Three once thought she knew what silence was, but her first time through Octo Valley had taught her just how little she knew.
She had been a city girl her entire life, raised in the constant hustle and bustle of a sprawling metropolis with its concrete canyons and the constant din of traffic. Even in Sunset Fields, where she lived, the sounds of the city persisted. If it wasn't occasional traffic through the quiet suburb then it was the wind off the bay rustling through the trees or a plane overhead. Even within her house it wasn't truly quiet; always some noise or another, even in the dead of night: the creaking and groaning of the house settling, the tick of a clock, the gentle rushing of the ventilation system. Only since Three came to Octo Valley had she known true quiet.
The first time, she had been too unsettled and nervous already to notice; although, it had contributed to that feeling. Over time, however, she began to realize just how eerily quiet it could be, like now.
Despite being outside, there was no wind, no leaves to rustle, and no birds to chirp. The first time, nearly two years ago, when she had noticed how quiet it could be, it had unnerved her. She was used to the feeling now but it still kept her on edge.
She glanced to her left where Four walked, her mantle changed to a muted grey colour. Three's natural green helped her blend in to the moss and occasional tufts of grass that grew on the stone and concrete they traversed, but she mixed that with some grey of her own, helping to break up her mantle's profile.
Not that it actually matters.
Both of them were wearing high visibility gear, Three a vest over her black jacket and Four a full hi-vis jacket. Even so, the habits drilled into her by her teachers during her stealth and infiltration training sessions could not be ignored and she would not. Under the pretence of helping Four get a head start on such training, she had her trying to do the same. For now, maintaining a simple grey would be enough.
Four lifted a finger and pointed to a nearby landmark: a partially collapsed concrete hut. Just beyond this point was where they would be meeting Agent 1 and 2, which meant-.
"Agent 3, Agent 4, come in!" Captain Cuttlefish's anxious voice nearly startled them. "Your signal is getting weak. I think there might be some interference in your area. Damn octos and their jamming equipment."
Or Marie and her clever sabotage. Three thought. She shared a knowing grin with Four.
"I won't be able to track you reliably any further out than you already are. You might be on your own for the rest of your mission. Good luck, be careful, and try to find the source of that interference if you can, all in that order. Cuttlefish out."
Four sighed. "How come he never waits for a reply?"
"Because I don't talk," Three told her. "'Course, he never waited for me either."
Four chuckled and adjusted her hold on the charger. It seemed strange to see her carrying a weapon other than her trusty dualies on a mission, but the girl had uttered few complaints. Three had no doubt she would do well with it, even without Marie's divine levels of accuracy.
Three and Four kept moving, their heads on swivels as they searched for any signs of trouble. After a few more minutes, a new voice crackled over the radio.
"Agent 3, Agent 4, we're about 100m away from you, by the broken pipes. Step it up, we have a schedule to keep."
Three did as ordered, picking up her pace and making a beeline for the pile of broken concrete pipes piled in the distance.
"Marie's pretty impatient today," Four commented.
"It's a mission with a timetable," Three reminded her. "That usually makes everyone a little impatient. Plus, she's probably going to be the one who has to explain to Captain Cuttlefish exactly what we were up to behind his back."
Four grimaced, the muddy-blue colour in her mantle clearly indicating she didn't want any part of that discussion.
Callie and Marie popped out from the top of the pile of disused concrete pipes. Each one was big enough to stand up in, browned and moss covered with age and weathering, there was something forlorn about them. Had they not all been cracked or broken in some way, she was certain the ever resourceful Octarians would have found some use for them.
Callie was wearing her typical pink beanie and jacket - which was fastened closed this time, and black shorts. The whole ensemble seemed tighter on her than Three remembered, but that seemed normal these days for either squid sister. Even Marie's outfit seemed to have shrunk on her, but whereas Callie had eschewed the sunglasses, Marie kept the surgical mask over her mouth.
"Any trouble?" Marie asked.
"Captain thinks there's interference here," Three replied, looking knowingly at the older girl. Marie's eyes twinkled and then she looked over at Callie.
"You ready?"
"All set. Let's go."
"Septain! We've spotted them!"
Avrika stiffened and then crossed the command room to join Latria as she moved to the map table and pointed to a spot on the far edge, opposite from the route to Inkopolis.
"Our scouts reported seeing four inklings meeting up here, currently moving further North. The old one wasn't with them."
Avrika's hand came back up to her pendant, gently squeezing it between her thumb and index finger as she reviewed the information and raw excitement started to fill her.
"No idea as to their destination?"
