Story

 The **Story** of *Subnautica 2* begins with the player on the way to the desert planet [[Zezura]] on the [[Cicada]] starship as part of a colony project. The ship contains 40,000 printable colonists who will lead the formation of the colony. While en route to Zezura, the Cicada makes a sudden, unscheduled detour through an alien phase gate and crashes into the moon [[Proteus]].   ## Arrival   Upon crashing into the moon, the Cicada breaks into many different wrecks. [[NoA]], an AI developed by Alterra to support colonization efforts, begins printing a first wave of [[Pioneers]] to prepare the world for colonization and to accumulate enough resources to print the stored colonists. This first wave of pioneers built [[Camp One]], but the habitat soon failed and the entire wave of pioneers died, forcing NoA to reprint older states of them with no memories of their survival efforts. The pioneers continue to work at survival but slowly become suspicious of the circumstances, finding their own bodies and failed habitats that they cannot explain. Many of the pioneers become distrusting of NoA and a cult is formed named [[Jubilee]], headed by the pioneer [[Anita]].   In addition to the hostility of the environment, it is determined by [[Sophie Boucher]], the colony's surgeon, that the biosphere of Proteus is filled with many kinds of heavy metal and are poisoning the pioneers fatally. Additionally, several pioneers begin showing symptoms such as hallucination, trances, and suicidal or even violent intentions. The pioneers dub this syndrome "[[Proteavirus#Masefield Syndrome|Masefield Syndrome]]" and associate it with the massive [[World Tree]] in the distance, though they cannot determine the exact cause yet.  -The pioneers also come into contact with a sentient alien race: the [[Tailings]], which seems to be only a remnant of a much older species. The Tailings aggressively defend their territory, killing and experimenting on pioneers and even attacking their seabases.+The pioneers also come into contact with a sapient alien race: the [[Tailings]], which seems to be only a remnant of a much older species. The Tailings aggressively defend their territory, killing and experimenting on pioneers and even attacking their seabases.   ## Tensions Rise   ![The aftermath of the explosion at the Old Habitat](wiki-images/40/40a491ba32ad085d849f9884ab3d7d37.png)   The Jubilee group and the Pioneers work separately for a time, with Jubilee rebuilding the ruins of [[Camp One]] and the Pioneers building several other [[Pioneer Seabases|seabases]] around the region. However, Proteus is very incompatible with human life, presenting digestion issues, heavy metal poisoning, rampant alien viruses, and hostile lifeforms. These issues crippled both groups, causing Jubilee to cut the cable to [[Sleep Bay 3]], a piece of the Cicada from which newly printed pioneers emerged. This was done so that NoA couldn't use Jubilee's food to reprint colonists, although it seems the Sleep Bay had some reserves of its own. Later, an extremist pioneer known as [[Nahema Nakota]] detonated the [[Welcome Center]] to push the Sleep Bay off a cliff and sink almost 600 meters underwater, likely to prevent printed colonists from leaving the Sleep Bay alive.   Tensions rose between the pioneers, with Nahema strongly protesting NoA's methods and urging the other pioneers to abandon the seabases and "explore the wonders of Proteus". Nahema, fascinated by the World Tree and the scientifically extraordinary [[lifeforms]] of the moon despised the human encroachment on the alien moon and NoA's methods. With the help of [[Mantis]] and [[Chap]], Nahema set off an explosion at the [[Old Habitat]], killing several pioneers in an explosion and drowning a few others, also disabling their [[Biobed]]s ensuring NoA could not reprint them.   Following the explosion at the Old Habitat, a pioneer named [[Ganzo]] takes a group of eleven pioneers to the [[Tadpole Pens]] to regroup. Ganzo's wife [[Ruby]] as well as [[Tuba]] are lost on the way to the Pens. When the group arrives at the Pens, they realize that Sophie and Nahema have taken the last of the [[Tadpole]]s and locked down part of the base, leaving the survivor group stranded. All of them, under Ganzo's leadership, decide to head to the [[Graveyard]] to find a [[Blackboxes|blackbox]] left by [[Zip]], the lead salvager deep in one of the caves, hoping it will contain an access key that can unlock the Tadpole Pens. Upon entering the [[Graveyard Caves]], Masefield Syndrome seems to take strong control over the pioneers due to the intense heat, either placing them in a trance-like state or causing powerful hallucinations. Every single pioneer dies in the caves and is marked as "Do Not Reprint" by NoA due their extreme viral contamination, except for [[Twinkle]] who voluntarily shut off her air supply so that she would be reprinted early at the [[Hot Cave Basecamp]]. Upon waking up, she realized NoA was refusing to reprint her colleagues and managed to convince it to reprint Ganzo. Ganzo is reprinted successfully, and they then debate returning to Sleep Bay 3 to wait for Ruby to reprint, but instead decide to go after Jubilee.   ## The Chase   After the explosion at the Old Habitat, Nahema fled to the Tadpole Pens where she stole a Tadpole and departed toward the World Tree. Sophie, horrified by this betrayal and suspecting she plans on doing something to the tree to kill all humans on Proteus, takes a Tadpole to chase after her, leaving behind a ghost of herself at the Pens that reveals to its audience that the [[Bloom]] and Masefield are not the same, and that Masefield is caused by a Proteavirus that infects all living beings on the moon.   ## Sleep Bay 3   ![The view of Proteus when exiting the Lifepod](wiki-images/5f/5f077abd3db83e6abe33f2497346ba4d.png)   Over 25 years after the crash of the Cicada, the [[Qualified Investigator]] awakens within [[Sleep Bay 3]] after being printed by NoA. Predicting the QI's imminent death, NoA recommends using nearby Alterra technology to [[Adaptations|adapt]] to the moon's intense atmospheric pressure. The QI finds not Alterra technology but an unknown organism, the core of an [[Angel Comb]], and interacts with it to gain its gene mutations, allowing the QI to survive on the moon. The PDA then instructs the QI to take a [[Lifepod]] to the surface to make a distress call. After a rough thruster ignition and crash landing back onto the surface, the QI steps out to see the [[World Tree]] dominating the horizon.