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“When the impact of that ship first swept across the planet, I couldn’t be bothered to care. Why would I? The odds of anyone even slightly less gritty than me surviving this hellhole of a planet are slim, the odds of them being helpful even slimmer. Heck, the ship looked like some big corporation ship, so odds are any survivors would be more like Paul than…
…
…But then, I thought about it a little. Small thoughts, about all the new resources or developments people must’ve made in the past decade. Thoughts like, ‘What if there’s new weapons for my PRAWN,’ ‘All that titanium certainly wouldn’t hurt,’ or ‘I could probably recover some blueprints for a shiny new cyclops’ were at the forefront of my mind. And, after a few weeks of relative comfort with Preston, I decided enough was enough.
I’ve gathered enough supplies to last me a year, and finally got around to building a Sea Truck. Not as fast as a Seamoth, not as self-sufficient as a Cyclops, but it’ll have to do since I left any blueprints of those behind in the goddamned crater.
I’m making some final preparations, and then I’m going. I’ve prepared enough Preston’s Delight and some old auto feeder I scrapped together, so he won’t starve.
Maida out.”
“Huh.”
Volara, noticing Varien’s remark, turned to face his shelter. Electricity crackled down her spines in question.
“What is it?” she asked.
Varien made a facial expression that the Ampeel recognized as a frown. “An unidentified beacon just came within range of us…”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Is that the best you can throw at me?!” Maida called out, as a horde of oversized, scarred up shrimp chased after their wounded brethren. Those things were more bloodthirsty than a pack of sharks, and she was more than willing to take advantage of that.
Smirking, she maneuvered her modified PRAWN into the docking port of her Sea Truck, before making her way into the long chain of modules. Settling into the cockpit and staring into the void before her, she steeled herself.
This was going to be a LONG trip.
Varien looked down into the empty abyss in front of him, and suddenly felt an extremely healthy amount of fear.
“Varien?”
He turned to see Volara, whose prongs were sparking with concern. “Are you alright?”
He steeled himself, gripping the steering wheel of his Cyclops tightly before responding.
“Yeah, I’m alright.” Why wouldn’t he be? He had spent days preparing every possible tool to survive whatever came their way. Torpedo bays for his seamoth, hull reinforcements, creature decoys, shielding systems, fire suppression systems, growbeds filled with marblemelons… He even had Volara with him, and he knew she’d protect him with her life.
Injured all over, sick, she was sick and injured, no-
He shook his head. If he had anything to say about it, then Volara would never push herself that far again.
“Let’s get going.”
“Right.”
He tapped a button, and the Cyclops’ ai gave an automated message in a monotone voice: “Ahead slow.” Varien briefly checked the aft camera, and took in the sight of the pale white forest behind him.
He hoped he’d see it again soon…
“Entering ecological deadzone.”
…What?
“Adding report to databank.”
He definitely didn’t like the sound of that, but if everything was dead, then that only meant there was nothing in their way. It’d be fine-
A haunting cry rang out from the void, and both Varien and Volara froze.
He’d recognize that cry anywhere. The giant THING that outsized a Reaper as a juvenile. The THING that Ampeels told ghost stories about, that had killed so many. The THING that neither he nor Volara could hope to kill.
“Ghost leviathan.”
Volara briefly flashed her spines in question.
“What?”
Fear gripped Varien’s heart.
“Turn back. NOW!”
He immediately began turning around, and briefly noticed his friend do the same. He slammed his fist into yet another button, the Cyclops now giving the message, “Ahead Flank. Engine Overheating.”
That was fine, he could deal with that later, he just needed to get away from-
CRASH
“Warning. Creature attack.”
The lights in the Cyclops turned red, the alarms blared, the port hud showed several hull breaches-
“Damnit, damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!” Varien rushed over and activated the fire suppression system, before immediately dashing back to the bridge. He had to make it back-
A massive, glowing blue form was swimming in front of him, mouth open and screeching. It was massive- larger than even the adult he had encountered with Nev. It probably could have eaten an Ampeel whole if it tried hard enough, and it had already proven it could damage his Cyclops. And it was in between him and the crater.
It swam straight for him, and he reached for the shield systems. It was at this time that his bad hand decided to lock up.
“Fuck!” he cursed, and braced for impact…
Volara hadn’t hesitated when Varien told her to go. The fear in his voice, the hushed tone of his song, the cry from something out of even her sight all combined to make her dash for home. A lot could make Varien panic, but the only things that had made him this scared were those Bleeders and that Sea Dragon.
And she knew she couldn’t fight a Sea Dragon.
Reaching the familiar black stone and red oil, she turned to check on Varien.
The Ampeel was admittedly TERRIFIED by what she saw.
A body clear as water, a head with blades as long- no, LONGER than herself, and so many eyes…
It was a soul conglomerate.
‘What is it doing here? Why isn’t it in the Underworld? How did it escape? Why is it so much bigger than the descriptions-’
She cut herself off. Now wasn’t the time to panic or speculate. It was attacking Varien’s shell, and she would NOT let him die.
Even if she had to face something that made her scared, that made her want to swim away and hide-
Just as it got between her and her friend, she shot back out, towards the amalgamation.
Maida stared dully into the expansive void in front of her.
FUCKING. WEEKS. It had been 3 long weeks since she had left, and the stir craziness was starting to kick in.
“I should have brought Preston.”
The former mercenary had, in her spare time, successfully welded and wired a number of items into the Sea Truck that should not have been possible. A crappy radio, some wall planters, a photo she had taken of Preston…
She’d had plenty of boring posts in her time, but this one took the cake, easily.
And then, suddenly, the radio started beeping, and Maida could only smile a little in response. The only place on the planet that should be letting out radio signals at this point was the crater, which meant she was finally near the finish line.
Still smiling, she reached over and turned the radio on. Nothing like some good background noise while doing literally nothing.
“This is Lifepod 2, coordinates attached!”
…Oh.
“We're way past our safe depth and bleeding O2. We'll have to swim for the surface, but it's 500 meters straight up. We'll make for the rendezvous and keep you posted. Yu, out.”
…
…Odds are, “Yu” was long since dead. That sounded like a prerecorded message.
…
…Fuck, she felt sorry for that poor bastard.
…
…A few minutes later, she got another message, and then another, and then another.
“High priority automated message from Aurora lifepod 13…”
“This is Lifepod 3, uploading our coordinates. We're plugging some holes in our emergency Seaglide…”
“Warning: Lifepod has sunk beyond safe diving distance…”
“This is Lifepod 6, I have a passenger onboard. Coordinates attached…”
“We've landed close to the Aurora, flotation devices active, but we've got some big old fish in the water with us and I don't know how long we're going to last…”
“This is Ozzy from the cafeteria, what the hell guys?! They didn't warn us this might happen! Our pod was almost crushed by the seamoth bay on the way down, now we're hanging on the edge of a cave system and this grim-looking snake-thing's trying to eat through the hull…”
“This is Officer Keen in Lifepod 19! The captain is gone. I have assumed command…”
“This is Lifepod 7, coordinates attached…”
…
…She couldn’t help but pity them. Those fools were woefully underprepared for the harsh reality of this godforsaken planet.
…
…She continued forwards. No turning back.