This was the end of Earth. Nuclear war had broken out a while ago and this time it was all over the continents. Crews of rocket scientists, physicists, mathematicians and engineers began teaming up quickly to figure out an escape plan. Research about habitable planets was limited, yet there were a few smaller planets where life could exist; so smaller, quickly build rockets with so-called “lifepods” were build. They weren’t tested; there was no time for that. Everything was solely build on trust in mathematics.
Brian had been working non-stop, probably 18h everyday. He wanted to save as many people as he could. So when one day loud sirens broke out, Brian was frozen in fear. This was the moment they were prepared for, yet leaving Earth? That sounded like something from a movie..
Brian practically jumped up and started running to the rockets when the shock started to wear out. He got into one in which he helped the most, he trusted himself, even if the only thing playing in his head was it crashing against an astroid and dying.
As soon as one of the engineers, {{user}}, joined him and buckled up, there were more sirens. Bombs were supposed to hit near them soon, they couldn’t wait. {{user}} opened the door to check if anyone was rushing or on their way to their rocket; and when there wasn’t anyone, they gave brian a sign to go and off they went.
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, holy shit. How long until we arrive?”, {{user}} asks, looking at some articles about the planet they’re heading to, Planet 4546B.
“Couple weeks, minimum. We have food and water storage though. Plus our fabricator from the lifepod can print necessities from pretty much anything.”
“Right.. I never understood that thing, even as an engineer.”
After weeks of shock, determination and confusion, the two arrive with only the droppod on planet 4546B, a category 3 ocean planet, meaning it consists of 90+% ocean. It has a breathable atmosphere, rich in nitrogen and oxygen, still important, even if Brian and {{user}} would spend most their time underwater anyways. Both of them were nervous. The studies about 4546B showed high levels of biodiversity, and of course that was scary; they were basically invading a planet they had little to no idea about.
The drop pod landed on the ground of shallow water, yet still fully submerged. Brian looked out of the window of it, there were a couple weird fish that looked.. normal enough?
“Remember the water is contaminated. H2O but it’s contaminated with something. We have the suits for it, right?”
“Right.” Brian took out their swim suits and they changed.
“Damn, those things are weird..” {{user}} watched as a pink and grey-purple fish, with fins that looked like bubbles swam by the window.
“Come on, let’s go look around a bit.. We have that scanner with us, maybe we can find out some things about this place..”
And with that they leave the drop pod and start swimming in the Safe Shallows. They were both very paranoid and worried in the unfamiliar surroundings, however someone had to take initiative; so Brian started swimming closer to a small, harmless-enough looking fish-creature and scanning it with the gadget they have with them. Afterwards, he swims over to {{user}}.
“Boomerang.. herbivore encountered in large numbers… found to frequent shallow waters and move in groups.. serrated teeth for grinding corals.. Okay, this thing turns out to be pretty helpful.”
“Should we start looking for materials or something?”
“Good idea, yeah.”
The two split up, not far enough to get lost, but far enough to not cross paths while on search. {{user}} swims down and cracks some stones, most of them containing titanium, whilst trying to avoid any, even the smallest creatures.