Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ryley woke up to the acrid smell of burning metal and plastic coating his nostrils. His eyes slowly blinked open, awareness returning to him. He was still strapped into the lifepod chair, and the entirety of the small space was ablaze.

Suddenly acutely aware of the danger he was now in, Ryley’s heartbeat quickened, as he pressed the “Release” button on the armrest of the chair. The chair didn’t unlock. Panicked, he pressed the button again, and then again, and then again, before finally delivering a swift punch to the chair’s armrest. The chair released him, and Ryley wasted no time in grabbing the fire extinguisher that had broken loose during the initial launch of the lifepod from the Aurora. The smoke was suffocating, and Ryley struggled to breathe. His eyes were stinging, blurring his vision, and the intense heat from the inferno made it difficult to navigate around the lifepod. Fire extinguisher in hand, Ryley set to work. The fire was quickly extinguished, smoke clearing through the lifepod’s ventilation systems, leaving a thoroughly shaken Ryley panting from the adrenaline.

            He allowed himself a moment to breathe, sliding down to sit on the lifepod floor. He found his PDA a few feet away from him and gave it a few taps to wake it up after pressing the power button. A yellow message appeared that read “Booting in Emergency Mode,” followed by the ever-familiar Alterra logo and jingle.

            Thank God, Ryley thought to himself as he waited for the PDA to finish loading. Going anywhere unfamiliar without a PDA was a death sentence in and of itself. A feminine robotic voice sounded from the device and into his earpiece.

            “You have suffered minor head trauma. This is considered an optimal outcome,” Great, Ryley thought. He had forgotten how unintentionally mouthy the PDA’s A.I. could be.

            “This PDA has now rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world.” The voice sent shivers down Ryley’s back. “Please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck.”

            The finality of that sentence was not comforting in the slightest. Ryley quickly took stock of his situation. Before he had been knocked unconscious by flying scrap metal from the cheaply constructed Alterra lifepod, something had happened to the Aurora that had caused it to crash and send its crew scrambling for the lifepods. The lifepod was sitting still, meaning that it had landed somewhere, and the fact that he could stand without feeling gravity pulling on him from a different angle meant the lifepod had landed upright. For once, Ryley found himself blessing the Alterra tech for actually working. The fabricator also seemed to be in good working order, which was easily the biggest relief by far. Unfortunately, several other components of the lifepod were broken, and he’d need a repair tool…which he had left on the Aurora. Shit.

            That small setback would have to wait until later. Ryley needed to figure out just where the hell he had landed. He pushed himself off the ground and climbed the short ladder up to the hatch on the roof of the lifepod. He lifted the hatch and pulled himself out of the pod, only for his eyes to immediately be assaulted by the endless blue surrounding him.

            The entire visible surface of the planet was ocean. In the distance Ryley thought he could make out an island, but he couldn’t tell if what he was seeing was land, or very thick clouds that laid close to the ocean surface. To his right was the Aurora, mostly intact and covered in flames.

            “The Aurora suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: Unknown. Zero human life signs detected,” The PDA said with finality.

            ZERO?! Surely one person besides himself had made it out alive. How could there be zero human life readings? He couldn’t possibly be the only survivor. Perhaps his PDA was malfunctioning. Did they all die in the crash? No, that was impossible. Ryley had seen some of his fellow crewmates jettison their lifepods. Maybe they had landed outside of his PDA’s maximum scannable range? Yes, that must be it, Ryley told himself. He needed to remain confident that everyone else made it out okay. Being pessimistic in a survival situation was not ideal.

            Ryley, who was now standing on top of his lifepod, pulled out his PDA to get a glimpse of his location data. So far, there was nothing, which wasn’t very surprising. He needed to repair the broken components of his lifepod for it to gather geological data about the planet, but he had no repair tool. He would have to craft one, and to craft one, he would need materials. Before taking the plunge into the unknown waters below him, Ryley needed to check his emergency supplies.

            He climbed back down into the lifepod and opened the storage bench. He found a few bottles of water, some flares, a couple of nutrient blocks, and a protective suit. Ryley pulled the suit on and found it equipped with a small oxygen tube to help him breathe for a bit longer when he was under the water. The suit also came with a small, waterproof belt with some storage compartments and hooks for various tools. First things, first, Ryley needed a scanner and a repair tool. He checked the fabricator and its list of fabrication “recipes” and saw that he needed a battery and titanium for a scanner. The battery ingredients were listed out as well. Luckily, the fabricator seemed to be getting information based on the resources available on the planet. Just what were acid mushrooms and where would he find them?

            Ryley took a few deep breaths before turning the handle of the bottom hatch of the lifepod. As he lowered his feet, a strange blue and orange creature swam by. What was he getting himself into? The water was warm and deceivingly inviting. Ryley braced himself and lowered the rest of his body into the ocean below. He opened his eyes and gazed upon the alien world for the first time.

            While the surface of the ocean was just blue for miles, underneath the surface was a world of colour and life. Large manatee-like creatures with strange yellow pustules swam around, making low moaning noises as they went. Coral was growing on the sides of rocky hills, and small colourful fish swam about. The terrain formed small caves that fish were swimming in and out of, seemingly coexisting peacefully. Ryley caught a small pink, almost see-through fish in his hand, examining it gently before his PDA sounded in his ear.

            “Alien lifeforms may have unexpected applications. Utilizing alien resources is a proven survival strategy.”

            Ryley let the fish go before diving down and exploring the nearby area. He saw some strange donut-shaped purple plants and picked up a few in the hopes that they would be edible, placing them in his storage belt. As he approached a small hillside, he noticed a piece of limestone that was peeling off the side of the terrain. After resurfacing for some air, he dove back down and picked up a rock from the ocean floor and smacked the limestone chunk until it came off. To his surprise, he found a chunk of titanium inside it. Well, that was certainly convenient.

            Ryley sought out more limestone chunks, smashing them with rocks to reveal some more titanium deposits. The titanium was definitely going to be useful later, but what he really needed was some copper and acid mushrooms (whatever those were) to make a battery. He opened his PDA in the hopes that it could provide some more information about where he could find copper and opened up the recipe for a battery again to check. Surprisingly, his PDA was telling him that he already had the acid mushrooms in his storage belt. Were they those small purple plants he had grabbed?

            Ryley swam around the shallow area that his lifepod had landed in, looking for other limestone chunks to smash as they seemed to be teeming with usable materials. He swam into a small cave, picking up the quartz deposits as he went. He wasn’t sure what the quartz would be used for, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to grab some.

            “Detecting sulfur deposits in the local cave systems. Sulfur is an essential component of the repair tool.”

            Finally, some useful information from his PDA. As he scanned the cave he swam in, he couldn’t see any sulfur deposits. Was the sulfur also in a limestone chunk? He found a nearby one and smashed it, there was no sulfur to be found, but rather an orangey-green rock.

            “Copper is an essential component of all powered equipment. Your probability of survival has just increased to: unlikely, but plausible.”

            Copper! Finally, Ryley thought to himself. He began to make his way out of the small cave system, breaking more limestone and getting some more copper and titanium. As he made his way out, he passed by a small brown mound on the wall of the cave. Curious as to what materials could be found inside, Ryley swam closer.

As he approached, he heard a small growl come from within. Slightly more apprehensive now, he moved to smash it with a chunk of titanium, but before he could, the mound opened up, revealing a small spiky red fish with a big eye in the center of its face. The fish started swimming towards him, growling as it approached, and Ryley knew immediately that this fish was not friendly. He started swimming away as fast as he could, but without fins, Ryley’s speed was no match for the small little fish. The fish crashed into his leg. Boom! Searing pain flared up in Ryley’s leg, and when he searched for the fish, there was no sign of it to be found besides the air bubbles near where it had hit him. Avoid small brown mounds in coral caves…noted, Ryley thought wryly.

After assessing his leg for any damage, and thankfully finding nothing severe besides maybe some light bruising, he returned to his lifepod and opened the fabricator. He placed some copper and acid mushrooms on the fabricator’s surface and pressed the battery option. He watched as the fabricator took the provided ingredients and spit back out a full, working battery. He took some titanium and placed it next to the battery, navigating to the “Tools” screen, and pressing “Scanner”.

“The scanner can be used to synthesize blueprints from salvaged technology, and to record alien biological data.”

Ryley triumphantly picked up the small, gun-like tool, grinning widely and thankful that he could now scan the various creatures and plants to figure out how to use them to his advantage. Ryley climbed back down into the ocean below, and immediately started scanning everything he could find.

The first creature he scanned was the fish he had picked up earlier. The recorded data-bank entry on his PDA called it a “Bladderfish”. The assessment was the most useful information thus far, as the fish’s membrane functioned as a natural water filter, meaning that these fish could be used as a water source until he could figure out how to build a filtration machine.

He scanned other small fish, finding their names oddly comedic. There were Peepers, Garryfish, Boomerangs, and many more. The large manatee-like creatures were called Gasopods, and most important of all, he learned that the exploding fish was a Crash Fish (thanks to another unfortunate run-in), and that the pods they came out of would likely contain sulfur deposits. Ryley navigated back to the pod he had accidentally opened earlier, and to his delight, he found sulfur.

He swam back to the surface for oxygen and pulled out his PDA to the blueprints tab to check what it was he needed for a repair tool. He would need silicone rubber, sulfur, and titanium. The titanium and sulfur were already highlighted as green, meaning he had them in his inventory, but the silicone rubber would be difficult to find as he was sure that it didn’t just naturally occur in the ocean. He searched for silicone rubber in the blueprints and was delighted to find that he could make it from something called a Creepvine Seed Cluster.

Ryley was not very eager to go searching for something with “creep” in its name, and so he began scanning all the flora and fauna he could find in the immediate area surrounding his lifepod. There was table coral, acid mushrooms, blue palm, spotted reeds, but no such thing as a creepvine. All the blood from Ryley’s face drained as he realised that to get the ingredients he needed, he would have to swim beyond the safe area he had landed in, and that thought was truly terrifying.

He knew from his short exploration of the surrounding area that the terrain dropped off into what looked like massive kelp forests in all directions. If he had to dive deeper to get what he needed, then he was going to need a better oxygen supply. Ryley climbed to the top of the lifepod and sat on top, gazing out at the burning Aurora. He opened his PDA and searched his blueprints for some kind of oxygen tank. Luckily, the PDA had provided him with the recipe for a standard O2 tank which came equipped with a full-face dive mask. Even luckier, was the fact that it only required Titanium, which he had in abundance.

Ryley climbed the ladder back into the damaged lifepod and quickly constructed himself an O2 tank. It was small, and only provided him with approximately 75 seconds of oxygen, but it was more than the meagre 45 seconds he had with the Alterra suit’s oxygen production, and it would allow him to explore a bit deeper without having to worry about drowning. With his new oxygen tank equipped, Ryley descended back into the ocean and swam for the edge of the shallower waters, towards one of the bordering kelp forests.

“Life on this planet grows in distinct and diverse ecological biomes. Further study recommended.”

Ryley rolled his eyes at the PDA.

The water around him shifted as he swam into the kelp. It took on a deep green hue and the visibility worsened. Ryley could only see ten to twenty feet ahead of him because of the algae content of the forest, whereas the shallower areas boasted crystal clear visibility for miles. Large stalks of kelp stretched to the ocean’s surface, desperately seeking sunlight. The kelp was dense and seemed to stretch forever in an endless sea of green. Without a compass, one could easily get lost if they went deep enough into the kelp. He would need to be careful when he navigated this biome. He swam towards a giant kelp stalk and pulled out his scanner. As the kelp scanned, Ryley noticed some large blue and purple crocodile-like creatures with very large teeth swimming about and picking up discarded bits of metal from the crash. Their roars were unsettling, and Ryley hoped that they weren’t territorial, because he was very much invading their space. To avoid the potential wrath of the large crocodile fish, Ryley swam back for the shallower water near his lifepod to examine the data on the kelp. He opened his databank and read the entry:

Creepvines: A kelp species concentrated in large forests, in shallow, sandy waters. Loose roots anchor the plant to the sea floor, from where it grows steadily toward the surface in pursuit of sunlight.

The stem is fibrous and rich in iron, making it both a viable base material for fabrication of textiles, as well as a basic foodstuff.

Assessment: Vital alien resource – edible – Construction applications.

To his immense relief, the databank also provided a photographic diagram of the different parts of the creepvine, making the seed clusters easy to identify. It also helped that they were fluorescent yellow and glowed brightly in the low visibility of the kelp forest. Ryley swam back towards the first vine he found and pulled off a handful of creepvine seeds.

A loud roar sounded from behind him. Ryley turned and saw one of the crocodile fish swimming angrily towards him. Shit. Ryley knew that if he tried to swim away, the fish would certainly catch up with him. He had to dodge it at the last minute and make a hasty retreat to the lifepod. Ryley waited as the creature gained speed and swam at him. The creature’s massive jaws opened wide, showcasing its intimidating fangs. Right before its jaws could close around his leg, Ryley feinted left. He watched relieved as the creature confused itself, having missed its prey. Luckily for him, the creature was not necessarily determined to eat him, and swam further into the kelp forest. Ryley noted that its eyes were on the side of his head, not on top, meaning that if he stayed on top of the creature, he might be able to avoid being seen so he could scan it to figure out what it was.

Ryley swam back to the surface to replenish his oxygen before diving back down towards the creature. Scanner in hand, he dodged the creature which had noticed his presence and was actively trying to spin around and attack him. The scan completed and Ryley swam away as fast as his mildly injured legs could carry him. He made it back to the lifepod, unscathed, but traumatized. A quick glance at the databank entry for the creature revealed it was a Stalker. A rather unnerving name, Ryley thought. He opened the fabricator and crafted the silicone rubber, finding that the creepvine seeds made more rubber than he had originally needed. The surplus was certainly helpful, and he placed his extra materials into the lifepod’s storage. Materials in hand, Ryley was finally able to craft himself a repair tool.

With his repair tool, Ryley started working on repairing the different broken systems in his lifepod. When he was finished, the main cabin lights turned on with a loud whirring sound.

“Lifepod secondary systems online. Running full environment diagnostic and outputting results to databank.”

Ryley would look at the databank later. He also had to check the radio so that he could contact any other survivors.

“Radio online. Broadcasting emergency distress signal,” a more robotic voice sounded from the radio. Ryley prayed that his signal reached someone.

“This is Aurora. Distress signal received. Rescue operation will be dispatched to your location in 9…9…9…9…9 hours. Continue to monitor for emergency transmissions from other lifepods.”

Ryley’s heart sunk in his chest. Rescue wasn’t coming, of that he was certain now. His PDA still wasn’t picking up any life signatures, and as of that moment, he hadn’t received any communication from the other lifepods. Ryley’s body went cold, and he was finding it difficult to catch his breath. He was truly alone on this strange planet. His spirits properly destroyed, Ryley grabbed a bottle of water from the locker and sipped at it to help calm his nerves as he read the databank entry for the planet.

4546B Environment Scan

• Category 3 Ocean Planet
• Oxygen/Nitrogen Atmosphere
• Extensive Biodiversity

Safety Warnings:

• May support leviathan class predators
• Water contaminated with high levels of foreign bacteria
• Planet is beyond federation space, rescue unlikely

It is not recommended to explore this environment without hazardous material suits and extensive support apparatus.

There was a lot to unpack in such a short databank entry. The first of which was the horrifying knowledge that there were potential leviathan class predators. As chief of non-essential maintenance onboard the Aurora, Ryley had virtually no experience with alien life. He was never the one building the phase gates or exploring the planets, or doing any form of research really. Now, here he was, on a strange planet, by himself, with hostile alien fish as company, some of which could potentially be so large that they were considered the apex predators of the environment. Hopefully during his stay on 4546B he wouldn’t need to go anywhere near them.

The second major concern was this foreign bacteria the PDA mentioned. He had already jumped into the ocean, meaning he was already exposed to whatever the bacteria was. He had no information about it, or whether it would eventually prove to be harmful, and he had no access to any antidote should the bacteria make him sick. Fantastic.

The last area of concern was the likelihood of rescue. He knew that the Aurora wouldn’t be providing him any help, but knowing that a ship somewhere out in space wouldn’t find him either only drove the nail into the coffin of his hopes of salvation. He only had himself to rely on, and he needed to find his way off this godforsaken planet.

Ryley gazed up through the hatch on the roof of his lifepod and found that the sun had set. He had no bed in his lifepod, and so he resigned himself to sleeping on the cold, hard floor. He distantly wondered if his fellow crewmates were okay, and if they had somehow made it out alive, but a part of him that he refused to acknowledge knew that it wasn’t very likely.

As Ryley laid on the floor, feeling hopelessly alone and scared, he sent out a silent prayer, begging for some kind of help. He only wished that there was someone out there on the receiving end to pick up the signal.

Chapter Text

The following morning found Ryley waking from a not-so-restful sleep with a sore back. He needed to make building a habitat a priority so that he could have a bed to sleep on. The hard metal of the lifepod floor was bearable for one night, but Ryley would rather drown himself in the ocean before having to spend the rest of his nights like that.

            After drinking some water and eating a nutrient bar, Ryley spent his morning rather productively. He gathered materials around what he dubbed the Safe Shallows, as well as the surrounding kelp forests. He didn’t dare go beyond the kelp, not when it wasn’t necessary. The stalkers were scary enough. He didn’t need to know what other horrifying nightmares lurked beyond the forest’s borders.

He crafted some fins with the materials he gathered, thankful that the fabricator could scan the environment and provide a few item blueprints without him having to go out and scan fragments. With his fins equipped, Ryley could swim a lot faster, which was something he was immensely thankful for. In his few excursions outside of his lifepod, he had many close run-ins with stalkers and crash fish, and now that he had fins, he had a better chance of outswimming them.

He crafted himself a survival knife as well and always kept it on his person. While it was mostly useful for cutting samples of various plants or cutting himself loose if he got tangled in kelp, Ryley also felt safer with it knowing that he could use the knife to defend himself if need be. It was unfortunate that weapon blueprints were completely removed from the PDA and fabricator databases after the massacre on Obraxis Prime. Though, when he thought about it, he had never picked up a weapon before in his life. What would he, a glorified janitor, be able to accomplish with guns and lasers? No, he was very much content with just the knife.

            Ryley returned to his lifepod, peeper and bladderfish in hand for an early dinner. He immediately cooked the peeper and turned the bladderfish into water. The peeper was tender, if a bit bland, and very bony. Ryley was never a big fan of fish, but at this point he would have to suck it up and get used to the flavour. The peeper tasted different compared to Earth fish, more metallic, like he was eating flaky pennies. Ryley grimaced, ripping off pieces and eating them as fast as he could to get it over with. Maybe some of the other fish would taste better. As he sat in the lifepod chair, picking at the cooked fish, he saw that the red light on his radio was flashing. He had a message! Ryley scrambled out of his seat, tripping over his feet as he rushed to hit the “play” button.

            “Receiving pre-recorded distress call. Playing back…” Though the message was pre-recorded, Ryley still hoped that whoever sent the call was still out there and alive. A woman’s voice sounded:

“This is Lifepod 3, uploading our co-ordinates. We’re plugging some holes in our emergency seaglide, so if we’re late for the rendezvous, don’t panic. Also, don’t go home without us. Seriously. 3 out.”

Rendezvous? Were the other survivors in communication with one another? Where was this rendezvous point? Ryley began panicking. He had most definitely missed the rendezvous, and even if he still had time to get there, he had no clue where it was. Was that his last chance at escape? Oh God, I’m going to be stuck here forever.

In any case, he would go find the lifepod and see if his crewmates were still there. If he found other survivors, maybe they could all work together to get off the planet. The co-ordinates of the lifepod automatically uploaded to his PDA and a signal icon was located on the HUD of his dive mask. Luckily, lifepod 3 didn’t seem all that far from his own. Ryley distantly wondered why he hadn’t seen the crew from lifepod 3 yet. Surely if they were that close, they would have run into each other by now. Ryley pushed that thought to the back of his mind. The possibility of having other people with him was too exciting.

Ryley finished his food and water and lowered himself back into the ocean. Energy renewed and a goal in mind, he swam out of the shallows and into the kelp forests, keeping an eye on the lifepod signal to make sure he was still headed in the right direction. Ryley cautiously swam through a particularly dense patch of creepvines, eyes flicking back and forth to spot any rogue stalkers. When he parted the vines to clear a path, he saw the lifepod. His heart stopped in his chest.

Lifepod 3 was not floating like his was. On the side of lifepod 3 was a massive hole, clearly not man-made if the jagged edges were any indication. There was no sign of the crew members anywhere. Ryley’s throat tightened, his eyes watering at the horrifying sight. He forced his shaky limbs to move and swam closer, pulling out his scanner and keeping an eye out for any vicious creatures. Something large and dangerous must have ripped open the lifepod. Surely a stalker wouldn’t be able to do any kind of damage at this scale. He had seen a few swim around his own lifepod, and none of them had ever dared attack it. No, this was something much larger, and much more dangerous. Here’s hoping it’s not still lurking around.

Ryley swam inside the small structure, searching for any signs of life. His shoulders sagged. There was nothing but a discarded PDA. Ryley picked it up and transferred the crew log data to his own, hoping the information would be useful. It wouldn’t do to carry around multiple PDAs when his own would do just fine. The inside of the lifepod didn’t provide anything else of use, and so he made his way back outside. He scanned the nearby seaglide fragments for his own personal blueprints, knowing that a seaglide would make traveling much faster. He would need to scan a few more fragments for the full blueprint, but it was a start. Around the other side of the lifepod, Ryley noticed a databox. He clicked it open and pocketed the data-chip. His PDA helpfully informed him that the databox contained blueprints for a compass.

“30 seconds of oxygen remaining.”

Ryley swam for the surface to refill his oxygen. He looked around and easily spotted his own lifepod in the distance. If he was able to see his from over here, the other pods, assuming their flotation systems were functional, should be visible to him. A chill rolled down Ryley’s spine as the realization dawned on him. The other lifepods must have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and Ryley didn’t know if any of the crewmates could have made it out beforehand. He needed to figure out where they were, and fast. Before something else gets to them first.

With the heavy weight of disappointment and lingering dread settling into his chest, Ryley began the swim back to his lifepod, periodically diving under the surface and scanning the ocean floor for any more fragments. For once, Ryley felt like Lady Luck was smiling down on him. He found two mobile vehicle bay fragments, as well as a laser cutter fragment, and the remaining seaglide fragments he would need.

Safely back within the confines of his lifepod, Ryley opened his PDA’s databank and played the last crew log of lifepod 3:

“You really think it will carry two of us?” A woman asked.

“Your regular seaglide tows a mass of 80kg at over 30km/h. The power cell I rigged to this one should double that,” a man answered confidently.

“You think there’s something out there that’s faster?”

“Oh, sure. And that’s assuming it doesn’t overload three metres from the lifepod.”

“You’re calm about this.”

“I’m seeing the engineering problem. If I stop seeing the maths, I’ll be terrified,” the man replied in a shaky voice.

The crew log didn’t provide Ryley with any concrete answers about the people on board, the voices themselves were completely foreign to him. The log also didn’t reveal anything about the massive hole ripped into the lifepod’s hull, much to Ryley’s frustration. The male crew member, probably one of the engineers who worked on the Aurora’s drive core, had rigged a seaglide to move much faster. It was possible, though unlikely, that perhaps one of the crew members lost control of the superpowered seaglide and it punctured a hole in their lifepod, leaving them vulnerable to the threats of the open ocean. Ryley didn’t give that theory much credit, because even an overpowered seaglide would have a difficult time breaching the tough metal hull of the lifepod. However, it was clear something bad happened in or around the lifepod to rip a massive hole through its side. Ryley hoped that their plan worked to some degree, and they arrived at the rendezvous point. Though, he was beginning to get the feeling that the crew didn’t make it very far. He would’ve seen them nearby at this point, he was sure of it. Ryley sighed.

The only good things to come out of his exploration of lifepod 3 were the seaglide blueprints, and the compass data-chip. The items needed for a seaglide were relatively attainable. The lubricant could be acquired from creepvines, and if he collected enough copper, he could craft copper wire. What really concerned him were the ingredients for a compass. The compass required a wiring kit, which needed silver, and in his various excursions, he had never come across any silver. Though the compass wasn’t crucial to his survival, it would be immensely helpful with him navigating the planet. He had been judging his location based on his proximity to the burning Aurora, but even that strategy was hardly helpful when he was under the water for long periods of time. Once more, Ryley would have to venture outside his comfort zone and go beyond the kelp forests.

He would need the seaglide before he did anything. The increased speed would help him navigate beyond the kelp forests, and give his aching leg muscles some much needed rest. He gingerly massaged his calves, pain radiating up through his thighs. At least the constant swimming was a good workout. Plan decided, and with a resigned sigh, Ryley jumped back in the water in search of the seaglide materials.

When he returned, items in hand, he accessed the fabricator and watched as it crafted him a seaglide. The seaglide was a small handheld device with a propellor on the back, and a light on the front. It had handles on either side for him to hold on to so that the seaglide would tow him through the water at speeds greater than what he could achieve on his own, even with the best of fins. Ryley picked up the device and made to leave the lifepod. Just as he was opening the bottom hatch, he heard a beeping sound coming from his radio. It was another transmission.

“Playing pre-recorded distress call.” Hopefully whoever sent this one was still alive out there.

“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! Come get us already!”

            Ozzy’s distressed voice pierced Ryley’s heart. He and Ozzy were good friends. At lunchtime they were always joking around with one another, and they had shared a cabin on the Aurora. If there was any crew member that Ryley wanted to be alive more than anyone, it would be Ozzy. He hoped that he was able to escape whatever creature was attacking him. He could really use a friend. After his experience with the last lifepod, however, Ryley tried not to get too hopeful.

            Seaglide in hand, Ryley resolved to go find Ozzy. The lifepod signal once more appeared on his HUD, so Ryley set out, following the beacon. The seaglide made a huge difference. What would have taken Ryley several minutes, as well as several trips back to the surface, only took him seconds, as the seaglide propelled him through the water. His feet barely kicked, and Ryley let the seaglide do the work for him. The signal led him through one of the larger kelp forests, and when the murky green water cleared, Ryley was met with a large open space.

            There was no kelp to be seen in this biome, though the ocean floor was covered in deep crimson grass. The terrain was mostly flat, save for a handful of weird rocky towers that looked to be eroded, and some bits of land that were covered in pink blobs that were floating on their own without any anchor to the ground to keep them in place. Beams of light shone down on the grassy sand like spotlights on a stage. The visibility in this biome was much greater, and the sunlight from above easily reached the ocean floor, illuminating everything in sight. As Ryley swam through the biome, a deep and deafening groan sounded above him, reverberating through his bones, and chilling him to his core. Ryley shakily tilted his head upwards.

            Above him were three gigantic creatures, with spade shaped bodies and three long tendrils trailing behind them. Their undersides glowed a bright turquoise, with some yellow glands towards the back. They moved at a glacial pace, and from what Ryley could tell, they didn’t seem hostile. They seemed content to migrate along the ocean’s surface, hardly bothered by anything going on around them. Either that, or they just hadn’t noticed his presence. Ryley gazed up in awe at the sheer size of these creatures and began swimming upwards to go scan them.

            He maneuvered himself above the large creatures and saw that on their backs was an entire ecosystem. He saw corals, barnacles, and even acid mushrooms. Smaller fish swam between the red grass that grew on their indigo outer-shells, eating bits of the foliage. Ryley switched out his seaglide for his scanner and began scanning the giants. When the scan completed, Ryley popped his head above the water for oxygen, and opened the databank entry on the creatures.

