The Deep

[noodle]

Date: March 5th, 3040 Time: 09:43 Location: Shallow Reef

It started with a crash. The crumpling of metal, accompanied with the screaming of sirens, was what greeted the crew as they rose from their cyro sleep. A rude awakening, but one that would be necessary for those who wanted to survive. Those who managed to get up and out in time were in a mad dash for the escape pods, in their panic trampling anyone too slow or too passive to fight for a place.

Fire filled the corridors as the ship made its swift descent to the planet below, and loose objects- tables, chairs, and cleaning bots- were thrown about the halls. All the while, Captain Ahab Kythe the Fifth was shouting orders through the crackling, screeching comms. Only those lucky enough to get into an escape pod in time would have a chance of surviving.

In their haste, the escapees left behind family and friends who were too slow, tossing humanity to the side in a last desperate attempt to save themselves.

As the Moonbeam fell to the blue surface, fire and smoke shrouding its metal hull in a beautiful, destructive dance, escape pods were jettisoned. One here, one there, then a whole plethora of the bright orange capsules, arching across the skies and hoping to land somewhere safe.

It ended with a splash. The ship hit the surface and broke, its three main parts shooting off and slowly sinking, never to be reunited with each other.

And at the end of it all, what was left of the 200 souls aboard Space Exploration Vessel Moonbeam?

Twelve people.

Twelve pods, bobbing gently on the reef's waters, the lucky- or perhaps not so lucky- crew inside preserved alive to face the horrors of their new life. Their Datapads crackled to life minutes later, the statistics of the Moonbeam's drive core scrolling across the screen with quick, emotionless readings.

187 sleep chambers successfully opened.
124 escape pods accessed.
97 pods successfully launched.
43 pods landed.
22 crew members alive.

Rendezvous coordinates successfully uploaded to Datapad.

Available biome, flora, and fauna information successfully uploaded to Datapad.

Available blueprints successfully uploaded to Datapad.

15 crew members alive.

Emergency message sending.

Situation: The Moonbeam is currently inoperable. Warp Gate prototype salvageable- location: Drive Core.

Conclusion: Rendezvous at coordinates with remaining crew. Attempt communications through radio if possible. Do NOT enter the-

ERROR

12 crew members al-

REROUTING…

LOADING…

Directive: Survive on a hostile alien planet until rescue arrives. Do not attempt to salvage the Drive Core or Warp Gate.

Emergency message unable to be sent.

Resending…

ERROR

Escape Pod hatches unlocked. 12 crew members accounted for.

Moonbeam Drive Core breached.

ERROR

Emergency message unable-

ERROR

SHUTTING DOWN

With a painfully loud screech, the Drive's message disappeared, leaving their datapads with the meager information that had managed to download before the breach.

And only seconds later, the exits opened and released the crew upon the unforgiving world that they had survived to see. The twelve pods were within sight of each other, and the island was close, its massive bulk looming out of the sparkling waters to greet them. But it was nothing compared to the behemoth that was the ocean around them and to their backs.

Now, they would just have to survive, using their wits, their salvageable materials, and teamwork. And they would need it all- because for the twelve survivors of the Moonbeam, rescue would not be coming.

Relevant Links

The Moonbeam
Escape Pods
Shallow Reef
The Island
Rendezvous Valley

 

[Rosé Moon]

Before the cryo-sleep, the young mechanic to-be had been almost as excited for experiencing the long sleep, as she had been her new job. A curious soul by nature, learning the effects of such prolonged sleep had left a quizzical mind thirsty. Would she dream? Probably. How long would the dreams last? Surely those induced to cryo-sleep fell quickly to REM sleep, so would the dreams only feel as long a nights sleep? If not, how long would she dream? How long until the dreams continue until it felt like reality and her inevitable awakening would feel like putting down a book after hours and hours of envelopment?

Things of this nature were what caught the curiosity of the young Niomi La'fierro. However, her answer would be quickly answered, and the answer was oh-so disappointing. She'd dreamed, but it had felt like a blink in terms of time. After that, it'd just been a prolonged, long yet short darkness. It'd been so strange. Part of her felt she'd known that vast amounts of time had passed, yet it also felt as though that time had been faster then her brief dreams. Those brief dreams that she couldn't even remember.

Although the memories of those dreams were far, far gone -- Niomi knew that she'd have preferred them to reality. They must've been the greatest of dreams, because their had to be some equality in the galaxy, and the nightmare she'd awoken too had been to great for those dreams to have been anything but magical.

It'd been with a sudden jerk, a sharp intake of air and a cold sweat, despite the hot light of what was unmistakably fire. For a moment, it felt like she was in a vacuum. She heard nothing , but somehow, she felt sound. Noise. She rose her hands up to her ears and covered them before attempting to pop her ears to no avail. Her vision was blurred, and she felt as though her entire body was numb. Of course. Of course it was. She was waking up after who knows how long, such a response was only natural so just... breath. Just breath.

Sound exploded back into her reality with such a start she let out a yelp, however she -- nor anybody else would ever know -- because it sounded like the world was ending. Maybe it was. Oh, God! What if it was!? The world around her was indiscernible chaos, all she could do was exactly what everyone else was doing. Albeit, a bit more composure.

Escape pods. Everyone had to be heading to the escape pods, right? It seemed like Moonbeam was done for. It may have been jumping to conclusions, but judging by the sheer chaos, it was an apt decision. She got on her feet, finally, and moved as close to a the far wall of the hallway everyone was rushing down. It took all and more to not get crushed against the wall and make progress towards the escape pod hanger, but she'd managed. No body looked familiar, things were falling apart, everything was just bad. After fighting into one of the last remaining shuttles, she was off. Like everyone else. She'd have never guessed she'd have fallen asleep after the pod ejected, however, her heading banging against the wall after she failed to follow safety protocol trying to watch the Moonbeam as she departed.

-----

The shaking had awoke her, but she really wished it hadn't. Entering atmosphere was no fun. Although the pod was equip to protect from the heat of entry, but it did not completely eliminate the heat. Perhaps it was just uncomfortable, but Niomi felt as if she was on fire! Sweat beads appeared on her skin, and had she not been restrained into her seat, she'd been pulling away at her clothing. She could not, however. All she could do is sit there, and breath in an unhealthy pattern as possible. So much for her belief that breathing in a crisis was simple.

A crash, and the shaking stopped. The heat withdrew, and suddenly things were quiet again. The pod she was in had shot like a stone into a vast ocean before suddenly become buoyant and beginning for the surface. It'd felt like jumping into a pool with a floaty, and getting pulled back up. So... she was in a liquid!? Panic took her for a moment -- what if this was a volitile substance that could eat through her po- The thought was interrupted by the light of the pod's data pad suddenly coming to life. In a scurry of movement, she unclasped the pad from it's bindings and fumbled to read the information on the screen.

...

Twelve survivors!? Of 200 crew, only twelve had...- this time, it was the hiss of the pods airlock releasing that disrupted her thoughts. The instant before the pod's hatch opened, Niomi was terrified. She knew she was in water, but the unknown was out there! Truly, utterly unknown. When the outside became visible, the young raven haired woman had done all in her power to not look out the hatch view port. Now, her hazel colored eyes rest on something perhaps more unsettling then whatever the outside looked like. The lite up word 'hostile' on the datapad. Why did this happen? What had she done to deserve this? With a inhale of confidence, Niomi decided it didn't matter! She needed to leave this pod, and get to land and meet with others until rescue arrived. Moonbeam had been a huge thing! Surely, someone knew what had happened, and help was already on the way!

