Chapter 19: Where No One Can Hear Our Screams
Axcia
The team of Octarians and Splatoon agents had continued to work harshly on extracting the white, dead crystals directly from the planet's surface, slowly digging a hole into the ground as commanded. All of them were, expectantly, starting to get exhausted as they worked, to the point that all of them were building up heat and sweat in their own suits. Marie took a moment to catch her breath as she stared down at the hole they were making. What use could they possibly have for these dead crystals, anyway?
"KEEP MOVING!" The Octoling general snapped at her as she passed by.
Marie glared at her, sticking up her middle finger at her once her back was turned, before she kept working. They continued digging quite the pit as the stormy weather above them continued, occasionally letting off bolts of lightning that, for the most part, they could ignore; However, as Marie and the others soon noticed, a darker and darker shadow was falling upon all of them, grabbing all of their attention and prompting some of them to look at the sky.
The storm clouds above them were not only getting larger, blotting out more and more of the sky's light, but they were getting… closer. The lightning bellowed as if it grew angrier, threatening to finally begin striking them where they stood, and some of the clouds were rotating, as if about to let loose a tornado. Multiple people stared upward, concerned.
"What do I keep telling you!?" The general shouted once again. "Are you all barnyard animals!? Keep working!"
"No need!" They heard Shadow's voice by the station's entrance port. They all looked over to see that Shadow had taken a step outside. "That is satisfactory digging. The ship can do the rest."
"Fuckin' finally…" Pearl threw her tool down. She started to take off her helmet prematurely. "Hey, do we got any beer on that ship?" She looked around at the Octarians that just ignored her. "…Hello? Really? No beer?"
Marie just sighed in relief, and Callie said nothing as their next job became climbing out of the pit they created and taking their collected crystals back into the station. Another tedious task, but nothing none of them couldn't handle as they all headed back inside, finally taking their suits off. Marie let out another more pleasured sigh as she finally felt some cool air.
The alarm sounded as the station closed up, and the Splatoon agents were again taken down the halls and back toward the control room. It was a miracle that they weren't being taken right back to their cells, although that didn't necessarily send Marie good news; If anything, it told her that either they weren't done, or they had outlived their purpose entirely. But she kept these thoughts to herself, just staring onward as Shadow stepped toward the Octoling crew that controlled the station.
The Octolings all stared at her, and after a moment, Shadow gave them a returning nod. "…Begin the extraction."
The Octolings all nodded back and got to work, and finally, the station once again lifted up into the air, even if everyone remained unaware of a relatively small hole that had been formed on the hull.
Marie watched on, nervously, as her mind began racing about how the Octarians were getting exactly what they wanted, and they were just… allowing it to happen. Her mind began racing more and more as she thought about what this might mean, and what it would mean for the coming conflicts, but to calm her, Callie suddenly leaned toward her, putting a hand on her arm. She glanced at her, and they exchanged comforting glances before they looked back out the window.
The station slowly lifted into the air, inching itself into position, as a large port at the very bottom of the station opened up. Once everything was fully ready, the station began inhaling, slowly tearing away at the pit that had already been formed. The digging they had already done made it swift, allowing the station to very easily and cleanly take care of the work that remained.
The rocks that formed Axcia's surface were practically tearing themselves apart as the planet began breaking open, until finally, as if they had burst an ink vessel, a jet of green light burst out from the hole, producing intense light that lit up the world around them. Callie's eyes widened as she saw this, watching on the different screens alongside the other agents. For all the talk and rumors and theories that they had heard about Axcia's energy, none of it felt as real to them as it did in this moment.
"We made contact." An Octoling continued.
"Keep at it." Shadow commanded.
The green light moved upward as it was sucked into the station itself, spinning upward into the station like a drink that was being slurped. Everyone was immersed by this sight- a sight that no Earth creature had seen before- and even Shadow watched intently, mesmerized by what she was seeing. The Octolings watched the rising energy levels for a moment until Shadow held her arm out. "That's enough."
The port closed, and the energy that was left in transition slowly fell calm once again until the planet had again fallen dark.
"...Everything's stable." An Octoling said. "…It worked!"
In unison, the Octarians in the room all began screaming and cheering, a couple of them even moving to embrace and celebrate together.
Marie rolled her eyes as she watched this, while Shadow just remained as still as ever. "…That was phase one. Next phase is up to Marina Ida. So may she act quick…" She glanced back at the agents. "For her friends' sake."
Marie glared back at her.
"Wait, something else is going on." Another Octoling continued.
Shadow immediately turned to him. "What?"
"The storm, it's…" He fell silent.
They all pulled up the camera feeds on the screens in the room. Indeed, the storm outside had only gotten more intense; the clouds above them, drawing ever closer, were beginning to spin quicker and quicker, creating intense winds outside that were enough to blow stray dead crystals all over the place. It was truly as if… the planet was reacting to them. And if that was somehow the case, it was very, very angry.
Shadow stared at the outside winds, pondering just how alive this planet seemed to be. She clenched her fist, somewhat nervously. "…Just get us out of here. It won't be our problem."
He nodded as they all prepared to vacate. From there, it didn't take long for the station to begin flying back upward, forced to pass back through the storm clouds as it attempted to leave the atmosphere. The station began shaking as the wind rocked them.
"Ma'am, I really think we should-" An Octoling protested.
"Keep going!" Shadow snapped. "I don't want to hear another word!"
