Chapter 119: Destroying ships

The S.S Venture was a cargo ship over 100 meters long capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo. It was the jewel of the Confederate States of Vinland's navy, a naval engineering masterpiece like few others. Englehorn had been the captain of that ship for ten years. His retirement was very close now. He just had to make that last voyage and then he could get the reward of his hard work. He can't wait to finally being able to retire and enjoy the last years of his life in a quiet country villa. Unfortunately, fate could be a real bastard at times. While the old captain was looking at the sea nostalgically, thinking back to all the times he had admired the placid waves breaking on the keel of the ship, something made the S.S Venture tremble from below. Englehorn lost his balance and barely managed to hold on to the railing, but other upheavals made the ship vibrate like a bell. In the end came a jolt so powerful that the captain slipped and fell into the sea. Luckily he wasn't too high up and didn't hit his head as he fell, or he could have fainted and drowned. "What's going on?" he exclaimed when he managed to put his head out of the water. What came before him was a terrifying vision. The great S.S Venture was sinking at unnatural speed, as if a hand had grabbed it by the hull and was dragging it down. The old captain could hear the screams of the sailors on board, completely unable to react to what was happening. There were protocols to put in place if the ship sank or was attacked by some sea creature, but everything was happening too fast. Very soon the entire ship disappeared in the waves and the screams of the sailors were swallowed up by the sea. Englehorn could barely catch a glimpse of a huge shape moving underwater, illuminated by the soft light of the moon. The old captain swam up to a floating piece of wood, one of the few remains of the S.S Venture. He clung to it and waited, but he knew his end would come soon. He couldn't swim to the coast, and in that messy world a marine reptile or a giant fish would soon notice him and devour him. Instead, to his surprise, no animal came to eat him. Englehorn clung to the piece of wood for hours. Only at dawn, when the first rays of the sun began to peep into the sky, someone come to help him: the shape of a coast guard ship appeared in the distance. The old captain barely managed to get noticed, but he was rescued. Very quickly he was brought to the land and transferred to the emergency room, where he received food and treatment. Although his body was nearly hypothermic, he managed to get away with no permanent damage. What Englehorn didn't know was that his wasn't the only shipwreck the coast guard had to deal with that day. In just one night, several ships in the same stretch of sea had been sunk. Englehorn, until now, was the only survivor of that carnage. It was an event too strange to be attributed to a breakdown or an attack by a marine animal. It didn't take long for authorities and governments to realize that something was purposefully destroying the ships. Since the economic interests of many nations were at risk, that afternoon the NMWA, the global organization to which all nations were part, met in an emergency session. The NMWA was an international organization much like the UN on Earth. Its structure was very simple: all the nations of the planet were part of it and each of them had a seat within the organization. The organization was chaired by the head of state of one of the five superpowers of Eden, namely the Confederate States of Vinland, the Meilong Republic, the Prettania Kingdom, the Almagna Empire and the Gardarikian Federation. At each meeting, the head of state of one of these five nations presided over the session. Ultimately, the decision was made by vote. That day, the atmosphere in the main hall of the NMWA headquarters was particularly hot. The meeting was chaired by Andrew Palma, president of the Meilong Republic, but he was having a hard time keeping calm in the room. "Can we know what the hell is going on!?" the president of the Confederate States of Vinland, Monroe Bennett, exclaimed. "Three of our ships disappeared this night!" "Two of ours too!" the emperor of the Almagna Empire, Franz Wafner, shouted. "It can't be a coincidence. Something is deliberately destroying the ships!" the president of the Gardarikian Federation, Omar Anoke, said. "There are no shipwrecks, none of the ships had time to send distress signals. They just disappeared!" Three of Eden's five world powers had suffered navy casualties overnight. While they weren't worth much on paper, as there were still thousands of ships to each nation, the shame these countries were suffering was unacceptable. Suddenly Palma spoke. "I know your nations have suffered a loss, but please keep calm. If we lose lucidity we will not be able to solve this crisis" he said. "So far there has been only one survivor, captain Englehorn of the S.S Venture, who managed to escape by pure stroke of luck. According to his statements, the destruction of the ship would have been caused by an immense creature at least thirty meters long" "We've seen the report, but it doesn't make sense. When an animal attacks a ship, its crew has time to call for help. But according to the captain of the S.S Venture the ship was dragged under water almost immediately" Bennett opined. "Such a thing is impossible unless a fish is equipped with hands and possesses a strength beyond any known canon" "I agree. The captain only spoke of seeing just a shadow underwater. He said it looked like a creature, but it could also be something else" Anoke said. The atmosphere in the room became tense. Everyone understood what the president of the Gardarikian Federation meant: it could very well have been a submarine. If that had been the case, it would have been the first national conflict in one hundred years. It could even have been the beginning of a new war. Whatever it was, it was clear that something dangerous has appeared in the sea. "I propose to send an expedition to investigate, composed of a faithful crew that doesn't belongs to the nations but only to the NMWA" Palma said. Everyone agreed with his words. Within half a day, a submarine was prepared and sent to the site of the disappearances. Even if the people of that world in terms of war technology had only come to the tank, mounting the missiles on the submarine was not difficult, so torpedoes already existed, albeit not very powerful. It was therefore taken for granted that the submarine could defend itself from any threat, human or non-human. The captain chosen for the expedition was Jean Rasczak, a