Staging point, Octo Canyon
They gave their all for their race.
The hundreds of loyal Octarians who volunteered to wait, those who left their entire lives behind so that someday they could ensure their race's survival in a dark time.
They were the Octarian reserve army, who were the first to inhabit the repurposed Octo Canyon.
Ranks of various Octarians stood by as a messenger came running past, before stopping to hand piece of paper to the Elite Octoling, who was also their commanding officer.
The Elite's eyes opened wide in shock as she read the news, for a moment she stood in silence, in respect to those who had fallen.
A single tear made its way out of her eyes.
Octavio was recently defeated, but they weren't needed thanks to his second in command taking charge so quickly.
But now she was gone, along with most of the other high ranking Octarians.
Fellow soldiers whom she had known, gone.
Not only that, but Nautilus' communications were down, and the base was infiltrated by Inklings.
The Undercity was also in a deteriorating state.
Now was their time, time to show up and save the day.
The moment they were put on standby they were ready, they had done enough drills to know what would follow.
The Elite raised her head, and spoke to the entire reserve army.
"Octavio is imprisoned, as for Octavia, she has been splatted, along with the majority of the other Elite Octolings."
If it was any other Octarian hearing this news they would be deeply saddened, but the reserves were expecting this, for they wouldn't have been called unless something disastrous occured.
"Nautilus has been compromised, the kettles are powerless, and the undercity is no longer safe. We will go and save what we can of our culture and evacuate everyone to Octo Canyon. The Inklings who attacked Octo Valley will likely strike again, so be on your guard as you enter the undercity. Now move out! Prepare all the transports we have! We will not see our end so soon."
Every single member of the reserve army was eager and determined to finally do their duty, they followed orders without question.
A whole fleet of saucers flew out from Octo Canyon, ready to evacuate the entire Octarian population.
Not a single one of them ever considered the possibility that they were being deceived.
Undercity, Octo Valley
Everyone watching the Octo Valley News Bulletin had gotten word of what was happening.
This part of Octo Valley was lost, everyone was to pack whatever they could carry and leave asap.
The reserve army was also flying in and out of the Undercity, transporting away groups of Octarians.
From the top floor of the Octo Valley News Bulletin building, the captain watched the various Octarians moving around, evacuating the city.
Everything had gone according to plan.
"Captain, the teams from Nautilus are back." Claire reported
"Have them switch back to the regular Octarian army colours, also I want to make sure that everything went accordingly."
"Of course, by the way, what should we do about the rest of Nautilus? The rest of the army is still there and we have no way of contacting them."
"That is of no concern, we'll head over and pickup the remainder of the army once the civilians have all been moved."
"Alright. By the way, congratulations captain, you've done it."
"We've done it, it took all of us to get this done right, now we will actually have a chance against the Inklings when they eventually come after us. When that day comes, we will be ready."
Claire left the captain to debrief the teams returning from Nautilus.
The captain had much to do now; oversee the evacuation, seize control of the military, set up bases in Octo Canyon….
It was now her time to rule, no more Octavia, no more enticing the Inklings to attack, no more reckless charges through the bottleneck that was the manhole to Inkopolis.
'We had long embraced living underground, and that gives us an advantage, why lure Inklings to us when we should be the ones making the attacks, why attack from one place, when we can pop up anywhere from underneath Inkopolis? Octavia never would have considered this.'
"Captain!" a voice called out to her.
It was the four Elites who Octavia had sent to accompany her to Inkopolis; three second lieutenants and a first lieutenant.
They were now the last Elite Octolings left, although keeping them nearby was a risk, there was nobody else to turn too.
"Evacuations are underway throughout Octo Valley, we estimate that it will take about a day to bring all of us to Octo Canyon."
"Then we wait, as Elite Octolings we have a duty to our people, we will be the last to leave, as it is written." the captain replied.
"That may be so, but in the meantime there are a few things we must discuss, first off, there are barely any high ranking Octarians left, if we include the colonel leading the reserve army, all that is left are six of us."
