Sounsyy kept her eyes clamped shut as the watery world surrounded her. The sudden rush of cold water raised the hairs on her neck beneath her suit and she gave an involuntary shiver. When she opened her eyes again, Ryanti had dived into the water and his form was surrounded with millions of tiny bubbles racing back to the surface. He moved with more skillful strokes than Sounsyy would've thought, but she knew he had to have been able to swim for this mission.
She scanned the surroundings, but found nothing but endless indigo beneath the waterline. Below her, the anchor cable descended into blackness. She turned in the water and moved towards the rope with a practiced sealion stroke, finally reaching out with her uninjured hand to grab hold of the rope. Her breathing was hesitant at first, not fully placing her trust in the suit and its ability to keep her alive. But as the oxygen mixture filled her nostrils, she began to relax more. Then she heard the crackle of the linkpearl in her ear and saw Ryanti swim over to her making signals that she should mimic him.
I know how to swim yeh damned landlubber, Sounsyy wanted to growl into her linkpearl about the sixth time Jonathan told her to breath. But in truth she was unused to the suit and had never attempted a deep sea dive such as this. Breathing through the mask was awkward, but manageable and after a few breaths Sounsyy had the practice down. Sounsyy looked at Ryanti trying to catch his eye. She motioned towards her linkpearl then made a sharp slitting motion across her throat, then pointed up at Jonathan.
I get back up there I'm gonna push him over, was Sounsyy's intended message. She shook her head and flipped over her shoulder so she was oriented downwards and began to swim straight down along the rope. She kept her injured hand out near the rope to guide her descent even so. Orientation was going to become more difficult the further she went down and as the pressure began to build up and she was forced to take time to allow her suit to adjust, she clung to the rope to conserve her energy.
The rope was near its end when Sounsyy took another rest. She looked around her in the deepening blue. Just on the edges of vision she could spot the tiny motion of the surrounding Sahagin. They were watching them. Through the bodies and flotsam of destroyed Eastern warships, the Sahagin were watching them. Sounsyy felt very uncomfortable down here. Perhaps it was the shortage of air, or the claustrophobic feeling the suit gave her.
The two divers continued their descent for a time after that. The cable had long since given out and Sounsyy swam downwards with Ryanti deeper into the Sahagin awaiting them below. They were over one-hundred fathoms deep when the Sahagin began to move closer to them. They were in their preferred environment. Sounsyy wondered what would stop them from just killing them down here and taking the key for their own?
But that was not to be their fate. A pair of elbst were led to the divers by their handlers. Sounsyy hesitated, but a young Sahagin warrior swam close to her and nodded his head gently. His mouth opened and in the rush of water Sounsyy could hear the old language of the sea flow through his gils.
The Rhotano Bloodcant sang beautifully in the Deep. Sounsyy had never heard it spoken underwater, she knew it only in its harsh, out of water dialect. The sounds that formed with difficulty to emulate the gentle rush of water. Sounsyy stared at the warrior transfixed, though she knew not what it sang to her. She forced her eyes away and swam over to the elbst that had been brought for her. When she was properly mounted the elbst streamlined forwards and began its descent.
The sudden increase in pressure from the dive constricted the Captain's chest and she closed her eyes and bent over the back of the elbst in pain. Her entire chest felt like it was crushing until the suit could adapt. When the pressure had abated she looked up to find herself in waters much deeper, colder, and darker than before. She saw Ryanti click on his torchlight and she did the same, but it did little to pierce the darkness. She worried suddenly that the light might blind the elbst, so she clicked the light back off and only turned it on for brief intervals to see if she could see anything.
Not that she needed to see, she reminded herself. The elbst seemed to know where it was going and there were Sahagin all around them, swimming eagerly or anxiously by their sides. How many years had it been since they had had visitors - if ever? Then out of the deep blue came a darker shape. Sounsyy almost didn't recognize what she was looking at for several moments, mistaking it for a deep sea mountain or rock formation. But she click on her torchlight and gasped in a mouthful of recycled air.
What under Llymlaen's deep seas?
The captain's eyes widened until they seemed to fill up all of her goggles. She was staring at some vessel, some great sunken vessel buried beneath the sea. The cermet frame hummed and creaked below the sea. Sounsyy's linkpearl crackled but Sixteen's voice was distant and distorted. Or... Sounsyy was not listening. The world seemed to drown out around her as she gazed upon the massive frame. She suddenly felt so small, so insignificant. She felt weightless in the deep blue, she was reminded of Carteneau, just before she fell into darkness. She lay there on the rock, staring paralyzed skywards as Dalamud ripped itself apart and the world was covered with fire. Now the world was swallowed in water. So deep, so dark.
