Chapter Text
It was the middle of the night and Ryley was wide awake. He was staring at his ceiling, shivering in fear. Though he had no proof, he was sure that he was the unaccounted-for target from the radio message. Something was hunting him, and it wanted to kill him. He tugged the covers closer to his chin, feeling like a little kid hiding from monsters.
You’re safe in your habitat. You’re okay. You’re alive.
A gasopod floated by his window and Ryley flinched at the sudden appearance. It was strange…he hadn’t felt this anxious in a long time. The last time he felt like this was probably his first night on 4546B. Ryley could handle deep seated panic – after all, it was always temporary, but lingering anxiety and dread? They were entirely different beasts. Ryley let out a deep breath. He pressed his fingers to his neck and felt for his pulse – it was lightning fast.
He hated the thought that there was something out there actively hunting him down, and he had no idea what it looked like or where it was. Ryley was used to being prey by now, but passive prey was different from active prey. He didn’t want to be constantly looking over his shoulder, terrified at what might emerge from the dark.
His heart thumped quickly, the pulse pounding against his fingers. As he laid there, he began counting his heartbeats out loud.
“One…two…three…four…”
His pulse gradually began to slow down, much to his relief. The gentle sound of the waves lapping against his habitat helped soothe him, driving away the lingering anxiety. Soon Ryley’s eyelids drooped, and he fell into a fitful sleep.
~
“Ugh,” Ryley groaned as he stared at his dark circles in the mirror. Last night was rough and it showed. He felt a little better knowing no one was here to see just how tired he looked. He could only imagine the comments his coworkers would’ve given him.
Ryley pulled out his habitat constructor and flipped through his blueprints. Ah, there it was – the blueprints to make a coffee machine.
After about a month without it, the very thought of a cup of coffee made Ryley salivate. Frankly, he didn’t know why it had taken him so long to build the coffee maker. Constructing it was quick, and before he knew it, he was pressing the “brew” button.
The sound of the coffee dripping into the cup was music to his ears. The smell wafted into the air of his room, reminding him of mornings in Ozzy’s café. Before their shifts started, they would all grab a cup of coffee and sit around a table, waking up together.
“Coffee completed,” The machine quipped, snapping Ryley out of his thoughts.
Ryley cupped his hands around the warm mug and took a nice, slow sip. The bitter and smoky flavour danced across his tongue. The caffeine quickly worked its way into his system, waking up his brain and body.
It was such a simple thing, but it made him so happy. He could almost picture himself in the café, drinking the same synthetic Alterra coffee. The taste was so nostalgic, that for the first time in a long time, Ryley missed work. He missed the Aurora.
He missed Ozzy.
Life used to be so simple – boring, but simple. There were no leviathans chasing him, or crabsquids to kill his electronics. The biggest threat had been getting fired, and that wasn’t something that happened often on a long-haul charter mission.
Ryley sighed as the coffee settled in his stomach. Though it was waking him up, it was also bringing back a lot of the anxiety that had made it difficult to sleep last night.
Something was hunting him, and because he was the last target, that left all of these “agents” available to go looking for him. He also had no idea what they looked like or whether they were nearby or somewhere else on the other side of the planet.
A thought occurred to him that made his blood run cold.
The other biological subjects mentioned in that first message…were they the other crewmates - the ones whose lifepods had been ripped open?
“Shit…” Ryley said to himself, running a hand through his hair exasperatedly. It was the only explanation that made any kind of sense.
Whatever was after him had the power to rip open a lifepod as if it was nothing. Did that mean they could do the same to his habitat? Habitat titanium was a bit thicker and sturdier than the lifepod, but if these agents were as strong as they seemed, it probably wouldn’t matter when his time came.
Well, he wasn’t just going to sit here scared in his habitat. Ryley wasn’t helpless anymore, and there were ways he could protect himself. His dive suit didn’t offer a lot of protection and was easily ripped. The first order of business would be to make a reinforced dive suit – it would protect him from most sharp objects and could keep him cool in extremely high temperatures.
