*(mood song: "Starset - It has begun")

The reunion finished, and everyone assumed their positions in the control room. Erik sat in the central seat, and looked around him, the elders sat around him, with Rose sitting on a navigations seat on the left of the room with her eyes closed, while Amanda sat on the right side, on a weapons systems control seat. The submarine was being piloted by Rose at the moment as she connected to its systems, Erik could also do the same using the nerve gear helmet on his chair but he had tried connecting his senses to the submarine earlier and it made him dizzy, so Rose was taking care of that task for now.

Rose then opened her eyes as she said: "Immersion!"

The entire submarine instantly came to life, bubbling as it sunk into a rectangular trench in the stone, finally advancing through a big door in the stone wall when it reached the bottom, and coming out into the dark oceanic waters.

Its sensors instantly kicked to life, as it scanned its surroundings, the cold waters dimly illuminated by the light that managed to go through the thick ice layer.

Meanwhile, Erik had put on the helmet again, limiting the data inputs to avoid getting dizzy, and could see all the cameras and sensor data of the submarine directly on his brain, while the Elders observed the flat hologram screens connected to the side of their seats. Rose had taught them how to use them in the meeting earlier.

Below the deck also awaited a group of over geared octopeople, thirty in total, fifteen warriors, ten hunters, and five scouts, all of them wearing their own armors and weapons. The scouts were carrying plasma spears and poison dart launchers, while the hunters were carrying sodium shell rifles, and shoulder mounted plasma guns, and lastly, the warriors were carrying alien handheld railguns recovered from the Forge, and finally, all of them had propulsors installed in their nerve connected armors for increased mobility. They were the elite team of the octopeople.

And leading them at the front was Amelia, all of them looking solemn, as the situation called for it, they were going to the ruins of their civilization, the origin of their ancestors, it was a great honor for them.

The submarine circled around the mountainous walls, as it started descending quickly, and in a couple of hours the waters were completely dark, descending deeper than the entrance to the crab caves, and kept going. A silent enveloping darkness swallowed up the submarine, as only the vibrations of the submarine were heard in the control room.

Erik: "ugh... I can't see anything..."

Rose: "that's easy to solve" in a flash of light, bright lights glowed on dozens of spots around the submarine, illuminating the surroundings for hundreds of meters.

Erik: " thanks"

The light revealed the rocky wall to their right, or at least a bit of it, as bulbous balls covered in feathery appendages covered now the wall, tied to jet black cords or stalks that extended onto the dark abyss as the floating feathery balls danced in the currents, their feathery appendages five meters long.

*(Inspired in fossil Crinoids: https://blog.hmns.org/2017/05/giant-creepy-and-ancient-our-ground-shaking-new-addiction-to-the-hall-of-paleontology/)

Erik: "wow... so pretty... " Erik looked mesmerized at the fascinating creature.

Rose: "pretty huh? look closer to the bulb" and with a wave of her hand, what Erik was seeing got zoomed in, and Erik finally noticed that there were sharp interlocked teeth in those bulbs, forming vicious mouths.

Erik: "...damn... wait, aren't those the things needed to protect the base of the surface base?"

Rose: "yes, they are indeed"

Timberly: "we could send someone to get one if you need it, seems easy"

Rose shook her head though "no, it would be suicidal, those feathery appendages you all see have small hairs floating around besides the bigger visible hairs, you would be attacked and engulfed in a moment, but don't worry there's still a lot of time, we can just make them swallow bombs to break their stalks from inside, and they would just float to the surface peacefully... but as I said, it's still a bit too soon for that, better inspect their base first and see if they still work the same way, and maybe get a sample to study".

Shana: "that's right, caution is always the best choice"

The submarine continued going down at a slower speed, and they soon saw the base of the stalks hundreds of meters below, a small feathery forest full of smaller ones at the base. They went from barely a dozen meters long, to a couple of meters long ones filling the entire base, along with what appeared to be molten and pasted skeletons sticking to the stone wall around, metallic roots keeping everything together and extending even further, glittering under the direct focus of the submarine's lights.

Rose: "see, taking a small one should be easier" then she closed her eyes, as a metallic clang sounded, and the arms at the front of the submarine extended like the claws of a crayfish, slowly getting closer and then... *SNAP!!* the right claw closed around the base of one the small ones with so much force it created a small explosion, displacing the water around it with a bubble of steam.

*(pistol shrimp: https://youtu.be/ZJm0npZAk3o)

Erik: "wow! what was that?!"

Rose: "oh hush, it just moved fast" then the claw moved sideways, and tore off the small creature with some of its roots with a lot of difficulty, as it was tightly secured to the stone walls, but... once it was ripped off the base, the others started to vibrate as if in pain or anger "...well, we better get going" Rose said as the arm rotated and store the sample in a container under the submarine, sealing it and returning to its place.

The submarine continued descending, as it scanned the surroundings, slowly making a 3D model scan as it descended, represented as a hologram of floating cyan dots over a table in the control room. Ruins soon started appearing on it, not noticeable at first, but soon the scanned terrain started taking definite shapes that could only be artificial, as crooked rectangles, squares and domes appeared on the scan, now mere ruins indeed, but still clearly resembling the shape of buildings.