"We can worry about rank once we are finished here, besides there is always some young talent out there."
"We were thinking of rescuing Octavio, while the New Squidbeak Splatoon is guarding him, there must be a way to get past them."
'Rescuing Octavio? I had almost forgotten about him.'
"That would be a priority, but given our current circumstances we can't conduct an operation like that, there are just too few of us left."
"It wouldn't be too hard to elevate the ranks of some of the other Octolings."
"True, but the title of Elite should not be easily obtained, though perhaps we can make something work once we are set up in the Canyon. For now focus on the evacuations."
The four Elites looked at each other.
"I believe you are mistaken captain, remember that we were ordered to aid you in your assault on Inkopolis, not follow your orders."
"Really, in a time like this you still cling on to orders given by a deceased acting leader? There are times where you must act on your own accord."
"No, we are Elite Octolings, we are loyal to Octavio's will no matter what it may be. With Octavia gone there is no one else to speak for Octavio, thus he is now our top priority."
"If you four think you can beat the entire New Squidbeak Splatoon, then you can go ahead and try, im assisting the evacuations and acting when the time is right."
"You are ignoring your duty as an Elite Octoling, Octavio should come first, he is far more important than anyone else here."
"If it was that easy, then Octavia would have had him rescued long ago, and I am not ignoring my duty, I am simply accepting that we are not in a state where rescuing Octavio is possible."
"And when the time comes where Octavio can be rescued, how will you know?"
"What are you getting at? If you simply want to argue with me then this whole conversation is pointless, im staying to oversee the evacuations along with the rest of my splatoon, you four can go do whatever else you plan on doing."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"We will follow the evacuation procedures, but after that, rescuing Octavio is a must."
"Of course, without a leader to keep everyone in line, who knows what would happen? Rest assured, i'm not abandoning Octavio to the Inklings, we will go for him when the time is right, for now we must focus on the evacuation."
The four Elites left wordlessly.
The captain was considering the possibility of splatting those four, but perhaps they had a point. They never had problems with moles and traitors when Octavio was around, it was as if something changed when Octavio was captured…
'Oh well, for now I should just talk to the teams I sent to Nautilus, I need to make sure Octavia is gone.'
Inkopolis Plaza
Inker strolled around Inkopolis Plaza.
Normally he would meet Kal here, or Neon would spot him and loudly call him over, or Sky with his low sense of presence would just appear.
However unbeknownst to him, Kal was taking Victoria to various places in Inkopolis, try to help her get over the disaster in Octo Valley. At the moment Kal and Victoria were playing on an arcade machine, as for Neon she had already joined another ranked match.
So today Inker only found Sky.
"There you are, I couldn't find anyone yesterday, what happened?" Sky asked, not wanted to be left out as usual.
"The Cap'n had me run to Octo Valley for an acquaintance of his, an Inkling called Arcus."
"Arcus? Inkopolis' minister of defense?"
"Oh you heard of him."
"Yeah he's all over the news, I hear he's trying to get permission from the prime minister to rearm Inkopolis."
"If this goes on, then the Inkopolis army would be reformed in no time."
"Is that a good or a bad thing?"
"I don't know."
…..
"By the way, have you seen Kal or Neon today?" Inker asked
"I think I saw Kal by the arcade machine earlier, but I haven't Neon around."
"Well she's probably playing turf or some other mode without us then."
"Yeah, what else would she do… What are you up to today?"
"Honestly I have no idea, I wanted to find a way to stop the fighting between the Inklings and Octarians, yet so far nothing i've done has helped."
"Hey that's a hard goal for one Inkling, I got some free time, so how about we try and find out more about those protests going on."
"I already did, I texted Callie and Marie when I got back yesterday, remember how they damaged that news helicopter when they came to our rescue? Well to make up for it they ended up making a two hour special on Lila and her experience in Octo Valley."
"That's it? That's all it took for Inklings to start protesting for an army?"
