Xi found himself questioning the basis of all things present in this moment. The Halion was continuing to go off on her belief the Qari was the culprit, and yet the Halion only furthered making herself look worse.

"Listen to me, Halion. You speak of accusation, yet you sit and talk of these people like they are food, and by all means that makes you look like the worst one of the bunch. You speak like you are outside the law, and you are superior. All you are is a short-life spanned montrosity with a miss-firing synaptic nerve ending in your greel-nut of a brain." Xi spoke, rather rapidly and with great anger towards the Halion before the Stag forcibly raised his right leg and kicked the Halion's arm from the Qari female and then stepped to follow the Halion a few steps back with Xi's shotgun pressed firmly to the chin of the Halion. While the Halion claimed their power armor was 'impenetrable' an Alrick-Vork Class II could propel a round through a wall made of their armor, so going through the helm would have been easy work. Especially since the round that Xi used was a tranq round, yielding the neural dampener he spoke of early.

"You will sit, on the other side of the vessel from the Qari, and buckle yourself in. We are going to land on Icarus I and you will silence this until we land and steady ourselves. We are in dire shape, and we don't have time for this so listen to what you are told and you might manage to survive." Xi pressed the Halion around to the seats opposite the Qari while retaining the weapon-hold on the Halion, and once she was buckled in Xi quickly stepped to the human engineer who fixed the AI.

"You can pilot, yes? I believe you seem more adept at such things than myself. You shall fly us t Icarus I, and with you piloting and work withe Ai I am sure we will survive. The pilot's seat is yours, Miss." Xi spoke quickly to the human female, his weapon having been holstered for a moment as he ushered her to the pilot's seat, before he buckled himself in with the rest of the occupants.

"It is time we all buckle and prepare to land, we will be making what I imagine will be a less than clean re-entry."

"Oh what the hell!" Navera screamed when the Halion pointed her blade at her. Sure, Navera was mostly lying, but this was completely unnecessary. Navera was honestly fearful for her life however, since even with her assassination skills, she wasn't going to try to fight this beast in a cramp escape pod. Fortunately it seemed like the other survivors also thought what the Halion was doing was completely foolish too. And she even accused Navera of somehow being the cause of all of this. Navera wouldn't even know how to pull something like that off, even if she could remember how she got here in the first place. "Are you daft or is that just normal for your kind? If I had anything to do with whatever reason we're here, I would have at least made sure not to be in the same pod as a halion barbarian! Your willful ignorance is no substitute for the truth you primitive savage."

Navera made sure to move far away from the Halion as the others saved her from the monster. She was grateful that some could put aside racial tensions to focus more about the issue at hand. Though she was worried about how she was going to deal with the Halion once they do land. No doubt she'll keep trying to kill Navera for whatever poorly explained reason would justify her blood lust. As Navera moved to her seat she could feel her dagger hidden on her person. At least she knew she wasn't completely defenseless, knowing that it was still coated in her paralytic venom. And even if the Halion was submerged in stone, Navera knew how to handle her knife to find an armor's weak spot. Their arrogance in assuming that their armor was impenetrable would only be their downfall when Navera's blade finds her way.

"I don't care where we go, I just want to get out of this deathtrap."

The engineer stood in silence as the Azaali took control of the situation, effectively disarming the Halion and forcing them back to their seat. When the Azaali turned to her, she flinched slightly, only to be told that she was to pilot the pod and land it safely onto the planet. "I.. I guess I can.. Theoretically." She responded in a hesitant tone. She was never trained to pilot anything, she merely knew how they worked. So yes, theoretically she could fly it.

She slowly got into the pilot's seat, strapping herself in. Her gaze flit from console to console, figuring out where to start. In that moment she remembered.. These pods were built with auto-pilot. She began to input commands into the console, stating coordinates and travel speed. "Auto-Pilot initiated. Beginning travel to Icarus I in ten seconds. Please fasten restraints." The AI stated on the intercomm. "Okay.." She mumbled. The coordinates that she put into the console would land the pod near an abandoned mine.

Katyusha hoped that a fight wouldn't break out the moment they landed the pod.

-Quinn

Turning her attention over to the Azaali, she knew there was something right in the space hippie's words." I speak of the Qari as something they should feel pride in, they lost to Humans, humans some of the physically weaker races in space and some of the least motivated. They should take pride in having flesh and meat that makes my people's mouths water." She told the Azali, the second he insulted her race, she wanted to go off on him, but held back her anger for later."And your people are all big glowing balls of light that run around forest humping trees and acting all peaceful, if only you've shown some bite, or shown a bit of anger then you'd know that there is more to a Halion's brain than simple miss-firing synaptic nerves. Its strategy, strength, and reveling in battle, something your people will never feel, a feeling your people will never discover the bliss of it, or the respect because of your lack of knowledge of combat." She began getting angrier." If your people shown any combat prowess besides simple hunting, then you'd learn to fear our race and all we can do."

The Female Halion began reaching her limit in anger the inside of her helmet was starting to fog up as Xi kicked her weapon away from the Qari, the moment he did it, she wanted to run the sword through him, but she held back on it. Her breathing turned heavy, once Xi attempted to press her into a seat she pushed him back from her before taking her seat." Your gun doesn't scare me, peace walker." She sat across from the Qari glaring at her from behind her helmet.

@ManoftheNorth@Norschtalen

Payne unbuckled his seatbelt, slapped Gaz on the shoulder, chuckling heartily, and then kept his EVA helmet on, and went to look outside the pod's window.

"Do you think there are any tasty ingredients on this planet?" He asked, wondering if it was safe to open the pod yet.

---

@Zelosse@Spriggs27@Lucius Cypher@Ryonara@Kalleth
The escape pod let out long drawn out creaks as it began to enter the planet's atmosphere, shaking violently as the re-entry heat began to cover the viewport in an orange glow. Upon passing through the clouds the survivors could see what appeared to be an abandoned mining colony to the east, a large drill beam located at its colony center. To the north stood what appeared to be a tall obelisk structure, quite possibly an ancient ruin but from their point of view it looked to be offline as the iconic glowing trim could not be seen on the structure. After reaching the appropriate altitude, the pod's retrograde thrusters activated, slowing them down before landing on the planet's surface with a harsh thud. Without a moment's hesitation, Irisa put on her helmet and grabbed her rifle before addressing the group. "Helmet's on quick, we need to get out of this pod before that fuel leak ignites", removing the AI chip from the pod terminal the Qari inserted it into her helmet's port. With a flash the AI's projection appeared on her display, "Hello ma'am, would you like me to sync my programming to the rest of your group?"

