Ruins, Monsters, and Babes, Oh my!

(Sensitive Content: Violence, Adult Language)

Part I. 

The mithirium hull of the sleek-bodied Trident Omega-VII creaked and groaned as it sank deeper and deeper into the abyssal depths of the Korian Trench. Its propellers whirred quietly as the blades ripped through the freezing ocean waters, forcing the deep-sea military vessel ever downwards towards the designated coordinates.

Captain Finn Bellgarde cursed as the video feed displayed on the dash-mounted tablet began to dissolve. The clear view of the ancient ruins, which the upper brass had named Novus Atlantia, decayed into flickering dark shapes and flashing white lines. He tapped at the edge of the tablet with the knuckles of his core-steel gauntlet, which he wore over the lighter, thinner fabric of the glove of his thermal suit. No change. He squinted as he peered through the big window of laminated hyper-acrylic sheets, but there was nothing to see but twenty feet of grainy liquid. Visibility now solely relied on the short reach of the vessel’s headlights and top-mounted spotlights.

“Going dark again,” Lieutenant Jackson Mable’s voice crackled over the comms as he punched irritably at variously-colored buttons that glowed on the dashboard. “Better report in now before communication is lost.”

Finn looked at his comrade and nodded. “Call it in, lieutenant.”

“Affirmative.”

The lieutenant drew the satellite communications wire from its place in the dashboard and plugged the input connector into his battle-worn helmet, which was enameled in dark crimson like the rest of their core-steel armor suits. The sides of the helmet bore the teardrop insignia of the Sanguinary Guard, a chapter of the notorious Hell Marines, and across the back and sides honors earned from service—small skulls and daggers and medic’s crosses—were painted in black.

“Lieutenant Jackson Mable of the research vessel Sea Angel, reporting in. Do you copy? Over.” When no response came, the lieutenant repeated the message. “Lieutenant Jackson Mable of the research vessel Sea Angel, reporting in. Do you copy? Over.”

There was static, then a voice came over the comms. “Angel… breaking… do not….” The message was disrupted by crackling static.

Finn ignored the lieutenant as the agitated man grumbled and fiddled with dials and buttons and continued to repeat the message over the comms. Finn knew no response would come—not until they completed the assignment and began their ascent. It was the same as the previous seven dives to the strange ruins. Close proximity to the place turned the sat-comms and video systems turned to scat.

 “Minerva’s tits!” Lieutenant Mable cursed as he ripped the sat-com cord from his helmet. “To end with this thrice-blasted place.”

“We’ll be on to the next assignment soon enough,” Finn said. “Besides, the equipment trouble is all the more reason to perform this research.”

The lieutenant sighed. “Research,” he uttered. “All we’ve done is take photographs of really old shit from when man thought that a stick with a sharp rock strung to the end was advanced technology.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Finn replied. “I’m taking over manually from here, so quit your bitchin’ and give me some readings.”

“Understood,” Lieutenant Mable said as Finn disengaged the autopilot and took control of the vessel. “Depth, thirty-nine thousand forty-eight feet. Cruising speed, one-point-two-five knots…”

Finn listened to the details of the report as he steered the submersible into the ruins. Though much of the ruins were visible, a significant portion of the ancient city was covered by the sediment of the ocean floor. He wondered how much, exactly, was hidden from view.

In truth, he found the ruins to be far more fascinating than the lieutenant. While many of the structures had crumbled or collapsed, those that remained intact were magnificent feats of architecture. Dozens of massive buildings wielded rows of fluted columns as tall as thirty men, and each and every flat surface in the ruins was covered in intricate carvings of hieroglyphs, fantastical beasts, and grotesque representations of the mythical gorgons.

Once they had planted themselves deep in the ruins about where they had concluded their previous dive, Finn engaged the auto-stabilizing protocol, leaned back, and cracked his knuckles.

“We’re here,” Finn said.

“Just finishing up calibrating the photo-capture system,” Lieutenant Mable replied as he fiddled with the bulky piece of equipment in his lap that appeared to have more buttons and dials than the dashboard of the Sea Angel.

A deep groan reverberated through the small cabin.

“What in Minerva’s plump—”

“Shut up,” Finn snapped as he cut power to all systems except the auto-stabilizing unit. “Don’t move,” he whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”

The groan came again, louder this time. Then there was a great whooshing sound as a massive beast passed overhead. The submersible rolled over.

“Shit!” the lieutenant cursed through the comms.

Finn gritted his teeth and braced himself. An unnerving cacophony echoed within the cabin as the vehicle struck something solid. Though he was strapped into his seat with thick lengths of polyester, the jarring force of the impact violently rag-dolled his head and limbs.

“You alright, Captain?” Lieutenant Mable asked as the auto-stabilizers buzzed with activity.

“I’m fine.”

The two waited in silence for a short time before Finn finally reached to the dash and restored power to the vessel’s systems. The lights flicked on, and the various motors and instruments once again began to hum.

“Run a damage diagno—” Finn’s voice cut off abruptly as the corner of his eye caught something darting past the window and ripped his attention from the dials, buttons, and gauges of the dashboard. “I think we’ve got company.”

