From now on, I will post all notes at the bottom of the chapter, even reviews.
The blue ocean glistened with a crystalline reflective glint, a shimmering sea of salty diamonds when viewed from the sky. The morning sun shone through the clear and clean atmosphere in this part of the world, its bright gaze blindingly beautiful. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, only a few thin or wide strips of the cotton-looking substance, so it was a very clear, sunny day. Many sea creatures, floating and sunbathing on the surface of the water, enjoyed the warmth of their solar system's sun. There was one creature however, neither aquatic nor even belonging to the planet, that had no interest in the weather for the moment.
Pulse swam as if the evil incarnation of her people's myths and legends had come to the mortal world and were now after her soul. Pulse swam far from the shore, several kilometers actually in such a short period of time. She wanted to get as far away from land as fast as possible, away from those bipeds, away from those three unknowns and away from that violet, massive jawed creature with the gaping, perhaps multi-rowed sharp toothed mouth. She didn't get a good look since all she saw was teeth and a gaping abyss..
'That was bad. I should have done better to hide, Pulse mentally hit her brain, feeling tired and slightly disoriented from the constant swimming. 'I should have kept a better eye out…'
'For the star's sake...what should I do...what should I do?...but should I do anything? If I do anything then it could just make it worse.'
She had quite the tiring and stressful day, though most of those times were at night, but it was also daytime back on land when she left. Her encounter with those native land organisms and her unintentional exposure to them, that wasn't a good option, her actions were very amateur choices. She didn't mean to let herself be known to them, at least not this early, she kept herself secret and watched them from the comfort of the shadows and her cameras. She has exposed herself, and her specie's existence to them, which wasn't a good thing at all. But those three entities on land exposed her first. She doesn't have any idea what those beings intend to do now that they know about her. Did they want to hunt her down? Take her as an alien prisoner to interrogate or experiment on her body? Learn or forcefully take her information about her people's whereabouts in the universe? Take her intrusions on their world as an act of war? Try tasting her flesh as some new unique cuisine for their leaders? Whatever they wanted to do, Pulse was sure that it would be horrible, especially with those bipeds.
They were by far more violent than any other creature she encountered on this planet so far. Every biped she encountered attempted to cause her harm in some way, and they each had weapons that they used against her. Then again, she was a completely unknown creature to them, and perhaps they were just defending their territory, like some animals and people would do with their property. Pulse decided to take some of the blame to herself. Though, that massive metal-plated monster didn't attempt to harm her. Perhaps that creature wanted to help her, or just fight those bipeds to take her as a meal. But, the giant creature didn't appear as wild as she believed when she first laid eyes on it. When she looked at the giant creature's eyes, she didn't see the primal desire of finding prey to eat, she saw an intelligent being who looked concerned despite the slanted, scary looking eyes. It made it look like it was enraged, and perhaps it was. The bipeds appeared to be intelligent as well, but they were to hostile and more than happy to attack first for Pulse to see that, but it could just be a misunderstanding and a lack of a diplomatic approach. It's likely these ones were just from a hostile faction of their species. Their weapons should be enough to let her conclude they had the creativity to make complex and lethal tools. Since these tools exist, then their maker has technological expertise . How far they could go in technologic evolution is yet to be determined.
'I cannot guarantee that those bipeds with those weapons won't do something about me, the same with those three organisms, and I guess, just about every other one.' Pulse's mind drifted slightly to the memory of those red, yellow and orange entities that chased after her. They may also attempt to do something about her as well, but whatever it is, she won't allow it to happen, especially if that something is to capture or exterminate her. Pulse thought she may be exaggerating them a little too much, but she can't afford being too calm and carefree now.
Pulse swam at a slow pace, feeling tired from the ordeal she went through and swimming so fast so far out, so she decided to save most of her energy by swimming at a slow pace. She has collected a good amount of samples and data from the surface, and she'll go take a closer look with her technology and organize them once she returns to her ship. She was very excited for that, as this could add another world to her people's galactic library, add this to all their star maps, and she'll be known as the one, the explorer to have made the discovery of this planet's existence, its people and information. Since this planet is already inhabited by what she theorizes are the inhabitants that grew and evolved there within the planet's existence instead of being colonized, she will be known as the one who found this planet and began the creation of this planet's encyclopedia.
However, diplomacy is not her forte. She is much too shy to speak for her own kind, and she isn't even cleared to be some sort of diplomat on her people's behalf, and when she gets very nervous she may just speak incoherently sometimes. Pulse feels she will make a horrible diplomat. She really hopes to avoid any situation that involves official first contact with these entities. It's more likely someone else will make the cut of being the diplomat for this world instead of her. Some may ask why someone like her is where she is, but her purpose isn't to be an ambassador, but to explore and collect, that's it. But there is a protocol for first contact in case it happens. Pulse will need to keep in mind to find the manual and re-read it.
Pulse stared at the deep blue ocean, her suit's cloaking feature doing incredible wonders at keeping her secret from the many sea creatures living and swimming nearby. Pulse wasn't sure what to make of them, but she found most of them cute and fascinating, just like the small bioluminescent insects back on land.
A small, gray and scaly creature swam beside her, its enlarged eyes seemed to stare at nothing, and unblinking. It was small, less than half of her legs, its mouth opened and closed constantly, and a row of frills behind its eyes moved open and close. Its scales gave a rather beautiful shine thanks to the reflective sun bouncing off them. Pulse was fascinated by it and so took a few silent pictures using her visor's camera feature. It flicked its vertical tail, providing momentum against the water's currents, giving it movement. Pulse watched it speed away, perhaps spooked by something. Could be her, yet she had her cloak on, so it could have been something else, or it had other ways to sense her, but she may never know for now. Pulse also didn't see intelligence, or determine it had any that she knows of, so she passed it on for now as a native animal.
Nonetheless, she watched it go till it became one with the horizon, an invisible smudge against the blurry distance. Pulse stopped staring, now focused on the open water everywhere. She analyzed her nearby surroundings for any subject of interest.
She spotted a small group of more unknown creatures in the distance, and they seem to be going somewhere in the same direction. Suddenly they took a sharp turn downwards, surprising the otherworldly explorer. Pulse, the ever curious being she was, and also obligated to be, swam after the amphibious group of creatures. She wanted every available detail of this planet so far before she went back to her ship as she believes she may not come out for a while. The more data she collected, the better for her.