With newfound confidence, Niomi gathered the sack around the flotation device, fashioned it into a sack for the survival gear within the pod and stood tall, with her eyes towards the sky, and when she brought her gaze down, it was with nothing but regret. The sight of the land not all to far before her made her instinctively turn to inspect the other direction, where she then bared witness to the endless sea. Breath hitched in her throat and in a moment of panic, she forgot about the land on the otherside and she fell back into the pod with wide eyes and a pale complexion. It was one of her phobias, and it was a bit debilitating when unprepared. She hadn't even looked around for any of the other pods! Just shot up like a child, turned around and then fell back in to hide. Like a child.

Once her breathing begin to slow, she realized one hand, her left, was pulled up to her chest where she could feel her heart pounding like a much to enthusiastic drummer. Waking up to an exploding ship? Rough, but doable. Navigating a panicking crowd, getting into an escape pod and vacating the shuttle? Just breath. Seeing an alien ocean? Nope, she was out. How pathetic! What she didn't realize, was how big a mess she was. Her short cut, black hair clung to her forehead with sweat, and her the thin shirt she'd worn to cryo-sleep who knows how long ago clung to her body for the same reason. She couldn't be like this. She had to get up, out, and swim to that land with her bag. That was all that mattered. So she grabbed the bag again, tied it shut with the tightening straps, and then tied them to metal loops on the back so it could be worn like a backpack. It helped her calm down. She situated it up her back, and stood back up to once again, behold the outside world.

With eyes cast forward, towards the island. Without thinking she rose a leg and found herself completely exiting the pod to stand upon it. Now she felt the full brunt of the shifting waves beneath her, and once again, she froze. That ocean was right behind her, and if she jumped in, she was sure some massive, long limbed, squid like creature would be there to pull her under. She hadn't even looked around for others again. She couldn't. If she'd looked at the water, she'd have froze faster. Her eyes had to stay on the island, but she still found herself frozen, and with the breath in her lungs starting to catch again everything froze again. She was terrified. The reality of what had happened, and where she was crashed down onto her in that moment. The ocean had reminded her. She'd been so happy to get her second job out of university. It'd been proposed to her as everything she'd ever wanted. She just wanted to build things. To tinker with things that made sense to her! She never wanted this.

So now, here she stood, frozen upon her pod, staring towards the island with tears cascading down her face. When she'd left, she'd told herself she'd carry herself in such a way, no one would guess she was as young as she was. Now here she was, balling like a baby when she knew exactly what she needed to do, but fear had her tied like a child in a dark room.

 

[Dipper]

The vastness of space reminded Emil of home, strangely enough. Like looking up at the constellations in his childhood and wondering how far he could go. If he could reach those stars. How surreal. He'd gone into cryo with those thoughts, wondering if he'd see different constellations when he awoke and if he'd be the first to name them. That idea brought forth some comfort, allowing him to drift into sleep easily.

He did not wake to peace or stars that day. Wailing sirens assaulted his ears and drove him into a panicked frenzy as he followed the crowd, acting on pure instinct in his pursuit of safety. Something told him to head to the escape pods, and while in his dazed state he wasn't sure what escape pod meant, he found them anyway.

Emil stumbled aboard one and activated the launch protocols before strapping himself in to one of the seats. The doors hissed shut and the pod jolted as it was expelled from the ship.

The inside of the pod thundered with the force of atmosphere against its hull. The pod's unfortunate inhabitant felt his skull crack against one of the interior walls, and with that crack came exploding stars across his vision. Pinpricks of fire crawled up Emil's spine and flared at the base of his skull. The seat's bolts squealed and it tore free of the wall, and he was thrown with it. Unconsciousness took hold of him quickly.

-

Hours later Emil woke to a pounding headache and what felt like a cracked rib. His fingers began to tingle as he came to, stars dancing before his eyes like embers when he tried to sit up before he fell back again, dizzy. Smoke coiled in his lungs. He hacked and wheezed and rolled over onto his stomach so he could push himself to his feet, and once he was up, Emil wiped the soot from his eyes.

Emil popped the emergency hatch and crawled out to survey the damages to his pod. Totaled. With a huff, he slunk back into the darkened hull and searched his surroundings for the emergency data pad. He sucked in a breath of smokey air to relieve the grinding pain in his ribs.

The pad lit and displayed statistics, followed by a message.

Twelve survivors. Twelve. Emil swallowed thickly.

He was no survivalist. He could hardly cook for himself, much less survive on an alien planet long enough to be rescued. That realization, coupled with smoke inhalation, built quickly into a panic, and before long Emil had buried his face in his hands. He did not weep, but he wished he would.

Emil sat like that for a solid ten minutes before he worked up the will to gather the pods intact supplies. Single-purpose tools, a nutrition block and some filtered water, and his datapad. It would have to do. Emil clutched his side and pulled himself back onto pods roof once more.

He wasn't going to go down without a fight, that was for damn sure. He tested the water, and jumped in.

 

[Wrath]

It was not the first time Eric had experienced sirens blaring and everyone being directed to an escape pod, however, it was the first time he's done it for real. Surprisingly it was part of the training to be 'thawed out' as the Marines called it and rapidly abandon ship. It took a few moments for his brain to catch up to his body and before he knew it he was already in a pod hurtling down through the atmosphere.

He prayed that gravity of the world was within the tolerance of the escape pods design. He closed his eyes and just breathed, he resigned himself to fate. Escape pods had a few other names than what he knew them by; easy targets, death cages, and popcorn. Popcorn because of how they exploded in the sky if they were shot at.

The insides of the escape pod felt like it could catch fire at any moment, he was sweating under his skinsuit and uniform that he wore on top of it. Not only did it feel like an oven he was beginning to feel the g-force and blood rush to his head. This is what usually knocked people unconscious, they must have entered the atmosphere at an angle. He hoped he would fall unconscious from the g-force

He did in fact.


__________________________________



When he came to he could feel the sensation of being bobbed around, slowly rolling up and down. He scrambled to get out of his chair and leaped to the console to get a grip on what was happening. Not everything had gone tits up. Ignoring his datapad he went to his radio and tried hailing others on it.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" He attached the shortwave radio to his uniform and began collecting all his survival equipment; flashlight and spare battery, knife, matches, survival book, food, water, medkit, datapad, and matches. Looking around, however, he couldn't find anything to carry them with, no backpack. Taking off his t-shirt he tied knots at the bottom and arms then used the neck hole to put all the items in.

Checking the datapad he took in all the information he could. The world is hostile, so were many things including ex-lovers, a lot of people died, only twelve left, himself included which luckily brought them up to full team strength, and they are on a water-based planet with a small amount of land, yup he was fucked. He opened up the hatch and then began powering down unneeded systems right now like oxygen and lights. He smelt the salty air and forced himself to laugh, his old sergeant told him if you feel like you're about to break down and give up, then laugh.

