Into Unknown Waters

by MoonlightWright

Ryley Robinson is dead. He was dead before he hit the water on Planet 4546B. Meanwhile, surrounded and backed against the wall, Zero touches the door to the Thought Elevator and accidentally activates it. Volatile energy lashes out towards everyone as Lelouch's geass begins to go awry, having been kick started. The door to Subnautica's world opens in a show of blinding white light.

15. Ch15 Sunbeams and Crag Fields

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

/Can you understand me?/ = Sign language

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. 15: Sunbeams and Crag Fields

Lelouch gave a light heave, as if he couldn't get enough air into his shuddering lungs. Rapidly shaking his head side to side. /Just please keep living. Please don't leave me again./ He wrote again.

/Please keep living./ And again.

/Alive alive alive./ And again.

. . .

Once the group had recomposed themselves and gathered their bearings they caught each other up on what they had experienced. How Lelouch had found the Aurora black box data and theorized that something on this planet shot this ship down on purpose. How Kallen and Suzaku dealt with repairing the Aurora's drive core and dealing with the bleeders. The searching, and investigating, and frustration throughout it all.

While Lelouch still couldn't speak due to losing his voice he was easily able to communicate through sign language. Kallen, never having learned such language, couldn't understand him, but Suzaku was easily able to interpret for her.

"What just happened to you, Lelouch?" Suzaku finally brought up the big elephant in the room. Kallen tensed up beside the brunette as Lelouch stilled. "What you were freaking about. It looked like you were looking at something we couldn't see." Olive green eyes grew worried. "Are you okay?"

Lelouch didn't say anything, his eyes flicking up as if he was checking to see if something was there. Suzaku and Kallen slowly followed his gaze, but the only thing they saw was smoke and a gray metal roof. Looking back towards their friend, the two watched as Lelouch fidgeted with his hands for a moment, uncertain.

… /You didn't see it?/ Lelouch signed slowly, as if in disbelief.

"See what?" Suzaku prompted with his confusion clear as day.

"Don't you dare lie to us." Kallen stated sternly, as if she could read his mind. "We've seen some crazy shit, and I doubt much can top being teleported to a new alien planet."

Lelouch's nose scrunched up just a tad, before his features smoothed out and he slumped down in surrender. Without looking up into their eyes, Lelouch explained what he saw. He explained everything.

/I can't really explain the how or the why, just what I saw./ Lelouch began signing, Suzaku speaking his words out loud for Kallen to understand. /When I woke up. There was, was this thing just standing there./ Lelouch pointed to the exact spot he last saw the creature. /It was huge! It easily touched the ceiling. It was so tall. I couldn't make out much of the creature it was mainly pitch black, but it had these bright glowing cyan eyes./

Lelouch paused to gather his thoughts. Kallen and Suzaku each exchanged glances before looking back at Lelouch and waiting for him to continue.

/It… spoke to me./

Suzaku's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs as he repeated what Lelouch said.

"Something is talking to you?" Kallen said, fear clear in her voice. Not a single ounce of doubt in her tone, the redhead believing her friend completely. "And it's clearly alien? That's bad."

/That's not all./ Lelouch hunched over on himself, his expression pinched as if trying to remember something. /I've seen this thing before. During all of that chaos on Kamine Island that started all of this./

"What!" Both knightmare pilots exclaimed, now sitting up straight at this revelation.

/It's asking for my help./ Lelouch quickly plowed onwards to get it all said and done. /I don't know why it's asking me or what it wants me for but I couldn't care less! But it just won't leave me alone! When it shows up I can't just make it disappear. I can't shut it out, and I can't ignore it. It's so loud and yet so quiet I can hear it speaking in my head./ Finally slowing down from his frantic signing, Lelouch buried his head in his hands for a moment. /It feels like I'm going crazy./

Suzaku scoffed. "That's ridiculous, you are not-"

/But what if I am!?/ Lelouch signed over Suzaku, forcing him to stop talking and continue interpreting. /You guys can't see it. You guys can't hear it! What if it's not even real and I picked up some kind of disease on this planet that's rotting my mind? What if this is a backlash coming from my geass?!/ At the mention of his demonic power to control people with just a glance, both Kallen and Suzaku glanced to the side as the room became tense. Neither said anything, so Lelouch continued. /I know someone that's had consequences from abusing his geass it made him lose his mind. I could be becoming just like him now./ Lelouch ran his hands over his head as he faced this sudden unwanted existential crisis.

After a moment of careful consideration, Kallen slowly scooted over to place a grounding hand on Lelouch's shoulder. "But we don't know that." Watching as the teen's eyes looked into her own searchingly, she continued. "We don't know that." She reaffirmed, starting to gain ground. "For all we know this doesn't even relate to your geass. This could be an actual creature trying to get in contact with you on this planet. I don't know why it's only you that's getting these messages, but I know if you were starting to lose your sanity you wouldn't be so concerned about us. You wouldn't have been so relieved to know that Suzaku and I were safe."

"Yeah, Kallen's right." Suzaku agreed as he stood up and began to gather all of their things. "So far we know nothing on if this creature is hurting you. What we do know is that only you can communicate with it, and it needs your help it sounds like. I don't think the thing would hurt you if it needed your help, you're important to it for some reason. Though, it being able to talk to you at all is concerning." The brunette shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "There's not much we can do to stop it from trying to talk to you yet, but we'll figure it out if it really is trying to hurt you."

