'AURORA FALLS' - A Subnautica story.

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  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    crane476 wrote: »
    That might be cool, but the twisty bridges biome doesn't officially exist yet. Having the protag venture to a place like that could result in some retconning if the devs decide to cut it.

    That's no skin off my nose. I've had to do a fair bit of minor retcon work already. :)

    Might have to do some crystal-ball gazing and try to get the drop on the Devs... Who have been strangely silent on the whole 'Aurora Falls' business. Generally, at least one takes a peek at whatever topic happens to be on the boil at the moment.

    Am I doing something wrong? Am I doing something right?

    Who knows?

  • RainstormRainstorm Montreal (Quebec) Join Date: 2015-12-15 Member: 210003Members
    Im sure theyre reluctant to post anything due to the fact that your story, while awesome in itself, might include details and/or elements that are innacurate as far as their visions of the game im guessing. Also, its possible that while some or ALL of them have read parts or are maybe following your story with interest, may refrain to comment on it as to not influence you, good or badly, on your inspiration hehe. Of course, that doesnt mean youre doing anything wrong with your Fanfiction-made story!

    Given the many ''awesome'' you got from the community its a given that its good and we all like it. Hopefully we'll get to keep following your story for quite some time :)
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    I reckon I've strayed well off the beaten track, as far as Subnautica's canon lore is concerned.

    As long as the Devs don't mind me taking outrageous liberties with their world-frame, I'm a happy little camper.

    To be honest, I wouldn't mind a sly whisper every once in a while to keep me pointed in the general direction, although it's just as much fun to simply pick up the ball and run with it.
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    edited March 2016
    CHAPTER SIX

    There was something unsettling about the possibility that Alterra and Torgaljin might be working together on a clandestine project. The fact that it could have involved a STARFISH mining rig pointed the finger directly at Torgaljin Corp, although it would take some serious corporate clout within Alterra to get the device aboard Aurora and authorise a mining expedition, apparently under the cover of a legitimate terraforming operation. This implied an alarming degree of direct collusion between Alterra and Torgaljin, presumably originating somewhere in the upper reaches of the Alterra executive pyramid. The STARFISH device was almost certainly supplied by a Torgaljin source, but how would Alterra stand to profit from this particularly shady arrangement?

    Plausible deniability.

    Alterra provides a ship large enough to transport STARFISH, and Torgaljin does all of the dirty work.

    Alterra's terraforming works erase all traces of the mining operation, STARFISH goes back into storage, and both parties saunter casually away with a mighty muckle o' tax-free profit. Alterra would never publicly admit to using a STARFISH rig, although Torgaljin wouldn't give a second thought to using one on an occupied world, particularly if there was a hefty pay-off on the line...

    As far as pretty predicaments go, this one's a doozy.

    Sooner or later, either Alterra or Torgaljin would send another expedition to find out what has happened down here. The next ship to arrive would presumably receive the same warm welcome as Aurora, and events would inevitably spiral out of control. Chances are that ship would be loaded to the gunnels with mostly decent and unsuspecting wage-earners, just like myself. To make matters worse, I've got a distress beacon currently squawking its head off, leading anyone who cares to listen straight into an ambush. Even though I've mentioned the threat of being intercepted, it's a fair bet that there's still someone out there who'd be willing to take a chance on making planetfall. I conjure either one of the two 'interested parties' would be more than willing to give it a shot, particularly if they had a clear window to sneak in and do their dirty business before a military rescue ship arrives. In all good conscience, I can't allow that to happen.

    My next course of action was to take steps that would make a paranoid Survivalist weep with admiration. All obvious signs of human activity on Pyramid Rock were either buried or obliterated with a Terraformer. The entrance to the island's cave system was completely sealed and surface-finished to resemble the surrounding granite, just in case anyone felt the urge to take a closer look. It would require a pretty decent scanner to detect anything inside the caverns but solid granite. There was only one entrance to the storage facility remaining... And it was guarded by a Reaper.

    I call him 'Binky'.