It usually worked, not this time.
​

 

[Polaris North]

Julius was one of the last people to enter cryo-sleep, having been directed to allow others to go first and stay behind for a few moments to maintain the peace while the others got inside. When he entered, he found himself wondering what would happen once he was inside. As he climbed inside, he watched as the pods closed - and the door to his shut as well. There was a moment of hesitation - a moment of emotion flickering in his face. Worry.

He closed his eyes with only one thing in his mind.

"What kind of world will we wake up to?"

What he woke up to was, yes, a new world; however, not in the way he expected. Alarms blared, beating against his ears. The cryo pod opened and he stumbled outside. Before he could even think of what he was doing, he was already on the move. One step in front of the other - keeping his balance against the hordes of people rushing towards the escape pods. Yes, the escape pods. He needed to get to them. His much bulkier form was able to resist the tides of the people, easily getting inside a pod himself.

When the pod ejected, Julius quickly took his seat and then took a deep breath. Wishing and hoping that the pod would land without problem. Julius closed his eyes and then felt at peace with himself, after calming himself down. Without the adrenaline controlling his every move, he was able to think about things. None of the outcomes he thought of were necessarily good - with only three of them being where he is alive. His breath hitched as the pod breached the atmosphere and it began shaking violently.

Leaning backwards, he felt his consciousness slip and he fell into another deep sleep.

---
​

The male opened his eyes. He didn't know how many minutes or hours he's been out, but at least he was alive. The pod itself felt like it was floating. Was he on water? Julius felt for his left ear before finding his hearing aid in pieces. A thin line formed on his face as he pocketed the shattered pieces of one of his most valuable possessions. His eyes were drawn to the Datapad as it crackled to life. He clambered over to look at it and the information it would receive. As the Datapad stopped receiving information from the Moonbeam, Julius knew what he had to know.

Twelve survivors in a world he knew next to nothing about. Out of the two hundred people inside Moonbeam, only twelve survived. Julius wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. There was enough of them for a small group where they could survive - though that really depended on if everyone had different fortes - but it was, at the very least, easier that there was a lot of them but not too much.

There were eleven others in this hostile environment. There was a rendezvous point, at the very least, so it was easier to meet with them. He examined the survival knife. It was sharp enough and was in good condition. He placed it into the sheathe on his uniform. Quickly fashioning a makeshift bag out of what little equipment was inside the pod, he popped open the hatch. Looking out, he saw the island not too far from them. He turned around to see a vast amount of water behind him. Oh... would you look at that right?

He surveyed the area around him. He could see the other escape pods and their hatches opening. Julius knew he would meet the others soon enough. He sat down for a moment on top of the pod - simply looking forward. When he boarded the Moonbeam, he was prepared for everything that might happen. Or at least, he thought he was. Shutting down the pod for now, just in case he needed to get power here for much later or whatever the engineers - praying that there were - could come up with.

He cracked his fingers and then stood up. Taking a deep breath, he dove into the water to make for land.

 

[Maltien]

When one went to find solace in the wavy deeps of the sea they usually went to find time to think things out. Reflect on life decisions while washing away the troubles of the world behind them for Milos the decision he was reflecting on was with a stroke of a pen he had signed away his life unto a hostile planet with a 200 membered crew that had just been obliterated into 12 lonely survivors. Oddly though the feeling he had as he dove into the surprisingly refreshing waves reminded him of a similar time when he lived in the Congo hunting some of the most dangerous prey in the world. Though hunt wasn't the matter as it was more of a preservation project to keep rare exotic species from dying out. How odd that the human species was now one of the most exotic species nearing extinction on this planet. His eyes opened to the blue world around him air slowly diminishing in his lungs as his hands grasped upon his survival bag immediately pulling the red tug as the bag expanded into a lifebuoy pulling him up into the new world.

"DEAR SOULS," were his first words in this new land as his head dove out of the water as he quickly pulled himself forward to be uplifted with the small lifebuoy. He laid flat out as if he had just been knocked out in a bar fight his hands quickly ruffling the water out of his hair as his leg stayed submerged. Thank heaven these damn things were detachable from the life pods... especial since his was now deep into the bottom of the ocean... thanks to a collision love tap from another escape pod. Whether or not that pod had survived he didn't know, but upon damage the pod had separated its flotation device inside the pod for him to grab before crashing into the clear ocean depths hence his sudden life before his eyes moment. His survival bag was tied around his back at the moment as he had little chance to do much else with it. Wouldn't be munch good until he could touch land... though first a more awkward brush made him grasp hard onto the buoy as he realized in those few minutes he had come across another lifepod with a woman froze to the spot on top almost as if she had been paralyzed. For a moment he watched a bit confused though more still disoriented from his own wake up call in depths of the sea. Once his senses were all back to their proper positions his brain shook some sense into him as he banged his fist against the woman's ship calling up to her.

"Oye get to land then think about the bullshit of this situation," he yelled to her yet her eyes told him she was already in the mental breakdown stage... she was probably not going to get out of that anytime soon. Stretching his hands out he was able to tie his buoy to her lifepod he wouldn't get anywhere far fast trying to swim both inland, but he had a little help as the waves were already sending that way.

"When you collect your thoughts let me know. Going to need help "Tug Swimming" this damn thing to land," he terribly joked as he started to kick his feet while pushing forward against his buoy... he wouldn't get anywhere quick but it would be wise to lug one of these damn things to land for sure. Though if he remember correctly they would last not that long power wise it could at least be usual while it was on. And past that they could use it for parts latter to make makeshift tools. Besides though his contract was definitely gone with this job he wasn't about to abandon one of the few people still left alive.

 

[Anguissette]

Lifepod PL-058xxx

Symona's trip into oblivion was cool and clinical, the usual steady count back from ten, the usual disdain from the sleep technician from one of the Hegemonic states. Under foreign domination it was unusual for anyone from the Ukraine to complete the education she had, still less to make a place for herself on the international mission. It was far easier for the condescending lysyi didko to believe she had somehow suborned one of the selection team than to give her credit for years spent exploring the dwindling life of the Black Sea and on research as far away as the dark seas beneath the Arctic Shelf. At the end of the day she didn't give a fuck. He could think what he wanted, she was on the ship and on her way to making a new life for herself far away from all the old hatreds and the dead weight of a cultural heritage that seemed condemned to the scraps from Mother Earth's table. With a last simmer the Slavic woman succumbed to the numbing cold of cryo-sleep.

When she woke it was as though the world had caught flame from her suppressed resentment. Half-intoxicated from the cryo drugs remaining in her system she hammered on the sealed lid to her cradle three times hard until she saw the stream of debris rushing across the chamber through the glass. In that frozen moment she saw her fist finally strike the emergency release and the cradle began to open. Adrenaline rushed through her and she clung to the edge of the lid for as long as she could while her body flapped, a flag in the void-spawned wind. She screamed as the gale whipped away her words, then tore her grip from the slippery steel between her hands. The young woman had one moment of terrified flight, then slammed to the deck. Another cradle, its cargo less fortunate, had slammed squarely across the hull breach ventilating the compartment.

