* ( mood song: "Skillet - Whispers In The Dark")

Erik then gritted his teeth and stood up, picking up Sarah as Rose followed him quickly to the infirmary. Once there they put Sarah inside the recovery pod as it filled with fluid. Meanwhile, Erik unmade his power armor back to his left arm, and laid down on the medical table, making it run a scan while Rose checked on the results.

Erik: "what is it?"

Rose: "...you almost suffered a miscarriage"

Erik nodded solemnly.

Rose: "thankfully your body can recover really fast, so you and your daughters should be alright..."

Erik: "that's a relief, but... what about Sarah?"

Rose looked at Sarah floating on the fluid: "The damaged area is under reconstruction, but the shock might have been too great"

Erik: "when will she wake up?"

Rose: "I'm sorry, I can try some things but I could damage her brain in the process, we will have to wait...."

Erik stood up: "sigh... I see..." his power armor reforming "I will go to the city wreckage, to see if there's anything salvable"

Rose: "be careful, there are still lots of lizardmen there"

Erik: "...it's alright, they can't hurt me" and went out.

Erik saw Timberly and Inky waiting outside the door.

Timberly: "how did it go, is she...-"

Erik: "...she will be fine, she just needs time to recover"

Inky: "hmm... are YOU okay?"

Erik: "Actually... no, probably not... so I was looking for something to do"

Inky put on a charming smile: "maybe-"

Erik: "no, sorry but... I'm not in the mood for that at all, I'm going back to the city"

Timberly frowned: "those lizardmen have had time to prepare, it could be dangerous"

Erik pointed at the chest of his power armor: "not for me, also... they are sinking anyways, I doubt they would remain, most are probably trying to escape from the other side of the city"

Inky: "so... are we letting them escape?"

Erik: "No, this planet is ours... They can't escape from Rose, but right now Rose is busy keeping Sarah alive..." he made a pause "so I will take over for now" he tapped his neck "Amanda, suit up into my old power armor, we are going to the city"

Amanda: *really? finally some action!*

Timberly: "I take it we aren't coming?"

Erik: "Well I need Amanda in case we find any technology to analyze, and in the case of an ambush she's easier to save" he tapped his neck again "Amanda, make a backup copy on the submarine server just in case"

Amanda: *...understood captain*

-- one Hour later --

Erik and Amanda inside his old power armor stood on the submarine deck.

Erik's power armor transformed to move underwater: "let's go"

Amanda looked down at the waters: "wait!, won't I just sink if I jump?"

Erik paused, his old power armor was quite beaten up and hadn't been repaired at all since he didn't have a use for it anymore.

Erik: "my mistake" the upgrades from his power armor duplicated and attached themselves to Amanda "that should do it, I will lend you some energy" and jumped into the water, going to the city.

Amanda nodded, held the railgun she was carrying firmly, and jumped into the dark waters, the propellers turned on remotely and propelled her forward after Erik.

As Erik and Amanda reached the port they encountered no resistance, as the lizardmen were fleeing at the other side of the city. Erik looked around and for the most part, the base of the city was quite intact, barely sinking at all.

Erik: [by the way... I have been wondering, why haven't you sunk this city yet?]

Rose: [easy, did you forget about the bot battalions and building drones coming? they will clean up the city and start the renovation, if lizardmen can live here then octopeople can live here too don't you agree?]

Erik: [yeah... I think so too, that's quite thoughtful of you, I thought you would just exterminate them along with the city]

Rose: [Oh, the moment I'm done healing Sarah I will personally command every bot into doing the sweep of the city, don't worry~]

Erik: [Do we really have the numbers to fill such a big city though?]

Rose: [haha~ numbers... do you remember those heated pools full of eggs? well, the first batch has already started to hatch, and the number of octopeople will increase by more than five times, so don't worry, they do reproduce fast enough to fill the city and more. I'm currently increasing the number of education rooms, as for the crabpeople they have also been busy, their population has doubled, thankfully their enormous cylinder city will be able to hold many more to come]

Erik: [ that's good]

Rose: [so..., did you find anything?]

Erik: [No, we just arrived]

Rose: [I will keep an eye on you then?]

Erik shrugged: [that's fine, just don't get distracted]

Rose: [of course not]

Erik saw the crater where Dratkan used to be standing, nothing remained there, the streets were empty, with only blood and chunks of flesh and bone remaining, as even the corpses had been butchered and removed.

Erik: "Amanda, scan the area, any possibility the enemy sniper survived?"

Amanda: "understood captain" she advanced and a laser exited her hand, scanning the melted metal crater "scans show signs of carbonized organic matter. Seems highly unlikely a lizardman could survive the impact of multiple railgun cannons"

Erik nodded: "that seems to be the case" he looked around and focused his sight on the tallest building in the city "that should be where the leader of this city lived... let's check it out".

