*( mood song: "Nothing More - Go To War")

--- a week later ---

The main army was still training, but the elite team had already been equipped, with even the elders and Inky having new equipment.

For Inky Erik had made a tailor-made new armor for her, poison filtering masks and wireless headphone radios for everyone, shields for the warriors, and a hand cannon shotgun for Timberly, along with one more chainsword for her, like the one Erik used for dismantling an abyssal in the past.

As for Erik, he was carrying a poison launcher, a rifle, several dozen concentrated poison cloud bombs, as well as several vibroknives and a chainsword.

currently the now 6 elders, the nervous Crabina, and the 12 people on the elite team, including the Leader, were standing in front of the cliff.

Erik looked at everyone's solemn faces, and then at the pouting Crabina, she had been hard to drag out of her room, 'the tv seems to have become her life, I'm slightly worried..., but lt does make it easier to control her, and pretty easy to reward her too...'

Erik then looked down at the dark waters down below ' if I just jump down, with the gill system on and my lungs now almost empty there shouldn't be a problem...' he observed the elevator 'that's too small for everyone and it would be way more dangerous to follow outside... damn I never liked heights... I need to calm down and just do it, now we are armed and can deal with abyssals if they get close, yes... it will be fine' he turned to the rest "everyone get ready to jump! we will do a controlled descent to enemy territory, today... WE GO TO WAR!"

Erik run to the edge with his power armor and jumped, initiating the rapid descent as he was quickly enveloped by the overwhelming darkness 'better turn on the lights... it's too creepy' he felt the rapid currents as he descended, his stomach clenching from the rapid descent 'i can't take it... thrusters on!' he turned the lights and thrusters on, stopping his rapid descent, the other octopeople finally catching up to him as the darkness wasn't a problem for them, when he looked down with his lights on though, he almost passed out from the scare, as an open mouth was waiting for him if he had continued to descend 'I'm so glad my instinct was right...' he then gave a signal and all the squad aimed down "FIRE!"

*BANG!!!*

shots and plasma rained on the open mouth, followed by a big plume as Timberly shot her hand cannon, the heated up pellets easily blowing up half of the mouth and head away, killing the beast as it started sinking at a slower pace than them.

Its slower pace allowed Erik to have a better look, it looked like a bus-sized cylindrical body of transparent flesh with a serrated beak and big eyes 'with those big eyes... was it attracted to my light? ugh... this is really scary after all...' it then saw the beasts stomach move as there seemed to be one or more beasts struggling inside 'damn, beasts in this world are obsessed with eating prey alive... this is too freaking silent, it's creeping me out... okay fuck it, another free-fall descent, you can do it Erik, let's go...' "people! another free fall, we can't stay here in the open for too long!, follow me closely, I will go a bit slower than earlier" he jumped and looked back, the octopeople keeping up, but Crabina at the back was having issues and looked tired, Erik sighed and reduced his speed, getting to her with his thrusters and grabbing her under his arm.

Crabina was embarrassed but was happy with his help "t-thanks-"

Erik: "you are too slow... sigh..."

That comment made Crabina struggle and pout angrily the rest of the way though.

*THUD!*

Erik landed on the ocean floor at the secret entrance to the caves, doing a superhero landing 'always wanted to do that' and then just dropped the struggling Crabina to the floor, like dropping a struggling puppy down, and looked at the rest with a serious face "now we are going inside enemy territory, make sure to keep your guards up, be vigilant of your surroundings, keep an eye on your comrades, and the most important of all, don't touch anything without telling me first, it could be poisonous and put you or the rest in danger" he gave them a long look "nod if you understood --they all nodded-- alright then, follow me"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

He crouched as he went through the tunnel entrance pointing his rifle forward as his helmet lights illuminated the faintly illuminated tunnels full of bioluminescent organisms.

--- sometime later ---

Erik looked up ahead and was confused to see guards just passed out laughing on the floor 'what the hell is this?' he went closer and easily slit open their throats, finding a bag of weird glowing purple and blue mushrooms on one of the guards.

Erik: [any idea what these are Rose?]