The wind driven from her lungs, Symona spent the next few seconds gasping for air like the bass dying on the decks of the Odessan fishing fleet. The atmosphere was returning but only slowly as she crab-crawled across to the nearest vent. Her vision was darkening around the edges by the time she arrived, but thrusting her face against the grille brought precious wisps of life-giving oxygen and a growing awareness of the wailing sirens that filled the ship. The fires had been mostly extinguished by the ventilation, and as soon as she could stand she tottered through the open hatch to the emergency pods. Lungs still burning with the thin mountain air she found an embarrassment of riches with seven escape pods docked along the hallway, the green light above the hatches promising the sanctuary that would be found within. At the end of the corridor she could see desperate faces pressed against the bulkhead door that obstinately trapped them within the broken ship in the mistaken name of "protecting them" from the low pressure where she stood. But then, there were only seven pods - and there were many more than that kicking and struggling against the door.

"All hands abandon ship, all hands abandon ship," she heard, the Captain's voice attenuated and tinny - and like that the decision was made for her. Oxygen-starved, she hauled herself through the nearest hatch and strapped herself in, then stabbed the launch button with one extended finger. The hatch snapped shut, the pod accelerated down the short tube and the inside flooded with fresh air. As she passed out, the biologist's last thought was the hope that maybe the others - or some of the others - would get off the ship somehow.

---​

Awaking once more, every part of Symona Kryvonis' body ached and throbbed, especially her head. The emergency lighting was amber, but brightened to white as she popped free of her harness and staggered over to the hatch. The narrow vision slit just above her eye level showed clear blue sky, so she checked the atmophere - not much she could do if it wasn't breathable - and hauled back on the lever. With a metallic wail of protest the emergency hatch folded down until it rested just on the water line and the dark-haired woman stepped outside to see other escape pods close by. There weren't any signs of life yet, but she was privately amazed they had come down so close together. The automatic programming in the pods' dumb-puters must have maintained proximity on the way down, which at least meant she wasn't alone here.

Going back inside she reviewed the information on the data pad and the supplies in the on-board emergency kit. Twelve. Only twelve humans left, light years from Earth and with zero to no prospect of rescue. This was a disaster, and it took her a few moments to come to terms with the very real prospect of her imminent death. The local information was thin at best, but using the instructions in the survival guide she was able to secure the kit and all its contents for long-term water resistance and attach it to her back. When she returned to the declined hatch, she confirmed the flotation device was in place and that there was nothing resembling a rope to let her take the pod with her. With any luck it would wash ashore before the buoy deflated, but that would be down to the wind. Looking across the water at the shoreline it would be a long swim, and not something she could conceivably tow a great steel cylinder over, even if she didn't have to haul the silly thing by hand.

Casting a prayer to the heavens for the lost souls aboard Moonbeam, Symona abandoned thought of PL-058's fate as another thing she couldn't possibly control and took four quick steps then dived shallowly out towards the nearest pods, piercing the water with scarcely a ripple. When she came up again she was twenty metres away, close to where one man bawled instructions at a quiet woman who seemed stricken with fear at their plight. A strong swimmer, Symona pulled herself up onto the pod beside the other woman and looked around at the other pods. There was life to be seen... but not a lot of it. "There are eleven pods here," she noted, "and the datapad said twelve survivors. But I can only see five of us. Do you suppose the others are still unconscious or need help?"

Her accent showed her Slavic heritage, but here and now they were all unified as a common minority: human, and alive.


⊸ Symona Kryvonis

 

[Applo]

Blood gushing from her nose, Sarah crawled her way through stampede of legs, fighting every inch of the way till she found the wall of the smoke choked corridor. She tried to stand up, using the wall to brace herself against flow of bodies, but the blood on her hands made the already smooth metal slick as ice and she ended up face down on the floor again.

Knowing that she had to keep moving, Sarah crawled along the corridor, one hand pressed to the wall until the joint between two panels cut into her palm. It wasn't much but the small raised strip of metal and rivets were enough that when some unseen body inevitably slammed into her shoulder, she wasn't sent sprawling to the floor again. Once she was on her feet again, Sarah didn't hang back for a second to do anything like catch her breath, but instead released herself from her temporary anchorage and let the flow of people take her again, mists of sticky blood spraying from her with each breath. Like everyone else, Sarah swung inside the first empty escape pod she found, slamming the launch button before she buckled herself in, pulling the straps as tight as they would go, and scrunching her eyes tightly shut as the pod separated itself from the stricken Moonbeam.

---

The ringing of her ear was the first thing Sarah noticed; the second was the urgent need to throw up. She couldn't remember passing out, but now Sarah was wide awake, first fumbling with the harness straps and then the hatch opening mechanism before dropping to her knees, letting the waves of nausea overtake her. The sight of the bright red slick that had been the contents of her stomach caused Sarah's heart to pound for a split second before the pain in her nose reminded her of the blood's likely origin.

Part of Sarah wanted to stay there on the floor of the capsule and sleep, but the part of her brain that had hauled her out of bed before dawn in the dead of winter had other ideas. After standing up Sarah leaned as far out of the escape pod hatch as she could and tried to gather her bearings. As far she could tell she had landed in some sort of bay, along with some of the other escape pods, and a total lack of ways to get to land without getting wet.


Turning back into the pod to work out what she could salvage, Sarah noticed the data pad flashing away and picked it up. It made for grim reading and if she hadn't just been sick she knew she would have been now. Putting the pad down, Sarah dug out the escape pod's medical kit and began rifling through its contents, looking for something to take the edge off pretty much everything. The screeching in her ear felt like it was getting louder by the second and back on Earth that alone would've been enough to drive her to the bottom of a bottle of one kind or another. Add to that the feeling of total horror of the fucked up situation as well as bruises that would last for weeks and Sarah felt that taking a step or two towards oblivion wasn't the worst thing she could do right now.

Almost as soon as she swallowed the sedative pills she had settled on, Sarah could've sworn she started to feel better. Rationally she knew pills couldn't have had any kind of effect, but the ringing in her ear seemed less piercing already and the feelings of gut wrenching shock less intense. Just existing and thinking clearly seemed easier and more straightforward. Sarah knew she had to get to land and before that, that she needed to scavenge whatever she could from the pod. Once the survival kit was accounted for however the only other thing that was of use and that Sarah knew she could salvage was the seat harness, which she figured could become part of a backpack or something. After that, not wanting the swim to shore to be any harder than it needed to be Sarah stripped down to her underwear, with her trousers being re-purposed as a makeshift tow bag for what currently counted as all her worldly possessions.

---

As she clambered ashore, Sarah couldn't help but reflect that her exit from the water was somewhat more dignified than her entrance. A combination of the after effects of three years of cryosleep and the sedatives had meant that her limbs were dull and sluggish and her right foot had snagged on something with all the grace of a drunk cow. The resulting trip had caused her to bounce of the side of the escape capsule and tumble into the water Throwing down her makeshift bag of gear at the base of the first tree she reached, Sarah turned to look at where she had just been. From here the cluster of escape pods looked even smaller and more pathetic that they already were. It would have been a bleak and depressing sight, but the sedatives now coursing through her blood and the unexpected happenstance of feeling warm sunlight on her face for the first time in three years left Sarah oddly peaceful. Rendezvousing could wait a little while, she decided, before sitting down on the ground to take in this new world.​

 

[Starlighter]

Tobias owed his life to a stranger.

