Commander Epsilon
03-22-2022, 07:56 PM - Word count:
Chapter One: Entry
The rattle of metal on metal was what woke me up first. Followed by the smell of something plastic burning, and a distressing whooshing noise. I opened my eyes, and they found an intensely familiar sight that I would recognize anywhere.
The inside of a Subnautica lifepod.
I couldn’t tell which one it was exactly, but that didn’t really matter. I already knew exactly which one it was. It was about then that I started hearing the slam of that metal panel that always knocked Riley out. I pulled my hands up, covering my head, leaving as few holes as possible to prevent from getting slammed by that damned panel. A scant few seconds later, I felt a terrible impact on my forearms as the panel crashed into them, but left me awake. Then I felt it again, and again. A separate, yet enormous impact on my shoulders signaled my arrival on the sea surface as the pod crashed down and my body tried to bounce up. Then I felt my center of gravity flip, once, twice, thrice.
Finally, my pod landed right side up. My head felt as though someone took a hammer to it, and I felt dazed and confused from all the impacts. Still, the knowledge that I was in the world of Subnautica definitely kicked me into motion, and I quickly assessed myself and my surroundings as best I could, trying futilely to control my panic with the knowledge that nothing bad should immediately happen to me, hopefully.
There was a strangely bulky PDA on the floor, done in strange blue metal that had no visible seams or holes in it. There were the flaming panels in the pod, which I should probably take care of with the extinguisher on the floor, and there was the fabricator, medical cabinet, and storage/lifeboat diagnostic section near the back of the pod. On the other side of the pod, closer to me was the radio, built into the wall. It was already blinking. I tried to get out of the restraints, but found them stuck. A quick slam of my fist down down into the control panel fixed that problem. Percussive maintenance seems to be universal. Then I got up and went for the PDA on the floor, it was odd in how it appeared. It was when I picked it up that things got even weirder. The PDA practically jumped into my hand, as though it, or my hand, were magnetically charged.
As soon as the cool metal touched my fingers, it felt as though I was zapped by static electricity. I suddenly knew a lot of things, too many things. My mind was filled with formulas and concepts and theorems that I didn’t even know existed, much less understood. I also learned history, of a place and race that I did not know, only heard about second-hand through friends of mine. Progenitors. Commanders. Titans. Legion. Concepts and ideas scrolled through my brain as I learned more in what felt like less than a second, than I had learned in the entirety of my life before. It was disturbing, and unsettling, and I had no idea how to process all that.
So instead of dealing with that, I decided I should do the smart thing and check to see what caused that fire in the normal game. I moved over to the control panel beside the storage space on the lifepod, checking for damage apart from the missing cover panel. I saw the problem immediately, frayed wires crossing where they really shouldn’t, causing a great deal of sparks to shoot everywhere whenever the motion of the waves outside moved the pod, disturbing the wiring. It was simple enough to move the crossed wires far enough away from each other that they wouldn’t spark. I’d have to go ahead and deal with it later when I got myself a repair tool.
I shook myself out of my musings. I didn’t need to be distracted by that of all things right now. I needed to get moving, there were a few things I could do right now, but the most important one was using that radio and contacting whoever is available. Surely, this early, someone is still alive?
I made sure the radio was repaired and powered, then turned up the volume, trying to listen to anyone speaking. At first, there wasn’t anything but idle static as I flipped through the Alterran channels to reach the emergency channel. Finally, I reached someone’s voice.
“Hello!? Is there anyone out there? Our seaglide has been damaged.”
I quickly turned up power to the transmitter on my radio. Luckily, unlike Riley’s radio, this one wasn’t damaged by the fire.
“Yes! This is-” Instead of saying the words I had wanted to say, different ones spilled forth against my will. “Percy Epsilon. Stay where you are, I’m going to go get you.”
I stressed that they stay as best I could, while noting where their transmission was coming from. Shouldn’t be too hard to find them, they’re not that far. Likely at the Kelp Forest. A moment later, I realized that I couldn’t say my name, only the one that interjected itself into my speech. At any moment that I tried to speak, whisper, or even think my actual name, it was intercepted and turned to Percy Epsilon. An almost subconscious thought made me want to slap a Commander to the front of that too. The idea that this is ROB or SI shenanigans continues to become even more likely. Fuck.
