Subnautica Fan Fiction

By: Ian Fox

Part 1

Splash down

Jason came back to consciousness with a dry gasp. He had been blacked out for a few hours and felt severely dehydrated. For a moment he wasn't sure where he was, but as the life pod bobbed up and down in the water it all came back to him. For a moment he sat in the strapped safety seat completely uncertain of where to go from here. He hit the release just as the pod was hit by a wave and he was pushed slightly forward causing him to topple from the seat. His knees banged against the shell of the pod loudly, and the pain shot up to his brain like a flurry of fireworks. For a few moments he just sat there crumpled in pain with the world around him slowly bobbing up and down in a sickening fashion.

Why had it all happen so fast, Jason wondered with pain clouded thoughts. Why couldn't he have had a few more minutes to wait, a few more minutes to figure out what had happened. He had been woken up by a loud crash and saw he was late to get to his station. Realizing this he had jumped up and let his cabin's automated closet dress him within moments, but he had no time to shower. Running down the hall he was suddenly thrown into a wall as another crash jostled the large habitation vessel. Suddenly the cool ambiance of the sterile white light was gone; replaced by darkness before the red emergency lights buzzed to life. The only noise Jason could hear over his own heart was the onboard notification computer, its volume amplified due to the emergency code red that had been initiated.

"Catastrophic fusion engine faluire-Unknown energy surge on all decks-Catastrophic hull damage-Captain has initiated emergency status on all decks- Report to lifepods-Sections 52A through 62A must be jettisoned to achieve safe emergency landing procedures," The notifications computer drones these updates continuously and only after Jason realized he himself was in section 53G, within those being jettisoned, did the computer add: "Jettisoned procedures initiated, Jettison will commence in two minutes."

Jason had two minutes to run the distance of a football field and find a life pod that was still functioning before this section was jettisoned from the main habitation vessel. He hadn't been doing the recommended exercises daily as he should have been and he was cramping up as he sprinted down the maze of hallways. No one was around, he hadn't seen another person since he had woken up, and he thought this was due to the fact that he had woken up after the schedule demanded he already be at his station. But there way usually someone milling down the halls at any given time. Maybe he had slept through an evacuation of his section, he didn't know, all he knew was that he had to get to those life pods or he'd be as good as dead.

As he rounded into the life pod bay there was only one visibly functioning as the computer announced that the jettison would commence in thirty seconds. He sprinted into the pod and fumbled with the controls until a countdown holographicly flashed across the walls of the life pod. The countdown was for twenty seconds but as the countdown in the life pod began the notifications computer of the habitation vessel announced that the ten second count down would commence in five more seconds.

"Computer!" Jason shouted to the life pod as he rushed over to a seat and began strapping himself in.

"Life pod computer communications initiated, how can I help you?" the computer answered in a feminine voice.

"How high are we from the planet's surface?" Jason asked tightening the last strap as he buckled it in, the notifications computer and began to count down.

"263.4 kilometers." The computer replied blandly.

"How long will this section of the ship remain in freefall after being jetisoned?"

"30 seconds." The computer answered.

Suddenly the notifications computer went silent; Jason was too busy talking to the life pod's computer to notice that the countdown had ended. Jason was jolted forward and he could feel the force of the entire section of the ship pulling him straight down. The life pod attempted to shoot itself from the bottom of the section, and the force of this caused all the blood to drive upwards into Jason's brain which caused him to black out.

"Computer?" Jason said after lying on the life pod floor and replaying the event over and over in his mind.

"At your service." The computer replied.

"Where is the habitation vessel Aurora?" Jason asked, uneasily finding his feet.

"Unknown. Projected trajectory places its emergency landing 200 kilometers to the south." The computer answered after a moment of intense silence.

"Were there any other life pods ejected from the Aurora prior to its landing?" Jason asked.

"One life pod was ejected from the habitation vessel Aurora." The computer replied.

"Was that this life pod, computer?" Jason's voice trembled at the idea.

"This life pod was not connected to the habitation vessel Aurora when it was jettisoned, and therefore has not been recorded as being ejected from the ship. The life pod that ejected from the habitation vessel Aurora has a flight path that puts it one to two kilometers from the projected landing of the habitation vessel Aurora."

"Does this life pod have the capabilities of traveling that far?" Jason was now checking the inventory of the life pod.