/I think it uses a lot of energy trying to reach me./ Lelouch finally started communicating again with this encouragement and belief from his allies. /It's form flickers and dies after a while, and I can't hear it speak whole sentences half the time… It said it can help us too. It said 'I am what you seek. Want to help you.'/ Lelouch took a moment to fidget before gathering his things, Kallen following soon after. /Whatever this thing is it's the only sentient being on this planet being able to talk. It communicated with me even on Kamine island. It must know a way for us to get back to Earth./

"Then we finally have a lead!" Kallen said, her tone pitching up in excitement before she slung her bag over her one good shoulder. "A way to get back home! Where do we find it?"

Lelouch pursed his lips. /I don't know. It didn't say anything about its location or where to find it./ Dichromatic eyes narrowed. /But we need to get out of here safely first and get back to base to build another seamoth./

"But how?" Suzaku questioned as they started backtracking the way Lelouch had come. Gathering what supplies he couldn't grab with his overflowing bag. "With that thing outside, it'll be on us in an instant as soon as we step a toe into the water."

Lelouch suddenly screeched to a halt, his hands flying to his bag as he heaved it around himself and began frantically digging through it. Seeing this, Kallen and Suzaku watched, puzzled at their friend's behavior before he pulled out some rather sizable, familiar red scales.

Kallen's jaw dropped. "No way."

"Lelouch. Where did you- Oh my god." Suzaku rubbed his forehead, feeling a migraine starting up at the revelation of how close his best friend was to kicking the bucket.

/I wanted to wait until if I ever found you guys again before scanning them and seeing what this creature is./ Lelouch stated honestly, taking a moment to scan them with the scan gun before storing them away and going to the PDA. /Perhaps the PDA can shed some light on how to distract this thing./ With that, everyone eagerly crowded around the raven haired teen to read what the PDA had to say.

"!Warning!

!Extremely Dangerous Lifeform!

!DNE! !Do Not Engage! !DNE!

Reaper Leviathan

Classification - Aquatic Leviathan

Threat Level - 9/10

Leviathan class species are vast organisms at the top of their respective food chains. This species is a streamlined hunter, with highly developed senses.

Powerful Mandibles:

This leviathan is capable of locking prey in place with four powerful mandibles and drawing it within reach of its jaws. Simulated pressure exceeds seamoth crush resistance.

Echolocation:

Due to the deep depths it dives down, evolution has made the Reaper Leviathan blind, but extremely efficient in sound. The deep roar emitted by the reaper at regular intervals is effectively sonar.

If you can hear it, the reaper can see you."

"Holy shit. This thing is nuts." Suzaku swore as his eyes slowly widened as he continued reading the text. "How the hell did we survive this thing?"

"Sheer dumb luck." Kallen commented sarcastically as Lelouch could only shrug in response. Though it was clear he wanted to say something similar.

"Profile:

The scanned specimen scales estimate the specimen to be 55m long. Observed circling its prey and attacking from behind. This creature is almost all muscle. Very little brain. No sense of morality. Just muscle, synapses, and teeth.

Motivational Note: Congratulations on getting close enough to scan it and living to see the results!

Assessment: Extreme Threat! - Avoid in ALL circumstances. DNE!"

/It's blind./ Lelouch signed as he put the PDA away. /It's only way to track us is through echolocation. If we stick strictly to the surface of the ocean it shouldn't be able to tell us apart from the crashing waves. It won't be able to find us./

"I- are you really certain about that Lelouch?" Kallen questioned as they finally made it back to the entrance of the demolished Aurora. The constant creaking and groaning of the enormous ship and its vibrations have become normal for the trio. "What if it has another way of finding us? Just swimming out there with no cover, we'd be sitting ducks!"

Lelouch quickly walked over to the edge of the shipwreck, yet his body came to an automatic halt upon his feet skimming over the water lapping at the edge of the metal sheet they were standing on. Cape extensions throwing themselves out to balance himself from his abrupt stop. Despite his confidence in this newfound knowledge the PDA gave, knowing that the reaper leviathan was out there somewhere still froze him.

"The reaper is gone for now. You are safe. You must leave this space quickly."

"Always so rushed. So little time"

Lelouch cleared his thoughts as he stiffly entered the water below him. Kallen and Suzaku rushing to the edge to follow after him as if terrified the water would snatch him away. Sticking their heads in the water, the group searched high and low for any signs of the reaper.

They saw nothing except the burning embers from the Aurora, and sparking electricity further below.

They heard no roars.

/It must have retreated after accidentally eating the seamoth./ Lelouch quickly theorized as he very, very hesitantly stayed in the water. Suzaku and Kallen carefully joined him beneath the waves as their O2 tanks fed them fresh air.

"This is our chance then, let's head back home while we still can." Suzaku spoke very quietly, he was almost drowned out by the Aurora dying behind them. The brunette was going agonizingly slow as he quietly swam out into open waters. Olive green eyes constantly tracking below into the endless blue.

No roar answered back.

"This could be our only chance, let's go." Kallen whispered as she grabbed onto Lelouch's hand and gently tugged him into action. The duo followed to catch up to Suzaku as they started swimming back home. They strictly stuck to the surface of the ocean, so close that sometimes they'd breach the surface and their O2 tanks would automatically refill their oxygen supply.

The farther they got from the safety of the decaying Aurora the more tense they got. It was surprising the group could still move their limbs to swim back towards the coordinates that made up their base from how much terror froze their veins like bricks. Their heads craned straight down so long it was starting to give their necks cramps.

They stared down into the dark blue and sickly gray of the ocean.

The void stares back, unblinking.

. . .

The moment the door sealed shut in their base, everyone unanimously headed to bed. Too tired to deal with anything else except taking those few steps left to get to the luxury of their own bed. Not even lifting their gaze to see the multiple messages left unanswered from the radio, nor lifting a finger to put away their newfound supplies.