Callie subconsciously squeezed Marie's arm as the station around them rumbled, more and more violently, until-
Finally, a massive green bolt of lightning struck the station square in its center, lighting up the world brilliantly and filling it with a BANG! By the time the light subsided, the entire station was gone, leaving the storm to slowly fall calm once again.
"Marie. Marie." The voice echoed through nowhere.
Marie looked around. She was back in Inkopolis… Finally, she was back home. But… the more she looked around, the more she felt something was off… the world around her was scorched. All of the buildings had been burnt to a crisp, and the remains of Inkling society covered the world with their burnt tentacles, leaving nothing alive. She looked up. The Octarian station sat still over the destroyed remains of the planet, every once in a while sending off new blasts of crystal energy just to continue the senseless cycle of destruction.
"...Gramps!? GRAMPS!?" She looked around, beginning to run down the street in search for him. But she was too late. Her grandfather was dried up, and his cane collapsed to the ground, turning to ash.
She just stared, eyes wide, welling up with tears that refused to actually come out.
"Marie. Marie. Please…" It was Callie's voice. She was in trouble.
"No…" She immediately began running over. "Callie!? Callie!?"
But again, she was too late. Callie's throat had been gashed. Pearl and Marina were nowhere to be found. Their remains were already in the rubble.
Marie tried to scream, but no sound came out. She screamed Callie's name, desperate for her voice to heal her. Callie sunk down into her arms, choking up ink, staring up into her eyes, with her own filled with the most intense fear and pain she had ever seen. She kept screaming, desperately, as Callie's corpse was burnt away.
"Marie! G-Get up!"
Marie gasped as her eyes opened, and she immediately turned toward Callie, who was desperately shaking her awake. Realizing she was on the floor, she abruptly sat up. "C-Callie-"
She sighed in relief and pulled her into a hug. "God, you scared me…"
She held it for a moment before she broke off. "W-What happened?"
"That, uh…" She briefly glanced up at the ceiling. "…That might actually be tough to explain."
"...What… is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, I-I dunno. We got hit by something bright, and then we, uh…" She bit her lip. "Look, I really don't know how to explain it…"
The more Marie came into focus with the world around her, the more dire things seemed. The Octolings around her seemed to be in a frenzy, running back and forth between controls, while alarms sounded down the halls, frightening her further. Even stranger, the world around them was glitching and distorting, almost like reality itself was on the verge of collapsing, which she assumed to be some kind of hallucination.
She blinked and shook her head. "…Did someone drug me or something?"
"No… but you hit your head. Pretty hard, I was… starting to worry you weren't going to wake back up."
"W-Where's Pearl?"
"She went to look for Marina." Callie replied.
"Where's Shadow?"
"I don't know." She helped her up. "Pretty sure she's investigating our situation."
Two more scares awaited Marie: First, as she got up and reached for her head, she felt something wet, which then led her to discover that she had been bleeding from the head. Second: the moment she looked out the window, she had to blink just to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her. She walked up, staring out at the complete black void that was outside. It wasn't Axcia, it wasn't even space, with all of the stars that lined it… it was just… blackness. Pure blackness. They were no longer in the reality they knew.
She just stared at it, more frightened than ever. "...C-Callie… w-where are we?"
Callie didn't respond, having no answer.
Marina was working feverishly on her work at this point, using paper, the desk, and even the walls to write down an absurd amount of various calculations. She had been supplied with more and more equipment, which now included some of the dead crystals they had dug up on Axcia.
Her job was now both simple and complex, depending on how one looked at it: She had to use these crystals and transfer the proper Axcian energy into them, creating something far more stable than the previous powered crystals the Octarians had access to. Now, however, she had a lot more pressure put onto her, for it was now up to her to get literally everyone out of their current predicament; Every other attempt by the Octarians to jump back to reality had now failed. Worse yet, according to some of her more terrifying calculations she had made, they only had some much time before escape became outright impossible.
The Axcians that she worked with were surprisingly helpful, despite their more limited communication abilities. One of them had a degree of telekinesis much like the Axcian King, and was helping her move things around her work space to speed up the process.
Ignoring the distortions in reality around them, she was still frantically working on her notes when the door slid open and Shadow walked in.
Shadow maintained her no-nonsense posture as she turned to her. "…Any updates, Ida?"
Marina looked at her. "…Yes." She moved to set some of her notes on the table so that she could see them. "The only possible explanations for these reality glitches, and the void outside, is that we are displaced from our own reality. In a space between dimensions. A… sub-dimension, you could call it, from our own."
"...Ok? Are you going to get us out of it?"
"I'm trying, but… I fear we may be on a time limit."
"How so?"
She kept writing down notes as she spoke. "The bolt of lightning that struck us automatically triggered your jump systems. Except without any sort of coordinates or even direction inputted for us to be sent, it sent us somewhere more random, in another dimension. On top of that… it wasn't even a completed jump. We're in limbo, in a space where matter isn't meant to be, and we are slowly being corrected by being moved both back to our own dimension… and the other one. In other words… our ship is slowly going to be torn apart, atom by atom, unless we can make a proper jump back home."
"The jump system is no longer working, we need another solution."
"That's the thing… the reason the jump wasn't completed is because… the jumps we make with the crystals we used before are not meant to jump through dimensions. We…" She sighed. "I need to synthesize the new one. The more stable energy will be able to handle it."
Shadow stared at her before glancing at the Axcians. It seemed even they knew how dire the situation was. She looked back at Marina. "…Then… do it."
"I just told you, I'm working on it." She replied, irritated. "My friends are on this station, do you really think I'm just going to lie down and accept it while they're torn apart?"
