\|/ Turn 1, the crash
Somehow, I survived.
The ship was absolutely annihilated, having crashed through trees Tau shouldn't have had, landing on the forest floor. I was strapped into the chair, and I lived.
Everything was ringing, I felt two of my thorns at my lower back completely torn off, bleeding profusely, and some scales dented inwards. I unstrapped myself from the chair and managed to finally open my eyes.
"SILT…?" I whispered.
No response. I looked around and the ship was in ruin. Unity's Hope was on its side, the cockpit glass having shattered, sending shards everywhere (a few into my arms that were covering my head at the time of impact), and entire lower half was burning, no, melting. The CHD creating a cruel, sweet taste in the air.
I fell out of the chair, coughing profusely. I did not have much time before the melting would engulf me. I started dragging myself towards the shattered windows. On the ground I saw one of the first aid kits stashed below the consoles, strapped down. I grabbed it and continued crawling. I went to the cockpit windows and climbed.
I fell outside. Not a lot, but at least a few lengths, enough to hurt profusely and knock all the air out of me and dent more scales.
I dragged myself away from the ship and finally managed to get a breath. The air smelled fresh, no, beyond fresh, untouched. I looked back towards the ship, it having that sweet taste emanating from it. The ship wasn't burning; it was melting fundamentally. The ship was a blue torch in the evening sky. CHD doesn't burn; it creates a distortion field. And when that isn't contained, it melts to less dense particles, until there is no more CHD, until there is nothing left. That was happening to the ship now. The ship's hull sagged and then became liquid, and so did the trees, flowers and fungus where the ship landed. I couldn't bear to watch it. Everything I knew for a full cycle.
SILT was gone. My only friend during this entire trip, died before me. I never would have thought that an AI shutting down would mean so much to me, but SILT meant the same as Vera or Needle at this point, and it died.
I wailed to myself. Everything was painfully quiet. No SILT commentary.
I opened the first aid kit and started tending to my wounds. I would have bled out if I didn't. I took the shards of glass out, each with an excruciating slice, and disinfected the wounds. Then I bandaged the torn thorns. It was agonizing. I was missing two, and one was hanging by a few tendons. Through the agony, I managed to get the broken one where it should go and bandaged it in place. The other two were a lost cause. If I had them and was on Varanth they could be sown back. They will not grow back.
I am disfigured.
I bandaged the rest and disinfected myself the best I could. I took the painkillers (though they helped very little) and finished healing myself. I wouldn't bleed out or immediately die of infection, but I was forever scarred.
I began to wail again. I couldn't stop myself. I'm barely holding back while I am writing this.
"SILT…" I whispered. The sweet taste forever etched into my memory.
…
…
…
…
Suddenly, the late light sky flashed a horrible yellow.
I looked up towards the flash and saw my exact situation, replaying before my eyes.
The other ship. The alien, white one. I had completely forgotten about it during my own crash, but it was hit equally hard by the CME.
"No…" I whimpered.
It was falling on its side. One of the thrusters was burning, but not from where it should've been, but from a ruptured hole in the side. Above it, a large plume of smoke from when the ship was pointing away from the planet, the same dire attempt at escaping the inescapable gravitational pull.
I watched in complete dread, shaking. I've never felt so powerless in my entire life. Seeing the alien I just met meeting the same fate as I.
I wanted to coil into a ball, but I couldn't stop watching. The other side thruster fell off, activating and then exploding brightly away from the ship. It had no thrusters left, the only one being completely nonfunctional.
It kept falling.
Parachutes activated, but the debris hit some and pierced them. Others tangled completely.
It hit the tree line. And I didn't see it anymore.
\|/ Turn 1, journey
The sound was awful.
First came snapping, then a thunderous crash. It sounded like a deep thunderstorm in a distant dune. Then, additional noises from the falling debris, sending flying beings of Tau scattering from the trees. It was the sound I had missed from my own crash. The sound that makes me still hear everything muffled. I covered my head and whimpered until it passed, until the ground stopped shaking.
Then it was silent again. Absolute, lonely silence. I looked in the direction where the crash happened.
A plain, then a forest-like area.
Out of sheer desperation, I got up, groaning from pain and exhaustion, and started walking towards it.
What else could I do? I thought to myself. I could continue lying near where my ship used to be (I didn't dare look at it anymore. I want to remember my ship, not my molten home and friend), and slowly die of hunger and depression, or I could go see whether the alien had survived.
The alien might have a fate worse than death for me, but does that mean anything at this point?
SILT would have told me to go help the alien. The least I can do is honor its memory.
"'Be a nice Scale.'" I thought to myself, hearing SILT say it in my mind.
I started walking there, half limping from where my lower thorns used to be, still in pain, though the painkillers had helped some amount at this point.
I got to the plain and stopped.
"What…?" I said to myself.
The plain looked like continuous a mesh of sorts. The plants, that looked like some grass from the Green Domain, resembled a continuous floor. I was nervous to enter it.
