Chapter 197 - Blood Core

*(mood song: "Heroes del Silencio - Sirena Varada")

Artalia: "Well? we have a lot of catching up to do, but first, how did you find me? did the red algae from outside disappear?"

Even Timberly was dwarfed by the huge octopeople, but she mustered the courage to talk.

Timberly: "Is it really you... Artalia?"

Artalia cackled in what sounded like clicks underwater: "Last time I saw you you were a shrimp, look at you now how tall... yes, it's me child"

Timberly: "Huh hmmm can I...-"

Erik stepped forward: *ejem* "I believe I can answer any questions you might have better..."

Artalia: "Hm? you... are not octopeople right? take off your helmet so I can see your face better"

Erik: "Sure, but I can only do it for a moment" he took a deep breath as his entire body accumulated oxygen inside, and in a moment the helmet retracted into the power armor.

Artalia: "Definitely not one of my people, and that weird technology..."

Timberly: "He's human auntie, his spaceship crashed on our planet and we have been living together" Timberly noticed Artalias confusion and clarified "He comes from the stars auntie"

Artalia was surprised: "Is that so... human... so you don't originate from this planet child?"

Erik's helmet reformed so he could talk: "That's indeed the case, though I've changed quite a bit since I arrived on this planet"

Artalia smiled widely: "Change is always the only constant haha~ I see my people have changed too" looking at Timberly ", and that technology... did you develop it?" her eyes twinkling in anticipation.

Erik: "Well actually-"

Rose entered the room along with Inky and the bots.

Rose: "I did"

Artalia: "You... aren't alive? I sense no signals from you..."

Rose: "Hoh, so you have a vision similar to Erik's to detect electric fields... but you just can't detect mine, as while this body is indeed a construct with lots of electricity inside, the systems are refined and insulated perfectly, so there's no leakage"

Artalia didn't understand but nodded anyway: "...I see"

Inky: "So if we are done with the introductions... can we get going?"

Artalia: "Oh yeah, how did you guys find me?"

Erik raised his hand: "I did, I sensed a weird but familiar signal so I decided to check it out"

Artalia nodded: "Fascinating..."

Inky: "Ugh, can we go already"

Artalia: "Did you guys kill the algae outside? 

Rose: "We pushed it back, so it shouldn't be a problem"

Artalia: "Hahaha... you have underestimated that thing... it easily lets you in, but will never let you out..., and once you get tired a tentacle will drag you away before you even notice... it's been living here for a long time..."

Erik: "Did you try to escape?"

Artalia pointed at the entrance: "I have tried multiple times in the past and almost died on multiple occasions, I..." an intermittent clicking was heard as she cackled sadly "I don't even know how long I've been here..." 

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* 

Multiple explosions were heard from outside as the place vibrated.

Rose: "Well don't worry, I'm keeping the algae at bay outside, for now... let's explore this facility, Erik check the samples"

Erik nodded and approached the tubes.

Artalia: "Don't bother, I've eaten them all already, not even bones remain by now..."

Erik checked the tubes and indeed, all had been breached, the samples were too deteriorated to be of any use, and both vials and test subjects had all been opened. With a frustrated sigh, he turned around.

Erik: "Have you explored the rest of the base?"

Artalia: "I did as I searched for food..., the lurkers occupy the North side, but we respect each other's territories, so I only hunt one or two of them a month"

Erik: "Lurkers?"

Artalia: "Yeah... they smell similar to the octopeople, but they are twisted creatures, all different but similar at the same time, they are the reason I'm trapped here"

Rose: "They didn't seem that much of a threat though?"

Artalia: "They aren't, but as I was exploring in search of ruins one day, I caught their smell, and thinking one of my brethren was in danger I rushed to help, but alas... the algae trapped me here too..."

Erik nodded: "hmm, well have you seen any kind of machinery or strange things in this base?"

Artalia: "You will have to be more specific child, everything seems strange to me here..."

Rose: "Something with lots of tubes?"

Artalia nodded: "There is indeed a place like that, on the North, the habitat of the lurkers has lots of cables going inside a device, but there's no steam intakes to it"

Erik looked at Rose and nodded: "Seems like we have an objective... but before that..." one of the bots came forward and gave Erik a metallic collar and a rifle "Here, put this around your neck to understand lots of other languages, and this rifle for a ranged weapon"

Artalia inspected both: "What is... how does it work?"

Erik: "The necklace will translate your speech so it is easier to understand for us as the necklaces transmit the meaning to each other and then translate it" he then pointed at the rifle "As for the rifle that is a miniature rail gun cannon"

Artalia put on the collar as the translations instantly became faster and clearer, and looked at the weapon in her hands: "I don't know... I made a steam cannon long ago and it was heavy and powerful, this doesn't seem like much?"