"Remember, Ms. Ida, my Octarians can get to them long before whatever alternate dimension does."
She just sighed, not responding.
"...And of course… do let us know whenever you need something."
"...Yeah… more of those crystals you extracted, please." She turned back to her work. What she had just said wasn't a lie in the slightest; No matter what second thoughts she might've had about this before, she absolutely needed to complete this work now. The fate of her own world depended on it.
The air remained tense for everyone in the station as reality occasionally distorted around them. The lights began to flicker more and more frequently as the Octarians all went about their business in trying to find a way out of this place. To some of the Splatoon agents' luck, none of the Octarians quite cared about them enough to send them right back to their cells; As far as they cared right now, they were all trapped in the same boat regardless.
Marie thus stayed close to Callie as they walked through the halls, looking around everywhere for Pearl and Marina.
"Listen here, buster." They heard Pearl's voice. "If you don't tell me where my girlfriend and probably future wife is right now, I will knock your ass into the void outside, and continue to write a diss track in your name. That's right. I can do it. 'Rina and I will do it together." She was whining to some random Octoling guard. "So you better square up, bitch, because I-"
"Pearl." Marie interrupted.
"'Rie!" She turned to her as the Octoling stole the opportunity to sneak away, pulling her into a hug. "You're ok!"
"Define 'ok'." She muttered as she hugged her back.
She broke off. "Where were you?"
"Knocked unconscious, apparently, or at least that's the word of mouth that's been going around. What about you?"
"I was looking around for 'Rina, but no one will tell me where she is. And I'm getting pissed."
They looked up again as the lights flickered even longer, briefly slamming them down in darkness. "God, this is a complete disaster…" She put her hands on her hips as the lights came back on.
"...Well…" Callie shrugged a bit. "At least we're in this disaster together… right?"
"I don't wanna hear that shit right now, Cal."
"...W-Why not?"
"Because this entire mission was completely irresponsible of us. All of us. And you know it. It's become more and more clear that we really shouldn't even be here, and… honestly, blame does fall on you, Callie." She walked to the side and suddenly hit the wall in frustration. "God dammit, the moment you convinced me into coming…" She shook her head.
She shook her head, a bit ashamed. The dizzy feeling started to come over her once again. "I… I didn't know all of this would happen-"
"Yeah, well, now it's happened, and we can't do anything. Now we're probably all going to die."
"Jesus, what's got your tits all up in a knot?" Pearl interrupted. "It wasn't like you did anything to stop us."
"What was I supposed to do?" She turned to her. "When the three of you all teamed up to convince Gramps, what else was I supposed to do?" She looked back at Callie. "I knew then this was a bad idea, but I also knew, if I had let you go by yourself, you'd probably die and I'd probably be stuck with the guilt for the rest of my life. I couldn't live like that…" She poked Callie's chest. "If you and Marina hadn't gotten everyone convinced, none of this would've happened. We could've all stayed home and dealt with the Underdogs like we typically do and everything might've worked out."
Callie didn't respond, looking down.
They all fell into silence, and Marie sighed, leaning on the wall. "Well, if we die here, at least… the Octarians might not get what they want… so… that's some silver-lining… even if I hate it…"
Callie turned to stare at her. Although she still said nothing, she wanted to say something… more than ever. She wanted to just sit down and have a proper conversation with her… but no words came out, and any chance her words had was ruined as at that moment, a duo of Octoling soldiers walked up to them. "One of you. Come with us."
The three of them looked up at them, confused. "…What for?" Pearl asked.
"Just come with us." They said sternly. "Just one of you. We have a task for you."
They turned to each other, wondering which one of them was going to go. Suddenly, almost as if without thinking, Callie stood up and slowly walked over.
"Callie?" Marie tried to stop her.
"I'll just talk to you later…" She sighed as she walked with the Octolings.
Marie fell silent as she watched her disappear down the hall.
"Smooooth, dude…" Pearl folded her arms. "You hurt her feelings."
She sighed. "Shut up, Pearl…"
The next thing Callie knew, she was being led down the halls with Octoling guards walking on either side behind her, like a convict that was being marched to her execution. She occasionally glanced back at them, but every time she did, they shoved her along and pressured her to keep moving.
Feeling like she made a mistake, Callie audibly gulped. "…Um… can I ask… where we're going?"
"Two of our soldiers went to check up on the power cycles and have yet to return." One of the soldiers finally told her. "You're gonna check on them for us."
Her eyes widened a bit. "…Oh… I see…"
They kept walking until, at one point, the two of them stopped, leaving Callie to continue onward on her own. She looked back at them, but they shoved her forward. "We'll be right here. Just take a look."
"...Um… o-…ok…" She again stared forward, starting to walk down the hall. She kept her footsteps slow and quiet, looking around in every direction as she slowly went where instructed.
Regardless, it didn't take her too long to reach the room she was supposed to arrive at. As she approached from the hall and kept looking around, she noticed a large amount of some strange, oddly familiar goop that lined the halls. Her eyes widened more as she forced herself to continue onward, avoiding stepping in any of it. As she approached the room, hearing subtle noises coming from within, she didn't dare to even open her mouth as she slowly stepped over and took a peek inside.
The sights inside were worse than anything she could've imagined; Multiple Octolings were already inside and were already long dead, and two Axcian Shriekers were feasting on them. In spite of her attempts to stay silent, a gasp escaped her mouth as she backed up, and the monsters both reared their heads toward her.
