Warning! This story will have lots of swearing, violence, and blood/gore. If you don't like that, then this probably isn't for you and you shouldn't be reading this.
"Yes, I am Zero." = Regular speech
What is he up to? = Thoughts
"Where are you young one?" = Telepathic speech
"Hello, I am your PDA." = The PDA is speaking
I don't take any credit, nor do I own Code Geass or Subnautica. This story is purely for fun and my entertainment only.
Ch.6: Grassy Plateau
The burnette fell asleep peacefully soon after the mini confrontation. Missing the way Lelouch huffed angrily, near pouted like a petulant child that had their candy taken away, and crossed his arms. Eventually though, Lelouch fell to the inescapable grasp of slumber as well, and fell to sleep with his chin tucked to his chest and arms still crossed and body turned to the side so he didn't experience pain from his cybernetic implants. Cape extensions unintentionally coming up to wrap around the raven haired teen like a blanket as he slept.
Everything was quiet in the lifepod, chests rising and falling slowly, atmosphere peaceful, and everyone sleepingly dreamlessly when the PDA spoke.
"Detecting increased local radiation levels. Trend is consistent with damage to the Aurora's drive core sustained during planetfall."
No one heard it's important message.
. . .
Dawn had since passed for quite some time before anyone decided to wake up and actually do something. The first thing everyone did was go hunt for fish, because they had finally expended all of their nutrient blocks and having food was a must. Though, since Kallen and Suzaku couldn't swim fast enough to kill the fish in the first place the job had to be put on Lelouch. In return however, Kallen and Suzaku set about the task of making the repair tool and their high capacity O2 tanks, which wasn't really a chore since it could be done in thirty minutes at the most. It allowed them to gain experience on how to use the PDA though since Lelouch was the only one who had been using it until now.
What Lelouch failed to mention was that he was planning on going on a literal scanning spree in the shallows. The raven haired teen scanning the planet's tiniest flora and giant coral tubes to even risking himself against those demented manatees. Said manatees turned out to be called gasopods, and were herbivores and docile unless provoked. If angered they would unleash the toxic bulbs that grew on its tail. The only thing Lelouch didn't manage to scan was the kamikaze fish simply because they exploded before he got the chance. Though the terrorist expected that, and it was why he took the first kamikaze fish's egg in the first place. So that it could hatch and grow in a controlled environment to which he would then scan it.
He still didn't dare to brave the creepvine kelp forest.
Thankfully, scanning only took a few seconds, and after two hours of hunting fish and scanning the environment Lelouch returned to the lifepod out of breath. The raven haired teen was ready to sleep for another day after his expenditures, but he knew it was worth it in the end.
He also knew that he wasn't going to get any sleep until it actually got dark out. Too much to do and not enough time to relax especially in this world.
"You manage to catch anything?" Kallen was the first to ask that question while Suazku focused on moving their newly made high capacity O2 tanks against the lifepod wall by the older ones. The repair tool was in the middle of being created by the fabricator. It's lights glowed brightly and the machine's noise buzzed throughout the small space.
"Enough for today." Lelouch answered victoriously in confirmation. The raven haired teen sitting down on the floor to help rest his exhausted legs as he brought his knapsack around to open it. The genius took out four fish of various species. "I scanned them once I killed them, and I figured out what they're called." Lelouch pointed to the fish that looked like a boomerang. "In predictable fashion that one is called a boomerang fish." Next was the one small orange one. "That's called a garyfish, and these two are called peepers. Why they are called that I have no idea really. Little buggers may be fast, but they're full of good protein and worth the work." Wordlessly, Lelouch took one of the peepers to put in the fabricator.
"Cool. We can eat first and then finally get this lifepod fixed." Suzaku stated. The burnette raised the repair tool up in the air with one hand. "Repair tool is finished, so let's get those fish cooked and then dig in, because I'm starving for something that doesn't taste like chalk."
To be frank, the repair tool looked rather similar to a nail gun, but more simple and sleek in design and without the nails. It was mainly surrounded by white plastic with soft black grip handles. What looked like a second handle grip was actually where one exchanged batteries for the thing to function. At the end of the repair tool were two black metal points, and if one squeezed the trigger on the handle a shocking blue light would be emitted from the tool.
"Amen to that." Kallen hastily agreed, and eagerly took up the second peeper while holding out the dead garyfish to Suzaku.
When the garyfish was set on the fabricator's table and the process to cook it began to take place the PDA spoke up. "It is common for those accustomed to synthetic foods to be repulsed by eating an animal carcass. Remember that humans survived this way for millenia. You can too."
"Hey, you think this thing is going to spit out a gourmet meal or something with that garyfish?" Kallen asked. From the weird and doubtful looks she received in turn the redhead huffed and added in defensively. "Hey I'm just saying! That thing turned a literal bladderfish into a bottle of freaking water. It's made batteries out of acid mushrooms and unrefined copper ore. If it can do that then don't give me those crazy looks when I think it can turn a simple fish into a gourmet meal."
Lelouch furrowed his eyebrows in doubt still. "I don't think so, but you make a good point. This technology is simply phenomenal." Dichromatic eyes narrowed down towards his PDA. "Even if the PDA's start up time was atrocious and that it seems defective with that sass it gives sometimes."
"Well here's our answer." Suzaku put in once the fabricator was done cooking the garyfish. The burnette carefully touched the food to make sure it wasn't too hot, and once he found it to be a good enough temperature he picked it up to show Kallen and Lelouch. "No plate and gourmet meal I'm afraid. Just a regularly cooked fish… Minus the bones and organs thankfully."
"The fabricator cooks small organisms, while disposing of the skeletal structure, bodily fluids and internal organs, thus rendering them safe for human consumption." The PDA said that with what sounded like pride. If machines could even have emotions in the first place.
