Escort

Red October, the ship groans under the relentless assault of massive squids. Tentacles slam against the hull, and alarms blare throughout the ship. Damage reports pour in over the crackling intercom, but no one panics.

When the 'Red October' received the news. The commander told everyone on the ship about it. Different from what is thought, no one is crying, no one has shown despair on their face, they just continue doing their job numbly, like a machine. They have already accepted their fate, and have prepared since the beginning they joined the army.

"All hands, this is the commander. You've heard the Fleet's decision. We are the shield of the Motherland, and shields often bear the brunt of the blow."

The commander's voice remains calm, steady, and unshaken.

"This is not the end. This is the culmination of everything we trained for. Every drill, every sacrifice, every sleepless night has led us here. You are sailors of the Soviet Navy, guardians of our seas. And even in this, our final hour, we fulfil our duty."

"Biush"

A small sound that almost no one can hear. A destroyer that just nicely has the range to fire and not get attacked by the squids launched two torpedoes towards the 'Red October'. 

Sailors in the 'Red October' also spotted this, yet, they remain calm. Do as the drill, go to where they are supposed to be.

"They will write about you. They will remember you, not as victims, but as heroes who stood firm against the unthinkable. Hold your heads high. Our actions will echo through history."

Looking at the torpedo going towards them, everyone seems lost in thought. Even though Gorshkov has ordered the launch of torpedoes, they still prefer to launch a rather weak one, but it does not make any difference. 

The 'Red October' has already been seriously damaged by the squids, their structure has already been heavily deformed. It can be easily broken, and even the weakest torpedo can destroy it. The power system has lost function, the ship can no longer move.

Serina is on the helicopter looking at all these happenings.

"After the torpedoes explode, it will take some time for the ships to sink, they did not aim for the ammunition depot, so the probability of ammunition explosion is low, even if there is, just like I say, we still got some little time to get 'The Ecliptic Veil', the ammunition depot is on the other side," Lieutenant explained.

"Glory to the Soviet Union! Glory to the Red Army! Glory to the humanity!"

Just a second before the torpedoes exploded, the voice of the commander of 'Red October' came on the radio.

"Boom"

Two exploding voices came. Looking down from helicopters, the attack works, two squids that hiding under the ship have been killed, have been blown into pieces, and dark red blood flows out, dyeing the sea the same colour as it.

"Now! Check whether any squid are coming for us."

The helicopters lower their altitude as planned, and Serina on it also starts to use its magic, checking on the sea.

Except for killing the squids, the explosion also destroyed 'Red October'. Furthermore, the squid attack caused the ship to tilt at a large angle, sending objects and personnel on board plummeting into the sea.

Only a few remain who are still struggling to support. A ladder is then dropped down, and the soldiers protecting the 'Ecliptic Veil' make a strong jump to catch it without any danger.

He then continues to climb up, and this action gives some of his comrades behind him the chance to catch the ladder as well.

When he entered the helicopter, he gave 'The Ecliptic Veil' to the lieutenant and said, "Reporting to Comrade Lieutenant, everyone in the 'Red October' has done our mission, waiting for the next order."

Lieutenant silence for a moment and salute,

"The highest respect to our comrade in the 'Red October', you guys done your mission well, and the motherland will remember you all. Take a rest soldiers."

"For the Soviet Union and our people!"

The soldiers did not move, but standing at there. He trying to control his emotions, but the tears in his eyes still tell everything. He just lost a few hundreds of comrades who used to train and work together. 

Serina stands aside, remaining silent as well. She has witnessed the formidable strength of the Red Army, a people united under the ideology of Socialism, but now, she sees the other side of the Red Army.

Soldiers are willing to sacrifice themself even if they know they are going to die, and not complain about the order. Is this also the power of Socialism? Or just how they train their army?

Her understanding of the Soviets is still limited even after all this time.

On the other side, 

"Comrade Admiral, the mission is a success, our men got it." the adjutant reported.

He nodded, but it was not the end yet.

"What is the distance between our fleet and Sevastopol?"

"Approximately 2000km."

"Our Yak-38 flying range is 1300km, it is enough. Give 'The Ecliptic Veil' to our pilot, let him carry it and bring it back to Sevastopol. Inform Sevastopol to prepare air-to-air refuel for our plane."

"Affirmative."

Soon, when the helicopter returned to the Kiev class, 'The Ecliptic Veil' was assigned to a pilot. To maximize its range, the ground staff discarded anything deemed useless or unnecessary, resulting in an unarmed aircraft. Two others will escort the plane.

Gorshkov, watching the plane ascend, showed a brief sign of concern, realizing that 'The Ecliptic Veil' is far more valuable than they had indicated, prompting others to exert considerable effort to secure it.

"Admiral, we have more squids approaching us. We've lost contact with a few submarines a few kilometres away. What should we do?"

How much more are there? This question annoyed Gorshkov, but it is not the time for him to think. Without hesitation, he gives his next order.

"Nuke! Detonate a nuke!" Gorshkov ordered.

The adjutant was stunned.

"Admiral, it is pretty close to us. We might die."

"We will die if we let those squid get close to us. At least we get some chance by using nuke. Stop wasting time, detonate one small yield nuke near us."

"Affirmative."

Soon, all ships got their orders to take nuclear protection measures.

A missile carried a nuclear head from the Kirov-class launched immediately.

The world seems to be silent. The nuke explodes just ten kilometres away from the fleet. Even if it is a small nuclear weapon, its shockwaves still break many ship glasses. Surprisingly it did not affect much on the Soviet planes, the emp caused by it is limited, plus another reason why their electronic devices are behind is that all their devices are built for nuclear war.

They chose another path compared to the West, as they believed that future war would be conducted mainly by nukes and they needed electronic devices that were not affected much by the nukes emp, or even thought that electronic devices would malfunction during nuclear war, causing them to ignore the importance of electronic devices.

The explosion of nukes does work again, all the squid are forced to show themself on the surface of the sea. Their camouflage lost its effect, making all their skin turn black again. And the rest is just pure massacre on them since they have lost their only advantage.

"Hoooo.." Gorshkov sighs again. The most desperate moment has passed. Destiny does not seem like having a favourite in the Red Navy, they always suffer the most heavy loss since they came to this world.

"Are there any squid bodies that are still considered complete?"

"No Admiral, we need to blow them into pieces so that they lose their ability to continue the attack on us."

"I will need you all to collect at least one of them, if possible, catch it alive, just blow up all their tentacles and catch it."

"It will be challenging, Admiral."

"That is not my problem, solve it."

However, when comes to action, it does not happen like how the adjutant thinks. They easily caught one alive. All the auxiliary ships already have various equipment to do with them, as one of their targets is to collect all the special spices in this world.

A squid that has been severely injured, with half of its body blown off, has lost the ability to move, but it is not dead yet. Its strong regenerative ability gives it a chance to continue growing back its lost parts.

One auxiliary ship came to him before that, and salvaged it, using all its way to make sure the squid were not able to move and cause destructive damage to the ship.

The sea was in ruins after the war, every ship was doing its job, saving sailors, cleaning the battlefield, and collecting the corpses.

Eight hours later, an airbase in the Sevastopol. A Yak-38 has landed on it, and 'The Ecliptic Veil' has been given to the other in the base by the pilot. And then again given to another pilot, he will send it to Siberia with his MIG-25, a plane that has the fastest speed of 3 Mach.

After getting details information about 'The Ecliptic Veil', some of the high-ranking officers are already excited to see how it works.