This is the complete unchanged edition of a series that contains spoilers. Players new to the game should not read it. (Warning, Long!)
The signal was coming from here, I was so sure It meant salvation, escape. My PDA informed me yesterday that there was something resembling an escape rocket here. I didn't care how they found out how to make one or why they didn't send out a radio announcement. In my haste I didn't even seal the hatch. I swam to my moonpool, emptied my storage and threw some diamonds and wiring kits inside, almost instinctively I was already thinking of how much money I could make back on earth. With my pockets and my seamoth full I drove to the signal.
I was there quicker than I expected, a tranquil grove of calm water and edible fish surrounded me as I sliced through the clean sea. But while the land was at peace, the base was anything but. Wreckage was scattered across the sea floor, the base was scattered in disarray and rusted, remnants of farms and aquariums still weakly flickering their lights. As countless emotions rushed over me I jumped out of my seamoth and swam quickly towards the base, knowing that unless I distracted myself with work I would cry. The base was not old, the rust seemed to have grown unnaturally quick but there were fish inside storage which were still fresh and when I placed a solar panel on top, the lights still worked. Weirder still, within the solitary intact aquarium was a cute, obedient, even loyal fish that my PDA couldn't identify. Who was here before me?
I constructed a bulkhead to explore further on foot and found the drainage system was clogged with rust, by the time I had finished night had fallen and the base was glowing serenely. I found several collections of items within the lockers of the base and took those that seemed useful before climbing up a ladder. The windows showed yellowed and rusty water and a passing Gasopod made me jump. After reaching the top and opening an above-water hatch I saw not far from the base a large and seemingly intact platform. I dove towards it in a heartbeat, thinking hard as I hit the water "What could have done this?"
I pulled myself up the top rung and stared at the platform, the smoke rising from the center, the gantry glowing like coals, the three depleted ballasts giving the platform a slight lean and the thirty human-sized bite marks sunk into the metal base of the platform. It too was covered in rust. No leviathan could have done, no living leviathan. I thought back to the skull in the river, and a sense of cold dread overcame me. As I sank to my knees I saw a PDA lodged in one of the holes, I reached down and grabbed it, playing the only message on it:
" Playing message ... I'm sorry but I'm going to have to launch quicker than expected. There's been a situation and it seems a ... don't know how this could have happened, seems to have tentacles around it's ... the size of a human. Could tear through a cyclops with ease. I've no chance if I stay and I can't risk loosing the rocket. Yeah, I'm sad too ... -eed me all my important materials were moved to my third base, this base contains just copper, plants and some scrap now. Coordinators listed below. Trust me, you'd run too if you saw it. ... (Guttural growl) Message end"
I take the PDA back to base, the recording is far to corrupted to get the coordinates and there's nothing in the base worth taking. The water glows in the soft light of the base and through a window, the fish smiles at me, knowingly. The Seamoth is as dry and calming as ever and entering it is and instant relief for me. I return speedily to base and I arrive just as the sun rises far above.
After a quick scan I find that the PDA I found has several corroded wires, which I quickly fix. The message is still ruined but the location is clear a day. South of the Dunes, near the crater's edge. For a moment, I am doubtful. I am wasting time and effort, risking my life for a partial message that may not even be true. I could be gathering the materials for the rocket, I could be leaving. But something feels unfinished about this creature, something ominous. I must find out what it is, and if it's related to the lost river.
The base is deep and dark, at first I thought it was ruined too but it was simply out of power. After filling the lone bioreactor I performed a sweep of the base, checking every locker and room. Everything seemed intact except for a bulkhead missing the handle on the lowest floor. Going outside revealed the bulkhead connected to a multipurpose room with no other entrance. Something inside prevented me from placing a hatch so I had no choice but to repair the bulkhead and enter.
Brown rust filled the flooded room. A yellowish light guided me to a table containing a solitary button. Pressing it emptied the room of water and revealed a strange sight. Images of leviathans covered the walls. Diagrams and 3D models filled shelves and lockers and insane scribbles and arrows pointed in all directions, linking creatures from all walks of life to one another. The frames seemed unaffected by the rust, clearly displaying the creatures and the nonsensical gibbering written on them.
Pacing the room slowly, allowing my hands to brush over the insane beliefs of those before me as if in a dream, I notice another PDA, jammed behind a chair. It has several data files on it and journals but my attention is brought to another recorded message.
" Playing message... I cannot describe this thing. I came down here for one final look over the base and (Crash) It's here! It followed me I think and it is far worse than I ever could have imagined (Crash). Am I dead? Doomed to rust like those before me? No. (Crash) I'm dead if I stay here but I have a plan. (Scraping) There is one of the green bases nearby according to the scanner, oxygen is detected, as are robots. (Crash) I think it's my only chance... One thing I find odd, in this moment... (Roaring) is that the creature, this gargantuan creature, though larger than my base (Crash) is choosing to ram my buildings rather than simply bite down and destroy the base. (Crash) I think that within that massive skull... lies a sense of twisted humor ...Message end "
There is more roaring, however. Though not from the recording, running to the window, I see the beast from the river, alive and giant, racing towards the base. With an almighty crash I barrel back into the room, everything flying around me. The models, swimming like they've come alive, table bouncing like a exited puppy and chair spinning towards my face.
