Chapter 40: Sally, Fastest Route to Nearest Pharmacy
After searching around for an hour or two with maximum terrestrial scanner range, and several dead ends, a potential entry cave was detected in the grand reef. Unlike the caves of the jelly shrooms or the trenches of the blood kelp, this cave started at a much greater depth then any of the other areas they had searched. Not only that, but Sally was picking up an unidentified structure at the mouth of the cave.
The Determination edged down toward the grand reef floor and toward the cave's mouth.
"You think it's related to the facility we're heading to, Jeff?"
Jeff rotated lazily in his chair, propping his head up with his arm on the terminal and extending his legs to the side of it.
"I hope so. We don't really have any way of knowing which cave leads to this facility... or if there even is a cave that leads to it. For all we know there's some elevator that leads to it from some where else on the seafloor. Terrain scans don't show a dead end yet though so that's still promising. In fact, the cave seems to head in the direction of the facility's way-point. If this other structure we're approaching is alien, it aught to indicate we're on the right track... here's hopin'."
Palmer brought the Determination into the mouth of the cave dodging a dense curtain of large blue anchor pods.
"Well we should find out in a second. The structure is just up ahead."
Save for the faint bioluminescence of the anchor pods, it got dramatically darker as they slowly went deeper into the cave. Through the dark murk, one of the ship's forward floodlights caught a glimpse of the structure ahead of them.
"Wait... that's not alien..." Palmer said.
Jeff looked through the dorsal cam.
"That's human! But... where did... The Degasi! This must be where they moved after their attempt in the jelly shroom caves."
"I'd ask why the heck they would want to move down here with these creepy crab squids, but after they moved into an area with crab snakes, I think they're decision making is beyond questionable at this point."
The two stared at the structure. It was perched atop a large natural pillar that might have once been a connection to the cave ceiling.
"Doesn't look like they fared any better than their last two outposts," Jeff said.
"That's for sure... So uh... guess it's time to break out the PRAWN suit eh?" Palmer said with a smirk.
"Just be careful man, those crab squids are aggressive. I'll man Determination while you're in there and if any get too close I'll show 'em are new toys."
Palmer got up from his seat and Jeff switched over to the yoke. Palmer headed for the secondary bay and dropped down into the PRAWN suit.
"I'll be quick." Palmer said over comms.
The sound of the bay doors opening echoed through the hull and Jeff looked at the sonar as a friendly green signature showed up. The green blip slowly made its way along the underside of the ship until, with a burst of bubbles from the propulsion system, Palmer became visible through the pilot's bubble as he made his way toward the structure. The outpost was much simpler than the one at the jelly shroom caves. It had a stack of three MP rooms at the center with two observation bubbles sticking out the sides. The main entrance was a tube hallway at the bottom that lead out onto a platform that extended beyond the surface of the pillar but this section had fragmented long ago which gave an entry for Palmer at the breaking point of the hallway.
Palmer landed on the platform and instantly the entire thing shifted slightly under the new weight.
"Watch it Palmer. That thing is very unstable. You should probably park the PRAWN suit up closer to the main section on the more stable foundation."
"Roger."
Palmer carefully boosted up off the sloping platform and landed on the sturdier one. Then, he exited the suit and pulled himself through the opening in the hallway.
"Alright, I'm in. I'm not seeing any of those cave crawler things so this aughta be a cake-walk."
Jeff watched the sonar for a few moments before Palmer spoke again.
"It's bad in here. There's bottles of booze strewn all over and unless that's some kind of moss or algae, there's blood stains. There's a PDA in the locker here... As usual most of its data is corrupted but there's a voice file here."
A few moments of silence.
"Ok, I downloaded it to my PDA and took a listen. At this point they've realized they're infected with what sounds to be the same bacteria we have. Only they seem to be in much worse condition. They describe coughing, itchiness, and blisters. We've felt the itchiness that's for sure but it's apparently going to get a whole lot worse."
"Sally, record the new symptoms to the data entry on the bacteria," Jeff said.
"They sound just as heated as before too. They're at a loss and this Marguerit lady isn't making anything better. The voice data ends with Bart asking for time to think. I'll look around for any more PDAs."
There was silence for a few more moments. Jeff saw Palmer exit through the broken hallway and swim up toward the tops of the MP room stack. Through a broken window in one of the observation bubbles, he swam in. More silence.
"They've got lab materials in here," Palmer said suddenly, "Most of it is broken but I'll scan it for future reference."
Jeff could hear the sound of a scanner on the other side of the comms. Then, Jeff saw a new blip on the sonar. It wasn't a crab squid, it wasn't a normal fish. It was something unidentified. It was small, but it came out of nowhere. It just showed up on the sonar half way between the edge of the sonar's range, and the Degasi outpost.
"I've got an unidentified signature on the sonar. It's nothing big, but just a heads up. I'll check it with the cams."
Jeff walked over to his terminal and eyed the cams. The tail cam got a visual. Jeff stood in alarm. It was one of those disappearing things. He had seen one by the gun platform before and he'd caught glimpses of them occasionally on resource runs, but most of the time they would just disappear in a cloud of bubbles and light before he would have time to investigate. This one seems to have come here on purpose.
"Hey Palmer, ya know those cloaking things I've told you about? Well, one just showed up. They haven't been aggressive before, but those mantis-like spikes on their arms makes cause for alarm. I'd say wrap it up and get back in you're PRAWN suit."
"Roger."
Then another identical blip showed up on the sonar. This one came from the opposite side of the Degasi outpost and closer too.
"Palmer, we've got another. I've never seen two in the same place at once. Hurry up."
Jeff watched Palmer swim out of the broken window and down to the PRAWN suit. Suddenly, two more of the creatures showed up on the sonar.
"Four of them?! This has got to be coordinated."
"Palmer, two more of em just came in."
With a boost from the propulsion system, Palmer started heading toward Determination.
"There's one coming up on your tail!"
