Chapter 8: Revelations

Previously on Subnautica, Ghosts of the past...

After running for about an hour they came to the massive hole in front of the Aurora and as the final explosion went off, the three of them were thrown clear of the Aurora right down deep into the Koosh zone where a load of Ampeels and Bonesharks charged at them, they were too late, the ampeels and bonesharks had gotten too close and Richard was counting down the seconds in his head as they drew ever closer as he hugged his family, waiting for their fate but suddenly just as they were about to be bitten there was the sound of a repulsion cannon going off and the hostile fauna that was approaching got blasted away from them, then there was the sound of warping and as Richard turned around there was no one there. Confused at what just happened Richard looked at his family and said "What just happened? We are still alive and there was the sound of a Repulsion cannon going off; do any of you have one?" both his wife and child shook their head and Jade said I think it was them daddy, she then pointed behind her and sure enough there was someone there with a flashing repulsion cannon in her hands then in the blink of an eye two other girls appeared behind her and they three of them surrounded the small family. As the three of them drew close Richard could see that the three girls were triplets, one had multiple eyebrow peircings in her right eyebrow and a pierced lip; she also had multiple rings going through her right ear, the other one had three eyebrow piercings above her left eye two rings in each ear and what looked like a snakebite piercing through her lip, the third and final one who was obviously the leader had three piercings in her left ear, two piercings in her right ear both her eyebrows were pierced, she had one lip piercing in and she had multiple navel rings in. After staring at Richard for a while she beckoned them to follow and before they knew what happened, the three of them, six including these mysterious women were surrounded by this odd energy and the next thing they knew; they were in a very lived in habitat to which the CPU just announced "Welcome aboard" they then went to leave the room they were in only to be stopped by the leader of the three girls who said, "Well then Mrs Scepton, I guess it's been a while hasn't it? How are you doing?" Crystal who was still trying to adjust to the sudden change in the light said "You say that but I cannot even see you yet, but your voice does sound familiar to me; please tell me who you are and how you managed to save my husband, my daughter and I? And what was that light, it felt familiar." the young lady chuckled and said, My name is Akémi Atashihito and the other two girls are my twin sisters Sakura and Kari, the three of us are just like you and Richard however, that story can wait what needs to be clarified is this; we are all linked to one and other and the link is in our pasts. That is all you need to know at the moment, hopefully your eyes will have adjusted to the light in here now." As soon as Akémi said that their eyesight returned to normal and Jade looked directly at Kari and said "hey you're that pretty lady who taught me how to read, and you," she said looking at Sakura and continued "You are the one that treated my injuries and taught me about my daddy and mommy." Both of the girls nodded and Kari said "thanks for calling me pretty but I am not that good looking, besides we are family anyway so it seems strange for you to say that Jade." to which Richard said "wait, what do you mean 'we are family'? I barely know you, nor have I ever seen you before in my life, are you a little unstable?" Hearing Richard say that Akémi stormed over to him with an angry expression on her face and said "Is that any way to talk to your elder sisters?!" she then placed him in an arm lock and wrestled him down to the ground before placing her fingertips against the base of his skull and said "Were you anyone else you would be DEAD now for speaking to me like this but..." she then let out a sigh before continuing "...but since you are my brother after all, I can attribute your rudeness to being alone on this planet for years and the fact that your memories have been tampered with by the Alterra scientists, but as for you Crystal and Jade, your memories are not as badly broken as Mr charisma over there," she said pointing at Richard who just rolled his eyes at her saying "Whatever," only to be tripped up and restrained before being hauled back up and slammed against the wall aggressively, to which Sakura said "Watch your mouth you ingrate, we risked our asses to save your stupid backside so show us some respect LITTLE BROTHER..." she then inserted a syringe into his arm and injected him with something that stopped him from moving, to which he said "What have you done to me? What the hell did you just inject into me?" To which Sakura replied "it is a compound that will unblock your memories and undo the tampering that those Alterra scumbag scientists did to them." she then removed the syringe and walked off as Richard collapsed to the ground and blacked out.