*(hologram display example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOnxr9Ez_Kc)

Rose: "seems like we have arrived..." she then activated a big monitor in one of the walls of the control room.

All of them looked intrigued at the screen, and as the lights of the submarine illuminated the seafloor, especially big focused lights at the sides of the prow, the video revealed a muddy seafloor, and half buried ruins, their once polished stone walls now covered in a plethora of small filtering animals, and only some not completely top corner revealing the glory of the past.

Erik observed the 3D map, and saw the ruins covering further than even the long range scanners could map, his face turning to surprise as he mumbled "the city... it was massive..." he then turned to Shana, noticing her face that was an equal mixture of concentration "where to now Shana?"

Shana: "...hmmm... it's hard to distinguish but this should be the outer city, outside of the city walls..."

Rose: "alright, now what then?"

Shana: "now... continue forward and you should see the city walls, I will know where to go with that"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Rose nodded, and the submarine carefully continued forward, like a zeppelin flying over a city, and after thirty minutes they saw it, magnificent three hundred meters tall stone wall, some parts were eroded or crumbled, but it still made for a majestic sight to behold.

Erik whistled at the view, but his view was quickly fixated away from the white walls, and to an equally impressive and intimidating forty meters wide hole in those same walls, more than enough to allow the submarine to pass through, "...any idea what could have made that?"

Rose: "don't you remember the story of that old crab lady in the rebel village?"

Erik rolled his eyes: "of course, but she never gave us accurate information, who knows what actually happened..."

Rose shrugged: "I certainly know things that can do that, but that's not going anywhere, there are way too many options"

Shana then coughed to get their attention "let's just go over it, I think I know where we are now"

Rose nodded, and the submarine ascended over the wall, revealing more ruins, this time with something quite different, they passed over a plaza, and there in the mud was the crude statue of a crab man stepping on the head of a beautiful octopeople person with a solemn expression, clearly a repurposed broken statue by the crab men, as the crab statue on top was full of rough edges, as if made with a blade, far from the life like statue under it, that was just a head but still the size of the entire chest of the crude crab man.

Erik inspected it closely, and was amazed as the apparently metallic statue head was still quite shiny after so long, but he then heard something behind him.

Timberly muttered to herself: "mom..."

As the other Elders except for Inky that had never met her wore depressed long faces.

Erik then thought of what to say to cheer them up, and came to a good idea that would work even better.

Erik: [give me control of the arms Rose]

Rose: [fine, but don't break anything~ (･ิω･ิ)]

Erik chuckled in the depressing room, making an awkward mood settle in, but he quickly said "alright, let's solve this" and nodded to Rose as he closed his eyes, his sight changing to a camera under the submarine.

The submarine slowly descended, as the long robotic arms separated from the prow and extended down, the right claw then clamped the crab man statue, crushing and bending the crude crab man statue over and over until it was little more than a metallic cube, the claws then carefully lifted the empresses statue's head, and rotated, putting the two meters tall head into another storage container under the submarine.

He then smiled as he turned to the surprised elders "now it won't just rot down here, we can put it on the city plaza, for all new generations to marvel at the beautiful empress that made it all possible, a permanent reminder of the greatness of the octopeople, they will witness that face, and feel proud of their origins, eager to work harder for their promising future, symbols are really important for societies after all..." he then noticed a single watery tear running down Timberly's face, while the other three elders side fins clearly trembled, Erik feared having offended them somehow as he carefully asked "erm.... did I offend you?"

But Megan stood up and hugged him "no... we are grateful to you, not just for this okay? for everything..."

Shana, Timberly, and Jennifer also stood up as they hugged him too, having to slightly bend over to hug him, except Timberly that had to plant a knee on the floor due to the height difference.

Shana: "we are truly grateful, Erik"

Timberly: "yeah, to tell you the truth... you looked weak, and just like... an interesting new toy when I first met you but... I don't know if you feel the same but, I-... we truly consider you family now Erik, thank you... truly..."

Erik then looked at Jennifer, eager for some more compliments, but she just nodded at him, he would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit disappointed, but he had always had a weakness for compliments. As the South Korean saying goes "even a whale will dance if you compliment it", but a sudden hug from his back got him out of his thoughts, as the hug nearly crushed his spine, making him gasp in pain.

He looked back and saw Rose winking at him with her right eye and a silly expression on her face.

Rose: [it looked fun~ (๑˃̵ω˂̵)ﻭ, thanks for everything too Erik! HUG~!]

Erik: [AAAGH! EASY! TOO STRONG! YOUR HUG IS TOO STRONG!]

Erik coughed, as he pried open the bear trap like arms, and the elders released him worriedly, looking at Rose confused.

Erik gasped for air, and angrily said: "Rose! what the hell?! you almost crushed my spine!"

The elders frowned when they heard that, with Timberly slightly grimacing while Megan became fidgety.

