Submersible Witches Quest 19

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20638539

	Standing on the dock, you're surrounded by a flurry of activity. Sailors move crates of supplies in last-minute loads of ammunition. Occasionally an empty-handed sailor zips by, rushing to his station on such short notice. Behind you are Alice and Socks, here to see you off. In front of you is a familiar ship with a familiar officer looking down at you from the deck.

	"Good luck, Cleona! And please, be careful!" Dr. Alice Wackett calls out to you as you begin to climb the ramp up to the Yukikaze. Her usual clipboard is nowhere to be found and her pale hair, usually in a bun, flows freely down past her shoulders. "You've got a lot riding on you!"

	Yeah, as if you needed reminding.

	[Keep an attentive eye out, Cleona. Telebots are not to be trifled with,] Socks warns. [And...do return safely. I would rather not have to endure an existence without you nearby.]

	You turn around, annoying the officer waiting for you at the top of the ramp. "I'll do my best, Alice. I promise."

	Alice smiles, nodding.

	[Is that because you need me as interpreter?] you ask Socks.

	[...Perhaps,] he answers carefully. You chuckle. Looking at each one in turn, you give your two friends a nod. You turn back around and walk up the ramp.

	"At least you are properly dressed this time," Naomi Ito comments with slight contempt.

[x] Fuck you, sister.
[ ] Ignore her.
[ ] Other.

	You've had enough of her shit. Whirling around, you step out of the way to let others pass by if needed. Getting as "up in her face" as you can without an immediate court-martial, you look her directly in the eyes.

	"Do you have a problem with me, Lt. Cmdr. Ito?"

	She returns your stare without flinching. "No, I do not, Chief." She emphasizes the rank. You may be of different services, but this is still an allied operation. Even if she can't nail you directly, she can still start an incident that many might see as your fault.

	"Good. I was worried that you might be overly-obsessed with my physical appearance." You back off a bit. "By the way, you do realize you're not wearing pants? Some might consider that unprofessional. Perhaps even...shameful."

	Attacking her sense of pride and honor does the trick. Her expression twitches as she tries to hold back her anger. Her efforts are focused entirely on containing herself; she makes no response. Smiling, you turn to a sailor that looks like he's standing watch. With a few words and gestures, you manage to get him to lead you to your bunk.

	Kicking back on the thin mattress, you think back to the day before. MacArthur explained the plan.

	"You'll lag behind the flotilla on the Yukikaze. She's damaged anyway, propulsion still not at 100% or so they tell me. When the flotilla is nearly in position, you'll sortie and force the Harbinger to surface. At Admiral Isaki's word, our main fleet will engage the Harbinger and blast it back to Mars."

	"What should I do then, Sir?"

	"You're a smart Witch, right? Do your best to stay alive and make sure the Harbinger doesn't. That good enough for you?"

	"Yes, Sir."

	You wish you could extend your arm towards the ceiling, but the rack above you is too close. Instead, you grip one of the metal bars holding its mattress and squeeze tightly. The bar resists, maintaining its shape. The bar angers you. It resists you, reminding you of your limits. Increasing the pressure, your hand begins to hurt. Even with all your might, the bar doesn't budge.

	"I'll be squeezed even harder down there," you realize. Down deep, where the Sun doesn't shine and the water is cold, you'll be squeezed in from all sides. The slightest break in concentration, and...

	You'd rather not think about it.

[x] Check your gear.
[ ] Get some sleep.
[ ] Other.

	Just because you'd rather not doesn't mean you shouldn't stay aware of the dangers of your dive.  Sighing, you release your death grip on the metal bar in front of you. Closing your eyes, you count to ten, trying to calm down. You manage to flush out the absurd anger at the bar, but you can't shake the worry over your mission. Oh well. That just means you'll pay more attention to your actions and surroundings.

	You leave the bunks, heading for the cargo hold. It's filled with miscellaneous supplies: food, ammunition they hadn't yet stored closer to the weapons, blankets, emergency supplies...and in the far corner, your Substriker. Walking over, you see that it's been carefully stowed; someone must realize how important this stuff is.

	You sit down, grabbing the main unit as you do. You heft it in your hands, turning it over to examine it. The main unit is a backpack. Your primary propulsion, life support, magical engine and focus, and spare ammunition are contained in or on it. Any problems with it are potentially fatal.

	You turn it over several times, trying not to think about how you haven't had a chance to test it out with the new engine. It looks fine, largely untouched since the rush-job yesterday. As long as your magic is up to it, you should be fine.