"Yes, and what is your designation", having to refer to it as AI would become an annoyance.

"I am a fourth generation Bowman Ind. Artificial Intelligence, my records indicate that I was named 'Feynman' by my previous operators. Ma'am, I have synced my systems to your companions and would like to advise we exit the pod immediately", an update of the pod's systems showed that the remaining fuel leaked into the pod and was dangerously close to igniting.

"Alright everyone, we're heading out", Irisa checked one last time to ensure everyone's helmets were on before opening the hatch. The sun was bright here and the low gravity intensified her movements. Once outside the pod, her helmet's display threw a grid overlay on the surrounding terrain. Feynman's voice soon followed, "Ma'am I have scanned the planet and there appears to be a mining colony a few miles east of where we are. North of our location is a structure commonly referred to as an 'ancient ruin'. While both locations are uninhabited, It would be in your best interest to head towards the mining colony as a sandstorm is approaching from the northwest"

"Very well, and have you performed a scan of the planet's lifeforms?", they had shelter, they needed to know what to prepare against.

"Of course, bringing it on-screen now", in an instant there were files detailing the kind of flora and fauna on the planet.


"Why is the file on the apex predator not present?", a look of concern and slight frustration came over the Qari as she attempted to reopen the file in case there was an error.

"Apologies ma'am, but there is such a low population of this species and they are mostly subterranean. I will perform periodical scans in case a specimen surfaces"

"Do that, we need to know what its capable of...of course its subterranean", the thought that at any moment whatever this thing was could just erupt from the ground beneath them did not sit will with her. It was bad enough the planet was scarce in resources but having the constant threat of a surprise attack only added to her list of concerns.

"By the way ma'am, what is your name? Or would you prefer I continue to address you as 'Ma'am'?"

"Just Irisara will do fine. How long do we have before we reach the colony?"

"About two hours"

"And how long until the storm reaches us?"

"Three hours"

"Then we need to get moving", turning her attention to the rest of the survivors she waved for them to follow as she began walking towards the colony. With rifle in hand she kept a firm grip on it as she frequently eyed the surrounding ground. As for Feynman, it continued on to have introductions with the rest of the group. The way to the colony had rocky hills and arid soil scattered between sand dunes as the sky grew an orange brown hue from the encroaching storm. By the time the group arrived, they could see the last bit of the ancient ruin being swallowed by the sands. "Once inside we need to get the power on, the colony's life support system will come on as well as its communication systems", Irisa's voice came through the comm-link slightly scrambled due to the approaching storm. The wind began to pick up, and with it the threat of being carried away should they hang outside for too long. Finally reaching the main entrance, the hatch was wide open yet there was no sign of damage to structure integrity. Irisa hurried inside, waiting for everyone to follow in before continuing further into the facility. The only light came from the viewports that were fading fast as the storm approached but from what could be seen there was what looked to be scratch marks on the walls that were visible. Turning on her helmet light she was greeted by the sight of blood stains on the floor as well as filled body bags. Suddenly, Irisa no longer felt the need to remove her helmet. "Stay alert, we may not be alone here. Feynman, scan for a layout of the colony", Irisa's eyes darted across the room, looking for signs of a present lifeform. After a brief moment of silence, the colony's layout was brought up on her helmet.


"Ma'am the scan also indicated that there is presently only one lifeform in this station. I've marked its location on everyone's map, it is located in the cryo chamber"

"A survivor maybe? Gaz, Odd, go check it out. Stay on comms and update me on what you find. The rest of you are to search the station, we need to clear the facility and get the power back on. Look for something that can tell us what happened here", Irisa didn't wait for any objections, they could either do their job or sit there and let her take care of it. Her first stop was the med bay, hopefully there were medical supplies she could scavenge. The Loading Bay contained everything that would come on and off the colony including food, supplies, weaponry, etc. There was also a good chance that a land vehicle, if not a ship, was docked there. The Living Quarters would probably only contain clothes or personal items of the previous inhabitants but it was worth a look. As for the showers, it would probably be useless to search. The two priority rooms were the comm center and the power core. with those two online, their chances of escaping this world would dramatically increase.

@TheDarkTemplar@Zelosse

Gaz sat there and waiting for some props for landing the pod, only to get the goblin man gave Gaz some form of praise by patting him on the back. Suddenly the Qari woman began barking orders at them again, since nobody else took charge, she was the one leading them and ordered them outside of the pod after gearing up in their EVA suits before they turned into a fireball. Once outside Gaz tried to use to the gravity as quickly as he could while the AI, Feynmen, started to list off all the things that could kill them besides each other, and it listed no apex." Hey, FeyFey." Gaz called out to the AI." List humans as the Apex predator." He joked before hearing the pod explode behind them in the distance.

Out of nowhere, FeyFey then told them that there was a sandstorm incoming, his response to it was only." If only we had some Darude to listen to right now to race this thing." As they were told it would only take two hours for them to reach the mining facility and the sandstorm was only three hours away from them. It seemed like a short journey to the mining colony, once they made it to the colony and got inside, he took a moment to take a break sitting on the floor and then the Qari had FeyFey scan the place top to bottom telling them that they might not be alone, hearing that Gaz took out his favorite guns, keeping his fingers out of the trigger guards and next to the barrels.

The very moment that they were told that only one life form was in the station, Gaz rested his back on the wall and was about to say."Well, I'm taking a-" Before he could finish, Irisa told him and Odd, the complete white looking ghost to go see what it was in the cryo chamber, Gaz just stood up before saying." Or I can just go fuck myself. Fine." He cracked his back before looking to the Qari woman saying." Ya know, it would be really nice if you said please, thank you, and nice work when people do things lady." He looked up at her. Turning back to Odd." Alright guy, let's go see what this thing is. " He then noticed his rifle and held out his hands in front of him." You go first, I'll be behind you."