She swam carefully and silently, making sure to not disturb the water too much unless she wanted to be noticed by the sea creatures. She studied her surroundings for anything unexpected, and thankfully nothing seemed to be of threat or appeared to harbor hostilities. Best of all, none seemed to be reacting to her presence, meaning that they haven't noticed her yet and her cloaking is perfectly working. Everything was going as planned.
She continued her way towards her targets. They were swimming quite fast for such small creatures, but they could be big, as Pulse was still quite far from them and couldn't really tell from where she was. She continued tailing them anyway, and perhaps get close enough to get a nice, beautiful quality picture of them soon. She kept following, taking the same twists and turns that they have done to keep up on their trail. Pulse wasn't sure just where they were going with how much time had passed, until she spotted something coming up below them.
It was ground, but it was very colorful. Pulse stopped following and stared in awe as to what she had stumbled upon. It was a very large, very wide area of the ocean floor, and it was brimming with all kinds of color and life. Everywhere she looked, she saw some kind of unknown aquatic lifeform going out and about on their way. There were tiny, wide eyed scaly bodied creatures like the one she spotted earlier, their vertical tails to provide the best and most efficient movement for their bodies, and in extremely large groups. Others were massive, even bigger than herself and much wider, and even scary, while others were much more skinny and elongated and used every fiber of their body to move along the currents of the ocean like very thin strings falling from the air.
The ocean's floor and some cliffs contained more types of life, perhaps they were some types of plant life. The life that grew on the ground all had such extreme amounts of biodiversity that pulse didn't know what to look at first. Just like the animals swimming above and around, these organisms were all of many sizes, shapes, colors, and structures. Some harbored a similar appearance of a few plants that she knew grew on her homeworld. There were so many types of organisms living and growing in this place. So much biodiversity, it was like an oceanic forest. Pulse was overjoyed.
Pulse began exploring, wanting to see as much as she could before going back to her space vessel. Her eyes glittered with excitement.
'Goodness, there are so many animals and plants living here! Where am I supposed to begin? There's just so much to see!' Pulse thought deeply. There were perhaps hundreds of species of creatures in this habitat alone, which one would she have to start with? She soon spotted from the corner of her eye a jagged rocky surface that contained green, thin and wavy plants, and a few smaller types of plants around it including some movement coming from within. Pulse decided to go check out the thin wavy plants first.
She quietly swam up the section filled with the vegetation, readying her camera and making sure her cloak was still active. When she got there she spotted something moving within the mass of green, so she tried to get a better angle to see what was inside. Suddenly, a small current waved the green plants that Pulse decided to currently label them 'Tall Ocean Grass', and caused whatever creature inside to move from its spot, but it was enough for Pulse to see what it was. The creature was very small, thin, with long, perhaps even thinner tendrils trailing underneath it, a total of eight, and with what Pulse could see were rings of flesh, suction cups on the underside of the creature's tentacles. On the outside of its tentacles it had some small spikes growing, and also on the rest of its body, said body was a purple-lish gray with spots and splotches of brighter purple, and its body had a sort of shimmer unlike the reflective glitter of scales on the sun, but appeared to be more slimeish and smooth. The upper body consisted of two limbs on either side with an oval shaped nub at the end. Pulse could see the nubs had flaps structured in a way to form a sort of spiral cone on the inside at the end of each. Its head, larger than its midsection, was the same shape as the end of its pair of upper limbs, but bigger, which supported eyes and a mouth, a face.
Pulse swam back a little to give distance to herself and this new creature. The creature rubbed one of its eyes, as if just waking up from rest. Pulse admired the creature before her. She thought it to be beautiful, and the face it made looked so cute. Its big eyes filled with bright green irises, it made it look very innocent and young, and perhaps it was, but Pulse will need to find an adult unless this was actually an adult of its species. Taking account of its size, it wasn't big either, almost as big as one of her own legs so Pulse didn't find it very threatening, but that was based only on appearance. For all she knew it could be poisonous.
The creature looked around for a moment, then swam away into another part of the field of the tall sea grasses to perhaps find another place to rest, away from the potential predators. During the whole time since it first emerged from the grasses, Pulse took many pictures, many times slowly and stealthily swam around it to take images on several different angles of its body. Pulse stopped taking pictures of it, satisfied with the amount she took , which were forty seven images in total.
Pulse needed to call it something, both a numeric label for the purpose of categorizing and a personal name for easy pronunciation when in a conversation regarding said creature, especially if the name ends up being kept and not replaced with a more permanent one. Pulse decided to make a name based on its appearance, as that's how most creatures are usually named in her culture. The said features catching her eye were its violet color, its many tentacles and the cone-like ends of its pair of upper limbs and head, so after some moments she came to the quick conclusion of calling it a 'Purple Tentacone'. The numeric label can come much later when she gets more time to think about it back at her ship.
Pulse silently watched the little purple tentacone head off towards another place in the tall sea grass. Speaking of, one of the three entities that chased her into the land forestry looked incredibly similar to this purple tentacone. The one from the land had its head and its limbs red and its body was green. It also carried a thin object with some kind of spiked structure at the end that emitted some kind of unidentified glittery light. It also had some form of violet colored drape over its back. This purple tentacone had a body structure very similar to that one, along with the fact it had a cape made of long sea grass and carried a piece of coral in its clutches.
Pulse shoved the thoughts for later, and turned around to check out the other animals within the ecosystem. She soon spotted another creature not in the tall sea grass, but in what appeared to be lounging on a rock covered in soft-looking dust like green substance. Pulse beamed and quickly swam over to check it out.
Her camera got to work on taking images of the new sea creature. This new creature was similar to the purple tentacone as it had tentacles. Unlike the other creature, it was much smaller, and had the color of a green-blue color to its skin. The top of its head had the appearance of a malformed sphere with some small pores decorating it. It had a little tube for a mouth or so Pulse thought, and its face had little black dots for sparkly eyes.
The little creature was making little noises and blew out a stream of bubbles out into the open water. It cheered once it finished, and took a deep breath and blew another stream of bubbles. Pulse watched as she believed the little creature cheered at its accomplishment. Pulse giggled in her mind, fearing that doing so out loud will reveal her position. She watched and took some more images of the creature before moving on.
Pulse continued to go around, analyzing and taking more images of the creatures living in the area, and she spotted a few in the distance, including a few giant ones. One of the giant creatures had a large mouth with a row of pointed teeth. Pulse suddenly remembered that its head shape was very similar to the purple and green jaws of death she met back on land. Pulse pondered for a moment if their species were related in some way.
