The ocean planet Tempest 'harbors' many pelagic perils. After carefully not getting swallowed by the sea and navigating around the swirling storms, we switched the boat to submarine mode and descended. Traveling through the brackish world, we had to be wary of the many macroscopic sea creatures that would want to make snack out of out the 40 crewed Abyssal Territory Explorer submarine, or A.T.E.

Normally submarines wouldn't dive as deep as we would due to most commercially available models not being able to withstand the immense pressures of the deep ocean, but I received stories from deep research vessel and military spy submarine captains about some kind of shadow cryptid creatures near the thermo-abyssal boundary shroud. The creatures are said to be deformed beast-like shadows that snatch or grab unfortunate vessels, and engulf them into the toxic hot ocean that is below the thermo-abyssal boundary. Normally such a story would be passed off as deep-water-darkness-confusion nonsense but these are professional captains losing two or three brave allied crews all within the recorded span of minutes!

A chance to explore the thermo-abyssal boundary is in itself a special research treat, yet alone a chance to see a new dangerous creature! The thermo-abyssal boundary shroud is a special 'turning point' in the Tempest deep ocean, where the pressure and heat create a buffer layer of heavier toxic elements. The floor of the toxic abyss has been theorized to be made of higher forms of ice; as in 'we crushed the water so much down here, it's now a solid' ice.

Upon getting to the boundary shroud we got the primary instrumentation, and resurface escape pod equipment up and running! We stared out the main windows at the churning toxic brew for about thirty minutes before the shapes began to rise... What a spine-chilling, and infinitely fascinating experience!

We were grabbed by a shadowy hand belonging to the first creature we called 'Angullet' due to it's strikingly angular neck shape. Angullet proceeded to lick the front lower half of the bow, with the tongues' hot toxic composition causing the searchlight to be destroyed. We weren't immediately devoured however! The creature must have disliked the bright light, or wanted better ambiance for what happened next...

A second shadow creature emerged from the abyss, we called this one 'Bonemaw' due to it's beast skull-like visage and pretty mouth. At this point the escape pods were manned, and launched while I stayed behind. I was the captain after all, so I had to 'go down' with the ship! Due to the lack of competitiveness from our presence as being food and the slow-but-sure friendly interactions of the shadow creatures, I came to the conclusion that they have a spooky sentience. Especially because my vessel was offered as a snack to Bonemaw from Angullet. Bonemaw's tongue playfully wrapping around the ship causing hull damage from it's aforementioned properties.

The A.T.E. was was gonna be eaten, and I could see the slithering tongue move my deep doom ever closer as the small amount of outside glow was taken away. Bonemaw's mouth shut, blackness filled the outside window, and I could hear the squelching gulps of abyssal bliss. The shadowy significant other's gift was gleefully accepted by Bonemaw as evidenced by escape pod footage showing a playful nuzzle!

It wasn't long before Bonemaw's body made quick work of the A.T.E.. As soon as a hull breach was detected, the ship was crushed by the immense pressure and dissolved from the inside out from the dangerous bodily composition of these shadowy creatures. Instruments on board both the escape pods and the main vessel identified the shadow creature's body to be made of a different material than the surrounding brew outside.

With the A.T.E. having the fate of horror hips or shadowy stomach fat and external footage from the rising escape pods showing a belch with accompanying giant bubbles, this tour was completed.

Analyzing data from all of this was quite the hassle and upon further investigating stories from the stormy seas, there seems to be instances of these creatures leaving the deep depths to terrify the more readily available living. There are also reports of shadowy cryptids on the surface and surrounding space of the nearby fitting spooky planet, Dakumbra. I can only conclude from data that these creatures are dimensional travelers; a sort-of 'nega-starhoppers from your worst nightmares'... Despite all of this, they can get pretty intimate with each other, and show that love can exist even in the most horrible creatures of the dark....... Also an appetite... Mostly higher sentience though, it's gets scary again when you think about it too much, almost like they're making me go mad.