In this world it just might be possible.
"Oh dang. I didn't even think of gutting the fish first." Kallen blinked then sighed with relief as she cooked her peeper next. "At least this thing takes care of that. Don't have to waste the time and effort when normally gutting it's insides out."
"If you could even tell what is what." Lelouch interjected, and cooked his peeper once Kallen's was done. "Don't forget these things are alien fish, so it's obvious their anatomy will be different from the ones back in our world." With that said, Lelouch raised his cooked peeper in the air dramatically. "Let's hope they at least taste good. Cheers."
"Cheers." Both Kallen and Suzaku decided to amuse Lelouch by copying his toast, and all three dug into their respective fish with fervor.
Suzaku was the first to speak up about the fish's taste. "Well, it obviously tastes like fish, but this thing is also really spongy." A distasteful expression scrunched up on the teen's face. "I mean, if I wasn't really hungry I would be debating if I wanted to finish this kind of spongy."
"Mine's spongy too, but it's also a bit salty." Kallen added in, but shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "I don't really care either way. Food is food and I'll take what I can eat." Lelouch hummed in agreement, and didn't even bother to give an opinion on how his fish tasted.
In fact, the raven haired teen didn't speak at all throughout their entire meal. Instead his eyes were glossed over in deep thought, a stern scowl on Lelouch's face while he glared down at the cooked peeper like it offended him somehow. Kallen and Suzaku spoke to each other lightly, but both gave each other looks to Lelouch's behavior yet did nothing.
He was probably thinking about how things were going back at home on Earth. Both Kallen and Suzaku had worried and pondered and stressed about it as well.
Hopefully, they'll be able to get home very soon now that things were moving along and progress was being made.
Finally, once everyone had finished off the last of their fish and drank their water bottles clean Lelouch stood up. A determined look on his face as he stalked over and put on his new high capacity O2 tank while his cape extensions grabbed a hold of the repair tool. "Now that that is out of the way. Let's get back down to business and finally fix this busted up lifepod." The terrorist held down the trigger and watched as that shocking blue light sparked out of the black metal prongs. With a satisfied glint in Lelouch's eyes the raven haired teen spun around towards the sparking wires of the lifepod's wall. The section that was missing it's metal panel. "The PDA says that the repair tool can be targeted on any common device. That being control panels, habitat modules, radios, bla bla bla. Even vehicles like the Semoth and Cyclops can be fixed by this thing. Whatever those things are." Dichromatic eyes rolled dramatically. "Of course, this thing works down at the atomic level to stitch and seam wires back together. Just like the scanner and fabricator."
"You know, at this rate saying that these machines work down at the atomic level is just like saying it's magic. It feels more like an excuse than an explanation." Suzaku mumbled.
Everyone watched with fascination as the wires and mechanical parts seemed to have gained a mind of their own. That or it was looking at time going in reverse. Parts seemingly fixing themselves and shifting back into their proper places. One of Lelouch's cape extensions picked up the missing metal panel and brought it up towards the section of the repairing lifepod wall. Like magic as Suzaku had said, the metal panel quickly fixed itself and eventually was screwed on tightly to the wall back in its proper place.
Once everything was fixed Lelouch leaned back and turned off the repair tool. The lifepod's actual lights flashed on and the pod itself hummed loudly to life. The emergency lights turned off and even the air itself looked much cleaner than before. With the lifepod nearly fixed and only the radio needing repairs the huge glass screen in the lifepod above the storage unit flashed to life.
"Oh boy. That's bad." Lelouch muttered darkly. A sour yet hesitant look spreading on the teen's face as everyone read the screen.
" - Secondary Systems: ONLINE
Outgoing radio communications: OFFLINE
Incoming radio communications: ONLINE
Flotations Devices: DEPLOYED
Hull Integrity: OK
Environment
- Uncharted ocean planet 4546B
- Oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere
- Waterborne bacteria levels: High"
"At least the incoming radio communications are online. Alongside the flotation devices and secondary systems." Suzaku said optimistically. "Even the hull integrity is okay despite your little freakout."
"What we're really lucky about is that Lelouch didn't get sick or that the wound he had didn't get infected." Kallen glared towards the bottom of the screen darkly. "This place- 4546B? Who the hell names a planet 4546B?" The redhead shook her head and returned to her proper train of thought. "Anyway, this place has very high waterborne bacteria levels, so frankly it's an absolute miracle you didn't get infected with anything Lelouch."
"Well, there are at least small mercies." Lelouch deadpanned as his PDA buzzed with a notification. Idle fingers now scrolled along the screen to read the information the lifepod sent to the PDA.
"I wouldn't call you getting sick small." Kallen nearly spat.
Lelouch actually had the gall to laugh, and if Kallen's expression to his laughter was any indication the redhead looked like she was milliseconds away from throttling the teen. "If you think what that screen says is disturbing. Then what you're about to read is going to give you plenty cause for concern, because things just got a bit harder." With that, the raven haired teen practically thrust the PDA towards Suzaku and Kallen to read.
"4546B Environment Scan
Category 3 Ocean planet
Oxygen/Nitrogen Atmosphere
Extensive biodiversity
Safety Warnings:
May support leviathan class predators
Water contaminated with high levels of foregin bacteria
Planet is beyond federation space, rescue unlikely
It is not recommended to explore this environment without hazardous material suits and extensive support apparatus."
"Well shit." Suzaku swore, and reread a few of the lines in the PDA before speaking again. "This planet has fish the freaking size of leviathans?" Glancing from Lelouch's stone cold expression and Kallen's frightened one the answer was clear. The burnette rubbed his eyes and nearly wheezed out a breath. "Shit. First crocodile shark monstrosities and now fish ten times the size of the whales back on Earth. When will this end?"
