COLLISION

Why did you do it? The question will continue to haunt you for Kwel know's how long. For now though, you must live with your decisions and attempt to make contact with the species whose planet you've crashed landed upon. At least the past weeks have prepared you for alien contact, days of constant training, but in large rooms surrounded by your peers sitting peacefully, not the combat training you've known your entire life back on Kwela-Ge. You go over in your head the quickly processed lessons of language, culture, machinery, wildlife, and even atmospheric conditions, making sure that all that you have heard is within memory. You take deep, calming breaths, focusing inwardly, calming yourself, and begin to fall into a slight meditation, the kind of thing you were doing just years ago, on another planet, as you stalked the large Uhkwan-Aud. The moment of reflection brings light to three options for you in this enclosed space: [[Search your Surroundings]] for useable devices, [[Open The Hatch]] door and venture into the unknown land, or [[Rest and gather strength]] for the morning hours, avoiding the nighttime and the chill that is to come with it in the outdoors.

Your honed instincts from years in the wilds of Kwela-Ge scream at you that this escape pod is not safe. Some form of the alien species will surely be coming to investigate the breach in the area. The only problem is that you are unaware of the apparatus for opening the door, Kwe-Tuh had to launch the thing for you as he died you recall. Starting at the trim of the door, in the top left hand corner, you trace along, hoping to find something that either is the door switch, or leads to it. Moving in a circular pattern, it takes the entire door until you find what seems to be the necessary trigger, a small lever somewhat hidden behind a layer of the material used on the face of your craft that is invisible to the sight, but hard as rock to the touch. At least for once the design of this mysterious craft is helpful to you, as there is an obious point of where to grab the invisible wall to lift it aside. Pulling on the lever offers a relieving sound of air hissing, and a slow rise of the door. Only problem in your mind is that the lights have also come on, and it is night time, entirely revealing your position to potential enemies from all angles. Bracing for the worst, you force yourself into a small enclosed area of the craft, in between the opening door and the see-through wall. As the door reaches its zenith, you make a quick look out the opening, see nothing in the blaring lights, and make a run for it, leaving the vunerable, alien, and confusing enclosed space, for the options that the familiar, yet entirely unknown to you, outdoors may have. There's just one problem you notice as you breach the threshold of the hatch, do you [[Head into the Trees]], hoping for cover from your assumed enemies, or take to the large and wide downhill trail you crashed near, [[Move away from tree cover]], despite the chill in the air, hoping more for contact that you are in control of still.

There hasn't been much time for a true assessment of your immediate surroundings, so what better time than the present. The strangely lit interior offers an extremely small amount of space to maneuver but there are a few items of interest to your mission. Directly in front of you, there is the square of material that occupies a majority of the space in front of the single seat in the cabin space. On the strange material, which seems to be the same composition of the stuff that creates the invisible screen that you can view a small amount of your surroundings through, there is a number of dials and indicators on the flat surface, but none of it means much to you. Still though, [[investigating the strange device]] could prove worthwhile. One thing that is easy to determine is the necessity for a weapon, since in your escape from the vessel containing your fellow Whaxtuhl you lost the weapon given to all of the guards, and now you are unable to find your trusty knife, made from the jaw of the flying shu-ukwan. [[Hunting for your trustworthy knife]] sounds worthwhile, but the time necessary for the search may be enough for aliens to show up, and the commotion caused by moving around the confined interior may alert any sort of incoming aliens of a life form still alive in the crashed vessel.