"Not specifically. There are only disused or lightly used domes in that direction. I know there's at least one facility there but it's nature is classified. I suggest sending a letter to the sector commander anyway. Octotroopers aren't smart enough to learn secrets anyway, so I doubt it will be a problem."
Avrika scowled. Three years ago, she had seen the octotroopers and their ilk as comrades against the inkling menace; not bright or particularly pleasant, but useful and brave in their own way. Now, she hated their mere existence. Made from the genetic material of failed eggs, they were a perversion; disgusting, wretched abominations whose only saving grace in her eyes was that they could take the place of octolings on the front lines, meaning fewer real octarians had to die.
"Very good," Avrika replied, careful to maintain an even tone. "Roughly how long will it take them to reach the nearest dome."
"Depends if they use the kettles or one of the elevators, I suppose. If we assume the fastest way then about… fifteen-minutes."
Avrika let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Very good. Then I'll head out now."
Latria's face paled, her eyes and mouth wide with shock. It was the most expression she had ever seen on the younger officer's face. In other circumstances, she might have even laughed.
"You can't!"
"I have to," Avrika replied, keeping her tone even but firm. "With so many octolings present, a senior officer must be there to lead."
"Then I should go. I'm junior to you; you're much too valuable."
Avrika allowed herself to smile and gently placed a hand on Latria's head. "You're still young. You still have something to live for. I've already had that something-those somethings." She placed her other hand over her pendant. "Which means I have something to die for. That's why I have to be the one that goes."
The horrified expression on Latria's face nearly broke her hearts. It was all too much like the expressions she had seen on a pair of faces she so deeply missed.
"You can't," Latria said again, but her voice was weak and cracked.
Avrika gave her a small smile and withdrew her hand. "Novem Altern Latria Steelarm, I officially leave the forward sector command in your very capable grasp."
Latria lips quivered but she came to rigid attention. "Ma'am, I have command."
"Very good. Heaven willing, I will return to take it back. Tenz ivot, Latria."
"Long life to you as well, Septian."
With that, Avrika spun on her heels and headed out of the command centre. Behind her, Latria bowed deeply and said, "May the gods bless you, keep you safe, and return you home, honored mother."
"Well that's not good."
Callie's comment echoed the thoughts of the other three agents as they all peered over the lip of a small crater at the prison facility beyond. Where previously there had been sparse and lax security, all the standing guard towers were manned by at least one octoling and an octosniper each. Octotroopers drove up and down the length of the battlements on their little gun platforms, and there was even one of the dreaded flooders patrolling the front gate.
"We need a new plan," Marie murmured. "And we'll need to take out that flooder before we can get out with the prisoners."
Three wished she had asked Marina what the flooder's weaknesses were. She had avoided them plenty of times but taking one out was a different story. All she knew was that a tentacle controlled the machine, essentially acting as its living brain, but without being able to reach it through the hard protective shell, that information wasn't very useful.
"Maybe we could tip it over," Four suggested. "Look, it's legs are extended really far so that you can't hop up onto its head and then up onto the wall. I bet if we knocked it over it couldn't get back up. Then it's harmless."
"But how do we do that?" Marie asked. "Top heavy as it is, we would still need something heavy to hit it with."
Four shrugged. "I bet if we all kicked it at the same time we could do it. We'd just have to get up on the wall to do it."
Three stared at the wall. It was tall enough to prevent an octoling from getting over, but most inklings could probably manage it if they got close enough. The problem was that a super jump made you vulnerable, both in flight and briefly upon landing. Ideally, they'd initiate the super jump without being anticipated, but with the prison on full alert, that wasn't likely.
Three tapped the ground a few times with her finger, an idea slowly coming to her. "I think I know what to do," she said. "We'll use the flooder's own strength against it. But we'll need to clear off the battlements first." She looked over at Callie. "You keep up your tentacle exercises right?"
Callie grinned. "Of course. What do you have in mind?"
Octotrooper 648 looked anxiously left and right, beneath its stick-like legs, the little hover platform hummed as 648 guided it back and forth along the high, narrow place one of the tall ones told it to patrol.
648 normally didn't mind it when one of the tall ones told it to patrol somewhere, it enjoyed getting to move on the platform instead of hurting its skinny legs every time it tried to go somewhere. This time though, there was something wrong. It knew this because the tall ones looked worried. The tall ones were bigger and stronger than it was, and if they were scared, then it had to be scared too.
It thought of its name over and over in its head. It liked its name; it was one of the first things it had ever known. Its name was something that belonged to it and not someone else.
