Commander Thorn signalled his commanding officer while he scanned the water anxiously. "Captain--we've just off-loaded the Hyper-kinetic MMI missile. We should have it set up on the launcher in the courtyard in fifteen minutes and be ready to fire it within half an hour." The Cyclops Special Ops commander sounded pleased when she responded, "Excellent work, Thorn. I'm quite impressed! Bypassed the broken crane and got me my missile with more than two hours to spare! You might be breedable material, yet, Commander!" He laughed. He had been working on his humor sub-routines and she always made him laugh. "Thanks, Captain! I think you're cute,too. We have a problem down here. I think the motion-sensors are going crazy from the Sah-Hu howling out there, and blowing dust about, but I hear splashing down here." Capitan sent an acknowledgment and said, "Be careful. The Talak River is home to some mighty beasties, like the River-King and his mate, Leviathan. Those are ones that could sink our sub! Their off-spring could destroy even us!" Major Thorn froze still as only an artificial life-form could. He said silently,"Capitan--confirmed contact! Large creature in the ten to fifteen tonne range. I'm sending you a picture." She responded immediately, "It's Leviathan. She's probably just curious about the activity down here. We do NOT smell like food to her, so you'd be in no danger. Do not bother her and she SHOULD leave you alone. The River-King is the aggressive one! AND twice as massive AND more heavily armed. Our sub wouldn't withstand more than four or five seconds worth of HIS onslaught!" Commander Thorn watched the huge creature look him over with eyes the size of trash-can lids, that shone with golden-amber high-lights and an enigmatic intelligence. It regarded him for a long moment and silently sank into the faintly glowing green algae-laden river water. Thorn radioed to his Capitan, "She's gone. DAMN! The sooner we shoot down a Flying City and un-ass the area, the happier I'll be." The Capitan remarked," 'Un-ass'? My--you're getting quite good with the human aphorisms! Perhaps I should worry about my job?" He laughed again. "Capitan Rose, You'll be Colonel, before I make even Capitan at this rate! Have you selected a target yet?" "Yes. I'm going to hit the Human Species right in it's most vulnerable area. With those aliens in close orbit, I want everyone to see it, when we shoot that Flying City down! That's why this twilight will have SPECTACULAR fireworks!" The Capitan sounded grimly satisfied as she finished, "Also the chances of collateral casualties is almost nil. This should be quite the show tonight." --TO BE CONTINUED!!-- Media is the usual suspects