Exploring the Depths RP (NTI and Major Mario)

[NumberThreeInordinate]

Throughout the course of human history, many things had been destroyed to the point of extinction due to excessive hunting, expanding the human territory or just complete disregard for the life around them. However, some areas of the world were exempt from this devastation, specifically the ocean. The ocean was vast and far too deep for any human to survive, hell they could barely explore even a quarter of the depth so some of the creatures were saved from the death sentence that humans seemed to knowingly or unknowingly place upon the creatures around them. One of these creatures was Kyra. Some human's had referred to her as a member of the octopus family, some called her a Squid, but in reality her race was an ancient race called Kraken. Kyra's race is known for being very calm, easy-going and simple creatures. They often reside at the bottom of the ocean and feed on fish, shell fish or whatever seems to strike their fancy on that given day. Very rarely do they venture farther up unless something catches their attention and tickles their curiosity. That curiosity happened to be peaked today for Kyra as she'd been swimming around looking for food when she saw a strange orange like fish swimming around. It wasn't like any fish she'd ever seen before. The fins on the back spun in a constant circle rather than moving from side to side or up and down.

Following under this strange new fish, Kyra soon figured out that it was a human vessel, but she couldn't sense a human inside. Made sense, they were very deep, far too deep for a human to survive without help and the water at this depth was ice cold, something that she herself didn't care about thanks to a natural protective layer of slime that her body secreted to protect her from the cold. Kyra's race was ageless in their ability to live for hundreds of years as long as they had a viable food source and their living conditions were optimal. In the ocean's case, unless it dried up suddenly, she was safe. Unfortunately, she did get bored like any intelligent creature so this new human machine was really raising her curiosity and giving her entertainment. Curious if humans were looking on from another place, she came up under the vessel and stuck one of her ten tentacles to the clear dome like front. Her tentacle was easily about eight inches around and while it was just the top of her tentacle, she had a good seven to eight foot reach and she was tremendously strong. Stopping the vessel's forward movement she simply held the craft in place and waited to see what it would do.

She was too far down to really see anything on the surface of the water, but she wanted the vessel to return to where it came from, so she could follow it.

 

[Major Mario]

Now that all natural resources on the surface had either been contained by governments or rounded up and exhausted, the human race was in a pickle. They were nearly capable of true space travel and terraforming, but the greedy creatures needed more resources to see it happen. Given that the ocean was so vast and relatively untouched by human hands, efforts were made to scour the ocean floor for valuable materials. Some governments poured a lot of money and manpower into this project for the better of all humanity while others sat on their asses and made war with other nations. Freelancers, operating purely for the money, were ripe in this day and age and, with high-tech equipment at their disposal, they were making a killing harvesting resources and auctioning them off to the highest bidder.

One team of Freelancers was eager to get to work. They had many names that didn't stick; Frugal Five, Femme Five, Pent-Up Pentadames, Squad 7... After a few nights of heated arguments fueled by alcohol and stress all inane names were stricken from the records in favour of a bland 'Team Friedrich' given that the team leader, and most of the investment money, came from Germany. It was a sore spot for the other four members of the team, but they eventually got over it, shipped themselves off to the ocean in a large and impressive yacht and took to the floor with their high-tech drones and UMVs.

"Oh? That is... odd," Juni muttered as she noticed an error message springing up over her console. As the team leader and captain of the yacht, she was usually found in the control room with large computer screens bearing down on her at all angles. "There should not be anything to impede you down there."

The team had elected to send down an orange UMV to scout new territory. Seeing as the machine could go deeper than a normal human in a diving suit could, the team figured it would be crazy effective. Juni's previous doubts, repressed and unvoiced, came back to her as she tried to remotely free the orange submersible from whatever had it stuck. Reports came back that nothing was tangled around the propellers, and the camera feed failed to find anything that was keeping the sub still. There were cameras in the sub, yes, but they couldn't get at all angles and thus Kyra eluded detection. After a few minutes of listless silence the orange sub would ping as Juni, concerned about the integrity of the craft, requested for the ship to return to the surface for service.

"What's going on? Did we get something?"

Juni turned in her seat and regarded her energetic, redheaded friend with a small smile. Lucille was the most curious and optimistic member of the team and was usually called upon to undertake many diving operations. Though her enthusiasm was infectious and appreciated, Lucille was somewhat clumsy and tended to overlook fine details.

"Nein. It appears that our UMV has malfunctioned somehow. I have requested that it return to the surface." The German woman reached for her ear where a communicator was settled, but she hesitated and turned back to Lucille. "Could you bring it into the bay and inspect it? I would have Isara handle it, but I do not wish to wake her just yet."