	Next, you take a look at the leg units. These are much more like the land and air striker counterparts; you slip your legs in, magic happens, and propellers send you forward. They're much simpler, however; these leg units were created after the original unit to help Subwitches fight water resistance. They can be awkward to use, but they let you move much faster in the water. Plus, they can serve as mounts for additional equipment. You can see where your large bags of bombs will be attached on the side.

	Turning them over, the leg units also look ready to go. If either one fails, you'll simply have to slow down. In any other context that might not be a problem, but you'll be testing new waters, literally. Without their additional propulsion, you might just run out of magic before your job is done...or perhaps not. There's no way to know.

	Finally, you turn your attention to your weapons. Two large sacks of underwater mines, a miniature torpedo launcher (with three reloads), a speargun, and a dagger. They should be enough to deal with minor threats, but you'd hate to have to fight a minisub or something. Your weapons all look deadly, and also ready to go.

	Satisfied, you place your gear back where it was. You begin to return to your bunk for the night when you hear the hatch open. You hear footsteps as several people walk in.

[x] Hide.
[ ] Ignore them.
[ ] Other.

	You duck behind several crates, making sure not to make any noise. The intruders don't seem to notice you; they make no sudden movements or noise. They converse in Japanese, talking back and forth as one of them shuts the hatch. You let them go about their business.

	After several minutes, the smell of cigarette smoke begins fill your nostrils. You can't believe it. They're smoking? In here? Incredible. Peaking over your crate, you can see a bunch of sailors joking and laughing as they toss cards into a pile. Two of them have cigarettes in their mouths. Slackers, you realize, skirting their duties.

	Just as you're about to break out and give them a piece of your mind, the hatch bangs open. The sailors quickly try to dispose of their cigarettes and hide their cards, standing at attention as if they were in the middle of moving some supplies.

	Lt. Cmdr. Ito and a pair of men stand at the entrance of the cargo hold. Ito walks over to the slackers, yelling. They do their best to act like everything was normal, but Ito doesn't buy it. She barks at the two men who followed her and they start forcing the slackers out of the hold. She stands, watching, face contorted with fury. The slackers don't want to leave, trying to stay their ground and make more excuses, but Ito's men manage to shove them all out through the hatch. It's an ugly scene to watch.

	The hold is now empty except for Ito and yourself. After several seconds, Ito sits on the crate the men were using as a table for their cards and holds her head in her hands.

	"Shit," she swears in English. She doesn't move.

[x] What's wrong?
[ ] Sneak out.
[ ] Wait until she leaves.
[ ] Other.

	This is a Naomi Ito you haven't seen before. You...you feel like you should do something, say something. Anything. So you do.

	"Is something wrong?" you say, emerging from your hiding place behind the crate.

	"Chief!" she says in surprise, quickly trying to regain her composure. "What are you doing here?"

	You shrug. "I was checking on my equipment. I'll be counting on it to keep me alive, tomorrow, so..." You advance, taking a seat on a crate across from Ito. "What was that all about?"

	Ito watches you with a careful eye. "What do you mean?"

	"That scuffle with the sailors."

	"There was no scuffle," she says sharply. "The men were just urgently needed elsewhere." Her expression turns to stone as she deflects your inquiry.

[ ] Yeah, and I'm a Martian in disguise.
[x] Suit yourself.
[ ] Other.

	You decide she's not likely to open up to someone like you, especially in a position where she feels vulnerable. Instead of pressing the issue, you simply nod. "Alright," you say, and head to leave the cargo hold. As you step through the hatch, you turn back. Ito has her head in her hands again. You leave.

	The rest of your stay on the Yukikaze is uneventful. Lt. Cmdr. Ito avoids you, and you never catch more than a glimpse of her during the trip. When you do see her, though, you notice that she's begun wearing a pair of pants. You can't help but smirk.

	As the flotilla approaches the area above the Harbinger, the Yukikaze trails behind, ready to launch you into the deep. You begin to talk with Socks, amazed at the distance you can keep the link open.

	[So, how close are we?] you ask.

	[The main flotilla should be within...20 miles of the Harbinger, if their reports are right. I do not know why they did not take a beacon like you did, it is much more difficult to track things when I cannot locate them on this display.]

	[The beacon's a big risk. If they spotted it, they might wonder why a Human flotilla is carrying one. Who knows how they'd react?]

	[I still believe they should have taken one.]

	[So, are the telebots taking the bait?]

	[They are concentrating their attention on the flotilla, yes. It appears your other forces have yet to be spotted as well. I would recommend launching now, before they grow bored.]

[x] You're ready.
[ ] You still have business on the Yukikaze.
[ ] Other.

