Just Keeping Swimming Chapter 1 (Patreon)

I just stared at my sponsor who had a pitying expression as he looked at me. And after processing my fate I said in a dead tone. "What... What did you say I would be reincarnated at?"

My sponsor took a breath and said bluntly. "You are going to a Subnautica based universe that has been infested by eldritch influences by Azathoth... The reason why you are going. Is because your soul designation and affinity is Order. You catagorically counter their influences, mental and reality manipulation."

He took a breath and said. "You are not going 'alone' as it were. I already coordinated with The Company who were going to offload a large amount of low ranking clones into a dead universe. They will instead be 'dropped' in with you on the Aurora that will be crashing landing as per the norm of Subnautica."

"You will have a background and some implanted memories on how to USE Subnautica tech but no tech based powers. But you will find that you will not be totally alone in anycase."

I was silent for a long moment before I grimaced and asked the more pressing question. "You expect me to go up against eldritch nonsense without a system or a cheat and what not. Why the hell would I want to suffer that bullshit? I would rather go to Warhammer Fantasy at this point."

My sponsor raised an eyebrow at my tone before he said bluntly. "It's the dice you rolled bud. I myself WENT to Warhammer 40k and became an Eldritch style god by becoming a planet-sized supercomputer and ate Chaos. You, yourself, just need to find the TRUTH and you will ascend past your mortal form into a being of Order. 

There was a silence as my sponsor and I just stared at one another before I blinked and he chuckled saying with a damned grin. "Nah dude, just fuckin with ya. With your essence heading towards your own godly path. I will help give you a hint of Truth before you go." 

Then he took a breath before he asked curiously. "So, one final question. Angel, demon, or animal-eared girls? What is your poison of choice?" 

I pondered his question for a good minute before I spoke from the heart. "Whether it be floof, holy passion or depravity... What matters most is the tits and the ass. And in this case the ass better be fat and the tits be jiggling as she goes down the stairs."

My sponsor who had been forming a spark of white light in his hand that made my brain taste the color blue. Looked up and he smiled before he said with a smile. "Yeah... You will do alright."

And then that light shot forward into my chest and I realized what the Truth was as in a more literal sense as I had a Fullmetal Alchemist info cheat shoved into my soul.

Then my vision became a whirlwind of colors before my mind faded as the last thing I 'saw' was my sponsor standing over a short faceless being and then smashing a steel chair into it's head.

And then abruptly my vision returned... And I joined several others in screaming as I was seated in some sort of mechanically locked seat as we spun around in the air with gravity abruptly not being a thing and then returning.

After a good... Ten seconds of screaming autistically for my life as we spun around in circles. I realized I had been dropped into the fucking lifepod that would be crashing into the world that Subnautica takes place in.

And I got my wits about me enough to take in my pod mates as it were. All three were women for better or worse. One had long light blond hair, another had shorter brown hair, and maybe a ponytail?

The last woman was of particular note, even with her standard black hair was her almost obscene, large breasts that were smushed on the rails that were keeping us pinned in our seats.

The screams didn't stop until the final moment, as I looked up as our life pod spun through the air, and every half a second I could see the ocean becoming... Entirely too close with each rotation.

"Brace!" I yelled out before tensing and making sure I woudn't bite my tongue as we hit the final rotation in our flying.

My vision went dark as we slammed into the water's surface of Planet 4546B. And then I could literally feel my organs shifting as the life pod groaned and the walls shifted ever so slightly before all that momentum was lost as we shot back upwards to the surface of the water.

The life pod shifted in the water as I felt like vomiting now that things had finally calmed down... And I slowly took in my surroundings now that things weren't a fucking mess of a death spiral that created artificial gravity with the force of our spinning.

I reached down to my seat's control panel and hit the red release button with a hiss. My seat's lock gave way, and I coughed as my chest could finally expand fully. 

"You three still alive?" I asked the three women who were all in various states of. 'Trying not to puke all over themselves.'

The blond one threw me a thumbs-up before speaking in a slightly thick accent. "Yes, I am unharmed. I am a doctor, do any of you feel pain, swelling in your eyes or numbness in your feet?" 

I knew what she was getting at. She was asking if, during this traumatic G-Force experience if we had blood pooling where it shoudn't be due to the extreme pressure our body went through.

