Chapter One: A Planet Of Water

Sonic thrashed around in the water with panic, trying everything he could to stay afloat so he wouldn't drown. He didn't know if he was alone or not, but in his panic, he still screamed for help.

"Help! Somebody!" He cried, gargling a mouthful of saltwater as he screamed. "I can't… swim!"

"Stop thrashing, Faker! I got you!" A rough voice cried out sternly to him.

The blue hedgehog felt a pair of arms grab him, pulling him above the water and over a pair of shoulders. He coughed and sputtered out the foul tasting water as he held on tightly to his savior. "Shadow…"

"I got you, just calm down." The black and red hedgehog assured him.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know… but it looks like we aren't the first ones."

Sonic was confused at first until he looked over to where Shadow was staring. His eyes widened in astonishment at the sight before him. "Woah."

A giant space cruiser of some sort laid above the ocean's surface. It was obvious it had crash landed like they had. It was in bad shape, falling apart and on fire at some places, but still mostly intact. It must've just crashed.

"There's a lifepod over there." Shadow nodded over to a lifepod, bobbing above the water with a bright red number 5 on it. "We can get out of the water in there."

"Wait, Shadow. What if somebody's in there?" Sonic asked unsurely.

"Do you wanna stay in the water?" Shadow frowned at him. "This is obviously an alien planet, and we don't know what's in this ocean. There could be something extremely dangerous lurking around right below our feet."

"Hm, good point." Sonic agreed. "Ok. Let's go."

Shadow nodded and started swimming towards the lifepod, with Sonic holding tightly onto his back. The blue hedgehog couldn't stop looking over at the space cruiser, wondering what could've made it crash… and if anyone that was on it was still alive.

Shadow swam up to the side with the ladder and grabbed onto it, holding himself in place as he turned his back so that Sonic could grab onto the ladder and climb in. "Go on. I'm right behind you."

"Ok." Sonic nodded and climbed up the ladder, reaching the hatch on top and opening it before dropping in without a second thought. The moment he did so, however, there was a cry of surprise from him. Shadow looked up and saw smoke coming from the hatch.

"Sonic!" He cried out, realizing the pod they had found was on fire inside. "Get out!"

"I… I can't! The bars are too hot! And there's too much smoke to see!"

"Crap." Shadow cursed and quickly climbed up to the hatch, dropping in after him.

There was so much smoke it was almost impossible to see. The two hedgehogs coughed heavily as they breathed in the smoke, but Shadow continued to look around, using his superior eyes to pierce through the smog. He finally found what he was looking for on the floor and grabbed it, pointing the nozzle at the base of the fire.

The moment he squeezed the trigger, CO2 shot out of the fire extinguisher and quickly put the fire out. With the hatch open, the smoke quickly cleared out, allowing Sonic and Shadow to breathe freely and take a look around.

The lifepod was in disarray. Everything was either damaged or offline. The big screen of the pod was covered in big red angry letters of error coding. Sparks came from the electric panel where the wires had been ripped out, which was what probably caused the fire. There was no one inside, the only inhabitants being the two hedgehogs.

Sonic tapped on his communicator, trying to get in contact with Tails, but there was nothing but static. "I can't get a hold of Tails. The communicator is outta range."

Shadow frowned and tapped at his communicator too. Nothing. "I can't get a hold of Eggman either."

"Great." Sonic sighed and dropped his arm back down to his side. It was at that moment he noticed something on the floor. It looked like a thin glass tablet. "What's this?"

Shadow frowned and picked up the tablet, studying it. "It's a… a PDA."

"A what?" Sonic frowned.

"Personal Digital Assistant." Shadow corrected himself. "This thing could have some answers for us… if it still works." He tapped on the screen of the PDA, hoping it would turn on.

Much to the relief of both blue and black, a blinking yellow bar appeared, saying it was booting in emergency mode. A loading screen with the name Alterra on it came on it before it suddenly scanned the holder, being Shadow, and speaking with a female voice.

"New holder acquired. You have no physical injuries detected. This PDA has now rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world. Please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck."

"Well that's a relief." Sonic smirked. "But doesn't really tell us anything."

"Well, we know one thing at least." Shadow frowned as he turned the PDA back off. "Some company named Alterra was poking their noses some place they shouldn't have."

"And as a result, their ship crashed." Sonic nodded. "But the question is how."

"We'll figure that out later. Right now, let's try and find something useful."

Sonic nodded and the two kept looking around. Sonic opened the only compartment that was on the pod and found a few nutrition bars and bottled water, and a couple flares, but that was about it. The medkit dispenser was surprisingly still working, and so was a fabricator on the other side of the pod. Shadow messed with it a bit and was surprised that a holographic screen popped up, showing a bunch of blueprints.

"Sonic, there's a bunch of blueprints on here, even for basic materials… I think we can use the material on this planet to make these things."

"Cool, how do we get them though?" Sonic asked.

"... I think you know the answer to that question." Shadow frowned, looking at the floor hatch that led to the ocean.

Sonic frowned and crossed his arms. "Well I hope you don't expect me to go down there and get them. I can't swim."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "You're so useless sometimes, Faker."

"Hey! I'm not useless!" Sonic snapped back.

"Whatever." Shadow huffed and looked back at the blueprints on the fabricator. "Says here that we can build a repair tool. I bet with that we can get this pod up and running again. Maybe we could fix that radio and see if we can reach your friends or Dr. Eggman with it… I'll have to gather a lot of materials first."

"Well, while you're doing that, I'm going back up there and getting a better look at that ship." The blue hedgehog said, grabbing the PDA. "Maybe the PDA will know something about it."

Before Shadow could say anything, Sonic was already climbing up the ladder. He stood at the top, staring at the space cruiser. At that moment, the PDA decided to speak.

"The Aurora suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: unknown. Zero human life signs detected."

That last line made Sonic's blood go cold. He and Shadow really were alone. The only ones on this strange planet of water.