Jeff watched as one of the creatures slowly came up behind Palmer at just a bit faster than he was able to go. Suddenly, Jeff saw Palmer disappear from inside the PRAWN suit.
"What the-"
The PRAWN suit began sinking with no control input from its pilot. As the suit fell out of view, Jeff spotted Palmer appearing out of a cloud of bubbles with three of the mantis-like creatures surrounding him.
"SALLY! TARGET ALL CLOSEST UNIDENTIFIED WARP CREATURES AND FIRE STASIS CANNONS!"
Suddenly a burst of electrical whirring emminated from the ship and two blinding beams shot out instantly at the creatures. Jeff brought his hand down from shielding his eyes and he saw Palmer swimming back toward him with the three creatures behind him caught in two overlapping stasis bubbles.
"Sally, maintain target lock and fire four torpedoes."
A rapid, muffled thump akin to that of a grenade launcher was heard echoing through the hull and three lighting fast torpedoes zipped toward the paralyzed targets. In three flashes that lasted only a second, the creatures were ripped apart in the explosions and large masses of bubbles shot toward the cave ceiling. The fourth blip also disappeared off the sonar as its corresponding torpedo made contact. A large cloud of yellow blood was all that remained of the creatures.
"Personnel airlock opened." Sally echoed.
Palmer climbed up the ladder onto the bridge and quickly slouched into the pilot's chair.
"That was terrifying! One moment I was sitting in the PRAWN suit, then suddenly, I lost all my senses. I couldn't feel, see, hear, smell, or taste anything! I thought I was dead! Then, in a rush of feeling, I found myself floating outside the PRAWN suit with a ringing in my ears and a numbness all over my body! What... What even just happened to me?"
"You were teleported. I knew those things had the ability to disappear, but I thought they just had some kind of advanced cloaking ability like an octopus's camouflage, but... they actually have the ability to teleport themselves and other creatures!"
Jeff turned to his terminal, "Sally, mark all corresponding signatures as aggressive.
"That was insane. How much energy did we lose from that stasis blast?"
Jeff stared at the energy meter, "A lot...I... I couldn't just use torpedoes. You were out there too close to the creatures. I'd'ave killed you if I opted to save energy."
"Yeah, I know... But we still lost energy. How much do we have left?"
"We were at 99%. now we're at 89%. A whole 10% was lost in 1 shot."
"So, taking the bioreactor into account, we really only have 9 stasis shots left..."
"Let's hope we can jump straight to torpedoes next time," Jeff said as he slumped into his chair and sighed.
Palmer turned toward the yoke, "Now, let's go pick up the PRAWN suit. I hope one of those stupid crab squids isn't sucking on it or I swear..."
Sorry guys! Was preparing for my brother's wedding, dealing with school, and all the good 'ol distractions of life! If that wasn't enough my laptop has been having issues with internet for a while that took some time to fix and another big reason is because the chapter I'm working on is almost finished but I need to take some time to hop into subnautica and make sure all my research and descriptions are accurate in-game!
Don't worry. As with every time I've been dormant for a while, I'm still here! Still reading your comments! Still trying to get the next chapter done! It should be coming rather soon!
"Thank God it's okay. That was a long fall. Bringing it on board."
Palmer activated the docking clamps to bring the PRAWN suit on board. He then got up from his seat and headed back to the docking bay. After a few moments he came back with two decrepit PDAs.
"I found a second one in the lab and here's the first one. See if you can salvage any of the corrupted files on your computer," He said handing him the devices.
Palmer resumed his seat at the yoke. Jeff took the data chip out of the PDAs and plugged them into the computer terminal. After several minutes of scanning and data decryption, only one more file was able to be recovered.
"I've got another voice file here Palmer," Jeff said looking intently at the computer screen. "The audio is corrupted but the text translation is legible... Margeurit Maida brought a living, "leviathan" as they call it, down here. Sounds to me like a reaper by Paul's reaction. Why in the universe would she bring one back to their base, let alone a living one! Gosh, I think I can safely say that was their fate. The base out there looks just as beat up as their last base if not more. If they survived, it would have been a miracle."
"Is she insane?! Ya know what, no, I think that was more obvious from the start. There's no way they had the materials to make weapons viable for killing a reaper."
Jeff scrolled through some files, "There's some other files here that I can open but most of the words are illegible. This one though," He said clicking on one, "The words that can be read here are disturbing. The title is 'The End' and look: 'out of nowhere', 'rupture', 'beast', and 'blood' are the only words not corrupted but they spell out the same conclusion I had earlier. Either that reaper they brought back retaliated, or something came and decimated them. Something tells me we won't be finding any more Degasi bases..."
"Well, if we get out of this mess alive, we can report on the demise of the Degasi crew in addition to, ya know, aliens exist and stuff."
Jeff removed the data chips from the computer terminal and got up to store them in a locker in the back of the ship. Meanwhile, Palmer began descending down toward the next cave section indicated by the terrain scans. When Jeff resumed his post, Palmer alerted him to something strange.
"I'm seeing some light from down there. Very faint and doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere in particular."
Jeff looked at the sonar, "Yeah and there's some new creature signatures coming up. Closest match is a jellyray."
As they descended further they discovered the source of the light.
Palmer cocked his head, "What is that? It's like another water layer... maybe brine? But why the heck is it glowing?"
"Everything on this planet seems to have an obsession with glowing..." Jeff looked at the cams and then to scan data appearing on screen, "I've got a visual on the new creatures. They're a bit bigger than the jellyrays but are more similar to manta rays back on Earth. These guys are transparent and blue, though, in a way that reminds me of the Ghost Leviathan..."
"Boom, Ghost Ray, archive it."
"Sounds good to me. They don't have any obvious aggressive attributes. Could be poisonous like the rabbit ray, though, so best not touch one until we get a more detailed scan."
Jeff continued, "On the subject of brine, you're assumption is correct, but this brine pool is extremely acidic. Let's not get to close."
