"Is that our U-Boats?", Peggy asked as the others looked, stepping closer to the railing, with the lights starting to move around to show the darkened ocean floor.
"It may be... and more...", Helga said as everyone's eyes were focused on now what could be much more visible to them up close.
A graveyard. A graveyard of ships so many to count and to make them even more countless was just in how many pieces they were.
"There are ships here from every era.", Milo gravely whispered. Erskine pointed out one that looked very fresh not too far away.
"U-Boat; modern one from the looks of it so it's not one of those from the last war. Something certainly lost these past few years.", Erskine informed. "And it looks like something ripped that one right in half with almost a clean swipe...", Peggy said.
Steve exhaled, "Something really big had to do that...", and everyone looked somberly relieved, since it was literally possibly thousands of lives killed yet a U-Boat destroyed means one less threat to the Allies on the Atlantic...And especially with ships from every era, no doubt from every other war, expedition, migration, and more across time...
Milo went back to look at the Journal, reading, double-checking, speaking haltingly in a foreign language yet Erskine knew it was Atlantean, before he went to translate in English, "Once entering the Levithan's lair, you can find the first marker to the pathway.".
Peggy replied, "Would that be a marker?", pointing a hand, and everyone glanced her way, to see a strange rock that is shaped like a lighthouse, but like in Atlantean style, and Milo replied, "Yep, we're in the right place...", before Packard's voice called out, "Sire?".
"Commander? Commander Rourke?", Packard repeated before Rourke replied, "Yes, Packard, what is it?", and Packard responded, "I picked something up on the receiver, and I figure you'd want to hear this.".
Rourke ordered, "Put it on the speakers.", and Packard flickered a switch before the speakers became full of strange whooshing sounds and high-pitched metallic echos. "What the hell is that?", Rourke asked. "A pod of whales?".
"Can't be one of their normal locations.", Erskine shook his head. "It certainly isn't a whale. It's big.", Packard said as everyone practically could feel the hairs on their necks now standing up.
"It's... metallic?", Helga raised an eyebrow. "Could that be an echo off the rocks?".
Steve replied, "Subs doesn't give echolocation until needed, and it can't be dolphins as they do echolocation like bats in the caves...", with a frown as Milo remarked, "Is it just me, or is that getting louder?", as the strange whooshing sounds and metallic echoes became louder as they got closer, and then a minute later, it vanished.
Helga frowned, "Well, whatever it was, it's gone now...", and Rourke replied, "Better to be safe. Helmsmen, bring us about at 20 degrees and-", before a collision came knocking, and everybody shouted in confusion and chaos as they got jolted furiously as Peggy grabbed Steve's hand, "Steve, you alright?!".
Steve nodded, "Yeah!", looking around for Erskine who had caught himself on the edge of the commander center fence, before another collision came as more shouts of confusion was heard, with Milo nearly falling and landing on the bubble window, and his scream came, "Jiminy Christmas, it's a machine! The Levithan's a machine!", and they looked over to see with wide eyes of horror and shock to see a huge lobster-like machine, far larger than the Ulysses, maybe double the size of the sub or more.
"Well... if anyone had doubts about Atlantis... I think we just settled them.", Erskine admitted. "If I wanted proof, I'd rather not have been that thing!", Rourke shouted. "All hands, man battle stations! I want this lobster roasted like we were in Maine!".
A chubby French-accented man called out, "Jacques, come on!", and Jacques called out, "Coming, Mole!", before a hand grabbed into his jacket, "Jack, I'm scared, I don't want to die!", looking at Vinny who's terrified, and Jacques narrowed his eyes, "You won't, kid!", picking him up in his arms, and ran to one of the battle subs, jumping and climbing down.
Mole widened, "Jacques!", speaking in rapid French, looking at the kid in his arms, and Jacques spat out angrily, "I ain't leaving him, Mole! Blame me later if you wanna, but you heard Rourke, we gotta go! Vinny, stay right there behind my seat, and hold on tight and stay quiet, understand?!".
Vinny nodded as the two got into one of the midget submarines that were attached to the main sub. "Hopefully, these torpedoes will be able to damage that thing, or this will be a very short embark...", Jacques muttered under his breath as he quickly flipped a few switches.
Soon, Jacques and Mole drove their midget submarines out of the Ulysses, with Vinny holding on, staying quiet, biting his lip with his heart beating fast, as the mini sub went at high speed, along with about 5 others, swimming and swerving around at the Levithan who's holding into the Ulysses, and the order by Rourke shouting, "Fire!", echoed in the headsets, and so, torpedo bombs shot out, hitting the Levithan who gave out a high-pitched screech of pain, letting go of the Ulysses.
Rourke called out to the head helmsman, "We're free, turn us around and go full knots, now!", and the Ulysses went at full speed, departing from the Levithan who gave out angry roars of fury, using its claws and tail to swipe and fling at the mini subs, managing to destroy one, and then another one.
