Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
Aussie, the Commander With Hearts Of Ice
Gasping for breath, an Inkling garbed in an agent's uniform, neon colors wrapped around her body, had taken cover behind a wall. She let her beaten Hero Shot fall to the floor, listening as it clattered down, orange ink spilling out of the nozzle. She was barely hanging on, and already felt her eyelids drop from exhaustion. Nevertheless, the constant running and gunning was taking a toll on her.
Grunting, she attempted to stand up, albeit very weakly. Eventually, as she laid there, breathing in and out, within her fading vision, she noticed a figure walking towards her. She grunted just before she saw a gun raised towards her face, violet ink firing out of the nozzle.
Clustered around a station of machines, a group of Octotroopers busied themselves, checking the screens, feed from cameras filling the normally empty rectangles. Every now and then, they would lean over towards a microphone on the station they were assigned to, ask a question or direct a command, and in return hear out the current state of the troops out in the field. As each one of them worked and worked again as hard as they possibly could for sentient tentacles, one leaned into the microphone, and listened.
Without warning, one of the Octotroopers stood up and called out. "Commander 4U55-13 is finished with dealing with the enemy. They're finished!"
Silence followed. And from that silence, cheers of an epic magnitude rang out through the steel walls as Octarians rejoiced.
Aussie strolled down the metallic hallways of the Octarian base. However, she was not walking alone, as displayed by the poor soul she was bringing along. A knocked out (hopefully) Inkling was dragged along, roughed up, with violet ink covering her. As Aussie marched, she had felt extremely satisfied about the whole ordeal as she took her newfound hostage away. Passing through a room, they eventually came upon a set of iron doors and a collection of rooms blocked off by said doors. There were already a collection of Inklings trapped inside, each huddling closely, most of them donning agent outfits.
Upon noticing her, all of the Inklings trapped within the cells cowered, backing away from the cell doors, though with a glare in their eyes. Aussie simply smirked back. Swiftly, she opened one of the doors and threw the Inkling in, closing it shut immediately.
"Do you miss home, Inklings?" She chuckled, leaving the room, but not before turning back for a brief moment, pausing for a moment, "Good. Now you know how we feel."
As soon as she left their sight, letting a steel door enclose the jailrooms, Aussie grinned, silently cheering.
"Serves you right, Inkling scum." She thought to herself, walking off. "Poetic justice."
She took a look around all of a sudden. She scowled, shaking her head in disappointment, seemingly expecting something or someone. However, she had decided to ignore it in lapse of the triumph over the other cephalopod race, walking away from the prison.
Making her way through the base, a few other Octolings and other Octarian forces would be seen sitting around, each tending to their respective weapons, whether it be a handheld Octoshot or an Octotrooper's mobile platform. Every so often, a handful of the troops would stop what they were doing immediately and salute. The commander felt proud and relaxed as she glanced over the soldiers enlisted.
Up until the point Tai came along. Minding her own business, the younger Octoling passed by Aussie, glanced at her, then started following at her side, Aussie glancing back with a somewhat displeased stare. Despite Tai's original inclusion in the Octoling army seeming promising, Aussie soon found that the lower ranked octopus girl was less than cooperative.
"Hey. How'd the mission go Auss?" Tai asked, "Did-ya krill anyone?"
"Depends. How's guarding the prisoners going?" Aussie asked with a frown.
Tai bit her lip, grinning somewhat. "Aw, it's going great! Thanks for asking! I'm pretty sure NO ONE ESCAPED YET."
Aussie simply rolled her eyes at her colleague. "Really. And here I thought you would be shirking your duties."
"You know me, always on the job." Tai snickered mischievously as they strolled by a handful of other Octarians, who would give them nods of respect as they turned a corner.
"I'm serious, T-41." Aussie spoke up, "One day, you or I could be stranded deep in enemy territory. If you continue to slack off-"
"Listen, no one's gonna even think about going up there. Except you, oh great commander." Tai said.
