Chapter III: Invasion Parties and the Underwater Menace, Part One
#3 of Waters of the Earth
Chapter Three: Invasion Parties and the Underwater Menace, Part One
"What do you mean we're going back to the Hydrosphere?" The Captain said whining to his robotic crocodile as the AI system turned the truckboat back towards his home. The sky above them was night and the stars shined brightly above them.
"Information received, look up." QZ said as he managed driving the ship. He was focused on the ship and seemed to be putting everything into it but he did not look up as if he knew what was above them.
"Why what can there be above us?" The Captain said as he looked upwards, expecting a clear sky but instead there was a massive burst of fire above them. At least it looked massive; it seemed to be hundreds of miles up.
"Information: Above is the first ship to re-enter this planet's atmosphere, in a thousand years." QZ said as the ship's flares disappeared, and any sign it was their disappeared. "The ship was testing the atmosphere, in three days it will re-enter the atmosphere and arrive at the Hydrosphere."
"Is that bad?" The Captain asked as he wondered what could be the problems with ship returning. Perhaps they were returning to check up on them or take them out to space. "Run simulation, what is the possible outcome of the situation."
"Information: Simulation features too many variables to determinately calculate outcome of situation." QZ said as his robotic eye started to twitch, as his workload was stressed.
"When will we arrive at the hydrosphere?" The Captain asked; the screen of the GPS blinked as if calling his attention and the Captain noted that on the screen their current ETA was two and a half days.
"Well then speed on crocodile, get us their quickly." The Captain said as he stood up at attention and wondered what going to happen with the situation and how everyone was going at the hydrosphere.
...
Jeff walked into the Quartermaster's office. He was on a mission, he had to leave the hydrosphere and swim down to the sea floor. The first problem was that he was a bird species, he had no idea what he was but his strange triple helix meant he could not be cloned, and he could not breathe underwater.
First off, because of his triple helix structure, he did not breathe oxygen; he breathed pure nitrogen, which he could easily just take out of the atmosphere. However, he would need a tank of N2, to breath underwater. He needed some gadgets through to help him with the situation.
"So, are you ready for this?" The quartermaster, a shrimp sitting a swirling chair said as he turned around and faced the shark. On the desk between them, was a large box presumably filled with all sorts of handy gadgets that could help him?
Jeff took a gulp of air and struggled to say anything, in that brief, second he thought of all the things he could say or do. What would be good or bad with the quartermaster and how not to be a fool. The air was fire to him; every breath seemed like the last, there was a thumping on his head.
"I believe I am sir." Jeff said quickly and surely, all the pressure and heat disappearing as he took the seat in the office.
"Well then, first let me show you this." The quartermaster said as he pulled an out a black pen from the box examining it as he took it out, quickly checking it for bumps, wear and tear and making sure everything was well. "Now put this apple on your head."
The quartermaster pulled and apple out of the box and placed it on the table. "Don't be scared, I done this plenty of times." He said to the nervous Jeff. The shark took the apple and placed it over his head, shaking a bit but remaining quiet.
"Now if you take the pen twist the cap, you'll hear this quick charging sound where the pen absorbs all the exotic matter around you and just point and click." The quartermaster said closing on eye as he pointed the pen at the apple and clicked it.
In a second, there was a laser blast out of the pen and onto the apple knocking it off of Jeff's head and into the air where it promptly exploded in one large burst. Jeff started to shake as the laser almost hit him. He took a deep breath and realized that he was in the safe now.
"Ok, quiet one." The quartermaster said having a laugh before pulling out another device from the box. There was a white and green circle with a casing around the button. "Now this is an automatic teleport button, this will calculate the distance between you and the hydrosphere. Once it does that you and anything attached to you besides the ground will teleport as well."
He grabbed another device, this time a pocket watch. "This is a phase changer, will use exotic matter to change solid matter to laser matter, as well as the reverse." The quartermaster said as he temporary disappeared before reappearing.
"Don't think, I need that. However, do you have the N2 tank I need for breathing?" Jeff asked as the quartermaster pulled out a large tank from under the desk and placed it onto with an audible bang. "Just plug this into your atmospheric vents."
"Also, you'll need this." He said pulling out a large bag of beacons. "If you can't kill the beast use theses so we can track it."
"Ok that is all of it?" Jeff asked awkwardly as he saw all the stuff he would have to take with him down to the sea floor.
"Also, here's a light box, once you get to the seafloor place it on the floor and it will create a proton sphere around you, and say if the beast takes you somewhere you don't want to be, activate this and it will turn the water slightly acidic. Won't hurt you but will hurt the beast." The quartermaster said pulling a square box with two buttons out of the box and handing it to Jeff.