"When we get back to Earth or end up dead." Lelouch answered back bluntly, and returned to fiddling with the PDA as he stalked towards the radio. "On a possible bright side it says 4546B is beyond 'federation space'. I'm assuming that's Alterra, so besides any possible survivors we may encounter it's just us three and we don't have to worry about any government interfering or trying to detain us. That or they may try experimenting on us due to the way we managed to arrive on this planet, but that doesn't really matter since rescue most certainly won't be coming." With that unpleasant bit of one sided conversation Lelouch proceeded to start repairing the radio.
"Radio online. Broadcasting emergency distress signal." It didn't take nearly as long to fix the radio even if repairing the wires before only took a few minutes. As soon as the radio was fixed Lelouch took a step back and watched an orange light flicker in the upper right corner.
"Oh great. We've got a message already." Kallen reached over and pressed the flashing orange button, and everyone quieted down to listen to the message.
"This is Aurora. Distress signal received. Rescue operations will be dispatched to your location in 9...9...9...9...9 hours." The message stopped there, but the orange light still flashed so there was at least one more message to listen to.
"Judging from the state of the Aurora I don't think anyone is coming." Suzaku put in blandly. The brunette sat down in his seat and crossed his arms.
Lelouch walked up to the side of the radio with a calculating expression. "99,999 hours spans out to about eleven years and five months." A morbid smile crept across the raven haired teen's face. "That is, if anyone is still even alive on that ship, which I highly doubt."
Kallen gave Lelouch a shocked look. "How did you convert the time that fast?"
At the redhead's shocked question Lelouch's morbid smile turned into one of near arrogant confidence. "There's more to this pretty face than just charm." Kallen would have thought the smile Lelouch gave was indeed charming if it wasn't for his near narcissistic words and arrogant air.
Kallen snorted in derision, and simply moved to play the next radio message. Sapphire blue eyes rolling as she spoke sarcastically. "Yeah right, your charm needs a bit of work then Lelouch."
Lelouch opened his mouth to spit out a retort, but the radio cut him off. "Playing pre-recorded distress call…" Then a voice that distinctly wasn't the PDA's filtered through the radio. The male's voice tinged with obvious panic and fright as a banging noise echoed out in the background. Each bang getting louder and more forceful. "This is Ozzy from the cafeteria, what the hell guys?! They didn't warn us this might happen! Our pod was almost crushed by the seamoth bay on the way down, now we're hanging on the edge of a cave system and this grim-looking snake-thing's trying to eat through the hull!" Metal groaned loudly at the next bang, and a terrified gasp shuddering out from Ozzy. "Come get us already!" The distress call cut off with a resounding click and the PDA's voice returned with its usual pleasant tone even though that call was anything but pleasant. "Signal location uploaded to PDA."
"Well, that was very disturbing." Kallen breathed out shakily. Sapphire eyes turned to Suzaku's tensed form and Lelouch's lax one. "You think he's okay?"
"I think he's dead already." Lelouch deadpanned. Ignoring Suzaku's angered glare at his callous response the raven haired teen continued. "You heard that last bang on the lifepod's hull before the transmission cut. That had to have salt water spilling into the lifepod at least and a huge irreparable dent at the worst. It was either drown in the lifepod or chance it and swim away from the thing trying to get in as fast as possible and possibly survive."
"We don't know that." Suzaku ground out strongly. Olive green eyes glaring into Lelouch's challenging and certain dichromatic ones, and the brunette stood up once again to gather his scuba mask and knapsack along with some extra supplies. "We have to at least check and make sure. For all we know he could still be alive and needs help. Something which we can provide."
"He was getting hunted down by a 'grim-looking snake-thing' Suzaku." Lelouch hissed lowly. "For all we know that creature was one of the leviathan class creatures that lives on this planet! It's obvious that he and whoever else was in that lifepod stood no chance and are already dead."
"But you still don't know that for certain Lelouch!" Suzaku barked back, and was about to throw open the bottom hatch if it wasn't for Lelouch's cape extension grabbing a tight hold of his wrist and stopping him. Suzaku's face snapped up to Lelouch's with an enraged glare in his darkening olive green eyes. "Let me go Lelouch. I'm going to check whether you like it or not, because unlike you I can't forgive myself if the guy was still alive and died solely because we refused to go help."
"I do know, and I know that you're not going!" Lelouch yelled back, and refused to let go of Suzaku's wrist. "That man is as good as dead and gone already Suzaku. You don't stand a chance out there alone against God knows what, and frankly you're going out on a suicide mission. What's happened to him and those in that lifepod are in the past. Over and done with."
"Past?!" Suzaku barely wheezed the word out. The brunette getting consumed in his anger he almost couldn't speak.
"You killed your own father didn't you?" Lelouch sneered, and Suzaku looked like he got hit in the gut again. "All the way back when you were merely ten as well. Wallow in remorse when you have time for it!"
"Um, guys?" Kallen spoke up uneasily as Lelouch and Suzaku began to really raise their voices. "Can you two cut it out? This is getting ridiculous!"
The redhead was ignored however. "Like how you killed your own brother prince Clovis?!" Suzaku raged, and raised his trapped wrist up and away to try and make Lelouch release him. It didn't work, and instead the raven haired teen's hold tightened alongside Lelouch's own rising anger. Suzaku hissed through clenched teeth, but yelled through the pain. "Like how you had planned to kill Cornelia?! Maybe even Euphy! Hell no! I'm not like you! You with your morbid thoughts and lust for vengeance. You with that demonic eye and urge to betray the world just like how it betrayed you! I'm better than that!"
As if mentioning Lelouch's red eye was a magic word it seemed to blaze in a bright red glow in sheer fury. The color like fresh blood being spilt, and it actually managed to freeze Suzaku's own rage in its tracks. Anger being quickly replaced by terror at what Lelouch might do with his supernatural power.