Without even thinking, Callie immediately turned and bolted back to where she came from, and the creatures both shrieked loudly in her direction as they followed.
The Octolings that were now standing guard down the other hall turned to her as Callie slid down the hallway, tripping as she ran past them.
"T-They're here! They're here!" Callie shouted.
"What!?" One of them replied.
"T-The monsters from Axcia, they're-" They all turned as the Shriekers slid down the hall and turned the corner before them. They nearly slipped and collided with the wall, but regained their balance as they roared at their next victims.
The Octolings immediately began firing at them as they ran up.
Callie tried pulling them along. "No, no, we gotta-!" She was interrupted as one of them was dragged to his death, screaming. On the verge of losing her mind, Callie only briefly tried to rescue the other one before he too was dragged, and she instead bolted down and turned another corner, finding a wall to hide behind. She panted heavily, eyes wide as she fought back that same dizzy feeling that plagued her.
Her panting, however, was far too loud. One of the Shriekers, able to just barely hear her, looked up from its new feast as it slowly began making its way over.
Hearing its footsteps, Callie desperately covered her mouth and held her breath as the Shrieker stalked down the hall, searching around for its prey. She listened to each thunderous footstep as the creature made its way in her direction, and it emitted a low growl as it listened around for her. It got closer, and closer, starting to rear its head around the corner.
Callie closed her eyes tightly, holding as perfectly still as she could while the Shrieker, with its inability to see, inched toward her. She gave the tiniest frightened whimper, and in response, it suddenly turned directly toward her, letting off a brief shriek as it inched toward her face. She was shaking horribly, not ready for the end at all as she felt its hot breath on her cheek. It reached its claw toward her before-
Both Shriekers heard another Octoling's radio go off down the hall, and they both turned toward that direction instead. Letting off their own individual shrieks, they both charged down the hall.
Callie, left where she was, let go of herself as she gasped for air. Unable to stop herself from crying, she slowly got back up as she looked down the halls. She inched her way down to take a peek at the now-deceased Octolings who failed to fight them off before.
Only a moment passed before she heard the subtle noises of screaming and then gunfire down some distant hallways. She gasped as she looked down. "…M-… Oh, god, Marie…?" She muttered to herself.
Marie and Pearl were walking down the halls when they heard the situation go down on the radios. The Octolings, of course, reacted first when they heard the screaming. One of them grabbed her own radio and held it to her mouth. "What? What's going?"
"They're here!" The voice on the other end shouted over the sound of a loud, alien screech. "The Shriekers! They're onboard!"
"Shriekers? When did-"
"They're all over the place and they got into the power rooms! They- THEY- FUCK! KILL IT! KILL I-" The voice turned into horrifying screaming as they heard another shriek and the sounds of ripping flesh. This continued a moment before the line went dead.
They all looked at each other, concerned and confused.
"...Was that…?" One Octoling asked.
Marie looked down the hall. "…Callie…"
They all then looked up as the power went out. It wasn't just them; the entire station was beginning to power down, slamming everything into pure pitch-black darkness as the station floated along in the already dark void.
Multiple alien screeches could be heard through the dark as red emergency lights began to power on moments later. Callie was still slowly navigating the halls, looting any dead Octolings that she saw for their lights and weapons, grimacing and moaning in disgust as she did. One of them had a flare-like item, which she grabbed as she moved along, pointing her light down the hallway.
Her top priority was now making it back to Marie, and she knew she wasn't going to feel the slightest bit of comfort until she did, but as she traced her steps down the peath that the Octolings initially took her down, it quickly proved to be fruitless; The Shriekers had already attacked this path, and multiple dead Octolings laid down the halls as she heard their growls, both high and low, coming from where she couldn't even see.
She turned around to find another route, but again, things only got worse; There were now more than just two Shriekers, of varying shapes of sizes, scouring the halls; Their shadows could ominously be seen down the halls as they prowled about. Not only was she unsure of where exactly they were coming from, but from the looks of things, Callie wasn't even sure if they were looking for food, or… if they were just looking to kill. Her hearts sank as one of them reared its head in her direction, growling. She turned back down the hall entirely, turning down an entirely different direction.
The same monster let out a brief, calling shriek, as it and a few others began stalking down the hall to hunt for Callie.
Her eyes widened as she noticed this and sped up into more of a rush, turning more corners and running past more and more goop that she didn't even fully notice in her adrenaline state, until she finally came across another room she could hide in.
She hid behind the wall and hunched forward, catching her breath, but from this position, it didn't take her long to notice that she was standing in plenty of goop. Her eyes widened more, and as she looked forward, she then noticed what appeared to be a couple barely visible Octoling corpses that had been buried under mountains of slime. Fighting the urge to scream, she gasped softly and covered her mouth.
Another growl, even more high-pitched than the others, could be heard from just above her, and she looked up to see that on the ceiling, there was a bunch of apparent child Shriekers that were clinging from it as they slept. As one of them awoke, yawning, the others began to awake as well in a chain reaction.
Petrified by fear, Callie sank down as the children all looked around. For younger Shriekers, they were still terrifyingly big, and they all started to slowly climb down the walls to investigate the noise.
She accidentally whimpered in fear, and several of them all gave soft growls as they looked in her direction, continuing the climb down. Shaking horribly as the children closed in, Callie examined the flare that she was still holding, and in a desperate play to save herself, twisted it until it activated. The red light emerged in front of her face, and the hissing, burning noise attracted all of their attention further. The closest child got close to Callie's head, growling.
