——————
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
——————
Chapter 450
“Hey, we’re out of supplies. Let’s grab some and get a bit of fresh air while we’re at it.”
“No way. We’ve got to file the report first.”
“How long can that possibly take? We’ll write it after we get back.”
“Don’t you remember what happened to the guys before us? Someone always has to stay behind.”
“Tch. Then I’ll just go by myself, alright?”
Just back from patrol duty, the man named Ben stepped out of the submersible alone.
The docking bay floor he stepped onto was as spotless as the interior of a brand-new warship.
This bay’s main function was to disinfect anyone entering the facility. It wasn't until he’d undergone a full-body cleansing and changed into clean clothes that he was allowed inside.
Why such extreme hygiene protocols were in place, even he didn’t know. And despite being from one of the Sub-Capitals, Ben had been given next to no classified information.
He only knew two things for sure:
First, the facility’s security was obsessively strict.
Second, the pay was ridiculously good.
His job was to pilot a patrol sub and guard the facility. Essentially, he was just security but even so, he earned more credits than team leaders back in the Sub-Capital space cities.
Sure, life under the sea sucked sometimes. But with the kind of pay he was getting, he had no real complaints.
“What’s this, Ben? Done for the day already?”
The moment he stepped out of the docking bay, he was greeted by a familiar face near the hover shuttle terminal. One of the shuttle logistics staff called out to him.
“Just grabbing supplies we ran out.”
“I see. Fill this out first, and wait over there.”
In this base, all inter-zone movement required use of the hover shuttle. It was part of the security protocol's strict control of internal movement.
Ben quickly finished the travel request form and stood by at the boarding platform.
It was relatively quiet. Everyone else was likely still on duty. Aside from the shuttle staff checking paperwork, there was only Ben and a few others who had arrived earlier.
“Haaah…”
He stretched and yawned, glancing around idly.
That’s when he noticed them
A woman in a white lab coat, and a group of men in work jumpsuits, all waiting at the terminal.
‘Those are comms team uniforms.’
Ben recognized the outfits. The communications team handled all the hardware for the facility’s underwater networks. He’d seen them before when they came to fix a problem with his submersible.
The woman with them was unfamiliar. She stood slightly apart, speaking to them in a low voice. The air between them looked tense very clearly, not a casual conversation.
‘What are they doing here at this hour…? Uh-oh.’
He must have stared too long. The woman in the lab coat turned and looked directly at him.
Afraid she might come over and start something, Ben quickly averted his gaze and acted busy.
“Hey, you ”
Just as she opened her mouth
｢Hover shuttle arriving. Hover shuttle arriving.｣
The automated announcement rang out, cutting her off.
As soon as the shuttle doors slid open, Ben darted inside without hesitation.
He deliberately boarded the rearmost compartment, far from the woman and her team.
｢All passengers aboard. Departing now.｣
With the staff’s confirmation, the shuttle doors sealed shut and it lurched into motion.
Outside, the scenery raced past.
Among the flashes through the window, Ben briefly caught sight of the woman again, still standing on the platform.
“Phew… Dodged a bullet.”
He muttered under his breath, slumping into the seat. She definitely looked like someone high up getting on her bad side could’ve gone real bad.
“Tch. Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”
He reached into his uniform and pulled out his personal terminal, preparing to check off the supplies he needed to collect.
But just as the screen lit up
The shuttle jolted violently.
Still hunched over the device, Ben was thrown clean off his seat and tumbled to the floor.
“Wh-What the hell?!”
Overhead lights sparked and then went out.
The compartment was instantly swallowed in darkness. The only illumination came from the blur of shapes whipping past the windows outside.
The hover shuttle was accelerating fast. Unnaturally fast.
“H-Hiiiik?!”
Ben fumbled desperately into the seat and snapped the safety belt into place. The buckle clicked shut just as his body was violently lifted into the air.
A scream escaped his lips, but it was immediately drowned out by a deafening roar and a massive impact. The compartment’s walls and floor tore apart like paper, and the seat he clung to was ripped from its mountings.
In the span of a heartbeat, the storm of destruction passed leaving only darkness and silence in its wake.
“G-Guhk! Kuhk! Cough!”
Choking on dust and debris, Ben coughed raggedly from where he lay buried under wreckage, still partially strapped to his seat.
“W-What the hell… cough happened? Kuhk!”
As the shock wore off and his body adjusted, the horror of the situation came into view.
The hover shuttle had gone haywire and crashed into the terminal at full acceleration. The pristine platform, once clean enough to rival a surgical suite, was now a crumbling ruin.
By sheer luck, Ben had boarded the rearmost compartment. It had only been partially destroyed. The rest of the shuttle, especially the front sections, was completely obliterated. If he’d boarded even a few meters ahead, he would’ve died on impact.
That wasn’t to say he’d escaped unscathed.
Every cough brought up flecks of blood. His abdomen throbbed with pain so sharp it made him nauseous. He didn’t need a scan to know he was seriously injured.
