Chapter 1: Bet on McGill

"All impact Prawn operators prepare to take defensive position on the upper rear port side. This is a Code KT."

Alarms rang across the Aurora and people began to rush around at the sound of the announcement.

"Asteroids?!" one of the pilots growled as he dashed to his station.

"From behind too", another said, "Makes you wonder what even shot it our way in the first place."

"Ask questions when we're in the clear!" The first barked as they jumped into their Prawns and into the airlock. The door shut behind them and the air hissed out of the chamber.

"This is Jane Stalward accompanying the Hull Repair Engineers. All units are now in place. Requesting permission to disembark", a very young woman said from one of the prawns.

"This is command. Permission granted under one condition", one of the members on the bridge replied, "You watch your asses out there and keep your eyes on the sky for any other surprises. It's not just the equipment we need back here in one piece you know."

"Oh please", another pilot laughed, "You're just hoping that the shower doesn't smash her before you caAAAN!" He screamed suddenly as Laura blasted the Prawn in the cockpit with a claw mounted Propulsion Cannon, making it spin out into the wall of the chamber. When he hit the wall, you couldn't hear the impact in any way but a light rumble through the feet of the Prawn. The chamber was almost a vacuum now.

"Hey shut up", Jane barked as she whirred up her drill arm, "I will seriously take you apart and throw you into the storm!"

"Hey! Don't get salty because someone's looking to bed you, and he's not the only one."

"Lieutenant," Jane growled, "Could you please mute the bastard for me? Lieutenant?"

There was a brief silence before someone else popped back on the com.

"Apologies. The Lieutenant abruptly requested a swap in the con for some reason."

What the actual hell? she thought.

"Aurora has reached safest possible speed to engage", the man on the com replied, "It's still not fast enough to match the target's speed. If we spent any more time accelerating, we'd make contact before we can deploy you, so you'll have to act fast. Try and redirect them if possible." The gate opened up to the outside. An alien sun shined in on them, thankfully shaded by the Prawn visors and they all stepped outside. The star was easily blinding out the sight of any other stellar bodies, but it was still a beautiful sight nonetheless. The Prawns stuck to the hull of the Aurora thanks to artificial gravity simulators in the feet of each, similar to that of the propulsion cannon.

"Alright, perfect spotting conditions", Jane nodded, looking out at their surroundings, "With the star on the starboard side, we should be able to easily spot any oncoming debris from the direction they're coming from." Sure enough, as they turned around, the sunlight illuminated a multitude of rusty metallic specks off in the distance above them. The debris wasn't exactly coming at them from behind per say, but was on a collision course with that side of the ship. Of course, speeding up or slowing down any more than they already had moments before would waste fuel and momentum needed to maintain their trajectory. It was a job that the Prawn crew should be able to finish up.

"Prepare for impact. Activate hull reinforcement!" Jane ordered as the first space rock came into range and she wound up a punch that easily shattered it. It was just like the guide said, controlling the suits did give one the sense of limitless power.

And so the other Prawns followed suit. Some utilized their grappling arms to swing oncoming asteroids into the abyss. others used propulsion cannons to grab and fire rocks into others, shattering both in the process. It was actually rather fun.

"Attention all Prawns", control called in, "New mission. Our long range scanners have picked up abundant traces of raw materials that we can utilize on the go. If possible, try to capture any further asteroids you can and bring them back to the airlock for further processing."

"Seriously?!" Jane replied, "You wait to tell me this now?! Mining isn't my department like these guys! I don't possess clearance."

"Your job is to provide support and protect the engineers. That's part of why you were accompanying a new department for this one", control corrected.

Lights blared from the airlock, and the void may have silenced any sirens.

"The hell is going on down there?" control questioned, "We have unauthorized Airlock access!"

"But there aren't anymore Prawns!" another engineer exclaimed, "You mean to say that someone's coming out unguarded?!"

"Sure seems that way", Jane narrowed her eyes, "Who'd be crazy enough to do that?" Then out of the airlock stepped a single human. He was wearing a reinforced dive suit which apparently had been modified into a makeshift pressurized space suit. His boots were apparently equipped with mechanisms similar to the ones that let the Prawns walk on the surface of the Aurora instead of floating away.

"Oh no, it's McGill", one of the engineers groaned.

"Wait, you don't mean-", Jane was about to say more but an asteroid smashed into her Prawn and sent her tumbling away. She wasn't equipped with a graplling arm.

"Don't worry! We got you!" another pilot said, but the one named McGill was already sprinting forward. In a mere moment's thought, he locked four (yes four) of the dive reels at his belt to the ship and launched himself after the Prawn when he deactivated his gravity tether. He made a motion to Jane, one that looked like he was shooting a gun, and Jane instantly got the idea and pulled him in with the propulsion cannon.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here?!" she barked at him, but before she could react, McGill had slipped from her grasp, locked the other end of a reel to her and watched as she was yanked back down to the ship's hull, Prawn suit and all. Before he got out of range, the boy locked three remaining ship locked reels to the asteroid itself, about the size of a pickup truck, and the last reel to the asteroid connected to his belt.

