Mia wasn't sure if she should be fast or sneaky. Best she could do was a bit of both.
She darted between the long shadows of the buildings, trying to stay quiet while also trying to find someone, anyone who wasn't a crab.
Part of her was glad to be on the old turf, to be fighting to take it back, even if it wasn't with the people whom she thought she would. Most of her, however, was utterly terrified. She was running by herself through territory controlled by people who wouldn't hesitate to kill her, save maybe to torture her first. Just seeing what had been done to that poor octoling they'd found was enough to turn her stomach. It also made her as determined as possible not to get caught.
The layout of the ward hadn't changed at all since she had roamed its streets a year ago, so she knew many of the back alleys and places she could move without likely being seen. Small gaps between buildings only a cephalopod could fit through, and the large intersections to avoid.
It was eerie just how quiet things were, given the mayhem happening at the place she'd left behind. She thought the ambassador was crazy to stay behind but she also couldn't doubt that she'd never be able to escape with her extra burden and told her she'd be able to move better on her own anyway. Leaving Tephy with her was a mixed blessing. Mia was actually starting to get used to her company, something that, just a week ago, she would have thought both impossible and undesirable.
As she darted across another alleyway, she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Once to the other side, she peered back around the corner and frowned. Across the road, was what looked like an old news van, with a satellite dish on the roof and everything. It sat there with the engine running, no lights on that she could see. There was nobody standing around it either.
Suspicious though it seemed, she didn't have time to worry about it, so she tore herself away and kept moving.
Checking her mental map, she guessed she was about a quarter of the way to where at least one group of the others was. She didn't know what a company was and only barely understood what a splatoon was, but they meant one of the other groups and that was all she needed to know.
As she leapt over a short stack of pallets, something reached out and grabbed her, pulling her around the corner and up against the wall. A hand covered her mouth and a harsh but quiet voice spoke to her in inklish.
"Quiet, we're not here to hurt you."
Mia stopped struggling and looked into a pair of purple disks glowing in the dark. There were other pairs around her as well. After a second, she recognized them as the glowing masks the octolings wore.
The hand slowly came away from her mouth and Mia swallowed, trying to collect herself. "Are you with Tani?" She whispered.
"First, who are you?" The octoling asked.
"Mia. I was guiding the ambassador around."
A pause, and then the octoling released her. "Where is the ambassador?"
"Probably trapped," Mia tried to calm her breathing. The running and the adrenaline spike from being grabbed washing over her. "All of Gamma-Three is trapped. They're holed up in a hardware store. There are hundreds of little crabs surrounding them. They need help, really quick."
The octoling's jaw fell and then she uttered what Mia assumed was a curse. "Were your coms not working?"
"Not even my cell phone is working." Mia pulled her phone out and scowled at the indicator showing no reception. "I don't know why. It's never happened before around here. Not this bad, unless they took out some of the local transmitters."
"More likely we're being jammed," the octoling said. "Our radios have longer range so we've been using the larger towers instead of the more localized transmitters."
Mia frowned. "Jammed? How would they do that?"
"Most likely through sending out strong signals to disrupt communications. Our comms were working elsewhere though. It is only since we got around here that they have been getting rough."
And just like that, the proverbial lightbulb lit up in Mia's head. "Could they send those signals out through a dish? Like, maybe on a van?"
The octolings all looked at each other and then back at her.
"We are Delta. Show us what you found."
Minutes later, Mia and Delta were peering around the corner and looking at the van Mia had found just a short time ago.
"That has to be it," the octoling in charge murmured. "If we can put that out of commission it will make things much easier to coordinate."
"I bet one splat bomb would jam it up for a little while," one of the other ones said. "If nobody came out of the van to wipe it off."
"But it would get the van to open," the third one said.
"Yes," the leader murmured, "Yes it would." She turned and looked at Mia. "Can you help?"
"Of course I can! I didn't come all the way here just to watch."
"Then we need you to do something."
"Any news?" Klorggh asked, rubbing his large claw impatiently.