"10-4," Palmer said as he leveled out Determination and started heading through the large brine-pool hall.
As they continued, a massive overturned rib-cage became visible sticking out of the brine layer.
"Whoa, extremely acidic... No kiddin'," Palmer said as he looked at the widening cave. "We've got several passages here. Looks like the waypoint takes us to the right, so to the right it is."
Palmer turned the Determination to the right and started heading further along the brine river. Slowly, they came to an opening where the brine river dropped off and the cave widened out into the distance. The first thing Palmer noticed was the massive skeletal structure just below them, but before he could comment on it, Jeff shouted.
"Whoa! I've got a Ghost Leviathan signature just up ahead! Kill the engine!"
Palmer instantly came to a stop and switched the engine off.
"I knew these buggers would be down here," He grumbled.
Through the green murk they could see it in the distance. The glowing blue body of the massive half-snake, half-hammerhead wandering around between the stalactites and between the rib bones of the massive skeleton on the cave floor that slightly dipped into the brine.
"Looks like it didn't notice us. Thank the maker..." Palmer turned back to Jeff with a grin, "Should we light 'im up?"
"Ya know Palmer, I just don't think I'm satisfied with the test we did on those warping things. Let's see what our torpedoes can do against a ghost!" Jeff smirked.
Though they both tried to be optimistic, they could feel their hearts pound in their chests at the thought of being this close to a creature that almost crumpled the Determination up like a wad of paper only a week prior.
"Sally, target Ghost Leviathan and fire all torpedoes on my mark," Palmer said.
"Affirmative. Target locked. Point of priority: Head region. All torpedo bays primed."
Jeff watched the sonar, "He's coming out of the murk again. He should be visible in a few moments."
Through the glass, Palmer watched intently. In the green murky water the viewing distance wasn't very far, but the blue glow of the Ghost Leviathan's exoskeleton came into view from behind a large stalactite on the cave ceiling. The creature began heading down toward the bottom leaving it out in the open water.
"Fire!"
All six torpedo bays fired in unison. The front four instantly shot out toward the creature while the two in the back slowly exited and did a 180 before shooting off in the same direction. The creature reacted to the sudden movement and jerked its head in the direction of the cyclops but this only made Sally's job easier. Three torpedoes nailed the creature in the face causing it to thrash around for a moment, dodging the remaining three torpedoes. The Ghost Leviathan began retreating into the murk while the remaining torpedoes all came back around and hit the tail region of the creature.
"Hah haa! Those things really do the trick don't they!" Palmer cheered.
"Scans detect a substantial quantity of exoskeletal mater from the Ghost Leviathan floating in the detonation zones. However, it appears the strike failed to draw blood," Sally reported.
"Hey, if it scares the thing away, I'll take it," Jeff said. "The thing has disappeared off the sonar so we should be clear to move ahead for a while. We'll probably see it again though, it's headed in the same direction we're going."
"Roger that," Palmer said as he brought the engine back online. "I'm going to go in for a closer look at that massive skeleton. Just the thought that something that big existed once... uhhg. Gives me the jibblies."
"We have every reason to believe that a living one is some where down here. If we see one, I doubt anything we have would be effective so we're toast unless we can wedge ourselves into a space it can't reach."
"Look at it, our cyclops could literally fit in its mouth!"
Palmer brought the cyclops down alongside the massive skull.
"We should scan it. Might be able to find something interesting about it," Jeff said.
Palmer broke eye-contact with Jeff and turned his head toward the window.
Jeff sighed, "Alright, I'll go. You get back here and watch the sonar."
"Feel free to take the PRAWN suit if u like," Palmer said.
"Nah, I'll stick with Talon. There's several unidentified signatures on the sonar and I'd rather have some agility on my side," He said while getting out of his chair.
While Jeff for the vehicle bay, Palmer got up and went over to Jeff's seat. Jeff dropped through the hatch down into Talon and detached down into the water. From out here, without the protective shell of the Determination, and being within three feet of the skull, it felt bigger and much more frightening. It was covered in all kinds of sea-growth and its jaw was locked open vertically indicating it must have died to something other than natural causes.
"Did something even bigger kill this thing?!"
Jeff begun the scan and nervously looked around as it processed. There was lots of movement around him but he was never able to focus on anything particular, it was always just out of view in the extremely murky water. The second the scan was completed and realigned himself with the belly of Determination and redocked.
Jeff walked back into the bridge and whipped out his PDA.
"Not much data here... seems to have been an eel-like creature... thousands of years old... oh wait... There are a series of precise, angular indentations on the skull, suggesting a third party has taken samples from the specimen at a previous time. This might mean we're on track to the alien facility... I doubt the Degasi made these."
"Alright then, let's keep moving. The sooner we find this facility, the sooner we find out we're screwed, or that we can cure this disease," Palmer said as he scratched his arm.
Jeff put the PDA away and resumed monitoring his terminal while Palmer brought the ship forward. The cave narrowed and continued downward, falls of brine connecting pool to pool. The unidentified creatures were soon found to be eel-like creatures with a vicious face and a mouth with rows and rows of teeth that they dubbed the "river prowler". These creatures luckily posed no threat to the cyclops nor a seamoth or PRAWN suit.
Down and down they went until the cave began to widen again. There was another skeleton on an island in the middle of a brine pool that drew their attention.
"Is this where all creatures on this planet go to die or something?"
"Alien structure detected to the right. Structural integrity largely decreased in comparison with gun platform," Sally interrupted.
"We can worry about that later," Jeff said staring at the cameras, "There's some alien pillars to our right and the waypoint has veered in that direction. We must be close!"
"Finally, some alien architecture. This is the right cave after all! If we had to come all this way only to find out we were in the wrong cave I'd've lost my cool.... Especially since we fought a Ghost Leviathan to get here... which reminds me," He said as he turned toward the pillars and the side-cave they surrounded, "You still not picked it up again?"