648's thinking was interrupted when the hover platform jolted and slowed to a stop right next to the edge. It yelped in fright and looked around frantically, trying to see what had hit it. 648 saw another octotrooper, but one with a strange shaped head. It had crashed into 648's platform on the narrow high place, nearly causing it to fall.
648 didn't like the ones with two-tentacles. They were mean and this one was making a lot of loud angry noises and a not-nice face at it. 648 didn't know what to do so it made angry noises back.
One of the tall ones made a sharp noise and walked over to them on their thicker, prettier legs. The tall one yelled, not at 648, but at the two-tentacled one. This made 648 happy. It didn't like being yelled at.
Then, while the tall one moved closer to yell more at the two-tentacles one, 648 saw something move on the other side, beyond the high, narrow place. Then two things landed in front of it, sharp, green, and growing. Bad things!
648 shrieked and then it died in a double explosion of green ink, along with the tall one and two-tentacled one, afraid no longer.
The odd collision between the two octotroopers was unexpected but welcome. Three nodded to the others and raced towards the wall, trying to close the distance as much as possible while the guards on the wall were distracted.
Callie pulled her tentacles back, having already warmed them up. Four and Marie, having changed their ink to green, very carefully placed a splatbomb each in one of Callie's suckers. Callie latched onto the splatbombs and the two followed Three to the wall. Callie waited for the right moment and then spun and whipped her tentacles nearly as hard as she could. The splatbombs flew through the air just as Three initiated her super jump. One of the octotroopers shrieked as the bombs landed perfectly among their number, and then was cut off as they exploded.
Three landed half a second later, taking in the situation on the wall in even less time, then ran in the direction of the gate.
Another octotrooper shrieked as she approached. She never felt bad about killing these things. It felt more like she was doing the octarians a favour by getting rid of them. They tried to shoot her with the fixed ink nozzles on their hover platforms but she evaded them with contemptuous ease and took them out one after the other.
Careful, she told herself. Don't get overconfident. There are more guards here than there should be, so there may be something else up.
She took out all the guard towers on her way. They were a bit more difficult, as the chargers used by the octosnipers were larger and longer ranged than even their own Hero Charger. Still, It's rate of fire wasn't any better and octosnipers rarely knew more than one way to use their weapon.
Three waited for the 'sniper to fire, dodged, then leapt off the wall towards the guard tower. Still moving through the air she fired her hero shot, coating the wall in green and then diving into it.
The 'sniper fired again but it couldn't bring it's gun down nearly enough to hit her or displace her ink. The octoling in the tower tried to get around the 'sniper to do exactly that, but found Three had already jumped to the side, out of the ink and grabbed onto the corner of the tower, using it to flip herself up to her feet, and then fired.
The octoling screamed and evaporated in a cloud of ink. The octosniper turned but it was too slow and was just as quickly dispatched.
Safe for the time being, Three took stock of the situation.
All her fellow agents were on the wall. Callie was steamrolling her way along the wall in the opposite direction Three had taken, with Four supporting her from behind with the charger. Marie was taking one of the walkways that connected the battlements to the central building. It was quite a novelty to see Marie barreling through with short range dualies instead of her charger. Despite her alleged lack of proficiency with them, the forces opposing her barely seemed a hindrance.
'Guess that leaves me to take care of the gate. Except, there was nobody at the gate. Everyone guarding it had left, with most making their way towards either Marie or Callie and Four. It made sense. There wasn't much point guarding a gate if all your enemies were already inside. Except, they had left something to guard the gate.
Three glared at the flooder as it stood in place, waiting for something not Octarian to come its way. Normally, they followed a patrol path and kept following it until ordered otherwise, but this time it simply stood and waited.
Three jumped from the tower and landed back on the wall. She looked around again, searching for anyone close, or perhaps even some hidden traps, but there was nothing to be seen.
Three glanced again at her comrades. She was still worried about Marie fighting alone, but she was holding up well and with all the enemies occupied, this was her best chance to take out the flooder before someone moved it elsewhere.
Three hurried to the gate and peered straight down at the ground, grinning when she discovered her hunch had been correct: the ground in front of the gate was neither stone or concrete, it was just dirt.
The flooder noticed her now. It beeped and buzzed as it sprang to life and hurried towards her. Three backed away and let the flooder bang into the wall. Even with its telescoping legs fully extended, it was only three-quarters as tall as the wall at the gate. It couldn't get Three where she was but it mindlessly tried anyway, exactly as Three had hoped.
Three hurried across the footbridge over the gate and the flooder followed her, raining ink from its underside the whole way. When Three stopped and the flooder bumped into the wall again, Three did the same in the opposite direction, and then again, and again.
