#UnderTheSea – April 15, 2016

Harmonia stares out into the vast darkness. The beams of light from the mechs penetrate a surprising distance when fully powered, owing to the clean water, but it is hard to tell when only more dark awaits beyond their reach. Each of the cabins are lit up in the blue glow of the interfaces, displaying depth, water pressure, temperature, system status and other things. "Descent underway. All mechs steady... mostly. We'll be

Nathan hums a tune to himself, turning his mech around to face Jasper's direction. "Well this is going to be one for the ol' journal," he muses over comms.

Nalota turns on the mech's lights, as well. Her mech keeps sinking along with the others, remaining upright. The asari looks over all readings again to make sure the mech didn't take any damage, and she dials back the mass effect field's intesnity.

Jasper studies his readouts in between glares through the viewing window. "Yer tellin' me! Jus' seems ta go on forever." Confirming that all of his systems are still in working order, he settles back into his seat and lets things happen. "No sign of them whales." he says as he scans the expanse from his window, every direction looking identical, save for the mechs.

Nathan taps the interface, nodding to himself. "Honestly? Not a bad thing in my book. Blubberguts looked quite mean, even for a rotting carcass."

Jasper gives an amused cackle. "Ol' blubberguts!" he repeats, "Think that's what we called my uncle Marty!"

Harmonia 's voice comes in over comms as they continue to go deeper and deeper, appearing almost as if floating in a black void as they go on and the faint dot of light above grows smaller and smaller until it can no longer be seen. "...Blubberguts...?" she says with a skeptical tone.

Nathan laughs with Jasper. "Aye, Blubberguts. That's the name we've taken to calling it," he says. He then looks around and shivers. "...Damn. Something eerily beautiful about this, isn't there. The sea, I mean, not Blubberguts."

Jasper tsk tsks. "Uncle Marty would be offended." he chimes in, but gives a nod to himself. "Suuuuure is. Like tumblin' nose over toes into the deep end of the swimmin' pool. Barely know where yer at."

Nalota giggles to herself as she hears the comms chatter. "It makes me feel small, despite the mech suit," she says. "I can't wait to see what's on the bottom."

Harmonia 's mood seems noticably brighter now that they're diving. Her response to Nalota is an enthusiastic one. "That's the spirit! It'll be a while before we're down yet, but let's hope we find something interesting!"

Nathan chuckles. "I hope we have some sort of marker to pinpoint where we landed and where the hole is relative to us. I'd hate to hit the thrusters and collide into the ice above by accident."

Jasper glances upwards arbitrarily at Nathan's comment. "Wouldn't be hard ta get lost down here. An' 'up' don't hold a lot a' meanin'. Like bein' out in space or somethin'...."

Nalota keeps looking out into the darkness. "We have the depth readout to tell us whether we're going up or down," she says over comms.

Harmonia responds after the others. "I'll mark our landing point with a beacon." she says plainly, not particularly eager to talk in any great length to Nathan.

Nathan decides that, being out of sight and overly childish, now will be a good time to make a flurry of rude gestures in her general direction. However his reply is, "Good call." Followed by an off the comms, "Bitch."

Jasper continues to manage his descent mostly hands-off so long as nothing changes. "Sounds like a plan. So we lookin' fer anything in particular down here, or is everything particular down here?"

Nalota nods. "We're grabbing a sample of the seabed, and documenting any living creature we see," she speaks over the comms.

Harmonia continues to lead the descent into deeper waters, allowing gravity to guide the mech down, only making small adjustments to counter currents in the water. "You heard the asari." she says with a small smile, that, of course, none of them would be able to see.

Nathan hums and turns on his omni-tool. He switches on some music to play in his cockpit, quietly as he continues to descend. "Jasper, Nalota," he says. "What would you guys name any new species that we discover?"

Nalota hums. "i, um, I'm not very good at that," she says, "I'll think of something."

Jasper falls deep into contemplation for a few moments. "An entire species that ain't ever been documented..." he muses aloud over comms, "...That's a tall order. Needs ta' be somethin' breathtakin'. Somethin' worth goin' down in history fer all time." He trails off for a moment before chiming back in, "Lauren. Definitely Lauren." he says with a nod to himself. "Unless it's an ugly sum'britches. Then Nathan."

Nathan chuckles. "Har de fucking har, Jasper," he replies with a smirk.

Harmonia remains quiet, the fact that she specifically went unmentioned not unnoticed as she stares out into the ocean depth, listening to their conversation in silence as they sink further. She startles as a mass of dark flesh sweeps past her lights in a blur, going past Jasper's as well. "Woah, we've got something."

Nalota leans forward in hopes of seeing it, not saying anything over comms.