"Nope, here's hopin'." Jeff said as he held up crossed fingers.
As they neared the pillars, green lights on them started to glow, much like light apparatuses in the gun platform.
They rounded a corner that opened in to a large cavity and the sight before them both excited them and worried them.
"Decreased structural integrity is right... this thing is torn to pieces!" Palmer said.
Before them was a large cubic structure with lights and materials matching that of the alien architecture of the giant gun back up at the mountain island, but the structure has several locations that seemed to have had pieces ripped off of it. Several metal cables hung from the ceiling with parts of the structure hanging from them. There was metallic debris strewn everywhere and the green lighting was very dim.
"What happened here?" Jeff whispered.
"I don't know... malfunction? It looks like it used to be suspended by those cables but something brought it down..."
"Sally, you got anything?"
"Unfortunately, as before, the material prevents my scans from penetrating the structure. It does seem to have collapsed from a previous orientation but I am unable to determine if it was a malfunction or destruction. There is an opening on the back side of the structure that may provide entry."
"I hope we find what we need in there... if it's been destroyed, we're doomed..." Palmer said.
"Don't worry man... if we can't find anything useful on the disease here, we'll do our own research and cure it ourselves. This isn't the 21st century! We've got the tech and know-how to figure something out," Jeff got up and shook Palmer's shoulder reassuringly.
"Now, let's get in there and see what we can find. There's bound to be something left!"
New chapters coming soon! I just spent the last week re-reading my entire story to re-familiarize myself with the course of events and what has and hasn't been done/said. I'm pretty forgetful lol. Anyway, still here! Still reading your comments and still brainstorming the next chapters. The full release of Subnautica will help with the story progression as we get into late-game in the story.
Nate sat at his cubicle at Alterra HQ. He was one of a whole room filled of coms officers. Their jobs ranged from assisting vessels with directions, to dealing with distress signals. While most of his comrades were busy informing other ships about a planet's weather or walking them through the proper airlock cycling procedure, Nate sat staring at his computer screen. On the screen was a starmap zoomed in on planet 4546B.
"Coms completely silent for months now... If there were any survivors, shouldn't there have been some communication attempt by now?
Surely some one survived who could build a two-way strong enough to reach us..."
He worked his jaw continuing to ponder the situation.
"That's two ships that have gone missing in orbit around 4546B. First that Mongolian ship, now the Aurora...
"Here's your usual," said a voice behind him. It was Brent, a good friend of his holding out a sandwich in a wraper.
"Oh thanks," He said taking it and setting it on his desk.
"Just got a new report in," Brent began as he leaned against the wall of Nate's cubicle. "A bulldog class merchant ship called the Sunbeam on the outskirts of planet 4546B's system reported receiving the Aurora's distress signal and went in to investigate. After entering the atmosphere, the coms went to static and then completely cut out. Ship's signal completely disappeared. Not even any black box data or distress call and no indication that the lifepod was jettisoned in the minute of static before complete loss of contact."
"What?! That's the third ship in a row that has gone missing in orbit around 4546B!" Nate said in half anger half sorrow.
"Yeah, rumors are going around that something 'fishy' is happening on that ocean planet," Brent said with a chuckle.
"Well one's an accident. Two's a coincidence. Three's a pattern. Something is definitely going on there. We still haven't received a single signal from the Aurora since a few hours after planet fall. Not a com link and not even a lifepod distress signal. The planet's been dead silent for the last four months... Who'd we lose on the Sunbeam?"
Brent switched a bag of sandwiches he was carrying from his right to his left hand and pulled out his PDA with this right, "Cpt. Avery Quinn 45, Co-Pilot Derek Lanston 22, Pilot Westly Tamar 27, Nav. Officer Carson Rainer 25, and Engineer Jerret Valis 34."
"God save their souls... Uhhg, It's not looking good. The Sunbeam was the only ship close enough to investigate at the time and now their disappearance makes it even less likely there'll be any survivors for the Everest to pick up. I'm not going to give up on the Aurora though. The automated distress signal was still going even a few days after planet fall, and the data in the signal indicated 26 lifepods successfully jettisoned. That's a minimum of 26 survivors out there some where. Why they haven't tried to contact us or why we've not picked up their distress signals, I don't know, but they're out there... When was the last communication with the Everest?"
Brent took a bite from his sandwich and tried to scarf it down so he could answer.
"This morning. They called in to report their position. They're one month from the rendezvous point with any survivors from the Aurora. Once there, they'll be in range to do a detailed scan for survivors on the planet or in space. If no one is detected, they're prepared to investigate the planet themselves."
"Wait they're planning to go in if no one shows up at the rendezvous? Have you warned them that a third vessel has been lost indicating a dangerous pattern?"
"Was getting ready to after I delivered everyone's lunch orders. I'm going to advise 'em to stay out of 4546B's orbit and to send in some recon drones."
"Okay good. The last thing we need is to lose a military vessel. Not only would it be more expensive, but that thing is five times bigger than the Aurora. The loss of life would be horrific if it became the fourth loss."
"Yeah we're not going to lose another ship, don't you worry. It's slow and methodical from this point on and 'sides, its an Assault Frigate."
"Are they prepared to get into combat if we find out there's some criminal organization operating from there?"
"Oh yeah, you bet your buttons they are. Five long range ventral mass drivers, twenty dorsal close range mass drivers, and plenty of anti fighter turrets."
"I sure hope so..."
"Alright, I gotta deliver the rest of these sandwiches so I can get back to work and call the Everest, see ya buddy," Brent said with a pat on the shoulder.
Nate turned around in his chair back toward the monitor. The planet was still silent. He zoomed all the way out until the solar system 4546B was in was reduced to a spec. Until the FMS Everest's symbol was visible.
"I hope there's some one for you to pick up... Some one to tell us what the heck is going on down there..."
