Chapter 98 - Cleanup

*(mood song: "Linkin Park - Burn It Down")

--- sand field ---

After pacifying Crabina, Inky put on her power armor and Erik put on the big power armor, while Rose piloted the transport with the bombs, as Anhuka went back to the village, ready to rally her people.

Erik made a hole on the ground with his rotatory fist while Inky swam around with her armor, it was lighter and had lots of propulsors, she was carrying a big rifle to snipe crabs that were popping out due to the vibrations.

They finally set up the bomb and got to a safe distance, it charged as the pressure accumulated and then.

*BOOOOM!*

An enormous bubble explosion pushed the sand apart, with lots of dead and half dead crabs emerging, leaving a 30 meters wide crater, Erik even noticed tunnels in the sand, thinking 'they remind me of thermites or ants... this wild crab community is looking strange...'

Rose: [how many times do I need to remind you, they are not crabs, just beings that have an exoskeleton and I called them crabs after seeing your memories okay?]

Erik: [...fine, my naming sense sucks, then I will call them... mmmh... crabs is fine, but why are they acting like this? some look different]

Rose: [well, not necessarily, some could be workers and others soldiers]

Erik: [what about the ones that lived on the base then?]

Rose: [different species, even in your world, bogavantes are loners, while lobster live in groups, that's it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, they will probably get killed by the bombs anyway]

Erik: [alright...]

They lightly sealed the holes and killed the stragglers as Erik went inside the hole, the wild crabs tried to attack him but they couldn't harm his power armor, and the bigger fortress crabs could somewhat stop him, but not for long, as he ripped them with just a little effort. Before long, the second bomb was in place.

*BOOOOM!*

The second explosion made the hole way bigger and deeper, a cloud of debris and dead crabs getting pulverized amongst millions of bubbles.

Erik then noticed the fortress crabs were emerging more often and bigger ones, turning to Inky "go back to base and call the Elders and army, better not take any risks"

Inky nodded and quickly sped away, leaving a trail of bubbles, as Erik thought 'with this amount they could raid the village in the future, and without the sharksnakes to hunt them, they would become a big problem if left alone.

He kept the crab's busy along Rose, as 30 minutes later the army arrived, surrounding the 40 meters wide crater, more than 40 fortress crabs trying to immobilize Erik in the super armor as he kept ripping them apart, and Rose ran around in her power armor, precisely severing crab vitals as she ran past, using ripped off sharp claws from a worker crab's claws like they were daggers.

Seeing the overkill scene, the Elders were all wondering 'were we really needed here?', in particular, Timberly was comparing her own armor to Inky's, her own looking less powerful and frowning 'I want one too...'.

--- octopeople city ---

30 minutes earlier, Inky had arrived at the octopeople city with her helmet taken off, all octopeople had stood gawking at her as she passed, the Elders included, seeing as she came walking on 2 legs.

Shana managed to recover first "how...is... what happened to you?"

Inky: "oh, these little changes? Erik just helped me become more like him so we could impregnate each other, by making me drink a become human smoothie, nothing special"

Timberly: "smoothie?"

Inky: "yeah, he created them just for me, but anyways, Erik is fighting right now, so rally the troops, we must go support him!"

All the Elder's faces got serious as Timberly roared "ALL FORCES! PREPARE FOR COMBAT!" quickly going for her own semi power armor along with the rest of the Elder's.

--- Back to the present ---

The other troops also felt a bit cheated... they had been called for war, but seeing the carnage going on in the crater, it just seemed like a hunt, and an easy one at that as all the big crabs were going after the Fifth Elder, the surrounding troops shooting from the side easily killing as many as they dared to come out.

Soon the third bomb was set, as the crabs coming out couldn't stop the octopeoples firepower, they got to a safe distance and detonated it.

*BOOOOM!*

Something different happened this time though, the crater collapsed, revealing a big chamber dug on the stone, and a massive crab in the center, thousands of crabs protecting their queen.

*(https://ibb.co/YZWjMW4)

Erik could see some workers still digging at the rock, crushing it [interesting... so they don't just dig in the sand, the sand is a by product of their activity digging the rock...]

Rose: [yes, probably took them hundreds of years to add this sand field to this rocky plateau]

Erik: [well, the result is the same anyway, they are in the way] he raised his hand high and lowered it, roaring an order "FIRE!"

*BAAAANG! BANG! BANG!* shots reverberated all around as the octopeople opened fire, killing all crabs that desperately tried to climb the slippery sand slope, the bullets hitting their queen seemed to just bounce off her exoskeleton, only Timberly's hand cannon left cracks.

*KRYYYYYKHKHKH* the queen started standing up as she protected her face with her frontal claws.

Seeing the 10 meter queen protect her face, Erik went out of the armor and into the nearby transport, aiming the rail gun on top to her face "bye".

*ZHBANG*

A gory cloud erupted as her head was pierced, her corpse falling to the bottom and crushing thousand of the eggs that layered the lower stone chamber. That seemed to make all other crabs crazy, as they all charged in the direction of the transport crazily, but it was no use though, they were easily picked and exterminated.

After some minutes, the colony had been exterminated, Anhuka and her tribe arriving, she saw Erik standing by the crater looking down and approached him.

Anhuka: "I brought help"

Erik snapped out of his thoughts as he turned around "thanks, you can start by cleaning all of the corpses"

Anhuka: "won't the octopeople want some?"

Erik: "well, they are repulsed by crabs, I will grind some shell for them though, it should help enhance their bones".