"It would seem so, after that news report the families of the other squidnapped Inklings joined in, sharing their stories over social media, then they pieced together what happened to Bogs, the guy who Kal said was boiled to death. Before long a movement started to re arm Inkopolis and take revenge on the Octarians."
"That's not exactly a bad thing is it?"
Inker let out a sigh.
"I don't know, honestly I can't seem to understand how things became this complicated all of a sudden, what happened to the times where all I had to do was fight through a kettle and reach a Zapfish? I can't believe this, but i'm starting to wish Octavio was still in charge."
"uhh"
Sky gave Inker a squinty eyed looked.
"Oh sorry about that I got lost in thought. Well wanna head over to Inkopolis tower? If anything Neon should be there, I doubt she'd be doing anything else at this time."
"Sure let's go."
Melanin prison, Octo Valley
"You all did good, I understand it was hard, really it was a hard choice for me too, but I already chose to trust the captain, so I will not be looking back, you shouldn't either as it will only hold you back." Claire spoke to the groups of Octolings who had returned from Nautilus. "I would like to confirm with you that all the Elites and Nautilus' communications were destroyed."
"Yes of course" one Octoling replied "we threw all the Splat Bombs we had, then after the explosions we looked inside the meeting room and saw no one, they were all splatted."
"And what about the communications room?"
"Yes all taken care of" Lynn said.
Although she still couldn't shake the idea that she had done something wrong.
An Octarian splatting another Octarian? Who could think of such a thing.
"Well then, the captain will be pleased to hear, now keep quiet about this, we must never speak of this again."
"Understood!" all the Octolings said at once.
Now they were to leave and blend in with the reserve army helping with evacuations.
First they all split up, then walked separately to the Undercity.
Octarians were everywhere, they mumbled among themselves, many were worried or scared, they were not sure what to do now that they had lost both the DJ and the Acting Leader.
They were also leaving almost everything they had known behind.
Lynn gazed upon the masses of Octarians, they were hard to tell apart as she didn't know any of them personally and they looked no different from the ones in the communications room.
The ones she had splatted...
'This isn't right! I shouldn't have shot our own countrymen in that room!'
Lynn was full of regret.
She grabbed and shook her head, trying to shake away the memory of her splatting other Octarians.
What if the roles were reversed? What if those in the room had fought back?
What if they were in the same situation as her?
'Did they also have family members depending on them back home?'
As an only child, and the only one in her family capable of working, Lynn's parents had depended on her income to barely live on.
She along with Claire and Madison had that in common, their families depended on them and were not in a good state, which was why they made that deal with the red Inkling who knew Agent 3.
'Could the ones we splatted be the same? Could Claire have brought herself to shoot them if she was in my position? What about Madison? If she was still alive what would she have chosen to do?'
Claire however, made it very clear that she was loyal to the captain, so she would have had no problem taking Lynn's place, while Madison was splatted when the New Squidbeak Splatoon attacked Melanin prison.
"Attention everyone! Make sure you packed only what's important we must leave as soon as possible! watch the children, don't lose them in the crowd!" It was Claire's voice over a megaphone.
Claire was standing in front of a saucer instructing other Octarians to enter, all while other Octarians, both from the reserve army, or the captain's splatoon were helping civilians with their luggage or helping them board.
Lynn joined the other soldiers helping out, once the saucer was full Lynn and Claire both boarded it and flew off to Octo Canyon.
They flew off at tremendous speeds arriving in Octo Canyon in no longer than an hour, all the civilians were dropped off and the saucer flew back to the undercity to pick up another load of Octarians.
Once against helping out, Lynn dejectedly helped load suitcases into the saucer.
She was moving at a slower pace than the other Octarians, even the Octotroopers who had to work in pairs worked faster.
"Hey you, come with me for a sec."
Surprised, Lynn looked up and saw Claire standing in front of her, gesturing her to follow.
Claire took Lynn away from the others to an already evacuated area.
She glanced around, making sure no one was within earshot, then she looked at Lynn.
"You don't believe in this, in what we are doing."
Lynn looked shocked for a moment, she had forgotten that Claire was an expert when it came to reading people.
