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Chapter 2: Brave New World.

System Log Initiated.

_ _

_ Startup Date: 16 October, 3048 LDC. 02:13 Local Time(Cerinian,_ Gallete region.)

_ System Type: Galand Shipyards Shipboard OS, Ver. 3.467, build 1138. Device controls for_ Vucsed_-class personal luxury shuttle loaded. Function checks complete. All systems nominal._

_ _

_ 02:16: Request to enter Executive Emergency Protocol received. Passcode of XXXX-JG54 matches internal database. Request filed by Ship Administrator: Meloc Haleth. Medbay stasis pod activated._

_ 02:23: Stasis pod filled. Retinal scan performed. Stasis pod occupant is User: Krystal Haleth. Account privileges upgraded to Ship Administrator access rights. Life sign check begun... life signs nominal. Stasis procedures for Vulpine anatomy loaded._

_ 02:26: Stasis procedure underway. Subject life signs halted. Cryogenic agents introduced to stasis pod. Brainwave function nominal. Beginning silent takeoff procedure. Life support power at 0 percent. Reactor power at 2.7 percent. Power cells at 97.65 percent. Current estimated travel time to destination: 101d,12h,32m. Estimated arrival date: 30 January, 3049 LDC, 19:32 Cornerian Main Time._

_ 02:34: Exiting atmosphere. Sensor arrays offline. Hull breach simulators activated. Internal oxygen reserves at 97 percent. Stasis cycle completed; subject stability is 93.24 percent. Survival rate calculated at 87.43 percent. Reactor power reduced to 0 percent._

_ 02:35: Receiving passive pinging from several sources. Patterns match that of Venom standard sensor arrays. Active pinging encountered. Passive countermeasures deployed. Active pinging halted._

_ 02:39: Passive pinging halted. Reactor power increased to 0.34 percent. Current thruster speed 340kph. Slipspace coordinates logged. Destination: Aquas. Position: Lower Planetary Orbit, Kramer Orbital Spacestation._

_ 02:40: Impact logged. Impact registered as debris-oriented. Weapon strike not detected. Internal scan performed. Warning: Primary power cell compromised. Power cell array shut down. Now running on secondary energy reserves. Warning: Power reserves insufficient to reach destination. Unable to revive stasis pod occupant; Slipspace attempt will be made._

_ 02:48: Slipspace generators online. Reactor power increased to 97.3 percent. Warning: active sensor scan detected. Scan source: Space Dynamics XK-134_ Shrike_-class assault craft. Unknown transponder reading, does not match known Cornerian, Venom, or independent IFF tags. Impact detected. Weapon strike logged. Damage report: Minor Duranium armor damage. Hull integrity 94.3 percent. Engaging Slipspace drives...._

_ _

_ System Log: 19 December, 3048 LDC. 14:08 Local Time(Cerinian,_ Gallette region).

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_ 14:08: Warning: Power reserves critical. Secondary Power Cell at 3.07 percent. Engaging Primary Power Cell. Cell Status: Unstable. Reserves of 18.96 percent. Discharge rate 310 percent. Estimated time until total system shutdown: 0h,20m._

_ 14:11: Slipspace generators disengaged. Normal thrusters engaged. Sensor arrays online. Protocol change logged. Primary objective: Stasis chamber occupant survival. Scanning for suitable docking/landing area._

_ 14:19: Landing area found. Coordinates: Planet Sauria, Lylat System. Emergency transponder not activated; violation of Emergency Protocol will result. Warning: Landing on restricted planet violation of Cornerian Code of Conduct L-345; section G. Proceed? Emergency landing procedures initiated. Stasis revival process started._

_ 14:21: Warning: power reserves draining. Stasis chamber process accelerated to compensate. Survival chance calculated at 64.17 percent. Biological recovery catalysts introduced to subject. Faint vital signs detected. Impact recorded. Impact type: asteroid. Damage report: Hull integrity at 87.0 percent._

_ 14:26: Multiple impacts recorded. Impact types: Asteroid. Evasive action taken. Hull integrity 62.10 percent. Power reserves at 12.30 percent. Stasis subject brainwave patterns established. Cryogenic agents removed. Oxygen flow established. Subject survival rate at 52.0 percent. Warning: stasis subject heart rate rapidly increasing. Survival rate dropping._

_ 14:28: Atmosphere entry recorded. Hull integrity 48.53 percent. Searching for suitable landing location... found. Stasis subject approaching cardiac arrest. Survival rate at 18.34 percent. Warning: stasis subject life signs critical. Attempting to stabilize._

_ 14:30: Stabilization of stasis subject achieved. Survival rate now at 57.3 percent. Altitude 3012 meters and descending. Entering landing pattern to shed excess speed._

_ 14:34: Altitude 150 meters. Warning: power reserves 1.36 percent. Emergency crash landing advised. Stasis procedure aborted. Subject life signs: moderate. Short-term survival rate: 96.3 percent. Long-term survival rate: 43.12 percent. Seek immediate medical attention. Approaching safe crash landing vector... Warning: Power levels critical. System shutdown in..._

_ End Log._

*-------------------------------*

Consciousness came to Krystal slowly, as if she had to work for it by pushing past thick, cold barriers separating her from the waking world. Her thoughts were empty, only filled with a cold, dark void where nothing resided. She could not move or even feel anything... it was as if she were dead... which by most accounts she had been for the past two months.