Sounsyy felt short of breath and her chest tightening. Had her suit failed and the pressure finally crushed through or was she having a panic attack? Her breaths came quick and sharp. Her brain was convinced she was dreaming or was oxygen deprived and needed more air. Her elbst seemed to disappear out from under her and she was suddenly alone in the blackness. Her eyes were watering beneath her goggles, obscuring everything in a dark blur. Then suddenly a light. Pale and blue and gentle - like the glyphs she had seen in the skies over Cartneau just before the end.
She looked for their source and saw the key. The glow seemed distorted by the sea or by her tears. But it was clear Ryanti was holding it and moving towards the ship. There was a door. Sounsyy tried to regain command over her breathing. She tried to time her breaths with Nophica's Hymn, a pleasant song from her time in Gridania. Deep woods, rich earthy air. A time before she was afraid.
Sun's sweet smile and wind's cool breath,♪
Both of these I send thee,♪
To ripe thy fruit and spread thy seed,♪
And nourish those that tend...
Sounsyy gasped and her breathing stopped all together when Ryanti inserted the key. The entire vessel lit up in a red glow, illuminating just how monolithic the Allagan starship was. What had they disturbed after so long? Sounsyy looked over her shoulder, her breath steadily quickening again. The Sahagin had dispersed. Fear?
Then the door opened and the frame shimmered in blue light. Water rushed in with a thousand fathoms of pressure behind it, filling the small room almost instantly. Sounsyy felt the flow of the sea change around her as she was sucked near the ship. Ryanti swam inside. Sounsyy wanted to swim away, but followed him in against her better judgement. Inside the hallway were glowing lights and a window looking in on the next room. Sounsyy caught Ryanti staring at her from across the hallway as the outer porthole began to reseal itself behind them. She shook her head at him completely at a loss.
The room started to depressurize and the water began to warm. The feeling of relief was immense. She looked back at Ryanti, who was touching the walls of the vessel. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Sounsyy was still in the process of stabilizing herself after her miniature panic attack. The water began to drain and the door at the end of the hall groaned open after five-thousand years of neglect. Sounsyy covered her ears at the sudden, horrid screeching that shattered the last silent hour of their descent.
Then with a great shudder, the ship's power failed it and the lights died sending them all into darkness. Sounsyy fell on her bottom in the water with a yelp and staggered back to her feet, pressing her back against a wall. It sounded as if something had broken. If it was the ship and it had sprung a leak - or worse - depressurized, they'd all be dead in minutes. But nothing happened and Ryanti righted himself enough to press forward deeper into the ancient Allagan monstrosity.
"I-I'm all right," came her muffled voice beneath her mask. Then her senses left her at long last and she ripped off her mask and hissed at Ryanti, "Where the swiven hells are we?! What in the Seven Hells is this?! This- this!" She looked about her frantically, but Ryanti was already tucking himself through the half-opened door and into the darkness beyond. Sounsyy stood there cursing. She heard Ryanti's voice on the other side and went to the doorway. She gauged the clearance and decided to remove her backpack while she slid through.
Ryanti was in awe gazing about the next room, but Sounsyy had even taken notice. When she reached back through the doorway to pull her backpack through, she immediately knelt down in the fulm-deep pool and set about unzipping her bag and withdrawing the dismantled Sharlayan rifle. With a few clicks she had assembled it. She felt Ryanti's light on her back and she stood up and turned to face it.
“Let’s assemble our weapons. We do not move an ilm until we are fully armed.â€
Sounsyy slung her backpack over her shoulder and hefted her completed rifle, nodding to the Miqo'te, "Way ahead of yeh."
Sounsyy took in the room for the first time while Ryanti made to assemble his. It was massive. Her breath, ragged as it was, seemed to echo softly about the space. She began wandering about in the darkness, her torchlight set to cast as wide a light as it could produce. She came upon the plaque covered in eras of dust. There was strange writing that Sounsyy could not understand. She could barely read Eorzean as it was - this was far beyond her. She looked to where Ryanti was prepping, "Yeh can read this?"
She had an evenly mixed look between incredulous and impressed. Her voice sounded nervous though. As if she was trying to ignore the fact that their linkpearls were receiving so much interference, either from the ship's cermet hull or from being so many yalms below water. She went to stand by Ryanti as he finished assembling his rifle. She let out a long exhale as she psyched herself to go deeper into the dark.
