<//> Lifeworker Research Vessel Serial Code Br.Hp.T.T.Mss 'Hope Amongst The Black' signaling distress on all wartime emergency bands used in the Ecumene. Food supplies adequate. Water supplies adequate. Life support functioning. Is anyone alive out there? <//>
Quiet Steps Through Empty Meadows had set his distress call on a loop, broadcast in all bands he could access and in all directions for as far as he could. He had whispered quiet thanks to the Twelves Laws that the vessel he had salvaged was still in nearly perfect condition, its generator showing no signs of wear. In all probability it would function indefinitely. He sighed quietly, sitting back in his chair, letting the energy wrap that normally protected his face fall away. He cringed slightly as unfiltered air touched his skin, then took a deep breath of the recycled atmosphere within the ship. After spending so much time in stasis he wanted to taste as pure air as he could, sacrificing the level of filtration his personal armor gave him to get at it.
The tightness in his chest was overwhelming. He was finally safe, the war was over, the threat was over, but he had woken to find everyone else gone without a trace. He had no idea where they had gone, or whether they were even alive, and no one had answered his hails on any frequency. He was beginning to suspect that the reason his hails had not been answered was that there was no one to receive them in the first place. Only having mutated to his first form, Quiet Steps was still malleable enough to be able to show emotion upon his face, his pale brow furrowing and his eyes clenching shut in a mixture of frustration, anger, and misery. He did not want to be alone. In truth, he was not, his personal ancilla having lain dormant inside his armor until he himself awoke. She was active now and had been a great asset, but now Wind-Through-Leaves remained quiet, not speaking a word as her master let tears fall from his eyes.
His quiet hope that someone would find him was growing ever less likely by the moment, and Quiet Steps summoned the energy wrap over his face again with a thought, closing his eyes tight and forcing himself to drift off into sleep in the hope that things would be better when he woke up.
<//> Message repeats: Lifeworker Research Vessel Serial Code Br.Hp.T.T.Mss 'Hope Amongst The Black' signaling distress... <//>
