Chapter 10: Marriage
Previously on Subnautica Ghosts of the past...
Richard nodded and drove the cyclops into the moonpool section of the base and climbed out before escorting him to the teleportation room and said "You know that theory we had about the way the canon operators moved from island to island undetected? Well that theory has been confirmed so let's head back to the main base shall we?" Isajin nodded and with that Richard pulled out a purple artefact and activated the lift up where he was met with his sisters, who had a mischievous look in their eyes and just as he blinked Richard found himself being swarmed by his sisters and getting dragged off into another room where Crystal, Jade, Amythyst and Sapphire were waiting to which he said "Can this not wait until I have debriefed..." before he could say another word he was silenced by Serena who said "there will be plenty of time for that but right now we need to have that discussion, we need to talk about you getting engaged to my two daughters." hearing those words uttered Richard sighed and said "Well I guess that IS more important than a few reports so when are we going to do this?" He then looked at Amythyst and Sapphire, who had just recently got changed into their revealing wedding dresses, ran over to Richard, kissed him, and then embraced him tightly to which Serena said with motherly pride in her voice "Right now Mr Scepton..." With that he smiled and said "okay then." before hugging his blushing brides to be.
As he finished hugging them Serena gestured him towards another room where he needed to get changed into his wedding tuxedo and as he drew close to the doorway Sapphire stopped him briefly and said "I hope that this isn't going to put you out but if possible, I'd like to spend more time with you before the big day, both my sister and I would like that so don't let our mother be too pushy with you and this wedding okay?" she then gave him a kiss and he kissed her back before smiling and resuming his walk to the changing room saying "I understand completely but this needs to be done because I do remember a few other things like this planet, it has been divided into four quadrants and we know these, we have the north quadrant, the south quadrant, the east quadrant and the west quadrant; the Scepton family were in charge of the north Quadrant and this canon that we are in is ours, as for the east Quadrant the Triton family ruled that quadrant and their gun has been disabled somehow, the Atashihito family controlled the south quadrant and the Ryokuto family controlled the west quadrant; it appears that the only active gun is the northern quadrant gun and is the same gun that brought down the Aurora, the Degassi and the Sunbeam, it's a shame about captain Avery Quinn he was just an innocent bystander in this and as far as I can tell the sunbeam was NOT a part of Alterra. one of the messages that I received informed me that he was just passing by as a travelling merchant and got roped into rescuing the Aurora crew only to be killed when his ship was destroyed, we shall leave him a memorial on this island as a mark of respect."
Listening to Richard's explanation Sapphire asked him what the wedding had to do with what he said to which he explained that the wedding was already going to happen in an effort to unite the four Quadrants of the planet to which Akémi replied "we may call you little brother but in reality my sisters and I brought you into the Atashihito family as your family was the first to fall to the carar. You are the lone heir to the Northern quadrant, or rather you were before Jade was born, she is essentially next in line should you fall and if the worst comes to the worst we will protect your remaining family as was our pact that we made with your mother."
As Akémi explained the pact Richard looked intrigued by this fact so after a few minutes of enquiring about the pact Akémi told him and he understood, after their talk Richard headed to the habitat nearby and went about adding new things to it when another message arrived "A new message has arrived" as the relay chimed Richard sighed and said "Now what," as he went to read the message Jade came rushing in looking frightened ad said "Daddy, the gun has started to pulsate again and when mommy checked the Array console it said an Alterra ship was coming into orbit a heavily modified juggernaut of an attack ship captained by... by, daddy it's captained by Serena's ex-husband, he's coming to take Amythyst and Sapphire away! Please don't let him do that!" after hearing his daughter panic he accessed the relay and the message was indeed sent from Serena's ex-husband. "Attention any survivors on the planet; this is Captain Robert Triton of the Alterra ship Celestine, I have tracked your transponder signals and will be picking you up soon please head to the rendezvous co-ordinates attached, Celestine out." hearing the message Richard grew all angry and looked at Jade saying "We need to shoot that bastard out of the sky, so let's go!" he then went out looking for Serena, Amythyst and Sapphire to tell them what is about to happen and when he got to them they had just activated the teleporter arrays and were about to jump to the other island until they heard Richard shout for them, to which Amythyst said in a nervous tone "Richard what is going on? why do you look so angry?" to which Richard said "unfortunately we have an unwelcome guest coming to our wedding, it's an Alterra ship captained by your father, the gun is already in standby mode and it will fire on my command so I will give you the option of firing a fatal or non-fatal volley at that ship," the three women looked at Richard and said in a unanimous vote "Fatal, destroy that ship, I read about it, that ship is an Alterra attack ship they are intent on destroying our facilities and they clearly want us back for more experimentation, destroy it!" Richard nodded but said "I will destroy that ship but there may be innocents on board just give me a few moments." He then ran to the gun control room and activated the targeting array before crafting a communications relay nearby and decided to send the Celestine a message "Attention Alterra ship Celestine, you are trespassing in restricted airspace, you must leave this area and never return or you will be destroyed, this message will not repeat, we are locked onto the hull of your ship so if I were you I'd fuck off right now! Message ends." with that he fired a warning volley across the bow of the ship and as planned Richard saw all of the life pods jettison on the target screen and saw that the warning shot damaged the Celestine communications antennae and part of the weapons array, still the stupid captain tried to get into the planetary atmosphere and no sooner had it done so the gun fired a second time hitting it dead centre and obliterating the Celestine to which Richard bowed his head in a moment of respect to the innocents who might not have made it off the ship before it's destruction.
Four hours later...
After that bitter moment of destroying the Celestine the wedding to Amythyst and Sapphire continued, the ceremony took a long time to complete and after the reception the new family paused to pay respects to the innocents that had fallen thanks to the greed of Alterra and the Torgaaljin corporation and they sat down planning a remembrance ceremony to which Richard said "This may be a time for rejoicing but it is also a time of reflecting, who'd have thought that almost seven years ago we forgot who we are and what we were, I didn't even anticipate that I was one of the remaining precursor who had been frozen in cryogenic sleep and was awoken and modified against my will by Alterra, I can assume we all know how that feels, but let's be honest shall we? Not everyone was bad at Alterra, we made a few friends with these people and we had good time, only to have our friends taken from us due to the greed of two corporations. those good people will be sorely missed and remembered so a toast to all the innocents that have fallen to the greed of Alterra and the Torgaalgin corp." they raised their glasses and had a minutes silence in remembrance and afterwards they perked up a bit to which Isajin said "On a more positive note, I am proud to announce..." he looked at the blushing Serena and held his hand out to her to which she shyly got up and embraced him to which Isajin continued, "I am proud to announce the engagement between Serena and myself, our wedding will take place in a few days once everything is sorted out on this planet, we still need to get rid of this illness carar to once again make this planet habitable for our people, and hey maybe a few humans when they realise that violence is never the way." hearing that the bonding families cheered and began to work on the cure for Carar but unbeknownst to them, one last battle was on the horizon as a fleet of Alterra ships was on approach to the planet.
Next Chapter... Finale
To be continued...