Leviathan

[Doomguy]

Vs Leviathan

Getting out of the rocky tunnels underneath the base was a lot quicker than going down through them. If I had to give the USSMC some credit, they at least know how to program a good mapper. Or pay someone else to make a good mapper. The effect is the same: not getting stuck in a goddamn cave. Anything that got in my way was promptly ignored, Pushed aside with a strong arm to the chest and then running past them, leaving the confused creature sitting on their ass in bewilderment. That worked pretty well until I was back to the basement leading back to the surface, in which case I clambered out of the caved-in floor and was out the door back into the sunlight. I could have maybe appreciated being out of the dank caverns and back into the tropical sun and salty air if a roar of unnatural origin didn't reverberate out of the tunnel behind me and reminded me why I was running in the first place.

After sprinting across the barren sands of the lagoon, I made it back to the hidden weapon cache in short order. Everything was still there. Good. Boat was still smashed, not so good. And it seemed like that there was nothing left in the docks when I had a chance to look over it. I didn't have the time to go looking for the tools and material needed to repair the thing. That could take hours. And fuck swimming in this water. I hoped that this Omnilium crap was as capable as the silhouetted shit-eating kidnapper advertised.

I held my hands out, focusing on what I was looking for. A boat, with an engine, anything that goes fast. Personal craft, powerful enough to get me and my baggage far away from here. The metallic prism-like liquid poured out in a mist, forming together into a larger sphere that grew in size the more I concentrated on it. After a certain size it began to take shape, forming into a personal water craft. A jet ski, if you're going to be civilian about it. The shape solidified, the strange material turning to more familiar metals and plastics, and it finished with a black and green paint job with the USSMC logo plastered on the front. What would have taken me hours was only several minutes.

And it was good timing too. Another alien scream rattled the entire island, reverberating across entire ocean. Fuck this place. Time to get the Hell out of Dodge. wrapped the handles of the duffle bags around anything that could hold it, pushed the little boat out to see, and with a push of a button the engine roared to life and I was out. With twenty odd and uneven bags of weapons, driving the little vehicle was like trying to control a run-away bull. Down hill. At eighty miles per hour. There was the constant threat of the thing bucking over and send me along with the kit head first into the drink, but a combination of determination, adrenaline, and remembering what's behind me kept me from just slowly down and taking it safe. The ship grew close as I sped onward, and when I pulled up to the side they seemed a bit more worried why I was in a different boat then why I was speeding so fast.

"Throw up da loot, ya git!" Kaptain Choprot was as friendly as always, aiming his gun down at me as he waited for me to toss the kit up. I threw one of the bag up, caught by one of the crew, but I refused to give any more up until I was safe on the boat. IN these kinds of situations, you never play your entire hand.

"That's proof I did the job, now get me on board or I'm tossing the rest to the bottom of the ocean!" I heard a zip of the bag being opened, and one of the crew pulling out one of the laser rifle, proving my claim. But they seemed to think they had the advantage and were about to shout down for the rest when I cut them off "Look, I don't have fucking time to explain, just pull me up!"

There was some hushed yelling up on the deck, the officers trying to figure out what game I was playing at, when any and all discussion was interrupted by an unearthly call that seemed to reach out from the depths itself. A hunter's howl from a creature not of the mortal realm and instilled a sense of dread in all living beings. The crew fell silent, and in the next instant they were rushing to battle station. For a brief moments I thought the sea dogs were going to abandon me to die in this pond jumper when someone threw the rope ladder down and I scrambled up to the relative safety of the SS Pile O' Junk.

Weapons of all kind traded hands as the crew steeled themselves for combat. Most had some kind of ranged weapon, rifles and pistols with the something more powerful along them. Some seemed to be more traditional as they pulled out bundles of harpoons and boarding spears, but those that took them were about twice my size and looked about as burly as the Kaptain, so as long as they could use them (and I didn't doubt that they could) then everything was fine.

"Alright ya miserable grots! Ready everything ya got, we got a fight!" Choprot bellowed to the crew, while first mate Perry handled the more subtle nuances of tactics. I dropped all the bags into the deck below and pulled the rocket launcher from my back. Whatever was going to rear its ugly head, I doubted that bullets were going to cut it. This was only confirmed when I felt the entirety of the ship shift as something hit it from below, knocking most off their feat and sending a lot of loose items flying.

"Oh ho ho, a big one! I told ya the armor plates would work, Perry!" The first mate only rolled his eyes at his captain's exuberance at the prospect of battle. I would too, normally, if I was standing on solid ground and not in a tug boat in the middle of the ocean. I was restricted, it wasn't. Nothing I couldn't handle, obviously, but I never liked to fight at a disadvantage. The creature smashed and battered at the bottom of the ship a few more times for little effect now that everyone was expecting it, some of the feistier sailors firing shots down into the murk in retaliation (with about the same effectiveness). The Kaptain's disposition changed from eager to in enraged as he felt denied his fight ""Sail to the shallows, and force it out with da depth charges!"

