Carlos

Carlos had met the Captain some five years ago quite literally running into him, in an alleyway market. Carlos had been running blindly and didn't see the Captain until they collided, sending them both toppling into a fruit stand. Carlos tried to get up but slipped on the crushed fruits. 

“Hey, hey, why the rush friend?” The Captain had asked him, holding his hand out to help Carlos up. Carlos looked at him and then his hand, before going back to trying to get up. Shouting voices sounded somewhere behind him.

“Where'd he go!”

“Skin the bitch!”

The Captain had looked back at Carlos before asking.

“Are they talking about you?” he said with a little laugh. “Here, stay quiet and don't move.” The Captain took off his jacket before throwing it on Carlos, covering his head and torso. Not having much of a choice, he complied. He could only hear what happened next.

“OI! Any of you see a skinny cunt run through here!” A voice shouted.

“What for?” The Captain asked.

“Bastard's old man owes us money, now that e’s croaked, sons gotta pay the debt.” 

“And what do I get if I did see him?”

Carlos prepared himself to run, this guy had set him up to get some sort of prize money!

“Forty credits.”

Forty credits?! Carlos thought. Who wouldn’t turn him in for that?!

“Ya I’ve seen him,” Carlos was about to get up to run before the Captain continued “he ran down the alley some. Shoved my mate over into the fruit stand on his way.” Carlos was kicked in the leg as the Captain said “my mate”.  Was he going to make it out of this?! Carlos thought to himself. And why was nobody else ratting him out?

“If we find out ya lying, it’s your skin next.” The sentence was followed with the soft metal clinking of credits being passed over, preceded by running footfalls. After a few moments there was another kick to Carlos's leg.

“You can get up now, they’re gone.”

Uncovering himself, Carlos stood up.

“Why did you do that? And why didn’t anyone say anything?”

“Let’s walk and talk,” the Captain replied “probably won’t be long before they find out it’s a dead end.” Putting his arm around Carlos's shoulder, the Captain led him down towards the docks.

“Lucky for you, the person's stall you crashed into is someone who owes me a favor. The others around us were his crew, all I had to do was call in the favor and fork over the credits to him.”

Carlos and the Captain had reached the end of the dock by now and were looking at a small rundown submarine.

“Here’s my pride and joy, she might not look it, but this is one of the best subs money can buy.” Carlos heard the captain mumble something under his breath along the lines of “as long as it's from a junkyard.”

“Anyway, you seem to be in a bit of trouble and I need a crew, how’s about you come along?”

This was perfect, a way off this rock and into a life of adventure he‘d always dreamed about!

“Y-ya of course! When do we leave?” He asked.

“Right now!” The Captain replied, as there was a crash and yelling coming from the other end of the dock.

“You see, that guy who owed me a favor, I didn’t actually give him the credits, it was a bag of old nails… and it seems as though he has now found that out. Let’s go!” He said before flinging open the hatch of the sub and jumping in.

Gunshots sounded behind Carlos and bullets whizzed past him, pinging off the metal of the sub and splintering the dock.

“WELL ARE YOU COMING OR WHAT?!” The Captain's head poked out from the hatch. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Thus, Carlos became the first member of the Captains crew.  

The ripping of metal filled his ears as he heard bullets screaming all around him, snapping him out of his thoughts, as the opposing sub opened fire from below them. 

Why am I thinking of that now? Carlos thought to himself. There was a scream from somewhere behind him as one of his crew mates was hit.  He couldn't check who it was, he had to stay on the auto cannon, his crew was trusting him to be defense from anything above them, he had to trust that they were alright and could handle the fight below them.

Each of the ships weapons were connected to a different weapon visor that dangled above the furring mechanisms, each of which displayed a live image from a camera positioned at the top of the weapons barrel. As he looked out over the top of the submarine, holes in the ship's armor began to appear in front of him, the metal exterior around the holes curling away from the ship. He caught glimpses of bullets whizzing up from beneath him all around and through the ship. It was terrifying, knowing that at any moment, those bullets could be piercing through him. An explosion sounded from behind him causing his ears to ring, the railgun had been fired. The horrendous scraping of metal as the railgun reloaded itself was music to his ear. Water lapped at his feet as water began filling the interior from all of the doors the bullets had opened into the ship.