Lucille snapped off a little salute and a sly grin.

"You got it cap'n. I'll let you know what's what."

- - - - -

The yacht was a large, impressive craft, but it wasn't primarily a luxury ship. It was outfitted for research and cargo purposes, and to see to that was a large bay in the mid-section that housed three submersibles, though one lot was vacant for obvious reasons. The ocean was beneath the bay and kept contained by a special combination of a forcefield and reinforced glass that slid apart to receive divers, UMVs and whatever else might approach for docking.

Lucille, standing near the empty lot where the orange UMV was to surface in, patiently waited for the craft to return home. She honestly didn't expect anything much out of this task; perhaps the rotors had frozen somehow underwater, or maybe something needed to be soldered back into place. Either way, Lucille would be ready in her form-fitting black and red jumpsuit, completely oblivious to any marine life that might approaching.

 

[NumberThreeInordinate]

The loud ping that echoed through the water made Kyra's tentacle snap back to her as she quickly covered her ears and winced, momentarily glaring at the strange vessel. Snapping her tentacle out she put a large dent in the side of the hull out of irritation then waited for a bit before following it. The dent looked like someone took an I beam from a construction site and slapped the vessel with it. A massive dent against something designed to handle massive amounts of pressure. As she followed the vessel and began to see the sun shining along the surface of the water, she saw the underbelly of a larger vessel. It was rather big to be honest, but as she got closer she slowed her swimming and stopped about twenty feet or so before breaking the surface. Watching as the craft moved to the middle of the vessel from underneath only for the belly to open. Ah, so they had a loading chamber, that was convenient.

Swimming around to the back of the vessel, Kyra swam till she was just barely breaking the surface of the water, able to breath both in the ocean and on land, she really didn't need to worry about air so she was able to keep herself submerged as long as she wanted. However as she looked at the loading area on the back of the vessel she spotted some movement and while she herself was hidden, her long salmon pink hair was floating right there on the surface. Quickly diving down would cause a small splash as her hair was yanked out of sight. Moving around the the port side of the vessel Kyra used the powerful suction of her tentacles and scaled the side of the ship, making it to the top and carefully lifting her head over the life lines along the edges of the ship.

As she lifted herself up she spotted a place a bit higher up on the ship and saw a very attractive female walking around. Cocking her head she watched the female for a long moment before noticing that the female had turned and looked in her general direction. Whether she was looking at the ocean itself or noticed her, she wasn't sure as she released her hold on the side of the ship and dove back into the water. That was enough exploring the surface, she needed to stay under the surface, but she stayed close to the ship to see if the orange vessel would come back to play or not.

 

[Major Mario]

Oddly enough, the yacht was utilized only by five women. There were lifeless, automated drones buzzing about here and there along with the ship's internal systems keeping track of things, but for the most part, the yacht was a little empty. To the rear- the stern- was the loading bay. This was where objects of interest were either stored or shipped away once the large ship came to a port. The 'hangar' or loading chamber seemed to be just beyond this area if the large doors in the distance were any indication. The make of the yacht allowed for some artistic freedom, and so the loading bay was overshadowed by a big of overhang that gave the whole area a 'smuggler's den' kind of feeling.

Though Kyra might not have spotted Lucille, given that she was waiting for the orange UMV to come up for inspection, she would see two other women mulling around doing their own thing. In the loading bay taking inventory was a tall, busty woman who either ignored the small splash behind her or was oblivious to it. Her posterior was placed on a heavy crate while a datapad was being worked over in her lap. This was a woman who didn't appear to take any nonsense; a professional, and perhaps someone who was armed or had the means to arm themselves.

On the port side of the vessel was another woman. Raven-haired and dressed casually, this woman seemed to be rather sullen and soft-spoken, and given how she was looking out at the ocean from a second-story balcony, perhaps she was longing to be anywhere else but here. She heaved a sigh, rubbed her eyes and planted her elbows on a railing with her hands pressed under her chin like a bored, depressed child. Unlike the other woman, this raven-haired lass noticed Kyra, or at the very least caught a glimpse of salmon-colored hair poking out from an absurd place. For a moment the woman stood there in disbelief before she shook her head and brushed off the sight as a trick of her mind.

As for Kyra... Well, when the orange vessel went up into the loading chamber and was pulled up by a mechanical crane, she might just get the idea that the craft wasn't coming back down anytime soon. Lucille, despite not knowing much about mechanics and advanced technology, wasn't too oblivious to not notice the crazy dent in a high-quality, highly-durable vessel. Perplexed, the woman stepped onto a catwalk spanning the length of the water beneath her and went to properly examine the dent.