I kept my own eyes peeled out from the upper deck. Any shape under the surface of the water caught my attention as I scanned the area. The fear pricked across my spine as I thought of the creature attacking as the ship moved towards a nearby shoal and some of the stronger men rolled large barrels of explosives out the hold. A shadow in the deep was circling us, scheming with an unfathomable mind. Like the fishmen, it was smarter than it would appear to be. But what was it waiting for? I followed after it with my weapon as it moved towards the stern, put us between it and the shoal we were sailing towards. Which meant-

"It's going to trap us!" I yelled to everyone in earshot, but it was a warning too late. A massive weight smashed into the stern, rending it asunder with far more force than before. It wasn't attacking, it was testing the ship! Armor shards exploded in all directions as unimaginable appendages forced their way into the heart of the ship, striking out at the engine that drove the ship froward and pulling flat footed soldiers to a gruesome death. At the same time it pushed the entire ship up onto the shallow sand, running us around. It had us were it wanted.

Tentacles ripped across the surface deck with unnatural speed, impaling the unlucky and dragging them into the depths. Shots fired ineffectively at anything moving, some managing to blast some of them away. My own rockets found their mark into the larger ones that attempted to peel off the armor plates like the skin off an orange, sending them to retreat back into the depth. But for every bit torn off it merely reformed again, and the attack renewed. It gripped onto the side of the ship and it thrashed, sending men to their doom over the side. I managed to keep on by holding into one of the remaining mast, but now we fighting on slanted ground against something that was already running uncontested against the rest of the troops.

It only got worse, though. Like a fucking cyberdemon out of a pit, it rose from the water's depths. It's serpentine body glistened with scales and sickly skin stretched out upon it. Uncountable soulless eyes stared down on us from it's bulbous head, the same milky white like a creature from where no light shone. It's mouths, terrible to look at, were surrounded by smaller tentacles than the ones it has assault us with before, and were instead used to pick up any crewmen that failed to flee in time and pushed inside to be devoured like tiny morsels. One crewman, either out of bravery or insanity, charged at the beast, only for one mouthed tentacle from the cent of the monstrosity's head to latch onto the ,am, the sailor's organs immediately sucked out and leaving the corpse a withered husk. The sight of it caused the fragile sanity of the crewmen to shatter, some clawed out their own eyes and babbled incoherently, other fainting dead away. A few took the quick way out, deciding that eating their own gun was preferable to what the beast would do to them. Even Choprot looked manic, smashing his own crew in a desperate attempt to get them to rally out of fear for him over the eldritch abomination.

For me, I'm sad to say, it was a normal proceeding. If I felt anything as the mind flaying beast reared it's ugly head, it was that I finally had something to shoot at looked relatively like a weak point. I aimed at the head of the creature, still chewing on a few crewmen, and fired a rocket into a bundle of its eyes. The explosion rocked the beast, sending gibs all across the deck. But if it reacted to the pain it didn't show it, and the wound was already beginning to heal over.

"WAAAAGH!" Kaptain Choprot roared, a few of what was left of his still sane crew charging full tilt at the creature. The kaptain himself was a whirlwind of blades and poorly aimed shots from his giant gun, Patches keeping close behind swiping away with twin scimitars any tentacle attempt to get the captain's flank. The quartermaster and Perry seemed absent, my guess was either dead or spending their last moments sprouting gibberish and bashing their head against the wall, when a large trap door beside me opened up and an artillery cannon elevated into place. The both of them were armed at it, Perry aimming the weapon while the quartermaster spotted with her massive rifle.

"Need help?" I asked, but I didn't wait for an answer. I fired wherever appendages drew near, rocket after rocket reducing the limbs to gibs. My mind wondered back to Hell, where Lost Souls streaked towards me like flaming skull-shaped missiles in an attempt to take a bite out of me, but I was too quick for them as I shot them down one by one. I yelled as another attack came towards us, and I reduced it to a rain of ichor and gore. I bathed in it, for I was knee deep in the dead.

When it seemed like we were about to be overwhelmed, the artillery cannon rang out, what was left of the ship shuttering as the massive shell slammed into its target. The massive explosion tore a hole into the abomination, sending it reel backward from the force and loosing it's grip from the ship. It seemed like we had finally slain it, as everyone gave a triumphant cry.

But it was not dead. The smoke cleared, and despite the hole though it's body, it cared not. If felt no pain, it could not die.