"Well do you?" Lynn asked instead of confirming what Claire suspected by now.
"Of course, that's why I followed along. But you, you seem to have something on your mind, something that's bothering you. What do you think of our little coup?"
"Urgh, I don't know, the captain says we had no other choice."
"But i'm not talking to the captain, i'm talking to you. Tell me, when I suggested to you and Madison that we do a favor for that Inkling in order to keep Agent 3 away from us, what did you think?"
"Gee uhh, you and Madison were ready to go for it so I figured i'd go along."
Claire brought her hand up to her chin and stared at Lynn, as if trying to figure her out.
"What about the Octarian army? There are always other jobs opening up everyday, since someone keeps dying each day, so why enroll in the army?"
"Well a lot of Octolings I knew were talking about it, and at the time I didn't know of any other jobs."
"Have you ever made a decision for yourself?"
"Well sure I did, at one point…... I think…."
"What is it that's bothering you so much anyways?"
"Everything, this whole scheme, the Octarians in the communications room, abandoning Octo Valley. How can you just follow along so easily?"
"Because I believe in the captain's judgement of course, that makes things easy."
"How? How can everything just become easy? Splatting other Octarians was the hardest thing I had ever done."
"Is that what was bothering you?"
"..Yes, I can't shake that sight, our company walked right into the room and the operators inside had no idea what was coming, and that look, the look on their faces, the look of fear when we suddenly drew our weapons and shot them all. What were they like? Could they have been in a situation like me and you, where our families depend on our salary? Everyone here knows that death is extremely common, and most who perish are forgotten, did we just doom all those in the communications room to be forever forgotten?"
"If you had your doubts you could have walked away, the captain gave us a choice you know, we didn't have to do this, but we chose to."
"No, I didn't I just followed along, I didn't know there would be consequences like this."
"Every action has consequences, so it's better to stand for what you believe in, because no matter what you do, you'll be facing some sort of consequence sometime down the road."
"So what? You would have shot those Octarians in the communications room without a second thought?"
"Yes"
"How could you? I know we all underwent training so that we would have no problem taking the lives of others, but this is unthinkable. You would just do it because of the captain?"
"No, I would do it because I believe what the captain said, not because of her, remember that we were to be sent to Inkopolis Plaza, the most populated area of Inkopolis, not only that but we would have to enter one by one though a tiny manhole, it's a bottleneck, an unfavorable place to stage an assault. I believe that if we did follow orders and go to Inkopolis, we would have all died in Inkopolis."
"I didn't think of that, but was there really no other way?"
"There is always another way, but nobody could think of one at the moment, so we chose to follow along with the coup. What about you? You didn't really choose, but just followed along because the captain was your commanding officer."
"Yeah I know, but honestly what difference does it make whether or not I chose to follow the captain or the acting leader?"
"It may not seem like that big of a difference but it does, maybe you could have had ideas that would benefit either group, or maybe you would be all they need to win a battle by the skin of their teeth. I said it before, that Octo Valley would be split into two, it's time to choose who to believe in, you'll be of no help to either side until you make that choice."
With that Claire left to aid with evacuations.
Lynn noticed how she didn't ask her to return to helping with the evacuations.
'Was she telling me to sit back and do nothing?'
Lynn wasn't sure what to do here, but she was still wearing armor and was equipped like a soldier, so she returned to help with evacuations so that she wouldn't stand out.
Inkopolis Plaza
Kalus and Victoria had just left Cooler Heads.
After trying all the games Kal had on the arcade machine, Kal decided to show her around the shops.
Of course usually only squids at level 4 were fresh enough to be allowed in, but the gear Victoria wore was convincing enough.
Excepted for this store…
"That annoying little fish! Who does he think he is? Definitely not a tough guy considering he fainted instantly upon seeing me when I first got here!"
"Easy Victoria."
Indeed, while the other shops let them in, Moe was not fooled by Victoria's gear.
