There was much more red grass than Dae had expected. It also slowly and gently sloped deeper than she would have imagined. She bit her lip feeling the familiar burst of pain and taste of copper.

"I should have healed that back at the pod." She muttered to herself. A faint sound reached her and she froze as something larger than her kicked up dust. "What is that?" She muttered seeing a large thrashing animal with what looked to be dark hued natural armor. Even from her position about 10 meters from the surface she could see the wine-dark maw and the teeth on the creature.

"Is that like the big worm that attacked you, Ozzy?" She muttered touching her knife reflexively. The little creep who took a chunk out of her leg looked tame compared to the monster down there. Dae took a breath to steady herself watching as yellow blood drifted around the fish it had eviscerated in one strong snap. By the time the blood hit the seafloor the thing was slamming itself back into the sand. It buried itself easily and began a slow and unhurried trek across the ground. One singular fin sticking out of the sand like some type of shark. "Don't go near the Sand Sharks." She muttered to herself as she continued toward the marker on her hud.

Dae felt her stomach drop. The marker should be right there, but when she looked up there was no lifepod. Nothing but water at the surface. Her suit immediately began refilling the oxygen tank pulling air from every part of her that was exposed to the surface. It only took a few seconds before the green meter in the corner of her vision rapidly jumped until it was full. Dae shifted her grip on the seaglide and ducked back beneath the water.

There, small and feeble looking against the sand, was a drowned pod. She quickly moved down to it ignoring the steady pressure building against her skin and the panic jangling against her nerves. It was the deepest she had been, even in the kelp forest, but she hardly noticed that fact as she reached the lifepod. A large red 17 was printed on the side and just to the left of the number was a gaping hole. Dae felt her stomach drop far beyond her to settle on the sandy floor.

"No." She muttered whipping the seaglide around to her back. The suit quickly attached it settling it over the air tank. With her hands free she moved toward the hole lightly gripping some of the shredded metal so that she could maneuver herself inside. There were teeth marks near the edges of the puncture wound. She could see where the creature had ripped into the pod. A sob ripped out of her burning its way into her soul. There glowing softly in the wreckage of the ruined lifepod was a PDA. Dae swallowed her screams and ducked inside careful not to cut herself on the rent metal. She grabbed the little glowing screen before pushing out of the cramped space. There was no sign of Ozzy, but she could guess what happened to him.

"This entire planet is evil!" She hissed the foreign PDA shaking in her hands. She began a slow ascent kicking her way up toward the surface to replenish her oxygen supply.

"New PDA acquired." Karen rattled off. The screen suddenly went blank flickering off.

"Ozzy's log." His voice was suddenly there in her head. As if he were speaking directly to her. "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." Dae shivered knowing that she was now hearing what seemed to be a dead man's voice. "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." She could hear the terror there. Dae knew how it felt. She hardly noticed when her head surfaced the suit and her air tank making soft sounds as they went to work.

"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 cafe. I don't understand how we're here now. I don't know why no one's coming for me." Dae quietly swam listening to his voice. Understanding the frustration.

Alone again. The heartless water planet taking away yet another life. Tearing at what little shreds of sanity she had been clinging to. If what the PDA said was true then Ozzy had been dead for days. It simply took that long her radio to pick up the distress call. Hope faltering Dae simply floated for a long moment, eyes closed, thinking that if she stopped moving that whatever took out Ozzy would come for her too. All she had to do was stop kicking.

Her legs slowed and she felt the water begin to rise around her. Dae kept her eyes closed.

Light bloomed against the deep red of her backlit eyelids. Every color imaginable swirling and dancing in complex patterns. Dae's eyes shot open and she immediately kicked to stop her slow descent toward the sands. The light was still there dancing against the small currents and waves. Slowly before her four eyes formed along with a shadowy body that wasn't like anything she had ever seen before.

"Karen is there a malfunction in my entertainment chip?" She asked quickly meeting the now blazing cyan eyes.

"Running diagnostic." A soft whirring sound buzzed at the edges of her hearing. The figure shifted slightly as if they were swimming closer to her. The eyes getting larger and larger. Dae felt panic begin to settle in. "Report from entertainment chip: all systems good. Integration into subjects' field of vision normal. Number of items being displayed-"

"Stop." Dae ordered with a shaking voice. Karen fell silent just as the being stopped coming closer. Her heart hammering she slowly reached out her own hand becoming covered with the shadow. There was a strange stretching and fluttering in her mind.

"I'm going insane." Dae breathed even as she felt the presence catch onto the words holding them. More words popped into mind, none of them connecting to each other or making any sort of sense. More and more words poured through her head until Dae curled in on herself. It was too loud. Too fast. It hurt.

Then all at once it stopped. Dae's throat felt raw from the screaming, but she automatically began to kick once more soaring back up to get more oxygen. The great thing paused a few tentacle-like things spreading in the background.

"What...are...you?"

The voice was feminine sounding. Deep and wise sounding like some great motherly figure. Dae began shivering harshly her teeth clattering. There was a soft feeling of exhaustion and then the lights winked out one after another until only the ocean around her was left.

"I'm going insane." She stated slowly. "I've been alone a long time. I'm going insane." She muttered. "Don't think about it. Think about anything else." Dae ordered herself. She twisted looking down at the ruined pod and felt her throat constrict. "Not that either." She managed to choke out.

Mind floundering she felt her memory catch on something. She tried her best to ignore the corpse of a pod and glanced around. Just a little ways from the pod there was a small piece of debris that tickled at her memory.

"Didn't that transmission say the Seamoth Bay fell on them?" She asked already moving toward the white curved metal glancing around for any moving fins. It was a curved white piece of metal with some sort of shattered glass jutting up from the edge. Dae reached to her side and grabbed her scanner holding it out and watching the blue grid of lights shift over its surface in a mesmerizing pattern. The light shut itself off and there was a small ping in her head.

"Partial blueprint found." Karen announced. "Seamoth."

"What do you mean partial blueprint?" She asked glancing around for anything else.

"The item you scanned is missing components. Unable to reconstruct blueprint until data set is fully restored."

Dae put her hand on the edge of the smooth curve. She closed her eyes and for a moment tensed up remembering the shifting colors. When nothing happened she relaxed the smallest degree.

"The seamoth. That rings a bell at least a little. It's a little sub right?" Dae opened her eyes and pushed away from the wreckage soaring up toward the surface once more. "Maybe," she said as she broke surface, "the rest of the wreck is somewhere near here. Ozzy couldn't have been the only survivor." Dae was deluding herself. There was only so much she could do without any hope. She needed companionship. Even more so she needed a ship. "If I could make a seamoth I could get to other people a lot faster." She ducked back beneath the water looking down at the uneven and jagged patches of red covering the sand. She quickly found a shark heading unhurriedly toward the remains of the pod. There were a few more pieces of metal shining in the sand further away from the seamoth remains. Interested Dae began a slow trek following the scrap metal like breadcrumbs through a dark forest.