Overview
What lurks beyond the Mariana Trench?
Part 1
Our sub made its way deeper into the Mariana Trench.
“Hey captain” says Edward “Were nearing the location now, shall we prepare the vessel for further descent?”
I reply.
“Yes Edward, I think were close enough now.”
Edward flicks several switches on the submarines control panel; the hull of the vessel shifting in response to each switch; preparing it for the immense pressures we were about to face.
Edward:
“Alright, should be ready now; just got to quickly, re-check our connection to the surface, make sure we don’t suffer any technical issues on the way down.”
Edward turns on an inbuilt radio in the control panel and turns several dials, locking in on the signal from our research base up on the surface.
“Hello?” a voice speaks from the radio.
Edward:
“Yeah, its Edward, just checking if our radio still works before we go any deeper.”
Radio Voice:
“That’s probably for the best, don’t want to lose you down there.”
Edward:
“I doubt that would happen, you know us by now Arlene.”
Arlene (the radio voice):
“I know, I just worry about you two, like; ♥♥♥♥ knows what you’ll find down there.”
Edward:
“Listen, Arlene, I’m not going to say it again; if we do find something and it turns out to be a problem, I’m sure we can handle it, we have enough harpoons on board to kill a whole family of whales.”
Arlene:
“Alright, since you two are so insistent on being okay with this, fine.
I’ll leave you alone, just radio in if you suspect somethings wrong, alright?”
Edward:
“Fine.”
Edward turns off the radio and says to me:
“Alright so, lets get this show on the road then, shall we?”
I reply:
“Sure.”
I steer the submarine towards the location; reaching it in less than 20 minutes, quicker than we expected.
We arrived at an opening; hidden deep in the Mariana Trench; a light on the submarine revealing it, easily 200 feet wide and god knows how deep.
Edward:
“Christ, its… not what I Imagined.”
Me:
“You can say that again, looks immensely different to what the scanning team thought it would look like.”
Edward:
“So, how should we go about descending?”
Me:
“I’ll shine a light down as we descend, that will let us see if there are any snags or rocks that could catch us off guard; you keep an eye on the pressure system and radio in case we experience a pressure spike or something unexpected.”
Edward:
“Sounds like a plan.”
Me:
“Alright, down we go.”
I aimed a light under the submarine to face downwards while I piloted the vehicle down into the opening; keeping a close eye on my surroundings as we descended.
We descended through a rocky tunnel for 1100 meters before exiting into a large cavern like space; so big we were unable to pick up just how large it was.
Not sure where we were, Edward quickly radio’ed the base and showed them what was going on with a camera built into the ships hull, we had discovered what looked like a hidden underwater cave of some sort; not sure what it was we kept going deeper in hopes of finding something down there.
So we descended for a further 2000 meters; and were caught off guard when we found something strange.
We found the floor to the space we were in; but for some reason it was flat stone, no sand.
The stone floor looked hauntingly like concrete from the surface; not sure of what we were looking at; I decided to use a sampling drill to take some back for study.
The drill carved into the rock easily; but as it dug in something red ejected from under it.
Not sure what it was, I took out the core sample, only to notice something off about it as red continued to be pushed out from where I had taken the sample.
Under the stone was a red fleshy material; one that perplexed us.
Not sure what I had just found, I took the sample for study as red stuff still continued to be launched from the hole I had drilled in the sea floor.
The ejected red material quickly accumulated as a cloud; blocking the submarines vision; to mitigate this I drove past it, hoping to find something else down there as well.
I drove around for a good 11 minutes before I heard something odd, a vibration that both me and Edward felt.
Not sure what it was; I pinned it on some volcanic activity and moved on for around 27 more minutes.
Still searching the cavernous space I stopped the sub when something caught my eye; a faint yellow light in the distance.
Not sure of what it was; Edward radio’ed to the surface and showed them what was going on while I cautiously approached.
Once we were in vision range; I was caught off guard when the light darted away into the darkness; only allowing me to briefly see a dark shape I was unable to fully discern.
