For millennia the Inklings and we, the Octarians, lived in harmony, peacefully working together as friends. We shared food, land, resources. We saw each other as equals and respected one another. Or so we thought. We began to notice a disturbing trend in sea level. The sea began to take farmland and put our cities in danger. Our best scientists worked together to try to find a solution. That is when it happened.
One day, out of nowhere, the inklings began to kill us on a massive scale. They would round us up and force us into labor camps. When we fought back, a war known as the Great Turf War began. One hundred years ago near the end of the Great Turf War, we were on the brink of collapse. We had no resources nor energy left, our destruction was certain. We had less than a tenth of our home left. With the inkling forces pushing forward, we had no chance of survival. As we retreated, we burned all of our resources in hopes of slowing down the inklings and thinning their resources.
That is when we found it. As our last city burned, one building collapsed, and caved in. We looked down the hole we created and what we saw shocked us. Large perfectly flat screens created the skies. Beautiful seas surround land and cities greater than anything ever built. Some believed it was the Old world spoke of in ancient scriptures. But what we saw was our salvation. Before the advancing armies could defeat us, we vanished. We fled down to the old city and built life anew.
For the next hundred years, we explored our world. We found many more cities, and we lived off the technology left to us by the gods. It didn't matter that we were underground, we were happy. We had food and nature. It was our own paradise, but then the blackouts started.
At first, it was every few years. We grew concerned, but couldn't find a solution. Soon it became every few months, and we grew scared. One by one cities were plunged into darkness. The artificial skies we grew accustomed to grew dim. Even with our advanced knowledge, we couldn't find the source. We couldn't restore the ancient energy source that had allowed us to survive.
We had no choice. A second Great Turf War was unavoidable, but we knew we couldn't win. Even the technology gifted to us needed energy. Energy we didn't have. King Octavio, our leader, sent the most skilled soldiers to Inkopolis to steal the Great Zapfish. We waited in anticipation, as stealing the zapfish was our last chance. Inkling Radar couldn't detect our advanced vehicles. In the veil of darkness, we took the zapfish. For the first time in years, our cities glowed bright, crops began to grow. We were safe, and we were happy.
However, we knew it couldn't last. An old inkling soldier, a man named Cuttlefish, knew what we did. The salty old man sent his agents after us. Those damn agents. He sent them on a rampage, decimating our cities and killing the innocent. Those blood-thirsty psychopaths slaughtered hundreds of innocent people and stole the zapfish away. Just as they did one hundred ago. Without power, our people starved. We couldn't even run our hospitals. Once again we were left on the brink of extinction, as the one zapfish we saved wasn't nearly enough for everyone. With no other option, we stole the Zapfish again. Those inklings did just fine without it. They had all the power they needed without it, most of them didn't even notice. Yet once again they stole it away, this time killing thousands more. Now we spend our time searching for the remaining cities, praying to the gods that we will survive. Today our prayers may have been answered. for the first time in fifty years, we have found a new part of the underground. It isn't a city but rather a large facility. One filled with technology ages ahead of what we could scavenge. If anything can save us, we will find it here.
Marilla stared at the young scientist running over to her. The desperation hanging in the air not affecting her joyful demeanor. "Marilla! Ma'am, we found something"
Marilla stood there shocked. In all the years she has worked as an archaeologist there had not been a new part of the underground discovered. "W-What Y-You did? Where!? Bring me to it NOW!" She smiled, tears of joy running down her face; she wrapped her arms around the young girl as if it were her own child.
"Yeah! I found a large metal door with the ancient symbols on them!" She smiled and shook with excitement.
"My god Suchi this is incredible!" Marilla stood up and took out a small communicator from her pocket. "Everybody return to the U.F.O. We have something." Within a few seconds, two other octolings returned and ran to her,
"Marilla what did you find?" the young octoling girl saluted.
"Our newest team member has found something, is of the utmost importance that we look into right away." The once depressing and dark atmosphere turned into one of hope.
Suchi, let go of Marilla "Let me show you where it is." She ran in the direction she came from, followed by the three others. led them to a side of a small cliff, a large pile of meters or so away "There was a rockslide, and it revealed this." In front of them was a door, larger than a house, rusted and cracked. Everybody stared in silence at it, what could be behind this door? they all wondered.
"Get out of the way…" A tall octoling took out a suction bomb and began to place them one by one around the door
"What are you doing?! You are gonna destroy it Zarya!" Marilla yelled.
"That is the point". Zarya spoke calmly.
She backed away and watched them detonate. The large door collapsed inward, revealing not a city as they expected, but a large hidden building. They walked into a small room, broken glass and paper littered the shattered floor. The smell of dampness and fear filled the air.
"What… Is this place?" Suchi walked further in, rubble and broken tiles crunched beneath her feet.
"I don't know". Marilla responded; she looked around. The walls collapsed and rotted away into piles of mush, whatever furniture remained was rotten and moldy from years of neglect.
"Could… Could this be the arc spoken of in the writings?" Lynn walked around, picking up rotted papers, their contents barely remaining.
"This place is incredible.". Zarya felt the walls and found a switch. She flipped it and whatever light bulbs still intact shattered in a shower of sparks.
