Fathoms

Chapter VI �" Fathoms

Year 935 �" Deep Space

 

„Sir.. 60 seconds..“

 

„Roger.. Make sure we're out close.. Don't want to have to shock in twice.. Hash.. Get me Borisov on the line..“

„Roger that.. Sir..“

The A.I.S. Roanoke was about to deep space shock into uknown coordinates, the ship crew picked up a strange anomaly. Orders from Allan Roanoke, the ship's captain, are to explore and extract the subject if possible.

 

„Sergei.. It's Allan.. I think we have something good..“

Roanoke said via lunar/terra transmission.

 

„Allan.. My patience is running out.. When will I get proof I am not throwing my money away!? You better get me something! The defense minister of Lexxon is running out of patience.. I am running out of money! And you.. Are running out of time!“

Sergei Borisov said impatiently with a rough Vodka driven voice.

 

„Sergei.. I need you to stay patient... It's just.. My gut's telling me this is something.. Something good.. I'll contact you when we recover it.. We're shocking out in about half a minute.. See you soon.. A.I.S. out..“

Roanoke put the transmitter down, nudged to Cranston, the main pilot of the craft, who initiated the sequence to go into shockspace. Shock space is a maneuver that spacecrafts use for covering a large distance in a short time, shocking causes a spacecraft to reach light speed velocity, coordinates have to be inserted into the ship's terminal for maximum accuracy. However, the Roanoke crew is shocking into space by uknown coordinates.

 

„A.I.S. Roanoke! This is your captain speaking! We're about engage into shock space maneuvers, get to your positions and fasten in!“

Roanoke said via transmission through the whole ship.

He walked around looking at the panels while engineering experts were working hard to prepare the craft for shocking in, he sat down in the middle.

 

„Ted.. Go ahead.. Enter coordinates..!“

Roanoke said looking at his pilot.

 

„Roger that.. Entering coordinates.. Aaaand.. Disengaging main engine power.. Diverting onto shock energy.. Cmoon... There.. Ready for shockspace!“

Ted Cranston said typing them in, he nudged to Hash to reassure overall security.

„Everythings set.. We're good to go..!“

Hash said and sat to the right of Roanoke. Cranston put his thumb up confirming initiative.

 

„Alright... Shocking in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. Deep shockspace initiate!“

The ship reached lightspeed in a couple of seconds , the ship's hard steel design started making screeching noises. It was getting louder as the ship went through. Through the industrial glass of the windows were light blue line tones of tearing through space, caused by the unbelieveable velocity.

 

„Don't worry! This is perfectly normal! Hash..!  How much longer!?“

Roanoke asked loudly to counter the noise of the ship.

 

„10 seconds till de-shocking sir!“

 

„Roger!“

Roanoke said loudly and held onto his seat.

 

„4..3..2..1! De-shocking!!“

Cranston said, and the ship lunged everyone forward as they exited  shockspace speed.

 

„Are we there?“

Roanoke said and stood up, he looked around and realized.

 

„We're here!“

Roanoke said and looked towards the outside, revealing a large water covered planet, the ship went closer to the surface of the massive ocean. The water looked black, the planet had little illumination from the burnt out star nearby.

 

„Alright people!! Pack your s**t! Get your asses in gear! We're going down there in 3 minutes.. I want that thing up here by the hour!“

Kyra Raposo shouted and it echoed throught the Roanoke, soldiers started putting on Universal Survival gear. It was a type of gear for specific situations, in this one it was deep sea survival. Packing transmitters and gear used for excavation, Raposo turned about when she put her Uni gear on, she spotted something strange.

 

„ACW-31s? What the f**k are you doing!? I thought you heard Roanoke! No weapons on board!“

She said poking a soldier holding a long combat rifle loaded with Cyro Frost ammunition.

 

„Lieutenant Hash's orders...“

The soldier said, the hatch opened and troops started rappeling down  inside the massive ocean, operational squads pulled out a „Sponge“. A sponge was a floatation device for transporting sensitive cargo. It was especially designed to be able to go underwater, take damage from arms fire, go into space and all kinds of different conditions, and still stay intact.

