USS Zumwalt.

“Captain, we have an aircraft overhead, video coming in now,” Ensign Hamilton advised. Captain Jimenez linked the video to the rest of the bridge crew. A grainy black and white thermal image showed the cruise ship, Emperor of the Seas, listing slightly to port. Seeing a cruise ship listing in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by lifeboats was disturbing, but even more disturbing was the thing attached to the side of the ship.

Based on the size of the ship, the Upgrade monster was enormous, the largest creature yet recorded. The head and torso were humanoid in nature, its arms and hands held the cruise ship while its head bent over it, like it was taking a bite out of a hamburger. Instead of teeth, the entire front of the thing’s face was covered in writhing tentacles. As the observation craft, a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force Kawasaki P-1, callsign Skyball, flew lower, Captain Jimenez could see the tentacle things weren’t just on its head but were also covering its whole body. The whole creature seemed to be writing with the things which were attached to the ship.

“Try to raise that ship, ensign,” the captain ordered. He didn’t know if the bridge crew was still aboard, but he wanted to confirm that the target could be engaged without collateral damage.

“USS Zumwalt, this is Captain Jurgen of the Emperor of the Seas, can you render aid?” A panicked voice called out.

“Emperor of the Seas, we are here to assist. The target is in range and I need you to advise if all civilians are clear. We’re not firing pop guns here, there will be considerable damage,” Jimenez advised.

“Zumwalt, we have deployed lifeboats, but they are unable to get away, that thing is holding them all. What you’re seeing above the water is only a small portion of the monster. The tentacles are breaching the ship all over and its feeding on my passengers and crew. None of us will survive if you don’t fire, but some of us might make it if you do,” Jurgen pleaded.

Captain Jimenez was torn, his and the other two ships of the joint task force, the Japanese destroyers JS Chikuma and JS Sendai had a lock with their longer range Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, but they didn’t have permission to engage if civilians would be threatened by their fire.

“Wait one, Emperor of the Seas, I will request permission to fire. Please confirm that you wish us to fire on the creature despite the danger to you and your crew,” Jimenez asked.

“I confirm, Zumwalt, please fire upon us before it’s too late to save anyone,” the captain of the cruise ship’s call was interrupted by the sound of glass cracking, gunfire, and screaming.

“Try to get them back on,” he ordered the ensign manning the comms station, even though he knew there was little hope that the captain and bridge crew of the Emperor of the Seas would answer. His next call was to the captains of the other vessels in the task force.

“Gentlemen, you heard the last broadcast from the cruise ship, I’m going skip wasting time with calling headquarters and order that we fire on that thing. If you wish to stand down, I understand. If this thing goes sideways, I don’t want you or your crews implicated in the death of civilians,” Jimenez offered. He saw what was happening to the ship and the lifeboats around it, as the modified sub-hunting plane banked even lower, the wriggling tentacles could be seen all around the lifeboats, undoubtedly attacking them.

“Chikuma stands read to fire, I support your decision and await your orders, Captain Jimenez,” Captain Kanda of the Chikuma replied.

“Sendai will fire upon your command, sir,” Captain Yoshino of the Sendai replied.

“Engage the beast as your weapons bear, fire everything,” Jimenez ordered. The Zumwalt normally carried an impressive array of ordinance, including eighty vertical launch tubes for all types of missiles. Sadly, there were only carrying ten of the powerful modified tomahawk ship to ship missiles, with most of their tubes holding various training rounds and anti-air.

They had been nearing the end of the first training rotation, and the trio of ships was scheduled for an underway replenishment exercise in two days. Most of the training missiles had been used up along with several live weapons to give the crews a taste of the real thing. He knew the two Japanese destroyers would have even less live ordinance than his cruiser did.

“We have a lock on the monster, sir, firing,” his weapons officer called as Jimenez watched all ten of their missiles leave their vertical launch tubes and shoot toward the creature on pillars of fire. The weapons officer confirmed the weapons were all tracking properly, but Jimenez already knew it. His captain class skills allowed him to almost feel his vessel.

He could even close his eyes and watch the missiles home in on their target. He did just that as felt the newly modified weapons accelerate to their maximum speed of just over Mach 3. At that speed, it wouldn’t be long before they hit the monster. The older and slower Harpoon missiles from the Japanese destroyers were cruising along at around a third of the speed of the upgraded tomahawks.

“Sir, I have a solution for the main gun, do you want us to engage?” The weapons officer advised. Jimenez was pulled from his link to the missiles as he responded.

