Athena was already bounding through the fireball when Thebes gave the order. Her railgun had collapsed down into its most compact version and now operated as a shotgun. Instead of firing one tungsten round over vast distances, it burst it into a dozen pellets with devastating stopping power. She pushed Dr Wetherall down onto the floor and crouched over him. “Steady on! What’re you doing?!” He asked, trying to look up at her. “Stay down.” She commanded, shredding an oncoming vine, and then another.

Knossos crashed through a wall of branches moments after it closed shut, separating the Sacred Band from 595 and Dr Ngata. The tree which had grabbed the agent was on fire and weakening fast, but it seemed determined to finish off the Agent. It was waving her around like a rag doll, with the xenobiologist desperately hanging onto her legs. “It can’t throw us both in!” He shouted.” 595 had riddled the bough with her energy pistol, but still couldn’t wiggle free. Knossos ran over, ducking under a branch which threatened to knock him out, and grabbed onto the limb holding the Agent. “Ngata, pull her in 3, 2, 1!” He grunted, heaving with all his might.

Thebes crashed into the murky water, dodging the tentacles which seemed to lose sight of him and head ashore to attack his team instead. “Watch out, big branches coming from the water!” He called. “Copy that, I’ve got em.” Memnon replied, hefting his sap-covered repeater and opening fire on the tentacles while branches tried in vain to lift him.

Getting back to his feet, Thebes shared a quick nod with Rareth before diving under the water. He struck out powerfully from the shore, heading quickly downwards toward the bottom. It took a few seconds for his vision to adjust, and he had to take a moment to assess what was actually there once he could see.

An enormous sea creature that struck Thebes as a fleshy, off-white lotus flower sat at the bottom of the lake. It’s main body looked a couple of hundred metres in diameter, and it had dozens of thick arms protruding from the sides of it’s body. These arms split into hundreds of smaller limbs that dug into the earth on both sides of the lake. “It must be controlling all those trees.” Thebes realised out loud as they both plunged down towards it. “There she is. Carthage, come in!” Her suit lights flailed in the deep darkness, right next to a gaping beak filled with sharp teeth. “GET OUT OF HERE!” The female soldier yelled, just as energy rounds from her SMG arced across the creature’s mouthparts.

Circling the monster’s maw were eight long, thick tentacles. Three of them had already risen to the surface to destroy the humans up top. The remaining five jostled for position to knock the human it had tried to eat into its mouth. Carthage had lodged herself in the corner of the thing’s mouth, and Thebes thought it looked to be trying to force her fully inside. “Hold on, we’re coming!” Thebes snapped, falling like a stone toward her. Just then, three of the tentacles stopped circling Carthage and rocketed through the water toward them.