On his own, the stampede of human flesh clawing and trampling their way through the narrow corridors of the tanking Moonbeam would have been enough to kill him - at the best of times he could be quite accurately described as something of a weakling, and only minutes out of cryosleep, his head was sluggish and his muscles delayed in their responses. Hardly a desirable combination when one was panicked and scrambling in desperation for the sake of clinging to life itself.

But it would seem that he had a guardian angel, whose name he would never know, and whose face he would never forget, despite only catching a brief glimpse of it as the man grabbed his shoulder and dragged him through, shoving others aside with his free hand and using his body as a shield against the tide of smoke and terrified passengers.

When they reached the pods, he let go and none too gently pushed Tobias into the one that happened to be nearest, then promptly slammed the hatch closed on Toby's half uttered question. Along with all the rest, his pod catapulted outward into the great beyond of space on a trajectory hurtling towards a nearby planet. And that was the last thing he remembered.

----​

He woke with a groan, his head falling forward into his hands as he blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Something was crackling and squawking - none too gentle on his ringing ears - but he did his best to ignore it. Until the words started to register.

Fifteen crew members alive….. Emergency message…. Conclusion: rendezvous at….

12 crew members alive.

His stomach did a flip-flop. Tobias squeezed his eyes shut and let his head fall back against the seat, wishing with all his might for the bliss of cryosleep to encroach on awareness and wash away this living nightmare.

Unfortunately, he remained painfully awake.

With trembling fingers, he released the fastenings of the harness. The pod had stopped falling, but it was bobbing and swaying unsteadily in a way that made him nervous. Water? Malicious quick sand? Some foreign alien substance that would drag him down never to breathe free air again? His unsteady hands fumbled over the controls as he struggled to bring his short, erratic breaths under control. After what felt like forever, his palm landed on the right button, and the hatch sprang open.

He gripped the edge of the opening and with the sheer power of panic, managed to haul himself out on top of the pod. His eyes widened at the sight that met them - nothing but blue above and blue below, all the way to the horizon. He turned his head slowly, and relief flooded through him. Directly behind him and not far off was an island, and scattered around were some of the others pods - which he hoped contained at least some of the other eleven survivors. Thank heaven.

Tobias swallowed hard, glancing back and forth between the island and the endless ocean. While for the time being his pod was floating, there was no telling how long that would last - maybe there was a way to keep it afloat indefinitely, but if there was, he didn't know it. Which meant the only chance he had was to get to the island, and make it to the rendezvous coordinates.

He hopped back down into the pod, and focused every bit of nervous energy on gathering as much of the provided survival gear as possible. With the items stowed in his pockets, he grabbed the medkit last, and kept it tightly clasped in his hand before climbing back out on top of the pod.

Here goes nothing. Knuckles white and muscles tense, he slipped off the pod into the water and started swimming for the island, thankful that he'd landed closer to it than some of others. Within a few minutes he reached land, and promptly collapsed in a heap, breathing heavily. He lay still, sprawled out on the ground just staring up at the sky. It felt strange, knowing he'd been up there not so long ago, even stranger to think that he'd come hurtling down and managed to survive, somehow.

It felt good to be alive.

Slowly, Tobias sat up and managed to pick himself up. He raised a hand to shield his eyes against the sun, and turned in a slow circle to gauge his surroundings. One of the first things he saw was - no. No way. But… could it be? He squinted closer, automatically taking a half step in the direction of what couldn't possibly be anything more than a trick of the eyes - another person, leaning up against a tree not far away.

Feeling a little light headed, he stumbled in that direction, waving and gesturing exuberantly at the woman. "Hey! Hey! Are you okay?"​

---

@Applo

 

[noodle]

Date: March 5th, 3040 Time: 10:02 Location: Shallow Reef/Valley Shore

The water was cool- about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius)- yet not cold, at least not once the human body became adjusted to the temperature. And it was beautiful...in a strange sort of way. The liquid was clear and clean, devoid of years of human pollution, and the plants waving to the survivors from below the surface were lush and soft and colorful.

Small creatures, both fish and shellfish-like, darted around the rocks and hid in the plants at the diving of the bipeds, their tails and their feet sending them scurrying away to conceal themselves in the tiny rainbow jungles that graced the soft seafloor and climbed up the jagged rocks. Small puffs of wet sand erupted from the ground as they moved along it, hiding their small, soft bodies with clouds of tan and black.

A myriad of colors sparkled from below, and shades of blue clashed out at the open sea as water and air collided at the horizon. Sunlight, yellow and warm and welcoming, danced on the ripples of the water and bathed the backs of the ever-churning shore waves with the soft glow of early morning.

It didn't take very long to reach a place that was shallow enough for most to reach the bottom. The sand was soft and erupted in plumes as the survivors' feet slipped onto its surface. The rocks, by then, had lessened- the jagged boulders growing smaller and smaller the shallower the water got. The waves helped them along, churning and crashing, pushing those brave enough to swim toward the shore and bearing them to the sand with the rushing grace that only a wave has.

Waves are not clumsy but powerful, and not weak but gentle at times when they choose it, and so it seemed as if fate did not have any further severe troubles planned for them- at least not for that moment. But only time would tell.

The twin suns arched barely above the horizon, sending warm yellow rays skittering across the valley and banishing the creatures of shadow and cold back to their hiding places. Truly, the twelve were as lucky as they could be in this situation, at least in regards to what time they had landed.

Luck, however, only carries so far. Ingenuity, teamwork, and skill would be the things that kept them alive, and they would need all that and more to keep their lives preserved long enough to escape.

The island, too, seemed to welcome them as the ocean had. A small breeze caused the grass to wave at the new arrivals, and the sparse trees tossed their branches gently and fluttered their leaves together in excited shivers.

But other than the rustling of the wind, it was quiet, and peacefully so. Not a sound broke the veil of silence from the animals- no chirps, no growls, no roars...everything was watching and waiting, observing the creatures that came from the sky in hungry curiosity and wary reverence.

It was best to get to work...before the native creatures decided that these sky arrivals were not as dangerous as they seemed.

Relevant Links

[url=https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/threads/the-deep-technology-dump.170095/#post-3650692]Escape Pods
Shallow Reef
The Island
Rendezvous Valley[/url]

 

[Rosé Moon]

This couldn't be real -- she was still in cryo-sleep. This was a nightmare! This was all a bad dream, and sometime soon she was going to wake up in her chamber to the welcoming voice of a professional, telling her to mind the after effects of cryo-sleep. Then the warmth flowed over her, and finally, her eyes left the ocean and rose up to the sky. The two suns, the yellow light and the cool breeze that complimented the warmth. This place... it was beautiful. Then the voices inserted themselves.

"Q-quoi?"

The voice that came from her mouth sounded strange to her, she almost thought it should sound different here. Why would she think that?

"Ah! Forgive me--" her voice came stitched with the evidence of her french origins. It was also a higher pitch then one might've thought. Besides the pitch, it was also filled with a, albeit currently suppressed, spunk. Evidence of her youth. First she noticed the man in the water. "Tug pull- I-I can't pull that!" Her eyes rose up as she turned, finally looking towards the island near them. Another survivor had seemed to find her way over to them, and as Niomi was still finding it hard to move her legs, let alone think about getting into this alien water to get to shore, it was nice two of them had gathered around her. What was this about others though? She could make out two figures on the shore -- it was some miracle that between getting to the escape pod, and crashing her glasses hadn't broken -- and that was all she needed.