A beeping from my PDA brings me back to reality, I have thirty seconds of oxygen left. Still groggy and with limbs weak I force my aching arms to pull open the bulkhead out of the roofless room to the rest of the base but, to my horror, it is flooded too. I rush as quick as I can around the base, my eyesight dimming as I reach another bulkhead. My muscles wish for the soft caress of the end and ignore my pleas to force the door. With the lights dimming I finally work up the strength to rip the door forward and squeeze through into a dry room.
Coughing water I look around the room as my tank fills itself with oxygen. It's the room underneath the bioreactor and contains, ironically, the alien containment. Fish I don't recognize stare out at me from cracked glass but there is not time to scan them. I must find out the truth behind the creature, for the sake of any other survivors, for the sake of the emperor, perhaps for the sake of the planet itself. I get myself to a hatch and swim to my seamoth. Driving by the base I see the full extent of the destruction, the rusted room was now missing it's roof and every window had imploded inwards from the force.
I turn the submarine around to face towards where the precursor base is supposed to be and drive off, thinking about the creature. It had had multiple yellow eyes, a crocodile-like mouth with gigantic teeth and had been surrounded by an aura of brown water, likely the same substance that caused the rusting at the previous base. It moved fast with motions similar to a ghost leviathan or a reaper. And in murky waters such as those that now surrounded me, it could appear from anywhere in an instant.
The dread that filled me on the trip passed as soon as I saw the base. It was a glowing green cube, same as most ancient bases, illuminated with green light. An almost welcoming entryway that could have easily swallowed my entire base and still have room for my cyclops. It was dry inside and had an unearthly elevator that I was now used to, a hovering decent far into the bowels of the sandy earth. Calm unfeeling stone surrounded me with soft lighting falling from above. It did not seem sensible to tarry, the skittering around me warned of unseen and lethal drones.
The passage suddenly opened into a cavernous hall. Glass containers littered the walls with strange, organ-like, specimens within. Aloud, I questioned the purpose behind them and my voice echoed around the room. Upon closer inspection, there was a terminal in front of several collections of containers and a PDA scan informed me of the purpose behind the specimens.
It was a research base, like the one for the Emperor but smaller, tasked with finding the origins of a mysterious and powerful leviathan that had proved on multiple occasions to be a danger to their bases. They had devised a method to weaken it, to force it into stasis after being exposed to something and make it susceptible to a torpedo-like weapon. The details and the blueprints were on the lower floor, sealed behind a force field. All I needed now was a purple tablet and all my cubes were back at base.
The water churns around me as I return to my base, dark shadows seem to follow me and stare and every fish makes me jump. I get the horrible feeling I'm being watched. Suddenly I hear an echoing noise to my left, I jump and slowly turn my headlights to point towards it. There is a cave entrance and a small terrace in front of it. I breathe a sigh of relief. And as I turn back towards my base I illuminate a crabsquid, hovering before me. It pulses an EMP through my equipment and my seamoth powers down. My heart beats in time with my quick breaths, and I wait a moment to recover before moving on. By the time I reach the surface and feel the sun on my face again, my seamoth is almost out of fuel. I dock it, removing my prawn to make room, and set foot once again in my base.
I could have quickly grabbed everything I needed. I could have been gone in minutes. But something made me stay, homesickness or hunger, until evening. I left carrying the strange torpedoes and the tablet. I decided to take the cyclops with the prawn and to give the prawn the torpedo module. As the cyclops turned down the path to the sea treaders the water suddenly darkened. Rust filled my vision and the scanner went offline I banged the controls and checked the damage monitor, expecting a lava larva or a crabsquid. The entire front half of the sub was demolished. As I watched, the back half tore off too. I ran to the prawn. Now I'm falling through black water, watching my cyclops getting rent apart by the strange and terrible rusted leviathan.
I hit the seafloor running, the suit following my movements as I speed towards the base. I hear roaring behind me and know that it is finished with my sub. The base is too far, I won't make it there in time but I might be able to hide inside the caves, dotting the landscape to my left. I dive, jets engaged, towards a cave just large enough for my prawn. I watch, breathing heavily, as a gigantic shadow covers my view and an ominous growl emanates from above me. Rust drips down onto my suit.
