090 – Abyss
At the moment when Orléans and Sven received the ‘special gift’ from the Liberal Clan, they announce their existence to the world by delivering promised equipment to reservation customers worldwide.
Sometimes delivered by drones, sometimes by missiles, the equipment was more advanced than when the headquarters building was in Sejong City, Republic of Korea, making the recipients’ hearts race with its superior performance.
[The Liberal Clan is prosperous.]
This information, known worldwide, prompted governments to mobilize their respective intelligence agencies to track down the Liberal Clan.
If they could only persuade, the nation securing the Liberal Clan would possess a powerful force to dominate the global gate industry in the future.
Among them, the United States was the most proactive in searching for the Liberal Clan.
The U.S. government dispatched a carrier strike group, including the $17 trillion supercarrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), as well as the Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt carriers, and nuclear submarines active worldwide, to the disappeared Pacific where the Liberal Clan was suspected to be. Likewise, the United Kingdom, with one of the few operational carrier strike groups, hastily sent the Royal Navy’s carrier strike group to search for the Liberal Clan. China, in the Southern Theater Command, also dispatched the Shandong carrier battle group to find the Liberal Clan.
Thanks to this, the area where the Liberal Clan disappeared turned into a global showcase of carriers, but none of them could find the location of the Liberal Clan.
Reconnaissance planes, unmanned drones, high-performance sonar, anti-submarine helicopters, spy satellites—every available search equipment was deployed, yet the reason they couldn’t find the Liberal Clan’s location was surprisingly simple.Originally, the location of the Liberator was not in the Pacific.
The location of the new flagship of the Liberator, which they had desperately searched for, was discovered near the Atacama Trench in the Pacific, 12,000 km away from the disappeared Liberal Clan headquarters building.
Near the Atacama Trench, 160 km east of the Peru-Chile border.
The Atacama Trench, with a maximum depth of 8,065m, was a vast deep-sea valley with a total length of 5,900 km.
And in that deep-sea valley, near a depth of 500m, passed the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, ‘Connecticut’ (SSN 22), the most high-performance nuclear submarine made by the United States during the Cold War.
The Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine ‘Connecticut,’ also known as the ‘submarine hunter’ or the ‘assassin of the sea.’
Commissioned in 1998, Connecticut was the second nuclear-powered submarine of the Seawolf class, which the U.S. Navy possessed only three due to its expensive price.
The reason the U.S. military deployed such a valuable submarine 12,000 km away from the search area was one and only one.
To search for the missing Liberal Clan.
Since the Liberal Clan headquarters mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the Pacific, the U.S. military, through strategic satellites, painstakingly analyzed the footage obtained and formulated the following hypothesis about the whereabouts of the Liberal Clan.
The first hypothesis was that the Liberal Clan had established a new base on an uninhabited island near the Pacific. Of course, there was no large island suitable for a base near the vanished point, but it was speculated that, to avoid tracking, they might have used their concealment ability early on and moved to a prepared island as a base.
Considering the technological capabilities of the Liberal Clan, it was highly likely that the new base was underground. Therefore, the current carrier task force dispatched by the U.S. Navy was conducting a search operation with the determination to explore every island near the Pacific by deploying landing forces.
The second hypothesis was that the Liberal Clan had submerged their headquarters in the deep sea. This hypothesis arose from the judgment that, given their ability to lift a building with 4 underground floors and 6 above-ground floors into the air, adding submersible capabilities to the structure would not be challenging.
The dispatch of the SSN 22 Connecticut to the Atacama Trench was based on the possibility of the second hypothesis. If they had chosen submersion as a method, the decision was made to choose the deepest sea possible to avoid tracking. However, exploring depths exceeding 8,000 meters was not feasible.
Even the so-called “cheap but high-performance” Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, known for sacrificing cost for performance, had a maximum submersion depth of only about 600 meters. Despite this limitation, the U.S. Navy believed it would be sufficient to search for the Liberal Clan’s headquarters.
The existence of the increasing pressure of the deep sea, which rises as one goes deeper, is not something that can be covered simply by good technology. Because of this pressure, conventional submarines are mostly designed in a rounded shape to evenly distribute the pressure applied and reduce the burden on the hull.
However, the Liberal Clan’s headquarters, concealed in the Pacific airspace, was a building that was not designed with submersion in mind. Experts in the U.S. Navy analyzed that, even if the building’s structure was made of extremely durable materials, the maximum depth it could submerge to would be around 1,000 meters.