While Annie had welcomed them in normally like any other shop keeper, Moe started yelling at Victoria for being a "fake" who "probably stole all her gear cause she couldn't get any fresher."
Following that, Kal had to drag an enraged Victoria out before she pulled out Annie's hair in order to get the the little Clownfish.
At least he didn't know Victoria's identity.
"Say, is that little fish really that important? I still have my Octoling gear with me, would anyone miss him if he was to say uhh, suddenly disappear because an Octoling broke into his store at night?"
"I'm begging you, please don't cause any trouble here, also please don't say things like that out loud. Moe really isn't that bad once you get used to him."
"Not bad? It's a miracle that shop of isn't in the red, that anemone must be a very competent store owner."
"Yeah she is. Even though I think it's mostly due to her personality that she keeps getting customers." Kal muttered under his breath.
"Hmm? What was that last part?"
"Nothing… Well all that's left is Inkopolis tower, are you ready to see what me, Inker and the others do all the time?"
"Inkopolis tower, so you are going to join a turf war."
"Yes of course, it's great fun, i'm sure Inker and the others are there already, even if they are not i'm sure Neon would be there.'
"Okay, but could you maybe value your life a bit more?"
Kal gave a confused expression
"What does that mean?"
"It means umm, don't go doing anything dangerous."
"Don't worry I'm not repeatedly joining ranked matches like a certain Charger user."
Victoria was worried about Kal being splatted during a turf war match, but she didn't know that the Inklings could respawn if they had a spawn point nearby, too her the existence of spawn points and respawning was unknown.
As for Kal he assumed Victoria was talking about losing points in ranked battles or something. He also didn't understand why Victoria looked so worried.
The two entered Inkopolis Tower, with Victoria seeming a bit nervous.
"Okay this is where we split up, you take a left from here and it will let you pick a match to spectate."
"Wait i'm not coming along?"
"Yeah, you see there's this matchmaking room that scans your level, rank and other stuff, but you are a you know what, and it might figure that out."
Victoria was expecting to battle alongside Kalus
'If Kal goes in alone he'll most likely be splatted, no but he said he does this alot so maybe most Inklings are incompetent when it comes to battle? Still I want to be there to back him up.'
"Are you sure? Maybe it will just think i'm a newbie squid, I really want to come along."
"I don't want to take the risk, sorry."
"But not having me with you is a risk, can you please let me try? I don't want you to go alone."
"Don't worry, I know i'm probably not as good as you are when it comes to fighting but I think I can still win, go and cheer for me alright!"
"Wait!"
Too late, Kal entered the matchmaking room.
Victoria wanted to follow, but then realized that she might not end up in the same battle as Kal and if Inkopolis tower did find out that she was an Octoling there would be an uproar.
Victoria ran to the place Kal had pointed out, apparently it was where you could spectate battles.
"Where is the battle with my friend Kalus taking part?!"
"Whoa too close, calm down there!" the frightened receptionist replied when Victoria came charging up to her in order to find out how to spectate Kal's match.
The receptionist browsed through the current matches for anyone named Kalus.
"Yeah he's starting a Turf War war in Arowana Mall shortly, tunnel number eight will take you to the spectator box for that match."
Victoria left in a hurry, she had to be there in case something went wrong.
"Tunnel number eight huh? Hey! Wait up!" came a familiar voice, but Victoria had already run off before she could hear it.
She had fought Kal before and was able to get the upper hand despite being unarmed, she was aware that he wasn't the best and if something were to happen during this awful "game" she'd have to jump in.
Upon arriving at the spectator box for Arowana Mall Victoria made her way through the crowd and glanced around the map quickly, trying to spot Kal.
"?"
All the Inklings here were either yellow or purple.
'Did I take a wrong turn?' Victoria wondered
"Huff….huff you are really fast….. Huff" a Cyan Inkling came running up behind Victoria.
"Oh its you, uhh…. I'm sorry I forgot your name."
"Huff..it's Sky.. huff" Sky was still catching his breath.
"Okay nice to meet you Sky, but I need to go, do you know where Kal's Turf War is happening?"
