Just to let the readers know, this will be a slow burn fic.
My blood turned to ice. They had found me already.
I just covered my eyes and froze on my knees, just hoping it will be quick enough.
"Is something wrong? I understand humans can be unnerved by other races, but this is ridiculous."
A stern feminine voice cut through the air, breaking me out of my catonic state. I shakily turned to the source of the voice.
Standing in the doorway was a feminine figure in plated armor. Her armor was segmented into ornate silver plates over a black suit. On her face was a silver mask that was admittedly a little unnerving.
"Wh-Who are you?"
"My name is Deliah Bhaden. And your name?"
"Michael Herbert."
"Now enough of this."
With a shocking speed, she firmly grabbed my shoulder with a single hand and pulled me to my feet. Even standing up at 5'11, she towered over me. Her hand remained on my shoulder, with a strong but gentle grip. She kicked the door shut, sealing us in the dimension.
"Now then, you will explain your terror of me... especially when humanity has not seen my kind for millennia."
"W-We're in a really bad place right now..."
Her head cocked over in slight surprise.
"And why is that?"
Just how was I going to explain this.
"Aee you familiar with the concept of the multiverse?"
"My people have studied the concept, so yes."
"We're in another dimension where things have gone to utter shit."
"And... how deep in the metaphorical manure pile are we?"
I stood for a few seconds to work out a good analogy and failed miserably.
"No pile exists deep enough for the description."
"I see..."
She seemed to go into thought for a brief moment, before she shot back to attention.
"If you are so frightened, then you must clearly know much of the dangers we will face. It is obvious I will be the protector, so you should inform me of what we will face in the future."
"I don't even know where to start..."
I sat down and started to explain.
Despite Deliah wearing a mask, her feelings regarding our situation were obvious.
"Is... Is that all?"
Her voice sounded hollow and ragged.
"No, some shit will sense you just from talking about it. Now what are you? You mentioned your kind multiple times, so what are you?"
This seemed to shake her from her terror.
"Svartálfar. That is the name man once gave us. Based on modern depictions by your race, we are simply known as the dark elves. As far as the accursed Asgardians know, we are extinct."
"Wait, as in the people led by Malekith?"
She visibly tensed at what the mention of that name.
"Yes, that power hungry fool did lead most of us into a genocidal war. Few of us live because of him and his inability to accept our black sun had long since set. He claims the light broke our people while his hands are stained black with our blood."
I could feel the almost tangible hate in her voice as she spoke that sentence. Before I could offer any comfort, she spoke.
"Now then, we must decide where to go from here. I understand your fear, but a logical plan must be created for us to survive. Who knows, perhaps we may even thrive."
"Why is it you intend to stay around? Wouldn't you better off on your own?"
"No, I would not. You made it clear that you only gave a general overview of this... clusterfuck as your people adequately put it. And my life seems to be tied to yours."
"Wait what?
"This place has bound itself to your soul, and my soul to itself. It is safe to assume that I would die with you were you to perish."
"So... souls are real?"
She seemed rather taken aback by that statement, and looked at me as if I was asking a stupid question.
"Of course, they are, why would you think otherwise?"
"There were innumerable religious debates regarding their existence where I'm from."
"How could you deny it? Last I checked the cause of the "Snapture" "as many called it, was expressed to everyone."
It was at that moment it clicked why her outfit was familiar.
"Wait, as in Thanos snapping half of life out of existence?!"
"Yes, so why do you deny the existence of souls?"
More explanation... joy.
"You know how this place is supposedly fiction... your world is as well."
"I see..."
I gave a mirthful smile.
"Believe me, this is as confusing as to me as it is to you."
It was at that moment she decided to take off her mask. As soon as the mask was off, the black covering around the rest of her head and neck retracted. I was greeted with a beautiful yet haunting visage. Her skin was impossibly smooth and pale, like polished marble. Her eyes had black sclera and purple irises that seemed to pierce like a hot knife in butter. The standard pointed ears expected of elves protruded out of beautiful flowing sliver hair. Being your average nerdy teenager with no experience with women, I blushed a bit. I could see her with a mirthful smile on her face, obviously amused by my reaction.