Lelouch really looked ready to hurt him.
"Woah woah woah woah woah!" Kallen finally hollered through the arguing teens and physically pushed herself in between them. The redhead held an arm out to the boys to help keep them apart. Only with Kallen's intervention did Lelouch release Suzaku. "Stop fighting right now and break this argument up, because we don't need it!" Sapphire blues zeroed in towards olive green and then dichromatic ones. "We're in a temporary truce, remember? Or do you two just want to conveniently forget that and rip each other's throats out now?"
Both boys' averted their glares towards one another to different walls of the lifepod instead.
Kallen rolled her eyes and heaved an annoyed sigh. "Lelouch, despite what you may think at times you can't control us and tell us what to do like with the Black Knights back on Earth. If Suzaku wants to save someone then that's what he wants and we can't stop him."
"He's just going to get himself killed though." Lelouch rebuked. A dark vexed expression on Lelouch's face that flashed with some deeper emotion. "I'm stopping him because there is no one left to save!"
"But Suzaku is correct on one thing." Kallen returned evenly. The redhead reined her anger in for reasoning. Emotions wouldn't work against Lelouch, logic would. "You don't know if they're dead for certain. For all we know this snake thing is the size of a peeper or smaller than those crocodile shark things in the creepvine kelp forest. They could have fought back and chased it off. If we go over there and offer our aid and find out they're actually alive we have more hands to work with and a better chance at survival." Lelouch looked like he had eaten a very sour lemon. His unhappiness obviously clear. Kallen's own stare turned into a glare. "Also, that comment about Suzaku's father was a dirty shot and you know it. You said that because you wanted to make him angry."
Now Lelouch looked like he had eaten ten more lemons.
"And Suzaku." Fierce sapphire blue turned to glare at Suzaku. The burnette's own anger having been cooled before the redhead had even intervened, and instead he only looked sorry and ashamed. "Let's not mention Lelouch's demonic glowing eyeball, shall we? It's obviously a tick mark for him."
Olive green eyes turned to look at the lifepod floor as Suzaku mumbled out. "Sorry."
Lelouch's nose scrunched up in displeasure, and the raven haired teen merely turned away and crossed his arms stubbornly. "Hmph. Whatever."
As a few minutes passed with tension reigning control of the lifepod, and to make sure no one would start attacking each other, Kallen piped up. "So, are we going to check out this lifepod or not?"
That angered, clearly displeased expression wasn't completely cleaned off of Leloch's face, but it had died down some. "Since Suzaku is so determined to stare death in the face and you're siding with him. Then I suppose I have no choice but to go along with it to help save your skins and inevitably prove myself right." At Kallen's silent glare Lelouch spoke again with a frustrated sigh. "Yes. We're all going."
You could tell Suzaku was enjoying his victory at least a little bit judging from his straightened posture. The Eleven rubbing his sore wrist while speaking. "Then let's hurry up and pack what we need and get out there before it's too late."
"Before we go however." Lelouch interjected, and Suzaku nearly growled at the raven haired teen's interruption. Yet Suzaku kept himself calm, and turned his face back towards his friend. Lelouch was scrolling through his PDA, before he turned it around to show Kallen and Suzaku the blueprints for some machine. "I believe you two need an upgrade in speed when traversing through the water, and this thing right here is the perfect answer."
"The seaglide will increase your effective exploration range. For your safety please pack food, water, and supplies for long journeys, and stay within 5km of the nearest lifepod or habitat." The PDA piped up happily.
. . .
"I can't believe you went ahead and did a literal scanning spree throughout the shallows without telling us." Suzaku deadpanned as the trio was once again swimming through the waters of said shallows. Olive green eyes turned to give Lelouch a vexed glare. "I mean, what the hell man?!" Though emotions and tensions were still high from the earlier fight in the lifepod once again. The swim and objective before the three was helping everyone calm down, even Lelouch.
"We named the area safe shallows for a reason." Lelouch stated simply as they swam. Everyone was being extra careful to avoid heading into the creepvine kelp forest as they went by. No one was willing to go into the kelp unless it was an absolute must. "Besides, my scanning the environment not only helped find a few more blueprints alongside the seaglides, but we now also know that gasopods are docile herbivores unless provoked."
"Going with you would have been better and safer for you than just letting us sit in that dingy old lifepod waiting for two hours hoping that you were okay and unharmed out there." Kallen groused, but didn't really say anything else in opposition.
That was because Lelouch's search of the shallows had helped them, immensely so. The raven haired teen had acquired so many blueprints, and while some of them were pointless it still showed Lelouch's tenacity. Even if that meant Lelouch scanned anything and everything the scanner could pick up. Helpful blueprints like beacons, grav traps to help catch fish much easier even though Kallen had zero clue how that worked, power transmitters that had no use as of yet since the lifepod was solar powered, light sticks, and of course their newly created seaglides. Some of the less helpful blueprints being a desk, swivel chair, command chair, office chair, and even a freaking trash can much to the redhead's puzzlement.
Frankly Kallen thought Lelouch had a thing for chairs. Then again, he might have been searching for a chair that better suited himself due to his cybernetic implants.
The seaglides were surprisingly very easy to make though, and took little to no effort to fabricate two actually. One seaglide required a battery, one bottle of lubricant, a roll of copper wire, and a single thing of titanium, so it was a simple matter of making two. The seaglide itself had two thick handlebars, one on each side of the machine, and was mostly surrounded by white and dark blue plastic. There was a propeller in the front that helped make the machine move forward quickly while the water went out the back below the user. There was even a screen that showed a map of your surroundings alongside the option of a light, which was very helpful and much appreciated with the trio.
The only downside to this new addition was that they had no idea how to control or use it and that it ate up the batteries compared to their other recently made devices.