To make it, he needed titanium, diamonds, and synthetic fibres. Ryley already had plenty of titanium on hand, as well as a small supply of diamonds from the islands. The synthetic fibres, however…He had no idea how to make them. The PDA didn’t have a blueprint for them, which meant Ryley would have to go around searching for ingredients or resources to scan so that the PDA could figure out how to go about making them.
And while he was out looking for resources, he would be left vulnerable. Great.
Ryley finished up his coffee and made his way downstairs to start the day. He ate some lantern fruit and potatoes and chugged a bottle of water, feeling refreshed and ready to start his exploration.
Before he went anywhere, he wanted to make some upgrades to his seamoth. The seamoth was made with customization in mind, so there were lots of upgrades available for him to craft and install. The most useful upgrade, besides depth modules, was the sonar. In the parts of the ocean where it got too dark to see your hand in front of you, the sonar was your best friend.
The sonar allowed you to see the topography of the sea floor and would also highlight any creatures that were hiding in that too dark ocean, like reapers that lurked in cloudy waters. And it just so happened that the sonar upgrade was easy to make, only requiring magnetite and copper wire, which Ryley had in abundance.
He crafted the module with ease, installed it in his seamoth, and set off.
In his seamoth, Ryley took stock of his options. To the east was the crash zone where the reapers were, south was the Grand Reef (and he didn’t feel like going back there so soon), to the north was the quarantine enforcement platform, but he didn’t really know what was out west. He had explored a bit of the sparse reef, where he had found lifepod 19, but he wasn’t sure what lay beyond that.
West it was.
Ryley flew past the reefbacks as he traveled through the grassy plateau. The deeper he went, the harder it got to see, and the more the terrain became unrecognizable. But now he had a sonar module. He pressed a button on his console and watched as with a high-pitched ping, the world in front of him lit up in red.
The sonar highlighted every fish, near or far, and every hill or dip in the earth. Off to the left, Ryley saw a huge trench stretch out in front of him. If he hadn’t used his sonar, it was possible that he would have passed over it. He flew his seamoth over the trench and stared down into the inky water.
There was no telling how deep the trench was – it was too dark to see the bottom and the sonar didn’t go down that far when he tried it. He knew the oceans of 4546B went far deeper than he thought possible, but something about the endless void of the deep was thoroughly unsettling. Every ounce of his being was screaming at him to turn away, to not go down there, but he would eventually have to venture deeper if he wanted to cure the Kharaa.
Deep in his subconscious, Ryley felt urged to go down into the trench, as though there was a string attached to him, and someone was pulling on the other end. Without realising, he was tilting the controls downwards, driving the seamoth into the chasm. In his mind he was practically screaming at himself to take his hands off the controls, but his arms would not move. His heartbeat sped up as panic set in. He wasn’t in control of his actions.
So, into the trench he went.
The change in the atmosphere was immediate. In the trench there was no light, no sound – nothing. The water was unnaturally still with small bits of sediment floating about. Everything felt…muffled.
There weren’t many fish swimming about, just the occasional straggler from the plateau that had likely gotten lost. Something about this trench was so ominous that even the fish were avoiding it.
The sunlight was long gone, and even the seamoth lights weren’t enough to see the sea floor. He could barely see ten feet in front of him. Ryley felt like he was being watched, like there was something lurking in the dark waters waiting to strike. The hairs on his arms stood up and a chill ran down his spine.
As he dove further down, a weight suddenly lifted off Ryley. He hesitantly attempted to lift his arms and sighed in relief as he was in control of his actions once again. He had no idea what had happened, what was compelling him to go deeper. What could possibly be able to control his actions like that? And would it do it to him again and lead him to his death, with Ryley at its whims, helpless to stop it?
Ryley shook his head and rid himself of the thoughts. Maybe it was all in his head. He sent out another sonar ping and watched as strange, tree-like branches lit up in red at the bottom of the trench.
Tall, white stalks of what looked like leafless trees spiralled up from the ground, with thin, crawling branches. At the base of the stalks were strange, crimson blobs, contrasting eerily with the bone white of the tree. Littering the ground around the strange trees were plants that looked like acid mushrooms that had been drained of all colour.
Curious, Ryley got his scanner ready and opened his cockpit. Ryley shivered as he swam out into the chilly water. If it weren’t for the bright, white stalks letting off some light, it would have felt like he was swimming into the void.