Rose: "almost, almost, almost... I have almost done too many things" she then shrugged, and said with a solemn voice "I may have gone over safety parameters for a second there, but I was just too happy Erik, you are such an amazing person, we all owe you a lot..."

Erik heard the compliments, and his anger quickly flew away, as his face flustered a bit, both due to the remaining pain, and also his embarrassment at being praised.

Erik: "...well fine, let's get going"

Meanwhile, Inky had been observing with a poker face, her left palm on the left side of her face as she reclined on the left arm of her chair, and murmured "too easy... she made him calm down way too easily..." she could even swear seeing Rose winking at her, as if she was mocking her, but she then shook her head, 'just a hug... it's just a hug..."

The submarine then continued on under Shana's instructions, slowly hovering over the city.

After twenty minutes, they arrived at another location, with a big plaza and a big building to one side, approximately fifty meters high and half covered in mud, six columns on the entrance, with the two at the right side broken, also part of the front right wall seemed crushed, huge cracks on the stone walls.

Shana pointed at it, and calmly explained: "that's the library, with some luck... with some luck, the savages would have left it alone, books can't be eaten so they have no value to them... hopefully..."

Erik then clapped, as a circular steel disc fell from the submarine's bottom, the anchor "well, let's get ready and go in there, if there's still something in there, then we will take it back to base"

All of them seriously nodded, as they went to leave the room.

Erik stopped Rose though: [...don't you need to pilot the submarine?]

Rose shrugged: [meh, it makes no difference, just a bit of distance is fine]

Erik: [what if something boards while we are off?]

Rose chuckled: [jaja~ quite the funny question, they would just be torn to shreds by the security system, so... don't worry about that (＾ｕ＾)]

Erik: [okay...]

Rose: [by the way, I updated your normal power armor, you will like it~]

Thirty minutes later they were all armed and equipped, as they jumped down the pool hatch along with ten battle bots that had been stored on a side room.

They fell for ten meters, and landed on the muddy bottom, as a cloud of mud dispersed in the waters. Erik was wearing his normal sized power armor, now larger to acomodate his mutations, and with an armorlisks plating covering it, making it highly more resistant, but also heavier, for that reason, it also had a musculature of artificial muscles under it, giving the power armor a huge increase in strength.

Inky on her part still wore her normal power armor, but Timberly, on the other hand, was wearing a power armor too, looking like a giant of metal, as the armor made her even bigger and stronger, a dark black color with blue lights illuminating the energy channel between the armor joints.

As for the other Elders, they were wearing their armors along with the elite team led by Amelia.

Erik asked Timberly: "so? how does it feel having your own power armor?"

Timberly spun in place, as she looked at herself, the movements natural, as the power armor was like a second skin to her now, easily even moving her tail.

Timberly: "it's a strange but awesome feeling... like if I could take on anything now..."

Erik's chuckle was then heard inside her helmet through coms: "that's fine, just don't get too confident-"

Timberly: "careful!"

Just as he was saying that, a big worm had come out of the muddy ground, and tried to eat him from behind, but Timberly quickly reacted, using her weapon to cleanly slice the creature in half.

Her new weapon was a medium sized spear, almost like a Ngoni Áfrican spear, but with an extremely sharp vibrating edge and the ability to extend. Both the armor and equipment gifted by Rose even almost made her stop feeling bad for losing on endurance against her.

*(spear: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/sci-fi-spear-dd2932554c214100ac2c904bfee9ad2e)

Erik saw the corpse falling behind him, and now Timberly by his side, as the grip on his weapons increased, a power sword, and a new iteration of his hydrogen rifles made with armorlisk materials, capable of shooting at higher pressures. He had thought about bringing the strange rotatory sword that was now in the submarines armoury, but decided against it, as it was still too unwieldy and cumbersome for his current physique.

Erik: "thank you"

Timberly: "well, not sure if that could even harm these armors, but you are welcome"

Rose: [yeah, it wouldn't even scratch the armor... probably]

Erik had a kind of intuition to her quick clarification though [...Rose... you knew the worm was there right?]

Rose: [maybe? maybe not? who knows~ ヾ(⌐▨ε▨)ノ]

Erik: [...please, keep the live trials of the armor to zero]

Rose: [sigh... fine ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯]

They got close to the entrance of the library, and saw one of the doors was half open, but still, there was mud around the door, so it had probably been open for a long time.

They went inside, and activated their helmets lights, a tall stone room lined by stone columns unfolded in front of them, sadly it was still too dark.

They kept their guard up as they came inside, walking deeper in and seeing some light from the submarine outside through some of the cracks in the ceiling, stone bookcases all around them full of things, so Erik tried to grab a rolled up parchment from one, but it disintegrated between his fingers.

Erik: "damn... they crumble to the touch..." luckily for him there were also stone tablets on the library, and although heavier they were in good condition.

As he was about to ask for a translation though, he heard some noises coming from deeper in.

Erik: [did you hear that?]

Rose: [yes, there are more than twelve and... they appear... humanoid...]