            Reefback Leviathan:

This vast lifeform is in excess of 30m long and has been designated leviathan class. Fortunately, it feeds exclusively on plankton-like lifeforms in the water.

1. Chitinous Shell: Most of the lifeform's topside and some of its underside is protected by a thick, layered exoskeleton. This suggests an evolutionary path quite different from other organisms on 4546B, most of which are vertebrate in nature. The reefback species has likely been able to grow far larger than other herbivores because anything large enough to break through its shell has long since gone extinct.
2. Enzyme Pods: Similar in appearance to the algae glands of the gasopod, these organs on the reefback's underside serve some unknown purpose in its digestive system, and are capable of expelling small quantities of stomach enzymes into the surrounding waters.
3. Local Microcosm: An array of different barnacle and plant species grow on the reefback's shell, thrusting their roots into ancient scars in the chitin, and taking advantage of their mobility to avoid predation. Nonetheless reefbacks will often be pursued by the faster, hungrier herbivores, and thus this leviathan species is a mobile microcosm worthy of years of study in itself.
4. Lifecycle: Reefbacks's lifespans likely extend through many centuries, should they survive their initial growth cycle. For the first few decades their smaller size would make them vulnerable to carnivorous leviathans. Sociable, seen traveling in small pods and communicating by an echoing call, behavior is consistent with low-level sentience.

Assessment: Harbors plants, small fish, and metal-rich barnacles.

            Ryley decided immediately that he loved the reefbacks. Not only were they larger than any other creature he had encountered, but they were also gorgeous. For the first time since crashing on 4546B, Ryley found himself deeply moved by the beauty of the ocean, a powerful surge of awe in his chest flowing out into his every limb. The grandeur of these gentle giants was a rare and powerful thing to witness, and he reveled in it. Life on this planet was not only terrifying but beautiful. The creatures of the ocean inspired a sense of insignificance in Ryley, as though he was nothing more than a grain of sand to them. He felt humbled swimming alongside them.

            Ryley tore his gaze away from the migrating reefbacks and returned focus to his original task. He dove back down into the grassy plateau, once more following the lifepod signal on his HUD. As he swam down, the seaglide making the dive a lot smoother, his PDA sounded in his ear.

            “Short range scans suggest this biome supports extensive biodiversity and connects to a number of small cave networks.” Were those the caves that Ozzy mentioned in his distress call?

As he neared the ocean floor, he saw various bits of wreckage from the Aurora. Lots of metal beams divided the seas of red grass, and Ryley was delighted to find Seamoth fragments as well. If he could build a mobile vehicle bay, and then make a seamoth, he would be able to travel a lot further and not constantly need to refill his oxygen tank. He scanned the fragments and was able to get two of the three he would need for the complete blueprint set. That was when he saw lifepod 17.

No no no no no... Not Ozzy, please, not Ozzy.

            Like lifepod 3, there was a giant hole ripped into the side of the pod. The metal hull was peeling outwards as if something had grabbed it with its teeth and pulled. The top hatch of the pod was open, suggesting that Ozzy had tried to escape from the top, and since there was no sign of him anywhere, Ryley had to assume the worst. Something was killing off the Aurora crew, and Ryley was not eager to meet it.

            Ryley frantically swam into the lifepod, desperately searching for Ozzy’s PDA.  He found it discarded on the floor. He transferred the log data and left the now empty PDA in the pod, briefly debating bringing it with him as a memento of sorts, but the thought made him sick. He didn’t want to believe that Ozzy might be dead, that they would never enjoy a lunch break together again, that they would never stay up late at night in their cabin talking about how annoying Alterra management was, that they would never just laugh together ever again.

Throat tight, and limbs shaky, Ryley swam back outside. Perhaps Ozzy went to the cave system he had mentioned. If he could at least find his body then Ryley could have a sense of closure. Even though the thought of finding Ozzy’s body mangled and lifeless on the ocean floor made him gag. There was a constant nagging at the back of his mind telling him that without proof of their death, it was possible that his crewmates were still alive. But with each destroyed lifepod he came across, that nagging got quieter and quieter. What was the point in having hope when the planet continued reminding him that having any was a fool’s errand?         

“Local scans show a nearby cave entrance, depth 90m, leading to an unknown environmental biome.”

Ryley swam towards the kelp forest where he had noticed large holes in the ocean floor. The holes from above emitted a ghostly purple light, and the caves burrowed far down into the ground. For a moment, Ryley thought he could hear voices calling to him from deep within the violet caverns, beckoning him to go deeperdeeperdeeper, but that was ridiculous. Right?

Ryley knew his oxygen supply wouldn’t last him nearly enough time to explore the caves on his own. Either he would need a bigger oxygen tank, or he would need to construct a seamoth. Sorry, Ozzy. You’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Ryley turned back towards the abandoned lifepod, but as he approached it, he noticed some electrical sparks not too far off in the distance. He swam closer to the sparks and that’s when he saw it: A large chunk of the Aurora, resting at the bottom of the ocean. From a first glance, Ryley couldn’t identify which part of the ship this was, but he knew that there was likely important stuff inside of it, databoxes, fragments of important tools, maybe even some supplies. Then when he looked down and saw the numerous seamoth fragments, Ryley was hit with the realisation that this was the seamoth bay that had almost crushed Ozzy during the initial crash.

He was about to swim inside the wreck, but Ryley realised that his meagre 75 seconds of oxygen wouldn’t be enough for him to explore the wreck and make it to the surface before he ran out of air, even with his seaglide. Ryley groaned in frustration at yet another obstacle. He would have to craft a better oxygen tank before exploring, or at least craft a seamoth so he could quickly replenish his oxygen without having to book it to the surface. While he couldn’t explore the inside of the wreck, there was still a lot of wreckage scattered on the ocean floor surrounding it. Chunks of metal and machine were scattered between smatterings of red grass. Ryley refilled his oxygen and dove down to the ocean floor.

“Passing 100m. Oxygen efficiency decreased.”

Ryley would have to be fast. His 75 seconds wouldn’t last him if he was losing oxygen faster. He swam around the wreck, scanning the floor. He picked up some small chunks of metal salvage that he suspected he could turn back into titanium with the fabricator. He was even lucky enough to find some scanner room parts, which would be useful when he could finally build himself a base, and he was able to complete his seamoth blueprints thanks to the many fragments dotted across the ocean floor. Unfortunately, still no more mobile vehicle bay fragments. He couldn’t build a seamoth even if he wanted to, not until he constructed a vehicle bay. He would continue searching the surrounding kelp forests, and when he had a seamoth, he would come back to the grassy plateaus and find Ozzy, no matter what it took.

After refilling his air once more, Ryley dove back down and approached some of the strange, eroded towers that dotted the landscape. Ryley scanned the small pink orbs that attached themselves to the floating rocks and found that they were rather appropriately named “Floaters”, and that if enough of them attached to something, they could make it float. He also noticed small sandstone chunks, and like he had done with the limestone chunks, he smashed them off the rocky towers. The first few he smashed contained small deposits of lead, and even more exciting, gold! Ryley pocketed the new materials, knowing that at some point they would come in handy. He smashed more, and to his delight, he found silver.

“Silver-based wiring kits are an essential component of many habitat modules.” If only I had a habitat to put the modules in, Ryley thought, a frown on his face. Materials pocketed, Ryley swam back to his lifepod to begin constructing his new tools. As he glided through the safe shallows, he noticed the water getting darker. The sun was setting.

Ryley returned, deposited his materials in his locker, and cooked himself another peeper. He climbed his ladder and sat on top of his lifepod for some fresh air while he ate his dinner. After spending so much time in the water, Ryley found himself craving open air. The constant fear of drowning and suffocation didn’t exist above the water. Though his body felt heavier in the open air, his spirits certainly felt lighter.

“Detecting increased local radiation levels. Trend is consistent with damage to the Aurora’s drive core, sustained during planetfall.” Ryley paled. If the drive core was damaged, that meant radiation would continue leaking out of the ship, killing anything in its path that didn’t have the proper protection. What was worse was that continual damage to the core could cause an explosion of enormous magnitude. If the Aurora exploded, Ryley wasn’t sure that his small lifepod was far enough away to escape potential damage, or that any of the other lifepods were either.

At this rate, Ryley knew he would have a tough time getting any sleep, despite how much his muscles ached and begged him for the chance to rest. There were so many variables to think about now. The rendezvous, the other lifepods, the radiation, and this mysterious disease that plagued the ocean. Curious, Ryley pulled out his scanner and performed a self-scan.

“Performing self-scan. Vital signs normal. Detecting trace amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor.” Well, that was some good news at least. Hopefully Ozzy’s PDA log would tell him something good as well, though he doubted it. He opened his PDA and played the log, letting Ozzy’s Australian accent wash over him.

“Ozzy’s log. It’s the day of the crash. I don’t know what the heck is happening. I’m scared and I’m not going outside. There are shadows in the water under the hatch but I can’t tell if they’re rocks, or aliens, and there’s weird looking caves nearby.

“The Aurora was carrying everything needed to build the phasegate: mobile vehicle bays, bioreactors, propulsion cannons…it had a cinema! There-there was a zero-g gym. My café! I don’t understand how we’re here now. I don’t know why no one’s coming for me.” Ozzy’s voice cracked at the end of the recording. Ozzy was terrified. Ryley had felt scared, sure, but he could tell that he hadn’t yet experienced pure, raw, unadulterated terror.

Ryley gripped his PDA so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He shut his watering eyes, feeling salty tears escaping and rolling down his cheeks. His chest ached so badly that for a brief moment, Ryley thought he was having a heart attack, but he knew it was just heartache. He cradled the PDA to his chest, pressing it against his suit, his forehead coming down to rest on his kneecaps.

“I’m coming for you, Ozzy. Just hold on.”

Chapter Text

“Caution. Continued degradation of the Aurora’s drive core may result in a quantum detonation. Continuing to monitor.”

Ryley yelped as the PDA’s voice sounded loudly in his ear, his upper body shooting itself up from the floor of the lifepod. His heart pounded in his chest, pulse roaring deep in his ears. Ryley took a few deep breaths to calm himself and groggily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Fuck,” he mumbled. It took him a solid minute to process what the PDA had said. He already knew that an explosion was very much possible, but the reminder was definitely worrying. There was a very real possibility of radiation poisoning if he was not able to somehow contain it, but that meant getting to the Aurora, and he had no desire to venture that far. Not yet, anyways.

Ryley ran a hand through his short brown hair and grimaced at how crusty with salt it had become. He wished shampoo was considered an essential survival tool, but apparently Alterra didn’t think hair care was important. Ryley was beginning to miss the simple comforts, like a toilet. He didn’t want to get into the atrocities he had to commit just to go to the bathroom. He desperately needed to build himself a base so he wouldn’t have to stay in the small lifepod anymore.

Then it dawned on him. He hadn’t even built himself a habitat constructor. Maybe it already had some basic habitat modules downloaded and he could begin constructing a small base for himself.

All the materials for a habitat builder were very much attainable. The only new items were gold and a table coral sample which he needed for a computer chip. He already collected some gold from an earlier excursion, and table coral was abundant in the shallows. Ryley sighed in relief. He wouldn’t have to go very far to get what he needed.

It was getting really tiring having to constantly go out and fetch materials. He was always leaving and harvesting ingredients for different tools, and he missed just being able to take some time to relax. But there was no relaxation on 4546B, not when this planet was seemingly conspiring against him.

Ryley knew that he was mostly winging it with surviving here. He needed a plan, a to-do list, so he could keep track of next steps. He would start with building himself more tools, like a better oxygen tank, a habitat builder, and a laser cutter if he could find more fragments. Then he could work on constructing a habitat and a seamoth so that he could search for Ozzy.

A better oxygen tank was easy now that he knew where to find silver, and he could easily make glass with the quartz he had been hoarding. And while he was out getting the ingredients for the tank, he could get what he needed for the habitat builder and start constructing himself an actual proper base.

Ryley set out on his first excursion of the day. Now that he had been on 4546B for a few days, he was starting to become comfortable in the few biomes he had seen. While stalkers actively roamed the kelp forests, they were peaceful enough as long as you didn’t go near them or their eggs, and Ryley had no problem keeping clear of their massive, dagger-like teeth. The shallows were by far the safest place to be. The only harmful creature was the crashfish, and if he didn’t dive into any of the caves, they weren’t a problem.

Ryley swam towards the western kelp forest. There were some cave systems he had spotted that he wanted to explore.

As Ryley swam through the murky green water, he came across one of the caves. He replenished his air and dove into the hole. The cave system was dark and tight. Without a flashlight, Ryley had to use the light on the front of his seaglide, and while it provided some visibility, he knew that a flashlight would have been more efficient. The seaglide light ate up his battery power at excessive speeds, and without a battery charger, Ryley would have to keep making more batteries to sustain his seaglide.

“Be advised: a common complication for cave divers is loss of orientation, followed by eventual asphyxiation.”

Ryley gulped, a tight feeling in his throat. He gripped the handles of the seaglide a little tighter and continued through the caves. He kept a careful eye on his oxygen levels, knowing that at any minute he might need to make a quick swim up to replenish his air. That is, until he saw the brain coral.

The brain coral, like the name implied, resembled a purple brain. It had holes covering its surface that boasted bright emerald green interiors. What was perhaps the most interesting part of the brain coral was that it was expelling massive bubbles of air, bubbles of air that Ryley knew he could use to replenish his oxygen if he was in dire need of a refill. He spotted a few brain corals throughout the caves, to his immense relief. He wouldn’t need to constantly make a break for the surface.

After a quick refill, Ryley continued, gathering some materials thanks to the many deposits that lined the algae covered walls. As he rounded a corner, he noticed that further down the tunnel was a bright purple glow. His mind instantly brought up images of the eerie violet caves near Ozzy’s abandoned lifepod. That ghostly haunting voice that beckoned him deeper echoed in his ears, crawling and clawing its way back into his mind.

Ryley stamped down his apprehensiveness as best as he could and continued through the tunnel towards the purple light. As the light got brighter, Ryley discovered its source. Large, jellyfish-like creatures dangled from the surface of the cave tunnel. Their umbrella shaped bodies had large spiralling tendrils that almost reached to the floor of the cave, and they were at least as tall as Ryley.

A quick scan revealed they were called drooping stingers, and they were a carnivorous plant, not a type of fauna. Without having read the databank entry, Ryley knew on base-instinct alone that the tendrils should be avoided at all costs, but now he knew precisely why. Drooping stingers, once touched, released an electromagnetic charge of approximately 600 watts to paralyze fish and other prey.

Ryley debated his next steps. He could go back out the way he came, or he could try and bypass the stingers and continue through the cave. There was a gap between the cave floor and the tendrils, enough of one that Ryley was sure he could squeeze through. His biggest worry by far was his natural buoyancy betraying him. He knew the metals in his belt pockets would weigh him down a little bit, but he wasn’t sure it would be enough.

He tried to look beyond the stingers, but they were so densely clumped together that he couldn’t tell what lay beyond them. Ryley gritted his teeth together and lowered himself as close to the bottom of the tunnel as he could get. He gripped onto the slippery rock and pulled himself forward, right underneath the stingers. Luckily, he made it through unscathed. He glanced behind him at the menacing plants, relieved that he had made it through, and continued forward.

The cave was lit up with the bioluminescence of the stingers, and no matter which direction he looked in, as there were now several different routes he could take, they were all guarded by the unnerving purple flora. The path above and to the right seemed like the easiest to pass through, with a relatively large gap between the tendrils and the ground, and he thought he could see natural light beyond them.

Ryley swam closer, and to his surprise, beyond the stingers was a huge piece of metal. Alterra metal. Though it was hard to tell from this angle, Ryley was sure it was a chunk of the Aurora, the colours and sleek design of the ship giving it away. He desperately wanted to go explore the wreckage. He just needed to get past this next group of stingers. Once again, Ryley pressed himself to the floor of the cave and began moving forward.

He was mostly past the stingers, and he could see a massive hole ripped into the side of the Aurora wreckage. Sunlight from the surface danced between the kelp stalks beyond the wreck. Excited, Ryley clumsily kicked his legs to move forward. And by the time he realised what he had done, Ryley’s calf had already brushed one of the hanging tendrils.

Searing, shooting pain unlike anything he had ever felt shot up his leg. Ryley screamed, the dive mask muffling the sound in the surrounding water. His vision became blurry, and Ryley could feel tears rolling down his cheeks. His body felt like it was sizzling, his fingers and toes becoming numb instantaneously. He fought against the black pulling at his vision, greedily gulping down air as he hyperventilated. The pain was continuous. Never ebbing, and only intensifying.

Then suddenly, the shooting pain was gone, leaving behind a dull, aching burn. Awareness returned to him. Ryley gasped, his chest still heaving as he desperately tried to regain composure. He had never felt pain like that before in his life. Feeling began returning to his extremities, and so he swam up to the surface to refill his rapidly depleting oxygen.

Safe on the surface, Ryley groaned, phantom pain radiating up his leg. He let himself just float for a moment. If it wasn’t for his suit providing some protection, Ryley knew that simple sting would have likely killed him. Whatever material his suit was made from must have prevented the worst of the electricity.

“4546B, why do you hate me?” Ryley sang to himself in an exasperated voice as he dove back down to the wreck. He was never going into the kelp forest caves ever again.

Limbs still burning, Ryley made his way to the backside of the wreck and swam through the opening in the metal. On the inside of the small compartment were supply crates, bits of furniture, and tools tossed about, including a databox. There were no signs of any crew members. No PDAs, nothing. Ryley swam further into the wreck and began scanning everything. He managed to acquire the blueprints for the mobile vehicle bay (finally), a swivel chair, a desk, a beacon, and parts of a stasis rifle.

Ryley was delighted that he found this wreck. Now with these new blueprints, he could finally work on building a seamoth to go look for Ozzy. The databox he found ended up being completely useless because it included another data-chip for a compass, and since the wreck wasn’t very large, Ryley had quickly explored all it had to offer.

Safe and sound in his lifepod after a very painful swim, Ryley stripped out of his suit to examine his calf. A dark angry red mark marred his brown skin. It was tender to the touch and covered much of his lower leg. He opened his med kit and pulled out the burn salve. He gingerly rubbed a generous amount over the red spot and sighed as instant cooling relief spread up his leg.

He sat on the floor of the lifepod just breathing and letting the salve work its magic. Though the excursion nearly cost him his life, he got the materials he needed to make a habitat constructor and the high-capacity oxygen tank, as well as blueprints for some furniture and the mobile vehicle bay.

Ryley stood up with a pained grunt and pulled his suit back on before moving over to the fabricator. He built the constructor tool, as well as the tank. With the new tank, Ryley now had 135 seconds of oxygen, which was a huge improvement, especially if he dove below 100m where his oxygen ran out much faster.

He examined the constructor and clicked the middle button. A menu of blueprints appeared on the screen of the constructor. There were several “starter” blueprints available.

“The builder tool is designed to construct habitats capable of withstanding extreme environmental conditions.”

Ryley groaned loudly. All of the blueprints were for hallways and connecting passages, not for rooms. Without the blueprints for an actual room, Ryley would have to make a base made entirely of hallways. He knew that there weren’t any multi-purpose rooms just laying around for him to scan.

Unfortunately for his back, there weren’t any beds either. He knew he could scan some on the Aurora, but without radiation protection, he would surely die before he reached the ship. Ryley grimaced at the thought of another night on the cold floor of his pod. He would have to wait to build himself a base. Right now, getting the seamoth was more important. The seamoth meant safety, unlimited oxygen, and better exploration range. Ryley hoped that he could find some blueprints for a moonpool somewhere because then he would have a place to store the seamoth once he built his base.

First, he would need to build the mobile vehicle bay. The mobile vehicle bay came equipped with constructor drones that could build entire submarines within seconds. It was the only tool that could build the seamoth. For the mobile vehicle bay, Ryley would need an entire titanium ingot, lubricant, and a power cell. The titanium ingot required a ridiculous amount of titanium, and even with several chunks currently lining his pockets, he knew they wouldn’t be enough.

The lubricant was easy to acquire, and though the power cell required two batteries, batteries were very easy to make with ingredients from the shallows. Ryley made to get back in the water to go collect the necessary materials, but he still felt quite sore from the ordeal with the stingers, so he sat back down on the lifepod floor. Maybe a quick nap would help him feel a bit better.

As he sat there, closing his eyes, and letting his muscles relax, his radio began beeping. With a rough groan, Ryley stood and played the message, hoping this time help was coming. He really wanted to go home.

“Playing pre-recorded distress call…” A woman’s voice began speaking.

“This is lifepod 6, I have a passenger on board. Co-ordinates attached. We’ve landed a kilometre from the crash site, but there’s radiation in between us and the rendezvous. Request immediate assistance. 6 out.”

Then his PDA sounded in his ear.

“Signal co-ordinates corrupted. Approximate transmission origin uploaded to databank.”

Ryley watched tiredly as his PDA lit up with a new databank entry. Though the likelihood of him finding any survivors at the lifepod was low, he had to go check just in case they were out there and needed help. He wondered if other lifepods were getting these messages and if any of their own crew members had gone out in search of fellow survivors. So far, it didn’t seem likely.

He opened the entry and saw a photo and some text. Ryley wasn’t sure how his PDA managed to get a photo of the lifepod. Perhaps external cameras that transmitted the info when needed? The photo showed a portion of the lifepod, the metal hull peeling outwards, and surrounded by red grass, like what he saw in the biome where Ozzy’s pod had been. The lifepod was very clearly destroyed just like the others. The passengers didn’t survive. He read the text:

A distress signal has been received from lifepod 6, but the attached co-ordinates were corrupted. Last available photographic data has been downloaded and analyzed.

• Crew requested assistance navigating radiation
• Sunk to approximately 100m
• Located in an area dense with red grass, near a number of natural arches and rock stacks
• Transmission origin approximately 400m west-northwest of lifepod 4’s last known location

As Ryley sat down again, fatigue pulling on his limbs, the weight of the day finally settled on his shoulders. There was just always so much to do, and Ryley only had so much energy. With each small step forward, there were about a dozen steps backward. If he found the blueprint to an important tool, he needed to go get more materials, which meant risking his safety several times a day at the very least. When he received a radio message from other survivors, his hopes were crushed as badly as the lifepods were when he found them. Even exploring a small cave was a life-threatening experience.

4546B was not a gentle planet. It was harsh. It was relentless, punishing, unforgiving. And even though there was beauty to be found everywhere, it was difficult to appreciate it when the hostile wildlife was constantly out to ensure he suffered a brutal death.

No, he needed to stay positive. If he let things get to him too much, he would spiral into insanity. Ryley stood, gritting his teeth against the lingering pain, breathing heavily through his nostrils. He couldn’t keep wasting time like this. Days went by slightly faster on 4546B, and he had no desire to go swimming in the dark. He put on his dive mask and strapped his oxygen tank to his back and jumped back in the ocean. He wasn’t about to let 4546B defeat him.

Ryley spent several hours collecting materials. He swam through the shallows, the kelp, and even all the way to the grassy plateau to take advantage of all the loose scrap metal. He took a quick moment to gaze up at the migrating reefbacks, their deep groans echoing throughout the ocean. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, the first one all day.

He returned to his lifepod, pockets heavy and feeling accomplished despite his earlier moment of despair. He set to work and made his mobile vehicle bay. It was a small, foldable box with handles on the side for when he deployed it. Excited, he jumped back in the water, the pain in his leg a distant memory. He searched around his lifepod for the best spot to deploy it. It would need to be in an area deep enough that when the seamoth was constructed, it wouldn’t hit any rocks once it got dropped in the water. There was a good area just to the south of his lifepod, an area that acted as the border between the shallows and the kelp forest. Ryley swam over and released the vehicle bay.

Ryley watched the small box unfold itself. Small flotation devices on the bottom lifted it to the surface, and the constructing terminal sprang up, drones flying around, ready to build. Ryley swam over and pulled himself up onto the bay. The small screen in front of him listed his available vehicle blueprints. So far, the only one available option was the seamoth.

Ryley was prepared. He had gathered all the ingredients he would need for a seamoth during his several-hour-long material hunt. He pressed the button on the screen and watched as the small drones buzzed in front of him, taking his materials. They flew around, constructing the seamoth seemingly out of thin air. Ryley had no idea how Alterra construction technology worked, but it was so fascinating to see in action.

“The seamoth is a fast, safe mode of transport, but remember that swimming is good for your glutes and endorphin levels.”

The seamoth was a glorious sight to behold. The small submersible was vaguely sphere shaped, with a ring around most of the cockpit. A large glass dome covered the cockpit and allowed for a wide range of vision. Excited, Ryley leaped in the water and swam to the seamoth. Its cockpit hatch opened automatically as soon as he was within range, an invisible forcefield keeping water from entering it.

Ryley pulled himself in and sat in the chair. The cockpit hatch shut in front of him, and a high pitched robotic voice sounded.

“Welcome aboard, captain. All systems online.”

Ryley acquainted himself with the controls. In front of him was a small steering wheel that allowed him to not only turn to the side, but move himself up and down in the water. A small screen on the steering wheel told him what the seamoth crush depth was and how deep he was. Right now, the seamoth could go as deep as 200 metres.

He practiced piloting it around, doing simple manoeuvres and rejoicing at how fast the seamoth actually went. He would be able to travel so much farther now, especially since he wouldn’t have to constantly resurface for oxygen. He just had to watch his power and hope he had enough to last until he could build a moonpool.

Ryley immediately headed in the direction of Ozzy’s lifepod. In no time at all, he was floating in his seamoth above the violet caves. He tilted the seamoth downwards and dove down. However, as he travelled further down the tunnel, he noticed that the caves were quite deep, deeper than his seamoth could handle. He wasn’t going to be able to explore them, not unless he wanted to crush his seamoth.

“Argh!” Ryley shouted, frustrated. He thought he had finally accomplished something significant, but even still, he wasn’t able to go deep enough to properly search for his friend. He pursed his lips together, gazing down into the fuchsia depths of the cave, strange ghostly echoes sounding from below. He would have to come back when he could go deeper. Sorry, Ozzy. Just wait a little longer.

He pulled his seamoth back out of the tunnel and sped back to his lifepod, chest aching and feeling defeated. He briefly debated what he was going to do with the rest of his day before remembering the radio message from earlier. He didn’t have a lot of info to go off of, just the fact that lifepod 6 was north-west of lifepod 4…wherever that was, and that it was definitely in a grassy plateau biome.

Ryley figured his best bet was to just head vaguely north and hope he found the grassy plateau. He was slightly worried about the possibility of radiation. He knew his seamoth would protect him from the worst of it, but if he exited the submersible to go explore the surrounding area, it was likely that he would get hit by it, and he would have no radiation protection.

He faced north and sped through the ocean. He flew through the murky kelp forest, watching as the kelp faded into coral reef which faded into crimson grass.

He piloted his seamoth around the area, noting how similar it was to where Ozzy’s lifepod was, though it was several metres deeper. In the distance, he spotted sparks and headed that way. Looming before him was another massive chunk of the Aurora, and just to the right, perched on the precipice of a cliff, was lifepod 6, with a massive hole torn through the top.