“This ecological biome matches 7 of the 9 preconditions for stimulating terror in humans,” The PDA quipped, startling Ryley in the unnatural quiet of the trench.
Well, that was one thing the PDA had right. This place was too dark, too quiet, too…unnatural. The fauna looked so alien compared to what he was now used to in the shallower biomes. He didn’t know what was potentially lurking in the shadows, and he couldn’t see whether there was anything there. The trench just got deeper and deeper.
The creatures hunting him would make easy prey out of him in an area like this.
Ryley swam down to the strange mushrooms and scanned one. The PDA designated it as a deep shroom, pigment all but gone, but with similar properties to regular acid mushrooms. Then he scanned one of the giant stalks and paled when the databank entry popped up.
Bloodvines.
Though it was just a unique species of kelp, the name was enough to be extremely off-putting. According to the PDA, the red blobs were semi-hardened deposits of a substance known as blood oil, which apparently acted as the main food source for whatever life could exist this deep. Ryley gently pried off a pustule and pocketed it.
“New blueprint acquired: Synthetic Fibres.”
Yes! That had been much easier than he had anticipated. Ryley pulled out his PDA and checked the list of things he would need for the synthetic fibres. He would need benzene and fiber mesh, and to make benzene he needed the blood oil. He plucked another chunk of blood oil off the base of the stalk before swimming back up towards his awaiting seamoth.
Without a single glance back into the trench, Ryley sped away back to the safety and warmth of the shallows.
~
Back in his habitat, Ryley stripped out of his radiation dive suit and pulled on the new reinforced suit he had created. The suit itself was sleek and felt heavier than even the lead-lined radiation suit and had a stylish orange trim. The material felt strong and resistant to anything that could try to take a bite out of him.
Ryley felt a lot safer in the new suit. Whatever was hunting him would have a much harder time killing him with this.
But now that he got that out of the way, he needed a game plan. He needed a strategy for finding the other alien facilities that supposedly lurked in the farthest depths of 4546B. Ryley pulled out his PDA and began planning.
Priority one would be to find the disease research facility, but to do that, he needed his seamoth to be able to reach 800 metres, which meant some significant depth upgrades. A second option would be to craft a prawn suit. He had prepared his habitat to accommodate one, but he hadn’t built it yet. The prawn suit was a huge resource drain, and it would take a long time to gather everything he needed to build it. And even once he had a prawn suit, he needed to also craft arm attachments and other upgrades.
The seamoth would likely be the best option. He just needed more rubies to craft the depth module, and then he would be able to go significantly deeper. The prawn suit went insanely deep by default, but was harder to move around in, and if Ryley was actively searching for something, he preferred having freedom of movement.
He remembered finding an abundance of rubies by Officer Keen’s lifepod in the sparse reef, but he had taken all of those. It was possible there were still more in that area, but Ryley didn’t know if he would be able to deal with seeing the lifepod again after having been to the floating island.
He hadn’t revisited a single one, and for good reason. It was the same reason he tried not to think of Ozzy, and the same reason why being on the Aurora was so difficult. The memories were like ghosts and seeing the gravesite always brought them back to haunt him.
No, he wouldn’t go back to the sparse reef just yet. There was still a lot more to explore directly west of him anyways. He had been distracted by the blood kelp trench before, but this time he would continue past the trench and see what lay beyond.
But that was a job for tomorrow. For now, he would catch up on some much-needed sleep.
~
Ryley slept much better than the night before. He sat up in bed and stretched his muscles, feeling his back pop as he did so. He grabbed a cup of synthetic coffee and ate a breakfast of lantern fruit before packing his seamoth with supplies.
He was always careful to bring medkits and water whenever he was venturing far from his habitat. Even with his new reinforced suit, he wasn’t invincible. Once Ryley finished preparing, he hopped in the seamoth and turned west again.
This time, he flew right over the blood kelp trench. He refused to be pulled down there again, especially because he didn’t know how deep it went, and it wouldn’t do for his seamoth to get damaged.
