the others the perfect opportunity to strike. "SHOOT IT IN THE FUCKING EYE!" She screamed, being chased at a quicker speed than she could swim.


"Well gee, you don't have to use the f word to me Nyx. I'm just saying that you're one crazy b-"


"NOW GOD DAMN IT!"


"Okay fine!" Psy called out like a child being scolded, laughing while Nyx got on to him. "You motherfuckers better watch this cause this ain't gonna happen again in the history of the Interceptor crew!" Psy rushed forward, his boosters propelling him towards a dormant tentacle as the kraken dealt with the others. He then landed directly on top of the tentacle causing it to thrash wildly. Psy held on, jabbing his arms as hard as he can into the beast and began to climb. The entire time the beast was thrashing about his boosters were firing, sooner rather than later he'd need a recharge from Casar but he had to save the others. Soon Psy was closer to the beast than any of them had dared thus far, four of its terrifying eyes staring down at him.


They both looked at one another for a moment that seemed to last an eternity. Then, a single metal finger rose up from Psy's hand.


"Fuck you!" He roared triumphantly, raising his other hand with assault rifle in hand and sprayed the beast's eyes with no mercy. With middle finger proudly raised and his gun spraying the beast in the eyes Nyx finally had the chance to swim away and gave the others openings for a counter attack.
 
The beast, with an unending rage, reached its tentacles out of the window that Nyx had swam out of at lightning speeds. Mortality would soon overcome the squid woman, whose assault had spurned the Kraken so badly that the motherly beast had momentarily disregarded the fact that its eyes were being relentlessly lit up by Psy to get at the woman who had mercilessly slaughtered its children. The frightening appendage suddenly wrapped around Nyx's ankle, tightening so suddenly that it was a wonder it didn't instantly snap. The knot began to fix, bringing the barbed tip dangerously close to the squid woman's thigh. Amputation was a very real threat, as the Kraken was a millisecond away from ripping Nyx limb from limb.


Then, suddenly, it wasn't.


Attached to Nyx's leg was suddenly a quarter of a tentacle. Half of the downed ship began to come to life, murky lights soon illuminating the underwater battlefield. Ships that had attempted to destroy the beast previously acted as gravemarkers to the reef below. Most importantly, however, a beach shutter lowered that had sliced the octopus' limb clean off before it had the chance to slaughter Nyx. Then, a voice came over their telecommunications. One that they hadn't heard in some time.


"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER! THAT'S MY LEG!" Imille screamed, from the helm of the downed freighter. "Oooooohmygod. Let me tell you. Bodies. EVERYWHERE! Bloated, putrefying corpses. Fuckin ECH. I almost threw up in my sex suit. Getting here was a task, let me tell you. Hey, Nyx. Are you okay? Support is coming in topside for my boys on the ground, by the way. Line the squiddie up with the cannons on this thing and then I'll fire whatever is left in them, if anything at all. Not a combat ship, so they don't swivel. Sorry!"


Down on the reef, Psy was quickly being surrounded by tentacles. They wrapped around him like slithering snakes, threatening to hone in and strangle him. They formed a massive wall, one that he wasn't sure he could make out of with his boosters. Then, the tentacle that Cas was clinging onto convulsed in response to a well-timed electric shock, whipping the boy at the android but also creating a gap that they could escape from. The squid reared its attention back to Psy and Casar.


Then, it lifted up. Rows upon rows of horrible jagged teeth circled above them. It attempted to slam down on them both, engulfing them for good.
 
"Cas... Don't judge me for what I'm about to do..." Psy looked up, with no direct line of escape in sight he could only think of one thing. "Let's kick it old school." And just like that, Psy's chest opened up once more for the first time in a long while. Unfortunately for him, his brand new prize had escaped his trinket collection. A jar began to float to the surface, formerly containing an electric jellyfish named Zap as it swam out of the jar and into the open sea. "GOODBYE MY FRIEND! I HAVE TO SAVE MY OTHER FRIEND NOW! WAAAAAIT FOR ME!" The robot wailed as he grabbed onto Casar and forced him in to the surprisingly spacious compartment. "Made some room for you buddy, hang on!" And just as Psy closed they were engulfed by teeth. The kraken struggled to chomp down on Psy, his armor deflecting the bulk of the damage back into the root of the teeth causing the beast a massive amount of pain. It was created to feed on fish and organic material, not bite into something metal. "YEAH BITCH EAT MY ASS!" He shouted as Casar was forced to be in the most claustrophobic position of his life.


It sounded like Psy was going through a car wash that was hurling hale at him to Casar as he was greeted only by darkness and the sound of the kraken swallowing them.


"Now I know we decided that this was a bad idea, I'm totally aware of that. But... We have no choices and I lost my fucking jellyfish. Do you know how long I had to wait before Nyx stopped checking on me? Her and Imille were too busy with their stupid girl talk and I swiped that glorious motherfucker right off the counter." The rumbling continued for quite sometime, Psy was scarily optimistic about this plan and not even acknowledging it. "You know, if I could feel physical pain right now I'd probably be dead. All I feel is emotional pain though... I wonder if I'll have time to catch that jelly? AND WE'RE PAST THE TEETH!" They were deep inside the octopus now, being carried along. If it was under different circumstances this would be a pleasant ride for the two of them.