A face appeared out of the darkness before him. The three read eyes positioned in the shape of a triangle stared through the other end of the periscope as it swam full speed towards the sub. What was essentially a ten foot long, scaly slug with a collection of five webbed finned arms positioned around its oversized almost human looking skull full of fangs that was attached to the end of its body by a thin layer of skin, melded seemingly into the body, slithered through the murky waters towards him. The arms around its head reached out, swinging anticipation to rip through the ship's outer armor. The simplest way he could think to describe it, is as a giant mermaid seemingly made of scaly shit with a triangle of eyes and claws, leading a swarm of about eight more in a tight group, aiming to extinguish the only source of light in their dark home.

Slamming his thumbs down on the trigger buttons the ocean around him was periodically illuminated in time with the fast rhythmic boom of the rapid fire cannon as it began to rip through the creatures. The first one's head was blown clean off, the following one losing a few of its arms along with chunks of its body. The water in front of Carlos began to cloud with blood, guts, and limbs. 

Though they look like it, these creatures were not entirely animalistic and stupid. Seeing the first few turn to chunks of fish food, the rest of the monsters filed in behind the more intact corpses that once led the charge, their bodies as shields as they continued their assault. There wasn't enough ammo left for him to be able to fire through them into the others. He braced for impact while continuing to fire well placed shots into the crowd, blowing a few more appart. Four had made it to the ship and were eating away at the metal. 

He spun the cannon around, blasting two more off the side of the ship, turning to face the other two he was met with the sight of a large hole in the top of the armor. They were inside. Pulling his head from the weapon visor, he reached for his revolver, six bullets, not enough for both of them. 

The command room was flooded up to his waist. The claustrophobic metal rectangular box was filling at an alarming rate. The Captain was frantically inputting commands into the currently smoking array of screens, levers, and buttons at the ship's command terminal at the other side of the room.

  Sunn, one of the two engineers in their crew, was crouched next to him wearing an oxygen mask while he attempted to fix the broken parts of the terminal. Turning around Carlos saw the other three periscope helmets lined up behind him, the two responsible for controlling the two chainguns were unmanned and the ammunition meter next to them showed red meaning they needed to be reloaded. Haugendause was in the one furthest from Carlos, manning the railgun fixed to the bottom of the sub, a rack next to him was fully stocked with eight railgun shells. They had however many were currently loaded into the railgun plus eight, having a surplus of shells was never a bad thing. 

Haugendause was firing at the enemy ship below them as fast as the seven seconds it took the railgun to recharge would allow. Lauren was no longer at the periscope next to Carlos manning the chaingun, its ammunition belt was on fire and stained with blood and bullet holes. Was she alive or dead? No she had to be fine right? She must be heading down to the airlock to grab scuba suits for the crew. Oxygen masks like the one Sunny was wearing were only effective at protecting from the loss of oxygen, the scuba suits were what protected from the crushing pressure of the ocean. If the sub kept filling, at this rate the pressure would crush them all. 

Ahead of him was the door to the medic bay, the water sensor alarm blinking red, signaling that the room on the other side was full of water. If that door opened, the little air left in the command room would be replaced with the waters of this alien planet. A scraping from above him snapped him out of his trance, the hatch above him that headed to the weaponry and the backup power system started to dent, small cracks forming to let water trickle down. The creatures had gotten into the weaponry. Slamming his free hand into the open hatch button he was immediately greeted with a rush of water and one of the aliens with its fangs caught in the metal of the sliding door. He didn't have more than half of a second to examine it before its head was torn off by the door. The creature had its fangs in the door when it was suddenly opened by Carlos. The doors had to open and close with enough power and force to stop the flow of flooding water, so a simple head of fangs was ripped as easy as ripping a sheet of paper in half. 