 

[NumberThreeInordinate]

Kyra spotted the female walking along the long metal walk way to inspect her marking left on the vessel and took that moment to break the water's surface once more, only her head sticking out of the water in the loading bay. She was under the catwalk, just a few inches behind the female to avoid being spotted accidentally for now. Looking up she inspected the female and her very alluring form. Smiling Kyra took some time to admire the female before dipping her head back under the water and leaving the loading bay. Moving along the ship she saw that the propellers weren't really moving all that fast, so they were probably planning on sticking around this particular area for a little while.

Shrugging, Kyra decided that she'd had enough exploring for the day and headed back to the ocean floor to hunt for her food and relax in her home. Spending about an hour hunting she headed for her cave, coming up in the pool that opened into a massive underwater cavern. Slipping out of the water she carried herself to her 'bed' which was a collection of soft materials all wrapped up in a sheet which allowed her to not have to sleep on stone, not that it would really bother her but it was still nice to have.

Once she was sitting on her bed, she used her fingers to comb through her hair before lying back on her bed and twirling a lock of her hair around her finger lazily. This was certainly a nice change to the constant boredom she'd usually feel day to day. She'd already explored as far as she could and she'd yet to find a female or male who was suitable to mate with so she was getting very, very bored. Now. She had a new human vessel and a fairly large one to go watch. She also wondered if the humans she'd seen would come into the water and swim. She'd never seen humans go too deep but she had excellent vision so she could still stay pretty far beneath them and still be able to watch them without having to worry about being seen herself.

 

[Major Mario]

As Kyra returned home, enough time had passed there on the yacht for several developments. First and foremost, her mark on the side of that orange vessel inspired an immediate meeting between all five ladies. Juni, Lucille, Isara, Yue and Jane crowded around a table in their shared kitchen/living space and swapped theories and conspiracies left and right. Juni, being the more reasonable of the group, sat back and listened to everyone's concerns while Lucille and Isara babbled back and forth about the cost of repairs, the size of the monster that had dented the UMV and other such things, though it was clear that out of those two, Lucille had no idea what she was talking about. Yue hardly spoke a word except to say that she may have seen the monster that created the dent, but when she was focued down upon, she fell silent, shook her head and shrugged off all queries. Jane on the other hand was aggressive, and this was plainly obvious.

"Whatever's down there isn't happy to see us," the buxom, jumpsuit-clad woman barked. "Now this spot is the only resource hotspot around- it's nearly 200 miles to the next one, and who's to say that's not being claimed right now? I say we go down there and kill whatever smacked our scanner around."

"Who's to say we won't be killed going after it?" Isara countered. "Moby Dick ring any bells, Jane?"

"But Yue said she saw the monster, right?" Lucille glanced over at Yue who sank into her chair and nodded glumly. "And she says... What was it again? She says it's like... human-ish!"

"Humanoid," Yue muttered.

Jane took the opportunity to stand up and adress the rest of the group.

"Look, whatever it is that dinged up the craft, we need to focus on the here and now. We are down one craft; it is due for repair now. I do not want to see any of you take one of the submersibles out in an attempt to butt heads with whatever is out there." The captain of the ship folded her arms and offered a small smile in reassurance. "But perhaps we can capitalize on this situation, no? Scan the waters for marine life instead of resources. See what leviathans lie in wait below us. If this monster is real and humanoid... Well, we should find out soon enough."

 

[NumberThreeInordinate]

When morning came the next day, Kyra spent a few minutes hunting and making sure she had a full stomach before swimming back to where she'd seen the humans. She stayed just deep enough to stay out of sight if they were looking at the water but she wanted to stay within visual range for herself to see if they were doing anything. She was unaware of any scanning happening simply because she wasn't aware of the increased technology, if she couldn't see or hear it, it didn't exist to her. Swimming in slow circles around the ship about sixty feet below the ship, she and a few other marine creatures swam around the vessel in curiosity. Some were normal fish, a few dolphins and one rather large shark that had come into the area. Kyra had the ability to communicate with other marine life via telepathic links and this allowed her to speak with the shark about this large shape in the water.

Everyone was curious and while she was less cautious than the other creatures around her mainly because she had a more complex mind than they did and she was a hell of a lot stronger than them. Kraken really didn't have any natural predators so they had no real sense of fear. After a while of swimming with nothing really happening, Kyra decided to go for a swim elsewhere just to pass some time and decided to head back to the ship at a later time. Maybe they just weren't early risers. There was only so long she could swim in a circle with nothing really happening before she got extremely bored.