Once in the water, and with Inky translating for him he asked.

Erik: "I would like to ask you if you know anything about crab people"

He waited for Inky to translate and he could visibly see their faces paling and the Second Elders clenched fists, 'just what happened?' he wondered.

The Fourth Elder calmed the other 3 down and spoke.

Fourth Elder: " I will be answering that question as the other 3 were a bit too young by then..., you see..., we haven't always lived like this and here, we used to live in a city deep on the seafloor when I was just a teenager, we 4 sisters belonged to the royal family back then... ( her eyes dropped but she recovered and continued), our progenitor parent was the same, the Queen, but our mothers were different, even then, we lived like a big family and were really close, our city was big and made of stone, made by our ancestors after generations of work, we lived happily and without worries back then..." (she made a pause closing her eyes, the other 3 also appeared sad) "they came..., different colors, weapons, and sizes, not too strongh but their numbers were endless, our warriors kept falling one after the other in the gruesome battle, the walls seemed to be holding on, but the battle would be lost, so they organized a group of elite warriors and all the kids and mature eggs in the city and charged, making a hole on their lines to the cliff wall and told us to climb... I still remember the words our mother the queen told us... "

(reminiscing)

Queen: " Shana... don't cry my girl, you need to be strong for your younger sisters and the rest of the kids, we will hold them here so they don't climb after you, so don't look back and climb!"

(back to the room)

Erik could help to interrupt her after reading that from Inky.

Erik:" excuse me, Shana? is that you?"

Fourth Elder: " that... yeah, we used to have words for each person, but we don't do that anymore, it was tradition when one became a young adult and brought back its first prey they were given a word to call themselves by the queen, sadly, only I got to have that privilege... we don't do that anymore"

'so they used to have names...' Erik thought.

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Fourth Elder: "Yes, as I was saying... we started climbing, but we could hear shouts and roars from behind, when we were already pretty high up I couldn't contain myself and looked.... I will never forget that sight and it will forever haunt me, our mothers being eaten alive and looking in our direction with hopeful eyes... we lost some warriors during the climb and then the rest during the first years as they had to care for all of us, years passed and here we are... surviving, now better than in a long time thanks to you" (she faintly smiled saying the last part).

Fourth Elder: " as for your question about those barbarians, I remember our mother the queen saying they were a violent and unorganized bunch always fighting each other so they weren't a threat... seems like she was wrong after all..., they have different sizes, forms, and colors, that's all I know, I'm sorry not being of more help... sigh"

Erik: "no, that's fine, you helped enough, now I know how I wanna deal with them" and he thought 'no peace for the wicked, if they are still united I could try dividing them again, but one things clear, peace will be impossible without a show of strength, I need to study them first and find their weaknesses, position, and current strengths'.

As Sun Tzu said in his book The Art of War, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle"

Third Elder: " now if that was all, we would like some time alone to rest and calm ourselves"

Erik nodded and complied, getting out of the onsen and walking back to the base, in his mind wondering 'should I give them names?' he already knew that his naming sense sucked, he could also end up offending them as that was something their mother did in the past, he would have to ponder about it, he also didn't get to ask them about the abandoned algae farm, but it wouldn't have been appropriate to keep asking.

Inky behind him was looking gloomy, she didn't even know there used to be another city, she had been here and this is all she knew, 'how great would that city be? was it still standing?' she couldn't help wondering.

Meanwhile, deep below the surface, inside a colorful cave system full of glowing organisms, stood a small crab girl about 140cm from head to tail scavenging around for food. Her mother was just a slave, their tribe had been conquered by a nearby tribe, their men killed by being eaten alive, and the women turned into toys, she was the result of such a union, her mother repulsed her and never fed her, so she had escaped the tribe and scavenged for her own food, she had always wanted to find the end of this endless cave system, and today she had finally found an exit, it was small, but she was small and barely fit through it, continued like that for 36 minutes and finally came out, before her eyes an endless sand floor, and a gigantic cliff wall going up, the floor didn't feel safe to her by instinct, so she started the slow climb while eating what she found growing on the cliff wall, she felt she would be safer if she continued climbing.

(https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Deep_Sparse_Reef)