Rest and processing first, then action.

It was only after the sun rose up past the waves on the next day that anyone bothered to get up.

Kallen groaned as she rubbed her eyes, clearing them of any crust and opening them to see the blurry roof of their base. The only smell of smoke coming from her suit, and no flames were visible from the corner of her blue eyes. A dull throbbing pain coming from her wounded right arm demanding attention. Begrudgingly, the Guren pilot slowly sat up with a soft groan, rather preferring to lay in bed all day after yesterday's chaos. The swim back was so long and tense it almost exhausted her more than actually seeing the reaper leviathan for the first time, and nothing even happened on the way back.

Lelouch had been right. Either the leviathan was recuperating from eating the seamoth or it couldn't differentiate them from the waves on the ocean's surface. Kallen personally hoped it was both, and she also hoped that the huge beast choked on the seamoth and died because of it. The thing ate their only mode of transport and just made everything so much harder for them.

Yet another obstacle in the way of getting home.

At least they had a chance to get home now, no matter how miniscule.

The only sensible option left at the moment was to wait for the creature to try contacting Lelouch again and giving them a location. Even then, Kallen was very, very hesitant on trusting any creature on this planet. Everything wanted to kill them, except the bladder fish. Yet, it was the only shot they had after so long of being stranded here, stuck. Trapped in this watery hell.

She thought hell was supposed to be burning hot and endless flames. How horribly wrong she was to assume that. Hell could take on all kinds of forms, and this place was one of them.

Forcing herself out of that rabbit hole of thinking, the Black Knight Ace focused on something much more productive. Opening up a new first aid kit that was recently fabricated, the redhead put all of her attention on tending to her arm. Two painkillers here, carefully bandaging her arm and dabbing antiseptic wipes on her wounds there. Two hours later she had a new bandage tightly wrapped around her arm. Though she needed help in the end with the new bandages, Lelouch had recently woke up and mutely helped assist her.

"Thanks." Kallen whispered softly to avoid waking up Suzaku who was still slumbering away.

The revolutionary merely nodded and carefully gave one pat on Kallen's good shoulder. His head tilted to the side to look out the window into the sea of the safe shallows. They were both a wreck.

/You are a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for Kallen. Stronger than I could ever hope to be. I believe in you. Thank you for trusting and believing in me./ He gave her one more pat before standing up. /We can do this./

Yet there was still hope that they could both get better. They would heal, it just took time.

Kallen's brow furrowed in confusion as she admitted. "Lelouch, I have no idea what you just said."

Lelouch merely gave a mischievous smirk before turning and heading to the main storage room to put away their things, signing along the way. /Guess you'll have to learn to find out./

Kallen still didn't know what he said, but it was obviously sarcastic from the look on the teen's face, so the redhead merely rolled her eyes in response and went back to bed. Waking up again to find the sun high up in the sky from what she could see from the windows they had under the waves. Suzaku was gone from his bed, and so was Lelouch.

Getting up for good this time, the pilot headed out of the bedroom to see Suzaku chowing on a cooked peeper while Lelouch was scrolling through the PDA. Pausing for a moment to grab a cup of water and taking a hearty gulp to try and help ease the pain in his throat. Two newly made sea gliders were leaning up by the entrance to their base while the radio was still blinking its red light showing it hadn't been answered yet. Their bags were emptied and sitting beside those sea gliders, the contents having been organized into their growing pile of resources.

"Umm." Two pairs of eyes looked up towards Kallen, curious as to what she had to say. In response the girl merely pointed one finger over towards the radio. "Is anyone going to answer that?"

The two boys looked at each other, and Lelouch shrugged. /Not really. There's no point in answering it since we know we are the only survivors left on this planet thanks to the black box data from the Aurora. They're probably just old useless messages./

The redhead patiently waited for Suzaku to translate before blurting out. "Okay, I really need to learn whatever sign language you two have going on because this is getting ridiculous. The only way I know what you're saying is through Suzaku, Lelouch."

Dichromatic eyes rolled far back in his head as Lelouch mock scoffed.

Being mute sucked.

"Well, until Lelouch gets his voice back it's the only option we have." Suzaku pointed out. "In the meantime I'll teach you the basics. We made this sign language since Nunnally couldn't see and sometimes we had to be quiet while traveling through Area 11 while the war was going on."

"You mean when Japan was fighting Britannia seven years ago." Kallen corrected automatically with a narrowed gaze.

Suzaku took a minute to reply, Lelouch carefully watching the two with calculating eyes. "... Yes, I mean Japan." The admittance had Lelouch's eyebrows rising up to quickly meet his hairline in shock. The expression he gave Kallen had her barely containing a bark of laughter.

/What the hell did you do to him? Is he broken? Tell me how you got him to finally call Area 11 Japan. Do you have a secret geass power that you're not telling me?/ Lelouch demanded as he signed quickly.

"Hey!" Suzaku complained, being the only one to understand and therefore take offense to his best friend's words.

This time Kallen really couldn't help but laugh. As she calmed down she asked. "How did you two even meet in the first place?" The room grew silent. "I mean, the son of the prime minister and two pureblooded Britannians living together and becoming best friends? It sounds like a bad bar joke."

At that, Suzaku gave an uneasy smile. "Ah, well, we didn't really start on the best of terms at first. In fact we kind of hated each other when we first met. The Emperor-"

The Britannian soldier was rudely interrupted by Lelouch slamming both of his hands down onto the table, stunning the group into silence. Dual-colored eyes glaring holes into Suzaku's head as the brunette merely raised his hands up in surrender.