She felt something bump behind her.
Pulse squeaked and rushed forward to give herself distance and turned around.
It was just a loose piece of tall sea grass that touched her.
Pulse sighed, shaking her head. She chuckled to herself. 'Freaking out over a piece of a little plant. Am I being too paranoid? To the point that a little piece of vegetation nearly scared the soul out of me? I suppose it's a necessity in unknown territory'. Pulse thought. She looked around to see if any creatures noticed the loose seagrass 'bump into nothing'. She continued to check around for a few more seconds before swimming towards an isolated part of the large ecosystem, away from the creatures.
Pulse sat down on a rock, opened her image compartment, scrolled through the photographs. She carefully looked at each one, picking out the best ones that met her standards. The best ones were going to be used for displays on star maps when someone wants to know what kinds of creatures they will find here if they are accepted. 'Thanks to me they will know'. Pulse spent about half an hour looking at the images before closing the photo compartment.
She prepared the camera again. She may not have space for samples, but she essentially has infinite space for photos.
…
The waves of the ocean were parted violently to make way for a massive, metallic vessel made for foul and cruel purposes. The peaceful waving waters in the sunny day along with the wonderful breeze were shoved aside in a torrent of water. A massive ship, made of violet and gray metal was decorated with designs and dangerous weapon accessories. Much of its hull was a dark dusty purple color and the superstructure on the deck being a dark gray, the funnel behind it spewing a disgusting smoke. The massive ship pierced the peaceful waters half a kilometer above the large coral reef, now right underneath it. There were absolutely no creatures near, so they were likely spooked by the arrival of the ship and left.
Or ships.
Because it wasn't alone.
Behind it, two more ships with identical design followed behind the first. They all harbored intimidating cannons pointing out on their sides, ready to shoot anything that spelled threat to them. The three ships stopped with the lead one in near perfect sync. The loud roaring of their engines toned down to a barely audible drum of energy. There was silence for a few moments, the sounds of water crashing its weight against itself and against the group of ships, the only noise in the area for many miles.
The lead ship contained the only seen activity, when a figure opened the door that seperated the deck from the haul. The figure walked through the door frame and under the mean and scorching sunlight. The figure raised an arm to cover his face and eyes from the burning beams, and into the center of the deck. After adapting to the sun , the figure gently lowered his arm, now eyes focused into the water seen below the railing of the ship's edge.
A general supremo zombie, who glanced down to the water, eyes scrunched trying to see through the foamy waves. He couldn't see anything, he definitely couldn't, but he was aware of what lay tens of meters down. He has been here before after all. He has come to this area several times before and knows it well with his non-pulsating rotten heart even with all the fancy and complicated technology the ships now have. After looking down for a minute he turned from examining the salty water, and took out a gadget from a pocket from his life vest. It was a radio. He turned it on.
Inside the ship, a team of zombies were manning the controls of the lead ship. Sonar devices, maps, and pop smarts and a single brain burger decorated the desks and the tables of the control room. Several zombies in the control room snapped to attention when a continuous beep sounded near them, but they didn't need to know what it meant, as they already knew with their technology confirming it for them. The zombie in front of a terminal turned his head slightly to glance at the others in confirmation, then leaned forward to press a red button on his terminal.
For a while, nothing seemed to happen. However within the giant metal vehicles, a signal has been sent, one that has spread to the other ships instantly. A signal that they knew the purpose for. It was the signal to go fishing.
The zombies conversed with each other for a bit, deciding and even arguing as to what kinds of sea creatures they should target once their specific targets have been secured. They already had a set of targets given to them by Zomboss, however there was the option of getting more specimens than just the ones given. While the few zombies bittered with each other, the others who were focused on their station on the ship initiated the release of some special vessels for the mission.
On the sides of each ship, the metal surfaces rattled and shook, before openings were revealed with a hiss of steam, and the panels slowly parted away. There were three giant total panels on the left sides from each ship that flipped open. Inside the opening were submarine-like machines. They were a dark gray and the edges of its fins were violet with the printed picture of a violet skull inside a gray sphere that was lighter than the color of the submarines. Inside each one were giant spaces not for the zombies, but it contained large cages, cages made to catch creatures. Creatures such as ocean plants.
The submarine wasn't manually piloted, instead the zombies piloted it from the comfort of their ship in order to avoid deaths since the sea plants would retaliate, and the more powerful and dangerous ones can sometimes damage the submarines and kill the pilots inside. Now these submarines were remade to be piloted from the ships themselves, so now zombies don't need to worry about casualties or receive another death in their lifetime.
The zombies checked and tested the status of each submarine, making sure they were all in the correct working order. After a minute, they declared that they were ready to go. The zombies who remote controlled the submarines cheered as the vessels roared to life and submerged under water. The general supremo stood and watched over the railing, a smirk adorned his face as the machines disappeared underwater.
…
Pulse was still in the coral reef, and still taking images of the said coral reef, still as ecstatic and curious as ever. She saw some more new amphibious creatures the more of this habitat she explored. Some swam around in the open, a few others hid within different geological or biological features, like rocks, tall seagrass and coral. Pulse discovered some of those hidden by pure luck and careful navigation to avoid bumping into them.
Pulse eventually found a group of aquatic creatures that were very identical to one she encountered not too long ago, the one she called a Purple Tentacone. Pulse saw the group of creatures just swimming around peacefully. From her distance, she couldn't exactly see the creatures, so she decided to go closer at a quiet, and stealthy pace. When Pulse reached a distance where she could see their features clearer, she gave a small, barely inaudible gasp. The group of creatures all had the appearance of one she saw when she swam by one. Their purple bodies, electric yellow patterns, and the tube-like orifice in between their eyes came in a waterfall of familiarity.
They looked very similar to some of the green entities that she saw on her way to land, and even a few on the land. Perhaps there are variations of their species? Aquatic and land variants?
Pulse quickly hid behind a rock, then peeked out above it as she looked at them. She saw their long tails move against the water gracefully, the yellow patterns emitted a bioluminescent that brightened some areas of the habitat as they went on their way, and Pulse was mesmerized by the wonderful yellow lights. Pulse activated her camera and took many images, but not getting any closer than where she was. There were too many of them in a small place, as the area the creatures were in had the shape of a crater more than a dozen meters in diameter, and practically every single one of those creatures were constantly on the move so close to each other. So close that they brushed against each other, noticed by Pulse when she zoomed in on groups of twos and threes.
