'My hand grasps the Killing power in Heaven and earth;

To behead the evil ones, spare the just, and ease the people's sorrow.

My eyes roam north and west, beyond the rivers and mountains,

My voice booms east and south to the edge of the sun and moon.'

-Hong Xiquan, Taiping Heavenly King

The actual explosions from the anti squib mines lasted only five minutes, but the perception of time for Dong Shen Yin and her battle sisters stretched that to a sort of pseudo infinity; the sound and shockwaves drilling into their very souls like some torture in one of the levels of hell the Buddhists believed. How many of the Buddhists in the squad were left? The atheists had lost around three.

Why Dong Shen Yin was thinking such things in the middle of a battle was a mystery to her as well. She had always lived in her own mind, so to speak, in a way that most others did not. It was her refuge and her strength, her kingdom and her rebellion. It was why she was able to survive when others perished, their minds and spirits dying before their bodies.

They relied so much on the physical and the abstract, neglecting what tied them together. Some old Terran had said it was the heart, but Dong Shen Yin knew better than to trust that unreliable and much hated organ. For her it was the mind, her mind, strong and tight as a battle cruiser. Discipline combined with imagination. Oh yes, the old Terran had been right about that—the imagination.

She imagined getting back to Luna with the Captain alive. She imagined visiting the real China. She imagined her next mission going the opposite direction, to explore Mars.

She imagined beheading the beast underneath them in which these squibs were merely spermatozoids attempting to impregnate. She imagined then strangling a skinny black man with empty eye sockets and a large head.

"Huh?" What the hell was she thinking?

Looks like the battle cruiser had sprung a leak. If she did survive this, it looks like she was sharing a padded room with Private's Lu and Zhuo in the Garden of Broken Blossoms.

Suddenly the explosions stopped. It was time to survey the damage done the enemy and then prepare to mop up the survivors or maybe have to fight yet another wave.

Lieutenant Dong looked over the top of the trench, the smoke like a mist allowing no visibility. Using her UV lenses she made out large craters and thousands of globs of organic matter strewn all over. Some were, still moving but none were intact. A minute later no new wave emerged. For now it looked like they had won. Of course with the Leviathans that could all change in the next minute. She climbed over the top and surveyed the clearing smoke with her pulse carbine.

Nothing.

Could she imagine victory?

"Damn, what do you know!"

Private Guo stepped up over the top of the trench and joined her commander. "Did we get them all?"

"I hope so. Keep lookout while I see where we stand."

"We are not doing so well, Lieutenant," Private Guo said softly, and then she began to tear up. Her training and discipline would not allow her more than that.

"Don't worry, sister. They will come for us. I just hope it's our sisters. The boys get so jealous when we show them up."

Dong Shen Yin smiled and put a reassuring hand on Guo's armored shoulder. Trying to salvage morale was now the crucial thing. Now she had to see how the rest were doing.

Corporal Fan was dead. Drawing her last breath unknown to all and probably when the squibs were setting off the mines. Corporal Ma was now sprawled on the floor, conscious but weakening. Private Lu was bowing to Fan's body and swearing to avenge her and all the others lost to the devil clams. Private Zhuo was nowhere in sight.

"Where is Zhuo?" Lt Dong asked in alarm. Had she wandered off in her shell shocked state?

"Who cares! She is a traitor and a coward. I hope the devil clams are feasting on her," Lu, said behind folded arms.

“We are all Battle Sisters! Don't say such things in my presence Private Lu, or I shall beat the living hell out of you and stick that blade right up your rectum!" Now Dong Shen Yin had finally lost her cool.

Corporal Ma was too fatigued to care, but Private Lu had a look of shock. Then she smiled and saluted.

"Yes ma'am! Forgive me for my outbursts, I, I seem to be getting carried away."

Lu's face then changed and she looked sad for the first time. Lu had reached her breaking point as well but mercifully just sat down on the trench floor. All the violence and rage in her soul had been spent in the battle.

Lieutenant Dong's face softened. Lu had killed maybe more Squibs than her and in hand to hand no less.

"I'm going to check on the Captain. Guo is on lookout." With that Lieutenant Dong walked to the wrecked shuttle. The beacon was still operational, hopefully reaching main command and with that a pickup. There were twenty other Contact missions going on, surely one could detour and pick up some stranded orphans.

Then she discovered where Zhuo had gone. The shell shocked soldier was tending to Captain Zheng who seemed to almost be recovering, the look of madness now seemingly gone from her eyes. Dong Shen Yin began to smile, maybe for the first time.

"We got em, Cap. A great victory but we lost Fan and Pui."