"I- okay then. It's sort of a sensitive subject for Lelouch. He doesn't like people knowing about it. Sorry." Suzaku apologized, both to Kallen for not telling her and Lelouch for not seeing if he was okay with telling Kallen.

Bright blue eyes flickered between the two boys, before a somewhat sour expression crossed Kallen's face. Just as quick as it appeared however, it was gone the next second. "I can understand that. I don't tell everyone everything about my life either. Nobody likes bringing up a buried dark past. I have some secrets I still want to keep."

The room grew awkward as conversation suddenly dried up like an empty well. The three teens not really having enough courage to look the other in the eye as the awkwardness grew worse by every passing second.

"You know what. Suddenly the idea of hearing these messages has become very appealing, don't you guys agree?" Suzaku blurted out as he quickly scrambled out of his chair and made his way towards the radio. It was a clear out from the conversation about secrets and trust, but it was an out everyone gladly took.

"Yeah! Let's hear what they have to say." Kallen agreed readily, nervously twirling a strand of her red hair on one finger. Lelouch, being unable to speak, merely nodded quickly in reply.

"Cool. Okay. First message then!" Suzaku eagerly hit the blinking red button, and static noise immediately filled the air.

"Playing pre-recorded distress call…

This is Lifepod 7, coordinates attached. The pod is structurally sound, but the fabricator's bust. Requesting immediate assistance. 7, out." The first message ended with a click and the next one automatically began.

"Playing pre-recorded distress call…

This is an automated distress signal from Lifepod 12, coordinates attached." A robotic voice answered instead of a human this time. "Warning: Lifepod has sunk beyond safe diving distance. Do not attempt retrieval without submersible support. End of message." Another click signaled the end of the second message.

"Playing pre-recorded distress call…

This is Lifepod 2, coordinates attached!" A female quickly sounded out as a steady dripping noise and frantic mummerings filtered in the background. "We're way past our safe depth and bleeding O2. We'll have to swim for the surface, but it's 500 meters straight up. We'll make for the rendezvous and keep you posted. 2, out."

"500 meters down. They are so dead." Suzaku muttered darkly.

"If the pressure didn't kill them, then running out of oxygen trying to get to the surface definitely did." Kallen agreed solemnly. Or if they're really unlucky, the monsters down here got to them first before they could suffocate.

Then the radio clicked again, and another message began to play.

"This is Avery Quinn of the trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over." A stiff male voice echoed out the radio. The trio all stiffened up in their seats and stared intently at the radio.

A trading ship, one that wasn't stranded on the planet.

A chance at rescue.

A possible threat.

"... Nothing but vacuum." The leader of the Sunbeam scoffed in clear agitation and spoke to someone in the background. "Tck. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an S.O.S.; you offer to help, they don't pick up." Quinn turned back to the mic and spoke clearly once again, frustration leaking into his tone now at the lack of reply. "Aurora, I'm out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over."

"Holy shit." Kallen breathed in disbelief.

"... I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our credits running errands for Alterra." Avery turned to someone in the background again. "See what the long-range scans pick up in the meantime."

Another message auto-played as that one ended. The voice of Avery Quinn filled the room once again, and this time he had a completely different tone to his voice.

"Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location. I didn't know how bad… How many of you… I- I didn't know." Clearly he sounded guilty for being so frustrated in his last message after learning that the Aurora actually got shot down. "We are now on route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out."

"They're coming to rescue us." Suzaku breathed. Lelouch hunched over the table, his face a neutral, carefully carved mask.

"... What else can I say?" Avery snapped to someone that said something off mic. The captain had forgotten to actually end the message before speaking. "The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it! Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others." Finally, the message ended, and the radio shut off with one final click.

Silence once more filled the air as everyone processed this new revelation.

"Someone is coming to get us." Kallen grinned broadly. "We're saved!"

"Finally!" Suzaku crowed, throwing his hands into the air in celebration. "It's about damn time we had something good happen!"

"We're going home!" Kallen rushed over to Lelouch's side and shook his shoulder in excitement. "Lelouch we're finally going home! We get to see the Black Knights again! Our classmates! You get to reunite with Nunnally again!" When she got no response from Lelouch, her excitement dimmed, and it fully died when she noticed the frown etched across the ravenette's features. She retracted her hand back from the teen. "Lelouch?"

/Don't forget. Our people back on Earth haven't gotten very far in space technology or exploration. These people aren't from our Earth./ Lelouch signed very slowly. Suzaku forgetting to translate which left Kallen very confused. The Eleven soldier lost his own joy at Lelouch's reminders. /We're foreigners with no form of identification. I don't think this is a very good thing. These people could easily turn on us and become dangerous./

"I- That's ridiculous Lelouch!" Suzaku objected heatedly. "They're coming here to save us, not kill us. It's clear we're human and in need of help. I'm sure they'll give us a little leeway."

/Will they though?/ Lelouch retorted back just as quickly. His own suspicions and worries only growing. /What if they don't? Back on our Earth, if a foreigner gets caught trying to get into the Britannian homeland or any airport with no Standard Britannian ID or Honorary Britannian ID they get arrested or shot if they resist. It's why smuggling is such a high cost and successful business./ He scowled. /Who's to say they won't do that to us once they find out we have no form of ID?/

"What? You think they'll suspect us as some kind of alien? That's kind of a stretch." Suzaku raised an incredulous eyebrow towards Lelouch's way.