Erik laughed: "Actually, we have your cannon"

Artalia frowned: "That can't be right, I left it in my secret lab under the library" She looked at Timberly "Didn't your mother warn you that area is off limits?"

Timberly gritted her teeth: "Actually... no, she never had the chance to do so..."

Artalia frowned: "What are you saying..."

Timberly looked at the floor sadly: "Dead... they are... all dead, only the children were able to run away and start over, we explored the city some time ago and it was now all ruins full of monsters everywhere..."

Artalia's face paled: "That... no... how? my queen... dead?"

Timberly: "It's a long story, auntie, we will catch up once we escape from here..."

Artalia stood up wearily and nodded: "So be it... seems like we really have a lot to catch up on... let's go I will guide you"

She slowly swam as everyone else followed behind her, the dark hallway illuminated by the lights of their visors.

Their heavy steps sank into the mud, as clouds of mud lifted up from the bottom, blocking their lights if they slowed down.

Artalia couldn't help but look at their legs and sigh to herself, their descendants had chosen a very inefficient evolution, if their city was still standing she would take them to the shapers to feed them the right things to evolve back into the right path.

Screeches could be heard at the end of the hallway as Artalia waited on a corner, signaling for the others to stop too.

Erik: "What is-" but Artalia tried to cover his mouth, tapping on his helmet.

She got closer and whispered: "lurkers up ahead, stay quiet, they have a good hearing..."

Erik nodded and they all walked forward as silently as they physically could. Turning on the corner they saw four lurkers chomping down on the mollusks and algae growing on the walls, as they easily chewed through the shells.

Erik couldn't help but think that that's why the walls were so clean.

Erik motioned for her to try her rifle, but Artalia just took out a metallic bone dagger from her backpack, jetting forward and slicing one of the lurker's fish heads right off, and bolting to the next. Before she could reach it though, Inky was already there, and sliced it in half.

A spear flew past them from Timberly and impaled the third on the chest. As the fourth turned to flee two bullets ripped its chest and head from Erik and Rose's rifles.

Erik: "And that's that..." he walked closer and examined the third one still gasping as it died, one of his power armor's fingers turned into a blade as he easily pierced the temple of the creature, ending its suffering.

Meanwhile, Artalia ripped the arms of the first one and started eating them.

Artalia: "You should eat when you can, fresh meat is a rare commodity here"

Timberly quickly imitated her, eager to impress her aunt, ripping her spear out of the third one and ripping also an arm off as she chewed on it, her face quickly turning into disgust as she tried to force herself to keep eating.

Erik chuckled as he saw that: "what's wrong, is it that bad?"

Timberly: "No... the flav- ugh.. the

flavor is just... intense... ugh" 

Inky ripped off an arm from her prey and took a bite, swallowing it and dropping the arm: "It tastes bad, sick prey ain't good"

Artalia shrugged: "...guess I got used to their flavor after eating them for so many years, we need to leave some alive in case your escape plan doesn't work"

Rose: "Relax, I'm blasting that algae bastard as we speak, using the sonar I also found its core, it's frantically using algae in layers to protect it, but will eventually die~"

Artalia nodded, still not fully convinced: "Let's continue, follow me"

The debris on the floor kept increasing as they advanced, getting closer and closer to the lurker's habitat.

They had two more encounters on the way, but they easily dealt with them, as the lurkers seemed extremely scared of Artalia, swimming away from her whenever possible.

They finally arrived at a dilapidated huge room, cables covered the ceiling though most were now broken, all leading to a huge machine in the middle of the room the size of a truck.

Erik found a control panel, but as expected it was damaged.

Erik: "Those... lurkers have chewed the cables... this thing is toasted"

Rose: "Let me try" cables extended from her fingers inside the terminal, searching for a memory storage still functional "Aha, this will do" a side of the panel popped open and a glass panel was popped open, Rose then grabbed it and introduced it inside an identical reader slot that just formed on her thoracic cage "hmm interesting"

Erik kept inspecting the middle of the machine as he asked back: "found anything?"

Rose: "It seems to be an attempt to make a super fabricator capable of assembling life forms, but all attempts were met with imperfect or dead creations, it comes with precise schematics of the entire machine and modules too..."

Erik: "Hmm we could still be used to create food, or to recreate samples" he looked at the size of the machine "Not sure how to get this enormous thing out of here though..."

Rose: "Hmm we just need the main molecular dispersion nozzle, it seems to be made of a special material of a super compressed bio alloy, the rest I should be able to recreate it easily~"

Erik examined the machine and noticed a robotic arm in the middle like an oversized version of a normal fabricator.