Soon after saying that, Tai mocked a polite curtsy, snickering as she finished. Aussie simply rolled her eyes and continued walking, Tai following closely behind with her arms stretched out tiredly behind her.
"Well, T-41, I hope you don't mind if I report your little 'coffee break' to our leader then." The Octoling commander told her companion, brushing back the seaweed behind her.
Tai frowned, leaning in. "Then I hope you don't mind if I speak a little... Inkanese."
Aussie grimaced, backing away. "Don't you dare-"
"Berry nice-u, berry berry nice-u, Aussie-chan~" Tai sneered, leaning in to pat her on the face as if she were a housepet, which Aussie certainly did not take lightly, smacking her hand away.
"Do you even KNOW how to speak Inkanese?!" Aussie spoke up with an offended stare.
The other Octoling shrugged, sticking her tongue out at her, already beginning to walk off. "I will never tell!"
Aussie shook her head as Tai turned a corner, and started to find out wherever her leader was, with somewhat of an irritated look on her face as she stomped through the metal halls.
An ovular table, clear of any mess at all, sat a collection of Octarians of high stature. Some, including an Octosniper who had quite the number of years under his belt, had some form of facial hair. Only, abiding by the loose rules of this universe, with tentacles instead of actual hair. As they waited, Aussie could not help but wonder if it interfered with their vision, until a disc scratching caught her, and most of the others' attention.
"Now, as you are all aware, the Inkling invasions down here have worsened." Octavio spoke up in a booming, sitting by his trademark turntable booth, his tentacles crossed, "A large influx of 'em have been crawling in, splashing nearly everyone with ink. Let's be clear: It ain't good."
A unanimous murmur of agreement rang out through the table of Octarians. Aussie scowled, thinking back to the jail full of squids. It was somewhat disturbing in retrospect, locking away Inklings, never to respawn, or to escape unless splattered across the walls and floors, and even then, they would be revitalized by any active spawnpad. However, it seemed to thin their numbers, so she did not complain.
"Yes, yes. Our troops can't handle anymore. Just the other day, they threw bombs to distract us BEFORE coming in for the kill." As if the thought of the strategy was toxic to the touch, the elderly Octosniper shivered when he finished.
Worried glances were thrown about.
"I agree. This needs to be stopped."
"We can't take much more of this! Our electricity is being exhausted!"
More and more Octarian troops chimed in. Some said they had witnessed Inklings with different weapons. A few babbled on about giant squids running them over. All of them spoke of the Inklings and their cunning yet evil strategies over and over again, shaking in their seats. The Octoling commander would nod occasionally. As the predicament became increasingly apparent to those attending, tensions arose, and so did the volume of the voices.
Eventually, DJ Octavio grasped a green stick of wasabi and raised it towards the turntable. A quick mix of music played for a moment, before scratching out altogether. The short track drew everyone's attention towards their leader, whose eyes were shut tight.
Under the cross-shaped scar, Octavio's eyes opened, glaring. "...How much power do we have remaining?"
"We're losing watts by the second. Gigawatts if they take all of the Zapfish. They're taking them faster than we can nab them. It doesn't look good." An Octoling spoke up, garbed in a lab coat, "Not just electricity, all of our supplies are dwindling. Food, water, everything."
Silently, Octavio mulled over the facts with a blank glare, the room filled with silence. He closed his eyes once more.
"...Turn off the respawn pads." His voice echoed throughout the room.
The uproar grew in intensity slowly but surely, from whispers, to discussions, to panicked protests.
"You're joking right?!"
"We have countless Octarians on the front lines-"
"My cousin is out there right now!"
A more harsh tone silenced them. The records on the turntable clattered about, making scratching noises left and right. They settled down slowly as Octavio could only stare at them with an almost nervous gaze. For a while, no words came from anyone, and the only sound that could be heard was the music playing in an incomplete loop.