"I suppose my beauty can be bombastic to one who must settle for lesser women."
Every word was delivered with the pride and grace one would expect of an elf. Yet I noticed her expression shift to one of confusion.
"Strange, this place's light is harmless. Normally standing in the light without my mask is rather painful. It seems you may get to indulge in my fair visage significantly more often. However, we must return to the topic at hand. Where do we go from here?"
This quickly got me back into the game. Now is not the time to crush over space elves.
"Maybe we should try and figure where and when we are. We may actually be somewhat okay depending on the time we arrived."
Indeed, we may actually be in a good spot depending on the time and place we arrived in. If we're in the Dark Age of Technology, it may be possible to warn the Big E of the impending shitstorm. Otherwise, we could collect some databases and camp out in this place until things wind down.
After that, I'm not too sure.
The Age of Strife is called its namesake for a reason. The men of iron may still exist. The Eldar may or may not have fallen yet but are an extreme threat if they haven't. The orks should be spinning out of control by now. There's also the Rangdan whatever those were. They supposedly were involved with the death of an entire legion and primarch. That's the general consensus.
The Great Crusade would be a rough time to be in too. Some primarches, like Magnus, would be able to detect whatever this place is. Even if I do manage to explain to them my situation, they might just kill me out of fear of whatever I got into. Assuming I survive that, the Big E not like the idea of me having some interdimensional hidey hole that he does not understand. That's not even mentioning poor Deliah or my extensive understanding of Warhammer40k.
Don't even get me started on the Heresy and everything after.
And that's assuming we're even in the canon Warhammer and not in some fic. Though being TTS Emperor would probably be the best I could hope for.
Suddenly, my thoughts were cut off with a sliver flash much like the one to bring Deliah. I saw her stand up, her mask on and her sword drawn. A flicker of motion flash at the end of the room. I was once again yanked to my feet.
"To your feet Michael! Something appeared by the back wall."
Sure enough, white containers appeared at the end of the room. The containers had the word "container" in blue text against a black screen on the latch. They seemed familiar.
"Subnautica."
Deliah looked over at me.
"You recognize these crates?"
"Yeah, they're from a video game called subnautica."
I walked over to them, Deliah still cautiously walking aside me. I did not even need to touch them, the crates opened by themselves to reveal their contents. Inside were vital tools from the game. One contained a scanner, another contained a PDA, and the last one contained a Habitat Constructor.
These were game changing. The PDA combined with the scanner is like a discount STC Fabricator.
"Do you recognize these tools?"
"Yeah, these are extremely good ones. The first one is a scanning device, the second one is a PDA, and the third one is a fabricator used for buildings."
I could see her immediately realize the extreme usefulness of these tools. Deciding to try them out, I pulled out the PDA and was greeted with the mechanical voice we're all heard the entire time in Subnautica.
"Greetings Administrator. This PDA will catalogue record vital data, offer survival advice, and monitor your vital functions. This program's primary objective is to keep you alive in an unknown environment."
"Not the same as the game..."
Deliah looked over my shoulder with curiosity at the device. Sure enough, the interface was the same as the game aside from lacking an inventory tab. As I had quietly hoped, the PDA had all the blueprints for the beginning of the game. We were all but set... as long as we can get the materials. We don't have a big ass ship nearby nor a wiki to find everything. Then I heard a beep from the PDA.
"Seek fluid intake."
This brought another fact to my attention. This place did not have running water or means of producing food. I knew basically nothing about surviving the woods besides boiling water and not eating random plants. Plus, many of the blueprints use stuff from the actual planet in subnautica. Stuff that most likely will not live here. I looked over to see Deliah examining the other devices, obviously being extremely careful with how crucial they have become.
"Deliah, do you know anything about survival?"
"I do, but not for human biology. Most of my specialization was in technology."
Shit.