“Here we go.” You murmur grimly, yanking the lever. There is a heavy mechanical click and the submersible drops through the hole in the landing platform. You grimace, your guts pulled up into your ribcage as it free falls before plunging into the ocean. You wince at the impact before swiftly forgetting about your momentary discomfort as you gaze out at the extraordinary underwater world. The clear waters of the ocean teems with life, from shoals of fish to huge whale-like creatures. A beeping sound from the guidance system draws your attention away from the wonders outside. It seems to show two alternative paths to your destination. One through what appears to be a series of caverns and another more circuitous route through the open sea.
Go through the cavern system
Continue through the open sea
Deciding you would prefer the open sea to a claustrophobic labyrinth of caves, you follow the alternative set of waypoints. While it may take a little longer to reach your destination, you continue to gaze in wonder at the varied sea life gliding through the ocean around you.
As you journey further into the depths, the water becoming darker as less and less sunlight filters through, you notice that the shoals of fish and other sea life all seem to be swimming in one direction. The opposite direction to your heading. You realise why as a shape grows ahead of you, blacker than the darkness of the sea around it. As you peer into the gloom, an alarm makes you jump, ‘PROXIMITY ALERT’ flashing on the HUD. You glance at the sonar scanner on the control panel, a huge shape dead ahead.
“Shit.” You murmur glancing back through the window. It looks like a blue whale with the jaw of a shark, but absolutely gigantic. The huge leviathan closes in on you, its maw gaping and rows of razor sharp teeth glinting in the submersible’s spotlights. Powerful fins stretch down its flanks and its red eyes seem to glow malevolently in the gloom. It looks more than capable of swallowing your submersible whole.
Switch off the spotlights and hope it passes you by
Alter course and try to avoid it
You swing the submersible hard to port and gun the thrusters, the propellers whirring loudly as you give it everything you’ve got to get out of the path of the oncoming leviathan. The submersible is clearly not made with tight course changes in mind and very slowly slides away to one side. The colossal sea monster is almost upon you and your mind reels at the sheer scale of it.
“Come on, come on!” You mutter to yourself, the leviathan looming large. You curse, realising you are not going to get clear before it is upon you. The submersible is thrown violently about as the creature smashes into you. You bounce off its side, spinning wildly out of control as it passes. You cling to your seat, fighting to regain control before your eyes widen as you see its huge tail sweeping towards you. It smashes into the side of the submersible and sends you rolling away through the ocean. Your body is thrown about inside, yanked violently from side to side before the submersible smashes into the seabed, the vessel creaking in protest. Sea water begins to gush out of the wall to one side, spilling onto the deck and beginning to rapidly flood the interior.
“Shit, shit, shit!” You curse, unstrapping yourself from your chair and surveying the damage. It appears to be a tear between two sections of the hull. You glance all around you, noticing an emergency wetsuit in a locker at the rear of the craft. You wade towards it, the water already up to your knees and pull it on. You strap the oxygen tank to your back and pull on the mask. As you breathe deeply through the mouthpiece, noticing with relief that you have an hour of oxygen in the tank, you try to decide what to do. There is a portable underwater welder in the locker, so you could attempt to go outside and repair the hull breach. Otherwise, your only option is to abandon the submersible and swim for the surface. You have plenty of oxygen now, but if you fail to repair the submersible, you won’t have enough to attempt it later.
Attempt to repair the submersible
Abandon the submersible and swim for the surface
You reach for the portable welder and move across to the hatch, standing to one side and bracing yourself before opening it. Sea water crashes into the confines of the submersible, flooding the remainder of the interior. You swim out into the ocean and find the hull breach, the joint between sections ripped and twisted from the impact with the sea bed. You fire up the portable welder, squinting against the bright light in the darkness and begin carefully welding the torn sections back together. You have welded hull panels on the Eclipse on countless occasions, though you have never had to do so at the bottom of an ocean!
After a few minutes, you finish welding the seam back together. Not your finest work, but it should hold. You climb back into the submersible and seal the hatch, using an emergency pump to expel the sea water. You check that your weld is holding and that the internal pressure is stable. Satisfied that it is, you pull off your mask and breathe a sigh of relief. After removing the wetsuit, you sit back down at the controls.
“Well Drazix, I hope you’re worth it.” You mutter, the console in front of you lighting up as you switch it on. You continue to follow the waypoints on the HUD, the route taking you through several strange coral formations before the sea bed suddenly drops away. You descend even further into the depths as the waypoints take you over the edge and into a broad chasm. The water grows darker still, until the only light is the submersible’s spotlights sliding down the rocky sides of the trench. Just as you feel the abyss will never end, you notice a strange purple glow below.
Continue
Deciding you have enough air to reach the surface, you open the hatch, standing to one side while the ocean crashes into the tiny submersible, rapidly flooding it. You pull yourself out of the submersible and kick hard for the surface.
