-Shipwrecked- (Sci-fi, open)

[InfectedHau]

"At least we can breathe," Wesley said. In fact, she almost felt like she could breathe better here than she could back on earth. It was almost like travelling to the sea after spending some time in the mountains, there just seemed to be more air here. She also felt a bit lighter, perhaps the gravity here was slightly lower, too. It would certainly explain the gargantuan creature that they'd apparently awoken, it would need lower gravity to avoid being crushed under its own weight. "Fortunately," the engineer said, bouncing up and down slightly as they walked, "Taurus hit the ground last, and it had the rest of the ship to absorb the force of the crash for it, so the hull is relatively undamaged. The engines, on the other hand..." Prying the hatch open again, Wesley stepped inside, unable to surpress a pang of loss at the mess that waited within. This had been her home for the past few months, and now it was in shambles. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it doesn't look good. If we were still in our galaxy, I'd have said it would be easier to buy a new spaceship. This thing is totaled, I'm not sure I can ever get her running again."

"No problemo, meatbag," Minerva said, buzzing over to one of the few undamaged consoles and plugging herself in. She needed to have a little talk with ALEC, and she didn't want the organics overhearing it. So, not sure if you picked up on this, she said to him, her voice only audible through their shared connection, but we're kind of up a creek here. I didn't want to say anything to the humans, but I saw what happened to Taurus, and I'm not sure if we can actually make it out of here. Do you think you could get long-range scanners back online? Might be a good idea to see if there's any sizeable bodies of water nearby, maybe some local wildlife to hunt. We may be here for a while.

[eHjorth]

Puck struggled to keep up with the small dog, though they weren't sure if their sudden lack of stamina was due to the strange air quality, or if they sustained some yet undiscovered injury in the crash. The whole event was somewhat of a blur; they had been lying in their bunk with their VR glasses on, deeply immersed in a video game, when stuff had started shaking and making noise and ... They weren't totally sure what had happened, exactly. Their parent had been in the shower, and only just made it back to their room when chaos really broke lose. The door had barely closed behind Thue when some sort of impact, probably with this planet's atmosphere, jammed it.

Puck panted as they followed the dog, but had to stop when Montague slipped through a small opening in the crumbled mess of metal that was blocking a hallway into a larger section of the ship.
"Hey! Wait!" Puck pounded on the metal and called out in vain, but the dog was gone. They prayed that he had led them close enough for other survivors to hear them. If there were any other survivors. Puck hammered harder on the metal. "HEY! ANYONE!?"

Meanwhile back in Scorpio, Thue had settled on their half-overturned bunk and turned their computer back on. There was the faintest of signals, and with some tinkering and an unreasonable amount of luck, they had managed to connect to the Zodiac's network. The connection hung by a thread, though. Shaky snippets of ALEC's voice was interrupted by static.

"So ... Plan ... Aliens ... Aliens ... Everyone dies ..."

Well, that sounded encouraging. But at least it confirmed that at minimum one AI was still online. The signal was far too weak to properly communicate, so Thue resorted to sending the briefest of text messages to ALEC:

"Trapped in Scorpio-043. Uninjured. Send help."

They hit enter, leaned back and watched the swirling circle at the bottom of their message, letting out a deep sigh of relief when it turned green. Message sent.

[Black Dreamscape]

ALEC

Alec was honestly a little surprised when Minerva plugged herself into the Taurus data systems. Did it really matter whether or not the organics heard? Scanners? Well, okay, I guess I could do that when I finish the diagnostics. They'll be a higher priority at the very least. Speaking of which, how are you gonna tell the humans the results, if you want to keep it all hush-hush? I- wait a sec, message incoming. Diverting himself back to the captain, Alec quickly relayed the text he'd received.
"Got something from the programmer, cap. He says he's trapped over in Scorpio 0-43; that part's detached from the ship. He's not hurt but he needs help."

August

Why. Why is it so freaking humid? Half of me'll be rusty as the Titanic by the time I get back in the ship. All August seemed to have for this new world was complaints- it was too wet, too dark, too scary. It wasn't like he hated it, but at the very least he strongly disliked the climate on this planet.
As he followed the ship's hull, something that could possibly be shouting (it was) came into earshot. The further he went, the louder it became, until he could clearly make out a call for help. He wasn't sure he recognized the voice, but seriously? What were the chances of it being someone he didn't know? Damn paranoia.
"Hello?! Where are you!?"