Cryogenic stasis was a relatively new development in Lylat medical technology, only developed in the past fifteen years. As such, the procedures used weren't the most refined... there was always a small chance that suppressing ones' bodily functions to the point of ceasing would actually kill the patient. Waking up from stasis was an arduous ordeal which generally required trained medical personnel, as well as constant observation for the next couple of days to ensure that the patient fully recovered. Krystal had neither of these luxuries, as she was about to find out.

She felt cold... colder than she ever had been before. Her body started to rebel at the treatment it had received as she started to gain feeling in it. An intense sensation of pins-and-needles exploded over her entire body, overwhelming everything else she started to feel.

The sensation faded just a bit, but the pain continued. Krystal's throat hurt, badly... and breathing was a very difficult effort.... she was gagging on something. That gained her attention, and she felt her eyes open... only to be greeted with the same dark void she found herself in.

The thought of being choked to death by something... something that was clamped around her muzzle and pushed down her throat was frightening. She tried to spit the offending object out, but failed miserably. Her paws fumbled around... she wasn't even really able to feel them too much. Whenever she touched herself it felt as if she was being grabbed by blocks of ice... they didn't even feel like her paws. Eventually they blundered into their face, bumping into a plastic mask placed around her muzzle. Concentrating whatever little strength she had left, she pulled it off, feeling slimy tubing eject itself from deep inside her body.

She continued to gag and fight against the offending tubes, her paws frantically working at pulling it out. Finally it came out, leaving her feeling like someone had shoved a fist down her throat and decided to mess around with her lungs and stomach while they were at it. She took in a few painful breaths, finally curling herself into a ball and trying to conserve whatever little body heat she could. The vixen couldn't see anything, and she was still scared at the thought that the stasis had blinded her.

Krystal started coughing, and then retching... throwing up a thin, foul-tasting fluid over the stasis chamber. With a shudder of revulsion as well as cold, she felt around... the chamber was open, and she pulled herself out of it.

The floor, oddly enough, was much warmer than the interior of the stasis chamber. She took a first shaky step forward. No sight came to her eyes, even though she could tell her eyes were open. Frantically, she looked around... then spotting a dim blue glow off to her left.

With a start she stumbled over to it... or tried to. Her foot snagged something and she fell, tumbling to the ground in a bruised flurry of slime-soaked blue fur... not that she or anyone else could have seen it. The blue glow resumed, assuring the Cerinian that she had not been blinded. Her paw reached out for the glow, wrapping it around a familiar object... the collapsed form of her new staff.

As if the staff's power prompted it, memories surged into her mind, filling the dark void left by coldsleep. She had done it... Krystal was now a Guardian of Cerinia. Yet, at what cost? Her family was likely dead, and so were her friends. She forced her tears back as she grasped her staff. Maloc said he would meet her on Aquas. Was she there? Why was her ship dark? Why wasn't anyone here to help her out of this dank, cold place?

Shaking wildly from her ordeal, she extended her staff and used it to pull herself up. It gave off a limited amount of light which her eyes were slowly getting adjusted to. The outline of a table was in front of her, but all the contents of the room looked to be in disarray, thrown this way and that. Had the ship crashed somewhere? The vixen stooped down to grab a blanket, which she hastily wrapped around herself before venturing out of the room. Walking was slow and painful, and even taking a few steps into the hall she nearly fell twice. As she approached the stairs to the main deck, another feeling exploded throughout her body.

Hunger. Deep and absolute; she felt as if she had been starved for weeks... and that was most likely the case. The hunger gnawed at her body, and her stomach felt like a pit. Her body was starting to recover in fits and starts, and she wasn't quite ready for it. With a groan she slowly ascended the stairs, hoping that there would be some light source other than her staff up on the main deck.

Her feet, still encased in the sandals that were a part of her ceremonial armor, found the thickly-cushioned carpet of the upper deck. The hope for some light had not gone completely unfulfilled, although there was precious little of it. All of the illumination came from the picturesque viewport in the common living area. Compared to the inky darkness it meant she could see, and she could figure out where in the Void she actually was.

