Chapter 176 - Hiding

*(mood song: "Foo Fighters - Run")

Sarah went to a nearby window, and heavy steps could soon be heard, a light coming from the previously dark hallway.

Rose: [Run! there's a small army of fifty lizardmen coming!]

Sarah hurriedly picked up her equipment, and rifle in hand, got to the top of the boat, but it was too late.

Rose: [duck down! there's no time to run now...]

Just as Sarah laid down on the deck of the metal boat, a lizardman carrying a jagged butcher knife came through the door, on his other hand a leg chopped off from one of the corpses in the other room, and chewing on it as he entered the room and saw the boat, quickly shouting something back.

Sarah observed as fifty lizardmen armed with crossbows and metallic weapons filled the room, in the middle of them, six thin lizardmen were pushed in the direction of the spaceship, a loud rumble like laugh as they did so.

The unlucky six soon approached the spaceship and stepped on venomous spikes Sarah had hidden on the mud near the lower port entrance, quickly falling to the muddy floor as they writhed in pain.

The rest of the lizardmen became serious as they slowly approached the boat.

Rose: [you need to create a distraction and escape...]

Sarah: "How? there's way too many, and their crossbows are huge, they would skewer me with one bolt..."

Rose: [hmmm... oh, I have an idea, get ready to run~]

Sarah: "wha-"

Sarah didn't have time to process when suddenly loud music started to sound from inside the boat, the lizardmen were startled as they started to cautiously approach the port entrance.

Rose: [you picked all your equipment right?]

Sarah: "yes... what are you-"

Rose: [a diversion, a song from Erik's memories, and yes the boat will blow up once you escape, so you better run far]

Sarah: "reading memories so easily... is Erik okay with that?"

Rose: [of course~, he loves it! now chop chop, get ready to run!]

Sarah nodded as her face got serious, her body was now stronger than before, and she could breathe the heavy air, but still, the jump she had to do while carrying heavy equipment worried her, a normal human would inevitably break his legs on such a jump after all.

The confused bulky lizardmen finally boarded the boat, leaving only four of them outside as guards.

Rose: [NOW! RUN!]

Sarah dropped by the side of the boat and kicked the metal surface with both legs, catapulting her away in the direction of the entrance. She rolled on the mud and finally stood up, her spacesuit completely covered in the smelly mud, and started running, unfortunately for her... the guard lizardmen had seen her and run to chase after her.

Rose: [DUCK DOWN!]

Sarah rolled forward as four metal bolts struck the rusty metallic walls, sticking themselves deeply. Sarah's face paled as she ran faster and into the hallway to the other room. She got to the other room but the heavy steps were getting closer.

Sarah could hear the loud steps of the lizardmen behind her as she ran, but something unexpected moved to block the way.

The old repair bot moved to block the way.

Bot (Rose): *keep running! one minute till explosion!*

Sarah arrived at the other room, and most corpses had been removed or disposed of their meat. She didn't have time to pay much attention though, as she ran through an old open rusty metal door and pushed on it to close it, while from the other side she could still hear the lizardmen shouting, but with some pushing she finally closed the screeching door behind her, sighing in relief.

Rose: [keep running! that old rusty door won't hold the pressure at all, the entire lower level might be flooded!]

Sarah turned on her helmet lights and ran down the dark hallway, the steps of her boots resonating in the empty metallic interior.

Rose: [door structural failure in 3... 2... 1...]

Sarah: "hah... s- shit!!!"

*BOOM!!!!*

The entire hallway vibrated and Sarah lost her footing, falling forward.

Rose: [stand up! quick!]

Creaking sounds sound behind her as she stood up, and finally saw a closed door at the end, but at that moment...

*CRASH!*

A torrent of water quickly filled the corridor, crashing her against the closed door, Sarah kept trying to open the door by spinning a circular metal wheel on it, but the door was rusty, and she was quickly submerged by the torrent of water.

Rose: [turn that thing faster! your helmet can barely endure this pressure!]

Sarah: "Im... tryiiiing... hurrr!!!" the wheel finally gave way and opened, and the torrent carried her forward down another hallway, hitting her against wall after wall, on of the hits leaving a huge crack on her helmet.

Rose: [Guard up, cover your helmet!]

