Ocean: War of Independence (13 page)

X. War and Preparations for War.
Severity Level—Extremely High.

Effective immediately, all military operations and weapons testing are prohibited on or in the ocean, in the air over the ocean, and on any area of land that will impact the ocean. All military vessels are to be removed immediately from the ocean, including the U.S.S. Arizona war memorial in Pearl Harbor and any other sunken-ship memorials around the world, which must be relocated to the land. These requirements also apply to waterways and bodies of water that are connected to the ocean.

***

APPENDIX IV

Some of the Marine Weapons Developed by the Sea Warriors
(From the confidential journal of Jimmy Waimea)

It is impossible to say what started the move toward ocean independence, but all evidence points to a great confluence of events. Certainly, the birth of the unusual hybrid-human Kimo Pohaku had a part in it, as well as his association with the wavemaster Alicia Ellsworth and the oceanic brain, Gwyneth McDevitt. The rise of sea creatures on their own was also a strong factor, as box jellyfish, stonefish, and other organisms began to independently attack tropical beaches, making human swimmers flee.

When Kimo and his group of fledgling Sea Warriors took it upon themselves to lead the marine animals, there were initial complications—such as the rebelliousness of Gwyneth, and the stubbornness of the whales and other large animals that she employed against humankind, when they refused to disperse even though she commanded them to do so. This alone brought the organization to its knees. Added to that, the murderous rampage of two Sea Warriors—Vinson Chi’ang and Emily Talbot—had an adverse, nearly disastrous effect on the organization, and removed certain fighting assets (warrior crabs and other crustaceans) from the Sea Warrior arsenal, making them unavailable in the crucial Battle of the Hawaiian Sea.

It is known that Kimo learned how to command all ocean creatures, while a number of his followers held jurisdiction over specific species, and even over the seawater itself. These specializations (such as Jacqueline Rado’s sub-command of fast-attack sharks and barracudas) proved to be important in all battles, as did the involvement of Dirk Avondale, who had formerly been a U.S. Navy officer in charge of training military dolphins. Some of these things are known from previous news accounts.

The story of Kimo’s unusual birth in the sea has been covered extensively as well, along with his original conversion into a hybrid by the Goddess of the Sea, Moanna. But other details are less clearly understood, and are useful for historians and students of the ocean to know. I shall make a few preliminary comments about Kimo’s special affinity for all living things in the ocean, and then move on to details of his fantastic arsenal of fighting marine animals….

New species of animals and plants are discovered regularly, sometimes in out-of-the way places around the world, such as the Amazon rain forest or the jungles of Africa. But nowhere on the planet are there more unexplored regions than in the vast, deep ocean, which harbors creatures that can hardly be imagined, or even believed when they are seen. In 1938, the
coelacanth
, a strange-looking fish thought to be extinct tens of millions of years ago, was discovered in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, and intensive searches afterward turned up more of them. Some species, such as sharks, have changed little in 100,000,000 years, and are still living in the sea.

It should not be astonishing, then, that Kimo Pohaku, with access to benthic ocean regions, encountered numerous species of marine animals that were either unknown to humankind before, or which had been thought to be long-extinct. In the deep ocean, he saw Jurassic-era
plesiosaurs
, long-necked monsters who looked like the sea serpents of lore, but which really existed, and still lived in their hidden-away realm. He also saw
ichthyosaurs
, which looked like dolphins with crocodile jaws and dangerous teeth, and
roifosteuses
, creatures with long snouts and powerful, prey-crushing jaws. These three species were available to the Sea Warrior fighting force when they confronted U.S. Navy warships in the Battle of the Hawaiian Sea, and were utilized in varying degrees.

Other species, completely unknown to humankind, also came to the attention of Kimo before the battle, and he employed them in recruiting and assembling his force of hybrid Sea Warriors, the radically modified humans who made up the officer corps of the force. Among these additional species are
skatefoils
, large whitefish that can skim over the surface of the water with human passengers on their backs, and
jetfish
, creatures capable of amalgamating themselves into watercraft that can provide oxygen to people and transport them underwater at high speeds. He also had access to
bubblefish
and
colossal clams
, both of which are capable of carrying human beings safely to the deepest trenches of the ocean. These four species are the only ones that were previously unheard of by marine experts. Everything else—including the creatures thought to be extinct—were either known to the experts from fossil records or from knowledge that they still lived in the sea.

The sea creatures under Kimo’s dominion included small animals of delicate beauty, such as the leafy sea dragon, and various types of seahorses—species that could not imaginably be utilized in any fight for control of the water. These, and small flying fish, reef fish, turtles, and other seemingly benign aquatic animals were nonetheless present during the epic war and known to the frontline fighters, and each contributed in some way.