	[Alright. I'll go get suited up.] You're already dressed in your skin-tight dry suit, so it doesn't take long to get ready. You slide the Substriker onto your back, shivering slightly as its cold surface touches your bare back. Checking that it's properly secured over the contact hole, you attach and put on the helmet Alice gave you. Air tube clear, you take it back off so you don't use your air tanks. Slinging your torpedo launcher and speargun, you notice Lt. Cmdr. Ito approaching you. You manage to get your leg units on as she arrives.

	"Your Martian friend say it's time to begin?"

	"Yeah. The rest of the flotilla's got the Martians distracted. Now's as good a time as any."

	Ito nods, looking at the ground. You attach the heavy bags of mines to your leg units in the meantime. You give everything one last look over. Everything in place, you waddle to the edge of the ship.

	"Chief Kuykendall," she says, stopping you.

	"Yes?"

	"...Good luck." Ito gives you a salute. You return it.

	"Thank you."

	Then you swing over the side and plunge into the ocean.

	At first, your dive is a wonderful experience. Even in the middle of the ocean, there's life. Occasional fish swim by, their colorful scales reflecting sunlight in the clear blue ocean. Light refracts from above, contributing to an almost dreamlike feeling as you drift through the water, slowly going deeper and deeper.

	Eventually, the light begins to fade away. It is much deeper now, with only faint light to guide you. Sea creatures swim by much less often, mostly ignoring you. Socks keeps you on course, monitoring your relatively slow progress towards the Harbinger. You take a moment to check your oxygen levels and assess how you feel. If there's a problem, you won't have much time to resurface.

	As you dive ever deeper, you can begin to feel the ocean bearing down on you. The magic shield you're projecting to protect yourself from the deep feels strong, easy to maintain. It's a pleasant surprise; the Mars Engine seems to be working as expected. You're already so deep that any other Witch would have had to return immediately if she hoped to survive.

	The darkness surrounds you completely now. At these depths, the water is nearly freezing. You wonder if this is what it's like to be on an alien world, almost completely isolated from all that you've ever known or experienced. Only Socks calling out your distance to the Harbinger ties you to the world you know. In this void, you lose all sense of speed. You're lost in the monotony.

	And then the ocean reveals some of her secrets. Creatures are very rare, but you spot a few swim by, illuminated by your helmet's faint red light. They're long and slimy, hardly moving, but clearly alive. These strange fish seem like they'd be more at home on an alien planet, yet their strangeness fascinates you. You wish you could spare a moment to examine them when they drift by; it's unlikely that very many people have ever seen them.

	And then something grabs your leg.

[ ] PANIC
[x] GRAPPLE RULES
[ ] OTHER

	At these depths, the slightest breach of your shield means near-instant death. As such, you have no time for this, whether it be from Earth or Mars. You spin about, using whatever is gripping you for leverage. It twists you in the opposite direction, keeping you from closing the distance between it and your arms.

	"Fucking bastard!" you curse as it swings you from side to side. Tiring of this, you grab your knife. With a quick and risky move, you strike downward at your leg, trying to skewer whatever it is that has you. You miss, your blade slipping over the smooth surface of your magic shield.

	The thing, whatever it is, slides further up your leg. With your off-hand, you grab it, squeezing tightly. The thing writhes, trying to get free. It's all you can do to keep your grip.

[x] Stabby stab stab!
[ ] Smash it between your legs
[ ] Other.

	Again, you ready your knife. Holding the assailant steady, you stab at your thigh numerous times. The appendage offers little resistance to your blade, thrashing as you dig in. Your adrenaline rushes as you switch to a slicing motion, sawing through the soft material. Much of its strength gone, the appendage can no longer resist you. You twist and bend so that your legs come into view. In the faint red light, you see some sort of tentacle gripping you.

	"What in the hell?" If you didn't know better, you'd swear you were holding a giant squid tentacle. The tentacle finally rips in two. The end you're holding writhes as if it were still alive. Grossed out, you let go, but its suckers keep it attached. "Fuck fuck fuck," you spit, trying to shake it off. Its suckers refuse to yield.

[x] Whatever. It can't hurt you anymore.
[ ] Slice that shit OFF GOD DAMN.
[ ] Other.

	You're wasting time and magic here, and you've precious little of both. Ignoring the sickening feeling of the dead tentacle, you put away your knife.

	[Cleona, what was that? You feel....stressed.]

	[Oh, nothing, Socks. It was nothing. How far away is the Harbinger?]

	[It should be around 2000 meters in front of you. Be careful, there are telebots patrolling the area.]

	[Why would they have telebots patrolling at this depth?]

	[I do not know. There must be some kind of threat at that depth. Be cautious, Cleona.]

