The light switched on, casting its orange glow on the wall. Reginald felt a cold shiver run up his spine, the Empress wanted to see him.
He got out of his room, traversed the terrifying corridor and entered the chamber. The mechanical wall still sounding off like usual, spitting smoke and spinning its cogwheels.
The voice entered his head, asking him about any progress.
‘We still don’t have any sign of them my lady, society gets ever more scarce further north....yes I understand. The shades won’t stop we both know that....you want me to what?....Are...yes...no I’m not....yes...by your command Empress.’
He then left to carry out her new orders. How he loathed this position, for this next order was far more difficult to do.....the lives this would take..
*
After two hours Caleb got the diving suits working. The breathing masks just needed some replacement parts and new air tanks. The fact the town failed to repair something that basic he wasn’t at all surprised by the shape they were in.
‘And you’re sure this things will keep us alive down there?’
‘Positive. I just tested them myself.’
‘Good, now we just wait for.’
‘I’m back.’ Juan walked up the ramp.
‘How does it look?’
‘The fuel is real, and its heavily guarded. Mercs all over the place with guard dogs even! Charming little things they were.’
‘Then we proceed as before. I’ll take us to the water.’ Jack went up to the cockpit.
‘Aren’t we low on fuel tough?’
‘Did no one tell you lad?’
‘Tell me what?’
‘Gregor built this thing for every scenario..’
*
The ship stopped above the ocean surface and lowered, touching down on the water that wildly rippled and blasted away from the pressure of the jet engines.
Then along its bottom sides large orange air balloons slipped out and the engines cut off slowly, the ship eventually stopped moving, floating on the water.
‘Well....this is pretty cool.’ Caleb commented, standing on the roof.
The propulsion engine roared to life and began pushing the Dreaded lady over the water further away from shore, moving much slower like that than what it did over the air.
The further they got, the more turbulent the ocean became. Waves grew larger and wilder to the point where it wasn’t safe to stay above anymore. The whole crew hunkered down below, Jack activating the sonar. Imagines returned on the screen from the sound waves traveling downwards, showing the bottom. She knew it could take them ages to find it yet she considered herself lucky that it wasn’t that deep yet, most likely a 100 to 150 meters top. They floated out there for hours, daylight fading quickly as this omnipotent feeling hung over them.
Kel, Juan and Caleb tried to distract themselves by playing go fish in the main quarter.
‘Any five of hearts?’
‘Go fish.’
Eventually something popped up on screen, the clear shape of a ship, laying in pieces on the ocean floor. Jack stopped the ship as above it as she could.
‘Ok guys we found it, prepare for diving.’
They took the diving suits up from the cargo bay to the roof where they now had to wear lines as to not slip and fall straight into the ocean. Kel and Juan was picked to go as Caleb needed to monitor the equipment and Jack would keep an eye on that sonar in case this Leviathan showed.
‘Ok you two take no risks, attach the lines to as many boxes as you can and radio when you finished.’
They nodded and opened up a part of the fence, getting in.
The weigh of the suits pulled them ever downwards towards the complete darkness below. Every ounce of light quickly vanished above them and they activated their head lights, only revealing each other and a few smaller fish swimming by them.
‘Nervous?’ Juan asked via the radio.
‘Not by much. You?’
‘I hate the ocean.’ Juan did grow up along the coast. Horror stories about the sea was his childhood.
Eventually it started to feel like they were just endlessly floating down into a bottomless abyss, the fish growing slightly more sparse. They kept talking about literally anything to stay sane.
‘Ok you two, you’re almost at the bottom now.’ Jack said and as they looked down things started to appear below them.
Ground, a rocky bottom and a wreck, gray and covered in gross, green growth. It laid close to a edge, like a underwater mountain. Beyond the edge was nothing but more ocean, an endless dark abyss.
They touched down and could still make out the surface, the light looked very dim but it was there, a black rectangular spot was their ship. They made their way over the ship, torn on half, and scraps laid spread across the sea floor. Boxes among them, still intact thankfully. They removed the lines from their suits and hooked them on, wanting to get this done as fast as possible.
*
Caleb went back inside to check floaters now when doc showed him where they was. And he also decided to check the lines, the sonar system and everything. As he did he heard something, something familiar... He followed the sound to his workshop, realizing it was the box humming again. It was even louder now, much louder than ever before! As he took it out the glow was almost blinding and it felt hot to the touch...what was going on with this thing?
*
They kept going until all lines were attacked firmly, double checking them. The plan was to get everyone and everything to the surface in one go.
Juan spotted the lack of bodies, he expected old corpses inside the ship but nothing was there except for some old torn clothing. At most he found a shoe, covered in some moss looking thing.
Maybe the sea life ate them? He wasn’t sure about the effects the ocean would have on bodies.
‘Ok all lines attached, lets’ ‘GET DOWN.’
Juan froze as Kel almost shouted that in a panicked voice. Juan felt a massive wave of pure dread fill him, it couldn’t be...
He dared himself to turn around and saw first a mountain...but there wasn’t any there befo....ho no..
He soon realized that giant moving thing was no mountain. His eyes took in the horror in front of him, moving slowly, eyes looking dead ahead to their left. That thing was huge, like the size of four to five oil tankards. Its body almost the shape of the humanoids torso, a mass of tentacles where the legs and arms should be. The head flat, as a part of the torso without a neck, huge blue ish eyes with no pupils like strong street lights with more tentacles underneath it like a hideous, mutated beard.
‘Kel...turn off your headlights.’ Juan whispered into the microphone, both stood perfectly still in the darkness, waiting for that massive thing to move away.
Back on the ship Jack had seeing something massive appear on the sonar, like a mountain was suddenly coming into view. She shut it down, instantly suspecting it to be the leviathan, swimming under them right now.
‘Juan, Kel. Its gonna be a little while before we can take you back up again so just hang on down there.’
Juan pointed to the wreck and slowly they made their ways to it, hiding behind the broken remains and watching that thing float agonizingly slow, wanting nothing more than for it to just leave. They almost screamed when it stopped and slowly turned towards them, the eyes staring straight at them with menacing hunger. They hunkered down, praying to whatever god who might listen to make it go away.
That thing stayed like that for what felt like ages, just staring. Like it was looking for any excuse to crush them like bugs right then and there. Its haunting glowing eyes never once blinking, never moving but just staring.
Then finally it turned around, going back to swimming in the direction it was going. Moving painfully slow, their air tanks gradually going down until the air meters on their wrists started going over the yellow warning line. When finally out of sight Juan signaled for them to start pulling them up. A few minutes later they were on the ship and quickly loaded all the boxes inside, Juan and Kel seemingly in panic and wanting nothing more than to just get out of there as fast as possible.
The second they were all inside Kel almost yelled for Jack to fly them out of there, shoving away their questions in a rabid, adrenaline filled terror. The ship powered up and slowly raised itself of the water surface as the orange floaters deflated and sucked back inside. A massively cold shiver washed straight trough Jack when she looked at the camera below the ship. Right there by the surface she saw it, like a massive moving shadow and tentacles reaching upwards, a mouth opened showing hungering teeth. They got away, rising to fast for that thing to grab them but she sped towards land again, not wanting to remain near that thing a second longer, the last thing the crew heard was a ear shattering roar, coming from below.