You continue to kick wearily through the water. Without a reference point, you feel as though you are making no progress whatsoever. You glance at your oxygen gauge, relieved to find that you still have plenty of oxygen left. As you pass through a shoal of fish, you feel a sharp pain in your right thigh. You glance down, the water cloudy with blood and a small laceration through the fabric of your wetsuit. Another pain, this time in your arm followed by another and another. The fish swarm around you and you frantically wave your arms at them, trying to ward them off as you kick as fast as you can. More pain, the water turning red around you as the fish dart towards you, slicing at you with their tiny but razor sharp teeth. Panic threatens to overwhelm you as you desperately try to swim away from them, but there is no escape. The taste of blood in their mouths, the fish grow bolder, beginning to tear at the open wounds all over your body. The water is teeming with them now, your mouthpiece slipping from your lips and salt water flooding your mouth as you try to cry out. Still the fish rip and tear at you. As sea water fills your lungs, you mercifully drown before the shoal finish with you, your body stripped to the bone in a matter of minutes by hundreds of the ravenous carnivorous fish.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
You reach out and switch off the spotlights, as well as the submersible’s interior illumination and running lights, plunging you into darkness. Dim emergency lighting flickers on, bathing you in red. You can feel your heart pounding in your chest as you peer out into the blackness, trying to discern if the leviathan is still heading for you. Unstrapping yourself from the seat, you press your face to the glass, searching for any clue as to the creature’s whereabouts. An unholy roar vibrates all around you and your blood runs cold. It is close, but will it pass you by or consume you?
“Come on, come on.” You murmur to yourself. “There’s nothing here you’d like the taste of.” The unearthly roar sounds again, the submersible vibrating around you. It must be right on top of you. The vessel is buffeted and you are thrown from your seat, sent sprawling into the wall behind you, wincing as your head smashes into it. Your hand clutches at your head, feeling a warm wetness against it. You look at your fingers, finding them red with blood. Your vision darkens and you slump unconscious to the d
eck.
You groan as you come to, wondering how long you were out. You crawl back towards your seat and climb back into it, switching the internal lights back on. Your finger hovers over the spotlight control, praying that it will illuminate the colourful shoals of bizarre sea life you had been marvelling at earlier. You press the button and the powerful beams of light play across the dark red walls of the leviathan’s stomach. Your heart sinks. You have been consumed. For a moment, panic threatens to overwhelm you, but you grit your teeth, close your eyes and allow the moment to pass.
“Think.” You mutter. “C’mon Trent, think!” You glance around you, seeing a locker containing an emergency wetsuit at the back of the submersible. Maybe that’s the answer. You glance at the controls in front of you, noticing the emergency communicator. Maybe you can call for help.
Use the emergency communicator
Pull on the wetsuit and go outside
You press the ‘OPEN CHANNEL’ button and speak:
“Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Trent aboard Submersible 3 en route to the south-west trench. I’ve encountered a colossal unknown sea creature and have been consumed. Request immediate assistance. Have a limited air supply. Currently…” You glance at the instrumentation in front of you, “Eighty-Six minutes.” You persevere for an hour with no response, cursing that the leviathan’s thick hide is probably preventing your signal from getting through. You glance behind you at the wetsuit and sigh. Perhaps you’re going to have to get wet after all…
Continue to persevere with the distress call
Pull on the wetsuit and go outside
Deciding that you still have half an hour before your air runs out plus whatever is in the tank for the wetsuit, you can afford to keep trying.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday.” You repeat wearily. “Getting kinda desperate now. My remaining air is down to…” You check the instrumentation. Eighty-six minutes. Your eyes widen. That can’t be right. You tap the control panel, watching in horror as the needle sweeps down to the red zone. “Shit.” You gasp, climbing out of your seat and realising that the air is thin. You struggle to your feet and reach for the wetsuit, but your vision starts to darken. Panicking, you rip the tank from the locker. In your haste, you fumble with the cylinder and it drops from your fingers, smashing into the deck, the mouthpiece breaking away. You drop to your knees, fumbling with the broken pieces. Gasping for breath, you try to clip it all back together, but the strength is gone from your body. You slump forward onto the deck, your vision fading to black.
THE END
Go back a few minutes and rethink your actions
You swing open the door of the locker and pull out the wetsuit. Muttering darkly about your predicament, you pull it on, strapping an oxygen tank to your back and pulling on a mask over your head. You breathe deeply, the oxygen flowing fine through the mouthpiece. You move over to the hatch. There is no airlock, so you’ll have to flood the inside of the submersible. There is an emergency pump, so you’ll have to use the interior like an airlock and evacuate the water once you’re back inside. Standing to one side, you open the hatch, water gushing in and filling the interior in seconds. You are relieved to see that all the instrumentation is still operating despite being completely immersed in seawater. You clamber out of the hatch and climb down from the submersible, your feet sinking into the spongy floor of the leviathan’s belly. Sweeping your torch around you, the conical beam plays over the cavernous belly of the sea beast.
“I need to get out of here.” You grimace, the outline of the ribs flanking the walls giving the impression of standing in a nightmarish cathedral. You turn your attention to the submersible. Walking around the small craft, you carefully examine the exterior, searching for anything that might save you from this predicament. You guess the only answer is to try to make the creature regurgitate you. You notice the jagged lightning symbol on the cover of the power unit. You could try and shock the creature perhaps. You glance at the submersible’s propellers. They are resting against the thick fleshy floor. If you removed the protective cowling around the propellers and switched them on, it would gouge the leviathan’s flesh.
