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. 9: A Few Steps Forward
"Caution. Continued degradation of the Aurora's drive core may result in a quantum detonation. Continuing to monitor."
"What the- Quantum detention?!" Lelouch, while wanting to yell that out, managed to keep himself quiet for Kallen's sake. Dichromatic eyes wide in shock, because the raven haired teen knew that a quantum detonation basically meant a huge ass explosion-
Then something grabbed a tight, yet somehow at the same time rather weak and shaky hold onto his wrist. The action served to have Lelouch nearly jump out of his skin from being so startled. Cape extensions rising up to attack whatever had grabbed him instinctually, before Lelouch saw just what had grabbed him and froze. The revolutionary stops himself short to stare down at Kallen, gobsmacked.
She was awake, and frankly she looked rather terrified.
"Lelouch." Kallen croaked out weakly, dryly. It was clear the redhead was in desperate need of more water at the sound of her voice being more equivalent to that of sandpaper. Normally bright, fiery sapphire blue eyes were shrunk and shaking as she nearly whispered hoarsely. "Lelouch, I- I can't move my hand."
. . .
The sudden, unexpected announcement caused all of the wildly spinning mental gears within Lelouch's head to come to a screeching halt with sparks flying at the jarring notion. Dichromatic eyes widening themselves in rising horrified shock at the implications Kallen was saying.
Well, shit.
"I- I, that- shit, Suzaku!" Lelouch called out loudly for his best friend. His voice just an octave higher to show the raven haired teen's horrified, dismayed emotions. "Suzaku!"
The resounding crash of what must have been Suzaku falling backwards in his chair echoed out in the otherwise empty sea base. The light mutter of a small curse following soon after along with the rushed stomping of feet hitting the strong, cold metal floor. Suzaku stopped at the threshold of the opened bulkhead doorway.
Grabbing a hold of the doorway with one hand Suzaku looked to Lelouch with all of his attention. "What-" Seconds after, before Lelouch could even give a reply, green eyes looked to Kallen. Only to see her wide, scared sapphire eyes looking around at her new surroundings in confusion. Her injured arm lying limply in her lap with her other arm hovering over it protectively.
For a split moment, Suzaku resembled that of a goldfish out of water with the way his mouth opened and closed silently. Yet, a second later and it was gone, replaced with relieved watery green eyes. The tension set in the burnette's shoulders never left, even after he finally made eye contact with Kallen again after what felt like so, so long.
"Kallen."
The way Lelouch and Kallen both looked at Suzaku made it quite clear that despite the redhead finally waking up, something was very, very wrong.
. . .
Gently, a cotton swab was lightly dabbed over Kallen's wounded arm in multiple places. Starting up on her shoulder, before moving to the crook of her elbow and finally her wrist and tips of her fingers inch by inch. Each time, a single question was asked.
"Can you feel this?"
"Yes." Kallen replied confidently at first. Being able to feel the light fuzzy sensation of the cotton touching the unharmed skin of her shoulder and bicep. However, as Lelouch went past the crook of her elbow and into the parts of damaged skin and muscle tissue from the sea creature's attack, that answer became less and less confident.
"How about now?" Lelouch asked again, placing the cotton swab lightly onto the area just past Kallen's elbow. The sea base was dead quiet except for the light rhythmic thumping of the water beating against the metal hull and dull constant hum of energy. Suzaku silently scouring the PDA for any possible ways to help on the other side of the bed with a second chair.
"...Yes." After a moment of hesitation Kallen replied with an affirmative.
Lelouch bit his lower lip silently, chewing on it in intense thought as he went further, halfway up the redhead's forearm now. "Can you feel anything now?"
This time a look of concentration appeared over Kallen's face before she lightly nodded and whispered. "Yes, I can still feel it, but it's a bit fuzzy."
Then Lelouch finally placed the cotton swab over the ace pilot's wrist. "How about now?"
"..." A few seconds of silence passed. A terribly distraught look encompassed Kallen's features as she shakily shook her head. "No, I can't feel anything anymore."
The silent creaking of the PDA's frame echoed out in the sudden quiet as Suzaku's hands tightened on the machine's frame. Green eyes sliding closed to breathe in a deep, calming breath.
Lelouch straightened up in his chair and stayed fixated on Kallen's arm. Dichromatic eyes squinting in intense thought now.
"I-I'm not going to be able to move my arm again aren't I?" Kallen asked rhetorically. The redhead moving, opening, and closing her left hand. The way her blue eyes looked to her injured right hand and darkened as she did so showed that she was trying to move that hand as well, but nothing was happening. Not even a twitch. "I won't be able to pilot the Guren like this!" Suddenly, she slammed her usable fist down on the bed to make a soft thump against the mattress and fabrics beneath. "I can't be a part of the Black Knights like this, especially not an ace!"
"Kallen, calm down." Lelouch chided seriously, and placed a soft yet firm hand on Kallen's uninjured arm.
"Calm down?! How can you tell me to calm down when I can't even twitch a finger on my right side!" Kallen's voice grew louder and more hoarse with each word. Her eyes watery, yet she refused to let them fall down her cheeks. She still had some pride left. "You might as well have just chopped my entire arm off. It would have been less mocking! Then I would know that it couldn't be helped! That there was no possible hope." She glared down at her injury. Her right hand not even twitching a finger, almost like it was taunting her in not moving.
"Cut your arm off?!" Suzaku exclaimed incredulously. His eyes wide like they were about to pop out of their sockets in disbelief at what the redhead had just said. "Kallen what the hell!"
"That's absolutely ridiculous and you know it." Lelouch said sternly. The raven haired teen forced Kallen to look him in the eyes by grabbing a hold of her chin with one hand as he spoke seriously. "Now listen here, I don't ever want to hear you talking like that again. You hear me? Never again." Dichromatic eyes narrowed as something flashed through his gaze. "At least you can still see. At least you can still walk… Some people don't have that privilege."
