A Watery Crash

Down on the planet, the work was progressing slowly. The runes were easily translated, but they were difficult to speak aloud. One misspoken word would change the results of the carefully laid out formula. They needed to get this down before rescue came to them. It was true that the cat-god had heard some of the phrases used, and its input was invaluable when trying to sort out some of the complex runes. But it was only a limited dataset. They needed to transcribe the entire language before some of the more bizarre combinations would make any sense at all. Margaret was logging information by hand, having filled her personal comp quite a while before. Quinn had filled his as well, but they were still busily translating and transcribing as much as they could get their hands on. These would have to be entered into the computer later when they got back to civilization. They had managed to scan the skies for ships a couple of times and found that the Lincoln was not in orbit. Wherever she had gone, she was not able to save them at this time. The two archeologists were sampling dirt and rock. They had dated the stone and they were happy with the soil samples. There were many trace minerals in the soil that would allow plants to thrive in it. They were still trying to justify this world for colonization. Of course all of their readings gave the planet a go. It was perfectly suited to human life and they were quite thorough in their analysis. The cat-god had disappeared for a while after a particularly frustrating session of Jeng technology work. It had bound away and left the caverns completely. Quinn felt the creature’s distress but he couldn’t tell the cause of the problem. He tried to think after the beast, but it paid him no attention and continued on its flight from the area. Maybe it was hungry; he thought to himself, but the thought felt wrong even in his own mind. He would make it a point to ask the cat when it returned. There was a whoosh sound outside and the very ground shook as if from some major impact. The quartet of humans rushed to the entrance, stared up at the skies, and was frozen in shock at the sight. Large stone monoliths were dropping from the skies. One of them briefly crossed the sun and cast a shadow over the entire island. They were impacting the water with a fountain of spray and the crust of the planet was taking a beating. The large stone missiles had to be at least three kilometers long and who knew how much they weighed. It was certainly a lot. Tidal size waves swept out from the impact sites as the huge gray stones slapped the surface again and again. The waves were way too high and coming fast. The bewildered humans tried to close the doors before they got flooded on this little island. The great stone doors seemed to stick just before sealing shut. One of the runes was damaged and it would not function. The massive doors were open about half a meter and would not hold back the rising water. It was obvious that this whole place would be flooded. Quinn ran back to the vault followed by his wet comrades. He checked the entrance and he double-checked the runes. They were completely intact. He ordered everyone inside and then he spoke the words that had sealed the cat-god in before. The doorway sealed up with molten stone and then solidified. They were now safe from drowning, but they had no supplies with them, and they were all trapped inside a vault. There were no runes on this side to open the doorway with. All they had with them were their hand comps. It was time for some quick thinking. The thudding of gigantic monoliths continued for quite some time. Then the floor tilted and everyone got that riding the elevator feeling of falling as something outside went terribly wrong. Outside, the hail of giant stone blocks had continued. They did not strike the island, but they were having a devastating effect. The Jeng had launched these weapons with a specific purpose. They were striking the fault lines of the tectonic plate the island rested on. The first few hits caused a massive crack and it circled the island at the ocean floor. Then the unspeakable happened. The tectonic plate dropped. It fell towards the center of the planet and plummeted into the depths, bringing the island with it. The Jeng base went the way of Altlantis and fell into the sea. The water crashed and churned in the wake of the large chunks of rock that had just passed by and the attack from the sky ceased. All that was left of the island were some of the monoliths reaching up to the sky from the water’s depths. The humans had been officially dealt with. The Jeng moon started to move away from the planet. The Jeng commander watched from his wall and his satisfaction was complete. He had taken down those pesky creatures and eliminated the god at the same time. Now there would be no inquiry as to lost technology. His career had been salvaged. He was ready to move on to a world with open green grass fields and good sturdy rock underneath. He was tired of all that water. He closed the viewer and went to his cave for relaxation. The moon would take a little over a year to reach the next target planet; he could wait for it in peace. *** From the bridge of the black squadron commander’s flagship, the devastation on the planet below was obvious. They had been in-system for less than a day when the great pieces of rock started breaking off and plummeting towards the planet. Vorn considered his options and realized that there was nothing he had that could stop that many gigantic pieces of rock. His best move seemed to be to wait it out and race in to recover the personnel dirt-side. He watched the bombardment with military curiosity. They hadn’t hit the island yet. It was one of the worst military raids he had ever seen. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t any collateral damage. The island was washed over by tidal waves that completely hid the surface from his sensors. Then the rocks stopped coming. The bombardment ceased. The moon held its position for about an hour and then started backing away from the planet. The atmosphere was pretty messed up and there were no good readings of the surface yet, but Vorn was confident that he would get a picture as soon as was feasibly possible. When the picture did pop up, he jumped out of his seat. “What?!” He exclaimed and the bridge crews of the ten stealth ships simply sat in awe of the destruction. The island was gone. There wasn’t a crater or any scorched pieces of land. It was gone. It had been completely wiped off of the face of the planet. He fell back down into his chair and sighed. His first mission and he had failed it. Had they known his fleet was here? He started going over the various orders he had given looking for the error that had brought them to this point. He just didn’t see one. The Jeng moon was backing away and leaving orbit. Incredibly, the pieces of rock that had fallen to the planet were being replaced as it backed away like some living thing healing itself. Vorn turned to his communications officer. “Better tell the Lincoln what has happened down there.” He said and the com-tech nodded his acceptance of the order. *** The Lincoln was sitting back from the planet about three diameters away when the first blocks began to fall. Normally they would not have seen the action on the far side of the planet, except that they had dropped spy satellites the last time they were in system. Now the stealthy and small device gave them a front row seat to the destruction of the Jeng base. The impacts seemed to encircle the tiny island and then the unthinkable happened; it sank into the ocean. The Captain saw his profits sink with it. The doorway of the base had been under specific surveillance and it had not closed as the water approached, so it was probable that the entire base had flooded. The odds of the survey team s