Chapter 28: Octo Expansion Part 5

 Octo Expansion Part 5 is the twenty-eighth chapter of the Splatoon manga.

Plot
The telephone introduces itself as Commander Tartar, an AI created by a human scientist to pass on human knowledge to any species worthy enough. The Commander has judged both Inklings and Octarians as unworthy of receiving its knowledge and begins activating a weapon to destroy and recreate life on Earth, fueled by the raw material of the failed subjects that it seeks to use to create "perfect" life. Due to making a promise to have Eight participate in Turf Wars, Blue Team and Rider agree to stop the NILS Statue, with Eight himself and Seven also agreeing to help out, as the group starts to cover it with ink for 3 minutes after Pearl and Marina give them their respective usual weapons, with Seven having the Octo Shot. They split up to focus on turfing different parts of the statue. However, it is too wide, and they only turfed 30% of it when only 1 minute remains. Commander Tartar tells them to give up, but Goggles assures that battles are different now in the present as they spread friendship. Once Marina started throwing her prototype "hyperbombs", the progress of turfing the statue has significantly increased to the point it has been fully turfed. Commander Tartar attempts to fire the paste regardless, but Pearl stops it through her Princess Cannon powered by her voice. With the day saved and Commander Tartar destroyed, Pearl and Marina hug with everyone else celebrating. The Sanitized Octarians fell, and Eight and Seven spot two more of their teammates on a lifeboat. All of them smile, finally being able to reach the surface. As Cap'n Cuttlefish and Marina take the Octarians back to Octo Valley, the Blue Team and the Octolings, now a team of their own, engage in a Turf War, ending the Octo Expansion Arc.

Characters

 * Goggles
 * Eight
 * Commander Tartar

Continuity
to be added

Trivia

 * The Professor is briefly shown in a panel, but with his face partially obscured.
 * Tartar uses various octarians to guard NILS Statue, which are not featured in-game.
 * Amusingly, according to this chapter Tartar not only looks like a Telephone, but can be used as one as well.
 * Sanitized Octarians are shown swimming in water this chapter, which might suggest they don't share their humanoid cousins' vulnerability to water.