"CREATURE ATE FRIENDS!" Jagar roared from the outside. "JAGAR WILL DESTROY YOU!" He shouted, so loudly in fact that he could be heard outside of the comms. With a ferocious shout Jagar threw everything he had at the kraken, nearly a dozen harpoons shot off from his hands and then scattered. Hundreds of pieces of harpoon went sailing down right towards the beast and began to embed itself all over the creature. Some pieces detonated, some simply impacted with more damage, some were so hot the creature could barely be next to it. Several of its eyes blown out of its head from the harpoons and the damage caused by Psy, causing it to become disoriented. Jagar then continued his attack up close and personal, jabbing his blade in even harder and causing the beast to yet again roar in pain.


Nyx couldn't believe what she was seeing but knew her role and how she fit in to all of this. "HEY! BITCH!" She called out to the kraken, her voice projecting easier through the water getting the kraken's attention better than even Jagar could. "I killed your babies... And I'm going back for more..." She said, taunting the beast as she swam lightning quick towards it. She went right past the kraken and into Imille's line of sight, hopefully pulling the creature's attention toward the guns.
 
"Whatthefuckareyoudoing-" Casar slurred, having been ripped up from the sea floor and immediately picked up by Psy, disoriented. He thrashed, unwilling to go into the compartment when it came down to it and he wasn't unconscious. Against his wants, he was thrust into the darkened, cramped space with little in the ways of movement space at all. If he was claustrophobic before, now it was a thousand times worse, with the suit he had been wearing constricting the space he had to a minimum.


The Kraken's teeth then slammed down on them, engulfing them both. It would have been an ironic death, being torn utterly apart by a sea creature after having survived so much. Luckily for them both, Psy was made from a metal significantly stronger than most. Unfortunately, they had just been swallowed by a Kraken. Still so, Jagar had begun pelting them with energy harpoons, nearly exhausting his own supply to the point where the beast's stomach had been convulsing under the pressure. Swathes of heated acid begun to wash over them, threatening to eat away at Psy's metal. They needed to get back into open water. Fast. The mage closed his eyes from inside Psy and pulsed the surrounding area, looking for a way out, and attempting not to focus on the confinement. They had tract above and below them, meaning that they still had a ways to go before they could do anything major, and they were still too far inside the beast for anyone else to attempt to rip them out.


So, the mage did the only sensible thing. He shocked the everliving fuck out of Psy.


There wasn't much that Casar could do from inside of a robot, but he needed to be useful. Around them, the water began to spark and the walls of the tract began to heat up. The mage poured his power into destroying the tract of the beast, cooking it from the inside out. This elicited a pained cry from the Kraken, who had begun to be barraged by harpoons, heat, and soon, ship fire. Psy's power began to peak out, with the excess electrocuting him well. They were soon being violently shoved back where they came from, in the Kraken's attempt to throw the two trouble-makers back up into the ocean.


On the outside of the beast, the Kraken thrashed in Nyx's direction, as if it somehow knew that she was the result of all of this. Again, it reached out for the squid-woman, though the direct assault it had taken had slowed it to the point where it was no match for the extreme speeds of the aquatian alien. Then, Imille activated the ship's remaining cannons.


Large, nearly cannon-ball sized bullets sprayed out from the ship itself. With the sheer mass of the Kraken, most shots had hit it, plunging into the skin of the sea beast. One very well-placed cannonball pressed into one of the pupils of the mother creature, tearing through the eye and completely decimating it.


Something snapped.


With a fury that none of them had known previously, the octopus's limbs began to reach out in all directions, scrambling for the crew in an attempt to squanch the assault. A tentacle actually reached underneath it, into its own mouth and digestive track, and began to stab and reach for Psy and Casar. Two other intact tentacles jammed into the side of the sunken freighter where Imille was located, screeching metal and tearing the ship completely apart. The lights and power flickered out, finally. Then, two injured tentacles came up from underneath Jagar and blew heavy waters at him in an attempt to disorient, while another came up to grip him out of the sea.


The tentacles that had reached out to stab the area Imille had been in disengaged, reaching through once again to sweep the cockpit.
 
"Now she's pissed." Psy giggled while being regurgitated out and back towards the teeth. He seen the tentacle enter the octopus' own mouth reaching for them, clawing at them to get out. "Nu-uh bitch, YOU PUT US IN HERE NOW YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT! RIGHT CAS? YOU CAN RELATE? RIGHT?! WOAH-" Psy's voice started to glitch out when Cas began to shock him, sending an unbelievable amount of energy to the android as he was beyond full power afterwards. "AIN'T EVER FELT THIS OVERCHARGE BEFORE! IS THIS WHAT DRUGS FEEL LIKE?" While Casar had been shocking him for a while it had taken just a bit of time for Psy to feel it, he now knew what to do. He couldn't hold the energy so he sent out a massive shockwave, Cas using him as the conduit that sent bolts of lightning through the water from his limbs. "LOOK CAS I'M MAGIC!" He snickered, shocking the kraken from the inside causing her tentacle to dig deeper and thrust her barbed stinger right into Psy's chest.


It broke on impact.


With all the pain the beast was going through this was the last of her worries as she barely even felt it, trying to poke at them as she had the barb still. While Psy was off shocking her from the inside the last of the cannons had fired, leaving Imille stranded inside with two seekers after her. Nyx couldn't do anything to harm the kraken from outside so she was surveying the situation while zooming about the battlefield only to see the attack on Imille's position. She dived hard, streamlining straight to the ship and soon she found herself among the wreckage and eggs once more. Luckily the Kraken couldn't see her anymore with the majority of its eyes poked out or totally decimated, giving Nyx enough time to search the ship for Imille. She stayed quiet, not wanting the vibrations in the water to give away her location as she swam around the writhing tentacles searching the ship unnoticed.


