Sheldon sent a quick map to the captain's portable scanner of where the octarians had been spotted. While it was loading the captain went to wake up Agent 3.
He burst into the room, startling Agent 3 awake, and yelled, "Octarians! Agent 3! They're near Inkopolis, tryin' to steal back more zapfish! Get yer gear on and let's go!"
The captain rushed back to the the now loaded map, ignoring Agent 3's loud "Buh?". He looked at the locations of the octarians, trying to figure out what angle of attack would be best.
From the map that Sheldon had marked, they were all over the south border to the city. The octostriker was at the head of the attack, while the other octarians were spread out behind and to the sides of it.
Hmm. They couldn't just force their way through, or face it head on. That was way too many octarians for one agent to fight. 1 and 2 were out of Inkopolis too, so they couldn't help.
But… The captain looked a little closer at the path the octarians had chosen. There! The right flank of the force was passing through a narrow-ish path with high walls. If Agent 3 went through there, it would leave any octotroopers she encountered relatively isolated! Plus, any backup they called would either be a few puny octocopters, or take too long to climb over the walls!
Just then, Agent 3 walked into the main room, jacket and shoes on, teal tentacles a mess, holding onto the hero headset. "Cap'n, what is happening?", she asked, rubbing one eye sleepily.
The captain motioned for her to come closer to the small screen, "Agent 3. There is a large group of octarians movin' toward Inkopolis."
Agent 3 looked startled, so he kept speaking, "They're near the south of the city, being lead by an octostriker. They're a very dangerous type of octarian. Look just like an octobomber, but they can launch inkstrikes with devastatin' accuracy."
"So, I will fight it?"
"It's probably got the zapfish powerin' this invasion, so yes", He paused and pointed to the path that he'd found through the octarians, "We'll sneak up behind and through this path here, then you'll go through this alleyway. You'll have to be as sneaky as possible. Take out any octarians that you have to, but try to stay unnoticed. Hide in yer ink whenever you can. Once that octostriker spots you, there'll be reinforcements swarmin' all around."
Agent 3 spent a few more seconds looking at the map, then stood up straight, and said in a determined voice, "I am ready Cap'n!"
"Good. I'll explain more once we're there. But for now", he turned around and pointed his cane at the door, "Squidbeak, let's go!"
The invasion was going well so far.
Striking this late into the night was genius. The lazy inklings would all be asleep and they could attack without interference. They could take back the stolen zapfish-and more!
Ideas like this were why Octavio was DJ, and had been DJ for longer than Inkurren had been alive. He was honoured to be the octostriker commander chosen for this important mission.
He had his trademarked weapon. A modified octostrike, the weapon used by octostrikers like himself that amplified his natural inkshots into more powerful vortexes, increasing the duration of each strike. He'd made adjustments to the helmet himself, improving the goggles to increase the range and accuracy, and putting in another charging chamber to further increase the firepower. He could see and control entire battlefields from his zapfish-powered ship.
He'd also been given a splatoon of soldiers. Octotroopers adept at stealth, octocopters, some twintacle troopers, and even a pair of octolings were part of his squad. Enough soldiers to cover the area, take zapfish, and scare off intruders. And if they were spotted, they could make speedy, stealthy getaways.
It wasn't the biggest squad he'd ever had. No, that was during the mass theft of the zapfish (DJ Octavio's idea again) three weeks ago, when he'd combined forces with octocommanders, octosnipers, and his fellow octostrikers to steal away the zapfish when no one was looking.
They'd taken so many of the powerful catfish in those two weeks. DJ Octavio himself had gone on the mission to retrieve the Great Zapfish.
All of their missions had succeeded, and they were well on their way to taking every last zapfish from those undeserving inklings.
But.
Someone was stealing their hard-earned zapfish!
From the accounts of the squads that had been attacked, the perpetrator was an inkling.
An inkling.
An inkling!