What was once indignant anger at Lelouch's audacity to force her chin up to face him quickly turned into apologetic regret at his words. She knew exactly who Lelouch was referring to, and from Suzaku's silence he knew as well.
"...But, I'm not Nunnally, Lelouch." Kallen stated, voice once again lowered to room volume. The redhead gently pulled her chin out from Lelouch's grip, which he let her do, to let sapphire blue eyes glance out of one of the windows leading to the creepvine kelp forest. "I can't be as kind or patient or just… anything like your sister. I don't need to be protected."
"I believe we can count this moment as an exception to that need of protection Kallen." Suzaku said simply, albeit softly. His own eyes flickered to the windows leading to such a dangerous, deadly underwater world. "We've all had moments here where we needed some help or protection."
"No, you don't usually need protection, but Suzaku is right." Lelouch agreed, sitting up straight in his seat. "Besides, not all hope may be lost on your arm." At this, Kallen's gaze once more returned to Lelouch's own. Eyebrows raised and eyes wide with a huge bright glimmer of newfound hope and belief. "After the tests we went through and this world's medical advancements there may still be a chance for you to regain mobility in your arm."
"Really?" Kallen asked, just a single shard of doubt still left in her voice. "But that fish, whatever the hell that thing was, it really did hell on my arm." A soft hiss escaped past her lips as she stared down at her basically mummified arm. "If it weren't for whatever you did while I was out I'm positive all I'd be able to process right now was just pure pain and agony. Cause at the moment my arm feels purely numb, but I can still feel the pain thumping to my own heartbeat."
"When Suzaku and I built this sea base together the first aid kits that we could fabricate also seemed to have gotten an upgrade." Lelouch explained easily, giving Suzaku a silent gesture to hand over the PDA which the brunette complied with. "Pain killers, antibiotics, a full medical list of everything we could possibly need is listed in the first aid kits now. I'd know, because I went through it and made a mental list bit by bit."
"It was surprising, but for once in a good way." Suzaku added in from his spot. The Lancelot pilot got up to spin the chair around backwards towards the creepvine forest and sat back down to gaze into the beautiful but very deadly environment.
"But is there a real possibility?" Kallen questioned seriously. "After everything that's happened, is there a real chance I could fully recover from this?"
"I'm not going to lie, it's not looking good." Lelouch stated once more. He refused to lie about something like this, and instead went with full facts. "You may recover and get full mobility of your arm again if you're extremely careful during the healing stages and do physical therapy, but there will be scars, and those will never go away." The raven haired teen put great emphasis on extremely before putting nearly his entire attention back towards the PDA.
The sea base was silent for a while as everyone processed those words in their own way.
"Well, I guess I always wanted to dress up as a faux demented zebra for one of Milly's twisted Halloween parties." Kallen stated plainly. The teen trying to break the tension with some humor, which slightly worked.
"You'll have one hell of a story to tell everyone once we get back home I can say that much Kallen." Suzaku laughed lightly, hesitantly, as if he was afraid what he just said might have made her mood plummet back down into something dark.
Thankfully, it did the opposite, and actually got a bark of laughter out of the fiery redhead who was never one to be deterred by anything for too long. "Ha! You're right, Suzaku." Sapphire eyes went towards Lelouch's dichromatic ones with more than just a bit of mischief. "I wonder how Tamaki will react to this story."
"I'd be more concerned about Ohgi's reaction and if he'd have a heart attack, but sure, let's focus on Tamaki's reaction." Lelouch decided for once to lean into the light hearted joking if only for a few seconds.
"Who?" Too bad Suzaku had absolutely no idea who they were talking about.
"Black Knight's intel only. You wouldn't understand." Lelouch said dismissively.
Of course, all good things here on this cursed planet called 4546B had to end eventually. This time, it merely came in the form of that message the PDA spoke about earlier, of a quantum detonation.
After a couple minutes of more joking and banter between the trio Lelouch once more grew stoic and serious. "But with the elephant in the room now out of the way. There's something the PDA told me about that I think you two really need to hear." The way the revolutionary spoke immediately had both Suzaku's and Kallen's undivided attention.
"What is it this time?" Suzaku dared to ask.
As the burnette spoke, Lelouch held out the PDA to the other two teens. The screen showing the PDA's message logs with the first one taking up nearly the entire screen.
"We need to start speeding things up, because we may have a huge emergency on our hands." Lelouch stated gravely before jumping straight into an explanation and right after that a plan.
. . .
Together, both Lelouch and Suzaku swam in near silence except for the light humming of Suzaku's sea glide pulling him along.
"This is insane." Suzaku finally broke the silence with barely a whisper. His voice having gone hoarse in fear and mouth as dry as sandpaper despite having lunch just an hour ago. Wide, alert eyes very briefly flicked over to Lelouch's own extremely tense posture and near frantic gaze. "We're going to die."
"I know." Lelouch whispered back just as quietly, like it made any difference compared to speaking normally. It was just the unease, that feeling of dread and fear that made them so quiet and paranoid. "But what other choice do we have? These 'seamoth' fragments have only been found in this exact biome, and we'll definitely need something like that for fast travel and escape."
"The fish here are even worse than the ones before." Suzaku said bluntly. "I know the lifepod and PDA said there would be freaking leviathan sized fish, but I wasn't exactly ready to see one so soon." A fierce shudder ran throughout Suzaku's body as a rushed breath escaped his lips. "I'm still not ready to see something like that again. That thing was enormous."
"They'll probably just get worse from here on out." Lelouch nearly hissed back as the sight of blood red sea grass finally came into view below them. "If we are going to survive we're going to have to just suck it up and push through it. Fight back against the fear."
"I'm pretty sure what you're calling fear is actually a primal instinct to run away and survive for another day." Suzaku stated sarcastically.
"Either way. They might as well just be one in the same. Now focus, we're here." Lelouch brought Suzaku back to the main reason why they were back at the hellhole that nearly cost Kallen an arm and everyone a good chunk of sanity.
