“Mayday, mayday! We’re hit, we’re… Auuu–!”
The transmission cut off. Whatever had attacked them, it was powerful.
General Adams looked around the bridge, and began barking out orders to his troops.
“We’re going to board that ship! Sammy, don’t sit there like an idiot, ready the weapons! I want to clear that ship of as much as we can before we board it. We will expect the worst!” The General grabbed hold of a walkie talkie in front of him, and yelled into it, “Make sure all troops have their weapons ready! I want full power equipment. A full array of explosives and machine weaponry on every person! Do it!”
Down in the holds, the prisoners of the USS Sunburn began to whisper to each other. Could it really be what it sounded like? If it was, and the General was really going to board that ship… they were doomed.
The ship was only 2 minutes from its destination now, and all the portholes showed the gunned down ship .The fighters that had attacked it were all docked on the ship, obviously waiting for the Sunburn to dock, so they oculd destroy them all. The General’s worst fears were confirmed: A shield was formed around the ship, and a mothership floating next to it was slowly deflating, and letting a clear, bluish liquid into the shields, and into the ship. This was going to be a very difficult battle.
Adams grabbed his radio again, and yelled, “I need all troops in gear ready for battle in that ship! You see the ship, you know what to do!”
The commanding officer in charge of the troops saw, and he knew what to do.
“Men,” he began, “I want all of you to be aware that not many of us are going to make it out alive of there, if any. But you have pledged to give your lives, and you must prepare to do so. You must all be aware that we are doing battle with manatees.”
The battalion fell silent. They had known it was so, but the truth was too horrible for them to believe. The dreaded sea cow… here? They resumed getting into their swimming gear and packing their weapons, but now with a heavy dullness about them. One soldier’s tears began to roll out of his eyes, and a feeling of despair pervaded in the room. The ship was completely silent as it went through the shield containing the water, and as the Sunburn docked the battered ship.
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The troops swam silently in a line into the ship, except for one soldier, who was shaking inside his armor, and moaning, quietly, “I don’t want to die like this…!”
After entering the ship fully, the commander said to everyone “We will spread out through the ship. If you contact anything living, shoot it! We are not taking any chances!”
The troops obeyed, and spread through the ship, in small groups of 10 or so people. The officer swam silently in front of his group, his gun at the ready. Suddenly, as he entered the kitchen, he felt a blast of heat: the manatees had turned on all the appliances, and electricity was arcing through the room. He could see manatees on the other side, their fearsome countenances sending chills down his spine. Their whiskers quivered, suddenly, and they turned to face him. There were only two, but he knew this would be a tough battle. One of them smashed a flipper into a wall, where the electric switch was, and suddenly the room became dark; all the electricity disappeared. He heard a whooshing noise, followed by a scream over the intercom, which quickly became a gurgling noise as the soldier’s helmet was knocked off. He fired a few shots at the gurgling noise, and heard a low moaning noise from the manatee. He could hear it swimming at him, so he reached his left arm sideways, grabbed onto a floating toaster wire, and pulled himself out of the way of the manatee. The manatee barely missed him, but it came close enough to hit his leg, and send him spinning into a wall. He could see small currents of electricity near him, and he punched his arm into the wall. The room lit up again, and he saw a ghastly sight. One manatee was chewing into the chest of a soldier, who was floating, wideeyed, lifeless. A decapitated body was floating near him, and a third soldier’s back was broken, the manatee responsible still swimming forward, and the soldier’s back folded around its flipper. He also saw his suit glowing with electrical current, and felt a pain through his whole body. He yelled, and quickly withdrew his arm from the wall. Trying to remember where he thought the manatees were, he fired his gun, and he didn’t stop until his clip was emptied. Then he jammed the empty clip into the wall, and he could see again. He saw a manatee, riddled with holes, floating dead near a wall, and the other manatee was caught in the middle of the kitchen, the electricity killing it slowly. A soldier fired his gun, and the manatee was dead…
Only 4 soldiers had survived.
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<___________< Don’t ask why I wrote this. I just did.
