"In shallow holes, moles make fools of dragons"

-Chinese proverb

"Blossoms, I want a defensive perimeter up within ten. Privates Guo and Zhuo, mini recon. Back in fifteen. Understood?"

"HAI!" The two youngest of the female luna cadets ran off in opposite directions. Both were armed with rail pulse guns, the most powerful kinetics, just below beam and explosive forms of ordinance. Their commander of all of five minutes was focused and coordinating everything as if she had been doing this for over half her life. Maturity beyond years was either a gift from the gods or a curse instilled by life. But to ask the woman in question which one, a smile and silence would have been the response.

Dong Shen Yin looked out briefly at the land before her, a rock with air, water, many non Han, and large sentient predatory mollusks.

"Let’s do this."

The wounded captain Zheng and the hardy Private Lu were being attended to by corporals Pui and Fan. A mini med center had been set up using a large boulder

as a defensive wall. Lu's severed arm was already patched at the severing site and now a temporary and functional replacement was being formed with nanite ceramitech.

"Can you put a blade at the end?" Lu smiled. "I always wanted a blade for a hand."

Corporal Pui looked on confused, her large brown eyes widened. Not the most imaginative cadet.

"A blade?"

Corporal Fan looked over at Lieutenant Dong who had heard the odd request and had walked over to the seven foot by seven foot temporary med center.

"Private Lu you want a blade at the end of your arm? Really?"

"Hai! Yes ma'am. I know it’s an odd request, but I know these demon clams will be upon us at some point. I can't really wield a hand weapon with too much dexterity

with the replacement limb. A large blade would be more instinctive and utilize gross motor skills in close combat."

The two blossom corporals looked at the hardy private as if she should be confined to the luna psych unit, the infamous ‘Garden of Broken Blossoms’.

Dong Shen Yin smiled and laughed. "That’s a really clever idea. Do it, Corporal Fan!"

The two corporals now looked at their commander in the same manner, looks hinting that the Garden would be filled up after they got back to Luna—if they got back to Luna.

Corporal Ma was setting up perimeter sensors and Lieutenant Dong joined her. After that they began to set up the cybermortars and mini mines. The strategy was to have a defensive position that could lead to the damaged shuttle in the case of being overrun. The damned leviathans either were large and overwhelming or smaller and numerous, using a swarming strategy. Lieutenant Dong had been in seven ground battles with the 'clams', the wounded Captain Zheng had been in ten. Private Lu was in three. The rest were what they were, virginal and tender blossoms. They would either bloom in combat or be plucked by a clawed, acid dripping tentacle.

Dong Shen Yin then checked on the wounded again. Private Lu was already smiling, hopped up on syndren and learning how to wield her new blade hand. Already she was testing the sharpness of the blade on some loose hanging wiring from the shuttle. They separated like bean curd being sliced, even with the metal casings. A leviathan shell was nowhere near as hard as titanium.

The two women looked at each other and Lu had a big northern grin on her face.

Lieutenant Dong then turned to her dear comrade. Captain Zheng was stabilized but her crushed legs could not be replaced without major surgery, impossible except on luna. Her internal injuries were even more pressing. The reality of seeing her best friend crippled and slowly dying struck her deep inside, deep enough to hide in her expression.

Except she was betrayed again, through her eyes; water came.

Captain Zheng looked up at her best friend and battle sister. A bloody smile, that seemed to be saying goodbye already.

"Dying here with my sisters, what else could a Luna soldier want in the end?"

Pui and Fan began to tear up. Ma looked on with a sad expression. Lu smiled and then broke the sadness by kneeling in front of her commander.

"Captain Zheng, I am blessed by the Gods to have served with you! Live or die, we live on in Luna! May I personally slay ninety-nine of the devil clams and join you in Heavenly peace as the hundredth pierces my innards!"

Private Lu then rose and saluted with her blade hand in the 'western devil' fashion, the sharp blade nearly shaving her eyebrows.

Pui, Fan and Ma stared on again like she was insane. Captain Zheng however returned her salute in the western devil fashion. Dong Shen Yin did as well. Private Lu's dedication and warrior spirit were from another time and place, which was the proper spirit needed to deal with this less than optimal situation.

However, Lieutenant Dong did see room for a slight improvement.

"Corporal Fan, add some hooks to Private Lu's demon clam slaying blade. Pulling a trigger is still preferable to 'hand to hand' combat, at least initially."

"Hai!"

Lieutenant Dong then sat by her slowly dying superior.

"Ever the practical one, aye," Zheng, coughed through a weak bloody smile.

Dong Shen Yin wanted to answer but could not.

"Scholar, Defiant One. Who would you defy now? To lead I know has always been your secret dread," gagged Captain Zheng.

She was facing the end of her earthly life. Yet her main concern was the well being of the person she had known the longest next to her parents.

"What else is left to defy, but the cruel heavens? To the creator who made this life constant war, to create things like the Leviathans. That is who I defy now."

Dong Shen Yin's fists clenched and her tears flowed. Zheng clasped her hands.

"So tragic and romantic, like the western devils who we emulated. I don't want you to go down in a hopeless battle. Try to get these blossoms back to Chang'e's basket. Is the tracer beacon working?"

"It is. But we won't be rescued in time for-"

"No, I won't be rescued in time, scholar." Zheng interrupted. "They have a chance. I want that to be your goal."

Before Lieutenant Dong could respond she heard the yelling of distant voices. Privates Gao and Zhuo were apparently back from their recon. The looks of horror frozen on their faces was not reassuring.

"Hundreds of them, hundreds—Squibs!"

Squibs. Devil squid. Razor sharp tentacled, brain sucking leviathan spawn. What demon could summon such infernal progeny, already lethal upon inception?

“Blossoms get to formation! They are one shot kills and not so tough like the big ones. Discipline and ammo will get us through this alive. All of us!"

Dong Shen Yin could almost not believe that it was her saying such words. But there she was. Intentionally using the cadence and spirit of the long extinct Anglo Saxon devils she had studied in her books. That bandit kingdom disgraced the Celestial Empire through trickery and using peasants as effective fodder to pierce her borders.

Now it was their turn, the peasants from the rock in the sky. The daughters of the Han returned to storm the gates of Hell.

"For the Han! For Luna!" Dong Shen Yin shouted, unsheathing her moon blade and holding it aloft.

"For the Han! For Luna!" the surviving blossoms shouted in unison.

Their battle cry was met by the increasing squishing sounds of thousands of tentacles, climbing up to their position.

-To Be Continued in Tentacle Storm.