Captain Zheng closed her eyes and looked down, her lips straightening. They had lost so many Blossoms on this mission; routine contact and then this calamity. Her body then shuddered and she began to cough, crimson dripping from the corner of her mouth onto her hands.

"Captain!" Private Zhuo tried to support Zheng and motioned her to lie down. Dong Shen Yin came over and took her best friend's hand.

"We'll get picked up soon, I'm sure. Before the month is over, we will all be bored and want to come back to this place."

Zheng's eyes locked onto Dong Shen Yin's.

"I thought you respected me enough not to lie to me, Defiant One."

Before Lieutenant Dong could respond, the shuttle began to shudder suddenly. The whole hillside was moving as if they were being hit by an earthquake. Zhuo winced, like an animal use to being beaten and anticipating another strike. The noise of the earth moving under their feet increased as did the vibrations. Dong Shen Yin ran out to survey the extent of this new phenomenon and nearly lost her footing. Linking up to her personal intercom, she called out to her battle sisters further down the hill.

"Guo! Report. What the hell is going on?"

At first there was no response, then a garbled voice, almost a scream.

"Leviathan!!"

Fear was not forthcoming in Dong Shen Yin. Anger instead rose up in her like she had never felt before. These damned creatures, the fact that they were

just animals and not sentient almost made it more maddening. It was hard to build a true and cold hatred for large predatory mollusks. Still they seemed to be organized for ambushes and other almost thinking type behavior.

She then had a vision of that weird big headed black man again.

"Ngh! Devil. Are you behind this?" Dong Shen Yin realized she had blood in her mouth and was biting down on her tongue. The pain and taste of her blood triggered the killing instinct. Before exiting the shuttle she grabbed one of the old phased out battle shields and another filament spear. If she had to kill a million of these things, commit leviathan genocide she would do it, not for Luna, but for her friends and for her own endless pit of hate and rage.

"Narggghhhhhhh!" Dong ran out to see six massive tentacles that had risen from the earth whipping about and attacking what was left of the squad. Lu and Guo were blasting away as was a hobbled Ma. Fan's lifeless body had already been grasped in a tri clawed tentacle and thrown high in the air. A sickening sound like scissors cracking something was heard and Fan's body was now divided into two halves. A split second later her upper torso exploded in mid air; the honor bomb having detonated without avenging her desecration. Just more hate to fuel a now murderous 23 year old Luna officer.

"Devil! I have taken your monstrous seed and will now take you, piece by piece! Your master is next!" Dong Shen Yin screamed to the very heavens.

Even her comrades, engaged in a new struggle, stopped momentarily and stared at their commander. The look of fear in their eyes, fear of what she emanated and that the most solid of them had now lost her mind.

Three of the tentacles seemed to go specifically for her at that moment. Lieutenant Dong's filament spear extended to its maximum length of sixteen feet and she

raised the battle shield up. Her comrades began to shoot the tentacles as she engaged the claw ends which circled around her to find an opening. After mere seconds One of the tentacles was minus a tri-claw and bisected nearly half way down. Another had been shot to pieces by the combined rail and pulse gun fire of Guo, Ma and Lu who were now joined by Zhou and Zheng, who was leaning on the now recovered soldier.

A muffled yet shrill cry could be heard emanating from the very earth underneath their feet.

Dong Shen Yin was now facing the third tentacle which now faced her as if in a challenge. The other Luna soldiers now had to deal with the other three and could not help her.

The thought of manually operating a driller crossed her mind but that would take too much time. With that thought, the forte of the tentacle slammed at Dong Shen Yin at full speed. Her shield protected her from the impact but it knocked her down. Then a tri-claw went right for her, closing so that it formed a three foot long bony spearhead.

She barely rolled out of the way, impeded by holding the shield, and lost the grip on her spear. Leviathan claws at full bore had impaled many a battle shield, hence their being phased out. But Dong Shen Yin knew as all fighting men had known for millennia, the shield is a weapon.

Drawing her moon blade, she immediately was trying to flank the tentacle and retrieve the spear. The tentacle seemed to know this and it maneuvered to block her.

How the hell did they know how to do that? They had to be sentient.

The tri-claw then opened and went for her with the chilling, ‘clack clack’ sound of it opening and closing and seeking her unprotected flesh.

"Devil Squid!" Lu cried, as she jumped onto of the tentacle close to the tri-claw and brought it down to the ground. Using her blade arm she hacked at the tentacle and soon it was declawed.

"Commander, spear it!" Lu screamed as the tentacle began to shake her off. Dong Shen Yin grabbed the spear and somersaulted to get her body in the air, the full weight of her body driving the spear point home into the main part of the tentacle. Immediately the spear let loose a blast of electricity causing the tentacle to shudder and another muffled and louder cry to emanate from the earth. Now the ground began to shake even more.