Amanda nodded: "understood, captain" Erik reabsorbed the turbine upgrades on both power armors, and generated wheels for both.

The building was made of polished and uniform metal plates, but it was quite damaged now, as lots of the access doors and windows had burst open due to the explosions.

Erik approached the front door and saw twelve lizardmen guards fearfully aiming their crossbows at him, they had seen the carnage Erik was capable of. A lizardman with a scar stepped forward and seemed to grunt something.

Erik: [is it important?]

Rose: [nope, he just wants to make a deal to surrender]

Erik nodded: [got it] and a thin metallic tentacle extended from his hand, and with a move of his hand back and then forward, the metallic whip extended at the speed of sound, *BANG!* leaving behind a sonic boom as it tore the scarred lizardmen and four others in half. The rest startled firing their crossbows at him, but Erik sprung forward and with metallic claws as hands rip them apart.

Erik: "no need to surrender".

Amanda: "uhmm don't we need subjects for Rose to interrogate?"

Erik: "they are here protecting someone... or something, either way, it's not worth the trouble" he pointed up "we just need their boss"

Amanda: "...understood, captain"

The metallic interior was covered in polished bone pieces, shining in tones of white and grey, ivory covering every surface, with a big staircase in the middle.

Erik: "...guess we are going that way"

Amanda: "what if there's a trap captain?"

Erik shrugged: "well..., I doubt they can harm me anyway"

Rose: [don't get too confident, the building has... almost two hundred lizardmen, twenty five just on the second floor aiming at the staircase with heavy railguns, those will give you quite the hit...]

Erik: [fine, I will be careful]

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Erik and Amanda went up the stairs, and when they were about to come to the send floor, Erik extended a tentacle of metal into view from cover.

*ZHBANG!!!!* dozens of shots impacted the tendril, ripping it off.

Rose: [...see?]

Erik: [yeah...]

Erik then produced a corner railgun with a camera and aimed out the corner, *ZHBANG! ZHBANG!* quickly killing two, it wasn't too powerful but since it could shoot from cover it was good enough, and since it shot living metal rounds...

*arghhh!!!* angished cries were soon heard, Erik came out of cover to see twenty lizardmen looking horrified at two lizardmen on the floor, their bodies being consumed from the inside, turned into two black blobs that wobbled back to Erik's feet and fused with his armor.

The lizardmen dropped their weapons at that sight, and fell on their knees, bowing down forward as they presented their empty hands to him.

Erik: "begging for mercy... sadly won't work..." and produced metallic tentacles that stabbed them all and sucked them dry, becoming dry husks as most of their biomass was absorbed as energy for his armor, and storing the refined raw DNA as it slowly dripped inside his stomach.

Amanda looked at what remained of the bodies, and also what appeared to be munched on civilian corpses in a corner, and asked Erik.

Amanda: "do we really need to kill them all?"

Erik: "yes, being kind to your enemy just brings more future enemies, even more determined to kill you..."

Amanda: "but those that surrender could be useful..."

Erik: "Maybe..., but if they did like me, and I know myself very well... it would be our doom... they would constantly look for chances to end us regardless of the cost..., slavery didn't work for Rome, also... we aren't lacking manpower at all anyways..."

Amanda: "what about lizardman kids, would you kill them too?"

Erik shook his head: "hmmm it could be argued that they are innocent but... it would be too little and too late, educating octopeople is more efficient, and they are also superior genetically... It's also way too late for peace now, we would need to erase their memories of this genocide... it's better to bet on the octopeople, we will rebuild and fill these cities with life once more..."

Amanda nodded: "understood captain... but, why you allowed the crabmen to surrender then?"

Erik: "that was different, they were an oppressed species, not an empire like the lizardmen, also, and this is the most importantt... their race hasn't offended Rose"

Amanda nodded thoughtfully, and grabbed one of the railgun hand cannons used by the lizardmen "maybe we should carry some for analysis?"

Erik nodded and extended a tendril from his left hand, devouring all of them except the one Amanda was carrying, and recreating it bigger and wider out of living metal.

Erik: "they all contain big crystal power cores as an energy source, and they are reinforced by leviathan metal bones... interesting... let's continue going up"

They kept going up, and the next floor was also full of guards, but they soon joined the others as fuel for Erik's armor, floor after floor they ascended to almost a hundred floors, finally reaching a floor that was full of lizardmen women and kids, they pleaded Erik, their eyes full of terror and anger, but Erik didn't stop and ripped them to shreds.

Ascending the stairs from there they reached a pair of big metallic doors.

Erik: "I guess this is it..."