"It's right here…. Huff. Look! There he is."
Sky pointed at a yellow Inkling with a Slosher.
Sure he looked like Kal, used the same weapon and wore the same clothes but Kal was red.
"Umm are you sure?"
"Yes, in turf wars, the Inklings participating are recoloured so they can work together with their team."
"Oh okay.'
Victoria immediatly focused on the now yellow Kalus.
He swam around and hopped up to cover uninked turf for the first few seconds.
Then his team met the opposing team and started exchanging ink, Victoria saw many weapons she had not seen before, there was one which fired an exploding shot as if it was shooting small splat bombs, some sort of deployable ink wall, a giant speaker that fired a laser and many other things.
'The Inklings really have stepped up on their weapons...' Victoria thought
Kal was doing well for himself, he sloshed Ink and ran when out ranged, caught Inklings coming around corners and also managed to splat one by sloshing ink through a grate from below.
Sky noticed Victoria exhale in relief.
It was a match full of fast paced action, Inklings jumping out of their ink to fire at one another, tossing bombs, firing shooters, rolling with rollers…
And finally, almost two minutes into the game, Kal was too busy splatting another Inkling to notice a second approach him from higher ground and leap down on him while flailing an inkbrush.
Victoria tried to vault out of the spectator box when she saw this happening.
"Hey stop!" Sky quickly grabbed Victoria and pulled her back.
Too late, Kal got splatted
Victoria could only watch with a face of horror.
How could this happen, why did she let it happen?
Victoria felt the strength leave her legs as she buried her face in her hands.
"Umm, what are you doing?" Sky asked, confused as to why Victoria had just kneeled down.
"Kal is…. is "
"Is what?"
"Splatted."
"Oh yeah, that happens all the time."
'All the time?'
"I thought you were his friend, how could you be so heartless?"
"?"
"I can't believe he's gone too."
"?... I don't think we are on the same page, Kal's fine, in fact he's in a good position to splat the inkbrush user who just got him."
"?"
Victoria glanced over the railing
"What? I could have sworn I saw him get splatted…"
"Yeah he did, but that doesn't matter, not in turf at least, didn't you notice the spawn points?"
"Spawn points?"
"Yeah look over there."
Since Victoria had been so focused on Kalus she hadn't seen the strange pads on each side of the map.
It would appear that when an Inkling was splatted they would just simply be respawned back at these "spawn points".
"Oh, so being splatted is basically a joke here….."
"Not really, only in certain places where a spawn point is nearby- hey where are you going now?"
Victoria had turned away and was leaving the spectator box
"...I'm going back to Kal's place, let him know once he's done."
Victoria wasn't sure what to think of this.
In Octo Valley someone dies each day, accidents happen all the time, families torn apart, loved ones taken away….
Yet all this time, Inkopolis had something like this, something that turned war into a game.
She felt relieved that Kalus was okay, but also felt angry that something like this was kept hidden.
'That spawn point could have solved the biggest problem with Octo Valley, why didn't anyone tell me about this? Why didn't Kal say anything about this? Does he enjoy seeing me troubled, saddened and shocked? If I had known something like this existed, I could have saved mom and dad!'
Even though she had found out about respawning, she couldn't have brought such technology into Octo Valley, yet she still felt mad at Kalus for treating death like a game.
Victoria returned to Kal's home, somewhat angry and somewhat sad, Kal's attempt at cheering her up had failed.
When Kalus had finished his match he couldn't find Victoria anywhere, he looked around but didn't call her name as she should stand out easily with that helmet.
He met Inker and Sky in front of Inkopolis tower.
"Hi Kal, if you are looking for Victoria she went back to your place."
"How did you know?"
"I ran into her when I was on my way to spectate Inker's match and followed her instead, you know you should probably have told her about the whole respawning thing in Inkopolis, she almost jumped in and interrupted the match when she saw you get splatted."