Syv silently stood next to Navi as the argument that was now mostly between their leader and the Halion proceeded. The latter spewed some more bloodthirsty nonsense, insulted his whole race, but nevertheless took a seat. Displeased, he took a seat next to Navi. Did the Halion female not understand that survival was a priority? Granted, she was cooperating now, but based on her speech about the bliss of battle, this…confrontation…was probably far from over. Maybe their leader had been hasty in his aggression? No, Syv thought firmly There’s no way that anything else would have worked better. Not with someone so unreasonable. But why do Halions even go out of their way to conquer other species if they could just fight among themselves? The concept of strife however wasn’t something that Syv could understand, so he gave up on that line of thought.

As their engineer went to pilot the escape pod, Syv strapped himself in the seat. He felt a brief pang of regret that he had never attempted to learn pilot space crafts – planetary vehicles were more his forte – but he knew that operating anything capable of space flight was usually much more complex than what he was used to. And more lethal, as far as racing was concerned. He was admittedly disappointed when he heard that the AI would pilot their pod. Despite that he felt an inkling of the well-known thrill involved in driving a machine. He was just a passenger this time, but there was the thrill of entering the planet’s atmosphere to look forward to. Syviis had never been in an escape pod and he was sure this would prove to be a delightful experience. He just hoped they didn’t crash to death.

@Spriggs27@SilverPaw@Rekaigan@Norschtalen

The pod accelerated as it was immediately plunged into a re-entry trajectory. They were being forced through the atmosphere without much warning and at an extremely steep incline. The navigational system automatically routed them to the closest possible point to the colony. The pod shuttered violently as it began to burn, the exterior turned cherry red and the view-port was lit up like an orange sunset. This lasted for several moments before the pod broke through the stratosphere and the glow disappeared. However what it was replaced guranteed to be worse than the heat. It was obvious to eye and mind within seconds, and it put the residents of the pod in a fearful mindset, no matter how much of a fighter they were, for the pod was now spiraling towards the ground.

The residents were being spun and tortured as the pod continued to spiral towards the planet, several exterior panels had been lost and had caused the pod to lose control, the AI however was doing all it could to counter the spiraling with thrusters and it succeeded and eventually got them flying smooth. They were now sailing smooth, ish, compared to before and they were set to reach their point of landing in mere moments. But the planet didn't truly care, because while the mining colony was in sight, so too was the massive sandstorm raging towards the mining colony from the Ancient Ruins.

The storm was closer than when the first pod had landed, and it was close to the colony, and close to swallowing the land in sandy darkness. If the crew of the second pod wanted to survive, they would have to truly pull a miracle off and make it inside the colony in minutes. Yet the Pod was still trying to make it's way to surface. That is when Xi spoke aloud to the AI.

"Initiate Systematic Eergency Landing Protocol." Xi spoke clearly and quickly, before murmuring under his breath. "Heralding Spirits.. I hope this works.." Xi then quickly spoke aloud again. "Planetary Landing, Critical Conditions, Sudden Stop." The three sets of words altogether made a shitty sentence, and a poor phrase, but were perfect protocol terms. It was a matter of whether or not this AI held these protocols would make all the difference.

"Aye Aye, Sir." The AI snapped in a less personal response, and rather one of a very cold robotic nature. "Life Pod will disengage all functions and initiate immediate landing protocol due to planetary surface conditions. Brace for impact." The AI commanded to the crew as the life pod began to nose-dive almost instantly. The front of the life pod seemed to become larger and several suspension like plates extended while the pod went silent. The thrusters were offline, the resistance panels were closed, and everything went dead in the air. It plummeted for what seemed like forever, but only thirty or so seconds the pod impacted the ground. The suspension like poles and plates that had extended from the front absorbed almost all of the impact, minimizing any potential crew injury, before slowly falling backwards and disengaging the locks to the doors.

"Icarus I. Life Pod has successfully made a critical condition landing. Scanners show an on-coming weather system of high speed winds, dense sand particles, and.. bzzz.. ichzz." The AI was cut-off and made to sound as if it was short-circuting due to the fact that Xi had leaped from his seat and ejected the AI's hub unit fro the console while slamming his hand on the restraints command-release button and throwing his arm through the air towards the door.

"We have to go, and now! Everyone inside the Colony!" Xi exclaimed loudly and powerfully to the residents of the pod as he threw open the door to the pod and pointed to the Colony. It was a few minutes sprint from the pod, they could make it, he knew they could, he had to ensure their safety. This is why he hung back for only a moment to ensure everyone was moving, and everyone was unharmed from the impromptu landing they had to settle with in order to make it in time. The only thing for them to do now was run, and run they did, as Xi quickly sprinted and led the group to the ajar doors of the Colony. They had made it, but they were several minutes behind the other pod, and now Xi would realize there are twice as many lives at stake then there were before.

---

@TheDarkTemplar@Spriggs27

Odd stepped off the pod and into the harsh light with a grimace. Desert planets were never a raiders first choice if other options were present. They had wildlife far more dangerous to people than actually people. Sentient life could be bartered with, hungry predators took what they wanted.
The rifle in his hand was quickly inspected before a fresh clip was inserted. Woth that done, the visor of his helmet slid down to cover his face, the main systems loading up instantly to display distances and locations. Through the hud he could zoom in and mark targets at will or simply keep an ehe on the horizon.

Similar to Irisa, Odds plan was getting to the nearest structure and waiting out the storm. The lights being on or not wasn't exactly his concern. With their suits comm connected he had the local species list brought up as well. Two hour march in low gravity gave him plenty of time to familiarize himself with the locals.
It was an incomplete list though. Most insect-like species and a single carnivore? The big one in this area was one that could abuse the ground, so likely a snake or giant worm of some kind was his guess.

Nesters only hunted in an area, but if the apex predator here was the hunter type.. they'd best take if it.

---

@Spriggs27

Odd stopped outside of the colonys open doors, kneeling down to investigate the floors looling for clues to what happened. Drag of claws, bullet marks, anything. Not finding anything he grabbed a handful of sand and poured as much as he could across his suit. One of its useful functions was a tactical comoflouge that mimicked basic colors.
When he cwme up and entered the building his suit was the color of the sands with patches of white.

"Is the target in motion?" He asked to the AI.

