Great, just great.
I'm stuck in the middle of an alien planet in a grimdark franchise with no survival skills, and a space elf who knows nothing about survival for humans. And while the PDA is useful, most of the blueprints use shit from another planet or require salvaging pieces of a wrecked spaceship. We need to figure something out now.
"Deliah, I think I need to head out."
She turned to me sharply.
"What do you mean?"
I grabbed the scanner and prepared to go out.
"We're in the middle of an unknown world... with no means of acquiring food or water. We need to figure out something within a few days or so."
She placed down the building tool onto the crate it was in.
"Very well, you will stay behind me. It is obvious who the less experienced combatant, and I need you to stay alive."
I nodded, and we stepped out of the dimension.
The moment we exited, the PDA was fast to comment.
"Warning, you have exited the Celestial Forge."
Celestial Forge? At least we have a name.
"Celestial forge? That device identified what we were in."
"Let's figure out our dimensional anomaly after we figure food and water. And we might as well try the scanner."
I pulled out the scanner as it synced with the PDA and aimed in at the eldar helmet that caused my existential crisis earlier.
A large cascading beam of white light struck the helmet and engulfed it in a white overlay. Despite the small size of the object, it actually took several seconds to scan.
"Scans indicate that the object is a helmet constructed by an unknown alien race. Extensive use of advanced nanostructures are detected. Composition is completely unknown and violates a plethora of laws regarding molecular and atomic activity. Replication of material is impossible. Caution is recommended. Further information is in PDA entry."
Deliah picked up the helmet with curiosity.
"So this was constructed by these... Eldar?"
"Yeah, that is one of their helmets alright."
"What is it made of?"
"The Eldar can pull parts of the warp into reality and stabilize it as solid matter. This material, wraithbone, is how they create everything they use."
She looked at me skeptically.
"They pull parts of this dimension... the same one that contains the creatures that destroyed their race... into reality?"
"Apparently. It clearly works as there hasn't been too many mentions of this going wrong. We don't know if the fall happened yet."
She nodded slowly as she looked on the helmet again.
"We should store this for later for study."
To our surprise, the dimension how had a helmet holder conveniently by the door. Shrugging it off, she just put the helmet on the rack and closed the door.
Next, I decided to scan the church itself. The scanner could scan a highly advanced alien structure with a huge gun linking to a geothermal generator, so a church should be easy enough. After a brief light show, we received a reply.
"Scans indicate this church was most likely dedicated to a descendant of the Christian faith due to architectural and symbolic similarities. Based on the most common symbol, the holy symbol is a cross with three concentric circles. Based on the state of disrepair and mineral dating, the church is likely to have been abandoned centuries ago. Reason unknown."
"Okay, that crosses out the imperium of man. Either this world was never found, or the crusade hasn't reached it yet."
"I suppose either is a good thing?"
"Yes, but I'd prefer the second. Now let's finally get out of here."
We both turned to the huge doors at the end of the procession chamber. The huge doors were thirty feet tall and were extremely decorated even with centuries of degradation.
That was unpleasant.
Both Deliah and I had to push with everything we had to open the damn things as result of centuries of rust and tons of weight. The PDA warned us the building would not survive the stress of them being closed, so we left it open.
At the very least, the view was decent.
Outside the church was a massive open field of grass under a purple sky. Not just any kind of grass field, the kind the Swiss post on media everywhere to make people jealous. It was just an endless field of rolling green, with some mountains in the background. A few forests dotted the plains around us. Most importantly was a scenic river running not far from the church. Let's hope it's actually water.
No matter how pretty this place may seem, we're in Warhammer40k. I'm half expecting some seven headed three tongued snake that breathes fire and pisses acid to explode out of the nearest bush.
"Remember to stay behind me. I'll make sure nothing there is dangerous."
I couldn't help but feel slightly miffed about having to rely on my new space elf for everything, but she refused to allow an unarmed human that is bound to her to be in danger. I watched her approach the bright blue creek, and nothing seemed to happen. She motioned for me to approach, satisfied with her investigation.
"It seems this river does not have large predators at the very least. I don't have a means of detecting any poisons however."
"I'm sure our PDA can help."
I immediately ran the scanner on the water, and it gave its advice.
"Scans indicate that this water contains a large amount of copper compounds and local microorganisms. Unfiltered consumption is not recommended for long term health. Scanned flora can be used to create a functioning filter to enable safe consumption alongside proper boiling. Rocks along the water flow may be rich in copper."
This is big. Not only do I have a functioning water source, but I also have a source of copper. Now I just need titanium. The PDA had new blueprint using some of the grass on the ground to create filtering fibers. Now that I think about it...
"Deliah, do you mind if I scan you?"
She looked at me with a bit of bemusement before nodding. I honestly didn't know what to expect, as the only full sapient thing in Subnautic was the Emperor Leviathan. After a bit of scanning, the PDA began beeping in a tone unheard of the game. The blueprint tab received a large number of blueprints, likely replicating her equipment.
"Scans indicate the organism is undoubtedly a fully sapient humanoid race with significantly more advanced technological progress. Remember to make a good first impression on behalf of Alterra. Warning: Organism is genetically incompatible with the human genome despite having a high facial symmetry, procreation is not recommended."
Deliah looked on at me with amusement as I reeled from what felt like an oddly pointed piece of advice.
"I can't help but wonder why that of all things is what she warned about."
"Scans of your vital signs indicate an increase in temperature, heart rate, and voice pitch whenever you are addressing subject "Deliah". These changes in vital behavior are most commonly observed in the early onset of romantic attraction."
My cheeks began turning red as Deliah giggled devilishly. I felt the extreme urge to chuck the PDA into the river.
"Okay, jokes aside. We need to find some form of titanium."
Our search was completely unsuccessful.
We could find trace of iron, carbon, copper, aluminum, nickel. I even fished some gold out of the river.
No fucking titanium and it was beginning to get dark.
I couldn't eat or drink anything here without risking getting sick. If eating ice from Mexico gets you sick, I don't even want to think about what another planet has to offer. This is the shit many of those stupid animes fail to remember.
And all the solutions are in my pocket. The PDA had so many useful blueprints now, but we need to build a fabricator to use any of them. This all requires a fabricator, which also needs a fabricator to build the chip. I did not get a starting fabricator like in subnautica. The only way can make a fabricator like this is if we happen to stumble upon a wrecked ship or something.
At the very least, the PDA indicated that the water could be safely consumed after boiling. You just don't want to drink it unfiltered for too long or the copper intake will cause various health problems. Deliah was fine, apparently dark elves don't need to eat or drink nearly as much as humans.
Lucky elf.
Time the long trek home.