Chapter 82- (Bonus) Changing tactics

Chapter 82: 82- (Bonus) Changing tactics

BOOM!

Another tentacle slammed against the barrier. The ship shook from bow to stern.

Aymara didn’t flinch on the outside. Inside, her pulse hammered hard enough to hurt, but her hands stayed steady. Fear could ride along; it didn’t get to steer her ship or her.

"System, concentrate fire on the underside of every tentacle still touching the ship. Ignore the armored upper surfaces."

[Executing command.]

The cannons shifted. A barrage of fire tore across the creature’s limbs.

The mutant thrashed about. The ocean reared around it, towering waves crashing against the ship as the creature twisted violently and dragged its enormous body through the water.

To get away from the attacks, it disappeared beneath the waves. A deathly silence overcame the surrounding after it dived into the water.

Aymara froze. Silence was worse than noise; it meant the creature had chosen the battlefield and changed tactics and she was in the dark about what to expect.

Nathaniel looked at the monitors, his eyes darting from one screen to another as he searched for any sign of the octopus.

"Where did it go?"

Aymara’s eyes also moved around searching for the beast. Something that big doesn’t just up and vanish. "System, where is that monstrous thing?"

The radar flashed red.

[WARNING.]

[Hostile organism has disappeared from visual range.]

[Life signature detected beneath vessel.]

Aymara’s blood ran cold. "Beneath us?"

Nathaniel’s face paled when he heard her. His eyes instinctively lowered even though he lacked x-ray vision and couldn’t see it.

"Not good. Not good," he muttered.

Aymara’s answer came before the system could respond. The ocean beneath the cruise ship erupted.

BOOOOOM!

The entire vessel was hurled upward. Aymara lost her footing, and Nathaniel lunged toward her.

They crashed onto the floor together as the control room tilted violently. Warning lights strobed crimson, glass shattered, and metal screamed around them.

Beneath them, something enormous struck the bottom of the ship again.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The mutant wasn’t trying to crush the ship from the outside anymore. It was attacking from underneath.

Aymara pushed herself up. Her hands clenched tightly, her teeth dug deep into her lower lip that it bled.

"System, ship status!" She forced out.

[Hull integrity: 81%.]

[Defensive barrier: 61%.]

[Hostile organism attempting to overturn vessel.]

Aymara’s expression became murderous. She hadn’t survived one life just to end up dying in the first week of the apocalypse to that mutant. "Overturn my ship? Absolutely not!"

If it overturned them, every weapon angle became useless and that spot would become hers and Nathaniel’s burial ground. She needed to change the geometry of the fight before the next impact rolled the ship.

She grabbed the communication microphone. "Activate underwater weapons."

[Underwater weapons unavailable.]

Her eyes narrowed. "What?"

[Current weapon systems are designed primarily for surface and aerial threats.]

Aymara stared at the screen for half a second before she smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile.

"Then we’ll improvise. The creature is striking from below, so redirect the ship’s reserve power to the underside and convert the defensive emitters into a focused underwater weapon."

Nathaniel looked at her. "Mara..."

"Did you get hurt in the fall?" She asked in a worried tone as she turned toward him. He shook his head, either because he wasn’t hurt or he figured it wasn’t the time to alarm her. Aymara felt relieved. "We’re going hunting, Nate. Brace yourself."

Before he could ask what she meant, Aymara opened the ship’s system interface. A new command window appeared.

[Emergency Combat Adaptation.]

[Would you like to temporarily modify the vessel’s defense system for underwater combat?]

Aymara didn’t hesitate to agree. The situation was sire and every moment and modification counted to ensure their survival.

"Yes. Use the reserve power to create a forward-facing blast beneath the hull. We only need one opening to drive it away from the keel."

[Modification requires 5,000 system points.]

"Do I have that?"

[Yes, host. Current points: 5102]

"Take them and modify."

[Confirmed.]

The ship suddenly transformed. Hidden compartments opened along its underside, mechanical structures unfolded beneath the hull, and energy conduits flared to life.

A deep humming vibration spread through the vessel, rising from the deck like the growl of some awakening machine.

Nathaniel stared in disbelief. "What are you doing?"

Aymara’s eyes gleamed. "Turning our cruise ship into something that monster should have never attacked."

"Since when did you become so terrifying?" He asked. Deep down, he was full of praise for her ability to built such a terrifying fortress in less than a week.

Almost as though she foresaw the mutants would arrive in the apocalypse. He felt nearly lacking compared to her as he watched her in action.

Roa was impressive, one of a kind and not in existence anywhere else and so were the AI robots that he built but still, against Aymara’s ship, his technology seemed a bit lacking.

"Truly impressive," he whispered under his breath.

The ocean suddenly illuminated beneath them. A massive energy cannon extended from the underside of the ship, bathing the dark water in electric blue light.

The creature appeared on the sonar. It was circling beneath them, waiting as though intentionally baiting them.

Aymara placed her hand on the control panel. Her fear was still there, cold and insistent but she had given it a job. The monster had chosen to hide below them; she would make the trap face upward.

"Lock on to the life signature beneath the keel. Track its approach and hold the cannon until it enters the firing corridor."

[Target acquired.]

The mutant octopus suddenly charged upward. The sonar showed its body rising directly beneath the ship, aimed at the weakest point in the hull.

Aymara’s smile disappeared. "Now. Fire through the center mass and force it away from the vessel."

The underwater cannon discharged. A blinding beam tore through the ocean, turning the surrounding water into a glowing blue abyss.

For a moment, everything beneath the ship became visible. The monstrous octopus twisted violently as the energy blast struck directly beneath its body.

Its tentacles flailed through the illuminated water as the ocean erupted around it and for the first time since the battle began, the monster screamed in pain.

Aymara was unfazed by the loud scream. It was survival of the fittest and she was determined to see the journey to the end. To find out what rested at the end of the apocalypse and whether or not the world would be rebuilt someday.

Until then, she refused to fall let alone die. She glanced at Nathaniel, "When this is done, let’s have steaming bowls of eggplants and shredded pork over rice, okay."

"You can think about food at such a time?"

"Just thinking about it already has my mouth watering and my craving skyrocketing."

"Impossible!" Nathaniel shook his head.