"Is there a detach button near the harpoon trigger?" Theo asks over the comm.
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"Uh, I have it harpooned, what should I do? Try and reel it in, or let it go?" Kai's preference would be for the latter; perhaps they had spooked it enough that it would leave them alone as they completed their work down here.
There isn't a 'detach harpoon' button or a 'cut cord' button but there is a button that says "release the kraken".
Zellgato rapidly clicks on the scanner, actively searching for the proper target. Then launches the mecha with as much speed as possible in the direction. Trying to get Nissa as close to the creature as he can.
Zellgato rapidly clicks on the scanner, actively searching for the proper target. Then launches the mecha with as much speed as possible in the direction. Trying to get Nissa as close to the creature as he can.
Thinking the octopus had gotten the message, Kai presses the release button.
When Kai presses the 'release the kraken' button, the line goes slack, the harpoon staying with the beast. Zellgato's sensors tell him the octopus has disappeared into a hiding place in the wall of the trench. The cloud of octopus ink hides the crevice entrance from view.
The TD-Rad detector continues to pick up a source of radiation near the Nazi diving bell.
Zellgato has said he's zooming over there. This niche the octopus has found is big enough for a giant octopus with tentacles 20 ft. in length, but it is also limiting. One mecha could go in there at a time.
A four-armed scuba diver comes into view. Charles is there.
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Nissa‘s ready to explode… though if there‘s no reason to feel threatened, she‘ll quickly cool down.
She asks, “Anything you want be to blow up?”
"I mean could close the octopus opening if you actually explode? Or we could just leave it, check the diving bell and the ship. Explosions nearish an alien ship feels like it might be a bad play.
"I'd rather not hurt it further, I think it got the message for now. Let's take a look at the diving bell and then see how we can get the ship up to the surface."
Nissa’s ability to explode would probably cool at this point, but she doesn’t wait that long—
—after a brief silencing of Nissa’s comm, a spark appears next to Zellgato inside Big Red. The spark blossoms to a fairy shape. Nissa says, “If there isn’t a fight, I’m staying in this machine. I can’t do this deep-sea thing like Theo. I’d be safer jettisoned into space.”
"Oh, the octopus pulled back? Yes, please, don't hurt it any more. Just grab that thing and go." Charles says. Without a need to risk himself, he stays up a bit higher, hoping to avoid getting crushed.
Kai has to kneel in the mecha to get a closer look at the diving bell. It has been there for a very long time.
Inside the diving bell, Kai sees a grisly sight. Two divers, in elaborate diving gear, never left the submersible, their diving suits are shredded in patches, but still cover most of their skeletal corpses. The limbs of one of the divers is unaccounted for; the diving suit torn off at the shoulder there.
The diving bell is fairly crowded with equipment and the corpses. Everything in this crapped little container has an obvious purpose except a strange piece of equipment on the floor; a rusty metal box with some sensors.
When Zellgato looks down at the diving bell, the T-Rad detector indicates the presence of a source of radiation near the base of the submersible.
In the background of your thoughts, the refrain continues, "...nawara nagi banoo atalas nawara nagi banoo atalas nawara nagi banoo atalas nawara nagi banoo atalas..."
Nissa looks at the funny box with... are those shower heads? They’re lights!
“How quaint.”
Being fairy-sized makes skeletons appear as a elephant graveyard, but these were people, and they did not die peacefully, she suspects.
“Ya think a giant octopus did this? Not, like, the same one. I guess these guys died centuries ago, right? Before Indiana Jones’ time, or Rod Serling’s.”
"Do we take the whole bell up to the next level so we can examine it, or do we jus take all the stuff in it? Also... I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same Octo, no telling how long something like that lives. Its huge, and probably one of the primary predators around here. Outside of giant whales maybe? Though off hand. Being inside. I'm guessing someone murdered them, and just left it here. Wonder if the xeno-ship is a similiar story? Starfish, be careful and keep an eye out okay? For all we know Atlantan raiders or something crazy."
"Then why are they inside the diving bell? And their diving suits are shredded. I don't think this was our octopod friend."
"We should lift both the ship and the bell, so that we can examine them in peace."
"I'd vote we get things out of the squish-people depths to look at them, too," Charles says.
“Agreed,” Nissa says. “Also, I wanna go subatomic and take a good look at that temporal field to see if I can work around it.
“You guys know I can do the rock test with an atom, right? If it can get through, I can.”
She says this with confidence… but then, she says most things with confidence.
The ship is intact and seems to be able to handle the pressure. Unlike the bell, you can't just tie a cable on it. You'd need two mechas to lift it. This temporal field around it might make it weird to lift.
The box looks oddly familiar and strange at the same time. You're going to need to take it apart though to figure out what it's for, and you can't do that in a mecha.