Ryley immediately abandoned the wreck, deciding to explore it later, and sped to the lifepod. Gingerly, he opened the cockpit, waiting for a radiation warning. Luckily, there was none. Ryley breathed a sigh of relief and exited the seamoth. Next to the lifepod, sitting on the ocean floor, was a discarded PDA. Ryley transferred the data and dropped it back on the ground. He swam inside the lifepod and found a second PDA. He vaguely remembered that the radio message had mentioned a passenger. He also found some chunks of lead, which he quickly pocketed, and some flares.

He left the destroyed pod and got back in his seamoth, opening the crew log data. There were two messages to listen to. He hit play on the first one.

“Ma’am, I need you to stay calm. We’re not in immediate danger.” An exasperated voice sounded.

“Where are the rescue teams?” Another voice, angrier than the first woman, chimed in.

“The Aurora didn’t make it.”

“So where are the rescue teams?!”

“They’re dead, ma’am,” The first woman said harshly. “We have rendezvous coordinates, but the route’s irradiated.”

“So what are you going to do?”

A sigh. “I’m head of human resources, ma’am. This is not my expertise. But the PDA says if we can find some lead, we can make radiation suits.”

“Out there? I am not setting foot outside this lifepod without the proper protection.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll go.”

The log cut off. Ryley tried his hardest to remember the name of the human resources lady. He hadn’t had that much contact with her, but he had spoken to her a few times back when he was getting hired. The other passenger’s identity remained a mystery. He was partially thankful that it had been just him in his lifepod because he didn’t know if he would have had the patience to deal with another person, especially someone that rude. He played the second log.

Ryley heard the lifepod hatch opening, followed by dripping water and a strange hissing.

“What are you doing?” asked the HR lady.

“You were gone so long, I thought you’d drowned.”

“Put the flare down!” HR lady panicked.

“I was going to try and attract someone’s attention.”

“That’s not a distress flare! Stop waving it around like that, you’ll catch the fuel line!”

Her voice abruptly cut off and Ryley heard the telltale sounds of an explosion before the log cut off entirely. Cold seeped through Ryley’s body as he sat in his seamoth, too stunned to move. The passenger had killed them both. He covered his mouth with his hand, staring at the hole in the lifepod and the burnt edges of the metal that pushed outwards. Looking at it now, it was all too clear what happened.

Finding this lifepod was shocking, more so than the others. With the others, he had no definitive evidence of what happened to the crew members. He could only guess as to what happened to them and pray they were alive somewhere on the planet. With this one, he now knew exactly what had killed them. What was perhaps the most puzzling was the lack of bodies. But the ocean was filled with predators, large and small. Something could have easily eaten their corpses within the three days it took Ryley to find the lifepod.

Chills ran down his spine. That could have been him, could still be him. Just because he had survived a few days didn’t mean he was invincible to the larger, more dangerous creatures of the ocean, ones he hadn’t even encountered yet. He took a shaky breath. As long as he was still alive, he could still escape this goddamn planet. Though with the looming threat of the Aurora’s drive core, he wasn’t sure how much longer he had.

Sighing, Ryley gazed beyond the lifepod. Beyond its perch was a slope that seemed to disappear into the darker water beyond. Curious, Ryley urged his seamoth forward at a slow, cautious pace. He didn’t know what lay beyond the grassy plateau. As he glided through the water, beams of light shone down through the water, lighting up a bright turquoise ray with a long thin tail and several thinner tendrils protruding from its side in a way that was reminiscent of a spider. The ray glided effortlessly through the water, emitting a very high-pitched whistle that echoed through the ocean.

Fascinated, Ryley drove closer to it and saw where it was swimming. Ahead of him loomed tall, giant trees. Huge mushrooms grew on the trunks, as if they were the very leaves themselves. The undersides of the mushrooms glowed a beautiful shade of orange, while the tops remained a grayish indigo. Fluorescent blue corals spiralled up the trunks, lighting up the entire forest in shades of fire and aqua. The blue rays swam about freely, seemingly unbothered by his presence, which was something Ryley was thankful for because he wanted to go scan one.

“The biomass in this area is dominated by plant life. Picking up faint Alterra technology signatures.”

Ryley carefully maneuvered his seamoth through the trees. The mushrooms were large and dense, making the forest difficult to navigate with his vehicle. He parked his seamoth and hopped out to scan everything. The rays were aptly named jellyrays, and they weren’t hostile. As he swam through the forest, the whistling of the rays unnerving him slightly, he spotted some metal on the floor. A quick scan revealed it to be a fragment of a moonpool, the structure he would need to eventually store and charge his seamoth.

On the edges of his vision, he thought he spotted the electrical sparks he would usually associate with a chunk of the Aurora, and as he turned his head, he saw that the sparks were not accompanied by inanimate metal. It was a large fish, and it was electrified. All menacing zaps and sharp teeth, the fish began swimming close to him. Ryley hastily backed up, his heart pounding at the thought of being shocked again. Luckily, the fish left him alone.

Ryley swam back to his seamoth, hopping in, and continuing through the mushroom forest. As he moved closer east, a huge wall rose to the side, and above, Ryley thought he saw Alterra metal. He squinted, trying to discern whether it was a wreck or the Aurora itself. It looked too large to be a wreck, and Ryley didn’t want to get too close because of the radiation.

The sun had begun to set and so Ryley turned his seamoth around, ready to head back to his lifepod. He was stopped before he could start. Because directly above him sounded the most deafening, ferocious, and threatening roar he had heard yet.

Chapter Text

Ryley sat in his seamoth, paralyzed with fear, his ears straining to hear where exactly the roar was coming from. The light was slowly fading with the setting sun as Ryley sat there, too scared to make a sound. The creature, whatever it was, roared again and this time it sounded as though it was directly above him.

Ryley looked up, trying to make out where the creature was, but the large mushrooms and darkening sea made it hard to see anything. He couldn’t stay here forever. Eventually he would have to go back to his lifepod, but he didn’t want to run into the creature. It sounded large, angry, and worst of all, hungry.

“Okay okay okay,” Ryley whispered to himself, shaking his arms out to get rid of his nerves. He needed to go, and quickly. Ryley gently urged the seamoth forward, trying to keep it as silent as possible. The roars of the creature diminished slightly. Perhaps it hadn’t heard him and had set its sights on something else. He slowly and carefully navigated out of the mushroom forest, tracing his path back towards lifepod 6, and then turning towards his own lifepod and speeding off once he couldn’t hear the roars anymore.

The sun had fully set and Ryley was driving in complete darkness. The bioluminescence of some of the flora and fauna did little to light up the ocean, and his seamoth lights only went so far. The deep groans of the reefback remained a comforting presence as Ryley left the plateau and plunged into the dark kelp forest, yellow lights of the creepvine seeds shining like small suns, lighting a path for him.

Ryley let out a huge breath as his lifepod came into view. He climbed into the pod, sufficiently worn out and ready for a full night’s sleep.

But sleep did not come to him.

The cold metal of the lifepod seeped into his skin, chilling him to the bone. Ryley held himself as he shivered. Sharp teeth, vicious roars, and fire filled his mind. Darkness slowly gave way to bright violet, and high-pitched echoing screeches. He saw Ozzy’s lifeless body discarded on the ocean floor, chunks of his flesh missing as he became part of the ecosystem. He heard the screams of his crewmates as the Aurora was impacted, people sprinting for their lifepods.

Explosions rang in his ears as he sat up, panting and eyes wide. A quick glance out the roof hatch told Ryley that the sun had only just started rising. As he stood, his stomach growled. He was out of nutrient bars meaning he had to go catch a fish to cook. With a sigh, Ryley pulled on his flippers and oxygen tank and went to catch breakfast.

He returned to his lifepod ten minutes later with a boomerang and bladderfish in his hands. As he let the fabricator cook the boomerang, he heard a subtle beeping. His radio was once again lighting up with a message. Grabbing the fish from the fabricator, he played the message.

            “Playing pre-recorded distress call…”

“This is Officer Keen in lifepod 19! The captain is gone. I have assumed command,” Ryley’s heart dropped as Keen spoke.

“The last thing the captain did was give me co-ordinates for dry land. We regroup one and a half kilometres south-west of the crash site. Stay together. Good luck. This message will now repeat.”

His PDA spoke in his ear, “Rendezvous co-ordinates corrupted. Transmission origin co-ordinates downloaded.”

There’s dry land, was Ryley’s first thought after hearing the message. His second thought was that he had most definitely missed the rendezvous by now, and his co-ordinates were corrupted. He could, however, scout the transmission origin and see what he could find. He knew that Officer Keen had likely regrouped with the others at the rendezvous and wouldn’t be at his lifepod anymore, but there might still be something useful there.

Ryley washed down his fish with some water before moving to hop in his seamoth to find the lifepod. However, as he pushed out the lower hatch of the pod, his PDA stopped him in his tracks.

            “Warning. Local radiation readings suggest the Aurora’s drive core has reached critical state. Quantum detonation will occur within two hours.”

Ryley sat frozen, one leg dangling in the ocean as the words sunk in. If he ventured to lifepod 19, he would have to be very quick about it so that he could return to his lifepod in time. He jumped into the ocean.

Safe in his seamoth, Ryley turned south-west and followed the beacon. As he ventured further from the kelp forest and through the grassy plateau, the trademark red grass became sparse. Just as he flew over what appeared to be the last patch of grass, the land took a steep turn downwards. He couldn’t see the bottom.

Ryley braced himself and urged the seamoth deeper. He flew past large stone spikes that stuck out of the side of the steep hill, almost warning him of whatever danger lay beyond their border. Ryley half considered turning around. The water around took on a swampy green hue, though the visibility was infinitely better than that of the kelp forest. Ryley kept a close eye on his depth as the number rapidly increased.

“Biodiversity in this region is unusually low. Cause unknown.”

The PDA had that right at least. As he approached the ocean floor, pushing it rather close to 200 metres, he noticed that where the shallows were full of life and colour, this biome was sparse. Only sand covered the ground save for a few strange luminous stalks and the sunlight just barely reached the floor. There were large trenches and tunnels carved out of the ground, lit up by small bits of plant life, and there was an eerie stillness to the water. As Ryley got closer to the beacon on his HUD, he noticed some bits of metal scattered across the ocean floor. Then he raised his head and saw two giant pieces of the Aurora spread apart over one of the large trenches.

Ryley approached the wreckage and jumped out of his seamoth, scanner in hand. The larger chunks of the ship were virtually inaccessible because he didn’t have a laser cutter to get inside, but there were plenty of goodies scattered about for him to scan.

He found some random furniture, pieces of thermal plants and bioreactors (which would be very helpful when he was finally able to make himself a base), floodlights, moonpool pieces, and a databox. Ryley completed his moonpool blueprint which was very exciting. Now he would have a place to store his seamoth and charge it. The databox he found contained blueprints for a vehicle upgrade console which was even better because that meant he could add new modules to his seamoth.

Ryley hopped back into his seamoth, pleased with the blueprints he had acquired and once more turned towards the icon on his HUD. As he approached the signal location, he noticed that the lifepod was at the bottom of a trench and deeper than his seamoth could go. He parked it over the trench and dove down to swim the remaining 100 metres on his own.

“Warning: Passing 200 metres. Oxygen efficiency greatly decreased.”

As Ryley approached the lifepod, he noticed that like the others, there was a massive hole ripped out of the side. Had Officer Keen been killed before he could leave for the rendezvous? Ryley swam closer, his ears and face feeling tight. He saw on the ground a databox and a discarded PDA. Ryley transferred the PDA data as always and picked up the data-chip for a reinforced dive suit, something that would surely come in handy against some of the smaller predators.

Though he had tried, Ryley couldn’t find any more evidence as to what happened to Keen and if he had made it to the rendezvous. Frustration, anger, and sadness coiled deep in his chest. He sorely wished that there was one lifepod out there somewhere that was intact. Dejected, he made to swim back to his seamoth.

As he was swimming upwards, he noticed some red stones lining the walls of the trench. He smacked one off with a thwack. He examined the stone in his hand and was helpfully informed by his PDA that it was ruby. As he gazed around the dark trench, he saw that the walls were lined with rubies. Ryley swam around, smacking off any rubies he could find.

Ryley continued gathering resources, unaware of his rapidly decreasing oxygen and the 100 metre swim he still had back to his seamoth.

“Warning: 30 seconds of oxygen remaining.”

Shit, shit, shit. Ryley began swimming up as fast as he could, seaglide in hand to make the journey faster.

“Oxygen,” the PDA insisted as his oxygen metre got smaller. He was so close he could see the lights of the seamoth. Ryley watched with widened eyes as the oxygen metre counted down the final few seconds… 3, 2, 1.

Ryley’s vision darkened at the edges, his chest tight from lack of air, and his arm outstretched towards his seamoth. He could just barely make out the hatch opening, and with his remaining strength, he pulled himself inside, greedily gulping down air.

He let himself calm down for a second, his chest rapidly rising and falling, before he opened his PDA to listen to Officer Keen’s log. There were two entries and the first one was not a voice log.

To all crew – If you are reading this then you have followed the automatic distress signal broadcast by this lifepod’s onboard computer, contrary to my orders. I have been forced to evacuate. Your orders are to disregard my safety and attempt to reach the designated rendezvous co-ordinates at the nearest land mass. I hope to see you there.

“Signal location uploaded to PDA.”

Ryley watched as a new beacon appeared on his HUD with the caption “Aurora Rendezvous Point (Dry land)”. He had the rendezvous co-ordinates! He could finally figure out what happened to the other survivors! Before he got too excited, he played the voice log.

“Keen! This is Aurora, come in!”

“This is Keen, lifepod detached okay, planetfall in 30 seconds!”

“The computer has identified a land mass at the attached co-ordinates! I want you to regroup the crew there!”

“Understood, but-” Keen was interrupted.

“They’re your responsibility now, don’t let them down!”

“Captain, you need to evacuate!”

“Negative, you’ll need the ship in one piece if you’re going to contact HQ on the long-range. I’m attempting a controlled descent.” Ryley heard the strain in the captain’s voice, his words coming out through gritted teeth.

Then Ryley heard a large explosion.

“Captain?!” And then nothing but static.

The captain of the Aurora was dead, that much he knew from the original lifepod transmission, but he never expected he’d hear what were the captain’s final moments. The seamoth felt eerily silent. Ryley floated above the trench, just gazing with empty eyes at the lifepod, his heart heavy with grief. He couldn’t stay here. With one final glance down the trench, Ryley set off back to his lifepod.

Just as Ryley entered the kelp forest surrounding the shallows, his PDA spoke in his ear.

“Emergency: A quantum detonation has occurred in the Aurora’s drive core.” Ryley’s eyes widened. He thought he had more time. Ryley piloted his seamoth until he rested on the ocean’s surface, eyes glued to the now fiercely burning Aurora. Smoke was rising in giant plumes, nearly obscuring the entire ship.

“The reactor will reach a super critical state in T- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,” the PDA’s voice cracked with static, “3, 2…” And as her voice faded into static and the high-pitched whine of feedback, Ryley watched helplessly as a large red sphere of pure energy burst out from the ship with a boom louder than thunder. Large chunks of the metal hull flew out into the air, crashing into the ocean below, and Ryley could hear the wind howling past his seamoth. Ryley shut his eyes and shielded his face with his hands, more out of instinct than any real danger. Large waves that radiated out from the ship rocked his seamoth on the surface. When he opened his eyes again, he was stunned.

The Aurora barely looked like a ship anymore. Large portions of its hull were missing, exposing the structure underneath. The entire front half of the ship looked like it was hanging on by a thread, only the barest of metal beams keeping it from completely falling apart. And just like that, Ryley’s chances of getting off this planet became slimmer and slimmer.

An uncomfortable weight settled in his chest. If there had been anyone on the ship before, there certainly wasn’t now. Ryley wiped away the tears that had escaped and hung his head low. That had been his home for the past year. Now though, the Aurora would become part of 4546B.

When he felt more composed, Ryley opened the hatch of his seamoth, the familiar smell of burning metal permeating the air. As he swam towards his lifepod, his PDA spoke again.

“For your convenience, the radiation suit has been added to your blueprint database.” Ryley opened his databank and looked up the blueprints for the radiation suit. He needed fiber mesh and two chunks of lead. Luckily for him, fiber mesh was easily obtained, and the lead was already sitting in his pockets from his excursion to lifepod 6.

Mere moments later found Ryley standing at his fabricator watching it construct a helmet, suit, and gloves for him to wear.

“The status of the Aurora’s crew, and the ship’s long-range comm relay, is indeterminate. Exploring the crash site may provide further information.”

The PDA wanted him to explore the Aurora? Ryley didn’t feel nearly brave enough to dare accomplish such a feat, especially with the radiation. He also felt it more prudent to go explore the rendezvous site considering there was likely to be people there. Nevertheless, Ryley pulled the suit on and removed his dive helmet to replace it with the radiation helmet. The suit felt heavier than his normal dive suit, more robust, which was oddly comforting.

Before exploring the rendezvous site, Ryley wanted to build himself a moonpool to store his seamoth so it could charge. He needed lots of titanium and lead, and so he set out towards the grassy plateau to abuse the abundance of scrap metal and sandstone chunks to acquire all his materials. The moonpool also needed a power source, and luckily for him, there was always sunlight in the shallows, and he could make a solar panel quite easily.

When he had gathered everything necessary to construct the moonpool, vehicle upgrade console, and solar panel, Ryley took out his habitat constructor and went in search of a good spot nearby his lifepod. He needed to make sure there was enough space under the moonpool for him to fit his seamoth. He didn’t want to be constantly banging it up all the time. He found a perfect spot just on the edge of the kelp forest and shallows where the terrain began dropping down.

Ryley held up his habitat constructor and watched the moonpool construct itself. Four large stilts held up the rectangular structure, its white metal hull gleaming in the sun. After he had constructed the moonpool, he placed the solar panel on the roof, making sure to angle it just right. He distantly heard the habitat’s AI voice stating that power and oxygen production were now online.

Ryley swam towards his seamoth and navigated it directly under the moonpool. Metal arms from within the structure reached down and took hold of his seamoth and pulled it up into the structure and out of the water. Moonpools were truly a work of scientific ingenuity.

“After weeks without human contact it is normal to experience psychological discomfort. Research indicates symptoms may be partly alleviated by adopting a pet or anthropomorphizing an inanimate object.”

“Thank you, but I’m not that far gone…yet,” Ryley spoke out loud, his voice hoarse after several days of disuse. He pulled out his habitat constructor once more and constructed the vehicle upgrade console, a small podium and fabricator located on the side of the moonpool that would allow him to upgrade his vehicles.

Ryley accessed the fabricator to see what he would need for a depth module for his seamoth. Just as he was about to jump back into the ocean to get the materials, Ryley realised he had two options. He could go to the rendezvous immediately, maybe find other survivors (if they were even still there), and find a way off this planet. Or he could make the depth module, look for Ozzy, and then go to the rendezvous after.

The thought of leaving the planet without getting closure about one of his best friends made Ryley sick to his stomach. It had already been at least three days since the others had organized the rendezvous. They could wait a few more hours.

Half an hour later, Ryley was placing a depth module into his seamoth. The 100m depth increase wasn’t amazing, but it would allow him to get further into those caves. He ensured his seamoth was fully charged before hopping in the cockpit and heading in the direction of lifepod 17.

Floating above the entrance to the caves, Ryley felt prepared. He would find Ozzy. Nothing would stop him now. He angled his seamoth down and plunged into the purple depths. The cave entrance was long and tight. He was lucky he could fit the seamoth through the tunnel at all.

Keeping an eye on his depth, Ryley finally emerged into the cave’s main chamber. The large cave was lit up in fuchsia, courtesy of large, strange mushroom/jellyfish shaped plants. Stalactites and stalagmites protruded from every corner, making the cave feel smaller than it was. His seamoth would be able to travel throughout the cave without much struggle. Ghostly shrieks echoed loudly around the cave, unsettling Ryley.

Then it dawned on him with frightening clarity: they were the same shrieks he had heard in his nightmare.

His heartbeat raced as he scanned the cave for the source of the noise. A large snake-like creature emerged from one of the “jellyshrooms”. It had two large fangs protruding from its mouth and seemed very protective of its home. Luckily, it was far away from where Ryley was floating in his seamoth.

 Ryley scanned the surrounding area for any sign of Ozzy, finding nothing but jellyshrooms. Then Ryley turned his attention in a different direction and froze at what he saw. Sitting at the bottom of this cave, this seemingly arbitrary cave, was a small platform of Alterra design. Chills ran down Ryley’s spine. On the platform were a few cargo boxes and a floodlight, and the entire outpost was covered in a thick layer of algae, rust, and dirt. The platform was not made by any crew member of the Aurora. No, this small outpost was old. Very old.

The Aurora crew was not the first to land on this planet. And judging by the state of this small structure, whoever was here, likely wasn’t anymore.

Ryley climbed out of the seamoth and swam towards the landing to get a closer look. There was a PDA resting on top of one of the boxes. He picked it up and downloaded the info, his PDA informing him of a new signal to watch for.

Back in his seamoth, he opened the data log:

User ‘Paul Torgal’ requested cross-referencing of local environment scans with ideal habitat construction conditions. Displaying results.

• Large subterranean cavern with multiple entrances.
• Conditions support a unique microcosm of predatory lifeforms.
• Minor structural instability in cave walls.
• Extensive resource deposits.

Average Environment Safety Rating: C

Optimal Habitat Site Safety Rating: B

Site 7 has been selected as the optimal habitat construction site for the following reasons:

• Close proximity to one of the cave entrances, in case of emergency.
• Medium distance from predatory organisms.
• Stable foundations on which to build.
• Ready access to materials.

A signal tracking the site has been created.

Paul Torgal? Who was that? Ryley noted the signal that read “Proposed Degasi Habitat” that had appeared on his HUD when he had downloaded the PDA data. Who were the Degasi? The signal seemed to be coming from somewhere within the caves, so Ryley spun his seamoth around until it faced the signal and cruised through the cave.

As he followed the signal, Ryley was careful to avoid the jellyshrooms. He didn’t want to encroach on the territory of the strange snake creatures. Their fangs looked like they could do serious damage to his seamoth. As he cruised through the cave, he came upon another foundation with some rusty and broken hallway base pieces and an unopened supply crate. Ryley took the med kit from the crate and swam around the foundation to see if there was anything else of note.

Along the way, Ryley found a few more small structures with nothing interesting. These small structures formed a path between the jellyshrooms and finally led him to the Degasi base.

The small habitat consisted of two large circular rooms connected by small hallways. The entrance hatch had broken off from the main room, flooding the base completely, and a small glass observatory was present on the second level. The metal hull of the base was covered in rust and algae, years of neglect showing plain as day. It was a haunting sight.

What had happened to them? Were they still alive somewhere on this planet? Or had the harsh ecosystem gotten the better of them? Ryley had far too many questions running through his mind. He brought his seamoth as close to the entrance of the base as possible just in case he needed to make a quick swim back to refill his oxygen.

A loud shriek from a nearby snake had Ryley quickly glancing behind him, only to see that it was quite far away. The sounds they made were enough to give him a heart attack. He turned his attention back to the base and quickly paled. Through the various windows, Ryley could see that the base was teeming with drooping stingers. It would take some expert navigation to get through the rooms without getting stung.

Still, it looked as though he could navigate through the rooms if he was very careful. He had no desire to get stung again, especially when he was so much deeper in the ocean. With another quick glance around to make sure there were no eels nearby, Ryley left his seamoth and began his exploration of the abandoned base.

He peeked briefly in the broken off entrance tunnel and found an old PDA laying on the seafloor inside the tube. Ryley transferred the last voice log to his own PDA and decided to play it as he explored the area around the base.

“Son, there is always a pecking order, and in our world, money makes the hierarchy. I pay Maida a fraction of what I pay you, and you a fraction of what I pay me,” an older man spoke to his son.

“If money makes the hierarchy, why is Marguerit making the decisions?” The son accused.

            “We need her. We let her think what she likes, so long as she does what she’s told.”

            “What if she doesn’t?”

            “For enough money, she will. People always do,” the father finished.

So, there were at least three people who had lived in this base: a father, a son, and an unknown woman named Marguerit. The father didn’t seem fond of her from the tone of his voice. It felt strange to Ryley, listening to the voices of people who were long gone, like he was listening to ghosts.

As Ryley scanned the area around the Degasi base, he saw some strange ore deposits and went to go collect them. He found strange silvery crystals called magnetite laying on the ground and pocketed several of them. Then he found some ore deposits in shale outcrops lining the floor and walls of the cave. When he broke one open, he found a diamond.

“Remember that materials you gather are the property of the Alterra corporation. You will be liable to reimburse the full market price. Your current bill stands at 3 million credits.” Assholes, Ryley thought to himself. Maybe he should just stay on this planet and avoid his apparent debt.

Ignoring the audacity of Alterra, he gathered more materials from the shale outcrops including more diamonds, gold, and lithium. He was very pleased about finding diamonds as they were the one material he had needed for a laser cutter.

He turned and faced the entrance to the main room, pulling out his scanner so that he could get the blueprints. A lone drooping stinger floated to the right side of the entrance tunnel, leaving just enough room for him to squeeze through. And so Ryley entered the abandoned habitat.

Inside the main room was a desk and chair, a water filter (which Ryley was all too happy to scan), and a locker. There were three stingers huddled together in the center of the room and another one hovering over the desk. Ryley carefully navigated around the stingers in the middle so that he could scan the water filter. Once the blueprint had downloaded Ryley spun around and found a PDA sitting in the locker.

He downloaded the data, noting that another signal uploaded to his PDA and resolved to listen to the log once he was back in his seamoth. He swam carefully around the stingers and approached the desk. There was another PDA sitting innocently on the desk, but it was right underneath the stinger. Keeping a careful eye on the stinger, as if the normally unmoving creature would suddenly attack him, Ryley gingerly inched his hand towards the PDA and snatched it before he could hurt himself. A quick glance around the room was enough to see that he had thoroughly explored the first room, so he went back to his seamoth to refill his oxygen.

Ryley hit play on the log from the first PDA:

“You know what Maida told me today?” The father began, “She wants to build a habitat 500 metres below sea level, more than a kilometre north-east of here. And she needs Bart and I to do it. She’s got it into her head that she can save us if she acts recklessly enough.” Save them from what? Ryley wondered.

“But I’ve hauled starwhals to Neptune. Plasteel to the Federation…this family operates nine different mining colonies across the Ariadne Arm. Maida thinks she’s better suited to lead? Her contract still says otherwise.

But… I just cannot damn tell whether it’s the stupidest idea I ever heard, or my only hope. I turned 80 years old last week. I thought I had another 80 in me, but marooned on this planet there’s no swapping out of my liver when the old one fails. Here, I’m mortal. And Maida is useful.

So it’s my responsibility to make a decision. Return to the island and hope whatever knocked the Degasi out of the sky won’t do the same to the rescue ship, or take us deeper in search of answers. And all the while be hoping old age gets me before the sea monsters do.

I’ll give Maida just one thing. She was right about these caves. There’s enough lithium here to fabricate a hundred tons of plasteel. Enough for a damn fleet of cyclops submarines. There was nothing anyone could have done to avoid crashing here, but I was right to order the detour. If we get off this planet, they’ll be talking about the Torgal share price on the other side of the Federation.”

Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle began putting themselves together. Something had shot the Degasi ship out of the sky. Ryley wondered if that same thing could have been the reason the Aurora crashed. The man had mentioned an island as well. Was it the same dry land that Officer Keen had ordered the rendezvous for? Ryley had more questions than answers at this point. He played the second log hoping for more useful info:

“I thought it might get claustrophobic living under water,” the son, Bart, cheerfully began. “Father feels it is. He’d tell me it was childish, but I stare out the window and sometimes I think how lucky I am to see this world up close. Back on the island I wouldn’t have believed the creatures that live down here. The fish, they glow. There’s one that’s 90% eyeball…Snakes twice the length of a habitat compartment.

