The last thing I remembered was a dull pain in my head preceded by loud metal clanging and flashing lights. When I came to, I found myself in a dimly lit life pod, slowly rocking back and forth as if in an ocean. There was an electrical panel cover lying on the ground before me, with one corner being slightly bloody, and as I felt the area of my injury on my forehead, I found blood from a broad cut in my forehead, now dried up from clotting, down my face. *The panel must have gotten torn off upon launch and bounced around, eventually hitting me in the head.* I thought to myself. *But why did I need to evacuate in a life pod in the first place?* I was quickly distracted by the distinctive smell of fire and the sound of crackling electricity as the damaged electrical panel began sparking and started a fire from a flammable fluid, no doubt released due to damage sustained on the way down. I turned to the emergency fire extinguisher, but to my dismay, it was not in its holder near my seat like I'd hoped. I began searching frantically, hoping it wasn't over by the fire. I found it underneath the electrical panel cover, and quickly put out the fire, the chemicals in the spray neutralizing the flammable liquid's chemical volatility. Just when I got a moment of silence, a hug *SPLASH* sound was heard on the hull of the life pod. I went over the status screen, and found that systems were not in optimal condition, something I knew from the fact that there had been a fire.
The fabricator, which allowed me to craft tools and materials, still had power from the 3 high-tech self-recharging power cells built into the pod, but the wires providing power to the pod's built-in communications relay had been damaged on the way down, and the fire melted them, further worsening the chances of me getting the comms relay operational without advanced tools. I was on my own for now. The fact that the flotation devices had been activated confirmed my fears: I had landed in an ocean. I had landed in an ocean. An alien one, no doubt, considering my infernal luck. An analysis of the air and water confirmed that at least it was compatible with human physiology. The water was similar to saltwater back on earth, minus the rampant pollution, and the air was mainly oxygen, with smaller amounts of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. That meant that complex lifeforms could exist on this planet. A ventral surface scan with weak sonar pulses confirmed I was in a shallow area, and it was currently daytime according to the pod's topside daylight sensor. I grabbed my standard helmet and put on my wet suit, mentally preparing myself for what I would see outside my life pod. I climbed the ladder leading to the top of my hill-shaped, floating refuge, and what I saw, no amount of mental preparation could prepare me for. I looked around, not seeing anything but crystal-clear waters in most directions, but as I face east, I saw the ship I was originally aboard before the crash. The name on the side said Aurora, and the name seemed to jump-start my memory as I remembered that I was part of a marine biology study group en route to planet SN-26375, or Subnautica for short, in case any marine wildlife was discovered there and the company I worked for, Alterra Science, wanted someone to study said lifeforms. I knew from my time as a marine biology student that shallow areas tend to be safer as compared to the deeper parts of a body of water, so, rationally, these "Safe Shallows" should be a relatively safe place- as safe as an alien ocean can be, anyway.
As I observed the burning, groaning, creaking wreckage of the Aurora, my personal AI computer, Karen, came in on my earpiece to warn me of a potential threat. "Aurora quantum drive core destabilized. Detonation in t-minus... Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. S-six. Five. F-f-four-our." Karen stuttered as the drive core's unstable electromagnetic field began scrambling Karen's ability to communicate with me. "T-t-t-three-ee. T-t-two. One. The whole world seemed to go silent as the drive core began to implode upon itself, drowning out all other sound with silence. Then, a huge shock-wave burst forth from the Aurora as it began exploding on a massive scale. The initial shock-wave pushed my pod back and stunned me, enough so that I didn't notice the oncoming wave heading straight for my pod. I heard it before I saw it, and even then, I still didn't have time to react, as I thought the sound of the wave was just me regaining my hearing after the blast deafened me.
I was knocked into the water, but only after being flung a couple dozen meters, landing in the deep, blue ocean, in wide open waters. I was vulnerable and exposed to any and all predators nearby, and I was about 10 meters below sea level, and as I looked around for danger, I saw none, and quickly activated the beacon on my life pod, which popped up on my HUD a second later. I began swimming as fast as I could, not daring to dip below the surface. I just kept on swimming back to my pod, making sure not to look at my surroundings so as to not scare myself. Once I got back to the pod, I took a breather and recovered from my terrifying ordeal before heading out to explore the ocean on my own terms. I decided to search for the emergency survival storage cache, not having paid attention in survival training the day they told us where to find it. My keen detective skills were rewarded when I popped open a bulkhead panel and found 2 nutrient blocks for nutrition, 2 disinfected water bottles, and 2 underwater flares. All helpful, but unless rescue teams came at night, the flares were less so.
Nonetheless, I exited the escape pod via the bottom access hatch, and saw a beautiful world full of bizarre, unique, and interesting life everywhere. The shallows were similar to a shallow coral reef back on Earth, with a mixture of colorful plants, tube-shaped corals, corals growing out of the sides of rock arches like shelves, and brightly colored fish all over. The kinds of fish on Subnautica were a mixed bag of weird, beautiful, unique, terrifying, creepy, and intriguing. The staple of the ecosystem that I noticed was a small fish, tear-shaped in form, with nothing but a circular body with a stout, powerful, muscular tadpole-like tail and a trigger-like fin on both the ventral and dorsal surfaces. The most prominent and fascinating feature of this fish was that the body was 90% occupied on both sides by a gigantic yellow-orange eye, and a small, cone-shaped beak for a mouth. One swam up to me as I took in the scenery around me, and after inspecting me with its enormous, all-seeing eyes, it swam off happily, apparently satisfied with its observations of me.
An unusual and colorful mushroom caught my eye as the "Peeper", as I called it, swam away. The mushroom was purple, and grew in clusters. I noticed that some of them had patches of red in the center as well, but they weren't like usual mushrooms. It was concave, whereas Earth mushrooms were convex. The mushroom had some sort of liquid that made its outer edges swell, and as I tried to open one, acid poured out. If only I had copper, I could make a battery! I began to notice that there was metal salvage from the Aurora scattered all over the shallows, and grabbed a couple chunks to recycle into 8 titanium chunks back at my fabricator. As I set back out, I noticed that the shallows led into a kelp forest full of kelp that crept up towards the surface by intertwining with other stalks from the same seed. I dubbed them "Creepvines", and as I inspected the seeds, I realized that there was a chance that it was silica-based, due to it growing out of the sand at the ocean bottom, so I grabbed 2 seed pods to see if they could be used in the fabrication of silicone, and as I plopped the seed pods down on the fabricator table, scans revealed that my theory was correct, and the seeds were disassembled at a molecular level and reconstituted as one standard-size silicone rubber mat. I now had a means to rebuild.