As Richard slumped to the ground unconscious Crystal ran over to him and said in an aggravated tone "What have you done to my husband you cow?" To which Sakura said "I have done nothing to him, I merely gave him an antidote to the memory altering chemical cocktail prevalent in his system, he'll be just fine I promise." with that she smiled and walked off as Richard lay there sleeping and started having flashbacks to before the Aurora incident

Three years before the Aurora embarkation

"... now our guest speaker has just arrived and is about to enter the room so, all rise," after being told to get up from his seat by his most hated lecturer he got up with a grumble and said in a voice so only he could hear it "Why do I have to stand up for some stupid captain who knows jack scrat about the Precursors? I know a lot more than the teachers here so why should I be taking this pointless lecture?" After he said that the lecturer cleared her throat and said "Ahem, introducing Captain Hollister of the Alterra corps, he is going to be captaining the newly built Aurora to a distant planet for the new Phasegate installation in three years' time, if any of you have any questions on the matter, feel free to ask them," as soon as she said that one of the other students spoke up and said "hey what is the phasegate installation thing? Aren't a large percentage of the phasegate under the control of the Torgaalgin group? Why are you trying to copy them?" To which the captain said, "well then aren't we curious? Although I am here to answer questions regarding the phasegate I am not permitted to answer that question as it is a need to know basis and you don't need to know, sorry to be blunt but that is the way we at Alterra deal with business, any other questions?" looking around the room Captain Hollister heard a sneer aimed at him and as he turned around he saw Richard sitting back in his chair, arms behind his head and feet up on his desk to which Richard said "What are you staring at?" to which the captain replied "You seem to have an odd outlook on life, we at the Alterra corps may have a place for your type of personality," to which Richard just stared back and said "Hell no, Why would I want to be a part of your crew? You know nothing about the Precursors and the phasegate is using stolen precursor tech; I have no time for thieves and assholes, I'm out of here." With that he went to leave but the lecturer tried to stop him to which he said to her in an angry tone "if you don't get out of my way I will throw you out of my way! I don't care if you are my lecturer, I want nothing to do with this Alterra commissioned clown!" he then pushed her out of the way and stormed off back to his dormitory. the lecturer went to pursue him only to be stopped by captain Hollister saying "there is no need for you to go after him, he WILL come back on his own and since I am not doing anything at all this month I will always be in your lectures scouting out potential recruits and I really want that young man to be one of them, what is his name?" the Lecturer, confused at the captain's behaviour flicked through the register and said "His name is Richard Scepton, a very talented and well informed student on the Precursor culture but why he is being rude I don't know, he isn't usually like this; In fact he always seems to be polite and charming even if he hates someone so why? The captain smiled and said listen there is a reason why I want Mr Scepton on my ship and I just know you are going to try and have him removed from this place but if you do that, Alterra will pull ALL funding it has donated towards this place and you will once again be back at square one because Alterra is invested in Mr Scepton and if you remove that investment, our interest will vanish."

The lecturer looked at Captain Hollister confused and said "Wait, we have plenty of brilliant students in this academy so why are you interested in only him? Is there something we don't know?" The captain went all serious and said in a commanding tone "That is Privileged information and you do not have the clearance to acquire it, the reason for our interest in him is classified and any medical intervention on him cannot be performed without Alterra's express written permission and at all times; if the medical intervention is permitted, three Alterra staff members must be present at the start of the examination, in between the surgical procedure and after it, do you understand?" The lecturer nodded and said "okay then let us continue with the Q and A," As the Q and A continued the captain and the lecturer failed to notice Richard was watching them and throughout his observation of the Q and A his mind felt a bit fuzzy and he returned to his dorms to lie down, next morning the lecturer tried again to get Richard to interact with the captain and fed up with her pushiness Richard finally snapped and said "Alright then, if you insist that I take part I have a few questions for ya! ONE, what IS the phase gate and why do you idiots want to use it? TWO, Where did you steal the technology from and why did no one try to stop you? And THREE, just how stupid do you think we are? I've heard rumours of a secret project that Alterra is working on, it appears that you seem to be grooming humans to be more sexual and you seem to be modifying the women to be more submissive and fertile so that your bastard men can have a good time with them and spawn some more war-loving resource consuming parasites."