/Who knows./ Lelouch shrugged. /There could be shapeshifting aliens on this planet or out there somewhere in space for all I know that eat human flesh./ Lelouch rubbed his throat before digging into his pockets to pull out a pill bottle. /What I do know is that people are biased and prejudiced. I know that when people encounter the unknown they automatically fear it, and that fear turns into hate. Just like being on this planet. The more we discover, the more we fear and hate it./

Lelouch had a point there. People could be cruel and unpredictable when they wanted to be. Yet there was only one problem.

"We don't have a ton of leads to go off of Lelouch." Kallen said gently as the trio all sat down at the table. Sapphire blue eyes watched as Lelouch popped out a pill and swallowed it down with a glass of water. One glance at the bottle showed it was a basic ibuprofen to help with vocal cord inflammation. "As it stands we only have two leads on how to get back home. The Sunbeam, and whatever is trying to talk to you."

Lelouch's features remained neutral, but he eventually looked to the side, and it allowed Suzaku to continue Kallen's train of thought.

"She's right, Lelouch." Suzaku bit his bottom lip in thought. "At least with the Sunbeam we know they're coming. If they rescue us they might be able to provide us with the technology or knowledge needed to get back home. We have a higher chance of getting saved by them than finding this thing that can only speak to you."

The ravenette's expression turned into anger as he looked at Suzaku.

"We're not saying you're crazy." Kallen interrupted a possible BSL rant from her leader. "Trust us when I say we believe you." Suzaku nodded from beside her. "We're just rationalizing our chances and being logical about this. We have a higher chance of surviving and returning home from getting rescued by the Sunbeam than any other lead we have so far."

Lelouch was gently nodding by the end of Kallen's reasoning. The raven haired teen reached back and gently rubbed one of his cape extensions in a nervous fidget.

/It just doesn't seem real./ Lelouch admitted finally. /It all just sounds too easy./

"After everything we've gone through so far, I believe we deserve this." Suzaku stated as he brought his disposable eating utensils to the garbage bin. "Let's just wait to get another message from the Sunbeam then we can plan from there." The conversation came to an end with it.

. . .

Six days passed before another message on the radio appeared. The infamous blinking red light appeared right in the middle of lunch on that day. The sight had everybody springing out of their chairs and practically flying right to the radio to play the message.

"This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there. There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad." Avery Quinn stated over the radio waves. "Sounds like you've tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter. Might just be we're it. We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it, Sunbeam out."

"They're scanning the planet, does that mean they're right around the planet?! Already?" Kallen raised a surprised eyebrow. "That was quick."

"Well, they do have better tech than us. I wouldn't be surprised if they solved the technique for light-speed travel or something." Suzaku said as he began cleaning off the table of their abandoned food. No one was hungry anymore anyway.

"It'll probably be a while before we get another message from the Sunbeam. We should go find one of those wrecked lifepods in the meantime and see what other blueprints we can uncover." Kallen suggested as she wiped her suit off of any dirt and grim. "I'm starting to go stir crazy just sitting in here doing nothing."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Lelouch questioned as he signed. The revolutionary had finally, finally recovered his voice after six days of recuperating. Yet, the teen made sure to keep signing as he spoke so Kallen could better learn and understand the sign language.

There was always a chance someone could lose their voice again, and if they did it was a smart idea to have everyone be able to understand what that person was saying. Suzaku or Lelouch might not always be there or able to translate what was being said for Kallen. This was the quickest way to learn, and so Lelouch continued to sign as he spoke.

It was actually working too. Before all this happened, Kallen did always have top marks back in Ashford, so it wasn't too much of a surprise. The surprise was how she was catching on so quickly. It took Suzaku and Lelouch months to form this language, and the redhead was learning it in nearly six days. Kallen managed to get a small understanding of what Lelouch was trying to say thanks to Suzaku teaching her, but she still had some ways to go. So Lelouch still had to play as interpreter by speaking as he signed now. At least Suzaku could get a break from playing as the translator.

"Last time we went out exploring didn't go very well." The clear reminder of what happened at the Aurora soured everyone's thoughts, but only for a moment. They were starting to get better at this, at moving on and focusing on the future. Lelouch continued. "Besides, two out of the three lifepods are below crush depths. They're too far out of reach."

"With the new seamoth we created yesterday we can at least visit lifepod seven." Suzaku said as he scrolled through the PDA that was left on the table while everyone was eating lunch. "It's a ways out, but it is above 200 meters. We'll have to wait on exploring lifepods two and twelve until we find a way to upgrade the seamoth or something."

"Actually, we've already got the Seamoth Depth Module MK 1 from the Aurora." Kallen piped in as she rushed through one of the storage lockers in their base. After a moment of shuffling stuff around, the redhead victoriously raised the upgrade up into the air. "Once we implement this bad boy into our new seamoth we can get down to 300 meters without getting crushed!" Wow, that was actually pretty impressive. They were starting to get the hang of this survival thing. "So we can actually visit lifepods seven and twelve."

Lelouch looked over Suzaku's shoulder to see the PDA. Although he couldn't see it, Suzaku could feel Lelouch give a nod of agreement.

"But if we hear a roar at any point we're getting the hell out of there." Suzaku stated firmly.

"Hell yes."

"Agreed."

Both Lelouch and Kallen hastily agreed at the same time. Nobody wanted to fuck with a reaper leviathan ever again.

. . .

The area the group found the abandoned lifepod seven in was sparse of most life, but rich in resources and materials. Huge black stone pillars stabbing up into the ocean like spikes and spears were the most prominent feature in the area. The waters a constant dark blue that gave some visibility, but not a lot. The new seamoth's lights cut a ray into the darkness and helped guide the trio past the dangerous spikes of stone.