Perhaps she should get close, but not enough that the creatures can notice her presence. Then she shall do that. Pulse carefully disconnected herself from the rock, and crawled along the edge of the crater-like hole. Pulse looked down to her path, making sure that it was clear and lacked anything that may alert them of her.
She was being very slow on moving however. She didn't care anyway, believing slow and steady will help her.
Pulse eventually found herself nearing one of those creatures, stopping three meters away from it. This one was more bluish than violet, larger than normal eyes from the rest swimming around, and it was much smaller than most of the creatures. Likely a young of their species. Pulse crawled closer and silently took several pictures of it. The small creature moved in an arc, providing Pulse with more opportunities to photograph the rest of its body. She caught sight of its large, round eyes. Pulse also found this creature adorable.
The young creature laid down, then rolled onto its back, as it did it made some higher pitched noises than the adults. Pulse had no idea just what its actions meant, and she had a hard time describing its noises. The best she could come up with was that it sounded like a little musical quick sounding beeps, almost like a cute sounding noot. Pulse's attention came back when an adult came over and picked up the little one, which caused it to start calming down overtime and the noises dying out.
Pulse needed to name them something, perhaps like the Purple Tentacone she based the name of their appearance on. 'But then again, I never heard any creature make such sounds, actually I don't think I heard any aquatic creature make such harmonious sounds, it could be singing or making music for all she knew, or screaming. Perhaps, I could call them… 'Nooters'. 'Yellow Luminescent Nooters'. Yeah, that's good.' Pulse silently giggled at the name. It was a bit silly, but that's what their noises were to her.
So Pulse came to the conclusion of calling them 'Yellow Luminescent Nooters'
The adult, still carrying the young, swam away. Pulse took more photographs as it did. Pulse stopped once she had enough, and scrolled through them for two minutes before storing them all.
Pulse finished digitally pocketing them, but froze when she heard a loud noise. There were also multiple, fearful sounding noises.
Pulse turned her head around the area to find the source of the noise. She instead saw multiple shadows whoosh over her head at incredible speeds. The shadows belonged to dozens and dozens of yellow luminescent nooters. They were all swimming at incredible speeds. Pulse hid behind a sharp boulder, looking at the luminescent nooters with worry.
"What's happening?..." Pulse hid further when one got a little too close. She poked her head out, looking around. There were no more luminescent nooters anymore. It became deathly quiet.
The waters soon became darker. Pulse looked down at the shadows, then up. She made a startled gasp.
Above the crater shaped area of the coral reef, something massive just wandered above. It was enormous, slightly bigger than the coral reef crater. It was made of a gray metallic yet strong looking alloy. The entire thing was decorated with small violet lights that glowed rather ominously. It was oval shaped, with a dangerously pointed front. Pulse gaped in shock within her hiding place.
"What is that thing?!" she couldn't help but say out loud with her own voice, as a whisper.
Pulse watched silently as the giant metal thing hovered creepily over the crater shaped area, darkening it with its size. The walls on its side slowly began to flip open, revealing funnel shaped contraptions attached to it. Pulse could see many wires and other technicalities in it. The funnel shaped contraptions moved around, then paused. Pulse was about to move to get a closer look, but was startled to immobility when the funnel shaped contraptions each shot a long, larger wire with a sharp oval shaped bulge at the end somewhere outside the edge of her vision. They shot faster than she could blink, to the point that the water around the funnel and the wires bubbled like it was boiling.
Pulse squeaked and back pedaled towards a rocky wall. She pressed herself against the wall, wanting to fuse herself with it and be invisible within it. She checked her suit, and some of her fear was relieved that she was still cloaked. Pulse turned back to the giant metal monstrosity, and watched in deathly silence as the wires began retracting, with some shaking and rattling struggle. At the ends of the wires were bundles of trapped sea creatures. They were all struggling fiercely, trying to wiggle through the gaps between the netting, but they were too small for them. Not even the smallest of those creatures could squeeze through.
The wires pulled them back against their will. Even the largest of the creatures caught couldn't break free. Pulse could hear their cries of distress and fear through the water, and Pulse who watched on with sadness.
Then, one of the funnel shaped wire shooting mechanisms on the vessel turned to face Pulse. Pulse became paralyzed, but only for a second, and the spot she was just on was now filled with a large and heavy net three seconds later, and a large creature inside it. Pulse was able to move quickly before she was caught in the net with it. She didn't even see the creature, and didn't even know where it came from, but now it was a victim of these hunting machines. She swam away towards a large overhang, away from the giant, metallic hunter. She pressed herself against the rock, a rather pitiful attempt to further hide herself.
"What in the star's sake is that?" she whispered to herself, tone filled with disbelief. She looked around with caution before settling down. She crawled over to the side of the overhang, and took a peek at the scary giant oval.
It shot more nets, capturing more creatures. Some swam away as fast as they could when some parts of the rock formations fell apart from something powerful being shot by the vessel, unwillingly revealing some small creatures in hiding. Pulse winced when she saw in one of the nets, with the part of the net where it closes over to capture the creatures had a large purple tentacone with about half its body sticking out of the net, and looked to be bleeding, since as the net retracted back, a line of some dark blue liquid trailed behind the tentacone. The creature also looked immobile. A net nearby had another large creature with some greenish fluid leaking out of it, creating a smoke-ish trail of green on the water as the net pulled its catch back. Pulse went back to hiding.
Pulse suddenly froze. She felt like something was watching her, and she wasn't sure how, or why she felt like this. With the situation she was in, she was going to have to trust her gut instincts. She shuddered, swimming to hide deeper under the overhang. She couldn't find what could possibly be looking at her, when she was sure that her cloaking was working perfectly well. She paused, when she spotted from the corner of her eye, something large was next to her. She slowly turned.
It was a large grayish blue creature with a white underbelly. It had an elongated body, with a pair of fins on its sides, and a longer one on the top, half way on its body. It had a vertical tail, slowly swishing it back and forth. It had a mouth, filled with rows upon rows of teeth that could sink deep through her skin and flesh if she didn't have her armor on.