 

„Roanoke Delta! This is Hash.. The Watcher results came back.. We're going to need something to pierce the cavern.. The objective is in down there.. Like an.. Industrial Drill..“

Hash said swimming in the water, struggling to keep his head over the water due to huge waves taking everyone by surprise.

 

„Em.. Copy that.. Strike Leader.. I'll dispatch a squad down there now.. We are  orbiting at about 5K.. Call in when done.. Delta out“

Four men dropped down after a pod was dispatched from the ship, it contained the excavating equipment for the team to make their way and extract the objective.

„Alright we're set! Strike teams take point! Hash, Raposo.. That's you! In the center.. Operationals.. With me.. Sponge squad.. I want you in the back! Let's move.. Don't let go of your sonar drone or you're swimming back..“

Roanoke said and the team went into formation in a matter of seconds, the drill squad and the combat went first, after that behind them were the Operations team who was going to extract the objective and place it into the Sponge. Afterwards the Sponge team secures the cargo, they move into the middle. With the Strike team going first again and the Operationals going last.

The weather was heavy rain, constantly pouring over the black abyss, the whole team submerged holding onto the S Drones, the sonar drones are designed to follow specific coordinates underwater, it has thrusting power, so the user isn't needed to swim in depth, the drone drags them along to the coordinates, it also has a sonar installed inside of it. Spotting any moving objects undersea.

 

„Sir.. Im getting something on my sonar!“

 

„What.. What is it!?“

Hash said and checked his, a small blue dot appeared in the top left corner.

 

„Hash..? A problem?“

 

„Mr. Roanoke.. We're having a pop up on our sonar scan.. I thought this place was dead.. It's a live moving object..“

Hash said disturbingly and gestured to the strike squads to increase speed of descent.

 

„Sir.. It's getting closer..“

The Sergeant said showing fear in his voice.

„Yumiya.. Calm yourself.. It's probably a denk of debris..“

Kyra Raposo said from the far left on her drone.

The dot was approaching the central formation in a fast pace, Hash and the half rest of the strike team already pinged through signals to standby for defensive maneuvers if something happened or danger would occur.

 

„What the.. Sir.. It dissapeared..!“

The Sergeant at the forward front said.

 

„Donovan..  I see that..“

Hash replied and took a quick look at his sonar.

 

„Alright.. Seems like it's gone.. All squads disengage speed to 30.. We don't want to burn too much energy.. If your keen on...“

Hash was interrupted by a slight but noticable vibration through the water. It wasn't long before the water kept violently thrusting them upwards. Hash realized.

 

A huge amphibious creature came from below and bit into the center of the formation.

 

„SCATTER!! SCATTER!!!“

Hash yelled and the whole formation broke into pieces everyone still went downwards but the hard wave upwards threw some people off their drones making them have to surface. Half the formation already dispersed into chaos.

 

„Open fire!! Open f*****g fire!!!“

Raposo screamed with awe, she turned on her back like the rest and the gear attached to the drone dragging her downwards, but still able to fire. Rounds flew to the creature circling the formation and chewing one third of the formation it just devoured.

 

„I know that!! Got an idea!! Raposo, catch!“

He threw his Adaptive Combat Weapon towards her and she caught it with ease. They were firing into the creature with little effect, it was huge and disturbing, the vibrations from its size and movement kept hardly nudging the team left and right. There was moaning and struggling of pain and panick overcame some of the men.

 

„Big Eye 6 Aven Control!! This is Lieutenant Hash! Requesting immedieate assistance from orbital control!! We are extremelly overpowered by a hostile force! Requesting a WarStaz drop!!

WE ARE MOMENTS AWAY FROM GETTING SLAUGHTERED!!“

Hash said shouting into his transmitter, he held his fingers crossed and after five seconds Aven control responded.

 

„Ermm.. Solid copy Lieutenant... We'll chop a Predator to you.. Orbiting on about 50,000 Feet.. Err.. Staz control diverted onto your terminal.. Standby for dispatch in 50 seconds.. Callsign Murdoch.. Don't break our Big Boy.. Good luck!  Orbital Command out..“

The orbital base around Earth's atmosphere dispatched a Staz Robot to the request of lieutenant Hash, it was to arrive and support the team in their escape.