She whimpered yet again as she slowly turned to throw the flare out of the room, and all of the children turned to follow the noise as it landed out in the hall. Slowly, they all started to climb out the door.
Callie gave a slight sigh in relief, but she was still gravely aware that she was in no way out of this. She slowly turned to watch as the children all investigated the flare, before she slowly stood up, now having to see if there was a way to sneak past them. The flare, after all, did nothing to change the fact that she was very deep in predator territory, and no help was coming for her.
As all of this went down, Marie and Pearl were marching down the hallways to get back to the control room. Marie was the first one in, looking around for the same Octoling general that was berating them before. "What the hell is going on?"
"We're figuring that out." Another Octoling replied.
"You already know more than you're letting on, don't you?" She pointed down at the ground. "There are apparently monsters out there and my cousin is out there, somewhere in this god-forsaken station, and she might be among them!"
She turned to face her. "Calm yourself, Inkling. This is an unexpected situation to all of us."
"Unexpected? Right…" She crossed her arms. "Where the hell is Shadow?"
"Classified."
"Unclassify it."
The Octoling general finally turned toward them. "From what we understand, the ship was infiltrated by what we call the Shriekers from Axcia's underground." She stepped over. "They are ferocious creatures of unknown motivation and they sabotaged our systems. And we are dealing with it."
"Oh, are you now!?" She hissed. "I'm starting to get the feeling that none of you knew what you were doing in mining an alien planet like that!"
"You're wrong. We knew about these creatures before… and we put safeguards in place."
"Safeguards? Why haven't they worked?"
"Because our station has lost power. Without that power, we can't do much."
She huffed. "Get my cousin back here right now."
"We can't do that."
"And why not!?"
"Because right now, it so happens, we can't do much for her." She turned to look out the window. "If we're lucky, Marina Ida may have an answer to this predicament as well…"
Marina was working faster than ever, cooperating with her new Axcian partners in getting the right machines set up. She worked quickly yet carefully, making sure not to plug any wrong wires in or anything like that, before she eventually finished and backed up. "Ok..."
The telekinetic Axcian looked down at one of the white crystals, focusing. Marina and the others watched as the crystal levitated into the air, and was slowly placed into the dome-shaped machine, slotting perfectly into the opening slit. With it in place, the machine closed up entirely.
"Ok…" Marina said again as she immediately got back to her restless work.
As she worked, Shadow remained in the room, occasionally helping when needed. At one point, however, Marina accidentally knocked some things off of her desk, and Shadow watched as a slip of paper glided through the air until it came to land on the floor nearby. She glanced at Marina, then at the aliens as she stepped over to look at it.
It was a photograph. It was the same photograph, actually, that Marina had carried with her this entire trip, with Marina, Pearl, and Bridgett at that old, small house party, each of them smiling and just… standing by each other, posing for the camera. Pausing, she picked it up.
Although it took Marina a bit to notice, she eventually looked over to see that Shadow was just… staring at it. "…Um…"
Shadow glanced at her before she lowered the photograph. "What?"
"...Can I… have that back?"
"...Oh… um… apologies." She looked at it one last time before she handed it back.
Marina was a bit confused, but regardless took it back and got back to work.
Shadow kept watching her. "…You love her?"
"Pardon?"
"Agent 8… you love her. You see her as family."
She paused her work, slowly turning back to her. "…Yes."
They fell into an awkward silence as they simply stared at each other. "…That must be nice."
She awkwardly nodded. "…It is. Or… it was. Before I had to leave."
"...Yeah." She looking down partially. "…It's… truly such a pity that not all of us will be getting out of this with a happy ending… isn't it?" She paused before she looked back at her. "…I'm curious… Does that ever… make you sad?"
Marina didn't respond as she again turned back to her work, feeling more and more awkward by the second.
Even when she didn't respond, she found a way to keep the conversation going. "…You are... familiar with Gideon Tecca, yes? Outside of just his work?"
"Yes." Marina responded without turning. "I've worked with him."
"I see…" She nodded and glanced downward. "I bet you two might've gotten along nice."
"I'd… say we got along just fine. Yeah."
"...Hm…" More silence for a moment. "…Companionship is nice… Isn't it?"
She sighed, desperate for this conversation to end. "...Yes…"
"...Yeah." She nodded slightly, and finally, the awkward conversation ended there. Marina just continued her work, and Shadow leaned back as she watched, folding her arms.
The Shriekers continued to parade the halls uninterrupted, taking down any Octolings that they happened to come across.
This even included any armored Octolings that tried to come down and stop them; Walking down, pointing their massive guns down the halls, they were all unable to do much as the Shriekers either dodged or just straight-up tanked their gunfire, weaving around as they climbed along the walls and ceiling to attack them from above.
With each Octoling that they sent, the rest of their forces could hear their final reports over the radio before they were killed and their end of the line went permanently dead. As such, the air for everyone remained dismal as they stayed in the control room, glancing around at each other.
Pearl and Marie were among them, and they remained as shocked as their enemies as they listened to the soldier's horrifying deaths. Marie, feeling sick to her stomach from the pure horror and the anxiety of not knowing if Callie was ok, stared at the floor as she slumped down. Pearl noticed and moved to rub her back.
One Octoling looked at the general. "…Ma'am, what now?"
Everyone in the room looked at her. The general looked back at everyone, but did not respond. Hearing the now dreadful silence, Marie looked down and started tearing up.
This continued for a good few minutes until Pearl suddenly stood up. "Well, we've gotta do something, right?"
Again, everyone remained silent. Marie looked up at her.
