Something has been found at the bottom of Earth's ocean. An ancient artifact that can only be described as a giant door, inset into the sea floor. It becomes known as the Vault. A gigantic enigma, buried and forgotten...nineteen thousand feet down. To study the artifact, the galaxy's most powerful corporation, Maas-Dorian, has built a massive, self-contained, secret laboratory base surrounding it, named FATHOM. It's objective: unlock the secrets of the artifact and discover what it holds.โ But some mysteries should remain buried. And some doors should never be opened....The story of DERELICT begins with season one, FATHOM, a narrative podcast experience from award winning science fiction author J. Barton Mitchell, and produced by Night Rocket Productions.
This podcast starts with its own prequel - Fathom. Derelict is currently available via the premium subscription and I haven't listened to that yet. But Fathom is an absolute masterpiece. I was at the edge of my seat all of the time. It's very well written and the voice cast is excellent. I especially like the role of Agent Blayne, played by Michael Mau.
The setpiece - an underwater base near an ancient artifact - is very claustrophobic and gave me "The Thing" vibes at times. It's really hard to pull off a story and audio design so well that you can feel immersed for hours - but this audiodrama really did it for me.