Just a progress update. Microsoft forced an update to my desktop computer which sent my computer into an infinite reboot loop that can't be canceled. I was playing the full release of subnautica in order to catch up with the story so I can get info directly from my own playthrough but since my computer is toast right now, the next chapter will be delayed until I can fix my desktop (however unlikely that may be) and then play through the full release until I get to the 2ndary research facility. Keep your fingers crossed I can fix my desktop, and just hang in there!
Comments
This is pretty much already a book, just a free, specifically thematic book that doesn't have to fret over needlessly complicated copyright laws.
Win-win
Give a man 30days and he can make a good book
Tell that to my incessant homework. But yes, I'll make it out of the mines of Moria soon and then I'll be able to post the in-progress chapter!
After searching around for an hour or two with maximum terrestrial scanner range, and several dead ends, a potential entry cave was detected in the grand reef. Unlike the caves of the jelly shrooms or the trenches of the blood kelp, this cave started at a much greater depth then any of the other areas they had searched. Not only that, but Sally was picking up an unidentified structure at the mouth of the cave.
The Determination edged down toward the grand reef floor and toward the cave's mouth.
"You think it's related to the facility we're heading to, Jeff?"
Jeff rotated lazily in his chair, propping his head up with his arm on the terminal and extending his legs to the side of it.
"I hope so. We don't really have any way of knowing which cave leads to this facility... or if there even is a cave that leads to it. For all we know there's some elevator that leads to it from some where else on the seafloor. Terrain scans don't show a dead end yet though so that's still promising. In fact, the cave seems to head in the direction of the facility's way-point. If this other structure we're approaching is alien, it aught to indicate we're on the right track... here's hopin'."
Palmer brought the Determination into the mouth of the cave dodging a dense curtain of large blue anchor pods.
"Well we should find out in a second. The structure is just up ahead."
Save for the faint bioluminescence of the anchor pods, it got dramatically darker as they slowly went deeper into the cave. Through the dark murk, one of the ship's forward floodlights caught a glimpse of the structure ahead of them.
"Wait... that's not alien..." Palmer said.
Jeff looked through the dorsal cam.
"That's human! But... where did... The Degasi! This must be where they moved after their attempt in the jelly shroom caves."
"I'd ask why the heck they would want to move down here with these creepy crab squids, but after they moved into an area with crab snakes, I think they're decision making is beyond questionable at this point."
The two stared at the structure. It was perched atop a large natural pillar that might have once been a connection to the cave ceiling.
"Doesn't look like they fared any better than their last two outposts," Jeff said.
"That's for sure... So uh... guess it's time to break out the PRAWN suit eh?" Palmer said with a smirk.
"Just be careful man, those crab squids are aggressive. I'll man Determination while you're in there and if any get too close I'll show 'em are new toys."
Palmer got up from his seat and Jeff switched over to the yoke. Palmer headed for the secondary bay and dropped down into the PRAWN suit.
"I'll be quick." Palmer said over comms.
The sound of the bay doors opening echoed through the hull and Jeff looked at the sonar as a friendly green signature showed up. The green blip slowly made its way along the underside of the ship until, with a burst of bubbles from the propulsion system, Palmer became visible through the pilot's bubble as he made his way toward the structure. The outpost was much simpler than the one at the jelly shroom caves. It had a stack of three MP rooms at the center with two observation bubbles sticking out the sides. The main entrance was a tube hallway at the bottom that lead out onto a platform that extended beyond the surface of the pillar but this section had fragmented long ago which gave an entry for Palmer at the breaking point of the hallway.
Palmer landed on the platform and instantly the entire thing shifted slightly under the new weight.
"Watch it Palmer. That thing is very unstable. You should probably park the PRAWN suit up closer to the main section on the more stable foundation."
"Roger."
Palmer carefully boosted up off the sloping platform and landed on the sturdier one. Then, he exited the suit and pulled himself through the opening in the hallway.
"Alright, I'm in. I'm not seeing any of those cave crawler things so this aughta be a cake-walk."
Jeff watched the sonar for a few moments before Palmer spoke again.
"It's bad in here. There's bottles of booze strewn all over and unless that's some kind of moss or algae, there's blood stains. There's a PDA in the locker here... As usual most of its data is corrupted but there's a voice file here."
A few moments of silence.
"Ok, I downloaded it to my PDA and took a listen. At this point they've realized they're infected with what sounds to be the same bacteria we have. Only they seem to be in much worse condition. They describe coughing, itchiness, and blisters. We've felt the itchiness that's for sure but it's apparently going to get a whole lot worse."
"Sally, record the new symptoms to the data entry on the bacteria," Jeff said.
"They sound just as heated as before too. They're at a loss and this Marguerit lady isn't making anything better. The voice data ends with Bart asking for time to think. I'll look around for any more PDAs."
There was silence for a few more moments. Jeff saw Palmer exit through the broken hallway and swim up toward the tops of the MP room stack. Through a broken window in one of the observation bubbles, he swam in. More silence.
"They've got lab materials in here," Palmer said suddenly, "Most of it is broken but I'll scan it for future reference."
Jeff could hear the sound of a scanner on the other side of the comms. Then, Jeff saw a new blip on the sonar. It wasn't a crab squid, it wasn't a normal fish. It was something unidentified. It was small, but it came out of nowhere. It just showed up on the sonar half way between the edge of the sonar's range, and the Degasi outpost.
"I've got an unidentified signature on the sonar. It's nothing big, but just a heads up. I'll check it with the cams."
Jeff walked over to his terminal and eyed the cams. The tail cam got a visual. Jeff stood in alarm. It was one of those disappearing things. He had seen one by the gun platform before and he'd caught glimpses of them occasionally on resource runs, but most of the time they would just disappear in a cloud of bubbles and light before he would have time to investigate. This one seems to have come here on purpose.
"Hey Palmer, ya know those cloaking things I've told you about? Well, one just showed up. They haven't been aggressive before, but those mantis-like spikes on their arms makes cause for alarm. I'd say wrap it up and get back in you're PRAWN suit."