The duo came to a sharp stop a good ways above the big, dark cave entrance right by the destroyed lifepod seventeen. The sunlight from above shining down and making the bright red seagrass really pop out against the murky teal color of the ocean waters. The very light, practically white sands drifting idly in the waves close to the ground and by huge columns of earth. The pillars of most likely limestone and sandstone that have been carved out and eroded that way after hundreds of thousands of years against the relentless ocean.
As the duo took a closer look around their surroundings however, they noticed a few small details that they hadn't noticed before.
While the grassy plateau was mainly swamped in red seagrass there were other bits of floral life as well. Hints of purple and turquoise popping up barely above the seagrass to show acid mushrooms and writhing weeds. New flora plants that weren't in the other two biomes. Plants that were a light red at the top, but turned a deep dark red violet at its base and were furled around themselves. Orange plants that stemmed upwards and had multiple levels of fanned out orange parts. Even a writhing striped plant that had some wicked sharp thorns on the tops of its stems. That particular plant moved around and acted like it was sentient, like it was alive.
When the duo saw the plant stiffen and then shoot out its spikes to impale a poor innocent boomerang fish that strayed too close. Both teens wordlessly decided to watch out and firmly stay away from that psychotic plant.
The second most noticeable thing was that some of the rocks near the tops of the huge columns of stone were actually floating in the water somehow. Despite how much the boulders should have weighed they weren't sinking. Something that had Lelouch and his analytical mind internally curious yet frustrated about at the same time at this big middle finger to physics.
Then finally, way off in the distance, if the two teens squinted hard enough they could see the light blue flickering of what had to be malfunctioning live wires. The very vague outline of what must have been an absolutely enormous chunk of the wrecked Aurora stood up straight and high into the air. It didn't help that the white metal hull of the few good chunks of the intact shipwreck camouflaged near perfectly with the waters around it. The same could be said with the dark black metal of the interior. While it leaned precariously one way worse than any Leaning Tower of Pisa back on Earth. It not only managed to stay upright, but all of it was completely submerged underwater still despite the wreck's size. This alone showed how deep the two measly humans had swam under the water and how far they were away from the surface.
Occasionally, what Lelouch and Suzaku now recognized as long dark narvy dorsal fins poked up from the red seagrass menacingly, near tauntingly. A stiff reminder that those were actually ambush predators in waiting for a foolish morsel or two to accidentally swim by before striking with a fierce, killer bite.
The PDA suddenly chimed in brightly. The sudden loud noise causing both boys to nearly jump out of their skins and have Lelouch almost drop the PDA. "Local scans show a nearby cave entrance, depth 90m, leading to an unknown environmental biome."
"God." Lelouch growled and glared down at the PDA for its sudden unwanted commentary.
"Oh dear Kami." Suzaku breathed, placing one hand on his chest while the other held a very tight grip on his sea glide.
"Okay, we can't just swim here all day." Lelouch spoke once more, but his words sounded more like motivation for himself more than anything. "We can do this. We're a team." Dichromatic eyes looked up to olive green. "When we work together nothing can stop us."
Normally, when Lelouch said those words it helped calm Suzaku down and fill him with a determined confidence unlike any other, but this time it only served to make his stomach curdle. An audible gulp came from Suzaku as he swallowed a deep breath of precious, vital oxygen before he nodded and hoarsely added. "Yeah, together?"
"Together." Lelouch nodded, before fiddling with the PDA as he spoke. "Since it seems like the Aurora is going to eventually explode due its drive core malfunctioning we need to act quickly. We don't know how big the blast will be, but from my calculations and a bit of educated estimations we should be safe from the blast as long as we stay underwater incase of any high speed shrapnel and the inevitable shockwave. We're far enough away that the only thing we'll feel is basically a mini earthquake here underwater."
"I know you're smart and all." Suzaku interjected. "But is it really wise to rely on estimates rather than facts? For all we know this incoming explosion could be as big as the moon on our planet or something."
Lelouch took in a deep breath, and buried his face into his hands before letting out a long groan of annoyance. Both to himself and at Suzaku. "Don't you think I've already thought about that? I'm holding onto bare strings of hope here that this explosion won't just kill all three of us in the end and that what we're about to do is basically pointless." Dichromatic eyes once more looked over to olive green. "We have no choice but to rely on estimations at this point."
Lelouch shook his head and continued speaking, but this time he also began to very slowly swim forward. Dichromatic eyes looking everywhere in paranoia as he began to swim closer to the huge Aurora wreckage. Suzaku panicked a little with worry of being left behind, but quickly managed to catch up with the use of his sea glide.
"Either way, we need to get the blueprints for this seamoth and build it. Whether we use it and just drive far, far away from here before the explosion or use it for fast travel to gather supplies and look around the place after the explosion remains to be seen." As they got closer to the wreckage the two teens had to crane their necks up more and more to take the entire image in.
"This thing is a lot bigger than I expected." Suzaku muttered, uneasily looking beneath him to see one of those slow sand fish rise up from the sand and munch down on a stray peeper with a big flinch. "Shouldn't we worry about the live wires and electricity running around through here? How come none of the fish in a twenty feet radius are dead because of it? Water conducts electricity even if it is sea water doesn't it?"
"For us we should be fine so long as we don't come in contact with the electrical sparks, our dive suits will protect us." Dichromatic eyes watched as that slow, armored tank of a fish began the process of digging itself into the sand again in wait for more prey. "As for the fish, well, I suppose they're just built differently and can withstand it. That or they have a tougher hide." Lelouch looked back up at the wreckage and took in a deep, calming breath. There was no need to panic, panicking only made things worse. They both needed to stay calm and rational if they both wanted to survive. "Anyway, let's-"
"There!" Suzaku hissed harshly. Grabbing a tight hold onto Lelouch's left bicep before pointing out towards the ocean at whatever the burnette just saw with his other hand. "Look right over there! It's that thing again we saw from before."
That caused Lelouch's heart to stutter a couple of unhealthy beats as he snapped his gaze over towards where Suzaku was pointing. Huge leviathan monster fish took greater priority than dangerously teetering mechanical wreckage.