Certainly it’s not all friendly. Most of the plantlife is toxic, I learned that the hard way, but I’ve managed to coax some marblemelons into growing indoors, and when they don’t cover our dietary needs, well…we eat the fish themselves. It’s a bit gross, but it’s nothing they wouldn’t do.

I’ve been attempting to document my findings. Father approves. He says understanding is power. That the more we know about this planet, the more we can use it to our advantage. I’m just doing it because it’s fun. It’s not easy without proper equipment and network access, but the old-fashioned way – observing, taking notes, testing theories – shows me the world in a way a spectroscopic analysis never could.

Lately I’ve been watching the crabsnakes. They ambush their prey as it tries to feed on the mushrooms they hide in. What they don’t eat settles on the seabed, which fertilizes the mushrooms, which feeds the herbivores, and so the chain continues. Co-evolution gives me the fuzzies.”

Bart seemed like a happy guy, content to carry out his science, and it was clear to Ryley that there was some unspoken tension between him and his father. The father cared more about profit and usability, whereas Bart was more interested in learning for education’s sake. Ryley found himself siding more with Bart, especially after having Alterra remind him about his supposed debt.

Ryley dove back into the base, this time heading straight towards the connecting tunnel on the left side of the main room. There was a drooping stinger right in the middle, nearly blocking his path. Ryley couldn’t swim under it as its tendrils were touching the floor of the hallway. If he was very careful, he could squeeze by on the sides and swim around it. He took his time, carefully planning every move of his arms and legs to avoid the slightest brush against the stingers. Luckily, he made it through unscathed.

In the middle of the connecting hallways was a ladder leading up to the second floor and the observatory, a spherical compartment made entirely of reinforced glass. Sitting on the floor of the observatory was another PDA. How many did these guys have? Ryley of course transferred the data to his own and made his way back down the ladder. Back on the main floor, Ryley made his way to the second main room.

Much like the first room, this one was infested with stingers. The room was simple, a few plant walls, a desk and chair, and most importantly a double bed. Keeping an eye on his dwindling oxygen, Ryley avoided the stingers hanging in the center of the room and scanned the bed for his own blueprints. He spun around to face the desk and saw two stingers hanging directly over the PDA resting on its surface.

Once more, Ryley inched his hand directly underneath the swaying tendrils and grabbed the PDA. After the data transferred, Ryley realised his oxygen was running dangerously low. He needed to get out, and fast.

“30 seconds.”

Ryley began swimming frantically out of the room and into the connecting passage where the lone stinger floated ominously in the center. 20 seconds. Ryley pursed his lips together and moved to swim around it, but in his haste his wrist lightly brushed the tendril of the stinger.

Searing pain flared up his arm, though he noticed the pain wasn’t as bad as the first sting from the day before. The pain, though less intense, was still debilitating, and Ryley found himself struggling for control of his limbs as the burning feeling radiated throughout him. He desperately fought for consciousness, trying his best to swim with one good arm.

“10 seconds.”

Eyes wide, Ryley struggled to make it through the final main room with his oxygen rapidly depleting. His chest felt tight. He was so close…so close…so…

The hatch of the seamoth opened and with his good arm, Ryley dragged himself in for the second time that day, gasping for air. With the medpack he had found in one of the supply crates, he applied the soothing balm to his arm, thankful that the pain wasn’t as bad as the day before. Maybe the radiation suit had helped. He willed his heartbeat to slow down, but this was the third close call in two days. This planet was on a mission to kill him by any means possible.

Ryley played the first log he found while he regained his composure.

            “Something incredible just happened,” Bart began.

“Since we’re down here, I had this plan to build equipment and study the incredible lifeforms we’re encountering, but I didn’t have enough enameled glass. So I started looking for a natural substrate that would strengthen the glass we have, and those stalker teeth we’ve been finding fit the bill – only, well, we needed more.

That’s when Marguerit got interested. She actually listened to me – more than I can say for father – and I worked up the courage to talk about my more…tentative theories. When I told her they were attracted to metal deposits, that their teeth get dislodged when they pick them up, her eyes narrowed and she dashed out of the room.

Three hours later she came back, her pack loaded down with stalker teeth! I asked her about it. She shrugged and said my theories were good! Said she had them eating out of the palm of her hand. I think she meant it literally.

She is incredible. She went out to the kelp forests, armed with just a heatblade, and went fin to fin with a pack of stalkers.

On the one hand, that is the coolest thing I have ever heard. On the other, I hope the stalkers didn’t come off worse than Marguerit did. She had a huge gash on her forearm. I don’t think things went as smoothly as she made out. And what’s the point in surviving here if we have to kill everything that makes it so wonderful?

I wish I knew more about these animals, but father won’t let me leave the habitat. Maybe with all this glass we could build a containment unit and get up close to them.”

Marguerit sounded like a badass, and Ryley felt bad for Bart who was clearly vying for his father’s attention to no avail. Bart was obviously a grown man, capable of making his own decisions, but his father seemed to cling to his authority and power too much. Ryley played the next log.

            “We’re already 200 metres below sea level! You want to go deeper?!” Paul shouted.

“Look around us, Chief. Water leaking through the hull. Water outside the hatch. We’re drowning. Real slow. If rescue arrives, whatever shot us down, it’s going to do it again. And again. Until it’s shut off. You see an off switch around here, Chief?” Marguerit argued back.

“Why would it any more likely be half a kilometre down?!”

“Your kid found something on the scanner. There’s something down there. Something that shouldn’t be.”

“You’re mad,” Paul scoffed.

“I’m going all the same. And I’ve an idea you two are going to follow. But if you do, be mindful: your authority stopped at sea level,” Marguerit said with brutal finality.

Ryley sat in his seamoth, absolutely stunned. What had they picked up on the scanner? What was lurking in the dark depths of 4546B? There were no signs of any intelligent alien life, so was it human interference? Ryley had far more questions than he had originally anticipated. Something strange was going on with this planet, and unfortunately, Ryley was caught in the middle of it all.

A quick glance at the habitat revealed that there was nothing left for him to scan, so he spun his seamoth around and began heading towards the exit of the cave. The mystery of the Degasi crew was the only thing on his mind now, especially since they knew more about the planet and its secrets.

As he flew up the entrance tunnel and past lifepod 17, Ryley couldn’t help but feel as though he had forgotten something important.

Chapter Text

Blinding sunlight beamed down through the hatch on the roof of the lifepod, warming Ryley’s face and shining through his eyelids. He blinked a few times, waking up slowly while memories of the jellyshroom caves echoed around his head. Yesterday’s discovery in the cave had thrown Ryley for a loop. Of all the things to find in there, evidence of previous survivors had not been on his list.

Ryley pushed himself off the floor, groaning as a sharp pain flared up his spine. Hopefully this would be the last night he spent sleeping on the floor now that he had the blueprints for a bed.

Last night, he had planned to build himself a small base, but the sun had set, and Ryley was woefully underprepared as far as materials went. Building a platform, multipurpose room, and bed would require lots of titanium - way more than he had stored. And even if he did have materials, building in the dark was a bad idea.

The base was also not on the top of his list of priorities. He wanted to get to the rendezvous point and scout for any survivors, assuming they were still there. Ryley vehemently ignored the intrusive thoughts of his crewmates leaving without him.

He didn’t know how long the journey would be. The dry land was several hundred kilometres away, so Ryley began prepping some food and water for the journey. An hour later, Ryley had several bottles of water and cured fish ready to go. He hopped into his seamoth, aimed himself for the rendezvous signal, and was on his way. Ryley kept his seamoth at surface level as he sped through the vast ocean. There was no point going any deeper when he was searching for dry land anyways.

Every so often, Ryley would glance down beneath his seamoth, just to see what was there, but all he could see was the dark void of the endlessly deep sea. He could drop a stone and watch it fall until it was consumed by the inky blackness of the deep, never to be seen again except by those rare creatures that were able to survive in the depths of the ocean. Ryley was not eager to meet them.

The seamoth flew across the ocean’s surface, bouncing off waves and splashing back down into the water. After one particularly large leap out of the water, the horizon before him darkened and solidified into a massive structure. He slowed his seamoth down and glided gently on the surface. And then Ryley’s jaw dropped.

Before him loomed a huge, lush island with two colossal mountain peaks on either side. Trees and other colourful plants covered its surface in a stunning green canopy. Ryley hadn’t seen so much greenery in his entire life.

This had to be where the rendezvous was. He just needed to find a way to actually get on the island. Ryley began moving to the right, angling his seamoth so that he could keep a careful eye on the shoreline in his quest for an access point.

He quickly spotted a part of the island wall close enough to the water’s edge that Ryley could easily climb on. A narrow path led away from the little beach and into the dense forest up the hill. Ryley parked his seamoth as close to the island as he could without damaging it and jumped out.

Ryley planted his foot on solid ground for the first time in several days and almost cried with relief. It felt so good to stand on actual ground, earth beneath his feet instead of Alterra metal. He breathed in the fresh air, the scent of grass and trees a welcome change from the persistent scent of salt water and old fish.

Sand crunched beneath his boots as he trudged up the small path. He walked into the forest which was saturated with bulbo trees bearing glowing blue foliage and alien plants that added pops of vibrant pink and yellow. The only areas of the ocean that rivalled this forest in terms of colour and life were the shallows and mushroom forest.

Ryley continued down the path, following the rendezvous signal. It led him downhill into a cave. The ground transitioned from dirt to sand as the cave opened up into an underground lake.

The waypoint encouraged Ryley forward towards the shoreline on the other side. There was no one there, but Ryley thought he could make out the vague blue glow of an abandoned PDA.

He broke out into a sprint, nearly tumbling down the hill and practically throwing himself forward towards the signal where the lone PDA sat abandoned in the sand. He furiously paddled across the small lake, a brief glance below him revealing that the lake was actually just a large pit in the island that opened it up to the surrounding ocean.

He picked up the PDA with shaky hands and transferred the data. This felt like some kind of sick joke. The log downloaded and Ryley sat in the sand and pressed play.

“We have to board the Aurora, repair the long range comms, make contact with the other survivors. We can’t be the only two that made it,” A woman spoke, her voice desperate.

“Those are not the orders the captain gave me, and they are not the orders I’m giving you,” Officer Keen said sternly.

“This isn’t chain of command, it’s survival,” The woman insisted.

“My obligations as acting commander don’t turn on their convenience. Get out of the water,” He pleaded, voice rising in anger.

“If I get into trouble, I’ll send you my coordinates.”

Keen sighed, clearly exasperated and at his wit’s end. “I can’t let you go alone.”

“Then come with me,” The woman urged.

“You don’t leave me much choice.”

“Received emergency transmission from Second Officer Keen, two hours after last activity,” His PDA interrupted.

“Rendezvous was a failure,” Keen began dejectedly. “Intercepted a transmission from Alterra HQ, seems they sent a data package to the Aurora. We were intercepted by a leviathan class predator before we could reach the ship. Consider the CTO and I lost at sea. Be safe. Keen…out.”

Ryley sat in the sand, completely numb with shock. He stared blankly ahead, letting his PDA fall from his hand and drop to the ground with a soft thump. Even if Keen and the CTO had made it to the Aurora, there was no way they could have survived the explosion. They had to be dead.

A tear rolled down his cheek, and his fists clenched the sand beneath his fingers. Ryley breathed in a shaky breath and felt the tears come in full force. He crumpled, falling face first into the sand. His chest heaved with his sobs, his cries echoing in the surrounding cave.

The rendezvous had been his last hope, his last chance at getting off this cursed planet. He felt it slip through his fingers like the grains of sand he desperately grasped. He had been holding on to the slim possibility of rescue, of a reunion with his crewmates. But only two members of their entire crew had shown up to the rendezvous, and they were now either consumed by the leviathans, or decaying on the ocean floor. Ryley was likely the only remaining survivor.

He was completely and truly alone.

Ryley lifted his head from the sand and wiped the coarse grains off his face. He swiped at the tears that continued to fall despite his best efforts and picked himself up. He swallowed the lump in his throat. He was alone. But that did not mean he was doomed. He had survived this long on his own, and he would do it for as long as he needed to.

His mind wandered to a not-so-distant future, a future where an older and grayer Ryley was eating bladderfish everyday in a rusted base coated in various barnacles and algae. He would be on his own for years, no social interaction but the few comments from his PDA. Ryley shuddered. No. I’m getting off this planet if it kills me.

He stood, newly found resolve strengthening his legs, and scanned his surroundings. There had to be lots of resources on the island. The thought of settling on the dry land was very appealing. He would do some exploring before heading back to his lifepod.

Off to the left of the cave was a small tunnel that looked like it led back to the surface of the island. The tunnel curved upwards, sunlight shining through the top and lighting the way forward. Ryley was once again faced with a forest of bulbo trees and a worn dirt path to follow.

The path itself was well established, carving itself into the ground and breaking apart the dense foliage. At first Ryley assumed that the path was the result of the CTO and Officer Keen, but they had only been on this planet for less than a week. This path had been here for much longer.

As Ryley continued upwards, he peered between the blue leaves of the bulbo trees and up at one of the two mountain peaks that dominated the island. There was something on top, something big and strangely shaped, but it was too difficult to make out what it was from where he stood. He would need to get closer.

“Picking up multiple energy signatures on the island’s surface.”

Energy signatures? From what? Ryley wondered as he trudged along the path. It curved around what he assumed was the back of the island. It was narrow and to his right was nothing but a steep drop back down into the ocean. Ryley found himself carefully placing his steps out of fear of falling down the cliffside.

The path curved round and led to a small canyon, directly between the two mountain peaks. And sitting dead center in the middle was yet another abandoned Alterra habitat.

The small habitat was in a much worse state than the one he had found in the jellyshroom caves. It was covered in rust and dirt, and the main room had fallen victim to a landslide. Rocks, soil, and gravel buried half of the large space and swallowed up the better part of an exterior growbed.

The rest of the base seemed relatively unharmed, save for cracks in the windows and the thick layer of grime coating every surface. Ryley hesitantly approached it, its haunted appearance filling him with a sense of unease.

He took a closer look at the growbeds and to his surprise, they had plants growing in them still. Each growbed had a few Chinese potatoes and marblemelons.

Ryley shot towards the plants, ripping them out with such force that dirt flew into the air. He took a massive bite of a potato and relished its crunchy texture and refreshing flavour. Water dripped down his chin and Ryley nearly moaned. He had been living on nothing but metallic tasting fish and dry, depressing ration bars. Vegetables were a welcome change.

He pocketed a few of the seeds for his own growbeds later and made his way towards the main room of the base. One of the windows on the side was shattered. Ryley gingerly stepped over the broken glass, feeling the shards crunch beneath his boots.

The room was mostly filled with rocks and other debris from the landslide, leaving only a desk undisturbed. There was a PDA sitting on the desk. Ryley made to grab for it, but as he stepped forward, he stepped on something hard.

Beneath his foot was a strange tablet. It was a dark bluish green and had an alien language engraved along its edges. In the very center of the tablet was a symbol lit up in a bright violet. Ryley picked it up, noting its unnatural lightness. He examined it briefly before hooking it onto his toolbelt. It had no clear function from what he could see. Maybe there were answers on the PDA.

            “What is that thing?” Paul Torgal inquired.

“I don’t know. I found it outside, in the sand,” Marguerit replied, much friendlier than she had sounded in the logs from the jellyshroom cave.

“Part of another ship?”

“None I’ve ever seen,” Marguerit remarked.

“It’s not even scratched,” Bart interjected.

“Don’t fool around with it. It might be worth something,” Paul said.

“Stand down, Chief. If it were going to crumble to dust, it woulda done so when I picked it up.”

“It’s glowing,” Bart’s awed voice continued.

“We’re not the first people to come to this planet,” Paul stated.

“People. Maybe. Could be aliens. Could be the damn sea monsters for all we know. One thing’s for sure: we ain’t gonna find out by stayin’ here.”

The short recording ended and left Ryley with dozens of questions and not a single answer. The strange glowing tablet burned against his thigh from where it was strapped to his belt. What did it do? Who or what made it? The Degasi sure didn’t know.

Perhaps there were more answers on the rest of the island. The Degasi had a settlement here and it wasn’t a bad idea to poke around and see what he could find. Unfortunately, the rest of the base was cut off from the main room as a result of the landslide so Ryley walked back outside and searched for another way in.

There were a few cargo boxes with stasis rifle fragments scattered around on the ground that Ryley scanned and as he turned the corner, he found an open bulkhead. Jackpot. He climbed into the hallway, darkness swallowing him as he stepped in.

To his right was an unopened supply crate. Ryley moved to open it, but as his hand reached out, a small four-legged creature jumped at him from the darkness, its sharp pincers digging into his outstretched hand.

Ryley yelped, the pain intense and getting worse. The creature refused to let go and blood began trickling down his arm. Ryley punched the thing in its giant eye, but it refused to release him.

“Shit,” Ryley hissed. With his other hand he reached for the back of his toolbelt and grabbed his survival knife. He clumsily stabbed the creature in the eye and watched with morbid satisfaction as putrid yellow blood spewed out. The pincers loosened their punishing grip and the creature fell to the ground. Ryley stomped it, grimacing as he felt its bones crunching beneath his foot. He scanned the corpse. It was called a cave crawler, and they were carnivorous.

Finally free of the four-legged menace, Ryley opened the supply crate and pulled out a spare battery. A blue glow to the side of the crate stole his attention.

“Son, I said wait for the storm to pass. Your life’s more valuable to me than a plant patch,” Paul ordered, the sound of heavy rain smacking against the metal hull of the base punctuating each word.

“You stopped being in charge when the ship you were captaining sunk!” Bart argued.

“I’ll stop being in charge when you take charge of yourself!”

“Say, Chief,” Marguerit called. “Chief!”

“What?”

“Do you know how to drain those growbeds of 40 tons of storm water? Or how to conjure food from the air?” Marguerit goaded.

“I know how to prioritize,” Paul insisted.

“I’m just sayin’, if that’s so, what’s your boy’s life worth to you today, if tomorrow you’re gonna be so hungry you start wondering what he tastes like? Let him go deal with the plants.”

“Son, go deal with the plants,” Paul acquiesced.

Bart Torgal has disembarked the habitat.

“Interfere with my family again and when rescue arrives, I will leave you here. Do you understand me?” Paul threatened in a low voice.

“No rescue coming, Chief. Not in time. And no stayin’ here, neither. This rain keeps falling, sooner or later this place’ll be buried. Only choice is whether to get buried in it,” Marguerit stated ominously.

Well, she had certainly been right about that. This base was nearly submerged in rocks and dirt, the land likely softened by whatever storm had hit them.

Ryley spun around to look around the rest of the base. There wasn’t much there, save for another abandoned PDA. The short voice log from Paul Torgal didn’t reveal anything new, except that Marguerit had been a hired mercenary onboard the Degasi. The rest of the base was completely empty.

As he was stepping out of the hallway, Ryley spotted another cave crawler in one of the dark corners of the hallway. It jumped at him, but he caught it by one of its legs. He scowled as the thing thrashed in his grip, pincers snapping menacingly. He smashed the crawler against the wall, and stabbed it through the eye just to be sure it was dead. Nasty little creatures.

Once again outside, Ryley gazed up the hill that had spilled into the side of the Degasi habitat. A small dirt path forked up ahead, each path seemingly leading to the separate mountain peaks that stood on opposite sides of the island.

Ryley followed the path to the right. It was small, narrow, and very steep. The path curled tightly around the side of the mountain, leaving hardly any room for a misstep. Ryley kept one hand pressed against the mountainside as he journeyed upwards towards the peak. Small rocks and pebbles tumbled down the cliffside.

Was the path getting narrower the further up he went? Ryley panted and leaned heavily on the mountainside. The hike was wearing him out quicker than he had anticipated, but luckily he was almost at the top. He could see the remains of another Degasi habitat. He briefly wondered if the base he was just in had been part of this one and if it had slid down the mountain after the landslide.

Ryley crested the mountain and finally came upon the small habitat. It was nothing more than a hallway with an attached observatory.

There was hardly anything inside, save for a handful of dead potted plants, and a desk and chair in the observatory. Of course, the observatory was lit up in the pale blue glow of an abandoned PDA. Seriously, this crew had so many.

“This island is a godsend!” Paul Torgal began. “Look out of the window. No predators…fresh food…”

“No building materials…nothing left of the ship,” Marguerit interrupted. “And your kid says we’re going to starve without more growbeds. Speak up, kid!”

“It’s true, Father. The natural growth rates are too slow to keep supporting us,” Bart said meekly. Ryley noted that his voice seemed much quieter than it was in some of the later recordings.

“All I’m sayin’ is, ocean’s got us surrounded. No use hiding. Sooner or later, we’ll get our feet wet.”

“The rest of your life may have been a fight, Maida, but I’ve made my decision. You want to forfeit your emergency pay to take a swim? Go ahead,” Paul said.

“Believe me, I’m thinkin’ on it.”

The idea of building his own base on dry land had briefly crossed Ryley’s mind, but the voice logs so far made it clear that the land wasn’t sustainable, and that the lack of resources had driven the Degasi into the water anyways.

Ryley gazed out the observatory at the lush island below and the vast and endless sea surrounding it. How much longer would he be stuck on this planet, doomed to live beneath the rolling waves? Life on land seemed like a distant memory now, even though he had only been on the planet for a handful of days.

The second mountain peak loomed from across the island, what was now clearly identifiable as another habitat perched atop. With a small sigh, Ryley clambered out of the hallway and began his descent down the mountain.

Ryley was mildly disappointed when he reached the peak of the second mountain. He had hoped that this base would yield answers about the purple tablet, but it had a nearly identical structure to the last one, meaning it probably wouldn’t provide anything of real use. He took a hesitant step through the bulkhead and into the dark hall.

The inside was lit up with the dull glow of an unopened supply crate, another PDA sitting innocently to its side. He opened the crate and found a bottle of water. He opened the lid and took a few generous gulps. Water that didn’t come from a bladderfish tasted so much better. Ryley resisted chugging the whole bottle right then and there.

Instead, he picked up the PDA and hit play on the newly downloaded recording.

“This is the first time I’ve seen sunlight in months,” Bart’s voice began. “After all that time in the deep, I’d been dreaming of it.”

Ryley frowned as he listened. Bart sounded, quiet, frail, as if it was taking all his strength to speak.

“Now that I’m back here,” Bart paused, taking a few haggard breaths. “I’m finding it hard to enjoy alone.”

“Father was right. We should never have left this place. We shouldn’t have gone so deep. They do not want us down there.”

“Despite my best efforts, ill-health is taking hold of me. The visions are getting worse,” Bart’s voice continued, sadness and resignation colouring his words.

“Marguerit and Father are now part of the ecosystem of this incredible planet,” Bart’s voice cracked. “It’s reassuring to know that when I go, I’ll join them.”

“Until then…well, there’s always the view.”

The recording ended with near-deafening silence. Bart’s final words hit Ryley in the chest with the force of a bullet. They had all died. They never made it off the planet.

Rescue had never come for them.

Bart sounded so defeated, resigned to his fate. And even still, with death on his doorstep, ready to take him at any moment, Bart was still in love with the planet. He had even seemed content to become part of it.

Ryley gazed out of the observatory, ignoring the indoor growbed. Was this the same place Bart had stood while he made this recording? He pictured a man, decked out in a similar dive suit to his own, staring out at the vast and endless blue, the last sight he would ever see.

The stale air in the habitat suddenly grew cold. Ryley felt the whisper of a light breeze snake its way between his fingertips, gently encircling his hand and squeezing lightly, reassuringly, as if to say it’s okay.

“Bart?” Ryley’s hoarse voice echoed in the empty base. The strange feeling surrounding him vanished as quickly as it had come, his hand now feeling achingly empty.

Ryley glanced quickly around the observatory, finding that everything was still exactly the way it was when he had entered. The air had settled back into its eerie stillness, no hint of there having ever been a breeze. And why would there be? Any wind that came in from the bulkhead wouldn’t have reached him all the way in the observatory.

The unsettling quiet became suffocating. He couldn’t stay in there any longer. Ryley hastily snagged some seeds from the growbed and made his way back outside.

The fresh air and sunlight hit him, and Ryley breathed in deep. He took in the island, the vast ocean, the burning Aurora, and marveled at the destructive beauty of the flames in contrast to the deceivingly tranquil ocean. It was moments like this when Ryley could understand why Bart had fallen in love with 4546B.

Earlier he had seen himself as an old man still surviving on the planet, not truly living. But now a different vision of the future entered his mind, one where he lived in harmony with the ecosystem, where being stuck on the planet was not a death sentence, but a blessing in disguise. The Ryley of this future was happy.

And for a brief moment, Ryley thought that maybe things would be okay.

Chapter Text

Grains of sand swirled about in the wake of Ryley’s flippers as he kicked his feet leisurely. His belt pockets were heavy with chunks of titanium, lead, copper, and lithium, but his spirits had never felt lighter.

It had been just over a week since Ryley’s trip to the island, and he had been busy. He had come to terms with the reality of being stuck on 4546B for the foreseeable future. It had taken him a few days to really let it sink in, but he had picked himself up and got to work collecting the materials he would need to build himself a habitat. If he was going to be stuck on this planet, he might as well spend his time in comfort.

It took him several days to gather everything he needed - several long days filled with lengthy swimming excursions and trips in his seamoth. With his new laser cutter, he was able to explore wrecks he previously couldn’t. Sealed doors were no match for a powerful laser.

Some wrecks were more fruitful than others. A smaller wreck near Ozzy’s lifepod only had a few furniture items and fragments of a propulsion cannon, whereas some of the larger wrecks had battery charger fragments, modification station fragments, and a databox containing blueprints for a lightweight high-capacity oxygen tank.

He returned to the sparse reef where he had found Officer Keen’s lifepod, remembering that there had been a particularly large wreck nearby. Inside, he found a databox for a reinforced dive suit, power cell charger fragments, Prawn suit torpedo arm fragments, and an assortment of furniture.

The excursions to the wrecks were well worth the time. The battery charger would go a long way in saving resources so he didn’t have to consistently keep making batteries whenever one of his died. On the Aurora, he had taken many of these simple items for granted, but now he would treasure them because life without a battery charger was miserable.

His next major step towards having a habitat was selecting a spot for it. He didn’t want to stray too far from his lifepod on the off chance that a survivor would see the lifepod and come looking for him. Besides, the shallows offered enough sunlight that Ryley could build a few solar panels and have them power his entire base instead of relying on thermal or nuclear power. He also wasn’t super keen on moving his moonpool too far. While Alterra construction technology was some of the best in the galaxy, it still felt like a chore to deconstruct his moonpool, only to move it a few feet to the left.

Eventually he decided to leave his moonpool where it was on the edge of the shallows, just above a sandy hill that dropped down into the kelp forest and build his base around it.

He began with a foundation to ensure that the multipurpose room had more support than the flimsy stilts it came with. Then he placed the multipurpose room on top at an angle so that it would automatically connect to his moonpool. He finished his base with a hallway that led to the open ocean and attached a hatch at the end.

“Warning: Emergency power only. Oxygen production: Offline.” Right, he needed more solar panels to power the base. Well, that was easy enough to accomplish.

“Power restored. All primary systems online.”

Ryley swam towards the hatch and swung open the door to his new home for the first time.

