Hidden Deep V0.96.5a Here

The door to my lab just unlocked by itself. The water outside is 2°C. My breath fogs the glass, but there's no fog on the outside of the viewport.

Then the prey-drive threshold activated. Hidden Deep v0.96.5a

The drones stopped communicating with each other. I watched on the secondary feed as they turned in unison, facing the central pit. Something rose from it. Not fast. Not swimming. Unfolding , like a thought given mass. The door to my lab just unlocked by itself

Recovered Data Fragment // Depth: 7,342m // Signal Attenuation: 94.3% Then the prey-drive threshold activated

Yesterday, we breached the Basalt Veil. That's what command calls it—a geological layer of superheated, compressed carbon and silica, like a fossilized skin over something older. Below it, the sonar doesn't work. Magnetometers spin like compasses in a seizure. We rely on dead reckoning and a single tether no thicker than a hair.