The two women looked at Jake blankly while wondering how he knew that their life-pod was about to explode. Shifting his gaze between the two, Jake also wondered how these two hadn't survived for longer, in fact he wondered how any of the survivors hadn't survived for longer.
If the few Dagasi crew had been able to survive, how come the crew from the Aurora didn't? Other than Ryley, who had been knocked unconscious for three hours, how come no one else survived even though most of the other life-pods had been in better condition than his.
There are two possible theories as to why, one of which is a fan theory and bad luck combined while the other is just bad luck. The fan theory is that the life-pods were designed to fail so the inhabitants wouldn't survive and possibly be able to claim some kind of monetary reimbursement from Alterra.
That theory is amplified by the fact that there are almost no survival tools or food and water in the life-pods. The only supplies of any kind are medical supplies, which tell you to overdose and die, a flare or two, and some food that will last a single person a few days if rationed properly before they start to starve to death.
Each life-pod was designed so some kind of malfunction would occur with the life-pod, causing an accident. This can be further explored upon by the fact that no two life-pods had the same kind of malfunction of technological or mechanical origin.
For Life-pod 7, how come it's Fabricator was busted but no other life-pods' Fabricator was busted? For Life-pod 6, and only Life-pod 6, how come it was able to have the fuel line inside of the life-pod somehow openly exposed and be lit so easily with a flare?
Precautions should have been taken knowing that any crew members would be using a flare with a, seemingly open, fuel line. Why did Life-pod 2's floatation devices fail while all other life-pods' worked?
How come the panel and fire extinguisher in Life-pod 5 came off of the interior wall so easily while no other life-pods had the same problem? Two more things about Life-pod 5 had always bothered Jake, one was the reason why Ryley didn't die of smoke inhalation while he was unconscious.
Had that fire only started seconds before he woke up or had it started shortly after he landed? Also, how come the panel to release to seat had malfunctioned when he wanted to release himself? Maybe it was from the panel coming off the wall, or maybe it was designed to do that.
If Ryley hadn't gotten frustrated and hit the panel with a clenched fist then maybe he never would've been released and died in Life-pod 5. Everyone else in the other life-pods that didn't have any problems were unable to live long enough in order to find out what was wrong with their own life-pods.
The unlucky part from this theory is that everyone was unlucky enough to be on the Aurora and escape with the life-pods that they did. Most of them didn't land close enough to the islands on planet 4546B, which would have had resources that could be used to
The other theory is that when the Aurora was hit with the Precursors' gun, it caused some of the life-pods from 1-25 to have slight malfunctions occur.
Along with that was the impact from hitting the water surface and causing some kind of unseen damage, followed by the wave from the Aurora crashing. Jake was much more willing to believe the fan theory than the second theory since it seemed like something Alterra would do.
If they had the nerve to demand payment from Ryley, who was just using them to survive and escape the planet, for the materials he collected over the time he spent on planet 4546B, then they were definitely able to do something like this.
All of these thoughts ran through Jake's head while he was still shifting his gaze between the two women. The woman who had been holding the flare was just a passenger of the Aurora while the woman who had been swimming was a crew member.
The woman, who was just a passenger, was white and in her mid-twenties with long brown curly hair that had dyed purple tips, hazelnut coloured eyes, and long, thick legs that were adorned with skin-tight black latex-like leggings.
She was average for on the weight spectrum and a little above average for the height spectrum, according to the previous standards on Earth anyway. As for the other woman, the one who was the crew member, she was on the shorter side with above average weight. Not by much though.
Long blonde hair that was tied tightly into bun was atop her head while mismatched coloured eyes started back at Jake. One eye was dark brown while the other was a light blue. She had cherry red lips that were currently pursed while she looked at Jake.
She was wearing the same kind of skin-tight suit as the rest of the Aurora crew, but there was a small pin attached to the upper-left part of the torso part of her suit. It had a name and position on it which read 'Jennifer Radura: Head of Human Resources'.
Raising an eyebrow, Jake remembered that in the first crew log of Life-pod 6 this woman had indeed mentioned that she was the Head of Human Resources. "Follow me, we need to get back to Life-pod 5, many other people are waiting for us to return and there are still more survivors that will need rescuing once I bring you two back to the life-pod.
Questions can be asked once we arrive back at Life-pod 5. As for how I know knew that the life-pod was going to explode, you can ask her." Pointing at the woman who had been holding the flare, Jake started to swim back towards Life-pod 5, which had many people anxiously waiting for his return ever since the explosion.
Following behind him were the two women who stayed silent throughout the entire swim back to Life-pod 5. When they arrived back at Life-pod 5, they didn't get the chance to ask any questions since the man who saved them fell unconscious soon after he was on top of Life-pod 5.
Climbing up the side of the life-pod, Jake tried to remember where the last two life-pods were, and that was when he remembered that the life-pod carrying the passenger Jochi Khasar had burned up when entering the atmosphere.
A flash of reproach crossed his face as he hadn't been able to save everyone from dying, even if the circumstances of their death were out of his control, but before he could lament that fact any longer, he started to feel dizzy and drowsy.
Trying to keep his eyes open, Jake realized that he had started swaying side to side at some point. In the next moment, Jake lost consciousness and started falling in the direction of the ocean. The other people on top of the life-pod were too stunned to react in time to try and stop Jake from falling.