Seconds later something large smashed into the hull; the pressure system spiked rapidly as something closed around the submarine.
Not sure what it was; I took control of an external camera and turned it to take a look.
I saw a creature, a thing, wrapping its human like hands around the submarine; they were dark red and wooden like in texture.
Not sure what the hell I was witnessing; I quickly took control of an on board harpoon gun and fired on the hands; the harpoons lodged themselves into its flesh; causing it to let go and make a sound I will never forget.
The thing wailed in pain and swam away; for a brief moment I saw a vague shape of the thing; it had human like arms, a human like torso, but I was unable to see the rest; only the glowing yellow light I assume was most likely its eyes.
One the thing was gone; Edward told me it was best to call off the mission and get the hell out of there.
I couldn’t agree more.
With haste; Edward radio’ed the surface again and told them what happened; sending them video clips too; while I attempted to guide the submarine back towards how we came in.
I tried to make the way back as fast as I could; but 6 minutes after our first encounter with the creature; we felt another crash as it again gripped the submarine; in retaliation I aimed the harpoon gun not for its hands; but its unseen body and fired.
This time, the creature roared with pain and seemingly rage as it pulled the submarine towards itself; only to throw us away with speeds that should not be possible under water.
The submarine tumbled before colliding with the sea floor and breaking some of the concrete like floor; causing red plumes to eject.
Dazed from having been literally thrown by a sea monster of some kind, I shook myself and looked to see Edward, dazed but still alive and still in his chair; having held onto the console to stop himself being thrown around by the forces.
Part 2
Having snapped out of my daze; I quickly noticed the submarine was on its side; luckily not leaking.
Quickly; I gripped the controls and flipped the vessel upright; getting my bearing on how far that thing had thrown us.
I realised that it had to easily be 400 meters, there was no way it was anything less; especially with how hard we got thrown.
I tried to pilot the ship again; but I was again caught off guard by a hit; this time from behind; the hit tossed us easily 300 meters; again we crashed into the rock; more red ejecting from the floor.
Dazed again, I shook myself and attempted to pilot the ship; only to find that we were surrounded by several glowing yellow lights and Edward had been knocked out; his head having collided with the wall of the submarine.
We were surrounded with no clear way out.
Suddenly; the rock below us shook as the floor split open; several rope like fleshy tentacles grabbed our ship and tried to drag us down.
Having none of it; I aimed the harpoon gun and fired at the fleshy ropes while driving upwards.
The harpoons cut the fleshy ropes; freeing the submarine from their grips.
Every rope that was cut; I heard the fleshy split below groan with pain as the yellow lights of the beasts around me watched.
I cut at least 5 before the last 2 lost their grip and I managed to escape.
Once I was out of the grip, the lights approached me rapidly.
Not up for the idea of being ganged up on by several of those things; I drove upwards to try and avoid them; but the ship was too slow; all of them, easily 8-9 of them tried to grab my ship.
One got its hands around the submarine while several others clasped at it; seemingly trying to take it from the one that had me in its grip.
It was almost as if they were fighting over the submarine.
I was thrown around in the sub as the creatures squabbled over the vehicle; only to suddenly be let go as I heard several loud collisions.
Not sure what it was; and not caring, I quickly drive the sub while I can to escape the creatures.
I take a brief look back, only to see several of them; seemingly fighting one another; using their hands to punch and scratch one another while I escaped.
I quickly lost sight of the things as I drove away, searching for a way out; still able to hear the sounds of them punching one another.
A tense 20 minutes passed; but eventually I managed to find the way out.
On the way towards the surface Edward woke up, I explained what happened and he radio’ed the surface.
The lads back at base had no idea what we had experience but apparently the thing we found under the rock is a whole new form of life.
What we don’t know is what those lights were.
But that doesn’t matter to me, I’m not going back down there, not for any amount of money.
Both that and because I’ve requested to be transferred to a different facility.
Hopefully the next lab I work for won’t be looking into such deep waters.
[THE END]