Chapter 148 - The Atlantian Base And Operation.

At a certain part of the sea, inside the cliff surrounding the ocean volcano was another influence of Atlantians after so many years.

The Crimson fleet under Staff Sergeant Barnes' command already created their base of operations in the cliff. They imitated the sea creatures in this region, annihilating a family of predators that once occupied a cave in the cliff.

After annihilating the predators, they took the cave for themselves.

Some of Barnes' advisors suggested that their base should be made inside the 17 warships and not inside a cave originally inhabited by dirty predators, granting them more maneuverability but the Staff Sergeant refused. 

Making their base of operations inside the warships was not impossible, but the Staff Sergeant still refused.

This was because they were no longer in their large military base. This was not an area where Atlantians had a strong presence, this was a region that was infested by sea monsters that could annihilate them with just one small mistake.

Making the warships their base of operations would lessen the alert level of the fleet as a whole. The soldiers would no longer feel as tense and serious, they would become negligent, thinking that everything was under control.

Such a situation could prove dangerous, easily leading to unnecessary deaths and setbacks which he was not resigned for.

Barnes did not want a situation where the need called for it, but his fleet couldn't respond to battle immediately because non-combatant crew filled the warships, and taking them to battle may endanger them.

All non-combatants were to stay inside the cave and do the day-to-day activities there, only war-hardened soldiers were qualified to man the warships.

With this decision from him, the base of operations was finalized.

Outside the entrance to the cave hovered the 17 warships, keeping a safe distance from each other while maintaining a tight battle formation at the same time in the case it was needed.

Stealth shuttles with soldiers manning them were placed at different locations in the area, where they acted as the danger-scouting unit.

Accompanying them in the danger-scouting job were mechanical dogs, fish, and sharks. These machines of technology were non-sentient, purely machines that were created and programmed to scout for danger.

They swam around the military base, blasting everywhere with their sensors to search for any danger or intruder into the base.

At this moment, bright orange light shone from the distance into the military base as 3 mini-submarines found their way back to the base.

One of the mini-submarines towed another from behind.

"It's the Staff Sergeant".

As soon as the soldiers confirmed the identity of the mini-subs, the warships parted slightly, opening a part for them to pass through.

The mini-submarines were granted unrestricted access to the entrance of the cave. There, Staff Sergeant Barnes, a group of Atlantian soldiers, and researchers came out as they all swam inside the cave.

As they left, another group of soldiers came out of the mini-submarines. They worked together to drag 3 enormous iron cages inside the cave.

With Staff Sergeant Barnes taking the lead, they all entered the cave.

From its original plain background, the cave was already renovated slightly. The Atlantians worked on it, demarcating it into chambers and rooms for research and other purposes.

This mission to look for the inheritor of the Ocean King's ability was like looking for a needle in a haystack. This was because they didn't know the species of the inheritor, and there were thousands of species in Oceania.

This was the main reason why the Crimson Fleet came with scientists of various fields for the mission. After so little time, with the help of the scientists, the search radius of the fleet was already narrowing a lot.

Before becoming the Ocean King where he evolved into his own unique species, the 1st Sea King was once a Megalodon. 

This necessarily didn't mean that his inheritor would be a Megalodon or the lesser Great White Shark, but the connection alone meant that Great White Sharks would be targeted by the fleet.

Another fact was that no creature with a low-tier bloodline had what it took to inherit a unique skill. This basically eliminated all species of creatures with low-tier bloodlines, leaving only those with the potential to become apex predators.

With this and other deductions, the fleet's targets gradually narrowed and they already had a scale of preference of which species of creatures to give special attention to than others.

A few days ago, they officially started their operation. They started a hunt for all the creatures with high tier bloodlines in this region, catching them alive if possible but killing if taking them alive was not feasible.

Like in the previous battle, though their mini-submarines also suffered, they succeeded in killing 4 Great White Sharks on the spot and capturing 3 which were stored in the iron cages.

For those that were captured, they were all to be handed over to the scientists. After over a millennium of development, Atlantis already had numerous technological and medical breakthroughs.

One of these was the ability of scientists to check the bloodline of creatures through the use of special machines and calculations. Through this, they could also check if a creature had a unique skill.

This was the fleet's trump card for this mission.

Clang!

After taking them to the special labs, the 3-iron cage was dropped by the soldiers. The 3 sharks were already beaten to the point of death, so they didn't even resist as the soldiers dragged them out. 

Inside this lab, structures like deep freezers were placed all over the place where captured sea creatures were kept and preserved.

These were the creatures that were already captured by the fleet and experimented on by the scientists. They were not the target, but the scientists still kept and preserved one of each species for documentation purposes.

With the scientists directing them, the 3 Great White Sharks were placed on iron beds that were placed in the lab. There, they were restrained by strong durable ropes as the scientists started controlling their machines to start work.

Whoosh!

A white substance was diffused in the water surface, entering the shark's pores as their aggressiveness was toned down to the bȧrėst minimum before the scientists went closer.

The blood of the sharks was then taken through injections.

As the scientists worked, Staff Sergeant Barnes silently watched through the transparent screen that was used to demarcate the lab from other chambers.

As he watched, his second in command, Sergeant Raila swam into the chamber. "I heard you had an encounter with a group of intelligent Great Whites".

"Yes".

"I heard you couldn't subdue their leader".

"…" Barnes didn't answer that and Raila didn't press on.

Sergeant Raila joined him as they both watched the scientists working silently. While watching, the female Sergeant played with her dagger.

"From this encounter, do you perhaps think that a shark clan is around here somewhere? If there is, that'll be the best target for us".

Hearing the question, Staff Sergeant Barnes kept quiet as he was submerged in thought. He didn't think of this before but now that Raila said it, he couldn't help but feel that she was right.

Before he could reply, the scientists stopped their work and removed their water-proof masks. The lead scientist also removed his mask and turned to face his superiors.

"Negative".