This depth would be sufficient for tracking with the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, with a maximum submersion depth of 600 meters. Therefore, the Connecticut utilized its built-in sonar to thoroughly search the deep sea.
The crew of the Connecticut, using the underwater search system specially designed for the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine, which is specialized in hunting nuclear submarines of hostile nations with stealth capabilities, combed through the depths. However, they were unaware of one crucial fact.
In the deep abyss where nothing could be seen, a colossal submersible fortress, even larger than the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford-class, silently observed them from just below, emitting not a single decibel of noise.
Not that they found nothing. Officer Emile Clark, in charge of the sonar on the Connecticut, shouted as he discovered a massive unidentified underwater object rapidly approaching from their direction.
“Unidentified submersible detected! Bearing 235 degrees! Distance 15,000!”
“15,000?! From that far away!?”
“It’s enormous in size!”
Is it the target???
“Confirmation unavailable. It’s a sound we’ve never heard before!”
“The target we’re searching for is also very large. Please reconfirm.”
“Identification failure. Bearing 210! Distance 12,000!”
Upon hearing Emile’s shout, the captain’s expression turned pale. Swearing under his breath, he had never seen such a fast-moving object since Emile began his submarine life.
“All crew members, battle stations! Torpedo tubes 1, 2, 3, 4, prepare for launch! Communications, attempt to contact the enemy.”
“Alert the approaching vessel. We are the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine SSN 22 Connecticut. Currently conducting a search operation for missing members of the Liberal Clan. If you have no hostile intentions, cease approach immediately and respond to communication!”
“They’re not slowing down! Remaining distance 8000!”
“Repeating. The approaching ship must immediately slow down and respond to communication. Failure to do so will be considered hostile, and we will engage in defensive actions!”
“Remaining distance 5000!”
“Captain, what do you want to do?”
“The likelihood of them being the target of the search?”
“Low. The structure of the building suggests they can’t approach this fast due to water resistance.”
“Remaining distance 2000! Collision imminent!”
“Engage. Torpedo tubes open.”
“Tubes 1 through 4, torpedoes ready!”
“Fire all torpedoes!”
Instantly, four torpedoes launched from the front of the Connecticut, creating a straight line of foamy water. The torpedoes raced towards the approaching unknown entity, delivering four powerful underwater explosions.
“Direct hit with the torpedoes!”
“Just in case, prepare for survivor search…”
“They’re not slowing down! Remaining distance 1000!”
“What!?”
Panicked, the captain ordered an emergency dive, but the Connecticut began ascending rapidly towards the surface. Insufficient to evade the approaching unknown life form, the captain and hundreds of crew members found themselves in imminent danger, 500 meters deep.
And at that moment.
“Huge sonar reaction! Distance 200! Direction… directly below us!”
“No way!? That close?!”
As if suddenly teleporting, a massive vessel appeared below the submarine, throwing all crew members in the command control room into panic.
“Two additional reactions detected from the bottom traps! Approaching us rapidly!”
“Torpedoes?”
“Too large for torpedoes!”
“Darn it, load torpedo jammers as quickly as possible!”
“Emergency loading of torpedo jammers in torpedo tubes 1 through 4! Flood control and hatch opening, emergency execution!”
“It’s going to be too late!”
“Do whatever you can!”
At that moment, on the Abyss, the deep-sea combat armor, Ho-chang, heard the panicked conversations of the crew members as he swiftly moved towards the approaching monstrous entity, aboard the Connecticut.
And then, he spoke towards the Abyss that Myung-Jun was following from behind.
[Captain. Is it worth exposing the location like this?]
[Well, if we hide again, that’s the end of it. We might be fine, but they won’t be. We’ve got hundreds of lives on the line here.]
[Really, your temperament is too good.]
Ho-chang clenched and unclenched the fingers of the Abyss he was aboard, testing its movements.
Developed based on the basic design of the ‘Knight’, unlocked by Myung-Jun’s ability, the ‘Abyss’ was a specialized robot, about half the size of the Knight with a battlefield size of 20 meters. It was designed to protect the occupant and enable smooth combat even under the pressure of 10,000 meters in the deep sea.
Controlling the Abyss, Ho-chang positioned himself between the approaching monsters and the Connecticut. Then, he extended his giant shield, a trademark of his, forward and muttered quietly.
“Gravity anchor, activate.”