"Woah- Oh crap!" Kallen cried out, and barely missed crashing into a giant coral tube with her seaglide. The redhead shook her dazed self out of her stupor to glare down at her mode of transport. "This thing is harder to pilot than the Guren, and much more of a power hog while we're at it. This thing isn't even a fifth of the size of my knightmare back at home and it's already lost 5 percent of its power!"
Lelouch laughed at Kallen and Suzaku's struggle on learning how exactly to pilot a seaglide. The raven haired teen using his cape extensions to easily swim by their sides and watch the spectacle with amusement. "At least you can travel just about as fast as I can. Which means you two can catch fish and run away from things much faster than before." Dichromatic eyes narrowed in glee as Suzaku practically face planted into the seabed below them. "If you guys don't destroy them first that is."
"You can be such a pain in the ass sometimes Lelouch." Suzaku groaned from underneath them. The burnette hesitantly used his seaglide to swim back up to his other companions' level. An uneasy look on the Eleven's face while he stared the seaglide down as if it may bite him. "You're lucky you don't have to use one of these, because this is completely different from piloting the Lancelot."
Lelouch grimaced, but that smile which was more of a sneer now was still on his face. "Yeah." Dichromatic eyes flashed behind him with a look of hate and self disgust. "Lucky." Lelouch turned back to Suzaku who realized his words had a different effect than he had intended. "I sure am lucky huh? Lucky enough to become a deformed fre-"
"Holy shit. Look over there you guys." Kallen interjected swiftly, and somehow managed to make her seaglide stop when she wanted it to. Lelouch himself stopped in his tracks on a dime beside the redhead while Suzaku wasn't so lucky. The Eleven would have been sent spinning head over heels if it wasn't for one of Lelouch's extensions going out and stabilizing him.
Olive green eyes flashed to Lelouch in silent gratitude before they looked at the scene before the trio in rising shock and skittish unease. "...That's not the shallows."
"It's not the creepvine kelp forest either, so that means this is a new biome." Lelouch deduced easily with a soft voice.
The first thing anyone noticed was that this new biome was much farther down in elevation than either the safe shallows or creepvine kelp forest. The second thing was that this biome was mostly just vast sea water for as far as the eye could see. No tall dangling kelp, no giant coral tubes, just pure ocean. The third thing was that at the bottom of this new environment was a literal sea of red seagrass in and of itself. The red seagrass was at least waist high and was everywhere and on anything. Even the few columns of rocks that spiked from the ground at few and sometimes awkward intervals weren't spared from the red seagrass.
The fourth thing everyone noticed was that it was quiet. No alien sea creature in sight.
Not to their visible eyes yet that is.
"I don't like this." Lelouch was the one to state it right away. Dichromatic eyes looking around the new area with rising paranoia. "Are you really sure you want to keep going, Suzaku?"
To give Lelouch some credit, Suzaku didn't look as sure of himself as he had before. However, the burnette merely took a calming deep breath, and nodded in confirmation. "We're already this far, and we're so close to the signal as it is. Let's hurry up and see if they're okay." To prove his point, Suzaku was the first to carefully swim out in the new biome's open waters.
On a bright note, Suzaku wasn't immediately attacked by an alien sea creature the moment he stepped foot into the new environment. They could also see any attack coming towards them since it was open waters and there was no kelp blocking their way. Kallen and Lelouch followed to swim beside the Eleven quickly after.
"Short range scans suggest this biome supports extensive biodiversity both above and below the surface. While also connecting to a number of small cave networks." The PDA informed the trio much to their puzzlement.
"I don't see much biodiversity from up here." Kallen mumbled. Though to the PDA's credit the trio were swimming up high above the blood red grass and more closely towards the surface. Most certainly due to their hesitation in possibly encountering a new sea predator.
Lelouch looked around their surroundings, especially towards the open water one last time. "They must be close to the seabed floor and small since we can't see them from up here." He pursed his lips. "That or they're all underground in those tunnels the PDA mentioned."
"The signal is coming from just beyond that ridge over there, so let's hurry." Suzaku said after taking a peek at the PDA. The burnette swimming forward at a much faster pace than before.
"Be careful looking for that grim-looking snake-thing Suzaku." Kallen warned as the trio swam down and forwards towards the signal. "We may not see it now, but that doesn't mean it isn't close by." The humans were parallel from the seabed by a few feet now, so once they finally swam over the ridge to see the lifepod it was rather shocking.
Lelouch was right.
There was a huge hole in the lifepod, which had been tipped over on its side. The number seventeen had a chunk taken out of it, and the lifepod itself was giving off small electric sparks every ten seconds. The flotation devices were demolished and the entire thing was flooded.
The hatch was left open, but there was no one around for as far as the eye could see.
Lelouch chose that moment of realization to gloat. "I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so." It was an absolutely horrible moment to say that, but Suzaku didn't seem to hear the raven haired teen and instead swam down closer to the lifepod.
Kallen heard Lelouch though, and showed her appreciation by smacking the raven haired teen over the side of the head. "Cut it out." Solemn sapphire blues looked over the scene before Kallen swam forward as well. "Let's look around. See if we can find any remains, or at the very least more blueprints and supplies."
Lelouch glared at the back of the Black Knight ace's head silently before they flicked to Suzaku's downtrodden form. An annoyed look appeared on the raven haired teen's face, but Lelouch did as suggested with no complaints. What really got his attention was the huge cave system that opened up not too far away from the pod itself. The opening was about the size of a big pond, and when looking straight down you couldn't see the bottom. Dichromatic eyes could only see a few barnacle infested rocks alongside some strange pink and purple glowing mushrooms that looked nothing like the acid mushrooms of the safe shallows. They mainly glowed a near blinding pink and the cap was actually somewhat transparent.