Those stupid, vapid, selfish creatures that hogged the land, sunlight, and power! The ones that had won the Great Turf War through sheer luck! The ones who were so easily distracted that the octarian forces had managed to steal 31 zapfish and the Great Zapfish-without being caught!
Inkurren couldn't believe it. Really now.
An inkling.
One inkling, from the reports of those that witnessed the creature.
One inkling had infiltrated three different bases. One inkling had defeated entire squads, positioned to protect the zapfish. One. Single inkling had escaped said bases before anyone could even notice it was there, and identify it through the security cameras that went offline as soon as the zapfish was stolen.
What was more, they couldn't even reach the bases that had been hit! Taking the zapfish scrambled the kettle's signal, and it'd need to be painstakingly, manually, reset before they could get to the bases again.
And no one could figure how the inkling got in in the first place!
This wasn't even mentioning the mess it made of the Octostomp. It would probably take a year or two to put the thing back together after the damage it had done with its ink.
One inkling.
Well, they wouldn't need to worry about it now. The inkling would be asleep, like the rest of its kind, and the octarians could strike at full force in the darkness.
Inkurren went back to surveying the area, on the watch for intruders and trouble, ready to command his splatoon.
Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon crept quietly through the darkness. They left Octo Valley, taking the pipes to an exit south of the City of Colour. As the came closer to their goal, the captain kept an eye on his portable scanner, making sure that no octarians got close enough to sound the alarm.
The closer they got, the more clearly they could see the eerie octarian machine, floating in the sky like looming flyfish salmonid. Only higher. And more threatening.
Once the captain deemed them close enough, they snuck behind a thin bush, and the captain set up his gear while Agent 3 did a few quick stretches.
"Alright Agent 3", he whispered, motioning for her to look at his scanner screen, "Here's what gonna happen. They set up a temporary spawn point at the end of this alley", he pointed at the large teal dot on the screen.
"That headset of yers can be used to trick the spawn point into thinking yer one of them. Our tech guy designed it so it can sync at the click of a key", the captain tapped the synchronize key, "And it's done. Now, you'll get yerself to that checkpoint and keep pressin' forward as quietly as you can. Don't let any octarians spot you."
He tapped the scanner screen, "I'll be guidin' you from here. I'll warn you when there's octarians near, and help you avoid the glare of that octostriker."
"Ok Cap'n", Agent 3 replied, then paused and asked, "But. How do I get to octosriker?"
"Glad you asked", the captain pointed to the opposite end of the alley, where there was a small teal swirl, "There's a launchpad at the end of this alley. They probably placed it there so they could get to the captain quick. That's yer ticket to that slimey octostriker. And once you take back the zapfish, their spawnpoints'll power down, and they'll be forced to pull back."
Looking right into Agent 3's brown eyes he asked, "Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, are you ready fer this mission?"
Agent 3 stood up as straight as she could behind their shelter bush and replied in a firm voice.
"Yes Cap'n."
Didn't really do anything new to this chapter. Also kinda forgot to upload it for a while.
Leave a review if you liked it! And thanks to those who left reviews before!
From AO3:
I wrote most of this chapter at 2 am so there might be a couple mistakes. If you see any let me know.
I was gonna write the entire fight into this chapter, but Inkurren the octostrike's monologue went on for longer than I thought it would. I put in some details on why Etta was able to train at the cleared kettle, and some octarian opinions on inklings. The name Inkurren comes from Incirrina, a suborder of octopi. I put in the word ink and made it eight letters long. It also coincidentally sounds like gurren so that's cool I guess.
I got the idea for DJ to be an official title, and not just what they call Octavio from Littlemapleleaf's story First Aid Kits and Deep Secrets which is pretty much a must read for Splatoon fanfiction.
I think the checkpoints used in the octostrike and octoling levels would be different, so I made up a reason why the headset's important for more than just communication. I'll cover more on why the hero suit is so important later.
I'm hoping to get the next chapter out soon. Comment and tell me what you think of this chapter, or what you think'll happen next. Or talk to me on tumblr!