Jasper gives a long string of jovial cackling which eventually slowly dies down. "How 'bout you, Ten?" he asks, although goes silent just as quickly when something moves in the corner of his view. "Did y-... Whew, glad I ain't the only one that saw it. Whatcha reckon it was? Anyone get a good look at it?"

Nathan starts, looking around for it to no avail. "Maybe another Blubberguts?" He asks, his hands now resting near the controls.

Jasper continues to study his viewing window, looking around rapidly. "You can't name somethin' Blubberguts and then somethin' else 'Another Blubberguts'! That's just trash, Ten! Yer namin' is trash!" he says, clearly having misinterpreted Nathan's recent comment as his answer.

Nathan blinks. "I mean the fucker that just swam by!"

Nalota is frantically glancing around, the shouting over comms making her a bit anxious about the situation.

Harmonia starts poking buttons on the interface of her Triton, activating scanners and then raising the cannon arm. There is a flash of red light as she fires a flare down and ahead, which illuminates some of the darkness around them. Hints of a large creature can be seen at the edges of the light, the shape of a whale moving in the dark, and graceful tentacles trailing behind it. The ink-black skin of the creature looks

Nathan watches and laughs. "Awesome. Hey, Harmonia, what would you call it?" He asks, as he watches the whale swim away. He brings his mech alongside Jaspers as he talks, music lightly playing in the background of his comms.

Nalota stares at the creature while it's visible. "Whoa," she says, not over comms.

Jasper stares towards the creature in a state of awe. "Wow..." comes out as a whisper, "Ain't never seen nothin' like it..."

Harmonia ponders the question, but her answer is interrupted as it passes them by again, swimming closer now, seemingly curious. A giant red eye comes into view on the side of the creature as it circles the group, studying them. The body is not unlike that of a krill-eating whale, but smooth and black, with no fins, and rather than a tail it has several tentacles that seem to be what it uses to swim. A loud, almost singing

Nathan simply stares in awe, mouth hung open. "Holy crap..." he mutters over comms.

Jasper continues to watch the creature with great interest. "Seems like ol' girl interested in studyin' us as much as ya'll are interested in studyin' her... Listen, listen! Ya'll hear that? Whoo. Think she's tryin' a' talk to us." He places a hand against the window of his mech, "Sorry ol' girl. I'unno whatcher sayin', but it's mighty purdy..."

Nalota enables her omni-tool to record the song. "This is so great," she says over the comms, sounding like she's on the verge of crying.

Harmonia 's eyes are wide with wonder, and there's no real trace of her usual hostility anymore. "That's... I love this job." she says, and the comms catch part of a small laugh as she watches the creature circle them, tentacles reaching out to touch the Tritons, running curiously over the strange objects in an attempt at understanding them. Its singing goes higher in tone and its tentacles twirl before it dives down deeper,

Nathan shakes his head, tapping the side of his helm. "That... was cool," he laughs.

Jasper lets out a loud, jovial chuckle of his own as he presses his other hand against the window as well, leaning forward to keep it in view for as long as possible. "That-... That right there is livin', Ten. Ya see that? That's the sort a' thing yer gon' carry to yer grave."

Nalota waves at the disappearing whale, with her hand not the mech. She doesn't anything on the comms.

Harmonia watches the whalesquid disappear out of view and then leans back in her seat with a childish grin, glad none of the others can see her. Several minutes of descent pass uneventfully, dark, empty water rushing past them. Once or twice a silvery blur of movement can be seen at the edges of the lights' reach, nothing larger than a small fish. The darkness enroaches on them again when the flare fades away, leaving only

Jasper settles back into his seat once it's clear that their new friend is well on her way. He sucks in a deep breath, shaking his head as he lets out a whistle.

Nathan relaxes for the most part, just quietly listening to his music.

Nalota is jotting down some notes on her omni-tool, but she's watching for movements for the most part.

Harmonia activates her comms, breaking the silence. "Alright, we're getting fairly close to where we think the seabed should be, so be ready for touchdown so-..." she trails off as movement stirs, and she runs a quick scan before saying: "Kill your lights." and proceeding to do so with her own, plunging her side into complete darkness.

Nathan immediately complies. "What's the matter?" He asks as his lights shut off.

Jasper quickly complies, turning his mech's lighting systems off. "Roger, roger." he says, "Whassatfer?"

Nalota shuts hers off, as well. "What is going on?"

Jasper is right back up against his window, mouth wide open. "You gettin' pictures, Nalota!?" he says over comms, instinctively whispering out of worry he may scare the creatures off.

Nathan watches, leaning back into his seat as he watches the creatures swerve this way and that.

Nalota is already snapping some pictures of it. Her omni-tool's proection is very dimmed. "Mhm," she replies back. "The people up top are going to be so jealous."