Pistris Legion

Perfection, something that will always be strived for, but never achieved. That is the premise of life in many ways. Evolution is all about adapting to life, reaching ever closer to perfection until change must happen again. Not so with sharks. They have remained stable for millions of years. That is why they make up the legion.

In the deep, dark places of the sea we live. Hidden fortresses cut off from the rest of the world above. People once called us Atlanteans, dwellers of a mythical city that sank into the ocean. Better to let topsiders hunt for treasure than to look for us, so we never corrected it. Even now, when its is fables and movie plots, we roam with them none the wiser.

“Captain, feelers showing in the trench!” I hear as I swim. My suit is fully sealed, with a bladed helmet to cut through the water. Lined with centimeter thin metal, lighter than any above the waters, and covered with ceramic like plates on the vital areas, the suit would keep me safe from most things.

“Copy that, I’ll take Titanus and check it out.” I reply, reaching my hand out. I could feel the water shift and turn as a hulking mass approached from behind. A shadow below, for we were close enough to the surface for light to shine. Anyone else would be terrified, but Titanus was kin to me. A great white shark, the largest recorded, passed me slowly. The smallest of nods, if sharks could do such things, and I grabbed his fin. He pulled me quickly, going where I point. Years of training, several bionic implants into his brain, and bonding since his birth have made this easy.

It doesn’t take long for us to reach the trench. It was a dead place, no fish or sea reptile dared go here. Only the bioluminescent coral and algae we placed remained, unable to move. We needed them to make sure we could see, even our cameras have limits. I could feel Titanus stress, something was here. I pull the harpoon gun from my back, just in case, as Titanus circles. First comes the sound, echoing and destabilizing the water. If it were not for the bionics Titanus would be speeding off confused. Then I see it, several feelers reaching and covering the rocks. They whip around at the slightest touch, the slightest sound, searching for food.

“We have a class 5 krakaerian.” I call back over the microphone. I hear calls and an assurance of aid. It better arrive soon, for this monster is hungry and pulling itself up fast.

In the times before humanity, krakaerians were only one of hundreds of monsters that haunted the ocean. We do not even know how long they’ve been here, only that they woke up in the early days of mans fishing travels. The kraken they called it, but they were so wrong in thinking this was all there was. Soon enough my people became hunters, going across the seas, daring these monsters out. So many died, so many were eaten, but it was never enough. Then some great ancestor found our ace in the hole, a crevasse in the earth that went down so deep it almost reached the bottom of the ocean. He brought a legion of warriors and hunters with him, knowing at least some of these monsters went to land in the cavern. There we stayed, hidden from the world with only the best and brightest inventors, warriors, and leaders we could get.

We waged a war in that time, using any trick we could to stay in the water longer or bring them to land. But it was not a war we could hope to win, until the swarm. We bloodied a beast, some great snake with several barbed tails. Then, as if sent by the gods, sharks of every shape and form swam in to feed. They were so in tune, like nothing we’ve ever seen before, biting and fleeing, tearing into the monster. Some sort of primal instinct directed them into eating it, but only after it was harmed. We learned then that these once thought of monsters with rows of teeth would be our saviors. And so, for centuries we lived on, letting the world above wage there wars while we advanced. Without constraint we managed to construct buildings that could survive the deepest pressures, energy projection weapons, even metal that could float without fail. And for a time, there was peace. We managed to beat these creatures back. Humanity, as ever, decided that they preferred the monsters. Dumping garbage, or anything else, woke them to easy food. They now come from the deepest places, searching again for that easy meal. My harpoon is ready, I can feel Titanus quiver with excitement for the meal to come.

“Captain, we are here.” I suddenly hear. Turning I see Cadet Rogon with his tiger shark Maw, and in the distance several ranks of white tips. “The Pistris Legion is ready, a school of hammer heads closes from the east. Three heavy great whites approach from the south. The goblin brigade will arrive in one hours, assuming we aren’t done.”

“Good work Rogon, I trust the other trench areas are secure?” I ask.

“Black tip scouts are circling. This one seems to be stirring them, and a surface tanker seemed to have falling a few miles from here.” He tells me. I sigh, about to respond when I hear the call of the krakaerian again.

“Weapons ready, for the legion!” I call out and the battle begins.

The mass of sharks wakes the beast properly, gripping into the rock and dragging itself out of the dark. It is an ugly thing, a ball of flesh with tentacles in every conceivable place, a massive skull like face with a crocodilian jaw. When it opened its mouth more feelers popped out, barbed with hook spikes. I have tiny fin like feet that steadied it, but this monster was not meant to swim. At once I fired my harpoon, it glided through the water as if nothing was in the way. A tentacle snapped up to catch it, and when the impact occurred it was like looking at a miniature sun. The water boiled around, the force of the explosion pushing everything back. Then from the mass of bubbling water tentacles launched out. Grabbing our sharks we evade, Titanus and Maw biting and tearing flesh off as the other cadets pull water rifles and attack. The sharks’ circle like a swarm, confusing the monsters as it tries to catch even one. The constant bombardment from energy rifles in the water kept it unsettled. Its skin was too thick to harm much that way, but shark teeth tore right through it. I could see as several of the legion were grabbed and forced into the feelers, cut and gutted before being pulled into he massive throat. That only enraged out fishlike friends. I loaded another harpoon, calling out to everyone to move away. I fired, and in the krakaerian’s frenzy it failed to notice. The impact was in the body, and though it boiled again I could hear the reverberations of its bulk hitting the rock floor. It roared in defiance when we could see again, now a massive chunk of its body sacred and missing. These monsters were tough, that could never be argued.

“Teams of three, grab the tentacles that approach Titanus and I. Other side, Rogor and Maw follow suit!” I order.

I grip onto Titanus dorsal fin, and we speed toward the beast. Its tentacles reached for us, but teams of three sharks each darted in and grabbed with there mouths, pulling the appendages away. On the monsters other side I could see Rogor do the same. The krakaerian opened its jaws wide, feelers launching at us. But I had my last harpoon in hand. Just as the barbs were to touch us Maw latched onto the back of the monsters skull face, pushing it forward with as much force as possible. The sudden attack snapped the creatures jaw shut, clamping down on its own feelers. A few floated away, but we weren’t done. Titanus opened his jaw wide and sank his teeth into the flesh of the beast while I stabbed my harpoon into it. I grabbed his fin again and we sped off, ordering the cadets to move and fire at my harpoon. Thankfully looking away I did not see the solar like explosion again, but I could hear it and feel the heat. I spun after a moment, hoping to see the thing dead. What I saw was a shambling mass missing half its tentacles, with an partially blown off jaw, but still alive.

“Legion!” I call out, looking to the distance. There I see our aid, the incoming hammer heads, the massive great whites. With this many now, and the monster damaged, it was time. “Frenzy!” I Call out. All the sharks stop, even Titanus. Their eyes shift in color, they twitch. Then, as if of one mind they swarm. Those in the distance rush in like demons, any tentacle that grabs a shark is ripped apart by more. We all watch as our aquatic friends rip chunks of flesh free, as they knock it around and reduce it to nothing. It is amazing to see such a monster broken by what we once thought of as nightmares.

“Captain, we have word of a crustacean approaching.” Rogor tells me as we watch this display.

“We will need heavy ordinance to crack the shell. Have the hammer heads outfitted properly. We hunt again.”

“For the Legion!” Rogor says to me. And it is true, for we do night fight for the world above. We gave that life up millennia ago. For us, there is only the Legion, long me it live.

For the Legion!”