Present time:
He gasps, as he takes in the salty sea water, vaguely aware of a blurry shape in the distance that he determines to be an iceberg.
Cikagn is sinking into the ocean, as his Talon suit systems struggle to calibrate themselves and initiate the Talon combat interface in the extreme conditions that its user is currently in. The huge exoskeleton armour attached to it was removed inappropriately, with various damaged parts still attached to the main suit.
The Talons deployed were wearing a prototype heavy combat suit with exoskeletons and increased ammunition storage with various other additional weapons of mass damage, such as the hand launched missiles and such that Cikagn had depleted before escaping via riding on the shock of a nuclear explosion from a nuclear missile hatch. Beneath the suit are their normal on-duty gear for missions and combat, complete with all its equipment, AR displays, protection, and the standard Talon equipment for a mission. Cikagn forces his mind to refocus, as his vision, blurry from the shock and impact of their fall, blanks in and out. He realises that he is breathing, before he remembers the on-suit oxygen supply in their gas masks, made for amphibious missions.
As he gradually calms down, he begins to assess his predicament.
Still winded from the fall, his body, bleeding extensively everywhere and suffering internal injuries, has more than enough liquid flowing out to spare that expels the shockwaves from the explosion of waves from the falling metal hatch that had dragged him into the sea. However, he is too hurt to move. The protection from his suits are barely enough to keep him alive through the stratosphere at the extreme speeds of mach 10 that he had accelerated to in mere seconds, not to mention the G-force that is enough to make any untrained or inexperienced person become unconscious. Gasping for oxygen, he looks around the sea as he tumbles in the water. He is alone, through his glitching AR display and fuzzy vision, he can make out the dark shapes of what he supposes to be icebergs above, the dark blue expanse of nothingness, and the black shadow of their transport sinking into the ocean below. Testing for body damages and his current capabilities, he found that he has an assault rifle, 3 daggers, 10 poisoned needles, and 1 silenced pistol in his sealed suit pockets. His body is not so lucky though, he can at least feel 3 crushed rib bones, 6 broken fingers, his right shoulder dislocated, and a broken right ankle.
Something in his subconscious nags his mind.
He is alone.
Cikagn thinks of this fact again, as his muscles soaks in the cold arctic sea.
The cold comes over him like a flash, as he almost screams out loud.
Amelia!
He searches frantically around. Fighting the currents tossing him around despite his injuries, finding nothing, he looks down.
A foreboding looms over him as he realises Amelia's suit is melded into the metal hatch by the heat from the air-resistance. The G-force making her unconscious, she had been unable to pry herself free from the hatch before they fell into the sea.
An unreasonable fear grips him as something primal moves his muscles by themselves. Cikagn, with his eyes wide against the cracked glass of his ballistic-AR goggles, shoots downwards into the water in frantic and panicked strokes, a stream of currents forming behind him as he increases his speed. The dark shape of the metal hatch does not seem to get nearer. Ignoring his pain, he cuts blindly through the water, drawing on all his Talon training to increase his speed.
Cikagn never found Amelia in the sea.
As he swims, his vision blurs as he pleads with his mind to stay conscious. Just a few more hours, he urges himself. Only to save Amelia, Seb had entrusted her to him, after all. However, he can feel the strength leaving his body, as the underwater pressure only got higher and higher. Bubbles leaving his mask, he finally grips onto the metal lid, as he scrabbles around, searching for Amelia's body. He yells over the intercom, pleading for a response, as he thumps around, hoping that the shudder might wake Amelia.
As the hours pass, he begins to feel the water pressure building above him, as he searches the surface of the hatch. He had calmly searched the surface above already. A hunch tells him that he will probably not find her on the surface below, as his vision flashes once, twice, and then blanks out completely.
Just like a computer that ran out of power. Cikagn, in one moment frantic and zooming in the water, had completely forgotten about his remaining energy, stamina, and the icy cold of the arctic ocean. His body, through training, can withstand the cold. However, anyone that had just experienced what Cikagn had is not capable of dashing through the water with the swift efficiency he displayed, disregarding his injuries, and the probability of their survival.
As his mind gradually leaves his body, the last thing that Cikagn sees before he faints is two dark shapes zooming towards him.
Then, nothing.
YOU ARE READING
The Nauta
Fantasy"The Sea, the all reaching and all deciding", an old saying of the elders living within the ancient establishments. The Falcon Eye, an ancient organization within a world hundreds of thousands years into the future, where humanity began to rebuild...