“Cough! T-Tch… Is anyone cough! anyone there? Please! Somebody help! Cough!”
His hoarse voice echoed weakly through the rubble-strewn remains of the platform.
But no one answered.
Not the passengers.
Not the staff who had been waiting nearby.
It seemed everyone had been caught in the disaster.
Still, Ben refused to give up hope. He knew the facility was riddled with surveillance cameras; there was no way something like this would go unnoticed for long. They had to know by now. Help would be coming.
All he had to do was stay alive until then.
And maybe, just maybe, his prayers were heard
A distant light appeared through the haze and ruin.
“Over here! Kuhk! I’m still alive! I’m !”
His frantic cries halted as the light drew nearer.
There was something… wrong about it.
It was approaching far too fast, almost unnaturally so. At the same time, a low metallic whine grew steadily louder
A sound Ben recognized instantly.
And in that instant, he froze.
That wasn’t the beam of a rescue team's flashlight.
The fast-approaching light was
Another hover shuttle.
“W-Wait NO! AAAAGH!”
Ben’s scream of terror was cut short.
***
“Hm?”
Ben’s colleague, who had been writing up their report, suddenly looked up. A strange sound had caught his ear.
“Did I hear that right?”
He tried to brush it off but the sound came again. Definitely from outside. He got up and pressed his ear to the wall.
Amid the familiar hum of the submersible’s systems, there was something new. Something… wrong.
It was the sound of someone screaming.
“!”
The moment he realized what it was, he froze.
A scream. Not some mechanical error or odd vibration but a human scream. Something that absolutely should not exist in this place.
Panic rising, he rushed to contact the base.
“This is the submersible! Come in! Someone answer! Dammit!”
The signal was going out, but only static came back. Even direct messages to Ben received no reply.
The base’s comms were down.
‘Should I go out and check ?’
He hesitated, weighing his options. That’s when he heard a dull banging sound.
Thump. Thump.
It was coming from the submersible’s hatch. Someone had entered the docking area and was knocking on the door.
Thinking it might be Ben, he pulled up the external camera feed only to see someone else entirely.
A group of people in white lab coats had gathered in the docking bay, pounding on the sub’s hatch, trying to get in.
“What the hell…?”
A woman among them held up a communicator, her voice distorted but urgent.
“Hey! Hurry, krzzk open the door! The base computer krzzk it’s gone crazy! It’s dangerous !”
Shocked by their sudden appearance, he stared at the monitor. The woman waved frantically, and her companions looked wrecked. Their lab coats were stained with dirt and blood, their faces and limbs battered. They had clearly been through hell.
“O-Okay, hold on just a sec huh?”
He moved to open the hatch only for another problem to hit. The docking bay’s decontamination system suddenly activated, locking the hatch.
“W-What? Why now?!”
He tried to override the system, but the console refused to respond. Only an error message blinked back: Command failed to transmit.
Then, the water jets started.
“Aaaaagh!!”
“Kyaaaa! It’s KRZZK too hot!!”
Decontamination jets typically sprayed cool water cold enough to jolt someone awake. But what the camera showed was nothing close to normal.
Steam hissed violently as boiling water burst from every direction, drenching the screaming survivors. Their skin turned red, then blistered, then peeled away under the scalding spray.
“Oh god…”
The rising steam quickly obscured the feed. The communicator went silent. All that remained was the thumping on the hatch.
Then even that stopped.
A suffocating silence fell over the submersible.
No screams.
No pounding.
Nothing.
The lock disengaged with a soft click.
But he couldn’t bring himself to open the hatch.
Instead, he gripped the controls.
I have to get out of here. Now.
Something was catastrophically wrong. People were dying from what looked like system malfunctions, and communications were completely down. There was no doubt in his mind: the same thing must be happening inside the base.
He initiated departure.
The sub disengaged from the docking port and slowly submerged into the surrounding water, passing through the short tunnel that connected it to the deep ocean beyond.
The facility behind him looked almost the same as it had when he arrived except now, parts of it had gone dark. Large sectors sat in pitch blackness.
He didn’t even want to imagine what was happening in those shadows.
Just get out. I have to get out
Suddenly, the sub lurched violently.
“W-What?!”
The vehicle had been accelerating at full speed but now it wasn’t moving forward at all.
Had it hit something? He brought up the sonar.
No objects detected just the sub itself.
“…Wait.”
He’d just left the facility. At the very least, the base should still show up on sensors. Which meant…
Something is interfering with the detection systems.
He went pale.
His trembling fingers activated the flare launcher.
The flare burst out from the reinforced viewing window, its pale light piercing the darkness.
And then… it stopped.
The flare hit something invisible, directly in front of the sub.
It flickered like a candle in the wind… revealing an immense shadow.
It wasn’t an ice ridge, nor another submersible.
The black shroud around it slowly parted.
And there it was.
A pale leviathan, so vast its size couldn’t even be estimated, staring directly at him.
Overcome by awe and terror, the man couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. A wordless shriek escaped his mouth.
But in the crushing depths of the sea no one heard it.
——————
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
——————