Book of Varaine:
Part 14, "Terror of the Deep"

authors note: Just so you know, the word "Varaine" won't apear intill later in the stories, the second saga to be precise.



--Resonance: comes not from individual being: rather city as whole. Progenitors: not separate: lines between us learn. Resulting power: exponential. Brilliant becon even vast universe.--
-Caretaker Lular H'minee
-Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire


Chapter 27
(Marco)

Yeeeha! Rachel yelled as we blasted through the water. It offered no resistance, assuming we were also basically water. No, I've been a cheetah. I've been a fly. I've been a cockroach, which is like being strapped under a rocket. But as intensly fast as they were, none of them compared to this creature. It was like a bolt of lightning moving through the water. In fact, according to Revne, these Nnuljis had electricity running through them. And boy, I belived him.

Revne, how ya' doing back there? I asked.

((Quite well, now that I don't need to exert myself to control the water. I am almost fully recovered.))

Good. How close are we to the city? Jake asked.

((We are now very close. It will only take a few more moments.))

I was about to say something when I saw a flash come up from the sea floor. No, not the floor, a chasm in the floor.

Revne, what was that? I asked.

((I am not sure. Judging from the direction that it came out of, it may have been a defensive laser from my city.))

Defensive blast? Are you at war with anyone else? Cassie said.

((Ah..no. That shot was most likely a weapon missfire. Or it may have been an amature fooling around. There is a third possibility, but it is probably incorrect.))

And that possibility would be.....? I asked.

((Well,)) he said,((we have been getting reports recently about attacks made on bases in our Grangado Sea. None of them involved our cities, and the sea is up by our northern region, so the chances a fairly small that this is one of the attacks.))

Unfortunatly, instead of reassuring me, that just made me more nervous. Something in the back of my mind was yelling at me, but I couldn't quite understand it. Then out of no where, a question popped up.

Um, who exactaly made these attacks? I asked.

((Well, most of the reports are sketchy, but it appears to be an aomeba like entity. It has the ability to create a very powerful electric field as well as drain energy from our nucleases.))

That's awful, Cassie said.

((Yes, and usually fatal as well. We have lost many of our soldiers to the creature.))

Just then, a blast shot straight out of the crevase, illuminating the area. And the creature.


Chapter 28
(Tobias)

It was red. Red, the color of dark blood with black mixed into it. And unlike Rvene, it wasn't transparent. It moved through the water with the liquid grace of mercury and streched out impossibly long and contracted to extremely small. My chemical sensing eyes were going berserk, not recognising the foreign body.

((Impossible! How could the creature get from Grangado all the way here without us knowing it?!)) Revne yelled, his nucleas quivering.

The creature twisted in the water, and dove back into the fissure.

We have to follow it! Rachel yelled.

Wait a minute, Jake said, Revne, what are our chances of beating this...thing.

((I....I don't know. I've never witnessed it in a combat situation.))

We don't have time for this! Cassie yelled, surpprising us all. That blob belongs to Crayak! That's the creature he sent here to take the planet.

Okay, NOW lets get it, Rachel said impatiently.

We charged our ray like bodies toward the crevase as fast as humanly possible.
We arrived there to witness a pair of odd looking submarines appear, firing bright blue lasers at the blob, which dodged the with ease. It zipped behind one and drove a tenticle like arm through the hull before the pilots could react. We heared to long, loud thought-speach cries.

We gotta stop it, I said urgently.

How are we gonna fight that thing?! Marco said.

Revne said these things were electric, right? Well, lets see if they can do any damage! Rachel cried.

I reached into the Nnulji's mind for the ability to shock. Then I felt my body grow warm and tingly. My vision suddenly turned totally blue. Now, the morph's eyes saw in some weird colors, so I don't know if it was genuinely blue, but man! It was
the blue of pure energy. I powered my now charged up body toward blob, who was distracted trying to slam another sub, and ramed my head into it. I felt the gelatonous mass shake in a violant convultion, whereas I felt nothing as I slid away.
As he tried to figure out what happened, Rachel swam up and nailed it from behind, causing it to quake again. By now it must have wised up, becuase I saw a
shimmer of blue fire up the creature, and then it was shrouded in a cloak of electricity. Out of the side of my eye I caught a glimpse of another Nnulji coming up, and slaming into the blue sheild. But instead of just sliding off, a jolt of electricity blasted through the ray, and I heared Marco cry out in pain.

That shield is stronger that ours are! I yelled.

Everyone, back down. We'll attack togather! Jake called. But the, I saw a fifth streak of blue go shooting at the blob. Cassie.

No! Cassie, back off! Jake yelled in vain, but just as Cassie was nearing a collision, the blue electricity turned green, and she smashed right through the shield, causing the creature to shake like it was hit by a bomb. It the very quickly swam away.

Cassie, how did you do that? I asked, bewildered.

I think we can use the powers Ellimist provided to supercharge our electricity.

Just then,the surviving sub came over to us.

((Thank you! Our coleague Revne has told us about you. Come, we will escourt you to the city.))

We followed the sub down the canyon and into a panorama view of the bigest city I've ever seen.