"Good, that's fine. I think that's everything." Jeff said being quite quick as he exited the quartermaster's office and walked back into the hallway. He felt the tension as he knew everyone was counting on him to stop the beast below.
He was the outcast of the hydrosphere, one of the few non-marine animals. However, everyone was counting on him being able to get to the sea because of his strange biology. He was like a bird, but not like a bird; he obviously had avian characteristics but other parts of him were just very alien.
He has green and muddy scales, and a large orange beak. He has a large tail, and large muddy fills on the back of his head. He breathed nitrogen and the atmosphere practically disabled his body. He gave out gaseous potassium iodide from his pores. He was barely normal.
He walked awkwardly towards the top of the hydrosphere taking the stairs to the top of the large glass sphere and into the fresh air of the world. He looked around and took in the sunlight. He strapped on the light nitrogen tank to his back and plugged the tube into his breather.
He took in the fresh nitrogen and took a deep breath. Everyone was counting on him. He didn't have anything special on his body would be able to take the massive pressure of the ocean. His clothes were sprayed with a hydrophobic material so all he had to do was mental prepare himself.
He ran out towards the dock taking a deep breath, spreading his wings behind him as he jumped up. He got air and pointed downwards, he splashed down into the sea, taking a deep breath of his nitrogen. He started to swim down into the sea, his eyes guiding him down through the sea.
He could see the outer hull of the hydrosphere and the people that gathered there to cheer him on. He continued down the increasing pressure of the sea having no effect on his avian body. He looked down, going away from the sun.
He continued on going for what could be minutes or hours, or even seconds. However, his concentration was promptly snapped when he hit something with his head and realized he was in pure darkness.
He realized he might have been at the button of the sea, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the light cube. He grabbed it and placed it against whatever he was touching. A yellow glow extended it out and it showed how far he went down.
The light extended far but he couldn't even see the hydrosphere above him. He had to be at the bottom, at least three miles of water above him and pushing down on him. He looked around taking a breath of his nitrogen, he looked behind him and the gauge said he was about 1/8 down of his gas.
He looked forward and he was facing a window against a building. He saw he was at the top of a skyscraper, and he looked down. He had a half of a mile down to the bottom of the sea. He kept the lightcube in his hand swimming down towards the bottom of the ocean.
He looked around, all around him was crumbling buildings and failed infrastructure. It was like looking at a ghost, the world that they once lived in but could no longer inhabit. He shook of the feeling that he shouldn't have been there, and looked around he had to be careful the beast could be right behind him.
He swam downwards; keeping his pace as he finally reached the bottom of the sea. His muscles ached and he felt like there was a tiny pressure on his shoulder. He put his feet on the road and started to walk forward, he knew there would be millions of places for the beast to hide from him and he had to be careful as he searched for the beast.
Holding up the glow cube, he waved it around hoping it would increase his vision, but for the hundred yards he could see there was nothing that would suggest a massive beast hiding under the sea. The pressure on his shoulder's increased as worry started to enter his system.
He walked forward and then he realized something eerie. He held the proton square up and scanned the area around him. He looked around him checking around and making sure that he was complete sure of his hypothesis. He looked below him there should have been a layer of strengthened algae right below him instead he saw a road.
"Scanner, find out the concentration of the water." Jeff said to a tiny AI bot that was located in his pocket. He gave it a few seconds before his hydrophobic earpiece beeped.
"Scanners say that water is normally concentrated, except for an unusually high amount of strengthened algae structures floating around." The scanner said in his ear confirming his idea. He realized that for a beast to move that much strengthened algae it would have to be massive.
Jeff outright confirmed that he was in the beast's territory, he knew it. He was under attack, any second the beast could pop out and suddenly surprise him. He looked around again with the light cube trying to make sure the beast wasn't tailing him.
He started to swim around, he had to find the beast and kill it. He knew that the beast would be around somewhere. He just needed to wait, he didn't use that much nitrogen, he still had enough to go up to the surface and back down about 7 more times.
"Come out beast, show yourself!" Jeff yelled out, his voice passing through his gas mask as he decided to taunt the beast. His voice would travel further in the water, and he knew it might reach the beast. Perhaps the beast would hear him and decide to come find out what it was.
The bird waited a few seconds, breathing silently until strike. A massive wave of moving water hit him knocking off his balance and knocking the light cube out of his hand. He spun around for a few seconds before he balanced out facing his light cube.
A massive large blackness took on the light, it lunged at him and Jeff through it was his last moment on Earth as the beast attacked him. He was knocked out and the massive beast sniffed him. Jeff got one last good look at the creature as it opened its mouth and swallowed him whole.
...
"Oh great, look what you've gotten yourself into this time." Jeff said to himself as he walked around on the whales tongue. Somehow he managed to avoid being swallowed he looked around and he had to figure out what to do. He was in pure darkness, the only reason he knew that he was alive was that he wasn't melting in stomach acid.
