Thalassophobia (A Subnautica fanfic)

The Messages (Pt 1)

Ryleys's POV

Day 9

"This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over."

. . .

"Still nothing. These Alterra ships. They run out of engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up.

. . .

"I'll try them again tomorrow. See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra."

I hop out of my life pod, sinking to the shallow sea bed, ready to catch some fish to cook and eat. Every day somehow seems the same but so different. Sometimes I catch an abundance of fish and eat like an aquatic king. Sometimes I collect various minerals. Everyday I try to inch further and further near the crash site. Although, I would like to get it all over with as fast as possible, I have a lot of preparing to do. I know that I need to stay optimistic if I ever want to make my way off this planet. I just have to work through it. Piece by piece. For now, I'll try to strive on the local fauna.

Dangerous or not, this world is truly gorgeous. It's amazing how most of the fish have some sort of bioluminescence, making them glow like fishy candles in the dark. I wonder what the evolutionary purpose of that is exactly. Especially the Crash Fish. What the hell is the evolutionary purpose of kamikaze-ing your enemies? You want to come out on top, be the king. Not die after doing minimal damage. One I even saw one take out a Crash Fish egg when it exploded. Explain to me how that's supposed to be helpful.

I know something helpful to me is pondering and contemplating. Having a conversation with myself in my head, making me think about this and that, it keeps me sharp. Especially in a time when every single whit in my entire body is needed. I need to stay as strong as possible if I want to get out of this. And I know I will.

____________________________________________________________

Day 13

"Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location.
I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know.
We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out."

"What else can I say? The last time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it
Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."

Quinn's messages give me hope. They really make me feel like I'm going to get out of here. And soon. As much as the idea fills me with hope, makes my heart flutter, makes my stomach do flips because I'm so excited, I can't help but feel. . . Off about this whole thing. I doubt it was something to do with maintenance of the ship. I should know, I was the non-essential maintenance chief. Whether it was me or my job that was non-essential, your guess is as good as mine.

Alterra always has a scheme running in the background. That's probably why I'm in this situation. Why Ozzy is dead. Why everyone else is dead. Sometimes I think about how lucky I am. Look at me. Mostly unscathed while just about everyone else got turned into fish food. What a grim thought. And an even grimmer one- I'll be fish food too if I'm not careful enough.

But I know that I'll pull through. I just have to.

A/N: Hello again! This was just about entirely rewritten! I took one good look back at it after I started playing Subnautica again and almost yeeted myself out a window. It portrayed Ryley as a bitchy edge lord and looking back on it, I don't think that would fit his character. It might fit Paul's, but definitely not Ryley's. Also the writing was just horrible "I haven't really practiced much writing". This updated version is much much better. Trust me.