"Nothing yet," Memoch replied, turning the dial on the control board just a little. "Our cell phones won't work any better than theirs with all the noise we're putting in the air. Heck, I bet we're disrupting this whole half of the ward. But I don't think we'll have any trouble. The only thing unexpected was that the inklings attacked the opposite side of the ward from their little enclave."
Klorggh bubbled and clicked his mandibles in annoyance. "We shouldn't have waited so long. We didn't need this many just to wipe out that group."
"The idea was to make the inklings scared," Memoch reminded him. "If seeing a horde of hopped up soldier crabs tearing them apart wouldn't scare them, nothing would."
"They were already scared," Klorggh bubbled. "I think Molugh just delayed things so he could show off his fancy projects and win points back home." He shifted his limbs uncomfortably. "Some of the things he's doing really freak me out, especially what he's doing with Gung and Bungo."
"So long as it's only the inklings that have to deal with it, I don't really care," Memoch murmured. Then he frowned and began playing with the dials on the control board.
"What is it?"
"Something's wrong with the transmitter. It's not quite working right."
Klorggh clicked with irritation. "More glitches? I thought we finally got this thing working right."
"I dunno, maybe a bat or a bird flew into the dish." Frustrated, Memoch pulled the switch to the off position. "Come on, let's hurry and fix it before they can send any messages to Inkopolis Security or something."
"I doubt it. Inkopolis Security seems like it's ditched the whole ward tonight. I guess that makes it easier for us."
Klorggh opened the back doors of the van, stepping out into the cold night. The dome lights in the back of the van cast a dim yellow glow onto the street outside. As they stepped out, he spotted someone peeking out from behind an old phone booth.
He pointed at them with his small claw. "Who's there? Come out."
A small inkling with a dark-purple mantle stepped out and narrowed her eyes at them. "There's only two of you? I figured you shells would be going around in bigger groups, seeing how you're so scared of us and all."
Klorggh clicked angrily. "See if you can fix the transmitter. I'll deal with her. I can handle one inkling."
Klorggh took one step away from the van and then something kicked him from behind, causing him to fall forward. His many limbs saved him from falling flat on his face, but then something jumped on top of him, forcing him all the way down as his legs collapsed beneath him.
He heard Memoch cry out and then bubble as the sound of ink weapons drowned him out. Klorggy tried to thrash around, to wriggle and struggle as much as he could, but it was useless. He was helpless.
"Wait, please, you don't have to kill me, I –." He never got to finish his sentence.
Mia averted her gaze as Delta drowned the last crab in toxic ink. The smell was even more potent than it had been when they rescued the tortured octoling. Maybe the older octolings had more potent venom.
"Coms are working," the second octoling said. "They must have shut off the jamming to repair the dish."
The dish was caked in a thick layer of ink. Nothing a quick hose down wouldn't fix, but it had been enough to get the crabs to come out of the van, and Mia's vantage point allowed her to see inside the van and determine their numbers. After that, all she had to do was distract them so that Delta could attack the crabs from their hiding place under the van itself.
"Van's unlocked," the third octoling said.
"Then get in," the leader said. "I'm going to try and contact Gamma-Lead." She gestured for Mia to join her inside the van while the other two hopped into the cab. "Let's hope we're not too late."
If the crabs had known anything about Octarians, they would have understood just how dumb it was to attack them in a place like a hardware store. Although much of the product was gone, they were able to make do with what little was left and fashion new weapons and barriers from the rest.
As the crabs broke in through the thin plywood covering the storefront windows, they found they had to squeeze through the small gaps between overturned shelves, desks, and everything else that had been piled in the way, and that, in turn, had been coated in toxic ink, slowing their progress and making them weak even if they did manage to get through, making them easy prey for the soldiers of Gamma-Three, wielding hammers, wood axes, and makeshift clubs.
That didn't mean things were easy for the defenders either, however. The crabs were coming in absolutely every opening they could. Not only did the large windows surrounding the storefront force them to cover a broad area, but they also had to guard the window in the office and the roof of the building. And as more and more octolings were wounded, it got harder and harder.
Most of the injuries involved deep cuts that severed ligaments or having limbs, hands, and feet lost to the metal covered claws of the little crabs. The wounded were being packed into what had been the employee break room with the ambassador and Tephy.
