"STORY, based on a dream I once had"
You sit in the Aurora lounge, while you expect nothing. You finish your coffee and make your way to the Aurora server room, to do your regular work.
While checking the controllers, you suddenly hear a loud explosion followed by screams. You jump up immediately and keep calm, while running to the life pods as quick as possible.
On your way, you meet Chief Engineer Yu. You ask her what's happening, but she simply ignores you, and gets into Lifepod 2, dropping out of the Aurora. You notice, that you are way too late and there's only one lifepod left, at the end of the corridor, Lifepod 25 . It looks strange, much darker than the other lifepods, but you have no other choice. The explosions keep getting stronger while you get in the Lifepod, pulling the lever and saying goodbye to the Aurora for one last time. You can feel the gravity trying to rip apart your body while falling down. You just wish this torture would finally end, and this would be just a bad nightmare, but this is not the worst part of the story. At one point, you lose control over your body, and fall into a deep coma...
You wake up in absolute dark. You see nothing but darkness and a blue light flimmering in your pocket, the PDA. You start your PDA, turning on the flashlight. The lifepod seems to be in perfect state. Another lever catches your eye, on the other side of the lifepod. You try to reach out for it, while your legs feel still numb from the fall. Lights turn on, white creepy looking fluorescent lights. A blue screen at the front side of the lifepod starts to glow in a dark blue tone.
STARTING ALTERRA GRAVITATIONAL DEEP SEA CAPSULE
You've already heard of this while working on a new database. It was some kind of new military project or something Alterra was working on. It was meant to be a secret, but it wasn't that hard to find the information, when you literally have control about the whole Aurora server complex.
The monitor started to do some calculating process. After a few seconds all it showed you was:
DEPTH: ???
ENERGY CELL: 98%
OXYGEN GENERATOR: ONLINE
ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE
STARTING ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN
You keep telling to yourself to keep calm and that panic won't get you anything. You breath in, you breath out. After 3 minutes, the monitor shows a new message:
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN COMPLETE
DEPTH: 19237m
CATEGORY 3 OCEAN PLANET
OXYGEN/NITROGEN ATMOSPHERE
NO SIGNS OF EXTENSIVE BIODIVERSITY
SAFETY WARNINGS:
MAY SUPPORT LEVIATHAN CLASS PREDATORS
ABRUPT ABYSS DETCTED 150 METRES NORTH
A last message appears slowly. It seems encrypted.
S̶̭̣̥̠̹̾̇̓̒́̾̇̿̾̾͠Ū̴̢̧̞͉̝̱̳͖̮͌̄̈́̒͊̇R̷̡̲̩̮̼̓V̶͖̘̦͓̎̈Î̸̻̾̽̍́̇ͅV̸͔͊̆̅̌͘Ọ̷̤̞́̋̓R̷̛͉̜̖̫͓͉̝̾̅̇͌̂̑̓̋̏͑̎̾͒S̶̢͉͇̣̻̖͙͚̺̈͊̓͊͐̈́̈͘͠ ̸͉͖̦͖̙̱͇̗͚͖̪̟̭̱̬͌̓̿́̒͌͛̔̂͑̓̇̚͝D̷̨̛͈̟͓̰̯͍̪͔̙͉̍̀͆̍̍͆͋̐̿͒͘͜E̵̡̧̨̼̹̭͖̙̮̪͕͉͖͂͊̃̈́̂͆̈́͐͘T̵̬̝̘̝͗̉̇͐͛͒͋̈́̈́͒̒̚͘E̵̩̍̉̐̎́̅C̷̛͔̥̰̯̭̮̺̺͇̣̣̤͗̏͂̅̀T̶̰̙͚̲̤͇͙̯͙̻͎͔̬̈́̅̅͌̀̈̇̇̿͘̕̕͠E̵̢̨̛̺͕͙̮̤͎̻̲̰̔̒̍̃̈́̐͜͝͠ͅͅD̷̼̝͆̿̄̔̂̉̃̔͗̋̎̉
You can't trust your eyes. Just imaginating being trapped at such a depth hits you and you fall into a deep coma again.
Two hours later. A green message flickers on the monitor.
INTIALIZE HABITAT BUILDER MODULE?
YES NO
You know your chances of survival are below zero, but your choices aren't much different. You press the green button below the monitor, and the capsule starting transforming.
And this is where your story starts...
"STORY end"
Now to the gamemode itself: I absolutely love Subnautica, and I've already finished the game 3 times, and I really think a hardcore challenge would fit the game well.
Let's just call it NIGHTMARE MODE . In nightmare mode, you weren't as lucky as your colleagues from the Aurora. You start at an extreme depth, below 10000m, where even Ghost Leviathans stop spawning. You start in a small base, that was automatically built by the lifepod habitat builder, and there's even a high-tech exosuit aboard. You die instantly when leaving the base without protection, due to the pressure, so the exosuit is basically the only way out of the base, where you have to collect resources like in the original subnautica. Your main objective is to get to the surface, and a strange signal, located in an even deeper abyss will help you with that mission (Maybe a destroyed/intact Alien Base), since you're running out of energy. In your way, stands a horrifying creature...
Honestly, I just really love the void. It's my favorite biome in Subnautica. It feels so weird and terrifying to be there, and there's so much more you could do with it.
Thanks for reading, and sorry for my bad english.