The next most prominent find was the abundance of not only limestone and sandstone outcroppings, but of a new outcropping called shale. One quick scan showed they dropped gold, lithium, and freaking diamonds. As if to prove that, when Suzaku broke the outcropping a huge diamond geode floated down into his hand. The sight had everyone's jaws dropping.

If it wasn't for the predators on this planet this place would've been a literal goldmine for humanity.

The group collected materials as they got closer to the coordinates, and kept an ear out for any roars coming from leviathans nobody wanted to mess with. The only sounds they heard were those from the reefbacks, which brought a huge sigh of relief to everyone. If the reefbacks were around then that meant they were in the clear in terms of leviathans for now. The sand turned darker, and transformed into more of a soil based substance the further they traveled in this environment. Light struggled to reach this far down in the ocean, and even with the sun at its peak it provided only a foggy amount of visibility.

"Anyone see the lifepod yet?" Lelouch asked as the trio once more traveled in the seamoth together in near silence. This time though, the silence came from concentration and not fear. With how hard it was to see, the group had to strain their eyes to make out what was an empty ocean and what was a jagged spiky pillar.

"Nothing yet." Kallen replied, before she had to sharply jerk the seamoth over one small yet sharp jagged rock formation that snuck up on her vision. "Oh shit- sorry. Sorry."

"It's fine. It's fine." Suzaku waved the redhead's apologies off as he and Lelouch resituated themselves. The good thing about this place was that the biggest type of flora that grew here were shrubs and eye stalks. The lifepod wouldn't be able to hide behind giant seaweed stalks or get swallowed up by huge bounds of red seagrass. "Keep focusing on piloting, Lelouch and I will look for the lifepod."

Ten more minutes of searching, and Suzaku barely managed to spot the sunken lifepod's white hull out of the corner of his eye. Lifepod seven had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and had been teared open on one side. There were no survivors, but everyone knew that going into this investigation. What everyone was hoping for were some cool blueprints that could help them better their own lives.

"Okay, let's see what we've got going on here." Lelouch murmured as he began to exit the seamoth. "Kallen, you stay here with the seamoth and keep on the lookout for anything malicious. Let us know if something dangerous comes by so we can make a quick get away."

"Got it." The ace pilot nodded, and seconds after Suzaku and Lelouch were out of the seamoth and swimming over towards the decimated lifepod. One using a sea glide while the other used his cape extensions.

"This one has a huge hole in its side too." Suzaku stated as they went straight in through the opening. "This definitely isn't a coincidence. Something is actively hunting down and destroying the lifepods scattered across the planet."

Lelouch nodded in silent agreement. "Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern, and more than three lifepods have definitely been destroyed in this way. I'm not looking forward to seeing what caused all of this."

"Hopefully we don't ever have too." The brunette continued as he zeroed in on the abandoned PDA on the lifepod's floor. "With the Sunbeam on the way we can get the hell out of here before whatever it is makes it to our lifepod or finds us." The Britannian soldier handed the PDA over to Lelouch to gather all the data while he continued exploring.

"It'll probably target the lifepod first." The revolutionary said confidently as he scrolled through the PDA's data. "It probably doesn't realize we have a base beneath the sea already established since we've abandoned that lifepod. Hopefully it's not smart enough to realize that, and it'll go on a wild goose chase, giving us more time to prepare or get away." With that said, Lelouch played the recording from the abandoned PDA.

A male voice with a light accent spoke up with an already irritated tone in his voice. The man huffed angrily, and the banging sound of him hitting the side of his lifepod echoed out. "I've tried everything! The analysis circuits on the fabricator are fried. I can barely manufacture the most basic of materials! Want a battery? Here, have a children's toy! Need deep sea diving equipment? Have some lab tech! Hungry? I'll turn that fruit into dust for you." The man groaned loudly in defeat. "I'm going forward with trial and error. I hit every button here, it's got to make something useful eventually."

"Well, that explains all of the toys scattered around here and the lab equipment left outside." Suzaku piped in jokingly as he gestured to the huge silver toy car and the strange doll within the lifepod. "Dude just couldn't get a break huh?"

"No, it doesn't sound like it." Lelouch agreed lightly as he picked up the doll in curiosity. It was like a bobblehead doll of a guy. The top part of the man's head was dyed a dark red while the sides were a natural dark brown, near black. There was a giant letter M on the thing's chest with a light pink mustache in the middle of the letter.

Apparently, the rebel accidentally brushed over a button or something, because it started speaking seconds after Lelouch picked it up.

"Hello everybody! My name is Markiplier and welcome back to Subnautica!"

"Ah, shit!" Lelouch reeled back from the suddenly speaking doll. Its voice was muffled by the water, but what it said was still eligible to hear. The raven haired teen reeled back his hand, and the doll sunk back onto the ground. Its button must've been pressed again by the impact, because the doll suddenly started screaming for five seconds before it finally cut off. Dual colored eyes looked up to meet Suzaku's very amused expression. "Don't give me that look. I didn't know it could talk!"

"What the hell is wrong with that thing?" The brunette swallowed the urge to laugh at Lelouch through sheer force of will. It was honestly impressive. Olive green eyes looked down at the doll alongside dichromatic ones. "Why would someone make a doll that just screams?"

"Who knows, and I don't care. Let's just get the lab equipment and move on to the next lifepod. I don't want to remain here more than we have to since nothing of value is actually here." The terrorist griped as he began to put a microscope and some other equipment into his bag.

"If you say so." Suzaku agreed easily, and quickly gathered the rest of the stuff. Though, he did also take the toy car and gray cap. What could he say? He felt sentimental over such silly things. It would at least bring more life and feeling to the base as decorations like that cat poster. "Since this place is new to us, let's look around a little bit more. Maybe we can find some more stuff or a shipwreck nearby."