I only noted a few moments later that I never gave the survivors of Pod 2 the chance to respond.
A dark niggling voice kept telling me that I wasn’t cut out for this, that I should just worry about myself. That I should freak out and go through my own personal psychotic break over not being comfortably at home anymore. That I’m now stuck on a death world with a hyper-lethal virus in the water, that I’ll certainly contract no matter what I do, since the virus is in everything.
I took that voice behind the figurative shed and shut it up semi-permanently.
I hurried to leave. I couldn’t exactly seal my suit, no materials to do any such thing, so I was basically screwed in regards to picking up the Kharaa virus. Unfortunate, but there was little I could do about it. I opened the hatch on the bottom of the Lifepod, and stared for a moment at the water. I was understandably hesitant to jump into what I knew was infected water. But, again, no choice. With a resigned sigh, I put on the standard issue rebreather that I found in the storage cabinet, then jumped in without further ado. The water was warm, not totally freezing, but this was admittedly a nicer area, climate wise, than most others. My mask has a minimal HUD, with a compass and a small bar displaying how much longer I could stay underwater, relative to the rebreather’s ability to keep recycling air. I pointed myself north, and started swimming, keeping away from any Gasbags, that is, the big manatee looking fellows that farted poisonous gas. It took me a bit, perhaps five tiring minutes to get to the halfway point, where I encountered a lava geyser. My PDA beeped then, and I took it out while moving. I had to hurry, there were other survivors I had to try and save. The PDA had a very brief message on it:
[Metal Deposit Detected]
And that’s the other problem, I have a tablet which lets me use what seems like Planetary Annihilation Commander abilities. That’s a very dangerous topic to think about, because it seems to me as though I might be a PASI, a Planetary Annihilation Self-Insert, which means I’m being written as doing all of this, by my own self. A disturbing thought. On one hand, that means that narrative causality will ensure I’ll probably live through this. On the other hand, my life will likely be filled with conflict to keep the story going.
Disturbing.
But I had no recourse, whether it be a case of myself writing a PASI, or a malevolent ROB who dislikes me and wishes me to suffer, or just some kind of glitch in reality, here I am. It sucks, but I have to make do, and that’ll start with me actually getting on with what I was doing before. Save people now, mental breakdown later.
I patted my cheeks, the water slowing down the motion. Then I started swimming again until I reached the edge of the Kelp Forest. Once there, I stared at the tall leafy kelp, obscuring any sort of vision deeper into the forest, where I knew Stalkers lay in wait. They didn’t seem so big in the game, but they were essentially Great White Shark sized. Terrifying to think about, and even worse to see, when I saw one in the distance. It was too far to notice me, but it was terrifying nonetheless. I didn’t even have a knife! I swam higher, heading toward the surface of the water, and taking a quick breath of air once I got there, then I dived, and headed toward the position of Lifepod 3. I quickly noticed that it was on top of a small elevated position, a little rocky/sandy hill. I quickly made my way to the top of the pod, where I looked through the glass. A man and a woman were sitting on the ground of the pod, talking to each other, a broken seaglide just off to the side.
I thumped my hand on the glass, which prompted them to look up in fright, then relief when they saw me. I gestured for them to put on their rebreathers so I could speak to them. They had built in miniature radios. Terribly short ranged, but they allowed one to speak to someone as if they were in earshot out of water. A moment later, I heard their voices.
“Commander Epsilon! You came! Where’s the rest of the rescue team though?” Asked the man in the pod.
“I’m it. Everyone else is in the same situation you are, or worse.” I replied somberly. “Technically, I was in the same boat too, but at least my Lifepod floats. Let’s get you two over to my pod, then I’ll see about rescuing someone else.”
“Right!” The woman, now not nearly as somber, replied. I felt as though she was forcing cheer into her voice. However forced it was though, a little bit of optimism never hurt anybody.