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” The habitat’s AI greeted.

There was nothing in the base yet, so it was a rather anticlimactic entrance, but Ryley still felt as though this marked a significant change to his new life on 4546B.

Ryley spent the rest of the day setting himself up with the basic modules he would need to survive. He built a fabricator, a med kit fabricator, a battery charger, a radio, a few lockers, and most importantly, a bed.

That night he cooked himself a boomerang and sat at his newly constructed desk, gazing out the window at the slowly darkening sea. Small schools of peepers and bladderfish swam by, and a smile tugged at the corners of Ryley’s mouth.

Ryley couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy, this accomplished. During his time on the planet, every advancement he made was always coupled with a setback, but not today. Today he had a place to sleep, a place to come home to at the end of the day, a place to put his feet up and relax.

He was making something of himself on 4546B.

When he had been with Alterra, he had felt useless, unimportant, pathetic. But now? Now he was surviving on his own in an extremely harsh environment with limited materials. Ryley could think of several higher-level crewmates who had looked down on him and who wouldn’t have lasted a day on this planet.

He had proven to himself that he was far more capable, resourceful, and resilient than he or any of his crewmates had ever given him credit for. Ryley from before the crash would not have believed the things he was accomplishing now.

4546B allowed him to bloom into a better version of himself.

After he finished his dinner, Ryley walked over to the bathroom and nearly fainted in delight at the sight of a shower. He stood under the hot running water and sighed in relief as the salt that had been caked in his hair washed down the drain. Ryley grabbed some bundled up creepvine leaves and scrubbed viciously at his scalp. He had learned that crushing them slightly released a soap-like compound. He worked up a lather and rubbed down his arms, happy to be free of the permanent dry and crusty feeling of salt on his skin, even if he did smell like kelp now.

When he stepped out of the shower, Ryley took a look in the mirror. He looked tired. The bags under his eyes were darker and his skin looked duller. But there was a strength to him that hadn’t been there before. He couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but he knew that he was stronger than he had been before the crash, mentally and physically.

His hair had grown out a little, no longer Alterra regulation length. The turquoise streak in his hair had faded slightly with the constant swimming, but Ryley was happy that it was still there. It had been the one thing that made him feel unique amongst his other crewmates. It was part of who he was.

After stepping out of the bathroom, Ryley slipped beneath the sheets and relished in the feeling of laying down on a soft mattress instead of hard flooring. He sank into the fabric, letting his muscles fully relax for the first time in days. If it weren’t for the persistent lumbering moans of the Gasopods and the other vague ocean noises, Ryley could almost pretend he was back on the Aurora, and that this was all just some elaborate dream. But now he wasn’t sure he wanted this to be a dream.

He let fatigue take hold of him, his eyes slowly closing. As he was about to slip fully into unconsciousness, his PDA spoke up for the first time that day.

“It may be prudent to separate work and leisure spaces to maximize productivity. Treat this space as your home, but never forget that it is not.”

The next morning, Ryley woke up feeling well rested for the first time in over a week. His back wasn’t sore, and he wasn’t left shivering from the cold metal floor. He stretched his arms out in front of him and climbed out of bed to go catch himself some breakfast.

However, as Ryley was pulling on his divesuit, his radio started beeping.

“This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.” Ryley scrambled over to the radio and hastily pressed the transmit button.

“Sunbeam, this is non-essential systems maintenance chief, Ryley Robinson. I read-” His hoarse voice was cut off.

“Nothing but vacuum.” Why wasn’t his transmitter working? Was it not powerful enough to reach the Sunbeam?

“These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS, you offer to help, they don’t pick up.” Avery said, either to himself or someone nearby, Ryley wasn’t sure.

“Aurora, I’m out on the far side of the system, it’s going to take several days to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.”

Ryley tried again, “Yes. Yes. Assistance is still needed. Do you read me? Over.”

“I’ll try them again tomorrow. See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime. Damn charter’s going to have us wasting our credits running errands for Alterra.” The transmission ended.

Quinn’s voice echoed around the large room for a few moments more, while Ryley stood in the wake of the moment, stunned.

There had been nothing but complete silence and a few late lifepod transmissions for over a week, and now he was being contacted by a trading ship. Like a marblemelon seed in a growbed, a small glimmer of hope sprouted in Ryley’s chest.

There was a chance to get off this planet, to go back to civilization where he had the comforts of home, where he could eat something other than fish and nutrient bars, where he could have people to talk to again. He could have his old life back!

However, with that hope came trepidation. His old life, though comfortable, was lonely, even with the comradery of people like Ozzy. He had been looked down upon constantly and he didn’t know if that was something he wanted to go back to. He didn’t know how to go about proving himself to others once he was back, if he went back. Would Alterra see the merit in his newfound skills? Or would he go back to being a glorified janitor, barely worth a glance from the scientists and pilots?

Ryley knew his job was important, essential even, and he had never really felt ashamed of it. But the others didn’t see it that way. To them he didn’t exist, wasn’t worth their time or attention, and it was hard to shake off their words. He had proven his worth to himself on 4546B, but Ryley didn’t think it was realistic that things would change for the better if he went back.

…but what if they could?

After a moment of thought, Ryley ultimately decided that he would hold off on getting his hopes up until he had confirmation that the Sunbeam could rescue him. They were still several days out, and anything could happen during that time.

With a sigh, Ryley left the habitat to go catch a fish for breakfast. He spotted a small school of peepers and a couple of stray bladderfish and began the chase.

The smaller fish, like the peepers, were fast and it was always difficult trying to match their speed enough that he could catch them with his bare hands. Sure, he could use his survival knife and slash off a fin to slow them down, but that was more of a chore than just catching them.

As Ryley closed in on the school of peepers, he noticed that some of them were leaving a trail of small glowing gold particles. Ryley ran his hand through the trail and watched in fascinated horror as the golden specks stuck to his suit before sinking into it. His hand didn’t feel any different, so he assumed for the moment that the little golden specks weren’t harmful…yet.

What Ryley didn’t understand was why only some peepers were leaving a trail and others weren’t. He pulled out his scanner and followed one of the glowing peepers. It had ventured into the kelp forest and looked as though it was swimming towards one of the roaming stalkers despite being their favourite food source. Ryley scanned it just in time to make a hasty retreat.

A peeper specimen was observed emitting a faint, fluorescent enzyme trail, and engaging in unusual behavioral patterns.

• Peeper is actively approaching other creatures, including predators.
• The specimen is a host to a bacterial infection, however the infection is currently dormant.
• Peeper’s stomach cavity contains an unknown enzyme of foreign origin.

Chemical analysis of enzyme:

• Bears some superficial similarity to the stomach enzymes of larger predators.
• Contact with the enzyme appears to inhibit the symptoms of the bacterial infection.
• Complex structure renders synthesis impossible.

Assessment: Recommend further research into enzyme origin.

The weird golden specks were some kind of organic antibiotic? Ryley vaguely remembered performing a self scan and finding out that he had trace amounts of some foreign bacteria, so maybe coming into contact with the golden peepers was a good thing. Maybe it could keep the infection at bay. Either way, it wasn’t poison, and that was good enough for him.

Back in his habitat, Ryley enjoyed a late breakfast and got to work building a second room on top of the one he had built. He connected them with a ladder and decided the upper room would be a better spot for his bed and desk, while the lower room would be dedicated to work and food. He moved his bed and desk up to the other room and built a growbed where his bed had been so he could finally plant the seeds he had taken from his trip to the island. He couldn’t wait to bite into a fresh lantern fruit after having an exclusively fish-based diet for the past week.

His base felt a lot more like a home than a temporary shelter now.

It was still early in the afternoon and Ryley briefly debated doing some more exploring, maybe returning to the mushroom forest near lifepod 6, but he had been busy the past few days and decided a more relaxing day was in order.

Ryley took a hot shower and spent the rest of the day laying on his bed, flipping through various databank entries on his PDA to keep himself entertained. He began falling asleep, but was awoken by the sound of his radio beeping at him for the second time that day.

However, it wasn’t a message from the Sunbeam. It was another lifepod message.

“This is lifepod 4!” A woman’s voice spoke. “We’ve landed close to the Aurora, flotation devices active, but we’ve got some big ol’ fish in the water with us and I don’t know how long we’re going to last.”

Ryley’s heart clenched, both in sadness and in fear. He had seen the reefbacks and knew that alien life on this planet could get big. If the creatures near their lifepod were hostile in any way, the crew members in lifepod 4 were certainly dead.

“We’re close to the crash site so bring radiation protection. 4 out.”

“Signal co-ordinates corrupted. Approximate transmission origin uploaded to databank.”

Ryley pursed his lips and gazed out the window into the open ocean. They were probably dead.

But there was the slimmest possibility that they weren’t.

Damnit.

Ryley opened his databank and clicked on the latest entry.

A distress signal has been received from lifepod 4, but the attached coordinates were corrupted. Last available photographic data has been downloaded and analyzed.

• Flotation devices active, lifepod located at sea level.
• Pod is in close proximity to radioactive fallout from the
• Transmission origin approximately 150m north-west of the Aurora’s port midsection.

The PDA displayed a photo of the lifepod. It was floating, but it was entirely upside down. Either they had landed that way, or something happened to flip them on their head. In the background of the photo was the Aurora before the explosion. Ryley’s heart sank.

This photo was old, and if the lifepod had been upside down like that since before the explosion, he had little hope that there were any survivors still there.

Ryley moved to go lay back down on his bed, but a nagging voice at the back of his mind told him to go. A 0.001% chance was still a chance. Groaning in resignation, Ryley glanced longingly at his bed before speeding towards the moonpool.

The sun was starting to get low, but Ryley figured he’d have enough time to find the lifepod and make a speedy return to his habitat. He ensured that all his radiation gear was on properly and set out in his seamoth.

He hadn’t gone near the crash site a single time since arriving on 4546B, partially because of radiation, and partially out of fear of leaving his safe zone. He was a little nervous, given the report of potential leviathans, but he hadn’t seen any so far.

Ryley angled his seamoth towards the side of the burning Aurora and stayed as close to the surface as he possibly could, keeping an eye out for any predators.

As Ryley approached the crash site, the water suddenly shifted. The vibrant ecosystem and crystal-clear water of the shallows were no more. Surrounding the ship was water clouded with sand, and any life that had been here was completely wiped out by the radiation leaking from the ship. There was no coral, no seagrass, nothing except for sandy hills as far as the eye could see. It was completely still and silent, save for a few lingering groans coming from the titanium beams struggling to hold the deteriorating Aurora together. Ryley knew that if he didn’t contain the leak soon, the whole ocean would look like the crash zone: barren and lifeless.

Not five minutes later, Ryley found lifepod 4, exactly as it was in the photo. He shouldn’t have felt surprised - he had anticipated this exact result, but there was something eerie about seeing an empty lifepod floating upside down with a hole ripped out of its side, knowing that there had been people inside, waiting for rescue…Rescue that would never come.

As much as Ryley wanted to lament the loss of more crew members, he had to be quick. The sun was getting low, and visibility was getting worse, especially in the already dusty crash zone.

He swam inside the lifepod, not finding much but a discarded PDA and a databox containing a chip with creature decoy blueprints. They must have tried to distract whatever creature was swimming around with a decoy. The lifepod had nothing left for him, so Ryley swam back to his seamoth to return to his base.

The visibility in the crash zone was horrendous, especially since it was getting darker out. The seamoth lights could only travel so far and didn’t do much in terms of improving his sight. The trek back to the base was going smoothly, until just out of the corner of his eye, something moved.

Ryley spun the seamoth toward the movement and saw nothing but still, dusty ocean. That was weird…he could’ve sworn he saw something. Ryley squinted, trying to get a glimpse of anything in the cloudy water, but he was met with eerie silence.

It was as if the ocean had frozen in time. There was no movement, and almost no sound except for the loud creaking of the Aurora echoing through the water and his own accelerated breathing. The few small fish that had wandered into the crash zone had fled. The hairs on Ryley’s arm stood up as a chill swept over him.

Ryley was not alone.

The ocean was getting darker. Ryley could hear his heartbeat in his eardrums. He strained to catch any sign of movement or life, but it was too difficult to see much of anything besides dark, murky water. As it turned out, he didn’t need to look very hard.

Breaking through the unnatural silence of the ocean was a deafening roar.

Ryley jumped out of his seat, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. Whatever creature was out there, was very close.

And he had no idea where it was.

Ryley sat frozen in terror, his breaths coming quick and his eyes shifting back and forth for any sign of the creature. Then whipping into his vision and emerging from the cloudy water was a large red forked tail followed by another ear-piercing roar.

“What the fuck was that…” Ryley muttered. The tail slunk back into the safety of the dark water, just out of Ryley’s range of vision. His seamoth lights shone uselessly in the water, making it harder to see as the light reflected off the sand floating about.

Another roar, but this one was much closer. The creature was closing in on him.

Ryley gathered his wits and began reversing his seamoth slowly so he could quietly get out of the crash zone and into an area with better visibility.

But he was too late.

Emerging out of the cloudy water with a ferocious roar was the most terrifying creature he had ever seen. It had four bright red and powerful mandibles with a strange red horn on its head, and four black, void like eyes that pinned Ryley with their gaze. Razor sharp teeth lined its large jaws. There was no doubt in his mind that this creature could rip his seamoth apart.

This was a leviathan.

Its serpentine body charged at Ryley, jaw snapping and mandibles flexing. Now that its entire body was in sight, Ryley could see that it could swallow him whole if given the chance.

Ryley wasn’t willing to stick around long enough to let it.

Adrenaline pumping in his veins, Ryley hastily turned the seamoth around and began booking it towards the safety of his habitat, hoping to God the creature wouldn’t follow him that far.

His seamoth was fast, but the creature was much faster.

His seamoth jolted to a harsh stop despite the engines being at full power. Ryley saw the edges of the mandibles on the cockpit glass. He felt himself getting pulled backwards, closer to the gaping maw of the leviathan. It roared again, so close and so loud that Ryley released the controls of the seamoth to cover his ears, barely noticing that he was screaming too.

The leviathan spun the seamoth around with its mandibles, bringing Ryley face to face with the terrifying creature. It shook the seamoth back and forth, flinging Ryley’s feeble body around the limited cockpit space. Its jaws snapped, trying to take bites out of the seamoth. The glass of the cockpit cracked slightly, and Ryley could see areas where the creature’s teeth managed to rip and tear the titanium plating on the outside.

He needed to do something, and quick, otherwise he was about to suffer the same fate as his crewmates. The creature roared again, but this time, Ryley didn’t let the deafening sound shake him. He grabbed hold of the controls and put all power in the reverse thrusters. The seamoth creaked and groaned under the strain of trying to escape the tightening grip of the leviathan’s mandibles.

Finally, he broke free from the leviathan’s punishing grasp. The creature seemed stunned for a moment, swimming around frantically trying to get its bearings. Ryley wasted no time and headed for the safety of the shallows.

Without a single glance back, Ryley resolved to never go near the crash zone again.

He parked his seamoth in his moonpool and jumped out as fast as he could. He launched himself onto the habitat floor, breathing fast and clutching his chest.

He had almost been eaten! Ryley glanced up at his seamoth and felt his heart drop into his stomach. It was barely keeping itself together. The glass of the cockpit was cracked and on the verge of shattering completely, there were four clearly visible holes where the leviathan’s mandibles had pierced through the titanium plating, and there were large bite marks denting the metal.

How on earth had he survived that encounter? Someone or something was clearly looking out for him because there was no way he should have made it out of there alive and in one piece.

Ryley took a moment to just lay on the moonpool floor, letting the cool metal soothe him and calm him down. He shakily opened his PDA and played the recording from lifepod 4.

“To any Alterra crew. Landed in an area of significant alien activity. Encountered predators in the leviathan class, highly aggressive. Spectroscope scanner assigned species designator Reaper.” A chill swept through Ryley’s body.

“One specimen attempted to swallow the lifepod, doing extensive damage in the process. Only viable option is to make for the safety of the Aurora crash site,” the man said, sounding out of breath and utterly terrified.

“I have retrieved a databox with the creature decoy, and enough resources to fabricate a couple of them. The swim’s longer than the decoy lifetime, but it should just be enough to keep them busy. If you don’t find me onboard the ship, presume I miscalculated.”

The man’s frightened voice ended abruptly. Despite the horrific hints at the death of the members of lifepod 4, Ryley couldn’t move past the leviathan designation. Reaper. The name practically screamed threat, and if Ryley hadn’t already come face to face with a reaper, he knew the name would be enough to scare him off.

Ryley took a deep breath and stood up on his jelly-like legs, feeling more exhausted than he could ever remember being. He headed to his room, the sight of his bed drawing him in immediately. He ignored his growling stomach, ripped off the radiation suit, and fell onto the sheets.

That was enough of the ocean for one day.

Chapter Text

Ryley wiped a bead of sweat from his brow as he sat back and sipped some water. He had spent the entire day trying to repair his poor seamoth after yesterday’s attack. It had been in such bad condition that it was taking hours just to get it back into a functional state.

He had fixed the holes, sealed the plating on the outside, and repaired the damaged control panel. Now all that was left to do was fix the cracked glass of the cockpit window.

But he was so tired.

Repairing and fixing things had been his job on the Aurora, so he was very familiar with the repair tool and all its intricacies. But after two weeks of not having to repair anything, he forgot how tedious the process could be. The repair tool had to be moved slowly and delicately across any surface, meaning Ryley had to hold his arm up for extended periods of time.

He held the repair tool up to the glass cockpit and began sealing some of the cracks. As he moved the tool along the fractures, his eyes drifted to one of the large circular indents that marred the usually spotless glass.

A jolt of fear ran through him. Ryley shivered at the memory of the reaper’s fierce mandibles grabbing hold of his seamoth. The circle of cracked glass stared back at him - an eerie reminder that he wasn’t alone in the murky waters of 4546B.

He shook off the feeling and focused on the task at hand. The sooner he fixed his seamoth, the sooner he could pretend like the whole experience had never happened.

The cracks sealed nicely, leaving barely a trace. Ryley stood back, hands on his hips, and admired his work. The seamoth almost looked brand new, apart from a few minor scratches here and there - nothing worth worrying about or wasting precious battery power on.

He smiled, satisfied, before moving to check on his growbed. The lantern fruit tree hadn’t sprouted yet, but he knew he had to be patient. The growbed offered accelerated growth, but trees took a long time either way.

Ryley turned around and saw that his radio light was flashing. Someone must have contacted him while he was fixing his seamoth.

“Aurora, this is Sunbeam again,” Quinn began solemnly. “We just picked up a massive debris field at your location. I didn’t know how bad…how many of you…I didn’t know.”

“We are now en route to your location. We’re going to bring you home. Sunbeam out,” Quinn finished. But before Ryley could turn away, Quinn’s voice began again.

“What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it. Oh, it’s a bad option alright, but so are all the others.”

Ryley grimaced. He was certainly not meant to hear that. Rescue would be risky, but Ryley was thankful it was happening at all. Yesterday, rescue had seemed like it would never come, but now it was within reach. Though he had his reservations about going back to Alterra, the encounter with the reaper yesterday was enough to solidify his desire to return. He was extremely lucky to have survived the attack, and Ryley knew that if he ran into another reaper, his luck wasn’t likely to hold.

It was a shame, though. He had really started to settle in on the planet and had made so many great strides. He had only just built his base and was even starting to get comfortable. But having people to talk to again and food that wasn’t fish would more than make up for any disappointment.

He had no idea how long it would take the Sunbeam to make it to 4546B. Space travel was tricky, and it could take days, weeks, or even months for them to arrive. It didn’t make sense to not work towards some sort of progress when it came to his comfort and quality of life.

Ryley opened his locker and rummaged around for some water. He had made a few extra bottles the other day so that he wouldn’t have to go out and catch a bladderfish every time he needed a drink.

There was nothing in the locker except for the rubies from lifepod 19 and a few chunks of basic materials. That meant he would have to go catch more bladderfish.

Ryley sighed.

This really was not an efficient system. He started pulling on his divesuit before abruptly stopping. Didn’t he have the blueprints to make a water filter from the Degasi base? Ryley hastily opened his databank and scrolled through the list of blueprints.

Yep, there it was. He read through the list of materials he would need to build it, excitement mounting as he realised he had most of these, except for a substance called aerogel. To make aerogel he needed rubies and something called a gel sack. He had the rubies, but Ryley couldn’t recall ever seeing a gel sack…not that he knew what they looked like anyways. There was no trace of them in the flora or fauna that he had scanned so far.

Maybe they were in an area he hadn’t explored yet. Maybe he had to go deeper. But the very thought made his stomach churn. He couldn’t get Bart’s voice out of his head.

We shouldn’t have gone so deep. They do not want us down there.

There was so much of 4546B he had yet to explore, and if creatures as large and deadly as reapers were present in shallower waters…

Ryley shuddered. His imagination conjured up fierce and foul creatures ten times his size – slithering monsters that could swallow him whole, fierce teeth lining jaws that could tear chunks out of his flesh and break his bones…the possibilities of what lay in wait in the depths were terrifying.

But he had conquered his fears already and faced terrifying creatures with resolve. He could do it again.       

He glanced down the hall at where his seamoth sat in his moonpool and frowned. He could only go to 300 metres, which wasn’t very deep, all things considered. If he wanted to find these gel sacks, which were likely much deeper down, Ryley would need to add a depth module to his seamoth, and for that he would need to get the remaining blueprints for the modification station.

At this point, there were very few wrecks Ryley hadn’t explored, but he remembered that there was one near lifepod 6 that he never went back to. He would start his search there.

The wreck was much larger than Ryley had anticipated. There were several sealed doorways, but they were no match for his laser cutter. And even luckier, there was a modification station fragment for him to scan, completing his blueprints.  

In the distance, Ryley spotted the edges of the mushroom forest and felt a chill run down his spine. He hadn’t known it at the time, but the fierce roar he had heard there was that of a reaper. He had been extremely close to death then and didn’t know it.

How many other times had he been mere centimetres away from a creature worse than the reaper without knowing it? Was there a larger monster lurking in the dark, just outside his field of vision, waiting until he was at his most vulnerable to strike?

Ryley wasn’t sure he wanted an answer to that question.

An hour later, Ryley was back in his base with a constructed modification station. The orange and white cube sat in the corner of his main room, fabricating arms poised and at the ready.

For the seamoth depth module mark II, Ryley needed magnetite, which he had from the jellyshroom caves, and enameled glass. Ryley raised an eyebrow. He had regular glass, but was that not the same thing?

He opened his PDA and looked up the recipe for enameled glass. His heart sunk into his stomach.

Enameled glass required stalker teeth.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. How the hell am I supposed to get stalker teeth?” Ryley muttered to himself. He angrily tugged his flippers back on, grumbling to himself, and jumped into the ocean through the moonpool.

Seaglide in hand, Ryley swiftly approached the nearby kelp forest and scanned for stalkers. There was a large group of them swimming playfully around the kelp, picking up large chunks of scrap metal from the ground and tossing them about. One stalker bit down harder than most on a chunk of metal, and Ryley watched with wide eyes as a tooth broke off and gently floated down into the sand below.

Maybe getting a hold of stalker teeth was going to be easier than he thought.

Ryley swam towards the ocean floor and scooped up the tooth that had fallen. If he followed the playing stalkers, he could probably gather several teeth to have for back up.

He kept a safe distance behind the stalkers, following them deeper into the forest. They hadn’t noticed his presence and he hoped they never would. He followed them towards a small clearing, and when Ryley saw what awaited him, all the blood drained from his face.

Sitting innocently amongst the tall stalks of kelp were three stalker eggs, and their mother protectively swimming around them in a circle. He was encroaching on their territory. There was a tooth half covered in sand to the side of the eggs, but Ryley had no clue how he was going to get it – not easily with a protective mother hovering nearby.

The mother stalker turned her back -er, fin – to Ryley and he took his chance. He lunged forward and hastily shoved the tooth in his pocket. He kicked fiercely and started swimming back, triumphant.

A loud screeching roar shattered his confidence. He whipped his head around, eyes wide as the mother stalker charged at him, sharp teeth clicking together as her jaws snapped. Ryley smiled smugly, knowing his seaglide was faster than the stalkers were, but the smile was quickly wiped off his face when it wouldn’t turn on.

He didn’t have time to ponder why his seaglide wasn’t working – he had to get out and into safety fast. The stalker was quickly gaining on him, despite how hard Ryley was kicking his legs. He could see the edge of the kelp forest approaching, the safety of the grassy plateau open in front of him, a herd of migrating reefbacks gliding gently above.

Ryley broke through the last of the kelp stalks. He turned around and gazed at the forest, relieved when nothing emerged from the foliage. Stalkers rarely left the kelp forest. They preferred the safety of the dense vines - something Ryley was extremely grateful for.

Back in his base ten minutes later, Ryley had a newly constructed depth module for his newly repaired seamoth. He sat in the cockpit, unsure of where to go to find gel sacks. They would have to be somewhere he hadn’t explored yet. He had never really ventured south, save for the floating island, but even that journey was entirely above water. He hadn’t seen what lay beneath. So that’s where he went.

As was typical of most of the ocean, the shallows turned into a vast kelp forest. Ryley carefully piloted his seamoth through the large, towering stalks, attempting to avoid the sporadic rock formations that felt like they spawned out of nowhere. His seamoth had suffered enough these past few days, he didn’t need to make it worse.

The terrain suddenly made a steep turn downwards, inviting Ryley to go deeper. He braced himself and followed the slope into the depths. He followed along the ocean floor, keeping a careful eye on his depth metre.

The drop abruptly ended, and Ryley was met with one of the most incredible biomes yet.

Though he was nearly 300 metres below the surface, the ocean was lit up in shades of turquoise and violet. Large, glowing, blue orbs were suspended in the water and tethered to the ground with long tendrils. The orbs lit paths through the rocky terrain, leading whoever followed them ever deeper. Lavender coloured grass covered the ground like a blanket and bioluminescent plants dotted its surface. It was so….alien.

But it was gorgeous.

There was something about the colours, the gently swaying orbs, the overall quiet of the ocean that made Ryley feel at ease. Small schools of fish swam about, much like how they did in the shallows. Ryley wondered if there were any predators lurking about if these small fish swam about so freely.

Eager to scan, Ryley hopped out of his seamoth and swam up to one of the glowing globes. Was this a gel sack? How would he fit it in his pocket?

The scan completed and revealed that it was not a gel sack, but an anchor pod. The large, glowing sphere was apparently filled with gas and once it reached a certain height, the pod would burst, spreading spores around the surrounding area to reproduce. It was fascinating.

He swam around, scanning all the flora he could find, hoping he would stumble upon the elusive gel sacks. So far there was nothing in the area he was in, so he hopped back in his seamoth and went on.

The terrain was entirely irregular. Large spires and thermal vents sprouted from the ground, and holes were gouged out of the earth to form divots and caves. No matter where Ryley went, the topography was completely different, and yet somehow exactly the same. It would be so easy to get lost here.

Ryley looked around some more, having a hard time finding any new flora. It was all membrain trees and anchor pods for miles. That is, until he turned a corner and found a strange object. It was a little teal ball that looked eerily like a brain with fluorescent violet spots dotting its surface.

Ryley hopped out of the seamoth and scanned it. It was a gel sack! He had found one! He plucked it from the ground and shoved it in his pocket. He only needed one for the aerogel, but he knew there would probably be something else he needed them for. Might as well stock up while he was here.

