The Atlantean attack comes not four hours after the tidal waves.
This is the worst time for it, from the surface’s perspective. This is when rescue parties will be searching the flooded regions, looking for survivors or people in need of help. This is when the city’s defenders will have stood down, letting exhaustion replace adrenaline.
Fortunately, the world’s planners anticipated this. The team listens in via INTERCOM - the International Emergency Response Communications network, the successor of the “Red Telephone” connection between Washington and Moscow. The network now connects to most of the nations on the planet, and is reserved for appropriately high-level, world-spanning issues such as alien invasions. That the invasion is coming from beneath, rather than above, makes little difference. Orders are ready for this contingency, and the team listens to them being given.
Of the team’s members, only Alex, Alycia, and Jason knew about INTERCOM already. Only Jason has legally been allowed to listen in on it. Today, it’s his first time to speak on it.
The call comes through. “HLCQ, HLCQ, from NAEC. Come through. Authenticate.”
“That’s us, Halcyon City Quill compound,” Jason explains to the group in low tones. He clears his throat, licks his dry lips, and takes up the microphone. “HLCQ here, my authorization is 0252949.”
“HLQC, you are authorized. Operation Orpheus is a go. Repeat, Operation Orpheus is a go. Acknowledge.”
Jason takes a deep breath. “HLQC acknowledges, commencing Orpheus.”
Off the microphone, Jason rubs his hands together and finds them sweating. He turns to his friends, with a tight, tense smile. “I guess this is it. Leviathans are ready to launch. I know you all know this, but this is really real. A whole population is depending on this. Now we’re in the big leagues, and we gotta show we can handle it.”
Murmurs of support come from his friends and allies, and Jason smiles through a few stray tears.
The first big decision was whether the team should stay up top, to defend Halcyon City, or go with the Leviathans. Everyone agreed that whether Halcyon could weather an attack from Atlantean forces, the civilian rescue was full of unknowns and possible traps. That meant specialists, superheroes, people unusually adept at adapting.
A10, Armiger, and other members of the Chosen and the Irregulators are already deployed to defend Halcyon. To Alycia’s faint surprise, Emma is joining them. “It’s a fish fry. I’ll bring the heat, someone else brings the tartar sauce,” she quips on her way out the door.
Nono isn’t going, at Alycia’s instructions. But Alycia makes it clear where the girl’s talents can be used. “These people have been underwater months, years, maybe all their lives. We don’t know what’s going to happen when they’re introduced to the surface’s atmospheric pressure. You’ll be part of the Quill science team, and you’ll be studying those effects as we bring people up.”
Alex isn’t going either. They spent time between the shakedown cruise and the operation’s commencement figuring out Nautilus’ underwater laser communication technology, and they’ve modified existing Navy ROVs with the system. Now, they’ll be coordinating communications.
Everyone else who needs it suits up in Stingray’s suits. A pair of Quill VTOLs are waiting on the roof, ready to take the team to the coastal launching site. Nobody talks during the flight. Nobody’s sure what to say.
The team is deploying with two people per Leviathan. The technologists, people who understand the machinery behind Leo’s creations, pair up with someone else. Thus, Jason, Leo, and Alycia find themselves paired with Adam, Charlotte, and Harry. Summer and Aria are riding along in Otto, who will magnetically attach to Stingray’s sub. Otto’s rescue-vehicle creation and brother, Mo, is similarly riding along. Most of the team hasn’t interacted with him very much, but Otto assures everyone he’ll be useful.
The dive feels faster than it is. The Leviathans’ underwater propulsion is based on Stingray’s. Leo remembers the hours-long journey to Atlantis the first time. Then, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Now, everyone knows, and can spend the time acclimating to their gear, discussing strategy with each other, and catching up on surface updates.
At one point, music bursts from the speakers. “Ignore that,” comes Alex’s voice. “Just doing some bandwidth testing. If the music gets glitchy, let me know.”
“What is this?” Adam asks.
“It’s Mongolian throat-singing techno!” Alex replies enthusiastically. “I got really into it while on the road with Charade. Next up on our playlist will be the HU, which is folk metal, and then…”
“Contact,” Stingray announces tersely. “Countermeasures.”