They opened the top hatch of their pod, and I got to witness the strange effect of the water not rushing in, somehow leaving the pod entirely dry and filled with air, despite the water being noticeably held up by what seemed like nothing.
“Y’know, neither of you have told me your names yet.” I asked, a little bemused.
The woman flushed a little in embarrassment, and the man made a motion as though to facepalm, albeit aborted before he smashed his rebreather into his face.
“I’m Technical Assistant Jane Gosselin.” She responded soon after. “I’m Warrant Officer Scott McCormick.” The man replied after Jane.
“Nice to meet you, Jane and Scott, but we’ve got to get going. Come on, straight south along the top of the water.”
With that said, we all started swimming south toward my pod. Staying by the surface of the water made it easy to make our way to Lifepod 5, and they soon saw it. I followed them in as they dived under the water to get into the pod.
I went to the radio as they looked around. I saw them looking at the messed up wiring in the right hand control panel, but I ignored that and went to the radio. Turning it on, I listened for any transmissions. I was rewarded mere moments afterwards by a panicked live transmission.
“This is Ozzy from the cafeteria, what the hell guys?! They didn't warn us this might happen!
Our pod was almost crushed by the seamoth bay on the way down, now we're hanging on the edge of a cave system and this grim-looking snake-thing's trying to eat through the hull!
Come get us already!”
“This is Percy Epsilon, I’m on my way! Sit tight and put on your rebreathers!”
Ozzy replied just a moment later. “Thank god for that, Percy, hurry! This damn snake-thing’s not getting any less hungry!”
Well, someone was definitely in trouble. I looked back to Jane and Scott.
“Alright, I need you two to go down below this pod and find bits of scraps from the Aurora for Titanium. DO NOT enter any caves, DO NOT leave the shallows. This is the safest darn location on the planet right now until we find a better one.”
“Right.” “Okay!” The two respond. The two, after making sure they don’t have any injuries, jump down into the hatch below to do as told. Internally, I thank whoever decided to dump me here that I didn’t end up as a “Non-Essential” Maintenance Tech like Ryley did. That would’ve sucked. He was basically a fancy janitor. Or vending machine fixer. While the two were out, I quickly accessed the fabricator’s User Interface, and the built-in semi-designer program. It didn’t allow the creation of new designs, but it did have the ability to modify existing designs in order to account for resource shortages.
It didn’t take them long to come up again, hauling a rather large piece of scrap up between the two of them. I quickly helped them pull it up out of the hatch, and drag it over to the fabricator, which surprisingly quickly broke it down into Titanium molecules and assorted other elements that made up the alloy of the Aurora’s hull. I quickly assign several survival knives to be made. They had metal grips, as I had no rubber. It instead used my own design instead of the native one already in the fabricator. It was a standard knife, really, but the grip had small rivulets for the fingers, a wider pommel, and a small chain link hand-strap to prevent it from sinking away if it did slip. With that quickly assigned, it didn’t take long, less than three minutes for each knife. But I didn’t wait that long, the moment the first one was done, I grabbed it, put the hand strap around my wrist, then faced the two crew members I’d saved so far. They hadn’t said anything so far, but now they spoke as I turned to face them.
“What are we going to do now, Percy?” Jane asked, and Scott nodded in agreement to her statement.
“Well, first, I’m going to go save Ozzy. You two stay here and gather more stuff from the shallows. Again-”
“Don’t leave the shallows.” Scott interjected. “We got that after the first Do Not.” Jane finished with a small smile. “I agree with that statement, by the way, I saw a few bits of the wildlife, and they certainly don’t look pleasant.”
“Well, yes. I guess you two have learned that well by now. Don’t enter any caves either. I went through a very short one when I was making my way toward you guys and found a very fast explosive fish living there. It literally suicides to try and kill you. I imagine something else creates them, since I can’t imagine a purely suicidal fish from a genetic perspective.”
“...Well then, guess we aren’t going into caves then. Alright, get going. You’ll come back to loads of scrap!” Jane finished, a fist in the air, the other hand at her waist and a megawatt smile on her face. I smiled back at her.
“See you soon, Jane.”
Then I jumped down into the lower hatch. I can only hope that her optimism stays and it doesn’t die like almost everyone else on the Aurora did.
