28. Deep Sea Predators
The submarine glided smoothly under the choppy sea surface. The ocean seemed to be agitated by giants. Their submarine was a few dozen meters below the surface, but they could still feel the submarine rocking. The current swirled wildly as the tip of the cyclone's eye stirred the sea water with tremendous intensity.
Fortunately, this small boat owned by Bio Research had a diving mode. Otherwise, they couldn't imagine how to survive the cataclysmic weather.
"Ben, how deep can this submarine go?" Tet, who had been silent for a while, asked.
"If you look at the maximum indicator on this monitor, it's 500 meters. Why?" Ben asked again.
"Hmm, the most advanced radar and satellites are able to scan about 500 meters under the sea. We have to be stealthy. If they detected us, they would easily send torpedoes to destroy us."
Ran nodded. The situation was very dangerous. They had turned on the transponders and satellite network as a directional guide but that also meant letting Bio Research know exactly where they were. Sending torpedoes? Of course, it was easy for them. It was just that they might not be within range of the torpedoes yet, so they were still safe.
"Torpedo! Two! Heading toward us!" Ben shouted nervously. His finger pointed to two small dots on the screen.
Good Lord! Ran groaned inwardly. They were being attacked before he even finished thinking about the possibility.
Ben pushed the submarine forward at top speed. At 20 knots under water equals to 25 knots on the surface. That was fast enough. But he knew the speed of the torpedo was not less than 20 knots, so in 10 minutes or so impact would occured. Their distance from the torpedo was no more than 30 nautical miles.
"Ben! What are you doing?" Rabat half screamed questioning his intention, looking at Ben as if he had purposely wanted the torpedo to hit the submarine dead ahead.
Ran put his index finger to his lips telling everyone to be quiet. Ben was concentrating on something. Ran trusted Ben's actions.
Everyone was silent and wrapped in their own thoughts. Except Ran, Tet and Rabat thought Ben had lost his mind!
The small submarine continued to advance at high speed. Five minutes to impact and Ben was still driving the submarine towards the torpedo.
4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes... Suddenly Ben made a sharp turn to the side and added extreme depth to the dive. The submarine entered a narrow crevice flanked by the sheer walls of the underwater mountains.
Ah! So that was Ben's intention. So far, Tet and Rabat had not paid attention to the monitor screen showing the underwater situation. The submarine was in a sea lane that had lots of trenches, underwater cliff walls, and narrow crevices in between.
One minute, the two torpedoes also made a sharp turn to chase the target. But the turn was too sharp, one torpedo hit an underwater cliff wall and exploded. One torpedo left!
Ben weaved through the narrow gap with a torpedo trailing behind him. Less than one minute there would be a collision!
Except for Ben, all eyes widened when they saw a dead end in front! A cliff wall towered before them. Ben had gone mad!
Ben stayed focused. Just as the torpedo was approaching and ready to destroy the submarine, Ben drastically reduced speed along with releasing one ballast so that the submarine seemed to jump upwards in an instant.
The torpedo hit the cliff wall with a big explosion. They could see the massive stone wall crumbling down from such a close distance. Meanwhile, the submarine continued to rise toward the surface.
They were safe.
Ben pulled the speed lever, and after passing several cliff-tops he turned the transponder off then slid to maximum depth.
The submarine's depth indicator screen showed 450 meters, but Ben continued diving.
The indicator light flashed bright red followed by alarm sound. Ben stopped diving. The submarine was at a depth of 505 meters, enough to disappear from opponent's radar. Ben was good. The way he dodged the torpedo was impressive.
Now the submarine was moving at a moderate speed. Ben had already marked the destination when he was still connected to the satellite. They were no longer blind. Bio Research was the one who couldn't see them any longer. They might think this small submarine had been destroyed by their torpedo.
The situation below sea level was very calm. Visibility was also good because the waters they entered were now very clear. This was the deep-sea area. They encountered various types of fish at a depth of more than 500 meters which had different characteristics from surface fish.
Some species emitted light when approaching their submarine. The shape also looked unusual. They all amazed to see the extraordinary diversity.
Suddenly their ship was hurled forward. Luckily Ben was quick to control the situation before the ship hit the rock wall towering in front of them.
"Holy shit! What was that, Ben?" Ran asked with a pale face. His face almost hit the navigation panel earlier.
Rabat and Tet were also more or less the same. Both winced in pain because their shoulders had collided during the incident earlier.
Ben didn't answer. He was busy paying attention to the monitor screen and navigation panel. Something large seemed to be moving swiftly toward them. Geez, another torpedo? No, this was something even scarier!
"Ugh, we've arrived, Comrades. The high stone wall before us is not stone. But cobalt metal. And what hit us just now wasn't the ocean current but… hey!" Ben's words were cut off while he was swiftly picked up speed and climbed to avoid a collision with something big and seemed to be deliberately hitting them.
A super large shadow flashed next to the submarine. Good grief! What was that?
"That…that…we're almost got hit a second time by…Megalodon!" Ben screamed hysterically while pointing ahead.
A super large shadow heading face to face again toward them.
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