"Fire torpedo guns!", Rourke ordered fast, and the top torpedo guns atop the Ulysses aimed at the Levithan, and shot at it, earning it to roar and screech, turning its attention at the Ulysses, ignoring the rest of the mini subs including Jacques and Mole's sub, and something began to flicker within its pincers at front, looking like glowing blue energy.
"If my theories may be right... that energy might be some sort of advanced weaponry...", Milo bit his lip as Rourke looked to the helmsmen, "Helmsmen, evasive maneuvers! Don't give that thing an easy target!".
The helmsmen followed his orders, but it wasn't easy to maneuver as the Levithan roared, and a bolt of blue energy shot out, firing in the range of the Ulysses, and it narrowly missed, destroying a chunk of the pillar rocks, and Erskine helped Milo up, "We might need to run!", looking at Steve and Peggy.
Steve and Peggy went to run, heading to their rooms to grab their bags and guns, packing them in their holsters, as they saw people running like heck, including Thaddeus who was helping out an African-Native American man named Dr. Sweet packing up his hospital stuff, staying mute.
Milo grabbed the Journal, and his bag from the corner of the railing on the bridge as they were caught in time, thankfully, as Rourke kept shouting out orders, "Fire, mini subs!", and more torpedo bombs flared out at the Levithan, screeching out in rage, as it spat out more blue energy, destroying a third mini sub, through a pillar, and at the back end of the Ulysses.
Packard replied, "Commander, Engineering is calling from Level 4.", and Rourke turned a microphone speaker on, hearing Ms. Audrey Ramirez, the teenage daughter of retired Pedro Ramirez from the Iceland Expedition shout, "Rourke! We're in big trouble down here! We got hit, and I don't wanna be here when the water hits the boilers!".
"Can we salvage the Ulysses?", Rourke answered as Audrey could be heard sighing, "Too much damage and too much water flowing in. Even if we could contain it, this thing wouldn't be able to reach the surface again.".
Rourke closed his eyes before he had to make the only decision they had left, "How much time do we have left then?".
Audrey answers, "20 minutes if the bulkhead holds.", before another collision came into the Ulysses, and shouts of chaos, injury, and horror were heard, along with a clanging thud as Rourke shouts, "Ramirez!".
"Make that five, Commander!", Audrey shouts, and Rourke narrows his eyes, "You heard the young lady! Move it! Lieutenant!".
Helga nods, running to the end of the bridge, "Packard, sound the alarm!", as Packard was talking on the phone, "He took his suitcase? Marge, honey, I don't think he's coming back.".
"Packard!", Helga screams angrily, and Packard replied, "Gotta go, Marge. We'll talk later...No, no, I'll call you.", before flickering a switch to the intercom as the Ulysses came red with alarms buzzing, "Evacuation in five minutes.", calmly stoic as she douses out her cigarette.
"Move it, people! Sometime today would be nice!", Helga shouted as everyone was rushing towards the escape units. "Doctor!", Steve called out as Erskine tripped before he helped him up as best as he could.
"Good thing all my work was onboard one of the transport subs...", Erskine gave a somber chuckle. "Well then, let's get to it and make sure it at least makes it!", Steve nodded urgently.
More people join them including Audrey and Dr. Sweet and Thaddeus, and Erskine was so relieved to see him as they went into the evac-sub, latching into their seats as Rourke shouted, "Lieutenant, get us out of here!".
Helga jiggled the lever, grunting, and Peggy shouted, "Use your foot! Slam it back!", and Helga, insulted yet relieved for the advice, shot her leg back and shot straight at the lever, slamming it down, the lever opening the doors in the bay, "Hold on!", just as the Levithan shot out another blue bolt, firing at the Ulysses.
The Ulysses' torpedo guns went firing at the Levithan as the evac-sub escaped with a couple of others following, as it was too late for many people to make it in time, and the Levithan roared, spraying more blue energy at the Ulysses before it exploded into pieces, thanks to the boilers overwhelming the tanks of gas, and the fires into the great submersible, and in the smoke, the Levithan roared again, its eyes intent on the escaping sub-pods and evac-subs, trying to get them.
Rourke shouted, "Where next, Mr. Thatch?!", and Milo replied, "There should be some crevice of some kind, almost like a crack into the seafloor!", reading the Journal tightly in his hands.
"There!", Rourke pointed to one he spotted ahead of them. "Let's see if that big bastard can follow us down there...".
"All craft, make your mark twenty degrees down angle!", Helga ordered the other subs to follow close. "Loose formation, let's not let give that Leviathan an easy target."
In Mole and Jacques's mini-sub, Mole shouted, "Righto!", as Jacques looked over his shoulder to see Vinny clenching into the back of his seat for a split moment and nodded with a quick smile to reassure him before turning around to focus on driving along with Mole, taking up into the loose formation.
"That thing certainly isn't letting anything pass; no matter how small...", Erskine said as the transport sub took a sharp turn from another wave of energy that shot out.
"I'm more concerned about the Nazis getting their hands on that thing somehow... what they could accomplish with it...", Peggy admitted; albeit it would be very difficult if next to impossible for them to try and reverse engineer with just how easy it could take out anything that falls into its lair.