The rattle of metal on metal was what woke me up first. Followed by the smell of something plastic burning, and a distressing whooshing noise. I opened my eyes, and they found an intensely familiar sight that I would recognize anywhere.
The inside of a Subnautica lifepod.
I couldn’t tell which one it was exactly, but that didn’t really matter. I already knew exactly which one it was. It was about then that I started hearing the slam of that metal panel that always knocked Riley out. I pulled my hands up, covering my head, leaving as few holes as possible to prevent from getting slammed by that damned panel. A scant few seconds later, I felt a terrible impact on my forearms as the panel crashed into them, but left me awake. Then I felt it again, and again. A separate, yet enormous impact on my shoulders signaled my arrival on the sea surface as the pod crashed down and my body tried to bounce up. Then I felt my center of gravity flip, once, twice, thrice.
Finally, my pod landed right side up. My head felt as though someone took a hammer to it, and I felt dazed and confused from all the impacts. Still, the knowledge that I was in the world of Subnautica definitely kicked me into motion, and I quickly assessed myself and my surroundings as best I could, trying futilely to control my panic with the knowledge that nothing bad should immediately happen to me, hopefully.
There was a strangely bulky PDA on the floor, done in strange blue metal that had no visible seams or holes in it. There were the flaming panels in the pod, which I should probably take care of with the extinguisher on the floor, and there was the fabricator, medical cabinet, and storage/lifeboat diagnostic section near the back of the pod. On the other side of the pod, closer to me was the radio, built into the wall. It was already blinking. I tried to get out of the restraints, but found them stuck. A quick slam of my fist down down into the control panel fixed that problem. Percussive maintenance seems to be universal. Then I got up and went for the PDA on the floor, it was odd in how it appeared. It was when I picked it up that things got even weirder. The PDA practically jumped into my hand, as though it, or my hand, were magnetically charged.
As soon as the cool metal touched my fingers, it felt as though I was zapped by static electricity. I suddenly knew a lot of things, too many things. My mind was filled with formulas and concepts and theorems that I didn’t even know existed, much less understood. I also learned history, of a place and race that I did not know, only heard about second-hand through friends of mine. Progenitors. Commanders. Titans. Legion. Concepts and ideas scrolled through my brain as I learned more in what felt like less than a second, than I had learned in the entirety of my life before. It was disturbing, and unsettling, and I had no idea how to process all that.
So instead of dealing with that, I decided I should do the smart thing and check to see what caused that fire in the normal game. I moved over to the control panel beside the storage space on the lifepod, checking for damage apart from the missing cover panel. I saw the problem immediately, frayed wires crossing where they really shouldn’t, causing a great deal of sparks to shoot everywhere whenever the motion of the waves outside moved the pod, disturbing the wiring. It was simple enough to move the crossed wires far enough away from each other that they wouldn’t spark. I’d have to go ahead and deal with it later when I got myself a repair tool.
I shook myself out of my musings. I didn’t need to be distracted by that of all things right now. I needed to get moving, there were a few things I could do right now, but the most important one was using that radio and contacting whoever is available. Surely, this early, someone is still alive?
I made sure the radio was repaired and powered, then turned up the volume, trying to listen to anyone speaking. At first, there wasn’t anything but idle static as I flipped through the Alterran channels to reach the emergency channel. Finally, I reached someone’s voice.
“Hello!? Is there anyone out there? Our seaglide has been damaged.”
I quickly turned up power to the transmitter on my radio. Luckily, unlike Riley’s radio, this one wasn’t damaged by the fire.
“Yes! This is-” Instead of saying the words I had wanted to say, different ones spilled forth against my will. “Percy Epsilon. Stay where you are, I’m going to go get you.”
I stressed that they stay as best I could, while noting where their transmission was coming from. Shouldn’t be too hard to find them, they’re not that far. Likely at the Kelp Forest. A moment later, I realized that I couldn’t say my name, only the one that interjected itself into my speech. At any moment that I tried to speak, whisper, or even think my actual name, it was intercepted and turned to Percy Epsilon. An almost subconscious thought made me want to slap a Commander to the front of that too. The idea that this is ROB or SI shenanigans continues to become even more likely. Fuck.
