"Heaven lent you a soul, Earth will lend a grave."

The inside of the Luna shuttle was filled with the sound of battle; the high pitched yells of female predatory primates trained for combat against the simultaneous chirping and slurping of predatory mollusk appendages. The enemy may have changed but the sharp hand tool utilization of the genetically selected primate descendants was the same. Born without claw, fang or tentacle; a superior facsimile of dead organic or inorganic material would even the odds. In fact more than even.

The Luna female contact troops had trained for this for countless hours and knew their roles. The lance wielding squad was to use the superior reach of their spears to pierce and maneuver the Leviathan tentacles into being captured by the built in mechanical claw just below the spearhead. Then the moon blade wielding contingent was to finish off the trapped tentacles in close quarter combat. Projectile and firearm weapons were not effective in the close range. This had been discovered after many hours of video analysis from previous engagements. The end result of those earlier engagements had been dismembered and acid burned Luna soldiers. Male, female and Eunuch.

No degree of simulation though could prepare the contact troops for the real thing. 20 -40% losses were expected and accepted. Also the outcome was truly in the hands of someone who was not wielding a weapon but rather the controls of the shuttle which was being crushed between two previously unknown species of Leviathan; 17-year-old pilot Lt. Shang Ka Tung, descendant of Yunnan province. Her training and conditioning were coming to the fore, and her genetic advantage towards piloting aircraft was apparent. She was the proof of hundreds of year of eugenic research.

"Private Zhuo! Six o'clock! Don't follow it. It's trying to feint." Lt Dong Shen Yin shouted.

The 6 foot tall 'blossom', descended from Shandong province, was making the mistake of trying to follow the targeted Leviathan tentacle by herself and by its snapping claw. She was forgetting that the lances were to maneuver in a four lance formation. This technique was to force the tactile sensitive tentacles into a smaller circle so it could be captured with one of the mechanical claws on one of four lances. Zhuo thrust but missed as the Leviathan tentacle slipped and then went for her from the outside.

"Aieeee!" Private Zhuo panicked but was saved by her instinctive block with the claw at the end of the tentacle striking the shaft of her lance. This was the split second opportunity Lt Dong was looking for and she broke formation as well as regulation. Shooting low she went to both knees and bounced the far end of her lance against the floor of the shuttle to bring it between two surprised blossoms. Pressing the claw control on the handle, she caught the tentacle seven inches below the snapping claw of its own.

"Got it! Gao! Now!"

Private Gao, a small but solid fellow descendant of Dong Shen Yin's ancestral Guagndong province, jumped on Corporal Ma's shoulder and cleaved the tentacle in two with one chop of her moon blade. This eliminated the dangerous claw head but now the rest had to be dealt with. All four lance women maneuvered the pulsating tentacle toward the floor shuttle and pinned it. Three lances disengaged and proceeded to pierce the now helpless tentacle. Another switch on the lance emitted powerful volts of electricity into the now dying leviathan appendage. The slimy yet armored tentacle began to shrivel at the loss of moisture and precious and foul smelling fluid shot out in geysers.

This same team maneuver was occurring with the other lance teams trying to stop the immediate Leviathan attack. A tentacle managed to get past one group and went right for the preoccupied Lt Tung. Strapped in and with her back to the battle, she had no idea that her death was imminent. One of the blossoms threw down her lance and leaped onto the tentacle, bringing it down with the weight of her body. Private Lu, another Northern Province descendent of large frame with registered non Han DNA mixed in, had broken formation and went against her training. The claw head immediately twisted towards her and latched onto her left shoulder, slicing through her muscle and then spraying it with its acid-like saliva.

"Nghhhhhhhhhhh!" Private Lu did not scream but had broken a tooth gritting her teeth in pain. Her team member, Cpl Tsuo, used her sacrifice to pin the tentacle into the shuttle floor with her lance. Releasing a full blast of electricity it shuddered and spasmed and then tore loose from Pvt Lu. Unfortunately it severed her left arm completely and Lu fell to the floor in shock as her blood spurted out. Still she would not scream. A protein chain from a millennia long gone Jurchen horseman with twenty five imperial Han soldier deaths under his belt had shown its value in this brief moment. Two 'blossom' swordswomen, teamed up to counter inexperience and maximize results proceeded to slice the wounded tentacle into several quivering pieces. Private Lu's comrades leaped to her aid and began first aid to the now unconscious and shuddering woman.

Two tentacles were knocked out and the remaining were sparring more cautiously with the Luna soldiers who were proving that the close combat advantage of the Leviathans was lessening. No matter how many of these seemingly unimpressive primates were slaughtered, they seemed to always come back with more primates and then more prepared each time. The weakness of their non collective neural systems also was their strength in imagination and innovation.

Had not the Architect required fusion with their DNA to gain the ability to not only manipulate previously alive organic matter but to now synthesize it into countless variations?