The TD-Radiation detector continues to indicate there is some source of radiation outside of the Nazi diving bell.
"Alright, which one do we want to raise first? The diving bell is probably the easiest, we can grab the cable and pull it up, or see if the Starfish has a cable and some sort of winch. We can lift the ship with the two mechas, but it might be tricky."
Kai pings the Starfish crew to see if they have anything that might help with the salvage operation.
"Diving bell first. I think there is something under it, the detector is pinging on it. Also, they might've been rsearching that alien vessel. Who knows might have notes for when we mess with the field. Should we just robo double lift? I doubt we have the cordage for the Starfish from here. Maybe part way"
Kai pings the Starfish crew to see if they have anything that might help with the salvage operation.
The Starfish crew has 80 feet of heavy chains; not of the length that you would need for the Starfish to retract the bell from the depths, but you could make use of it to help the mecha raise the bell.
When it’s time for heavy-lifting, Nissa uses her subatomic size to switch mechs.
“Hi, Kai,” says the faint voice of a spark, which of course becomes a three-inch-tall fairy in the next second.
"Hi, Nissa. You have more finesse than me with this thing." Kai smiles at the tiny glowing figure before signaling Zellgato on comms.
"Alright, on three? One, two, LIFT."
Nissa helps with a confidence boost and extra set of eyes: “Oh, you’re all talk—you just found the sweet spot! I’ll watch Zellgato so you two can stay in synch!”
Breathing deep, taking a moment to invigorate himself, "Whelp."
Zellgato, Kai, and Nissa have begun to lift the diving bell from the ocean floor, and do so surprisingly well considering that this is probably a first for each of them. They lift the bell, and its contents from the silt that surrounds it and then slowly raise it out of the trench.
Theo is, I believe, watching the crevice the octopus went into and considering heroic deeds.
Charles, who was keen to get out of the people-squishing depths, is the first one to notice the sharks heading directly towards the team. They're coming fast and aren't veering towards the wounded octopus as he might expect. They're focused on the party.
The telepathic chant is louder. The ocean seems to throb with it.
With the diving bell no longer blocking it, Zellgato sees more clearly than ever that something beneath the diving bell was giving off TD-Radiation.
The sharks rush past the more vulnerable Charles with barely a glance towards him. Charles counts 6 sharks. One breaks off from the shiver and begins a wide circle back towards Charles. They straight for the two mecha, whose hands are full with the diving bell.
Theo watches as the mechs ascend with their prize, then the godling 'heard' the telepathic chanting. Seeing Charles in trouble, The Olympian swam to help the monster-man.
Theo is fast. It will be Charles and Theo against Great White 1.
The mechas are going to have their hands full both literally with a diving bell and metaphorically with five sharks coming their way.
Nissa is ready to act, but… not much she can actually do in her fairy form!
“Lovely,” she says. “Don’t drop the bell, if you can help it.”
She then becomes a spark, and in the next instant, nothing.
"Er, right, of course."
Kai continues to hold on to the bell, hoping to be able to move away from the sharks.
"Ummm, these sharks really aren't acting natural... look out!" Charles shouts over the comms as he watches them come in.
Now that Charles mentions it, Kai can feel the unnaturalness of their drive. They're here because they are answering a call.
Distracted with the balance, Zellgato does not pay much heed to the sharks "Hope these mechs are durable, We'll have to rush up, or dump the bell Kai"
What Kai cannot see (along with literally every other living thing) is what Nissa is doing in her subatomic form. She is heading into the diving bell—the only place where she can fight the sharks!
Her hope is that her plan doesn’t backfire, which can easily happen. For now, her impossibly small body can’t be devoured, so she’s got that going for her…
The five sharks that rush the mecha come right between you at full speed, coming very close to the diving bell. Two of them sideswipe the bell with their bodies as if to knock it out of your hands. The shiver splits and the five circle around in different directions, reforming a group to come at you again.
The one that broke from the pack and circled at Charles and Theo rushes in fast, jaws opening a little when 10 feet away. When it's five feet away, it selects Charles for its nibble.
Failing to bite Charles, the shark's body slams him hard enough to knock the wind out of him as it slides by.
Kai focuses on keeping hold of the bell and powering away from the sharks.
"That telepathic chant is probably driving them, but I can't tell where it's coming from."
"Screw it, we either drop it or we power through. We can't shut out telepathy. STARFISH; You may want to back off"
The sharks circling Zellgato and Kai come around again and then head towards the alien ship. Your blindsense shows them circling it.
The shark attacking Theo and Charles though is still a threat to them and it will be for another round before anyone other than Theo or Charles can react to it.
Kai does get a clear sense of where the telepathic chant is coming from--the ship. The ship is calling and the sharks are answering.
"Get that bell up there!" Theo huffed over the comm link. "Me and Chuck will handle these fishies!"