“Let’s do a headcount,” I heard Adira shout as we approached, “Every team, check who is missing. Get a few scouts down, but don’t go too deep, it won’t do us any good to lose more people.”
Activity buzzed as we came together, and Fran quickly moved to Daniel’s side. I guessed that they were speaking on a private connection, and I turned my attention to the others to do my own check in.
“Thanks for the save,” Domino said, coming up to me holding a steel fist out in front of me. I nodded to him, tapping my fist against his with a dull clank.
“Of course. How is everyone holding up?” I turned my gaze to the others, celebrating briefly that we’d survived, but casting wary glances all around us in the meantime.
“Rattled,” the young leader shook his head, “Me too, honestly. Alice said it right; it feels like we’re not supposed to be here.”
I sighed, drifting forward under power, “We’ll be regrouping shortly. Hopefully we can figure out what’s going on out here.”
“Sounds good,” the man nodded, shouldering his rifle and gazing down into the darkness of the deep sea.
Mech’s and power armors moved quickly, organized into their own teams even as smaller, more mobile units dove deeper, careful to keep in range of the lights. Adira noticed us moving closer, and turned to face us, “All accounted for?”
I nodded, “Yeah, we got lucky.”
“Very. I’m glad,” she stated, her all-business tone warming before she settled back into her command role, “We’re checking for any survivors but, unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll find anyone. Gulper Squid are pack hunters, but those numbers were… aberrant. It seems there might be a Unique out here after all.”
That didn’t bode well at all. Considering how destructive they were, I didn’t want to know about what creature would stand above them.
I put the thought away, taking stock of the Legion teams as a whole in the area. I grimaced as I noticed that we’d lost six individuals, their life-signs no longer broadcasting. There was no helping it, though, things would only get worse from here, after all. We were in the core of the Red Zone territory, and at this point the worst of the worst would soon be here.
“We lost five,” Adira exhaled shortly, “What does it look like on your end?”
“Six,” I replied tiredly, “It could have been worse, but still…”
She nodded, neither of us needing to finish the statement. The scouts returned shortly, none really expecting to find someone. Having experienced the attack firsthand, I understood that anyone not in a heavy mech wouldn’t have survived the force that the Gulper Squid could exert, let alone the drastic increase in pressure from them dragging someone downwards. Had it been Domino instead of me that was pulled downwards, or anyone that wasn’t Daniel for that matter…
Adira’s voice broke me from my grim thoughts, “We’re moving. Another fleet should be joining us here any minute now anyways.”
I nodded, remembering that two other fleets were supposed to have joined the Leviathan Brigade. I knew comparatively little about them, but the additional manpower seemed less like overkill now and more like a necessity.
We were still farther out on the flank, though. The area that we covered gave us plenty of room to work with in the event that a line collapsed and we had to mount a fighting retreat to the fleet. Our mood remained somber and tinged with nervousness as we went, and even with us being so close to the surface, not one of us stopped taking glances downwards.
“Something’s coming.” Alice broke the silence, her voice tinged with a familiar terror.
“What?” I heard Daniel ask, “What was that?”
Alice shuddered, and veered off course suddenly, nearly crashing into Richard before he caught her and stabilized her. Almost as one our team crowded closer to her, and I realized that Alice seemed to be clutching her head.
“Alice! Alice, what’s wrong?” Richard shouted, the first shred of panic and fear that I’d ever heard from the man clear in his voice as he tried to hold onto Alice.
Then Alice pressed her hands to her helmet, and Richard slammed himself wholly into her.
“Whoa, hey, cool it man,” Daniel called out, seeing Richard grappling with his beloved, struggling to keep her arms away from her head.
“Help me!” Richard shouted, “She just tried to get her helmet off!”
We all started at that, Fran immediately helping to seize her suit with magnetics and bring her upwards towards the surface.
Adira noticed the commotion, as did other teams, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know!” I shouted, “Alice said something was coming and-” I shook my head, “-and she’s disoriented, I think.”
Adira nodded, before I moved closer to Alice, the processions slowing and stopping to see what was going on. I reached out with my mind, searching through the data connections to my Legion, and found the one that connected to Alice. The comms could be disabled from the inside with a thought, but few really bothered. They’d be moving to the surface in moments, but I wanted to know what was happening now.