As this carried on the lecturer tried to smooth things over but failed to which the captain said to Richard "Although we ARE doing a secret project, it is not to consume the resources of the planet, nor is it an attempt to suppress women, it is an attempt to open up trade routes for everyone that wish to go into space and do business on an intergalactic scale, and as for 'making women more submissive and fertile' it is untrue, we do not endorse female repression, we treat them as equals and are an equal opportunity employer, now on to your first question, the Phasegate is a form of interspatial transport for space vessels giving them a chance to extend their reach for custom and for your second question, Alterra do not steal technology, we develop it and the reason no one stopped us is because what we are doing is 100% legal and finally for your third question, we at Alterra don't think of anyone as stupid, just 'misinformed' about what is happening and hopefully we can dispel any misinformation that you may have received about us."

one year later...

As Richard finished off his dissertation on the precursors he had a strange feeling in the back of his head and something was eating away at him, why did he know so much about the precursors? Why did he really hate the captain that visited him in that lecture? After he finished his work he fell asleep and started to dream, the first thing he remembered was being on another planet as he looked around it he saw three girls that looked like triplets, when one of them spotted him all three of them ran over to speak to him and the leader of the three said "little brother, something has gone horribly wrong everyone is getting sick and dying, please little brother what is going on, I'm scared!" as she said that the other two girls ran up to him and all three of them embraced him to which he found himself saying "don't worry my sisters, we will be fine I will protect you if I have to and by the way, you three are older than me so you shouldn't be scared, if anything I should be the one scared." As they embraced him he heard what sounded like a cannon going off and the whole island shook as there was a blast in the sky and with that he passed out while holding these three girls and then he woke up.

the next morning he had a horrible headache and felt sick, something didn't seem right to him and as a result he was out of sorts for all that day, so much so that the lecturer told him to return to the dorms and get some rest but as he went to refuse he saw the Captain staring at him and let out a little growl before doing as he was told; as he returned to the dorms he began writing more in his dissertation and before he knew it, it was time for bed again and once more as his head hit the pillow he dreamt of that same scene only this time he found himself staring at a beautiful young woman who was hurt so he ran over to her with his 'sisters' and treated her wounds, they were then ordered to go into some quarantine chamber which they did and as they all went into their chambers they watched as this virus broke out infecting the whole civilisation and the last thing he heard was a command to go into cryogenic sleep and that is what he did, as he laid down in the cryopod he saw the last living precursor scientist do something to the cannon before dying and as the cryogenic pods activated he woke up again and began to write more on his dissertation.
Still feeling unwell Richard returned to his lectures and ignored everything that was said to him and just continued to learn then late that night something returned to his memory regarding what happened to the precursor civilisation and he finished off his dissertation by telling them about his vivid dreams not giving a shit about being taunted and said "It seems that the precursor civilisation died out because of some virus and none of them survived but there is one thing that confuses me, why is there so much that I know about the precursors? I don't know, It is like I was part of this civilisation but..." as he said that the captain nearly choked on his coffee, surprising Richard who just continued and said "But that is not very likely is it? I mean if I was precursor I would be dead so then why do I know so much?" To which the captain while trying to cover up his panic said "Well maybe because you are so smart and well-educated, I mean it's not like your dreams are memories right? Heh, heh" he then began to wipe the sweat of his brow and said "Well that said I... I have to go now, but I will be back once again when the graduations are over so until then keep studying and I will see you all again," he then made a quick exit to which Richard thought to himself "Hmm strange," he then shook his head and found that he was feeling better all of a sudden with the disappearance of the captain from the lecture hall and as the day ended he went to bed.

Back to the present...