Pushing through the massive amount of water draining from the weapons bay, Carlos climbed the small ladder into the top floor, looking down the long hall of wires and batteries to see the second creature eating into the ship's oxygen generator. It hadn't noticed him yet, Carlos holstered his revolver and pulled out his welding tool, the red emergency lights made the flooding water a blood red color as he shut the hatch below him to prevent further flooding of the floors below. The water was up to his shoulders, he had to seal off the hole now or he would be crushed. Creeping his way to the torn part of the armor, Carlos pressed the welding tool to the hole and fired. The welding tool uses a mix of magnets and supercharged air to pull the broken metal back to its original position before fusing it back together. Now that the most immediate danger was dealt with, he returned his focus to the one eating away at the oxygen generators. 

Backing up, Carlos entered the weapons bay, extra crates of ammo for the rapid fire cannon and chainguns were stacked on the walls and a large weapons locker was positioned between the boxes. Flinging its doors open he grabbed the shotgun, racking the pump he checked the ammo, three shots left. All of their backup shells had been used on an earlier expedition into an underwater cave system, they had forgotten to restock on ammo, he had to make these shots count. Wading his way through the water and raising the weapon to the creature, he fired, cutting it in half at the torso. 

It swung its arms wildly at him, slowly losing energy before going still. Something had been shouted over the intercom but his ears were ringing from the shotgun blast, and couldn't make out what was said. Whatever, it didn't matter, he had to get the oxygen generator working again. Pulling out his wrench, he made some quick repairs to the oxygen generator, that would last about five minutes he thought. It just had to last long enough until Berry, their main engineer, could get to it. 

Jumping down in the command room, Sunny and Haugendause were gone, the Captain was standing over the command terminal slamming buttons and putting all his weight on the lever that controlled their forward and backward movement. Carlos looked over the Captains shoulder at the screen which displayed the map of the ship, each crew member's location, and their vitals. Carlos retook his position at the cannon, shoving his head into the periscope helmet. His world was once again filled with the blackness of the ocean and a large wall of gray metal and lights. Gray metal? It took him a second to realize what he was looking at, it was the underside of a submarine. The last thing Carlos saw was a massive tentacle wrapped around the submarine, before slamming it into the top of their ship.

Berry

Berry was sent flying across the long corridor-like room that was the reactor room, also referred to as the engine room. Aside from the ballast tanks, this section of the ship was the least visited by the rest of the crew other than Berry. His expertise of electrical engineering and mastery of balancing the heating and cooling pumps for the reactor was unmatched. In the center of the room, pressed against the wall, allowing about a two shoulder width of room to squeeze past it was the reactor. A large steel box, fixed to the grated floor of the ship. The reactor looked more complicated than it actually was, a tangle of tubes and batteries only responsible for managing the temperatures of the fuel cells used to power it. Berry would carefully insert a fuel cell into one of the glass pipes and then manage its temperature on the control panel under the monitor. 

The fuel cells heat would constantly fluctuate, if it got too hot or too cold, the reactor would overload, leading to a loss of power to the rest of the ship. Carefully carved out linear strips of metal had been removed from its sides to provide quicker cooling as it was a lot easier to heat the machine up than to cool it down. 

It sounds easy enough to manage on paper, but what they didn't tell him when training him was that he also had to manually raise the reactor's heat to provide more power to certain parts of the ship, but at the cost of other systems overloading and malfunctioning. It was a constant tightrope walk to control, one wrong breath and he would lose his balance and fall, sending the ship into darkness.

Berry concluded his second long free trial of what it felt like to fly, by slamming into the massive engine responsible for keeping the ship moving. The copper pipework hissed steam, as if warning Berry to stay back as he collided with the metal serpents. A searing pain shot through his shoulder, screaming in pain as the superheated metal burnt through his shirt and skin. He could smell his own flesh burning. He knew that he wasn't the best when it came to manning the cannons or navigating the ship. Hell the only reason he was on the ship was to man the engines and maintain the machinery, he didn't know how to actually use anything other than the reactor and engine panels. 