-Quinn-

Once the pod landed on the planet, Xi told them all to run towards the colony, he tried to make them all rush to the colony. But once Quinn got out she noticed the wildlife seemed a little similar to the wildlife to her home planet, but there were more creatures to hunt and cut down if she got the time to. She then noticed the dirt colored sand, or the darker colored sand, it wasn't the same as her home's bright golden colored sand that would make make her armor shine as if she polished it for hours with the best armor polish and then cleaned the blood of all the aliens that would splatter it on her. Then her mind went back to the Azaali and began following him running in her power armor before the Azaali stopped to look back to anyone that may have fallen behind, looking back for a second Quinn kept running towards the facility with her sword in both hands just in case there was something that was against them inside.

The moment she entered the colony, she was greeted by the sight of more survivors." I thought this place was abandoned?" She spoke out loud, the next thing she noticed was Qari, the tallest being in the room, then she noticed some of the others which were a mixed bag of mostly humans and some other short creature she didn't really know much of. She remembered one time when she was in the field and was given human to eat and it was the worst thing she ever ate, she didn't know if it was the person who cooked it that messed it up or if humans just taste horrible but she wasn't interested in human. Plus their food just seemed weird as well, they had food that was creamy and then stuff that seemed crunchy and put the oddest things inside of things that shouldn't be in them, then they deep fry stuff that should never be deep fried. Suddenly Quinn's stomach growled through her armor loud enough to echo through the main area.

The escape pod began its unwavering trajectory towards Icarus I, the space-craft a small insignificant speck in the vast and eternal darkness of space. Eagerly looking forward to their journey, Syv felt two thirds excited, one third fearful. How bad could it be? he wondered, invoking what to the paranoid and sensible types was well known as the phenomenon of “tempting fate.”

The experience of breaking into the atmosphere certainly was one of its kind; the spin was almost non-existent at the beginning, but soon the heat was visible as their pod caught aflame – thankfully it was resistant enough so the temperature rise inside was minimal. Soon after that, however, the flames were extinguished and the pod literally began falling apart as it spiralled out of control, the AI auto-pilot doing its best to keep them on track first and foremost. Oh, Spirits, Syv was genuinely distressed – this was worse than the worst of any racing tracks – lethal or not – combined with accidents! As the space vehicle spun and shook he felt the tremors practically in his bones and was definitively thankful to be buckled so securely to the seat as he would otherwise surely be smashed around.

The landing was harsh and with only a vague sense of nausea, Syv was glad for his strong stomach. A shelter in the form of a mining colony was close, but the more much more alarming sight that greeted them was an immense sand storm. Magnificent. Syv was deeply struck with admiration, but before his wonder and fascination could truly endanger him, their leader called for everyone to run. Turning his back on the beautiful but dangerous sight, he raced the storm towards safety together with others.

Their leader and the Halion were in front of him, the latter holding a sword out. Involuntarily, Syv felt marginally safer, even though he doubted protecting them all was honestly the woman’s intention. Moments before the sandstorm eagerly on their tail could devour the unlikely grouped beings, they made it to the mining colony. The sight of other survivors shocked him, but before trying to make sense of their presence, he took a minute to catch his breath and wait for the adrenaline caused by the imminent danger to dissipate. Whoever these other people were, it would be in all their interest to cooperate. Maybe they even had some information.

She had only just begun on her way towards the med bay when an unfamiliar voice echoed through the comm center. Spinning on her heel, she turned to face the new group that had entered the station. "Other survivors? Perhaps, I didn't hear a dropship land or a vehicle approach", her mind worked out the possibilities as to who they all were. "Identify yourselves!", she called out as she approached with her weapon drawn and aimed on the one who spoke first.

The voice spoke out quickly and to Xi's undesired thoughts of hostiles, however he wouldn't allow yet another fight to break out where one was not needed. The Azaali took the lead once more, stepping around Quinn and forcing her back. "I am Xi Esperia, and we are surivors of a life-pod." He spoke firmly and quickly himself, his Alrick-Vorick firearm still holstered to a magnetic-holster on his lower back. "You must be survivors too, yes? Either of this colony or some incident? Perhaps we can work out an arrangement of safety?" Xi asked the now firearm pressed Quari female who took the other side's lead.

There was silence for a moment as Irisa examined the strangers. The Halion's tone upon entry were hostile but perhaps out of surprise. Lowering her rifle only by a little she replied, "Irisara Silonexios, Imperial Officer. Our group found ourselves in a pod as well. None of us remember how we ended up in there. Is that the same for you". She was hoping the newcomers would shine some light on the situation but she was prepared if that was not the case.

"Sadly, yes. We have no recollection of what has happened to us. All I can say for certain, is that I was on Faren V, then I awoke in a pod with a group of strangers. We were able to make re-entry here. We had hoped this colony or one of the others on this planet might provide stable way off-world and to safety, or at least a way to find answers." Xi took a moment to explain the situation he had come to understand, before slowly moving towards the Qari. "I will not harm you, and so long as we all are in this situation together, I will not let anyone harm each other." He exclaimed with a moment of vocal force, his words being obviously directed to the new group and his own.

Irisa holstered her weapon, they were not a threat, at least not Xi. "Well as of now the only way off this planet is getting the power back on. I sent two of my group to the cryo chamber, both humans so if you're headed over there make yourselves known if you dont want to get shot. I'll be heading over to the medbay for supplies so I need you to go get the power back online"

"I see. This is interesting, why are they going to the cryo chambers? Is there perhaps initial survivors of this colony?" Xi asked quickly with a thought of interest to the matter. "Perhaps I should join you to the Med-Bay however, as I am a medic, and biologist." Xi continued as he smiled behind his helmet. He was happy to hear the colony had a Med-Bay which may have been well-stocked still,and it made him sei-giddy. However he turned his attention to Quinn and Kat for a moment as he nodded. "I will send you two to the Power Core. Kat is an engineer of some sort, she hasn't spoken much. She could get the power on quicker than anyone I imagine. Quinn, you will go as support in-case something is to happen or Kat needs some lifting done, understand?" He spoke to the pair of females with a peaceful tone, but one of urgency and command.