That uneasy feeling in Lelouch's stomach grew, and he swore something slithered in the darkness just out of the corner of his eye.
"Lelouch what are you doing just treading water over there? Come over here. We found something you need to scan." At hearing Kallen's call Lelouch gave one last withering glance down into the caves before swimming away back towards the ruined lifepod.
He didn't turn his back until the cave was out of sight.
"What is it?" Lelouch asked. The raven haired teen swimming until he was beside the huge gap in the lifepod which Suzaku soon swam out of. In the burnette's hand was another PDA. "Where did you get that?"
"Found it in the lifepod alongside a few bottles of water, another nutrient block, and two flares in the storage unit." Suzaku answered. Olive green eyes studying the screen intently. "Otherwise there's nothing else in there that can be of use. Other supplies were ruined and no human remains, but this thing has a message that I can play. It probably has some clues on where the guy is."
Lelouch wanted to reaffirm that whoever Ozzy was is dead and has long since been fish food, but one glare from Kallen made him think otherwise. "If he didn't take his PDA then either something happened or he was in too big of a rushed panic and forgot about it. Play the message."
Silently, Suzaku pushed a few buttons and the PDA in his hands crackled to life. Lelouch noticed that a record log had been inputted to his own PDA as the hurried and frantic message played. "Ozzy's log. It's the day of the crash. I don't know what the heck is happening. I'm scared and I'm not going outside! There are shadows in the water under the hatch but I can't tell if they're rocks, or aliens, and there's weird looking caves nearby. The Aurora was carrying everything needed to build a phase gate: mobile vehicle bays, bio reactors, propulsion cannons…" The sound of sniffling and a hushed sob echoed out. "It had a cinema. There- there was a zero-G gym. My cafe. I don't understand how we're here now. I don't know why no one is coming for me."
The recording ended there, and Suzaku was looking plenty guilty for not arriving any sooner to help. Even Kallen looked disturbed while Lelouch was just stoic and kept an eye out around their surroundings.
"Shadows in the water." Lelouch muttered, glaring at the seabed. "You think that was what got into the lifepod? The snake thing?"
"Probably." Kallen nodded her head, and then turned from the lifepod and towards something in the blood grass a few feet away. "Anyway, I found a fragment of what looks like a submersible vehicle, so let's go get that scanned."
"Alright. You have my interest." Lelouch hummed, and swam by his silently depressed friend. One cape extension coming to brush by the burnette's shoulders carefully before Lelouch moved on to the scrapped fragment. "Well, this definitely looks like a vehicle of some sorts. Nice find." The terrorist took the scanner out of his knapsack and scanned the fragment. "Scanner says it's called a Seamoth. I'll need to scan two more fragments before I can get a complete blueprint, but now we've got a name. Its progress."
"I think there's another fragment just over there. Let me check it out." Kallen spoke as she swam towards the dark navy blue projectile sticking out of the sand and over the blood grass.
"Alright. I'll look over here, but be sure to be careful." Lelouch stated, and began to swim the other way. The raven haired teen swiping up some quartz sticking out of the red seagrass like a sore thumb and breaking a few sandstone outcroppings. "Hm. Quartz and sandstone outcroppings are here too, so we have somewhere else to go and gather these supplies." Dichromatic eyes turned towards Suzaku with a raised eye ridge. "Suzaku, you-"
The raven haired teen was cut off by Suzaku himself. "Ow! Son of a- Dammit!" The burnette swung his arm around harshly to try and hit something, but missed. The fish was small, about the size of Suzaku's forearm. It was mainly red with a small blue underbelly and glowing blue antenna in front of its head. On the sides of its head were two eyes on each side that had blue irises and big pupils. The fish's jaw was chalk full of tiny razor sharp teeth and flesh. "That thing just bit me on the shoulder!"
Lelouch figured as much judging from the tiny trail of blood flowing past the fish's jaw and Suzaku's left shoulder. It was just a tiny stream. Nothing too extreme unless it wasn't treated for a long period of time.
Lelouch rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you've dealt with worse, Suzaku." The terrorist turned away and started to swim towards Kallen. "As I was saying are you going to help or not-"
"Oh FUCK!" That exclamation and sudden scream of excruciating pain wasn't coming from Suzaku.
It came from Kallen.
Dichromatic watched it all happen in near slow motion, but it really went way too fast to nearly process at once even for him. The moment the redhead had brushed the supposed seamoth fragment with her fingers it shifted. The thing came to life and literally lunged towards her with a tiger-like snarl echoing from its maw. The realization that this thing was actually a sea creature sitting and waiting for prey to come to it being like a strike of sudden lightning. The thing was mainly a dark navy blue, but all Lelouch saw was the thing practically swallowing Kallen's right forearm and taking a huge nasty bite. Rows upon rows upon rows of jagged serrated teeth sinking into delicate skin and flesh like tissue paper and jerking side to side in a frenzied motion that was sure to take Kallen's arm off. All the while Kallen's frantic hellish shriek echoed throughout the entire ocean for all to hear.
"KALLEN!" Instantly, Lelouch swam to the redhead's aid and forced the thing's jaw open with his cape extensions. Helping Kallen jerk her arm out of the fish's mouth once she could. Her silver serrated blades on the underside of her arm tearing up the vulnerable insides of the predator's mouth and making it scream out in pain of its own.
But the damage had already been done.
The fish jerked free of Lelouch's hold, but thankfully the pain made the fish decide to turn tail and retreat for now. Its body only had two big fins with one on each side of its body. Its underbelly was a thick scaly pink and had multiple tiny black appendages like that on a centipede or millipede's legs. Just above its huge jaw were four tiny bulbed and bugged out red eyes frantically moving around in their sockets in crazed disarray. Besides the huge dorsal fin on top of its head that served as a lure its back was flattened and protected by multiple layers of navy blue armor like an exoskeleton.
