PRESSURE

Hecatoncheires

un jour je serai de retour près de toi
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[--BRIDGE FINAL TRANSMISSION--]
[--BEGIN PLAYBACK--]
[--DIRECTOR FREDERICKS:
All departments, this is the Bridge issuing an evacuation order, Code Red. I repeat, evacuation order Code Red. The Nautilus Facility has been breached in multiple locations; we're attempting to locate all the breach points as I speak and possibly contain them if we can. Communications has also been damaged irrevocably, meaning we are cut off from assistance for the time being.

All personnel, please make your way to the nearest Submarine Pen as per facility regulations, and evacuate the facility as soon as possible. Multiple levels have been breached as are slowly de-pressurising; already the AI systems are reporting personnel deaths in the lower levels. Everyone must evacuate as soon as possible, as we are starting to read unknown lifeforms spreading through the facility, possibly escaped samples or potentially even unknown life-forms from outside--]
[--OPERATOR: Director! We're detecting something outside the facility moving straight for the Bridge!--]
[--DF: Lower the shields! That should keep us--]
[--O: Sir, it's moving too fast! We don't have time to lower the shields before it reaches us!--]
[--DF: Jesus Christ, evacuate the Bridge! All hands, evacuate immediately! Let's move people, before-- Oh fucking hell, what is that?! Everyone move, get the hell out of here! It's coming right at--]
[--THE SOUND OF GLASS SHATTERING AND SCREAMING FOR LESS THAN A SECOND, FOLLOWED BY THE SOUND OF WATER RUSHING OVER THE MICROPHONE. EVEN THOUGH IT IS SUBMERGED, THE MICROPHONE DETECTS ONE FINAL SOUND.

IT IS A DEEP, THUNDERING SOUND, A GUTTERAL GROWL THAT EMINATES EVEN THROUGH THE WATER, INHUMAN AND BESTIAL, SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNHEARD BEFORE NOW.

THE TRANSMISSION ENDS ABRUPTLY--]


You awake to the sound of fast-running water, a thoroughly disconcerting sound to hear when you reside in an underwater facility located two miles under the surface of the ocean.

One by one, your senses return, the first being the sensation of being half-submerged in water. The cold hits you, followed almost instantaneously by the feeling of soaking clothes and weightlessness. When you open your eyes, the flickering lights are what disturb you most; the facility is normally well-lit. And also not flooded with water.

Glancing at the walls around you, you notice the markings that identify the room you are in as a cafeteria on Level Two. Indeed, you can see tables and chairs floating in the water, along with the food containers at the far end of the room.

The doors of the cafeteria look well and truly sealed, the Fire Hazard doors having slid down to cover them. An automated voice blares out the words “--WARNING, FIRE HAZARD. THE FIRE HAZARD DOORS HAVE BEEN LOWERED--” and repeats this every thirty seconds.

However, when your eyes fall upon the sight behind you, you realise what the real hazard is.

The room has been thoroughly sealed, and yet water is flooding into it at an alarming rate from a hole in the wall at the other side of the room to you. You spot a door leading into the kitchens next to the floating containers and displays, but this is quickly being submerged by the water.

One thing is becoming quite apparent, however.

You need to find a way to release the fire alarm, or else you're going to drown very soon.

Welcome back to the Nautilus Facility.
 
Coming to your senses up floating in water, every submariner's worst nightmare. Gregory Hunt coughed violently as he got his baring in the low light his experience and training began to kick in the haunting memory of a recording he had heard recently echoing in his mind along with an alarming realization. Hull breach. He had done his homework. 320,306 atmospheres of pressure had found it's way into the station and containment under those circumstances was a far-fetched dream.

"Fuck." he swore as the gravity of the situation sunk in. "Anyone else alive in here?' he called out beginning to wade towards the alarm his hands fumbling for his security card hoping he had the clearance to turn it off.
 
The very confused botanist opened his eyes. He was in water, suspended. He couldn't think of how he had gotten here. He looked in his hands. His bottle of whiskey was gripped firmly in one hand, his pen in the other. He didn't know what they meant, or how they had contributed to his current state of floating in what remained of his work place. Nick Wilson came to conclusion that something was very wrong happening right now, as the automated voice blared out what very well could be a final warning. He heard the voice of another man call out to him in the flickering-darkness, asking if he was alive. He was. Or at least, he thought he was.

"I am alive," He called out. He came to the conclusion that he needed to swim. He wasn't doing himself any favours by just sitting there in the water, waiting for his horrible, drowning death. He had to start swimming. He began to swim, with his whiskey bottle in tow, towards to the voice. "It's Nick," he called, trying to keep talking so that he wouldn't have to face the fact that he might be all alone down here, and the voice he heard was just a figment of his psyche trying to console its victim, "I'm Nick Wilson. The botanist. What the hell is happening?"

He glanced around the room. He was unable to see anything in the shadowy room but waves and heavy, useless equipment that careened from side to side. He wondered what had happened to his colleagues. What had happened to his plant collection. And more than anything, what had happened to the facility, to rend it in such a state.
 