The scene outside was tranquil and serene... the ship actually had crashed, and it was in some sort of forest. It was night, and that explained the lack of light. Had the ship run out of power? Krystal's questions went unanswered. She needed food, and she needed it now.

The Cerinian stumbled for the kitchen, helped by the moonlight outside as well as her staff. Upon reaching it, she realized that it was empty. Her parents made sure to empty the ship whenever it wasn't being used, but there had to be something inside it. Desperately, she fumbled amongst the darkened room, throwing open drawers and pulling cabinet doors practically off their hinges, all the while using the minute light radiated by her staff to locate something.

All she found was a paper sack, containing three stale sweetrolls. They were as hard as rocks, but her hunger had her ignore that. Krystal spent several minutes gnawing at the ruined food, even pausing to lick crumbs from her fur as she went... not even noticing the taste of the thick, bitter residue that she had been soaked in. After being stuffed away in that damned contraption even finding that little sustenance was like a gift from Melos.

The worst of the hunger pangs had subsided, but they would be back, and soon. She needed to find something else, and that meant venturing outside. With a sigh she pushed herself back up and staggered her way out of the kitchen.

Eating, even what small amount she did, made her feel at least a bit better. Her throat felt like it had been scraped raw, and she still felt as if she were freezing solid. In her incredibly weakened state, she wasn't sure she could fend off a hostile animal, let alone another sentient being with malicious intent. Still, she had to try. Wherever she was, she needed to survive. Meloc promised her that he would come back.

Krystal may have been exhausted and weakened, but her mind coerced her rebelling body back into line... forcing her legs to move forward, ignoring the feeling of awakening limbs. The vixen needed to get out of the deathtrap of a ship she was now in. She needed to find food, water, and shelter... all in that order. She was a Guardian now... it was time to live up to the name.

'The hardships you will face will be numerous, child.' The voice of her mentor, Narat, echoed in her mind. 'You will be pushed to your breaking point, and then beyond. If you survive them, you will come out stronger, better... a true master of your fate.' Narat might have been right, but even his insight into her future didn't reveal the destruction of her family... the attack on their homeworld.

Krystal tried out her voice for the first time... it came out in a choked rasp. "I need to get out of here." Her words steeled her resolve, and she stumbled her way out of the living area with the help of her staff. The rear airlock was open, and she used this to escape the ship, and emerge into the warm night air.

The comfortable temperature was welcome, compared to the freezing confines of the shuttle. She vaguely remembered Maloc telling her that it had been running with no life support; meaning that it had been through the hostile environment of outer space for... however long she had been in it.

That alone caused Krystal to sigh, as she looked down the eight-foot drop to the ground... and freedom. The exit ramp had failed to extend, and the Vucsed was obviously out of power. She would have to jump, which might hurt her far worse than she bargained for. Still, it was either that or freeze and starve to death inside the ship. She made her choice and simply jumped.

The impact came quickly, and knocked the wind out of her. Her stressed, weakened body finally betrayed her, and as she lay there gasping, the not so unwelcome black veil of unconsciousness fell over her senses.

*-------------------*

Krystal awoke with a start... the mild agony of awakening limbs had ceased. She could move her arms, legs... even her tail without pain. It was still dark outside, but she felt much warmer... almost normal. In the moonlight, she could see the fluid she had been covered with had mostly dried, matting much of her fur and coating it with the topsoil she had lain on. A sigh crossed her lips... she didn't feel so horrible, but she probably looked like she had crawled out of a cesspit.

Getting up was easier than before, but slightly atrophied muscles still needed the help of her staff to prop her up. Her hunger had returned... how long had she been out, anyway? With a sigh she approached a nearby tree, leaning against it for support. She needed to think.

However, while looking up she spotted several heavy pods embedded in the tree. Maybe those were fruit? This caused the vixen to arch an eyebrow, wondering how to get them down. Using the tree for balance, she swung at the side of the trunk with all the strength she could muster... which winded her. The tree vibrated a bit, and one of the pods crashed to the ground, narrowly missing her.

The pod looked like a large nut, which meant it had to be some sort of food. Krystal smiled for the first time she could remember, her tail swaying as she did so. The staff was brought down with another swat, and the nut was split open. Triumphantly, the Cerinian sat down to her first real meal in over two months.

The fruit had a very sweet taste to it, and it was full of pulp. Krystal worked on it feverishly, scooping whatever she could out with her paws while gorging on her new treasure. It was far more filling than the sweetrolls she had earlier, and finally she felt at least somewhat sated. The juices even soothed her throat, almost as if the fruit had some sort of healing properties.

The Cerinian could feel her strength starting to return, and she sat back against the tree. Her emerald eyes fell upon the battered profile of her ship, faintly visible in the moonlight that shone through the trees. She then turned to the way it came... witnessing the path of destruction it had woven through virgin, alien forest. The ship cut a swath nearly sixty yards wide for a distance of, she reckoned, nearly half a mile. It was a miracle that the shuttle had remained intact... and she was even luckier to have survived it.