A large splash was created after his body fell into the water, which was then followed by five other splashes as the able-bodied men on top of the life-pod jumped into the water. Ryley, Owen, William, Ozzy, and Theodore all dove under the water to help Jake get back to the surface.
Jennifer also dove down to help get Jake back to the surface so he wouldn't have an untimely death due to drowning, and it was with her help that they were finally able to swim back to the surface.
Popping their heads above the surface of the water, everyone helped bring Jake up the ladder of the life-pod. Once on top, they gently laid him down on the clothing and upper parts of the suits that the men had taken off that served as a small bed.
Owen, William, Ryley, and Ozzy stayed in the water so there was enough room for Jake to lay down and have no chance of sliding/falling off the life-pod again. Theodore and Derek were still on top since one couldn't swim and the other was over 45 years old.
Berkeley, CTO Yu, Mary, and Alia, who was the woman that had been in Life-pod 17 with Ozzy, were still in the life-pod. Berkeley was still unconscious while the other three were silently wondering what was going on outside.
Jennifer and Denise, who were the two in Life-pod 6, were still in the water alongside the other four. Scanning their surroundings, everyone currently outside of the life-pod tried to find some kind of object that they could use to help with their situation, but there was nothing.
Owen and Ryley decided that the next best course of action would be to find materials to make a Scanner with the blueprint that they had in their PDAs and start scanning the materials in their surroundings.
"Hey Derek, can you check what is needed to make an underwater portable Scanner?" Owen looked to Derek, who was keeping a lookout for any kind of hostile sea creature, and asked the question.
Taking a second to look at Owen and Ryley, Derek glanced around one more time before nodding his head and carefully climbing into the slightly cramped life-pod. Making sure to not step on Berkeley, who was laying on the ground, Derek leaned against the inner wall of the life-pod and pressed a button on the Fabricator.
A small rectangular block extended out of the Fabricator before lighting up and making a flickering holographic screen appear in front of him. Navigating his way through the different portions on the Fabricator, Derek opened of the settings section on the screen and wirelessly connected his PDA to it.
After connecting it, he uploaded all of the current blueprints he had on the PDA, which wasn't many. Having the flashlight, Scanner, and survival knife, they were the three blueprints that, regardless of whatever kind of survival situation you were in, you would always have them.
Even if the PDA was "corrupted", the Databank located inside would still have the blueprints for those three tools. Choosing the icon for the Scanner, Derek saw that it required copper, gold, titanium, aluminum, silver, something that had acid in it, some kind of silicone substitute, and quartz.
Not much of each material was needed since it will be such small device, but for it to be functional and have the capability to be used underwater, it will need many different things. Exiting the life-pod through the top hatch, Derek repeated all of the different types of materials needed for the Scanner back to Owen and Ryley.
The other people in and around the life-pod also took note of the materials needed in case they found any by chance in the future. Jennifer, who was also still in the water, chose to help find materials so she could be useful instead of just sitting around doing nothing.
Diving down, the three people started looking around for any small rocks or local flora that could be used as a silicone substitute or something that contained acid.
Bright purplish-pink mushrooms were growing all around in the location that they were currently in, so Owen grabbed a few and brought them up to the life-pod. Opening the bottom hatch, he tossed a few in before pulling himself up and entering the life-pod.
While Owen was working with the mushrooms, Jennifer and Ryley swam in opposite directions while looking for any other materials that could be used. Occasionally surfacing for a breath of air, Jennifer and Ryley spent 15 minutes looking around in a 200 metre radius from the life-pod.
Finding some small and medium sized pieces of metal that must have been swept by the undercurrents to this area from the Aurora, Jennifer and Ryley brought them back to the life-pod. The pieces of metal could be used for the aluminum, titanium, and copper required for the Scanner.
In the meantime, Owen had found all the other materials required for the Scanner, so he started making a single Scanner. After it was made, he took it off of the Fabricator and checked to see if it worked by scanning the small mushroom he had found and used as a material.
A circular progress bar appeared on the small flip-screen and it went from 0% to 100% in 5 seconds. A robotic woman's voice then sounded out from every PDA in the vicinity since the Scanner sent out a wireless data transfer.
[Entry added to Databank]
Opening the Databank section of the PDA, everyone that was conscious read the information on the material that was just scanned. (This local flora is a type of acidic mushroom that may be used in the recipe of batteries. It may also be used as fuel in the Bioreactor.)
Inside the Fabricator, a few new options were available in two new tabs of the Fabricator. Labeled under the electrical tab and chemical tab, seven different options were available to be used. There were three different sizes of batteries, three different sizes of powercells, and sulphuric acid.
Taking the opportunity to scan all of the other materials that were used in making the Scanner, Owen saw as over a hundred new icons appeared under many new tabs in the Fabricator. Included in the new icons was the icon for the Habitat Builder, it required a small battery, a wiring kit, and some titanium.
Getting to work on making the Habitat Builder, Owen started placing the materials on the Fabricator for it when Berkeley started to wake up. Looking over, he saw that Berkeley was being helped up by Mary and CTO Yu, and he was clutching his head in pain.
(AN. The next chapter is finally done over a month since I released the previous chapter. I'm still sorry that I can't publish more chapters. If you have any questions about certain things in this chapter then you can just leave a comment and I will answer it within a day or two. I will try for another chapter tomorrow. Peace out and thanks for all the support, this will be my first novel that gets of 10k views.)