Chapter Text
Prologue.
A loud crash rips through the air of the drop pod, the sole inhabitant shooting awake despite the sedatives in their body, fur bristling with terror as they're thrown around.
Eventually, the pod comes to a rest, and the inhabitant watches as the pod’s exterior doors slink open, letting them see rock formations on the exterior of the pod. Getting up, sedatives rendering footing unsteady, the pod’s inhabitant steps towards the doors, causing them to slink open… bathing a small, bipedal canine with black fur, and orange paw pads, eyes, and tail fur in the dim light. A SAW-01.
“W-ugh- what happened? Where am I? Why- wait… wait right… the battery those coats want…” The Sawian, Exia, keeps moving towards the door on the pod, as a depth meter appears in their vision, sliding slowly to his right side.
—
>CURT… 13M
>TARG… 300M
>TIME… 58M 33S… 32S…
> OBJ: RETRIEVE THE DEVICE.
—
He stepped off the rubber flooring of the pod, and immediately flinched back into it, rubbing the paw pad where it had been pricked by the gravel below.
“The ground- ow…”
Sighing, and standing up, he stepped out again, only wincing as his paw pads made contact with the gravel.
There was a plant below them, it was glowing in the darkness, two light pearls in the dark.
Carefully edging towards the edge, he swallows, and jumps, soaring through the air, paws landing on the ground next to the plant, which is immediately picked for its fruit, as the experiment continues down the slope, stopping next to the edge.
“Hey! This place actually isn't half bad so far!”
He leapt once more.
One second turns to five, as a scream builds in his throat.
Crunch!
A howl echoes through the cavern. “Fuck- fuckin fuck fuck fuck- FUCK!” The Sawian belts out, desperately clutching at the shattered remnants of his leg, gold yellow blood soaking the ground around them, and his fur, bone shards collected in his hands.
The voice catches in his throat, curses devolving into simple sobs.
After several moments, the sobbing lessens, and he finally looks up from his bloodied, useless leg, Vision pulsating from the pain.
There's one just like him, but covered in a pearly white fur rather than their stark black, they're laying on their side, facing away from him.
“Oh! Hello!”
No response.
“Hello?”
Frowning, Exia leans forward, grabbing the milky white fur, and shaking them.
“... Hello?”
He pulls them forward, rolling them over.
“Hey! Are you... O-oh…”
“Oh… Oh god.”
They're dead. Their chest cavity has been ripped open, several internal organs are missing, and their pale orange unseeing eyes bore directly into Exia’s, silently judging him for disturbing their eternal rest. It reminds him of bad memories.
Exia crawls back, the feeling of bile rising in their throat, as he swallows it down.
“Yikes… Ew… Man.”
Vision fading, he forces his eyes back to his shattered leg, finally realizing the sheer volume of blood pouring from the wound.
"Fu- FUCK! FUCK! BANDAGE!”
Eyes darting around, scanning for anyone or anything that can help his predicament, spotting a bandage roll laying in the gravel next to the corpse, alongside a syringe, full of a chemical he recognizes vaguely.
“I’m sorry but INEEDTHAT-”
Exia practically leaps forward, grabbing the dressing and wrapping it around his leg, yellow immediately soaking through the thick cloth, before grabbing the needle, and plunging it into his bad legs thigh, the fentanyl within already diluting his pain, before it clicks, syringe empty.
“Oh… shit.”
Rolling onto his stomach, and attempting to push himself to his feet, he slowly gets up, yelping in pain upon putting weight on the bad leg.
He keeps limping, whimpering whilst putting weight on his leg and glancing around cautiously. Something tore that body up, and it might still be nearby.
He reaches another edge, and cautiously tosses a growfruit down…
Where it hits the ground not 2 meters down.
Mantling down, grabbing the glow fruit, and continuing forth.
After at most 50 meters straight of walking, he collapses, unable to keep up with the building pain in his leg.
Bom-bom!
Krr-bom-bom!
Exia pays little attention to the noise, it can’t be anything too dangerous, after all.
Prick!
Exia yelps and sits up, looking at his arm, where he’s just been bitten.
Retreating away is a spider the size of his skull.
“AAHHHH FUCK! FUCK! GET AWAY FROM ME!”
Exia pushes against the ground, crawling away from the Sawian-eating spider, Kicking at it with his good leg, before–
”AAGHHAH!”
His hand lost connection with the ground, and he went tumbling down.
Thump.
“Ghagh-”Shiink!“-FUCK! CRAP- AGUUGHNN-”
He landed, and immediately got impaled by a Spiketrap through his lower abdomen.
His vision pulsates.
There's an indescribable scent in the air.
He feels the spider continue to bite him.
He can't feel his extremities.
He can feel his heart racing a mile a minute.
He feels the need to vomit.
He does. It’s bloody yellow, resembling marmalade.
There's the taste of metal in his mouth.
He can't move his muscles.
He can't breathe.
He can barely keep his eyes open.
There's shadows in his vision.
Everything grows fuzzy.
Time starts to slow.
He begs for help.
“Please... I don't... I don't want to die... Save me... Anyone... Anything... I-I'm not r-ready…”
He can't feel his heart beating.
His ears ring.
His eyelids feel heavy.
He vaguely registers a gunshot, and boots on gravel before it all fades out, a final sentence filtering in.
“Got an… I dunno, but it needs medical, now!”