I felt the familiar lines of information, threads that led into the suits system. I followed the thread, easily breaching the defenses with Legion codes. Richard still moved right beside her, helpless as he moved upwards alongside her.
My eardrums quaked at the sound that suddenly bloomed to life between the two of us. Alice was screaming, a guttural, raw terror that scraped her throat on the way out. Wild eyes darted to and fro, erratic and utterly chaotic. Other sounds broke through her screaming, but none that formed words. I felt my blood chill at the sight of her, no trace of the person that I knew beneath the madness I witnessed now.
I refocused on myself in time to see Richard reach for her helmet after getting her above the water line, still far from the central ship.
“Wait!” I shouted too late, the power armor opening, the ear splitting screaming, crying, and whimpering woman suddenly exposed to the open air. Instantly the confusion among us transformed into sudden wary fear.
“Alice? Alice! Calm down, I’m here!” Richard shouted, his own helmet sliding off as he held her close. If she noticed, she didn’t even look at him.
We stared dumbly at the scene, utterly out of our field of expertise with what we saw until I shouted, “Get her helmet back on and get her back to ship medical!”
Richard jolted and turned his gaze to me as he collected himself. He nodded, helmet sliding back on before he replaced hers. He said nothing as he moved off, Fran staying and allowing him to take care of Alice.
“What the hell was that?” I heard Terry whisper, unsettled at the sight. Our team wasn’t the only one affected, especially among the Legion, there was a general understanding that Alice was generally a very stable person. What could have happened to cause something like that to happen? That question was foremost in our minds, but it wasn’t hard to draw the most likely conclusion.
We were all well aware that Alice was one of the best psychic’s we had in the Legion. She had a gift for finding biotics, specifically sensing the presence of especially powerful biotics. Beyond that, she was very empathic, able to read the emotions of others. In time, I wondered if she’d be capable of talking with others through their minds.
But, given all of that, what would happen if she sensed something truly horrific? The only time I’d ever seen that glimmer of madness in her eyes was before she was even a team member. Back when she’d first encountered Wolven.
But this was worse. Much, much worse. I grimaced at the realization; reaching out for the distant Determinators that were held within the ship bay. They responded instantly, 64 fully mechanical warriors priming themselves, roused for combat. Each was fully outfitted, having consumed the majority of the Matter Energy that had been allocated to me from the Legion’s coffers. Each one was a distinct upgrade over the previous models, more than capable of handling biotics on their own. Their minds networked together, relaying information to me in real time.
Even as they dove into the water, I noticed Adira speaking with someone else, her attention turned farther afield to our flank. As I turned my gaze, I noticed that the ship on the farthest wing seemed to have smoke rising from it.
“Shit, we have contact on the flank. Everyone, form up!” Adira shouted, pointing in the direction of the farthest ship.
It was a half kilometer away, and would take time to get to. The Determinators could move faster than us, but I doubted they’d get there before us.
“No helping it, then.” I murmured to myself, thinking once more on Richard and Alice. A part of me dreaded that whatever happened to Alice might be permanent, but I had to hope that wasn’t the case. She didn’t deserve that, no one did.
I took a deep, steadying breath. For now, I knew that we needed to get to the ship as soon as possible. Whatever was going on there had obviously broken through the defenders that had been left there. Minutes ago, I didn’t want to see another Gulper Squid in my life, but now I almost hoped that’s what we would find.
“Matthew, I want you and your Legion to head to the ship, try to help keep biotics away from it and help out inside however you can.” Adira ordered quickly.
“Will you be handling deeper water?” I asked, still on the lookout for any biotics, but finding the area strangely void of them.
“That’s the plan.” She nodded and turned her attention back forward.
I continued to survey the area, gritting my teeth as I watched the vitals of the Legion in my feed. There were several teams on standby in that ship, and not a single one of them had regular lifesigns.
That struck me as deeply wrong. There were plenty of experienced teams on that ship, and almost uniformly they were all exhibiting heightened vitals. Beyond just excitement or adrenaline, this was more akin to full blown panic.
All at once, I felt the realization hit me, “We can’t go to them.”
Adira slowed and frowned, “What do you mean?”