As Richard laid there remembering everything he started to get angry and finally after about eight hours of being in a fever dream he woke up with a bad headache and after a few seconds of recovery time he said "those evil Alterra BASTARDS! I finally know now why I hated that captain in the first place," as he grew angrier a purple energy emitted from him and as he smashed down onto the habitat floor with his fist just like Sapphire did to his habitat, he caused hull breaches to which Crystal said "Whoa be careful Richeypoo, you'll end up drowning us all you idiot!" she then whipped out her welder and helped the other girls repair the habitat to which Sakura said while she welded "so you finally realise then? You little brother, are precursor; Just like myself and our sisters and not forgetting your wife Crystal, the four of us are precursor and your daughter is a new generation of the precursor race, we will rebuild our civilisation and finally cure this horrid disease we call 'carar', restore our planet to normal and remove any unwanted presence that may be on our home planet, this is why we need to seek out and find our most valuable creature the sea emperor, he has been trapped by that evil corporation known as Torgaal and we need to release him from his prison, it is our duty as precursors to preserve the balance of nature and the atmosphere of our planet, even if we have to terminate ANY ship that comes within the range of our cannon although, I'd prefer it to be restored to normal so it didn't kill or destroy, just push away any ship that enters the area, or we may even have to modify the cannon to have two fire modes, lethal and non-lethal; the lethal mode will primarily be used to eliminate any Alterra vessel that may try to enter this planet's atmosphere should that vessel refuse to leave after being warned away by our repulsion mode, by now you realise that Alterra actually exhumed our cryogenic tubes and modified our memories to make us forget who we are, Akémi knew what went on shortly after overhearing a conversation between the dock master and Captain Hollister of the Aurora and it was her who managed to infiltrate the Torgaalgin group and force them to this planet and as soon as she got here with us she warped off the ship using her abilities and we activated the cannon to bring it down, and before you ask how she remembered after having her memories altered she found an old Artefact of our people and it cured her of all injuries and illness that she had sustained on the planet earth, including her piercings, it's the same for all of us, after we got our memories back and got healed we all decided to get re-pierced because we liked them and from then on we have been looking to bring down Alterra at whatever the cost, they are a big threat to us all and we are also going to find a way to overload all phasegate leading to our home planet and destroy them using our cannon but to do that we need your help, in fact we need the help of the other girls too and we owe it to them, they have been illegally modified on the genetic level using our DNA and augmented using our technology and to make things worse they have also had their memories altered and we have a responsibility to undo the damage done to them so before we do anything else you must bring them to us so we can help them,"

After hearing Sakura's long-winded explanation as to what happened he calmed down and said "Y'know Sakura, you talk too much but I can understand why but seriously stop with the nagging okay? I had enough nagging when I dealt with Amythyst and her wounds." To which Crystal grinned and said "Oh yeah about being engaged to another couple of girls while I was still alive, I haven't punished you yet have I Richeypoo?" hearing those words Richard thought "Oh shit, how am I gonna resolve this?" he then turned around slowly and said "N...Now Crystal, sweetheart don't get the wrong idea, I... I thought you were dead and after being alone for five years you can understand me right?...Right?" the next thing he knew Crystal jumped on him and began to smother him with her ample chest and said "how could you do this to me before checking that I was actually dead huh? So No I cannot forgive you!" she kept on smothering him for a bit before letting him breathe and turning away while squeezing her breasts together and pouting for a bit before turning around with her hands on her hips and said "Don't be stupid Richeypoo, of course I understand but what about the other girls? They obviously love you as much as I do so what are you going to do huh? are you going to drop me and our daughter in favour of one of them or are you going to drop me and our daughter and one of them in favour of the other or will you decide to have us all? Regarding that option, I don't think they'd appreciate being a part of a harem so what will you do?" to which Richard said "I... I don't know, I am so confused about this myself because after all one, I only just learned that I am precursor and two I only just found out that you were alive and had a daughter; after many years of me being alone I lost all hope and now my hope is restored and I have to make a difficult choice." Crystal smiled at him and gave him a loving hug before saying "look sweetheart, don't get so flustered okay? You don't have to make a decision right away, just know that in the future you may have to make that choice and once that choice is made, things will not be the same as before so remember this and choose well."
she then gave him a kiss and they finished fixing up the Habitat

Five hours later...