Rose: [wait]

Erik: [what is it?]

Rose: [the door seems to be rigged to explode]

Erik: [oh, thanks for the heads up...]

Rose: [Erik...]

Erik: [hm? what?]

Rose: [...thank you, I know you don't like killing in cold blood, but...]

Erik: [no need to thank me... I completely understand what needs to be done, if we forgive them we might get some more workers and soldiers but it would also divide our people, and that would be fatal in the long term...]

Erik looked at Amanda: "wait here" and went back downstairs, and coming back with some female lizardman corpses, he had killed them but didn't absorb all of them.

Amanda looked at him confused: "what are the corpses for captain?"

Erik set the corpses on the ground: "step back down the stairs, that door is full of explosives"

Amanda nodded and soon retreated.

Erik then grabbed a lizard woman's skull and launched it at the door like a pitcher would, *CLUNG!* the skull splattered against the door leaving a dent in it. Rushed sounds were heard from inside as a lizardman peeked from inside the door, his sight instantly focused on the pile of corpses near the door. The lizardman didn't have time to feel anger though, *ZHBANG!* a bullet blew up his skull, and then *BOOM!*

An explosion send the doors flying the moment Erik killed the peeking lizardman. The walls cracked, but the structure of the building was sturdy enough and endured.

Erik walked back up the stairs, which were now covered in splattered gore and metal pieces, and reached the upper room, a barrier of burnt furniture could be seen, as collapsed lizardmen rose up from the ground behind it while coughing.

Rose: [see that big one in the middle?]

Erik noticed a lizardman bigger than the rest: [yeah?]

Rose: [bring me that one, he's the city governor, he should have the most information from here]

Erik nodded: [okay]

Tentacles extended once more and absorbed the last batch of guards, his stomach felt full by now of lizardman DNA, as he was feeling his lungs on fire.

Erik: "they have good lungs huh... interesting"

Rose: [If you were still a normal human you would have received many more upgrades]

Erik: [is that so... maybe for Sarah then...]

Rose: [indeed, she could only survive due to that very reason]

Erik: [...so she was in danger...]

Rose: [well yeah, captured by the lizardman in front of you]

Erik: [IS... THAT... SO...] Erik's knuckles cracked loudly, and he noticed the lizardman seemed to be saying something [what is he saying?]

Rose: [let me tweak your translator languages a bit... done, you should understand now]

Lizardman City Lord: "ancestor please, cease the meaningless slaughter! we surrender, what else do you want from us?!"

Erik took off his helmet's visor: "want? don't pretend to be innocent, you captured my partner"

The city lord was confused for a moment, but soon realized: "She escaped already, and we didn't even torture her or anything, yet just for that you willingly annihilated the entire city?!"

Erik shook his head: "I'm not here to explain myself to you, someone needs information from you"

The city lord was confused once again: "someone? who could-"

Rose: [tell him this]

Erik smiled widely: "have you heard of..., THE GREAT ENEMY?"

The city lord's face went pale as he fell on his butt: "y-you... how..."

Erik: "hahaha~ you will soon meet her, but first..."

Erik: [anything valuable here?]

Rose: [...yeah, there's a safe room with energy sources inside, break that wall to the right]

A tendril extended from Erik's power armor, making the city lord almost pass out from fear, but thankfully it just pierced and tore down the wall to the right of the room, revealing a room full of metallic shelves.

Erik: "Amanda, keep an eye on him, shoot his legs if he moves, I'm gonna take a look inside"

Amanda aimed her new railgun cannon at the city lord: "understood captain"

Erik entered the side room, and the first thing that caught his eye was a dozen perfectly round spheres that seemed to glow with small blue sparks, reflecting the light like an opal would.

Erik: "what are these..."

Rose: [great find, those are energy cores from deep sea giant mollusks, they are parasites that feed on the nervous system of leviathans]

Erik: "hoh... interesting, what are they good for?"

Rose: [well... could be made into a powder to absorb into your bones, or maybe to coat your nervous system, I could also carve some smaller spheres to inject them into your body to act as energy collection nodes...]

Erik: "nice..." he generated a backpack container on his back and put them all inside carefully.

He kept looking around, and apart from some jewelry and ceremonial items made with polished scrap metal parts and bones, he also found some jewelry that contained leviathan cores that he promptly ripped off, and also shiny bone ingot sized pieces, quite likely ready to use by a blacksmith.

Finally, at the back of the room, there was something large covered in a fish leather tarp, taking it off, it revealed a huge railgun cannon over four metal wheels and a tripod to aim in a 360 degree radius.

Erik: [hmmm why didn't they use this...]

Rose: [it's probably broken, I could take a look-]

Erik: [It's fine, I already understand how these circuits work after absorbing quite a bit]

Rose: [...is that so?]

