Description
Immense mechanical constructions lie motionless at the bottom of the sea.
The darkness is broken only occasionally by the bioluminescence of strange creatures never before seen by man.
Uncharted organisms begin to converge, attracted by the only source of heat for miles around.
Crustaceans crawl gently across the surface of metal objects, checking for an unusual form of whale fall. In the absence of food, the gathering was restricted.
There was no sense here; elemental life forms acted purely by instinct, like wind-up toys, simply performing the mechanical tasks of survival.
Metal knew nothing, it simply was.
Deep within the giant shells, a kind of survival was also taking place.
The RJ-1027 pulsed through tubes that heated steam to create pressure in pistons which, in turn, prevented the embers from dying out in this dark place.
A living being might have been considered to be waiting if it had been alive, but instead it was just being, until something else prompted it to move. Time passed.
Without warning, the great steel worms began to move.
Slowly at first, as they ran diagnostics, checking for damage or inoperative parts.
Then the surrounding area lit up with a green glow as they began to move at full speed.