"Callie is out there and she's in danger! Marina might be, too! You fuckers just gonna sit here and do nothing?"
"Calm yourself, Inkling." The general replied.
She looked around at all of them. "…Well… at the very least, I'm not gonna sit here and do nothing." She turned to walk out.
"Good." They were interrupted as the general stepped toward her. "…There might be one thing you can do."
"...What thing?" Marie asked as she stood up.
"I mentioned before that we had a safeguard in place… a ventilation system, that, in the event of an alien invasion, can suck out any intruders through the vents where they can safely be ejected into space. As our research conducted on Axcia confirmed, these so-called Shriekers are attracted to noise, so they can all be lured into the vents at once to be cleansed out of our walls. When our power went out, we lost control over this system."
"...O…k?" Pearl shrugged. "What're we supposed to do?"
"Go to the landing deck." She continued. "We have a backup activation, outside on the hull of the station. It can be activated with energy from an external ship. Some of our own ships should still be operational. Including, I suspect, your own. You two can go out there and re-activate it."
Marie and Pearl looked at each other. "That… sounds like it's no problem." Pearl said.
"There's just one condition if we do." She took another step forward. "Under our current circumstances, it will not safe. We will help you as far as saving our people goes, but as far as saving yourselves, you will be on your own."
Marie and Pearl both paused as they heard that. "…I see… uh… can we just- one moment please…" Pearl pulled Marie aside to talk more privately. "We can do that, right?" She whispered.
Marie shook her head. "Pearl, I dunno…"
"Well, in either case, we have to at least try, right?"
"I'd say so, but…" She glanced at the general. "...They're clearly trying to use us…"
She thought about it. "…I think we should do it."
"Pearl…"
"I'm serious. We do nothing, 'Rina and Callie both die with us."
"And if we help them, we… we…" She trailed off.
They thought for another moment. Pearl, not even for a second, was going to consider sacrificing her friends for this. "…You know what… I'm tired of asking permission. I'm doing it. With or without you. Can't change my mind." She turned to walk out. "Well, we're not getting any younger, guys. Move it or die, I guess." She told the Octolings.
Marie watched her leave, feeling incredibly nervous. As Pearl walked out, she looked around at the different Octolings around her, who were also starting to grab their weapons and follow her out. She looked back at Pearl, took in a deep breath, and forced herself to join them.
The hallways directly outside weren't too dangerous, but as the group made their way down, they started to come across more Octoling corpses, as well as the strange goop that now covered the walls and even some of the ceiling. Marie followed the others as they all rushed down the halls as silently as they could, while the growls and screeches of the monsters could be heard around them, from multiple directions, prompting her to grip her weapon in fear as she looked around for Callie.
As they walked down the halls together, Marie had a dark thought; She thought directly back to her dream, seeing the senseless destruction that the Octarians would be able to unleash if they truly succeeded. Was that same thing going to happen if she helped the Octarians here? Were they going to become that powerful? Or… could she stop them in their tracks? She could, she realized. She could take them down, and herself, by preventing their escape; That power now rested in her hands. Even if it would mean… taking her friends, and her cousin, down with her. Could… she really do that? Would she do that?
These thoughts now plagued her all the way up until they walked right into the landing deck, unharmed, and they began making their way down to where the Ray had been parked.
"Here you are." The general told them. "I'll be staying to open the port for you. No nonsense, you hear me?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Marie muttered as she and Pearl walked to the side and looked over the ship, finding the control panel that opened the ramp. She began playing with the controls, finding the option to open the ramp, as at that moment, they all heard a growl near the entrance of the landing deck. Everyone stopped and looked over, the Octolings all pointing their weapons.
They watched as the lone Shrieker, having just barely heard her typing, was coming over in their general direction. An intense chill fell down Marie's spine as she saw it, remembering her previous confrontation with these things on Axcia, but she forced herself to continue her work, muting the panel as she started to enter in the passcode.
The Octolings all aimed at the creature, in silent dread of its attack, but it stepped past them, listening around curiously for any signs of their presence.
Marie gulped as she slowly finished the code as softly as possible, before she pressed Open. Her hearts sank as, despite the muting attempt, the ship's brief alarm sounded as the ramp opened. The Shrieker immediately reared its head, roared, and leapt at them.
Everyone immediately turned to fire at it, but of course, their more ink-based weaponry, even if it was high-pressure, simply didn't do much against these things. Riled up, it tackled the Octoling up front and bit into him.
"Move! Now!" The general shouted above her own gunfire.
"C'mon!" Marie pulled Pearl along to the slowly-opening ramp, but they stopped as they heard more monster noises down the hall. A mere second later, more and more Shriekers were pouring into the room, trampling each other as they closed in on the Ray.
As soon as the ramp lowered, Marie and Pearl both rushed up, and although Pearl rushed to the side control panel to seal it back up, they were not nearly fast enough to stop the creatures from trying to jump in themselves. Marie watched as a couple of them grabbed onto the ramp's ledge, starting to pull themselves in.
Thinking quickly, Marie aimed to fire at their legs, striking them with high-pressure shots to keep them at bay. They desperately tried to claw their way in even as they were shot at- one of them even making it as far as raising its head into sight to roar at them- until they were forced outside entirely as the ramp closed and the Ray sealed itself. Marie sighed in relief.
Pearl panted a bit before she ran down the hall. "Let's go!"
Marie rushed with her down the hall and into the cockpit, where they both got to work on getting the ship set up for take-off.
