Hidden Deep V0.96.5a [LATEST]

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.

Here's what v0.96.5a did: instead of fleeing, the drones swam toward it. Their manipulator arms opened like mouths. They began emitting a frequency—not sonar. A voice. My voice. Spliced from old logs, from conversations I'd had alone in my quarters. Words I'd never said out loud, but thought near the hydrophone. Hidden Deep v0.96.5a

It had no fixed shape. It borrowed—edges from the columns, texture from the sediment, a suggestion of eyes from the dead bioluminescent algae we'd cataloged two days prior. The drones' threat classification went from 0 (safe) to 99 (critical) in 0.3 seconds. The door to my lab just unlocked by itself

Then v0.96.5a kicked in.

I'm turning off the lights now. The dark is quieter. Here's what v0

The thing absorbed them. One by one. Not crushed—absorbed. Their lights winked out in reverse order, like a time lapse of a candle drowning.