“Whatever happened to Alice is happening to them. There’s a biotic doing this.” I stated, certain that this was the only possibility that made sense.
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“Are you sure?” She asked, though called for everyone to stop, “Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes.” I said, “I have Legion members on that ship. Judging by their vitals, they’re all panicking.”
She groaned, casting a gaze to the ship, still far away, but now close enough that we could hear their screaming crew reverberate through the water. I couldn’t think of anything to do, uncertain if we could do anything if Alice was anything to judge by.
“Hey, what’s that light?” Domino asked, pointing to something. He wasn’t referring to the ship, but instead drew my eyes to something much deeper, a red light that gently strobed.
I frowned, “Adira?”
She extended a hand in response, pointing at it, “Not one of ours.”
Silently we all aimed our weapons at the light. If it wasn’t one of ours, then it was probably a biotic, one that Adira hadn’t seen before. It didn’t take a leap in logic to assume this had something to do with what was going on aboard the vessel.
“Fire!” Adira shouted, torpedoes, projectiles, columns of superheated water, and anything else people had on hand cut through the water. They were all fueled by the intense disquiet they felt, and the knowledge that if this thing lived, they would have to close in on it in close combat. None of us knew what lurked beyond the light, and moreover none of us wanted to know if we could help it.
I watched Fran fire disposable spears down at extreme speed, cutting through the water as though it weren’t here. Daniel unleashed a hellstorm of bullets, sonic bombardment, and rockets, augmented by the firepower that Domino, Venezuela, Rachel, Jessica, Emma, Harold, Covina, and Eric provided. Terry sent jolting, ionized beams chasing the light, while I fired black spears of energy from my shoulder armaments, a column of my own bullets tearing down into the deep.
Together, we and every other team maintained a constant stream of fire that gradually widened to hit everything we possibly could in the area. For more than thirty seconds solid we fired, and after the first ten the red light flickered out of sight, a deep bellow that quaked the water accompanying the disappearance.
“Cease fire!” Adira called out as she glared into the darkness, every pair of eyes we had devoted wholly to the task, searching for any sign that our quarry had been slain.
A fin rose, ghostly white and nearly transparent, and we aimed at it before realizing it for what it was. Severed, the limb spewed a white blood, not silver, and I felt a deep sense of impending doom at the sight.
No biotic I’d ever seen bled white. Always silver, even Yaga bled silver.
“Did we get it?” I heard Eric’s hopeful voice in my ear, and I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“I think we wounded it.” I swallowed hard, staring down beneath where the fin had come up.
No one said anything, our senses strained to the limits. Yet, we didn’t need to be so aware.
The biotic didn’t hide itself as it rose, a white phantom that rose upwards from the depths, a pale, transparent body that already bore the remains of what had to have been other biotics.
“Fire!” Adira called out, already beginning to turn up the energy output from her gloves. The beast wasn’t larger than a Gulper Squid, but I felt unnerved upon seeing it. It appeared more like an angler fish, though its bulbous, pitch-black eyes somehow seemed to carry a depth to them that was firmly out of place in the mindlessness of the standard biotic.
[Alert! Unique High-Gen biotic detected! The Devil’s Angler-]
The rest of the message cut off as the lantern light came back on, the first volley of fire streaking downwards and cutting shallow wounds into its body. It bled from several hundreds of small wounds, yet didn’t slow at all. Fins protruded like flaring, transparent frills on a dress across its body, long spear-like teeth exposed themselves to our sights.
I took aim and continued firing for several seconds as it nonchalantly approached, and only then realized the screaming that was happening around me.
The red light seared through the water, and all at once there was nothing but madness. Our formation broke apart instantly, and I realized with dread that there was no single lifesign near me that wasn’t affected.
Daniel’s mech let out a klaxon warning, wailing as it locked the cabin down. I could feel with my mind that the controls had locked the pilot out, and was automatically continuing to fight. That was only one small blessing, though. I watched as our numbers came to nothing before this creature. Fran reeled in place, somersaulting over and over and over again, faster every time. She would pass out at that rate, I was sure.
Others screamed, some of which swam downwards at speed. I watched Harold, Eric, and a dozen others charge at the biotic without any heed for strategy or safety. At first, I hoped they were unaffected, but too late I realized that they were far from sane. They fired weapons, clattering and lightly wounding the outside of the biotic, which almost seemed amused at their movements.