Sarah endured for dear life, hugging her head as she was crushed over and over against walls, ceilings, and floors, her entire body was in pain, when suddenly... *woosh* she reached a big room, and hit the floor, as an old lizardman closed a metal door behind her and grunted something at her.

Sarah: [shit! what do I do?] quickly taking out her rifle.

Rose: [calm down and look at his eyes, he's blind...]

Sarah noticed they were a cloudy white and relaxed slightly.

Sarah: [what is he saying?]

Rose: [he's asking you where are the others]

Sarah: [what do I answer?]

Rose: [why bother? just kill him~]

Sarah shrugged and aimed her rifle, *BANG!* the bullet exited the old lizardman's head, splattering his brain on the wall.

Sarah frowned, but finally sighed and looked around, the room was dirty and rusty, with a bed and a small bonfire, a piece of meat skewered over the fire with a rusty metal wire.

Sarah sat on the bed and took off her helmet, leaving it aside, as she grabbed the meat skewer, blew on it to cool it off, and took a bite.

Sarah: "hmm not bad..."

--- Meanwhile on the submarine --

Erik: "can't this go any faster?"

Rose was getting annoyed: "stop asking that! you know already it can't"

Erik kept pacing back and forth inside the control room: "I know... It's just... I can't stop worrying..."

Rose: "it's okay, she's safe right now, on the other hand" she pointed at a monitor "seems like we are headed to a lizardman fleet"

Erik observed the screen, a huge fleet of rusty boats of different sizes.

Erik: "can they detect us?"

Rose: "haha... ah you were serious? no, of course they can't, they have no sonar or electronics" and shrugged "but..." the screen changed and the sea seemed to disappear, revealing huge creatures pulling the ships "but they... do feel the sonar"

Erik: "what are those?"

Rose shrugged: "enslaved creatures pulling boats it seems..."

Erik touched his chin in thought: "...you said Sarah was safe right?"

Rose shrugged "yeah, she seems to be safe for now"

Erik: "okay... then I think we should capture some lizardmen to interrogate..."

Rose frowned: "...you wanna talk to them?"

Erik shrugged: "I guess? its the easiest way to learn about their culture after all"

Rose: "hmm... fine, but if it's information that you want... I have a better idea"

Erik: "collecting some tissue samples would be cool too"

Rose touched her chin in thought: "well indeed, their respiratory and immune systems would be useful in upgrading yours I suppose, and the rest would be useful for the octopeople to upgrade their musculature structure"

The submarine followed the fleet, and observed as they surrounded and harpooned a leviathan to death.

Erik: "how kind of them, they even got us dinner~"

Rose chuckled: "indeed~, FIRE!"

In an instant, the submarine emerged behind the fleet and fired salvo after salvo, the huge railgun projectiles easily tearing the lizardmen scrap boats open from side to side and causing them to sink.

The sea surface was soon full of screaming lizardmen and corpses, and as their beasts either got dragged to the bottom by the sinking boats, or broke free of their chains, the water got bloodier, as the released beasts started eating the fresh leviathan and lizardmen on the water.

Erik was standing on the deck of the submarine along with the octopeople.

Erik: "grab as many of those lizardmen as you can! bring some alive if possible!"

Octopeople: "YES, SIXTH ELDER!"

And they all jumped into the waters as one, the beasts got closer but against the octopeople's advanced weaponry they didn't stand a chance.

An hour went by, and the octopeople collected thirty corpses and ten living lizardmen, that were now tied up together on the submarine deck, growling phrases as they looked around at their captors terrified. At the side of the submarine, a chunk of the leviathan was also recovered as the octopeople voraciously devoured the fresh meat with their sharp teeth.

Rose stood in front of the captured lizardmen and grinned as her hands thinned out into strands, letting them fall on the head of the first lizardmen. The tendrils pierced his flesh and soon his body started spasming, but in just one minute it stopped, nothing but a corpse now.

Seeing this, the other lizardmen seemed to plead with their growls, but it was no use, death was their only future.

Ten minutes later, the ten lizardmen joined the pile of corpses, even the octopeople were terrified enough to avoid eye contact.

Erik was unfazed though: "did you find out anything?"

Rose frowned: "yes... and I don't like it..."

Erik: "what is it?"

Rose: "...they are everywhere... they have hundreds of floating cities..."