Tephy too was keeping busy, doing her best to use the makeshift bandages the octolings made to patch up the injured as best she could. Her first aid was crude at first but the ambassador was instructing her well and by now, Tephy could properly dress a wound in a fraction of the time it had been taking her at the start.
Four had never been in a prolonged battle before. The new experience was terrifying and like something out of a war movie. But movies could only show so much. They didn't show the sheer amount of blood that could leak out of a body and cover the floor, and they couldn't communicate the stench. The front of the store reeked of death, blood, and envenomed ink. The smell was so powerful that it was causing Four to cough periodically and blink a lot more.
Four swung her hammer into the face of another crab that had come through the barrier of shelves and chains they had criss-crossed over the openings to further impede the crab's progress. She managed, just barely, to lift her leg in time to avoid it getting snipped off by another crab that had made it onto the bloody floor of the shop and then brought the hammer down on that one too.
This is bad. We're going to have to retreat to the back rooms soon. She hoped Mia was alright.
Her headset crackled. "Agent 4, Agent 4, respond!"
Three's urgent voice entering her ears was like a lullaby. It was so surreal amidst the pandemonium of battle that she almost thought she imagined it.
"I… I'm here. It's really good to hear your voice, sis."
"Where are you? Are you alright?"
Four's business-like tone snapped Four out of her sentimentality. There was no time for that.
"We're under siege in a hardware store on the South side of the roundabout around Fortress-Seven. There are probably hundreds of little crabs and they've all been turned crazy by some kind of weird smoke. They're acting like Salmonids."
"Alright, can you hold out for ten minutes?"
"Yes," she replied confidently. "But you'd better make it or I'll tell Callie and Marie you were late."
"I'll make it," Three responded. "I promise. Three out."
Four's hand gently fell back to her side. Suddenly, their situation took on new meaning. Ten minutes, yes, they could hold out for that long.
Four switched her comm frequency. "Kina, how are things on the roof?" There was a distinct pause before a response came. Kina was probably as surprised as she had been to find their communications working again.
"We're holding them off for now, but it's getting more difficult. We've taken a number of casualties."
"I know, but help is on the way. Agent 3 will be here in less than ten minutes. We just have to hold on 'till then."
"R-really? Alright, I think we can hold the roof that long."
"Good. We'll probably be pulling back here soon. We can't hold this position much longer. Four out."
Four rushed into the back where some of the reserve troops were waiting. She'd been cycling people in and out to give them a rest while also keeping a force ready to go wherever it was needed.
They had already been preparing to erect another line of defense at the door to the storage room and the hallway that led to the bathrooms and office.
"We're about to fall back. Prepare defenses."
At her words, the waiting octolings quickly moved all the material for their barricades into place. Work benches, tables, and more criss-crosses of chains. The latter couldn't be done for the hallway in a timely manner, so they had erected the defenses higher and thicker there, and had step ladders placed behind the barricades to force the crabs to try and force their way up through tiny gaps.
Four kicked aside one crab that managed to get around behind the front line and smashed her bloody hammer down on the head of another trying to snip the legs of one of her troops. This was it, they could wait no longer.
"Everyone fall back to the second line! Go, go, go!"
Everyone moved, holding onto their makeshift weapons but also taking up their ink guns, leaving a trail of ink to slow down the advance of the crabs. Most of them had to revert to octopus form to squeeze through the tiny gaps of their second line but everyone made it through. Four made sure she was the last one.
The swarm of crabs crashed into the barriers but they had been prepared well, and it did little. The octolings didn't bother firing ink at them as they came. Most of them were so dehydrated that they could barely make any more ink as it was.
Once sure the new defenses were holding well, she ordered some octolings up to the roof and then went up herself, where she found things to be less secure.
Kina had done a good job holding off the crabs for so long, but now it was only four octolings, one of them missing several fingers, holding off the inexorable march of the little crabs. Her backup had arrived just in time to stop them from being overwhelmed.
"You're timing couldn't be better, Ma'am," Kina said breathlessly.
"Glad one surprise worked in our favour."