"I appreciate it, it'd be nice to know what to prioritize and what we can spare", Irisa brought up the station map on her HUD when Feynman's projection appeared. "Irisa, I've been running continuous scans of the area and what was first disregarded as debris has now been identified as a ship wreck not far from here. It has been here for some time and it is highly unlikely to be the vessel we originated from. The ongoing storm has moved much of the sand covering the vessel and hull integrity damage would allow a small team to enter and inspect it once the storm has passed", without hesitation the AI placed a blip on her map for the wreck's location. "Thank you Feynman, and could you also send the station map to our new friends here?"

"Certainly, sending data now"

"Alright then. Xi, let's go find that medbay"

"Sounds wonderful. I must say, once we are done we should talk more about that wreck. I have been meaning to find an excuse to explore the planet and it's potential wildlife. Our AI gave us a quick rundown of some of the wildlife as well, but for now it is inactive." Xi added as they began to move towards the Med-Bay. "I am particularlly interested in the Lordia Kynikos, which I apologize ahead of time for speaking as if it's name should be known, but the AI registered it as Lordia Kynikos. Which seems to be human 'Greek' for Striped Canine." Xi noted while smiling once more under his helmet. He was getting excited as he thought about the beast. "The AI didn't provide any information, but the initial imaging provides a resemblance to human Hyenas, but with obvious differences such as size. I want to find some and study them, and even perhaps..." He quickly stopped his fast pace words before slowly turning his head to her. "Sorry, forget it. I am rambling my head off."

Payne wandered through the facility, once his commanding officer had made it clear that their current location was probably safe. He'd decided to go investigate the loading bay, since he had nothing better to do, and the de facto leaders of their two groups would probably appreciate having somebody take stock of everything they had at their disposal. What was he to think of the fact that another group had landed at exactly the same time near almost the exact same location? Eh, happy coincidence. We're quite the motley bunch. A pair of Qari, as well as a pair of Azaali, and a trio humans, gives the major races fair representation. And we've also managed to find ourselves with a few robots, and some outliers. The Halion, the Kasa, and... me.

Payne shrugged, he didn't much mind being the only Urhusasja around. From what he could remember of Rukhkah, he wasn't certain others of his kind would blend terribly well with this group of survivors. Of course, that was nothing compared to the walking stomping, talking screaming, irritable pissed off Halion they were saddled with. As far as the Cook was concerned, she had no business coming anywhere near his kitchen, and he hoped the leaders directed her at something equally large, foul-smelling, and mean. That thought gave him pause, as he reminded himself of the map he'd seen earlier, of the colony.

"Feynman, does this base have a kitchen, someplace to make food? Even a half-decent bar-top would do fine."

Payne reached the Loading Bay, and began rooting through the rows and rows of crates, some opened, some still sealed, all seeming long-abandoned. He scanned the labels, looking for the supplies of food that had hopefully been left behind in a hurry. He could use his Matter Analyzer if need be as well, rifling through the contents of boxes and scanning them to judge how suitable they were for consumption. The last thing Payne wanted to do was go scavenging, out where he could be on the menu, rather than composing a menu of his own.

---

In that instant, Katyusha knew she made a mistake. She was mentally kicking herself for forgetting that auto-pilot does not work with re-entry trajectory.. ever. Her mind wanted her to move to take manual control of the craft, but her body was frozen in fear. She wasn't used to high pressure situations like this, especially when she was out of her field. This is why she wasn't cut out to be a combat engineer. She heard Xi call out the Emergency protocol, which the AI thankfully acknowledged. Such words would've come out of her own mouth had she not been in a state of shock. The engineer closed her eyes when the AI announced "Brace for Impact."

The pod finally landed after what felt like an eternity of falling. Suddenly everything stopped.

"Icarus I. Life Pod has successfully made a critical condition landing. Scanners show an on-coming weather system of high speed winds, dense sand particles, and.. bzzz.. ichzz." The AI cut out.. She turned to see Xi ejecting the AI's unit. She quickly released her own restraints running after everyone else. She hastily tapped the small console of her wrist, bringing her drone, Dimitri, to life. The 3ft tall surveyor crawled out after it's owner.

As they made it to the colony, she stopped close behind the others as they were greeted by another group of would-be survivors. Kat stood in silence as the two 'leaders' spoke to each other, discussing the situation. Her eyes wandered around the place as they spoke, her mind going off somewhere else as she thought of what could be in this abandoned colony. She snapped back to reality as she was addressed, "I-It's Katyusha. Katyusha Chaykovsky. And I'd be glad to take a look." She stammered slightly, wondering if her last name meant anything to the people here. She didn't really know how the Azaali knew her name, since she hadn't introduced herself beforehand, but aliens worked in mysterious ways she assumed.

She gave Xi a quick nod before making haste toward the Power Core; Dimitri's legs clacking along as it followed close behind.

-Gaz-

Feeling as if he wanted to get this shit over with quickly, Gaz went off towards the Cryo bay, while he strolled through the halls he spun his handguns around his finger while keeping the safety on, he then even tossed one up into the air to spin himself completely around and catch it before continuing to the Cryo bay. Once Gaz made it into the sizeable room, his eyes met a number of Cryo pods busted open and beat to shit."Aww man, Shit's dim some time." He spoke out loud before he found a couple of them not so beat to shit."Huh?! I guess there are some popsicles left. Might as well tell Thunder Thighs the situation." He mentioned Irisa before spinning his gun around his finger using the trigger to help keep it spinning around. He slowly began strolling back to the area where he left the tall as fuck Qari only to be greeted by different people, people leaving to go dick around." Where the hell is Irisa?" He asked whoever didn't just outright ignore him."We got some popsicles in the cryo bay, probably running on E-power."

---

-Quinn-
@Rekaigan

Quinn walked along with the engineer human, the Halion had her sword resting on her shoulder as she strolled along with the human and her noisy clacking robot drone, to break the silence Quinn tried to think about what a Humans would talk about." So...Uh what is your favorite sexual position? Or Um, what about your favorite type of partner? You humans like talking about that stuff." She asked the woman bluntly."Humans talk about procreating a lot right?" Then suddenly the Alien woman felt she felt a bit odd and awkward before attempting to change the subject." Nevermind, what is your favorite method of crushing the opposition? Do you use your drone?" She looked back to the small machine.

