Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest)

[Doomguy]

The thundering boom of 300mm artillery and the roar of rocket fuel overwhelmed the howling winds around us, the entire ship lit up as anything bigger calibered than rifle slammed into the crashing waves towards the tentacled behemoth. It had not yet surfaced, but we unleashed this bombardment in a desperate move in the hopes we could kill it before it could get us into its reach. I was leading the infantry branch of the defense, those of us who could sling a gun or wear power armor were on top of the carrier and my more iconic green armor switched to the more powerful blue Mega armor. Mag boots kept us from being flung off into the stormy depths by the thirty feet tall waves or skin tearing winds. Our weapons were at the ready, the heaviest thing we could carry pointed to the horizon and our fire lanes ready to paint anything that showed itself with fire and lead.

But as lightning struck in the distance from behind a wave, we saw its silhouetted in the brief light, thin limbs slithered at the front of a bulbous thing, the faint yellow glow of it eyes shimmered before it plunged back into darkness. And soon the long, sucker covered tentacles rose up along the side of the ship.

I screamed out the order that everyone was itching to hear, words they hoped to hear from the start:

“Open fire!” And I was surrounded by the symphony of destruction.

An buzz of automatic fire sounded as chunks of rancid flesh were rent from their limbs, and under the force of heavy artillery blew them apart to wriggle on the deck before both were swept away by wind and wave. I unleashed a stream of plasma into whatever was a friendly, steam rose as rain hit the heated weapon, and I left only cooked seafood in my wake. A deep and terrible bellow from beneath the waves sounded, and the form sunk back into the depths.

“Don’t let it near the back!” I yelled as I loaded a fresh cell into the plasma gun “If we lose the engines we're fucked! Try to move it to the front and-”

I was rudely interrupted as something slammed the bottom of the ship. More tentacles, no longer content to just probe the air and quickly slammed themselves across the top of the carrier. Marines scrambled away from the behemoth arms, but not everyone was quick enough to make it nor did the slick surface offer any cover as smaller tentacles were swept back and forth. I don’t want to think about what happened to those that got dragged off the side.

I shot forwards, a trail of smoke behind me as I ran the teeth of my chainsaw across the creature’s flesh, flaying the suckers from the deck. Ichor splattered across my armor, a welcome feeling as a manic frenzy took me closer to my enemy. At the edge, I threw the lumber tool back to its rung and pulled the heavy demolisher that sung the death of all things under a star of plasma. The Big Fucking Gun was weighty in my hand, and I was about to drop its full strength onto this slimy bastard’s face. The last beast i had to be creative to kill, and now I get to show one of the Omniverse’s apex predators why Hell feared me.

But whatever brain in that mountainous skull saw it coming, and it a slight twitch the kraken constricted around the ship and tilted towards it, turning the tarmac into a death slide into its yawning beak.  

I nearly went myself, my aim lost as I lost traction and my balance. I would have lost my weapon too if the bracing arm wasn’t clamped to my armor, but I feared that journey would in as I saw the gaping maw rush towards me.

But I felt a gauntleted hand grab my shoulder and I was hoisted back up. I turned back for a second to see a familiar marauder held on to me. He gave me the thumbs and with a nod I turned back to the unaware leviathan to unleash my own lightning strike.

The chamber filled with energy, a glow of green death shined as it reached capacity, and with a triumphant shout the BFG fired into the face of the Kraken. The explosion sheared limp from limp and blacked its face, and with a scream that pierced the sky it released its prey and fled back into the depths again.

“Get the rescue crews out there, we got people in the wa-”

But like a bad dream it returned. It threw its tentacles back on onto deck, these longer than the ship itself and wrapped itself around the carrier in it’s entirety, crushing the gun turrets and command tower like cheap plastic toys in its grasp. But it did not attempt to carry us down into the ocean and instead pull itself from the water to face us in it’s entirety.

As the storm battered us, I saw the creature’s features now that it has been hauled above the surface. Its eyes burned like the morning rays, and it smelled like the inside of a salted rotten pig. Harpoons decorated the black, leathery skin like macabre piercings and their previous owners still hung from them. It’s beak was actually beaks, overlapping each other in a row in teeth like formation that crushed down onto the hull. They broke through like can openers after their favorite targets, and the armor plates were peeled back with easy under its might.

It hated us. A raging inferno of hunger and spite. That ‘s what I saw in it’s eyes. That was good. When it was the thing in the way of freedom, then I hated it far more than it could comprehend.

Nothing was going to stop me, and it would know that when I snapped it in two. 

“Get everyone back” Was the first order I could get out uninterrupted as I was put down by the other marine. A nice change, but I had bigger literal fish to fry “I’ll handle this” I let the BFG roll behind my back again as I raised my rocket launcher. Mechanical clicks as a high power explosive settled into place, and all felt right.

I assaulted the giant seafood dinner with everything I had, while it returned in kind. Rockets soared across the sky and slammed into its skin, red and orange blooms lit the sky as it was broken down more and more with each rocket, large craters in its skin opened up to the meat inside. Tentacles encircled me, their thin frame made it hard to hit them but I kept a steady beat on its face. The eventually struck, spearing forward with uncanny speed as they rammed into my armor. I was sent back to the ground and they attempt to ensnare me. A rocket took one, but one eventually had me around the torso. I felt the armor plates crack and my organs  about to be squeezed out like toothpaste. If I wasn’t wearing something stronger I probably would have died in an instant

But one open hand i ripped super shotty from its place and reduced the appendage into parts. Dropping the rocket launcher I loaded two more shells and turned another set of gibbles to mush. Like a well oiled machine I pumped buckshot into anything that wasn’t me as I dashed away from the chasing limbs. Out from the corners of its jaw and the fold of it skin little creatures fell in front of me, minuscule parasites that lived on and in the Kraken’s crumbs were 4 long insects living in ribcage and bundles of arm thick worms puppeteering corpses hurling themselves towards me. The filth washed away as I floored them with a tide of chain gun ammo, but scrapes and bites built on top of each other with each near miss or wave of monsters.

All the while I got closer. The beak reared back and pierced through the ship, it ate chunks of the ship and threatened to snap it in half. I needed to kill it quickly, and drilling through it’s skill from the outside would take to long before it reduced the Hell’s Bane to scrap metal.

I needed a more sudden and brutal solution.

I aimed grapple gun up to to the gill of the giant creature and let loose. So massive it was impossible to miss, and I fired the second spike into a nearby corpse monster. Grabbed it and we zipped away up the face of the terror-squid. As we reached the gill I reached for my chainsaw and gave a long, toothy grin as I cut a hole inside, feeling a steady pump under the skin.

I needed to get to the heart of the problem.