	Oh fuck. You have a hunch that you know what it is that's spooked the Martians.

	[Will do, Socks.]

	You continue ahead, trying to shine your red light and spot something. The ocean betrays no secrets, however; you continue on for several minutes without spotting a thing.

	[Distance, Socks?]

	[800 meters. You're within their patrol radius now.]

	You keep your head on as much of a swivel as you can, determined not to alert the teleb-

	"Fuck."

	Your eyes catch a metallic glint to your left. It's a group of five telebots, each about as large as you are. They're a strange mess of tentacles and mechanical arms, all protruding from a spherical core. As you turn to look at them, your red light sweeps them. Faint blue lights appear on their cores.

[ ] Swim away
[ ] SPEARGUN
[x] Other. - You idiots are all bunched up!

	You've only seconds before the much quicker bots are upon you. Quickly, you bring up your mini-torpedo launcher. It's a strange device, and the warheads are even stranger, but you figure it can't be too difficult. Torpedo pops out, torpedo goes boom. Swinging your body in full reverse to widen the gap, you take aim.

	Whoosh!

	You launch a mini-torpedo at the group, trying to hit the telebot most in the center. The lead bot ignores the torpedo. The second one tries to, but makes contact. You're briefly blinded by the sudden rush of bright light as the torpedo detonates, releasing a concussive blast that plays hell with your shield. Moments later, pieces of metal clang against you, accelerated by the explosion.

	"Gotcha!" you celebrate, doing your best to scan the area with your darkness vision lost. You can't see much, but...

	Damn. The lead bot was simply shoved off course. It's doubling back, moving faster this time...and you don't have a second torpedo ready.

[x] SPEARGUN
[ ] WATER CQC
[ ] Other.

	Cursing, you switch to the only other ranged weapon you currently have: the speargun. You've never used this weapon before, but its operation is simple enough. Again, point, pull, and the bad guy goes away. Or so you hope.

	The telebot fast approaches, giving you no time to aim accurately. Flinching, you pull the trigger, releasing the spear at incredible speed. You watch as the projectile crosses the distance in a second, striking the telebot! ...and deflecting off the rounded metal surface it grazed.

	"FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

	You let go of the speargun, trusting its strap to keep it close to you. Reaching to your belt, you again pull out your kni-

	Whoosh!

	From behind you, a giant tentacle swipes the bot from above. It crumples like paper before imploding, a mechanical whine escaping from its metallic carcass.

[ ] Captain Nemo isn't about to take shit from this squid.
[x] FUCKING OUTIE
[ ] Other

	At this rate you're going to run out of magic just panicking. You dive, dive, dive, desperately trying to get out of the squid's way.

	[SOCKS! DISTANCE TO HARBINGER?]

	[Why are you yelling?]

	[JUST TELL ME!]

	[750 meters to the Harbinger. Wait, no. 700 meters. 650 meters. It's heading for you, Cleona.]

	This just isn't your day.

	You rush downward, deeper and deeper. You can only think of trying to exit the current area and figure out what the hell is going on. You take the chance to reload your speargun, a much simpler task than reloading the torpedo launcher. As you complete the task, a bright light shines down on you from above.

	[The Harbinger is upon you, Cleona.]

	[Thanks for the update, Socks,] you say sarcastically.

	[You are welcome, Cleona.]

	You flip around onto your back, gazing upward at the immense behemoth that is the Harbinger. Its outer lights are all on, illuminating the surrounding area as though it were daytime (which, you remember, it actually is). In the direction whence you came before diving, an incredible group of giant squids swirls in an ever-changing mass.

	"Wow, scientists would kill to see this..."

	And then the Harbinger got angry.

[ ] Watch the fireworks.
[x] Sneak around.
[ ] Other.

	Wait. This is your chance! You watch as...turrets? Why would the Harbinger have turre-Holy Shit! The water in front of the turrets almost seems to boil as it seems to bend and twist. The distortions hit several squids, ripping them to shreds as though they had simply decided to stop being squids.

	Yeah. You decide you don't want to be hit by that.

	The turrets swivel, choosing new targets in the vast swarm, but the squids retaliate. They assault the Harbinger, covering its front with legions of squids. They try to rip and tear at its metal skin to no avail. The turrets begin to slowly but steadily kill the squids, thinning their vast numbers. Hurrying, you swim towards the underside of the Harbinger, trying to locate the cooling intakes you're to bomb.

	As you approach, you glance towards the rear of the monstrosity. You can't determine the exact end of it at your current angle, but you can see boiling water rushing out near the rear of the ship, a mass of bubbles trying to rise upwards.