“I saw,” the lieutenant stated sternly.

Outlandish creatures began to circle the vessel. One stopped before the window and shielded its eyes with an arm while emitting a low, shrieking sound from a wide mouth lined with needle-like teeth. The creature had stopped only for a moment before it disappeared at an incredible speed, but Finn had gotten a good look at it. It was hideous thing, man-like from the waist up, with scaly arms, a smooth, hairless head, and a lower body like the latter half of a shark. In one hand it had held a trident. Finn noticed that the others, too, carried tridents as they raced past.

“Think they’ll play nice?” the lieutenant asked.

“I wouldn’t count on it. They look a little pissed off. But let’s wait and—”

Loud pangs and powerful thuds began to strike the vessel from all sides.

“Scratch that. Powering down all systems except the discharge array. I don’t know how many of these things there are, but I want to send a clear message. Prepare a max-ampere discharge.”

“Affirmative.”

Lieutenant Mable pressed several buttons and turned a dial two hundred seventy degrees from OFF to deep into the red marker. A red light began to flash within the cabin as a humming sound grew louder and louder.

The creatures outside the vessel had only grown in number and agitation. Many attacked the window now, their tridents striking relentlessly and with impressive force. The mil-spec vessel was designed to take a beating, but Finn was unsure how long the hyper-acrylic sheets could endure continuous blunt force impacts at this depth. Furthermore, he was still concerned about possible damage from the earlier impact.

“Ready, sir.”

“On my count,” Finn ordered. “Three… two… one… zero.”

Lieutenant Mable pressed a bright red button.

There was a loud crack and a flash of blue light like a web of lightning. Silence ensued. The creatures no longer moved with vigor and purpose but drifted, wide-eyed, mouths agape.

“Alright. Run a damage diagnostic. I’m going to take us away from here,” Finn said as he re-engaged the systems and grasped the steering handles.

“Affirmative. Running damage diagnostic.”

The bodies and tridents thudded softly against the vessel as it slowly crept through the drifting mass. Finn exhaled a sigh of relief when they were clear of the incident location and no longer had to look at the unsightly corpses.

But the relief didn’t last long. A loud thud snapped them back to alertness. The sound had come from somewhere within the ruins. Then there was another. Then another. This occurred seven more times, and at the end of the tenth thud, the city burst to life in a glowing blue display. They watched in awe as the entirety of the ruins became visible through their window all at once.

More of those accursed creatures, Finn thought dismally as he watched dark silhouettes dart to and fro in the city’s faint glow. Not just more… tens turned to hundreds. Then there were so many he could not possibly guess their numbers.

Then a peculiar structure caught Finn’s attention. It was nothing like he’d seen elsewhere in the city, and now that he could see such a great distance, this structure seemed singular, and it was right in front of them. It was a great arch, taller than the tallest building and stretching a quarter-mile wide. Their vessel drifted only a short distance down and back from its apex.

“Damage diagnostic complete, sir. Auto-stabilization system offline. One dorsal thruster non-functional. No other major damage to report.

“Alright, we’re out of here,” Finn said.

Before Finn could engage the ascent protocol, the hundreds of large sigils on the surface of the archway all at once began to glow, and a bright blue wall of light appeared before them that encompassed the entire volume of the arch.

“Sweet Minerva’s rump, what in the hell is that?” Lieutenant Mable said slowly.

“I take it you’re done complaining about taking photos,” Finn responded.

The wall of light twinkled then faded away. The area under the archway was no longer empty space. It was like looking through a window into another realty. Another plane of existence. Another world. Finn couldn’t settle on an answer. He had no idea. It was like nothing he had never seen. The ruins were no longer visible when peering under the archway. It was now a rocky terrain the color of dried blood.

“We’re not going through that thing, are we?” Lieutenant Mable asked nervously.

Before Finn could answer, his attention grasped onto an oddity unfolding before him. It was as if the rocky terrain through the archway grew hazy and began to shimmer. He realized far too late that it was the active camouflage of a giant octopus. No, not an octopus.

“It’s a blasted kraken!” Finn exclaimed through the comms.

There was no time to react. A huge tentacle snatched the small vessel with ease and dragged it through the archway to the other side. The two men watched in horror as a massive beak clamped down on them. The hull of the Sea Angel groaned as the beak scraped and squeezed with incredible force. The horrible sound of breaking and snapping filled the cabin as external instruments were crushed and torn away. Alarms buzzed and red lights flashed all across the dashboard and throughout the cabin. Then they were being swallowed. The headlights barely lit the slimy walls of the kraken’s innards.

Lieutenant Mable began spewing information as his hands worked across the dashboard, but it was unnecessary. Finn knew they were in bad shape. Only one course of action came to mind. He worked a series of buttons and heard the buzz of movement as the aqua-gatlings extended outwards from their compartments.

“Time to light this puppy up,” he said. He didn’t wait for the lieutenant’s response before he flicked off the safety switched over the trigger and squeezed.

