Out of Space 222 The Great Krarga

People lined the wharves and docks as they watched with fantasied horror at the huge dark purplish lump of flesh that gave off an overpowering stench being towed in by the seaplane tender, UNS Matador.

Despite the gagging smell, the elves who lived in the interior of the continent have never laid any eyes on any sea monsters before only hearing them in the tales passed down by their ancestors who crossed the Great Ocean coming to the New World.

Even the Islanders were impressed by the sheer size of the monster as they nimbly climbed up their ships' masts to gain a better view.

As the Matador passed by Far Harbor, it blew its fog horn in acknowledgment to the excitement and awe crowded who cheered wildly. They suddenly saw several moving islands that appeared to move following behind the UNS Float Wreck. They looked at each other in and wondered what are those, while the Isles sailors were dumbstruck by the scene.

The Matador released its towing chains and the PT boats took over the duty of towing it towards land at a location, two kilometers away from Far Harbor to prevent the stench from reaching the port.

The PT boats dragged the carcass as close to shore as possible and the tide washed the sea monster up to the beach where a large group of people donned in bright yellow bio hazardous gear waited.

-----

Dr. Sharon stared at the sea monster in excitement, momentarily ignoring the voice in her as she ran left and right of the carcass, taking samples and measurements. Even Magister Thorn wearing the cumbersome biohazard gear moved with vigor as he oohed and ahhed together with Dr. Sharon.

At a further distance, with their faces covered with cloth masks and rebreathers, Captain Blake stood with the trio of islanders and several other officers as they watched the ongoings happening at the beach.

Tents and isolation chambers, spotlights and measuring tapes were all set up here and there as the science team and techs swarmed over the sea monster.

"What are they doing?" Dijon, his voice muffled as asked while looking at the strange yellow suited people moving around the monster's carcass.

"They are taking samples and other readings to find out more about the creature," Blake thought awhile before he replied in as simple terms as he could. "They are dissecting the monster."

"Sam- pearl?" Megan frowned at the unfamiliar word. "Die- secting?"

"Erm," Blake snapped his fingers as he thought of the appropriate reply. "Cutting it up to see what it is and see if anything can be used from it."

"Oh like a Monster Dismantler?" Megan asked.

"Yea, I guess so?" Blake could only give a helpless shrug. "They are also studying it to find it weakness and other stuff."

"I see," Dijon nodded in understanding. "Understand the enemy to defeat the enemy!"

Blake nodded and returned to watching the scene before them. He had speed read the preliminary report sent by Commander Ford as they have flown over here.

The pilots reported that their .50 cal and 20 mm guns barely able to penetrate the rubbery hide of the monster and the 50 kg bombs and the 3" HE shells killed it in the end.

If that was true, they would need to develop AP shells for the 3" guns and also some form of depth charges or even torpedoes to kill these monsters if there are more of them out there! Blake frowned as he thought of the unknown lurking out there and they definitely need to equip all the ships with sonar!

"Do these monsters appear frequently?" Blake asked. "How do your ships deal with them?"

Dijon stared at the hooman, thinking whether should he tell him anything. He chest still smolders with the thought that the Princess's heart is his.

Megan watched Dijon's expression and rolled her eyes before lightly slapping the back of her hand against his shoulder. Dijon gave a sigh before saying, "They normally stay at the deeper parts of the oceans. That is one reason why no ships ever made it back to the Old World."

"The younger ones tend to drift into shipping lanes once in a while," Dijon explained. "We will hang bells underwater and hammer it. They do not seem to like the sounds made by ringing bells underwater and will go away."

"But how do you spot them?" Blake asked curiously.

"We don't..." Dijon stared directly at Blake.

"We only know when suddenly a ship gets eaten..."

-----

Dr. Sharon hovered excitedly over a tech who was using a hi powered drill to pierce the hide of the monster. After several minutes, the drill finally sort of managed to punch through the rubbery hide and yellowish fat flowed out.

She quickly scooped the pale yellow fluid and collected it into a jar before running off to the onsite mobile lab that was set up for analysis. The sea monster looked similar to a Terran giant squid with an arrowhead but with 2 pairs of eyes and a pair of pincer claws.

"How fascinating!" Dr. Sharon cried she first saw the creature. It has been quite a while since she had a new species to play with. And today there were two new species for her to look at and play with!

"I will find out all your secrets," She whispered to herself as she sat down on the lab table. "Than I will look at those cute little Island whales! Hehehe!"

-----

UNS Matador, Bridge

Ford gave a sigh of relief and removed his cloth mask. The stench of the monster was just really bad and he wondered if the smell will linger on, on his ship. He better have the Chief Mate to open up all hatches to air the whole ship later.

He turned his gaze towards the Island Whales that had followed them back and wondered what they wanted from them. If those things lingered around here, they gonna cause some shipping hazards as they can move around the area.