It had two days supply of rations and water that could last a week. There was a variety of different survival suits for a variety of different worlds. Since Subnautica was a world almost entirely covered in ocean the wet suit was the very first in the line up. He selected it and the computer dressed him. A locker slid open to his right and revealed a single air tank and pair of goggles.

"Negative." The computer replied.

"Yeah, I thought not. That would be too easy," Jason was attempting to keep his mind off the events that had happened prior to his blacking out and asking the computer important questions was helping him a great deal. "What emergency programs does this life pod have available?"

"The survival and emergency programs available are as follows: 3 dimensional constructions module, organism identifier, compound and elemental extraction module, water purification, short wave beacon, medical module, and air compression and filtration module."

"That's plenty to work with," Jason breathed a sigh of relief, he had expected a little less. "Before I go out and see what's around, what's the ecology of this area look like?" Jason asked the computer while strapping the air tank to his back and tightening the straps of his goggles.

"You are located on the edge of the second largest reef of Subnautica, only seven hundred meters from the Djúpr drop off, the deepest tectonic self of Subnautica." The computer answered quickly.

"Where is the other life pod located?" Jason curiously asked.

"The projected landing puts it and the Aurora into a sandy tidal zone."

"You know what that means, computer?" Jason asked, opening the pod's bottom hatch, filling the cabin with the sound of sloshing water and the smell of salt.

"Negative." The computer replied after a moment of processing.

"I'm going to be the first person to ever dive in the reefs of Subnautica." Jason replied happily, before a depression fell over him.

Jason thought about the fact that there could be wreckage all around the pod from the section of his ship that was jettisoned. Before he would attempt to explore his surroundings he had to know if there was any chance of him seeing floating bodies or massive damage from his section of the Aurora hitting the water's surface.

"Computer, where is the jettisoned section of Aurora?" He asked the computer after a moment of hesitation.

"It is currently ten point eight six kilometers beneath the surface and descending. The estimated time before its signal is lost is fifteen minutes. It missed the reef by two hundred meters." The computer answered numbly.

"Collect as much information as you can before then. When I get back I want a holographic report on the trajectory of both life pods along with the trajectory of the jettisoned section and Aurora." Jason demanded before putting the mouthpiece of the tank into his mouth.

"Affirm-" Was all the computer was able to say before Jason slipped into the water and disappeared through the hatch, which the computer automatically slid shut as soon as Jason was gone.

Luckily the Aurora had gone down just as they were orbiting the side of the planet that was morning. The water was clear enough for Jason to see a good thirty meters around him. The reef was very reminiscent of those that disappeared in the polluted age of humanity while still on Earth. They had orbited the planet a few times just to find a good place to colonize; but the planet was a perfect example of the discovery of symmetrical life.

The idea, when humanity first went into the stars to look for planets to colonize, was that there may be many different kinds of "life". But after traveling several hundred light years humanity discovered that all life was very much the same; comprised of hydrocarbons and mostly water. Subnautica was first planet that was covered almost entirely with water and when humanity stumbled upon it every scientist wanted to lead an expedition there. The Aurora was the first vessel to reach the planet and its primary task was to create a habitable pocket on one of the only stationary land masses on the planet. Its secondary mission was research, and in the few months it had been in orbit it had mapped most of the geography of the planet, with only the deepest depths unmapped.

Jason was momentarily overwhelmed; the vibrancy in colors on this planet was much greater than most other oceans on terrestrial planets. The reef was a few meters below the ocean's surface and it expanded in all directions. Everything was alive; the coral had tendrils coming from them and millions of fish-like creatures were swimming all around. He swam from underneath the pod and surfaced to fix the tightness of his goggles. The atmosphere was thinner than on earth but primarily had the same ratio of chemicals he gasped a few breaths before putting the mouthpiece back into his mouth. He looked around; from the surface there was only water in every direction, there weren't even clouds on this day. It was a frightening sight for someone who had spent most of his life in confined spaces. He went back beneath the surface and continued to just watch the reef below. Shoals of what he could only describe as fish darted in and out of spaces in the reef.