Attached on its body were what Pulse just knew were some kind of technology. On top of its body, or head, was a three pointed metal sheet with spots of lights that flickered around randomly. The edges of the sheet were surrounded by pinkish flesh with scars all around, a heavy contrast to the bluish gray and white of the creature. On the front, he was able to see it's wide, soulless eyes looking at her. Eyes that glowed a strange ominous violet.
'What th-'
The creature lounged. Its mouth opened over her frontal left leg, its teeth attempted to sink themselves through her armor.
Pulse screamed. She shook her bitten arm around, but the creature was too big, and its jaws had tremendous strength. She then tried to punch it. Again, it refused to let go. She punched harder and harder, but it just kept biting even when she punched it several times in one of its eyes. The creature then shook itself around, which made Pulse be dragged and flung around like a toy. Pulse didn't want to do it , but she would need to harm, or even kill the creature if she didn't want to be eaten even if it couldn't tear through her armor.
Pulse activated her gun, components manifesting and constructing into the weapon from within her suit on her right side, and shot the creature once on the body. Red fluids spilled into the water around the newly made wound, yet the creature continued its assault. Pulse made another wound with another shot, and still no stopping. Pulse became frustrated, and decided to shoot it a bunch of times. This time, the creature was slowing down, even its hold on her leg had weakened. Pulse didn't want to hurt it anymore than it already was, so she attempted to pull away from it. With a few seconds of struggle, she finally did it. The creature weakly swam away instead of coming back for a second round.
"Wise decision," she muttered.
Pulse quickly went back to the rocky overhang. The creature dragged her out in the open, even though she had her cloaking on. She settled back underneath, overseeing the damages to her precious suit. There were just a few scratches, barely noticeable, and it's mostly the paint that was scratched. Pulse only noticed the scratches on the suit with her technologically advanced visor. Proof of how durable it is.
However, Pulse then froze in horror. On one of her legs there were splotches of dark green liquid that clung to her, which were being eroded slowly by the water as whisky tendrils. The creature she fought had red blood, meaning that this belonged to one of the creatures being captured. Despite being completely cloaked, the green splotches weren't a part of the suit, and thus it looked like this alien blood was floating in a specific shape in the middle of the water.
'Wait, is this how that thing found me, it saw me with this blood on me? Smelled it on me?'
Before Pulse could try and wipe it off, she made a yelp when she felt herself suddenly being yanked backwards. Something was pulling her leg back, she turned to look, and saw the creature was back. This time, it wasn't alone either. Three more of the same creature were coming behind it.
Pulse gasped. She struggled to be freed from the creature's jaw strength, and it just kept yanking. Like the first, it was dragging her out from under the protection of the overhang. The other three of its kind surrounded Pulse as the first kept pulling. One of them approached and bit on one of her legs. The two creatures pulled on Pulse together, thus making her unable to pull away. They kept dragging and yanking her out, and it didn't take long for her to be exposed to the open water. She had her cloak, but the alien blood that stained her suit was the most likely culprit as to how she was found.
A giant shadow fell over the five creatures, the massive mechanical vessel shaded their bodies. Pulse was a little too busy to notice, the sharp toothed creatures keeping her in place as they dragged her. Pulse activated her weapon again, the barrel glowing a bright pink as she aimed at one of them biting her legs. Before she could shoot, one of the two that stayed behind and watched was suddenly to her side, and bit down on the body of her gun. Pulse couldn't aim properly with the strength the creature displayed, and since it wasn't biting the barrel of her gun she couldn't shoot it away either.
The creatures suddenly let go of her.
Pulse paused, body stilled with confusion. The four creatures turned and swam off quickly. Her vision in front of her was encased in metal seconds later, and the criss cross of metal poles.
Pulse shrieked. She was no longer in open water. She was now encased in a cage, and around her she could see other captured sea creatures. Pulse frantically looked at her new surroundings and swam to the bars. She tried to pry them open or go through the gaps, but it was all in vain. Pulse continued to try and pry it open for a few minutes before giving up. She then activated her gun.
Pulse charged up her gun, face scrunched up under her helmet in concentration. Once done charging, she began to fire. The metal cage wasn't fried open, the water around her gun sizzled from the temperature. She fired several times, and again no opening was made for her escape.
Pulse analyzed the cage's composition with her visor. After she was done she received the result. The cage was made out of a strong metal alloy, one that will take a different and a higher temperature of fire power to cut through it. Pulse's suit can switch to different types of fire and various weapons for many occasions, so she just needs to find the right one for this one.
All of a sudden, the lights of the metal room she and many others were in became dark, the lights around them shutting down one by one, until it was pitch dark. She was trapped in near absolute darkness. The only light came from bioluminescent creatures around her. The said creatures around her were in clear distress, with many who struggled helplessly in their binds, wanting to break free with all their might with the result. A few just sat, looking at nothing, glazed over with shock and horror.
A select few that weren't doing either were staring at Pulse, or her cage. Pulse knew her cloaking was still activated, so she wasn't sure what they were staring at her direction for. Unless perhaps they think that their capturers catching nothing is weird-
'Wait a moment''. Pulse just realized she used her gun on the cage, thus they heard her use it, probably heard the boiling, sizzling water from the heat. They possibly even saw the light from her gun activate and fire a laser. Pulse took a deep breath, realizing she might just have exposed her existence to the creatures here in her rush to get free.
The vessel then rumbled, making every creature, even Pulse pause. Another rumble, and then came the sounds of gushing water. The sounds seemed to be coming from everywhere, Pulse had no idea where it was even coming from. Pulse noticed some of the creatures were looking up, and she followed their gazes.
The water was leaving the chamber.
The aquatic creatures that realized this began pounding and biting their nets and cages in desperation.
Pulse looked on with horror. She wasn't worried about herself, not at all. She was concerned for the sea creatures. These creatures are of aquatic nature, so if the water left, would they die? Even if they didn't, they need water to survive, they may have a few hours to live without water. Just who are these guys? If these creatures can't survive out of water then why are they doing this? First being captured and now going to suffer a slow, painful death in an out of water suffocation? Maybe for food? Something else? Do the capturers practice slavery? Pulse was very sure quite a few were actually sentient from her observations, so the implications were disturbing. Pulse sighed, these creatures don't deserve to die in such a horrendous method, and besides, she needs to get out. She doesn't want anything of hers to end up with them, friendly or not.
Pulse looked at the cage, then turned to her gun. Her gun retracted into her suit, and in its place came a mechanical arm with a white hot plasma blade attached at the end. The manufacturers really went crazy making this suit.
