As they closed in on the enormous bulk of the Leviathan again, Amber prayed that the single cannon of the alien submarine would hold up long enough to do what they needed to do. As soon as Darien and Niamh had Blinked up to the station it had been left to her and Vass to run the diversion against it.

The strain of piloting the colossal craft was beginning to wear on her and she could feel sweat running in rivulets down her cheeks. Her arms ached from steering and her head had begun to throb agonizingly. The painkillers she'd taken were wearing off and she could feel the bruises and scrapes all over her body. All tolled, she felt utterly exhausted.

Keep it together, she told herself, just a little longer.

The massive bulk of the creature was drawing closer, and she still struggled to wrap her head around its sheer size. Never in her nightmares had she imagined this would have been what they uncovered in the darkest depths of the city. Fear coiled in her gut but she forced herself not to feel it; forced her brain to shove the emotions she didn't want to the box in the back of her mind. She concentrated on simply steering them on, straight and true, metre by metre as they waited for the call from above.

"We're in range," Vass declared. "We can hold distance here."

Amber nodded, easing up on the controls with a gasp of relief to hold the gigantic craft in place. Then they just had to wait. Minutes ticked by and she counted each one down gratefully, gathering her breath and letting the headache subside. Her respite was short-lived, however, as Darien's voice sounded in her earpiece.

"Hammerhead, this is Darien," he declared. "Bomb's rigged; Niamh's back aboard the Manitta-Vanna. I'm starting my descent. Engage the Leviathan but keep your distance – I only need a few minutes."

Amber glanced to Vass. The highest ranking and most experienced operative on the bridge, she assumed he would take the lead, but he did not. He looked across from the gunnery station, held her gaze for a moment, and then nodded once.

"I read you, Darien," she said, fighting to keep her voice level. "We're in position – main cannon is primed. We're holding within firing range." She took a deep breath. "Good luck."

"You too. I'll radio when I'm range. Darien out."

"Okay..." She looked at Vass. "Let's make some fireworks."

His features took on their characteristic sharpness once again and he turned his vulpine gaze back to the targeting console. Seconds later a single thunderbolt rumbled below them, sending a strike of green streaking through the water to hit the Leviathan's armoured carapace. A blossom of emerald fire lit up the water, and Amber swallowed hard when she saw its enormous shadow turn to face them.

"You got its attention," Brannigan shouted a warning from the main display. "It's on course for us and closing fast!"

"Great," Amber muttered, then raised her voice for the others. "Alright everyone, hang on!"

Even as she reversed course another lance tore up the water. Gritting her teeth with effort she launched the ship into a hard leftward turn, attempting to take them on a long elliptical course around the Leviathan.

"Vass, I'm going to give you windows," she forced out as she struggled with the controls. "I'm gonna try circling this thing. I'll swing in at intervals. When I do, take your shots. Got it?"

"No problem."

It was hard going, but Amber drew on whatever reserves of adrenaline she had left, knowing that in just a few more minutes the mission would be over, one way or another. She just had to keep it together until Darien delivered the payload. At regular intervals she heaved the ship into a firing solution and Vass, to his credit, didn't miss a beat. Each time she gave him the opportunity thunder sounded in the under-decks and another green blast impacted against the Leviathan. They didn't seem to be doing much damage, if any, but they were certainly getting its attention.

Suddenly the ship started vibrating and the lights blinked off and on. Amber felt the engines cut out and they lurched off course for just a moment. When she regained control the Leviathan had closed the gap considerably.

"What was that?"

"Must have been one of those sonic booms," Chayze said from the diagnostics station. "We lost power for a second. These old systems seem hardened against it – we're still online."

"But it's closed on us," Brannigan interjected. "Six hundred metres."

Amber took in a gulp of air and clamped her hands tight around the steering controls, swinging them away from the enormous bulk of the creature. She drove the column forward as far as she dared, coaxing more power out of the ancient engines.

"Well we're here to be a diversion," she grated. "Looks like it's working!"

*

Darien's heart thundered in his chest as he tried to put the incident with Niamh to the back of his mind. He would think about it later, but right now she too had made the immediate problem very clear. If he didn't deal with the Leviathan the ifs, buts, maybes, rules and regulations wouldn't mean a whole lot.

The single person submarine now had a new life as little more than a giant torpedo, one that had enough explosive force strapped into it to level a city. He sat at the controls, guiding all fifteen megatons of it down toward the waiting jaws of the Leviathan. He checked the ship's HUD. His comrades on the alien vessel were doing enough to hold the monster's attention, but it was starting to get dangerously close to them. It moved deceptively fast for its size.

