"Here we are," I muttered as I looked out at the open sea before me. "Our expedition officially begins now."
"Y-yeah..." Sapphire mumbled next to me as we stood there for a moment.
Overall, things up to this point had gone exactly as planned; we had just entered this world after dealing with one of Peri's clones. I had to explain all the functions and options to Sapphire since the purple administrator's clone felt way too lazy in that moment to bother doing his damn job.
As for the expedition setup, well, I had kept things relatively similar to what I had done in my previous go-through. I picked a universe that matched the timeline from the game and selected our arrival to be one month before BioShock 2. I had also made sure to pick the low difficulty for the main quest, mainly because I wasn't exactly ready to see what a higher-difficulty quest would be, considering the last one had me destroying a city, and I knew Sapphire definitely wasn't ready for that just yet.
Both of us were currently standing on what looked like an old, possibly abandoned dock. The sky was dark with black clouds, rain was pouring down around us, and the vast open expanse of water in front of us was still and calm, eerily so. There were several rundown storage facilities behind me as well as what looked like a rather large town or small city some distance behind those facilities.
(We could have just appeared already inside Rapture, but I thought it best to give Sapphire more time to mentally prepare.) I thought as I stood there, enjoying the feeling of the rain pouring across my exoskeleton. (Also, having more time to plan things out is never bad either; you can never have enough prep time after all.)
"You all right with standing out here, or should we seek shelter for a bit?" I asked, glancing at my companion.
"I'm fine. I honestly like the rain, and my species is quite resistant to the cold," she said awkwardly before gesturing toward the dark blue dress she was currently wearing. The rain that landed on it seemed to slide off the fabric without being absorbed. "Also, my clothes are made for underwater environments, so there's no need for me to worry about them getting uncomfortable to wear."
(I guess that makes sense.) I mused internally.
"So then, let's go over the plan one more time."
"A-alright."
"Our main objective when we get there is to lock down and take control of one of the buildings that make up Rapture to use as a launching-off point for what comes next. We'll start with one floor and clear out the rest one by one." I explained and she nodded along.
"I'll deal with any areas that are more open and dry while you deal with any areas that are partially or fully flooded."
"As for what's next, well..."
We spent the next few minutes going over our plans and goals for what was to come, like which characters needed to be saved from death or which ones needed to be killed. Fortunately, no one showed up in that time; it would be a really awkward situation if some random person came by and saw a tiny xenomorph queen and a fish girl having a conversation about an underwater city.
"Those poor girls..." Sapphire breathed shakily as we reached the subject of the Little Sisters.
"True. If at all possible I'd like to save them all; leaving them down there just doesn't sit well with me," I said, an audible hiss in my voice.
(It reminds me of how I found Mel and the other kids from the trial, in a way...) I thought as anger boiled up inside me at the memory.
"And what about the Big Daddies and Big Sisters?" she asked, causing me to pause.
"Honestly, I don't know." I hummed as I thought it over before continuing. "With the Big Sisters I might be able to save them if I am able to add them to my hive mind; it's already proven to help with things like trauma and mental damage. As for the Big Daddies..."
"I really don't know. Is it even moral for me to try and give them back their sentience and memories? The Alpha series, like Delta, maybe, but the rest? They're not even human under those suits anymore. Maybe it'd be better to just put them out of their misery..." I explained with a sigh.
For a moment afterwards there was silence between us before I decided to change the subject somewhat. "Anyway, we should probably get going." I mused as I stretched slightly. "We can talk more on the way there."
"A-alright, but how are we going to get there? We could swim, b-but that might take a while... I could call for some tr-transportation, if you want that is," Sapphire said, catching my attention.
"I was just going to use Polly or Vera to fly us to the lighthouse, but now I'm curious, what kind of transportation were you talking about?" I mused, tilting my head to look at her.
"Abyss Tyrants. They're like big deep-sea armored sharks that my people use as mounts and beasts of war," she responded, and that got me really curious, I'm not gonna lie.
"Alright, now I'm definitely interested." I mused thoughtfully.
"B-by the way, those you mentioned, Polly and Vera, right?" Sapphire asked and I nodded in confirmation. "Are those the giant parrot and wasp you talked about back when you told us all about your first expedition?"
"Yeah, they are. Why?" I asked, confused for a second.
"I was just curious is all... their names sounded familiar..." she whispered, her eyes drifting up to the stormy night sky above.
(Ah, so that's it.)
"How about this: we fly there on Polly and then swim down on those sharks of yours that you mentioned? It'll be quicker that way." I suggested and she immediately perked up.
"Okay!"
(Guess I was right.) I thought, chuckling internally as I opened a portal to my sanctuary storage.