Just as Suzaku said, far off in the distance, barely visible within the murky teal waters, were not one, not two, but four enormous dark shadows in the distance. The familiar deep hums and booms of what must have been the creatures' calls and form of communication echoed throughout the sea for what must have felt like all to hear. A few seconds after one would cry out, another would reply back.
It looked like the creatures, what must have been a pod of them, were slowly, but steadily coming towards the Aurora wreckage. Their shadowy figures getting darker and more pronounced as they swam closer.
"... Let's swim up for air and then get this shit done as fast as possible so we can go back to base." Lelouch ordered. "I don't want to be here when they show up."
"Yeah, right." Suzaku agreed swiftly, and together the duo slowly began their ascent towards the surface to replenish their oxygen before returning down to the deadly depths of the ocean.
. . .
If either one of them had claustrophobia, whoever had it would be losing their absolute mind right now with hysteria.
A quick look around the wreckage itself revealed a good chunk of scannable items. The most noteworthy ones being the rest of the seamoth fragments needed for a complete blueprint, and the blueprints for a bioreactor. Both of which had Suzaku and Lelouch nearly screaming in joy at the victorious moment that felt like a huge step for them.
Other than that there were a few hiccups, but they were easily fixable or corrected thankfully. The first being that the seamoth needed to be fabricated through a machine called the mobile vehicle bay, something which neither boys knew zilch about. Thankfully, there were just enough scrapped fragments of the vehicle bay scattered around the wreckage to create a blueprint for it. Though it almost came at a terrible price, since one of the fragments was right by an agitated sand shark.
Through some quick thinking on Suzaku's end the burnette managed to distract and pull the predator away from the fragment so Lelouch could scan it. Eventually out swimming the slow creature and escaping. It had just so happened Suzaku chose the perfect moment to suddenly turn and swim in a different direction to, because one of those sentient plants with spikes had launched a bunch of its thorns where the burnette was previously. Yet, instead of hitting Suzaku, they ended up hitting the shark-like creature. Causing the predator to become wounded and cry out in pain before retreating to the sands below.
When Lelouch asked how Suzaku knew that plant was there and how he managed to lose that monster so easily the Lancelot pilot responded with only one answer.
"I'm not sure honestly, it just felt like I was suddenly super compelled to move."
Lelouch didn't ask anymore questions after that. Which seemed rather strange and off for his character in Suzaku's mind, but he decided to ignore it and focus on scavenging the wreckage.
At the moment however, they were in a less than ideal situation. Since there were no natural or easy ways into the wreckage after exploring the outside there was only one possible way through.
The vents.
They had to half swim, half crawl through the tight, dark, complicated pathway of vents to get into the necessary rooms that held more fragments, scannable items, and supplies.
Neither side was happy about the prospect at all, yet both teens knew it had to be done. So with only light bits of annoyance, grumbling, and fear, they went in.
"I don't know how to feel about this." Lelouch grunted uneasily, before taking what had to be his third huge breath to calm down this sudden bout of anxiety. "I can barely move in here, and my extensions keep getting-" With a somewhat loud grunt of exertion, the raven haired teen yanked his extensions back and as close to his body as possible. "Stuck! That or they keep getting in the way and bang against the walls loudly."
"Well, I don't know about you but I'd hate to be left outside or to leave you outside alone in a world like this." Suzaku said, having taken the lead after seeing Lelouch struggle so much to even get inside of the vents in the first place. Olive green eyes tried to look behind himself, but the best he could do was look to the side without pulling a muscle or banging his head against the vent's ceiling. "Also, you need to try and not take as many deep breaths. Remember that we're on a tight schedule here and have a limited supply of oxygen underwater. If we get trapped or lost in this wreckage we're screwed."
"Way to make our situation seem that much better, so much more appealing, really." Lelouch shot back sarcastically, but at this point Suzaku knew his words didn't mean anything. The sarcasm being a subtle way Lelouch protected himself and not only let himself vent out his frustrations, but also hide his internal turmoil and fright.
"You know I'm right on this one Lelouch." Suzaku merely replied back with ease. Silence only greeting him with a bit of struggled shuffling added onto the side from both boys. "Besides, we've only got one more pathway to search before this wreck is as good as empty and we can go back home."
"...Don't say that. That base isn't our home Suzaku, you know that." Lelouch finally spoke after a moment of thoughtful silence. The fact that he wasn't opposing what Suzaku had said was a silent white flag of surrender towards the Lancelot pilot.
"I know." Suzaku agreed softly, but continued forward regardless. "But I have a feeling we're going to be stuck here on this planet far longer than we want to be."
"Oh trust me, if I could choose when to leave I wouldn't have even hit the seafloor when we had first arrived." Lelouch stated plainly, but all of it was pure honesty.
Frankly, Suzaku felt the same, but he decided to keep that tidbit of information to himself and just focus on their mission. They had done enough bantering and wasted precious oxygen because of it.
Throughout exploring the wreckage on the inside not much happened. Together the duo managed to scan a ton of items. From useful looking ones like the laser cutter for future wreckage exploring to simple unnecessary ones like benches and pictures frames.
If they're going to be stuck in an foreign alien underwater ocean world for a long time. They might as well make their home look stylish and enjoy the small things. At least, that's what Suzaku thought. Lelouch merely agreed on his best friend's opinion in his own head, never verbally saying it.
They even managed to find some fun things like a poster for some survival video game apparently from this world and some stranded PDAs. While the poster had Suzaku's interest, Lelouch was more intrigued by the abandoned PDAs and what was hidden within them.
Then there were some other interesting possibilities, but those were possible blueprints and dreams meant for a later time down the road. P.R.A.W.N suit arm fragments, propulsion cannon fragments, and scanner room blueprints. If it weren't for the very high possibility of death around every corner Suzaku could've seen this as fun. The P.R.A.W.N suit arm fragments being the most hyped find out of everything except for the seamoth.
