WF28 - 1 - Crash Landing

Log Entry 339761

After my unfortunate crash landing on this planet, I have found myself in what appears to be an uninhabited zone.  The climate here is very cold, and while that is beneficial to my processors, it means the likelihood of finding a settlement where I can repair and resupply is much lower.  My sensors can only see so far, and the flat plain and this lake do not appear to be hiding any people.

I did, at first, see a sizable group of furred canine type creatures - a fascinating sort I have not seen before - and think that perhaps they were a hunting party, but to my dismay they did not respond to my overtures.  They were quite wary, and abandoned their pursuit of the creature they were hunting as soon as I came too close.  Their behavior leads me to believe they are merely a large predator-type species, and I will have to be very careful while I am in their territory.  I may not be edible, but I am composed of many delicate pieces, many of which are already damaged from the crash.

Log Entry 339764

I have been forced to resort to eating meat for energy - there is simply not enough sun in this area to utilize for all my needs, with so many of my collectors and converters damaged.  It is a horrible process and I sincerely hope that I never have to repeat the experience again.  I am not designed for hunting, and it has been difficult for me so far.

I have been following the pack I first saw when I arrived, from a safe distance, hoping that perhaps I will be able to study them and their habits to better facilitate my own survival.  They, being predators, are much more likely to know where game will hide and how to catch it.

They are not unaware of my presence, and do not seem to consider me a threat.  They are, however, completely uninterested in any sort of contact.  There is one, a feathered black and brown female, who alerts should I get too close - and her yelping is enough to make the whole pack take off.  She has, so far, interrupted three of my attempts to study their hunting techniques.

If I cannot find a settlement soon I will need to learn more of hunting.  I will have to find a way to deal with her.

Log Entry 339766

The feathered female is highly visible in this snowy terrain.  With such dark fur she is easily spotted, and has become one of my main methods of tracking the pack.  It is curious that this species does not grow a winter coat to compensate for the snow - perhaps this area is this cold all-year round?  It is true that many of the pack have much lighter fur, which would make the black feathered one an oddity.

Log Entry 339768

I am currently standing in a foot of fresh snow, behind a large rocky outcropping.  The pack is near, out in the field.  As I watch, they chase down a small creature - a leporid type mammal.  Black Feather is one of the ones heading it off; she does not make the kill, but is the reason her packmate can.  She knows I am here, I think - her ears went up and her head tilted in my direction, as she did before when she would yelp.  Perhaps my cautious attempts to gain her trust have been more successful than I thought.

The more I watch the pack, the more it becomes clear that hunting alone is why I am so often running low on power.

Log Entry 339772

Black Feather does not spend all her time with the pack.  In fact, many of them seem to spread out loosely for long periods of time during the day - scouting, perhaps?  I have by now estimated that the pack is making a slow circle of the lake, and have several times been able to predict successfully where they will be roaming and hunting.  I am also starting to learn how to note hidden hare burrows (I have decided to call them hares since they appear almost exactly the same) as well as bird nests and several other creatures that the pack hunts.

 
Hunting itself still proves difficult, as I am built for steady exploration, and am often not fast enough or strong enough to catch my own prey.  I have managed to fashion traps, once or twice, from rocks and twigs, but they do not always function as they should.  The last one I tried failed miserably, and as I was floundering through the snow after the escaping stoat I caught Black Feather watching me from a ridge.  If I didn’t know better I would have sworn she was laughing at me.

But, it is the times when she is not with the pack that have given me my chance to let her acclimate to my presence.  So I will take it as a sign that she does not regard me as an enemy anymore.

Log Entry 339773
I have still not seen any signs of people or habitation.  Perhaps I am simply looking in the wrong places - I have, after all, encountered entirely underground civilizations, many of which lived on colder planets such as this one seems to be.  But I do recall this planet being marked as inhabited and aboveground, even if my record and map modules are still malfunctioning.

 
It is hard to compare the speed of travel of the pack to my usual rate of exploration when I have no statistics to calculate the comparison with.  It seems slow, though.

Glacially slow.

Log entry 339777

It is lucky for me that I do not require my meat to be fresh, as so many organic creatures do.  I caught three - yes, three - hares four days ago, and have not caught a single thing since.  I have been trying to use the snow and the cold to help preserve them, but I cannot eat them frozen and I don’t dare start a fire, for fear of scaring off the pack.  Several times now I have caught nothing and their bare bones and scraps after they move on are all that have kept me from powering down.

The pack still distrusts me, unfortunately.  Black Feather I am not so sure of - she seems to find me interesting, but I have still not seen her closer than several treelengths away.  She and her patchwork spotted friend (they must be related, as he has some of that same curiously dark color as she does) often hunt together, and on those days I try to practice my own hunting, as the spotted one will not come near me.

The wind is starting to pick up, and the temperature is changing.  I think that means a storm is on the way.

Log Entry 339779

It’s been two days since the storm rolled in.  My sensors can’t handle it - I can hear only the wind and I can hardly see my fingers in front of my face.  I wish I had the power to transform into a form more suited for this weather, but I haven’t had enough power for that since the crash, and I’m honestly not sure my gears are intact enough to transform in the first place.

Worst of all, I think I finally lost the pack.  I know they went to ground somewhere before the snow came in, but I’m not sure where or how, or even if they’re all in the same place.  My power is running low, and I’m terrified that I’ll fall asleep out here and be buried in the snow forever.  I shouldn’t even be wasting power on this log but it’s dark and I







No input for twenty minutes.
Automatic Log Entry end.

There’s sun on my face.  I can feel it, and feel the power slowly trickling in.  My reserve power system must be functional after all, or the previous log entry would have been my last.  The reserves kick in after an emergency shutdown, but they only keep me alive, not awake.

I can’t help but wonder how long I was out.  My time systems are also malfunctioning - the shutdown wouldn’t have helped them at all, either.

Finally, there’s power to my sensors, and… there’s fur in my face?

It’s not until Black Feather flicks her tail up that I realize why.  This is the closest I’ve ever been to her, and now I can finally see the markings in her fur that make them look like feathers.  She’s casually chewing on the remains of some wild animal, gnawing the bones and completely ignoring me.  I have enough power to move now, and I can’t resist reaching out, just to make sure I’m not imagining her.

And she drops the bones and waltzes away before I get the chance.  She plops herself down in the snow just out of reach, panting, and the message is clear: no touching permitted.  

Log Entry 339780

I don’t know how long Black Feather was there before I woke up, but she waited patiently for me to extract myself from the snowbank that had piled up around me, and even permitted me to have the remaining bones of her prey.  It was slow, with so little power to work with, but once processed I should have enough to make it on my own for a little while longer.

As soon as I finished though, Black Feather was up and strolling off towards the lakeside plains again.  She paused at the edge of the trees and looked back, almost as if she were waiting for me.  I could have followed her so easily, maybe befriended her, but off in the other direction I spotted the first sign of civilization I’d seen since I landed: smoke.  Chimneys.

I’d been so close.

And as much as I found Black Feather and her packmates to be fascinating creatures, I knew I needed repairs more.  Maybe, just maybe, she would follow me instead.  And if not, I could always return once my health was no longer a problem.

To study them for my records, of course.