"There are humans on my home world that hunt with drones, they are mocked and laughed at for not shooting their own prey and sitting back while a machine does all their work. They also get their machines broke and stolen by Cliff chasers, massive centaur like beings with oddly shaped heads and a roar that scares the bravest men." Quinn revealed to the human.

---

As they walked down the passage, Kat constantly glanced at the Halion that walked beside her. She didn't know what to say or how to act around them. She couldn't relate to their violent exploits as she was merely an engineer. Although a few things might interest both of them.. The Engineer flinched slightly when Quinn broke the silence, talking about.. Procreation.. Fortunately for Katyusha, her heavy blush was concealed by her EVA helmet. "I-I.. Uh.." She stammered before realizing that the Halion had already changed the subject to 'crushing the opposition'. Perhaps not a great topic to change to, but it was certainly better than the previous one.

The drones that Quinn spoke of reminded her of the Hunter drone prototypes she worked on as a teenager. She didn't think they'd spread that far.. wherever her home world was. "D-Dimitri is a Surveyor drone, he's not equipped for combat.. Yet." She began, her voice suddenly becoming more clear as if something just clicked in her head."But when I do get my hands on some materials, I plan on integrating a self-defense system; perhaps using one of the experimental weapons that I was working on in the workshops on Faren V.. Maybe a railgun is too much.." She continued, seeming to be in her own world just making spoken notes about what she plans to work on when she can.

It wasn't long before the pair made it to the power generator. Katyusha immediately approached the door on the other side of the room, opening it and approaching the power core that stood in the center. She observed it for a moment to check for any damaged wires, which there were none.. At the core anyway. Exiting the room again, she approached the command terminal, opening the hatch underneath it. The wires had been ripped out for some unknown reason, but it was repairable. She tapped a command into her wrist controller, calling Dimitri over. A small compartment on the side of it's body exposed some spare wires among other materials. The engineer quickly got to work, replacing the wire and soldering them in place with her multi-tool.

Slapping the hatch closed, she got back onto her feet, activating the terminal with great success. She tapped a few commands into the terminal bringing the power core back online, the lights flickering to life once more. "Systems online. Initiating colony status check." The AI stated as a list of items opened on the screen. It would seem that many of the systems were operational, if not slightly damaged. Such things could be rectified in due course.

"Cryopod chamber status: Negative. One out of five operational. Attempting to repair Cryopod systems."

Payne wandered through the facility, once his commanding officer had made it clear that their current location was probably safe. He'd decided to go investigate the loading bay, since he had nothing better to do, and the de facto leaders of their two groups would probably appreciate having somebody take stock of everything they had at their disposal. What was he to think of the fact that another group had landed at exactly the same time near almost the exact same location? Eh, happy coincidence. We're quite the motley bunch. A pair of Qari, as well as a pair of Azaali, and a trio humans, gives the major races fair representation. And we've also managed to find ourselves with a few robots, and some outliers. The Halion, the Kasa, and... me.

Payne shrugged, he didn't much mind being the only Urhusasja around. From what he could remember of Rukhkah, he wasn't certain others of his kind would blend terribly well with this group of survivors. Of course, that was nothing compared to the walking stomping, talking screaming, irritable pissed off Halion they were saddled with. As far as the Cook was concerned, she had no business coming anywhere near his kitchen, and he hoped the leaders directed her at something equally large, foul-smelling, and mean. That thought gave him pause, as he reminded himself of the map he'd seen earlier, of the colony.

"Feynman, does this base have a kitchen, someplace to make food? Even a half-decent bar-top would do fine."

Payne reached the Loading Bay, and began rooting through the rows and rows of crates, some opened, some still sealed, all seeming long-abandoned. He scanned the labels, looking for the supplies of food that had hopefully been left behind in a hurry. He could use his Matter Analyzer if need be as well, rifling through the contents of boxes and scanning them to judge how suitable they were for consumption. The last thing Payne wanted to do was go scavenging, out where he could be on the menu, rather than composing a menu of his own.

Feynman's avatar appeared on Payne's helmet with a quick flicker, "The inventory list states that a large number of foodstuffs arrived fifty-eight years ago and were put in long-term preservation cases. Such cases would be stored in this loading bay. As for where these crates are I'm picking up cryostasis engines here." The AI put up an overlay on Payne's helmet leading him to a wall of storage containers, the one holding the foodstuffs and ingredients behind behind a few at the front. "As for cooking facilities the living quarters houses a small kitchen that may be of use, I've placed its location on your map"


@Zelosse
Odd stopped outside of the colonys open doors, kneeling down to investigate the floors looling for clues to what happened. Drag of claws, bullet marks, anything. Not finding anything he grabbed a handful of sand and poured as much as he could across his suit. One of its useful functions was a tactical comoflouge that mimicked basic colors.
When he cwme up and entered the building his suit was the color of the sands with patches of white.

"Is the target in motion?" He asked to the AI.

"No, the subject within this stasis pod is not conscious. I must advise you that I have detected two distinct organisms within this stasis pod. Judging from the manner which one envelopes the other I suspect it to be a symbiotic relationship. As for the organism host, no records on this base or on this stasis pod provide information on its species. Based solely on its dimensions, I hypothesis the host to be a female human"


A collab with @ManoftheNorth
Despite the fact that this colony looked like the aftermath of a warzone, the Med-Bay was rather well stocked. There were only a handful of medical supplies missing from the inventory list. "Whatever happened here was fast, there was no time to care for wounded. If I had to guess, these missing supplies were probably taken by the few survivors of whatever attacked this colony", Irisa's eyes scanned the room for clues but aside from the usual items found in a med-bay there was nothing out of the ordinary here. There was a computer terminal located in the Chief Medical Officer's office, perhaps they would find something there? "Here's hoping we finally get some answers", she said to Xi while sitting down at the computer. Booting it up there was no security lock on it, "Strange. Patient medical records would be kept here, why would they leave the files unprotected?" As she looked further and further into the files she could see the history of injuries and illnesses treated for each patient. "Xi, look at this. Almost every patient file here shows they were treated for lacerations, acid burns, and puncture wounds. How would workers on a mining colony get injuries like this? I was expecting lazer burns, broken limbs, concussions, but that's not the case here. It can't be animal attacks because they were working down that shaft out there. I want to say it was our unknown apex predator but something tells me that is not the case."