Berry had met the Captain at a harbor some months back. Berry had recently been kicked out of his old crew due to his inept ability at anything other than machinery. In the deep waters, everyone had to be at least a little good at everything, they had said, being able to fix things wouldn't be of any help if the danger had already made it into the ship.

He was stranded, God knows how far from home, without a ship, and without a crew. That's when the Captain found him. A grizzled man with dark shaggy hair, wearing a deep blue trench coat and cap had approached him one night while he was sitting on the dock contemplating what to do. The man had asked for Berry specifically, apparently he had been seeking a mechanic that he deemed worthy of working on his ship. Berry had tried to explain to him that he knew nothing about using weapons to steer a ship. But the Captain insisted that he join, a functioning crew didn't have to be a group that could do everything, having someone that was excellent at a specific task was better than one that could do an okay job at everything. The crew that he had been building was full of people who all specialized in different fields, if they were all doing their job right, they wouldn't need to be good at everything. Together with everyone assigned to their individual roles, they weren't a collection of people good at one thing, they were a single mind that was excellent at everything.

The rest of the crew was relying on Berry to keep the ship running, the same way that Berry was relying on them to steer and defend the ship. 

Getting to his feat, Berry lunged forward, ripping the skin from his arm that had been seared onto the pipes. Pain was temporary, death is permanent, he reminded himself. His hands were a blur as he worked the controls, the temperature meters began to even out! He had just gotten the reactor under control when the whole ship rocked, slamming him into the wall and into unconsciousness.

The Captain

The navigation terminal fizzled out to a mass of blank slates of glass. After a few seconds, the emergency backup power kicked in. Immediately the Captain hit the switch connected to the sonar. The ship's display system consisted of a multitude of screens. One displayed the names of the crewmembers and their vitals. Another showed an X-ray of the ship and the status of each room and its machinery. The third had a visual projection of the ship's sonar. The screen blinks on, soon followed by the rhythmic ping of the sonar. The sonar system consisted of a mass of levers and buttons surrounding a giant screen. On the screen itself was a cluster of green dots that symbolized the ship they were on.

  The sonar worked by sending out sound waves around the ship that, if collided with something, would create an outline of what was on the display relative to the location of their sub. A chunk of the first wave of sound was bounced back, the lights outlining an oval shape displayed above their ship. At this close of a distance the oval was detailed enough to recognise the shape of their target, the enemy sub, but the scanner revealed another shape as well. Above the enemy sub was a large triangular shape with lines trailing beneath it and merging with the collection of lights symbolizing the enemy sub. All together it looked like an outline of a giant squid with its tentacles wrapped around a football.

Stepping back, he pulled the goggles connecting to the ship's spotlight periscope over his head. As soon as his eyes were aligned with the goggles he was able to see out into the carnage surrounding his ship. Shredded pieces of metal sank around him, the water polluted with bodies, both human and alien. A particularly large sheet collided with the front of the sub, tearing a line through its exterior armor. The sub had essentially two layers of armor, the exterior armor acted as an extra layer of, well armor, for the interior armor. If the interior armor was breached, that was when the ship started flooding. 

Bits and pieces of the slug monsters Carlos had killed, floated, spewing clouds of blood all around the ship, obscuring most of what little vision the ships lights had granted him. Through the gaps in the red curtain, he could see bits of the other submarine. One of its guns was fiering, but not towards him. It was shooting at something obscured by blood. The red cloud cleared as a giant tentacle moved through the water, dragging along the side of the other sub, tearing the gun from the ship. The Captain could barely make out the outline of a person being sucked into the sea from the hole left from the missing gun. 