"No, we can't go looking for others!" her tone was sharp and curt, as if she suddenly believed her voice should have some authority on the situation. "We worry about us, the we can worry about them."

With all that confidence, and such an order-y tone, you'd think she'd follow that up with diving head-long into the waters and making for the island at a brisk pace. Instead, she crouched down a little to take up a seated position, with her legs barely hanging over the edge above the waves. So much for that outward bravado.

"I can't get in the water. I'll freeze and drown." she admitted, vocally to the two that had come around her. "As the man in the water said, you two must-" she froze, trying to think of a better phrase then the one the man had choose but found herself drawing a blank, "'Tug-pulling' this craft, with me atop it so that I might get to land!"

@Anguissette @Maltien

 

[Dipper]

The sound of shouting was faint over the waves as Emil dragged himself to shore, soaked and scowling like a wet cat. His arms trembled under the strain, and his right leg, now stretched out limply before him, felt hot and ached terribly. He was sure something had been fractured in the pod, as his childhood had been sure to leave the bone a weak, brittle mess. Once the agony subsided and dimmed to something more manageable, Emil took a look around.

Smoke trailed off into the horizon, met only by endless ocean. Behind him, Earth-like flora dominated a good portion of his view. He peeled his soaked hat off his head to wring it out.

At least... at least he wasn't alone. Emil struggled to his feet - foot - and felt it light up with the same fiery pain as before when he tested his weight. He choked on the pain and squeezed his eyes shut. Swallow, take a deep breath. He hobbled toward the treeline so he could grip one of the low hanging branches for support, then snapped the same branch to keep his weight off his injured leg.

Dammit. He had no medical equipment, though the warm breeze did temporarily soothe his anxiety. Emil scanned the shore, noting the pair of survivors further along, and the pods. Had it been... eleven survivors? Or eight? He couldn't remember. He couldn't think much either.

With no better ideas in mind, Emil slowly made his way toward the two.

He pulled the bill of his cap lower over his eyes as he approached. Looking lost, perhaps stilled dazed from the pain, Emil lowered himself to the ground in front of them.

"You're... Moonbeam?" It was a stupid question, but Emil wanted to be sure. Had to. Just in case this was some kind of hallucination prompted by the crash.

@Starlighter @Applo

 

[Polaris North]

Perhaps hurriedly entering the water to get to land wasn't the best idea he had.

Julius finally found out about the consequences of cryo sleep. His entire body was feeling sluggish and the only thing that got him to that escape pod was his adrenaline and his will to survive. But now that he was in the water, swimming towards land - well, you could say that it wasn't as life-threatening as that one. Each movement was answered with pain. Julius should have expected it as years of standing still in that cryo pod would have certainly taken a toll on his body. How stupid of him to not prepare as much as he should have.

But it was peaceful. Calming. Nothing in the water had attacked him yet. It was beautiful - seeing how clear the water was and the various fauna and flora beneath him was enough to make him smile. Though there was not much he understood about them. For all he knew, they would have been dangerous and could eat his entire body without much difficulty, but for now, it was safe. How long this safety would last, he didn't know. And that fact did scare him, so he forced his body to move faster.

Finally reaching shallow water, he stumbled onto the sand and took in deep breaths. His muscles were screaming in defiance of his actions, but he could choose to ignore them. He didn't know where he was, or where the others were. Taking another breather, he turned around to look back at the sea before him. The smoke pillar from where the Moonbeam had crashed was visible, but far away. Floating escape pods dotted his vision, but he was unsure if the passengers had already made for land.

He was not fond of being wet while on dry land, but he had to make due for now. At least, until he can get to a camping site that was relatively safe. Standing up, he made for further inland - where he soon spotted three people. His mind went into a frenzy to think of who they were - after all, there were only one hundred and ninety-nine people on board the ship aside from himself. Perhaps he could fish out a name, or at least an occupation.

But nothing came to mind. Yet.

Figuring that sticking together with them would be the best chance of survival, he approached. He bowed his head at them as he approached, but otherwise kept silent. Oh what he wouldn't do to have a handgun right about now. Maybe he could fashion a bow from what he had and from what they could collect around here, but who knew right?

As the others seemed intent on resting for now, he took a seat near them and placed his makeshift bag beside him. He would continue being silent to hear what they had to say, or what they're planning on doing after this. Of course, there was the rendezvous point, but he wondered if these ones had a plan of their own. Like resting. Or well, more than they were already doing right now.

@Starlighter @Applo @Dipper

 

[Wrath]

Eric took another look at the crystal clear water once he gathered his composure again, he hasn't seen water this clear since... Ever. He began observing the rest of the pods and the people which abandoned them in the water. True that you want to leave the pods and get to safety as fast as possible however there's more than the survival kit they can salvage from it. The wiring, circuits etc he has no use for them but if they can rig up a fabricator they would be great materials. Leaving them here to float and eventually sink would be a waste.

He began looking around the raft itself with the minimal amount of footing it provided looking for oars or an engine but finding none. An errant thought flashed through his head as he contemplated making a hole in the raft to propel it using the air inside but that was a bad idea for several reasons. He took another peer off the edge of the raft.

"It doesn't look so deep, it's like the deep end of a pool at basic..." He tried to convince himself but he knew it was deeper than what it seemed. He also tried to gauge if the water was trying to push him towards the island but he couldn't tell, it seemed like the raft was staying in its current position.

"I'm wasting time, fuck the raft and get to the island Eric!" He took several deep breaths and made a hole in the top of the raft, a small one that wouldn't push it anywhere and make it deflate slowly. The reason he did this was so it would sink somewhere in this relatively shallow part of the ocean close to the sure so they could salvage it.

Then he slowly entered the water, feeling the cold water come up to his neck he quickly lost his breath just by hyperventilating. put himself on his back and then began to back crawl towards the shore, his progress was slow because he carried his supplies in a makeshift back made out of his t-shirt and he was holding that with one hand and the fact he hates and fears the water. By some weird convenience back crawl made him face the sky so he could suck up as much of the oxygen as he wanted. He wasn't the strongest swimmer and the bag was slowing him down considerably, but he doesn't have the mentality to give up.

He'll get to shore... Eventually.

 

[Applo]

Reality and all its horrors, poured back into Sarah's mind as a shout shattered her carefully constructed daydream. For a minute she had been back home. It had almost seemed real enough to touch, and now...now she was stranded god knows where. It was sort of funny in a not funny at all kind of way, but her life plan for the last ten years had pretty much been to wind up in the arse end of nowhere. As it had turned out, that was a shitty plan.

"I'm fine!" Sarah called out to the approaching man, waving him over with a hand while her mind took a moment to wonder at the majesty of the enormity of that lie. Fine my pasty white jacksie. "I'm just taking a moment," she continued, hoping to cut off that line of questioning before it could begin. Sarah wasn't really in the mood for chatting. There wasn't a whole lot to talk about that wasn't eminently depressing or gut wrenchingly sad. It would take a lot of very tedious and very small talk to avoid the whole our spaceship just crashed on an alien world killing nearly everybody aboard topic. Fortuitously the universe conspired to provide a distraction at this moment in the form of a figure limping towards herself and the flailer before sitting down.

