Pacific Ocean, 0143 Hours, Undisclosed Location
Pressed beneath the oppressing depths of the sea, the consciousness stirred within the being. It was cold, and dark. Blue Ridge II, hybrid carrier and armed to the teeth, normally feels systems coming online all around herself. The faded vestiges of her CIC stumbled into action, and gave a report.
System core restart completed... all systems nominal.
She opened her eyes, light receptors temporarily blinded until they focused on the two, massive beings above her… and immediately ordered her crew to battle stations.
Her command was met only with a torturous agony.
Tester's expression remained neutral, tinged with a sadistic smile that slowly crept across her face. Despite arduously slow progress over the past months of the isolated timeline, the research into the otherworldly being was finally making some progress. They had, after all, happened upon the very gestalt of the massive warship. Even now, the subject showed signs of awakening. The possibilities to discover were endless, and Tester continued to pump more and more stimulating chemicals into the sleeping woman.
Strategist, on the other hand, most certainly did not share the giggling Tester's enthusiasm. Whatever that thing was, she most certainly agreed with her instincts; Danger. Peril. Overwhelming strength.
This thing- she refused to consider it a Siren like themselves- vaguely shared an appearance with the more powerful Sirens. Tall, perfectly sculpted, and strongly angled face fitting with the greatest of Human beauty… if not for the fissures on the woman's skin. Angry fissures of torn flesh covering her entire lower torso, and glowing an ominous blue.
"Tester, I-"
"Quiet," Tester snapped, sparing not a glance at her subordinate. "Subject, can you hear us?"
"why…"The woman in the tube's response is cold, clipped, and hoarse, her voice rough and hurting. "Why are you all so big?"
Caught completely off guard by the statement, the pair of Sirens share a glance. Tester, in particular, mulled over the sheer oddity of the Subject's question… 'Why are they so big?' Why is SHE so big? Even among other Sirens, Tester could not be considered large, or even that imposing on the battlefield.
"...Subject appears to be partially corrupted." She muttered under her breath, now pacing back and forth around the capsule. "Testing for further damage to thought processes and data nodes."
Moments later, she completed the calculations, and increased the dosage of chemicals, as well as activating a microphone, speaking clearly into the pod.
"Subject, can you hear me?" Tester's voice was gentle, far more so than the tone she took with her subordinate. Soon, they would finally get their data, Tester purred in satisfaction… and yet as she watched the woman's slow reawakening, an illogical twist of fear surged through her circuits. Could this be a mistake? Perhaps the dosage-
Any further speculation was brutally halted as the Subject began to thrash and kick like a wild beast.
Here, countless fathoms beneath the surface of Oceanus's realm, a monster best left asleep woke once more. Something deep, dark, and painfully aware of itself…
"Helena, are you seeing this?"
Cleveland's quiet tone is serious, and her phrasing isn't allowing for room or shifts in her demeanor, Helena quickly snaps her head over to her sister ship. Upon seeing the frown on the face of Cleveland, Helena glances over the girl's shoulder and sees her studying a hydrophone readout. A hydrophone readout displays levels of sound that shouldn't be here, and from far, far deeper than should be possible.
"Flagship, do we have friendly submarines capable of operating at 325 fathoms?"
Essex frowns immediately, that doesn't sound correct at all… and no friendly sub she knows of is capable of being that deep.
"No, not at all, let me radio Shang, she might have a link to headquarters or the sub group…"
Essex focuses her radio nets eastwards, towards where dawn would be showing its warm rays in around 5 hours before she calls out.
"Four Eyes, this is Admin, over."
"Go ahead Admin, this is Four Eyes, over."
"Any Blufor capable of 300 fathoms plus operating depth in the area? over."
"None. There are none that can operate at that depth in our fleet, over."
"Understood. We have a reading on hydro at that depth and it's only getting louder, over"
"I see, I'll vector Glove's ASW to your positions, over"
"That is much appreciated Four Eyes, thank you, over and out."
Essex turns to her escorts, swallowing down her fear at the unknown threat lurking beneath her feet. Starts belaying orders in a firm voice that only trembles slightly.
"Helena, Cleveland, Laffey, prepare for ASW, NoCal, cover our advance, and Vestal stand by for incoming…"
Five nods confirm their compliance, and Essex continues to study the hydrophone readings as her own system comes online, helpfully dropped by a fairy fighter squad that takes off from her deck.
"She's breaking free."
"I have noticed this."
"Why are we standing here?"
"The containment vessel will hold."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
The two sirens stared evenly at Blue Ridge as she kicked and thrashed, until… with another snapping sound, the woman's legs broke free of their cuffs, and her left arm snapped free as well, tearing the cuff so badly that it ripped a hole in the tank, fluid spilling out like a burst vein.
"Are you certain?"
"No longer. Sedatives, now."