Now that they reached Far Habour, they just have to wait for a tug to pull them into the port and the crew can get some time off after they secured the ships. Ford sighed as he thought of all the paperwork and reports he got piled up for him when he returned to his office on land.

"Damn, I rather fight sea monsters than do paperwork!"

-----

A couple of hours later, Blake boarded the Matador with much fanfare from the crew with the Islanders in tow. They looked around the ship with curiosity as they stood on the launch deck and wondered why did they build the top decks flat and how does this ship with two hulls move with any sails.

Ford smiled at the expressions of the Islanders and Dijon recognized Ford as he waited with a party of senior officers at the entrance to the island bridge. "Welcome onboard the Matador."

"What is this flat deck for?" Dijon could no longer hold back his curiosity.

"This?" Ford tapped the deck with his feet and grinned. "Its for flight operations."

"We can land dragons and other flying machines here," Ford explained to the surprised Islanders.

"Dragons?" Dijon gave a jerk as he looked around the launch deck again. "This is... ingenious!"

"Why haven't we taught of it before!?" Akron cried out. "The Isles have no heavyweight or medium weight species of dragons."

"But we have plenty of lightweight dragons that served as scouts and messengers," Akron explained. "Normally if we use them on board the ships, they land or fly off from the masts of the ships, but there is a chance to damage the masts, riggings, or sails."

"This idea of having the decks of the ships flat for dragons to land and take off..." Akron eyes glowed as the concept of a dragon carrier came into his mind.

Megan stood at the side and watched the exchange among the hoomans and her colleagues and frowned inwardly. These hoomans have so many innovative ways to do things and they kept insisting none of these ideas were powered by magic.

Where did these hoomans come from? And where did they all learned these 'tek-no-logee' from? Will they turn on us and invade us? Megan felt more and more uncomfortable the longer she was with the hoomans as she couldn't understand them.

"Megan!" Dijon yelled out. "This ship is amazing!"

Megan schooled her face and smiled, not giving off any indication of how disturbed she is with the smiling hoomans. She shuddered slightly as she looked at the two tall hoomans looking at them with consolation looks like they were children in their eyes.

Dijon and Akron continued to discuss about the endless possibilities that this concept could bring to the Isles. Megan feigned interest and kept a wary eye on the hoomans who lead them to a tour of the ship, in a way, showing off their power.

Frankly, she was shocked by the power of the hoomans and the Princess alliance. Two ships and a few strange flying machines killed a sea monster that would normally take over 20 great warships to defeat and they did not even suffer a single casualty.

Not to mention the prosperity of the city they have seen that no other cities or kingdoms could replicate! There were no beggars seen nor even any poor folk. The poorest folk could even afford clothes with such high quality that no other kingdom could give them own people.

Megan suspected that this Blake wanted them to see how they defeated the Krarga and even hosted them to view their warship was to both give them a warning and assurance at the same time.

The message was simple. Become our enemy, and we will destroy you easily just as we had with the Krarga. But ally with us and you can be guaranteed good returns from how prosperous you have seen with your own eyes.

Megan was very sure this was not all of their powers, they must have some hidden card somewhere and with this thought, Megan felt afraid. One wrong diplomatic move, and we will have a Great Krarga at our throats!

She better make sure that Dijon doesn't do anything to anger the Captain or they will have a diplomatic crisis in their hands!

-----

Site of Krarga Research and Recovery

Magister Thorn hummed as he watched the efficient workers break down the Krarga piece by piece and labeled properly in the cold night. Lucky, it was winter and it helped to keep the carcass from rotting faster, if not, Thorn couldn't wonder how much worst the smell would be!

Workers struggled with power tools to cut the monster up with several science department techs overseeing the whole operation under the glare of the bright white lamps.

Power tractors hoisted the crated portions of the sea monsters and loaded them into trucks to be sent off to the refrigeration units to be further analysis by the Science Department later on.

He wondered who will win, Blue Thunder or this monster if the two of them ever fight. He had never seen such a huge monster in his life and the size and weight of the Krarga clearly outclassed the heavy weight dragons by a wide margin! He would place his bet on the Krarga by the looks of those hundred meters long tentacles that had nasty looking barbed suckers.

He doesn't even know what spells could hurt this creature and by the preliminary reports he heard from Dr. Sharon, the hoomans thunder weapons were barely able to pierce through its hide! Well good thing was that he doesn't really like the water!

Once his portion of samples arrives at the Academy, he will use a variety of spells to test on to see which spell and element are the most effective against it.

"Hahaha!" Thorn suddenly laughed while rubbing his hands. "My, even after getting this old, this old man still gets the chance to see new wonders! My life hasn't been in vain! Hahaha!"

Chapter end