If a project could be considered cursed before it started, this colony may just be it. Most of the structures remained unbuilt. A good chunk of the colonists were yet to arrive. And worst of all- the scientist assigned to them was apparently caught up in a big scandal, leaving DPIP to scramble to find a solution or replacement. Which meant that Onyx, somehow the oldest one here, was suddenly in charge.

She did not sign up for this.

Ok, ok, first thing's first; build a shelter. All of the wilderness survival classes Onyx was forced to take mentioned shelter being a key requisite. Well, shelter and fire but it was hot enough out today that fire could wait.

Onyx's gaze landed on a young fellow tsabhua just casually taking a nap. Like she wasn't having a full on freak-out over here. She stalked over and prodded him right in his appaloosa flank. "Hey, kid, what's your name?"

Onyx had memorized the list of names but without the faces to put them too what good was that? This kid might be Diorite. Or Basalt. Hells, maybe even just "Rock". Probably something minerally -she thinks that was the theme voted on- but who knew what mineral it was.

With a groan the kid sat up from his curled position to glance in her vague direction. It was only then he seemed to register that she said something to him. Silver eyes blinked independently of one another with not a thought behind them.

Onyx might have to help him out on this one. "Your name, kid, you got one of those?"

"I'm Diorite," he groaned. Which she definitely already knew, yep. "And I'm not a-"

"Perfect. Now that we're both awake you can come help me set up the rest of our lovely little camp!"

Diorite gave her a look like he would much rather do literally anything else. But he got to his paws with another groan. "If I have to." He rolled his shoulders, several cracks ringing out as he idly glanced around. "Where exactly do we start?"

The place the colony leaders had chosen was pretty good, nestled within a deep orange-red canyon. Though pretty sparse in vegetation, it wasn't lacking in places to hide from the sun. and if you really wanted a leafy snack, a trail just behind where Onyx and Diorite stood now wound up the wall to flatter land that plantlife preferred.

Of course, nothing passed as truly "leafy" in the desert. But there were always plenty of succulents if you wanted to try nibbling one of those.

Regardless, it was time to work. Snack time could wait until later. Onyx flicked her white-tipped tail and Diorite reluctantly followed her over to where one of the housing kits lay untouched. It shouldn't be too hard to assemble one of these things, right?

Onyx pressed the release button and… nothing happened. Odd. she pressed it again. And again and again and again and…

"Maybe give it a second," Diorite suggested. "Otherwise you could overload the mechanism and-"

Just as he said that the crate flew open on its own. A gust of compressed air made the pair stagger back, followed by everything formerly inside the kit. Instead of gently hovering out, all the pieces flew out in every direction.

Onyx took a beam to the gut and crumpled over with a gasp. Diorite dodged the first projectile, only to get clocked in the brow by part of a shelf. The pair cowered in the sand, too fearful to move and risk being struck again.

And then, just as soon as the chaos had come, it stopped. Either the kit had run out of objects to fling at them, or some deity above had taken pity on their strife.

Onyx hopped to her feet, shaking sand out of her black fur. "I meant to do that!" She confidently called out.

Diorite didn't bother to respond, instead rolling back up to his feet. The teen trotted over to sniff at the scattered contents of the box- bits of walls and doors and corners. Luckily, most of the material was made out of hard plastic and metal, durable enough to survive a landing in the sand. Although one window had been thrown against the rocky canyon wall and shattered upon impact. They'd definitely have to replace that later.

"I'm not sure we can salvage much of this," Diorite admitted.

"What? Sure we can! We just need to… um…" as Onyx laid her eyes upon the mess her optimism abruptly waned. For one thing, the instruction sheet had seemingly blown away in the blast. For another, she had no idea what half of this stuff was without it. But hey, she was sure she could figure it out on the way!

Onyx grabbed what she assumed was part of the wall and staked it into the ground as hard as she could. Ok, step one done. She elbowed Diorite out of the way to grab another and stab it in right next to the first. A couple more pieces and the general shape was coming together. Who cared they didn't have anything to weld 'em together? Just put a door in here, leave space for a window there, throw a tarp overtop and… done!

Onyx stood back to admire her work, only to cringe instead. It was… decent. You could almost tell what it was supposed to be. But the roof was sagging and the walls looked like they would topple over from a strong fart. Definitely not the kind of thing she was envisioning it would turn out to be.

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Diorite mused, just a little smugger than he had to be.

Onyx chose not to cuff him behind the ear for that. Instead she glanced at her failed shelter, then over at the other unopened kits, and decided this was best left as someone else's problem. Natural shade from the cliffs would be just fine until someone gets a better idea.

Besides, she could always blame this on one of the other whelps in the meantime.