After fixing the Habitat and having some food Richard called his family out of the habitat on the island next to the cannon and as he looked to the left he saw the cannon emitters starting to pulse to which he said "It looks like there is a hostile ship on the way, unless the cannon is trying to maintain itself so I am going to look around and see if there is something wrong inside of it meanwhile since the Seamoth is a one person mini submersible we need to find a way to get the other girls from the habitat where I fled as their implants malfunctioned to here, for that we need to build a Cyclops but sadly my Blueprints library has been corrupted and I cannot find the plans for a cyclops anywhere so while I do the maintenance on this cannon and repair the damaged systems in an effort to gain access to the lower levels of this cannon you need to find the cyclops blueprints while my wife and I do the repairs to the upper and lower canon facility so please when you go my sisters be on the look out for any hostile little bastards that will turn you to dinner and also be aware of any new Alterra tech that we can salvage and modify, just like they did to our tech and screwed it up." After he said that his sisters nodded and went looking for the fragments of a cyclops submarine while the cannon was repaired by Richard, Crystal and his little girl Jade who drew pretty pictures on the walls, making Crystal and Richard smile as Jade hummed her favourite song that Crystal sang to her in an effort to cheer her up when she was a baby, listening to the song Richard said "Hey where did you learn that song Jade sweetheart? It's very nice," to which Jade said "Oh, mommy sang it to me when I was little; whenever I got upset, sick or hurt, mommy would sing this song to me and make me feel better isn't mommy cool?" To which Crystal blushed as Richard turned to face her and smiled before hugging her and saying "Yes Jade, she is." To which Crystal smiled and said "Oh now wait there Richard, You think it would be that easy to make me forget about what you did? you ain't getting away with it that easily, but right now I am enjoying it so I will punish you later, I promise," she then squeezed his backside and winked at him before giving him a kiss and walking off with her hips swaying provocatively to which Richard blushed and said "I can't wait," he then began to resume his repairs to which Jade stared at him confused and said quietly, "Adults are weird," she then continued with her drawings and repairs as she continued to hum the song she was taught as a toddler.
When he finished his repairs Richard left the Cannon facility and decided to climb the cannon to get a good look around the planet and using Parkour he managed to climb the cannon right to the top and as he got to the top of the cannon the sun set and he cast his eyes over the open ocean where his eyes settled on the Aurora burning brilliantly bright and said in a sad tone "Ah that looks beautiful, but I still feel bad for the innocents on that ship that didn't survive; Why should so many people lose their lives just for one corporation to make more money, y'know what I think? I think the Captain wasn't actually trying to rescue the crew of the Degassi, I think he was going to try and take possession of the phasegate keys owned by the Torgaalgin corporation, but once again, why did so many have to die?" he then sat down on top of the cannon quietly and watch the stars in the sky fly by all night, at about two in the morning Crystal finished her repairs and looked up on top the cannon to see Richard deep in thought so she decided to call out to him and said "Hey Richard, I've done my repairs and am about to initiate a test fire of the cannon," Richard didn't respond so she sighed and said quietly to herself "Aw come on Richard don't be so depressed now, you know I am kidding about punishing you right?" she then shook her head sadly and said "Mizuki have I gone too far with Richard, because he seems really down," To which Mizuki said "No Crystal it isn't what you said to him I can tell you that much, he has a lot on his mind and after learning so much about who and what he is, he is in shock, he also feels guilty for what the two girls with the malfunctioning implants who are patiently waiting for his return at his habitat have gone through because of the precursor DNA that was transfused into them, he really feels responsible for what they are experiencing so the best bet is give him some space and let's not perform the test fire tonight and let him sit up there longer." Mizuki then went silent and Crystal sighed with a sad look on her face to which Jade noticed and said "Don't be sad mommy, I'm sure daddy will come round eventually so why don't we just leave him like your fox-lady friend says," looking at Jade Crystal was surprised and said "wait, y... you can see Mizuki?" to which Jade nodded eagerly and said "Yeah and I can hear her too! What she says makes sense to me mommy so listen to her okay? And stop being sad, hey I know let's play a game shall we?" Crystal looked at Jade and laughed before saying "oh no young lady it is really late so, time for bed; we can play tomorrow," Jade then looked at her mother and said "Aw but I'm not tired and don't want to go to bed yet," Crystal started to get serious and said "don't argue with me young lady, pretty girls like you and me need our sleep, so come on, bed, NOW!" Jade started to sulk for a bit to which Richard seeing the exchange between mother and daughter said "Jade, do what your mom says, we all need our sleep so let's all get some rest as we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Jade then sighed for a bit before nodding and saying "Oh, okay daddy I'll go to bed," and with that they all went to bed as Richard's sisters collected what was needed to build the Cyclops for their journey back to the Habitat where Sapphire and Amythyst waited patiently for Richard to return...

to be continued