With my heart pounding in my ears, I wait for the creature to leave. After what seems like hours, it finally moves on, it's roaring becoming faint. I tentatively pull the prawn up until I can see it is no longer near. In one movement I jump and grapple pulling the prawn speedily towards the base. From afar I hear the monstrous roaring again and I know that it is right behind me. I see the base's doors, light glowing out at me, and as I move the arm up the grapple inside, the prawn shuts down. After looking at my controls in shock for a second, instinct takes over. I jump out of the prawn with my seaglide in hand and speed to the gateway. Chewing noises indicate my prawn is now a rusted husk but before I can join it I reach air.
The creature is being blocked from coming near the base by some unseen force and I take a second to taunt it. To my surprise, it responds. It grows angrier and tries more forcefully to break inside. Fearing time is of the essence I rush to the elevator, It feel as if it takes longer than usual to reach the bottom, so to make up for lost time I sprint to the control panel, bashing into the forcefield in my haste. The tablet fits smoothly into the panel and the field dissipates into mist, I rush through before the lights inside turn on.
There is another elevator here, smaller and faster, that leads to a large room. A large terrace overlooks an immense tank of brown liquid. Aside from a single terminal, the terrace is empty of anything, including safety rails. The terminal reveals the information I'd hoped it would; the monster's weakness. The terminal also gives information on how they'd found it and tried to contain it but that a glitch in the system had allowed it to escape and reach havoc on the base that had once been attached to the facility I was currently in. They had barely had time to repair the base before the bacterium had killed them.
I ran a scan through the terminal, now that I knew what I was looking for. The creature was repelled by sound but could also be lured by it. The precursors had designed a hatch capable of luring and containing the creature as well as a tranquilizer missile, should the creature not be lulled by the noise. All I had to do was lure the leviathan to the hatch and tranquilize it.
Now all I needed was a prawn, a torpedo launcher and about fifty tons of courage.
The leviathan was not leaving, I know that much. Even this far underground I can clearly hear it's roars echoing down to me. With much to do, I decide to double-check the upstairs terminals and see if I missed anything. There is a wealth of information, on the beast and its capture to the facility and its destruction. I scan through the data quickly and find a series of logs. They show that the reason the beast managed to escape was due to a falt in the door programming, a glitch that caused the wrong door to be opened. The second-last time it had happened was thousands of years ago when the door had opened before anyone could react and by the time they were closing it, the beast had broken free.After a week of searching they managed to find, tranquilize and drag it back to the base.
The next entry is nearly nine hundred years later, a maintenance drone had attempted to leave, as it did every day, and the wrong door had opened. Once again the creature was free but now there was no-one to bring it back. Checking the other terminals revealed they had found it, dying, in the lost river and attempted to examine it. Upon nursing it back to health it showed its true colors and tried to kill them, though their technology was sufficient to keep it restrained. They developed a variety of machines, some automated, some drivable and all designed to suit a humanoid being and fire torpedoes. These vehicles were being stored within the floor of the facility and had been offline for centuries. I had to see if they still worked.
I stand in the cold water, wearing the closest thing I could find to a prawn suit. It is bulkier and looks as if it is made of dried bones but it seems capable of using a prawn suit arm. I attach the torpedo module from my old prawn and look around. The creature is no-where to be seen and the sun has set, giving the water a dark allure. I bend the suit down to grab the grappling hook but I see there's no point, it was crushed beneath the suit.
A robotic clicking reverberates through my suit and knocks off my torpedo arm as the suit's legs fold up and the suit blasts upwards. Below me, the grand and mysterious leviathan speeds across the sand, where I was only moments before. Taking control of this alien prawn seems impossible, instead I simply lean forwards to direct it slowly downwards. The creature avoided the hatch.
Reaching the ground I grab the prawn arm and once again attach it to the alien mech, this time it clinks satisfyingly into place and I feel in control of it properly. The creature comes down again but this time I direct the mech to jump left, onto the hatch. The leviathan stops, mid-charge, and stares at me before swimming large circles around the hatch. I remotely activate the lure sound and the creature seems to grow closer. Softly, I lift the torpedo arm at it, but before I can fire the creature knocks the mech off its feet with a quick blow from its tail. I'm sent flying into the creatures gaping mouth.
The mech responds to late with its jets and the mouth begins to clamp shut like a vice. I have no time to fire and sit, limp. My instincts forcing me to freeze in the hope it will go away.
But the mech has no instincts, only programs. It lifts its arms, dropping the torpedo module yet again, and uses all its boost power to force against the massive jaws. For half a minute, time stands still, then I slowly get out and pick up the torpedo module. I turn the torpedo to self-destruct and swim without choosing a direction. As I go I get the feeling that somehow, the mech watches me leave. I reach the old and rusted base and see, quite clearly, the torpedo detonate, the leviathan freeze and the hatch swallow him up.
In the coming days I would create a rocket of my own and leave the planet, I would live a life that doesn't involve fish in every meal and I would never again step foot on 4546B. But throughout the rest of my life, I would always remember that moment of emotion, of joy, of confusion, of loss, of fear and of curiosity.
~The End.