Pulse began cutting into the cage with relative ease. The volume of the water inside the chamber continued to decrease as Pulse cut through her containment. The faster she gets out, the better chances she has to help a bigger number of these creatures.
It only took Pulse a minute to fully cut through the cage to make the hole big enough for her to fit. She swam out, but there was no time for any victory celebration. The water was a quarter empty through the chamber. It was a very big chamber, so it will take time for the water to leave entirely.
Pulse was in an internal dilemma. If she were to cut each net and cage to free the creatures, then most would suffocate and die as it took her a minute to make a hole big enough for her, and some of these creatures are bigger than her. Based on how fast the water was leaving, it could take only ten minutes for the chamber to be completely drained. Pulse needs much more than that if she's going to free every creature trapped.
Pulse looked around, searching for an alternative. She soon looked to the far back of the chamber, at the enormous double doors that likely led to the outside. Perhaps if she opened those doors, water may surge in, keeping the creatures alive and giving her time. Pulse could try and find the key that activates the nets and cages to free all the creatures simultaneously, but there is a very high chance that the mechanism to activate that action to be located in the cockpit of the vessel, where whatever the creatures that piloted this thing were. So the best course of action will have to be to open the doors.
Pulse swam down and analyzed the door's composition, and quickly got back results. Pulse grimaced, the door was thick in a metal alloy similar to the cages, but much stronger in composition and density. It will take her forever to cut through. These creatures won't last for her to cut through it.
Pulse then discovered its wiring. With a special mode of vision installed in her visor, she was able to see the electric currents, heat and energy running within the body of the vessel. She saw the unique patterns and waves, the many wires transmitted, and the connections to other routes of energy. This gave Pulse an idea.
Pulse quickly analyzed the routes these energy currents passed through. One of those routes connected to the doors, which led from and to a different area located far above this chamber. Most of the energy was coming and going to two places, one was emitting an astounding amount of energy and heat that circulated through the vessel. The other was electrical energy connected to an area far above the chamber, which emitted large waves electrical and also radio waves. Pulse concluded the area is the cockpit or some kind of communication, where those creatures were.
Pulse looked down to an energy route. She now had an idea. Pulse swam to the largest and most prominent route of electric waves, located behind a wall near what she believes is the front of the chamber. The blade she had used to cut her cage was now going through the metallic surface of the wall. She tried to cut as fast as she could, wanting as much time as she could to save all these creatures. Her suit's sound receivers picked up the many wails of the trapped organisms, urging Pulse to try and cut even faster.
Pulse was able to finish cutting a hole into the metal. She stabbed her bladed tool into the center and turned it, trapping the piece of metal into the tool, and she pulled the large metal piece slowly. Once removed, Pulse looked inside of the opening, seeing some cables of various shapes, colors and sizes. She looked at them with her visor carefully, analyzing. She took out a needle-ended tentacular appendage, and pointed it at the cables. She stabbed the sharp object deeply into a large cable. As soon as the needle-like object was injected into the rubbery surface of the cable, Pulse began receiving information on her visor's screen. It depicted electrical and digital information with various symbols she barely knows a thing about. She suspected they were from those in control of this vessel.
'Not for long though.' Pulse made a miniscule smirk. Even though she knew not what these symbols meant for, she had no need, as she only needed to take control of only a few aspects of the vessel to reach her goal. She just needs to find what triggers the doors, cages and nets, that is if they are connected to the vessel, to release them.
Pulse's visor was reading and recording everything for later analysis. Now, while it was risky and rather stupid to do, which could end with serious trouble with these foreigners, or hurt her, she will have to experiment with the mechanisms if she wanted to save the creatures in time and for her to get out of here. If she were to look at this from a logical standpoint, releasing the creatures would cause chaos and grant her an opportunity to slip away.
Pulse couldn't. There was no time for her to sit down and try to understand the symbols she was receiving, so she triggered some random symbols and mechanisms with a digital touch.
...
"What is this?!" A zombie pilot exclaimed in his seat in one of the boats on the surface, startled at what he was seeing.
He, along with many other zombies, were in disarray at attempting to take control of one of the submarines. Many were pressing buttons, turning knots and levers, and trying to find and fix the source of the problem, but it wasn't turning out any good. Their submarine was rising towards the surface to join a group of other submarines after their hunt for sea plants. All of a sudden they stopped, and weren't moving at all. So now, everyone was trying, but apparently failing, to find a solution to the problem. The screens connected to the said submarine were not displaying correctly either. All they showed were glitched information and pictures. It was quickly becoming a strenuous eye sore for the zombies, many looking away, trying to not become sick at the bright flashing colors.
The captain of the vessel had a massive scowl. This isn't going as planned, the submarine should have been more than halfway to the surface by now. Now, it was suffering some unknown complications with its controls. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed ASAP, or else Captain Deadbeard, and furthermore, Zomboss won't be pleased. He growled under his breath, and started to walk over to the front and ask the zombies manning the engines when-
-the whole vessel began tilting to the left.
Many zombies gave startled yelps when they were thrown to the side. Most were able to cling to their chairs or railings, keeping them from falling over painfully. A very small percent weren't so lucky, and they fell on their sides with loud thuds or cries.
"What the?! Dammit! What are you good for nothings doing?!" The captain, his angry judgment to the zombies charged with the navigation controls made them flinch..
"S-sir! It wasn't our doing! It did it all on its own!" One of the zombies exclaimed, voice and body laced with fear for himself. He has no desire to be caught in his captain's wrath. The captain scowled and turned towards the screens at the front, still displaying the colorful and the painful-to-stare at static.
Suddenly the screens came back to normal. The frenzied zombies looked on like a freeze frame from a disaster video. A second of pause, and the zombies went to restore the order they lost as quickly as possible. The captain went to sit down at his station, silently watching the screen for any more anomalies. The room was very quiet now, the only noise being the tip and tap of keyboards. No one said anything, fearing making a peep will trigger another disaster even though no one was the known cause.
"Sir" a young zombie private called out. The captain set his eyes on the guy, making the young one flinch.
"What is it?" he growled.
The zombie gulped in anticipation. "T-there is some damage within the submarine's chamber, s-sir!"
The captain had a draconic sort of rage within the guy's eyeballs. Another problem was now upon them. The captain massaged the bridge over where his nose used to be. Some of the zombies around could just feel his frustration, and avoided turning to look at their superior. The captain leaned back, his glare still present." How much water is still in the chamber?"