<Gravity anchor activated. Locks the shield’s position at the current coordinates.>
At that moment, as if an invisible force had grasped the shield, Ho-chang’s shield was fixed in the middle of the underwater space.
With the defensive preparations complete, Ho-chang sent a communication to Myung-Jun.
[This should hold off the charge, but how do you plan to deal with that massive one? Do we have any turrets usable in the deep sea?]
In response, Myung-Jun, riding the Abyss, moved behind Ho-chang and answered his question.
[Not that it doesn’t exist, but firepower is lacking to capture such a big one.]
[Then what’s the plan?]
[Just hold it for now, I’ll take care of the rest.]
Ho-chang was curious about what Myung-Jun was planning, but there was no time for further questions. The approaching monster, faster than any submarine made by humanity, was charging towards Ho-chang’s direction, mouth wide open.
In his mind, Ho-chang fervently prayed for the gravity anchor embedded in the new shield to withstand the underwater environment, gazing at the screen in front of him.
‘Damn, it’s horrifyingly huge.’
The approaching entity had a shape resembling a massive shark, but with muscular arms and legs that were unusual for deep-sea creatures, exceeding the size of a nuclear submarine. With clawed arms cutting through the water, the creature approached, opening its huge mouth with sharp teeth as if ready to swallow Ho-chang’s Abyss.
And at that moment, an urgent command from Myung-Jun echoed in Ho-chang’s ears.
[Now!]
[Deploy the Void Shield!]
<Void Shield Deployed>
Instantly, along with numerous bubbles, a transparent energy shield expanded from Ho-chang’s shield, reaching a colossal size. The creature’s mouth, wide open and seemingly ready to devour the robot the two were riding, froze as if blocked by a giant glass window.
Observing the abrupt drop in the crystal output supplying energy to the armor and shield, Ho-chang tensed. Then, he looked at Myung-Jun’s Abyss, which seemed to be rushing voluntarily into the belly of the monster, boosters activated as if about to be swallowed.
[Captain! Could it be?!]
Without waiting for a response, Myung-Jun’s Abyss swiftly passed over the monster’s neck. And a moment later, the creature, contorting its body wildly, began inflating like a balloon, as if countless fireworks were going off inside.
At that moment,
[Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!]
With a tremendous amount of blood, as if trying to color the entire deep sea, the monster’s body started exploding in all directions. Within that explosion, Ho-chang could spot Myung-Jun’s Abyss swimming towards him, holding a giant crystal.
[Is this the ‘plan’ you were talking about?]
[I told you. Once I open its mouth, I’ll take care of the rest.]
It was a ridiculous plan in itself, entering the ‘stomach’ with less pressure impact, summoning hundreds of turrets, and exploding from the inside. Ho-chang finally understood the meaning of Myung-Jun’s mentioned ‘plan’ just before their mission.
Ho-chang released the lock on the shield as if screaming silently. Then, the insane Myung-Jun spoke to his leader, clearly.
[How do you know what’s inside and willingly dive into it? What if you melt inside the disguise?]
[Well, it’s coated with anti-corrosive material, so I think it should be fine. Just trust it. It’s a device designed by the senior in the new base. I believe it can overcome any danger.]
[Isn’t that more like love than trust?]
[Interpret it however you like. Right now, it’s time to disappear.]
As Myung-Jun and Ho-chang returned to the Liberator, the now-aware captain of the Connecticut urgently shouted to the communications officer.
“To the Liberal Clan! I am Captain Billy Gadel of the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine Connecticut! Just a moment! Just a moment for a conversation…”
However, despite the captain’s desperate plea, no response echoed from the Liberator, just like when it suddenly appeared moments ago. It vanished into the abyss, disabling all detection devices as if teleporting.
Astonished at the fact that such a massive structure could completely neutralize the latest sonar, Emile Clark, a sonar officer, reported the results he had confirmed to the captain.
“No reaction. Location confirmation is impossible.”
“Is it just undetectable?”
“Most likely. Whatever they used, it seems to completely neutralize our sonar.”
“Then it’s just invisible, but it’s still there, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can they hear us from there?”
“They probably can. With such unbelievable technology, it’s not difficult for them to eavesdrop on our conversation.”
Hearing Miller’s report, the captain adjusted his uniform slowly.
Then, saluting towards the empty space, he shouted.
“Thank you for saving us!”
At that moment, a clear message sent from the Liberator appeared on the communication screen.
「Beware the abyss.」
It was the first warning message sent by the Liberal Clan to humanity, disappearing into the abyss without a trace.
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