Erik: [yep, these past brain upgrades have made me able to think faster and faster, it's like the world keeps moving slower and slower if I want it to... anyways, I can fix it]

Erik stood up and his armor absorbed one of the previous bone metal ingots, and like using a welder, he applied the metal on a crack the cannon had.

Erik: "now if I restore the power..." he took out a leviathan core he had previously absorbed from his armor and put it on a socket inside the weapon, making it turn on and glow a pale blue "seems to be working now, though the barrel is bent... the electrodes are almost burnt... and the ammo seems to be the core itself... yeah this definitely could have killed me... if it was in perfect condition that is~" and with just a thought, his left arm extended and covered the entire cannon, absorbing it.

Rose: [isn't it way too wasteful to even use it?]

Erik shrugged: "one never knows when they will end up needing a killer move"

Rose: [true]

Erik: [...how's Sarah?]

Rose: [I'm almost finished reconstructing the damaged areas and heart, her spine will also need reconstruction]

Erik: [will she wake up?]

Rose: [the trauma is severe, but for now all I can do is heal her body, by the way, she was carrying a data drive from her spaceship, it contains the data of an AI similar to Amanda, you want I... recover her too?]

Erik: [Sure, if you have the time, Sarah was never fond of artificial life so just do as you want]

Rose: [...will do, do you have a name in mind?]

Erik: [hmmm well, what about... Sitara, it means Starlight in India]

Rose: [sounds good (◡‿◡✿)]

Erik looked back outside the room: [guess that's it then, we are going down-]

Rose: [before that, break the wall behind where the cannon was]

Erik was surprised: [Another hidden wall?]

Rose: [indeed, though I'm not sure they knew or still knew it was there]

Erik nodded and easily ripped the metal wall off, revealing a metallic ball full of connected cables, that was currently turned off.

Rose: [seems like a communications relay... but it's broken since long ago it seems, that's a relief]

Erik: [is it useful?]

Rose: [hmmm it might still contain calls from long ago, bring it just in case]

Erik shrugged: [sure] and cut off the connected cables, putting the device on his back [when will the drones arrive in the end?]

Rose: [there aren't many obstacles, they were attacked by some small leviathans, but I easily repelled them, they should be here in about four days]

Erik: [okay, I will take you all these back to the submarine then]

Rose: [before that, there's another place you should check]

Erik raised an eyebrow: [and that is...?]

Rose: [the church, these people venerate technology, so anything useful will be there]

Erik nodded: [makes sense, I will send Amanda back with the loot and the prisoner then]

Rose: [alright, I will have some bots and octopeople waiting for her at the harbor just in case]

Erik stood up and peeled off a backpack with the loot, as well as a wheeled kit that could turn into water propellers, attaching all to Amanda.

Erik: "let's go"

Amanda: "back to the submarine?"

Erik: "you go back to the submarine with the loot and the prisoner, there will be escorts waiting for you at the harbor"

Amanda: "understood, what about you captain?"

Erik: "I still need to search their church in case there's anything useful"

Amanda nodded: "understood captain"

Erik: "you can just call me Erik"

Amanda: "is it an order?"

Erik shrugged: "no"

Amanda: "then I refuse captain, you are my captain"

Erik: "sigh... okay let's go"

Amanda nodded: "understood captain!"

They walked back down the building, and back to the bloody streets, the gentle sea breeze still carrying the smell of blood.

Erik: [now that I think about it... won't all this blood attract predators?]

Rose: [probably, but not yet at least]

Erik: [hmmm hope it remains calm then...]

Amanda went to the right on her way back to the harbor, while Erik went to the left, at the end of the street was a huge building made of shiny metal, it wasn't as tall as the skyscrapers, but it was much wider.

Erik: "guess this is it..."

Rose: [Duck down!]

Erik rolled to the side behind some rubble in an instant and then *BOOM!* the place he had just been at blew up.

Erik: [what was that?!]

Rose: [turrets... they just emerged from the temple walls, seems like repurposed flak proximity turrets from some ancient spaceship... the kinetic force alone will blow you away and mangle your insides like a maze...]

Erik: [well that sucks, but...] Erik's armor devoured the metal floor and dug under it slowly [it might take a while but I can just make my own path in~]

-- Back at the submarine, med pod --

Sarah floated in fluid as tendrils coming from Rose drilled into her chest, restoring- the damaged areas with cultures of her own cells, finally connected a grown new heart, and patched the severed spinal cord with a biometal alloy, and a nerve cell culture.

Rose: "that should do it... let's check how Erik is doing... about to reach inside, good good~"

As Rose was distracted.... Sarah's pinky finger twitched.