My Life's Crash
Two weeks, it has been two weeks since my ship, The Celestial, crashed on this planet. The crash killed all of the crew, except me, Mac Matthews (the ship's head mechanic), and Kat Hiroshima (one of the medical staff). My role as the captain died with the ship. Now, I lead us and try to keep us together. Our original plan, before the crash, was to explore this planet to see if it was suitable for life, but a meteor stuck us and the impact cracked our power cells. This caused the propulsion thrusters to malfunction and launch us into the planet's gravitational pull. Surprisingly, when we crashed we didn't get obliterated. The ship itself is still mostly functional, but the fuel cells are out of our repair capabilities, because the fuel cells are leaking large amounts of radiation and the radiation suits were destroyed in the crash. Due to this, we had to seal the engine room to prevent the radiation from filling the ship and killing us. But, we managed to repair the long-ranged radio and radioed The Celestial's twin ship, The Lunar, for help.The response we received was, "Well, we are not in a situation to immediately assist you at the moment, but we will send help soon." As such, we've been here, in the half active ship, for two weeks. However, today I was going to exit the ship.
I prepared myself mentally as I put on the Pressurized Atmosphere Suit or the PAS as I call it. With the suit uncomfortably equipped, I turned on the built in communicator. "Mac, open the door." I spoke with uncertainty. "I am opening the door now, Sir." Mac reported as the cargo door lowered to the earth of the unexplored planet. Breathing deeply, I began walking toward the opened cargo door. I was soon outside of the ship and the door to the cargo bay slowly rose back up, and left me standing outside of the ship. "Sir, are you alright?" Mac asked through the communications device. "Y-yea, I'm okay as of right now." I stuttered as I began checking the small console built in to the left wrist of my PAS. The statistics and information I was currently looking at were: the atmosphere's oxygen levels, the level of toxic gases in the air, and if there were any life signs nearby. The oxygen levels were high enough to breathe, and the toxicity of the atmosphere mimicked Earth's atmosphere, and the bonus was that there were no life forms near me, at all. However, there were unknown life forms, but they were easily 25-30 miles away. I looked up from the console and scanned the horizon. There was a tree line and a large plain that lead to a large mountain. "So, what should be explored first?" I asked the ship operators. "Go check out the trees. If the air really is breathable, I don't want to stay cooped-up in this ship." Kat responded through my ear piece. I waited for Mac's answer, but it never came so I shrugged and began walking towards the tree line. "Alright then, I'll let you know when I get there." I responded to Kat. After the rather short 1.576 mile walk (yes, I had the PAS's systems track it), I turned my communications unit on. "This is Captain Gunther McIntosh to the Celestial, come in." I said trying to sound like I had a higher rank than I did. "Yea, yea, I hear you fine, unfortunately." Mac replied rather sarcastically. "Oh, and your any better." I barely heard Kat say to Mac. She had so much sarcasm in her voice that her statement was practically drowning in sarcasm. I laughed quite heartily. "Good to know that we all can tolerate each other." I spoke with a little sarcasm. I was at the edge of the forest now, but something didn't feel right. "I'm at the forest, but something doesn't feel right." I informed my fellow crewmembers. I checked my arm console. There was something wrong, as in there was something coming out of the forest toward me. If I said I was calm, I lied. "Mayday, mayday, I'm detecting a life form coming out of the forest. I'm falling back to the ship." I nearly shouted as I turned and began to run back towards the ship. "We see the life form. Oh, no! Run as fast as you can!" Mac yelled through the communications systems. .726 miles left to safety, but… I tripped on a rock. I fell on my face, hit my face on the helmet's visor, and blacked out.
As I regained consciousness, I felt strangely light. I opened my eyes to find myself in… something that resembled a cocoon, but instead of a shell like covering, I was in some kind of green goo. I tried to move my hand, it worked, but I ruptured the whole cocoon structure, and fell out onto a floor made of some kind of organic material that was not dirt. Picking myself up, I examined the area I was in closer. I was definitely in a hive of some kind. I quickly checked if my standard issue H-X-5 Projection Pistol (basically a laser pistol) was in its holster. It wasn't there. I forgot to grab it. Bringing up my left wrist, I checked my console for a way out. There was a quick way out from here. I just had to get through a swarm of red dots. Using my console, I activated my Heads up Display (HUD, for those who don't know) which showed a mini-map, oxygen levels, the amount of toxins in the air, and my suits integrity. My distance tracker under my mini-map said I was 2.349 miles from the ship. Equipped with this information, I began to walk toward the exit of the hive. The hive was active. I saw things moving out the corners of my eyes, and many red dots moving near me on my mini-map. As I left the chamber of the hive I was cocooned in, it got darker, so I turned on my helmet's spotlights. The thing I saw in front of me was… different. It appeared as a 3' 11'' bug with equine-like features. It hissed at the sudden, bright light and scurried away. At this point, I wasn't having this, so, I bolted. In almost no time at all, I found myself outside the hive. This entrance, I assume there are more, was basically a cave in a mountain, in the forest. I deactivated my spotlights, and began to trek back to the ship. At 1.631 miles I was out of the forest, and I opened the communications channel. "Celestial, this is Captain Gunther McIntosh, come in Celestial. Celestial?" I said through the communications system. There was no response. I could see the ship; I had been able to see it since I left the forest, but the silence is what panicked me. At 1.150 miles I began running as fast as I could in a PAS, which was pretty fast. When I arrived at the ship, I was shocked at the sight I was met with.