"You're right, let's regroup with Kallen and investigate." Lelouch began to swim outside of the lifepod, when a loud metallic bang sounded outside of the pod. A loud, almost cat-like hissed pierced the ocean's waters before all went silent again. The two boys tensed up at the loud sound, and quickly swam outside of the lifepod to see what the hell that was.

The two boys floated there, stunned in awe at the sight before them. The seamoth slowly backed up away from the huge creature it had rammed into. It was a rather big fish, easily bigger than any of them, but nowhere near as big to be classified as a leviathan. Kallen had purposefully piloted the submersible vehicle so that when it charged into the creature, the giant fish was impaled against one of the big rocky spikes. The fish twitched and spasmed against the stone it was stuck to, its mouth stuck open in untold pain. With one loud, long-lasting hiss, the creature's eyes rolled into the back of its head, and it finally grew still. Tons of yellow blood mixed and dispersed into the ocean currents.

"Nice job Kallen!" Suzaku exclaimed as the pilot parked their seamoth a few feet away from the two. The Black Knight Ace exited the seamoth seconds later with a huff of relief. "But why'd you kill it?"

"I noticed it was circling around us in a stalking motion." Kallen answered as she took the repair tool out of her bag with one arm. She was getting a lot better at that. Doing it faster and being more precise. "I figured that instead of waiting for it to attack us I'd get the drop on it and attack first." The pilot turned the tool on, and quickly set to work repairing the seamoth to full health. "Though, that hide is a lot thicker and tougher than I first thought for it to damage the seamoth so much." The cracks on the vehicle's windshield were wiped away in an instant.

"Using the environment to your advantage to kill it with one shot. Very clever." Lelouch praised, and Kallen straightened up and preened at the praise. A light pink dusted her cheeks that no one else noticed. "Good job."

"What even is this thing?" Suzaku carefully swam up to the side of the creature. Not even thinking about facing its front in case it was still alive and snapped its massive jaws at him. With one finger, the brunette quickly poked the creature before reeling back in fear of it suddenly coming back from the dead to retaliate.

"It's dead Suzaku. No need to be scared of it anymore." Kallen said as she strolled right up to it and lifted its big head with one hand and a grunt of effort. She gave Suzaku a big smirk at his reaction.

"I know that." The soldier retorted back with a mildly annoyed expression at getting teased. "You just never know with this planet." He grumbled to the side as he idly lifted up a pectoral fin.

The fish was a very large creature, easily the length of four humans stacked on top of each other. It was mainly shaped like a shark back on their Earth, but instead of rough gray skin it had plates. These huge, thick plates looked more like bone. The plates got bigger and thicker the closer they were to the head, and got smaller the closer they were to the tail. It had a large head and irregular teeth. However, those sharp, serrated bones didn't protrude from any gumline or jaw, and instead actually turned out to be a part of the creature's head.

"Woah, look at this thing's head. It doesn't even have any gums for its teeth." Suzaku breathed as he very carefully maneuvered the head of the lifeless monster around.

"Fascinating." Lelouch whispered as he got a closer look at it himself. The rebel had taken out the scanner and began scanning the creature. "It looks like this thing is made up of a huge exoskeleton unlike some of the other creature's we've encountered so far on this planet."

It indeed looked that way. It lacked any dorsal fins, but its two huge pectoral fins were barbed and outlined with pure bone. It was mainly a dark gray in color, but it also had orange patterns on its head and on the ends of all of its bony plates. Its tail end was coated in solid white bone as well as its skull. The most memorable feature however, had to be its stark green eyes. The creature had two reflective green eyes with slitted pupils like a snake, even in death.

It was an impressive creature. All of the creatures on 4546B were impressive and wicked in their own ways. The only reasonable flaw the group had with just about all of them was that everything on this planet wanted to eat them. If it wasn't for that, this planet would've been much cooler and beautiful in their eyes.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and in this world it was kill or be killed. This time, the group finally came out on top before disaster struck.

"The PDA says it's called a boneshark." Lelouch said as he read the PDA's page. Another loud, reptilian-like hiss echoed out from the ocean, and suddenly everyone was booking it back into the seamoth like hell was on their heels.

The blood from the deceased shark probably attracted more. It was better to wait in the safety of the seamoth, which was about as big as the sharks themselves if a little bit bigger. They probably wouldn't attack the mech since it was just as big as the creatures themselves.

Probably.

Once everyone was safely inside the seamoth again the group breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe for now. The group got resituated and comfortable as Kallen took control of the submersible again.

"Let's look around some before we move on to lifepod twelve." Lelouch ordered and the redhead nodded in agreement before steering the seamoth into exploring the place some more. They could definitely use some more gold, copper, and diamond. You could never not have enough copper. "This is what the PDA says about those bonesharks while we're at it."

"The boneshark is a large and powerful predator that lives in small groups and fiercely defends its hunting grounds." The PDA began, and was immediately interrupted by Suzaku.

"That hissing was probably from the sharks in its pack. They're probably not too pleased to realize we killed one of their own." The Lancelot user stated uneasily as he watched the world pass them by.

"Then it's a good thing we're moving on quickly." Kallen added in as she sped the seamoth up some more.

"Large Eyeballs:

Consistent with high light sensitivity, likely for hunting of luminescent prey in low-light environments.

Thickly-armored Exoskeleton:

This suggests defensive adaptation to either larger predators, or in-species aggression. Marked similarity to the segmented exoskeleton of the sand shark, suggesting a relatively recent common ancestor. It is generally slow and unresponsive as a means of energy conservation; they will act with uncompromising speed and aggression against any threat to their territory." It was definitely a good thing that they left that area as quickly as possible after killing that first shark then. The others were most definitely pissed.