Pearl took one look at all of the controls. "Uh… you know, I really don't know how to fly this thing."
Marie looked at her, then at the controls herself. She paused. It definitely wasn't going to be easy without having a co-pilot, not to mention that she wasn't by any means a very experienced pilot herself, but… looking around, she pretty much had no choice. "…Don't worry about that. You just worry about weapons."
Pearl sat at her usual seat, setting up her monitors, while Marie took the pilot seat, taking a moment to get everything set up.
Outside, the defensive Octolings were all fighting a losing battle against the army of Shriekers, with several of them already dead, until the monsters all reared their heads toward the Ray as they heard it power on. They roared as they pounced forward.
Marie was still working on her task when they started to hear crawling noises from somewhere on the Ray. She looked up as the ship shook slightly, and Pearl looked at her monitors, quickly seeing that they were once again being attacked. "Uh… Marie?"
Marie shakily turned back to all of her controls. "C-C'mon, c'mon…"
The Shriekers continued to climb all over, a couple even climbing over the front window, as Marie slowly lifted the Ray into the air. The ship leaned a bit to the side, but after some more struggling, Marie managed to turn it toward the same exit port from which they recently exited into Axcia's atmosphere. She watched a bit as the Shriekers in front of her began attacking the glass, trying to break in, and she bit her lip as she remembered that, indeed, the exit port needed to be opened.
She groaned. "Pearl, get the weapons up!"
Pearl anxiously got to work, but before she could do as she was asked, they both looked ahead in confusion as the gate began to move anyway. Confused, she pulled up a camera feed on her monitors, finding that the Octoling general, who seemed pretty injured, had mustered her strength to head over and activate the proper opening and decompression mechanism.
"Oh, shit…" Pearl muttered, instantly understanding her sacrifice.
As soon as the gate ahead of them started to open, the vacuum effect started, and all of the Shriekers on the Ray were immediately sucked out and into the void outside. The general was among them, briefly striking the gate as she was sucked out. Behind all of them, Marie gave the ship a push forward, and they felt an unusual feeling as they flew out from the station. She winced as reality around them immediately began to distort more.
She gripped her chair tightly, staring out the window as the void outside appeared to temporarily transform between Axcia and other, weirder visuals she couldn't even describe, and with it, an intense pain, almost like an intense ringing in her ears, began to befall her. Then, that pain started to turn into a feeling that she was straight-up being ripped apart. She gripped the controls tightly, gritting her teeth, and the ship tilted downward a bit as she failed to control it. The Ray drifted further and further from the station as a feeling that she may faint came over her.
As they drifted further and further away, as she became less and less lucid, the same thoughts from before started to return: The same dream about what the Octarians could do to Earth if they helped them. She blankly stared out the window, watching reality fall apart before her eyes. What if this same thing was going to happen to Earth when the Octarians were done with it? She was here, now… she could let herself drift further and further away into the void, the Octarians would receive no help, and Earth… her Gramps… the rest of the Splatoon they left behind… they may just be safe.
She closed her eyes, silently contemplating such a future. Could she really lead to it, at the cost of her own life?
But then she remembered the rest of the dream. What would happen to Callie? Callie's life, after all, would be among the sacrificed. So would Marina, and so would Pearl. Was that how it was supposed to happen? Perhaps… from the moment they ever left on this mission in the first place, it was secretly a suicide mission… maybe that was just how it was supposed to be. Maybe the entire Splatoon was never supposed to make it out of this one, like she would've wanted.
But that same memory of the dream haunted her. Callie's body… the desperation in her eyes…
No. She wasn't going to let it happen. There had to be another way, a way where everything could be ok in the end. There had to be. All she had to do was find it. Opening her eyes once again, she managed to reaffirm her grip on her controls, holding them like her life depended on the simple act.
Pearl, who meanwhile, seemed to be fighting off the same reality distortions, looked at her. "…You ok, 'Rie?"
"...I'm ok." She turned back to the window, taking in a breath as she piloted the Ray further to their next destination. More reality distortions took them over as they did, but this time, she did her best to ignore them as they flew back toward the station, flying by its surface until they came across the location of the exhaust port. The distortions seemed to calm again as they once again drew closer to the station, allowing Marie to take a moment and get into position. "…Weapons hot."
Pearl pressed some buttons, activating the Ray's laser systems, as Marie fought to keep the Ray straight in its new ready position. She bit her lip as Pearl lined up the shot.
"I'm ready!" Pearl announced.
Marie nodded. "Fire!"
Pearl took the shot, and the Ray briefly lit up as it fired a electric blast forward, striking the exhaust port's designated rod, causing it to light up.
Instantly, some of the station's systems began to power back on, which then allowed for the emergency ventilation to activate. Emergency lights and alarms activated inside the vents throughout the entire station, attracting the attention of every loose Shrieker still within the walls. Some of them shrieked as they immediately began following the noise.
Every surviving Octoling throughout could now come out of hiding as they took notice, and among them was Callie, who stood up from her latest hiding spot as she looked up at the new lights, her eyes filled with wonder and some confusion.
Like a machine cleaning itself out, the station let every Shrieker into the vents, where they were then promptly sucked out, ejected into space. After a few moments of this, when the station detected nothing left to clean in its own vents, it sealed itself back up, leaving no hostile alien life inside.
Realizing what had happened, the Octolings all began to cheer and celebrate with each other. Callie, who was still standing on her own, sighed in relief and held her chest as she too, realized what had happened.
Marie worked to allow the Ray to sit still where it was before she sighed in relief, unbuckling herself from her seat.