He could see now that a giant tentacle was coiled around the back of the ship, the ends of two more dragging in the water behind it, peeking out from the darkness. Throwing off the goggles The Captain slammed down on the engine thruster, his eyes glued to the pinger as the two large shapes began to light up, further and further from the lights representing his own ship. He breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the screen displaying his crew's vitals. Carlos’es name was highlighted red, the screen connected to his heart rate showed a single horizontal line. Berrys display projected a human silhouette, the different parts of the body were outlined in blue. Displaying on the right arm was a flashing orange symbol the shape of fire, signifying burns, and a red symbol of a broken bone. His head displayed a circle with two stars in yellow, meaning he was mildly concussed. On his torso was a bright red circle with the characters O2 with an arrow pointing down. The Captain started to turn to run to the engine room and provide what assistance he could with the little amount of medicine they had, when a triangle appeared on the sonar speeding towards their ship. Hitting a switch on his headset he allied to Lauren.

“Lauren! Berrys down in the engine room! Burns, broken bones, and he's losing oxygen quickly!” 

A second later the hatch on the ceiling to the weapons bay slid open, Lauren dropping through, hitting the ground running and disappearing from sight in the medbay. Looking back at the sonar, the triangle was right on top of them, the enemy sub still being dragged behind it. Running to the opposite side of the command room, he ducked under the dented part of the wells where Carlos had been. Small streams of water were spraying in around the mangled hunk of metal. 

He could see now that Carlos had almost made it out. Part of his arm and torso were draped over the metal, the rest of his body engulfed in the walls of the ship. The left side of his head was missing entirely, blood dripped from his exposed brain and out of his mouth, mixing with the thin layer of slowly rising water filling the room. His remaining eye looked blankly at his reflection in the slowly growing mirror of blood. The Captain fought tears, Carlos had been the first hire to the crew. He had been by The Captains side almost as long as he had owned the ship. Carlos had always had the crews back, being the shield to the ship from the creatures the ocean used as swords. Now it was the Captains turn to be a shield. Hopping onto the periscope that controlled the chaingun on the top of the ship above the engine room, he opened fire. 

Above their ship was a tunnel of teeth and eyes. What essentially looked like a giant jellyfish seemingly encased in a hardened coral shell with a massive circular mouth positioned in its center, surrounded by a ring of eyes attached to the ends of countless tongues sprouting from its… face?. The gaping maw of this beast was filled with countless rows of meter long teeth that ringed the inside. Ten massive tentacles that resembled large bundles of seaweed vines coiled together, trailed behind it, propelling the creature forward the way a squid would. Wrapped in one of its tentacles was the dented and bent enemy sub.

The Captain aimed for its eyes, shots sailing through the water, deflecting off of its hardened hide. Small clouds of brown debris exploded off the creature as bullets scattered across its hide. The captain threw on the headset connected to the camera positioned just above the chaingun barrel as the gun screamed death in the creature's direction. The weapon may have been death, but this creature was oblivion. Fire spewed from the rotating barrels as they began to glow red, creating a small bubble of air where the bullets escaped the weapon. 

A crash sent him sliding across the grated floor, the metal shredding the skin from his body like a cheesegrater. He came slamming to a stop as he collided with the door to the medic bay. As he got up, another impact rocketed the ship, but this time he was able to grab onto one of the many deformed chunks of metal that had been tearing from the ship. Limping back to the gun he slotted on the periscope once again. The creature wasn't the one hitting the ship, well not directly. He watched as its massive tentacles swung the enemy sub through the water, colliding with their ship like a baseball bat. 

The whiplash from the collision snapped the Captain's body to the side, but he managed to hold onto the gun, preventing him from skidding down the ship. He felt a tearing sensation followed by a sharp pain in his neck, as muscles were ripped from the bone, losing all feeling in his left arm. Down here, the world consisted of what could be seen and the Captain's whole world was this creature. The tentacle holding the other submarine was riddled with holes, making it look like a rope of swiss cheese. Swinging the gun's controls, the Captain aimed for the more damaged parts of the tentacle and had almost severed it, when he was met with the familiar sound of the hollow clicking of an empty weapon. 