Some marine animals have received the lion’s share of the publicity about being aggressive man-killers, and are known to people all over the world. Other creatures, however, and the totality of the danger they present, have not been understood at all. In fact, before the emergence of true ocean power—natural ocean power—the average person had no idea of the extreme perils lurking beneath the surface of the sea, and how much more dangerous they were under the central command of the Sea Warriors.

The ocean has knife-fighters, sword-fighters, and boxers. Surgeonfish have sharp, knifelike spines on their tails that can cause fatal injuries when they snap out the hidden weapons and lash forth with them. Swordfish, sailfish, and marlins—all billfish with long spears on their snouts—are fast, powerful swimmers, and quite deadly, with the potential to impale any person who is in the water near them. Hound needlefish are also dangerous impalers, and were used to terrifying effect in the Battle of the Hawaiian Sea, fatally piercing the chest of a Navy frogman. Praying mantis shrimp—commonly referred to as boxing shrimp—are so accustomed to breaking shells open with their front claws that they can easily deliver bone-crushing blows against humans, striking with tremendous force.

The Sea Warrior armada included not only the whales and other large marine animals that received so much publicity, but flesh-ripping great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, lemon sharks, tiger sharks, and great barracudas. And, while a stingray received notice for whipping its tail and firing poisonous barbs into a Navy frogman off the coast of Oahu, there were other creatures in the ocean force capable of firing lethal projectiles. A large colony of Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish draped curling tentacles beneath their floating, purple-colored gas sacks, with the tentacles concealing tiny nematocysts that were capable of firing venom-filled, harpoon-like barbs into prey or into a battlefield enemy. Hawksbill turtles swam forward with colorful sea anemones attached to their shells—anemones that also had poisonous nematocysts to fire. On the bottom of the sea were cone shells advancing onto the battlefield, each of them containing their own stinging, poison darts—and domed tiger-cowrie shells, capable of firing sulfuric acid into any enemy that ventured near. Even some tiny worms were capable of firing harpoon-like projectiles, while other worms could infest the waters and burrow into human skin like ticks, causing itching and rashes—even bypassing wetsuits.

In the Battle of the Hawaiian Sea, a large humboldt (jumbo) squid rocketed forward and used its sharp beak to rip away pieces of a Navy frogman’s flesh, tearing his body apart. In reserve, the Sea Warriors had other horrors for the unsuspecting enemy that could have been used—such as large sawfish and smaller longnose sawsharks that were capable of cutting apart a human body with chainsaw-like snouts that had sharp saw teeth on each side.

When Kimo presented his Declaration of Ocean Independence to the United Nations, he mentioned having many additional weapons in his arsenal that could still be used, such as lampreys that could clamp onto a human face with suction and digest the flesh, as well as small cookie-cutter sharks that could attach themselves to human torsos and cut off large, neat chunks of flesh, and sea spiders that were capable of sucking blood out of humans like vampires. He also had methods of sinking small boats—by employing billfish or needlefish to pierce the hulls, or inundating the craft with swarming schools of flying fish (sinking them under the load of the creatures), or forcing boats onto rocks where they would break apart.

The ocean is potentially the most dangerous place on the planet, with more deadly organisms than anyone could possibly list in a document such as this. There are poisonous sea snakes that can inject much more venom than a cobra, huge lion’s mane jellyfish with tentacles capable of stinging and killing a human in minutes, scorpionfish with venomous spines, and tiny blue-ringed octopuses whose bite is so poisonous that few humans are able to survive it. There are electric rays and eels capable of delivering more voltage than humans realize, bluefish that can go into piranha-like attack frenzies, tearing apart human flesh, foul-tempered moray eels, and even an air force of sharp-beaked gulls and other shorebirds that are under the command of the Sea Warriors.

As of the date of this journal entry, there are rumors that the Sea Warriors also have secret weapons that they will not discuss, including a giant saltwater crocodile, much larger and more deadly than any known species, and a huge shark that is more than fifty feet long, and was thought to be extinct.

In addition, there are unconfirmed reports of new weapons that are under development by the organization, including a boxfish that will use its natural armor to shield other marine animals, as well as archerfish that can fire projectiles (instead of the tiny bursts of water that their species now use to knock insects out of the air), large snails that secrete acid to stun opponents, and large warrior crabs that are independent of the dangerous thrall of the mass murderer Vinson Chi’ang.

It is also known to a small circle of people that Alicia of the Ocean continues to practice with her wave-generating powers, in remote locations where there are no outside witnesses. Reportedly she has been successful in creating a wall of water more than forty feet high—and keeping it under full control.

Because much of this information is potentially harmful to the Sea Warriors if their enemies were to obtain it, I am hiding this journal in a place where it cannot be found for many decades.

***