Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"GET TO THE LIFEPODS!"

Everything was chaotic. The flashing lights of the Aurora made everything seem pure red, there were people yelling, screaming, maybe even crying. But it was too difficult to make out any clear sound besides that, amongst the crowd were two young men, both of which were shaken, but also making a run for the Lifepods. They had turned a sharp corner, and entered the nearest one, slamming could be heard on the Lifepod's door not long after it was closed, causing one of them to flinch back. They could still hear the screaming outside, some people confused and scared, wondering why some of the pods refused to open, others realizing there wasn't enough for everyone.

And then the pod shot off, they could still hear the roaring of the Aurora as it continued its descent onto the planet below, and the two would soon find themselves within said planet as well, whether they liked it or not.

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All was at rest; the moon was high in the sky above. The gentle breeze of the wind could be heard softly singing its song as it blew by. Many of the Peepers eyes could be seen from a mile away in the vast darkness of the water, where the currents ran just like the wind.

And it wasn't so different when morning came; where the sun lit the kelp, causing it to turn to a brighter vibrant hue, the Stalkers could be heard playing with any scrap metal, and occasionally a tooth would drop down. The corals glew with the most vivid of colors when the light of the sun hit them. And asides from the Biters, chasing down other fauna, it was peaceful. And you were enjoying it, despite not being near shallower waters, you could see the light on the surface far, far above you. You had just finished with a meal, a Stalker you dragged down to the depths before the sun had begun to rise, there weren't any remains, besides a hollowed out corpse of which not a single bone could be found.

It wasn't enough, but it made for a good snack until you could find something bigger to hunt down. For now though, you intended on resting. Perhaps taking a nap until dusk. After all, nothing exciting would happen, there were very few who would dare try to challenge you. And those that did, like the foolish Boneshark's, would often meet their end. So with that in mind, you began swimming for your nest, your fins helping you to glide through the waters as graceful as the Jellyray's you so loved to admire for their beauty.

Everything was fine, it was another day for you, boring though it was. Up until a sudden crashing sound rang throughout the waters, even you could tell just how far the origins of that sound was.

And then the strongest current you've ever felt came crashing into you. You barely had time to react, your fins putting in extra work so as to not get pushed. While it'd be difficult to push you any meaningful distance, the current was powerful, you could see Peepers being blown far, far away. Perhaps even to the Crater Edge you so dreaded very much. A few Garyfish and Rabbitrays were also victim to the strong torrent. The crash continued to ring out, but it was muted due to the sound of rushing water.

And then the current faded as quickly as it came, you were left confused. When you looked around, everything looked the same, yet everything was quieter than normal. And any of the smaller fauna you were familiar with were gone. Silence was the only sound you could hear, and this was both terrifying and exciting.

You quickly deduced that this could've only come from shallower waters, as judging from the distance, there's no way this came from the deeper depths you were in. So with that, a powerful thrust of your tail sent you into motion, your destination? The surface, directly above you.

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The two men woke up inside the pod, the blonde one being gently shaken by the older one. Who was speaking softly "Brother... you need to wake up. Come on, Sunny.", his voice was filled with care and concern as he gazed down at his brother.

Sun, slowly opened his bright ocean blue eyes, a soft groan of pain coming from him as he tried to sit up. "M-Moony? What... happened?--", he didn't get a chance to continue speaking before Moon would speak yet again. "The Aurora.. something went wrong. We're inside one of the Lifepods, I managed to extinguish the fire, but we need supplies. And to do that we have to go out.", this immediately got Sun to shoot up, his blurry vision slowly focusing on Moon. "W-Wait! What about the others?! Oh I hope they're okay, I heard some of them yelling about the Lifepods! O-Oh no... what if they didn't work, what if--"

Moon's low and raspy voice would then make itself known, he had a soothing tone as a gentle hand came to rest on Sun's shoulder. "Shh... calm down. Sunny, they can take care of themselves, remember, some of us were assigned to explore this planet, they're trained to do so. For now, let's just focus on ensuring we can survive until help arrives, alright?", Sun would nod slowly at this, taking deep breaths until he calmed down, then slowly stood with the help of his brother.

"Well... I suppose we should get started before night falls."

Chapter Text

A large splash could be heard as you dove out of the water as fast as you could. You could feel the wind brushing your smooth scales as you remained into the air for a moment before crashing down into the warm sea. It was always thrilling to do that, despite the brightness that always hurt your poor eyes. You were so used to the dark that the light began to sting.

But that didn't matter, you wanted to find out what caused that crash, and when you saw some strange silhouette in the distance, unlike any of the islands you were familiar with, you knew you had to investigate. You dove back into the water, the long fins that adorned your back surfacing temporarily, only to be submerged into the water soon after. You could see everything below you, the Ampeels that bristled with electricity, and the large red clusters of the blood kelp that you didn't really know the name of. You could hear the faint screeching of the Ghost Leviathan, you didn't really like that thing. But luckily it didn't venture too far from that strange cave entrance, so you've never had to fight it.

