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"Hey, AL-AN."
"Yes?"
"Any idea what is outside the map?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like what if I went past the east arctic and kept going forward?"
" The void."
"The void? Thats ominous."
"I suppose. In truth even if I did know what was there befor but, it been such a long time it likly has changed."
"Oh? How so?" She questioned.
"Different species and bioms existed when I last had a corporeal form. The ones I'm most familiar with have died out and new ones have taken shape. For example, the area you know as the lily pads looked more like the shallows when I first came here. Being here in your brain and seeing the world through your eyes as you travel it is the most exploration I've had of this area in a very long time. Most of what I know is different now. Or its gone."
"Must be very different world to be reintroduced to."
"It is." They agreed.
"...I kind of want to see the void. There could be a whole new biome over there if the terrain has changed that much."
"I'm curious as well."
"Do you remember what it was like back then? The void."
"I remeber several large leviathan class species in the area. We observed a food chain between them. Smaller leviathans were consumed by the larger species. There was a larger more sinister leviathans the deeper and farther out we observed."
"How deep was it?"
"We never found out. I was able to touch some of the sea floor to a point untill it dipped down into a trench. I could sense a threatening presence from it. I turned back for the sake of self preservation.
"You got scared." She said with a smirk.
"You would be too. The species down bellow got larger and much more aggressive than I was prepared for."
" What do you think it's like now?"
"For our sake, I hope less aggressive fauna."
Robin chuckles as she pushed the thrusters to full as they cut through the water heading straight east. Past the purple vents past the east arctic till she was peering at what her PDA identified as the Edge of the World.
"Well, here we are."
Robin could feel AL-AN shifting in her consciousness.
AL-AN themself was looking as well.
They both just stared into it. Both felt a tie between wanting to go in but fearing whats over the edge.
"Are you afraid?" AL-AN asked her.
"No, Are you?" She asked back.
"No."
They stared at it a little longer. The inky blue darkness almost seemed to stare back.
Robin took breath to calm herself.
A moment past till AL-AN spoke.
"This is ... Odd and Concerning." The voice in her head commented.
"How so?"
"I am sensing no change in the physical environment. It hasn't undergone the same environmental evolutionary changes as the other bioms."
"How is that possible? Evolution doesn't just ignore a place. "
"It shouldn't be possible. And you are correct but nothing has changed. No new plant life, "
"Well now I'm really curious as to why."
Robin continued forward until the sea bed dipped down into and enormous trench.
"How far down does that go?"
"I do not know..."
"Maybe the reason of why theres no change is down there."
"Robin. I would not suggest-"
"Are you not curious?" She questioned the architect.
As scientists, curiosity appealed to them both.
"Yes, but "
"Be careful?" She guessed.
"Robin, This isn't like the other bioms where there are places to hide. I sense no caves or anything for cover down below."
"Any leviathans?"
"Yes. Several."
Robin stopped the truck.
"Yea.. I'm turning around." She said as she stared the truck the other direction.
"That would be best.
A sharp roar startled them both.
Robin looked around frantically trying to find the source.
"What is it?!"
"Leviathan.."
Next the seatruck halted and shook taking damage.
"Robin!"
" I'm ok something is chewing on the seatruck."
Then the seatruck was spun around and greeted with two sets of jaws trying to crush the window.
Robin screamed and so did AL-AN in the back of her mind.
"What the Fuck is that?!"
"Drive Robin! DRIVE!!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK IM TRYING TO DO?!" Robin said stearing the small sub from side to side trying to shake it off.
It was pointless. Whatever got its teeth in the sub, it wasn't letting go.
The seatruck was taking a lot of damage and was soon at one percent.
"Fuck it!" Robin opened the top hatch and headed up to the surface just befor the seatruck exploded behind her.
Then she made a mistake. She looked down.
Down in the inky darkness impossibly long tentacles reached at her.
"Swim Robin!"
Robin shook out of her momentary shock and headed for the surface.
With the help of the water glider she broke the surface just befor the oxygen ran out.