One more primate went down, decapitated by the razor like claw from an unexpected switch of attack, when the targeted tentacles went after opposite Luna teams. Private Cao's headless body inexplicably grabbed the tentacle in a death grip and her body weight brought it down to be pierced and hacked into pieces. The 'death responses' conditioning was the biggest surprise of the new expeditions; closing with the enemy and grasping it; the most primal neural act now able to be set off even with total cord separation.

A separate team then fanned out. While the lance and sword teams held off the tentacles, these teams were to attack the true enemy. The Leviathans attached to the shuttle outside. Captain Zheng had sheathed her moon blade and led this team.

They carried large tube like weapons resembling mortars that they drilled into the shuttle floor with four pinions. Positioned by the base of the tentacles, their barrels were aimed at the larger organism on the other side.

"Fire!" Captain Zheng shouted. Instead of projectiles coming out, long crystal like formations rose from the base of the tubes. They sliced through the hull of the ship and pierced the Leviathans on the other side. A composite synthetic diamond like formation, it did little damage to the hull's integrity while causing grievous damage to the Leviathan's armored yet soft exterior. More green gray fluid shot out and one of the Leviathans, visibly weakened began to loosen from the shuttle.

Lt Tung had kept the shuttle level but gradually rising higher into the atmosphere. Her plan was to go high enough and then to reenter with the heat from that burning up the Leviathans. Also she wanted to avoid a premature crash. The shuttle was more important than their lives with the only factor being that someone had to survive to at least conduct basic operations. Her final plan was to do the opposite and plunge straight into the Earth if it was 100% clear they were all going to die. That was not going to happen, Buddha be praised.

The mortally wounded Leviathan had now disengaged involuntarily and floated away slowly. The remaining Leviathan held firm but now had less tentacles with which to kill the primates within. Another crystalline spike pierced it and it also began to weaken.

Still it held fast. Its life also meant nothing if it could stop this infiltration of this Bio System.

"We're winning! Yeaaahhh!" one of the blossoms whose name Lt Dong had forgotten screamed. Unfortunately for her that was the moment a tentacle wrapped around her body. Her comrades attempted to help but were unable to attack without hitting her.

The young woman's expression of terror turned to rage and she grabbed the tentacle. Her bones were snapping and organs bursting as it tightened its coil around her. "For the Han! For Luna!" she gasped half gurgling and then her Final Option maneuver

was ignited. A small shaped charge in her chest armor went off in a muted but powerful explosion, killing her instantly. The tentacle had been knocked backward and was now hanging by a thread as the foul fluid sprayed out. A swipe from a sword woman's moon blade finished it off.

The mortally wounded Leviathan was trying to float back to its Cyst Matrix located several hundred miles away. It would give up its material for recycling, fertilization and compost. At least that is what its genetic instinct wanted. It had not sensed that the shuttle to which it was previously attached would come back for it. Lt Tung, while a pilot, wanted to fight as well. Tracking the limping aerial mollusk she engaged the targeting system and set off the auto cannons. The Leviathan shuddered under the impact of the 30 mm cannons and soon was shattered into about fifty major pieces. Viscera, fluid and strange organs of indeterminate function flew across the sub-stratosphere.

Only a second into the pilot’s visored but quite satisfied smile, a klaxon went off: “Propulsion unit 2 and 5 shutting down, unit 3 overheated! Alert! Alert!”.

"Mao!" Lt Tung cursed. They were going to go down. She had to get back into the atmosphere proper to land but their hitchhiker was still with them. So instead she climbed higher.

"Lt Tung! What are you doing? We must conserve fuel for egress!" Captain Zheng shouted.

The gravity was starting to go and the contact troops had to engage their hooks and lanyards to stay in place as well as engaging their respirators, with a still lethal Leviathan attacking them.

Lt Dong had reorganized the four lance teams into two and were holding the remaining tentacles at bay, unable to breech the phalanx set up. Formation # 4: 'Guarding the Pearl from the Octopus'. Once the gravity lessened they went right to their boot hooks. A contact trooper could fight in any gravity.

Lt Tung then sharply changed direction. "Hold On sisters!" She shouted at the top of her lungs which amplified over the PA system.

The shuttle then reentered the atmosphere for a second time but twice as fast as previously. The temperature of the surface of the shuttle rose and a red aura appeared, Heat. The Leviathan began to shudder and change color, but it still refused to let go. The bladders on the creature began to fill and inflate. It was attempting an acid attack to destroy the pathogen that had entered the sacred garden of the Earth.

"FWAASSSSSSHHHHHHHH!"

The female soldiers inside held on for dear life and soon began to feel the heat increase themselves. Either they were going to survive or not. Each woman closed her eyes and concentrated. Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, they prayed

with a final solemnity and desire for the greater sacrifice to benefit the Han, their ancestors and most of all the Luna Nation, except for one. Dong Shen Yin was laughing inside.

The shuttle resembled a shooting star to the terrestrial beings below, the arrow from the heavens piercing the earthly kingdom of man.

To Be Continued in Heaven, Earth, Woman.