Once the crew was done absorbing the impact of the end of the Degasi crew (except for Maida, not that they knew this), we immediately started making preparations to go deeper - we needed to find the rest of the Almanac's bases if we wanted to get off this water-logged world. Thus began the search for the Lost River entrances.

Ryley ended up being the first to determine where the entrances were, finding an entrance in the Deep Grand Reef. I discovered the one in the Northern Blood Kelp Forest a few minutes later, but Vivian and myself decided to enter through the same area as Ryley, in part because I wanted to see the Gargantuan Skeleton. Of course, that would put us in the path of two angry ghost leviathans...eh, bring it!

Of course, first we had to prepare for this - we needed prawn suits and cyclops submarines to get that deep, and those required a bucket load of materials to create. It took us two days to finish up those subs and suites, as well as assembling appropriate food stocks and making sure our other supplies were in stock. Only then were we ready to head toward the source of this mess.

Oh, and the reaper I'd saved earlier was still being nice to us. I think my powers had worked to well on it.

XXXXXXX

At last came the day when we made our journey into the Lost River, in order to end the Khaara infection. Ryley and the other survivors went in first, followed by Vivian and myself in our Cyclops.

As we neared the Grand Reef, though, we started hearing the roars of a Reaper Leviathan. But whereas most of those roars were terrifying, this one sounded...pained?

Yeah, pained was right. The reaper roared out in pain, until suddenly the roars ceased. Dimly, I wondered what had caused the silence, before a sonorous roar filled the waves.

It seemed we had just heard a Sea Dragon Leviathan hunting.

Cautiously, we continued on our way to the Deep Grand Reef, careful to avoid the Ghost Leviathans. Once we had entered the Deeper parts of the Reef, we began to make a beeline for the Lost River Entrance. Hopefully, we'd be able to escape before-

"Warning: incoming leviathan class organism."

FUCK!

Hastily, the Aurora survivors surged their sub toward the Lost River, with the two of us not far behind. Unfortunately, while their sub managed to slip away, the leviathan found ours before it could do the same. Hastily, Vivian started shooting out creature decoys, but the leviathan was already making a beeline toward us.

What could possibly make this worse.

"Warning: second leviathan detected."

MOTHERFUCKER!

"YOU HAD TO SAY THAT, DIDN'T YOU?!"

SORRY VIVIAN!

Groaning, the two us watched as the ghost leviathan charged, bracing ourselves for the impact...only for a red and white serpentine form to slam into the beast, knocking it off course.

Wait, red and white?

..Yep, that was a Reaper Leviathan. The same one I'd saved, too - I'd put a tracker in it, and said tracker matched up with this creature. Which was curently tearing at the Ghost Leviathan's hide. Said leviathan desperately tried to free itself from the smaller predator, which did eventually release its prey, though for why I wasn't sure.

"Warning: third leviathan detected."

Oh. that's why.

Sure enough, the second ghost leviathan collided with the first, while my reaper companion promptly fled off back to the mountains, leaving the two glowing sea monsters to fight one another for dominion of the Grand Reef.

Mentally letting out a sigh, I set the cyclops back on course to follow the Aurora survivors into the Lost River. Time to find the Disease Research Facility.

XXXXXX

I'm not going to lie, the skeletons we saw in the Lost River were amazing. To think that creatures this big had once existed on this world was just unfathomable. How did they even find enough food? What did they look like?

...Could they live again?

"I have friends that could make that happen," spoke Vivian. Guess I had said my thoughts out loud.

"Oh, are you an InGen shareholder?"

"Masrani shareholder and marketing head, actually. Even had some work with hiring."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Huh...Could you put in a good word for me?"

"I was already planning to do so before my resignation from Celempheros's services."

"Nice. Also, I think we're almost at the Disease Research Center."

Indeed we were. Ryley was busy exploring the facility, and his panicked reaction over the comms confirmed that he had just undergone the next stage of Khaara infection. For a moment, all of them seemed unsure what to do, before Keen ordered them to calm down - if they wanted to survive this, they'd need to finish what the aliens started. And right now, that meant reaching the deeper research facilities.

After taking a moment to upgrade our diving capabilities, we made our way to the Giant Cove Tree, briefly scanning it out of curiosity. I also made a point of tagging a few baby leviathans to bring back later - I had a whole ocean or five in my hub to fill!

XXXXXXXX

It did not take long for lava larva to start clinging to our cyclops subs. Fortunately, turning enough of htem into corpses servd to discourage the rest from attacking us. The lava lizard attacks also helped.

The Sea Dragon Leviathans briefly glared at us, but luckily, Vivian had a surprise in store for them - a specialized hypersonic signal that drove them bananas. One of them actually headbutted the cavern walls trying to get away from the sound.

Reaching the Lava Castle and Thermal Plant didn't take too long. I briefly noticed Ryley staring off into space after grabbing an alien tablet, but I was pretty sure that was the Sea Emperor talking to him. He'd already got the first vision some time ago, so this was to be expected. He'd also told his fellow survivors about that, alleviating some of the oddness, which also meant he had some support from the rest of the crew.

Once we gathered all possible data from the Alien Thermal Plant, we made our final depth improvements to the Prawn Suits and Cyclopes, then set off to go deeper - time to find the Primary Containment Facility.

XXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!