[Black Dreamscape]

(ignore this post I can't delete it)

[☪ℓυηαя∂яσρ☪]

Rikimaru smiled at the AI, grateful for the assistance from the usually sassy entity. Their head still hurt like crazy but they did their best to hide the fact. They were luckily able to forget the pain easier when Monty slipped into the room.
"Monty! Don't run off like that, boy." They lightly scolded, just happy to see he was okay. They kneeled down to brush the dust off his back and was met with a flurry of kisses from their furry friend. Smiling despite themself, they stood back up and looked over at the others. "I think it'd be best we get out of here. If anything we should try to get to the bridge, see if the captain and pilot are still there." In a rare display of tact they had managed to stop themself from saying 'dead' to avoid upsetting the captain's son who was right there.

[InfectedHau]

I'm not going to tell them, Minerva said, not yet, anyway. I'd rather we know about it and not need it, than not know about it, and then have to figure it out after the power on the ship gives out and we don't have the scanners anymore. When the message came through, Minerva took a moment to read it, then took over the speakers for a brief moment. "I can go get him, cappy," she said, "That way none of y'all squishy folk have to worry about getting stomped on by Mr. Walking Forest over there." Going back to her and ALEC's private conversation, Minerva finished with Just see what you can do, I'm going to try and stop more of them from dying. The AI then terminated the connection and zipped out of the medbay, roving the hallways of the demolished ship in search of a way to the outside.

[eHjorth]

Silence. Thue's hands hovered tensely over the laptop's keyboard as they waited for an indication that ALEC had recieved the message. None came. Thue hoped it was just because the speakers were offline for Scorpio and the AI hadn't bothered making the extra effort to notify anyone who weren't reachable through those. It would be typical, really. After all this time on the Zodiac, Thue knew the various quirks of the different AI pretty well by now.
Regardless of the lack of response, Thue typed ALEC another message:

"How many AI are online?"

---

In between hammerings, Puck thought they heard someone call back to them. The voice sounded young, and although not entirely identifiable, Puck guessed it belonged to that one scientist. One of the twins with the cool prostetics; Puck had talked to them a few times.
"Hello? I'm outside! We need help! Can you get out here?"
They put their eye to one of the uneven holes in the collapsed hallway, but it was impossible to see anything clearly. They thought they could see something moving far inside, but not a human ... it was too fast, and spherical besides. They weren't sure if the thing was in the same room with August, or if the echoes were playing tricks on them.

[Black Dreamscape]

ALEC

Minerva disconnected from Alec's network (dammit, he hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her about the spare Owls), and he watched through a damaged camera as she sped off to assist Thue. Speaking of which, here was another message. Huh. Surprisingly good connection he's managing to get there. This time Alec didn't bother using a proxy, and sent his reply directly to the programmer's computer.
"As far as I can tell, it's just me and owlbot here. By the way, she's heading over there right now; maybe you should tidy up your room to greet the lady. (lol)"

Artemis

Where was he? If not the cockpit, then the lab? No, Auggie wouldn't have stayed there at a time like this. But then again... Artemis sighed and looked around for something to take her mind off current events, slipping on her earbuds as an almost automatic action. There. The pilot. She was dead, that much was certain, but maybe Artemis could do something about the body. Stepping out of the room for a moment, Artemis worked her way around the debris to a storage cabinet, the insides of which were jumbled yet thankfully intact. She quickly found what she was looking for, a sheet and cart, and made her way back to Aries, determined to at least give Alyssa the post-death respect she deserved.

August

"Uh, yeah, I think! I'm outside too, technically... so..."
August looked up at the barrier of crushed metal the hull had become where he was, wondering if the other person was behind that.
"Can you tell where exactly you are? Or wait, even better, do you have anything that can give off a signal? I might be able to find your location if you do!"

[☪ℓυηαя∂яσρ☪]

Rikimaru stood up, stoically dusting off their shoulders and stiffening out their coat collar. Their blue eyes glistened in the dim light, able to be seen in the dark. Their pale skin almost glowed in the dark, something others may be embarrassed by but not them.
Monty stood back, happily wagging his little stump tail as he looked up at his master. Rikimaru looked over who was left and called out to them. "Come. Let's see if we can't get to the cockpit." They turned and squeezed themself under the dent in the ceiling and watched behind them to make sure everyone else got through safely.

[Rudigoat]

Theo nearly ran into his second-in-command as he fumbled his way through the almost totally destroyed Taurus section and into the med bay. Shaking dust from his graying hair, he addressed his young friend.
"Ah, Rikimaru. What's the damage? Have you encountered any more of the crew?"