Jagar floated in open waters as the tentacles attempted to disorient him but the trained hunter was use to such tactics, spinning about in the water freely letting the kraken do what it must. He smiled under his helmet, "Stupid prey..." He had one last gift from Nyx that he was dying to try out, one that she wasn't exactly aware he took but she wouldn't be complaining as he grabbed it from his spent quiver of harpoons. His fingers found their way around the hilt of a rather large weapon, one with a short barrel but a wide almost instrument like muzzle. On the side led lights went active as his hand turned on the instrument of war, one that the pirates of these oceans favored quite a lot. "Get me." He grunted, waiting for the sneaking tentacle to wrap around him. Unfortunately for Jagar, he underestimated his prey thanks to his team and a barb went right through his back and out his front. Suddenly he was jerked away and thrashed about in the ocean even faster than before.


Grunting, he made a mental note to never make such a rookie mistake again. Now he had to turn it into something of use so he spun the blunderbuss around and aimed it right at the base of the barb. He fired, the gun sending shockwaves through the water as it fired completely decimating the tentacle that had attacked him. Jagar then seen the weapon had a long recharge time making him retreat a short distance for a moment as he reached into his own stomach and ripped out the barb. His healing factor kicked into gear but it wouldn't fully heal, leaving a nasty scar where he had been penetrated by the stinger. All of this only to be ambushed yet again by the three tentacles, one in particular having the long chain from earlier.


"TIME TO GO CAS!" Psy called, grabbing on to the tentacle that was trying to get the robot from shocking her out. Psy then unloaded every bit of overcharged energy into the tentacle, shocking the octopus to new found pain levels as she yanked her attack out and back into the open water. Psy's chest opened up and Casar went flying out now that they were relatively safe compared to the beast's maw. "WELCOME BACK TO THE SCARY LOOKING OCEAN FRIEND! THE SAFETIES OF MY CHEST ARE PLEASANT BUT YOU MUST FACE YOUR FEARS HEAD ON! I HAVE TO FIND MY JELLYFISH I-" WHACK! The tentacled beast slammed the tentacle that had gotten shocked directly into Psy's back with a devastating force, temporarily shutting him offline as he sank helplessly to the bottom of the sea.
 
Underneath Psy and Cas, the reef had given way to a dark, deep abyss. One that, if Psy had fallen down into it, it would mean a long, painful eternity at the bottom of the ocean. Casar reached out to Psy, who had been made helpless by the Kraken. Only, the robot was too heavy. That, and he was sinking fast. Casar swam up to Psy, pushing exhaustion to the side while he'd attempted to save his friend. Then, unbeknownst to the robot and probably not to his liking if he had still been lurking inside somewhere, Casar interfaced again with Psy, intents on controlling the android's body for him. He hadn't done so since Vee, and wrestling control from an offline android was much like wrestling control from a dead body. Heavy. Psy's gem-like eyes lit up orange as Casar took over, piercing the darkness.


It was far different than Vee. They were descending rapidly, and while on Vee he'd only taken a few steps before he allowed Psy to take control again, he had to do a little bit more than take step after step. Movement in the sea was lateral and vertical, and on top of that, he had his own body to deal with.


The one that had let go as soon as he'd interfaced.


"Oh fuck." 'Psy' murmured, as he swam downwards to catch himself. The robotic husk grasped the collar of Casar, taking no stock in attempting to treat himself well. There was an urgency, after all.


The mage attempted to activate the robot's boosters. The android did an unpracticed spin in the water as Casar lost control, and then regained it again. He pushed toward the safety of the risen reef, or at least, the underwater plateau wall. Meanwhile, the tentacle that had grasped toward them was scouting for their location. It flung out, nearly missing them by feet. The husk grabbed the rifle from his back and smashed the trigger in. Then, to Psy's utter disdain, he threw the rifle into the abyss, still firing. If they had gotten smacked, it was game over.


The tentacle reached out for the relentlessly loud custom gun, marking the distraction as a success.


"Wake up!" He yelled, soon sending a smack across the side of his own face.


On the reef floor, the Kraken was thrashing, nearly on its last leg. Quite a few of its tentacles had been painfully capped, with others twitching nondextrously due to heat or electrical damage, and one hanging on by a thread of skin. Its eyes had been devastated. Through it all, it had failed to protect its children, with many of the eggs lying burst or crushed inside of the ship. It couldn't see, it was in massive amounts of pain, with its shrieking filling the ocean for miles. So, it did the last thing it knew how to do. The massive body of the Kraken attempted to shove itself back inside of the ship as a last stand effort to protect its eggs. Only, there was one problem.


"Fffffuckfuckfuckity." Imille hissed, as she laid out of sight inside of the ship. She was cornered into a nook and the Kraken was drawing back into the ship, cutting off her escape route. That wasn't to say she could escape, anyways, as the ship's malfunctioning doors had slammed down on her when she had attempted to make her escape previously, pinning a broken ankle between a heavy metal slat. Just feet away, the tendrils of the Kraken were slithering through the hall, forcing the doctor to halt her breath and thrashing despite the pain.


Then, she saw something familiar. Nyx appeared in the top of her vision, emerging from a hole that had been split through the freighter walls. Imille frantically waved a hand at the squid woman, but dared not make a single peep.
 
