ASAAPS #2: Planet Adelphi 655

Chapter 4: Fire In The Sky

Summary:
There is a green light in the sky, like a smouldering star falling from the heavens...

Chapter

There is a green light in the sky, like a smouldering star falling from the heavens...

it's much too large to be space debris, too swift in its descent, it cuts through the depths around him, illuminating the dark waves, the fish scuttle away from its harsh green glow.

For a terrified moment he believes it's a large asteroid, yet it slips through the clouds gracefully, decelerating slowly to a creeping glide as it creeps past seemingly unaffected by gravity.

It was a ship of some sort, he had never seen anything like it, it's smooth obsidian surface was lined in bright green lights, it looked like a shadow in the sky, perhaps a military vessel of some sort, distantly the memory of green walls of iron are brought to his scattered mind as his eyes track the spaceship, watching it vanish over the shoreline...

No doubt it was surveying the area, in preparation to land...but why?

Had Alterra succeeded in finding what they were looking for on that godforsaken planet? How many souls were sacrificed to that cause? Had they finally turned their eyes to him and started searching again?

The thought makes the malformed scales prickle and rise on his skin catching on his wetsuit the itchy sting was familiar yet it felt no less dreadful.

He rises slowly to the surface, trying to peer over the rocks edge, when the familiar impact of touch down shakes the terrain around him, sending ripples through the silty water, for a moment he scrambles to desperately keep his purchase on the slippery surface of the smooth rock.

Overgrown nails scraping mossy overgrowth from its surface, His throat burns as he chokes on a mouth full of water, the taste of copper and salt are home to him now but sometimes acclimation is hard and his body tries to recall the state of life beforehand.

An eerie hum vibrates from the spacecraft, then a piercing wail, around him the tiny fish scatter, the larger fauna sinking deeper into the black depths, it's bigger than his escape rocket, no doubt full of soldiers, soon this place would be crawling with them, they would peel back the ocean to get their hands on his person..

He's certain it's Alterra, he had caught a rogue signal on his PDA hours earlier, he should have been prepared, but he had boldly assumed he had slipped beneath their redars...

Was it the generator he had turned on? They must have picked up signs of the power surges, god he was so foolish!

Perhaps it wasn't him they were looking for..

Maybe it was simply a cargo ship investigating a rogue signal or a mandatory patrol errand with a crew who were none the wiser, he wasn't sure...it had been so long since he had seen anyone.

Part of him wanted to scramble up from the water, flagging down the ship, for what he wasn't sure, he was a mess and he put himself in this predicament.

The thought of what they would do to him if they caught him was enough to slap sense back into his mind, this was his choice, no one would let him on their ship anyways...not with how he looked now, hiding his condition would be hard, it wouldn't take the crew long to realize something was wrong with him...

He released the rocks, sinking beneath the surfaces, his lungs quivering against the thick water, above the pink sun reflected sickeningly, as he listened to the hum of the ship die into dead silence..

He had learned long ago that no one was to be trusted and yet despite his better judgement, he did not dive for the bay salt caves, instead he drifted carefully five or so feet beneath the briny surface, trusting the planet's natural gases and the water's reflective surface to disguise his distorted form.

His old PDA chimes to life at his side, signifying the presence of another of Alterra's devices somewhere in the parameter.

It sends his heart into a whirlwind of apprehension, yet he does not sink. Is he so desperate that he is willing to risk his safety for the fleeting sight of another person...even if they meant him harm?

A trembling sigh escapes his lungs as he stares at the surface, his arms gripping at his reinforced wetsuit, as he feels the jagged scales sprouting from his scarred flesh below.

Ryley wasn't really sure anymore, for now he would simply watch, he would wait.