"Roger."
Then another identical blip showed up on the sonar. This one came from the opposite side of the Degasi outpost and closer too.
"Palmer, we've got another. I've never seen two in the same place at once. Hurry up."
Jeff watched Palmer swim out of the broken window and down to the PRAWN suit. Suddenly, two more of the creatures showed up on the sonar.
"Four of them?! This has got to be coordinated."
"Palmer, two more of em just came in."
With a boost from the propulsion system, Palmer started heading toward Determination.
"There's one coming up on your tail!"
Jeff watched as one of the creatures slowly came up behind Palmer at just a bit faster than he was able to go. Suddenly, Jeff saw Palmer disappear from inside the PRAWN suit.
"What the-"
The PRAWN suit began sinking with no control input from its pilot. As the suit fell out of view, Jeff spotted Palmer appearing out of a cloud of bubbles with three of the mantis-like creatures surrounding him.
"SALLY! TARGET ALL CLOSEST UNIDENTIFIED WARP CREATURES AND FIRE STASIS CANNONS!"
Suddenly a burst of electrical whirring emminated from the ship and two blinding beams shot out instantly at the creatures. Jeff brought his hand down from shielding his eyes and he saw Palmer swimming back toward him with the three creatures behind him caught in two overlapping stasis bubbles.
"Sally, maintain target lock and fire four torpedoes."
A rapid, muffled thump akin to that of a grenade launcher was heard echoing through the hull and three lighting fast torpedoes zipped toward the paralyzed targets. In three flashes that lasted only a second, the creatures were ripped apart in the explosions and large masses of bubbles shot toward the cave ceiling. The fourth blip also disappeared off the sonar as its corresponding torpedo made contact. A large cloud of yellow blood was all that remained of the creatures.
"Personnel airlock opened." Sally echoed.
Palmer climbed up the ladder onto the bridge and quickly slouched into the pilot's chair.
"That was terrifying! One moment I was sitting in the PRAWN suit, then suddenly, I lost all my senses. I couldn't feel, see, hear, smell, or taste anything! I thought I was dead! Then, in a rush of feeling, I found myself floating outside the PRAWN suit with a ringing in my ears and a numbness all over my body! What... What even just happened to me?"
"You were teleported. I knew those things had the ability to disappear, but I thought they just had some kind of advanced cloaking ability like an octopus's camouflage, but... they actually have the ability to teleport themselves and other creatures!"
Jeff turned to his terminal, "Sally, mark all corresponding signatures as aggressive.
"That was insane. How much energy did we lose from that stasis blast?"
Jeff stared at the energy meter, "A lot...I... I couldn't just use torpedoes. You were out there too close to the creatures. I'd'ave killed you if I opted to save energy."
"Yeah, I know... But we still lost energy. How much do we have left?"
"We were at 99%. now we're at 89%. A whole 10% was lost in 1 shot."
"So, taking the bioreactor into account, we really only have 9 stasis shots left..."
"Let's hope we can jump straight to torpedoes next time," Jeff said as he slumped into his chair and sighed.
Palmer turned toward the yoke, "Now, let's go pick up the PRAWN suit. I hope one of those stupid crab squids isn't sucking on it or I swear..."
A new chapter
Me.
DO NOT FEAR
Don't worry. As with every time I've been dormant for a while, I'm still here! Still reading your comments! Still trying to get the next chapter done! It should be coming rather soon!
"Thank God it's okay. That was a long fall. Bringing it on board."
Palmer activated the docking clamps to bring the PRAWN suit on board. He then got up from his seat and headed back to the docking bay. After a few moments he came back with two decrepit PDAs.
"I found a second one in the lab and here's the first one. See if you can salvage any of the corrupted files on your computer," He said handing him the devices.
Palmer resumed his seat at the yoke. Jeff took the data chip out of the PDAs and plugged them into the computer terminal. After several minutes of scanning and data decryption, only one more file was able to be recovered.
"I've got another voice file here Palmer," Jeff said looking intently at the computer screen. "The audio is corrupted but the text translation is legible... Margeurit Maida brought a living, "leviathan" as they call it, down here. Sounds to me like a reaper by Paul's reaction. Why in the universe would she bring one back to their base, let alone a living one! Gosh, I think I can safely say that was their fate. The base out there looks just as beat up as their last base if not more. If they survived, it would have been a miracle."
"Is she insane?! Ya know what, no, I think that was more obvious from the start. There's no way they had the materials to make weapons viable for killing a reaper."
Jeff scrolled through some files, "There's some other files here that I can open but most of the words are illegible. This one though," He said clicking on one, "The words that can be read here are disturbing. The title is 'The End' and look: 'out of nowhere', 'rupture', 'beast', and 'blood' are the only words not corrupted but they spell out the same conclusion I had earlier. Either that reaper they brought back retaliated, or something came and decimated them. Something tells me we won't be finding any more Degasi bases..."
"Well, if we get out of this mess alive, we can report on the demise of the Degasi crew in addition to, ya know, aliens exist and stuff."
Jeff removed the data chips from the computer terminal and got up to store them in a locker in the back of the ship. Meanwhile, Palmer began descending down toward the next cave section indicated by the terrain scans. When Jeff resumed his post, Palmer alerted him to something strange.
"I'm seeing some light from down there. Very faint and doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere in particular."
Jeff looked at the sonar, "Yeah and there's some new creature signatures coming up. Closest match is a jellyray."
As they descended further they discovered the source of the light.
Palmer cocked his head, "What is that? It's like another water layer... maybe brine? But why the heck is it glowing?"
"Everything on this planet seems to have an obsession with glowing..." Jeff looked at the cams and then to scan data appearing on screen, "I've got a visual on the new creatures. They're a bit bigger than the jellyrays but are more similar to manta rays back on Earth. These guys are transparent and blue, though, in a way that reminds me of the Ghost Leviathan..."
"Boom, Ghost Ray, archive it."