"Did we do it?" Pearl asked.
"...Yeah… I think so."
She leaned back and sighed in relief, and Marie did the same, both of them enjoying the moment.
After a few seconds, Pearl suddenly broke it. "Well, hurry then, confirm it! See if you can get into contact with Marina!"
She sighed, but nodded and reached for the radio, pressing the button. "…Anyone who reads, this is the Ray. Do you copy?" She, however, only got static in response.
"Damn, maybe bad connection…" Pearl told her. "Might get a better signal downstairs, Marina has some communication whatevers in the storage room."
She glanced at her and sighed. "Fine. Stay here." She immediately rushed to climb down the ladder.
Marie immediately got to searching the storage rooms for whatever Pearl was talking about, looking through some of Marina's communicator devices and trying to use them, although these too gave her static. She set the last one down and sighed in frustration, but as she went back out into the hall to see if she could get a better signal, she… noticed something. Not far from where she was, was the same mysterious, empty hallway she had previously seen Pearl poking around in.
She walked over, not seeing anything. As she suspected before, it really did appear to be a useless hallway, a dead-end with nothing there. It… really was a peculiar design. In fact, as she got closer down this particular hall, the radio started to make odder static noises, as if it was reacting to something down here. Was there something hidden here? She gave another look around, making sure that Pearl hadn't followed her, before she got to investigating.
She felt around the wall she had seen Pearl at previously. It was an ordinary wall, yes, but… if there was something hidden behind it, she had to know, especially if whatever it was was going to help her make contact. Piqued further by curiosity, she immediately went to look for a tool to open up the wall before she got to work.
She took a few moments to take just one of the plates off the wall, setting it down as she looked inside. She was met with what appeared to be an Octarian device, but as she looked at it suspiciously, she quickly came to the conclusion that it was simply Marina's device that allowed them to pick up Octarian pings.
"Oh…" She relaxed herself, feeling a bit silly toward her suspicion about this hallway. It was an empty hallway, so of course, it really would've been nothing to sneeze about. She was about to put the plate back on and return to what she was doing, but as she did, she… noticed something… and it was really off-putting. She reached in to feel an out-of-place cord that was attached to the back of it, as she rose an eyebrow suspiciously.
Callie was finally walking back down the halls down to the control room, looked around for her cousin. "Marie? Marie? Are you around here?" She asked around the halls.
But she saw nothing, only seeing Shadow as she too went down the halls and entered the control room.
She squinted as she ran to catch up with her. "Hey, uh, Shadow lady!?"
"What?" Shadow didn't even look at her.
"Have you seen my friends?"
"Just Marina. Why?" She folded her arms as she turned to look out the window.
"Was just… wondering, because I haven't seen them… and I was… kinda hoping to talk to Marie."
She briefly gave her a side-eye, but didn't otherwise move.
"...What?"
Suddenly, she ominously chuckled.
"What? What's so funny?"
"...Nothing…" She turned to face her. "Have some patience. Things will align… Marina's project is currently well underway. Then, you can see them."
She didn't respond, staring back at her with some concern.
Indeed, while all of the commotion had been going on, Marina had not halted her work on her project; It was, after all, too important. She had a few failed attempts, a couple accidents and misfires, but all they did was lead to this moment, as she worked with her tools to slowly move the stable Axcian energy into the new crystal. After another moment of work, she leaned back and took off her welding mask, and the device she was now working on began to cool down. The crystal inside was already glowing brighter than any crystal she had seen yet, its light managing to seep through the device's cracks.
She and the Axcians both stared at it, almost frightened. In this moment, everyone in the room knew what they had now. The synthesizing process was working, and it was creating a crystal far more powerful than anything she had seen yet. Even if she understood why this had to be done… it still terrified her more than most things ever could.
Everything was truly about to change.
Marie took off more wall plates to further access the suspicious cord, making sure if it was what she had feared.
It was another smaller, even more hidden device, that she recognized from her time studying the Octarians. It was Octarian tech that appeared to be designed for direct but secure Octarian communication, more specifically to send out coded messages, and it was loosely hooked to the other device that would greatly amplify its reach through outer space. At first glance, it seemed obvious what it was to her, but as she studied it, more questions arose.
Aside from the fact that it was hidden, it was clearly not a direct part of the Ray's design; it seemed to have been installed more awkwardly, almost like an out-of-place brick that was rushed into place, implying to her that it may not have been Marina who installed it. In fact… it could have been anyone. At least, it was someone who knew about this space mission, and intended to use it during their travels. For all she knew, it could've been multiple people, and as she studied it further, there was no doubt it had been used.
She backed up in horror as suddenly, things began to make sense to her… the secrecy, the way the Octarians knew how to find them in the void of space, the way the Octarians had been able to seemingly hijack their jumping systems… everything aligned with one terrifying revelation. Marie had made a mistake helping the Octarians. They had already been handing everything they needed to them the whole time, and at least one double-agent on their own team had made sure of it.
Hey, everyone, quick PSA from me. While I don't want to discourage anyone from reviewing (in fact, please review, I love them), I do want to warn you about one thing. Over the next several chapters, things are going to be getting more hectic and there are going to be revelations about what's been going on, so things are thus going to be getting more spoiler-heavy than anything I've written before. So, the one thing I want to ask of you is to please not put any spoilers into your reviews. I don't want the experience to be ruined for anyone who reads reviews first before checking out a story.
Anyway, only a few chapters remain for the story's first arc, so stick around for the end and I will see you next time. *waves*