Steve snorted, "That thing got short and long-range. I doubt the Nazi's toughest U-boats would take it down, especially how that snuck up on us.", remarking on how the Levithan was able to be silent, not definitely like a lobster by behavior.
Indeed, lobsters aren't smart, but the Levithan is, as it is racing at full speed upon the formation and used its claws to sweep at the mini subs, with one destroyed instantly right near another evac-sub that crashed into a pillar, with another mini-sub injured, crashing, "We're getting killed out here!", before its tail destroyed the injured sub.
Vinny cried in fright and horror as he jumped into Jacques's arms from around, and Jacques wrapped him with one arm, "I'm here, kid! Come on!", driving their mini-sub furiously as Mole barely noticed the moment, narrowing his eyes, working together with Jacques as they made it into the tunnel just in time, following at full speed as much as they could before more bursts of blue energy came into the tunnel, with the mini-sub narrowly missing it in time, but hit the second evac-sub, crippling the rudders.
Jacques's heart clenched at the cries of horror in his headset as it lost control and crashed into the side of the tunnel at another sharp turn of the tunnel, destroying it, and Vinny hid deeper into Jacques's shirt, having closed his eyes, yet heard the crash, tears falling, as their min-sub avoided another burst of energy, following the lead evac-sub at full speed, and then they heard one last roar of frustration and rage, and nothing as they almost collided into the evac-sub, a crack into the glass, but not dangerous-lining the edge.
They saw light and found themselves into a huge air-pocket cavern as they surfaced, and Jacques panted deeply, whispering, "Vinny, kid, we're safe now...I got you...", as he held Vinny in his arms, hearing Mole head up to open the hatch up top, hearing whimpers, "They're gone...They're gone because of that monster...".
Jacques couldn't help but feel just as sick to his stomach at just how quick everything had fallen apart. The Leviathan had almost completely wiped out the entire expedition in just one fell swoop.
"Looks like we're at least on the right track if there's an air pocket...", Rourke sighed as Erskine cleaned his glasses. "If only it didn't come at the cost of most of the group...", Erskine muttered.
Peggy felt Steve's hand squeeze her hand, and she glanced at him looking partially relieved that she's alive, and he's alive, but yet there's a look of guilt as well.
She whispered to him, "Don't...We didn't know, Steve...", and Steve nodded somberly, and so the subs went to land into the shore, and Erskine felt a hand graze by him, and he looked up to see Thaddeus who lowly whispered, "Tonight.".
Erskine nodded, knowing that he's desperate himself to just hold Thaddeus without that damn gas mask and kiss him senselessly, but he knew it will have to wait until tonight for the first campout...But now, it's time to grieve for all the lives lost...He knew if he and the others make it alive to Atlantis and finds a way back to the surface, Preston will accredit all the lost lives and make their families financially secure as much as he could, maybe working together with the president on that...
Once Jacques and Milo touch earth at last, suddenly, they saw flashes, a momentary flash of a shadowed face for each man, a shadowed face with bright ocean blue eyes and peculiar tattoos of light blue; to Milo, he saw a beauty spot by the nose, with two curved lines on top of each other, right under the left eye, almost like teardrops.
To Jacques, a shadowed face with ocean blue eyes and peculiar tattoos of light blue under the right eye, a long line from the bridge of a nose, curving downwards at the end, under the edge of the eye, and a small sunburst like a blue dot, with small, curved shapes like flames floating just of the circle to show that it is a sunburst, under the line.
As fast as the flashes appeared, they vanished fast as well, and Jacques blinked in confusion and curiosity for a moment before Vinny asked quietly, "Jack?", and Jacques looked down at Vinny in his arms, "I'm okay. Just a bit of catching my land legs, that's all.", smiling reassuringly as he walked on, not caring about the extra weight as he had endured heavy packs during the French resistance, and that he had sensed that Vinny is not letting go of him any minute soon, not blaming him after what he had witnessed...he's 11, almost 12, for goddamn sake.
"Dernier, what the hell?! That mini sub is supposed to handle two people, not three! If that kid was any heavier and older, he would have slowed you and Mole down!", Rourke shouted in anger, seeing that Dernier had broken rules for a damn kid!
Jacques took a deep breath as he looked to Rourke, "Sorry, Commander; he got to me first rather than one of the other pods; besides, I didn't think much of a weight issue while everything was happening.".
Rourke took a deep breath, narrowing his eyes, and Steve spoke up, "Commander, he did the right thing. It's a deep grief we all feel for those people, and yes, their lives have been cut short considerably, but I think they would want a kid to live on as children are the future of our lives, related or not, and Mr. Dernier had fought in the French Resistance, where the German are fighting the Allies including the French, and well, he has seen lives lost including innocent children...Would you want him to hold a grudge towards you if he had left him behind, Commander?".
Peggy's heart swelled proudly as she watched Steve stand up for a fellow man, and Erskine smiled softly, proud of the young man as Steven was right.