"Sounds good to me. They don't have any obvious aggressive attributes. Could be poisonous like the rabbit ray, though, so best not touch one until we get a more detailed scan."
Jeff continued, "On the subject of brine, you're assumption is correct, but this brine pool is extremely acidic. Let's not get to close."
"10-4," Palmer said as he leveled out Determination and started heading through the large brine-pool hall.
As they continued, a massive overturned rib-cage became visible sticking out of the brine layer.
"Whoa, extremely acidic... No kiddin'," Palmer said as he looked at the widening cave. "We've got several passages here. Looks like the waypoint takes us to the right, so to the right it is."
Palmer turned the Determination to the right and started heading further along the brine river. Slowly, they came to an opening where the brine river dropped off and the cave widened out into the distance. The first thing Palmer noticed was the massive skeletal structure just below them, but before he could comment on it, Jeff shouted.
"Whoa! I've got a Ghost Leviathan signature just up ahead! Kill the engine!"
Palmer instantly came to a stop and switched the engine off.
"I knew these buggers would be down here," He grumbled.
Through the green murk they could see it in the distance. The glowing blue body of the massive half-snake, half-hammerhead wandering around between the stalactites and between the rib bones of the massive skeleton on the cave floor that slightly dipped into the brine.
"Looks like it didn't notice us. Thank the maker..." Palmer turned back to Jeff with a grin, "Should we light 'im up?"
"Ya know Palmer, I just don't think I'm satisfied with the test we did on those warping things. Let's see what our torpedoes can do against a ghost!" Jeff smirked.
Though they both tried to be optimistic, they could feel their hearts pound in their chests at the thought of being this close to a creature that almost crumpled the Determination up like a wad of paper only a week prior.
"Sally, target Ghost Leviathan and fire all torpedoes on my mark," Palmer said.
"Affirmative. Target locked. Point of priority: Head region. All torpedo bays primed."
Jeff watched the sonar, "He's coming out of the murk again. He should be visible in a few moments."
Through the glass, Palmer watched intently. In the green murky water the viewing distance wasn't very far, but the blue glow of the Ghost Leviathan's exoskeleton came into view from behind a large stalactite on the cave ceiling. The creature began heading down toward the bottom leaving it out in the open water.
"Fire!"
All six torpedo bays fired in unison. The front four instantly shot out toward the creature while the two in the back slowly exited and did a 180 before shooting off in the same direction. The creature reacted to the sudden movement and jerked its head in the direction of the cyclops but this only made Sally's job easier. Three torpedoes nailed the creature in the face causing it to thrash around for a moment, dodging the remaining three torpedoes. The Ghost Leviathan began retreating into the murk while the remaining torpedoes all came back around and hit the tail region of the creature.
"Hah haa! Those things really do the trick don't they!" Palmer cheered.
"Scans detect a substantial quantity of exoskeletal mater from the Ghost Leviathan floating in the detonation zones. However, it appears the strike failed to draw blood," Sally reported.
"Hey, if it scares the thing away, I'll take it," Jeff said. "The thing has disappeared off the sonar so we should be clear to move ahead for a while. We'll probably see it again though, it's headed in the same direction we're going."
"Roger that," Palmer said as he brought the engine back online. "I'm going to go in for a closer look at that massive skeleton. Just the thought that something that big existed once... uhhg. Gives me the jibblies."
"We have every reason to believe that a living one is some where down here. If we see one, I doubt anything we have would be effective so we're toast unless we can wedge ourselves into a space it can't reach."
"Look at it, our cyclops could literally fit in its mouth!"
Palmer brought the cyclops down alongside the massive skull.
"We should scan it. Might be able to find something interesting about it," Jeff said.
Palmer broke eye-contact with Jeff and turned his head toward the window.
Jeff sighed, "Alright, I'll go. You get back here and watch the sonar."
"Feel free to take the PRAWN suit if u like," Palmer said.
"Nah, I'll stick with Talon. There's several unidentified signatures on the sonar and I'd rather have some agility on my side," He said while getting out of his chair.
While Jeff for the vehicle bay, Palmer got up and went over to Jeff's seat. Jeff dropped through the hatch down into Talon and detached down into the water. From out here, without the protective shell of the Determination, and being within three feet of the skull, it felt bigger and much more frightening. It was covered in all kinds of sea-growth and its jaw was locked open vertically indicating it must have died to something other than natural causes.
"Did something even bigger kill this thing?!"
Jeff begun the scan and nervously looked around as it processed. There was lots of movement around him but he was never able to focus on anything particular, it was always just out of view in the extremely murky water. The second the scan was completed and realigned himself with the belly of Determination and redocked.
Jeff walked back into the bridge and whipped out his PDA.
"Not much data here... seems to have been an eel-like creature... thousands of years old... oh wait... There are a series of precise, angular indentations on the skull, suggesting a third party has taken samples from the specimen at a previous time. This might mean we're on track to the alien facility... I doubt the Degasi made these."
"Alright then, let's keep moving. The sooner we find this facility, the sooner we find out we're screwed, or that we can cure this disease," Palmer said as he scratched his arm.
Jeff put the PDA away and resumed monitoring his terminal while Palmer brought the ship forward. The cave narrowed and continued downward, falls of brine connecting pool to pool. The unidentified creatures were soon found to be eel-like creatures with a vicious face and a mouth with rows and rows of teeth that they dubbed the "river prowler". These creatures luckily posed no threat to the cyclops nor a seamoth or PRAWN suit.
Down and down they went until the cave began to widen again. There was another skeleton on an island in the middle of a brine pool that drew their attention.
"Is this where all creatures on this planet go to die or something?"
"Alien structure detected to the right. Structural integrity largely decreased in comparison with gun platform," Sally interrupted.
"We can worry about that later," Jeff said staring at the cameras, "There's some alien pillars to our right and the waypoint has veered in that direction. We must be close!"
