“Just a small fish girl,

Swimming in a lonely world.

She took the Army train going anywhere.

Just a dungeon boy,

Born amidst the fighting Koi.

He took the Army train going anywhere.”

From: “Don’t Stop Swimmin’,” by Pinniped, Bard and High Priest of Toriana, Goddess of Charisma. AC 1724

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Remembering how Sergeant Lee always said to keep things simple, I outline what seems to be a fairly basic plan. A few minutes later I finish talking and lean back, waiting for the criticisms to come in. I don't have to wait long.

True to form, Mina starts off.

"Let me get this straight. You want to sneak over to the other side of the hall, where we can't even see?"

"Yep."

"Steal a bunch of compressed stone?"

"Uh-huh."

"And then drop it in the mining hole and try to escape?"

"That's about the gist of it yeah."

We engage in a staring contest. And even in the dim light I can see her trying to contain her anger. Finally, she replies,

"That's about the DUMBEST..."

Anger roils inside me, building and I cut her off, "Well then what do YOU think we should do?"

She floats there silent. I look at every member of the squad, one by one and force eye contact.

"What do you guys think we should do? There's no telling when this thing could blow, is there?"

Billy replies,

"Err... not that I can think of. We're engineers not geologists."

Nodding at his helpful addition I continue,

"And when it blows it'll probably wipe out most of the army. Look, I'm truly asking everyone. Do any of you have a better plan?" At the end, my voice turns plaintive. I know the plan seems reckless, but all I can see is the hot fiery glow building down below. When the enemy finally breaks through, it will be game over for all of us.

Mina whispers,

"We could go and call for help."

I look at the time remaining for the stealth buff. We have about an hour left. I reply,

"If we did, then we wouldn't be able to make it back down here. Stealth would expire by the time we made it to comms range and back."

"This isn't our job though. We found the problem, other people can fix it."

Her words stick like a stone in my claw, and as I rear up to start talking about great power and responsibilities, Luna pings me on a private channel.

"Just... give me a minute Crabby. Let me talk to her."

I deflate a little and the girls step back and to the side. I look at the rest of the guys and ask,

"Do any of you have any better ideas?"

The brothers huddle up, drawing out lines and figures on a stone they pulled from their storage. Wilhelm just looks into the distance. He finally replies,

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"All I got is smash. Smash not work here."

My claw pats Wilhelm on the back in commiseration. “Thanks buddy. I appreciate the thought.” Wilhelm nods seriously and continues scanning the horizon. The brothers eventually look at me and sadly shake their head no. One of them says,

"We can't destabilize the existing pillars. The forces they are under would preclude our ability to move them. Not to mention that if we could, it would almost immediately alert the enemy."

The girls finish their talk and Luna pings me privately,

"She was just scared is all. I think I was able to talk her around."

I give her a claws up, "Thanks Luna, I couldn't do this without you."

She waves an arm nonchalantly, and for a second it looks like her colors darken for a moment. Disregarding it as a trick of the light, I go over the idea once more.

"Okay. We grab the goods, drop the payload, plug the hole and get the heck out of danger. Sounds good?"

Nervous nods acknowledge my words and I take point with Luna. I wave a claw and the other's fall in behind us.

"Roll out."

We hug the roof, swimming towards the distance, eyes nervously scanning for any sign that we’re detected. We pass the excavation point and continue onward, swimming over rows upon rows of corrupted standing in line, passing stones from one to the next. Its really a marvel of disbursed processing, and the ability to create something like this hall astounds me. I tear my attention away from my musings and keep swimming, focusing on the objective ahead.

After a few minutes underway, we reach the end of the lines of corrupted. Here, the final block is put under one final compression and then moved to a pillar under construction. The structure is hollow, and they're using the material excavated to continue filling it. Motioning the others to holdfast I whisper to Luna,

"Alright. I'm going to go down. You see that stack of blocks they're using?"

I can make out multiple stacks. They are staging the blocks there as the line is manufacturing them faster than the pillar builders can use them.

Luna nods and I switch to the squad frequency.

"Okay guys, I'm going down now. Anything happens to me, Luna's in charge."