Aussie was hardly astounded. Inklings, she was convinced, wanted nothing but war. They were constantly on the rise to power, popularity and prestige always on their minds. That was why they took their land. A few sacrifices were necessary for ending this war, that was certain. ...This neverending war.
Eventually, the music paused. Octopus big and small stared at Octavio, worry clouding their faces.
"We're not turning them off just to conserve electricity." The leader of the Octarians explained slowly, "We're losing precious resources. Food is scarcer than good music these days."
One Octoling coughed, something about "Being in the wrong generation" which prompted a few chuckles from her peers. One glare from Aussie ensued that laughing would cease.
Octavio continued. "Food and water are scarce. Our troops are hardly getting the protein they deserve. Neither do our… Prisoners."
Unease continued at the mention of the Inklings held in captivity. They knew they had been here for a while. They could hear a few try to comfort one another in the dead of night, the sobs, the… Attempts to escape that usually ended up in one needing a bandage wrapped around their head. Unfortunately, to keep the Inklings here without respawning, keeping them from dying was one of the main issues. They would complain about their empty stomachs almost constantly. But only then did it hit them.
"...4U55-13." Octavio cleared his throat.
Aussie perked up, looking across the table. "Yes sir?"
"You have your Octoshot handy?" He stared at her, almost regretful of what was about to happen.
"...Yes sir." Aussie nodded, pushing her seat out from the table.
"Turn off the respawn pads for a few minutes, tell the engineers and pay a visit to the hipsters we caught." Octavio ordered, hardly looking at any of the Octarians frightfully scurrying off, "I assume you know what must be done?"
She stared down at the holstered ink gun at her side. Across her belt, it was a shiny ornament filled with fuchsia. But on the battlefield, it was a weapon.
The commander gripped her Octoshot. "...With all due haste."
Without a word, Octavio nodded, and Aussie began filing out, the other Octarians watching as their commander left the meeting room with almost blank stares. Walking outside, she was not sure if the clunking behind her was a result of the door shutting or if she felt the impact of one of her hearts drop into her stomach like a rock. It was disgusting, her impending crime, she knew that. But had it not been for the new sensation of dread that washed over her, she might not have heard the footsteps running across the hall across from her.
Aussie looked up, and saw a fleeting pair of Octoling Boots depart down the corner. The corner that lead to the prisoners. Her eyes went wide underneath her goggles. She found herself running. Faster and faster. Wanting to catch up with those fleeting pair of legs. As she turned the corner, she stopped.
For a moment, she and Tai glanced at each other as she made way for the jail, a keycard firmly grasped in her hand. Just before Tai disappeared, Aussie could have sworn she had apologized. But in Inkanese.
Aussie grit her octopus beak. Whatever she had said, the fact that it was almost one-hundred percent off was enough to annoy her. Annoy her enough that she took up her Octoshot, and set her sights on her younger companion.
AN: I want to apologize both for the delay and the cliffhanger. Hawaii is actually kind of a nightmare. The turtles there only come up to the sand for five seconds before they ditch you. Rude.
Yes, this is another "In the past" chapter. Why don't any of the Octarians lock away Inklings? Certainly a lot better than just mindlessly splatting them over and over again. So this happened.
But anyways, enough of that, let's get right into those reviews, shall we? Thanks write n wrong and kedak for reviewing!
Yes indeed, running, just like Joseph Joestar write n wrong. Or like Monster Hunter Khezus when you don't have shock-proof armor equipped.
kedak, as much as I'd want to sweep it under the rug and say it was a writing mistype, it was more of a mistake on my end solely because of that tiny plot hole with the skeletons I set myself up for. I'll try and see if I can avoid those in the future, thanks for noticing.
But anyways, thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, Hawaii was like if a burger and a pizza was to be ordered at the same time for your dining pleasure.
...Good I guess. But you might regret it upon returning to your home.
That made no sense but I'm rolling with it.