"Captain!" Jane picked up her bearings again, now worrying for the one named McGill, "We have to do something!"

"Don't bother", the man at control said with a growl, "I don't condone his actions, but I've learned the hard way who that boy is."

Just like that the Asteroid was snagged by the reels and stopped in its tracks. The boy was thrown from the rock by the impact, but his last reel slowed his freefall to a stop. He sighed with relief before he casually reeled himself back to the rock, then activated the other three reels, which pulled the asteroid and himself back to the ship, safe and sound.

"Uh...quick! everybody secure the asteroid!" Jane said, a little bewildered by the quick thinking of the one named McGill, "Captain, that name...you don't actually mean that Craig McGill himself was on the crew this whole time, do you?!"

"No, but you're close", the Captain replied as McGill and the other Prawns stepped back into the airlock with the asteroid. Air seeped back in and Jane's savior removed his mask after he collected his borrowed tools.

He was a young man of probably 19 or 20 years of age, about the same age as Jane. His skin was light and his cheekbones were sharp enough to cut glass. His hair was long, shoulder length, and his eyes were a brilliant shade of violet. He was 5'11" and was slim but athletic, like he did little escapades like that one on a regular basis.

"That boy is Craig's son, Nero McGill", the captain told her, "Not an official crew member and by far the most boneheaded SOB I've ever encountered at Alterra. But there's no denying that he's living up to everything Craig has set the bar for."

"Really?" Jane said under her breath, impressed by what that boy had to offer. She would have thanked him right there, but Nero had already slipped away without a word and disappeared.

Now she was interested.

.

I was back in my room in moments. I didn't want to spend much more time around the rest of the Alterra crew. I needed to clear my head.

I removed my makeshift spacesuit and stood in my room wearing the standard issue jumpsuit, skintight. Everything was locked safely into place inside my room, and with a deep breath, I hit a button on my suit and gravity disabled exclusively for my chamber. I alone slowly lifted off the ground and the window wall opened up to show open space. I was in the sweet spot on the hull that had sunlight, but also allowed me to see the stars, other planets, and nebulae in their full untarnished glory. To complete that feel, I turned on some music. It was female voiced, and it seemed to echo softly across the cosmos out my window. It was a type of song from Earth's Medieval Period, roughly a thousand years before man even left planet Earth to colonize space, and it somehow fit the setting incredibly well. The song was called O Rubor Sanguinis by Hildegard von Bingen, but was performed by Sequentia, if the records are correct.

I took a deep breath and let myself go limp, floating with a set fitting atmosphere about my room.

What was I doing here? Why was I here? I didn't care for this.

Well, I suppose the answers to those are obvious at this point. My name is Nero McGill. Everyone in the shipping and exploring life knew that last name too well. Craig McGill was the ideal astronaut in the eyes of Alterra, what the company wanted all of their crew members to strive to be. We all knew how he lasted for months at a time on a swamp world and beyond with chances of survival dwindling in the single digits. He was the highest paid officer in the entire federation at this point.

And he just so happened to be my father.

You can imagine that being born to the Galaxy's ideal survivor-man would lead a boy to the life you'd always want, but that wasn't quite the case fir me. I didn't exactly get any limelight myself, but everyone who did know me had high expectations, like the bar my father had set before I was ever born. Of course I didn't like it so much. I didn't seek out adventure like my father had after his first escapade. Trouble just seemed to find me, like his bloodline was cursed with that sort of impossible good/bad luck.

Of course, I didn't exactly agree with the federation. I really wanted little to do with that. Of course that little curse of mine always made me wind up in the wrong places at the wrong times, but I was lucky enough to find a way to either get out or adapt, so everything I had learned was almost entirely self taught, mostly out of self-preservation. In fact, what landed me on this ship in the first place was an incident with the mob or some street gang back on Earth, my home. I was chased out into Alterra property, and in that desperate attempt to get out alive I wound up taking out a good number of paranoid guards using makeshift tools, my bare hands, and raw street smarts.

Naturally, that didn't turn out well at first. Sure the guys who chased me were caught and all thanks to my info, but the moment they pulled up my ID, they had found a better use of me than turning me into the police for assault and trespassing. Instead of that, they covered up the details and told my father that I had signed up for an exploration mission, one that would aid in the construction of a new phasegate on a distant planet. My father was pleased with the news to say the least. I was even given an experimental neural implant that had access to an interactive HUD control system, so they used me something like a guinea pig. But thankfully it seemed to work just fine.

So there I was, three months into what would be an eleven month voyage. A one way trip with a speedy return once the phasegate was active and calibrated. I had decided to remain somewhat reclusive for the time being, since I didn't want too many people to smother the son of a celebrity with questions. The previous event with the asteroids was the first time I actually showed up in front of some of the crew.