"Feynman, do any of the detected lifeforms on this planet possess the physiological capabilities to inflict such injuries?", Feynmen took only a moment to analyze the data before replying with a short "I'm afraid not"

"This doesn't make any sense. If it isn't the local fauna and it cant come from working in the shaft then what did this? Feynman, do the bodies in the station possess injuries like the ones in these files?"

"From what I have scanned there seems to be a variety in causes of death among the colonists. At the communication center there are bodies matching the files but with blunt force trauma as well. Moving further into the facility the causes of death match the injuries on this terminal but more severe. If I may offer a hypothesis ma'am, it seems that whatever killed these colonists started at the front entrance. The resulting panic causes a mob to trample those not fast enough to keep up. They were then killed by whatever was attacking the facility before it moved on to hunt down the initial survivors"

"So we have a timeline but we still dont know what did all this..Feynman, scan the room for any electronic devices, disregard medical equipment", her orders were cold and calculated in tone and the AI followed them without question. "Ma'am I am detecting a small data cube located within the right drawer of this desk"

Quickly opening the desk her eyes landed on the small metallic black cube which she grabbed and inserted into the port. In an instant a series of video files came on-screen in order from most recent to oldest. "The latest entry was made fifty-eight years ago, that's before the war's end...I suppose we start there", selecting the file, the first image to appear was that of an aged Qari male. Judging by his attire he was probably the Chief Medical Officer. His eyes were filled with sheer terror and pain yet the rest of his face carried with it an air of exhaustion. For the first ten seconds all the man did was struggle to breathe as he sat in the same chair Irisa was now in.

"My name is Dr. Makheon Isturios, I am the Chief Medical Officer of Instllation G0-M-74K3. I do not have much time so I will try to be short. This facility is a covert Imperial Bio-Engineering Lab. The surface compound was meant to conceal the true nature of the laboratory below. By now you must have noticed the deceased humans strewn about the colony and the design of their living quarters being rather...simplistic. These were human prisoners of war, we used them as test subjects for our experiments below. As to what those experiments were...it was the Malov.

Our emperor saw that desperate measures needed to be to taken if we were to win this war with the humans. Our mission here was to create a species of Malov that was obedient to our will. A Malov queen was captured on another planet and transported here where we had her breed specific species of their kind to be experimented on. At first our scientists tried to merge Qari and Malov DNA to create a hybrid species of our own. We tried to reverse to steal their gene manipulation for ourselves...ancestors forgive us.

When that failed we moved to neural interfacing to control them. At first we could have them perform basic commands but as we advanced the neural interface would reject the bond and cause fatal brain damage to the test subjects. We had only one other option, we combined the DNA of the Malov queen with that of one of our scientist, Dr.Ketoi Akestis. From there we had it breed another queen which we augmented heavilty with cybernetics. The result was a Malov queen with the consciousness of a Qari...at least we had thought so at first. The details of what followed are located on this data cube but I will give you a synopsis of what occurred.

Soon after reaching the optimal breeding age it began to birth other Malov at an alarming rate, their growth rate was so fast we couldn't contain them. Eventually they caused a containment breach and slaughtered everyone in the labratory below. Upon reaching the elevator shaft the creatures attacked the surface facility killing most of the staff and test subjects in the first few hours. As of now there are only five of us still alive including myself. The others have gone down into the sub level to try to kill that abomination. I've been told that if they do not return within four hours I am to cave in the elevator shaft and destroy the power core...It has been four and a half hours. I've already caved in the elevator shaft, unfortunately it took al the explosives we had. I suppose I will simply shut down the power and rip out the terminal wiring...there is no surviving this for me. To whoever is viewing this, I beg you, do not turn on the power to this facility. The mining drill is still operational and will clear the shaft if powered. Just leave this place or if you can then destroy it completely. Besides this data cube I am the only witness to what happened here...I will take an EVA suit and walk out into that wasteland till the ancestor's take me."

"By the Heralding Spirits..." Xi was completely unable to speak. He hadn't done more than nod and walk about the Med-Bay as they searched through it before finding the terminal. His hearing the viedo play brought only the greatest level of disgust and pain into his stomach. The Aaali was baffled and bewildered. He couldn't manage a look at the female Qari at the terminal. Xi took a moment to step away into the other room, it was there that he slowly took in a few deep breaths and then detached his helmet. As he did so he walked back to the main room and turned to the Qari before lifting off his helmet, the slow releaase created a growing glow from the helmet.

"Your people.. Your pride.. Your War.." Xi spoke as his helmet finally came off, his antlers forming and his "mask" shining as he breathed through the Azaali oxygen lung."You utterly destroyed a semblence of reality and morale understanding.. for war.. Your people did such things, because they feel the universe is theirs... and yet it is everyones.." Xi slowly put his helmet back on and he turned away again as he looked at the floor. He couldn't say what he did behind a helmet. He had to speak face to face, and yet he felt even then he wasn't done.

"Listen to me. I will not hate you, for your people. I will not out you, for your people. Peace is universal, and so is redemption. We must'n let them turn on the power, Irisara."

When the video ended, all that was left on-screen was the weary visage of the old Qari slumped in his chair. She had no words, this place and its experiments had gone too far. She did not care for humans but she knew of what the Malov were capable of and to think her own people tried to use it as a weapon. It may have been a different time but that did not excuse it. To hate humans for their use of the Heastros Virus meanwhile the empire attempted the same thing...all she could do was stare at the screen as Xi spoke.

"Thank you Xi, hopefully we can reach them before its too late", Irisa grabbed the data cube out of the port before heading for the door. Checking the map once more sheshe locatef the reactor room and ran as fasfast as sheshe could down the halls, the sight of the corpses she passed by replayed the video in her head over and over again. "We can't let any trace of this place exist. First we find a way off-world, then we destroy this facility for good"

It seemed as though fortune did not favor them for as soon as she entered the loading bay, the base's lights flickered on with a hum and whir. What's more the central drill reactivated and in a matter of seconds was clearing away most of the debris filling the shaft. Irisa was in full sprint at this point and upon entering the power core chamber she yelled out, "SHUT IT OFF NOW!" But it was no use, the drill had done its work and shut down once it sensed the shaft was cleared. For a moment there was silence, a long dreadful silence that seemed to drag on forever before finally releasing its grip over her with a loud schriek from beneath the ground. It was free.