Four picked up a fallen plank and used it to whack a crab off the roof and into the alley below. They were stacking themselves to reach the roof, and without adequate ink, they could no longer impede their progress, or make it as costly as they had before, and the sheer amount of crab blood that had been spilled washed the ink away.
Grunting, Four lobbed her last splatbomb into their midst. The crabs actually tried to attack the splatbomb when it landed, only for the inevitable explosion to topple the stack, sending them all tumbling.
That done, Gamma-Three's roof force was able to regroup and start pushing the crabs back off the edge of the roof, once again forcing them to fight just to try and reach the top. The respite allowed Four to finally take stock of the overall situation, and it was nearly enough to make her despair.
The entire southern half of the roundabout was like a living carpet of crabs. They marched in great numbers, clambering over each other to try and reach the enemy within the building, and the terrible, insect-like sound they made all moving at once was enough to make her skin crawl.
She saw the large crabs standing in the middle of them all, sweeping the smoke generators they held over the horde of crabs, keeping them aggressive. Their eyes met and they glared at her in a way that promised her death was coming soon, it was only a matter of time.
Four saw a flash of red movement to the far right of her vision, coming in from the East. Then, there was an explosion of crab bodies as someone initiated a splashdown amidst a dense cluster of the little crabs, sending them flying.
The large crabs directing the swarm turned to look that way, and many of the unengaged little crabs did too, sensing the new threat. From the middle of the splashdown, in the centre of a rare circle of bare concrete amidst a horde of malicious crabs, stood a crimson Agent 3.
Four felt a huge wave of relief, enough to make her weak at the knees, but what was Three doing putting herself right in the middle of so many crabs? Did she not understand how dangerous they were?
The crabs swarmed her all at once, but she seemed unperturbed, as she reached behind her and brought out, not her trademark hero shot, but the hero roller.
Keeping it in its folded position, she spun in a circle with the roller outstretched, smashing the crabs and sending them flying with broken limbs and shells. Even if they hadn't been killed, they weren't much of a threat anymore.
Three then flipped forward, using the roller as a lever and brought it crashing down on another crab, this time killing it outright, then began swinging the roller back and forth, knocking the crabs aside each time, breaking legs and claw arms and spreading ink as she did it. In mere moments, mounds of broken and dead crab corpses surrounded her, even as she made her way deeper and deeper into the horde, towards the larger crabs, who backed away fearfully.
There was a loud cry from where Three had come, and all at once, the rest of Gamma Company charged into the horde, firing their ink weapons and drowning line after line of the crabs in toxic ink, like a tidal surge of purple. With so many of the little crabs tightly packed together in their attempt to get Three, they were constantly getting in each other's way and dying in scores.
"They're here!" Kina cheered. "The rest of Gamma is here!"
"We're not out of trouble yet!" Four told her, then switched to the splatoon comms. "All members of Gamma-Three, the rest of Gamma Company is here, but these little crabs are drugged up something awful so they aren't going to stop coming at us. We have to keep fighting until there's none of them left. We've almost won. Maximum effort, everyone!"
Four grabbed her hammer, now with a melee weapon in each hand and continued helping the others on the roof keep the little crabs at bay. They didn't appear to have reacted to the new threat at all.
"Not that it matters," Four growled, her survival instincts now reverting to anger as she glared hatefully down at the mindless little monstrosities. "You're all dead; you just don't know it yet."
Four had almost forgotten what silence was like. The quiet after the death of the last crab in the area of Fortress-Seven was eerie and almost disquieting. The loss of that constant drone of thousands of skittering legs on the pavement or of shells rubbing against each other felt almost like the sound of rain stopping even though it continued to pour. But as she wandered into the blood-soaked street from their makeshift fortress, stepping on broken crab bodies, she knew she would be hearing that sound in her nightmares the rest of her life.
The lights of the Work Detail vans approaching was a welcome sight. Four had a lot of wounded that needed to be taken care of.
From atop a small pile of crab corpses, Three ordered her own splatoon into the hardware store to help take care of the wounded and make sure every crab inside was dead before the barricades were brought down.