Why? Simply because I was bored. Not much happened on this ship, and for once, like my father always did, I wanted a piece of the action. Not to mention that it gave me the chance to use that implant for once. Of course now the crew had seen what I was capable of and I would eventually be forced to do jobs that I never intended on doing, probably out of punishment for acting alone. Then again, some of the crew who was less knowledgeable of the details would put me on more dangerous jobs because I might be of value.

But on that particular day (although really, days and nights are relative to sleep schedule when in space), my display had brought about a very different surprise. It was something that my street smarts and quick wits had not once prepped me for.

While my music played and I floated around with my eyes closed, basically in a trance, I hadn't noticed the knocking at the door or the sound of the key card click, or the door opening.

I floated for a few more moments in silence other than the song in the background.

"You done?"

"Spetz!" I cursed. My eyes snapped open and in a panic I pushed off of the wall near my feet and propelled myself back to "land" with my hands and feet on the window wall, and I stuck there.

I looked "up" to the main door to see an officer in a space suit leaning against the door. Clearly it was a she with those curves. Since she was still technically out in the hall, she was still bound to the artificial gravity of the ship.

If she has an all access card like that, she has to be a higher ranking officer, right?

"I am now", I said switching off the music, but I kept zero gravity on.

"You know, you should probably lower your music's volume", she said, "No noise complaints, but it would be helpful to know when someone of interest is trying to meet with you."

"I wanted some time to think", I replied, lowering my guard just a little.

The officer took a slow step inside and inched forward once she entered zero gravity.

"As an officer, a Lieutenant," she began to unseal her armor plating, "I should reprimand you for such a dangerous act, endangering Alterra equipment and lives, including your own, without orders or authorization to act on your own."

"I don't take orders well from anyone", I replied with a raised eyebrow, getting the odd sense that this was going in a different direction.

"But, not as a Lieutenant, I won't", as she said this, the light armor plating that covered her legs peeled off automatically, drifting off to other corners of the room, "In fact I'm actually here to say thank you."

Admittedly, my attention was drawn in more by what was beneath that armor. She was wearing a jumpsuit a little similar to mine. Black with neon blue highlights, But hers was even more skintight. So when the armor peeled, the suit hugged her figure so tight that you would have sworn that you were looking at bare skin (had the coloration been different). Her legs were long, athletic and needless to say she had a nice ass too, but I didn't dare say that for my sake.

"Thank me?" I asked, "And I don't suppose that you were..."

"In the Prawn you saved, yes", she nodded as the light armor on her torso peeled away too. Again I was greeted by a lovely sight. She was rather well endowed, but perfectly rounded and shapely too, and I got the strange feeling that wasn't the work of the suit. Still it did show every curve she had, and I do mean every curve, but now I got the sense of where she was going.

"So you here to lure me into further Alterra assignments?" I asked, still wary of some ulterior motive.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said no", she shrugged, "You do have potential. Not a day of training and you already have more guts than anyone else I've seen on this crew. Not to mention your father. We could use someone like that."

She finally reached me and we both stuck to the window, me "lying down" against the window and her laying on top.

"Of course, this isn't a business proposition. And right now I'm not Lieutenant."

"Attention: Increased heart rate detected. It is recommended that-*", the AI connected to my vital monitoring system cut in, only to be silenced by me. My face was red now, and if the officer didn't already see through my facade, she definitely could now thanks to that AI.

"Then if you aren't Lieutenant now, who are you?" I asked, still trying to maintain that mask, albeit unsuccessfully and I carefully pulled away her helmet to complete the picture.

The officer was my age by the looks of her, her skin was well tanned and flawlessly smooth, and her long platinum blonde hair spilled out of the helmet behind her, though it was neatly suspended in zero gravity. Her eyes were silver, like earth's moon, and they had a spectacular shine.

And my heart rate shot through the roof.

"Jane", she said leaning into a kiss, but before anything else could happen, she clicked onto my hud and remotely shut and locked the door.

Yep, that's my luck.

(End of Chapter 1)

Greetings earthlings! Wulf here after the longest hiatusof my writing career!

So, as of late I've really gotten into the lore of Subnautica, and only recently did I decide to make a story. Lucky for me, Subnautica only has like fifty stories at the moment, so it should be easier to find this one. Then again, that might also mean that not many really chack this corner of FanFiction, but here's to hoping!

Anyone who's played Subnautica and has actually built the Stasis Rifle likely remembers the quote about Craig McGill's survival in a worst case scenario. I got the odd sense that he might play a bit more importance in the story. In fact, it's possible that the player in game might be Craig himself. Regardless of whether or not he actually was of greater plot relevance, I figured he deserved some more credit here.

To anyone here who has previously and eagerly followed Wings of Remnant, I apologize for not posting there yet. The latest volumes of RWBY have thrown a wrench into the lore, and I have to rework some things before I continue there. It won't be too much longer, I promise.

In the meantime, if you like what you see, blast that follow/favorite button into oblivion! (Damn I missed saying that! XD)

This is Beowulf and the OC Crew signing out!