"It's a literal knightmare frame built just for the ocean Suzaku." Lelouch freaked out excitedly. Hands lightly gliding over the half demolished fragment of the arm. "You and Kallen were practically born to pilot this machine. It's like the Portman II, but way more futuristic."
"And better?" Suzaku added with a raised eyebrow.
At that, a questionable look appeared on the revolutionary's face as he stated simply. "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. We haven't even built or piloted the thing yet, much less found its blueprints." Out of the corner of Lelouch's eye. What appeared to be another fragment to a possible propulsion cannon caught the teen's eye. "Let's keep looking around and see if we find anything else interesting. I think there's another fragment for that propulsion cannon over there, but I'll need your help moving some of the rubble in its way. Don't want to risk something going wrong."
"Ah, right. On it."
It wasn't fun when you added in the mortal danger to you and your friends' lives though.
Overall, the scavenger hunt within the wreckage was a huge success. Now all that was left was to get back to base and talk to Kallen about everything they've found. Then they could build that seamoth and go from there.
Only there was one huge, gigantic, enormous problem with getting back to the sea base.
"What are you doing? Why did you stop?" Lelouch asked irritably from behind Suzaku. The burnette having stopped right in front of the exit of the wreckage, yet completely blocked whatever the Britannian soldier was seeing from view with his own body frame. "Keep going, we're going to run out of oxygen soon if you keep stalling like that."
"Yeah… about that." Suzaku croaked weakly, and it had the hairs on the back of Lelouch's neck raised from the teen's reply. "We're going to need to think of a new plan, because we have a huge problem. Emphasis on huge."
Said problem came in the form of those four, huge leviathan sized fish having arrived at the wreckage. The pod was currently swimming around the Aurora's wreckage and giving deep booming hums that instantly had Lelouch realizing what the problem was before even seeing it.
"No."
"Mhmmm." Suzaku hummed in downtrodden confirmation.
"No." Lelouch repeated more firmly, albeit somewhat frantically.
"I'm literally looking at them with my own two eyes, Lelouch." Suzaku stated irritably. "I'm not blind."
"No you don't understand Suzaku." Lelouch said hurriedly. The sound of metal banging against metal for a moment echoed out from the cramped vent space. "I'm looking at the oxygen level for my tank right now and if we don't start moving I'm about to run out of it and suffocate down here."
That caused the Lancelot pilot to become nearly as stiff as a statue. Yet seconds after that Suzaku was uncomfortably twisting around as best as he could to check his own oxygen.
Only thirty minutes left at maximum if they were lucky, and half of that had to be spent floating in the middle of the ocean to depressurize so as to not get the bends. All while they basically sat there, exposed to those leviathan sized fish.
"...Shit." Suzaku swore as he realized just how badly this situation had turned out. They had stayed inside the wreck salvaging for too long, and now they were paying the price. That only left them two options, both of which neither teen liked, at all.
Clearly, Lelouch came to the same conclusion as well because he was fidgeting anxiously somewhere behind Suzaku. "... This is bullshit, and I know you're going to hate me for even suggesting it, but we have to-"
Lelouch didn't even get a chance to line up his own thoughts, much less speak them before things got even worse.
Clearly all the noise they had made making their way towards the exit of the vents had gathered some unwanted attention. As the raven haired teen was speaking, one of those natsy, bugged eyed looking sand sharks appeared right in front of the vent's entrance and therefore Suzaku's face, snarling madly. It's eyes bulged out and looked like they were about to pop like balloons while a strange, sickly green moldish looking glow came from multiple patches of its body. Even within its mouth, looking past the rows upon rows of sharp, deadly teeth you could see those nauseating patches just filled to the brim with disgusting, putrid pus.
"AH SHIT!" Suzaku screamed loudly, instinctively backing away and crashing into an unprepared Lelouch who cried out in shock and light pain from his best friend's sudden and very frantic backtracking.
"Ow, ow OW! Watch it- What are you doing!?" Lelouch screamed as he quickly tried to match pace with Suzaku and back up, unaware of the situation. He could certainly hear the loud, monstrous snarling coming from whatever was in front of them and take a solid guess. The raven haired teen's O2 tank scraped loudly against the roof of the vents while his fingers were crushed from Suzaku's own O2 tank and body pushing back.
"Oh Kami! It's coming inside the vent!" Suzaku yelled as he continued backing away bit by bit. His progress on getting away from the creature rocky with Lelouch accidentally holding him back, and going far too slow when he did move in the burnette's opinion. "It's one of those things that attacked Kallen!"
"Now?! Dammit!" Lelouch snapped angrily with a hint of fright. The revolutionary's backtracking speed increased by a good amount. "Now is the worst time for this! We can't get trapped in here with this thing Suzaku!"
"Well I don't see any other way to move besides backwards!" Suzaku barked back in the heat of the moment. The Britannian soldier instinctively raised one of his fists up to lash out at the alien shark, but held back at the last moment as the sand shark rabidly snarled and snapped its gaping maw. Realizing how stupid of a move that would be, almost like handing over the creature his hand on a silver platter. The monster slowly moved forward inch by inch, just barely missing the tips of Suzaku's helmet every couple of bites. "Hurry up and go back!"
"I'm trying!" Lelouch said frantically as he accidentally hit his elbow against the vent's metal floor. "Ow!" Despite the urge to stop and rub his bruising elbow the raven haired teen continued traversing backwards as quickly as possible. Though with not being able to see what was behind him due to the cramped spacing in the vents and the giant O2 tank he was practically flying blind.
Then Lelouch was jarred to a sudden, swift stop as his legs and back collided roughly with the end of the vent's tunnel. At that moment, it felt like Lelouch's heart had stopped.
The same could be said for Suzaku, though in a more terrifying way since he had to deal with seeing the ugly fish's maw snapping at him getting closer with every passing second.
"Move!" Suzaku screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice multiple octaves higher than it should be due to the adrenaline and terror coursing through his veins as the sand shark was nearly upon him.
"Shit!" Lelouch hollered back, and in a fit of pure panic the raven haired teen used his mechanical cape extensions to feel out for where the path split. A bang on the right indicated there was a wall, while the left was still open.