It arrived at the brink of time dropping into the water creating a massive wave splash, the machine descended fast and it coordinated itself perfectly. It's foot crushed the creatures head down to the bottom of the debris laying down on the bottom. It crushed into it and the Staz started throwing ton punches at its body, the noise of the crushing bones, groans of the robot and shrieks of the creature echoed throught the abyss, the extraction team made it to the objective.

 

„And what happened then.“

Victor Borisov said staring deep into Kruger's grey eyes, smoke filled the room as six heavily armed men were pointing their weapons at him, he wasn't concerned about it at all. Those were highly trained individuals to guard the Chancelar. But the best thing about them, they didn't fire warning shots.

 

„Raposo grabbed it..“

Kruger said sadly.

 

„Wasn't the protocol for Roanoke's squad to extract it, and the Containment team, bring it back to the ship?“

Borisov said looking interested.

 

„Well.. Sir.. It was.. But.. The sponge team already dispersed.. And we had to improvise.. She just took it.. Aven Command was err.. They were kind enough to buy some time.. With the Staz.. After that.. It was suveirly damaged.. So they decomissioned it.. And then.. Well.. We err..“

Kruger said with a lighter tone of voice.

 

„We what Colonel!?“

Borisov asked aggresively, he was under the impression Kruger was going to say they stole the Staz, the guards around them already had their weapons on standby, making Kruger start to feel a bit uncomfortable.

 

„We.. uhh.. Well we claimed it.. And uhh.. Back onboard the Roanoke.. Something horrible happened..“

Kruger said nervously.

 

„Enlighten me Colonel.“

Borisov said roughly.

 

„Well.. On the second day of the return.. The ship was going slower due to some magnetic field forcing against it.. And err.. Well Raposo was looking kind of swolen, she was sweating.. And it wasn't looking good.. So uh.. Another day past and eh.. Well Im having trouble explaining this to you sir.. But.. Raposo went out her room.. And started throwing up blood.. She had like her bones piercing through her body.. And she grew for about ten feet.. She started attacking the crew and biting into Sergeant Yumiya and the others.. So some men restrained her.. Five men to be precise.. And locked her into an escape pod.. They launched it.. err.. Right after we shocked out.. And erm.. That was it...“

Kruger said with sorrow, he took a minute to breathe in the smoke and calm down.

 

„And you think someone might discover Harmony? An outsider?“

Borisov said roughly looking at Kruger from above.

 

„Well.. sir.. On the way back three days ago.. From the Murdoch whale harvest.. We spotted something running away from us.. I took a guess it was animals scattered around.. So we kept on course.. And erm.. I guess we crushed them..“

Kruger said nervously.

 

„Thank God this society doesn't depend on your guessing Colonel!“

Borisov said taking a sip of Brandy.

 

„Alright Kruger, I will  look into this. I don't need to remind you, how the integrity of this society must remain at all costs. I don't expect you to think how you will get some special treatment around here just because you knew my father. Bless his soul.“

Borisov said and gestured to the guards standing on the door, they opened the door, the six men started taking the suit off Kruger. He stood up and started leaving with the men following him.

 

„Colonel! One more thing, how do you even know this story!?“

Borisov doubtfully said.

 

„Because.. Sir.. I was there..“

Kruger said clenching his fists together.

 

„You were? Fifteen years ago? Well, what was your callsign!?“

 

„My callsign.. Sir.. Was..“

 

„Yes?“

 

„Hash.“

Kruger said with great determination and left the room. He went to see Nethremayer.

 

„Where's the Admiral?“

He approached her personal secretary at her office door.

 

„Madame Nethremayer is at the Docking Bay sir.. She was called upon by Admiral Stanoyowski.. While you were in with the High Chancelar.. Em.. Sir..“

The secretary modestly responded while Kruger was already at the end of the hallway. He asked.

 

„Why?“

 

„Well.. Colonel.. Sir.. An Atlas Battleship collected some cargo on the way back.. It was orbiting  close around the Moon..“

 

„Some Cargo?“

Kruger responded confusingly.

 

„Yes.. Sir.. I've heard.. It was a..“

 

„A what!?“

Kruger aggresively asked.

 

„An old space craft... Escape pod..“