Back in the seamoth, Ryley continued slowly moving along the ocean floor, eyes peeled for more gel sacks. As he combed the ground in his seamoth, he came upon a strange creature.

It floated around, seemingly aimlessly. The creature was small and magenta coloured. It had a flared head with sharp fangs, translucent torso that revealed its organs, and short tentacles trailing behind it. What was most menacing were the sharp, pincer-like arms it held in front.

Ryley examined the strange creature in front of him, surprised it wasn’t trying to attack. He prepared himself to hop out and pull out his scanner since the creature was seemingly harmless, but then a high-pitched whining sound, almost like radio feedback began ringing in his eardrums.

His world erupted into spiraling silver and purple. Ryley’s body felt like it was being simultaneously stretched in every direction and compressed. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, begging for the awful feeling to stop. Feedback and static roared in his ears and through his limbs before the horrible sensations abruptly ended. When he opened his eyes again, his heart stopped in horror.

Ryley was no longer in his seamoth.

He spun around, entirely disoriented and heart pounding in his chest. Where was he? Where was his seamoth? He flailed around, bubbles flying out in arcs around him.

Sharp, burning pain ignited across his chest, accompanied by the now foreboding sound of whining feedback. When Ryley glanced down, he saw blood leaking profusely from his chest. The strange creature was floating around him, pincers leaving a trail of crimson through the water.

Ryley spotted his seamoth floating idly several metres above him. He feebly kicked his way up, the creature lazily following the blooming trail of blood, pincers ready to strike again. His chest ached fiercely, and Ryley knew he needed to get it patched immediately. He didn’t want another creature catching the scent of his blood in the water.

He grunted as the seamoth opened up and he climbed inside. The creature was still following and if it was somehow able to teleport him out of his vehicle, he didn’t want to stick around. He booked it back to his base, the sound of blood dripping on metal drowning out everything else.

He stumbled into his habitat and reached for the medpack. He ripped open a packet of patches and pulled the remains of his divesuit down to his waist. His chest looked like something out of a horror movie.

Two sharp red lines crisscrossed across his chest, like an x marked on a map. The cuts were relatively shallow, but precise, deliberate.

They weren’t meant to kill.

But…why? Everything in this godforsaken ocean attacked without rationale. Their primary motivation was food. Their attacks were messy, teeming with animal instinct.

But that creature, it hadn’t tried to eat him. It had attacked him with some ulterior motive – not to kill, not to eat, but to mark him for something.

Which meant the creature was somewhat intelligent.

The thought sent shivers down his spine. He gently applied the patches across the x on his chest. He felt their healing capabilities kick in. A cooling sensation spread across his chest, and he could feel the skin repairing itself.

It was a strange sensation. Ryley had never needed to use a med patch before, as his job had never been particularly dangerous. Now though, he needed some sort of medical attention every other day, whether it was burns from the drooping stingers or angry bite marks from stalkers.

As he laid on the floor, letting the patches work their magic, he idly pondered how a creature could teleport him out of his seamoth. The very thought made his skin crawl with a profound sense of wrongness. It just shouldn’t be possible. The sense of safety he felt in his seamoth was in tatters at his feet. Safety as a concept simply did not exist on 4546B.

The ache in his chest finally subsided. Ryley removed the patches, content to see the large slashes completely closed up and light pink scars in their place. His divesuit was torn to shreds, but he could easily fabricate a new one.

He munched on a cured peeper as he worked. He made himself a new divesuit – rated for intense radiation of course – and made aerogel for his water filter. The water filter would go in the lower room, next to the lantern fruit growbed – the seed of which had bloomed and started sprouting out of the soil.

Building a water filter seemed like such a small accomplishment, but Ryley knew that not having to go hunt for bladderfish would save him tons of time and energy. The sun set on another productive day, and Ryley smiled as he let darkness take him.

The following morning, Ryley awoke to a fresh bottle of water sitting in his water filter and the light on his radio flashing.

He pressed play and sipped his water as he listened.

“Aurora, we’re approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that’s…” A pause. “Well, it’s better than the alternatives.”

“We’ve sent you the coordinates. It’ll take us a couple of hours to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we’re coming in to get you. Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don’t leave us waiting. Sunbeam out.”         

Ryley sat in shock. Rescue was no longer some unattainable dream. He would be off this planet in a matter of hours.

He was going home.

Chapter Text

A cheerful tune drifted through the hallways of Ryley’s habitat. He shoved a few water bottles in the cockpit of his seamoth, whistling while he worked.

Today was the day! He was finally getting off this planet. It was bittersweet in a sense because it meant going back to his old life, but Ryley knew that the skills he had honed during his time here would be invaluable. Maybe he could even get a promotion!

Ryley wasn’t taking much with him – there was no point. The Sunbeam would have everything he needed. However, he was packing rubies, diamonds, and gold to put towards his debt to Alterra. With the way that Alterra’s systems were ingrained in every aspect of his life, there was no way to outrun it without setting off some sort of alarm or warning. The only way to avoid the debt would be to stay on these backwater planets where Alterra had little to no jurisdiction.

Ryley glanced at the timer that was counting down to the estimated arrival of the Sunbeam. He still had a little over an hour to go. He had all the materials he needed packed away in his seamoth. All that was left to do was say goodbye. And the thought made Ryley’s stomach twist in knots.

4546B had unknowingly given him the greatest gift of all in its many attempts to kill him: confidence. He had accomplished so much. He made all of this from nothing. He made a home for himself.

Leaving everything behind was sad, but Ryley didn’t belong here. 4546B reminded him of that nearly every day. He belonged at home, with his family and friends to talk to, and food that wasn’t fish.

He smiled sadly, taking one last look before hopping in his seamoth. He added the Sunbeam landing location as a beacon and left his base for the last time.

The beacon took him north. He flew through the sea, jittery with excitement. He couldn’t wait to talk to people again. 4546B was terrifyingly beautiful, but it was also immensely lonely. The occasional quips from his PDA were nice, but they were few and far between and there was no way for Ryley to initiate any conversation with it.

The journey to the landing spot was uneventful, as Ryley quickly came across what looked like a large mountain. It jutted out of the sea and rose imposingly on the horizon. Ryley now understood why Quinn was concerned about landing. There wasn’t much room. The island itself was much smaller than the other. The main mountain took up most of the available space, leaving just enough room for a small beach on the left side.

Ryley parked his seamoth, took out his supplies, and stacked them gently on the beach. He took a deep breath of fresh, non-filtered air and relished the feeling of his feet on solid ground once more. There was still some time until the Sunbeam arrived, so Ryley decided to explore.

“Detecting massive energy signature in the region. Cannot identify,” his PDA said. Ryley raised an eyebrow and stared up at the large mountain in front of him. His PDA had said something similar on the other island. Perhaps there was another Degasi settlement here?

Ryley strode carefully along the beach, knife poised at his hip in case one of the nearby cave crawlers tried snacking on him. A few trees and plants dotted the rocky and sandy surface of the island, but there was nowhere near as much greenery as there had been on the other one. He turned a corner and felt all the air exit his body at once. There was no need to guess at what the massive energy signature was.

An ominous, teal green tower stood strong against the backdrop of the sea. From this angle it was difficult to tell just how tall the tower actually was, only that it connected to a larger main structure that extended out from the island’s edge. The building was connected to the island with large cables that came from the mountain itself, and there was an entrance guarded by a glowing green forcefield that hummed menacingly with alien energy.

The make of the building was unlike anything he had ever witnessed. It wasn’t Alterra. It wasn’t the Degasi. This was geometric, patterned, unique. This was something else. Something – or someone – had been here before and built this. And as of yet, it was unclear whether they were still here…or if they were friendly.

Chills ran down his spine as Ryley stared wide-eyed at the towering building. He checked his timer. He still had time. He pulled out his scanner, prepared to scan the building, when he stepped on something hard.

He parted the leaves at his feet, revealing a purple tablet, not unlike the one he had found at the Degasi habitat on the other island, except this one was completely snapped in half. Ryley belatedly realised he had never even scanned the one he had found. Well, that was easily solved.

This carbon-based device is lighter than it looks, and features a symbol which resembles a “U”, lit up in purple. Despite the onboard power still functioning, algae growth on the exterior indicates it was abandoned hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago. While the technology is far beyond federation levels, and there is no obvious way to interface with it, it should nonetheless be possible to fabricate a precise physical copy of the device, if necessary.

Ryley’s hands shook as he held up the tablet fragment. This strange piece of technology, that had no apparent use, was potentially several thousand years old. Whatever had been on this planet had been here long before Alterra even existed. Before space travel even existed. He simply couldn’t fathom it. Holding the tablet in his hands felt surreal in a way he couldn’t explain.

Had these aliens been native to 4546B? Where were they now? Did they still exist somewhere in deep space? There were far too many questions running through his head.

Ryley dropped the fragment back in the sand and approached the forcefield. To its immediate right was a podium. He lifted his hand to touch it, and yanked it back as the podium surface opened, revealing an identical symbol to that found on the purple tablet.

He glanced behind him at the abandoned tablet in the sand. He took in its shape before turning back to the podium. He scanned the podium and read the databank entry. The cogs turned in his head before snapping into place.

The tablet was a key. But the only intact tablet he had was all the way back at his base, and he didn’t have enough time to go there and back before the arrival of the Sunbeam.

Ryley took out his repair tool and attempted to fuse the two tablet pieces back together, but to no avail. He sighed, frustrated. He really wanted to see what was inside that building. Discovering ancient alien technology would be a sure-fire way to get a promotion.

Maybe there was another entrance? The building was massive, and it didn’t make sense to Ryley that it would only have one door. He looked around and saw a small path curling up the side of the mountain to the top of the L-shaped building.

Small, green lamps that matched the design of the building lit the path, despite the broad daylight. As Ryley approached the top, he stared in awe at the large tower protruding from the main building. Just what was it?

He walked along the top of the building towards the tower. There was no entrance here that he could see. He turned back and saw a purple glow coming from the sand next to one of the large cables. Sitting innocently in the sand was a half buried – but intact – purple tablet. Perfect.

The podium opened itself up once again as Ryley approached, but this time he placed the tablet right in the center. The tablet sunk perfectly into place and the podium interface closed around it.

The forcefield flickered off, opening the strange building to him. Strange geometric designs covered the walls and floor, lit up in an eerie lime-green light.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Ryley called out, voice echoing in the vast hallway.

No response.

“Scans indicate this structure is composed of a metal alloy with unprecedented integrity,” his PDA chimed in.

“Is that right?” Ryley mumbled to himself as he spun around in the hall, taking everything in.

“No matches found in database. Performing structural analysis.”

The hallway twisted and turned, leading Ryley to a large and empty room. The room was filled with columns and ramps, and had no clear purpose. Everything was made with the same teal coloured metal and the same strange geometric designs etched into the walls and floors.

This building was almost surely abandoned. There was no trace of life anywhere, no evidence of recent activity. It was just a massive, barren room.

Through the many columns, Ryley saw something glowing on the far side of the room. Scanner at his side, he went in for a closer look.

It was another podium, but this one had a glowing green holograph symbol hovering above it. He carefully approached it, examining the floating symbol.

He tried touching the symbol, but his hand just went right through it. His brow furrowed. How could he interact with this thing? Maybe through the podium itself? It wasn’t automatically opening like the first one had. Ryley lightly touched his hand to the structure and shot back as the symbol disappeared.

“Unknown language. Attempting translation.”

A few seconds later, his PDA notified him that he had a new databank entry.

Alien Data Terminal: Discovered inside an alien facility, it was not possible to translate any useful information, however scans have returned some information on the device itself.

It is likely a solid-state computer, although there is no clear way to interface with it. On approach it began producing a low-frequency radio wave containing complex but recognizable data patterns.

It is likely the alien species which designed this technology evolved, or genetically selected, sensory apparatus to “hear” and understand the information being broadcast by the device, and to communicate back. The mental processing power required to perform this type of telepathy would imply the designers were considerably more psychologically developed than the common human.

Assessment: Further research required.

Ryley glanced up from his PDA up at the podium. Strange.

Behind the podium was a set of ramps that led down into the next section of the building. Ryley once again checked his timer. 30 minutes.

There wasn’t much to see as he descended further into the building. This whole place was empty, and Ryley wondered just what its purpose was. Why have this huge, entirely barren building? Had anyone lived here? Was it a storage facility of some sort? It made no sense.

However, it was alien. Perhaps it made sense for them. The hallway led him around a corner where Ryley spotted a lime green cube sitting on the floor. Curious, Ryley approached it. The second he got close enough to the cube, the floor underneath it rose up. It was as if the building was saying “Here! Take it!”.

Ryley was hesitant. This seemed entirely too suspicious. It could be a bomb or a weapon, or something else sinister. Why else would the building willingly offer it to him?

He scanned it, and when the scan completed, he breathed a sigh of relief. The building wasn’t presenting him with a bomb or self-destruct device, but an ion cube.

Ion technology was considered experimental at best. It was believed by many in the Federation that it could be harnessed as a clean energy source. Alterra had dabbled here and there in ion technology, but materials were so difficult to find that they had mostly abandoned the project in favour of cheaper alternatives. Was this why the Aurora had been sent here? Did Alterra know about potential resources for ion tech?

Ryley wasn’t sure, but he pocketed the cube and moved on.

“Analysis of the patterns on the walls cannot ascertain whether their purpose is aesthetic or functional. Further data required.”

Ryley glanced up at the walls. He thought it was rather apparent that they were more of an aesthetic choice than a functional one. Though, he had no idea what the aliens looked like. Maybe the patterns were functional for them.

The winding corridors led him to yet another podium with a floating green symbol. He sped up, walking faster to see what information it held.

Ryley once again pressed his hand to the structure.

“Unknown language. Attempting translation.”

The podium revealed a long, but extremely informative databank entry. It detailed the schematics of the entire structure, which was oddly named the “Enforcement Platform”. Ryley wasn’t sure what that meant, but it sounded threatening.

The building was apparently constructed with an extremely strong and indestructible metal, and was powered by a self-sustaining power plant somewhere else on the planet – likely making use of thermal energy deep in the ocean. The facility was also split into two main areas: the upper engineering section, which was where Ryley was, and the lower control room, which could only be accessed by an elevator or an underwater moonpool.

Ryley glanced around and saw that the hallway continued to his left. He checked the timer. 20 minutes. Hopefully he would have enough time to explore and come back before his rescue.

The hallway ended abruptly with a huge drop off. He could see the floor below, but there was no way to climb down. A strange green energy field moved eerily up and down the tunnel. Was this the elevator shaft? Where was the elevator?

“Your best probability of interfacing with this facility is achieved by accessing the control room in the lower section.”

“Okay, but how do I get there?” Ryley grumbled. He held his hand out to touch the energy field. He felt an immense pressure on his hand, pulling it downwards. Oh.

Ohhh.

He took a deep breath. This could end horribly. There could be splattered Ryley at the bottom of this shaft. The Sunbeam was going to show up, come looking for him, and find his corpse all crumpled up, wondering why someone would be so stupid as to jump down a shaft with no way of landing safely.

He was going to do it. It would be fine. He would be fine.

Ryley jumped into the energy field, squeezed his eyes shut, and braced for impact. When he didn’t land in a pile of broken bones, he hesitantly opened his eyes again. He gasped in wonder. He was suspended in the air and being slowly floated down to the ground by the energy field.

He smiled, waving his arms around. He felt like he was flying, and in a way he was. A small, disbelieving laugh escaped him.

The energy field gently deposited him at the bottom. Ryley looked up, grinning from ear to ear. He couldn’t wait to come back up to do that again.

Ryley strode a little faster through the next arch. It opened up to a massive room with a huge moonpool. The moonpool itself was deep and had an opening to the ocean on one end. It was so big that Ryley could park maybe twenty seamoths in it. Hell, it could even hold several Cyclops submarines.

There was a hallway on the other end of the room, presumably leading to the control room that the databank had mentioned. Ryley sprinted over, trying not to waste too much time. There were only 15 minutes until the Sunbeam arrived.

The next room was enormous. A series of ramps lured him up, and a display case sat to the right. Ryley approached it, shocked to discover there was a gun inside. The case itself was virtually impenetrable so he left the gun to its own devices, warily looking behind him in case it spontaneously turned on.

As he made his way further into the room, he noticed a hallway on the other side, as well as another ion cube. He followed the hallway. It led him to a room with a massive, diamond shaped arch in the middle. Ryley tried pressing his hand to it, just like he did with the podiums from earlier, but nothing happened.

Ryley scanned the arch.

            This structure's intended purpose is unclear.

Theories on Function:

- Ceremonial or religious role

- Industrial applications

- Advanced transportation network

Assessment: Further research required.

Well, that wasn’t very helpful. He left the room and began ascending the ramps from the prior area.

On the third level, Ryley noticed a purple glow coming from his right. Another purple tablet rested on top of a podium. Did that mean there was another forcefield he had to open? Ryley snatched the tablet and clipped it to his toolbelt and continued up the ramps.

He saw another display case with a strange, pink orb floating in it, but he let it be. Maybe this room acted as a gallery of sorts? But Ryley didn’t have time for sightseeing. From where he was, he could see another forcefield on the last level of the room. He sprinted up the ramp, legs burning with the effort.

“Scans indicate the facility’s control room lies beyond this doorway.”

Ryley approached the podium next to the forcefield and placed the purple tablet inside. The forcefield disabled, leaving the control room open for exploration.

The room led him to a strange looking object. It was a tall, rectangular structure, with a small section in the middle that glowed bright green with alien energy. A small podium rested in front of it, and when Ryley got close, it opened. There was a square button, outlined in green, and a circle above it, similarly outlined. Ryley raised an eyebrow.

Curiosity got the best of him. He hesitantly held up his hand, unsure whether pressing a random button in an alien facility was the smartest thing to do, but it wasn’t the dumbest thing he had ever done. The moment he pressed the button, a forcefield shot up from the podium, trapping his hand. Ryley’s heartbeat quickened as he tried desperately to pull his hand back, but to no avail.

Then the circle popped out of the device, attached to a cable. It seemed to stare at him for a moment, if that was even possible, moving from side to side. The device…spoke. A strange, low, mechanical murmur.

Then, to Ryley’s horror, a sharp needle extended from the center of the circle and angled itself right for Ryley’s hand. His eyes widened and he tried harder to pull his arm out of the forcefield that trapped it.

It stabbed him. Then it retracted back into the podium, and the outline around the button turned red.

Ryley grasped his arm where the device had pricked him, rubbing it to ease the sharp pain. The podium closed itself entirely and a strange alien voice sounded from the device.

“The control panel is broadcasting a message. Translation reads: Warning. Infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.”

Ryley stood still for a moment, letting the message sink in.

The weapon? Quarantine?  How could a whole planet be under quarantine?

Then it clicked. Ryley’s knees buckled, and he grasped at the structure for support.

The Degasi had mentioned in their logs that something had shot them out of the sky, stranding them on the planet. They thought that it had been deep below – their scans had said as much - but it wasn’t.

The weapon was here, right in front of Ryley.

And it hadn’t stopped with the Degasi. This weapon must have been what shot down the Aurora. Nothing was being allowed to enter the planet’s atmosphere. And the reason why was clear.

It was the bacterial infection that his PDA had warned him about on his first day. He was infected. The disease, infection, virus, whatever – was coursing through his veins. And if the planet was under quarantine, it meant that no person could go in or out.

Ryley wouldn’t be able to disable this facility unless he was cured. And if he couldn’t disable the weapon…his eyes widened in horror.

The Sunbeam.

Ryley checked his timer. Three minutes.

No .

No no no no no.

Ryley shot up and sprinted as fast as he could through the winding hallways of the enforcement platform. His legs ached and his lungs burned. He ran down the ramps, through the moonpool room, and back to the elevator.

He didn’t enjoy the ride the second time around.

The moment his feet touched solid ground again, he took off. He had one minute.

He emerged from the facility and shielded his eyes against the sunlight. He could hear the distant sound of the ship breaking into the atmosphere. Ryley’s head whipped towards the tower, which was now extending upwards. It spun around and angled itself at a spot in the sky. It didn’t look like a tower anymore…it looked like a gun.

The tower was the weapon.

Suddenly, a deep, threatening, groan – like a bomb siren - came from the weapon. Ryley covered his ears, the reverberations rattling his head. The Sunbeam was now in view.

“Turn back! Go! Get out of here!” Ryley screamed.

“Survivor, we see you! Man, I don’t know how you held out down there. We’ve broken atmosphere and we’re descending towards the landing site,” Quinn said, his voice transmitting to Ryley’s PDA.

“Turn back!” Ryley yelled, ignoring the burning in his throat.

Quinn couldn’t hear him.

Ryley’s eyes were blurry now, filled with tears and desperation. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and threw his arms out, desperately trying to signal them to turn around.

“Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can’t identify it?” Quinn said, presumably to someone on board, “Hold on, there’s no turning back now.”

“Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8…”

“Please…please just go back,” Ryley whispered brokenly. His voice was all but gone.

The weapon began charging.  It lit up in glowing green, a vortex of energy swirled around its tip, getting stronger by the second. Ryley was powerless to stop it.

All he could do now was watch.

“It's coming from the building?!”

The vortex intensified, painting the sky in bright green.

“Change course, set thrusters to full-”

A massive laser shot out from the weapon and hit the Sunbeam. The ship erupted into fire, and with it, Ryley’s very last hope.

Debris from the Sunbeam fell into the ocean like drops of rain. He fell to his knees in the sand, hands over his mouth to stifle his sobs.

This was all his fault. The Sunbeam would never have come here if it weren’t for him. He was responsible for the death of potentially hundreds of people, all because they were kind enough to try to save him – a useless, insignificant janitor.

He should have remembered what the Degasi had said, he should have tried harder to fix his radio, he should have done something.

His chest heaved with the force of his sobs. He was stuck on this planet now until the bacterial infection strengthened and took his life - just like it had with Bart.

Ryley’s limbs felt numb, like all the strength had been zapped from them. At some point the tower had returned to its original form. He didn’t know long he sat there on the beach, sand and tears clinging to his cheeks. It could have been minutes, hours, or days. He didn’t know and he didn’t care.

He was just…empty.

His head ached with a dull throbbing pain. Ryley chalked it up to dehydration from crying. But then the pain suddenly sharpened to a harsh sting. Ryley hissed and shut his eyes against the sensation. He held his head in his hand, the other gripping the sand. Was this a symptom of the infection?

The shooting pain faded. Ryley opened his eyes, puzzled.

Then everything went black for a split second, and he swore he could hear a chittering sound. Ryley gasped. A shadowy figure formed in front of him. He shook his head, trying to rid it from his sight, but it followed him wherever he looked, like an overlay on his vision.

The figure looked like a bug, with four bright orbs that pulsed with light. Eyes. The figure swayed.

Then, a woman’s voice.

“What…are…you?”

Chapter Text

Ryley felt like he was drowning. He was suspended under the water, trying to claw his way back up. Beneath the surface, he was only vaguely aware of his surroundings. Things happened around him, but he was not an active participant. His eyes were unfocused, and his chest felt hollow. He was sinking and there was no life vest to pull him up.

A week had passed since the Sunbeam incident. It was the longest week of his life. He couldn’t get the image of the ship exploding into fiery debris out of his head. It played on repeat in his dreams and was bookended by the strange apparition he had seen.

Sleep tempted him during the day but evaded him at night.

His days were spent going about the motions. He hunted for food, scanned some fragments, built some tools and furniture, but nothing else. With each passing day, it became harder and harder to go out. His body was weighed down with exhaustion from the lack of sleep, and the inescapable feeling of futility.

There was no point in trying to do much else. He had no way of curing the infection, and therefore no way of getting off the planet. Ryley was stuck here to live out his days doing the same routine until he died.

At one point, he debated whether it was worth trying to stay alive at all. The other crewmembers weren’t given the choice. Why was he the only one left? What was so special about him? If he were to stop eating and drinking, how long would it take for the infection to run its course?

It was a dangerous line of thought, he knew that. But he couldn’t help it. He didn’t know how he was supposed to come back from something like that, or if he could at all. He hadn’t been able to do anything. He had been stuck in the sand, forced to watch an unspeakable horror take place. He felt so small and so useless.

He lay in his bed, frowning at the white, metal ceiling. He had absolutely no energy to get out of bed today. His lantern fruit tree now had ripe fruit, ready for picking, but even the possibility of food other than fish wasn’t exciting enough to get him up.

“Ryley,” his PDA began. Ryley sat up immediately in shock. His PDA had never addressed him by name before.

“Yes?”

“A motivational note. Craig McGill crash-landed in the acid swamps of Boreal 9, fought off arachnid kidney-poachers, and hijacked a tame starwhal.”

Good for him?

“If he can do all that, you can survive one more day.”

“Oh.”

In the wake of the PDA’s words, Ryley didn’t know how to feel.

“Thank you,” he said, voice watery but genuine. He knew his PDA wasn’t capable of human emotion, but its voice, even with its robotic qualities, sounded sincere. It wanted him to keep going. His eyes welled up with tears.

He sat there for a moment running the PDA’s words through his head. One more day. Just one more day. Maybe he wasn’t Craig McGill, but he was Ryley Robinson. He had already come this far. One more day couldn’t hurt.

Ryley mustered up what little energy he had and pulled himself out of bed. Out his window he could see the fish swimming by, happy and oblivious to Ryley’s struggles. No matter what happened to him, life would go on. A stalker covered in glowing green pustules floated by – a grim reminder of the reason he was stuck here.

Ryley had recently learned that the bacteria that permeated the ocean caused the chartreuse marks. He still didn’t have a name for the mysterious disease, but what he did know was that he was seeing more and more creatures covered in green spots.

Even still, the bacteria was only affecting a handful of creatures despite the high level of contaminants in the water. Given that the quarantine enforcement platform itself was potentially thousands of years old, the infection must not be that dangerous if there were still thriving ecosystems. Either that, or something was keeping everything alive.

“The Aurora’s radioactive fallout will have devastating effects on the alien ecosystem if not contained within the next 24 hours,” his PDA quipped.

“What?!”

He knew this was coming at some point, but he hadn’t expected it so soon. Ryley’s heart clenched at the thought of the ecosystem turning into a barren wasteland, like the crash zone. Not only would it mean the end of life on this planet, but the end of Ryley as well. Sure, he had radiation protection, but it wouldn’t stop the loss of his main food source.

He glanced at the repair tool strapped to his hip and pursed his lips together. Maybe he couldn’t cure the bacteria, but he could stop the radiation leaks. That he had the power to do.

Ryley sprung into action for the first time in days. He ate some lantern fruit for energy and chugged some water. He made sure he had all his tools, including his new propulsion cannon and flashlight, and some extra batteries just in case. The Aurora was a mess, and he had no idea what to expect, so he prepared for every eventuality.

He hopped in his seamoth for the first time in a week and smiled as the ship’s AI greeted him. He gazed thoughtfully at the burning ship in the distance. Just how would he get inside? The bow of the ship had a giant hole in it, leaving much of the inner structure exposed. It was his best option.

Murky, sandy water surrounded him on all sides as he entered the crash zone. Ryley kept himself near the surface to make sure he was still going the right way. In the distance he could hear the roars of prowling reapers, and the sound was so unsettling and traumatizing that Ryley almost said “fuck the ecosystem” and turned right around.

As he approached the Aurora, his seamoth started to shake. Ryley’s grip on the steering wheel tightened to stay on course. He found a gap in the wreckage, a small space between the broken support beams, and drove his seamoth through.