Dong and Lu barely had time to catch their breath when a scream, this time human, emanated from behind them. Dong Shen Yin turning to see what horrible fate yet another sister was to suffer. It was Zhuo who had screamed but not for her own being. Dong Shen Yin's eyes widened in horror.

Captain Zheng was wrapped in one of the tentacles and slammed against the ground.

"No!" she screamed as she and Dong and Lu ran over to try and save their critically wounded commander. She would not be food for the Leviathans. Not her!

Captain Zheng was being dragged by the tentacle to the opening where the tentacle originated. Dong Shen Yin and Lu were joined by Guo with Zhuo and Ma trying to keep the other tentacles off them. Guo, the fastest was the first to try and grab Zheng and the tri claw immediately went for her.

Lu sliced at it with her blade hand and missed but drove it back. Soon Guo and Dong were grabbing their commander by her armor and then her arms.

The mortally wounded commander was staring at her sisters with a seemingly calm face.

"Let me go."

"No. I won't let it get you. I won't!" Dong Shen Yin and Guo were desperately trying to keep her from being dragged under but they were not strong enough. Even with Lu adding her one good arm while repeatedly stabbing the tentacle with her blade hand.

"Let me redeem my honor." Zheng smiled as blood dripped from her mouth. "That’s an order."

Dong Shen Yin's eyes filled with water. They all understood. Even then it took another second for them to do what every instinct in them was telling them not to.

Zheng screamed defiantly as they let her go and she was drawn into the bowels of unforgiving earth.

"For Luna! For the Han!"

Dong Shen Yin froze and time seemed to stop as she saw her best friend, commander, and battle sister disappear. All the good times and bad, the struggle and battles they had shared passed before her. Then she saw him; the true Devil himself, black empty eyes and a smile of the whitest teeth. Dong Shen Yin swore to draw her last breath only after she had his head.

Then the shaking of the earth and a shockwave brought her back to the real time. Now the cry of pain from below was easily heard. Zheng had hurt the damned thing. Immediately the earth shifted under their feet and soon the hill was changing shape.

"The Demon wants to show itself, sisters! Lets greet it with our steel." Lu grinned like a demon herself.

What arose from the earth was truly something that could have only been conceived in Hell itself. Nearly Thirty feet tall, it seemed at first like a large mushroom with smaller caps along the side. Its base was like a large tail, but was actually a large tentacle with smaller ones on either side as a stabilizer. Hundreds of feelers along the front pulsated in sequence, like how a shrimps legs scurry. A large, almost flower like growth opened and closed on its back, as if in anticipation of receiving something. Three red eyes in a pyramid like formation seemed to glow with recognition. Various orifices along either side of the feelers opened and closed, inhaling and expelling. The largest one positioned on top opened into a roar that chilled the blood of the Daughters of the Han. Dark green blue liquid poured out of those openings. All except one.

The Leviathan lurched forward in a manner that immediately showed that it was hurt. One of the openings seemed to be larger than the other, razor sharp

teeth hanging down in a flap. Captain Zheng was being drawn into that thing when she blew herself up. The thought was like a dagger impaled into Dong Shen Yin's brain. Her hands shook with an energy that caused her to tremble. The only way to release it was to kill.

What she did next was almost unbelievable even to her.

Without even setting up her cardio implant enhancement, she ran and leaped up at the shuddering Leviathan. Her two hands ripped deep into where its three red eyes glowed and she felt for them. Green blue blood splattered all over her as she released a scream of rage that hurt the already traumatized ears of her sisters. Energy crackled and emanated from Dong Shen Yin, the simulated fury of Heaven.

She held tight and bracing with her legs, arched with back as far as she could go. Screaming, she ripped the brainstem out of the female Leviathan. Falling backward nearly thirty feet to the ground, she landed on her back but did not feel it. The slimy, pulsating thing in her hands wriggled as if it was a separate organism. Dong Shen Yin no longer cared about anything now, her now dilated pupils staring up at the sky. The moon could be seen in the blue sky—the white sphere where she was born, although it did not register. She did not hear her battle sisters calling to her. She did not hear the now lifeless body of the female leviathan falling to the ground. She did not hear the sound of the leviathan brain stem being crushed in her hands and then becoming still.

All she heard was a song that seemed to speak to her; a song from beyond yet very much of this earth; a song of one tending a garden and looking for another place to plant his seed; the place Dong Shen Yin now stared at, as if through another’s watery eyes; the white crescent in a sea of blue.