It was Maya's 31st birthday, and so far things hadn't gone well. Not only had Maya gotten duty of land kraken spotting she had also gotten the night shift of slime elimination. This wasn't bad – Maya could have faced both tasks with her eyes closed and Siren powers activated – except for the fact that Maya was banned from using her siren powers.

And she hadn't ever since arriving on Acheron 1 ½ years ago. Maya stood in the cool pre dawn air, her spotter partner sitting beside her with a rocket launcher. The launcher had been specially designed, and required special expertise to operate. Maya had been trained – without powers – to spot the krakens and so far no one had been better … in the sophomore class at least.

The only problem was that there were a few things the juniors and seniors knew that Maya wouldn't until she ranked up in the battle school. The battle school on Acheron was constructed to create specialized soldiers … well at least the sector Maya had been assigned to. The S.C.H.O.O.L. of the battle school was designed for training specialized soldiers.

It just so happened that krakens inhabited the craters on Acheron, they were a problem and could have been eliminated with ease. But the natural formations built by the creatures had survived for millions of years, and unless disposed of properly the body of a dead kraken exploded with such violent force that the structures they had built (which would be perfect in expanding the DAHL military deeper into the planet) would collapse.

"Why do we have to go down there, again?" Maya's partner Shiva asked.

"I don't know. Why can't we stay out of that damnable place?" Maya asked in response.

"Good question, those fucking asshats at command think something down there is actually valuable. With our last trip down there – which I don't want to repeat – we didn't find anything," Shiva's voice lowered to a whisper, "But I've been thinking lately. What if we missed something?"

"We could have, I mean we don't know what kind of gadgets the seniors or juniors have up their sleeves. We're only sophomores, we're not advanced."

Shiva laughed high and clear. "Yeah, that's true. But do we need to be advanced? Our bodies are nature's super computers, and if treated and trained right they can be the…"

"…biggest fucking deal," Maya smiled. They had had this conversation before, but unlike now the other times had been just simple banter. The effect of the kraken's not as apparent above ground in the great DAHL battleships.

"Hell yeah, I mean seriously. Some of the most – shit! Kraken!"

Maya instantly tensed and her eyes zeroed in on a dark shape rising up from the middle of the crater around it slithered four long tubular worms. "Fuck, tubs are coming up as well … and they're not sticking to the walls."

"What the hell, I've never seen this before."

As the Kraken raised itself more and more, monstrous sections of it were illuminated by the floodlights trained on the crater. The alien mass of black flesh and gray muscle with iron armor platting suddenly stopped. The dark shape in the middle began to spin, the fleshy strand beneath it holding it up spun faster and faster expanding slowly.

The tubular extensions reared away from the middle object and slammed against sides of the crater. Somehow the tubs spun scrapping against the crater wall; a grinding noise could be heard. Maya looked closer and saw sections of the tubes were rotating, circular bone saws retracting and spinning along each section. There were perhaps a million of these sections along each tube. Every time the bone saws would rise from the flesh a strip of the tube would turn white from top extending down into the darkness.

"This is bad, what's going on?"

"I'm sure if we were certified in JUNIOR KRAKEN spotting we might know! This is bullshit what the hell are we supposed to do?"

Maya nearly tumbled out of her bunk, as a great shaking shook the battleship. So far the giant tubular manifestation had worked on continually widening the crater until it was nearly 400 times its original size. "Shiva?"

"Spot Woman Maya, we need out down of the surface ASAP!" A voice called out, that off a commander and Maya obeyed instantly. They had left the gargantuan thing alone, since its length extended all the way down near the core. Going down that far, Maya wasn't allowed to know what was down there. And frankly Maya wanted to leave it that way.

Maya made it to the battleship's back bay doors, and saw that a platoon of senior kraken killers had been assembled at least 100 strong.

"Sir, why am I here?"

"We need you Maya. Listen I know you're banned from using your Siren powers, and I couldn't care less about the ban at the moment. The longer that damn thing keeps widening that crater the more unstable the airspace above it – and therefore the planet becomes."

"Sir, why haven't you gone out already? You have 100 sea kicks assembled."

"If – no you couldn't have. Maya, it is pitch black outside, we need someone to scrub away the kraken ink and make things visible for the sea kicks. Understood?"

"Wait, so I'm being allowed to use my siren powers? Sir."

"Yes, but only for guiding the sea kicks."

"Sir, when would it be appropriate for engaging the … "

"Master Kraken."

"Thank you. Sir, when would it be appropriate of me to engage the Master Kraken?"

"Never. And for now that's your going to get. Now get out there, Maya, and guide the sea kicks so they can take this abominable thing down."

The commander led Maya to stand in front of the platoon of sea kicks, and then he marched 10 paces in front of Maya. The commander spun around and addressed the whole platoon, like they were protectors of a world with many innocent lives at stake.