"More than half," the zombies responded. The captain snorted. "That should be enough water to swim in. Send some engineers down into the submarine to fix it. They will have an escort of marine biologists to keep those plants pacified, whatever happened just now must not happen again." The captain leaned back after his declaration. His mind reeling from the growing issues at hand. No doubt the other ship will question the remote submarines late resurface. In Zomboss's army there is no room for failure.
The zombies "ayed!" In unison. The zombie captain was starting to wish that these submarines weren't remote controlled, and actually had zombies pilot it, because it will take a while for the zombies sent to get down there from the ship to the sub, and try to enter the chamber by using a well sealed panel on the outside. He isn't sure why these changes were made, despite the fact these remote controlled submarines haven't had any incidents until now. The zombie believed Zomboss had a preference for robots and machines over zombies. At the very least with order back on track, they can get something done about this and go home.
Or not.
The room turned red. A loud, blaring alarm sounded out. Flooding the slightly quiet room with a disastrous sound of emergency.
"What now!?" the captain yelled. His temper began to skyrocket. Now what could possibly be happening?!
"S-sir! Sea plants have been released from their containment!"
"WHAT?!"
…
Pulse continued to play with the submarine's electrical wiring. She was still trying to find the right codes to open the doors, for she feared the pilots of this vessel would take interest in eradicating her, even though she was still confident they wouldn't be able to do anything to pierce her armor. She couldn't take risks though.
Pulse was able to bring forth a combination of codes again from the electrical information within the wires. The previous one made the ship tilt almost entirely upside down. It was a very hectic moment, especially to the creatures around her. Her arm didn't let go of the wire or the wall so she wasn't thrown off, the captured organisms however went into a screaming frenzy. She hopes none were hurt, or severely hurt from impacts against the net, cages, or each other.
Pulse decided to activate the set of codes she pulled up. Her visor went nuts with colors and information, forcing her to close her eyes.
Pulse heard various noises all around her, and being here, she knew what they belonged to but she wasn't sure what was happening. Pulse stopped herself from turning around, she wanted to, but doing so will mean having to retract from the wires, as her head is also her body. Pulse extended the metallic appendage, lengthening it, so she can turn to look behind her to her left carefully and avoid accidentally detaching.
She gasped. She squinted through the colors of her visor, and on the other side she saw several nets and cages open up and released some of the trapped creatures, now swimming in the water freely. Some of the freed creatures clung to nets that still contained others trapped, pulling on the very durable network in an attempt to free their fellow pals. The ones trapped inside also tried to help, but it was a futile effort.
Pulse looked back to the wires. The codes she activated were still there, if she can figure out more about these, she can definitely free every creature here. She hoped to free them all at once and open those metal doors, this was a good step to that. Now she just needed more time.
Pulse went back to the displayed codes. 'Something isn't right if it released only some of them. I still have the codes displayed, perhaps I forgot to overlook something? Let me see.' Pulse scrolled around through the codes. Despite not knowing what they meant, she was beginning to see a pattern, which she believes are the words or symbols of their language. Pulse has also been recording to take a look later and hopefully decipher them.
A sound of moving gears echo across the chamber. Pulse paused at the noise, now wondering what was happening. She stopped her work and turned around to see where it was coming from. It took her a few seconds to spot the source, an opening opened up several meters from where she was. Water from within the chamber began rushing into the unknown entrance. She also noticed many of the creatures stopped to look. Pulse eyes widened when a shape swam into the chamber, a very familiar shape.
Pulse gasped, eyes widened and mind began to fill with fear. Despite not being able to take a close look, she already knew the glint of the gray and violet metal on it. Mind filled with soulless eyes and sharp teeth trying to dig into her flesh was enough to make Pulse turn around and try to solve her issue faster.
…
The aquatic plants also knew the shape of those hideous mechanized zombie sharks anywhere. The appearance of just the one that arrived first was enough to make nearly everyone start shrieking lowly in fright. The plants began to edge to the walls and corners, avoiding the metal fangs the creature possessed and flared about. These creatures were hardly seen on their own, so if there was one of these things there would be more coming.
The cyborg shark moved menacingly across the water, its soulless eyes scanning the plants in the area. Many tried to get as far away from its line of sight, but since the room was just as open and big as an empty dome, there was hardly any place for hiding. Mostly the small plants went to hide behind the larger plants or behind the nets either empty or filled. Regardless, it wouldn't matter in the end with these technology augmented beasts
The plants closest to the shark whimpered, keeping still as if it will save them from being painfully bitten in half. No body moved, or breathed. One of the sharks bared its teeth at a squid rose that got a bit too close to it, this caused the plant to swim further from it, and hid behind an eel peashooter.
The zombies knew all it took was one of their sharks to send groups of sea plants running for their lives, at least these types of sea plants. These were absolute wimps compared to some other, tougher plants living on other areas of the ocean. They have no need to use or waste energy with other powerful weapons to get to their targets or to pacify them. They always loved tormenting the poor captives on raids to coral reefs and various other places. Due to this, the zombies sent a single shark to keep the plants in their place and keep them from attacking the zombies engineers who were on their way right now.
Several zombies in scuba diving gear swam into the chamber after managing to enter from a heavy door to the side which fortunately for them had water on the door's level to safely enter, all carrying waterproof tools to fix the hole. The zombies were also accompanied by more of those mecha zombie sharks, some at the front and some at the back, making a barrier of terror for any plant foolish enough to try and seek to harm them. The sharks upfront joined the singular one to make a barrier for the zombies. Now with multiple sharks within the vicinity, any form of attack will be certain death for the plants.
The zombies moved towards where the damage was, ignoring the terrified plants around them. Well, most of them did. One of the zombies turned to look at the scared plants, and sneered at them.
"Bunch of spineless weeds…" he mumbled to himself before looking forward to his comrades. They were nearing the place of the damage. When they saw the hole on the wall they began to converse shortly.
"Now how did THAT happen?", one pointed at the nearly perfectly circle shaped hole.
"That definitely wasn't natural."
"Perhaps one of those weeds did this?"
"How can these primitive creatures be able to tear a hole through steel? Acid?! None of these plants have acid anyway… I think?"
"Hey, our job here is to fix this, not think about what made it. Leave it to the other guys up there. I don't have the brainz for that."