Forcing himself to turn sharply and very uncomfortably it almost felt like he was about to either pull or break something in his body thanks to this unwanted demonic game of twister. A stray piece of broken metal within the vent managed to scrape against the outside of the teen's upper calf and lower thigh in his hast to get away and back up for Suzaku. A near shrill screech escaped past Lelouch's mouth as he felt the metal tear through his diving suit and into his flesh before adjusting himself to get away from the stray shrap metal wedged in the wall.
The red blood from Lelouch's body drifted out in the open water, slowly spreading until it managed to reach the sand shark. After detecting the blood in the water, Suzaku could literally see the messed up shark's eyes dilate madly. It's frantic, clumsy shifting to get further into the vent it could barely fit into in the first place nearly tripled.
Through the cacophony of screaming from both teens and the snarling from the sea monster it was very difficult to make out any other noise. Finally however, Lelouch and soon after Suzaku collapsed back and out of the vents, into one of the half collapsed rooms of the giant Aurora's wreckage. Spinning around wildly and uncontrollably in the water for a moment, Lelouch managed to regain his sense of balance first, and quickly uprighted Suzaku seconds later. At that exact moment, the head of the demented shark burst forth from the vent. A loud sequel of crazed pain and hungry need bursting from its maw as a strange yellowish green substance started spreading throughout the water. That cry of pain only got louder and it's struggling increased with every second.
"What is wrong with this thing?! Has it gone nuts?" Suzaku spoke rapidly, swimming around the place to try and find another vent or way of escape, but found nothing. They were trapped in here.
"Aw crap." Lelouch hissed, trying to put as much pressure on his bleeding leg as possible with a loud hiss of pain and multiple unintelligible words that were most likely curses. "Fuck, my leg…"
"Are you okay?" Suzaku spoke to Lelouch. The somewhat angered look on the raven haired teen's face gave the burnette the answer.
"Does it look like I'm okay? Not only is my leg bleeding bloody murder, but we're stuck in here with that thing about to get in any second!" Right after saying that, the shark managed to scoot forward in the vent, now halfway free from the vents with a loud garglish sound escaping its jaw. It's small, centipede-like legs frantically clawing and scraping against the metal certainly created a freaky, creepy sight. That yellow substance started increasing heavily in the water, making it almost murky as it escaped out from the monster's side.
"We need to find a weapon. Something to kill this thing!" The Britannian soldier swam around looking for any possible weapon or form of assistance when Lelouch pointed out a very important detail.
"Idiot don't you remember we have knives?! Check in your bag!" The end of Lelouch's words heightened in pitch suddenly when the creature once more scooted forward an inch, almost free. "And hurry! It's almost here!"
Quickly, the two boys took off their bags full of items and looked through them. The two being smart and keeping their knives close by and on hand in case something like this happened.
Though, seeing as this thing had such thick armor plating, who knew what sort of damage a flimsy piece of metal like a knife could do.
Just as both boys managed to grab ahold of their weapons, the creature had broken free from its entrapment in the vents and completely entered the half collapsed room. A loud tiger-like roar erupted from deep within its throat as it went towards the source of the blood, Lelouch.
"Oh fuck!" Lelouch screamed and in a panic backed away while holding his knife out in front of him, as if that would deter the creature. "Suzaku!" The raven haired teen screamed as the monster lashed its head out wildly. It's wild, unpredictable movements completely missed its biting strikes, but the force behind its thrashing caused Lelouch's hand to sting like he had punched a metal wall when making contact in an attempt to fight back and dropped his only weapon. "Suzaku do something!"
With Lelouch backing up quickly into a sharply jagged, messy corner, the creature seemed to have completely forgotten that Suzaku was even there. Its focus zeroed in on the injured teen like it had intense tunnel vision. The creature had turned its back on Suzaku, and that gave the Britannian soldier the perfect moment to strike.
"Ahh!" With a loud battle cry to help relieve some of the stress and fright coursing through him at what was most likely his dumbest move yet, Suzaku charged. With some help by pushing off of a nearby table flipped onto its side, the burnette swam up. Grabbing a tight hold of the abomination's huge dorsal fin on top of its head with one hand, Suzaku wrapped his legs underneath the creature so it couldn't shake him off. Then repeatedly started jamming his knife into the wound already created when the shark injured itself on that stray metal Lelouch had first hit.
With this sudden assault the creature arched back as much as its plated body could allow and howled in intense pain. It's bugged out eyes searched around frantically as if trying to find the source of its pain before it began to buck and thrash wildly, trying to throw Suzaku off.
Meanwhile, Suzaku continued to jab his knife into the shark's injured side, not stopping for even a second. Zero hesitation in the burnette's red ringed, olive green eyes as he kept his grip onto the shark strong. The creature's side was absolutely marred and destroyed, making it an easy spot to get past the tough armored plating. Even if the two boys died trapped in here with the shark, this creature wasn't going to survive long after.
The yellow substance that the two teens now knew and identified as the monster's blood flooded the room, making the waters murky to an almost blinding degree.
With the chaos going on between the alien fish and Suzaku, Lelouch took his chance at this newfound distraction to swim out of his trapped corner. Quickly swooping down and grabbing a hold of his dropped knife, Lelouch headed back to the fight. Refusing to leave Suzaku alone with a monstrosity such as that thing.
The creature screamed, throwing its head back and hitting Suzaku right in the smack dab center of his chest with its huge dorsal fin. The sudden attack caused all of the breath to escape the burnette's lungs as he reflexively let go of his hold on the creature's dorsal fin, but somehow managed to keep his legs wrapped around the monster through some sort of sheer will power. A light, wispy wheeze escaped Suzaku's lips as the shark attempted to strike back with its dorsal fin once again.
The moment it completely exposed its weak belly, Lelouch striked. With a sharp boost of his cape extensions, the revolutionary swiftly swam through the water and lunged out with his knife with a loud war cry tearing through his throat. Stabbing the knife deep into the creature's midsection, Lelouch used all of his newfound strength and muscle gain to force the knife upwards. Tearing through the fish's flesh right up past its throat before leaving his knife deeply lodged into the thing's head.