[No, but I would say those guards were pretty high... so a hallucinogen I guess (⌐□_□) ]

Erik was surprised but kept the bag to try scanning it later 'even poisons can heal sometimes, better scan them later'

They all continued and Erik paused before reaching the tribe, taking a tablet out of his backpack to check on the tribe using the cameras he had already installed all around the tribe.

He observed the image, and there seemed way fewer crabmen than normal, with barely a couple hundred 'is it a trap? did they rebel? did they run away? were they attacked?... damn I should have left one guard alive to interrogate him, well then... time to start the killing...' he looked at the hours and started giving orders "okay, the snipers will go to these vantage positions, every sniper with a warrior guard, then the elders lead by Shana will go to the slave keeping area and secure the area, Inky will come with me and set charges, the operation will start with me being the bait" he silenced them "don't worry, with the snipers and charges set I'll be fine, be ready to start when I say on the radio, all ready?" he saw all nodding "alright ev-"

Crabina: "what do I do?"

Erik: "ah, ...can you fight?" he saw Crabina shaking her head "then go with the elders to calm the saved slaves"

'the elders might kill them but its not my problem, they deserve getting their revenge and move on'

"well then, operation start!"

Everyone going to their positions, the snipers climbing the walls, and the Elders easily avoiding the dumb crabs, killing the guards of the slave keeping cave and bunkering down on that tunnel, meanwhile, Erik and Inky set concentrated poison charges around the cave with some explosives to create confusion when needed.

Finally, with everyone in position, Inky and Erik got ready.

Erik: "hehe~ I'm back Trutk..., snippers get ready to give cover fire" he got affirmative responses on the radio and turned back "Inky, just cover my back, let's start this"

The crabs seemed to be getting restless as he came closer 'are they smelling something? well, it doesn't matter, it's too late for a comeback' he aimed at the center of the village and fired.

*BANG*

The loud sound reverberated and got the attention of at least a hundred crabmen that started roaring and charging at him as one of their comrades fell headless to the ground.

Erik: "Snipers, get ready to snipe the survivors" Erik gave the command on the radio, getting affirmative responses soon after.

He then set the volume of his helmet speakers at maximum volume and shouted in the crab's language "COME GET SOME YOU FUCKING CRABS!"

*BANG* soon after blowing up the head of the first one, Inky also killed another 2 with her plasma spear, enraging the crabs even further.

When they were barely 10 meters from him, Erik took out his chainsword as well as an activator "kukuku~ that's right little crabs, ITS SHOWTIME!" and pressed on the activator.

there was a brief pause, and then.... *BOOOOM* dozens of simultaneous explosions engulfed the charging crabs, along with a concentrated poison cloud.

Erik: "such beautiful fireworks" he clicked the side of his helmet and his vision changed, seeing clearly through the poison cloud, it was a clever trick using high-frequency microwaves, like an integrated sonar.

*( https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/52840-radio-signals-track-movement.html )

He then could see the struggling to breathe crabs and chuckled "*chuckle* never charge at a prepared enemy, it's obviously a trap you idiots~"

*BANG* dozens of shots continued sounding as the snipers killed the stragglers and survivors.

Erik walked into the poison cloud and easily started slaughtering the weakened and struggling to breathe crabmen, the ones too close to the charges now floating around as pieces and bits of flesh, the ones in the front and back having their shells cracked as the poison easily seeped through the cracks.

*KRAGHHHHH!!!!!!* a roar reverberated through the cave as the poison cloud was dragged away by the water currents, the tribal chief Trutk making his presence known "WHO DARES?!"

Erik: 'damn, the old crab sure can shout'

he saw the enormous crabman walking out from his tent and observe the surroundings, one of his claws still missing.

Trutk had just been eating when the loud explosion finally forced him to come out, thinking another tribe was invading, what he saw was just the corpses and bits of his tribesmen, eyes narrowing he looked at the approaching biped.

Erik: "well~ we see each other again Trutk"

Trutk: "why you slaughter my tribesmen, stranger?" his tone full of anger.

Erik smiled "revenge".