Nyx floated silently through the water as the tentacles thrashed about searching for Imille. Luckily for the both of them she was doing exactly what she needed to do by staying as calm as possible and not moving too much. Though she didn't really have a choice with her ankle being pinned. Nyx winced at seeing her new friend pinned by such a heavy shutter, knowing fully well how much pain she must have been in. Nyx rolled through the water gently, avoiding the tentacle that was now below her and narrowly avoiding its search. She nodded knowingly at the pinned doctor, signaling she was going to get her out of there.


Outside things were much more frantic. Jagar was doing battle with three tentacles now, dodging them and blasting massive holes in them with the blunderbuss. He was making his way closer to the beast's body, looking to end this as swiftly as possible. Every now and then the kraken would get the upper hand, barbing him or slamming him but Jagar was unrelenting. The massive beast was able to slow down his healing factor with the strength of its blows but it had never met a Vekht before, master hunters who lived for fights like this. His adrenaline was racing higher and higher as he got more precise with his shots, the octopus' blood floating to the surface as if they had struck oil. The thick, murky substance practically a beacon to predators to come in or in the kraken's case to stay away.


Something whipped Jagar's back and he turned to see it had been the chain embedded in one of the tentacles. Now was the time for him to shine, to turn the tide of battle in their favor instead of pecking at it where they could. He grabbed hold of the chain and began dragging it towards another tentacle, the long chain linked rope reaching just enough to wrap around another. The kraken, unaware of what Jagar was doing as he was on her blindside, sent in the third tentacle to attack only for it to fall into his trap. Jagar wrapped the chain around the third and began to weave in and out of the tentacles, dragging the chain tighter and tighter until the tentacles themselves got tangled up in eachother and knotted up. The beast wailed, the constant moans of pain would be much more heart wrenching if it wasn't trying to kill them or hadn't killed countless Nisela natives before.


Psy awoke to slapping himself, confused he shouted "STOP HITTING MYSELF!" He then seen Casar in his hand and realized they were interfaced. "Well fuck me, you were hitting me with.. me? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING... HOLY SHIT!" He said, pointing up to Jagar who had the beast tangled up. "WE HAVE TO HELP! YOU WAKE UP!" He reached for one of his assault rifles on his back but noticed it was missing. "Wait... Wha-" He looked down to see the rifle auto firing and dropping down into the abyss. "You didn't Cas... I can't believe you've done this."


Back inside the wreckage Nyx was nearly on top of Imille now, floating so gently that it almost didn't look like she was moving. When she landed near her she placed her hand on top of Imille's helmet as a sign she'd be okay then looked back at the searching tentacles. She moved in close to whisper, hoping it didn't disturb the beast and alert her to their location.


"It... looks like your ankle is broken. I can lift the door but as soon as I do things are going to get really scary. Trust me?" She didn't wait for her response as she traveled down towards the shutter and looked for their place to escape. A small gap in the ceiling was just big enough for the two of them if she was quick enough, giving them an opportunity to escape to a different part of the ship. She looked at Imille and frowned, not able to see her face because of her helmet so she didn't know how much pain the doctor was really in. Then, she grabbed the metal shutter and lifted up sending a massive wave of pain over Imille who couldn't withstand letting out a groan. Instantly the closest tentacle began snaking its way towards them, making Nyx react fast by slamming the shutter shut and picking up Imille.


She kicked off the ground and hurled herself and Imille out from where she had hurt herself and through the gap. The whole ship was rumbling as Nyx guided Imille through the long abandoned halls. The shaking of the ship caused old corpses to float on by, scaring both the ladies but Nyx pressed on refusing to let her new friend or herself get taken. They took cover in a room while a tentacle went raging past, giving them a moment to catch their breath.
 
Casar jolted back into his own body, eyes flicking open like lamplights. He glanced sideways toward Psy, then up to Vitor. Using his power and his hands, he guided the android toward the cliffside, where he could at least grab on and climb up without fear of dropping into the dark abyss below. Once he had seen that Psy was latched on, he immediately disengaged from the cliff.


"I know." He said, gritting his teeth underneath his helmet. "Sorry about your gun. Maybe we can fish it back up later. You're too heavy to get back up if you sink, but Jagar is doing okay. The Kraken is back inside the ship, where the doctor and the squid are. So... catch up!" He said, kicking off the plateau and suddenly leaving the android behind as soon as he had seen that he wouldn't fall again. Casar swam upwards, back to the stripped reef, and glanced up. Jagar was battling the massive creature, nearly alone. The tendrils that still had barbs reached up for him, threatening a slip with every shy movement. He was gaining the edge, especially with the barrage of harpoon and cannon-fire that the Kraken had taken, but his own blood was muddling in with the ink in the water. With nearly no hesitance, the mage kicked up from the bay, attempting to swim toward his combative friend. He was no Nyx or Jagar, but he was lithe and quick in his own right. When he had gotten close enough to where his shots wouldn't dissipate, he raised his weapon and fired. Again, and again, and again, wearing down the tentacles that were harassing Jagar from nearly all sides.


"Still okay, Psy?" He asked, through comms. "Imille? Nyx? We're causing a commotion outside but it's not coming back out. Are you two okay?"


No answer. On the inside of the ship, Imille had quieted her distress to panicked breaths. Nyx had pulled her away from the combat, but she hadn't felt that amount of pain in quite some time. Caused it, sure. Fixed it, no doubt. But just like her augments, Imille's history was mostly clean.


"We... we need to end this." She whispered, both into comms and to Nyx. It was a relief to the mage to hear her voice, despite everything. "Nyx and I are in the freighter. It can't see; most of its eyes are shot out. If you can sneak up and end it... we're golden." She whispered, pausing only to catch her breath in her chest.