He reached into his pocket and found the laser pen. He grabbed it and twisted the pen, he heard the silent charging noise and clicked the cap. The laser fired forward temporarily lighting up the area. He looked to be in the mouth, as the laser hit the whale's front tooth and it seemed to make barely a dent.
"Now this has to be what has been bumping into the hydrosphere, scanner figure out why a massive whale at the bottom of the sea would be attacking a hydrosphere?" Jeff said as he paced around with no direction of where he was going.
Until he saw a glowing red item, he walked to it only about a half a meter away from he. He looked at it and it appeared to be a gem.
"What is this doing here?" Jeff said as he reached down and grabbed the gem. He pulled on it and it glowed brighter as it was easily dislodged from the whale's tongue.
A red beam shot out illuminating the whale's mouth, shot up and through the mouth, reflecting until it exited perhaps ironically through the blowhole. Jeff was confused as to what happened and the gem disappeared from his hand. He looked around wondering what was happening.
"Ok, I have a beacon and a phase shifter, what to do? Perhaps run out enter passing form and see where that gets me." Jeff said to himself as he paced around on the whale's tongue, however possibly in retaliation for his previous actions the whale decided to open its mouth.
"Shit." Jeff placed the pen back in his pocket and realized that he had only one item that could help him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the phase shifter. He reached down and clicked it. His body shifted, he luckily kept momentum as the water flowed into the whale's mouth and through Jeff.
The whale closed it mouth and Jeff popped back into existence, looking around as he made sure he was safe. He took a breath in and realized that the tank didn't follow him into and was currently being dragged back into the whale's stomach.
He turned around and made a mad dash for the tank, managing to get halfway there before the one breath of oxygen he took knocked him out and he tripped down onto the floor. He splashed around as he attempted to get to his tank.
He realized that he needed to get out of the whale and quickly, he reached into his pocket as his lungs burned for nitrogen. He pulled out the beacons and splashed them around the whale's tongue. He figured at least one would stay in the whale.
He reached into his pocket hoping there would be one final helpful device. Jeff would have took a breath of relief but instead pulled the cap off the teleport button and clicked it. He passed out holding the button holding that someone would be save him from that hell he was living.
...
"What is that QZ, what is that!" The Captain screamed as a red beam of light entered their cabin, shaking up the boat. The red beam hit QZ in chest and entered his gem as if receiving a transmission.
"Signal intercepted, accepting teleportation request." QZ said as he received the transmission from the teleportation button and suddenly Jeff popped into the cabin, sprawled against QZ and The Captain.
"Switching to atmosphere filter." Jeff said as he quickly switched his breathing device to vent nitrogen from the air. He took a deep breath again and almost wanted to kiss QZ for saving him.
"Captain what are you doing here?" Jeff asked as he returned to normal, no longer needing the nitrogen tank to breath. He could just fixate the nitrogen from the air with a breathing device.
"Well, in about one hour a massive ship is about to land over the hydrosphere, so me and my robotic assistant QZ, say hi QZ." The Captain said as he started to look above him.
"Hello, Jeff Crane." QZ said as he scanned Jeff and looked down at him. "Unknown DNA structure found, adding to data base, unknown DNA base matched."
"Ok, so where is this ship?" The Captain asked as he lowered the seats into the cabin and placing Jeff in the doorway of the ship. As the sunroof closed there was a massive sonic boom above them, the sunroof was bent in as the sonic boom hit the ship.
"Crap, no, no don't lose control!" The Captain said turning the wheel trying to keep them on course as the sonic wave shook the ship. Water splashed around them as the engines cut out and the ship came to a slow stop.
"Information: Ship has re-entered atmosphere." QZ said as they came to a stop a few miles away from the hydrosphere.
"Oh really I couldn't tell, thank you captain obvious." The Captain said standing up and pushing against the sunroof. He undented it and forcefully slid it open. He popped his head out of the truck and looked up above. A massive fireball was falling to Earth, getting closer and flying towards the hydrosphere.
"But you're the Captain." QZ said running through his logic sensors. He looked through the windshield, scanning and looking at the ship above them. "Information received: Ship is sending out transmission on all wavelengths, shall I intercept?"
"Do it." The Captain said as he sat down and closed the sunroof. The ship started moving trying to get on schedule. The GPS screen flickered on and off as QZ got a fix on the transmission. The enemies seemed to be transmitted a sound file instead of a video, perhaps to prevent the people from finding out who they were.
"Hello, people of Earth. We have decided to come back and finish off the job. Trust us by the end of tomorrow we will have wiped out the Earth of all life, and you will be dead." The person sending the transmission said, being very megalomaniacal in his tone.
