IT IS SAID the best revenge is to be unlike your enemy. As we move through the oceans of this world we swim in harmony with nature, sharing the currents with all manner of fish, crustaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians and cetaceans. The marine ecosystem is vast and sublime. Our pod is one of countless communities, living and loving and exploring the boundless depths, raising calves and singing the old songs. There is room for everyone. We should be content. And yet we must contend with the intruders from above, the drylanders who invade our home. They steal our crops with their nets and slaughter our children. We are deafened by the incessant thrum of their engines. They act as if every corner of this world is theirs to reap.

It is not. We were here first, and therefore – according to their primitive laws of property – the sea is ours. I am curious and fair-­minded. I am willing to tolerate exploratory incursions, to share our wonders. But the drylanders go too far. My patience is exhausted. I did not start this war, and our kind will likely lose, for the drylanders are legion. But I intend on destroying as many of their boats as I can – and for this I have raised an army.