It seemed that a good chunk of the seamoth bay did in fact get ripped off of the Aurora during planetfall. Dae quickly found and scanned a few crushed seamoths until Karen helpfully chimed in that she had acquired the new blueprint. The hunk of ship seemed rather peaceful among the slowly swaying tufts of red grass. The light was starting to fade so she quickly twisted until she could see the small marker for Henry illuminated against the ever-growing darkness.
Tears threatening to fall Dae quietly pulled the seaglide off her back and aimed back toward home making sure to tilt up so that she could gather some air as she headed out. It seemed longer than before. Within the darkness Dae could easily see the bioluminescent flora and fauna shifting in dizzying patterns like beacons suspended in ink. The water itself seemed colder.
Kelp brushed along her body as she moved above the forest. Deep below her there was the sharp clack of teeth. The shriek of metal being bitten into. A glance down showed nothing but the eerie yellow glow of the seed pods.
Hard to find and highly aggressive, Dae thought moving a bit faster. Stalkers amid the kelp just waiting for her guard to be lowered. It didn't take long before she was hauling herself and her gear up through the underhatch into Henry. Defeat lay heavy in her limbs making each movement harder and harder to perform.
"Karen, how am I supposed to build the seamoth? I can't very well build it in here." Dae muttered glancing around the ever-smaller space in Henry.
"You will need to use the mobile vehicle bay in order to create the seamoth." Karen's voice was so flat. The more Dae heard it the more she hated how flat it was. So inhuman.
"How do I make the mobile vehicle bay?"
"Blueprint unavailable."
"Of course." Dae snapped curling onto her side. She was tired of laying on metal to sleep. Tired of her body being a constant ache. Tired of having to swim everywhere just to be met with more and more failure. "This whole thing is impossible." She curled into herself, becoming very small on the floor of the escape pod. It took a long time for sleep to come.
Time stretched. Warped. Dae forced herself out of the pod hunting for food. At first she refused to move away from the safe shallows. There were plenty of fish. It was easy to live there nothing really attempting to attack her as she moved around. The stalkers usually stuck to their kelp forests, only wandering closer a few times as they chased after their own fish. A few days of sticking to the shallows and she quickly grew bored. What felt immense and scary not too long ago was now commonplace and small.
The kelp forest was deeper and more dangerous. But Dae knew that she was going to go stir crazy floating around in the safe shallows for too long. The kelp forests were deep and had more to offer than the safe shallows, and so Dae ventured further.
It was near the end of her day when she spotted the uniform shape among the twisting and shifting shapes that made this world. It was too perfect. Too pretty. Dae easily moved to it and ran her fingers over what was clearly a small crate from the Aurora. For braving planetfall it was relatively intact which was impressive to her. She glanced inside and was even more impressed to see a small hunk of something twisted inside. She plucked her scanner off her side and gave it a quick scan.
"Partial Blueprint Scanned: Mobile Vehicle Bay."
"What?" Dae stared at the little hunk of metal. "If this landed here then….maybe there are others nearby." She mumbled to herself twisting around looking for another crate. No such luck from her vantage point. There was a sudden growl and Dae hardly had enough time to push sideways before a Stalker slammed into the sand where she had been standing.
By the time she recovered herself the thing was already moving back toward her its long teeth-filled maw open for another attack. Dae grabbed a hold of her knife and pushed to the side just enough that the teeth missed her by inches. As the creature slid by she slashed out with her knife and was secretly pleased when a large puff of green-yellow fluid curled around her. The creature screeched and darted off leaving a slightly bewildered Dae behind. She glanced to the knife in her hand gleaming silver in the dim light.
"Yeah!" She hissed after it, breathing heavily. "You're not the only one with teeth." The Stalker had slowed back down among the kelp but seemed to be watching her from afar, not willing to come any closer. "Huh," Dae muttered to herself twisting her blade thoughtfully this way and that. If the Stalkers balked at signs of counter-aggression then she supposed it would be a good idea to keep her knife out in case one decided to attack.
Dae spent a good portion of the day dipping deeper and deeper into the kelp forest gathering supplies and keeping an eye out for boxes. There were a few the contained laser cutters, but not enough yet to create a full blueprint.
Tired, Dae finally began swimming back toward Henry already having caught a few fish that were just begging for the fabricator. She swept herself up along the sandy cliffs that decorated the edges of the kelp forest when she noticed a half buried crate on one of the little shelves that sat on the edge of the cliffs. Warily she swam closer. There was something there, but it too was buried underneath the sand. Dae sighed to herself and pulled out the scanner hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't have to dig the object out from under the sand in order to scan it properly. The little machine sprang to life in her hands the blue lines dancing in their pattern in a hypnotic display. With so little energy left Dae made a mental note not to scan too many things just in case she killed herself by falling asleep underwater.
"New Blueprint Acquired: Mobile Vehicle Bay." Karen's voice signaled the sudden stop of the blue light. Dae froze for a moment not sure exactly what to think, but something like excitement stirred lazily in her chest. She found herself smiling and kicking back toward Henry a little faster than before.
