Elissa Shepard had lived on ships for her whole life. She was born on the Systems Alliance ship, the SSV Einstein on 11th April 2154, and spent much of her early childhood moving from ship to ship. Her brother John was born when she was 4 years old, on the 8th of October 2158. When she was 5 she already knew she wanted to be like her parents and join the alliance, to be the captain of a ship, like her mother was going to be when Admiral Hackett was resigned, or promoted to admiral, and spent a lot of time learning about the basic alliance lessons. At 8 years old Elissa had decided, after her emerging biotic talents came to light, to be a vanguard and started to learn basic knife use and an unrefined, if effective form of close-quarters combat. By her ninth birthday she had been deemed proficient and already knew basic gun safety and mid-level biotic theory. On July 1st, her mother was transferred to the SSV Kilimanjaro, taking John with her, and stating that she'd be back to get them when her father's transfer went through at the end of the month, and that she was staying here to keep him occupied so he didn't get to lonely without her.
On the 27th of July, her future was warped, skewed and mangled till it was almost unrecognizable, when the drive core failed, the ship crashed and her father died, and in the ensuing panic nobody thought to notice that she wasn't on the life pods until they had been ejected. As such, the last thing she remembered before succumbing to her shock and panic was seeing the dusty brown planet, surface riddled with scars and craters as her ship hurtled uncontrollably towards it.
When Elissa regained consciousness she found herself parched, hungry and alone on a planet she didn't recognize, a dull ache all over, and a sharp pain in the ring and middle fingers that made her think it was broken, it seemed barren, empty ruins covered the landscape and a dry, dusty wind howled through the rubble. Firstly, Elissa decided, thinking back to 'basic Alliance survival skills Chapter 1'; If you find yourself stranded, first, ensure that you have the necessities, food, water and shelter, food and water are standard in most emergency supplies.
Digging through the rubble Elissa found the mangled remains of the mess hall, vomiting, then blocking out the acrid smell of burnt flesh emanating from within, and steeling her senses, Elissa made her way inside to search for supplies,
Approaching where she believed the supplies where Elissa found herself glad for her height as she crawled through a gap in the twisted metal, and stepped neatly past some overhead cables, there! That's where the supplies should be! Elissa ran forward, clambering past the wreckage in front of it she made her way over and, she thought losing her Momentary elation as she noticed what was in front of the supplies. Gagging, Elissa pushed the burning remains of crewman Lynch, an Young man she remembered, with a kind smile that offset his loud Irish accent, that always gave her extra rations "you're a growing girl", he'd say, with a sky wink. Elissa started to cry as she began to laboriously dragged the emergency supplies out of the wreckage, only to be confronted with the fact that she couldn't lift it over the beam behind her, and in a moment of angry desperation she screamed, a blue glow, flecked with darker shades pulsing out from her entire body, and the supply crate got suddenly lighter until she fell past the beam, the crate landing lightly on the ground by the hole in the wall of ruined metal and debris.
Once she got clear of the wreckage Elissa let go of the supplies, dropped to the floor and sobbed, dry heaving all the while, exhausted emotionally and physically from her accidental biotic display, she curled into a ball and fell asleep next to the supplies, the hot unyielding sun bearing down on her.
Elissa woke a few hours later, as the sun passed behind a ruin and the sudden change of light intensity startled her awake, as she rubbed her eyes she took note of the fact her skin was mildly burned, so, whilst thanking her parents for her dark bronze skin Elissa looked up, noticing the fading light with mild shock, it must be almost night, how long is a day on this planet?, and turned to take stock of the supplies whilst she still had time. Opening the box about laying the contents on the ground before her she had 40 liter bottles of water, enough for about 33 days, and enough assorted rations to last her for at least 3 months, as well as a that she could write her experiences in, to help stave off the maddening embrace of solitude. Drinking a liter of water immediately, and eating one and a half ration bars, she then Put the supplies back, and sealed the box, finding a small alcove in the rubble a meter or do off the ground 'shelter is just as important, if none is provided, then find done where, preferably raised off the ground, away from potential predators, and protected from the elements.' perfect Elissa climbed in, and succumbed to sleep once more deciding that she would write her experience in the datapad from now on, along with her level of supplies.
Day 2
I spent most of my time on the ship today after my half a bar for breakfast to find some spare clothes (that weren't too damaged) in case something happens to the ones I'm wearing, and spent the rest of the day tearing some rough bandages out of my pants, I used four of the thin ones to bandage my hands according an old medical guide I read recently, I have never been happier that I inherited your work ethic. I hope you find me soon mom,
Elissa Shepard
Supplies
One Liter Bottles (Water) x 38
One Liter Bottles (Empty) x 2
Ration Bars (Assorted) x 119
Spare T-shirt (found on ship today) x 2
Spare Pants (ripped short) (found on ship today) x 1
Rough cloth bandages (wide) (ripped from pants) x 8
Rough cloth bandaged (thin) ripped from pants) x 4
Day 6
With nothing else to do, I've spent my time exercising, i can now run the perimeter of the wreckage twice without stopping if i pace myself, when I'm going full speed i make it a third of the way around, I will need to find a source of water by the end of the month however, if i want to survive. Mom, where are you?