“Open fire with the main gun, continuous fire until the target is destroyed,” he ordered. The lights visibly dimmed as the experimental railgun on the bow charged its capacitors for the first shot. Being the first railgun weapon in a naval arsenal, they were still working out a few bugs. It was a power hog, taxing even Zumwalt’s impressive power generation capability. A mod 2 version had been developed that supposedly used 30% less power to achieve the same results, but it wouldn’t be installed until they finished the exercises and headed home for a refit.

The railgun weapon was surprisingly quiet compared to conventional deck guns, but it was much more powerful. Traveling at speeds a normal shell couldn’t hope to achieve, the railgun slugs started to slam into the body of the monster, the first rounds hitting just before the tomahawks arrived.

From the aircraft feed, Jimenez could see each railgun round tearing gouts of flesh from the monster, but given its size, they were merely pinpricks. The tomahawks were a different story, each of the missiles carried nearly a thousand pounds of high explosive. With the heat and smoke generated by ten simultaneous explosions, they lost their view of the creature for a moment.

“Sir, I’m getting strange returns from sonar, the signal is coming from that monster. It’s in a similar band to our active sonar, but much more powerful,” Petty Officer Roland on sonar advised.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Before Jimenez could dig further, the smoke miraculously cleared away from the monster and they got a good view of the damage their strike had caused. Half the monster’s chest was blown away, bones and organs exposed. It was a gruesome wound and he didn’t know how the monster had survived it. As he watched, more railgun rounds slammed into it, shattering bone and tearing into what looked like the heart of the thing.

“Update form the P-1, their man on the observation camera is using his Upgrade skills to clean up the image. He was even able to scan some of the creature’s information, it’s bad news,” comms told him, pausing as he confirmed what he was hearing. “The thing, it’s still eating the people on the ship and in the lifeboats to heal itself and grow,”

Jimenez watched as the damage from the railgun rounds were healed over almost as fast as they had accumulated. Even the great open wounds the tomahawks caused were starting to close up. The eight harpoons from the destroyers were closing in, but the monster, turning its head toward the missiles and the approaching vessels. It dropped below the surface, causing the harpoons to miss their target.

“Railgun securing from action, no target,” gunnery confirmed.

“Contact is moving, sir, Skyball has it’s heading directly toward the task force at a depth of 100 meters. It’s hit 12 knots and is accelerating. Skyball is dropping sonobuoys ,” moving to the sonar station, Jimenez watched as the monster closed the gap between them. He did not want that thing to get within reach of his ships.

“All ships, hard about and go to flank speed. It caught an unsuspecting cruise ship, let’s see how it does against a modern warship. Hit it with the ASROC’s and see if the destroyers can get some torps fired at it,” Jimenez ordered. The ship heeled over as they changed their course over to one that led directly away from the oncoming monster. As they turned, the ASCROC launchers went into action. Each of the three ships mounted an octuple launcher and they began to fire missiles out one after the other. When the missiles reached the targeted area, each dropped a small torpedo in the water that went active, sensors pinging as it tried to lock on the target.

The ASROC torpedoes didn’t have any trouble finding a target as large as the monster and they began to home in. One after another the torpedoes hit, Captain Jimenez listening through the sonar station as well as with his own Upgrade enhanced senses. All twenty-four hit and they waited to see if it had any effect on their target.

“Contact is increasing speed, it’s up to 30 knots, sir!” Sonar reported excitedly. There shouldn’t be any way something that big could move that fast. His ship topped out at an impressive 33 knots and the two destroyers were only rated for a top speed of 27. The monster would catch them, or at least the slower destroyers.

“Chikuma and Sendai are firing torpedoes, contact is closing to two kilometers,” weapons announced. Jimenez needed to do something to save at least some of his command.

“Chikuma, turn ninety degrees to port from our current heading, Sendai do the same to starboard, lets see what this thing does with multiple targets,” Jimenez ordered. As the ships started moving apart from their previous formation, the monster continued to accelerate, turning to pursue Chikuma and now reaching 35 knots, fast enough to catch any of the three ships. They could do nothing but watch as the monster’s speed topped out at 39 knots. The contact reached Chikuma, who reported engine failure, the monster had sheared off their props and opened several holes below the waterline before turning to pursue the Sendai.

