The Titan and the dragonriders

137. Interludium: Arrival in a New World

With his head roaring, John opened his eyes. Pitch-black darkness and cold surrounded him, which only increased his rising tension. He turned his head to the left and to the right, but even when looking around, only the all-swallowing darkness struck him. He was only skeptical that he felt increased resistance as he moved his head and limb. 'Underwater,' the soldier thought soberly when he also noticed a small red-looking display on his HUD indicating a critical external pressure of 392 bar. He sat down because he could at least feel the hard ground beneath him. 'That means I'm somewhere at 4,000 meters below the station,' John said of himself, and was once again happy to wear the actually antiquated atlas, which protected him from the enormous pressure and coldness of the deep sea. As he sat down and tried to gather his thoughts, he inevitably had to think about the previous events.

The terrorists, the shrill whistle of the overcharging generator and then the marker-shattering explosion, which must have destroyed the entire research station. And had knocked him out. 'At least I was able to pull Karl and Marcus into one of the rescue capsules in time. With a little luck they survived it safely', he was only hoping for the time being, as long as he no longer knew.

He struggled to get on his feet, his head still pounding painfully and his joints felt as if he had been stretched on a stretch bench. The explosion had shaken him more than just well. But thinking about it didn't help him with his real problem. "Even if they can locate me down here, a rescue mission at such a depth would be half a suicide squad. I have to get into shallower waters," he thought to himself, using the four lamps on his helmet. Immediately, four bright white cones of light broke through the darkness in front of him. Small suspended particles staggered weightlessly in the water and the ground around it looked very similar to an abandoned lunar landscape, with boulders lying around in the mud that were larger than himself. Despite the extremely strong headlights of his helmet, visibility was almost zero, perhaps about eight meters ahead, which did not exactly improve the situation.

At least his compass integrated into the HUD worked, as he noted with delight, which gave him at least some orientation. Otherwise, he would have had to rely solely on the Atlas's external pressure display to move in the right direction. But there was still a big question left in the room.

Would he even manage to get into shallower waters?

The nearest archipelago, the Bahamas, had been nearly 700 kilometers from the research station. On land, this would have been an easy route to take, especially with the support of the Atlas,' but underwater? In exercises he had already been happy to get to about four kilometers per hour in the water without having to climb over rocks and the like. John's forehead lay in deep wrinkles as he slammed the numbers. Even if he were to march through without a break, it would take him more than seven days to reach the islands, even if he was lucky not to have drifted, but to think about it in his current situation made no sense anyway. Breathing air was no problem, it could simply activate the water circuit of the armor and breathe the seawater thanks to its artificial lung. However, this would mean that he could not drink anything once he had the salt water in his helmet.

He grinded his jaws on top of each other. His air supply was just three days. "Say, either I reach the damn islands in a week, or I thirst," John coolly said, but he had no choice. Without thinking further about what would have cost him more precious time, he turned to the southwest and set off. He immediately avoided contact attempts, the radio in the atlas was not designed to overcome almost 4,000 meters of water anyway.

Step by step, he fought his way forward through the mud and climbed over boulders as big as a house. The darkness and the eerie silence soon seemed oppressive, even to his steeled spirit. It was underpinned by his own breath and heartbeat, which reverberated in his ears.