renowned soldier of the Gardarikian Federation who was reputed to be incorruptible. He was therefore the perfect man to handle what appeared to be an international crisis. After making him swear to always tell the truth in front of the NMWA, the captain departed with his crew of sailors from all nations. It took the submarine two days to reach the spot where captain Englehorn was found. Meanwhile, governments banned ships from exploiting that route. Thanks to this, no other ships disappeared. When they were finally on the spot, Rasczak ordered tho his crew to dive as much as possible. "How deep is the area?" he asked as the sunlight began to fade giving way to the darkness of the sea depths. The nautical officer, a 60-year old man named Dieves, quickly checked the proximity tools. "The area has a depth of about 700 meters. In front of us, at two hundred meters, there is a slight, very square bulge. It could be the S.S Venture" "Very good" Rasczak rubbed his chin. "Let's get closer to that point and turn on the lights" The submarine lit up like a candle, causing all the fish near it to flee. The outline of a sunken ship appeared on the submarine's window. The submarine circled the wreck until it found the hull. There a gash at least five meters long opened in it, as if someone had smashed the ship with an axe. Or as if a giant clawed hand had grabbed the hull with violence. "Mother of God..." one of the crew members murmured. "What can cause such a big flaw?" Rasczak walked over to the porthole. The only solution he could think of was a torpedo, but if that were the case the ship wouldn't have sunk as quickly as captain Englehorn described. Also near the leak he could recognize what were undoubtedly claw marks. Was it really a creature that did this? But which sea beast had clawed paws? At most they had fins... "Expand the search range. Any anomaly is detected by the instruments, notify me immediately" he ordered. If there really was a monster hiding in those abyss then it was possible that it would attack them too. Dieves' voice wasn't long in coming. "Captain, the radar detects something. It rests on the seabed about three hundred meters to the west" "Let's get closer" Rasczak ordered. The submarine moved at his command. Very soon a skeleton appeared on the porthole. A skeleton at least nine meters long. "Liopleurodon" someone on board whispered looking at the corpse. The liopleurodon was a gigantic marine reptile. While it wasn't as large and deadly as tylosaurus or mosasaurus, it was still very dangerous. Killing an adult specimen was something very few animals in the sea could do. "The bones are broken in several places" Rasczak whispered observing him. "Something tore it apart" Now it was clear that there was a giant creature in the sea. From the marks on the bones, the teeth of this superpredator must have been at least sixty centimeters long. Rasczak couldn't imagine what kind of monster it must be. "Maybe it is just a megalodon or a very large mosasaurus" a crew member in evident state of anxiety tried to hypothesize. But Rasczak shook his head. "I exclude it. There is nothing so large" The captain's words certainly didn't help. The mood of the crew wasn't the best. Though they were all men trained to deal with the worst of calamities, the unfamiliar situation was scaring them quite a bit. Dieves suddenly shouted: "Captain! Proximity alarm! There is movement at one hundred meters!" "Fuck! Turn the lights on at full power!" Rasczak yelled. If any giant creature was approaching, then blowing up the submarine of lights would frighten or at least bewildered it. However, what he saw made him breathe a sigh of relief. The thing which had set off the proximity alarm was nothing more than a large elasmosaurus swimming placidly on the seabed while it ate something similar to a big crab. But after less than two minutes things went downhill again! "Captain! Movement at three hundred meters! It's super fast!" Dieves yelled as she saw a huge figure appear on the radar. It was inconceivable: not even a torpedo could move so quickly! And with such dimensions... Under the terrified gaze of the submarine crew, a huge black shape appeared within range of the lights and jumped at the elasmosaur, killing it in an istant. The marine reptile wasn't even able to react. Then the animal looked up at the submarine. Rasczak felt his blood run cold at the sight. Those eyes were cold and murderous, like a monster's eyes. And the creature... it was inconceivable. It was at least thirty meters long and had legs instead of fins. It looked more like a large crocodile than a marine animal. On its back, then, it had a huge sail. Suddenly someone yelled: "It's the Flagard City's spinosaurus!" Rasczak turned to the source of those words. He was a man in his forties who was now as white as a sheet. "What did you say, boatswain?" The man raised his trembling hand pointing to the beast. "That's the spinosaurus that destroyed half of Flagard City a few days ago! It killed a lot of people and caused panic! It's a real monster!" "It's true! It's the same as what I saw on the news!" another crew member exclaimed. Very quickly, the others recognized the animal too. "How is it still alive?" "Is it the one who destroyed the ships?" "It's too dangerous to stay here. We have to leave!" Rasczak gritted his teeth. "Send a message to headquarters! Tell them the spinosaurus is still alive and it is hunting here in the ocean!" The captain's mind was in turmoil. It made no sense: Flagard City was several nautical miles away, and the first missing ship had ceased communications just a couple of hours after the disaster in the city. How had the spinosaurus moved so quickly? It should have moved at the speed of a moving train! The spinosaurus stared at the submarine for a few moments, then grabbed the elasmosaurus by the neck and dragged it up. Apparently it didn't seem to be able to hold its breath for too long. Rasczak breathed a sigh of relief. He preferred to not have to fight the spinosaurus. Even if the submarine was equipped with torpedoes, it was unlikely that they would be able to hit it given the enormous speed that the animal had shown. Yeah, the speed... "Is it possible to tell how fast it moved when he attacked?" Dieves checked the radar and turned pale: "Captain... the estimated speed of that thing is 310 km/h! It's almost as fast as a torpedo!" The submarine torpedoes could exceed 370 km/h. Which meant that spinosaurus could swim at 'only' 60 km/h slower! This meant that it could very well dodge the torpedoes if it had enough warning. "Let's go back" Rasczak ordered. "We will wait for the response of the NMWA before acting!"