How long have we been swimming? If Icebreaker-5 was apparently near, we've been moving for a very long time, seemingly non-stop. Either that or the missing spaceship crashed in a spot conveniently close to us.
Agent Nebula was somewhat excited to see the solution to the years-long mystery she's been piecing together for so long. I was too, but I was also anxious, because I wasn't sure if the Perseids will trust us enough to let us come aboard. If there is any board left, because that's unclear.
Leonid led us back to the crossroad, with Alia walking by his side and Rill Gomana following us from behind, ready to capture us if we tried to flee. We weren't planning to do that, but the fact that the Perseids were prepared to strike meant that they didn't trust us fully, which was mildly concerning.
Upon reaching the crossroad, we realized that things changed while we were out. Einstein was awakened, keeping watch over the sonar in the cockpit with Captain Nigel. Arika left the cockpit and ran into us.
She was surprised to see us with the Perseids. It seems like she instantly deduced that we've been captured, but bargained our way out.
- How do you know that Icebreaker-5 is near? - I asked her, wanting to get confirmation.
- Nigel's picked up some strange signals coming from nearby, specifically above us. The signals appear to be distored, which suggests that whatever is sending them isn't in the best condition - Arika explained.
I felt that she wanted to find out what happened to us, but bit her tongue when she noticed the Perseids and their enclave. She didn't want to raise any unnecessary suspicions.
- I gotta go and wake up the others. We're going to the surface - Arika made her way to the crew quarters.
I heard some whining coming from the room, as not everyone was initially willing to get up. It was 1 AM, when most of the others went to bed about two hours ago, so naturally, many were sleepy.
- Icebreaker-5 is near! - Arika exclaimed and everyone in the crew quarters heard her. Soon, the rest of the group assembled, electrified by the news. I was almost certain that none of them wanted to sleep with the Perseids on board, so the faster we complete the contract, the better.
Arika led Sebastian, Claudius, Amber, Anthony and Justine out of the crew quarters. They soon joined us and Leonid spoke up:
- Even with modern spacesuits, humans can only survive about four minutes on the surface of Europa before succumbing to radiation, so we need to be as fast as possible, unless you're ready and willing to die. Our primary goal will be finding any kind of control room or cockpit to see if radiation shields or their remnants can still be activated. We need perfect cooperation to ensure that both parties will survive to finish the deal. Once we're done, you can go away scot-free. Understood? - his voice radiated authority. The evil kind of authority, but it worked.
- Yes - Agent Nebula agreed.
- Yes - I played along.
- Yes - so did the others.
- Each of you shall get a stopwatch to keep watch over the passage of time and know when to return. If anyone is left behind, it's their fault. Shed no tears for them - Leonid said coldly. Coldly enough to give me chills.
If someone was left behind, regardless of who they were, I would shed a tear, because they're simply a person. In fact, I'd shed a lot of tears and I think that the others wouldn't behave differently.
Alia gave each of us stopwatches, except for Nebula, who already had one. When I got mine, I set it to four minutes, but didn't activate it yet. First, we had to get dressed.
Captain Nigel refused to go, opting to stay and guard the submarine. While he didn't tell us this, I assumed that he wanted to stay alive in hopes of regaining his old status as the leader of the Agency. One less person to bring to the surface.
The spacesuits on board were, like the clothes from the cloakroom, dark teal and black, albeit the spacesuits additionally had white accents. I thought that putting spacesuits on couldn't get any harder, but the ones aboard the submarine proved me wrong. They were even heavier than the ones I wore during my previous missions and I felt like a knight struggling with their armor whilst trying to put it on.
However, the most tedious part was trying to wrap my stopwatch around my wrist with my hands protected by thick gloves that made it hard to grab things. Anthony ended up assisting me, becuase I kept dropping my stopwatch by accident and was afraid that I'd break it if I kept trying. Nebula was the only one who didn't struggle, seemingly used to this.
When we all put our spacesuits on, which took us twenty minutes (Leonid was really flustered by this), we made our way to a batyscaphe which could detatch itself from the submarine. It wasn't very spacious, so it was hard to fit everyone in it, as we had to bring everyone onto the surface in one go. Nigel glanced at us, happy that he decided against going with us. This was, as far as I could remember, the only time when I saw Captain Nigel smiling.
The batyscaphe was dark gray, much like the submarine. It had three arms, each with a different attatchment at its end: one had a heated drill akin to those used on the Moon, the second one had a sawblade and the third one had a claw.
As we decoupled from the submarine and headed upwards, it became clear what we were going to do: we'll use the heated drill to break the ice into small chunks, which we will cut through using the sawblade, disposing of any dangerous pieces with the claw.
Einstein and Nebula ended up being the pilots, with Anthony standing behind them. Leonid was standing in the back of the batyscaphe, keeping watch over everyone. We established a radio connection with Nigel, who was sitting in the submarine's cockpit. With everything prepared, we started drilling.
- Short Time Skip -
Nothing interesting happened as we made our way up. Just drilling and cutting, ocassionally throwing resistant chunks away. Einstein and Agent Nebula were laser focused and nobody was talking as to not distract them.
It took us quite a while to reach the surface, given how thick the ice sheet was. Now that I think about, the batyscaphe is probably the pinnacle of drilling technology, since it could break through such a thick layer of ice almost as hard as rock.
Upon finally reaching the surface, the first visible thing was Jupiter, as massive and seemingly all-encompasing as ever. It was large enough to block a solid portion of sky. Now, I wasn't surprised that Jupiter was named after the supreme god in Roman mythology. Jupiter's superstorm looked like an all-seeing eye staring at us without end.
The second thing I noticed was the wreckage of Icebreaker-5.
As it turned out, it really was here. Good thing we didn't stop in Conamara Chaos, as that would've been a waste of time. The signals Nigel picked up did actually come from a manmade object.
The wrecked spacecraft was partially embedded into the ice sheet, having cracked some ice as it smashed headfirst into the ground. The cockpit was invisible from the batyscaphe, obstructed by ice. The force of the impact was enough to split the vessel in half. Thus, Icebreaker-5's remnants reminded me of the Titanic, which was famously split in half as it sank in 1912.
The back of Icebreaker-5 had to engines attatched to it, had being the keyword. One of them broke off as the spacecraft crashed. The broken engine now lied by the back of the craft, completely lifeless. The windows, as there were a few, were all shattered by the sheer force of the crash.
- We found it! - Agent Nebula cheered.
- I didn't expect to see it here, but this is great! - Einstein added.
Being awestruck by a wrecked spacecraft may seem weird, but we were on the brink of solving one of the largest mysteries from the Second Cold War. As I stared at the downed spaceship, I wondered about what caused it to crash so violently. Was it just a system malfunction, like Nigel said, or was the cause a lot stranger?6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznWSuCMILh
I was eager to know and so did the others. Ready for action, we activated our stopwatches and hopped out of the batyscaphe, landing on the ice. It's time to finally solve the mystery of Icebreaker-5.
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and then Add to home screen.