For SILT, I thought to myself, and stepped on it.
I sunk slightly, the mesh giving way to my unimpressive weight.
"Not dead yet." I said out loud, hoping that would saying it would help that not happen.
I started walking in the grass, it felt like I was walking in a viscous pool. But then a new feeling took me, electric shock.
"Ow!" I yelped as I felt it travel on the tip of a thorn of my leg and then back to the ground. I was already a few steps in, and turning back made no sense, the plain wasn't too large.
I started walking faster, hoping it was a onetime occurrence.
It wasn't. The grass kept shocking me, more often now.
"Mmh!" I grunted to myself as I fought every scale in my body to go faster. It was arcing between thorns now.
It kept happening more and more, stinging more and more, reaching my lower back and the wounds, and that was agonizing.
"AAH!!" I yelped and fell as the static discharged from my hands and feet into the ground.
The shocks stopped when I stopped.
I took a few breaths and steadied myself.
"Think…" I told myself, trying to focus.
If I kept getting shocked by the grass, and moving faster made it worse… Was me rubbing against it causing some kind of extreme static electricity? Maybe moving slower would be better, I thought to myself.
I started slowly moving through it, and sure enough, it shocked me much less. Arcs still formed on thornends in my legs, but it was much more manageable.
The amount of conductivity this needs… I thought to myself. Then I thought of lightning hitting the field, or anything far away for that matter. I would be dead on the spot. Or worse, paralyzed and left to slowly die.
I wanted to hurry, but that would mean more discharge. I was beyond terrified of staying in the grass too long. I got through the plain after what I would approximate to be a mark. The red dwarf was slightly lower and dimmer now. The taste of my ship melting was much fainter now.
I was standing before the forest now. It was imposing. I looked up and it just went on and on and on. It was slightly nauseating. My wounds ached from looking up too much, so I stopped.
I started walking through the forest. Fortunately, there was barely any grass here, mostly some kind of leaf (that seemed to ooze yellow when I stepped on it) on the ground and a lot of mold on the trees. The smell was mostly neutral. The ooze, when I bent down to sniff it, had a flowery smell. I continued. The dwarf was even lower now, casting rays between the thick trees. It was harder to see.
I kept imagining SILT's commentary, it was painful.
"Oh, now you're smelling the alien flora, how about you give it a good lick!" SILT would've said.
Would've.
…
As I walked and walked, I started tasting sweetness.
"Oh no, please no" I pleaded and hurried up. The all too familiar taste. I was running through the forest now, everything aching, but I had to see as soon as possible.
The sweet taste kept getting stronger and stronger.
"NO!!" I hissed to the forest. No response came back.
I panted as I ran violently. My condition was horrible. I clipped trees and fell over a branch, but I didn't care.
Then I got to the crash site. The taste made me want to vomit and weep, but I had nothing left in my stomach.
I saw the wreckage.
The unusual, round white ship, melting, releasing that nauseating taste. Blue, always blue.
"No…" I whispered to myself.
The already destroyed ship was melting. The CHD having begun the same process. If the alien was still inside, it had no hope.
…
Then, I saw it.
It was outside the ship. It was alive.
And it was horrifying.
I hid in a nearby bush, covering my mouth to stop myself from yelping.
The alien was pacing in front of the ship, holding something in its right hand, I couldn't make it out from this distance.
It was the same one from the EVA suit, but now I saw it in its full horror. Aside from being much larger than me, approximately the size of a Drakonid, Scaleoid in shape, it's wrong in far too many ways. Its extremities don't have any scales, which makes absolutely no sense. It's an extremely light beige like colour, but it doesn't have any pattern. Just a continuous beige where it's uncovered with streaks of red. I could see what I assume (and hope) is the back of its head. Some kind of growth covers the beige in that area, distinct from it. A second being?? Some kind of symbiotic growth?? A parasite?? It has some clothing over its torso, midsection and legs, which I am forever thankful for, because seeing the scaleless body was nauseating. No tail, nor is a tailhole made in its clothing. It never had one, I reasoned. Its knees are bent forward, which is extremely unnerving. It had some kind of feetclothing that some Scale experimented with but never got popular. I can't remember what that fashion trend was called.
"I can't believe SILT made me go near that thing." I whispered into my hand. I immediately felt repulsed at myself. Nice Scale...
Then it roared. That is the only description I have for the sound. It was a vocalization that sounded utterly primal.
I flinched and coiled in on myself in the bush, terrified.
It ran up to a small tree and swung violently. I finally saw what it had. It was a kind of hatchet. Why would a space explorer have a hatchet?!
It swung violently, yelling, again and again, until the small tree was toppled.
When it was toppled, it fell on its front facing knees and it screamed again, a sound far too loud, piercing my hearing.
Then it was there, breathing heavily, staring at its melting ship.
What was this thing?
Writing this, I still don't understand it.