    Two more Gen III Cyclops were constructed. One for JUNO, and one for IANTO. Ulysses was also upgraded to Gen III, and the difference was astounding. The new super-cavitating drive delivered a flank speed of 120 knots, assisted by a hull ionization system that reduced hydrodynamic drag by more than 95 per cent. All three Cyclops could slip through the water as silently as eels, or come at you howling like a Reaper. I won't go into any juicy details right now, but there were a few other crucial tweaks made here and there. Nothing particularly obvious, at any rate.
  • DinkelsenDinkelsen Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
    I am so happy that the cake is not a lie...

    I remember a WoW achievement of the name. :-) Took me hours to farm those darn eggs. Those were fun times, although it seems like an eternity away.
  • rhys_elcinsrhys_elcins UK Join Date: 2016-01-26 Member: 212148Members
    Dinkelsen wrote: »
    I am so happy that the cake is not a lie...

    I remember a WoW achievement of the name. :-) Took me hours to farm those darn eggs. Those were fun times, although it seems like an eternity away.

    are you referring to a WoW achievement called 'the cake is a lie'? or similar or one called 'binky' or 'Torgaljin'?
  • ComicalSkateComicalSkate Canada, ON Join Date: 2015-05-28 Member: 204993Members
    Ha! Love the implementation of the Torgaljin corporation!
  • ComicalSkateComicalSkate Canada, ON Join Date: 2015-05-28 Member: 204993Members
    edited March 2016
    Yes, I am suprised that I haven't seen a wisper from the devs about your amazing story but I do believe they know about it and have been following for sure considering how much of a ruckus you have made. And I also feel like they have taken some of your ideas and have put it into the game, slight story elements such as the PDA boot up in emergency mode reminds me of your story!
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    edited March 2016
    Most of the smaller bases definitely had to go. I savoured one final, frosty pitcher on the sundeck of Margaritaville as I watched the sunset, then bent to the lamentable task of deconstructing the base. Now that JUNO had her own Cyclops, christened 'Aegis', she was able to increase her computational power and sensor coverage with complete autonomy, rather than relying upon me to create new bases to house her subsystems. Although IANTO's Cyclops, 'Y Ddraig Goch' (The Red Dragon) was ready to accept his personality core, we had to determine precisely where his true allegiance lay. This was going to be a delicate business, since he was still completely unaware of JUNO's existence.

    I have been nursing a difficult decision for the past couple of days. There were only two possible choices to consider, and both paths pointed me in the wrong direction. I could eagerly respond to the message announcing that a Terran rescue ship had arrived to pick up survivors, or shut everything down and keep quiet until they gave up and moved on. My greatest concern was that one of the two Corps might show up before a Terran Defence Force rescue vessel could get here. I'm not entirely convinced that either Corp's first action would be to wrap me in a silver thermal blanket, then solicitously press a mug of hot tea into my poor, trembling Castaway hands.

    There could be some pleasantries involved at first, although it wouldn't be too long before someone started asking some mighty awkward questions. If my 'rescuers' visited Aurora at any stage, they might notice a rather large empty space where a certain piece of large mining equipment was supposed to be. I could bluff my way out and say that I used most of the remaining resources to build the base and sundry useful items that I needed to survive... Although then they'd ask to see the major city I should have built using all those materials. They were safely buried inside Pyramid Rock of course, although any excuse I might offer would only hold water until someone asked why I had taken such great pains to conceal the cache in the first place.
    'Aesthetic reasons' doesn't cut it.

    This is The Castaway's grand dilemma: "Do I run to greet the pirates, or hide from the cannibals?"

    Ultimately, I concluded that those pirates might also be cannibals, and laid plans accordingly.
    Reef Base was prepared as an initial point of contact. If all went well, this base would be seen as nothing more than a cosy place to welcome a rescue team with tea and dumplings, assuming that they could actually make a safe landing. As a contingency plan, I constructed a fall-back position 500 metres down a sheer drop-off in the deep Grand Reef biome. 'The Broch' was intended to serve as my emergency bolt-hole, and it would see action if events took a particularly interesting turn. This base was isolated, secure and effectively undetectable, since the habitat modules, Cyclops sub pens and their launch tunnels were constructed inside an immense cavity excavated from solid basalt. The only apparent access point was well-concealed and barely wide enough to admit a Seamoth. This structure would register as an apparently blank trench wall when pinged with high-definition sonar, although it would be a grave tactical error for a hostile sub to 'go active' anywhere near The Broch.