As he continued, the light that had been prominent in the grassy plateau slowly diminished until Ryley could hardly see a thing. The red grass thinned out until there was nothing left on the ocean floor but sand. One click of his sonar revealed sand dunes that sprawled for what looked like miles.
There were a handful of small rocky formations dotting the endless sand and small patches of light vegetation. The ocean around him quieted – not in the eery, muffled way that it had in the trench, but because there were less fish and other creatures, there wasn’t anything around to make noise. It was just naturally quiet.
Ryley didn’t know if he liked it.
In the distance, a sizeable wreck lay in the midst of the dunes. Well, at least this trip wouldn’t be a complete waste. He parked his seamoth above the wreck, angling his lights to shine into the ruined heap of metal, and dove down to see what he could find.
He held his flashlight in his hand, had his laser cutter and scanner strapped to his belt, and had several extra batteries in his pockets. He had wreck-exploring down to a science at this point.
As he explored the rooms, he found a few supply crates with some extra water, and several prawn suit arm fragments. He scanned the ones he didn’t have, such as the grappling arm. Given the terrain he had seen underwater, the grappling arm would be a lifesaver, allowing him to pull himself out of areas he couldn’t jump out of.
What caught his eye though, were the databoxes he found laying around. There were three, one for an ultra-high capacity air tank, one with a depth module for a cyclops, and a cyclops shield generator. These blueprints were priceless, especially if he decided to build a cyclops. And the upgraded air tank would be amazing, allowing him to stay outside his seamoth for longer.
Satisfied, Ryley began to swim back towards his seamoth. But then the light of his flashlight caught something in the distance. His breath hitched when it came into full view.
It was a warper, the name he had given to the creature that had teleported him out of his seamoth and attacked him. But oddly enough, the warper’s focus was not on him.
A lone peeper was swimming near the wreck, though it was clear that something was wrong with it. The peeper was covered in glowing green spots, a symptom Ryley had come to associate with the Kharaa infection, and was swimming somewhat erratically. It was likely in the latter stages of the infection, if Ryley had to hazard a guess.
The warper was slowly stalking the peeper, approaching it with an almost lethal laziness. When the creature got in range of the peeper, it let out a high-pitched screech, a horrible mix of mechanical and biological sounds, and brought its vicious claws down on the poor peeper.
The fish died instantly, and the warper appeared…satisfied? It didn’t try to eat the dead peeper like most other creatures would, but instead just let its corpse float about in the water.
Weirder still, a small school of fish swam by the warper, all perfectly healthy with no signs of Kharaa. It showed no signs of hostility and simply observed them. The fish swam away, seemingly unaware of the potential danger they were in, and the warper seemed oddly content to let them go about their business.
Then the warper finally noticed Ryley watching all of this unfold, and began pursuing him, slow and deliberate.
Shit.
Ryley swam quickly back into his seamoth and kicked it in gear as fast as he could. He wasn’t going to push his luck today.
As he retreated to his habitat, Ryley reflected on the odd behaviour of the warper. The warper only seemed interested in him, and that one peeper. What did they have in common and why did it make the warper hostile?
Then it dawned on him with chilling clarity – the warper was only going after creatures that were infected with Kharaa. Though he had no outward symptoms (yet), the quarantine enforcement platform and his PDA had both made it clear that the bacteria was present in his blood.
Oh my god.
That was why the warper that had attacked him had only cut him shallowly. It was testing his blood. It was checking to see if he was infected because he showed no outward signs. It made so much sense now. The warpers, for whatever reason, were killing anything that carried the Kharaa.
It was such a strange revelation and Ryley didn’t really know what to make of it. He still didn’t understand the why. Was there something about the bacteria that made the warpers hostile? Or was there some other reason?
That would be a mystery for another day. It was starting to get dark out and he already had a hard time seeing anything in this area of the ocean.
He continued through the dunes slowly before a horrifyingly familiar sound tore through the quiet, a sound he had hoped he would never have to hear again.
“Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?”
Ryley’s heart nearly stopped before it picked back up again at twice the speed. He shakily raised a hand and pressed the button for the sonar. Sure enough, above the dunes in front of him were the terrifying figures of at least three reaper leviathans, swimming around searching for prey.
Searching for him.