The flooder followed Three back and forth with the tirelessness of a machine, despite its organic brain. Wherever Three went, it tried to follow. As it went back and forth through the same space again and again, it's small wheels slowly carved a groove in the dirt that got deeper with every passing, accelerated as the constant oozing of ink started to turn the dirt into thick mud.
Three felt like she was doing shuttle runs with all this back and forth. Perhaps one might consider this a waste of energy, but it wasn't too often one got to truly flummox a flooder.
Finally, after who knew how many times back and forth, the flooder came to a halt. It tried to move but its wheels spun uselessly, only helping it sink deeper.
Three allowed herself a small chuckle, despite feeling exerted. Now, without having to actually destroy it, the flooder was out of action. While she caught her breath, she looked towards the others.
Marie had managed to reach the door to the main building. Four was sniping octolings trying to fight from the roof, and Callie was a tempest of magenta ink and deadly tentacles as she tore into a cluster of mindless octotroopers trying to defend the cell block.
Three frowned. That hadn't been part of the initial plan. Callie and Marie were supposed to enter the cell block together, but Marie was occupied and time was of the essence.
Three jumped off the wall and landed on the flooders flat top. The machine still struggled to try and move. Three was then able to safely jump from it onto the ground below. She ran from the flooder, and peeked over her shoulder to see it try to give chase. It was useless though, that thing was stuck good. Very good.
Three keyed her radio. "Agent 2, Agent 3. I'm going to help Agent 1 take the cell block. She's already moving in." Although she didn't actually hear it, she could hear Marie cursing in her head.
"No choice then. Go for it but be careful."
Callie had already finished taking out all the octotroopers guarding the entrance to the cell block. Three caught up to her as she caught her breath.
"You okay?" Three asked.
"Yeah," Callie panted. "Just, a bit tougher to do this when you're dealing with second puberty on top of it all."
Three grimaced. She hadn't thought of that. Surely it was bound to affect Callie and Marie's endurance as well as their peak performance.
"I'm going in first," Three said. "Back me up."
"Fine," Callie said, her breath now caught up. "Let's do this."
The doors to the cell block had been shut and locked but Callie inputted a sequence of numbers in the keypad and it clicked open. Three frowned at her but questions could wait. Right now, she had a job to do.
Running over her mental map of the cell block, she burst through the door, weapon raised, only to find that her mental map was off.
It wasn't entirely wrong. It was still a large rectangular space, and it still had a walkway for each of the three levels, but each of those walkways was sloped, and at the end of each long side of the walkway, was a massive octohurler.
"Well, intel is never right anyway." Callie muttered. "I'll take the left, you take the right." Without another word, they split up.
Three charged up the right side of the first-level walkway. She had only encountered a handful of octohurlers before the metro; although, Four said she had encountered them frequently in Octo Canyon.
With their large size and ugly appearance, they were certainly intimidating, but they were also easy to defeat if you knew how.
The hurler vomited its rolonium at her but Three was running so quickly it had managed little more than that before she sent the roll hurtling back at it, splatting it instantly. Callie simply swung her roller like a bat and sent the rolonium meant for her, flying back towards its disgorger.
Up on the other two levels, the remaining octohurlers cried out in impatience and anger for the loss of their comrades and the stubborn refusal of the intruders to die. Three and Callie shared a nod and then they turned to squidform and superjumped, crossing past each other in the air, and then turning back to inkling form just before reaching the next level.
The octohurlers cried out once more, this time in shock and horror, as the inklings decided not to play their game, but flank them instead.
Three held down the trigger on her hero shot until the hideous mass of mutated octo' flesh vanished in a violet explosion of glittering goo. She landed on the ink-slick platform, making a small turn to look at the octohurler on the top level opposite her. Callie was ready and so was she. They ended them quickly, leaving the room mercifully silent, save for the sounds of her and Callie panting.
Three made her way back over to Callie as she leaned against the wall, catching her breath yet again. This mission was proving to be tough for her. She hoped Marie was faring better.
"You alright?"
Callie flashed green. "Yeah, I'll live. Let's do another quick check to make sure there are no surprises. Then, hopefully, we can start letting people out of these cells."
She and Callie split up again and for the first time, Three actually noticed the people inside the cells. They were gaunt figures behind walls of old, yellowy plastic. Three could only imagine how little oxygen was in those cells given how small any gaps would have to be to prevent escape.
As they had been told, few of the cells were actually occupied, only a half-dozen prisoners in all.
"Agent 2," Callie called over the radio. "Agent 1. What's your status?"
"Just about to call you, Agent 2," Marie's voice replied. "The rest of the garrison agreed to surrender. You ready for us to pop the cells?"
