Chapter 53 - What lurks in the dark

After a relaxing day to let the elders take a hold of their emotions, Erik and Inky came to the city to see them the next day in the morning, Erik even carrying a set of sashimi to eat while talking. Following the directions of a warrior, they came to the Elder's area and then a room full of weapons and saw the Second Elder sharpening a big harpoon, and polishing her shield, pieces of cut bones on the floor, apparently having just finished training and maintaining her weapon and equipment while looking serious.

"ejem" Erik coughed to get her attention, and the Second Elder stopped, looking at him seriously.

Second Elder: "anything I can help you with?"

Reading Inky's translation, Erik said.

Erik: "yes... I would like to know why you octopeople left your outpost at the algae farm building, wasn't it a good place to live?"

Both Inky's and the Second Elders' faces paled.

Second Elder: "the lurkers, they attack when you aren't aware, we lost too many good warriors to those beasts, we were forced to move..."

Erik: "I see..."

then he asked inside his head.

Erik: [what are the lurkers?]

Rose: [ i dont know ¯\(o_o)/¯ ]

Erik: [what? how?]

Rose: [sigh... sometimes I really think you are stupid, in the first place how can I identify something I have never seen? if you at least had a drawing then maybe but not with just a name, second... a lot of time has passed since my global scan, communication, and lots of other systems failed, over 60% of my mechanical systems are in different states of disrepair and failure ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯ ]

Erik: [oh... hmm can you make me some small spider drones? I need something that can stalk a stalker beast, with this we should be able to look inside]

The Second Elder waited as Erik seemed to be thinking until he looked at her again and said.

Erik: "please tell me all you know about that place and those creatures"

Second Elder: "...very well, they appear fast and in groups, they are attracted by blood and will eat even bones and that includes our armors and weapons, they are sinister beings, also if they bite you, then you won't be able to move... and they will start eating you alive slowly, taking their time..."

Erik thought 'well, I was imagining them like piranhas, but that poison will be troublesome, I also don't need any other sources of paralyzing poison anyway... they don't seem to be useful, should I exterminate them?'

Second Elder: "but that's not the worst thing, during their mating season they incapacitate other beings and slip inside them, then they will suck their blood from inside as they lay their eggs inside their prey, even then others will get inside too and lay their eggs that are born after 1 hour and start eating their victim from inside... a horrible way to die" her look was somber while saying that and she looked pissed off.

Meanwhile, Erik was thinking 'yeah...., I don't want those near my base, but how to kill them... attracted to blood... using bait maybe? If they are that simple a one-way fish trap with bait inside should be enough... if I could capture some I could use them against the crab people... nah, too creepy, and infestation of these things would be way worst, better just kill them and take some DNA samples to test, well if fed to the octopeople it could improve their poison glands at least'.

Erik: "Okay Second Elder, we will get revenge for the rest of you".

The Second Elder looked moved and said.

Second Elder: "Thank you, we owe you once again"

Erik: "no problem, I just need something else from you and the rest, we will need some poison"

Second Elder: "that's doable"

Between the Second Elder, Inky, and some warriors they filled some containers spitting their poison back at the base, he also added adult snails poison, he would be able to pump this inside the building to make them come out after closing all exits from outside, then he would leave just 1 exit open with a big 1-way cage similar to the ones used for catching lobsters and eels back on earth, the entrance is like a cone with a final part like the beak of a bird pulled closed lightly by metal springs, pushing from one side its easy to open, but once inside the cage it's impossible to push it to go out as it just closes more, a really simple mechanism but highly effective.

The overall plan not much different from how hunters get rabbits out of their burrows.

--- The Next Day ---

they had traveled for some hours, with the Leader, Second Elder, and some warriors to help him set it all up, he had seen a 3D model from Rose but it could be outdated, but at least he would know where the traps should be installed. Upon arriving he just couldn't contain his amazement, it was way different seeing something in a 3D model and in person, the place was at least 50x60x20meters, it was huge, covered with algae and barnacles and other beings, but where it wasn't the metal below looked in perfect condition.

His first step was locating the cable connection underground that joined both bases, Rose could use the connection to check the insides and give power.

After 10 minutes of trying it was an easy fix, he applied a nanobots patch that joined the 2 cable pieces back together, the cable being alive meant that it could tell Rose where it was cut.

[...we have a problem]

Erik: [what is it?]

[ hundreds of thousands of small problems are hibernating inside there, if you wake them up before the trap is ready... well, you will die for sure...]