The shark gave out a long lasting pain filled screech that served to hurt both Lelouch's and Suzaku's ears before its eyes went dull and rolled into the back of its head. The creature fell limp and silent, unmoving save for a few quick, minimal twitches here and there across its body as it spazzed out.
The creature was finally dead. Both boys managed to team up and kill it, they managed to survive.
With the knowledge that the thing was dead, Suzaku finally released his hold on the monster and went limp into the water, harmlessly floating and regaining his senses. The burnette pulled his knife out of the shark, keeping a tight hold onto his weapon as he focused on regulating his breathing completely. One hand rising up to rub the very sore and tender spot that alien fish managed to hit with its dorsal fin.
Though Suzaku or Lelouch never realized it, the red rings around the burnette's eyes had flickered, and were now gone.
Only after the creature slowly turned belly up within the water did Lelouch swim up and remove his own knife from the dead corpse.
"Huff…. Huff…" Lelouch panted tiredly, sweat gliding down the side of the raven haired teen's face with all of the stress and work the two just went through. "Dear God… huff… did we just… do that?"
"Huff… Why are you… so surprised?" WIth one last deep breath, Suzkau completely regained his normal breathing. "You managed to kill one of those Stalker things all by yourself."
"I know…" Dichromatic eyes looked to the dead, twisted corpse with its eerie irregular infected green patches all over its armored body. "But this just felt different to me for some reason." His eyebrows furrowed as Lelouch pulled out his scanner gun from his bag and began scanning the creature. Both to figure out what it was and what was with the strange disgusting patches all over its body.
The Sand Shark. A powerful, medium-sized predator that burrows into the sand and ambushes its prey from below. As with many predators it may be possible to temporarily distract sand sharks by feeding any hungry specimens that draw close.
Forward Dorsal Fin:
The unusual location of this fin suggests a purpose unrelated to movement through the water. It may be employed in shifting sand beneath the surface, or in mating rituals, or may simply be an evolutionary dead end.
Segmented Exoskeleton:
Thick armor plating renders the sand shark almost immune to attack from above. While it is capable of impressive acceleration its exoskeleton prevents it from changing direction quickly. The sand shark is thus a perfectly-designed ambush hunter, but ill-suited to sustained pursuits.
Feet:
Ill-designed for ambulation. Likely used to disturb the surface of the sand so the lifeform can burrow into the ground.
Assessment: Avoid - Be vigilant for ambushes in sandy biomes.
"Was this thing sick?" Suzaku asked, looking towards the sand shark uneasily before looking back down at the PDA. The brunette having swum by Lelouch as he read the newfound entry. "It looks like it was sick with something."
"I'm not sure. The PDA isn't saying anything about it being sick." A worried look was on Lelouch's face as his dichromatic eyes flicked to and fro from the PDA to the dead corpse floating harmlessly in the water. "I personally think something was wrong with it. Either way, you probably shouldn't have touched it, much less ride it like a bucking horse in a rodeo."
Suzaku rolled his eyes and huffed tiredly. "Yeah, well I wasn't exactly thinking clearly. More of a heat in the moment kind of situation there. It doesn't matter much anymore anyway, it's dead, that's that." Olive green eyes strayed towards his bag, just barely catching his O2 tank's oxygen meter before widening in panic. "Oh shit, our O2 levels!"
That caused Lelouch to rush straight into action. "Crap, with all of the commotion I completely forgot about that!" Throwing his scanner and PDA into his bag, Lelouch looked at his own O2 levels only to see a measly 18 minutes left. They were cutting this very close, and playing with fate wasn't a very smart idea given everyone's luck on this curse of a planet.
"Let's get out of here!" Suzaku stated and quickly swam for the exit. He had abandoned his sea glide out by the entrance of the vent in a panic towards the sand shark's sudden appearance. Hopefully it was still there and hadn't been taken away by the current.
"Right behind you." Lelouch kicked forward, but a hissed escaped his throat as his injured leg throbbed in pain. More red blood rushed out to mix with the yellow blood of the creature to create a nasty orange brown color in the water. Lelouch decided to mainly use his cape extensions to move through the water for now. "Let's get the hell out of here. We've clearly overstayed our welcome."
Together, the duo carefully avoided the sharp metal shrapnel sticking out of the vent and found their way back out of the vents easily. Thankfully, Suzaku's sea glide was close enough to the vents that he was easily able to snatch it up.
They only hesitated once by the entrance of the vent in thought. Both teens knew what was out there, waiting for them, but they also knew staying was a death sentence, especially after what happened just mere minutes prior.
So, with the need to survive and adrenaline pumping through their veins, both Suzaku and Lelouch swam out of the vents and out into the wide open, deadly waters. Exposed on all sides and vulnerable to the pod of leviathan sized creatures that now towered over both of them, casting them both into dark shadows once more as their frames blocked out the sun for this planet.
The two went as high up as they could go before having to stop and wait fifteen minutes to depressurize so as not to get the bends from ascending too quickly. A good amount of distance separated them from the dangerous sands and creatures below them, but it made them get closer to the huge fish idly swimming through the huge open waters. It was clear why they've never seen these kinds of fish before, they were just too big to live in the shallows or creeping kelp forests.
Though the two had been brave so far, their silence and tense, subtly shaking forms showed their inner terror at being before these creatures. Both had tight, knuckle-whitening grips on their knives even though they would be nothing more than a light prick, like a measly stubbed toe to something like them.
That's when one much, much smaller than the other three began to swim towards them slowly but surely. A deep hum that was much lighter than the other bigger fish echoed out from the beast and through the water. It caused deep vibrations to rush through both boys, and the two instinctively huddled together, practically back to back almost as the thing grew closer.
It's tone somehow managed to convert some sort of curiosity to the two new creatures floating in the water. One bleeding a strange red substance that smelt weird and different from the other creatures it's seen in its life.