	"Those must be the cooling exhaust ports," you realize.

	You've reached the center of the underside of the Harbinger. To your sides is a pair of turrets, tearing apart squids without a care in the world. You can't spot any intakes from here.

[ ] Head towards the bow (and the squids)
[x] Check the sides of the ship
[ ] Other.

	Well, there are two intakes. The Harbinger looks pretty symmetrical, so why not check the sides? It's sound enough logic to convince you to move. Carefully, you navigate around the turrets so you don't get ripped to shreds. You head for the side of the Harbinger, cursing is gargantuan size. After about a minute of careful navigation around turrets and an open hanger, you reach a gaping hole. It's about 1 meter across, has a metal grate in front of it, and you can feel rushing water trying to take you to it.

	"This must be the intake." You do your best to keep your distance from it so you can grab a few mines from your bags without drifting into it, but the Harbinger is still moving around some. Still, you manage to get your fingers around one. As you draw it out of the bag-

	"Shit!" you curse for what must be the hundredth time today. A giant squid comes round the side, directly in front of you...and a turret.

[x] Dive!
[ ] Fuck it, I'm done with this.
[ ] Other.

	You're not about to get ripped to shreds. You fucking dive like you've never dived before, just narrowly dodging the beam. The poor squid never stood a chance. The intake was already well on its way to grinding it to bits as it tried to suck the squid through the grating when the beam finished the job. All that remained was a small cloud of blood, swiftly sucked up by the intake.

	Gross.

	You return to your position, again trying to grab a mine. Luckily, the Harbinger seems to have slowed down; you don't have nearly as much trouble grabbing hold of one. You set the timer to about 10 minutes, tossing it towards the intake. It's sucked hard against the grating and for several seconds you're worried the mine would rip apart. It wobbles at first, before finding a solid position on the grating, safe and sound. You empty the rest of the bag, setting those mines to detonate slightly afterwards. If the intake doesn't get ruined, the insides most certainly will.

	Deed done, you head back in the opposite direction to take out the remaining intake.

	[Cleona, the swarm of telebots is leaving the flotilla.]

	[What? Where are they going?]

	[They're diving.]

	Why did you ever sign up for this?

[x] Hurry up with the other intake.
[ ] One blockage will have to do.
[ ] Other.

	You weigh the options. You could pull out now, successfully (probably) recovering the Martian Engine in your Substriker, a Giant Squid tentacle, and most importantly, yourself. However, you'd only block one intake; the Harbinger might be able to stay submerged with that. Plus, it'd know that it was no longer safe at their depths. You'd lose the element of surprise.

	On the other hand, you could go for the second intake, increasing the chances of forcing the Harbinger to the surface to get pounded. If you got caught by the telebots afterward, what would Humanity lose? Socks has already gotten a decent start on learning English, Alice has a second Martian Engine to examine, and...well, you guess there'd be a few people sad about losing you. But they'd be sadder about losing the war.

	Yep. This choice is no choice. You continue for the other intake. Besides, you might make it out anyway! When you approach, you do the same thing: set a timer (for 5 minutes, this time), toss out your other bag of mines, and head out.

	You're some distance away from the frenzy before you turn back to look at the Harbinger. It's covered in dead squid, tentacles latched on to the surface even after their owners died. There's a cloud of blood and gore near the bow, obscuring its outline. You admire the strange beauty in the death and chaos, a magnificent underwater battle known only to these squids, the Harbinger, and yourself.

	And then your head hits something metal.

[ ] Rip and tear.
[x] Dive. Again.
[x] Other. - GTFO

	You have no way of telling exactly how much magic you have left. You glanced at your air earlier; you've just over a third of it left. Either way, you do not want to tango with a shitload of telebots, and you can bet they know you're here. If these are telebots, of course. You calmly turn back around to see what you hit.

	"Yep." Telebot. And it's not looking happy.

	You drop your torpedo launcher and torpedoes. And by drop, you of course mean that you hurl them towards the massive swarm of telebots above you. With a steady shot, you fire your speargun, detonating the impact fuze in the torpedoes. They make a wonderfully satisfying explo-

	BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

	Oh. That's your cue to get the hell out of Dodge.

	Magic be damned, you bring your shield up to a ridiculous strength and barrel through the swarm, dropping your empty mine bags and speargun to reduce your weight and drag. You're practically a rocket, flying to the surface. Sunlight begins to break through, giving your eyes a workout as they try to remember what day was like. You breach the surface, soaring into the air―and right into chaos.

NEXT TIME ON SUBWITCHES: DAVID AND GOLIATH. PROBABLY.

WEDNESDAY, 7 PM CST 8PM EST