"Yeh take point. I've got rearguard," she said. Ryanti's torchlight was set to maximize the distance he could see forwards. While Sounsyy's was set widely to see if anything moved in the peripheral darkness. As if to say she was ready, she raised her rifle and rested the butt against her shoulder, at the ready to fire.
She scanned the surroundings, but found nothing but endless indigo beneath the waterline. Below her, the anchor cable descended into blackness. She turned in the water and moved towards the rope with a practiced sealion stroke, finally reaching out with her uninjured hand to grab hold of the rope. Her breathing was hesitant at first, not fully placing her trust in the suit and its ability to keep her alive. But as the oxygen mixture filled her nostrils, she began to relax more. Then she heard the crackle of the linkpearl in her ear and saw Ryanti swim over to her making signals that she should mimic him.
I know how to swim yeh damned landlubber, Sounsyy wanted to growl into her linkpearl about the sixth time Jonathan told her to breath. But in truth she was unused to the suit and had never attempted a deep sea dive such as this. Breathing through the mask was awkward, but manageable and after a few breaths Sounsyy had the practice down. Sounsyy looked at Ryanti trying to catch his eye. She motioned towards her linkpearl then made a sharp slitting motion across her throat, then pointed up at Jonathan.
I get back up there I'm gonna push him over, was Sounsyy's intended message. She shook her head and flipped over her shoulder so she was oriented downwards and began to swim straight down along the rope. She kept her injured hand out near the rope to guide her descent even so. Orientation was going to become more difficult the further she went down and as the pressure began to build up and she was forced to take time to allow her suit to adjust, she clung to the rope to conserve her energy.
The rope was near its end when Sounsyy took another rest. She looked around her in the deepening blue. Just on the edges of vision she could spot the tiny motion of the surrounding Sahagin. They were watching them. Through the bodies and flotsam of destroyed Eastern warships, the Sahagin were watching them. Sounsyy felt very uncomfortable down here. Perhaps it was the shortage of air, or the claustrophobic feeling the suit gave her.
The two divers continued their descent for a time after that. The cable had long since given out and Sounsyy swam downwards with Ryanti deeper into the Sahagin awaiting them below. They were over one-hundred fathoms deep when the Sahagin began to move closer to them. They were in their preferred environment. Sounsyy wondered what would stop them from just killing them down here and taking the key for their own?
But that was not to be their fate. A pair of elbst were led to the divers by their handlers. Sounsyy hesitated, but a young Sahagin warrior swam close to her and nodded his head gently. His mouth opened and in the rush of water Sounsyy could hear the old language of the sea flow through his gils.
The Rhotano Bloodcant sang beautifully in the Deep. Sounsyy had never heard it spoken underwater, she knew it only in its harsh, out of water dialect. The sounds that formed with difficulty to emulate the gentle rush of water. Sounsyy stared at the warrior transfixed, though she knew not what it sang to her. She forced her eyes away and swam over to the elbst that had been brought for her. When she was properly mounted the elbst streamlined forwards and began its descent.
The sudden increase in pressure from the dive constricted the Captain's chest and she closed her eyes and bent over the back of the elbst in pain. Her entire chest felt like it was crushing until the suit could adapt. When the pressure had abated she looked up to find herself in waters much deeper, colder, and darker than before. She saw Ryanti click on his torchlight and she did the same, but it did little to pierce the darkness. She worried suddenly that the light might blind the elbst, so she clicked the light back off and only turned it on for brief intervals to see if she could see anything.
Not that she needed to see, she reminded herself. The elbst seemed to know where it was going and there were Sahagin all around them, swimming eagerly or anxiously by their sides. How many years had it been since they had had visitors - if ever? Then out of the deep blue came a darker shape. Sounsyy almost didn't recognize what she was looking at for several moments, mistaking it for a deep sea mountain or rock formation. But she click on her torchlight and gasped in a mouthful of recycled air.
What under Llymlaen's deep seas?
The captain's eyes widened until they seemed to fill up all of her goggles. She was staring at some vessel, some great sunken vessel buried beneath the sea. The cermet frame hummed and creaked below the sea. Sounsyy's linkpearl crackled but Sixteen's voice was distant and distorted. Or... Sounsyy was not listening. The world seemed to drown out around her as she gazed upon the massive frame. She suddenly felt so small, so insignificant. She felt weightless in the deep blue, she was reminded of Carteneau, just before she fell into darkness. She lay there on the rock, staring paralyzed skywards as Dalamud ripped itself apart and the world was covered with fire. Now the world was swallowed in water. So deep, so dark.
