"Shit." Kara pulled at the steaming and twisted metal handle for the manual override controlling the pod ceiling. Waiting until it had cooled, she tugged at the handle once again and split open the top metal hatch for her escape pod. "Hope the other members of the Deva got out in better pods than I did." She grumbled, leaning back and kicking at blockage that had accumulated on her pods outer surface. When the strange buildup chipped away from her strikes, she grabbed the handles on either side of the hatch and pulled herself towards the exit. For two days she drifted from the battle damaged ship before her pod was pulled into orbit of Vazlera two.
Two days of sleeping in her chair, using embarrassing ways to go to the restroom and ejecting it from the pods side, and wondering if she might see anyone else's pod. The Deva wasn't exactly a warship, but when its crew became overwhelmed with fires and breached hull, she was among the few who even made it off her deck. Shipping out with the Deva over a year ago meant she was light-years from any civilization, especially any human one, and the best she coule do would be to set up a shelter and await rescue.
Vazlera two had a rich and blood red tinted atmosphere, and strange blue soil. The colors made Kara pause and adjust to what she was looking at. Hues she hadn't seen before on other planetoids were vibrantly shining in the sun. Early scans on entry indicated no sign of intelligent life, but the planet was densely populated with various species of unique animals and plants. Procuring her emergency synthesizer, she unfolded the box and placed it at an angle so it could soak up as much sun as possible. Given a few hours, it could slowly piece together a filtering straw, capable of handling most forms of water and its potential contamination.
Kara took stock of her landmarks, and quickly set out to look for shelter and water. If need be, she could synthesize a crude weapon next for hunting, and a tool for basic crafting. She crossed the rolling hills of the strange planet swiftly, her boots cushioned by the iridescent grass that shifted colors in the sunlight and the breeze. When she came across a small river, she took a note of how many minutes it took her to walk towards it, and returned the way she came. The first thing she smelled was smoke from the pod as she got to the top of the last hill in her path.
Towards the sky her pod spat flame smoke as it burned and smoldered in the upturned dirt. "Fucking fantastic." She threw her arms up angrily, running to her synthesizer and picking it up. With water located, she went back towards the small river running through the hills in hopes of finding or constructing a shelter. Her uniform was tarnished, dirty, and even bloodstained from crewman she tried to push back out of her mind. Kara tried to keep positive as she traversed the land, and just ten minutes out from the river she located an oddly circular cave she could shelter in for the night.
Like a large cylinder had been shot into the ground and propped on its side, the mouth of the cave opened with dotted patterns, and a sweet smell. Propping her synthesizer outside, she tapped the front of her suit above her left shoulder, and slowly it started a soft and neon like bioluminescent glow from her torso. The light let her see pretty well, and with nothing better to do than watch her ship burn, she started a slow exploration of the cave.
Rounding corners and curves one by one she depended more and more on her jacket to light the way, curious of the appealing smell that drew her deeper into the rock. To Kara, the smell that called was one she could only get back on Earth, one of a campfire roasting s'mores, and the forest she grew up next to. The adrenaline in her blood hadn't thinned out completely from the crash, so with a good pace she descended a kilometer into the cave. All forward progress stopped when she heard the the first wet squash of something under her feet. Stopping and looking down, she couldn't make out what was on the floor, and to examine it, she squatted, her eyes squinting curiously.
A long and wavy leaf like seaweed, but a deep blue in hue, had let out a jet of its insides when she stepped on it accidentally, the fluid covering her boots. "Sorry little guy. I didn't mean to come in here and hurt your leaves." She held a hand out and stroked the leaf, which to her surprise seemed to puff back up like it was filling with air to recover.
"How pretty!" She smiled to herself at the alien plant life. The lead stretched for over ten feet, and by the light of her jacket she was lead down leaf and towards a large pulsing lotus like flower where it emerged from. "We dont have any native plants like you back home." Kara had stepped carefully so she wouldn't damage the plant any further and poked her head over the tall petals of the flower.
Swirling inside the center of the flower looked like snakes at first, but soon appeared to be independent feeding tubes that moved a sort of gel across the base of the leaves and petals. Curious, Kara leaned closer, her jacket unable to give her enough light to make out all of the details. "Shit!" She yelled, her foot finding a small puddle of the gel that leaked out from the flower. Kara fell headfirst into the center of the flower, her back hitting the feeding tubes like falling into a bramble. Kara was now head to toe covered in the unknown and milky gel, her suit beginning to soak through.
As she tried to stand, she felt her arm tangled in a large mess, and when she looked, she saw more than fifty of the tentacle like feeding tubes that inhabited the center of the flower. At first she tried to gently shake them off, and when she couldn't, leaned over to try and get an idea of how she had already tied herself up. Looking and pulling gently at the tentacles, she tried to find the source of the knot. Gel that dripped from her jacket fell onto the tubes, and slowly it tightened its grip. "What's going on?" She frantically whispered, tugging her arm this time without care for the plant.
Kara couldn't break free, her arm getting pulled down more and more, and she lost all patience. Clawing, scratching, and even punching the tubes, she fought valiantly, ripping into a few of them. From behind her another rose and cracked like a whip, wrapping itself tightly around her other wrist. "You mother-" Kara flailed, trying to jerk her arms away from the mess. The plant only tightened its grip, and pulled her lower. A petal of the plant peeled itself back and let a strange pod like set of lips make itself known, with four distinct and larger tubes starting to droop their way out of the front.
Kicking and fighting, Kara had been to through enough unmonitored transmissions to have a deep fear in her heart. Lonely astronauts with useable bodies were always on the brain of her ship mates, but here she sat with her boots making contact with the four main tentacles, her voice ringing out louder and louder.