Without waiting for a response, I continue my swim across the ceiling before arriving at my destination. Hovering above I slowly lower myself to the top layer of stacked blocks. They're haphazardly placed, and extremely heavy, and I wait until the enemy turns their backs before trying to nab one. A moment of time later, my spatial storage activates. And yet, in the heat of the moment, with the stress I was under, I forgot one thing...

There is a flash of mana when it does.

The block disappears and I freeze, motionless. I'm not the only one however, the corrupted are frozen as well. Then, like a swarm of bees, they start jerking around swimming every which way to identify the mana source. Oh so carefully I make as little movement as possible, just ensuring that none of them can accidently collide with me.

Minutes later, a rotting fish swims over and seems to inspect the area. The thing is close enough to me that I can make out the pupils in his milky white eyes, black tears dripping silently in the water. My heart thuds in my shell as it swims closer and closer to my position. Finally, it seems to give up and with a powerful tail swipe, swims away. At his departure, the other creatures appear to calm down and return to their normal operations. I heave a huge sigh of relief and swim back to the ceiling to join the others.

"That was close Crabby."

"I know Luna, it looks like we're going to have to come up with a Plan B. Does anyone have any ideas?"

Monsters continue to work, piling the blocks ever higher. Time marches on as we ponder alternatives. Finally, Luna speaks up.

"How about we stick to this plan. Except, we use all of our spatial items at once."

Mina says,

"We'll be caught for sure that way."

Luna doesn't meet my gaze as she continues talking,

"WE won't be if I’M the one doing it."

I slash my claw in the negative. "No, I see what you're trying to do here Luna. It's too risky."

Wilhelm says, "I don't get it."

"She's trying to use all of our storage items at once, by herself, and then use her teleport skill to get close and drop the payload. I assume we'll be waiting for her by the exit, and she'll try to make her way there. It's too risky."

Luna pokes me harshly in the shell. A tone of indignation enters her voice as she says,

"I can make it!"

I retort, "They'll be on you so fast you won't be able to...."

She cuts me off, "I'm faster and have more maneuverability than all of you. I can get the stones, drop it and then we ALL can escape."

I glare at her but before I can open my mandibles she confidently says, "Let's put it to a vote. All in favor?"

She raises her arm and looks cockily at me. I turn and glare at the others and see fins and claws raised as well. I grit my mandibles and whisper to her on a private channel,

"It's TOO far. If something happened to you again I...."

Luna lowers an arm and whispers back. There’s a kind tone in her voice, almost playful as she says,

"I'll be fine Crabby. To Adventure remember?"

The tension collapses as my resistance crumbles. I don't see any other way that this would work. I grumpily respond,

"Fine. But I'm staying close to the excavation site."

"But..."

"No buts. The others can wait by the exit. If you need backup, I'll be there."

She stares into the hard resolve in my eyes and is the first to look away. Leading by example, I disconnect the connection between my armor and spatial storage. A small ring floats in the water along with several others and Luna quickly gathers them up. I realize the geo-locator is still in mine and direct her on its usage.

Our team communications are short range, she'll be able to contact me with the box if she needs to. Everyone else starts to swim away and it’s just Luna and I. The silence grows awkward and there is a flopping feeling in my stomach. It feels like clams are trying to burrow in the sand. I finally manage to speak and only say a simple,

"Be careful."

Luna leans in and gives me a hug. She replies,

"See you in a bit Crabby."

We part and I go to catch up with the others. Luna is giving us a ten-minute lead time to get back before starting the mission. As I form up with the rest of the squad Mina looks me straight in the eyes and says,

"You don't even see it do you?"

I quickly look around, assessing for threats. There are the usual thousands of monsters that want to kill us, but other than that I don't think we've been discovered. I look back at her with a questioning gaze. This time she doesn't meet my eyes and returns to scanning the surroundings as well. At the edges of my perception, I hear her mumble, "idiot."

I’m not sure what Mina is getting at but right now it is only a distraction. Placing it aside, I put my best spinnerets forward. I want to get in position as soon as I can.

Just in case.