Krystal felt lucky to have survived everything that had happened... although a few questions burned into her mind. Why was she so important? The blaster-wielding Lylatians had been looking for her, not any of the other Adepts in her city. She was the only Channeler in her home region... an extremely rare Aspect to be gifted, but why would technologically advanced Lylat natives need to commune with spirits?

A Channeler's abilities were mainly used with communing with the ancient Keeper spirits that resided within the Temples of Light. The entities could only communicate via a Channeler, and the first assignment for her Guardian duties was to be the personal medium for one of them. It was considered a great honor amongst Cerinians, but the more she thought about it the more she had her second thoughts... being possessed at will by an ancient spirit wasn't something she wanted to endure for long.

The vixen sighed, burying her head in her paws. The memories and wounds were so fresh, It had possibly been weeks since her narrow escape from her homeworld, but in her mind's eye it had been mere hours. She couldn't stop the tears, so she simply let them flow... grieving for the losses she went through... and the inescapable loneliness she felt.

Krystal wasn't sure how long she had sat there, sobbing until there were no more tears to shed... alone and stranded on an alien world with little chance of being discovered. However, the sound of footsteps startled her from her melancholy reflection. The vixen berated herself for her inattentiveness; if someone had been coming her abilities would have picked up on them, if only she had been using them. She was a Guardian, but Krystal had quite a lot to learn about using her Aspects to the fullest.

She looked up to see seven hulking creatures striding towards her. They were some sort of armored reptiles... most of them armed with clubs or some sort of axes, but two that lingered to the rear of the group carried a strange sort of long blaster. She stood up, tired and cold but with a decent measure of her strength regained. Perhaps these were friendly natives, but a quick scan of their minds proved to her that their intentions were far less than noble.

The lead reptile spoke, surprisingly enough in a dialect similar enough to Cerinian that she could understand most of it through its broken grammar. "Ugly furred thing caused wreck. Bring it to Boss. Boss will take care of it." It spoke with a sneer, and Krystal slid into a defensive stance, her staff extended to its full length and ready to strike.

Grief turned to anger in a split second... she had lost her friends. She had lost her parents. In that instant, she swore that she would never lose anyone important to her again... including herself. The Cerinian had the means to ensure it did not happen, and since that was threatened... "By the Cerinian Grand Council, I command you to leave this area." Her voice was still hoarse, but her growl made the lead reptile stop in its tracks. "If you do not, I will be forced to defend myself... and you do not want that to happen."

The Sharpclaw that stood in front of her regarded his options. The ugly furry thing could speak. It had threatened him, his troop, and was trespassing on lands claimed by his Boss, the great General Scales. It was outnumbered, and only had a stick. He did the only thing he could do considering the circumstances... he charged.

Holding his axe out to strike, he took a swing at the furred one. His weapon cleaved through the air, neither hitting flesh nor weapon. The thing's stick slammed down on his shoulder, sending him to the dirt with only a feeble swing of his axe as protest.

The others charged en masse. Krystal was as ready as she could be considering four of them started to attack her at once. The ones with the strange blasters held back... they couldn't shoot her with their comrades so close by... and they had a free fight to watch. Normally this would not be a problem; her skills as a telepath gave her a very decisive edge in combat... knowing what her opponent was about to do before they even had a chance to follow through, she fought like an expert. Even the group of trained, experienced Sharpclaw couldn't break through her defenses, and all of them received at least one powerful blow from her weapon.

However, the fact that the Cerinian was in a stasis pod an hour previous, fighting for her life, showed. Her strength was not fully regained, and the extra energy that the fruit had given her soon faded away in the rigors of close combat. Knowing how an enemy was about to strike only gave her advance warning of a brutal attack, and she received a few bumps and slashes of her own.

Now bleeding from two or three mild wounds and dealing with a headache by a nearly missed blow that would have normally laid her head open, she quickly tired. After a few desperate last-ditch swings, she tried to back up... yet stumbled into something.

That 'something' had been the Sharpclaw she laid out a few minutes ago... he was back up and she could sense that he was very angry. Being bested in combat by an ugly furred alien had caused him a great deal of embarrassment, and having been taken down in a single hit would make him lose face amongst his squad buddies. He wasted no time, and a heavy fist collided with the back of her head.

Krystal grunted as her senses went reeling, although the last thing her abilities picked up before they faded away was the appearance of another sentient being. All she could tell was that it didn't have the same thought patterns as the reptiles.

The last thing she saw was lights moving in behind the reptiles, before she was brutally torn from the waking world once again... in a flurry of vengeful fists and armored boots.