Chapter 45 - Echoes in the Abyss
The freefall lasted ninety seconds of pure sensory overload.
Plunging through the boiling storm clouds at terminal velocity, Dylan watched the altimeter on his visor count down through blinding sheets of rain and lightning. Below them, the ocean was a churning beast of whitecaps and black foam. At twelve hundred feet, Dylan pulled his ripcord. The steerable parachute snapped open with a sharp, shoulder-jolting crack, arresting his descent just above the rolling waves.
The moment his combat boots struck the water, Dylan hit the quick-release harness. He slipped beneath the surging surface, immediately biting down on the rebreather mouthpiece and activating his propulsion diver unit.
All eight Raiders hit the water within yards of him, their synchronized transponders blinking in soft ultraviolet pulses. Dylan checked his compass bearing. Beneath them, the abyssal blackness gave way to a monstrous, luminescent silhouette resting on the ocean shelf: *Project Poseidon*.
It looked like an underwater leviathan forged from titanium and reinforced concrete. Floodlights beamed across its hull, illuminating several armed mini-subs and patrol divers wearing high-pressure armored exosuits bearing the gold chevron logo of Aegis Vanguard.
Dylan tapped the diver com. "Suppressors hot. Silent breach through the torpedo ballast pipes. Maintain zero cavitation. Marcus can't know we're inside until we're kicking down his vault door."
Working in pairs, the Raiders glided down like aquatic predators. Two Aegis divers patroling the perimeter never saw the flash of the underwater speargun darts. Dylan fired from twenty feet out, the tungsten rods piercing the patrolmen's regulator hoses and buoyancy control systems, dragging them silently into the crushing depths.
Within minutes, Dylan reached the auxiliary maintenance hatch beneath the secondary launch bay. Mia's bypass protocol, transmitted through Dylan’s waterproof data cuff, engaged the emergency airlock manual override. The thick pneumatic doors ground open, releasing a violent torrent of bubbles before the lock cycled shut behind them.
Water drained down the grating beneath their feet with a hollow, sucking groan. The airlock hiss died, replaced by the mechanical clanking of industrial turbines and the distant thrum of heavy machinery echoing throughout the subterranean corridors.
Dylan ripped off his diving mask, wiping saltwater from his eyes. His team shed their dive gear in under twenty seconds, revealing dry, combat-ready plate carriers and assault rifles.
Dylan raised his weapon, scanning the damp, rust-streaked steel corridor ahead. "We are inside. Mia, do you have eyes on the vault?"
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Mia's voice crackled through his bone-conduction earpiece, weak from oceanic interference but steady. "I have partial sensor telemetry from their internal network. Marcus is in the primary reactor nexus, Sector Seven. But Dylan... he isn't alone. Aegis Vanguard brought an entire company of heavy infantry down here. And their commander just ordered the payload doors to cycle open."
"Double time," Dylan commanded his men. "Move."
