Prologue
The following is from an article of the New York Times, dated January 17,1946:
World War II ended a scant four months ago. The loss of life cause by this war
was devastating. And yet, as if what the Jewish population of Europe suffered
through wasn't enough, it now seems that people are beginning to disappear. Prominent
figures in the fields of art, industry, and science have began to vanish, all without a trace.
Many have taken to calling this phenomena "The Vanishing", a very apt moniker. Among the
"vanished" are Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong, both brilliant and renowned geneticists
from Germany and China, respectively, Frank Fontaine, infamous New York mobster,
and millionaire Andrew Ryan.
Excerpt of a Boston financial magazine article dated September 24, 1946:
Millionaire Andrew Ryan has created an industrial company, Warden Yarn, and has
been reported buying immense quantities of materials, ranging from cement mix
to iron beams. He has also commissioned the construction of a large off-shore plant, some
one hundred and twenty miles from Reykjavik, Iceland, using his own streamliner, the
Olympian, to transport the materials there. When questioned as to his plans with the plant
and what he intended to do with the materials he ordered from his new partner
Scarlet Sovereign: Import and Export, Ryan denied any comment.
As time went on, more and more people around the world were vanishing. All, or at least most, were renowned in art, medicine, science, and industry. Finally, in 1952, the disappearances began to slow until they eventually seemed to stop. That's not to say that disappearances around the world ceased to occur. No, it simply means that unexplained disappearances were less frequent. Countless people disappear everyday, sometimes in mysterious circumstances. Sometimes, whole ship crews disappear, leaving behind their ship afloat in the sea. A number of these occurrences are centered where Andrew Ryan's plant used to be located, about one hundred and twenty miles west of Reykjavik, Iceland, more than a decade after the initial Vanishing.
The following is a recording of a distress call from the USS Orion, a U.S. Navy frigate covertly sent to the area to investigate the vanishings, dated November 7, 1959:
Mayday, mayday, this is the USS Orion, we are under att... spheres just popped up...
slaughtering the cr... want someone... Adam... HELP, PLEASE! (screaming and crazed
cackling are heard before static takes over).
This is not an isolated incident. Many more garbled distress calls like this were received, most ending like the one above, and all resulting in those that heard it fearing that particular stretch of ocean. These waters are all now notorious as a ship graveyard, figuratively. It serves as a second Bermuda Triangle, in that ships that enter don't always come back with their crews alive. In some cases, the seemingly abandoned ships were found with blood splatters all over, and sometimes were devoid of life. In addition, those that survived the trip reported their ship's navigation system's went haywire, not working until they left the area. Many believe this is the spirits of the previous travelers trying to warn the new navigators. But without conducting a thorough search of this particular stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, no one will know just what happens there.
Author's Note: This is only the beginning of a novelization of the fantastic game BioShock. This'll be a grand undertaking for me, as I've never done anything like this before. Bear with me, though,for I am confident it'll get better. And yes, I know this is short, but I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. After that, don't expect regular updates. I already have a running fic, and am working on another multi-chaptered story as it is.