    Suffice it to say; I have paid particular attention to addressing that issue.

    The only item of business left outstanding was Pod 5. Now that each of my bases are equipped with proper Waste Management Modules and bioreactors as emergency power units, there was no need to keep using my trusty Lifepod as an outdoor loo. However, I was more interested in the Valkyrie Field that Pod 5 contained. This was my ace in the hole, so to speak. I conjured that things might take a messy turn at some stage, particularly if the wrong crowd turned up on my doorstep. As an aside, do you have any idea how difficult it is to completely submerge a Lifepod without wrecking it? It took me almost an entire coffee break to figure out how to do it. Gravspheres.
  • rhys_elcinsrhys_elcins UK Join Date: 2016-01-26 Member: 212148Members
    wait! do grav-spheres actually sink the lifepod?!
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    wait! do grav-spheres actually sink the lifepod?!

    Only for narrative purposes, I'm afraid.
  • Alrekr_IronhandAlrekr_Ironhand New Hampshire, US Join Date: 2016-03-22 Member: 214677Members
    This is quite the piece of work. Very nice job!
  • DinkelsenDinkelsen Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
    are you referring to a WoW achievement called 'the cake is a lie'? or similar or one called 'binky' or 'Torgaljin'?

    There was a WoW achievement "The cake is NOT a lie" for baking a cake made from rather rare ingredients, like certain eggs. Since I had nothing better to do at that time, I camped those creatures for an afternoon.

  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    I lay on my back, floating idly and watching the clouds roll by. No air tanks, no weapons. At any moment, something might shoot up from the depths and seize my body like a rag doll, shaking the life out of me in a welter of blood and frenzied, purely instinctive violence. I was completely unconcerned. This probability was within the nature of the game I played now. Since my first days on Manannán, I have lived with the taste of fear always in my mouth. Flinching at shadows, cowering with dread in the face of every minor setback, always hiding from the inevitable. That life ends, here and now.

    For all intents and purposes, the concept of death has become entirely meaningless to me. The only things that I still vaguely feared were its myriad agencies, and even their hold over me was dwindling away to nothing with the passage of time. Simply explained, the floating game was my way of preparing myself for an unknown sequence of events that may not even occur. All I knew at this time was that I was effectively unprepared for whatever may come, until I could face the certainty of my own demise entirely without fear. This was neither Zen or Bushido. It was merely... Necessary.

    The sea had become appreciably warmer over the past few weeks. I was seeing cumulus clouds gather and merge into ominous thunderheads on a daily basis now; always expecting them to develop into a cataclysmic storm within the space of minutes. The promised tempest never came, although I knew that it was out there somewhere, biding its time. The weather station installed at Reef Base was a new feature, its blueprints recently retrieved from Aurora's technical treasure hoard. I consulted its readings faithfully before setting out each day, half-expecting to see the first signs of a hurricane forming on the radar display. It was almost as if I were willing it to appear. At a depth of 50 metres, Reef Base was perfectly safe from anything but the most phenomenal weather conditions, due to its location on the lee side of an atoll. The base's low-profile design and hull integrity rating have been engineered to withstand heavy sea states, although any seismic sea wave over 20 metres in height might be a reasonable cause for concern.

    Three days later, the storm arrived. I was halfway through my second helping of Eggs Benedict when JUNO appeared by my side.
    "Captain, weather radar has detected a large low-pressure system with a pronounced rotational component bearing 121 degrees, distance 75 kilometres. Ocean surface temperature is currently 27.2 degrees Celsius, wind speed at 25 knots, gusting to 40 knots and rising. There is a 96.2 per cent probability that this weather pattern will develop into a Category 4 or Category 5 cyclone sometime within the next three hours. Base status: Condition Yellow. All external hatches and internal corridor bulkheads are sealed, base is now secured for severe weather conditions."

    "Thank you, JUNO. Please retract the primary sensor mast and deploy a weather sonde. I definitely want to keep a watch on this one. It looks like a right foul beast, even to my untutored eye."

    "Weather sonde launched. Telemetry feed is now active, Captain."