"Assessment: Avoid - May be distracted by light sources."

"That's useful to know." Lelouch hummed as he rubbed the bottom of his chin in thought. "Let's keep the seamoth lights off for now until we leave this biome. Don't want to cause any unnecessary aggression if we can avoid it."

"We could probably build a couple flares or something and use them as distractions too if we get in a pinch." Suzaku suggested as everything outside was blurred by the speed they were going around the field as they investigated. "What's this place called anyway? Does the PDA say anything about it?"

After a bit of scrolling, Lelouch answered. "The PDA says this place is called the Craig Fields. It's a rocky biome mainly dominated by large geological formations. As we can see right outside the window." The teen said sarcastically and gestured outside the seamoth.

"Hey, look at this thing you guys." Kallen interrupted the two as she slowed the seamoth to a stop. "I don't think I've seen these fragments before, have you guys?" The group stopped just in front of two broken fragments belonging to something unknown. One piece was a huge sleek white wall on one side while the other side had beams of metal welded together. The second piece looked like a literal engine though a third of it was missing.

"No. I haven't seen this thing yet." Lelouch raised an eyebrow, before getting up and opening the seamoth. "I'm about to find out though."

"Ah, be careful!" Suzaku warned. This situation was getting very familiar to what happened back at the Aurora, and the Honorary Britannian didn't like it one bit. There are no reapers here. There's nothing to be scared of.

They could still faintly hear the sounds of the reefbacks. They were fine.

Lelouch nodded and wordlessly swam over towards the fragments, scanner already in hand. Taking a moment to scan them, the raven haired teen wasted no time and quickly swam back to the safety of the seamoth. He wasn't risking a repeat of last time either.

Once safe, Lelouch took out the PDA once more and showed his companions what he had scanned. "It looks like it's fragments of a cyclops?" With one raised eyebrow, the revolutionary leaned back and scrolled through the blueprints section of the PDA to figure out what a cyclops was.

"It's gotta be a vehicle right?" Kallen looked to either side of her as she maneuvered the seamoth away from the scene and onto better, watery horizons. "I mean, the thing had an engine so it's gotta be."

"Holy shit." Lelouch breathed as he brought his face closer to the PDA in disbelief. "It's not just any vehicle, it's a freaking submarine!"

"Are you serious?!" Suzaku exclaimed, his voice pitching upwards at the awesome find. The soldier pushed his way over to read the PDA over Lelouch's shoulder. "Holy crap, it really is!"

"Finally!" Kallen yelled as she focused on finding those similar fragments now. "I was starting to get sick of how cramped it is in here with you guys all the time. How many more fragments do we need to get the blueprints and build it?"

At that, Lelouch's expression turned into something sour. "It says we need to scan two more fragments of the hull, the engine, and three more fragments of the bridge before it can fill in the gaps and get the cyclops blueprints." He shook his head side to side. "Nothing can just be easy on this planet, can it?"

"No, I guess not." Even though Lelouch's question was rhetorical, Suzaku still gave it an answer. "At least we can finally get a submarine now after being trapped here for so long. I'm sure it'll allow us to go even deeper too." The teen said it all with such bright optimism it caused Kallen and Lelouch's mood to lighten up too.

"Yeah, you're right. We can probably look at the lifepod two coordinates as well." Kallen wiped some stray hairs out of her face with her one hand. The move was admittedly a bit dangerous since she currently only had one hand to use, but thankfully nothing bad happened from it. "Oh! We can use that Cyclops Engine Efficiency module we got from the Aurora too!"

"You're right." Suzaku, frankly, had completely forgotten that they even had that thing, and had left it in one of their lockers back home to gather dust. "Nice!"

"Okay, so here's the plan." Lelouch got everyone to focus back on the main objective, and started handing out orders. "Let's keep looking around here to find the rest of those cyclops fragments and maybe get some other cool blueprints along the way. Once we've got the cyclops blueprint we'll head back to base and build the submarine. Then go give it a test run and investigate the coordinates to lifepods nineteen, twelve, and two if the Sunbeam hasn't contacted us again by that time."

"Sounds like a plan." Kallen agreed with a set frown. Sapphire blue eyes keeping a sharp eye out for anything of interest or danger. Thankfully, while the group did run by a couple more groups of bonesharks. The creatures didn't bother to attack since they had all of the lights in their seamoth off. "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. I want to try and get home in time for dinner." Even though spongy peeper sounded kinda gross at the moment, the Black Knight was hungry, and would take what she could get.

So the group stayed close to the seamoth, and explored all the craig fields had to offer.

Progress! We all love progress! The group is just about done exploring all of the lifepods, and the Sunbeam finally makes its appearance! Wonder if they'll be able to save the Sunbeam before it's too late. Who knows?

Lelouch, Suzaku, and Nunnally created a form of sign language to help them survive the tough times traveling through the war zones of Japan seven years ago. They made it so you can write it on a person's hand or treat it like regular BSL (Britannian Sign Language). It really helped save their lives multiple times during the war.

Lol, camoes are funny hehe. Darn unusual doll won't be going home with the trio; it freaked Lelouch out too much. Always the dolls man.

If you guys haven't noticed it yet. There is a clear time difference between Earth and 4546B. Time goes by much faster on 4546B than Earth. Weeks have passed for the trio while it's only been a few days since the Kamine Island incident on Earth. Yes, I did this on purpose. No, I'm not telling you all why.

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 16! -MoonlightWright :D