\|/ Turn 1, contact
It finally stopped.
I was still shaking inside a bush; its back turned to me.
It picked up a white-greyish box from the ground and opened it. It was a first aid kit of some kind, and it started cleaning the red streaks (blood?). It was groaning in pain while disinfecting the wounds.
I slowly got up and quietly started moving towards a different bush that was closer. I was terrified of it, but I had to see what this thing was. What kind of being survives a crash landing, and the first thing they do is destroy the closest thing to them?
I didn't notice me as I made my way to a bush behind it, a few lengths away.
It continued to heal itself, making some noises that was probably talking. Not any hissing I could understand.
Then I noticed it had put its left arm in a type of splint made from bandages.
In a splint.
This thing had entered some sort of rage and destroyed the closest thing, with a broken arm.
I didn't see any bone, but it was visibly immobilizing its left arm.
I didn't want to spend another moment near this thing. SILT meant the best, but this thing would kill me on sight.
I slowly started backing away.
The bush rustled.
It snapped towards me, immediately seeing my yellow scales against the green bush.
I saw its deformed face.
Flat, completely red underneath the flesh with far too wide pupils.
I turned and ran for my dear life. It made some sound, much quieter than what the roar was, but it didn't matter. I didn't want to become that tree.
I didn't hear or see anything. I was fleeing for my life as I crashed through the underbrush.
Until I tripped over a bunch of branches.
"Mmph!"
I was lying over a clutch of… eggs?
Then I heard a screech that made my ears ring.
I looked upwards and there it was, right above me.
Some kind of creature of Tau. It had no scales, but another kind of growth covering its entire body in what looked like a continuous red-orange cloak, all individually connected to the body. It had a snout, but it was hardened like chitin. It was on two thin limbs, with four wings spread completely wide, flapping. Four thin eyes watched me intensely as it screeched again. I lost hearing this time.
"AAAAAH!!!" I shouted from the overly loud noise as I got up and ran in the other direction.
What I didn't know was that I was running back to the ship monster.
I stumbled out of the underbrush, looking backwards at where the screecher was. It didn't follow me.
I bumped right into the mad-thing, tripping and falling and causing it to fall.
I quickly looked at it.
It was on the ground, groaning, and then it looked at me. Its face contorted (why can it move its face so much?!) into an expression I didn't understand. It reached out for me with its right hand.
I hissed loudly and swiped with my claws. It connected with the flesh, gouging its soft hand. Red stuck to my clawtips. It pulled back as I scrambled on all fours, then upwards and ran.
I didn't want to be dismembered.
It said something behind me. I didn't understand what. The tone was different, but I didn't look back, couldn't listen, couldn't think.
I continued running until the red dwarf had fully set, until I couldn't see the path ahead.
\|/ Turn 1, now
I stopped running, collapsing next to a tree, beyond exhausted.
I noticed that the mold on the trees is bioluminescent, casting a green light. After prodding it with my tail to make sure it doesn't explode or something, I sat down against it and just breathed, for the first time this turn. Every breath reminded me of my back thorns, feeling the wound expand and contract, despite the painkillers.
I looked at the red liquid at my clawtips. It made the air taste like metal. No blood has that taste. I wiped it off against the leaves, hoping it wouldn't infect me through my scales somehow.
After a bit, I checked the pockets in my thermal suit. I never bothered to clear them, and I am extremely thankful for that.
I found this journal, a black pen (full, thankfully) and two ration bars. That's it.
Now I'm here, writing in this journal, having written everything from the entire turn.
Why am I doing this? Is it desperate documentation for when someone finds my corpse? Is it for me to process everything? Is it because some psychology flyer advertising journals said that writing your thoughts is a good idea? Am I repeatedly asking myself questions that only I can answer?
But I'm here. Alive. Despite the crash, mad-thing and Tau wildlife, I'm alive. How long will I be alive is the real question.
I'm already talking to myself, aren't I? SILT was right, I would've gone insane without it.
Heh, probably a record, lose sanity in one turn.
The least I can do is write here, and hope somebody finds the manic notes of a Thornkin's death right after atmospheric measurements and calculations.
Right, writing-rambling. Here's some conclusions I've made:
Neither Tau nor wherever the mad alien is from have Scale or anything close to it.
The alien doesn't have scales because its own insane aggression keeps it safe. Its species must've developed that as a defense mechanism. Even it's blood tasted aggressive. Who else would bring a hatchet to space, ever(?!)
I'll survive my wounds, and I mostly don't need water here, the grass and such are moist enough, but I only have one more turn of food. The temperature is the issue. I feel the cold on my thornends beyond the suit. If it gets colder, I'll get lethargic and die. I need to figure something out.
I'll try to keep notes here and document my survival (and lack thereof) for whoever finds my body.
i miss silt
i'm sorry mom, dad, Vera and Needle
i'm sorry i won't come home
i thought it was a dead rock