Anhuka: "okay, I will tell my people to move the bodies-"

Erik: "ah, but save me the queens body, tell the octopeople to transport it to base tissue samples and the organs, including what remains of the brain, and put them on the freezer, you can eat the rest"

Anhuka: "okay, what about the eggs? some still seem to be alive"

Erik: "...need to test some things, try to raise them if you can, or just eat them if they die"

Anhuka: "alright, it shall be done..." whispering "...my husband"

Erik heard her, but he was distracted examining the crater with augmented reality 'Im the crater is 48 meters in diameter... okay we will expand it to 50, the chamber dug on the stone is 20 meters deep so... if we clear the rubble and set the dome on top, we can then add a nanobot filament and let them seal the crack, then we could fill it with air and cover it again with sand, digging down a cylinder into the rock and to the sides, creating their own city, and maybe eventually connecting to the caves..., also a tunnel connecting to the octo city... so much to do... I will also use the robot slaves...' he concentrated and said in his mind [Rose, can you get the robot slaves to start building the connecting tunnels to different areas of the plateau? now without those crabs digging around, we can truly conquer and fortify this place, we need lots of tunnels to escape to in case of danger and to navigate around, make them 10 meters deep into the granite, and with armoured doors]

Rose: [... okay, I will make those puppets start digging, since that will take a really long time or more of them, but I don't have enough metal for so many armoured doors]

Erik: [well, then leave the last 10 meters of tunnels undone and focus on some good armoured doors sealing the city and other facilities for now, I also need to keep adding weight over the Dome as we dig down, so much air could blow the dome apart otherwise... and to join them better, add some metallic joints between rocks like they did in ancient Greece, that would be much stronger than just sealing the cracks]

*(https://ibb.co/H2cwKLB)

Rose: [okay, but don't worry too much, the block will be hundreds of tons and I will join them using nanobots, it will be thousands of tons of stone, and the more than 10 meters of sand and then the water pressure over it, would take years for problems to occur]

Erik: [alright... I will go back and start planning the infiltration] his stomach rumbled [or eat something first] he touched his belly, feeling 2 bumps, one bigger than the other and smiling.

--- Kitchen ---

He grabbed big pots and cooked huge pieces of queen crab meat, while others he baked in the oven, making the entire base smell like crab 'this is gonna be good' he made some aioli sauce while waiting 'luckily the garlic cloves grow really well', he then remembered 'true, we also have that rooster, I wonder how it will taste, first I will boil it a bit to rip off the feathers easily, then empty it and... fill it with crab queen meat, and then... some garlic, wrap it in big leafed kelp and bake it in the oven I guess... yeah, that should be good'.

--- Second Floor ---

The Elders were inquiring Inky as she showed off her new body.

Shana: "I don't know, but won't it be harder to swim like that?"

Inky: "I have the armor, and also the tail to move me forward on water, swimming on the open water is dangerous anyway"

Timberly nodded to that "that... is indeed true, underground seems to be a much better choice with Erik's technological help, we might... even be able to go back..."

The elders seemed to go silent as Inky asked "going back? to where?"

Shana: "to search the ruins of our old city, to search for the relics of our mothers... to search for our childhood homes... to do that... would be a dream we would have never even dreamed would come true..."

Jennifer: "but thanks to Erik..." she touched her belly "we might be able to..."

Inky: "oh..."

Megan: "yeah, you are young so you never knew, since you were born here, this is all you know".

Inky gestured to the base "so? was it better than this?"

Shana: "that depends, our population was more than 20 times greater so certainly not many people could have luxuries, and certainly there were no hot baths, moving image screens or things like that, but we had works of art, theaters, singing, weapons, cloth and weapon makers, it was a truly enjoyable life"

Inky: "for all? you say all of the population liked that life?"

Shana: "well, we were kids so I can't be sure, but everyone smiled when I strolled down the streets with my guards"

Inky: "right..." her stomach rumbled "well, let's go eat something then.

--- kitchen ---

Erik had set up a big table, he wasn't sure if the Elder's would eat crab but since it was cooked it wouldn't mutate them, and in the end, cooked food is way easier to digest. He plated the entire table with enough food and even made some abyssal and pigfish meat so they didn't complain about the crab, and crispy ortiguillas as a side dish, Anhuka and Crabina had brought back a lot so there were still plenty, he would think about growing them if they were not everywhere, it was a good food source.

The Elder's, Inky, and Anhuka hand in hand with Crabina, arrived as they sat at the table, everyone starting to eat as Erik and Anhuka sat at both sides of Crabina, Erik cutting some rooster meat and putting it on her plate.

Erik: "try some"

Crabina ate some and her eyes illuminated "it's tasty daddy! the taste of victory!"

Erik chuckled "it's just chicken"

Anhuka and the rest also tried the dishes on the table as they had a wonderful meal with no complaints emerging.

Shana looked at her sisters and they nodded, looking back at Erik "Erik... we were wondering... do you have any plans on going to the ruins of our old city?"

Erik looked at them seriously and said "yes, but first I was thinking of fortifying this entire plateau and conquering those below, once we have the caves and everything connected, we will have a proper seed for our civilization to flourish"

Rose: [and reactivate the forge since it also absorbs heat from the lava, thus reducing volcanic activity on the area]

Erik: "and also to search the caves for special resources"

The Elders nodded to each other, as Shana talked again "a sensible choice, we agree with it"

And they all continued eating, with Erik eating even the bones and legs of the tasty rooster with his stronger jaws, Crabina soon imitating her daddy with ease as her tiny jaws were even stronger than his, in fact, all of them had jaws that could easily crush the feeble chicken bones.