Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Chapter 19: The Four Missions
On the outskirts of Atlantis
Triton's POV
"Ty, go assemble the Cyclops army and guard Atlantis. You're the last line of defense for the city." I said.
"Yes, big brother." Tyson said as he swam toward the forges. Pontus and Thalassa are on their way, I hope they can make it in time. The enemy is on their way to fire a nuclear torpedo on Atlantis. We're the only ones who can stop them. I swam further from the city. I needed to get more distance between me and the city just in case the enemy gets here before Thalassa and Pontus. Suddenly a blue-green light appeared in front of me. Once the light dissolved Pontus and Thalassa were floating in front of me.
"Lady Thalassa and Lord Pontus, thank you for helping us." I said sincerely.
"You're most welcome Triton, any news on the enemy force?" Pontus asked.
"Not yet, the last update was from a pod of whales that identified the subs about a hundred miles to the east of Atlantis." I said.
"How many subs do they have?" Thalassa asked.
"Twenty, but only one has the bomb. The others will try to distract us." I said.
"Agreed, we must destroy all the subs as quickly as we can." Pontus confirmed.
"Even though only one has a nuclear warhead, the other subs can still do a tremendous amount of damage to the city with conventional weapons." I said matter-of-factly. I could see the concern on the faces of Pontus and Thalassa, I knew that they worried about that as well. "How do we identify the sub with the bomb?"
"We'll have to attack all the subs and see which one the enemy protects, that would be the one with the bomb." Thalassa said. I nodded in agreement.
"Then we need to engage them as far away from Atlantis as possible." I said. Thalassa and Pontus nodded in agreement. The three of us swam further and further away from Atlantis. Until we saw the first submarine in the distance, then we lowered our tridents and went into battle. I wonder how dad and Theseus are doing that was my last thought before entering combat.
Near New York Harbor
Theseus's POV
My dad and I appeared in the ocean about ten miles outside of New York harbor. I saw my dad close his eyes and concentrate on the ocean in front of us. He suddenly opened his eyes and I could see the concern etched on his face.
"Dad, did you find them?" I asked.
"Yes, there are thirty submarines heading directly toward us." Poseidon said.
"We need to intercept them as far away from the city as possible." I said anxiously.
"Agreed, let's move." Poseidon said as he swam toward the enemy, I followed close behind him. "One other thing, Nico informed me that the submarine with the missiles should be easy to spot, its a missile sub, so it will be the largest. We need to destroy it before it can get to an appropriate firing depth."
"Agreed dad." I said as we swam to close the gap between the two of us and the fleet of submarines headed our way.
Onboard the TS Empire State VI - Somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean
Scott's POV
I hope the others succeed. I prayed to my mom and the gods to save my son.
"Scott, I think we have a plan devised to disarm the bombs." Ben's voice said over the radio.
"Good, I'll be right down." I said. I saw Alex running toward me.
"Orders sir?" Alex asked.
"Contact the US Navy, they should be in exercises with NATO near Iceland, tell them our situation and have them send support, just in case we have to abandon the ship." I said.
"Aye, sir." Alex said as he ran toward the communications room. I ran out of the bridge and headed for the lower decks where Ben and Gareth were working on disarming the bombs. I ran past the moon pool and found myself standing near Gareth and Ben as they organized their tools on the metal floor. They both stopped when they saw me appear.
"Report." I ordered. They both stopped what they were doing to address me.
"We have a plan, we have to carefully drill a hole into the mixing tube and then fill it with a foam cement product that we carry around to secure locks. Then we use the blow torch to cut the lock mechanism off the hatch." That sounded easy. "One problem, the bomb on this hatch and the one on the other are linked." It all sounded too easy. "In other words we will have to simultaneously conduct our plans on both doors at the same time."
"That's great, how are you going to do that?" I asked incredulously.
"We'll have to take it very slow and stay in constant radio communications." Ben said, he looked confident, but I could still see the worry in his eyes.
"What do you need?" I asked.
"Gareth and I are cannibalizing our tools and those from the engine room to make sure that there is enough for both bomb teams, after that Gareth will need Allen to assist him and I will need Alex to assist me." Ben added. That sounded like a good plan. "Also, we need to make sure this ship doesn't move away the momentum could set off the bombs."
I grabbed my radio and yelled. "Scott to Alex come in."
"Alex, here sir." Alex responded.
"Alex full stop on the ship, lower all anchors, we need the ship to remain still. Once you're done find Allen and get both your asses down here to assist Gareth and Ben." I ordered.
"Right away sir." Alex confirmed. I hoped this plan worked, if it didn't we would most likely have just a few minutes to get the students out and abandon the ship. That was the one scenario I didn't want to think about.
Near Gough Island
Percy's POV
It was late in the evening as we approached Gough Island, it was too dark to see the island other than its dark outline, but I used my night vision to see more features. The island was shaped like a potato with a large peak in the middle, which was most likely the volcano. I had everyone stop their Hippocampi for a few minutes.
"Percy, what are you thinking about?" Annabeth asked, she knows me so well.