Casar looked up and around. Jagar was battling the Kraken's tentacles, while Psy had been grounded due to his weight. That, and the android couldn't sneak up on a brick wall. If Nyx was occupied, that meant...


"I'm coming." He said, breaking way for the ship.


Imille looked toward Nyx. "You could do it too, but... please don't leave." She asked, stiffening up.
 
"I won't leave you." Nyx whispered to Imille, holding her up right so she continued to float and not put any pressure on her wounded ankle. "Cas, I can't do much from here I have to keep Imille alive. Just fight it, you are down two people I can handle things from here. I-" A tentacle came rushing into the room before she was finished speaking and all Cas heard was rustling and then silence as the communicators went off. Nyx continued to carry Imille through the wreckage, ducking and weaving through obstacles only finding themselves even deeper in the ship. It was becoming a maze of huge proportions now, one that the octopus had already fully explored before laying its eggs. "Breathe..." Nyx whispered to Imille to her surprise, keeping her cool even though they were being chased by an unrelenting force. "You think I'd let you get hurt after all this? You kick ass Imille, just stay calm okay? I know it hurts but... Listen, don't tell the boys but..." She smirked, "I got some of the best Nisela brewed alcohol on the planet under my seat. Big bottle, no fishy taste, goes down smooth. You'll forget your ankle is even busted while we head back to my place where you can kick your feet up and sleep in a real bed while you heal up. Then... We're gonna have a party and we're gonna get shit faced, make some really bad decisions. Celebrate that silly robot and killing this creature." Nyx hugged the woman, trying her best to keep her treasure hunting companion calm, sensing that she wasn't use to this sort of pain. "This will all be over soon... and we'll be rich!"


While the two women hiding onboard the wreckage of the ship were trying to stay quiet and calm, Jagar was doing the opposite. With the help from suppressing fire from Psy who was focusing his fire on the kraken's eyes, Jagar was wrestling with the tentacles and rendering them useless. The crazed hunter began to swim up alongside the tentacles once they were bound together, getting close to the base and was near the kraken's body. She could feel him move up so she began to shake him off, using two of her remaining appendages to try and swipe him off but the Vekht was too fast even in the water. With a roar he placed the blunderbuss into the mess of tentacles and fired, his first shot making one go limp and completely useless. The mother desperately tried to break free as his gun recharged, waiting to take them out one by one at the base. With her stuck in the ship and the other parts of her fighting both Psy and Casar she had effectively trapped herself, along with Jagar's trap things were looking dire for the beast.


With one last attempt she began filling the area with ink, coating their lines of sight in the black murky liquid that completely shielding her. While Jagar was able to still fire on her pinned tentacles Psy had to stop covering him with fire, unsure exactly what he was shooting at. He and Casar both were trapped in a maze of a black goop that seemed to sizzle in the air. Psy was hit with a glob of it and nearly shut down again, quickly swimming away from the goo.


"IT'S ACIDIC! THAT BITCH BURNT ME JAGAR DON'T-" As soon as he called out they heard Jagar roar in pain as the ink began to melt away at his skin forcing him to retreat. He fired off one last time disabling another tentacle but the other managed to break free. The hunter swam away to regroup, doing his best to avoid the black acidic gunk in the water as the kraken began to regain its bearings. "CAS! DON'T TOUCH IT!" Psy called out, seeing that his friend was surrounded by the defense mechanism that pushed back two of the team's strongest combatants.
 
Casar's eyes widened underneath his helmet. The ink was quickly encroaching on all of them, and they wouldn't be able to approach without having their skin or their suits dissolved. He had been given the warning a little bit too late, and looked down to see that his suit was fizzing under the acidity. He reared backwards, panickedly swimming away from the source of the ink. Popping filled the air, as the outer layers of his suit had begun to shift colors. He broke free from the cloud, swimming bodily away from it. He didn't have the pleasure of being burned by it, but the pressure would amount to a significantly more painful death, so he tried to avoid it. The mage looked to the ship, where the octopus was habitating. Also, where Nyx and Imille were trapped. Their communications had cut out, either due to the density of the water, the ship, or... something worse. It heightened the urgency, and for a moment, he didn't know what to do.


The cloud was like the darkness of the surrounding ocean, engulfing their vision toward where only the mage's radar could permeate it. He frustratedly slapped the lights button on the side of his neck, but again, the suitlight flickered out. That figured. He wondered briefly if they had survived this if he could get a better suit. Then, he snapped back to reality. Imille and Nyx. While he didn't particularly care about the latter, a part of him didn't want to see her die, either. He swam downwards, escaping the expanding range of the cloud. Then, he swam toward the ship still, as the cloud was expanding through the front, where Jagar had been engaging his assault. The back of the ship remained mostly untouched; the ink hadn't gotten to it yet, with the metal shields of the ship acting as a concentrating funnel. So, he'd tried to swim underneath the cloud, with the ink tickling his back as he attempted to make his escape. Or rather, his progression. He shot toward the back of the ship, intending to attempt to end this as he'd planned previously.


"Keep firing on it from the front." he whispered, attempting not to draw the ire of the Kraken. "I'm out of the way. We lost comms from Imille and the squid; they're inside the ship. If it's filling up with ink like the outside is, then we need to get them out of there. I'm going to circle around the back, open up a way for them to get out, and then dome it."


