“WARNING IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS MESSAGE YOU ARE WITHIN THE BLAST ZONE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.” A robotic voice blared at the bottom of the crater. It’s voice echoing throughout the valley. The loud sirens slowly sputtered to static as they ceased to function from the damage caused by the impact.
“There’s someone down there!!” Yuri’s emotions get the best of her as she dives through the Torii, completely disregarding the robotic voice and its warnings. She leaps plummeting to the bottom of the valley, through the storm of dust and flames. The rush of dirt and debris scratching up her face as she fell.
Just before reaching the distant bottom purple flames spark and ignite to life around her. The light piercing through the smog and thick ash lit the area. Her descent slowed as an invisible force that could only have been created by her pushed back as she stepped down on the charred ground. The rubble and dirt crunching under her weight.
“Hello?! Whoever’s here I came to help!” Yuri frantically ran around through the smoke looking for the source of the voice. Her purple foxfire pierced the vale of smog that blocked her vision, but only for a few feet before the smoke became too dense.
“WAR- WAR- WARNING… BLAST- ZONE” The electronic voice powered down and the sirens ceased their static blaring. The source of the smoke begins to calm. The wind now able to keep up whips the smoke up and out of the valley like a blanket being pulled from a nicely made bed.
Lying where the ruined buildings once slept was a chunk of a massive star shuttle torn apart and shredded almost beyond recognition. The only pieces to survive impact were the reactor bay and the medical wing attached by a thin hallway. The field generator seems to have been set to protect these two parts of the ship.
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“Someone came back… After.. So long.” Tears pooled in Yuri’s eyes as she approached the door to the medical wing. The charred and scorched ground crunched and hissed under her feet.
The field generator was next to go. It let out a blinding arc and the blue sphere surrounding the wreckage dissipated. The mag-locks on the door disengaged as the power to the shuttle flickered. The dying reactor struggling to keep the systems alive.
“After all these years.. I finally-.” The door to the medical bay begins to slide open, struggling to pull itself through the bent metal of the hull, squealing as it dragged. “Get to see you aga-“ Yuri paused. No life radiated from the room, only silence. Just a single monitor glowed in the darkness of the derelict room. The lamps sprawled along the ceiling just hummed and flickered, struggling to burn to life and bring life to this eerie place.
“I knew it was too good to be true.” As Yuri turned to leave the shuttle the monitor screamed to life. Through the static a voice became audible. A message playing on repeat.
“To anyone who may find this message my name is Yuso. I have escaped from the Radiance Republic but my FTL drive was heavily damaged in the firefight. With no option left, I activated it with a blind jump plotted. The good news is I didn’t jump straight into the center of a star. The bad news is I’m lost in space orbiting this planet with little to no fuel. I’m leaking O2 from multiple hull breaches. I sealed the medical bay to save what little oxygen I have left. As a last resort, I’m going to put myself into cryosleep with no definite wake date to conserve resources. Most of the power will be diverted to the field generator to protect the main reactor and the medical bay. Due to this most systems including thrusters will be offline. I have no idea how long I’ll be asleep. My only hope is that someone, someday will find me drifting.”
Tears start to well up in the man’s eyes as he speaks. The control panels in the background of the video dim and flicker as he gets visibly concerned and nervous. The groan of the weakening hull can be heard echoing in the background of the message. Saying nothing more the man wanders over to something resembling a metal coffin. The metallic door slid open pouring steam across the room as he stepped in. As the door sealed shut the video cut to static before repeating.