Large planks of sheet metal formed a platform – a huge ramp of sorts - in front of him, so Ryley parked his seamoth, checked his radiation gear, and hopped out onto the Aurora.

“Holy shit,” he mumbled to himself.

The explosion had ripped apart the Aurora. Burning debris formed a ceiling of smoke above his head and blocked the sunlight peeking through the broken structure. Beams of metal glowed bright red and orange from the heat of ongoing fires, the smell of burning metal and plastic assaulting Ryley’s nostrils through the air filters in his helmet.

Loud clangs echoed in the open space as bits of debris burned off and fell onto the ground, while the ship itself creaked and groaned.

Ryley had no idea where he was in relation to the rest of the ship – it was unrecognizable at this point. The giant hole ripped into the front only emphasized the enormity of the Aurora. Working on the ship, it was easy to forget just how large it really was. But now, it was all he could focus on. Ryley felt unspeakably small in comparison.

There was no evidence of any remaining human life. A few cave crawlers scuttled about, having made their way onto the ship somehow, but that was it.

“Warning: ship’s structural integrity is low. Fire suppression equipment and laser cutters may be required. Exploration is conducted at your own risk.”

Ryley grimaced. He forgot to bring a fire extinguisher despite his earlier preparations. Hopefully, the inside of the ship wouldn’t be too bad in terms of fire. He patted down his pockets and toolbelt to make sure he had everything he needed and made his way up the ramp and onto the burning ship.

As he walked up, he scanned his surroundings for a way deeper into the ship. Huge titanium sheets and beams blocked anything that looked like a way in, and the propulsion cannon wouldn’t be able to pick up anything that heavy.

Supply crates were scattered about, entirely unopened and filled with goodies like medkits, water, and batteries. Ryley grabbed all of it. A few cave crawlers jumped at him, but he was quicker and armed with a knife.

“Caution: scans show the digestive tracts of nearby lifeforms contain human tissues.”

Ryley almost threw up right then and there. Would there be skeletons waiting for him in the halls of the ship, their bones picked clean of any flesh?

He gulped, swallowed his nerves, and continued. He reached the top of the ramp, but hit a dead end. Great, that had been his best shot at getting inside. He cautiously walked towards the edge of the ramp and looked down below where the ocean and his seamoth were waiting.

Giving up was a tempting option, but when he glanced below towards the left, he could vaguely make out another platform. But how to get there?

Ryley glanced around looking for something that could help him reach the platform without jumping down and breaking his legs. Then he saw a support beam curving downwards enough that it could get him to the platform. Perfect.

Ryley gingerly took a step forward, testing his weight on the beam. It creaked lightly but held steady. He took a deep breath and placed his full weight on it. No movement. Ryley breathed a sigh of relief and carefully walked across the narrow beam.

Moments later, Ryley was safely on the other platform, and at the very end of it was a doorway leading to the interior of the ship. But a wall of flames guarded the entrance, preventing Ryley from getting inside.

A supply crate lay off to the side. Maybe he could use it to stamp out the fire? As Ryley lifted the crate, something brushed against his foot.

He yelped, dropped the crate with a loud crash, and whipped his knife out, ready to strike. He looked at his assailant and blushed. It was a fire extinguisher that had rolled out from somewhere. He checked the fuel level, and thankfully, this one was completely full. He quickly put out the flames blocking the entrance and made his way inside the ship.

He immediately recognized where he was. It was the hallway between the cargo bays and admin, which was good because it meant the drive room where the radiation would be leaking from wasn’t too far.

Cargo crates were sprawled everywhere, fragments of different tools spilling out of them, never to be used again. A discarded PDA sat at his feet, but the only thing it contained was a log from one of the engineering drones. It was as if the people on the ship had popped out of existence. There were no bodies to be seen anywhere.

But that was what was so unsettling. The Aurora had been a busy ship, with different workers running back and forth and people chatting in the hallways. Now it was empty, hollow. The Aurora was nothing more than a metal shell and a graveyard.

Ryley shook his head to rid himself of the dark thoughts and went to admin first. He put out the flames blocking the door, and found a data terminal and PDA waiting inside, but again, no bodies. Did cave crawlers eat bones as well?

 The PDA had some notes on it, as well as access codes for the cargo bays. Ryley had nearly forgotten about all the codes needed to access the different areas of the ship, but as maintenance chief, he had been privy to nearly every single one and could enter in those codes by heart if need be.

“Aurora systems are running on local reserve power. Unable to remotely download black box data.”

That’s right… There would be black box data somewhere on the ship that could confirm that they were shot down by the enforcement platform. Well, if he came across it, he would find it. It would be handy for if he ever made it back into Alterra space. The last survivor of a major mission? Yeah, there would be questions.

Ryley followed the hallway back from where he came and down towards the cargo bay. A few crates blocked his path, but they were light enough for his propulsion cannon. He aimed it at a crate and pulled the trigger.

An anti-gravity field shot out and surrounded the crate, suspending it in the air. Ryley turned away from the entrance and released the trigger. The gun shot the crate back out. Ha! He repeated the process with the rest of the debris until the way was clear.

The hallway led him down to the cargo bay door, which was oddly still intact and locked. Ryley punched in the code and opened the door as if it were just another day at work. The familiarity of the gesture felt disturbing in a way Ryley couldn’t put into words.

“Scans of damage to the Aurora do not match any known offensive technologies.”

“Because it was an ancient alien gun,” Ryley quipped back as he stepped through the door. None of the lights were on and it was getting harder and harder to see as he ventured further in.

The cargo bay, much like the rest of the ship, was in complete disarray. Equipment and cargo crates were tossed about while fires burned steadily, and wires dangling from the ceiling dropped sparks on the ground like drops of rain. The fires threw off little light, so Ryley whipped out his flashlight.

He descended the staircase into the large room and grimaced as sweat dripped uncomfortably down his back. With all the fire and smoke in the enclosed room, Ryley was unbearably warm. He grabbed a bottle of water from one of the supply crates and poured it all over himself. He didn’t want to risk radiation poisoning by taking his helmet off, but he needed to cool down. Unfortunately, the water was warm and didn’t do much to help.

He found another PDA, this time containing a trans-gov profile on Alterra itself. Ryley didn’t like what he was reading. Alterra’s motto was “Get what you deserve,” which seemed oddly sinister.

Ryley tossed the PDA onto some cargo boxes and made his way towards the elevator. It would be his only way of getting to the rest of the ship, particularly the drive room. The elevator was lowered part of the way, leaving just enough room for Ryley to walk down the ramp on the sides, rather than trying to get the elevator working again.

The rest of the ship was partially flooded. A large pool of water covered the ground and ran into the connecting hallways. It was an eerie sight, seeing hallways he had frequented flooded and empty. It cemented how real this all was.

Ryley jumped into the water, surprised at how deep it was, but thankful for its cool temperature. He swam out of the cargo bay into the next set of hallways. The seamoth bay was to his right, while the drive room was straight ahead. To his left was a sealed door, but nothing his laser cutter wouldn’t be able to handle.

The sealed door led to the prawn bay and the lockers. Maybe he could get some blueprints for a prawn suit while he was here. A prawn suit would be able to go much deeper than his seamoth, and if he made a drill arm, he could mine the larger ore deposits he often came across in his excursions. Ryley whipped out his laser cutter and slowly cut a hole in the center of the door.

The entire locker room was flooded. Papers and scraps of clothes floated about. Entire sections of lockers had been knocked over by sheets of metal and massive support beams. His heart clenched when he turned and saw his own locker, the name “Ryley” written in his shoddy handwriting on display.

Every locker in this room had belonged to a living, breathing person. Now, Ryley would be the last person to ever set foot in here. The strange lack of bodies only made the experience harder. Each locker was a gravestone – a memento of every person who had died in the crash or its aftermath.

And right next to his own, was Ozzy’s.

When Ryley had returned from the jellyshroom caves, he realised that he had never found Ozzy’s body. The discovery of the Degasi bases and the rendezvous had taken priority. But then he started thinking about what would happen when he actually found him. What would it be like to see his decaying body, the life sucked out of his brown eyes and face frozen in terror?

The thought terrified him. Ryley avoided thinking about him as much as he could. He stayed clear of the jellyshroom caves and lifepod 17. He shoved any thoughts or feelings of Ozzy to the very back of his mind, and felt immense guilt whenever he did. He was procrastinating, and it made him sick.

There was no avoiding him here.

Ozzy’s locker was propped open by a fallen beam. There wasn’t much inside - Ozzy had been a simple man after all - but there was a small figurine. Ryley pocketed it as a keepsake.

He also grabbed a handful of salvageable clothes from his locker and tried in vain to ignore the fact that this would be his last time grabbing anything from his locker. After he fixed the radiation leak, he was never coming back to this ship again.

Unwilling to stay in this room any longer, Ryley made his way out the other side towards the prawn bay.

The prawn bay was in particularly bad shape compared to what he had seen so far. There was a giant hole ripped into the floor, which was entirely flooded, and raging fires covered the parts of the floor that weren’t. A handful of semi-intact prawn suits were still dangling from their docking bays, as though they were ready to be taken out.

There was still some juice in his fire extinguisher, so Ryley put out the few fires he could and cleared a path to the prawn fragments. A few quick scans later, and he had complete blueprints to build himself a prawn suit. He snagged a spare storage module from one of the upgrade consoles as well.

“Picking up a faint blackbox signature, originating on the other side of the hull breach in this room.”

The blackbox was close! But how to get to the other side of the hull breach? Ryley leaned over the hole in the floor. The flooded space was a confusing maze of metal, packed to the brim with pipes and wiring. Getting to the other side would be the ultimate test of navigation.

Unless he enlisted his PDA’s help…

“Are you able to track the blackbox signature?” Ryley asked, voice echoing eerily in the empty room.

“Affirmative.”

“Okay, great. Is there some way you can let me know when I’m closer or further away from it?”

“Affirmative. This PDA will release a series of pings. When the pings increase in frequency and pitch, you are getting closer to the signature. Is this satisfactory?”

“Yes, that’s perfect. Thank you,” Ryley said. Oddly enough, the short conversation with the PDA made him feel better than he had in days. He really missed companionship.

Without any more hesitation, Ryley jumped into the water. His PDA began beeping, slowly and at a low pitch. Perfect.

Ryley spun in every direction, looking for a way to move through the mess of pipes. There weren’t many holes big enough for him to squeeze through, but his PDA kept the same slow beeping, meaning they weren’t worth trying anyways.

He spun to his right and found a promising way through. The PDA was beeping slightly faster now. He swam through and spotted another area, big enough for him to traverse. He followed the beeping, anticipation growing as it got faster and higher pitched the further he swam.

Finally, peeking through the mess of pipes and wires, Ryley spotted a hole in the structure, presumably leading to the other room. He swam towards it, squeezing through pipes, confident this was the right way, thanks to his PDA. Under the water he could barely make out the far-off sounds of a reaper roaring. It must be somewhere outside the ship, hunting for prey. Ryley shivered.

When he emerged on the other side of the breach, he poked his head above water and found himself in a hallway. He swam through the next doorway into another flooded room with a huge hole in the floor. His PDA was beeping wildly at this point. He dove through the hole and spotted a lone terminal at the end of the room. The blackbox.

He downloaded the terminal data and swam his way back to the surface to read it.

• Initiated slingshot maneuver around planet 4546B.
• High velocity energy pulse detected on planet surface.
• Emergency distress signal sent to Alterra listening buoy via long-range comm relay.
• Impact detected: Lifepod bays on starboard side compromised; outgoing communications compromised.
• Emergency evacuation initiated.
• Manual piloting transferred to Captain Hollister.
• Lifepods 01-25 launched successfully.
• Entering planetary atmosphere.
• Massive impact registered, drive core shield compromised.
• Emergency bouncebacks received from 8 lifepods on planet surface.
• Human lifesigns detected over long range at T+8hrs: 1.
• Personnel unaccounted for: Non-Essential Systems Maintenance Chief Ryley Robinson.
• Alterra HQ rescue solution received at T+8hrs to [High priority terminal in Captain's Quarters].
• Monitoring equipment failed at T+13hrs.

The blackbox just confirmed what he already knew. He really was the only person left. Every other crewmate had died in some gruesome way or another. It really was just him. All those lifepods he had sought out in hopes of companionship, thinking somehow his scans were wrong…there had never been any chance, any hope. And what was this about a rescue solution in the captain’s quarters?

Maybe it was worth it to go poke around the crew cabins just a little. Ryley made his way back the way he came, listening for lower-pitched pings instead.

He emerged on the other side, back in the prawn bay. He turned off the beeping of his PDA and made his way towards the crew cabins. He gazed up at the main staircase that led to the crew quarters.

The locker room had already been so hard to get through. He had no idea what to expect when he came across his own cabin where Ozzy’s bed was. He frowned as he used his propulsion cannon to clear the way up the stairs. He hadn’t thought about how he would feel when he initially decided to come stop the radiation leaks. His life on the Aurora seemed like a dream, something so far away from him that he could hardly grasp it if he reached out.

Coming back to it, especially in this state, felt strange in a way he couldn’t express. This wasn’t a Degasi base or alien facility, this had been his home for several weeks. He had walked these hallways, had managed a team on this ship.

Now, he wandered these hallways alone and changed. He wasn’t the same person he had been a few weeks ago. Hell, he wasn’t the same person he had been a few days ago! He felt out of sync here – like a ghost haunting an old house that someone else was living in.

Finally, the debris was cleared away and Ryley was able to head up the stairs to the living quarters. He stood in the open doorway, afraid to take a step in and face the reality of the situation.

He gingerly stepped into the hallway. Ozzy’s canteen was to his left and the supply closet was to his right.

He peeked into the canteen, afraid to take a step inside. Tables were knocked over and several hanging wires dripped dangerous sparks on already burning fires. The menu from the day of the crash was still posted and the vending machine with snacks sat off to the side, untouched.

He could picture a group of them, sitting around a table, drinking and laughing after a hard day’s work. Ozzy would be behind the counter, serving people their dinner with a gentle smile. When things slowed down, Ozzy would come sit at their table and join in on the fun – always taking the seat next to Ryley. Their shoulders would just barely touch-

Ryley couldn’t do this anymore. He ripped his gaze away and blinked the tears out of his eyes. This was way harder than he could have ever imagined. Reality was forcing its way through the rosy memories of Ryley’s past, threatening to taint them with its sour sting.

He wouldn’t allow it. His memories were the one place where Ozzy still lived, and he refused to let anything change that. He left the canteen.

Ryley made his way through the cabins, leaving his own, cabin 7, and the captain’s quarters for last. He grabbed a duffel bag from one of them, shoved his new supplies inside and awkwardly strapped it onto his back over top his air tank. It was uncomfortable, but it would do for now.

Finally, he came to cabin 7. Their beds were right where they left them. Their clothes were still in their closets, their posters still hung up on the wall, their beds still unmade. The lack of bodies lent an uncanny air to the room. Ryley’s hands trembled and he found it hard to catch his breath. This was a bad idea. He shut the door and left.

He headed to the captain’s quarters and found the door propped open by some fallen sheet metal. Inside the room was a single double bed, a toy Aurora figurine (how come everyone on this ship had toys but him?), and a data terminal.

Ryley accessed the terminal and downloaded an old, recorded transmission between the captain and Alterra.

“This is an emergency distress call. Aurora is on collision course with planet 4546B. Sending all available environmental data. Please respond with rescue solution. Out.”

“This is Alterra HQ. Attached to this message you should find the blueprints for an escape ship we calculate will be capable of breaking orbit and getting you back to the nearest phasegate. Now it’s designed to use materials you can find in situ, but it’s going to need one hell of a power source. Now, we’ll be sure to-” The message ended abruptly.

Ryley’s databank showed an 8-hour delay between the Captain’s distress call and the Alterra transmission, meaning the Captain had already been dead for hours before the message was received on the terminal.

Rocket blueprints were downloaded to his PDA, which would have been helpful if he knew he wasn’t going to get immediately blasted out of the sky should he try leaving. No, he was stuck here.

Having found all he could, he turned back the way he came. He sped through the cabins and the locker room, not wanting his emotions to resurface. Now he was at the drive room, his original purpose in making the treacherous journey to the Aurora.

“The drive core shielding sustained internal damage during collision. Do not attempt repair without appropriate qualifications.”

Lucky for his PDA, Ryley was more than qualified to make repairs. The drive room was entirely flooded, and the massive drive cores had several large breaches, leaking dangerous radiation into the water.

“Warning: radiation at maximum tolerable level.”

To stop the radiation leaks, he would have to seal each breach, big or small, in the drive cores. He pulled out his repair tool, checked the battery level, and then got to work.

He started with the breaches that were above the water, as they would be the easiest. There was a spare cyclops engine efficiency module that he pocketed as well. He methodically went through the room, sealing any breaches he came across.

Some of the breaches were harder to seal than others, but it was nothing Ryley couldn’t handle. Here, Ryley was in his element. This was what he was trained for. This was his job, and damnit he was good at it.

The underwater breaches were by far the most annoying. Small biters had found their way into the ship and were actively trying to take chunks out of his arms while he worked. Ryley had to keep stopping his repairs to whip out his knife to get rid of the little buggers. Keeping his arm steady while he floated in the water wasn’t easy either.

His PDA kept him informed on how many breaches were left as he went. The whole process took him a little over an hour.

“Drive core breach sealed. Radiation levels decreasing.”

He did it. A loud whir echoed in the large room as the drive core became functional again. The gravity of the situation was not lost on him. He had just prevented the devastation of an entire planet’s ecosystem.

Ryley, little maintenance chief Ryley, did that. He laughed in disbelief. He felt an overwhelming sense of peace and accomplishment. Sure, there was no visible outward effect, but he had saved the planet.

He walked out of the Aurora the way he came in, calm and collected, and feeling infinitely better than he had that morning. He jumped off the platform outside and plunged into the ocean below, the water surrounding him like a hug.

Chapter Text

“Warning: Emergency power only. Oxygen production: offline.”

“Damn it,” Ryley cursed. He trudged his way to his lockers and grabbed some quartz, titanium, and copper. Solar panels were quick and easy to construct, but he needed several of them to power everything in his base, especially because at night they weren’t generating any power.

Ryley was in the process of expanding his base to accommodate a prawn suit. It wasn’t worth it to get rid of the seamoth to fit the prawn in his current moonpool, so he built a second one to store both. He connected the moonpools together and built an upgrade console in the second one as well.

Ryley smiled to himself as he finished building the solar panel. His habitat felt more like a home now. It was a place to come back to at the end of the day. He didn’t have to go out into the ocean as often these days now that he had a water filter and growbeds, which meant he had more time to just rest. Though pure rest now felt foreign to him.

After so many days of non-stop action, Ryley found that if he went too long without going on some kind of excursion, he got restless, antsy.

Ryley had never been one for exercise in his old life. He was a tall, scrawny, gangly guy – awkward instead of imposing. Now he looked like an entirely different person. He looked strong. His shoulders had broadened, and his legs were thick and corded with strong muscle. His hair was longer too, a sign of how long he had been stuck on 4546B.

“Power restored. All primary systems online.”

Ryley hooked his habitat constructor back on his toolbelt and went back inside. There wasn’t much to entertain oneself with when stranded on an ocean planet, but he had several databank entries he hadn’t read yet that he wanted to go through. Bart had been right about the ecology of the planet – it was fascinating, and Ryley loved reading about it.

In another life, maybe Ryley would have been a scientist, maybe he and Bart would have worked together.

God Ryley missed people. He missed music, TV, voices, ambient noise. He sighed deeply. Though he had resigned himself to being stuck on 4546B, and was mostly at peace with that, the thought of never talking to another person again was terrifying. He would likely go insane – and it was only a matter of time at this point. And that was only if the giant sea creatures didn’t get to him first.

Ryley opened his PDA and began scrolling through his databank when a peculiar entry caught his eye.

Alien Facility Locations

He opened the file, puzzled as to where this entry came from.

“Hey, when was this downloaded?” He asked his PDA.

“Transmission was received after attempted interfacing with the Quarantine Enforcement Platform.”

“It was on here that whole time?”

“Affirmative.”

“Huh…” Ryley said to himself as he began reading.

            Intercepted background data regarding further alien facilities elsewhere on the planet.

            Disease Research Facility

• Depth: 800m
• Location: Cave system with extensive fossil record, south-west of enforcement platform.
• Function: Live specimen study.
• Objective: Synthesis of antidote for highly infectious bacterium designated “Kharaa”.

Thermal Power Facility

• Depth: 1200m
• Location: Inside an extensive natural rock formation, in an area of intense volcanic activity.
• Function: Generate energy for all local facilities.

Sanctuary A: Data Corrupted

Sanctuary B: Data Corrupted

Offsite Laboratory: Data Corrupted

Primary Containment Facility: Data Corrupted

In the event of an outbreak, quarantine procedures will be automatically enforced with immediate effect. The quarantine enforcement platform will target all incoming and outgoing craft, to prevent the spread of infection offworld.

Ryley read the entry with wide eyes. Not only did he now have a name for the infection, but now he knew that there were other alien facilities scattered across the planet, deep below the surface.

He wondered if these aliens had ever found an antidote. It would be worth trying to find the research facility just in case. At the very least, they had to have made some progress before the outbreak. Maybe he could pick up where they left off.

Ryley was no scientist, but with the help of his PDA, he was sure that he could figure something out. And if he acquired an antidote, then he could disable the enforcement platform, and then he could leave.

According to the report, the research facility was 800 metres below sea level. If he fully upgraded his seamoth, he could get down there – wherever down there was. Though he would need the prawn suit to get to the power plant. It could go much deeper than the seamoth ever could at the sacrifice of some maneuverability.

Ryley pursed his lips together in thought. He needed more than a depth and a compass direction to go off, especially if the facility was in a cave. Light was scarce the deeper you went, and it was easy to get lost in the inky black of the deep. Having a precise location would save Ryley a lot of time and energy trying to locate it.

Then he remembered – the Degasi. They had said that they were picking up some kind of signal from deep below. Could it have been the research facility?

The HUD of his dive mask still displayed the signal for a proposed Degasi base that was 500 metres deep. Maybe they had detailed scan records or something he could use to help him find this facility.

Ryley glanced out his window and watched as the setting sun painted the ocean with shades of fiery orange and red. He understood why Bart had missed fresh air and sunlight in the end. Even though his base wasn’t as deep as theirs had been, he found himself missing the sun’s warmth, the feeling of solid land beneath his feet, and unfiltered air that smelled of sand and chlorophyll.

The air inside his habitat was too manufactured, too sterile. Even on the Aurora, there had at least been the smell of other people to distract from the scent of harsh metal and plastic. He missed the smell of trees most of all.

Ryley’s home world had vast forests that went as far as the eye could see, filled with trees and plants and bugs. There were lush jungles and oceans, tall mountains and rushing rivers. Life.

But Alterra was slowly chipping away at it, as they typically did.

Ryley had never given their development on his planet much thought during his youth. He had never known a life where Alterra wasn’t there, trimming away the forests and replacing them with lifeless titanium that had been mined on some other planet they had killed.

Now that he was living on his own, on a planet that Alterra couldn’t reach, he found himself appreciating the freedom from their influence. He understood now how delicate an ecosystem could be, and how the slightest change could upset the balance. His heart ached for his home world. The people there wouldn’t understand.

Alterra had them in a vice grip and were too powerful to fend off. It was only a matter of time before his home world smelled of metal too.

The following morning found Ryley preparing for his journey to the Degasi habitat. In all honesty, he felt a little nervous about going. He didn’t know what to expect in the base, what happened to the Degasi down there. He almost didn’t want to find out. He idly scratched his forearm as he took stock of everything he needed – it had been itching all morning and he worried he was getting a rash.

Right as he was about to climb into his seamoth and leave, he heard the subtle beeping of his radio coming from the other room. It had been a while since he had received a radio message. He knew now that it was likely a delayed distress call from another lifepod somewhere, but he pressed play, nonetheless.

A deep, mechanic rumbling sounded from the radio before a menacing, robotic voice spoke.

“Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode: hunting/analyzing. Sharing subject locations with other agents.”

The message ended, sending chills down Ryley’s back. That message didn’t come from any Alterra tech that he recognized, and he had no idea what it could mean. What were these new biological subjects? Why were they being hunted? Who were these agents?

Was this a message picked up from space or was it broadcasted from somewhere on the planet? Because if it was coming from the planet…that meant there was something sentient on it, something intelligent that could communicate with others of its kind.

As far as he knew, the aliens that had constructed the facilities were the only sentient creatures that had been on the planet, and they were long gone. Was there another species that had made 4546B their home?

With a worried glance at his radio, Ryley turned around to head out on his excursion. He had other priorities now.

He climbed in his seamoth and located the beacon for the Degasi habitat. The number 500 stared back at him. He hadn’t gone that deep during his entire time on 4546B, and he was unsure as to what awaited him that far down.

The beacon led him southwest, towards the floating island and the anchor pods. His heartbeat sped up as he remembered what happened the last time he was here…when he was forcibly warped out of his seamoth and attacked.

Ryley had escaped mostly unscathed after their first encounter, though he now had a giant scar on his chest. He didn’t think the creature would show him mercy a second time.

On his way to the habitat, he encountered a large piece of wreckage from the Aurora where he found databoxes containing modules and upgrades for a Cyclops submarine. Ryley hadn’t been planning on building a Cyclops - after all, they were meant for a full crew, and he was just one person. But maybe having one would be useful if he ever had to go somewhere and would be away from his base for a long time. A cyclops submarine was basically a large mobile habitat.

He traveled further into the anchor pod zone, or the Grand Reef as his PDA had dubbed it. It really was a maze in the worst possible way. The plant life wasn’t diverse, and there were small caves and tunnels everywhere.

Ryley felt completely turned around. He couldn’t tell which way was up, and which was down, even with his compass to help him. Getting out of this place was going to be a huge test of his navigation skills.

He wished he had a sonar module for his seamoth, that way he would be able to get a quick scan of the landscape every time he sent out a ping. When the landscape was as dizzyingly confusing as it was, sonar would go a long way at helping him find his way out. It might be worth building when he got back to his base.

As he delved deeper, he saw a handful of jellyrays swimming about. The sunlight no longer reached the ocean floor down here, and every so often he heard the high-pitched sound of feedback that he had come to associate with the teleporting creature. Every time he heard that sound, his heart rate picked up, and he forced the seamoth to go as fast as it could possibly go in the opposite direction.

He had no desire to be anywhere near them.

“Detecting a titanium mass somewhere in this area. Unable to confirm whether it originated on the Aurora.”

That must mean he was getting close, though he could barely see ahead of him even with the bright blue glow of the anchor pods. He continued following the beacon further down, watching as the depth metre increased.

325…350…375…400…

The ocean here was quiet, unusually so. The hair on Ryley’s arms stood up and a chill ran down his spine. Out of the quiet came a deep, but loud, clicking sound. Before Ryley even had time to react, a loud screech followed.

The sound was so unlike anything he had heard on 4546B so far, and though it didn’t sound immediately threatening the way the reaper leviathan’s roar did, Ryley still felt on edge. The screech echoed around him, until it was unclear what direction the sound was coming from.

Ryley’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, lips pressed furiously together as he tried ignoring the sounds. He just followed the beacon down and down and down.

Out of the dark, Ryley could just make out a large shadow of a habitat. He had found the Degasi base at last, but it was not unprotected.

Swimming, or floating, lazily around the metallic structure was a creature Ryley had never seen before. It had ten appendages extending from its transparent bulb-like head with four large eyes that flicked back and forth. It looked like a crab and a squid had been fused together.