"Please do."
A second later, all of the plastic doors over the cells opened with a hiss of air, and the half-dozen prisoners stepped outside.
None of them looked particularly healthy. Underfed and stuck in that cell for so long, it was no wonder. Half of them took nearly a full minute to emerge from their confinement, as if unable to believe it was happening.
"They're all out," Callie said, unable to hide the delight in her voice. She looked on the verge of tears."
"Good to hear. We're coming your way with our own prisoners. See you in a few. Agent 2 out."
Her communication over, Callie hurried to the nearest shambling figure, an octoling with tentacles just barely clinging to the colour yellow. Her tentacles were so shriveled and pale it was hard to tell in the poor light.
Callie gently wrapped her arms around her and the octoling, a bit stunned at first, hugged back weakly.
"I missed you," Callie said.
"I… can't believe you came back," the octoling replied hoarsely.
"I couldn't bear leaving you like this. I just couldn't."
Similar interactions happened with the remaining octolings. The healthiest looking one was actually one of the elite Takezonesu, her black tentacles matted and her body distressingly thin, but she still carried a confidence and presence about her. Callie hugged her last but no less warmly. Still, Three found her finger hovering close to her hero shot's trigger.
The doors to the cell block opened again and a line of ten octolings appeared with Marie and Four behind them, ushering them into one of the cells.
"You can't put all of us in here," One of them cried, "there won't be enough oxygen! We'll suffocate."
"Fine," Marie groused. "Agent 4, take half of them and put 'em in that cell."
Four did as ordered, ushering five into the cell next to the first and then closing the plastic door with a soft click.
"You're going to leave us in here?" One of them cried, eyes watering.
"Just until we get away," Marie told them. "We'll send someone to get you out soon. My advice, get some sleep. You use less oxygen that way."
"Agent 2," Callie chided. "You could try to be a little nicer about it."
"I doubt it would be appreciated," Marie replied stiffly. "Now let's get moving. We're behind schedule and a lot of these girls look like they need a doctor."
Callie pursed her lips but dropped the issue, instead focusing on helping the prisoners out of the cell block, leaving the prison guards locked in their own cells.
As they rounded the side of the main building and came into sight of the gate, Callie saw the flooder for the first time in its new predicament, and laughed.
"Wow, nice going, Three. Looks like your idea really worked."
The flooder tried again to get out of its rut and come at them but it only managed to flick up specks of mud from its deep ruts.
Four stuck her tongue out at the flooder while Three made a point of ignoring it entirely.
Not once through this entire operation thus far had she been plagued with guilt or worries. It felt almost like the relapse had been purely as a result of her conflicted feelings about Eight. She couldn't be sure but that was what it felt like. She couldn't complain but she had this nagging, uneasy feeling she couldn't describe.
Maybe the captain's finally realized what we're doing. Yeah, he's probably really mad right now. She only hoped that Marie would be able to placate him eventually, but they would all be subjected to a stern tonguelashing regardless. Three was not looking forward to that.
Avrika had her head on a swivel as she marched, octoshot in hand, just behind the first squad. Six of her best octolings, marched in single-file, moving slowly and cautiously as they neared the small wooden building sitting on a large concrete pad. The place seemed so nondescript and plain. It was hard to believe -embarrassing really, that operations which had disrupted Octarian military efforts for decades had come from this place.
So far, there was no sign of movement, no sign that there was anyone guarding it. The entire way there they hadn't seen a single outpost, surveillance position, or sentry. It seemed the Inklings had gotten even more complacent than Avrika had dared to hope.
Well, that suits me just fine. Let's just hope it stays that way and we can get out of here.
On the other side of the route, second squad waited for her signal.
Avrika waited and then the soldier on point gave her the OK signal that they were in position. Avrika then signaled the other squad, and they moved.
Both squads moved, swiftly and silently. Avrika was glad she had left her slow and stupid octo troopers behind to maintain the illusion of her forces' presence back at home. They couldn't have handled some of the rougher terrain to get there anyway. She did have a handful of octocopters nearby however, just in case.
Both squads swarmed the small wooden building, her squad stacking up by the door before pushing inside. She heard the sounds of inkguns going off but it didn't sound like anyone inside had been hit.
The leader of 2nd squad approached her, face exuberant, even behind her goggles. "Ma'am, we've found him!"
Around and behind the small building Avrika found what appeared to be a glass globe atop a stout pedestal. Inside, a figure bobbed up and down, green eyes glaring irately at her.
Avrika swallowed nervously and bowed. "Lord Octavio."
The figure in the globe huffed. "Well, it's about time."