Your day has been long, and the breaching of the atmosphere was not an easy event, as well as the following crash. Your bones ache, and your mind is strained from the death of your hunt-brother. The thing to do now is remain where you are, safe in this pod, something that has proved its abilities easily at this point. Thinking back on your day, now is a time to assess what to do on this alien planet. The decision to breach a meeting of the high council in order to accuse them for attempting to vioate the edict of the Whaxtuhl, life is sacred and is to be protected in all avenues. Their meeting had consisted of showing images of the dominant breed of life on the planet existing in a fashion that did not heed space for further development in other species. This, the council had decided, was grounds for extermination and re-allocation of natural environments to indigenous species. The decision did not sit well with yourself and Kwe-Tuh...but the thought of your lifelong friend breaks into your meditative recollection, and you decide it is a good time to actually rest. A sound that you recognize only from the recent amount of interaction with the technological world awakes you with a start. Sautering. The sparks flying within the vessel burn your exposed legs and you force yourself not to jump to a start, so as to avoid alerting your assumed attackers. This can only get you so far you decide though, as the sparks continue higher on the door, so the sound from moving within the cabin is becoming less of a worry as the [[lack of a weapon]] becomes more apparent. The only other choice besides searching for a weapon is to remain silent and [[prepare for a counter-attack]].

The decision is simple, the wilds are where you grew up and staked your claim for life back home, so that is where you will go now in order to survive. The aliens of the planet are your priority, as without making contact with them would mean the death of your hunt-brother was for nothing. But, the first contact made must be a moment where you are in more control of the circumstances, not here where there is no way of knowing the amount of warriors that will be sent to intercept and restrain you. Only problem with your choice now is that you find yourself growing cold to a point of worry in your mind. You left your warm pod for this decision, and now are thinking, do I [[turn back for the pod]] that I left, or continue deeper into the trees. Whenever the cold on Kwela-Ge crept in on long hunting sorties, your raiding party would simply begin to move faster, [[increasing the pace]] to increase the flow of Eud-Ib, warming the party for the night. Only thing is that the cold on Kwela-Ge never reached this kind of extreme, the material on the ground is a substance you aren't familiar with even. The air from your breath, and from the pores on your body helping to filter the air, all spew clouds of steam periodically due to the immense difference of temperature from the air they release, and the air around you. Making a fire and creating a [[sheltered camp]] is the only other possibility for prolonging your survival, despite the obious hazards to creating a fire in a hostile environment during the night.

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The small spaces don't make it easy, and there is definitely a bit of noise created in all of your searching, but you find your knife. It's slightly stuck though, lodged in between your seat and a few large metal tubes. As you begin to tug on it, it seams a bit more wedged into the space that you realize. As you pry at the small opening that it sat in, your motions get slightly frantic, and finally the knife comes out. You glance at it swiftly, knowing the appearence of the slightly corroded, yet strong as tusks, knife, and think back to what you had originally determined as your decisions. Do you attempt to rest up for your next day, investigate the screen further, or open the hatch?

Even though there have been many training sessions over the recent years, from while still on your dying home all the way until your renegade decision, you have no knowledge of the function of this device. It would seem that this kind of information was hidden away from warriors like yourself, in fear of something just like what you have done it dawns on you. The recently created High Council has so many of your Whaxtuhl brothers deceived with a veil of ignorance across their eyes. Giving away only the information that affords those who existed with the technology an upper hand. All of these thoughts merely emphasize the necessity for your desicion, but you are nonetheless unable to do anything with this piece of machinery, so you can continue your hunt around your space for a weapon, open the exit door, or rest up for the coming day.

The small spaces don't make it easy, and despite your attempted lack of sound and motion, there is still a moment when reaching to your left your foot kicked the wall louder than you would like, but you find your knife. It's slightly stuck though, lodged in-between your seat and a few large metal tubes. As you begin to tug on it, it seams a bit more wedged into the space than you realized. Taking a moment to avoid becoming frantic, you take one swift pull on the knife and tug it free of it's confinement. The motion causes a sound that makes the sparks stop in there tracks for a moment, and you know that you have made a slight mistake, now they are going to be more ready for you. But your more ready for them now as you close your hand around the knife. Only thing now is do you prepare to go on the offensive still, or sheath the knife in your belt discreetly.

As you sit in a ready stance, somewhat to the edge of the pod, you watch as the sparks slowly reach the end of their square, finishing the necessary motion. The panel falls away, and there is an immediate shout from an alien, followed by an answering response by a number of asenting voices. Do you make your move and attempt to take the alien hostage, hoping there are only a few others. Even though this option does lend itself to tension between your two sides, the aggression in the voices behind the immediate alien was easily noticeable.