Erik: "I guess it's this?" seeing Rose nod he disconnected the arm and gave it to Rose "Here you go"

Rose: "Excellent, the creation of flesh... I will have to research this too"

Erik: "Indeed, so many things we could make, from a lasagna to some Iberian fuet, a Cantabrian mountain stew... haven't tasted some in forever"

Rose: "Hmm I would still need a sample to recreate the taste, though I was thinking more about creating synthetic organs"

Erik: "That's also a good idea, though a machine to materialize food would be quite cool"

Artalia examined the machine but couldn't decipher how it worked: "That transparent slab, how did you read it?"

Rose popped it out of her chest: "This? there are tiny imperfections in the glass that can be interpreted as data"

Artalia then took off her backpack and took out three similar slabs: "Could you read these for me then?"

Rose took them: "Where did you find them?"

Artalia: "Two in the room I was in before, they were inside a machine in the back, the piece seemed important so I kept it. The third one I found inside a device near the entrance"

Rose: "Hmm, do you usually keep pieces or random machines"

Artalia smiled: "Only things that seem useful, a curious mind is the first step to creation, like some green cubes I found once... you must have seen them if you found my lab, they produced infinite heat, I called them green fire~"

Erik chuckled: "We did find the cubes, though using just the heat produced is extremely inefficient, they produce electricity actually" 

Artalia: "Electricity... tell me more"

Erik: "Sure, but better once we are back inside the submarine, we can talk as much as you want once we escape this place"

Artalia nodded: "Alright, I can wait but" she turned to Rose "can you tell me the contents of those tablets"

Rose nodded as she placed the first one inside herself: "Sure, let's see... this one details the various successful specimens that were shipped off the planet, and the failed ones were... used as feed for other specimens, or shipped to fighting arenas off planet... and the failed but promising specimens were frozen for sampling, those should be the ones you ate... as for completely failed specimens... it seems they just released them to a... monster outside, maybe the algae thing... the rest is detailed genetic scans of each subject... hmm we could use this data for the replicator" she put in the second tablet inside her "this one... hmm seems like they... liked doing 'reproductive tests' to the successful specimens... they analyze in extreme detail thousands of kinds of genetic combinations and compatibility for reproduction with different species..." Rose shrugged "I might find a use to it... maybe for Anhuka... okay next"

Rose introduced the third one and started reading: "instructions for the security systems, emergency protocols, and a machine to... hmm isolate this place from my senses..." her face becoming serious"We need to find that thing"

Erik nodded: "Where to?"

Rose: "Should be close to the entrance to the right, inside a security control room"

Erik turned to the replicator: "Are you sure you don't need any other pieces?"

Rose scanned it one last time: "Yeah, the other pieces are too heavy and damaged for transport, I got what I needed from the schematics anyway"

Erik nodded and looked at Artalia: "Can you guide us where you found that third tablet?"

Artalia nodded as she started to move: "Alright follow me, we shouldn't stay in the lurker's nest for too long anyway, if they get cornered for too long they become really aggressive and launch suicide attacks all at once" She tapped her armor and pointed at some scratches on it "If not for my armor I would be dead the last time that happened, I was just eating some of their eggs to see if they tasted better, turns out they taste worse... but the lurkers went crazy"

Erik: "Did you make that armor? How?"

Artalia swam slower to talk as the others followed her.

Artalia smiled and looked at his power armor: "Perhaps we could share some knowledge in that area afterwards too, but I can tell you it is made from the scale of a leviathan tempered on a lava river and hammered into this shape, its quite a rare find and takes a lot of processing"

Erik: "Quite impressive to forge underwater"

Artalia: "Underwater... its strange I understood that"

Rose: "Abstract meanings or unknown to the wearer are translated as explanations directly to the brain, you are welcome~"

Artalia: "I did try to use a steam room to forge, but I couldn't enter it without burning alive so I had to use remote tools... I did hear about the surface, but it gives me headaches to go up so much... Interesting"

Erik: "Seems like we will have a lot to talk about indeed" he looked at Rose "She might need a hyperbaric chamber though..."

Rose nodded: "I will adapt the diving chamber, she would barely fit inside other areas inside the submarine anyways..."

Timberly: "Why don't we get headaches?"

Rose: "She has lived at even lower depths for a long time and adapted to them, no adaptation is ever perfect so her just getting a headache is already quite promising"

The lurkers didn't get in their way as they reached the entrance of the base and Artalia guided them to a room to the right from the entrance, past a broken set of doors and through a broken wall, all broken through with brute strength.

Artalia noticed everyones looks and smiled: "I can feel it when there's hidden technology, I've explored this entire base and maaany others already"

Erik nodded and activated his sight as sparks danced in his eyes, then he could also see it, there was still some sort of energy coming from the next room, like a candle in a dark room.

