AQUARIA MAJOR

It was cold on Aquaria Major. Not that it was too much of a hindrance, but a set of heaters wouldn't have gone amiss when they drew up the plans for the base. Just one of the many small details that were annoying, such as the cupboards being too high and lighting system's aversion to not being on full power. But they were tolerable, especially compared to the feat of engineering it took to build the underwater complex in just 7 days. After the fragment of Celestra-86 had been discovered, Australian engineering company XTECH had petitioned to set up an exploratory research centre around the asteroid and begin experiments to determine any special properties that it may possess. As the asteroid sat at the bottom of international waters, it was left up to the UN to decide, and they had approved it on the condition that one of their representatives joined the expedition crew. What nobody had expected was XTECH to use this as an opportunity to test their revolutionary nano-particle build systems, and suddenly what was supposed to be a job that took 3 months was complete within the week. The 4 strong research team had already been chosen in that time, and they had left for the site immediately. Led by Project Manager Kostas Diagara, the team also contained Astrophysicist Charlie MulCair, Structural Engineer Kari van de Velt and Experimental Chemist Tori Scala-Jones. As part of the deal, UN delegate Tamala Stevens also joined them to keep an eye on proceedings. In the weeks they had been down there, not one thing had gone wrong that couldn't be fixed with a little duct tape, and they had made incredible progress on unlocking the secrets of Celestra-86. Unfortunately, that was all about to change...

In the light of her bedroom, Kari could just about see the jagged scar on her wrist. It was the same thing she always saw last when she pulled her jumper over her head, a constant reminder of how lucky she was to be alive. She had been 15 at the time, at school with her twin sister Scarlett when a former teacher, off his face on a cocktail of drugs, opened fire on her class. Kari had tried to hide behind a table but one of the bullets hit her as she dived for cover, shattering her wrist. Scarlett had been coming back from the toilets when it started, and on seeing the gunman had promptly knocked him cold in one strike. Even at 15 Scarlett's martial arts skills were beyond anything Kari had ever seen. She survived, but 6 of her classmates and their teacher were all killed, along with the janitor who had tried to stop the gunman before he reached the classroom. Now, every time Kari put on that jumper and saw the scar, she contemplated how close she had come to never making it home. Most days she would stay in a stationary state whilst she thought about it, shut off from the world, but the sudden blare of the sirens shattered her silence.
"Oh come on" She snapped to herself, then pulled the mini radio off her belt. "Kostas, what the hell is going on?"
"We've had some kind of breach inside the dock" Kostas replied in his thick, Greek accent. "Pressure sensors are off the chart."
Kari sighed. As structural engineer, it was her job to check these things out. "Set my call sign to green, I'm on my way."
Kari pulled the mini toolkit off her bed and made her way down the length of the base's interior skeleton to the dock at the opposite end. She met Kostas there.
"Any water leaking into the dock?" Was her first question. Being underwater, that was only natural.
"Not that we can tell" Kostas replied. "But something in there tripped the pressure alarm sensors so you best check it out to make sure."
"My best first guess is a faulty sensor in that case. Should only take me 5 minutes to figure out the fault."
"OK Kari, but make sure you keep in total radio contact."
"Will do Kostas" She replied as the large blast doors to the dock opened slowly. Once they were the width of Kari and her toolbox, she slipped inside and Kostas sealed the door.
"Well, nothing looks out of place at the moment. Where did the sensor ping?"
"Over by the East perimeter wall" Kostas replied. Kari made her way over there, slowly at first but with nothing looking too out of place, she sped up until she reached the wall.
"Kostas, we've got a problem."
"A problem?" Kostas replied. "How serious?"
"Very" Kari replied, dragging her hand along the wall, tracing the path of the large crack that had appeared. "I'm not surprised the alarm was triggered with a fissure this large. It's just about standing up to the water pressure outside but this is going to need a big rebuild. I'm going to follow it round, see where it started."
"Roger that, but be quick Kari."
Her radio now turned off, Kari started to trace the crack. Eventually she came to a turn in the wall, but when she turned her head away from the crack so that she didn't fall over anything, she recoiled in horror, falling to the ground. An involuntary scream left her mouth as she tried to stand back up.
"KARI?" Kostas shouted down the radio. "KARI?" But she didn't answer. She just stared infront of her at the things that occupied the space. She didn't know what to call them, but they were nothing like she had seen before.
"This can't be real" She whispered to herself, stumbling backwards. "Please tell me this isn't real." Then the unknown moved forward, and Kari's scream was the last thing anyone would hear from her before she was gone.

And so the journey begins! And we're already off to a dramatic start. But just how is this all going to piece together? Well, I suppose you're going to just have to wait and find out...