Overall the thing was more of a horrifying abomination than the crocodile shark monstrosity.
It was also wiggling around to come back for round two.
"Holy shit, Suzaku!" Kallen's strained and pain filled voice caused Lelouch to snap to attention and turn to look at his best friend.
"Son of a- Get the hell away from me! Back off!" The brunette screamed. Olive green eyes had red rings sparking to life around his irises as he yelled out whilst trying to fight back. While one tiny biting fish wasn't much of a problem. As Lelouch was busy helping Kallen a literal horde of the things had swam out of the red grass to attack and bite into Suzaku's flesh. His suit flashed green constantly, but the fish were so overwhelming that red was starting to rise up from his frame more and more. Chunks of the brunette being taken out piece by piece as he got overwhelmed.
"Shit!" Grabbing Kallen's uninjured arm. The redhead cradling the other one with tears pricking the corners of her eyes and running down her cheeks. Lelouch swam forward with a boost of speed towards the Eleven. Putting plenty of distance away from the embarrassingly slow wiggle that came from the bigger alien predator. It expressed its anger with another snarl as it still wiggled closer persistently.
Replacing the scanner with his survival knife Lelouch stabbed it into the side of an unsuspecting fish while his extensions wrapped around a second and literally tore it in half without any real effort or thought. The tiny predator that wasn't torn in half gave a shrill cry before falling limp on his blade. The second fish didn't even realize it was in danger before it's guts and bones were already floating around in the water outside of its body. Lelouch quickly turned and batted a couple more away from Suzaku who was now fighting back and winning with his cape extensions. The sight of their comrades being killed made the rest of the tiny fish scatter like frightened mice. Their pinkish red bodies blending in easily with the blood grass while human red and alien yellow blood mixed together in the water and dispersed.
"Phew." Suzaku breathed heavily. Body aching and sore with his newfound bites thumping with burning agony and oozing blood into the water. Olive green eyes looked to dichromatic ones in gratitude. "Thanks-"
"We need to leave and give Kallen medical attention." Lelouch stated right to the point. Suzaku snapped his head up to finally take in the redhead's grievous wound in horror. "Now!"
Wordlessly, Suzaku took out his seaglide and activated it. The burnette booked it up straight towards the surface while Lelouch trailed just behind. Kallen being carried safely in his arms as they swam with all of their might. Below them still close to the seabed floor the creature that was about the same size as those crocodile-like predators in the creepvine kelp forest snarled in frustration before turning to wiggle back down into the sea floor. A good dozen more similar snarls echoed out back to the first's call. The scent of blood gathering their attention and making them become frenzied.
Lelouch didn't have time to take in the sights. The raven haired teen too focused on Kallen's survival and Suzaku. The latter of which was ascending towards the surface without any sign of stopping.
That was very bad.
"Stop you idiot!" Lelouch hollered up to his rash friend. Just barely managing to grab a hold of Suzaku's back leg and make him come to a screeching halt. "Do you want to get the bends?!"
"Bends? The hell is the bends!?" Suzaku yelled back. Fear for Kallen was clear in his emotions and panicked expression. Olive green eyes flickered to Kallen mostly while paying some attention to Lelouch. "Why the fuck are you stopping us when we need to get Kallen medical attention right now like you yourself said!"
"If you ascend in the water too quickly you can die because of it." Lelouch explained quickly. His voice and words moving so rapidly Suzaku almost couldn't follow. "The bends, or otherwise known as decompression sickness. Divers breathe compressed air that contains nitrogen. At high pressures underwater, the nitrogen gas is absorbed into our body's tissues. As a diver ascends, and the pressure of the water reduces, the dissolved gas wants to escape. But when you rise too quickly to the surface from the depths, the sudden pressure drop causes the nitrogen in our bodies to form gas bubbles in our tissues and blood, which blocks our circulation. Which in turn can kill us!" Lelouch's glare turned from Suzaku to the sea below them. "We have to wait here for fifteen minutes before ascending completely."
"What?! Are you kidding me?! Kallen doesn't have fifteen minutes!" Suzaku screamed towards the raven haired teen in fearful frustration. "You could have told us about that before we got here!"
"I didn't realize we would be dealing with biomes elevated so down in the ocean so soon Suzaku! I may be a genius but I can't always be prepared and know the answers to everything on a goddamn alien planet!" Lelouch roared back. "We shouldn't have even come here in the first place!"
"Hey. You two want to shut up and cooperate now?" Both boys looked down to Kallen's pale frame. The redhead shaking in the water like she was cold. Most likely starting to go into shock from the attack as she stuttered out. "Because I really don't want you two arguing to be the last thing I hear and see if I really end up dying."
Lelouch hissed almost like a snake. "You are NOT going to die." He stated that like it was gospel.
"Yeah. We're here. We're going to help you." Suzaku agreed. The fact that the two of them were arguing just seconds ago was almost unfeasible. "We can work together for this."
"Yes. We can." Lelouch agreed with a swift nod of his head.
"Good. I'm glad seeing as it's my life in the balance at the moment." Kallen's pained yet amused expression then turned into one of deep agony. "Fuck. This thing burns like I stuck my arm into a volcano instead of a fish's mouth." The redhead snorted in self derision. "I'm such an idiot. I can't believe I fucking fell for that… Damn, now I know how it feels to be nearly eaten by a fish." Sapphire looked up into dichromatic ones. "Guess we can relate now, huh?"
If anything, Lelouch looked more pissed and displeased at Kallen's words than before. "If you're going to keep talking like that then just shut up and go to sleep." Wordlessly though, cape extensions that weren't being used at the moment wrapped around Kallen's arm and squeezed harshly. The sudden intense pressure caused the blood flow in her arm to slow down immensely, but also caused Kallen to gasp out which then turned into a holler of pain.