Atlantis’ enormous animal defenders, prowling the outer security perimeter, come for the diving Leviathans. Stingray’s sub launches torpedoes that fill the ocean with distracting scents and noise-makers. While the initial mission required the utmost stealth, no such precautions are required here. The countermeasures are effective for just long enough for the swarm of robot beasts to blow through unscathed.
Minutes pass. “We just passed the inner perimeter,” Stingray calls. “The Attic should be right below us. Have your bots break through.”
Leo instructs his Leviathan, which voices the order to the others in turn. Privately, Leo is still absolutely uncertain when and how they learned to talk with each other this way. That’s the mystery of life, he tells himself.
Tentacles drill through resistant rock, and break through into open air. With the atmosphere sensors looking good, the airlocks begin cycling people through.
Stingray blows a hole in the rock with explosive torpedoes. Water rushes in, carrying Otto and Mo with it.
“Do your thing, bro!” shouts Otto.
Mo is currently configured like a fire truck. But the “ladder” mounted on his back is also some kind of multipurpose launcher, and what it fires now is a steady stream of a compound resin material. The stuff is sold professionally in Halcyon under names like Hydrostall. It’s being used on the surface to control flooding in the cities hit by Atlantis, and here serves to patch up the hole. It won’t hold forever - but the team will need an exit eventually.
The first order of business is security. Ghost Girl and Adam will handle fortifying the breach point. Harry runs ahead, following the crude map supplied by Fuko via Stingray, to make contact with human beings living here in the Attic. Otto and Mo are in charge of evacuating anyone who has trouble moving under their own power, with Summer and Aria assisting. Alycia is in charge of security arrangements at the breach, Leo goes with his friends, and Jason stays on the radio to coordinate everything.
The team is wearing high-visibility symbols, either over their bodies or on the underwater armor, with an American flag, a red cross, and the word “RESCUE” in English. If anyone sees them, hopefully there’s no confusion about their origin and intent.
The Atlantean Blood show up in numbers around the time Harry is a third of the way through the neighborhood. To nobody’s surprise, they aren’t just armed with their usual tridents. A few are carrying anti-super weapons, such as Rook bioweb rifles. Harry can dodge it, but it’s a distraction.
Summer and Aria leap out of Otto as he charges forward and transforms. “Link up!” calls Aria to Otto, and the two fuse into a hyper-fast humanoid form. The fusion charges into the ranks of the Blood, scattering them. Some of the bioweb shots hit, but are ineffective against the robots. Trident-launched nets don’t even slow Otto down.
Summer’s drones fly outward, through the streets and tunnels, mapping the interior of the Attic. Her visuals are relayed back to Jason, watching in the holographic tank of one of the Leviathans.
“Can your force fields block off these passages here?” he asks, indicating some key choke points.
“Sure can!” Summer calls back.
The first waves of human captives are starting to emerge from their homes and businesses. They see the Blood fighting against the Menagerie, see the “RESCUE” signs, hear Harry Gale shouting “we’re evacuating you from Atlantis! If you want to go, we have room!”
Some, fearful of retribution from the overlords of the underwater empire, hold back. Some, for their own reasons, shut their doors, or even shout at the Atlantean soldiers to protect them. Others begin running for their seeming rescuers.
The Blood aren’t here to stop the civilians. Their orders are to deal with the intruders. Just in case, Summer hovers near the lines of fleeing human beings, pointing toward the breach site and shouting “that way! That way!” Sometimes, an exhausted butterfly returns to her for recharging, and she deploys a replacement. She can see Blood soldiers piling up against her force fields, trying to use their weapons. Then, one of her drones goes offline. So does another.
“Something’s happening, guys,” she reports back through the radio.
The next thing she knows, her left arm has a hole in it the size of a golf ball.
Summer spins from the force of the impact, and falls to the ground. She looks unbelievingly at the damage, then at the tunnel from which the shot came. She can see Blood moving toward her. Two are armed with some kind of over-the-shoulder weapons system. The others are carrying Rook-type force screens.