"You're... Moonbeam?"

"Ummm, what's left of it I guess." Sarah had bitten down on the first five or six answers that had sprung to mind, this dude looked like he needed to be cut a bit of slack.

"What happened to your leg pal?" she asked as she reached for her makeshift bag of gear. She didn't need anything from it - well actually she really could have used another hit of the pain medication, but what she actually needed was her clothes back. Sarah was horribly aware that she was talking to complete strangers in just her soaking wet undies. She couldn't help but feel it was slightly ridiculous that this was what was bothering her right now everything considered, and she knew she'd spent whole holidays in pretty much the same amount of clothing surrounded by strangers, but still. A third man who Sarah hadn't seen approach sat down and this was the final straw for Sarah. Still trying to tease out her knot work from the sodden fabric of her trousers she stood up, excused herself momentarily and then made her way behind another tree a short distance away.

"Anyone got any bright ideas about what we should be doing now?" she called out as she wiggled the damp fabric up her legs.​

 

[noodle]

Date: March 5th, 3040 Time: 10:20 Location: Shallow Reef/Valley Shore

And as they convened together, the Moonbeam's Core Drive continued to sink- spinning slowly down to the bottom of the ocean, its burnt, twisted surface crumbling in on itself as the water pressure around it tried to crush it to little more than scrap.

Information from the Drive's AI reached out desperate claws to the radios, its one and only goal to care for the stranded survivors. There was no one to receive the message, at least not at first.

The radio that Eric had switched on crackled to life. The voice was crackling and broken, the robotic inflections sounding almost female in nature, but damaged beyond recognition. Strange noises emanated from the area- guttural growls and shrieking roars, accompanied by the crunching of the metal and the hissing of water as it entered the breached hull.

"....Objective: Survive on hostile alien..." Static took over for a good minute before the voice picked up again, much fainter this time. "Reaching 900 meters....Core Drive breached...hostil...environ..." It seemed to almost be choking, if such a word could be given to a dying computer. "Survivors advised to rendezvous...calculations show rescue should arrive...days. Stay...do not-" Once more, the radio plunged into nothing but painful static, and it lasted for nearly five minutes this time, until it finally broke through for one more message. "...salvage Drive Core. Warp Gate supplies intact...available flora and fauna...Datapad."

And so it was that Eric Spectre, security officer of colony ship Moonbeam, was the lone living receiver of the Drive Core's vague and broken message, and the lone bearer of the horrible sounds that screamed from the waters below and behind. It would be his duty to survive long enough to give this message to the others, and to keep them alive long enough to try to decipher what the cracked voice had tried to say.

At the same time, Emil's blood was dripping out onto the ground of the valley, and the predators around began to scent something new. Something...different. The survivors could only hope that they didn't take it as a challenge.

A savage, warlike shriek erupted from the jungles to their backs, and the chattering of the birds resumed. The vigil was over, and the island's inhabitants had decided that, for now at least, its newcomers would be left alone.

At least the sunlight was pretty.

Relevant Links

[url=https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/threads/the-deep-technology-dump.170095/#post-3650692]Escape Pods
Shallow Reef
The Island
Rendezvous Valley[/url]

 

[Applo]

A collaboration with @Dipper @Polaris North & @Starlighter

---

"Good, good," Toby sighed in relief, glad to hear that the woman respond that she was alright. Her question about one of the other stranger's leg captured Toby's attention, and he turned to glance down at the fellow in question with a perturbed frown creasing his brow. Entirely focused on the injured party, he didn't even notice her stepping away for the sake of privacy behind an adjacent tree.

"Yeah, no kidding - mind if I take a look at that?" He asked, dropping to his knees in the sand beside Emil.

Julius wasn't planning on speaking until a good while later, as he watched Toby kneel beside Emil. Was he a medic? Perhaps he was. If he wasn't mistaken, they had a lot of doctors on board the Moonbeam. He spared a glance at Sarah who had disappeared behind the tree - for privacy, he guessed.

Then she questioned what they should do now. "How about heading to the rendezvous point?" He suggested. "Meeting up with the others seems to be ideal." He continued as he leaned back from his position.

The pain had eased somewhat since he'd sat down, leaving him exhausted and dazed. He could feel the fractures, old and new, in the hollowed bone, and met the man's offer with a nod. "Please," he murmured with a grimace. The leg had been broken too many times to count, each time worse than the last until he began to wonder why he didn't simply replace the damn thing with a prosthetic. If this guy thought he could help. Emil wasn't about to turn him down.

"My PDA shattered in the fall." He coughed and tasted saltwater. "I don't know where the rendezvous is."

"Have a look at mine" Sarah called out from behind her tree. The wet fabric of her trousers meant they were sticking to her legs and generally being a pain in the backside. "It should be in that pile of gear I left back there."

Julius stood up from his position to fetch the PDA and then handed it over to Emil, seeing as he was in pain and probably would not be in the right condition to move too much. "Here you go." He then walked back to his position.

Toby glanced up to watch him retreat, but quickly dragged his focus back to his patient. He gingerly reached out to pull up Emil's pant leg, allowing him clearer access to the injury. Lightly, his fingers barely touching skin, he ran one hand down the leg to get a feel for anything out of place. "How much would you say it hurts on a scale from one to ten?"

Emil accepted the PDA gratefully and immediately skimmed the contents for the message. On a ship of hundreds, only twelve had survived. He didn't know any of them enough to mourn, but he vowed to remember them nonetheless. Emil hissed at the hands against his leg, nodding in understanding. "Ah, I'm going full ten."

"Hm." Toby quickly withdrew his hands to rummage through the first aid kit for painkillers. He dumped two pills into an open palm, and held them out to Emil. "These aren't strong enough to have an ideal amount of effect, but it should help." He paused, expression turning slightly grim. "I'm going to have to set and splint your leg; walking isn't going to be very much fun for a while."

"The painkillers definitely help take the edge off." Sarah stepped around the tree she had originally been leaning and sifted through her stuff till her hands closed around the handle of the survival knife. With the tool in hand Sarah began to scan the branches on the trees around them until she saw what she was looking for. With a grunt, Sarah jumped and caught a long straightish branch in one hand, her weight dragging it down to a height where she was able to use the knife to slowly sever it from the tree.

"This should do for a walking stick and some splints I think" Sarah said lightly tapping her prize on the ground next to the doctor. "Can you make em, or shall I do it and bind his leg while you split his kit up between us three. It wouldn't be the first time I'll have done it if that helps." Sarah left out that her previous patients had mostly had three other legs and eaten grass. "Either way we should get moving; I'd guess things only get worse after dark."

Emil shuddered and sighed. "It's something." He swallowed the pills dry and settled into a more comfortable position in the sand. The grains under his shirt itched.

"It's a bad leg anyway," he said quietly. "I'm Emil."

