Amber stared in admiration at the huge structure of one of the alien submersibles. It was one of three currently moored in a dry dock area – an immense prism-shaped ship that stretched out from end to end in front of her. The doors of the dock itself were enormous, two veritable mountains of stone that locked together to keep out the ocean. So far Vass and his companions hadn't had much luck trying to get them open.

Her eyes were drawn to the bow section which tapered down into a ramp-like structure. The bridge window was easy to see, but slung underneath the main body were two colossal rectangular projections – weapon mounts. The thought of the fire power such a vessel might possess made her a little uneasy.

A ramp led up to what she assumed to be the main boarding door of the ship. Three metres across, it formed a large circle with a control panel built into the plating on the right hand side. With Vass and the other operatives in tow she limped her way up the ramp and examined the panel. Right now its buttons pulsed a low, uncooperative red, and a row of crimson symbols taunted her from the in-built screen.

"We've tried everything that Churchwood threw our way," Vass sighed. "But no joy. The lockdown stays in place."

Amber gave him a knowing smile. "Churchwood didn't have this." Pulling the alien data pad free from her backpack, she thumbed its activation switch. When she'd been trawling through it she had stumbled across all kinds of data caches that she recognised from the console in the main control centre. She also remembered seeing the symbols corresponding to the ones currently displayed on the ship's panel.

It took a few minutes of blundering through the alien interface before she found what she was looking for. This page showed a whole series of five symbol codes like the one that currently blocked their way: one list in red down the left hand side, and another in blue down the right. The ones on the left had lines scored through them, so she started scrolling down.

"What is that?" Vass asked, looking in over her shoulder.

"I think it's some kind of code log," she explained. "You know how our security stations have changing codes every week? It must be something like that. The old codes are crossed out. This lockout code will be the last one put in place before...well before whatever it was happened. All I need to do is keep scrolling and..." There it was. "Boom."

She keyed in the five corresponding symbols to the ship's control panel. A few seconds passed and the red display blinked out for an instant, then was replaced by a blue one showing the new sequence of code. Feeling a spark of excitement despite everything, she reached forward and pressed the activation button.

The huge circle irised open with the faint hiss of metal on metal, and Amber grinned. She looked at Vass. He blinked in surprise then a rueful smile spread across his face.

"I guess that's the last time we doubt you," he chuckled. "Nice work."

"Thanks."

Vass motioned two of his operatives forward to make the first breach of the alien ship. Even now he was taking no chances, and Tundra Squad fanned out in textbook fashion, moving like a well-oiled machine through the corridors within, making their way slowly and carefully towards the nose-cone that housed the bridge. Amber was about to follow them in when a soft hand descended on her arm. She turned to find the medic, Cath.

"Before we go further," the girl began. "I thought you should have this." She unfurled her free hand, and nestled in her palm was an earpiece. "I always carry a couple of spares. I reckon you'll want to be able to be in the loop as this thing unfolds."

"I appreciate it," Amber replied, and she meant it. Scooping up the earpiece with a nod of thanks, she slotted it into place and quickly checked the signal. Then she hefted her lance-carbine and joined Cath in entering the alien vessel.

The interior mirrored the huge vaulted halls of the city itself, only scaled down. Limping along in the middle of the group, Amber let her eyes wander around, gazing at the branching halls and control consoles. At regular intervals they encountered more circular doorways, currently open for the moment, but she suspected they functioned like the bulkheads on human ships, able to slam shut at a moment's notice to form airtight sections and prevent flooding.

The corridors gradually converged towards the tapered bow of the ship. Two ramps split off below decks and judging from the positioning Amber suspected they led down to the ship's main guns. A third ramp in the centre sloped upwards toward the bridge and the operatives scuttled up it, weapons primed and levelled as they moved. It wasn't long before they arrived at the control centre of the majestic vessel.

Outwardly it resembled the control room that Amber had discovered at the apex of the city, but as well as the ring of consoles and substations, this room also had three clearly defined pilot stations at the front of the room, arranged in an arrowhead shape facing the main window. Tundra's operatives spread out to examine the consoles while she accompanied Vass to the central dais. Even here the murals of the spider-creatures were prevalent, one of them having been built into the roof of the bridge. Trying not to look at it, Amber busied herself with looking over the controls.

The layout was the same, albeit scaled down, and the console lacked the same massive cross shaped glass display, instead having a flat screen built into the octagonal surface. Amber skirted around the edges until she found the activation symbol. She looked at Vass.

"Do you want to do the honours, or shall I?"

Vass grinned, making a sweeping gesture toward her with one hand.

So she took a breath and pressed the button. It clunked as it shifted down into place, and elation rippled through her when the blue halos of light emerged around the control panels. Slowly, the bridge consoles began to power up.

"Looks like we're in business," she said, turning back to Vass.

The Tundra squad leader opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, a shockwave slammed into the docking area and the whole vessel rocked violently around them. Several operatives who had nothing close to hand went tumbling across the room as the whole structure of the dock seemed to buck and shake.

Amber managed to get hold of the main console to anchor herself against the tremors, and she clung on determinedly as they continued for a worryingly long time. Above the rumbling she heard deep, metallic booming sounds as something struck the thick outer plating. A shiver of fear went up her spine.

Eventually the main shock dissipated, but this time rather than fading out totally a faint residual shuddering remained. The deck beneath her stabilized and Amber released her hold on the main console. She gave Vass a dubious look. He nodded to two of his operatives.

"Gale, Wheylock, take an eye-ball outside. Let me know the damage."