The strange creature spun around until it was directly facing his seamoth. Ryley’s mouth went dry as his eyes met the creature’s. It floated towards him, letting out that same deep clicking that Ryley had heard before. Then suddenly, the creature curled in on itself before releasing a loud screech and a bright wave of electricity.

The seamoth lost power.

The lights turned off, as did the oxygen production. Ryley was stuck in a titanium death trap.

Panic rose in his chest like bile. He pressed the emergency power button, but nothing happened. He pressed it again and again and again, but the power stubbornly remained off.

The cockpit suddenly felt too small, the air too thin. He was trapped in a floating metal casket 500 metres deep at the complete mercy of this creature. Even if he made a break for the surface, he would never reach it in time before his oxygen ran out. He was going to die here.

No, stop. Deep breaths, Ryley. Evaluate your options. Stay calm.

There were no other options. He had to swim his way up. He had his seaglide on him – maybe he could make it. But it wasn’t a straight shot up. He would have to navigate his way through the confusing labyrinth that was the Grand Reef in the dark. Every second of oxygen would count.

He stayed in the seamoth as long as he could – not willing to part with its limited oxygen and safety just yet. With his tech powered off, the creature turned around and seemed to leave him be. Though unfortunately for Ryley it stayed close to the Degasi habitat.

After a minute or so of Ryley sitting in the dark, quiet water, he heard the telltale hum of his seamoth powering back on, though the lights were still off. Ryley released a deep breath as relief hit him full force. He would be okay – it was only temporary.

Curious, Ryley turned his external and internal lights back on. The change was almost immediate. The creature screeched once more, deep clicking sounding more furious by the second. It turned back around until it was facing Ryley again, and curled back in on itself, ready to release another wave of EMP.

Ryley flicked his lights off and strained his eyes to see the vague shadow of the creature relax slightly. He decided to keep them off, despite how little light was available this deep.

One or two EMP waves was fine, but Ryley wasn’t keen on finding out just how many was too many for his seamoth to handle. He got out of his seamoth as quietly as he could and swam down towards the habitat.

This one was more modest than the one in the jellyshroom caves. A single tunnel was attached to three multipurpose rooms that were stacked on each other with a second hatch attached to the top level. The entire structure was balanced atop a foundation, which had a few cargo crates scattered about.

Ryley swam towards the crates, eager to see if there was anything of use, but all he found was an abandoned PDA. He played the voice log.

“Came out of nowhere. An alien kraken, bigger than a cyclops,” Paul Torgal’s breathless voice said.

“Tore a hole clear through the reinforced hull. I barely got my breather in time.”

A pause.

Then, angrily, “I told her! I said others would come. The rupture threw me clear of the habitat, and the monster turned and bore down on me. Just as its tentacles came within reach, Maida appeared out of nowhere.”

Ryley wondered what kind of leviathan existed out there with giant tentacles. One thing was for sure, he did not want to meet it.

“She had a seaglide in one hand, a jagged piece of scrap metal in the other. She meant to butcher that beast, or die trying. The last I saw her she had the metal lodged in its neck as the monster did its best to shake her, contorting off into the darkness. I’m certain she got her wish…one way or another.”

“Then I thought I saw a light, deep below me. I hoped maybe Bart had swum clear. I followed it. Now I wonder whether I saw anything at all,” Paul said sadly. It was clear he had lost all hope.

“My oxygen is low. The habitat is gone. I can't see the sky. Something surely has the scent of my blood.”

Ryley floated in shock, nearly forgetting to monitor his oxygen in the process. His mind fumbled to try and process that those haunting words were likely Paul Torgal’s last. Worse yet, his corpse was probably decomposed somewhere on the ocean floor right below him. He could probably find it if he looked hard enough.

The final fate of the Degasi had now revealed itself to him. Maida was carried away by a leviathan, Paul likely drowned or was eaten, and Bart – poor Bart – had succumbed to the Kharaa sickness back on the floating island, completely and utterly alone.

Ryley felt a strange sense of melancholy and deep loneliness overcome him. Exploring the Degasi habitats a decade after they had gone missing was already deeply unnerving. But there was something different about doing it while knowing how their story had ended. This habitat would stay here for decades to come, slipping further and further into decay until it was no longer recognizable.

His own habitat would look like that someday.

He shuddered at the thought. He needed clues about the research facility lest he befall a similar fate. That was why he was here, after all.

He kicked his way up to the open hatch above him and swam into the upper room of the habitat. Instinctively, Ryley pulled out his flashlight, but as he flicked it on, he heard the high-pitched screech of the crab-squid creature. It seemed extremely reactive to any light, so this would have to be an exploration in the dark.

An alien containment unit took up much of the space in the room, though the glass was cracked and any creatures that may have been living in there were long gone. There were two attached observatories. The one to his immediate right was entirely empty, but the one on the opposite side was glowing with the bright blue of an abandoned PDA.

The PDA sat atop a desk as though someone had been working at it five minutes prior. The growing algae and the multitude of papers floating about were the only clues to suggest otherwise. Ryley pressed play.

“I have had it with you risking our lives!” Paul Torgal began angrily.

Marguerit scoffed.

“Oh, stow it, Chief. The kid can't kill this disease without fish to study. I'm just bringin' 'em home.”

“Bart tell her; tell her I’m right!” Paul growled. Though this was only a voice recording, the tension between the three Degasi members was palpable. Ryley felt as though he was standing right there, watching the argument unfold in real time.

“You're both wrong! Marguerit, I can't find out how they resist the bacteria if you slaughter them all,” Bart retorted.

“It ain't always they oblige in coming in alive,” Marguerit said. Ryley could practically hear the smug smile on her face.

“He means you’re being reckless.”

“Father, the outcome's no better if we hole up in here and don't go outside. We have to find a middle way,” Bart pleaded.

“There is no compromise, not while she's on my seabase!”

“Your seabase?!”

Bart let out a frustrated sigh.

“I’m going outside,” he said.

Bart Torgal has disembarked the habitat.

“Bart! Come in, it's dangerous! Dammit boy, I know you can hear me!” Paul shouted after his son.

Then in the background of the recording, came a terrifying sound - the sound of a leviathan. And it wasn’t one Ryley had encountered before.

“Chief. Chief, get off the radio and put on your helmet,” Marguerit said quietly, the quietest she had ever sounded.

“What?”

“Brace!” Marguerit shouted.

The leviathan roared again, and the recording ended with the sounds of the habitat rupturing.

After so many voice logs from so many different people, hearing their last moments never got any easier, especially with the Degasi. After seeing their bases and piecing together their journey on 4546B, Ryley felt like he knew these people. It was like losing a friend he had never had.

The worst part was hearing the creature that killed them. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like hearing it in the moment. And how did Bart escape? There were still so many open questions running through his mind.

Bart had been researching a cure for the disease, but from the voice log, it didn’t seem as though he had been able to get very far. Maybe they hadn’t known about the disease research facility or hadn’t found it. It was clear that Paul was a very strict leader and that he wasn’t keen on exploration. And Marguerit’s rebellious attitude made Paul feel like he needed to tighten the reigns even further.

After a quick trip back to the seamoth to replenish his oxygen, Ryley swam back in and followed the ladder down to the middle level of the Degasi habitat. The room looked like a laboratory. Shelves of beakers, containers, and devices littered the small space. Notes floated about the room, waterlogged and illegible.

Sitting atop one of the desks was a tablet, like the purple ones he had found at the Quarantine Enforcement Platform, but this one was orange and had a different symbol on it. Ryley picked it up and attached it to his toolbelt.

On the ground was an egg, though Ryley had never seen a creature egg of this kind before. He pocketed it, intent on finding a way to hatch it and see what came out. Another PDA sat on the desk, but the voice log didn’t provide him with any new information, in fact it seemed to detail the events right before the previous log.

Marguerit had half-killed a leviathan and dragged it back to their base. Though Ryley disagreed with the way Paul ran things, he had to agree that Maida took far too many unnecessary risks.

Nothing could ever convince him that bringing a living leviathan near a habitat was a good idea. No reason would ever be good enough.

It seemed as though the lowest level of the habitat couldn’t be accessed from where he was, so Ryley swam back outside to look for a way into the final room. He found a broken hallway and made his way in.

The final room was their living space. There were a couple beds, some lockers (one of which had some unopened alcohol that Ryley pocketed), and a coffee machine. Ryley scanned the coffee machine for the blueprints. The fabricated coffee that Alterra tech made definitely wasn’t the best, but at this point Ryley would take what he could get.

A PDA sat in one of the lockers.

“Please stop fighting and listen! We’re sick!” Bart began.

“What?”

“How?”

“You've been coughing, right? Feeling itchy? Blisters?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Marguerit said warily.

“The biometrics would have warned us if we were sick,” Paul argued. Bart sighed, clearly frustrated.

“It’s something new. It’s not in the database.”

“Come on then, what's it gonna do? Turn us inside out? Dissolve us into jelly?” Marguerit joked, though Ryley could hear a hint of fear in her voice.

“It's an alien bacteria. It's everywhere. Every organism on this planet. It's altering our genetic code,” Bart said solemnly.

Paul hummed in contemplation.

“How are the creatures surviving if they’re infected?” Ryley wanted to know that as well, perhaps it provided the secret to an antidote.

“I don’t know yet,” Bart sighed. Shit.

“Want me to cut some of 'em open for you? Find out what makes 'em tick?” Of course that was Maida’s immediate reaction.

“No,” Bart replied curtly. He was clearly frustrated with Maida as well.

“Just tell me what you need, son. Materials? Equipment?”

“Just…can I have some quiet? I need time to think.”

There was nothing left in the rest of the base, so he returned to his seamoth, feeling defeated. Ryley was just as clueless as to the facility location as he was before he came here. And Bart hadn’t made any progress in finding a cure either.

He was back where he started – only an approximate depth and compass direction to guide him to the facility. He needed to find it if he wanted to survive. It was his only remaining hope. In fact, he was the only remaining hope for the planet’s survival as well.

With no signs of intelligent life, besides whatever had left that creepy radio message, Ryley was the only one on the planet that had the ability to cure this disease. Whoever had been here before had died or fled thousands of years ago, leaving behind large, abandoned facilities as the only evidence that they were ever here to begin with.

He was the only thing standing in the way of the complete obliteration of 4546B’s rich ecosystem. He held the fragile fate of the planet in the gloved palms of his hands.

Ryley nearly blacked out at the realisation. He braced himself on the seamoth’s console as he breathed deeply. It felt like the universe was playing some kind of sick joke on him. Why did this fall onto his shoulders? What was so special about him that he was the only survivor left, that he was the only one that could save the planet?

He had already prevented extinction once when he sealed the radiation leaks, and now he was being made to do it again.

He couldn’t afford to be selfish because if the planet’s nature was destroyed, he would soon follow. In a way, he was part of the ecosystem now. He relied on it to sustain himself, and whether it knew it or not, it relied on him too.

Ryley released a deep breath as his reality settled. He had no choice but to find a cure for Kharaa. With thoughts of alien facilities and seamoth upgrades in his head, Ryley made the lengthy journey back to his habitat.

The sky had long gone dark, and the physical toll of the day was wearing heavily on him. He wanted nothing more in this very moment than to flop down onto his bed and sleep for 12 hours. But the persistent beeping of his radio delayed that desire a little longer.

Ryley pressed play and listened to the message. His heart dropped into his stomach when the same menacing voice from earlier spoke.

“Subject 11783 destroyed. Mode: Patrol. New targets unaccounted for: 1.”

Chapter Text

It was the middle of the night and Ryley was wide awake. He was staring at his ceiling, shivering in fear. Though he had no proof, he was sure that he was the unaccounted-for target from the radio message. Something was hunting him, and it wanted to kill him. He tugged the covers closer to his chin, feeling like a little kid hiding from monsters.

You’re safe in your habitat. You’re okay. You’re alive.

A gasopod floated by his window and Ryley flinched at the sudden appearance. It was strange…he hadn’t felt this anxious in a long time. The last time he felt like this was probably his first night on 4546B. Ryley could handle deep seated panic – after all, it was always temporary, but lingering anxiety and dread? They were entirely different beasts. Ryley let out a deep breath. He pressed his fingers to his neck and felt for his pulse – it was lightning fast.

He hated the thought that there was something out there actively hunting him down, and he had no idea what it looked like or where it was. Ryley was used to being prey by now, but passive prey was different from active prey. He didn’t want to be constantly looking over his shoulder, terrified at what might emerge from the dark.

His heart thumped quickly, the pulse pounding against his fingers. As he laid there, he began counting his heartbeats out loud.

“One…two…three…four…”

His pulse gradually began to slow down, much to his relief. The gentle sound of the waves lapping against his habitat helped soothe him, driving away the lingering anxiety. Soon Ryley’s eyelids drooped, and he fell into a fitful sleep.

~

“Ugh,” Ryley groaned as he stared at his dark circles in the mirror. Last night was rough and it showed. He felt a little better knowing no one was here to see just how tired he looked. He could only imagine the comments his coworkers would’ve given him.

Ryley pulled out his habitat constructor and flipped through his blueprints. Ah, there it was – the blueprints to make a coffee machine.

After about a month without it, the very thought of a cup of coffee made Ryley salivate. Frankly, he didn’t know why it had taken him so long to build the coffee maker. Constructing it was quick, and before he knew it, he was pressing the “brew” button.

The sound of the coffee dripping into the cup was music to his ears. The smell wafted into the air of his room, reminding him of mornings in Ozzy’s café. Before their shifts started, they would all grab a cup of coffee and sit around a table, waking up together.

“Coffee completed,” The machine quipped, snapping Ryley out of his thoughts.

Ryley cupped his hands around the warm mug and took a nice, slow sip. The bitter and smoky flavour danced across his tongue. The caffeine quickly worked its way into his system, waking up his brain and body.

It was such a simple thing, but it made him so happy. He could almost picture himself in the café, drinking the same synthetic Alterra coffee. The taste was so nostalgic, that for the first time in a long time, Ryley missed work. He missed the Aurora.

He missed Ozzy.

Life used to be so simple – boring, but simple. There were no leviathans chasing him, or crabsquids to kill his electronics. The biggest threat had been getting fired, and that wasn’t something that happened often on a long-haul charter mission.

Ryley sighed as the coffee settled in his stomach. Though it was waking him up, it was also bringing back a lot of the anxiety that had made it difficult to sleep last night.

Something was hunting him, and because he was the last target, that left all of these “agents” available to go looking for him. He also had no idea what they looked like or whether they were nearby or somewhere else on the other side of the planet.

A thought occurred to him that made his blood run cold.

The other biological subjects mentioned in that first message…were they the other crewmates - the ones whose lifepods had been ripped open?

“Shit…” Ryley said to himself, running a hand through his hair exasperatedly. It was the only explanation that made any kind of sense.

Whatever was after him had the power to rip open a lifepod as if it was nothing. Did that mean they could do the same to his habitat? Habitat titanium was a bit thicker and sturdier than the lifepod, but if these agents were as strong as they seemed, it probably wouldn’t matter when his time came.

Well, he wasn’t just going to sit here scared in his habitat. Ryley wasn’t helpless anymore, and there were ways he could protect himself. His dive suit didn’t offer a lot of protection and was easily ripped. The first order of business would be to make a reinforced dive suit – it would protect him from most sharp objects and could keep him cool in extremely high temperatures.

To make it, he needed titanium, diamonds, and synthetic fibres. Ryley already had plenty of titanium on hand, as well as a small supply of diamonds from the islands. The synthetic fibres, however…He had no idea how to make them. The PDA didn’t have a blueprint for them, which meant Ryley would have to go around searching for ingredients or resources to scan so that the PDA could figure out how to go about making them.

And while he was out looking for resources, he would be left vulnerable. Great.

Ryley finished up his coffee and made his way downstairs to start the day. He ate some lantern fruit and potatoes and chugged a bottle of water, feeling refreshed and ready to start his exploration.

Before he went anywhere, he wanted to make some upgrades to his seamoth. The seamoth was made with customization in mind, so there were lots of upgrades available for him to craft and install. The most useful upgrade, besides depth modules, was the sonar. In the parts of the ocean where it got too dark to see your hand in front of you, the sonar was your best friend.

The sonar allowed you to see the topography of the sea floor and would also highlight any creatures that were hiding in that too dark ocean, like reapers that lurked in cloudy waters. And it just so happened that the sonar upgrade was easy to make, only requiring magnetite and copper wire, which Ryley had in abundance.

He crafted the module with ease, installed it in his seamoth, and set off.

In his seamoth, Ryley took stock of his options. To the east was the crash zone where the reapers were, south was the Grand Reef (and he didn’t feel like going back there so soon), to the north was the quarantine enforcement platform, but he didn’t really know what was out west. He had explored a bit of the sparse reef, where he had found lifepod 19, but he wasn’t sure what lay beyond that.

West it was.

Ryley flew past the reefbacks as he traveled through the grassy plateau. The deeper he went, the harder it got to see, and the more the terrain became unrecognizable. But now he had a sonar module. He pressed a button on his console and watched as with a high-pitched ping, the world in front of him lit up in red.

The sonar highlighted every fish, near or far, and every hill or dip in the earth. Off to the left, Ryley saw a huge trench stretch out in front of him. If he hadn’t used his sonar, it was possible that he would have passed over it. He flew his seamoth over the trench and stared down into the inky water.

There was no telling how deep the trench was – it was too dark to see the bottom and the sonar didn’t go down that far when he tried it. He knew the oceans of 4546B went far deeper than he thought possible, but something about the endless void of the deep was thoroughly unsettling. Every ounce of his being was screaming at him to turn away, to not go down there, but he would eventually have to venture deeper if he wanted to cure the Kharaa.

Deep in his subconscious, Ryley felt urged to go down into the trench, as though there was a string attached to him, and someone was pulling on the other end. Without realising, he was tilting the controls downwards, driving the seamoth into the chasm. In his mind he was practically screaming at himself to take his hands off the controls, but his arms would not move. His heartbeat sped up as panic set in. He wasn’t in control of his actions.

So, into the trench he went.

The change in the atmosphere was immediate. In the trench there was no light, no sound – nothing. The water was unnaturally still with small bits of sediment floating about. Everything felt…muffled.

There weren’t many fish swimming about, just the occasional straggler from the plateau that had likely gotten lost. Something about this trench was so ominous that even the fish were avoiding it.

The sunlight was long gone, and even the seamoth lights weren’t enough to see the sea floor. He could barely see ten feet in front of him. Ryley felt like he was being watched, like there was something lurking in the dark waters waiting to strike. The hairs on his arms stood up and a chill ran down his spine.

As he dove further down, a weight suddenly lifted off Ryley. He hesitantly attempted to lift his arms and sighed in relief as he was in control of his actions once again. He had no idea what had happened, what was compelling him to go deeper. What could possibly be able to control his actions like that? And would it do it to him again and lead him to his death, with Ryley at its whims, helpless to stop it?

Ryley shook his head and rid himself of the thoughts. Maybe it was all in his head. He sent out another sonar ping and watched as strange, tree-like branches lit up in red at the bottom of the trench.

Tall, white stalks of what looked like leafless trees spiralled up from the ground, with thin, crawling branches. At the base of the stalks were strange, crimson blobs, contrasting eerily with the bone white of the tree. Littering the ground around the strange trees were plants that looked like acid mushrooms that had been drained of all colour.

Curious, Ryley got his scanner ready and opened his cockpit. Ryley shivered as he swam out into the chilly water. If it weren’t for the bright, white stalks letting off some light, it would have felt like he was swimming into the void.

“This ecological biome matches 7 of the 9 preconditions for stimulating terror in humans,” The PDA quipped, startling Ryley in the unnatural quiet of the trench.

Well, that was one thing the PDA had right. This place was too dark, too quiet, too…unnatural. The fauna looked so alien compared to what he was now used to in the shallower biomes. He didn’t know what was potentially lurking in the shadows, and he couldn’t see whether there was anything there. The trench just got deeper and deeper.

The creatures hunting him would make easy prey out of him in an area like this.

Ryley swam down to the strange mushrooms and scanned one. The PDA designated it as a deep shroom, pigment all but gone, but with similar properties to regular acid mushrooms. Then he scanned one of the giant stalks and paled when the databank entry popped up.

Bloodvines.

Though it was just a unique species of kelp, the name was enough to be extremely off-putting. According to the PDA, the red blobs were semi-hardened deposits of a substance known as blood oil, which apparently acted as the main food source for whatever life could exist this deep. Ryley gently pried off a pustule and pocketed it.

“New blueprint acquired: Synthetic Fibres.”

Yes! That had been much easier than he had anticipated. Ryley pulled out his PDA and checked the list of things he would need for the synthetic fibres. He would need benzene and fiber mesh, and to make benzene he needed the blood oil. He plucked another chunk of blood oil off the base of the stalk before swimming back up towards his awaiting seamoth.

Without a single glance back into the trench, Ryley sped away back to the safety and warmth of the shallows.

~

Back in his habitat, Ryley stripped out of his radiation dive suit and pulled on the new reinforced suit he had created. The suit itself was sleek and felt heavier than even the lead-lined radiation suit and had a stylish orange trim. The material felt strong and resistant to anything that could try to take a bite out of him.

Ryley felt a lot safer in the new suit. Whatever was hunting him would have a much harder time killing him with this.

But now that he got that out of the way, he needed a game plan. He needed a strategy for finding the other alien facilities that supposedly lurked in the farthest depths of 4546B. Ryley pulled out his PDA and began planning.

Priority one would be to find the disease research facility, but to do that, he needed his seamoth to be able to reach 800 metres, which meant some significant depth upgrades. A second option would be to craft a prawn suit. He had prepared his habitat to accommodate one, but he hadn’t built it yet. The prawn suit was a huge resource drain, and it would take a long time to gather everything he needed to build it. And even once he had a prawn suit, he needed to also craft arm attachments and other upgrades.

The seamoth would likely be the best option. He just needed more rubies to craft the depth module, and then he would be able to go significantly deeper. The prawn suit went insanely deep by default, but was harder to move around in, and if Ryley was actively searching for something, he preferred having freedom of movement.

He remembered finding an abundance of rubies by Officer Keen’s lifepod in the sparse reef, but he had taken all of those. It was possible there were still more in that area, but Ryley didn’t know if he would be able to deal with seeing the lifepod again after having been to the floating island.

He hadn’t revisited a single one, and for good reason. It was the same reason he tried not to think of Ozzy, and the same reason why being on the Aurora was so difficult. The memories were like ghosts and seeing the gravesite always brought them back to haunt him.

No, he wouldn’t go back to the sparse reef just yet. There was still a lot more to explore directly west of him anyways. He had been distracted by the blood kelp trench before, but this time he would continue past the trench and see what lay beyond.

But that was a job for tomorrow. For now, he would catch up on some much-needed sleep.

~

Ryley slept much better than the night before. He sat up in bed and stretched his muscles, feeling his back pop as he did so. He grabbed a cup of synthetic coffee and ate a breakfast of lantern fruit before packing his seamoth with supplies.

He was always careful to bring medkits and water whenever he was venturing far from his habitat. Even with his new reinforced suit, he wasn’t invincible. Once Ryley finished preparing, he hopped in the seamoth and turned west again.

This time, he flew right over the blood kelp trench. He refused to be pulled down there again, especially because he didn’t know how deep it went, and it wouldn’t do for his seamoth to get damaged.

As he continued, the light that had been prominent in the grassy plateau slowly diminished until Ryley could hardly see a thing. The red grass thinned out until there was nothing left on the ocean floor but sand. One click of his sonar revealed sand dunes that sprawled for what looked like miles.

There were a handful of small rocky formations dotting the endless sand and small patches of light vegetation. The ocean around him quieted – not in the eery, muffled way that it had in the trench, but because there were less fish and other creatures, there wasn’t anything around to make noise. It was just naturally quiet.

Ryley didn’t know if he liked it.

In the distance, a sizeable wreck lay in the midst of the dunes. Well, at least this trip wouldn’t be a complete waste. He parked his seamoth above the wreck, angling his lights to shine into the ruined heap of metal, and dove down to see what he could find.

He held his flashlight in his hand, had his laser cutter and scanner strapped to his belt, and had several extra batteries in his pockets. He had wreck-exploring down to a science at this point.

As he explored the rooms, he found a few supply crates with some extra water, and several prawn suit arm fragments. He scanned the ones he didn’t have, such as the grappling arm. Given the terrain he had seen underwater, the grappling arm would be a lifesaver, allowing him to pull himself out of areas he couldn’t jump out of.

What caught his eye though, were the databoxes he found laying around. There were three, one for an ultra-high capacity air tank, one with a depth module for a cyclops, and a cyclops shield generator. These blueprints were priceless, especially if he decided to build a cyclops. And the upgraded air tank would be amazing, allowing him to stay outside his seamoth for longer.

Satisfied, Ryley began to swim back towards his seamoth. But then the light of his flashlight caught something in the distance. His breath hitched when it came into full view.

It was a warper, the name he had given to the creature that had teleported him out of his seamoth and attacked him. But oddly enough, the warper’s focus was not on him.

A lone peeper was swimming near the wreck, though it was clear that something was wrong with it. The peeper was covered in glowing green spots, a symptom Ryley had come to associate with the Kharaa infection, and was swimming somewhat erratically. It was likely in the latter stages of the infection, if Ryley had to hazard a guess.

The warper was slowly stalking the peeper, approaching it with an almost lethal laziness. When the creature got in range of the peeper, it let out a high-pitched screech, a horrible mix of mechanical and biological sounds, and brought its vicious claws down on the poor peeper.

The fish died instantly, and the warper appeared…satisfied? It didn’t try to eat the dead peeper like most other creatures would, but instead just let its corpse float about in the water.

Weirder still, a small school of fish swam by the warper, all perfectly healthy with no signs of Kharaa. It showed no signs of hostility and simply observed them. The fish swam away, seemingly unaware of the potential danger they were in, and the warper seemed oddly content to let them go about their business.

Then the warper finally noticed Ryley watching all of this unfold, and began pursuing him, slow and deliberate.

Shit.

Ryley swam quickly back into his seamoth and kicked it in gear as fast as he could. He wasn’t going to push his luck today.

As he retreated to his habitat, Ryley reflected on the odd behaviour of the warper. The warper only seemed interested in him, and that one peeper. What did they have in common and why did it make the warper hostile?

Then it dawned on him with chilling clarity – the warper was only going after creatures that were infected with Kharaa. Though he had no outward symptoms (yet), the quarantine enforcement platform and his PDA had both made it clear that the bacteria was present in his blood.

Oh my god.

That was why the warper that had attacked him had only cut him shallowly. It was testing his blood. It was checking to see if he was infected because he showed no outward signs. It made so much sense now. The warpers, for whatever reason, were killing anything that carried the Kharaa.

It was such a strange revelation and Ryley didn’t really know what to make of it. He still didn’t understand the why. Was there something about the bacteria that made the warpers hostile? Or was there some other reason?

That would be a mystery for another day. It was starting to get dark out and he already had a hard time seeing anything in this area of the ocean.

He continued through the dunes slowly before a horrifyingly familiar sound tore through the quiet, a sound he had hoped he would never have to hear again.

“Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?”

Ryley’s heart nearly stopped before it picked back up again at twice the speed. He shakily raised a hand and pressed the button for the sonar. Sure enough, above the dunes in front of him were the terrifying figures of at least three reaper leviathans, swimming around searching for prey.

Searching for him.