    The display revealed a sullen grey-green sky, shot through with periodic flashes of sheet lightning. Towering white cumulonimbus clouds formed the vanguard of the advancing storm, driven onward like a relentless cavalry charge. Rising winds tugged hungrily at the surface of the ocean, teasing once-sluggish waves into streaks of foam. White horses soon gave way to ponderous green rollers, obliterating the topside view with sheets of blinding spray as the leading edge of the cyclone passed directly overhead. I sat in watchful silence, cast adrift on my own sea of turbulent thoughts.
  • LorderiteLorderite Australia Join Date: 2016-03-13 Member: 214169Members
    The idea of pyramid rock hiding the parts of the starfish somewhat reminds me of that transformer episode where they find a giant death ray thingie in the Egyption pyramid...
  • DinkelsenDinkelsen Graz Join Date: 2015-10-05 Member: 208309Members
    Bugzapper wrote: »
    I named the base 'Plato's Cave'. It seemed appropriate at the time.
    I like that name. :-) Especially if you think about the purpose of the base in conjunction with Plato's cave allegory.
  • jlb10333jlb10333 California Join Date: 2016-03-25 Member: 214784Members
    hey im working on a story too! I have 23 words so far. Its called Aurora. I swear I did not copy off of you, I started a year ago. I just posted a comment on whether or not it would break copyright laws if I published it, or if I would have to get an approval.
  • jlb10333jlb10333 California Join Date: 2016-03-25 Member: 214784Members
    btw, you should probably try and publish Aurora Falls. Its really good.
  • rhys_elcinsrhys_elcins UK Join Date: 2016-01-26 Member: 212148Members
    I am reading this slightly tipsy after a night out, think I need to be sober to get the full awesomeness (having to re-read every 3rd word isn't helping), but still excellent.....
  • EpicIan60142EpicIan60142 Illinois Join Date: 2015-08-18 Member: 207263Members
    I am reading this slightly tipsy after a night out, think I need to be sober to get the full awesomeness (having to re-read every 3rd word isn't helping), but still excellent.....

    lol
  • ComicalSkateComicalSkate Canada, ON Join Date: 2015-05-28 Member: 204993Members
    jlb10333 wrote: »
    btw, you should probably try and publish Aurora Falls. Its really good.

    That wouldn't be possible without full permission from unknown worlds and I doubt that they would allow Bugzapper any profits made if they did. All proceeds would likely go to them. Though the devs have been unexpectedly nice so who know. Still a unlikely scenario though.
  • Space_JesusSpace_Jesus Join Date: 2013-02-01 Member: 182732Members
    edited March 2016
    Genetic manipulation/artificial evolution of offensive units designed to cleanse threats efficiently and on a possibly massively organized scale as implied by the Biter's odd behaviors a few chapters back. Might there be a link to the Khaara you're intending to construct, Zappy? I'm surprised your character hasn't picked up on the similarities since he knows of the Khaara business.
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    It's a bit more involved than merely engineering progressively nastier creatures to sic onto Selkirk.

    Patience.

    All will be revealed unto ye in the fullness of time, Son of Aldrin.
  • Space_JesusSpace_Jesus Join Date: 2013-02-01 Member: 182732Members
  • BugzapperBugzapper Australia Join Date: 2015-03-06 Member: 201744Members
    Incidentally, Selkirk is beginning to realize that there's something odd happening to the planet's fauna.

    One of the December 2015 pages touches upon this very subject.
  • rhys_elcinsrhys_elcins UK Join Date: 2016-01-26 Member: 212148Members
    So having re-read that last passage when sober, I can confirm it is even better, and fully awesome!
  • CrypervillaCrypervilla US Join Date: 2016-02-14 Member: 213026Members
    This is amazingly enchanting. I have never been so mesmerized by a piece of literature (although Jurassic Park is a close second). It is so creatively unique and nuanced, and I do hope this fan-fic can satisfy other people as it has me. When it said that the fauna evolved in a span of decades/centuries I had to re-read it to understand what JUNO was saying. I wonder if humanity will ever achieve this level of technology. If they are genetically manufactured, that would explain the near-absence of large prey. Just if I'm not being clear enough- AMAZING FANFIC
  • RainstormRainstorm Montreal (Quebec) Join Date: 2015-12-15 Member: 210003Members
    Okay, your story plot is starting to take good shape and im starting to love it even more! :smiley:
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