Erik: [...I will install the equipment myself and let the octopeople just help of the final stages then]

[yes, I'm also closing all venting accesses but some are too broken and will take a while to seal, so use the plasma gloves to just weld those areas and the poison releasers]

Erik: [got it]

It took him 4 hours in total, but he finally sealed all other access points and came to the entrance, it was destroyed like something had tried to force himself in, and according to the Second Elder it was already like that when they came, and Rose didn't know about it, it was really suspicious but he concentrated in the task at hand, he set up the cone-shaped trap, covering the hole, and welded some bolts to the walls around, installing the trap on them and securing it with some thick nuts, everything ready he wanted to start light to test the trap just some, the trap was an elongated tube that could be expanded, also full of spikes so the octopeople could just bash the chain-like walls and the spikes would kill the beings.

Erik: [anyways, you are remaining awfully silent about them, normally you use to describe enemies]

[...I'm not sure you would like the description]

Erik: [okey, from 1 to 10, how creepy you think I will find them then?]

[...100]

Erik: [from 1 to 10]

[ yeah, 100]

Erik: [that ugly huh? describe them a bit anyways]

[...a mouth full of circular teeth, 8 eyes all around, hooks around the mouth to push prey in or hold it, and their skin changes color, really creepy]

Erik: [for real? like chameleons then?]

[not that accurate but yeah, more like octopuses]

Erik: [ now I really wanna capture a lot, those qualities would improve octopeople a lot]

[you are weird, weren't you an engineer?]

Erik: [yeah, but biology is fun too, it's like seeing organic machines, these bodies are just sacks of flesh alter all]

[...have you ever changed bodies then?]

Erik: [well, just once, we used combat bodies to learn martial arts at school when I was 30, it was a novel experience as they don't even have a digestive system or sexual organs, they were all made to fight, had to be fed by connecting to tubes but we always transferred back to our bodies before that, there was also NVR (Nerve Virtual Reality) to train too for training for other situations, but most people's avatars were almost like their bodies so it didn't felt that different using that...]

While he was talking, he had set the bait at the end of the 20 meters long trap, it was also covered in a black membrane so the monsters couldn't see the outside while entering the trap and were sliding through the spikes. It didn't take long as he saw a bulge going up the tube and then another and another, they were long, kinda like hardcore 2 meters long lamprey and as thick as a baseball bat, when over a hundred had gotten inside he closed the entrance to the trap and gave metal bats to the octopeople who gladly took on the task of beating the tubes and killing all the squirming monsters.

When all were dead a 100% Erik opened the end of the trap and took 1 out, it was really, really, REALLY ugly, with extendable eyes and a super creepy mouth, with a needle-like protrusion on the tongue to suck blood or inject parasitic eggs inside prey. He made the octopeople ask for help as they dispatched and cleaned the little monsters on sight and also decapitated them, he really didn't want to see an octoperson with a face like that, just imagining made him shudder, they had no problem eating the rest and it would be a big amount of meat, in the end, the Fourth Elder would benefit the most as she was a stealth type.

The task was repeated over a hundred times during half a week, the water around the entrance was bloody and messy now, it was risky, and the beasts bashed the traps' entrance every time he closed it, but they were certainly diminishing in number.

--- 1 week later ---

The trap was working as intended and they could now barely see them entering the trap.

Erik: "okay, time for the poison"

He clicked a button and poison was pumped through various closed exits, flooding the inside with big amounts of concentrated poison. The effect was immediate as hundreds of smaller lamprey beasts charged through the trap, dying on the bladed spikes as they pushed each other, running away from the deadly poison, then something bashed the trap's entrance, breaking it in as it stretched it while charging inside, a being at least 80cm thick, like a sea serpent filling the trap. Erik and the octopeople waited amazed until it reached the end before charging from all sides and poking it full of spears, ending its life quickly, the beast was hideous, its head having external bone armor and really long teeth, and also tentacle-like arms around the mouth, maybe the result of eating octopeople whole.... Erik felt his stomach churn just imagining it, he left the cleaning of the prey to the octopeople as he wasn't gonna try that, no way in hell.

Erik: [when can we start restoration?]

[probably in a week if I had the materials, the pumps aint working and the inside will need a lot of cleaning]

Erik: [okey, I will weld it closed for now and continue in the future with this, now I just need a way to go down the abyss without dying of Narcossis... maybe a new armor or a descent pod..., maybe better both, for once outside the pod being able to walk around normally]

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis)

[you could always make an artificial gill system to oxygenate your blood from the water and wouldn't need to breathe that way, it will just require some equipment I can print and a small and a small surgery I can make using your medical pods' IA surgeon table]

Erik: [okay, what does it imply?]

[just a connection on your neck to auto-connect the tubes for the gills system when you wanna dive]

Erik: [kinda worried I don't have a second body at hand but okay, let's do it]