I dove downwards towards them, watching the tragedy unfold. The Devil’s Angler turned, biting down on a pair of maddened attackers with its teeth and shearing through their mechs easily, like a knife cutting through butter. Harold turned in time to see the ghostly maw open wide, sucking both him and Eric in at once, dozens of spear-like teeth stabbing into them.
Whether by accident, or perhaps a glimmer of Harold remaining, an explosion went off in the Angler’s mouth. It thrashed in pain, several teeth coming dislodged and spiraling away in gouts of white blood.
But after a moment, it simply turned and cut through the others, the wound already clotting and new teeth poking up an inch or two from the ravaged gum-lines. It was a hideous thing, and as I turned I realized that the scene behind me was no better.
Some had managed to get their suits open already, trying to swim freely. Those who did so often also breathed in the water. I didn’t dare look at who, knowing that I couldn’t save them all. What I could do was try to push this thing away, to get its maddening light away from my Legion.
I realized then that perhaps the only other person who would be even remotely able to care for himself would be Terry, who had joined to an A.I. Though, I didn’t really know whether he would be immune or just more resistant due to that. I accessed his system, intent on checking his state, but found that he was frantically attempting to help those around him. He wasn’t unaffected, but he was still a far cry from the insanity that took root in everyone around him.
“Terry! I’m leaving everyone to you.” I shouted to him, forcing a private feed to him and blocking out all of the screaming madness around us. He shook, eyes feverish as he turned his attention to me. Words failed him, but he nodded with a haunted look in his eyes, not calming in the slightest, and continued pulling drowning victims upwards, looking for anything that he could use to help them. I felt my own heart wrench as I watched people I’d come to know and count on fall apart, some dying with little chance to save them.
Driving myself deep into the Reaper’s Eye trance, I divided my mind into two tasks. The first of which I directed into every thread that I could find, Legion and Brigade alike, and forced their mechs and power armor to deny opening. At the very least, I could try to keep them from killing themselves. Any weapon that ran on automated configurations I disabled, and I handed off orders to Daniel’s A.I. System.
At the same time, I pointed downwards at the Devil’s Angler with the muzzle of my repeater. I opened fire, bullets fragmented off of the biotic’s skin, some digging in. It barely noticed, leisurely peeling open the mechs around it with small whiskers around its mouth.
With a thought I switched to chemical cartridges, the ammo exploding across its pale scaled flesh, hissing. This time, the Angler shifted away, bulbous eyes looking at me for the first time. Confidently, it drew its lure forward, the brilliant red light growing brighter, more like a spotlight now than the unfocused flood of light.
I responded by showering its face with bullets. It hissed, keeping the light focused on me and making minimal movements to evade the shots, utterly failing to dodge almost all of them. Partway through, I refocused my aim for a brief moment and destroyed the light, stalk, and part of the flesh of its forehead. In an instant the red light winked out of existence, a fleshy organ with no bone suddenly pasted. The Angler twitched in pain, but continued moving towards me, a ponderous target in the depths.
“Don’t mind if I do,” I happily took the opportunity to keep hammering it at range, one of the shells catching it across the hardened membrane of one of its eyes even from this distance. Finally the light ebbed as the Angler dipped lower into the water, moving deeper away from me.
‘Not a fucking chance,’ I thought angrily, engines roaring to life as I plunged after it. The creature wasn’t slow, but hardly the speed of most of the biotics we’d seen so far. Though, I knew that following it to fight was likely an awful idea. This was at least a Gen 3 biotic, if not more, but if I could outrun it, then I could eventually wear it down.
It was with that dogged determination that I kept after it, firing constantly at its ghostly retreating visage. A few times, I thought I saw it twist, glancing back at me as we descended into thicker blackness, but thus far hadn’t managed to close the distance. I allowed myself a momentary distraction to hope that its ability wore off over time, the idea of hundreds of people permanently afflicted with insanity churned my stomach. It would be a devastating blow, not just for the Brigade, but for the Legion, too. Besides being my closest friends, a significant portion of our elites were in this battle.
