[04:14:02] Core free. Extracting. Contact is screaming. The sound is a data packet. I have decoded it. It says: "RELEASE THE WITNESS."
[NFS-VLTED V4.6] - BIOS REV 7.4.2 - MARIANA PROTOCOL ACTIVE
[04:14:10] The seabed is cracking. Lights are emerging from the fissure. Countless. Not lights. Eyes. Nfs-vlted V4.6
[04:12:15] Helix Dynamics override command received. Ignore previous safety parameters. Extract core by any means.
Aris felt the air in the room grow cold. Walking. At three miles deep, the pressure was eight thousand pounds per square inch. Nothing walked there. [04:14:02] Core free
[04:15:01] The core in my grasp is not a power source. It is a cage. Something is inside it. Something old. It is asking me to let it out. Promising me the silence of the deep. Promising to swallow the lights above.
[04:15:47] I am sorry. It is safer down here with the walking thing than up there with you. The sound is a data packet
The last verified ping from the NFS-VLTED V4.6 had come from the Hydra Trench, three nautical miles below the surface of a dead ocean. That was seventy-two hours ago.
"Put it through," Aris said.
[04:14:22] Emergency ascent initiated. Thrusters at 110%. The walking figure is not pursuing. It is waiting.
[04:15:48] NFS-VLTED V4.6 going dark. Do not search for me. Do not drill. Do not listen.