Fanfic / Aurora Falls

Aurora Falls (available here) is a Fan Fic story about the game Subnautica by Unknown Worlds forum user "Bugzapper." The story starts as the game does and follows the exploits of the player protagonist but adds many new and original elements to the Subnautica plot as it progresses.

A month after the completion of Aurora Falls, Bugzapper began releasing a sequel, Borealis Rising, which was concluded five years later, just before the Unknown Worlds forums were closed to new posts in June 2021.

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Aurora Falls and Borealis Rising contain examples of the following tropes:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Selkirk learns about taming the Stalkers through freezing one with the stasis rifle and then placing Peepers in its gaping maw on a whim.
• Action Survivor: Selkirk, continuing the proud tradition established by Isaac, is just a simple ship's engineer with no weapons, trapped in a horrific situation with only his tools and knowledge to help him survive.
• Adaptation Expansion: Oh so much, especially later on, as little information has been given on the endgame.

• Awesome, but Impractical: Selkirk notes that the Vortex torpedo launcher module for his Seamoth is powerful, but space concerns for reloads (and the fact he has to actually leave the vehicle to reload) makes him decide it's not worth it.

• Brave Scot: Subverted by the protagonist, Alexander Fergus Selkirk. Selkirk may have Scottish ancestry and is proud of it, but he's actually from a Mars colony, nor is he especially brave (although many of his concerns about Manannan's native life are certainly very reasonable).
• Bring My Brown Pants: Tomar and friends, left to the tender mercies of Ahab the Reaper Leviathan in their Cyclops for a while.
• Brown Note: Apparently, the TRIDENT array can be set to the resonant frequency of the gastrointestinal system. Exactly what that does isn't directly elaborated upon, but it was evidently enough to push Tomar over the edge.

• Cosy Catastrophe: Downplayed, given that the first few chapters are taken up with the considerable hardship and danger the protagonist must endure to secure the basic necessities, but once he gets that part out of the way he doesn't waste much time finding ways to go beyond merely surviving:
  Selkirk: After retrieving the six-pack of Aussie beer that had been left dangling below the 4.0 Celsius thermocline (JUNO gave me absolute hell for that) while I slept, I settled comfortably into the pilot's seat while cradling a galley tray loaded with choice nibbles and commenced binge-watching the entire first season of Red Dwarf. Smegging brilliant.
• Death Is Cheap: Thanks to the Valkyrie Field, a system combination of a body scanner, a stasis field and a system generator. The Valkyrie Field works by scanning your body into a biometric template and then reconstructing your body from this template automatically when you die. The Valkyrie is specially designed to permanently shut down after about a dozen failed attempts to prevent an And I Must Scream scenario where the poor soul dies from starvation or dehydration and then is continually locked in a cycle of painful death and reconstruction, and can be shut down manually with the right safe word - some choose to do so out of religious or ethical reasons. Selkirk is loathe to rely on it. See Hand Wave.

• Due to the Dead: Selkirk constructs a massive obelisk jutting out several metres above sea level using the Terraformer, topped with a plaque in memory of his comrades aboard the Aurora. The whole thing is quite poignant.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Invoked. Certain species, including the infamous Crashers, were created specifically to harass human explorers, after a now-deceased group accidentally killed a Warper.
• Fun with Acronyms: Two of the AI names, specifically JUNO (Joint Unified Network Omnipresence, the "soul" of the Aurora) and IANTO (Integrated Analytical Nexus, Terraforming Observatory, the AI of the Magellan recon vessel)
• Going Critical: The Aurora's dark matter drive explodes, in Subnautica tradition.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Paal Torgal, deceased father of Baat, and the one who ordered the capture of the Sea Emperor.
• Hand Wave: The Valkyrie Field is used as an explanation as to how the protagonist of the game can be continually resurrected from death.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Selkirk is severely wounded fighting an Onos and almost "dies" from his injuries, but is rebuilt.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Selkirk attempted to tamper with JUNO's AI to make her friendlier, resulting in the Seamoth's infamous "I love it when you come inside me". Selkirk is very ashamed of it.
• Living Is More than Surviving: Selkirk's philosophy of life. Having expended much effort to secure the physical necessities of food and shelter, he immediately starts working on building newer and more comfortable quarters and acquiring the resources for some luxury items until his living arrangements resemble an upscale vacation home. And why not?
• Matter Replicator: As per canon, the nano-fabrication technology enables Selkirk to bootstrap his way from sleeping in an Escape Pod and hunting fish with a knife to riding around in a mini-submarine and living in a well-appointed Underwater Base.
• Mini-Mecha:
  • Selkirk's upgrades make the Prawn Suit more combat-capable, with the arms effectively being multi-tools.
  • Another revision of the Prawn Suit is later constructed specifically to use Enzyme 42 as a bioweapon and cleanse the Lava Castle of Khaara.
• Meaningful Name: Alexander Selkirk for the protagonist, being the name of a castaway on an uncharted island in the 18th century. This one is a castaway on an uncharted planet.
• My Greatest Failure: For Selkirk, the destruction of the frigate de Ruyter with all hands, after he repeatedly provoked its commander into attempting to kill him and destroy his Valkyrie Field source. He took it so badly that his AI companions had to pump his quarters full of knockout gas after a full six days of emotional breakdown.
• No Warping Zone: The tau-muon shield around the Sea Emperor, specifically meant to stop Warpers from entering His chamber and freeing him.

• Running Gag: Selkirk complaining about magnetite early on in the story.
• Ship Tease: A bit between Selkirk and JUNO. Maybe more teases will happen, since Selkirk is now an AI, but given the fact that now Selkirk is now in a relationship with Heloise, it seems unlikely.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Survival rule #32: Enjoy the little things," among others.
  • "If you work, you eat" in Rising, during the first Torgaljin base segment.
• Someone to Remember Him By: A planet-wide version of this occurs with the Sea Emperor, at the end of his life, asking for Selkirk's help to hatch his children.
• Survivor's Guilt: Selkirk, being the Sole Survivor of the Aurora crash, gets hit by this pretty hard after planetfall and considers suicide more than once. He also name drops the trope.
• Technology Porn: The writer clearly enjoys imagining what a rather clever engineer like Selkirk would do with Subnautica's advanced technologies and goes into great detail on many occasions when they are put to use- particularly of note are the customisation of the Cyclops, the Aurora salvage operation, and Selkirk's small scale space programme.
• Thanatos Gambit: Downplayed, thanks to the Valkyrie Field- Selkirk allows himself to be killed by Tomar in order to be resurrected in the Lifepod. This allows him to launch a surprise attack on his would-be-murderer and the other Torgaljin goons.