Kallen barely managed a retort to Lelouch's idea. "That idea d-does s-so-sound heavenly at the m-m-moment. M-maybe I will."
"No. No don't. Lelouch was just joking." Suzaku spoke in a rushed voice whilst eyeing Lelouch.
Dichromatic eyes glared towards Suzaku again. "I don't do jokes." He deadpanned.
Olive green eyes glared back fiercely in return. "You're not helping." Finally, a look of impatience formed on Suzaku's face. "Can we ascend now? We really need to get back to the lifepod." The burnette grabbed a hold of one of the many wounds on his bleeding shoulders and put pressure on it with a hiss. "For both Kallen's sake and mine."
"Thirty more seconds and then we can book it all the way back to the lifepod." Lelouch stated while mentally counting back. His grip on Kallen tightened as the two boys prepared to book it for the lifepod as fast as possible. "I remember the way back, so be sure to stay on my tail or else you'll get left behind. I'm not going to stop for you."
"Wouldn't want it either way." Suzaku said. Red rings unintentionally flickering around his olive green eyes as the seconds passed.
After a few seconds in tense prepared silence Lelouch finally barked out. "Okay! Now. Let's get the hell out of here and back to the lifepod!"
Then a deep toned hum that sounded like a call boomed out. The sound disorienting the trio who weren't prepared for the unexpected noise to thunder out across the waves and biomes. Everyone's ears ringed for a second, and after adjusting themselves the noise died down but didn't stop.
That's when Lelouch and Suzaku noticed their frames were covered in deep shadows. The two slowly exchanged terrified eye contact, and gradually turned to face what was blocking out the sun from their vision.
The creature was about as big as the Avalon back on Earth. Probably even bigger, which in and of itself was horrifying and staying in the trio's nightmares for a while. Behind most of its body mass were three enormous tentacle-like appendages that trailed behind the creature and expanded out a long ways. The appendages alone were around the size of a bus each and just as thick too. They couldn't see the top of the creature from their angle, only the bottom. Said bottom was mainly black and grey, and there were blue bioluminescent stripes all around. There were huge glowing green bulbs near the end where the appendages were attached and two huge siphon esque looking structures just above those bulbs with one on each side. The structures expanded and contracted much like one's chest would when breathing.
"Oh." Lelouch rasped weakly. The teen feeling weak all over at the sight and sheer size of the creature looming over them. "Oh. Oh fuck." He felt like he was going to be sick. How this thing managed to get the drop on them was a huge mystery, but then again he and Suzaku were very distracted with Kallen to really notice.
"What do we do." Suzaku croaked quietly. Almost quiet enough that Lelouch didn't even hear him. Penny sized olive green eyes gazed up at the enormous leviathan before them with terror. Unable to look away. "Lelouch. Lelouch what do we do."
The enormous creature gave another call that bellowed out through the ocean and rippled the waves above them. The tentacles behind it moved and helped to propel the beast over their heads and farther away. Sunlight returned and momentarily blinded the trio since the creature was no longer over their heads. Instead, it was actually moving on and further into the red grassy plateau that was this new biome.
It wasn't interested in them.
"Swim." Lelouch gasped, and at once everyone snapped out of it to frantically swim away back towards the lifepod for all they were worth. Dichromatic eyes frequently checking on Kallen who was slowly losing consciousness. When her eyes were about to completely slide close Lelouch would roughly shake her to make her wake up. "Hey no! You need to stay awake for as long as possible Kallen. You know that!"
"It's just so hard." Kallen replied. A few more tears slide past her eyes and down her cheeks to pool at the bottom of her scuba mask. "Sleeping sounds so much better than dealing with this pain."
"I know. Trust me I know, but you can't go to sleep until we get to the lifepod at least." Lelouch spoke sternly. Eyes showing the pleading emotion that refused to appear on the rest of his face. "Promise me that Kallen. Promise me you'll stay awake with me until we get to the lifepod."
Hazy sapphire eyes stared up towards the water that sparkled in the sunlight as they swam by at speeds she would never be able to go physically by herself. They slowly turned to look at those shiny eyes that only belonged to Lelouch. Beautiful royal violet in one eye, and sparkling demonic blood red in the other. Emotions wavering and glistening within them that expressed such a desperation that Lelouch could never express vocally. It was a look Kallen decided then and there that she didn't like. At all.
Kallen blinked and rasped out. "I promise."
I decided to make the grassy plateaus be elevated low enough that the trio needs to stop and decompress lest they get the bends. I know that you have to be at least 15 feet or 4.5 meters below the water to make a decompression stop, and that the deeper down in the water you go the more decompression stops you have to make. I admit to changing that aspect a little bit to where they only have to do one at the grassy plateau's level. The break isn't required in the creepvine kelp first or the safe shallows, and the amount of decompression breaks they'll need will increase the deeper they go. This rule will probably be bent and abused when it revolves around the seamoth, cyclops, and prawn suit. When opening and entering into those vehicles they'll drain the water and slowly lower the pressure automatically so they won't get sick. The same will be said when they exit the vehicle just in reverse so they don't get crushed by the sudden pressure. This ain't no game to them, so getting the bends is completely 100 percent possible if they ascend from the ocean too quickly.
Otherwise if you haven't noticed by now me writing parts revolving around Lelouch using his cape extensions gives me the giggles and I absolutely love it. Dude nearly has an extra set of hands like Doc Ock in Spiderman.
If you have enjoyed the story so far leave a REVIEW, Follow, and Favorite the story so you can keep track of when chapters pop up. Because FYI, I don't have a posting schedule and I just post whenever I feel like it.
I'll be seeing you guys in chapter 7! -MoonlightWright