Emil would prefer to assign names to the faces around him, so he could thank them properly. He eyed the sticks dubiously but as she seemed to know what she was talking about, he said nothing. He could handle the pain, he was sure

As the others started working on Emil's injury, Julius decided to make a round of the area and see if he can get his bearings. It was still peaceful with nothing attacking them so there was no immediate threat. Still, this whole place put him on edge. He would like to get out of there sooner and meet up with the others, but he supposed that with the engineer's injury, they wouldn't be traveling quickly.

Walking back to them, he crossed his arms and nodded his head at Emil's introduction. "Julius." He offered. Better for them to be able to call him his name after all. He stood there, waiting for any instructions they might give him.

As the doctor nodded, Sarah kneeled down on the ground next to the stricken Emil and held the branch up to his leg. "I'm Sarah." That covered everything that had been asked of her by Emil statement. Sarah would have preferred more benign chit chat to help stop her mind from wandering its own path, but right now her gut feeling was that her fellow survivors wanted a little silence. Instead she put her all into focusing on the task at had; focusing all the attention she could on making sure Emil's splints would be at least tolerably comfortable for him on the journey ahead and not what might have been.

"I think these are just about ready." she said after a few minutes of focused work. Reaching into the medical supplies that Toby had been using Sarah rummaged until she found bandages that looked sturdy enough for the job. "I'm ready to do this thing," her hands waving vaguely over Emil's leg. "Are we ready to go once I do? Don't think there much point of me tying it up right now if we're gonna spend twenty minutes faffing about?

The doctor nodded. "Agreed; we need to get out of here as quickly as possible; once we get this splinted, we can worry about setting it later." He adjusted his position slightly, and reached out to gently hold Emil's leg in a stable position. "Go ahead and tie that on whenever you're ready."

"Ok, take a few deep breaths pal, here we go."

---

​

 

[Wrath]

Eric wished he came out onto the beach from the sea like an actor in a movie, unfortunately it was anything but. Panting, gasping and sputtering he emerged from the sea drained, tired and exhausted. More than once his head went under the surface and his lungs and eyes burned, he had taken on a fair amount of sea water as well as he unwillingly tried to reverse the process by retching it back out.

Honestly it was not a good start to surviving, he spent too much energy and drunk too much seawater. After a couple of minutes his radio came back to life.

"....Objective: Survive on hostile alien..."

"Oh thanks, I wouldn't have guessed that now." He complains to himself as the radio falls back to static.

"Reaching 900 meters....Core Drive breached...hostil...environ..."

"Fuck me..." He groaned and grasped the radio with his hand listening intently trying to hear words through the static.

"Survivors advised to rendezvous...calculations show rescue should arrive...days. Stay...do not-"

"Do not what? Do not enter the water? Eat local animals? Do not stay on the beach? Do not what god-fucking dammit?!" He grasped the radio tightly listened hoping it would repeat itself but then painful static screeched from it but he tried to listen through it.

"...salvage Drive Core. Warp Gate supplies intact...available flora and fauna...Datapad."

"That's fucking great." He leaned back onto the sand and felt the sky was on his shoulders. There's no way for him to get the Warp Drive supplies, if the ship was struggling to get enough power to get through seawater which is the easiest terrain for radio waves to travel through, it must be really fucking deep.

He sighed and stood up, grabbing his shirt made into a bag of supplies he began wandering down the beach looking for other survivors, he had seen them moving around in the distance before he began swimming, he's just hoping the haven't managed to kill themselves yet. He could see a group of them in the distance, they seemed to be grouped up and discussing errant things like "Are we all gonna die here?" and "I hope this rash goes away."

Eric stood up and carried his gear and began walking towards them, he kept his head on a swivel making sure to direct most of his attention to the forest and to turn around every so often to make sure nothing was behind him. Today is going to be a long day if they want to survive.

 

[noodle]

Date: March 5th, 3040 Time: 10:40 Location: Shallow Reef/Valley Shore

Despite Eric's lone status, and Emil's blood, the survivors were left alone...for now. But there was a lingering feeling of dread...it was if they all knew what was coming, and what challenges they would all have to forge through together.

Eric was apporaching the group swiftly, carrying an important message, but an even more chilling one would soon come through- and this one Eric would not have to be the messenger for, as it arrived loud and clear. Unfortunately, answering her was not an option, as she never let go of the transmitting button- amateur mistake.

It was a young female's voice, cracking and quiet, but almost cheerful- at least, the type of cheerful one uses when trying to convince themselves to be happy.

"He-hello? I don't know if anyone is gonna hear this. Um...anyway. I'm one of the gardeners from the Moonbeam, and it's currently- uh- it's 10:40. So, I guess we have a while before nighttime, right? I'm walking to the rendezvous point now, but...I'm really far out- I landed on the complete opposite side of the island from you guys. But good news, I looked through the survivor list and I wasn't on it- so maybe we have more survivors than we thi-" the voice cut out for a moment, but the background noise continued, so it wasn't like the radio was going out. Still, she didn't allow any transmission through. Finally, she spoke again, but it was now a whisper, and a low, clicking growl sounded from high above. "There's....a cat. Staring at me. It's in a tree, and it looks like a ti... Oh god. It's coming toward me. G-guys? What do I- OH GOD!"

With a scream and a thud, the transmission cut out. Now, Eric and the others could use their radios to finally get a word in, but it seemed that by now, it was too late.

And indeed, only seconds later the transmission confirmed the fate of the poor girl who strayed into the path of one of the alien creatures that inhabited this island. It crackled back in, the sounds now muffled, as if the microphone was pressed forcefully into the ground. Soft, trilling growls came from above, and a high- pitched series of squeaks from all sides.

Then, the growling got louder. Muffled breathing got steadily louder, and the soft sounds of paws padding on wet ground approached the radio. Then...a crunch. And static.

Thus sounded the grim warning- being alone and unaware on this island was not the best idea.

If this was what the creatures on the island were like...what kind of atrocities belonged to the screaming roars that had been heard by the Moonbeam's sinking Core?

Relevant Links

Shallow Reef
The Island
Rendezvous Valley
Nasea

 

[Applo]

As her heart tried to pound it's way out of her chest, Sarah fumbled to mute her own radio.Hearing the static almost felt listening to that poor girl's death over and over again. For what felt like the millionth time since she'd woken up Sarah felt bile rise in the back of her throat. Back on earth Sarah had never believed in a god. Now though, now she was sure that not only was there a god, she was sure that they were cruel, vindictive and evil. It seemed like no matter how bad things got today there was always another shitstorm just waiting for its chance to pounce.

"We...we should try and get moving."The forced joviality in her voice was abundantly obvious to Sarah, and she knew the others must of heard it."We need to get to this rendezvous point as soon as possible, hopefully some other people will be there waiting for us."

Privately Sarah wondered what use the rendezvous would be apart from possibly meaning that whatever creature she had just heard would have their pick of survivors to eat. Was there something there that would make not getting eaten more likely? Or had the computers just picked it because it was a relatively central point for all landing points of the survival pods? Even if there was some sort of shelter there or something how would they survive? They had precious little food and water; no idea what of the local plants and animals was safe to even try to eat; and there was at least one creature out there that was likely deciding that humans tasted great.

At that last thought Sarah felt her fingers closing around the handle of her survival knife. If something was going to eat her, she was damned well going to make sure it suffered something to remember her by at least.​