The pair vanished in an instant to make their inspection as Vass continued talking, switching to his earpiece. Amber had to admit to being impressed that he sounded totally in control.

"This is Tundra to all teams," he said. "A big quake just rolled through our section of the city. Can we get a status update?"

"This is Vandal!" The panic-stricken voice of Mina Faruque suddenly tore over the comm. "The whole section of the city we're in is being shaken to pieces. The quakes are constant. We've got cave-ins and water is starting to flood in! We need to abort RIGHT NOW! I'm getting my people back to our POI."

She saw a look of surprise flicker across Vass's features before he collected himself. "I'm not gonna argue with that. Darien, if you can hear me, I think the structural integrity of this place is shot to hell. I urgently recommend that we pull out."

It was Niamh who answered. "Darien's still off comm, Vass. We're not going anywhere until we know what's happened to him."

Amber saw Tundra's leader bristle at that. "We don't know when or if he's going to show up. With the best will in the world, he could already be dead, Niamh. I'm not waiting around on a corpse while this whole place comes down on our heads."

"Well suck it up, hot shot," Niamh replied and there was venom in her voice. "When Darien is off comm the chain of command comes to me."

"The hell it does!"

"I'm a second officer and have operational seniority over you, Squad Leader or not. If I say we're waiting, then that's what we're doing."

Vass gave Amber a black look, shaking his head in disgust. "Fine, but if we end up in a mass grave, that's on you."

"Save it, jackass. If we get out of this feel free to file a complaint."

"WILL BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!"

Amber felt like she'd just been hit with an electric shock at the sound of the third voice that exploded over the communications channel. It was thin and badly distorted, but unmistakable. It was Darien.

"It's time for us all to get the hell out of here," Darien continued, his voice frantic as he babbled out his explanation. "I've got Idas and Hekket with me – we're all leaving this place. The Leviathan is some kind of giant arthropod creature and we just woke it up. Those tremors we've been feeling, they were caused by the Leviathan moving against the city superstructure. Now that it's fully awake it's going to shake this place apart just to get loose."

Amber wanted to chime in, to let Darien know she was still alive, but it just didn't seem like the right thing to do at that moment. She held her tongue as her squad leader's orders continued thick and fast.

"Effective immediately all teams are to Blink back to their POI and from there back out to the Manitta-Vanna for evacuation. We're getting out of this city and off this planet!"

"Sounds good to me," someone muttered. But then another transmission knifed in through the comm channel, one that put paid to any notion of an easy escape. It was Lieutenant Tydnall.

"Negative on your last, Operative," Tyndall said, and Amber could hear the clamour of frantic voices in the background of his transmission. "We've got something massive on our screens, and whatever it is just let loose some kind of sub-sonic shockwave. It's blown our navigational screens to hell, our engines are offline and the Nav-Rod is fried. We're drifting and I've got no way to give you a position for extraction. Right now we're still trying to get our systems back online."

It was like a punch in the stomach. Amber swallowed hard as the comm channel crackled with static. Without the Manitta-Vanna out there as a destination, the operatives would have to Blink into the open sea – a sea that was home to something very, very bad. But with the city collapsing around them they needed to get out, and fast. Amber figured she could probably Blink back up to the research platform itself with her precision skills, but not everyone would be able to make that trip safely. They could well lose half the operatives in a desperate Blink to the surface without the precise distances and data from the Manitta-Vanna.

"What..." Cath gasped amid the murmur of surprise for the Tundra operatives. "So now how do we get out of here!"

At that moment Gale and Wheylock returned from their trip out into the dock and both teenagers were ashen faced. Gale spoke up, "Vass, we can't stay here much longer. Those impacts we heard, bits of the roof are falling from the shock waves. The plating took the hits but...well if the whole chamber collapses, I don't know if the ship can withstand that."

"We've got to go!" another operative blurted out. "I'm not getting drowned down here!"

"And where the would you go? The sub's out of commission. There's no target to Blink to."

"I'll take my chances. Anywhere's better than here!"

"Shut up!" Vass snarled angrily. "All of you just shut up and let me think."

For a long moment silence descended on them. Amber looked around at a sea of stunned faces before her gaze settled on Vass Juntaar. He was leaning on one of the consoles, but he didn't look shocked, scared or dumbstruck. His brow was creased in thought and she could almost hear the gears whirring in his brain. He stayed like that for what felt like minutes before she saw something ignite in his eyes. He looked up sharply and thumped a fist against the console. "I've got an idea."

Vass straightened up and barked into the comm. "All teams, this is Tundra. Get together and Blink to POI Two near the docks. Some of my people will meet you and guide you down to our bay. We've managed to crack open one of the alien subs and its systems are up and running. It'll make the perfect lifeboat." He pointed to the squad's precision Blinker. "Gale, Wheylock, get back there and standby for the others arriving. No, I don't want to debate it – just go!"

"Tundra...you've got what?"

"Confirm that! Confirm that!" Darien suddenly roared over the comm. "All teams, Blink to POI Two! This mission is over."

Amber stepped over and grabbed Vass by the arm. "That's your plan? Even if everyone can make it down here we'll be trapped!"

"No, I got no plans to get buried down here," Vass replied.

"Huh? Well then...what is the plan?"

Vass looked at her. The breezy confidence was gone from his voice, replaced with complete earnestness. He inclined his head toward the pilot stations of the alien submarine.

"If we can power it up, you think you could drive this hulk?" he asked.

Amber's heart dropped like an anvil.