I only noted a few moments later that I never gave the survivors of Pod 2 the chance to respond.
A dark niggling voice kept telling me that I wasn’t cut out for this, that I should just worry about myself. That I should freak out and go through my own personal psychotic break over not being comfortably at home anymore. That I’m now stuck on a death world with a hyper-lethal virus in the water, that I’ll certainly contract no matter what I do, since the virus is in everything.
I took that voice behind the figurative shed and shut it up semi-permanently.
I hurried to leave. I couldn’t exactly seal my suit, no materials to do any such thing, so I was basically screwed in regards to picking up the Kharaa virus. Unfortunate, but there was little I could do about it. I opened the hatch on the bottom of the Lifepod, and stared for a moment at the water. I was understandably hesitant to jump into what I knew was infected water. But, again, no choice. With a resigned sigh, I put on the standard issue rebreather that I found in the storage cabinet, then jumped in without further ado. The water was warm, not totally freezing, but this was admittedly a nicer area, climate wise, than most others. My mask has a minimal HUD, with a compass and a small bar displaying how much longer I could stay underwater, relative to the rebreather’s ability to keep recycling air. I pointed myself north, and started swimming, keeping away from any Gasbags, that is, the big manatee looking fellows that farted poisonous gas. It took me a bit, perhaps five tiring minutes to get to the halfway point, where I encountered a lava geyser. My PDA beeped then, and I took it out while moving. I had to hurry, there were other survivors I had to try and save. The PDA had a very brief message on it:
[Metal Deposit Detected]
And that’s the other problem, I have a tablet which lets me use what seems like Planetary Annihilation Commander abilities. That’s a very dangerous topic to think about, because it seems to me as though I might be a PASI, a Planetary Annihilation Self-Insert, which means I’m being written as doing all of this, by my own self. A disturbing thought. On one hand, that means that narrative causality will ensure I’ll probably live through this. On the other hand, my life will likely be filled with conflict to keep the story going.
Disturbing.
But I had no recourse, whether it be a case of myself writing a PASI, or a malevolent ROB who dislikes me and wishes me to suffer, or just some kind of glitch in reality, here I am. It sucks, but I have to make do, and that’ll start with me actually getting on with what I was doing before. Save people now, mental breakdown later.
I patted my cheeks, the water slowing down the motion. Then I started swimming again until I reached the edge of the Kelp Forest. Once there, I stared at the tall leafy kelp, obscuring any sort of vision deeper into the forest, where I knew Stalkers lay in wait. They didn’t seem so big in the game, but they were essentially Great White Shark sized. Terrifying to think about, and even worse to see, when I saw one in the distance. It was too far to notice me, but it was terrifying nonetheless. I didn’t even have a knife! I swam higher, heading toward the surface of the water, and taking a quick breath of air once I got there, then I dived, and headed toward the position of Lifepod 3. I quickly noticed that it was on top of a small elevated position, a little rocky/sandy hill. I quickly made my way to the top of the pod, where I looked through the glass. A man and a woman were sitting on the ground of the pod, talking to each other, a broken seaglide just off to the side.
I thumped my hand on the glass, which prompted them to look up in fright, then relief when they saw me. I gestured for them to put on their rebreathers so I could speak to them. They had built in miniature radios. Terribly short ranged, but they allowed one to speak to someone as if they were in earshot out of water. A moment later, I heard their voices.
“Commander Epsilon! You came! Where’s the rest of the rescue team though?” Asked the man in the pod.
“I’m it. Everyone else is in the same situation you are, or worse.” I replied somberly. “Technically, I was in the same boat too, but at least my Lifepod floats. Let’s get you two over to my pod, then I’ll see about rescuing someone else.”
“Right!” The woman, now not nearly as somber, replied. I felt as though she was forcing cheer into her voice. However forced it was though, a little bit of optimism never hurt anybody.
They opened the top hatch of their pod, and I got to witness the strange effect of the water not rushing in, somehow leaving the pod entirely dry and filled with air, despite the water being noticeably held up by what seemed like nothing.