“Bad news, folks, they’ve got some kinda weapon that goes through carbon armor and force fields like they aren’t there.”
“Radiance, Retreat,” comes Jason’s order. “Concord, want to go try your screens against it?”
Summer grits her teeth. “Negative. I’m going to take these guys out.”
Harry stops at one door, finding a bearded human man standing in it. “We’re here to rescue you…” he starts.
An Atlantean Blood, pregnant, steps into the doorframe and slides an arm around her husband’s waist.
Harry looks between the two and smiles. “Everyone’s welcome. If you stay, that’s okay too.”
They shut the door, and he moves on.
He finds a pair of human men who beckon for him to come to another building. Inside, a feeble-looking old man lays in bed. He’s got some kind of Atlantean bio-devices attached to him.
Harry realizes the choice ahead of him. Just to be sure, he asks. “Is he being treated for something?”
One of the men nods, with a sad glance toward the elder that tells Harry there’s a family connection.
“I don’t know if we can do the same thing,” he admits, hating the honest admission. “What do you want to do?”
The two younger men glance at each other. “We’re going to stay,” says the other.
Harry nods, and dashes.
Ghost Girl beckons person after person into the many tentacle-tunnels the Leviathans have used to breach the Atlantean Attic. As one climbs into and through the tunnel, another climbs in after them. As each one cycles through the airlock and reaches the habitat, they find chairs waiting, and buckle in. Once a habitat is full, the Leviathan exchanges it with another waiting unit, who then leaves for the surface. When they get there, an international fleet of ships are waiting to take people aboard, then deliver the empty habitat back to its Leviathan.
From Stingray’s sub, it looks like two octopi trading pearls. He doesn’t have much time to watch, though. Short-range sonar picks up numerous contacts.
He starts readying his weapons, and grits his teeth. “If we win this war, I am getting outta the submarine business forever.”
Charlotte finds herself and Adam under attack by Atlantean Blood, who have bypassed Summer’s blockade. They’re coming through air bladders connecting the Attic and the underwater parts of the city beneath it, and emerging from nearby buildings.
Charlotte wields the Agate Staff to weave a defensive barrier around the breach site, as well as the people awaiting rescue aboard the Leviathans. But keeping people safe is more than deflecting stray tridents and nets.
Every person here is leaving a home they’ve known for weeks, months, or even years. Perhaps some of these people were born here. They’ll be taken to the surface world, but what then? Will they have homes? Do they have surviving family, friends, dogs, debts? What did they leave behind - or what new things will they discover?
Charlotte awoke in a strange new century. With the aid of friends, she’s fitfully learned to adjust to it, even found a place for herself there. But it wasn’t easy. And so every single person who approaches the Leviathans meets her gaze, full of resolute compassion and determination. You will be taken care of, her eyes tell them. It’s going to be difficult. But we are here for you.
Nobody who sees those eyes hesitates any longer.
Adam methodically clears the area around the breach site. As soldiers approach, he’ll blast their weapons out of their hands. Groups of soldiers are knocked around, pushed away, or blocked in by his powerful zones of force.
He hears Summer’s call, realizes she’s been hurt, and hears Jason’s recall order. He listens as she defies it.
He wants to go help her, at first. He wasn’t even sure she could be hurt. Wants to go, even when she said she’d handle it. He worries about her, as a teammate and as a friend.
And then he experiences a realization. As the youngest member of the team, this was how people sometimes treated him - or how he felt they did. “Adam’s in trouble, go rescue Adam.”
Right now, everyone in the Menagerie is busy doing something. And right now, they entrusted breach security to him. He’s not going to let them down.
Right now, he has to trust his teammates in return. Because he can feel the fear radiating from everyone who’s coming here for rescue. It soaks into Tau, empowering his blasts. It creeps into Adam’s soul, too. He can feel the waves of emotion radiating from the Blood, from the human captives, from everyone here, everywhere, and it’s overpowering.
Right now is the time to conquer fear. Or it will wash like a deadly wave over everyone.