Erik was confused: "why did they never went to the North then?"

Rose: "it was in their rules, the beasts that live over the ice are too deadly for their boats..."

Erik: "hmm... well that makes sense, armorlisks were pretty strong... anything else?"

Rose nodded: "remember the access node where we were supposed to go after rescuing Sarah?"

Erik: "yes?"

Rose: "they have built a huge city surrounding it, like a plague they have bred other races with their DNA and then enslaved them... these were just hunters that sell food to cities, they seem to even have floating fortresses...."

Erik saw Rose clenching her teeth in anger and cautiously asked: "...anything else?"

Rose: "yes... since the time of their ancestors, once a month they gather toxic substances all over the land and throw them down an altar on their... temple..."

Erik: "wait... but their temple is the access to your true body so... were they-"

Rose: "yes... they have been poisoning me for generations!"

Erik was flabbergasted: "how are you still alive then?"

Rose glared at Erik, making him instantly shut up: "I ain't so easy to kill" and just walked away inside the submarine.

Erik sighed relieved and clapped: "okay, gather around people" he pointed at the lizardman pile "chop them up and eat them, should optimize your immune system, your musculature, and your breathing outside the water"

Timberly grabbed a lizardman, but ultimately put it down whispering: "hmm... maybe in a shake..." not feeling that hungry.

Inky didn't have any problems though as she tore and gulped down a dead lizardman kid with her teeth, looking at Timberly: "you aren't hungry?"

Timberly: "I am... but mindless consumption... doesn't feel the same anymore, just eating anything I hunted, it was always salty and just different textures, but now..."

Erik patted her shoulder: "well, I get the feeling... I was planning to make some shakes with plenty of flavoring, wanna join?"

Timberly grabbed two strong lizardmen and put them on her shoulder: "now that sounds much better, let's go~" and walked inside the submarine with Erik.

Meanwhile, Inky just shrugged as she kept devouring: "what's wrong with mindless consumption... food is food..."

-- Back inside the Lizardman floating city --

Sarah woke up from a highly needed nap, but as she stood up...

*plop!* her feet landed on a knee deep layer of water covering the floor.

Sarah looked at the door and one of the apparently harmless bullet dents on the metal was now cracked and leaking water inside, all while the old lizardman's corpse floated around.

Sarah applied some repair tape and sealed the hole for now, but the door was also leaking.

Sarah concentrated: [Rose, what now?] but there was no answer [Rose?... ROSE!!!]

Rose: [sorry, I was thinking, what the wow... you are in trouble...]

Sarah: [yeah, what do I do? my helmet won't survive another immersion...]

Rose: [hmmm... there seems to be a small village if you exit this room and follow the right hallway, you will need a disguise though]

Sarah held her chin in thought and ripped off the bed sheets, covering herself.

Sarah: "if I adjust it slightly it should work as a cloak... I would still need to know the language though..."

Rose: [survival comes first]

Sarah nodded and took out a fishing kit, using some line to sew a cape with a big hood to hide her face.

-- Twenty minutes later --

The hood was finished and Sarah walked down the hallway, soon entering a huge dimly illuminated area, the only light sources were dim lights in the twenty meters high ceiling, as well as from huts, and the street lights on the streets were thousands of lizardmen roamed around. The place was extremely run down, but Sarah figured that would just help her hide easily.

Sarah: [okay... I need food, and a place to hide...]

Rose: [hmmm maybe you can try robbing someone in an alley? your vocal cords can't even pronounce their language correctly anyway...]

Sarah shrugged and went along with the idea, she chose an alley and went in, seeing an old lizardwoman laying down on a corner, she carefully stabbed it dead without making a sound and started rummaging through her things, finally finding a bag full of small bones.

Sarah: "I guess this is their money... now I just need to-"

Rose: [DUCK DOWN!]

But Rose was too slow, a rifle stock hit Sarah on the back of her head, easily knocking her out. A huge lizardman wearing a clean cloak full of small lights then came into existence, he had been there wearing an invisibility cloak the whole time, a relic from his ancestors. The lizardman took off his hood, revealing a face with a scar all across his left eye, he then lifted Sarah's hood, and seeing her face he was extremely surprised, taking a communication device out of his cloak and growling something into it.