“Y’know, neither of you have told me your names yet.” I asked, a little bemused.
The woman flushed a little in embarrassment, and the man made a motion as though to facepalm, albeit aborted before he smashed his rebreather into his face.
“I’m Technical Assistant Jane Gosselin.” She responded soon after. “I’m Warrant Officer Scott McCormick.” The man replied after Jane.
“Nice to meet you, Jane and Scott, but we’ve got to get going. Come on, straight south along the top of the water.”
With that said, we all started swimming south toward my pod. Staying by the surface of the water made it easy to make our way to Lifepod 5, and they soon saw it. I followed them in as they dived under the water to get into the pod.
I went to the radio as they looked around. I saw them looking at the messed up wiring in the right hand control panel, but I ignored that and went to the radio. Turning it on, I listened for any transmissions. I was rewarded mere moments afterwards by a panicked live transmission.
“This is Ozzy from the cafeteria, what the hell guys?! They didn't warn us this might happen!
Our pod was almost crushed by the seamoth bay on the way down, now we're hanging on the edge of a cave system and this grim-looking snake-thing's trying to eat through the hull!
Come get us already!”
“This is Percy Epsilon, I’m on my way! Sit tight and put on your rebreathers!”
Ozzy replied just a moment later. “Thank god for that, Percy, hurry! This damn snake-thing’s not getting any less hungry!”
Well, someone was definitely in trouble. I looked back to Jane and Scott.
“Alright, I need you two to go down below this pod and find bits of scraps from the Aurora for Titanium. DO NOT enter any caves, DO NOT leave the shallows. This is the safest darn location on the planet right now until we find a better one.”
“Right.” “Okay!” The two respond. The two, after making sure they don’t have any injuries, jump down into the hatch below to do as told. Internally, I thank whoever decided to dump me here that I didn’t end up as a “Non-Essential” Maintenance Tech like Ryley did. That would’ve sucked. He was basically a fancy janitor. Or vending machine fixer. While the two were out, I quickly accessed the fabricator’s User Interface, and the built-in semi-designer program. It didn’t allow the creation of new designs, but it did have the ability to modify existing designs in order to account for resource shortages.
It didn’t take them long to come up again, hauling a rather large piece of scrap up between the two of them. I quickly helped them pull it up out of the hatch, and drag it over to the fabricator, which surprisingly quickly broke it down into Titanium molecules and assorted other elements that made up the alloy of the Aurora’s hull. I quickly assign several survival knives to be made. They had metal grips, as I had no rubber. It instead used my own design instead of the native one already in the fabricator. It was a standard knife, really, but the grip had small rivulets for the fingers, a wider pommel, and a small chain link hand-strap to prevent it from sinking away if it did slip. With that quickly assigned, it didn’t take long, less than three minutes for each knife. But I didn’t wait that long, the moment the first one was done, I grabbed it, put the hand strap around my wrist, then faced the two crew members I’d saved so far. They hadn’t said anything so far, but now they spoke as I turned to face them.
“What are we going to do now, Percy?” Jane asked, and Scott nodded in agreement to her statement.
“Well, first, I’m going to go save Ozzy. You two stay here and gather more stuff from the shallows. Again-”
“Don’t leave the shallows.” Scott interjected. “We got that after the first Do Not.” Jane finished with a small smile. “I agree with that statement, by the way, I saw a few bits of the wildlife, and they certainly don’t look pleasant.”
“Well, yes. I guess you two have learned that well by now. Don’t enter any caves either. I went through a very short one when I was making my way toward you guys and found a very fast explosive fish living there. It literally suicides to try and kill you. I imagine something else creates them, since I can’t imagine a purely suicidal fish from a genetic perspective.”
“...Well then, guess we aren’t going into caves then. Alright, get going. You’ll come back to loads of scrap!” Jane finished, a fist in the air, the other hand at her waist and a megawatt smile on her face. I smiled back at her.
“See you soon, Jane.”
Then I jumped down into the lower hatch. I can only hope that her optimism stays and it doesn’t die like almost everyone else on the Aurora did.