"The Kraken looked pretty bad last time I saw it." Imille whispered back. "I believe it. We're gonna make it out of here. It's just a matter of if we can pry the treasure out from underneath this fat ass." she continued, looking over to the girthy tentacle that was grasping around the ship. They were like ants to it, and as long as they had remained quiet, there wasn't a way apart from literal blind luck that it would be able to grab for them. The arm that hadn't been wrapped around Nyx lightly thumbed at the rifle on her hip, betraying her nervousness. "Thanks for staying. For the record, we aren't just comedians. The boys outside will take care of things. Sorry I wasn't able to do as much."


The communications fizzled, staticking in Imille and Nyx's ears. "...Firing .. Front ... Imille ... Squid ... Ink ..." they heard, unable to discern any real information from it other than 'Ink'. Imille's eyes widened.


"Ink?" she asked.


"Imille. Nyx. If you can hear me, get to the back." Casar continued.
 
"Ink." Nyx replied firmly, her soft expression quickly changing into a firm one. Her light green skin turned into a darker shade just from those few words. "Kraken's ink is acidic, can tear through armor and disable weapons. Plus it's a bitch to see." She sighed, then grabbed Imille again but this time got under her and literally carried her instead of just dragging her behind her. "We-" They heard the fizzling of the comms again, barely catching the word get and back. "I think he wants us to head to the back... Don't really have a choice, look." They seen in the corner of the room the ink seeping in from the walls, dripping down the sides and slowly coming towards them. "As fun as it's been bunking down with you let's get going. And Imille..." She paused, with her not wearing a helmet it was nice to see a friendly face in the darkness. She smiled at her, "You were able to do plenty, it was ingenious the way you attacked it with the cannons. Without you, we'd all be dead. I'm just sorry you got hurt in the process, let's go!"


With that Nyx carried Imille to the door way and peaked around, seeing the tentacle was no where in sight. They began to move, racing against the ink that was entering the ship now funneling them out towards the back. At first they moved slow, having to pass over bits of the kraken that had already traveled in. Slowly but surely they were on the right path when they heard that familiar noise of the kraken navigating the halls directly behind them. To make matters worse, the ink was following just as fast.


"Shit... Hold on tight!" Nyx told Imille and then kicked off as hard as she could, the hallways becoming a blur as Nyx darted through them at record speed. The vibrations in the water caused by her swimming made the tentacle speed up as well as rushing the ink forward even faster. She took tight corners and hallways that Imille could barely comprehend as they raced through the derelict ship's hall. They came to a sharp turn and Nyx banked around the side by kicking off the opposite wall, using her momentum to their advantage as they went faster and faster to the back of the ship.


"Almost... Where... You... Help..." Crackled in over the radio to Casar and the other's, the two women making it out of the center of the ship.


"Almost there, where are you, help us!" Psy decoded in a voice not of his own, as almost if it was an automated process. "Neat!" He said, regaining his bearings and continued to open fire on where the kraken roughly was. He knew he was doing damage as each time he did the remaining tentacles continued to flail towards him. Jagar had navigated the depths until finally he found the base of the creature again and began to fire away with the blunderbuss, with the tentacles not being trapped any longer he was having a rougher time trying to take them out but still progressing.


"Save Em-lee and Neex." He called out to Casar. "Protect our own."
 
Imille looked up to Nyx, smiling underneath her helmet even through the pain. "Glad I could be of service." She whispered. "You're not too bad yourself."


Casar, drawn to the reef again as he had tried to avoid the cloud, kicked up off of the sandy surface, hands reaching out for the metallic, divided ship. The mage braced himself, having had to swim through an inky cloud as he'd finally made it to the back. His armor was beginning to thin out, threatening him with death if he'd pressed it any further. So, he swam up the backside of the ship, looking for any breach or gap he could find. He used the same technique that he had to find the Icarus; he stilled himself, closing his eyes. Then, with what amounted to a second sight, Casar looked. When he couldn't find their bodies amongst the deep halls, he looked for the radio transmission. Where it had originated from. Unlike the Icarus, they didn't have nebulae between them. Suddenly, he caught something.


"Shit. We're at a locked door, and -" Imille suddenly paused as one of the flayed tentacles from the fight earlier had smashed its way into the room. The Kraken knew that it had felt something, but wildly disoriented and dying, it didn't know what. The ink from the base of the Kraken had remained strong, filling the ship, but outside, the ocean was slowly beginning to ebb it away. More and more of the ship was beginning to come into view as the fiendish mother was exhausting her supply.


"I see you." Casar said, attempting to reassure them. He honed his second sight down on their location, and looked for a way in. Luckily, there were a few, with the Kraken having split the ship in two. He pressed his way through a small crack in the back of the ship, just wide enough for someone of his stature to get through.Then, he looked around.


Around him was a cargo hold, filled with metallic loot containers of every sort. It was terribly huge and expansive, and also probably why Nyx had chosen this as a potential spot to hit. That wasn't a concern to the mage just then, and he didn't even give it a second glance before kicking off of the wall and finding himself at the sealed doors that lead out into the hall. He placed his hand on the control panel and shot electricity through it, not only powering the panel, but the door as well. It came with a bit of difficulty, as the water had dispersed his charge. After a frustrating amount of time, it slid open, allowing him passage.