Those thoughts were thrown into a box for later as I forced myself to concentrate on the biotic. Soon, the Determinators would be here, and we could pick this thing apart in earnest. More bullets chipped at the Angler’s body, the weapon simply not getting enough punch through to do any real damage yet. Still, any progress was progress, and given that I had a wild abundance of shells, I would be able to eventually have results.
The Angler turned then, sharply rounding and coming towards me, far faster than it had been going before.
“Ah, shi-” I swore aloud, alarm rattling my mind as it closed the distance between us as fast as the Gulper Squid could while jetting. I barely managed to force my engines into overdrive, darting feet to the right. Spear-like teeth scraped the surface of my arm, the unfeeling eye of the biotic now gazing at me right beside it.
Instinctively I fired my shoulder cannons and deployed an explosive disk, before a fin slapped me away. It felt like being smashed by a truck at highway speeds, and threw me, tumbling head over heels several meters. I was upside-down and desperate to keep my attention on the biotic. If it wasn’t for the fact that I could take in as much information at once as I could, I wouldn’t have realized that the Angler had rounded once more, turning on a dime, towards me.
I detonated the explosive just before the biotic could lunge for me again, sending it off course from me just enough. As it passed, I tried the same strategy again, but couldn’t manage to get the disk on it.
“You learn too fast,” I commented darkly, noting the crackle of electricity as the dark lances payload went to work on the flesh of the beast. Somehow, though, the four shots I’d given it had scarcely seemed to slow it down. Just as rapidly as before it rounded on me and charged.
I darted to the side as it attacked, and saw the feint it intended as it drew back at the last moment. Instead of dodging, then, I’d only moved into its threat range. Its’ jaws opened wide, teeth ready to spear through me.
“Wrong move,” I threw the explosive disk in my hands into its maw, bracing as the explosion forced itself outwards, water pushing me back. Fragmented teeth spilled outwards, as well as a shimmering cloud of white blood. The Angler screeched, darting away as peels of ragged flesh spun in its wake. Warily, I checked my armor, noting that it had held up under the strike, but had taken some damage. Far less than what I hoped the Angler took.
Wildly I took in my surroundings, having lost track of the Angler just then. I distanced myself from the cloud of blood, knowing that it would be all too easy for it to hide there. Repeatedly I sent out sonar pings, tracking the solitary movements of something large outside of my visual range. The Angler was circling me, no doubt estimating if it was worth the effort to keep hunting me.
In response, I began to open fire on it, doing my best to guess where it was based off of sonar. The Angler started moving erratically, speeding up and slowing down at random, preventing me from getting any more clean shots off on it. Annoyed, I tried to move towards it, only for it to maintain its distance.
“The hell is your plan here?” I blinked, confused at its actions. Neither of us wanted to leave, determined to kill the other. Yet, I couldn't think of a way to go after it right then without being at a significant disadvantage.
Five minutes passed before the Angler twisted and darted forward, receiving several shots to the face in response. It muscled through, opening its mouth wide as I left a pair of explosives in the way, still mounted to small drones. Predictably, it darted downwards, trying to circumvent the bombs and get to me. The drones moved with it, slapping bombs into its path and retreating. Too late, the Devil’s Angler noticed the movement and plowed into the explosives. They both erupted, once more shredding through flesh.
But, in the exchange, I noticed something else amiss. I watched it as it retreated, and felt my teeth grind together at the realization that the previous injuries I’d inflicted were healing rapidly. Scar tissue remained, but even the teeth had grown back, save for the new ones that had been shattered just now. Even as I watched, a stalk had reformed, and a new red light began to wink into existence, flanked by a second light that hung limply next to it.
“You can regenerate, too?” acidly I watched it go back to lurking on the edge of my range. No wonder it was willing to fall back. I would fail a battle of attrition eventually, there was no ‘wearing down’ this biotic.
But, there was still another chance. The Angler paused in its movements, hesitation clear in its posture for the first time since the beginning of the battle.
64 cold mechanical lights gleamed in the darkness farther out. The Determinators had arrived, and the Angler’s red light flared meaninglessly in the face of the stone-cold killing machines that now fed me with every point of view on the biotic as possible.
“Now, let's start the real hunt, shall we?” A humorless, cruel grin split my face as we began to fire.