He screamed, slamming down on the firing button, bullets popping the monster's eyes like balloons. An impact from below sent the Captain flying from the gun. They had sunk deep enough to where the sub had landed on an underwater shelf. The display monitors began blinking on and off, the moments when they were on, the Captain could see that both the storage room and airlock were completely flooded. The sub had taken on too much water to move, 

An alarm started going off at the control terminal, red lights flashing around a small screen which displayed their depth which currently read 4832 meters. Their ship was built to withstand up to five thousand meters, going beyond it would result in a total implosion of the submarine. Even if they were not filled with water, the engine was still down. What was taking Lauren so long, Berrys vitals were still up, they still had a chance. Hobbeling towards Carlos, the captain reached over his fallen comrade and into his pocket, taking out a screwdriver and wrench. If he could provide support to Lauren and Berry, they might be able to escape. He would help Lauren move Berry, fix what he can in the engine room, and distract the monster while the others get their diving suits on and swim to safety.

The Captains footfalls echoed through the medbay and through the stairwell. Bursting into the engine room he saw Berry on the floor next to the engine, Lauren hunched over him providing CPR. The reactor was flashing red, blaring alarms going off all throughout the room. Steam hissed from the reactor and engine, threatening to burn anything that got close to them. Lauren had Berry propped up slightly to keep his head above the rising water, if she laid him down he’d be underwater, but if she kept his head above the water, she wouldn't be able to effectively give CPR. Rushing towards them, the Captain was almost at the reactor when he heard a crash to his right. He only had time to turn his head slightly to look at what had happened before an impact sent him into the air. From up here he watched as his decapitated body hit the ground with a splash. 

Lauren

Lauren saw the Captain enter the room running towards her, when the wall next to him exploded in a jet of water. A snake, five feet wide and covered in a gray black exoskeleton of bones, bit through the side of the ship next to the Captain, following up with another fast bite resulting in the Captain's head being sliced from his body. His head landed with a splash next to her. The snake slithered into the engine room, creating a wall of flesh and bone between her and the exit. 

She had only seconds before the room was fully flooded and she was crushed by the water pressure. She wasn't about to leave Berry behind, it was a long shot, but she had an idea. There was a service cable that connected to the door and stretched through the room. Grabbing the clip end, she snapped it to Berry's clothes. If she could get to the other side of this beast, she might be able to pull Berry beneath it as the rising water created space between the floor and creature. Swinging her rifle to her front she jumped towards the snake and over its thrashing tail.

Holding her gun in one hand she shot in the direction of its head while planting her hand on its body and propelling herself over the snake. Its jaws lashed out as she dove through the small opening in the creature's coiled body. It began to constrict itself as she moved, her gun slipped from her hands as she made it to the other side, the creature's body constricting to smash the weapon into an unrecognizable lump of metal. 

Scrambling to grab the cable connected to Berry while it was distracted, she pulled as hard as she could, Berry being dragged through the water and crashing into her. Throwing him over her shoulder, the water was now up to her neck as she slammed the button to open the door out of the engine room, the water escaped into the newly opened room, pulling her and Berry into the room… along with the snake. Its head was almost too big to fit through the doorway and into the tiny room, thinking fast Lauren kicked the button to close the door. 

The metal sheet contracted on the snake's neck, pinning it in the doorway, its fangs just inches from her, but giving her time enough to open the door to the medic bay that she escaped into, dragging Berry along with her into safety. Taking him down stairs she made her way to the escape pod. Haugendause was already there preparing it for launch.

Haugendause

“Is there anyone else left!” Haugendause shouted to Lauren, pulling Berry from her shoulders and strapping him onto one of the six seats of the pod.

“Carlos and the Captain are dead!” She shouted back. “Sunn’s MIA!”

Haugendause pushed past Lauren in the right passage by the escape pod. 

“Treat Berry and finish getting this thing ready to go!”