Suzaku raised his knife, about to strike when Lelouch quickly intervened, shaking his head frantically as he spoke hushly.
"Don't." Lelouch hissed fearfully. Dichromatic eyes going from the creature now idly floating in front of them towards the one's dutifully watching around them with deep hums and echoes passing around each other. "This thing has to be a baby. If we attack there's no way we'll survive if we hurt it."
This time, Lelouch noticed it, noticed the moment those cursed red rings returned around his friend's eyes as he slowly relaxed his tense muscles. The burnette gave a mute nod, before turning his attention onto the creature before them.
Only five minutes left before they could surface and leave this place. They were so close. They couldn't die now and throw it all away.
The small baby gave another light hum of what must have been enjoyment, and began to swim around the two boys. Both teens kept constant eye contact with it, in case it tried anything funny. Yet, after three minutes of nothing but this baby's playful nature, they began to relax.
"We must be the luckiest people on this planet." Lelouch finally spoke normally after all of the tense silence with a light wheeze of very shaky laughter.
"Besides Kallen, we are the only people on this planet." Suzaku said somewhat sarcastically.
One trembling hand took out the scanner tool, and Lelouch quietly began to scan the huge fish. "Either this thing is playing with us before wanting to kill us, or it's a herbivore."
"Kind of reminds me of the whales we have back at home now that the terror I felt when first meeting these things is gone." Suzaku said softly as Lelouch finished scanning the creature and looked to the PDA for information. The burnette, in a sudden act of brazen bravery, reached his unsteady hand out and placed it on the fish's dark indigo back. Some orangery red seagrass was beginning to sprout and grow on the creature's back, and Suzaku couldn't help but grin brightly as he patted the thing's head? He wasn't sure if it had a head, but Suzaku decided to believe that it was.
The soldier couldn't help a light laugh to escape his lips. To think they were so terrified of something so docile and friendly. They certainly had to of looked stupid.
Reefback Leviathan
This vast lifeform is in excess of 30m long and has been designated leviathan class. Fortunately it feeds exclusively on plankton-like lifeforms in the water.
Chitinous Shell:
Most of the lifeform's topside and some of its underside is protected by a thick, layered exoskeleton. This suggests an evolutionary path quite different from other organisms on 4546B, most of which are vertebrate in nature. The reefback species has likely been able to grow far larger than other herbivores because anything large enough to break though its shell has long since gone extinct.
Enzyme Pods:
Similar in appearance to the algae glands of the gasopod, these organs on the reefback's underside serve some unknown purpose in its digestive system, and are capable of expelling small quantities of stomach enzymes into the surrounding waters.
Local Microcosm:
An array of different barnacle and plant species grow on the reefback's shell, thrusting their roots into ancient scars in the chitin, and taking advantage of their mobility to avoid predation. Nonetheless reefbacks will often be pursued by the faster, hungrier herbivores, and thus this leviathan species is a mobile microcosm worthy of years of study in itself.
Lifecycle:
Reefback's lifespans likely extend through many centuries, should they survive their initial growth cycle. For the first few decades their smaller size would make them vulnerable to carnivorous leviathans. Sociable, seen traveling in small pods and communicating by an echoing call, behavior is consistent with low-level sentience.
Assessment: Harbors plants, small fish and metal-rich barnacles.
With a subtle tug on Suzaku's shoulder, Lelouch began to swim up with the burnette following close behind. Just because it was cool hanging out with these enormous creatures didn't mean Suzaku was willing to stay behind. Besides, he kind of needed oxygen to breathe, so that was always nice to have. Certainly prioritized survival over adorable acting baby alien creatures.
Together the two teens swam up to the surface, just barely breaching the water with hardly any time left in their O2 tanks. Taking in a deep breath of fresh air and soaking up the sunshine warming their faces with equal sighs of relief. Minutes after their O2 was restored, the two discussed plans, and quickly began to head back to their newly made sea base. Both to tell Kallen the news, make plans on what to do next, and tend to Lelouch's leg.
Then the PDA spoke up again.
Warning. Local radiation readings suggest the Aurora's drive core has reached critical state. Quantum detonation will occur within 2 hours.
It's message struck deep fear through both Suzaku and Lelouch's hearts. Their completions paling into a ghostly white as both of their heads snapped towards the Aurora. They weren't out of the woods yet.
At that moment, two small explosions and bursts of fire plumed out different parts of the enormous ship. A sign of what was to come sooner than either teen had hoped.
"Let's hurry, we need to get that seamoth built and decide on what to do next." Lelouch's words once more kick started the duo back into action. They both retreated back under the water, but stuck very close to the surface, and swam back to the sea base as quickly as possible with their rightfully earned goods.
My guys just can't go anywhere without something happening or someone getting hurt, huh? Also I'm pretty sure Paul has a Scottish accent, but he's piloting a Mongolian vessel, so that's the only reason why I even suggest his accent is Mongolian. Either way, it is what it is. Meh.
Another thing, to keep this train of new content rolling I won't be writing out anymore of their supply runs. Unless it's a new Aurora wreck, involves new creatures/environments, or is just important to the plot. Any supplies they magically have like seemingly endless amounts of titanium is just done through supply runs 'off screen'.
Fun fact! When I played through Subnautica I never did get the blueprints for the stasis rifle. I only ever used the propulsion/repulsion cannon on the Aurora as well, so I only really used the knife throughout my playthrough. Otherwise I've been listening to Below Zero's OST soundtrack while creating these next three chapters, and I must say it is beautiful to my ears. Bless Ben Prunty for making such a great creation.
A grand total of 66 freaking pages and nearly 30 thousand words. I got started on chapter 9 and didn't stop until then, so chapters 10 and 11 are also done as well. Passion and motivation can do that to someone I suppose. I'll post the other two chapters around a month apart. Yay.
Anyways, 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.
Otherwise, I'll be seeing you guys in chapter 10! Ahh the good old chapter ten mark. A time for celebration. -MoonlightWright :D
