It would have been a hard sight to describe to any who had not witnessed it with their own eyes. Half visible in the diluted sunlight filtering down from the azure waves of the surface, only the half hidden shapes of the miles of carnage could be seen. It was a rusting graveyard, with the bodies of old engines piled into the sand as they fell atop one another, felled from whatever great battle had raged above long ago. The bodies of each vehicle, bearing the faded half hidden colours of more nations than could be counted, had been shattered where they had impacted against the sand, littering the seabed for miles around. Countless vast machines of war now lay decrepit, their iron skeletons covered by seaborne creatures which had made their home amidst the water dampened munitions.

Standing in a small clearing between the wreckage where she had landed, the sight was equally horrifying and awe inspiring to Cassandra. So much life must have been lost here, so much knowledge in battle, but there was so much here that could be reclaimed. Her crimson eyes were staring wide with shock through the armoured glass of her helmet and mouth repeatedly opened and closed trying to find the right words. She had expected something of worth with this excursion, but this? There was enough forgotten technology and raw material here to launch entire fleets of airships, perhaps even a new golden age for whatever city-state found it!

She and Sofia had been called far away from their usual homes by rumours of potential salvage opportunities along the older western colonies. Some relics left over from old wars between previous city states or civilisation which had fallen, the usual stuff they were asked to hunt down. Being one of the few inventors actually supported within the Guild of Mechateers with any interest in deep sea exploration, Cass had been the only one up for the job. Their loss it seemed. With her engineering partner manning the diving suit pumps on their small tug she had donned her gear, taken the plunge and found a veritable treasure trove of machinery. Already Cass could feel her initial shock ebbing away, and that familiar raw enthusiasm and excitement at the chance to examine new machinery was coming to the forefront of her mind.

With her weighted boots squelching through the damp sand, she began heading towards the nearest of the wrecks, half buried by oceanic life and sediment. She found herself calmed by the comfortingly familiar sounds of her suit operating at full capacity, from the soft hiss of the pumps above forcing air into her helmet to the gentle squeaks of its rubbery surface rubbing against itself. Her face turned a shade of pink as she thought of inflating its already balloon like proportion’s further, relaxingly floating in the water before heading to the surface. After all, she had already found and confirmed the presence of the relics, what harm would be a little fun now?

One of the feline’s thickly gloved hands had actually tugged one of the miniature air canisters kept on her belt for emergency ascents, before almost reluctantly returning it to its place. There would be time for that later, and Cass knew she would never forgive herself if she didn’t take the opportunity to loot something from the vehicles. She stomped closer to the vehicle, peering in through its shattered canopy and began taking notes of its structure.

The machine was one of a multitude littering the site bearing the same design: A forwards canopy mounted ahead of a fixed wing and ending in a tail section. Had Cass seen a schematic or drawing of the vehicle she would have laughed at the insanity of it. There were no gasbags, no steam vents or even tesla coils to help power it! It was completely unlike the airships of their age and she couldn’t begin how it could have kept airborne or even landed for that matter. What if it had suffered engine failure? Airships at least could keep themselves floating above the clouds if their rotors failed, if this had lost its wing it would likely drop like a stone!

She then noted the jagged edge hole along one side of the craft, parallel to its single wing and realisation dawned on her. It had left the ground with two and lost one in whatever battle there had been above. “That explains a fair bit” she breathed, more to break the silence of working alone than anything else, and wondered if this had been the fate of other craft now lying here. It would explain the sight just visible in the far distance, an even more bizarre craft which had embedded itself vertically upwards in the sand. One which seemed to consist of nothing but a single cylinder and a few fins with a massive opening at its top. Had it flown here vertically like some skyborne citadel or was the massive opening there to suck in air to power itself forwards? Cass felt herself shivering with excitement, there was so much here to examine! She just needed some proof things were here, enough for a proper salvage operation to come back and haul everything out of here…

Cass came to a sudden halt as she felt her foot connect with something solid, just hidden underneath the sand. She frowned, taking a few steps back and reaching down, digging through the shallow layers of the seabed until she reached a black iron handle. Something of value? She began to grin at the thought of having found some previous cargo dropped by one of the aircraft, and a few discreet brushes were all it took to confirm these thoughts. It was a massive chest, half her size and heavier than she could have believed. Littered with dents and gouges into its thick exterior, it had visibly taken severe punishment without being broken open. For Cass that only confirmed that she’d found something worthy of taking back. The stronger the defences, the more valuable the prize. It was only logical, wasn’t it? She’d just need to get it back to the surface and prize it open.

Cass tilted her head back, peering up at the distant surface waves far above her. The chest was far too heavy to lift while swimming and even Sofia wouldn’t be able to pull up both herself and this treasure. Her grin grew broader as her thoughts led to a simple solution. It seemed she was going to have some fun after all. Carefully securing the chest with one of the cables usually reserved for crane salvaging, Cass unbuckled her weighted belt and tied the cable’s other end around her midsection. So far so good, she thought, before taking one of the miniature air canisters from her discarded belt and plugging it into the port below her neck.

Automatically the valve whirred open and a stream of bubbles exploded from it, racing towards the surface as it began forcing new air inside her outfit. Cass’ already balloon-like proportions began to rapidly pump outwards, her chest swelling into a barrel shaped pocket of air. Expanding outwards, it began swallowing up her arms, even as they were inflated to multiple times their size, almost becoming immobile as the immense pressure built up inside her attire. It felt as if her entire body were stretching, thickening and stiffening, and Cass was forced to stifle the gentle moan of pleasure rising in her throat.

With some difficulty, she lowered her hand to her stomach, pressing against the solid mass of air before she felt herself rising upwards. Flipped onto her back as she was pulled upwards, Cass could just about see the state of her tail, the suit around it having expanded to several times its normal size and pushing up against her legs. The brief squeaks she had heard with her movement had arisen to a constant background noise, reverberating throughout the armoured glass of her helmet.

With her limbs stretched apart like a scarecrow, almost completely immobilising the feline inventor, she felt the cable become taught. Then, after a moments resistance, the chest began to rise, pulled after her. As her suit finally expanded completely beyond her size, tugging her paws out of her boots as they expanded past her legs, she stretched out and relaxed. The surface was still a long way off. She’d found something worth a very large fortune and found the excuse - the chance, to indulge in some of her more personal interests. For Cass, you couldn’t ask for a better day.