[Sabre's POV]

I wake up on the lifepod's floor, feeling cold.

I forgot to take off the wetsuit last night, I'm such an idiot. No wonder I'm cold. If some creature doesn't kill me while I'm on this planet, my own stupidity will.

I slowly get up from the floor, flinching a little at all of the aching cramps from sleeping there. I stretch for a little bit to ease them, and soon enough I can move comfortably. I walk over to one of the storage units inside the counter and take out the water bottle and nutrient block I took a little from yesterday.

After a terrible breakfast, I look over to the lower hatch of the pod, and see that the creature isn't there anymore. It must've swam away while I was asleep. Good, I can actually go out now.

I grab the survival knife from the counter and walk over to the hatch, then suddenly remember the materials in the other storage unit. I grab some of them and walk over to the fabricator, and make a scanning tool. This thing is handy for alien planets, and I can check up on my own well-being.

I then go back over to the hatch, opening it. Before I can psyche myself out I jump in, closing the hatch behind me as I go.

The water doesn't feel as cold because of the already-damp wetsuit. I wait a moment for all of the bubbles to disappear, then start swimming towards anything that looks interesting.

I collect a few bits of plants, some materials like titanium from outcrops on the sides of rocks, and some odds and ends from the broken Aurora. Before I know it, I can't carry any more stuff, so I swim back to my lifepod and drop all of it off before going out again.

Huh... When there's no scary creatures around, this is actually pretty fun! I spend a while just collecting materials and other things, occasionally going to the surface or my lifepod for air. Soon, I have a Seaglide! While I do need to be swimming around for it to work, it's still pretty fun. I was also able to make a repair tool, and fix up the inside of my lifepod. As it turns out, rescue isn't coming, based from what the communicator spouted off... Oh well. I guessed so anyway.

I decide to take my Seaglide out for a little test drive in the nearby reef. It's a little way's away from the lifepod, but it seems safe. I spend a while just swimming through the water, speeding past a lot of the fish. I even did some jumps out of the water, like a dolphin!

...You know what, this isn't really that- What was that?

Something moving behind a rock catches my eye, and I look over. There's something... red, and something orange? Wait-

SHOOT. THE CREATURE'S BACK AND IT BROUGHT A FRIEND.

I see both of them start to swim towards me, but I take off before they get close. I swim in one direction with my Seaglide for a while. I look back, and they're still following me. I need to lose 'em.

I quickly weave my way through a lot of coral structures in a large reef, trying to slow them down so I can get away. For a while, it seems to be working. I look back again after a little bit of doing that, and see that they're no longer on my tail. Good, now I can-

Oh, crap.

I was about to leave through a path ahead of me, but the orange creature suddenly swims in the way of it. I quickly veer right, weaving through coral again.

I'm about to go past a large coral spire, when the orange thing is again right in front of me. I try going to the opposite side, it's there too. I try going up, it's there too. How is it going as fast as my Seaglide?! Wait, Seaglides slow down automatically when turning or going up or down. Shoot.

I keep trying to catch the orange thing slipping up, and go past it, but no matter what it's always right in front of me. Suddenly, I hear something behind me. I turn around to see that the red one from yesterday is swimming up to me from behind! The orange one is still in front of me- My PDA is going off about my oxygen tank being low-

Up! I need to go up!

I quickly point my Seaglide upward and zoom towards the surface. In a few seconds, I'm above the water and my oxygen tank refills while I'm in the air. I see an island a little to my left. Perfect, they can't get me there.

I start towards the island, the two creatures still following me. I keep checking behind me occasionally while on my way to the island, worried that they're catching up. Soon, I reach the island's shore and clamber on, putting my Seaglide on one of the wetsuit's belt hooks. I go a little way's onto the island, then look back to the sea.

Oh-

Oh good lord they can go on land.

The two creatures are climbing onto the island's shore just as I did. Are- Are they amphibious?! How?! No time to think, gotta run.

I sprint into the strange forest on the island, keeping an eye out for somewhere I can hide. I look behind me at the creatures, and the orange one reaches out.

"Hey!" The creature yells, and I flinch and run faster.

Holy smokes- These things can talk?! Are they the sentient species on this planet, like humans on Earth?! What is happening?!

I suddenly see a strange cave entrance, with a weird metal that has green line accents sticking out of some parts of the cave. I run in without thinking, hoping I'll be safe.

"Wait, wait!" A different voice calls out, probably the red creature. I don't listen to it.

I run deeper into the cave, the weird green lines on the metal lighting my way. I can hear the creatures running behind me. I look back at them again, and they're both... pointing? Nice try, I'm not falling for-

I suddenly fall forward, my foot not having something to run on. I try to stop myself, but it's too late, and I tumble into the hole in front of me. I hit things as I fall. I close my eyes after my scuba mask is knocked off my face, the hood of the wetsuit being pulled off my head by a pipe of some kind. I feel something hit my chest after that, then I'm rolled over midair and something hits my back, then I roll again and something hits my legs, and I roll one more time before something hits the side of my face.