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to fly with all of us. You listen to us we are the protectors of Earth and if we get to the hydrosphere in time, we are going to kick your asses!" The Captain said boasting to the alien leader as they listened to the transmission.
"So you haven't gone back to the stone age yet, don't let that worry you all your infrastructure is going to be destroyed." The alien leader said through the transmission channel before shutting down the communication channel and leaving them relatively in the dark.
"Quickly, QZ we have to get back to the Hydrosphere, chart quickest route and fire engines at a hundred and twelve percent!" The Captain said as he increased the thrust output of the engines. He grabbed a throttle and the engine started to rumble loudly as they shot forward towards the hydrosphere.
"Jeff, control the ship, make sure that QZ doesn't crash us, I'm going to see if I can give our invaders a welcoming party." The Captain said as he opened the sun roof and climbed up onto the roof of the truck. He looked at the entering aircraft and formed his crossbow.
He focused and instead of forming ice arrows, he formed an energy arrow. Waiting a few seconds, he pointed it upwards and towards the glowing ship. He aimed it and fired it towards the ship. He knew what he was doing, he was aiming into the upper stratosphere, where the ship would be focusing on targeting the hydrosphere.
A pale energy line formed between the crossbow and the arrow as it latched onto the ship. He tugged it and it switched to a grappling hook. He tugged it and he was floated into the air as the line began to pull him in. As he got a nice length away from the ship, he fired a sonicboom behind him to speed him up.
He smacked into the ship as it appeared to be flying towards the hydrosphere. He could see the ship behind him and knew he had to slow them down so that QZ and Jeff could be get to the hydrosphere and protect it.
He landed on the ship, keeping ahold of the cross bow as he put his hand on the hull of the ship and decided to render its space travel abilities null. He focused and fired a shockwave, quickly ripping open the hull and allowing him to enter the ship.
"Now then, who wants to mess with my planet?" The Captain yelled as he entered the hull; however, he paused when he entered the ship. He quickly realized he was in oxygen less environment. He held his breath and stayed near the hull breach.
"Well, looks like a pest got in. I didn't know that Neanderthals like you could get in here; now keep this on unless you got a death wish." A passing security guard said as he noticed the Captain trying to keep oxygen in his lungs. He grabbed the hybrid and strapped a mask on his body as well as connecting it to a second tank on the guard's body.
"Now then run away from me and you lose oxygen and die. Do ya have it?" The guard said as he apprehended the quickly revived Captain and dragged him to the bridge. The Captain saw that most of guards were Earth type races, but all of them had masks on until he saw the bridge.
"Sir, I have found this miserable excuse of a life-form near a new hull breach, engineering is currently getting it but it seems that these people still have not bred out powers." The guard said as he laid The Captain on the floor to his leaders. They laughed almost ironically as he was presented.
The Captain opened his eyes and was instantly confused. The leaders of the ship seemed to be almost exactly like Jeff. The Captain felt it was almost ironically that Jeff was presented to him, as if like his meeting was foreshowing for the event.
"Who are you?" The Captain said as he got up getting very angry at the group before him, if he didn't have any morals he would have shot them with his crossbow, before security could have stopped him.
"We are the Noxians, and if you Neanderthals did figure out we come space, out on a little planet all the way out there. These are hired guards, and when we heard about you we decided this would make a nice cloning batch as soon as we drained all the water." Their leader said to The Captain openly taunting him and trying to get the hybrid angry.
"Leave this world now and leave me alone. We might decide to spare your lives." The Captain said offering the group a second change before he decided to get his revenge on the group.
"Why, you have no armies, we have a million troops ready to drop down from the sky at an hour's notice. Now then what do you have, some ability to fire shockwaves big deal. Because we have been tracking every single one of you for a hundred years and we know all your tricks." The leader said as he put his wing claws on The Captain's face.
"This is my planet; I walk it, and breathe her air! So long as I can take a breath, I will protect her wonderful and gratuitous bounties!" The Captain yelled to his captors as they threatened him.
"And you have created your own down bringing, that android you dug up, QZ - R187. He was our creation, his positronic brain anyway, three thousand years ago when his positronic brain fell to Earth. And that's not where it stop either, his brain was connected to a super charged ship communication beacon, alerting us to your presence." The leader said.
"Fine then, I just have to ask you one thing, take me to my leader!" The Captain yelled putting out his arms and forming duel crossbows in his hand. He pointed them at the Nox leader and smiled.
"Oh, you think I'm going to play to your ploy." The Nox Leader said as he stood up and his assistant handed him a gun. "Sorry we're taking over Earth and congrates you'll be in the history books as the first man killed."
"No, don't do this, pleas-please don't kill me!" The Captain said as he back away before getting caught by the security guards.
"Sorry that didn't work out." The Nox leader said as he pointed the gun and fired.