With that, the others shut up, but didn't stop them from thinking about it. Regardless they made their way towards the hole, in which they could see the wires inside. But something was weird about it. There was… a rippling of sorts in front of it. The kind of rippling like in water, but more of a sort of flickering of ripples underwater just like one sees on the surface, or perhaps a reflective material. The zombies continued nonetheless despite being unable to fully understand the strangeness, and they readied their tools as they approached.
…
Pulse was aware of the creatures shrieking, and she couldn't blame them. She doesn't like those things either. She was still trying to figure out these symbols, and what she hasn't done right. She still didn't understand these symbols no matter how much she tried to. She was also getting frustrated, and she was beginning to just want to press random triggers and see what happens.
During her work, she eventually noticed the silence in the chamber. She paused once again. Why did the creatures go quiet? Eventually she decided to turn around to see. The shark was still there, but it remained stationary in front of the creatures, who she knew were scared. However, they were all looking in the same direction, so she did the same.
She saw another hole in the wall, an entrance she didn't realize was there, and coming from the entrance were moving shadows from lights coming from somewhere. It didn't take long for the source of the shadows to become clear; she then made a tiny gasp. Bipedal figures emerged, all adorned with water suits, and surrounded protectively by more of those cyborg creatures, more in numbers than the ones she saw outside.
She gasped and froze when they were headed in her direction.
She couldn't waste time now. She needed to do something or else these creatures will be at the mercy of those entities, and her existence will be blown, not like it may have already been blown before, but she didn't want to risk any more exposure to these beings. She needed to do something fast.
She looked at the symbols, still contemplating what to do. She took another look at the incoming bipeds, then at the symbols.
'You know what?' Pulse glared at the symbols. She activated all of them at once.
The only word to describe what happened next? Complete and utter chaos.
The lights in the chamber flickered dramatically, panels on some walls opened and closed at different speeds, and perhaps ten other things Pulse didn't know about came to be.
All the creatures around her had varying degrees of shock and fear. Fear mostly from the swimming bipeds, but it quickly changed to everything happening around them. Despite all this, what mattered most is when she saw the rest of the nets and cages open up, the ones still inside fell or swam out of their little prisons. Simultaneously, the doors of the chamber opened underneath. The ocean became visible.
Pulse had the biggest grin that no one could see. She disconnected from the wires, swimming away towards freedom. Though, it's more like escape to her, freedom is better to refer to the many happy ocean dwellers who were all swimming away from the mobile prison of metal as fast as their fins could.
Dozens upon dozens of the creatures swam out, making clearly happy, squeamish noises as they did. Pulse didn't need a translator to know happiness.
Upon leaving the vessel, Pulse moved a distance from the submarine, watching the creatures pour out. She was surprised how many there were, for it didn't seem like there were that many when she was in there. So she was surprised at the huge number spewing out. Regardless, she felt great today.
A high pitched cry, Pulse heard, from the ship.
There, she saw the horrifying visage of one of those mecha fish sink their teeth on a Bioluminescent Nooter. The poor creature screeched in obvious agony, blade-like teeth sunk into its flesh and spraying its green blood around.
Her mouth was wide in shock. She moved and pushed herself through the water as quickly as possible to reach them. She wanted to try and save the small creature, regardless of what purpose the cyborg fish had in mind for it, whether it wanted the aquatic organism for food or not.
Pulse increased her speed a bit more before her body slammed the mecha fish. The creature let go of its prey, but it didn't make any cry of pain or surprise. The Bioluminescent Nooter sank to the murky water below. Low whimpers escaped its mouth as it did, then another of its kind swam to quickly grab them and swim away, still bleeding a trail of its green blood.
Pulse yelped when she was yanked down. The mecha fish was pulling on one of her legs, shaking her around like a ragdoll. It was already making the space alien dizzy, so she activated a shock of electricity from her, which disabled the mecha fish at least temporarily and thankfully there weren't any other creatures to feel it. The mecha fish began sinking, twitching every few seconds. Pulse wondered if she still had blood on her that would allow the creature to find her, but she didn't care much anymore since she was out.
The last few of the water creatures left the giant capturing vessel, quickly retreating towards the depths of the ocean, likely back to the coral reef or swimming towards different directions on the horizon. Pulse smiled when there were no more in sight, both in and out of the metal vessel.
More of those mecha fish swam nearby, looking for the escaped prey, with some of those bipeds behind them. Pulse froze as she saw them, but she quickly bolted, swimming with both the aid of her legs and her suit. She was out of there before those cyborgs could spot her.
A bit of time later she came upon open water, no more bipeds or mecha fish anywhere, there was just open blue expanse. Pulse stopped for a break, feeling cramps in her legs. Her back began to hurt from all that swimming. She just floated there, closing her eyes to rest before she continued. Those bipeds and mecha fish were a new experience, a dangerous and terrifying experience.
Pulse sighed. Should she have done that? To free those creatures from their capture? Sure, it's cruel to catch creatures and take them away from their home, especially if they are still alive and conscious, even if whatever reason they were being captured could be for food. Besides, Pulse believed that those sea creatures weren't exactly animals, or see them as animals. Those aquatic organisms displayed many of the basic evolution of intelligence quotas per her planet's terms, even if she couldn't understand them. The way they moved and acted was as if she was looking at an intelligent creature like the ones on land.
Those land dwellers, the ones that displayed similar appearances to some species of people back in her home world, definitely had higher intelligence with those devices they had. Those bipeds were the same. And their tools were equivalent to an industrialized civilization, with full body suits resistant to deep water. This planet is filled with several intelligent beings like in her planet. But is one species dominant? Or is there no dominant species here? Are they capable of space travel? If so then how far? How long have they been in this planet, and have they-
Pulse paused. 'Asking too many questions again to myself. I think it's better that I return to my ship, and quickly. Who knows what else could be out there.' She looked around for a second before swimming away.
Review replies
godzilla2341:
I appreciate that you enjoy it so far, and hope that you still remained after all this time has passed, and there will eventually be more chompers in the future.
...
Wow, I realized just how long ago I posted the last chapter… I feel guilty.
Sorry for the lack of a chapter, but at least I got it out now. I can guarantee they won't come out when I say they will, since my posting is not predictable. I will continue to post more chapters, so don't worry about it. I still hope I will be able to post chapters quicker and not take this long.
Words: 11,700+
Chapter posted: 3/17/2019