Jimenez felt hopeless, he was in command of the most advanced ship ever produced by man and he couldn’t fight off this monster. His subsurface weapons were expended and even if his magazines were full, Zumwalt didn’t possess enough firepower to take this thing down. In fact, he didn’t know if the entire pacific fleet could.

When the monster reached the mainland and began to feed, it would be a disaster. They continued to update position and speed with fleet, keeping his superiors apprised of the situation as Sendai was also disabled and the monster turned toward them. Trying various evasive maneuvers didn’t help, the monster was more agile than his ship.

“Commander, Williams, open the weapons locker and get the crew armed, this thing is going to find its food has teeth,” Jimenez ordered. Soon, a sailor arrived, handing out sidearms to the officers and M-4’s to any who wanted one. A pair of fifty caliber and three M240b machineguns were also set up on mounts situated around the ship, the crews warily watching the ocean for signs of the monster. As the dark shadow slid under the Zumwalt, they prepared to make their last stand.

***

USS Maine SSBN-741

“Captain, we have launch authorization orders incoming,” the ensign on comms advised.

“Go to general quarters, secure us at launch depth, any contacts on the board?” The captain asked.

“Negative contacts,” sonar confirmed. Both the captain and his XO moved to their respective safes, pulling out the confirmation codes needed to verify the nuclear launch orders they were receiving were valid.

“I have valid confirmation on the launch order,” his XO said. Captain Lane verified his code, a cold sweat breaking out as he tried to follow procedure and not contemplate what he was about to do.

“I confirm we have a valid order, spin up numbers five and twelve. Targeting package is per the attached file,” the captain confirmed, preparing two of his Trident nuclear missiles. For only the third time in history, the United States was going to unleash the fury of a nuclear weapon on a live foe. There was no explanation of what they were firing at, and the captain watched as the computer deciphered the targeting data. It looked like they were going to hit…the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

“Confirmed green across the board, missiles away,” the captain ordered, feeling through the ship's hull as two of the deadliest weapons ever developed by mankind were sent on their way. He didn’t know why the president ordered this strike, and he hoped that it would be the only one they launched on tonight.

“Set course for 022 at five knots, bring us to 350 feet,” he ordered, moving his ship silently and away from their launch point. With extensive acoustic dampening systems, the Ohio class sub would soon be invisible to anyone watching as it waited with dread for further launch orders.

***

Curtis jumped from the side of the sinking lifeboat. It had once been filled with hundreds of passengers, but that monster had punched through the bottom with a tentacle. Just like it had done to poor Lois, the monster began to feed on the helpless passengers one after another.

Several tried to hit it with anything they could, but the monster ignored them. A few jumped overboard to swim away, but more hungry tentacles awaited them in the water. He had shut down, sitting on his bench and waiting his turn to die, hoping it wouldn’t hurt too much. Then, the explosions happened, he had never heard anything so loud in his life.

With a horrible slurping sound, the tentacle swallowed its latest victim before detaching from the lifeboat. The sole surviving crew member onboard tried to stop the leak but there was nothing aboard that could patch a four-foot diameter hole. The remaining twelve living passengers were faced with no alternative other than to go over the side and into the water. Curtis just watched others bobbing along the surface in their life vests. Once he was sure it was sure the monster was truly gone, he decided to join them.

“The navy must have done that; they should have rescue parties on the way. Everyone, gather together so no one drifts off,” the far too chipper crewman said. Seeing it was the wise thing to do, Curtis paddled over to join the others, kicking off his painful dress shoes as he did. Unlike last time, this tux wasn’t a rental and he had already paid for it, so there would be no bill waiting for him when he got home.

“Tuxedoes really are bad luck for me,” Curtis muttered to himself as an impossibly bright flash appeared in the distance. The shockwave and heat reached them a few seconds later.

***

Sadly, there were no survivors from the Emperor of the Seas or any of the navy taskforce. Skyball, the plane observing the incident, was able to make it out of the blast zone in time to report on the extent of the disaster. The creature that attacked the ship and ruined Curtis’ vacation was the only one of its specific type that has been recorded so far.

You wouldn’t think that a world boss from that time wouldn’t have any hope of surviving the firepower that had been unleashed upon it. Sadly, the GGS didn’t feel the same way and allowed part of the creature to survive, and in doing so, it also gave us a glimpse into how it would often come up with unique solutions to problems early in the Upgrade. Nowadays, the system for dealing with unexpected occurrences is fairly straightforward, back then, the GGS tried some off the wall procedures and selected some rather unlikely heroes to implement them…