"We should travel around the island to see if there are any entrances for submarines, like an old sub base or something." I said. I read about these types of bases in the Atlantic during the second world war. Some of the German bases were in very secret locations.
"That's pretty smart, how did you think of that?" Annabeth said sarcastically.
"I'm not just a pretty face you know." I said with equal sarcasm. Annabeth tightened her grip on my waist and then kissed me on the neck, I felt electricity run down my spine and then down my arms. Damn, she has such a strong affect on me.
"I guess, but I think I just found a weak spot." Annabeth said with a slight chuckle right after she kissed my neck. I promised myself to get her back for that once we were back at camp. I focused and tried to put those thoughts away as we had a mission to accomplish.
"Everyone, listen up." I said. I saw everyone stop what they were doing and then huddle closer to Annabeth and I. "We are going to make our way around the island to see if we can spot Atlas's base." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. "Once we find the base, Annabeth will go and scout ahead using her invisibility." I felt Annabeth squeeze me again and I knew she was ready for that part of the plan. "Once we know the enemy's strength and base layout, we attack and rescue the three hostages. Once they are safe we go back in and take out the pirates and send Atlas to join his brother in Tartarus." Everyone smiled at that last statement. "Good, follow us." Rainbow swam forward and we looked around the island. My eyes were glowing green as they looked along the shoreline for any possible indications of a submarine base. After an hour of searching I spotted something along the shoreline that was mostly submerged. It looked like a low lying cave that was just barely visible from the surface. My sixth sense told me there was more to this cave than you could see from the surface.
Annabeth could sense my change in focus. "What's going on seaweed brain?" Annabeth asked sincerely.
"There is a cave straight ahead that is just barely visible from the surface, it looks innocent enough, but my sixth sense tells me that there is more." I said carefully. I could feel apprehension from Annabeth as she fidgeted behind me.
"You should go underwater and investigate, but just look don't get in over your head." Annabeth said sternly.
"All right, I'll go and check it out, let the others know." I said as I slipped off of rainbow into the water. The water would be pretty cold for someone else, but I easily warmed the water to give me a comfortable working environment. I swam toward the cave and used my night vision to look at the cave ahead of me. Once I reach about a hundred yards from the cave entrance, everything came into focus. The cave was two hundred yards in width and about eighty feet deep. As I approached the cave entrance I was struck by the clean walls and sharp edges of the entrance, then I realized this wasn't a cave this was a man-made entrance. I swam slowly inside the cave until I could see light from the surface. I adjusted my eyes from night vision and I slowly swam to the surface being careful not to alert anyone to my presence in the water. Once my head broke the surface of the water I looked around. On one side of the cave was a sheer stone wall that had been carved smooth by machinery. The other side of the cave looked like a concrete dock that stretched at least a thousand yards into the cave. It was big enough to dock several vessels. The dock had a concrete platform that ran at least a hundred yards into the side of the cave and on the far wall I saw a symbol, it was a Nazi symbol, this base was a world war two sub base for Germany. I didn't see anyone on the dock, so I carefully swam further into the cave until I saw another set of lights. These lights were on the dock and secured to the dock was a submarine, it looked like a small Russian nuclear submarine, I had seen this in a book once, but I couldn't remember the name of the boat class. I looked further into the cave, but I couldn't see anymore lights. This had to be the last submarine that Atlas had in his fleet. I carefully slipped below the surface and swam out of the cave as fast as I could. I reached the cave entrance and looked behind me. No one was following, I continued to the surface. I broke the surface of the water only about three feet from Rainbow. I climbed onto Rainbow's back and settled in front of Annabeth.
"What did you find?" Annabeth asked curiously. I could see the others listening intently as well.
"Well, that cave is a man-made submarine base, it was a German base from world war two." I said. I saw the shocked expressions on everyone's faces except Annabeth.
"What do we do now?" Thalia asked.
"We go ashore near the cave entrance and then I sneak into the base and reconnoiter." Annabeth said. I looked at everyone and saw them nod in approval.
"Let's get ashore." I said as I directed Rainbow and the others to go ashore. All of us settled on the beach and setup a small base behind a large group of rocks near the foot of the volcano. By the location of the sub base it was clearly apart of the volcanic mountain and I had to assume that the power for the base was geothermal in nature. Once we were settled Annabeth stood in front of us with her Yankee cap in her hand.
"I'm ready." Annabeth said.
I smiled at her and said, "No heroics wise girl, just get the information that we need, o.k.?"
Annabeth smiled at me and kissed me in front of the others. "You're cute when you worry." Annabeth said. Everyone wished her luck and Nico gave her a pistol that Scott had given him earlier.
"Just in case you need a little extra help." Nico said. Annabeth nodded and then put on her cap and disappeared. I lightly punch Nico in the shoulder and mouthed a thank you to him. I hope Annabeth wouldn't need the gun, but I felt a little better that she had one just in case.
"All right, I'll take the first watch, everybody else get some rest I have a feeling that we'll need it for tomorrow." I said. Everyone nodded and then tried to get some sleep. While I kept a look out and worried about my wise girl. It's going to be a long night I thought.
AN: I hope you liked this little filler chapter, no action, but expect a lot next chapter, plus a few surprises.