"I would recomend swiming for land." Al-an said in her head.
As Robin began to swim she screamed.
Then something brushed against her leg. A normal occurrence for her that suddenly became terrifying.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Robin was full on freaking out at this point.
She began to paddle quickly to the little island in the distance.
"Robin, stop panicking. Panic will only make this worse."
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER MY PANICK!!"
Then something nipped at her flipper. She looked down and her panick doubled.
Behind her from bellow there was now two of the void chelicerate chasing her. Swimming side by side eyeballing her as a snack.
"Looks like,This how I Die!"
"But then I cease to exist. Please keep swimming!"
"YOU CAN FEEL ME PADDLING AL-AN!!"
_______________Meanwhile_________
Marguerit's pet snow stalker heard the screaming befor she did.
She was minding her own business harvesting some heat peppers in her green house when Preston dragged her to the door by her coat tail.
"What the fuck are you doi-" off in this distance she could hear it. The high pitched screaming of Robin coming from the direction of the void.
Marguerit shielded her eyes from the sun and looked around the horizon. Not to far off was Robin. Screaming. And paddling furiously as some void chelicerates chased her.
She groaned
"It was Good day. It was Great day. Now this." She complained as she shuffled too her prawn suit.
_______
Robin was now in the lilypad biom with the void Chelicerates still perusing.
"Robin! A Cave!!"
"WHERE?"
"Down!"
She dove down just as a chelicerate lunged forward and bit into hanging rock.
The cave wasnt hard to spot and she dove in. The other chelicerate followed and stuck its head through the opening to grab her.
Robin pressed against the back of the cave as the jaws snapped an inch away from her face.
She closed her eyes.
"I dont think I'm gonna make it AL-AN!"
Get into my pda!"
"Even if that were possible im not doing that Robin!"
"Then we both die!"
"Who the hell are you talking too?" Came a gruff voice.
Robin's eyes snapped open.
"I asked you a question, Altera."
Robin looked at the figure in front of her in the prawn suit.
Marguerit had the altered sharp prawn arm stabbed through the head of the chelicerate that was in the cave.
In her other prawn arm she held the severed head of the other.
The water around Marguerit was hued yellow with the beasts blood.
"MARGUERIT! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.!!!"
"Are you Stupid or Suicidal?"
"I'm Curious." Robin answered.
"Stupid then. You almost became fish food for fun facts."
"Can I scan the leviathan head?" Robin asked pulling out her scanner.
Marguerit just stood there.
"You almost got eaten and that's your goal set right now."
"Please?"
"And I thought I was crazy." Marguerit said stunned.
__________<^_^>____later_______
Robin just entered her base still shaking.
"Robin, please calm yourself. You are no longer in danger."
"Easier said then done. What was that thing that was reaching up at me from below?"
"Those long tentacles.. The thing reaching at you looked like..."
AL-AN fell silent.
Robin could feel their fear.
AL-AN?
"I could sence more of the beast than you saw....I didn't even know they could live this far north... if any were still alive at all."
AL-AN what was it? Please tell me."
"That was a Gargantuan Leviathan."
"Wait. A real living gargantuan leviathan?!" Robin's head was racing with the possibility.
"Robin! I can sense what your thinking, and I forbid it. You are not going back to scan it."
Robin paused.
"Did your people ever scan it?"
"Yes. I will upload that to your pda under the condition you swear never to go back to the void again. Even after I transfer to a body."
Robin sighed.
"I swear."
"Thank you. I would be devastated if anything happened to you."
"Oh? Have you grown attached me?"
"In a way, yes. I do feel a bond to you. I want you safe and happy whether I'm in your cerebral cortex or not."
Robin smiled.
"Your sweet."
"How am I sweet? I don't recall you tasting me."
Robin laughed.
"Its saying meaning your being very nice or kind."
"Your people have a very strange way of talking to eachother."
"Says the one communicating as a voice in my head."
"Your Very sweet for letting me be here while we find me a new body."
"See, your starting to get it already."