Haugendause ran up to the control room not waiting for an answer. The vitals display was cracked but still functioning, Sunn’s showed he was still alive and in the ballast tank right under Haugendause’es feet. Taking an air cutter he started to slice through the hatch.

Over the intercoms Sunn’s voice crackled in his ear.

“Don’t open! Breach- open ocean! Am- okay- dive- suit!”

Muffled gunfire sounded from the other side of the hatch.

“Don’t worry Sunn, we'll get you out of there! I have a plan! I’m going to launch the escape pod and we’re gonna pick you up!”

Haugendause slammed his palm on the hatch before running back to the escape pod.

Sunn’s voice came through the intercom as Haugendause made it down the stairs to the escape pod. 

“Hurry- low- ammo-“

The ship rocked as he made his way down the hall, he could see Lauren at the other end give him the thumbs up that the pod was ready to launch.

“Slight change of plans! We’re picking up Sunn when we launch this thing!”

Haugendause shouted over the roar of rushing water. The walls around him began to dent inwards and groan under stress. Something was wrapping around the ship. There was a crash behind him, looking over his shoulder, a wall of water blasted down the stairs. Lauren was shouting something to him, but he couldn’t hear, she was in the pod doorway motioning for him to hurry. There wasn't time for him to board the pod and he knew it. 

“Get Sunn out of here!”

Haugendause shouted as he slammed his fist down on the override escape pod launch button as the wall of water collided with him. He could see Lauren on the other side of the tiny window on the door as it slammed shut. Muffled explosions sounded around the pod's door as it propelled itself out into the open water. 

Sunn

The whole bottom of the ballast tank was missing, when the jellyfish squid thing slammed the enemy vessel into their sub, Sunn had been sent crashing through the open hatch to the ballast tank before it got jammed shut behind him. The only reason Sunn wasn't dead was because as he fell through, he was lucky enough to grab hold of a spare diving suit that had been brought to the command room at some point in the fray. He got it on just in time before the bottom of the tank was torn off by an impact to the underwater cliff that had spared the ship from being crushed. 

More of the slug monsters were making their way to the large breach when he heard Haugendause attempting to cut through the broken hatch as Sunn opened fire into the oncoming monsters.

Sunn was essentially floating in the open ocean, only holding on to a torn hunk of metal hanging from what remained of the ballast tank, when the escape pod launched. There was a small airlock attached to the escape pod, just barely large enough for someone to squeeze into.

Sunn pushed himself from the broken ship to the departing escape pod. Sunn flew towards the oncoming monsters, pulling out his side arm and shooting the closest two. Positioning himself, he kicked off from one of their corpses, propelling him closer to the escape pod. He was almost there when something struck his suit's oxygen tank. The sudden release of air from the tank launched him back towards the imploding submarine. 

Sunn took one last deep breath before the oxygen meter showed zero. Another slug monster zipped through the water at him, the arms around its head clawing through the water in anticipation. 

With one last push, Sunn dodged out of the way just in time, jamming the barrel of his side arm in the creature's back, unloading the rest of its magazine, into the creature, blowing off enough flesh to make a hand hold. Sunn jammed his hand in its broken flesh, letting the creature pull him through the water in the direction of the escape pod. 

Grabbing one of the arms on its head he yanked it to the side, changing the creature's direction just enough to crash straight into the side of the pod. Sunn’s vision was going dark, he couldn’t hold his breath for much longer, as he clung to the side of the pod, letting the creature disappear into the dark waters. He just managed to pull himself into the airlock with Lauren pulling him the rest of the way in before she slammed down on the accelerator to launch them all away from this nightmare. 

As the pod sailed away, Sunn watched through one of the small windows as the giant tentacled creature wrapped itself around what used to be the crew's submarine as it began to explode into an orange ball of flame and escaping air before slowly disappearing from sight.

All contact has been lost with the SHS Hifros. Its last known point of communication being a distress call sent from an escape pod off the coast of an uninhabited island.