I feel myself collide with cold, hard, metal ground almost headfirst. I end up lying on my stomach once I stop moving from the fall. Hitting the ground knocked the wind out of me. Trying to catch my breath, I slightly open my eyes to see what's around me, but all I see is a hall made of that weird metal with the green lines.

Suddenly, it feels like something falls right on me. I scream, it only adding to the pain from falling. It pins my left shoulder to the ground, as I can't find the strength to get up or shove it off.

I feel something liquid trickle down the side of my head. I put my shaking free hand up to where I think it's coming from, and when I pull it away I see blood. I hear voices, probably the two creatures, trying to yell down to me from where I fell from. I... I can't make out what they're saying...

Everything is going dark... It's cold wherever I am... Everything hurts... Am... Am I gonna die...? I hope not, but... If I do, I'll just be joining the people in my crew that... died during the crash... I had a good run, I survived a day after the crash...

...I don't want to die, though...

The last thing I see before I pass out is just the dark, metal hallway in front of me, and my blood-covered hand as I lay there on the ground.

—————————————————————————————————————

[Red Steve's POV]

"Hey, are you alright?!" I yell down the hole the strange creature fell down, as I have been with Orange for a little while. Just like all the times before, it doesn't respond.

"Red, it stopped moving. We should get down there and help it." Orange says, worried for the little thing.

I get up, and Orange does the same.

"You're right, we should." I say. "This hole was a pipe maintenance space. There's a hallway that leads to where the little guy is, on the side of the island. Come on."

I run out of the cave, Orange following behind me.

"You've been to this island?" He asks as we rush to the hall entrance.

"Yeah, whenever I was bored and you were busy, I would explore around the area." I say, turning by a tree. "I found this island a few weeks ago, and explored around the ruins here. That's how I know where that hole leads."

We reach the side of the island, and just like I said, there's another ancient-metal-covered entrance, but more refined than the other one. It's completely made out of the metal that the ruins are made of, and not scattered around like the cave.

We run in, and it's a straight hall right to the poor creature. It's lying there at the very end of it, right below the hole it fell down. We rush to the creature, and while it doesn't respond to anything we say or do, thankfully it's still breathing. It must've been knocked out when it fell.

"Must be one of those ones that can't breathe in water..." Orange mumbles. "Those are rare here."

"Maybe that's what the tank is for." I say, observing the creature as I look for injuries. There's a scab on its forehead, but it looks healed over so it's not a problem. It's not a good idea to move the pipe that landed on its shoulder right now, we don't know if it punctured it or something.

I notice a small trickle of a crimson-colored liquid coming from the side of the creature's head. I move over and turn the creature's head a little, seeing a terrible gash just below the creature's hair. Orange and I both cringe at the sight of it.

"That must be what its blood looks like, then..." I say quietly. I then turn to Orange. "Orange, get some nearby kelp from the water. We can use that to stop the bleeding until this thing wakes up."

"Got it." Orange says, and he runs off. I hear a 'splash' moments later.

I then turn back to the creature, wondering what I should do while I wait for Orange. Hm... maybe I could see if that pipe actually did something.

I carefully grab the pipe that landed on the creature's shoulder, and move it a little. It doesn't feel caught or stuck on anything... I pull away the pipe entirely, setting it to the side, and it doesn't seem to have stabbed into the poor thing. Thank goodness...

I then hear another 'splash', then footsteps. I turn my head to see Orange running back to me with an armful of kelp.

"Is this good?" He asks, and I look at what he brought.

The kelp is flat and hangs onto itself easily, yet feels soft to the touch.

"Perfect." I say. "Help me wrap the gash on its head."

Orange holds the kelp in place while I use it as bandages for the injury. I had bundled one piece of kelp together to act as a gauze, to apply pressure to the wound so it stops bleeding faster. Soon enough, we've successfully gotten the creature's gash all wrapped up.

"Should we turn him over or something?" Orange asks.

"It's probably not a good idea to move it right now, we don't know if any of its bones broke." I say. "If that happened, moving it would also move the bone out of place. So, for now, we shouldn't touch it. It's better if we wait for it to wake up on its own now."

Orange and I lean against the hallway's wall, near the creature. We stay silent for a moment.

"Red, is this our fault?" Orange asks, and I turn to him.

"Orange, if there's any fault here, none of it is yours." I answer. "If anything, it's all mine. I was the one that came up with the idea to chase the creature. You just went along with me. Besides, neither of us knew it would run here and into the cave. None of this is your fault, alright?"

Orange looks up at me, looking a little less upset.

"Thanks, Red." He says, smiling a bit. "You're a good friend."

"No problem, Orange." I say, smiling back. "You're my little buddy; Things like this are what friends are for."

We talk for a while as we wait for the creature to wake up. Just about what's been going on while we're not with each other, Orange gives me updates about the Orange Village, I tell him about what I've found while exploring... we always have little conversations like this. Right now, it's more focused around the alien in front of us.

...I hope the little guy turns out alright.