"What? I thought she'd know by now, didn't you tell her about Turf Wars?" Kal looked at Inker
"Yes but I don't think I mentioned respawning. Why did you bring her here anyways? Wouldn't Turf Wars be a bad reminder of the battles in Octo Valley?"
"I…. I didn't think about that, I just wanted to show her around Inkopolis and Inkopolis Tower was the last thing to show….."
"Why? She should have been feeling down so should she be left alone for a bit?"
"I don't know, it's just that well, she was spending her entire day staring blankly into that album she brought and I thought it would be a good idea to get her mind off it, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, what should I do now?"
Inker and Sky exchanged glances, they didn't know what to do either.
The only way anyone died here was from old age or if they were really unlucky, sickness, so they had no idea what it was like to lose someone because they were splatted by another living being.
"Maybe wait a bit, then talk to her I guess?" Inker suggested
"Yeah that, also try not to mention the difference between Octo Valley and Inkopolis maybe?" Sky added
"Hmm" Kal wondered 'But there's not much else I can speak about, most of my life was in Inkopolis and I barely know anything about Octo Valley's lifestyle.'
"I guess you are right, i'll try and talk to her sometime later.."
Kal left for his home, wondering what had he done wrong.
When Kal returned Victoria was back to being a depressing sight, sitting alone staring off into the family album she had brought along.
"Hi, uhh are you alright?"
No response.
"Hey i'm sorry if turf wars brought up some bad memories, really I didn't think a harmless game would do that."
No response.
"Well I want you to know that I was just trying to get your mind off Octo valley and I really didn't mean any harm and if anything is still bothering you you can talk to me about it, I may not understand but i'll do my best to make sense of it."
Still no response
"I umm, i'll go make dinner soon, don't go starving yourself okay."
Kal left to put his Slosher and other gear back, as he was putting everything back into his weapon closet he noticed something that he had hidden under his Splattershot JR: the picture of Victoria's last night in Octo Valley.
He had the photo developed even though it wasn't the best quality and had planned on giving it to Victoria once she felt better but now he didn't know what to do with it.
'What if this only makes her more depressed? Maybe I should just tear this up and throw it out.'
For now though, he put it back in his weapon closet, hidden under the beginner equipment that he would never use again.
Octo Canyon
At a large camp where the Octarian reserve army had set up tents and other temporary structures.
"Move along everyone! Don't worry this is just a temporary housing, we'll have you moved into the new cities as soon as we figure out how to spread everyone out." An Elite Octoling yelled and motioned to all the Octarians to enter the camp.
Group of Octarians moved through the camp while Octarian soldiers stood in front of many tents speaking to the civilians.
"Greetings, how many are with you? One adult five children? okay you can come in here…. Good evening, how many are with you? Just you? Alright then head on over there." Claire was directing the civilians to different tents where they would spend the night.
"Doe, is anyone here named Doe!? This is yours." Lynn was helping unload luggage from the saucers and giving it to the owners.
As for the captain, she was the last to arrive.
"How is everything going?" she asked one of the remaining Elite Octolings
"Good, we are currently deciding how to organise these Octarians since having all of them find their own homes would be chaos, for the moment they will all stay here while we make sure all the kettles and cities are up to standard."
"Well that won't be a problem, carry on then, once everyone is done I want you and the other Elites to gather for a quick meeting, we need to discuss the defense of Octo Canyon."
"And the rescue of Octavio?"
"Yes that too."
"You are aware that you are not the highest ranking officer here right?"
"Of course, but in times like this, a meeting is necessary to determine our course of action."
As the captain left, the Elite Octoling waved over an Octoling.
"Go tell the other lieutenants and the colonel, that the captain wishes to see them."
The Octoling nodded then left, however a few moments later another one came running back.
She held a letter in front of the Elite, who was busy directing the troops who were setting up more temporary housing and places to eat.
"Now?"
The Octoling nodded
"Is it that important?"
"Yes"
"Very well." the Elite said as she snatched the letter from the Octoling.
She unfolded it and read the contents, indeed it was an important letter.
The Elite tore up the letter and glared suspiciously at the captain...