The North PacificBoard

First Lieutenant Keneski leaned back on his chair as he monitored his screen every once in a while, usually when he heard something on his headphones, usually the sound of some Itallitopian cargo ship passing by. Other than that, the only other thing he heard was the radio, which sounded muffled under his headphones. It was currently playing Identity Crisis, a song from the Rynese Confederation which was quite popular in Itallitopia, alongside the native jazz, metal, and rock. Occasionally, he’d sing along with the radio for a few verses, but for the most part, he just tapped his foot.

I just wanted a simple job to get out of the crazy s### in the rest of this country for my service, and this is where I ended up. The middle of f###ing nowhere. Nothing interesting even happens. Keneski thought, bored out of his months after doing this for nearly two months. The stations had just been set up with the annexation of Eastern Yugobatania, and with a need for SONAR operators for the Itallitopian SOSUS system, Keneski signed up, assuming it’d be easy. Occasionally, a firefight would happen within the proximity of the station, but the station was ignored as Itallitopian soldiers mopped up the small cells of Yugobatanian insurgents. Occasionally however, he chatted with the other stations, but those moments were far and few between, for the most part, it was just the occasional squad and resupply.

He took a quick look on the display out of boredom, before noting something was off. What’s the blip doing there? I didn’t see it earlier. Soon after it had disappeared. Must have been a false blip Keneski noted before seeing it pop up again. What the hell, it’s closer now he thought, slightly concerned. He began typing on his keyboard, with the loud clicks of MX Cherry switches happening after every keystroke, in order to get an audio sample of the unidentified object. The object then disappeared once again. I swear it was right there, what’s going on here? Is the microphone broken? Yugobatanian saboteurs? It soon popped in even closer than before, and it was heading towards him. By now, the computer was able to identify it, and he could hear it clearly on his headphones. Is that, is that a f###ing torpedo? It sounds like one, but it’s moving too fast, and I’ve never seen one that can pop in and out of SONAR. The computer had identified the blip as a Mk. 68 torpedo, an Itallitopian one, but he still didn’t understand what was going on.

Keneski grabbed his radio laying on the desk.- “Station Three-Two, to Swordfish Command, come in over.” All there was static. I swear, it’s a clear night, they should be picking up right now. He repeated his call on the radio, “Station Three-Two, to Swordfish Command, come in, I have an unknown contact, come in over.” Nothing but static came in. Slowly, his headphones and radios were overtaken by a high-pitched sound as the ‘torpedo’ came even closer. He grabbed the IACR sitting on the weapon rack to his right, and loaded a magazine in before pulling the bolt and releasing it, chambering a round. Keneski stood up from the chair, and took a look outside. It was quite dark outside, with the only light coming from the moon, and his flashlight. I didn’t know it would be a blood moon tonight Keneski thought to himself. The high-pitched sound from the radio and speaker only continued to get louder, with Keneski being able to hear it through the door. This must be some sort of equipment malfunction he thought as the noise got louder, and lowered his IACR. He went back inside, closing the door, and blinking as he adjusted to the light.

As he opened his eyes, Keneski fell to his knees as the noise suddenly became 10x louder, forcing him to cover his ears and squint. The noise was so distracting he didn’t even realize the pool of blood at his knees. “ARRRGGGHH, MAKE IT STOP!” he yelled in distress. The noise continued to become higher pitched and louder, before suddenly cutting off.

Keneski opened his eyes, and took his hands off his ears. What the, what the hell is this? Keneski panicked as he opened his eyes. Blood surrounded him, and an unknown substance was pouring out of his ears. As he stood up, his monitor was a red screen with the words ‘SUBMIT’. As he stumbled around the pool of blood to grab his rifle, the door slowly creaked open as multiple cloaked figures surrounded him. As he raised his rifle to fire, the receiver exploded with the click of the trigger. “Who the hell are you people, what do you want.” Keneski begin to yell as he slowly backed away. Slowly, one of them unsheathed a strange knife, chattering something in a language he didn’t even understand, slowly raising it before saying something in Itallitopian.

“Lord, may this be an acceptable sacrifice for our sins.”

The blade came down into Keneski stabbing him straight in the heart and lungs. The cloaked figure pulled it out, and more of this unknown substance came pouring out of Keneski. He tried to yell, but he couldn’t even breath as his lungs continued filling with what seemed like soda. Behind the cloaked figure was another individual, who barely had a face, as it it was only slightly finished. The cloaked figures stepped aside as the one with a partially developed face approached the dying Keneski.

“Thank you for this sacrifice.” Keneski heard, but did not see the figure speak.

Shortly after, the partially developed man drove his fist into Keneski, and ate him, organ by organ, consuming more and more of the substance, like a child who hadn’t eaten in weeks. Minutes later, the figure stopped consuming the corpse, as it was all but bones and leftover skin. His face was not bloodied, but covered by another substance, and became partially more developed as he licked more of the fluid coming out of Keneski’s body. Shortly after, all the figures left into the forest, under the blood red moon.