The aqua-gatlings wound up and blazed in their full glory. The bullets tore through the soft, fleshy innards with ease, and the kraken screamed at an ear-shattering decibel. Blood and an inky substance skewed all vision through the window, rendering them blind. Finn steered the vehicle forward as the guns purred. Finally, when he felt the free movement of the open ocean waters, he released the trigger.

“Power three-point-zero-seven percent and dropping,” Lieutenant Mable stated in alarm. “Life support offline. Ascent rotors offline. Rear thrusters—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Finn said as he unbuckled himself from his seat and moved to the back of the cabin. From a weapon rack he snatched a submachine gun and tossed it to the lieutenant then snagged one for himself and threw the strap around his neck. He took a core-steel sword, too, for good measure, then buckled himself into one of the two small escape pods. “I’ll see you at the surface.”

“Affirmative,” the lieutenant replied as he fiddled with the strap of the submachine gun then buckled himself into the seat of the other escape pod. “Ready, sir.”

“On a three count after my count. Three… two… one… zero.”

Finn pressed the eject button. The escape pod blasted out from the ship with a bang. Four seconds later, he heard another bang from a short distance away. He sat and waited while the pod’s ascent protocol carried him slowly toward the surface of wherever he was. If there was a surface. He tried not to think about it as he stared out the small window into the darkness.

Part II.

“Lieutenant Mable, do you copy?” Finn said through the comm unit. “Lieutenant Mable, do you copy?” No reply. He should have surfaced by now. Maybe one of us got caught in a current.

Finn surveyed the beach and ocean from his high perch atop the cliff where he had climbed to get a better view as he searched for signs of his comrade. Already he had waited for quite some time. It would be dark soon, he figured, as the twin suns sailed closer and closer the horizon.

Wherever this was, whatever this was, it wasn’t home. The gravity felt the same, the air was breathable, but his home only had one sun.

He sighed and sank to a crouching position then scooped up a handful of soil and sifted it through his fingers. He wondered when, or if, a rescue vessel would show. Probably not for a long while. Maybe never. Without his instruments, there wasn’t much testing to do, but there was surely plenty to explore. He was a part of the research division, after all, and this was a whole world of new possibilities. But that could wait until tomorrow. For now, he needed to find shelter. With a grunt and a stretch, he climbed back down to the beach and began walking the length of the rocky cliffside in search of a suitable place to shelter for the night. Any sort of cave or hollow would do.

He had walked for about three miles when he heard a woman’s scream. It had come from just a bit further up the shoreline. With a curse, he broke into a run. The darkness of late evening had begun to set in just enough so that he could see firelight spilling out from an opening in the cliffside ahead.

As he neared the opening, he began to hear raucousness from within that sounded like utter chaos. He peeked around the corner. The space within was a cavernous hollow much larger than he had imagined it would be. The voluminous cave was illuminated by dozens of torches set in sconces along the wall and a handful of blazing braziers placed in a wide circle around a small stone platform, upon which was chained a curious-looking woman. She was scantily dressed in thin strips of cloth that did little to conceal her callimastian bust or cover her shapely hips. Curling down from her temples and breaking through the curtains of red hair were two great, ribbed horns like a ram’s. Around the crying woman, nigh two score little green creatures danced and shouted and drank and fought. They were short, gangly beasts with smooth skin and pointed ears. Several of the creatures poked and clawed at the woman on the platform, and each time she shrieked they leapt back and roared with laughter. Most of the creatures appeared drunk, and some had even passed out. Or they were dead. Finn wasn’t sure which.

He walked into the open and strolled into the cave. He wasn’t really sure what he was going to do, but he knew that he wasn’t going to leave a woman—horned or not—to be tortured and humiliated—or worse—by this gangly group of little green shits. But the decision was made for him. As soon as he was noticed, the laughter and banter and fighting stopped. Battle-screams filled the air, and—as if by order through a hivemind—the horde charged him. Some still carried only mugs, wielding them like they meant to club his brains out, but many were armed with swords and bludgeons and spears.

Without hesitation, Finn swung his submachine gun into his hands and squeezed the trigger. The battle lasted roughly ten seconds. It just as long to maneuver through the scattering of corpses and dark green pools of blood to the platform.

When he finished unchaining the cowering woman who lie curled in a ball on the ground, he took off his helmet and offered her his hand. A few long moments before the woman’s whimpering faded, and she looked up at him with bright orange eyes whose color must have been stolen from the vibrant palette of an effervescent sunset. Timidly, she accepted his hand and rose to her feet. After briefly considering him with a dubious gaze, she pressed herself against him, her trembling hands caressing the breast of his crimson chestplate. She blushed as stared up at him, open-mouthed, her pink lips quivering. 

Finn stared back into those bewitching discs, mesmerized by the youthful woman’s beauty. He felt his cheeks grow warm.

She spoke, but he didn’t comprehend a single word.

“You know, you’re pretty cute for a sheep.”

The woman only blinked, her mouth agape in wonderment.

Finn cleared his throat and looked away. “Probably for the best you didn’t understand that. So, what’s good to eat around here?”