Locking his trajectory, he cranked up the submarine's single engine to its maximum level and set off on an intercept course for the beast. His heart was racing with both fear and excitement the closer he drew to his target. The prospect of quite literally driving the ship down the Leviathan's throat was terrifying, but something about the craziness of the venture struck a chord in him. If he pulled this off it would be another in a string of impossible victories for the Blink team under his command. There weren't a whole lot of positive ways to look at their current situation, so he let himself think about that, just for a moment.

Drawing closer, he finally got a good look at the monster in its entirety, and he didn't like what he saw. Each leg hung out from its disc-shaped abdomen like a piece of living rock. The enormous curved surface of its body was uneven, with craters, spurs of rocky growth and dozens of the vent-like apertures. He surmised they were either some kind of gill, or a means for the behemoth to propel itself around. He could see the smaller parasites scuttling back and forth, in and out of the gaps in the armour and he shuddered. There was something just utterly wrong about what he was looking at. It needed to be destroyed, for good.

He piled on speed, throwing the little survey ship into a looping arc that would sling it straight into the face of his quarry. More green explosions bloomed against the Leviathan's shell and when the water cleared he could see the only results were black scorches, superficial at best. Nothing would be blasting through that carapace any time soon, and confirmation of that only made him more determined.

Darien checked the proximity counter on his HUD and felt a shudder go up his spine. He was in range now. Time to put his plan to the test.

"Hammerhead, this is Darien," he barked into the comm. "Break off! I've closed to one hundred metres and my engines are running hot!" His breath caught for just a moment, and he cleared his throat. "Looks like I'm not getting out of this. I'm going in."

"I...copy that," Amber replied and he heard the tremble in her voice. "Stay alive, sir."

He smiled at that. "Count on it. Darien out."

Then he was alone – just him and the Leviathan. He watched on the display as the alien submarine reversed its course, piling on speed to outrun both the creature and the blast that would not be long in coming. As the other vessel powered out of its vicinity, the monster finally noticed Darien's tiny craft.

It swung towards him, its baleful head filling his viewing screen, jaws agape and eyes leering into the gloom. Up close he could see pieces of wreckage and masonry that littered its skull, and dark scars from battles long past. Each huge eye glowed with an eerie half-light, letting the monster zero in on its prey with ease.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second when confronted my the monolithic visage, then his mind reasserted itself and he slammed the submarine's thrust lever forward as far as it would go, adding a final burst of speed to his suicide run. The force jammed him back into his seat and he struggled to take in a breath as the Leviathan's massive fanged maw came rushing to meet him.

The bass thunder of the creature crashed into the little submarine and the main lights went out, plunging Darien into the blood red hue of the emergency lighting systems, but it was too late. He no longer need the ship's systems – sheer momentum carried him and his deadly payload into the Leviathan's jaws and he rolled from his seat, scrambling to the rear compartment where the explosives were anchored in place.

Suddenly a deafening clang reverberated through the ship and his forward motion halted, bowling him head over heels back through the small corridor. He lay there for a second, trying to figure out what had happened, when an ominous creaking sound filled his ears. Feeling his heart sink, Darien looked up to see the roof of the submarine starting to bend inwards. He glanced over his shoulder and sure enough, the ship had stopped and he was left staring into the darkness of the Leviathan's throat. Its jaws had slammed shut just in time to halt his progress.

Throwing all caution aside he bolted through to the rear compartment, knowing he only had a matter of seconds until the hull gave out under the tremendous weight of the Leviathan's bite. He may not have made it all the way inside, but he was willing to take the chance that he'd done enough. A fifteen megaton blast would be too much for even this prehistoric monstrosity's skull to withstand. It had to be.

Taking a precious second to examine the bomb, he closed his eyes, placing his hand against the manual override of the first charge in the sequence. Once he triggered it he would have less than a second to Blink clear of the ensuing blast. He didn't know if that would affect his escape – no-one had ever tried something like this. The rip in space-time would be open for a fraction of a second, but he simply didn't know if any vestiges of the blast would follow him through.

A creaking sound echoed through the sub as the Leviathan's jaws pressed down on the armoured hull. It would buckle any moment.

He shook his head. There was no point thinking about consequences now. Swallowing his fear he brought his mind under control and started calculating. Then in one savage motion he twisted the manual trigger and let the Blink happen.

He was fast, but not quite fast enough.