It was a long trip, and you briefly passed through the underwater islands. You weaved through the floating stones with practiced grace and ease, and avoided the fauna that had these weird green things on them. Those likely weren't safe to eat, all the ones that had those things died from what you saw. Definitely avoid them. You could feel the water getting warmer and warmer as you headed towards the Shallows.

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It was early, from what the two could tell, this luckily gave them plenty of time to work. Moon quickly decided that he'd secure the perimeter before Sun would join him in gathering resources. The brothers quickly found out that there was plenty of titanium from this planet. Which didn't surprise Moon, the Aurora was likely to deprive this planet of anything valuable regardless of the life on it.

Sun however decided that since there was so much titanium, that he would focus on other materials. He picked up Acid Shrooms and Copper. Though Moon was given the fright of his life when he saw some crazy fish explode on Sun. That quickly wasted thirty whole minutes of Moon being overprotective and arguing against Sun going near the sulfer plants, though in the end they did get some of the sulfer as they needed it.

With a Repair Tool and Scanner now in hand, Moon quickly devised which fish were safe to eat and which was best for Food or Water respectively. He was struggling to catch the fish, his lack of fins made him slow in the water, and he often surfaced without catching anything besides the Bladderfish. Frustrating him to no end, but he knew he had to stay calm, especially when he heard a distant roar... he stuck near his brother. They were safer together, even if he disagreed with Sun wanting to go to the kelp forest.

"Moony! We could make swim suits with the kelp! This would make us faster in the water, we'd have an easier time getting food, and if anything were to chase us, we could get away.", chirped the younger brother, optimistic as always, though his shaky smile was evidence of how nervous he was. The older brother shook his head, dragging Sun to the surface with a soft frown. "And what if we die getting the kelp? We don't know what's lurking there, it's dangerous, there's a reason why the ship was carrying so many Prawn Suits. We've more than enough reason to believe that there's many predators on this planet."

"How about we only collect the outer kelp? So that we don't get inside and possibly get lost! It's much safer that way, and we might be able to find out how dangerous it actually is." Sun suggested carefully, it did make sense, at least to him. "...Fine, but I'm checking the perimeter first, I don't want you getting hurt."

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You could feel yourself brushing against the smoothness of the kelp that surrounded the area, a soft trill sounding from you as you ventured further. Though when you smelt a strange scent, you had to investigate. The Stalkers roared in alarm as they saw you swim by, all of them fleeing as their fins carried them as far as they could go. A strange metal thing. That was in the small clearing of the kelp, you curiously went over to it, a clawed webbed hand grasping it gently and bringing it close to your face. You twisted it this way and that way, holding it to your eye to examine it. Soft warbling and cooing escaping your lips as you studied the little metal thing. Though eventually you set it down, perhaps this was a den for a smaller creature! You'd never seen anything like it, and with all the metal scraps you saw... maybe there's more of them! Oh, how exciting, you'd get to see new things!

With that you darted off, keeping low to the ground and remaining in the denser part of the kelp as you watched your surroundings. It was a little bit into the afternoon when you saw a small strangely shaped creature, near the border of the kelp forest you were in. With that, you crawled along the sea floor, fully aware that your fins would only kick up a sand storm and cause noise. The best option was silence and stealth. When you finally got close enough, you could get a somewhat decent look. The creature was mainly yellow, it was strangely dressed too, this big metal thing on its back, and it lacked any fins! It's scales were also weird, if it even had any. You'd seen many of the fauna, but very few lacked scales. It was also strangely colored, it's skin was pale, at least part of it. Weirdly spotted, the rest of it was a little darker.

The most interesting part was what it was doing, it was struggling to collect the kelp, in fact it flipped itself over several times when it's grip slipped. Causing you to chuckle lightly, a flurry of bubbles escaping your lips. Unfortunately this caused the small creatures gaze to dart your way, it seemed startled, a flurry of bubbles escaping your mouth as it let out some weird yelp sound. And then swam to the surface, how curious. You vaguely considered following it, but you didn't know if it was dangerous or if it had friends. You knew from the Biters that even the smallest of fauna could hurt, you once saw a whole swarm of those little menaces eat a whole Sandshark. While the same thing was extremely unlikely to happen to you, you'd rather not deal with the pain of having to recover from a million mini-bites on you, no matter how harmless.

So you retreated further into the kelp forest, perhaps you'd find another one of those metal dens.

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What the hell.

That was Sun's first thought when he confirmed that the creature didn't follow him, he normally didn't use such language, but that was genuinely the most terrifying thing he's ever seen in his life. He didn't see much, the kelp made it impossible to tell what that was, but he knew that it was massive. A giant set of eyes peering at him, black sclera. Their irises a mixture of teal and purple, and those pupils...

White as a ghost, they almost seemed to be glowing. Thinner than a line, and it felt as though his very soul was being analyzed by some curious monstrosity. He knew he had to tell Moon, as soon as possible, but in his panic, he failed to alert Moon that he was surfacing, not to mention Moon was doing another perimeter check! He needed to ensure that he didn't run into that creature when doing the perimeter check, so Sun began swimming further into the Kelp Forest.

If only he knew what he'd find in there, if only he knew that Moon wasn't at any risk...