Elissa Shepard
Supplies
One Liter Bottles (Water) x 33
One Liter Bottles (Empty) x 7
Ration Bars (Assorted) x 115
Spare T-shirt (found on ship today) x 2
Spare Pants (ripped short) (found on ship today) x 1
Rough cloth bandages (wide) (ripped from pants) x 8
Rough cloth bandaged (thin) ripped from pants) x 4
Day 14
I saw one of those weird space monkeys today, pyjaks I think they're called, next time one goes past I'm going to follow it, maybe I'll find some water, but for now I'm going to check the wreckage for something i should have looked for when I got the supplies out.
Elissa Shepard
Supplies
One Liter Bottles (Water) x 25
One Liter Bottles (Empty) x 15
Ration Bars (Assorted) x 107
Spare T-shirt (found on ship today) x 2
Spare Pants (ripped short) (found on ship today) x 1
Rough cloth bandages (wide) (ripped from pants) x 8
Rough cloth bandaged (thin) ripped from pants) x 4
Day 15
I found what I was looking for, had to smash the window to get into the med-bay though, which only happened when I got frustrated at the fact nothing I did seemed to apply enough force to break it and I wrapped my hand in what seemed to be a field of blue biotics, (which seemed a little darker than when I used them on the crate), but I got the medi-gel! Emergencies Only!
Elissa Shepard
Supplies
One Liter Bottles (Water) x 25
One Liter Bottles (Empty) x 15
Ration Bars (Assorted) x 107
Spare T-shirt (found on ship today) x 2
Spare Pants (ripped short) (found on ship today) x 1
Rough cloth bandages (wide) (ripped from pants) x 8
Rough cloth bandaged (thin) ripped from pants) x 4
Medi-Gel (For Emergencies Only) x 3
Day 32
I have just over 1 litre of water left and I haven't seen a pyjak since the first one a few weeks ago, and I need to find water soon or I'll never get back to mom, or john. Please, find me soon
Elissa Shepard
Supplies
One Liter Bottles (Water) x 1
One Liter Bottles (Empty) x 39
Ration Bars (Assorted) x 88
Spare T-shirt (found on ship today) x 2
Spare Pants (ripped short) (found on ship today) x 1
Rough cloth bandages (wide) (ripped from pants) x 8
Rough cloth bandaged (thin) ripped from pants) x 8
Medi-Gel (For Emergencies Only) x 3
Day 33
Finally a pyjak! I'm going to follow it now; hopefully I'll be able to find some water...
Elissa Shepard jumps up, thankful for the fact that she might be able to find some more water now, grabbing as many empty bottles as she can comfortably carry she hurriedly clambers over the rocks, grateful for her now healed finger, still a bit sore, but unlikely to impede her progress, and heads off after the pyjak.
She almost loses track of it when it makes a sharp left, into some sort of old bunker, but she manages to follow it inside, finding the sudden change in light jarring, but as her eyes slowly adjust, she notes with rowing frustration that she can't see were the pyjak has gone, so she decides to look around.
A lot of the doors are blocked with rubble but she does find what seems to be a bathroom, and takes in the fact that there seems to be a set of sinks, hurriedly she runs over and turns one of the taps, it splutter, throwing out dust, then a trickle of rusty red water slowly comes out, managing to fill half a bottle before it stops, Elissa gets angry and her biotics lash out again, ripping the sinks and front layer from the wall then shredding them apart, dangerous, but they deem to act out with my emotions, maybe I can brute force my biotics? She thinks, deciding that it's worth looking into and finally looking around at the series of pipes which seem o all lead out of one wall, following them out, she slowly makes her way, stopping occasionally to use her anger to reveal more pipes toward what seems to be a store room, a huge water purification system set into the back wall, which leads into a giant rusted set of containers.
The purification system broke long ago, and only one of the containers isn't full of holes, but it's worth a look. She carefully, not wanting to put any holes in the (mostly) undamaged container, climbs up one of the broken one next to it, and opens the lid to look inside, about ¾ of the way full she thinks as she looks inside, elation growing, and noting a ladder to get in and out Elissa drops inside.
Filling, and drinking one of the bottles immediately, she finally realizes that she doesn't know the way back to the ship, having failed to pay attention in the excitement of following the pyjak.
Elissa has found herself lost, and now that she has water, she has no food...