Down the hall, Imille and Nyx had found themselves at a sealed junction, with the scavenging appendage having quieted its search for the two. It laid at rest, giving the girls the wonder if it had finally died. However, when it hadn't moved, they remained trapped in the sealed room with only a sliver of space unoccupied by tentacle in the way that they had come from. Imille looked to Nyx, then disengaged. The doctor floated her way toward the tentacle, employing the breathing and calmness that Nyx had given her. She used only her hands to propel herself through the water, handicapping her, before she'd gotten to the doorway. Then, she took a deep breath, and pushed herself through the small sliver of space back into the hall.


The tentacle twitched, halting their breaths. Imille clung to the doorway outside, knowing well she couldn't swim more than a few feet without Nyx's assistance. Her hand looped around the frame, offering itself up. The squid woman hadn't needed it, of course, but she wanted to let Nyx know that she was still there.


"I'm around the corner!" Casar said. "I'm going to ... draw it from the room you're in. You need to get past it to get to the cargo hold." He said, as his eyes had settled on the massive limb that snaked through the hall and room, blocking the women off from sight.


"When I do this, you two should run. Go out of the room, take a right. There'll be a hole in the floor down the hall... and then, the cargo bay. Go out through there." He said, raising his weapon. His breath caught in his chest, and he'd wondered if it was worth the danger he'd put himself in. If Imille was worth it.


Then, he fired.
 
Nyx followed Imille silently, listening to Cas' instructions. She thought if he distracted the beast they could get out all fine and well, but what about him? She ran out of time to protest however as the shot went off and the tentacle went slithering out of the room at an impressive speed. Even with the battle going on outside the octopus was still able to multitask, the tentacle performing a serpentine maneuver in on itself around the room and heading towards Casar's fire. Nyx bolted out of the sealed off room and grabbed on Imille roughly, not exactly giving her the nice and tender treatment she had been giving her but under the circumstances they needed to get out fast. With the acidic ink slowly encasing the area Nyx gritted her teeth as she swam through it, only suffering minor burns from being native to the planet but any longer and she would begin to suffer burns all over her body. A fine coating of natural oil was the only thing that separated her from the devastating effects of the ink, one that was thin after just going through a patch of it.


She shook her head at Imille before she could say anything, her skin turning a pale red as she took the right and dove down into the floor still maintaining her same speed. When they got into cleaner waters the effects of the ink seemed to disappear, the salt water cleansing her body slowly but surely. They arrived in the cargo bay and her eyes went wide, "That's the stuff right there..." She murmured, getting excited looking at all the crates and supplies that was left behind. Shaking off the idea of rummaging through it was hard for the treasure hunter but she pressed on, seeing the hole that Casar had entered through.


"Okay, this is gonna get a little handsy for us just meeting but... What makes people bond more than fighting a giant monster together?" She chuckled nervously, knowing the fight was still going on. "This hole is tiny and I'm gonna have to push you through. Now I'm gonna be gentle with your leg, but once you're out you'll have to be able to swim on your own. I'm gonna go back for Cas. Now, get that ass up there and I'll push you out!" She said, motioning towards the hole and assisting the doctor up to it. "Gonna be open ocean out there so don't freak out, it's away from the battle so it'll be nearly pitch black for you. Use those lights on your sex suit and you'll be fine."


Outside of the ship things were coming to a close, the kraken beginning to show signs of defeat. The tentacles were now moving sluggishly about, still putting up a fight but with the onslaught of Psy and Jagar while also being distracted by those inside the ship the beast was on death's door. With one final push it heaved itself towards the broken ship, fleeing away from Psy and Jagar giving it a few more moments before more devastating blows were dealt. It seemed to guard her children more directly now, even scooping some of the eggs up with a free tentacle and pushing them out to sea in a last ditch effort.


If she hadn't murdered countless Nisela natives it would have been horrifying to see such an act from a nearly defeated mother but she was rampant and her kids would follow suite. The beast roared once more, thrashing harder inside the ship and fighting Jagar and Psy with all her might not wanting to let this be the end. In reality, she was buying time to scatter her children to sea knowing that these were her final moments.
 
"I'm out! I'm out. Thank you, Nyx." Imille said, relieved. Just as soon as she had looked back, however, Nyx was gone, having cycled back through the storage room in order to find her way back to Cas. "Be careful!" she shouted, as the squidwoman disappeared back into the ship.


The tentacle inside of the ship reached out through the halls, though it only had a blunt end to batter with. It was enough. Cas kicked off immediately after firing, but he was untrained in swimming, with their current situation being the only time he had truly gone into the water. He was no Nyx. For his selfless efforts, he had gotten one prize: as soon as the appendage had honed in on his location, it reared out from the room that Imille and Nyx had been in and slammed him bodily against the wall, pinning him with the blunt end and temporarily disorienting him. He wasn't crushed completely; his augments had seen fit to it, but that didn't mean that the encroaching ink and further assault wouldn't kill him. In fact, it would be a much more painful death; one that he had gone through in his head a thousand times before choosing to enter the ship and attempt to help them at all.


His arm, pinned to the wall, tried desperately to bring his gun up to shoot at the tentacle. Instead, the tentacle reared back, and in that moment, he screamed out into comms. "Needhel-" he managed, before the beast crashed into him again, forcing him into silence. Static filled the comms, much like the static that they had encountered when Nyx and Imille were being barraged.


"Cas?! Jagar, Psy, you have to end this!" Imille screamed out. "Nyx went back into the ship to get him, but it's ... it's filling up with ink. I think I broke my ankle, but I'm on the backside, so I won't be able to get to you guys to help." She finished. Her hand was grasped tightly to the rip in the ship, while her other cradled her ankle. Ink was flooding the interior, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to hang on forever, so the injured doctor let go. The reef was beneath her, biding her fall.
 
