Chapter 413: Trouble at the Depths
Sector 35 Underwater Vicinity
Triton’s Ark
Umhiz Ocean
November 30th
530th Divine Year
[Lieutenant, give me a report.]
"Roger. As of right now, we detect no abnormalities."
[That’s good to hear. Expand the target area and proceed with your survey. Do be careful.]
"Yes Sir."
Such was the interaction between the Sub-Lieutenant of the Aramisian Coalition Navy who led his platoon underwater to scout the Damaged Area of the Triton’s Ark.
There were still a few more things that needed to be prepared for the repair, so currently, they used an energy barrier to block the crack and prevent water from flooding the underground layers of the Island Fortress.
Every day, a platoon was assigned to run routine checks on the area, to scan for sea monster activity and any ocean debris that could be in the way.
"Hold on...What’s that?"
Just as he cut off the connection, the Lieutenant noticed something in the distance. It was as if the nearby anchor had tree roots wrapped around its chains.
’Roots? What sort of underwater plant has wrapped itself around this thing this time.’
The man heaved a light sigh of exasperation as he ordered his men to move in, however, when they got closer, a strange sensation washed over them as if they had just passed through a barrier of some sort.
"That was str-aaaahhh??!!"
His words turned into an exclamation of shock as their eyes now bore witness to something that should not have been present.
There was a gigantic tree of enormous proportions floating right under the Triton’s Ark. What’s more, some of the Tree’s branches were piercing right through the divine energy barrier that was used to seal the crack like the barrier wasn’t even there.
The Sub-Lieutenant immediately tried to contact his superiors, but it what happened next shocked the man out of his wits.
One of the branches lashed out like a whip, wrapping around the walkie-talkie and crushing it in an instant.
Almost immediately, dozens of branches lashed out at supersonic speed, piercing the bodies of the human and elven soldiers with ease, before beginning to rapidly drain their magic powers.
Strangely, the branches were only able to drain a bit of magic power before withering, but by the time they did, another set of branches had already lashed out and wrapped around their necks.
They tightened like nooses around the necks of the soldiers, and what followed was a spread of blood as the branches ripped their heads right off their necks.
[Is there a problem, Sylvan?]
"No, just some nuisances."
[Okay. Carry on.]
The two glowing green orbs on the massive tree’s trunk scanned the platoon of 44 men and women, confirming they had all been turned into corpses before returning their focus to the energy barrier around the Ark’s Damaged section.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Strange..."
The young woman muttered these words to herself as she looked at the readings from the graphs in front of her.
"It was as if someone initiated contact, then the line went dead right after..."
She was searching for something amongst the records when she noticed something strange. There was no morning report on the Ark’s Damaged Sector survey.
"The platoon in charge this morning was Platoon 4. They’ve been in charge of it three times and have not missed a report, until today.
There’s also the line suddenly going off."
"Major Lamkins."
A sudden voice called out to her and she snapped out of her thoughts, turning to see a man with a wry smile on his face standing beside her.
’I didn’t even notice when he entered!’
He held out a mug of coffee towards her which she accepted and thanked him. The man then turned his attention towards the screens in front of her and asked her what she was up to.
Though she personally didn’t want to inform him of this, she had no choice to as he was her superior officer.
And not just any superior officer, but the Most Superior on the Triton’s Ark.
The Commander of the Triton’s Ark, Fleet Admiral Gnurl Lamkins. From their similar last names, it was clear they were related.
Father and daughter, to be exact.
’Though he has been a bit strange recently.’
She kept those thoughts to herself and turned towards the projected screens before explaining.
"Platoon 4 missed their Survey report this morning. I tried contacting the Sub-Lieutenant in charge but the line wasn’t going through.
Upon further investigation, I discovered that there were other strange things about their activities this morning."
"I see. So, it seems that something has happened to them. I would have a company led by a Lieutenant go down and investigate the area immediately.
Thank you for informing me."
Fleet Admiral Gnurl got up to his feet and quickly walked out of the room, even leaving behind the coffee he was drinking. Left behind, the young woman gazed at her departing father’s back with a complicated gaze in her eyes, before opening her drawer and bringing out a black palm-sized disk.