The sirens move quickly, placing hands-on levers and pulling, the tube groaning with pressure as the woman inside bucks and kicks and cracks against the glass, breaking everything in her path as she strains with the energy of a feral animal. Sedatives flood the liquid in the tank, even as Siren subunits work to seal the leak. The woman's struggles eventually cease, and at last, their ordeal appears to be over. The disposable Sirens breathe a sigh of relief, and Tester scowls in thought over what went wrong... until Strategist quietly whispers into her ear.
"Tester. One of our Intruders is gone. She fails to communicate her status and location, despite having been just here."
"Find her." She haughtily snaps. "Quickly, before this creature reawakens. The sooner I get my data, the better."
Strategist directs a pair of explorers to don their rigging. Fully armed and in a close formation, they move for the airlock door; and once the hissing fades from her ears, Strategist strains and peers into the darkness. The abyssal depths give way to the massive...hulk resembling an aircraft carrier, twisted and mangled hull grinning up at her like the jaws of a sadistic beast.
"The noise is gone now."
"Laffey doesn't like thissss."
"Neither do I, are Bogue's ASW aircraft here yet?"
"Should be here in the next few minutes"
The surface fleet idled and watched, guns and depth charge throwers primed to turn the sea into a boiling inferno at the command of Essex. But without a positive ID, none of them were willing to risk hitting a friendly or ocean creature. As the noises died off, Cleveland's agile eyes snared a brief eruption of noise, like an engine kicking into high gear, energy bursting up and boiling over.
"Essex... I have one on the scope. It's very, very deep below us, just kicked on its engines. Doesn't seem to be rising, but based on the movement patterns, I'd say it's searching for something down there."
"I've got two more over here," Helena chimes in, her own hydrophones tuned to the area as well and an interesting if curious expression on her face, gently biting her lip as her soft voice reaches Essex. "They're fanning out in a circular pattern, wait, detecting pulses of sound. They're looking for something with active sonar, no way that's normal calling or speech."
"Unknown," Shangri-La chimed in from the radio, "If these are Sirens, they can't be any type we know of, at least. Not even their submarines have been seen at that depth."
"Essex, got some serious spikes going on down there, wayyy too random to be the ocean or wildlife."
Cleveland and Helena look to Essex, consternation, and confusion on their faces. The ships are in formation but don't know what to do. Rigging is pointed at the deepwater beneath them, weapons raised and readied, shells and torpedoes and depth charges armed and ready for the destruction of their enemy… if possible.
"Negative on visual ID, Strategist."
"No sightings in this quadrant…"
Strategist and her searchers fanned out, scanning the area with visual and sensors, and yet there's no trace of the Intruder, something causing Strategist no end of concern and no end of worry in fact. Her emotions run riot, her limiters unable to control them, not only was the pressure lethal here, after too long, but the wreck of the carrier was a threat too, she had automated defenses that worked underwater, and were more than sufficient to scrape and burn off the protective coating of the Sirens' condemning them to a painful and thankfully short life as the ocean crushed their forms and consigned them to being another corpse on the ocean floor.
The doom and gloom of the wreck surround Strategist as she walks amongst the metal fragments, discarded, dead limbs of the crew, and dozens upon dozens of pieces of metal, the entire ship is run through with cabling fragments, chunks of metal shot through with red wiring that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Strategists sensors continue to register organic movement from the cables. Purging the logic routine as irrelevant, Strategist feels the beginnings of a headache as she struggles to rationalize the false positive. Her lights cascade over the broken, jagged edges of hull and armor plating, Strategist catches a brief glimpse of white, pale flesh, before it's dragged from sight around a bend in the hull.
"Target sighted, converge on my position."
"Affirmative leader, converging"
"Confirmed, closing in now."
"Tester, I have a visual location on the absentia Intruder."
"Affirmative, recover her and return."
The Sirens closed on the bend in the hull, twisted metals and cracked hull opening like a fanged maw into the inky black of the depths of the warship. Strategist narrowed her eyes, ocular systems straining into the darkness. She activated her rigging to flood the gap with light… and came face to face with a dead crewmember, wrapped in a cable by the neck.
It was a macabre scene, the blindfolded androids (and what else could it be, for there was no sign of organic decomposition) displaying various expressions of shock and agony. Severed limbs and gashed bodies leaked a foul, oily substance into the water. A quick glance at the jagged bulkhead confirmed that yes, the entire section of this ship was compromised.
More of those awful cables lurked everywhere she looked, almost slithering away from the three sirens the moment eyes and lights were laid on them. Strategist's threat detector grew more agitated the deeper into the warship they went; dull red throbbed, worsening the sensation of the lifelike, pulsing metals. Soon, they came across a very thickly armored bulkhead.
"Tester. We have reached the citadel and will locate the centralized information network. Ocular and audio in the depths of the warship, audio sensors detecting movement and other more unpleasant motions ahead."