Seeing her approach, Three hopped down from the pile, slipping the battered hero roller onto her back. The moment she did, Four ran up to her and gave her big sister the tightest hug she had ever given. To her mild surprise, Three returned it, giving her a crushing embrace that actually hurt, but Four didn't care. To her, it was one of the most wonderful hugs she had ever received.
"Thanks for coming."
"I'm glad I didn't let you down," Three said softly, her usual gravelly voice replaced with her more genuine melodious one. "You held on for a long time against incredible odds, and you still have troops under your command. I'm so proud of you."
Those words broke the damn holding back Four's emotions. It was probably against all kinds of protocol for someone in an officer position to show such emotion in that situation, but she didn't care. She gripped Three's shirt tightly and sobbed.
Those words meant more than Three could have imagined. From her parents and people back in Little Reef, she would have expected scolding, lectures on all her failings and what they thought she should have done, followed by punishment. Three's simple sincere words meant the world to her, and reminded her where home truly was.
"What do you mean they're all dead?"
"Just like I told you! A monster inkling came and started killing them all by the dozen, and then a whole army of octolings came out of nowhere and started killing them too. I swear, Molugh. You can't make something like this up!"
Molugh clicked his mandibles in annoyance, but his mind whirled with new anxieties. He hadn't expected the inklings to launch an attack of their own anytime soon, not with how big the crab gangs had become, but now it made sense. The help of the octolings must have given them the confidence to attack. He'd sent their swarm of enhanced soldier crabs out to help stop their fortress from falling, and even sent their secret jamming van out to prevent them from calling for help and spoiling the secret of his crabs. He hadn't heard back from the van either.
"There were over six-hundred soldier crabs. You're sure they all died?"
Labchk looked at the floor, regretfully. "I'm positive. It cost so many just to break into that hardware store, almost a third of them were dead by the time that… that death inkling showed up."
"Don't start spreading stories," Molugh chided him. "Stick to facts."
"I'm trying! I've never seen inklings move like that, and I've been studying their combat abilities for years! It's as if killing meant nothing to her!"
"It's a female?"
"It kind of makes sense, doesn't it? They're stronger and bigger than the males?"
"But not normally as aggressive. Inkling females have strong maternal and life-giving instincts that makes them averse to such acts of violence unless backed into a corner or having to defend her young."
Molugh turned to face the kneeling crab. "Do you think they know we're here?"
"We know the Xapheerell Holdouts know or at least suspect we're here. It might not be tonight but they'll probably come here eventually. We don't have enough troops left here to hold out against that many octolings and inklings, unless our forward base finally responds and sends help."
"Unlikely. I think we have to assume that it and all our other bases in the Ward have fallen. I don't know how but that other force didn't come from nowhere. If they came from the East like you assume, then they came from the bases we took from the inkling gangs, which they've probably liberated by now. That many could easily overpower the token forces we put there."
"But the forward base had almost two-hundred –,"
"I know! So we have to assume that they've gotten more help than we suspect. I doubt even my current bag of tricks will be able to save us."
Labchkt stared at him then down at the floor, then back up at him. "What do we do?"
"I'm going to try and get into contact with our ambassador. Maybe he can get off his soft shell and actually do something useful. As for you, my loyal friend, you will be leaving."
Labchkt frowned, confused. "Going where?"
"You will be going to the usual rendezvous point to deliver copies of my work, only, they won't be copies this time, they'll be the real thing. We cannot allow the inklings to learn what we've been doing and what we've been developing."
Labchkt stood to his feet and started to protest, but Molugh stopped him. "You are a loyal comrade, Labchkt, which is why you are the only one I can trust with this. You have to tell the ones back home what you saw and bring them as much information as possible. They need an eyewitness account."
"But you are one of our most brilliant minds. You're much more valuable than me! Why can't you –."
"They don't want me back and they will not let me come back without putting me in prison again. No, I would rather die here in freedom than live a long life in a cage." He gave Labchkt a pat on the shell. "Besides, there's no reason to assume I'll die. After all, our ambassador might be able to intervene in time and I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve. If this so-called 'monster inkling' is indeed female, then I might be able to use that to my advantage."