Try an electric shock
Try the propellers
You unfasten the cover for the power unit, switching it off and pulling the supply cables loose from inside. You clip the two cables into the fleshy surface beneath your feet and move back towards the submersible. You grip a handhold on the side of the hull and flip the power switch. The power unit lights up, arcing around you. Your whole body tenses up as electricity rips through you. Screaming in agony, you try to reach the power switch, but it is too late. You can smell burning flesh as the current rapidly cooks you. The only thought in your head other than the pain is what an idiot you are for using electricity while completely immersed in water. Fortunately, death swiftly ends your suffering, your lifeless body drifting away from the submersible. Fate is not without a sense of irony as the plan works, the leviathan roaring and its stomach forcing the submersible out of its fearsome maw along with your corpse.
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
THE END
You find a toolbox clamped to the side of the hull and set about removing the cowling from each propeller. You unfasten the fixing bolts on each side and rip the tubular sections away from each side of the submersible. You smile grimly at the razor sharp edges of the wide propellers, satisfied that they should tear into the leviathan’s flesh when you fire up the engines. You climb back through the hatch and close it before operating the pumps and expelling the water from inside the submersible. As the water level inside slowly drops, you pull off your mask, glad to be breathing normally again.
“Here goes nothing.” You murmur, strapping yourself in, leaning forward and gunning the throttle. The propellers whirr and the submersible slips and slides within the beast’s stomach as they cut into the leviathan’s flesh. You hear the unearthly roar again, but this time with an unmistakable note of pain. The stomach seems to convulse all around you and the submersible violently upended, tumbling over and over. You cling on desperately as you are thrown about in your seat, your senses reeling. Abruptly, the submersible rights itself, the violent shaking passing like the calm after the storm. You take a breath and lean forward, the spotlights playing across the flanks of the leviathan. With a powerful beat of its tail which buffets you in the water, it swims away, disappearing into the gloom. You breathe a deep sigh of relief and quickly leave the area before the gigantic creature returns.
You continue to follow the waypoints on the HUD, the route taking you sharply downwards through the depths, dropping to the ocean floor. You pass through several strange coral formations before the sea bed suddenly drops away. You descend even further into the depths as the waypoints take you over the edge and into a broad chasm. The water grows darker still, until the only light is the submersible’s spotlights sliding down the rocky sides of the trench. Just as you feel the abyss will never end, you notice a strange purple glow below.
Continue
Deciding on the quicker route, you follow the HUD waypoints towards the yawning opening of a cavern. The submersible’s spotlights play over the rocky walls as you pilot the tiny vessel inside. As the gloom closes in around you, you tense up, feeling claustrophobic as the cavern begins to narrow.
As you continue deeper into the cave system, you hunch over the controls, peering into the darkness and beginning to wish you had gone the long way round. Even in deep space, you have never felt so totally isolated and alone. As you descend ever deeper, the cavern splits into two smaller passages. One seems quite narrow while the other has bubbles rising out of it. You glance at the waypoint system which leaves you none the wiser. It could quite easily guide you to either passage.
“Shit.” You murmur.
Go through the narrow passage
Go through the bubbling passage
Fearful that the narrow passage may be too tight to squeeze the submersible through, you steer
the vessel towards the other passage, air bubbles continuing to rise from deep within it.
You continue down into the darkness, sweeping the spotlights around the cavernous passage, the conical beams sliding down the rocky walls. As you gaze at the instrumentation, you see movement in your peripheral vision. You quickly glance in the direction of the movement, but see only the rocky cavern sides and rising bubbles in the light.
“Keep your shit together Trent.” You mutter, hoping you’re out of this endless underwater labyrinth soon. You continue ever deeper, descending further and further into the rocky shaft. Abruptly, you are nearly shaken from your seat as the submersible rocks to one side. It twists violently around, the spotlights momentarily playing over something dark, writhing outside your vessel.
“What the fuck is that?” You growl, peering out of the dome shaped window as you fight to regain control. The cones of light sweep wildly about as the submersible is wrenched one way and then the other. Your eyes widen as you see a long, thick tentacle lash out, flailing through the water before smacking against the window, a series of suckers as big as your head pulsating against the glass as it tries to attach itself to the submersible. It slips away and the spotlights play over the long tentacle stretching down to its base at the bottom of the cavern. The tentacle is one of several arranged around a broad, gaping circular maw, rows of tiny tentacles within it obviously designed to draw in its prey. Bubbles rise out of six large pulsing gill-like apertures arranged around the creature’s mouth. As you are pulled towards the terrible maw of the creature, more dark tentacles stretch out, wrapping around the submersible. You stop fighting with the controls, realising it is futile. As the maw fills your vision, you search wildly for some form of salvation. You spot an emergency wetsuit and oxygen tank in a locker behind you, but you could never hope that it will have enough air to enable you to swim back to the surface. Your choices seem equally grim: Be consumed or drown.
The Seductress of Andromeda Page 11