Strategists' radio crackled ominously, then ceased functioning with a puff of sparks and a flash of light. The Siren felt a chill run down her spine, and every hair on her body stood straight up as she turned a corner and saw a whiplike cable dragging someone back into the depths of the ship.
"C-contact," Strategist quivered, not understanding the dread flooding her emotional module. "All units, prepare to engage the enemy."
Her compatriots, lesser models of Sirens lacking the same modules, nodded blankly as their riggings activated. For Strategist, however, the primal urge to run, flee! was overwhelming, and only the thought of Tester's ire pushed her to lead deeper into the monstrously sized ship.
The ship creaked and groaned all around them, sending shivers racing through the deck as it did so. The trio of Sirens floated through increasingly blurred water and around the corner. The deep red pulsing grew stronger, and Strategist fought the urge to flee at the scene ahead.
There, a scant 50 meters to the front, was an opening into what was obviously a reserve hangar deck. Debris that may have once been aircraft littered the hangar, acting as a graveyard to a large number of crewmembers.
And it was most certainly ghastly; bodies ripped to pieces and silently screaming in rigor mortis, cybernetics scattered in macabre tributes to violence. To hatred. Idly, Strategist noted under that damned sense of panic, the remains of a low-end Siren model was among them. Something had done this to them, and something was roaming the vessel…
The Siren turned to her companions… who were no longer there.
"Tester? Th-there is something wro-"
Tester glared at her data readouts. As a superior being, it was not often she experienced pain, yet the numbers that fluctuated before her somehow did so. The hull surrounding the Subject was clearly humming with power, power which was nonexistent a mere moment before. A dull hum resonates through the lab, a whining hum that's making Tester's head hurt after a scant few seconds of exposure.
She sighed in disbelief. Somehow, the numbers couldn't be accurate! The extensive network of sensors, probes, and connections installed in the facility was designed to withstand the full load of Tester's reactors, which was an impressive, intense figure in and of itself. Flashing across her data panels, however, was the word Error. Knowing with absolute certainty her equipment was working, Tester began to initiate emergency protocols, checking between screens repeatedly to double-check.
This… ship was capable of at least 500% of the power output of a full-blown Tester unit; even then, Tester forced herself to keep from throwing out the data for the sheer impossibility of the inaccuracy. No human carrier, no matter how advanced, was capable of a reactor output even approaching her own, and yet this thing, in its damaged, rotting, decrepit and wrecked state blew her own reactors out of the water in comparison.
Narrowing her eyes in true annoyance, she keyed the quantum communications. "Strategist. All units are to return to the testing lab immediately."
Crackling static greeted her, dancing and jumping in a senseless pattern. This, she noted, was also an impossibility, Siren quantum communications couldn't register static, there was simply no sound if there wasn't a connection or sufficient interference to block it out. Yet, here she was, experiencing static straight out of a primitive radio built by the useless primates that infested this planet.
Tester should have laughed, she should have found this hilarious, so why did the static feel like it was laughing at her in a cold, mocking fashion? Why was a chill colder than the ocean surrounding her running down her spine?
"Strategist. Intruder." Nothing.
"Peacebreaker?"
Purging her emotional routines entirely, Tester whirled upon the immobile Subject- no, the Abnormality. Static pulsed louder, and she gazed through the plasteel and armored glass. The Abnormality's hull exploded into red light, the vibrations creating a dull roar through the entirety of the Mirror Sea. In comparison, the faint whisper and hoarse coughs drew her attention back to the containment pod.
RAP TAP TAP
The Subject was conscious and testing the confines of her container.
"What-..." Yet another impossibility. "This is Tester, initiating Emergency Containment Protocol 003u-78. Beginning termination of Subject!"
Tester's synthetic body trembled as the static increased in volume, now resonating through the entire lab room, and as that woman- no, that thing's eyes opened wide. It stood tall, crimson irises aglow with fury. Unbeknownst to Tester, generations of fury stood before her on behalf of an extinct human race.
"Burn, for your sins against the Creators."
The voice, deep and trembling with emotion, reverberated everywhere around the thoroughly paralyzed synthetic body of Tester; as the Siren turned to face her herrscher, her furiously agonized screams matched that of the machinery, cables, and steel as the deep-sea research lab collapsed under the weight of the ocean.
Flashing white sends the Siren to darkness.
NOTES: Thank you, to each and every one of you who followed, favorited, or reviewed.
To "Lord of Moons": It is good to see someone who knows the good little details of the Nier/Drakengard universe. I hope it doesn't disappoint you, but the main focus in this story will be on the Azur Lane side of things. As to whatever comes along for the ride with Blue Ridge...well, this chapter might give you a hint. However, if you want more Nier stuff included, that would be in "The Long, Blinding End", my Girls Frontline + A2 story. Accord may or may not show up there~
To "Guest(s)": You're welcome. Also to a Guest: Rude~
Ashes of an Empire is to be updated next. And who else is excited for GFL 2?