"We can't kill it!" Perry screamed, all hope lost for the human, and he crumpled to the ground to curl into the fetal position. "We're going to die! We're going to die. We're..." he repeated incessantly, cradling and thinking happier thought. The small quartermaster kept her wits about her, but could only watch in horror and fire more useless rifle shots at the monstrosity. A tentacle got past my defenses as I was reloading the rocket drum and smashed the deck we stood on, scattering the three of us in different directions. Choprot kept trying to push towards his enemy, but resistance was too great even for him. One of the tentacle wrapped around his leg and pulled him into an awaiting mouth legs first. Patches rushed forwards to cut him free, only for another limb to simply bat them aside and overboard. More tentacles gripped onto the ship, and soon the deck began to buckle and break. It planned to pull the whole ship apart and feast on what remained inside.

I was sprawled out on the lower deck, my insides in agony as fell about ten feet from where I was standing. My rocket launcher had rolled away from me into some deeper part of the ship. The fatigue and pain that I had for the entire day decided to all rush up on me at the same time, and I felt like shit in general. Most of the crew was dead, or insane, all indirectly due to me. And I was about to follow after if didn't do something now. I scanned the area. There had to be something. That artillery cannon must have had some explosives on them. But those were somewhere inside the ship's magazine, and I would be sleeping with the fishes by the time I got there. There had to be something on top that I could use, something, something-

The depth charges.

I saw one of them go overboard when the creature and turned the ship on it's side, but luck was with me today: the one one was nestled in the corner, held onto a corpse of the one holding it when he was crushed by it in the fall. It still held on, as if in false security of the explosive. I commandeered it, hefting up up on my shoulder, and I rushed right at the sanity blasting being from under beyond thw stars. I got close, and grabbed its attention in the best way I knew how.

"I pissed on your father and fucked your fucking mother!" At least some attention was drawn away from the rest of the crew as the thing heard me "Yeah, that's right! You're nothing but an over-sized pile of fish guts! You sicken me, I'd call you ugly if that wasn't disrespectful to the ugly! I've seen national guardsmen tougher than you, you big sponge! I'll kill you like I've killed the rest of your sea friends! You know who I am?! I am the Doom-fucking-Guy!" If the creature actually understood me or it just noticed the little ant yelling at it, I didn't care. I had its attention.

The feeder limb rushed towards me, the end opening up to reveal lamprey like barbs larger than my hand. I waiting for the right moment, and then pushed the explosive in the way. the teeth lanced into the barrel, and the tentacle pulled back in surprise. It took the entire barrel with it, reeling it in until it was right up to the face. The proud captain, down to his stomch in the beast's knawing gullet, saw what I was about to do. I looked at him, regrettably, but he under stood what had to happen. "DO IT! DO IT!" he screamed as more and more of him was eaten away

With one hand I pulled my shotgun and leveled it at the barrel, and with the other I gave the leviathan the one finger salute.

"Go fuck yourself!"

I fired, pellets flying into the barrel's shell, and the explosive went off in a brilliant Kaboom!. A bright white light blinded everyone, and most still standing were knocked down by the pressure wave. I stood my ground, watching as my target came back into view. it still lived, but it's entire face was now simply gone. Its protective cranium fell apart from the massive force hitting it at point blank range, exposing the creature's fleshy brain. I was stunned, and was pulling back. Even if it didn't feel pain, it knew it was vulnerable.

But I wasn't about to let it go. Rage over took me, and I let loose everything I had. I pumped another shell into the chamber, and let loose. It gave out a terrible sound as I hit the brain. Another, and another, each shotgun shell spinning out of the side I filled the brain full of buck shot. It spasm and it shook in pain. I hammered home another shot, the shotgun ringing true as I walked forward towards the pained beast. As I got closer, the less I cared about accuracy, fired wildly to get as many shots in as I could. When the shotgun ran out of arm, I simply cast it aside and unleashed my chaingun instead. The monstrosity bucked as the hot lead pierced through and fell onto the deck as I continued my storm of vengeance. I was right up into it's face, the thing weakly attempting to fight back, but I drove the chain gun into the skull and let the whirling barrels tear it apart.

Ichor and gore splattered everywhere, tainting my armor and covering my helm, but the damage was done. With one last shutter the creature pulled away, the inside of its cranium now just burnt and mangled piece of flesh, and it fell back into the sea with a thunderous crash and died on shore it had beached us on. I stood there among the ruins, the barrel slowed its spinning after I had let go of the trigger. I stood there, breathing heavily as I took in what had happened.

Many were dead. But it was still my duty to protect those still living. I put away my weapon, and I began to looking for what was left of the crew.