’Just in case...’
Such a thought crossed her mind as she began infusing her divinity into the disk.
◇ ◇ ◇
Situation Room
Military Headquarters
Triton’s Ark
November 30th
530th Divine Year
"Early this morning, all communications with Survey Platoon 4 ceased around the Vicinity of Sector 35."
"Sector 35? That’s the area that was damaged by the Kraken, was it not?"
"Indeed."
The Generals and Admirals of the Aramisians’ Coalition Army discussed amongst themselves when they heard the report that they had just received from the Chief Warrant Officer.
"Have we checked vital readings?"
"There are no vital readings to check. They’re all dead."
The Military Advisor replied to one of the Vice-Admiral’s words with a grim expression, before turning to the analysts who were seated facing the walls of the room.
In front of each one were multiple floating screens displaying graphs and lines of code on them.
"According to the data we waveforms we gained from Major Lamkins, there appeared to be some sort of ’energy activity’ detected but it disappeared after a second."
"Just a second? Isn’t that a bit too short for us to glean anything from?"
"Have the sensors been checked? Could they have been damaged as well?"
The words of the analyst were followed by simultaneous questions from the Vice-Admirals and Generals, and the poor woman was temporarily at a loss on who to answer first.
"Calm down, all of you."
Fleet Admiral Gnurl spoke up, silencing all those present in the hall. The man then turned towards the analyst and indicated for her to continue her report.
She bowed to thank him, before using her magic to generate multiple projections at the centre of the table with the Higher Ups.
"We expanded the ranges of the Sensors in Sectors 33 and 36 to try and capture any signs of activity and all we were able to get was this picture."
The image displayed was that of one of the Triton Ark’s raised anchors which had tree roots entwined with the chains.
"Unfortunately, distance constraints made it impossible for us to gain a clear image.
After cross-referencing, we do not have any matches for any underwater vegetation native to Umhiz."
"..."
There was silence in the room for a while as the inhabitants studied the projected images. It was finally broken when one of the Military Advisors spoke with a frown.
"It could be a plant-type monster of some sort.
Sector 35 is within the Civilian Segment of the Ark. I suggest we order an evacuation with immediate effect to prevent a repeat of the Kraken Incident."
"Ordering an evacuation would cause widespread panic.
Though you may want to believe the civilians would evacuate to the shelters calmly in the event of an emergency, we have the Kraken Incident to show that there would always be those who would disrupt things."
Before the debate between the Military Advisor and the Lieutenant General could escalate further, one of the Lieutenant Generals offered an alternative solution.
This was Lieutenant General Tamal, one of the natural Divine factor holders who had worked his way up from the bottom rung of the Army to the top without skipping a single rank.
He was very much loved by both the Civilians and the Soldiers, with a great many soldiers admiring him even more so than their own commanding officers.
"I suggest we withdraw from the area. Assuming we are within the territory of this alleged ’Plant-Type Monster’, then wouldn’t leaving the area make it leave us alone?
Engineers, how feasible is a withdrawal?"
By the words of General Tamal, one of the systems engineers nearby ran some checks before replying.
"The Divine Crystal Core has a stable output of around 85%. We can bump it up to 90% in half an hour which would allow us to withdraw at about 30 knots."
"30 knots? That’s good enough.
However, if you want us to run away to avoid engaging in another pointless battle. Would it not be best to document exactly what we’re running from for future references?"
A Vice-Admiral made a suggestion which was well-received by the others present in the room. Seeing as they had calmed down considerably, Fleet Admiral Gnurl raised his head from the report files he was reading and spoke.
"Assemble a reconnaissance Company constituent of five platoons and place a Naval Lieutenant in charge. Assign an Army Captain as his second and have them scout the area immediately.
If the target is small, they are to engage and eliminate it."
He pointed at one of the Admirals and the man bowed before getting up and leaving the room to pick out the platoons to assign this duty while the others in the room continued to debate whether to evacuate the civilians or not.