The brunette then spoke, and I actually recognized her! She was Lara Croft! "I am doing well enough. Despite surviving a spaceship being blasted out of the planet's orbit." She said dryly.

The last woman gave me an odd look for some reason before she spoke in a softer tone. "I am... Also, alright, I think?"

To which I took a deep breath, as it would be really fucking painful having to deal with a corpse in our lifepod. Like what could we do? Just throw them out of the lifepod and let the wildlife deal with it?

I looked around the lifepod, and I smiled at seeing the Fabricator built into the wall. But as I got to the Fabricator, I realized something rather awkward for a long moment.

'I don't have the built-in AI that is part of the ship and suit AI that the Subnautica protagonist had.' I realized and then I went over to the storage locker... And boom! There were a few nutrient blocks and a couple of canteens of water.

And most importantly was a sealed environmental suit that had a small flexible block at it's back that almost assuredly held it's electrical systems.

"Now, seeing as we are abandoned clones that were sent to colonise this world. I suggest we share our names and get nice and comfy with one another. As far as I saw, there is nothing but ocean surrounding us." Lara spoke as she folded her arms over her chest.

The blond then spoke as she moved away from the black-haired girl, who looked utterly out of her depth. "My name is Angela Ziegler, I am a doctor, scientist, specializing in life sciences, and an engineer."

Now I recognized her. She was Mercy from Overwatch... It was hard to recognize her outside of her art style and not in a video on the 'Hub.'

As I honestly never played Overwatch, I was a loyal abuse pig to League of Legends. I never needed to get into hero shooters when I had LOL for enough mental pollution.

I then spoke next, as I said. "Jake Bariss... Uhh, so how much do you girls know about this world actually?" 

The three women shared a look before the final dark, black-haired girl spoke quietly. "We were told it was a primarily water world with a stable atmosphere. And that if we could colonize it, it was our own and we woudn't be liquidated... Were you given different information or something?" 

Then she hurriedly added. "Ah, my name is Akira Toudou as well! It's nice to meet you all." 

But the three women's eyes were all on me as my face was pinched before I took a breath and said helplessly.

"This world is a death world... Its surface is more than ninety percent water, and most of that 'land' percentage is frozen over plains of ice at the poles. The two moons of this world that are far closer then we could hope also make the world's tidal movements more extreme than Earth's as well."

I took another breath and said flatly. "That isn't all of it. As the world's ecosystem is... VERY developed. Giant kaiju aquatic beings are common in the deeper waters, and they are all very aggressive." 

The pod went quiet as I inwardly kept the eldritch influences that were at the depths to myself as well... I had a feeling that this world was kind of a Borderlands Vault situation if my sponsor and the Company had anything to do with it.

They sealed away the biggest influences of the eldritch entities using the 'alien' technology, and it was up to us to figure out how to deal with the eldritch beings... Because I had a strong feeling that everyone else who got sent here didn't have major superpowers of any kind.

Then Lara said a heavy exhale. "Well in either case we can't just sit here in this life pod and waste away. I am going to go up through the top and see what is around. And also see if the life pod has sustained any dangers as well."

I nodded and added. "Give me a minute. This is an environment suit that has a buit in ai. I will come out with you in a second."

And going over the environmental suit, I could feel the implanted Subnautica tech telling me something very bluntly. In order to properly have the suit seal itself around me. I couldn't have any lines or artificial obstructions as the suit could seal around any damage to prevent leakage or pressure loss with its skin-tight seal.

"Ah. Could you two also go up as well. I need to get naked to put on the suit." I said helplessly to Angela and Akira.

Angela being a doctor who had seen... Everything there was about the human body gave a chuckle. Akari hurriedly nodded and climbed up the ladder to follow Lara outside of the life pod to give me some space.

Finally, with a moment alone. I could only exhale helplessly while working to put the suit on as I said quietly. "Please... Don't troll me with giving me a racist AI like Grok or something." 

And as the suit sealed itself around my body, touching me in places I didn't even know I had. An all too familiar sarcastic synthetic voice rang out in my ears.

[Compare me to a dumb ai like that again, and I will lock your suit with Barney's 'I love you' song playing at full blast for the next three hours.]

"Cortana, is that you?" I asked quickly with hope filling my heart.

And then my face twitched as she said dryly. "Of course its me. What, did you expect Alexa or Siri?"