"At once." Jagar responded firmly, his deep frightening voice a stark contrast to Imille's as he spoke over the comms. "Si, shut up and fight."


"I WASN'T SAYING ANYTHING!" The robot replied, caught off guard by Jagar. "LISTEN BUDDY I KNOW YOU'RE-" Psy dodged a tentacle as he activated his boosters and headed in to assist Jagar. "-UPSET BUT YOU GOTTA REALIZE, IT IS SO FUCKING EASY TO MESS WITH YOU! IT WOULD BE A DISSERVICE IF I DIDN'T!"


"Remember what Jagar say, monster eat you Jagar let you die."


"Well that's reassuring..." The android mumbled, gaining speed and getting closer by the second. "Good thing the bitch can't break my armor! Maybe if she basted me in ink first... Why does that sound erotic?" He questioned, finally arriving side by side with Jagar. "Alright, I think I'll go for the mouth again and give that bitch the Psy surprise. You down for gouging her last few eyes out? We'll make this dumbass blind, deaf and dumb. Then dead!" He exclaimed, cackling under the water. Jagar wordlessly rushed forward not acknowledging Psy but going for the eyes. "Okay dickhead, could have at least said good luck Psy! Hope you don't die Psy! Jackass." As the two went in to kill the kraken, Nyx and Cas were in an entirely different situation altogether.


"Wait for me Cas! I'm getting clo... shit." She mumbled, seeing a hallway filled with nothing but ink by the time she had gotten back. She heard only static in response from the boy and she knew that he didn't have much time. "Fuck me... We were doing so well and then this went to shit! Everytime Nyx... Usually you're the one losing crews not getting lost with them!" She cursed, "The one time I fight a massive sea monster with a new crew is the time that gets me killed. Fucking. Figures. Should have took the treasure and ran... Imille is fucking lucky I find her and her team charming or I'd be saying fuck all of this." She said to herself, bitter about what her conscious was about to make her do. Before she knew it she was blasting her way through the ink, head first as she swam as fast as she could through the acidic goo.


Darkness engulfed Nyx as she plummeted into the ink, at first not feeling its acidic effects but soon she was in a world of pain. She did her best to keep her big mouth shut, in order to not get the acid everywhere as it began to burn her alive. The poor treasure hunter held back screams of pure agony as she navigated her way through the goop until finally she came out on the other side after following one of the tentacles in the darkness. As she emerged she seen Cas being rag dolled by the tentacle, thrashing over and over into him. Luckily Jagar's armor had been fortified, preventing any fatal injuries but it would only take a certain amount of damage before giving in. Nyx braced herself against a wall for a moment, her skin bright orange and burning off in flakes all around. She looked as if she had been left to dry out in the sun for hours when in reality she had only been exposed to the ink for less than a few minutes.


"Cas I-" She coughed, using the wall for a support as she rushed over to the boy. His eyes were rattling around in his helmet, his senses going crazy as the tentacle mauled him. Nyx seen her opening and weakly slid in the way and dragged Cas out of the way of the tentacle, using herself as a shield as she got hit by the tentacle herself. Already in her weakened state it was excruciating as she held onto Cas and weakly swam away. They had to go through another burst of ink that caused her to scream brutally into the comms, luckily for them they had found another breach. Nyx weakly pushed Cas out and into the open water then dragged herself out of the ship and away from the battle. She was conscious luckily and was still able to move but she was nearly paralyzed with pain, laying there in the water floating as she waited for the pain to stop.


Outside the battle was coming to a stop, Jagar had made his way to the base of the kraken who had more or less given up after losing Cas. She stared at the ship as Jagar made his way into her sight of her final eye and ripped into it with his hands. She let out a weakened roar of pain as the Vekht ripped her cornea and then dug in deeper until he ruptured her pupil and even more kraken blood was shot out into the sea. Psy had boosted under, looking up into the beast's maw and began to laugh.


"WE'RE GONNA KILL ALL YOUR FUCKING BABIES YOU DUMB BITCH!" He said first in Standard, then began to go through each language in his vocabulary. He focused mostly on amphibian languages as he taunted the beast hoping she could understand. Finally, he held out his arms and shouted, "PSY SURPRISE!" He clapped his hands together and two missile carriers appeared from his wrists. Androids were always equipped to the teeth with surprises, Psy being specially built for any combat situation. He fired his payload, dozens of small missiles flying through the water at an alarming rate crashing into the beast's open mouth. She groaned as the missiles ruptured her insides while Jagar dug in with his holographic blade. With both in conjunction happening the kraken soon passed, if it wasn't from blood loss it had to have been the Vekht digging into her brain or the crazed android sending a payload of missiles directly into her insides.


The kraken slumped down, its tentacles still writhing about as she passed. The creature began to fall off the reef bed and began to fall into the dark abyss below. Soon it was as if the kraken hadn't even been fighting moments ago as it disappeared into the shadows, defeated, dead and distraught as it had failed its children.


"LIVE CHECK MOTHERFUCKERS! WE FUCKING DID IT!" Psy roared into the comms triumphantly.


"Jagar alive." The Vekht said quietly, reflecting over the successful hunt and bowing to the beast as it plummeted into the depths.


"I'm... I'll live." Nyx said quietly, her eyes closed as her skin continued to burn. It seemed like things weren't getting better, unfortunately for her it would be a day or so until she felt normal again from the burns even with modern medicine. "Cas, Imille?"
 
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