I had continued to keep the mutants that I got from Rampage in my storage, except for Ralph, mainly because I didn't want them throwing my sanctuary out of whack. Until Jonas could make enough mutant creatures and plants to begin populating certain regions of my sanctuary, it wouldn't be best to add in the mutants that I currently have. After all, if the balance of an ecosystem is off it will quickly begin to fall apart, and that goes triple for an ecosystem with kaiju-like creatures existing within it.
Anyway, it wasn't long before the massive parrot pulled himself out. The portal was a little bit small for him, mind you, so he had to squeeze his way through slightly; however, he managed. Once outside he spread his wings and screeched, apparently he hadn't enjoyed being cooped up in the sanctuary storage even if he was only partially conscious.
(You'd think that losing to Vera would have taught him some humility, but nope, he's still rather full of himself.) I thought, feeling his emotions through the hive mind.
"Why does he have golden scales by the way?" Sapphire asked as I stepped forward.
"Because the pathogen that he was infected with had pangolin DNA in it," I answered simply as the giant parrot lowered himself after his not-so-quiet screech; he was using his wings to support himself similarly to how a bat would.
"Oh... how does that work? I mean, h-how can he even fly? Shouldn't his weight make that impossible?"
As she said that I felt a sudden flare of emotion from Polly through the hive mind that roughly translated to: <
"If I'm being honest, I have no idea." I admitted as I scratched my claws against the side of Polly's head, causing him to let out a sound that I registered as a huff. "Biologically it should be impossible; however, at this point I'm used to the laws of physics being broken."
"T-that's fair, I guess."
"Anyway, we should probably be off." I said as I climbed onto Polly's back before holding out my hand for her. "Come on."
"You... are you sure he doesn't mind..." she asked as she hesitantly took my hand.
"It'll be fine. Just make sure to hold on tight." I said as I pulled her up so she was sitting behind me.
"A-alright."
And so, with a mental command, Polly spread his wings and took off, his wings beating as we rose up and up into the darkness above. Thankfully getting to our destination wouldn't be a problem as we had arrived perfectly south of the lighthouse above Rapture, so all we needed to do was go straight until we saw it.
"This is... this feels amazing..." Sapphire said, seemingly enjoying the wind rushing through her hair.
"I'll have to agree with you on that." I chuckled and Polly screeched in agreement as he picked up the pace.
(I wonder what it would be like to fly on my own... maybe I should look into getting wings or some kind of flight gift...) I thought to myself internally. (Thoughts for later, I guess.)
(For now, let's check out the missions again.) I thought while pulling up the relevant information on my system panel.
{Main Mission: Fall Rapture Fall
Difficulty: Low
Description: Rapture is to be left forgotten, forever submerged in the dark, lost within the murky depths. That can not be allowed. Reveal Rapture to the world; do not let the atrocities be forgotten, let all know of the horrors that lay below.
Notes: None
Reward: 921 RP}
{Side Mission 1: Daddy's Little Girl
Description: All that effort, all that struggle, and the big guy just dies at the end? Well, that just won't do. Prevent Delta's death while helping him and Eleanor reunite before it's too late.
Notes: None
Reward: 1450 RP}
{Side Mission 2: Splicer, No Splicing!
Description: I... how the hell... you know what, I don't even want to know. Just kill those ugly fucking things so I don't have to look at them anymore.
Notes: Your reward will depend on the number of Splicers you are able to neutralise.
Reward: ???}
{Side Mission 3: Secrets Of The Thinker
Description: You son of a bitch, I'm in. It's time for a classic heist; however, instead of money or ancient artifacts, today we're stealing data and secrets, more specifically everything related to The Thinker.
Notes: None
Reward: 1120 RP}
{Side Mission 4: Where Are My Drugs?
Description: Drugs that give you superpowers, will fuck me sideways, side me up baby! What? There are side effect? Do I look like I give a shit about side effects? Stop whining like a bitch and get out there; find as many of those plasmids as possible.
Notes: Your reward will depend on the number and types of plasmids collected.
Reward: ???}
{Side Mission 5: Such A Good Birdy
Description: Damn... he was such a good boy... Songbird didn't deserve to die like that... he should have gone out in a blaze of glory, not being crushed to death by water pressure because of some reality hoping bitch. Find what's left of Songbird's body; the big guy deserved better.
Notes: None
Reward: 785 RP}
{Side Mission 6: Get Back Here!
Description: It's right fucking there! Let me grab it! FUUUUUCCCCKKK! You know what? Screw it. Hey you, this bloody neon-flashing plasmid keeps teleporting away from me like a little prick and it's really pissing me off, go get it!
Notes: None
Reward: 1900 RP}