Grey skies linger as storm clouds up high dampen the busy docks. Loud shouts and calls can be heard from all corners being accompanied by the crashing waves and bellowing waves.

A man shouts, “Mainlander! check the rims!”

Not soon after a resolute voice replies, “Yes!

In a matter of seconds, the man shouts again, “Mainlander! Prepare the tanks!”

Frantically trying to finish up the first task, the voice replies, “On it”

As heavy thumping from the hard wood below follows. Drowned in the background noise, the man shouts another command, “Mainlander, the SUITS!”

Preoccupied and genuinely confused, the voice asks, “And!?”

A snide remark from the man followed, “A kiss on my crack, if you don’t get em ere NOW!”

Annoyed the voice mockingly replies with, “Crusty old millennial! Unlike YOU, I have 2 arms and legs!”

Pissed off, the man threatens, “Say that again you dirt gouger and your next!”, as he points to a floating metal capsule.

“What?! Are you gonna personally put me in there with your own arm and leg?”, the voice says, ridiculing the man.

Fed up, the man shouts begrudgingly, “Get me the SUITS mainlander!”

“Oh, I’ll get them to ya alright!”, the voice replies in passing.

???: “God Erika, can you not piss off old Sam early on in the day?”

Erika: “What?! Just because he is old and his body needs a break doesn’t mean his head shouldn’t work”

Erika: “Like damn I only have so many limbs I can use, Antha”

Antha: “Yeah, I know I know alright? But you didn’t have to emphasise his lack of limbs now did ya?”

Antha: “He almost put ya into that iron coffin”

Erika: ”Oh how I would love for him to do that, and hey an eye for an organ, he hits me where it hurts, I hit where it’s vital ha-ha!”

Erika: “It’s already been 4 months! and he still won’t shut up with me being a Lan dweller and a dirt muncher”

Antha: “At least show him a bit more respect, he deserves it being 165 years old and all”

Erika: “Yikes, hope I don’t live for that long, it must suck”

Antha: “You won’t if you keep up that attitude with him, and it probably does, especially if most of that life was spent down there”

She points towards the endless dark waters spanning the horizon.

Antha: “Hey…do you really wanna go after your old man?”

Erika: “Yeah…”

Erika stares longingly into the depths, hopeful to one day delve into it herself.

     We dive into the great depths for a reason, our lands have finally run dry after years of pointless conflict, 19 years ago a submersible research vessel that was presumed missing for months resurfaced which brought back astonishing information, there was a massive hole in the southern oceans, it was a gap in between the tectonic plates that had no theoretical end. Desperate, the National League sent a suicide squad to explore the depths of the gap, miraculously 3 days later they resurfaced with iron and copper, two precious metals thought to have been completely extracted from the world. Ever since then the hole garnered the attention of the entire world, it was even given the name “Gaia’s Mercy”, ironic because there was no mercy whatsoever for the “volunteers” of the “Action squad” of Boundary 01 who were sent again and again into missions deep into the abyss.

    Time by time again they brought back more and more resources, mission after mission, they went deeper and deeper until one day they resurfaced carrying with them a scale that was see through like glass but as hard as steel, to say that the world was shocked would be an understatement, this one discovery sparked the revolution flagged under the assumption that the depths are not only rich in lost resources but rich in newer more valuable resources. What they had seemed to overlook however is that the depths were not “empty”  

Erika: “It has been 18 years you still have not kept your promise to mom…*tch*”

Erike clicks her tongue as she continues with her duties.  

“There is always a need and reason for what people do, it just so happens that my reasons are my needs”

-Kaye “The Unbound”