"Everyone to the comm center, NOW!", her voice came through everyone's comm link. In a matter of seconds she was already there grabbing whatever wasnt bolted to the ground and stacking it against the windows and doors. "Someone help me block these windows! We need to reinforce this base as fast as possible! There should be plenty of stuff to block the access points with in the loading bay, get there and put what you find in front of every door and window in this place, HURRY!", she knew to fear what was coming, something like this couldn't be beaten by their small group. The most she could do was hold them off and pray for a miracle.

Countdown until revival: 01 Year :06 months :13 days :04 Hours :57 seconds, and dropping.
Emergency sensors: Functioning at 13%
Hull integrity: 0%, hull compromised, full replacement required before takeoff can be attempted.
Remaining crew: None
Support: 1, Mechanical passenger, designation ASAP.
Emergency readings: Online
-Report: Massive energy surge detected, preparing emergency functions.

Model B-23 Automated Structural analysis Probe, Hemworth Robotics. Serial number: 131497-AZ

Status
Battery: 64%
Structural integrity: Good enough
[skip procedure requested by operator]
[Skip procedure accepted, activating primary systems]

The remains of the old ship were spread out over a half mile or so, with the exception of the other half of the ship which got scattered and destroyed in orbit. Asap came to the conclusion that no one on the ship knew how to fly a ship. Which was probable. What was left of the ship that had been sitting for years letting the local plant life grow all over it. Inside and out. Asap wasn't too pleased about it, but waking up once every couple of years didn't leave a lot of time for grooming the local wildlife. It didn't help the ship was full of holes and a large portion of the ship was missing, including the armory with the guns. Asap didn't like that, there were a lot of aggressive things on this planet. Not that he couldn't take them on one at a time, but it's not like there are spare parts lying about he can fix himself up with. Just whatever he could find around the ship and the colony. Lucky most the damage he has taken had been surface damage, and his communication antenna. Those were easy to fix. Scrap metal to replace the broken bits, and there were plenty of radios that were as least as old as this skeleton of his.

What got his attention though was an energy spike, not far from his position actually. A mining colony that he believed the previous owners of his ship were trying to loot. But he didn't see anything that could just accidentally start the place last time he was there, then again he didn't really search it that hard. But chances are that means someone is here now, someone with a ship. A ship he could probably figure out how to fly, it doesn't even need to fly well. Just well enough to get noticed by someone who can get him as far as possible away from this hell hole of a planet. Or maybe the people here were not assholes as much as the last ones. Maybe they would willingly give him a ride. Either way it could mean a way off. Though if they had guns that could be a problem. All he had in terms of weapons was a sword he had made using some of the scrap metal. He had his torch but that only could do so much, and it ran off a battery powered by the ship's battery.

Asap grabbed tools he had that might be useful, and his sword. He also grabbed a rather thick looking pipe. He heard that duel weapons were intimidating and if used right could be nice. He was sure that was partially bullshit but chances are whoever they were would be armed and he needed to be ready. He started to leave the ship with his gear, most of it in a duffle bag. On the way out he saw the remains of a mirror. His look hasn't changed too much since he was constructed, but since he started thinking for himself he could actually notice the changes to himself. Staying still for so long he has had dirt from the many storms start to cover him. The scrap metal replacement parts were very noticeable. Especially without the paint to cover them up. Parts that were not replaced were extremely dirty and in many cases dented. Normally for the repairs Asap would need they would just wipe his memory and do a full tune up. Not again, now he was free. Now he was his own being. "Show time." He said calmly as he walked out, sword in hand.

Standing over the colony Asap could tell a few things. There were people, and there was power, and there was a hell of a lot of noise. Though he did not see a ship. He heard the hum of the drill slowly end. That could be automatic, many drills, even the older ones had a lot of safety features. Maybe it reached it's pre-planned drilling depth, or maybe it hit something the computers recognized it shouldn't be hitting? Or maybe someone shut it off when it wasn't supposed to turn on in the first place. Then he heard the shriek, it sounded big, it sounded violent, it sounded like something bigger then a scrap metal sword could take on. "Well this sucks, the moment I make contact someone decides to screw it up for everyone. Including me." He ran his way down the sand to the compound. He had to be careful to not fall, but one of the best parts of being a machine, he had what he considered amazing hand eye coordination.

His makeshift communications device picked up a weak signal, that was all it was good for anyways. Picking up open channel communications right next to them. "Everyone get tot he comm center, NOW!" He had to move, things were getting bad, and if these people died before he found their ship he was as good as dead himself. Reaching the building he saw it's state, it was total shit. Then again abandonment would do that to a place, though wear and tear seemed to have taken a worse toll on it since he saw it years ago. The hatch was still open, walking in he had his makeshift sword ready. The lights were on now, for once he could see considerable easier. He didn't have night vision so it helped. There was definitely recent activity. Infact, there was a lot of activity right now. One of them had shouted something about barricading the building, they needed a lot more then that, but maybe they could funnel whatever was outside and take it on little by little.

The room had a few people in it, though many were not human. Old base programming tried to kick in and tell him to start and fight. He was made in the war to protect humanity, though that was ended a long time ago. "I was going to come in here and say something corny like take me to your leader and give me your ship, though seems like we all have much bigger problems." Emphasizing outside the door. "Hope you have a good stockpile of ammo, my guess is that these people did." pointing to the room around using his sword. He would help with the barricade anyways, even if he didn't have selfish motives about it he had base programming. He had to help even if he didn't want to.

Payne followed the handily pinned locations in his HUD to the containers, spent a handful of minutes making sure how to open them properly. He had to use the flashlight in his glove to read the labels for foodstuffs, but he was humming pleasantly to himself as he realized they had quite the stock of delicious stuff to lean on until they figured out ways to either get off-world or procure fresher food. With his arms full of crinkly packages of food preserved just for this day, Payne made his way out of the cargo bay to go find the kitchen, where he'd set to preparing a hefty meal for the survivors.

---