Sounsyy felt short of breath and her chest tightening. Had her suit failed and the pressure finally crushed through or was she having a panic attack? Her breaths came quick and sharp. Her brain was convinced she was dreaming or was oxygen deprived and needed more air. Her elbst seemed to disappear out from under her and she was suddenly alone in the blackness. Her eyes were watering beneath her goggles, obscuring everything in a dark blur. Then suddenly a light. Pale and blue and gentle - like the glyphs she had seen in the skies over Cartneau just before the end.
She looked for their source and saw the key. The glow seemed distorted by the sea or by her tears. But it was clear Ryanti was holding it and moving towards the ship. There was a door. Sounsyy tried to regain command over her breathing. She tried to time her breaths with Nophica's Hymn, a pleasant song from her time in Gridania. Deep woods, rich earthy air. A time before she was afraid.
Sun's sweet smile and wind's cool breath,♪
Both of these I send thee,♪
To ripe thy fruit and spread thy seed,♪
And nourish those that tend...
Sounsyy gasped and her breathing stopped all together when Ryanti inserted the key. The entire vessel lit up in a red glow, illuminating just how monolithic the Allagan starship was. What had they disturbed after so long? Sounsyy looked over her shoulder, her breath steadily quickening again. The Sahagin had dispersed. Fear?
Then the door opened and the frame shimmered in blue light. Water rushed in with a thousand fathoms of pressure behind it, filling the small room almost instantly. Sounsyy felt the flow of the sea change around her as she was sucked near the ship. Ryanti swam inside. Sounsyy wanted to swim away, but followed him in against her better judgement. Inside the hallway were glowing lights and a window looking in on the next room. Sounsyy caught Ryanti staring at her from across the hallway as the outer porthole began to reseal itself behind them. She shook her head at him completely at a loss.
The room started to depressurize and the water began to warm. The feeling of relief was immense. She looked back at Ryanti, who was touching the walls of the vessel. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Sounsyy was still in the process of stabilizing herself after her miniature panic attack. The water began to drain and the door at the end of the hall groaned open after five-thousand years of neglect. Sounsyy covered her ears at the sudden, horrid screeching that shattered the last silent hour of their descent.
Then with a great shudder, the ship's power failed it and the lights died sending them all into darkness. Sounsyy fell on her bottom in the water with a yelp and staggered back to her feet, pressing her back against a wall. It sounded as if something had broken. If it was the ship and it had sprung a leak - or worse - depressurized, they'd all be dead in minutes. But nothing happened and Ryanti righted himself enough to press forward deeper into the ancient Allagan monstrosity.
"I-I'm all right," came her muffled voice beneath her mask. Then her senses left her at long last and she ripped off her mask and hissed at Ryanti, "Where the swiven hells are we?! What in the Seven Hells is this?! This- this!" She looked about her frantically, but Ryanti was already tucking himself through the half-opened door and into the darkness beyond. Sounsyy stood there cursing. She heard Ryanti's voice on the other side and went to the doorway. She gauged the clearance and decided to remove her backpack while she slid through.
Ryanti was in awe gazing about the next room, but Sounsyy had even taken notice. When she reached back through the doorway to pull her backpack through, she immediately knelt down in the fulm-deep pool and set about unzipping her bag and withdrawing the dismantled Sharlayan rifle. With a few clicks she had assembled it. She felt Ryanti's light on her back and she stood up and turned to face it.
“Let’s assemble our weapons. We do not move an ilm until we are fully armed.â€
Sounsyy slung her backpack over her shoulder and hefted her completed rifle, nodding to the Miqo'te, "Way ahead of yeh."
Sounsyy took in the room for the first time while Ryanti made to assemble his. It was massive. Her breath, ragged as it was, seemed to echo softly about the space. She began wandering about in the darkness, her torchlight set to cast as wide a light as it could produce. She came upon the plaque covered in eras of dust. There was strange writing that Sounsyy could not understand. She could barely read Eorzean as it was - this was far beyond her. She looked to where Ryanti was prepping, "Yeh can read this?"
She had an evenly mixed look between incredulous and impressed. Her voice sounded nervous though. As if she was trying to ignore the fact that their linkpearls were receiving so much interference, either from the ship's cermet hull or from being so many yalms below water. She went to stand by Ryanti as he finished assembling his rifle. She let out a long exhale as she psyched herself to go deeper into the dark.
"Yeh take point. I've got rearguard," she said. Ryanti's torchlight was set to maximize the distance he could see forwards. While Sounsyy's was set widely to see if anything moved in the peripheral darkness. As if to say she was ready, she raised her rifle and rested the butt against her shoulder, at the ready to fire.