Under the Waves: Stan's Odyssey

Stan’s Journal [North Sea, UniTrench Base] The North Sea wraps around me, its depths both a sanctuary and a cage. Down here in UniTrench’s underwater base, I’m just a diver doing my job, but the ocean feels like it’s watching me. My submarine, Moon, hums as I steer her through glowing coral reefs and past the husks of old wrecks, their rusted bones whispering stories I can’t quite hear. I scavenge what I can, crafting tools and oxygen sticks to keep me going. The oil rigs loom above, silent giants I’m tasked with keeping alive. Every weld, every patch, feels like a ritual to hold this world together. My past? It’s a shadow I can’t shake. Years diving for UniTrench, the offshore drilling titan, have weathered me. I came here to outrun a loss that still claws at my chest, thinking the sea’s quiet would drown it out. UniTrench runs the show down here, mining oil while the ocean chokes on their mess. Leaks, pollution, dying reefs... I see it all, even if I’m just a cog in their machine. Tim’s voice crackles through my radio, giving orders, checking in. He’s my only link to the surface, but it’s not enough to keep the shadows in my head at bay. Each dive pulls me deeper. I swim into caves, navigate tight wrecks, and lose myself in the sea’s beauty, a fleeting escape from the weight I carry. My mission is simple: keep the rigs running. Wake up, coffee, Tim’s briefing. Repair leaks, check pipelines, pilot Moon to the next site. But the ocean’s changing. I find traces of UniTrench’s toll… dead coral, oil slicks, and it gnaws at me. My choices down here, the paths I take, feel like they’re carving something permanent. The sea’s alive, its pulse in every current, and it’s calling me to listen. I don’t know what I’ll find, but I’m diving in, one breath at a time...