They entered the room and saw lots of cables connected to a sphere the size of a car, containing something floating inside that appeared to be a piece of tissue in the form of a sphere with hundreds of cables and tubes connected to the flesh.

Rose's eyes instantly dilated: "How dare they..."

Erik: "What's wrong?"

Rose was grinding her teeth as sparks jumped out of her and boiled the surrounding waters: "That's a piece of my brain tissue... how did they... urghhh bastards!"

Erik's face darkened too: "We will get revenge eventually, focus for now Rose"

Rose nodded and approached the sphere, connecting to it: "It still has power for a couple thousand more years... seems like the power supply to this... system... was considered of the highest priority... It's designed to read my brain waves and cancel them..."

Erik: "Like jamming?"

Rose nodded: "Similar yes, but..." Her eyes lit up and the tissue inside squirmed to life, as Rose grabbed the sphere and ripped it apart with pure brute strength, glowing lines all over her body, then she ripped all the cables off and put the tissue close to her chest with her right hand, as it squirmed inside her through a hole that appeared on her chest and went inside her, Rose then paused for a moment.

Erik: "Rose?"

Rose: "Kukuku~ It will never work again, this piece of me has not been idle, it collected all of their bases, data, conversations... and this processing power... truly worthy of a superior brain like mine"

Erik: "Is it fine to take the tissue out of the sphere?"

Rose laughed: "Yes, and I know how they got it... the guardians of the main digester numbed a piece of my tissue and smuggled it out... kukuku~" Her body literally boiled the surrounding waters in anger.

Erik: "Is there anything else here?"

Rose calmed down: "No, my tissue already collected all the information here, it used the maintenance bots to turn off all other systems so it could sustain itself for longer, even the bots eroded away with the passage of time, sigh... I understand the loneliness... let's get out of here..."

They came out and saw a dozen lurkers crawling all over their vehicle, biting and scratching at it.

Rose bolted forward as her hands turned to sharp claws and turbines grew all around her body, like a sharp torpedo flying in the water she quickly dispatched all of the lurkers.

Erik: "Wow... how did you do that?"

Rose smiled as her body went back to its humanoid form: "A piece of my brain is now inside this artificial body, the levels of processing power are way different between a remotely operated artificial brain and a piece of my real brain... it's like recovering a piece of myself I had lost..."

Erik and the others walked to the vehicle as Erik's power armor glowed and reduced in size to a basic underwater suit.

Erik: "I'm happy for you Rose, now let's get out of here~"

Rose smiled and opened the vehicle: "Get inside everyone~"

Artalia looked at everyone getting inside and followed suit, barely crawling inside and resting with her body on top of everyone in the back.

Artalia: "This is really uncomfortable..."

Erik laughed and was about to get on the copilot suit when he noticed the sample container on his belt was vibrating.

Erik muttered: "Isn't that the sample from the probe? the red algae..."

Suddenly the container bursted as a red algae covered him, and a thick red algae tentacle reached in from outside and grabbed him, yanking him away at high speed.

Inky, Timberly, Rose: "ERIK!!!"

Rose turned the vehicle on and followed, but as soon as they exited the cave the algae blocked their way with a wall of red algae.

Rose: "MOVE!!! I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS SHIT!!!!"

The submarine quickly approached as it rammed straight into the algae walls, the walls' nanobots quickly changing into chainsaws as salvo after salvo was fired from the railguns.

Rose quickly drove the vehicle inside, crashing against a wall: "EVERYONE GET TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! WE ARE GONNA KILL THAT SHIT!"

Everyone nodded, running to the control center and putting on nerve helmets, connecting to the submarine's defenses.

Timberly's voice resonated through the submarine: "ALL OCTOPEOPLE REPORT TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!"

-- Meanwhile, inside the red algae --

Erik was dragged and hit against the sea floor at high speed, like a rag in the wind, but he gritted through the pain and stabbed his hands into the rock floor, but it was no use, the rock was just ripped off as he felt his arms about to dislocate, and then his right arm actually did.

*AAAAARGHHHH!!!* "YOU FUCKING THIIIIING!!!"

The water boiled all around him as his power armor grew way bigger than normal, sparks jumping all around as the algae burned off and reatreated for a moment, but then as if determined surrounded him and dragged him away anyway, all while getting burned and torn off.

"If you are so determined to die, so be it..."

The algae started to be absorbed by the power armor, but more kept coming and dragging him, like an unending tide.

Soon the algae parted away and he was left standing in front of a giant glowing red core at least forty meters tall and sixty meters wide.

With algae tentacles as thick as whole trucks extending from it in his direction.

Erik's was shocked: "Fuck..." but he soon smiled "This is gonna be a workout to kill~" bubbles surrounded the power armor as his body sparkled with pure lightning cursing his nerves "LET'S FEAST IN CARNAGE!!!"