“Any sign of the Kraken?” Captain Weaver glanced over at Lancaster.
“None yet, sir,” the sonar tech answered.
The seconds ticked by like hours as Captain Weaver watched the bulk of the Braxton’s crew scurrying to her lifeboats and getting them into the water. Though it felt like the evacuation took an eternity, it actually took less than fifteen minutes. When the final lifeboat was away, Captain Weaver slid back fully into his chair and motioned at his helmsmen. “Alter course back the way we came. Let’s put as much distance between us and those boats as you can before the big one comes calling. Maximum military power.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” came the reply.
The massive battleship came about in the water, her engines pushed to their limits. Captain Weaver wasn’t waiting for the Kraken to come to them anymore. He was planning on running straight down the blasted thing’s throat.
The Braxton’s CIWS had been damaged in the battle on the deck between the lieutenant commander’s men and the lesser squids. Not having its firepower to be added to the ship’s main guns wasn’t as much as of a problem as it could have been, considering what Captain Weaver had planned for the Kraken.
“Contact, sir!” Lancaster shouted, nearly leaping out of his seat at the sonar station. “It’s the Kraken!”
“Where?” Captain Weaver snapped.
“The Kraken is coming in at an angle on our starboard side captain. CBDR at forty knots. It looks like it’s going to attempt to ram us, sir,” Lancaster reported.
“We can’t have that now, can we?” Captain Weaver smirked. “Mr. Smith, slow the mother down some if you would.”
“With pleasure, sir.” Mr. Smith grinned, happy to be back at the weapons station again. He had taken it over from Ennis as soon as the surprises scattered through the ship had been put in place for the Kraken.
The Braxton’s main guns locked on the fast-approaching monster and thundered as they opened fire on it. The sixteen guns spat high-explosion shells into the monster. Water mixed with black blood splashed skyward as they impacted the Kraken. Watching the data scrolling on the small screen of the arm of his command chair, Captain Weaver could see that the Kraken wasn’t as fast or agile as it had been. The great beast likely hadn’t fully healed from the last engagement yet. That was a very good thing. It slowed even more as the heavy shells continued to strike it and explode.
“The Kraken is slowing, sir!” Lancaster called out. “It’s still on course for us though.”
As crazy as the desperate plan that he, Smith, and Ennis had come up with was, Captain Weaver was really beginning to believe it just might work. “That’s right. Keep coming, you bastard,” he muttered under his breath. Smith had placed enough charges along the length of the ship to blow it into oblivion several times over, and that wasn’t even taking into account the ship’s ordnance, which would surely be set off by the explosion of those charges as well. The Kraken might think it was dragging them into the depths, but in truth, they’d be taking it to Hell with them.
“Impact in five!” Lancaster shouted.
“Brace for it,” Captain Weaver had just enough time to order before the Kraken slammed into the battleship’s starboard side. The impact nearly flung Captain Weaver from his seat. If he hadn’t braced himself by clutching the command chair’s arms, it would have. None of the rest of the bridge crew suffered anything worse than being jostled about either.
“Damage report!” Captain Weaver yelled.
“We’re taking on water, sir!” Ennis answered him. “The starboard side hull has been breached. Main power is still online but down by thirty-six percent.”
The report was a lot better than Captain Weaver had expected it to be. Thank God the great beast hadn’t hit any vital systems or they would be in a lot more trouble than they were.
Captain Weaver started to ask Lancaster and Ennis if the Kraken had taken their bait, but the bridge shook again as one of the monster’s impossibly long tentacles rose into the air only to fall back onto the Braxton. It coiled about the ship, wrapping over and under it. A second tentacle joined the first moment later. The Kraken was too close in now to use the main guns without them inflicting as much if not more damage to the ship herself if they fired at the creature. That didn’t matter though. Captain Weaver had the Kraken right where he wanted it.
Hawks, along with Robbie and Hyatt, had been tasked with making sure that Cheryl and Bailey made it safely away from the Braxton. A newbie soldier named Jeff had joined their squad for the effort. Hawks felt strange being in a command. It wasn’t something he had ever sought or wanted, but with Larson dead, it had fallen onto his shoulders. The four of them had rushed the two women through the burning bodies of the squid creatures on the Braxton’s deck and onto a motorized lifeboat.
Hyatt and the newbie kept an eye out for more of the lesser squid creatures in the water as he sat in the boat’s center with the two women. Robbie had his tablet hooked up to the Braxton’s systems and watched its screen intently, monitoring the situation behind them as the lifeboat bounced across the waves at its highest possible speed. The idea was to put as much distance between them and the battle that was about to take place as quickly as they could. All their hope lay in Captain Weaver being able to take out the Kraken and the lesser squids scattering in panic upon the great beast’s death.
Robbie had plotted them a course northward towards the closest high-traffic shipping lane. Hawks knew that Robbie hoped once the Kraken was dead that the EM interference with the long-range comm. gear would clear up, and he’d simply be able to radio for help. Failing that, the boat carried enough supplies for them to hold for a while and pray that another ship passing through the area would pick them up, assuming of course that the lesser squid creatures didn’t come after them. If they did, the boat had no weapons, and Hawks knew that the amount of time they’d be able to hold off the creatures would be a very short one. He and his men had loaded up on weapons and ammo before leaving the Braxton, but in the water, the squid creatures had the advantage. Even if they could keep the things from getting onto the small boat or being pulled from it by the things, the squid creatures could easily use their numbers to flip the boat over. If they did, that would be game over for them all.
Hawks knew how important Cheryl and Bailey were. Both of them were scientists, and Cheryl had been in charge of the platform crew that had discovered the Kraken. It was essential that they survived and made it home. If Captain Weaver failed to kill the Kraken, the powers that be would need every scrap of information that the two women could provide them with about the great beast. Even if Captain Weaver succeeded, there would still be the lesser squid creatures out there to be mopped up and dealt with. From what he had overheard the two doctors telling Robbie about the things, they weren’t as big of a threat as the Kraken itself was, but that wasn’t to say that the things couldn’t breed among themselves given time. Hawks understood that was the main fear. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if the monsters were allowed to breed and took over the planet’s oceans, as they surely would with no modern-day predators to hold them in check. Humanity would find itself at war with the creatures for the control of the oceans, and Hawks didn’t think for a second that it would be a fair fight. All of mankind’s tech and weapons might give them an edge in the beginning, but if the squid creatures multiplied as quickly as Cheryl and Bailey claimed they might, the edge would be quickly lost. No shipping lane would be safe from the things. Worse, with how they were able to move about and breathe out of the water, most coastal cities and towns would likely find themselves being swarmed by the monsters once their numbers increased.