"Finally, some alien architecture. This is the right cave after all! If we had to come all this way only to find out we were in the wrong cave I'd've lost my cool.... Especially since we fought a Ghost Leviathan to get here... which reminds me," He said as he turned toward the pillars and the side-cave they surrounded, "You still not picked it up again?"
"Nope, here's hopin'." Jeff said as he held up crossed fingers.
As they neared the pillars, green lights on them started to glow, much like light apparatuses in the gun platform.
They rounded a corner that opened in to a large cavity and the sight before them both excited them and worried them.
"Decreased structural integrity is right... this thing is torn to pieces!" Palmer said.
Before them was a large cubic structure with lights and materials matching that of the alien architecture of the giant gun back up at the mountain island, but the structure has several locations that seemed to have had pieces ripped off of it. Several metal cables hung from the ceiling with parts of the structure hanging from them. There was metallic debris strewn everywhere and the green lighting was very dim.
"What happened here?" Jeff whispered.
"I don't know... malfunction? It looks like it used to be suspended by those cables but something brought it down..."
"Sally, you got anything?"
"Unfortunately, as before, the material prevents my scans from penetrating the structure. It does seem to have collapsed from a previous orientation but I am unable to determine if it was a malfunction or destruction. There is an opening on the back side of the structure that may provide entry."
"I hope we find what we need in there... if it's been destroyed, we're doomed..." Palmer said.
"Don't worry man... if we can't find anything useful on the disease here, we'll do our own research and cure it ourselves. This isn't the 21st century! We've got the tech and know-how to figure something out," Jeff got up and shook Palmer's shoulder reassuringly.
"Now, let's get in there and see what we can find. There's bound to be something left!"
100% agreement
I've been waiting for the next chapter...
Battery is at 0% I've been waiting so long...
Wondering how That's possible...
Your common sense to go to bed
or
Just cobbled this meme together...
Nate sat at his cubicle at Alterra HQ. He was one of a whole room filled of coms officers. Their jobs ranged from assisting vessels with directions, to dealing with distress signals. While most of his comrades were busy informing other ships about a planet's weather or walking them through the proper airlock cycling procedure, Nate sat staring at his computer screen. On the screen was a starmap zoomed in on planet 4546B.
"Coms completely silent for months now... If there were any survivors, shouldn't there have been some communication attempt by now?
Surely some one survived who could build a two-way strong enough to reach us..."
He worked his jaw continuing to ponder the situation.
"That's two ships that have gone missing in orbit around 4546B. First that Mongolian ship, now the Aurora...
"Here's your usual," said a voice behind him. It was Brent, a good friend of his holding out a sandwich in a wraper.
"Oh thanks," He said taking it and setting it on his desk.
"Just got a new report in," Brent began as he leaned against the wall of Nate's cubicle. "A bulldog class merchant ship called the Sunbeam on the outskirts of planet 4546B's system reported receiving the Aurora's distress signal and went in to investigate. After entering the atmosphere, the coms went to static and then completely cut out. Ship's signal completely disappeared. Not even any black box data or distress call and no indication that the lifepod was jettisoned in the minute of static before complete loss of contact."
"What?! That's the third ship in a row that has gone missing in orbit around 4546B!" Nate said in half anger half sorrow.
"Yeah, rumors are going around that something 'fishy' is happening on that ocean planet," Brent said with a chuckle.
"Well one's an accident. Two's a coincidence. Three's a pattern. Something is definitely going on there. We still haven't received a single signal from the Aurora since a few hours after planet fall. Not a com link and not even a lifepod distress signal. The planet's been dead silent for the last four months... Who'd we lose on the Sunbeam?"
Brent switched a bag of sandwiches he was carrying from his right to his left hand and pulled out his PDA with this right, "Cpt. Avery Quinn 45, Co-Pilot Derek Lanston 22, Pilot Westly Tamar 27, Nav. Officer Carson Rainer 25, and Engineer Jerret Valis 34."
"God save their souls... Uhhg, It's not looking good. The Sunbeam was the only ship close enough to investigate at the time and now their disappearance makes it even less likely there'll be any survivors for the Everest to pick up. I'm not going to give up on the Aurora though. The automated distress signal was still going even a few days after planet fall, and the data in the signal indicated 26 lifepods successfully jettisoned. That's a minimum of 26 survivors out there some where. Why they haven't tried to contact us or why we've not picked up their distress signals, I don't know, but they're out there... When was the last communication with the Everest?"
Brent took a bite from his sandwich and tried to scarf it down so he could answer.
"This morning. They called in to report their position. They're one month from the rendezvous point with any survivors from the Aurora. Once there, they'll be in range to do a detailed scan for survivors on the planet or in space. If no one is detected, they're prepared to investigate the planet themselves."
"Wait they're planning to go in if no one shows up at the rendezvous? Have you warned them that a third vessel has been lost indicating a dangerous pattern?"
"Was getting ready to after I delivered everyone's lunch orders. I'm going to advise 'em to stay out of 4546B's orbit and to send in some recon drones."
"Okay good. The last thing we need is to lose a military vessel. Not only would it be more expensive, but that thing is five times bigger than the Aurora. The loss of life would be horrific if it became the fourth loss."
"Yeah we're not going to lose another ship, don't you worry. It's slow and methodical from this point on and 'sides, its an Assault Frigate."
"Are they prepared to get into combat if we find out there's some criminal organization operating from there?"
"Oh yeah, you bet your buttons they are. Five long range ventral mass drivers, twenty dorsal close range mass drivers, and plenty of anti fighter turrets."
"I sure hope so..."
"Alright, I gotta deliver the rest of these sandwiches so I can get back to work and call the Everest, see ya buddy," Brent said with a pat on the shoulder.
Nate turned around in his chair back toward the monitor. The planet was still silent. He zoomed all the way out until the solar system 4546B was in was reduced to a spec. Until the FMS Everest's symbol was visible.
"I hope there's some one for you to pick up... Some one to tell us what the heck is going on down there..."