A Stormforce 10 Adventure™ November 1998 |
Under the ocean, in the Canadian Arctic, hangs an antique bathysphere. Attached to the sphere by tubes and wires floats Krill Stromer. This beautiful blonde seems normal enough, except that the water is impossibly cold, she wears no breathing gear, and an ancient voice murmurs instructions inside her head. (As seen on the cover.) Things get weirder. Jellyfish circle. Giant tentacles wrench at the bathysphere. And a gigantic extinct fish full of teeth roams the water. Enter some US Navy divers, very surprised. They grab "the floater" and cut her lines. They sweep aside jellyfish. And fire an explosive harpoon into the not-extinct monster fish. And head for the surface. |
More weirdness. In the Antarctic Ocean, Krill's support ship loses her signal. Somehow the bathysphere ended up in the Arctic Ocean - on the other side of the planet! The Navy divers are from the ship Polyphemus. Doctors go nuts. Krill's body temperature is inhumanly low, so they dunk her in a warming tank. A medic takes a blood sample and finds "freakin' antifreeze!" Is she in Deep Diving Response? "Pray for it." The ship's captain wants answers. Polyphemus investigates recent Arctic Ocean phenomena: crazy magnetic fluxes, warm water currents, giant extinct fish, and more. Now they've found "flotsam, a bogey" a wonder woman who should be dead. |
Krill recovers. The voice in her head talks about krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures who act like "the grass of the ocean". Krill's grandmother's voice urges she "seize the future!" In the ship's hold, engineers study the bathysphere wreckage, but "it's all beyond bizarre." A sailor makes a secret radio call. His code name is Shiva (the destroyer). His unknown boss orders he retrieve Krill "at any cost". Meanwhile, Krill's support ship requests their own agent fly to her rescue. |
While Krill dreams of a female French knight who fights on a medieval battlefield. Except she wears armor like some Lord of Atlantis. She's Krill's ancestor. And as we'll learn, she's not really dead, but taking up space in Krill's head. |
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Krill wakes up. She throws powerful punches until the medics sedate her. In Sick Bay, she asks, "Am I a prisoner?" Nope. She's a guest on a United Nations, uh, research vessel. She was rescued by Captain Jubal Early, USN Special Forces. (A SEAL.) Krill must contact her friends in the Antarctic. "Something down there CHANGED me... but I can't remember what." Traumatic amnesia? Krill snarls, "Don't patronize me, Doctor. I'm a doctor of Oceanography and a professional mechanical engineer. I always think rationally." OK. Jubal Early asks questions. The bathysphere? Krill built the XB-022 from "old notes... from my grandmother." |
Krill tested the bathysphere, but got more than she expected. Somehow she was changed, mutated. When she dunks her hand in a fish tank, her skin turns translucent, then mottle-camouflaged like an octopus's. She also senses "something terrible is yet to come..." It does. Slithery sea-ickies attack the ship. Giant tentacles, centipedes, mussel-things, and spike-fish swarm up the sides. Their aim is to pull the ship down through the ice!  |
Sailors blast away with shotguns and rifles at slimy leechy critters thirty feet tall. Krill opts for an axe and pickaxe. Black blood flies. Jubal Early wonders, "Krill, who the hell are you? And what have you brought to this ship?" Jubal Early wants to evacuate Krill. "No. You idiot. I'm not in your battle, you're in mine!" |
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A copter lifts, but not far. The double-agent Shiva snuck on board. He shoots the pilot and co-pilot, then mans a gatling gun. He shoots down a second copter and guns for a light plane buzzing about. Polyphemus is awash in blood, ichor, dead sailors and monster chunks. Krill takes action. "This... is... hopeless..." She'll fight the sea creatures on their own turf. Shucking her jacket and grabbing an anchor, Krill leaps over the side, crashes through the ice, and sinks... To be continued... |
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See covers and read synopses of the rest of the series! |
Comments What an epic! Over four issues, we'll learn the story starts with the origins of life on the planet, skips to the Middle Ages, then dives into the present. Along the way we get ancestral feuds, altered DNA, religious cults, antique and exotic weapons, a Japanese consortium, two or three conspiracies, and lots more. To really keep you on your toes, the authors introduce 20-odd characters, dozens of ancillary staff, AND ancient ancestors. And like a Russian novel, everyone has two titles and two or three names. |
And, for authenticity, everyone speaks in techno-babble, military slang, political euphemisms, code words, and outright lies. And the brain-murmur is in French. The story moves like a rocket, jumps all over the planet, drops big gobs of explanation, includes a few kisses, then wraps up way too quickly. The reader is never bored. In conversation with a Dark Horse editor, we learned there won't be any more SubHuman comics. Low sales. Too bad. Below is an early sketch from the back of the book. Nice smile! |
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