New Depths - Side Story

Administrator Posts : 88 Join date : 2016-01-28

Alarms were going of left, right, center. Red lights flashing throughout all compartments. Pod chamber, command bridge, everywhere. The only 2 people awake on the exploration Cruiser were trying their damndest to figure out what was wrong. One man, technician, engineer and Chief Engineering of the ship. The other, a woman, microbiologist and underwater biologist, one of the crews scientists brought along for the analyzing of new life. Things turned dire when their ship, the Atlantis, approached an aquatic world. After initial scans of the planet surface, the onboard AI deemed those two appropriate for awakening first. But what was not counted on was the collission of the ship with a minor asteroid, almost as large as a fist, tearing through engineering and crippling the ships propulsion systems. It caused the ship to start a slow spiral downwards, being pulled into the gravity of the oceanworld.

While the ship was accellerating at a ridiculous pace, the two struggled to try and find a fix. It took them half the voyage down to realize there was no realistic way of saving the ship. Engineering stood ablaze, and reawakening the rest of the crew in the pods would take an hour per pod. They couldn't invoke help, or even as much as try to save the rest. The woman, having been so smart to check where they were crashing, got the brilliant idea of both of them finding refuge in one of the on board Subs. 4 Subs were brought along with them, as they were on the search for aquatic worlds primarily anyway, and a lot of underwater tech came with it. They amassed as many resources, whether tech, supplies or otherwise, on one of the subs. While carrying one of the last shipments, artificial gravity failed, and they started to float, along with everything else that wasn't bolted down. Even the Subs started to lift off the hangar bay, causing one to crash its fins into the side of a third.

With the luck of having railings on the side, they managed to get over to the hangar bay. But time was running very short, and without any way to figure out which sub was the one they'd loaded, they both chose to board one. The man boarded an empty vessel and knew he couldn't exit to find another. No chance of surviving the crash when outside. The woman luckily found the right one. When both were inside their respective subs, they got comms and systems running as soon as they could, but the moment they activated lights and powered up the main engines, the ship touched down. With incredible force, the nose of the cruiser obliterated against the water, absolutely crushing the front of the cruiser. With the sudden stop, all subs launched forward. One of the damaged subs cracked in two as it collided with the front bulkhead of the hangar bay, while the mans followed up, but staying mostly intact. Its engine wasn't as lucky, being crushed by the full body of the 4th sub. The womans sub stayed in almost pristine condition, sticking to the side wall and having already been with its nose against the front bulkhead.

As the ship started to come to a stop, the hull collapsed down and leveled out horizontally. With that, the whole structure started to give away, bulkheads popping like threads, cables snapping everywhere. The hangar was constructed to withstand a lot of stress and pressure, but not to take a massive hit and then relax like nothing happened. The moment the hangar started to go backwards, the ceiling tore open, and the sides afterwards. The sub that cracked in two took the first water and never even lifted off the deck. The second empty one slid down backwards and disappeared into the depths, while the mans sub followed. The womans sub was still very much active. It, as well, slid backwards and followed the others into the depths, but she activated the controls and managed to steer it àlong the side of the mans sub. With the effort of keeping both leveled, she comm'd him that it was his only chance, to eject from the sub and get over to hers. It didn't take him much time to consider his odds. Either be crushed by the ocean when the sub hit critical depth, or take his chance here and live it through possibly. He got himself into a quick divers suit, minus the oxygen tank, flippers or anything of the sorts, and jettisonned himself out through a side hatch. It took only 7 seconds for him to get to the other sub and get his hands onto the hatch, but it felt like an eternity. Once inside, the woman steered the sub upwards, into the safety of the surface. Once surfaced, things calmed down frmo the hectic 15 minutes that was their descent.

Massive chunks of debris were filling the ocean surface as far as they could see, pillars of smoke rose in the air and the two of them were the last ones remaining on this water ball. Quite the challenge awaited them...

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