He watched as a group of particularly colorful fish disappeared underneath a large mound of coral. Jets of water pushed sand away from the mound as six slender legs shot out from underneath the coral and lifted the whole mass from the sand. Two fleshy tubes wormed their way from underneath the coral and extended upwards. The colorful fish scattered and the mound skittered over the other coral in a straight line until Jason couldn't see it any longer. Almost all of the life on Subnautica is unrecorded, only the largest creatures near the surface of the ocean had really been identified; and that was only because of the fact they disrupted the geological sweep because of their immense size. Because of how deep the oceans were and because of the abundance of life there was no telling how big the life in Subnautica's oceans could grow to.

Jason continued to swim around until he found a large area that had less coral than the area around it. All around there were pieces of debris from the section of the Aurora that had been disconnected from the main vessel. There were larger creatures that were trying to figure out what they were, it looked like. From underneath the soft sand octopus-like tendrils were attempting to move around the pieces of metal into large mounds. Jason decided this was a good place to start doing what he was trained to in case of this scenario. In the heads up display of his goggles he could see he had about another forty minutes of air left before he would have to make his way back to the life pod. He slowly dove down and came back up, over and over until he got used to the pressure and eventually touched the sand with his feet.

Tentacles grabbed at his feet almost as soon as he touched it, but they were too weak to hold him. He kicked away from the sand which caused a plume of the stuff to burst away from the ocean floor. Underneath he could see a body of whatever the tentacles belonged to. There was a section of sand that was cleared away that looked translucent but rippled as the water above it moved. Jason decided it would be best to stay a few feet away from the ocean floor from now on. He kicked towards a mound of metal that had rubber and plastic sheets screwed to a small bit of metal that had torn from a larger piece. Jason tugged at the rubber sheet until the scrap of metal came loose and slowly made his way back to the surface. Hitting a sensor on the side of his goggles his life pod's beacon began to blink on his HUD with the last ten minutes of his air he found his way back.

Coming up beneath the life pod the computer automatically opened up the bottom hatch. He pulled himself and the rubber, plastic, and metal scraps up into the pod and gulped in the oxygen rich air. Stripping the wet suit off, he sat in one of the pod's seats, catching his breath.

"Computer, you got that report?" Jason watched the space in front of him.

"Affirmative." The computer said, showing a geographical landscape above the floor of the pod. A single white holographic circle appeared eye level with Jason, it glided before breaking into another white circle and a smaller red one.

"The initial jettison." The computer reported. The white and red circles continued in their directions until the red circle suddenly spat out a blue speck of light that then rested just a small distance before a huge drop off.

"You're Jettison from the disconnected section." The red circle hit against a wall of light that represented the ocean's surface before drifting down. At the same time a green speck was produced from the white one that followed the same path until both rested on a point where the water was a little shallower.

"The only life pod to eject from Aurora" The computer said without any hesitation.

"It wasn't the only one! I'm here." Jason shouted at the empty air.

"You are not on the record." The computer answered him.

"Does the other life pod know about me?" Jason asked.

"You are not on the record." The computer repeated.

"Fuck you, computer." Jason snarled at the life pod.

After a moment of silence Jason continued hesitantly.

"Did you get any useful information from the sinking section of the ship?" Jason asked.

"Affirmative. There is a rescue beacon three levels from the level closest to the surface."

"Were any rescue beacons activated on the Aurora?" Jason quickly asked.

"Negative. Radiation destroyed the main cabin within seconds of the energy surge."

"What caused the surge, then?" Jason asked, getting frustrated.

"Unknown." The computer replied bluntly.

"Fantastic," Jason said resting his head in his hands. "Is there any way that an off-world station would know we need to be rescued?"

"Negative."

"So I have to fucking go down to the deepest depths of this fucking planet or I'm going to die here? Is that what you're telling me?" Jason shouted.

"Affirmative."

For a moment he just pulled at his hair, letting out a desperate cry. He had always wanted to visit the planet's surface, but not like this. He couldn't keep the faces of all his crew members out of his mind. They were all dead and he couldn't do anything about it. If it wasn't for his irresponsible act of oversleeping he would probably be dead too. He was lucky, but at the same time immensely unlucky.

"I need you to extract everything out of these." Jason sighed, pointing at the debris he dragged into the pod.

"Estimated completion: two hours ten minutes." The computer replied, an extraction module coming down from the ceiling of the pod which began scanning the materials.

"I'm going to eat. Let me know when you've got it done." Jason said with annoyance in his voice.

"Affirmative."