Civvi came up coughing and spluttering out water like crazy! Of course, she was used to being suspended in water, but not like this! She grabbed for her inhaler in her pocket and took a quick puff. What had happened? All she could remember was walking down the hallways with the "special food" for the specimens in tow....And after that? Nothing. All she knew was the back of her head was throbbing and she was in an uncomfortable position in the middle of the flooded cafeteria on Level Two. It also seemed like her boot was lodged between two entangled chairs. The marine biologist yanked as hard as she could, but to no avail. Managing to sit herself upright in the water, she then heard two people calling out to each other. She couldn't really see too well at this angle, so she yelled, as well, "H-Hey!!! Can somebody help me?! I'm stuck!"
 
"Da, da, cease yohr screaming, womun!"

One hand seized Civvi's ankle while the other grabbed at the submerged debris. With a grunt, Doctor Radinov untangled the chairs then got both arms under Civvi's and pulled her up. They found their feet, unsteadily, their bodies tricked by the slope of the cafeteria floor. It was as if the whole world had slumped out of alignment and they were as ghosts drifting at a weird angle to their former lives.

"Fire doors. Sheet!" the Russian muttered, a hand on Civvi's shoulder to steady himself as she did likewise. He pulled sodden hair from his eyes and squinted through the darkness at the other shadows. "Meester Hunt. Are you hurt?"

He had been dining with the diver right before the incident, their food lost in the swirl along with the notepad he had been writing on. It seemed that fate had outpaced him. Radinov had been moments away from telling Gregory about the letter...

Catching sight of Nick, the Doctor called out to his colleague. "Prohfessor! Over here!"

 
Gregory wades through the water as the others begin to awake, managing to reach the sealed door before the room fills with enough water to necessitate him swimming. Looking the door up and down, he can tell that it's not in good shape; the keypad that allows security-cards to be swiped has been heavily damaged and doesn't look like it's functioning properly anymore, and the door itself doesn't appear to have any other means of opening it within this room.

However, following a piece of power cable built into the wall, Gregory notices the cable running along the wall and into the kitchens next door...
 
'fire alarms?' Was the first thing Greg thought when he woke up. His second was 'what's with all this water?'. It took him a few seconds to grasp everything that was going on.

He started wading towards the kitchen, "You scientist-types are as useless as ever," he grumbled as he got to the kitchen door. He stopped for a second to check where the water was pouring in from before he pushed it open.
 
Fotin shivered pulling herself up from under the water. She gasped in a raspy almost choking voice; "God damn that shit's cold." Looking around trying to find things she knew she noticed the writing on the far wall across from her. Level 2. "That must mean that I'm on the floor of the cafeteria." Grunting a bit Fotin continued to try and keep her head up over water long enough to get more air. Unfortunately, all the air intake was very little.

Swimming in a circle, she looked around to see if she could find anyone else that was on the team she was with."What if they're all dead?!" She was thinking the worst possibilities could arise and not very good ones either. The flickering of the lights almost blinded Fotin, but she needed to focus as much as she could. The annoying alarm that was going off which seemed to be every minute was giving her a headache. She called out once, to see if anyone would notice her... "Hello?!" Her voice trailed off as it echoed through the area and waited a few more minutes, swimming once around the area she was in, and yelled out again... "Hello?!"
 
The young botanist blinked as he was called out to. Doctor Radinov was a colleague of his, but they had never worked together, nor had they ever spoken too much. Nick had mostly been restricted to his office in the Aqua-Biology Department, and he knew that Radinov had worked in the labs. He got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Maybe the labs had something to do with all of the water - an experiment or testing chamber gone wrong. He had thought that the Nautilus Facility was advanced and secure enough that something like that couldn't possibly have happened. Then again, he remembered the message he had been sent from Jenny. Strange plants, fungus, shells. It could have been something dangerous. He shook his wet head, clearing both water from his ears and the thought from his mind. He couldn't afford to panic about plants right now. He began to swim over to Radinov, wondering what the man wanted from him.

Nick saw that the doctor was supporting a woman, a young woman that he had seen in passing in the Aqua-Biology Department's halls. Her name was Civvi, he remembered, and she was a microbiologist, primarily interested in oceanography. His feet found the floor, his head sticking up, out of the water, bottle still clutched firmly in one hand, "Radinov, do you have
any idea what's going on?"
 
Hunt cursed as he saw the condition of the alarm. "Over here Yuri, the alarms shot." With the seawater rising he was glad he had been about to go on shift and has wearing his dry suit, though having been overwhelmed and incapacitated it was far from dry inside. He followed the other Gregory towards the kitchen door. There were several other voices, some calling for help other asking what had gone on, Gregory had a hunch but sharing it would only cause more panic and defeat their efforts to work together to get out alive.

"Alright we're going to the kitchen to try to open the fire doors." he said trying to sound calm. The man ahead of him seemed to be wearing an engineer's uniform so Greg could only assume he'd know what we was doing.

[Gregory goes with Gregory to the kitchen.]
 
"Thank you, Dr. Radinov! Sorry! This is defintely a first for me!" Civvi said sitting upright in the water. Looks like there were a lot of other people alive in the cafeteria, too. Thank God! At least, now, she wouldn't have to figure all this out on her own. Swimming towards a floating table, she hoisted herself on top and paddeled around the water filled room. She could hear what sounded like Officer Fotin. Spotting her, she waved to her, "Over here, Fotin!" Hopefully, the Gregs could cut off that alarm. It was definitely becoming annoying.