Indebted - Adventure In Action

IV - Sink to the Bottom [MilitaryFiction]

IV — Sink to the Bottom [MilitaryFiction]

This mission, in all aspects, was a rather odd one. Crescere had assigned Khumo to act as protection on an underwater patrol. He was with a crew of a couple of pilots and some engineers as they entered the deep to merely observe the area. As odd as it was, he did not question it, so long as he got closer to his goal.

The submarine moved through the water at a leisurely pace and Khumo sat at a window to watch the different wildlife that swam past, until he began to wonder. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Right then, he heard one of the pilots' voices in his earpiece. "Tetra, we might have a problem. The sonar picked up something big heading our way. It's still too far away to see, but it's definitely not any animal and it's fast. It might be a craft from another nation." The pilot explained and Khumo raised an eyebrow. "Get the weapons ready then." Khumo replied, but his eyes widened when he heard a sigh from the pilot. "This is a surveillance submarine, it wasn't built to fight."

"How the hell does a submarine built for patrol not have weapons?" Khumo muttered, before turning his attention to the engineers. "Well, this is bad. We have to report it." One of them said as a holographic screen appeared which showed a submarine that was significantly larger than their own, and likely stocked with weapons.

"Even if you do call for reinforcements, they won't get here in time. We need to fight these niggas ourselves, or at least buy some time." Khumo suggested, but everyone looked at him as if he was crazy. "Are you seeing that thing? With no weapons we don't have a damn chance!" One woman said and Khumo sighed, before walking away. "Fine then. I'll stop them myself, you guys can just retreat."

"You can't singlehandedly stop a whole submarine." The lady uttered and Khumo shrugged his shoulders. "It's either I try or someone gets killed. It's my job to protect you guys, so don't worry about me." He replied as he entered another room, the door closing behind him. Khumo dressed into one of the many wetsuits in the room and equipped rest of the advanced scuba gear in the room before he opened a latch, allowing water to flow into the submarine as he quickly dove into the deep.

"The things I do for a normal life." He mumbled as he began to swim towards the larger submarine. While it was Khumo simply doing his job, he still did care about the safety of the people in the submarine. There was also an opportunity for him to escape, but he had a feeling that whatever disaster these visitors cause was going to be his problem in the future.

Khumo moved deceptively fast and with the submarine also getting closer, he was beside it in a couple of minutes. The watercraft had already began to fire missiles, but at the smaller submarine that had surprisingly not escaped, but was instead providing a very helpful distraction. It made him seem insignificant and provided him with the element of surprise. Khumo continued to swim towards the submarine's rudder, grabbing the many metal plates that lined the waist of his wetsuit. Once he felt he was close, all he did was plant as many of the plates as he could before he began to close the distance between him and the watercraft.

As Khumo moved further away, a light appeared on the glass of his helmet which informed him that he was running out of oxygen. He had not intended to stay underwater for longer than ten minutes. "Shit... I have to get out of here." Khumo said as he tapped his left wrist, which beeped for a moment just as the plates he had planted began to detonate.

The explosion was plenty powerful, but not enough to bring the submarine down. However, that was never Khumo's intention. He merely wanted some momentum to work with. The submarine began to turn with some significant damage done to the rudder. It was all out of their control. Khumo swam towards the watercraft once again on the rudder's end and he began to push. Despite the momentum the explosion provided, Khumo still could not move the submarine any further. "Come on!" He exclaimed as he gave it all of his strength. The force he provided was almost working against him, tearing the muscles in his arms and chest, and breaking his bones.

However, he had no intention of giving up. As he continued to push, his wounds quickly healed themselves as quickly as he pushed, but it was still not enough to fully alleviate the pressure he was putting on them. Khumo groaned in agony as a pair of legs grew from his torso, tearing through the wetsuit to add more strength. Finally, the submarine began to move faster, he was almost there, but he was also out of oxygen. The light continously flashed as Khumo held his breath while he pushed, further moving the behemoth.

With one last shove that tore his arms and the extra legs to strips of flesh, the submarine began to slowly spiral, further growing out of the pilot's control as it descended further down. If the water entering it did not deal with the crew, the impact that they were about to feel would do the trick.

By then, it did not matter if they survived because Khumo was already drifting into unconsciousness. His body required a hefty amount of energy to recover, but staying underwater for longer would prove to be another problem.

As his limp body also began to sink, a light struck him. It was the surveillance submarine! Khumo could only offer a small smile at the light, knowing that the crew was safe.

And he was a step closer to being human.