Suchi flinched and backed away "Boss, there are a few rooms. We should look around."
Marilla took out a flashlight. "I am going to take the left corridor, Suchi you take the center, Lynn and Zarya you two take the right." She tossed Suchi a flashlight and walked off.
Suchi caught it in her hands, "Y-Yes ma'am!".
Lynn and Zarya took out their own and walked off, leaving Suchi alone, "Now is not the time for fear. You can do this.". She said to herself before turning on her flashlight. Her heart pounded and she shuddered, the thought of being alone here terrifying her, before walking forward. The damp air made it difficult to breathe, she choked on the musty stench, and the skittering of small bugs and the sound of leaking pipes filled her with fear and regret. Beads of sweat dribbled down her face, her hands shook and she moved forward hesitantly.
She came across her first room, the remains of the door laid in front of her. She took a step and sank into the rotted wood. "Just how old is this place?" She felt around for a light switch. After a few moments, she found one and she flipped it, only for the lights to flicker on before dying, "No light… damn."
She moved forward and saw a large bulky television. She recognized them from history museums, she walked up to it and pressed the power button. To her surprise words started racing across the screen in an what appeared to be the divine script. A video began to play on the screen. A strange creature stood in front of the screen in a white lab coat.
"This is a message for the future." A young male hugged a clipboard in his arms. "To the future of our species and our children, we leave this message. For millennia we have warred with each other." He fixed his glasses.
"It began as simple conflicts, as primitive animals, we fought over food. Soon we fought for food as groups, then we began to develop civilization. We began to create cities, so we fought for more land. many things, gods, political systems." His tone was one of sadness
"War is unavoidable, but we did not do enough to strive for peace, in the year 2017 CE. North Korea began a nuclear war with the United States of America. Many nuclear bombs hit California, within seconds millions had died. Within this time many knew that our demise was certain." He seemed to shake from the memory
"The United States retaliated, decimating North Korea and killing millions more. Unfortunately, the fallout from the bombs spread to China and South Korea, killing more people."
Suchi stared intently at the screen her heart pounding and mind racing
"This act broke what little kept us from a world war, Instantly China retaliated, angered by the Americans destroying their ally." The video began to degrade and skip.
"The Chine- bombed by the Americans, causing war with Russia, this escalated be- uction of Britain." The footage became corrupted, random colored lines littered the screen, before beginning to smoke "Hit the ice caps, flooding the plan-." The screen went black and the tv ignited.
Suchi jumped back terrified, what had she witnessed, was this referring to a war of the gods? She pulled out a Burst bomb, and threw it at the screen, covering it with ink and putting out the flames. She pulled the plug before stepping away, She looked around the room some more, strange devices damaged by wear of time filled the room.
She walked towards the next room. Shattered glass laid in a large puddle of water covering the floor. Wires hung from the ceiling sending sparks down into the room. A pungent odor filled her nostrils and she backed away. She left the room that smelled like burnt meat and death.
She explored each room, carefully looking at the remains, most of them just littered with rotten and broken objects. She made her way to the end of the hall. At the end, there was a large metal door, and a small flashing screen. She put her hand on the screen and it turned solid green, and she watched as the door began to open by itself, before the entire facility flooded with red light. "W-What is happening?" She took out her communicator
"Everyone please come to my location." she walked inside and dropped her flashlight and communicator, "Oh My God…"
The others ran inside, and they looked up and gasped, they were in a room the size of a hanger, completely in ruins. Bodies lay on the ground rotting, rats gnawing at the remains. Suchi shook in fear, the metallic scent of blood and death weighing heavy on her innocent heart.
"Where are we?" The once brave Zarya shakily asked.
"I don't know." Marilla responded. Giant machines littered the ground, broken into many rusting shards. Lights on nearly all the machines glowed a dim red or not at all., Marilla, only interested in the different one, made her way over to the only one glowing Green.
She wiped the dirt and blood off of the capsule, scraping the damp mush off against the wall, revealing a strange creature, fur covering its head, lying in the machine. Other than a few facial differences it looked very much like an octoling "What… What is this?" Marilla asked confused and concerned.
Suchi gasped and looked at the creature "It is one of them! from the video!"
The others stared at her and watched her move closer, looking over she saw a rusty button and moved her hand over to it.
"Don't touch that! You don't know what it does!" Marilla went to stop her.
Suchi ignored her and pressed it. Rust crumbled off onto her hand and fell to the floor, leaving a blood-like mark on her palm. The machine began to spark and hiss, and it glowed a bright blue color. Tubes began to pump a strange green liquid out filling it with a red one.
The octolings took a step back, Zarya took out her octoshot and prepared to attack, "WHAT IS THAT THING?!". She yelled out, fear filling her voice.
Marilla screamed filled with fear. Wires connected to the creature sparked and exploded sending shards of metal against the glass. The creature convulsed and its chest began to move up and down. Fog started pouring out of the machine and it began to glow a bright red. The capsule hissed once more and the glass door slowly slid open. They moved closer and looked at the creature, only to see it looking back.
Authors notes
Thank you for reading the first chapter of the Savior.
Thank you to the following proof readers
-Punished 'Dread' Angel
-Apikachua
-ChiggerD