Day 2
As I’m writing this I can still see the inky smoke curling and twisting skywards from where our ruined Sentinel class shuttle lay burning in the distance. The ship had lurched out of hyperspace as if a cosmic hand had plucked it like a toy from a chest. There wasn’t much time to take evasive action as the pilots struggled to get their bearings, the view out of the front window filled with asteroids. The pilots banked the shuttle every direction in a desperate attempt to clear us from the hazard but it wasn’t long before a massive shudder rocked the ship signaling the damage had been dealt.
Even in space it was easy to tell the shuttle was listing, lazily at first as the pilots kept the controls steady. Then the viewport changed as the ship turned, where there was swirling blackness a deep gray now consumed the glass. “Buckle in! this won’t be an easy landing!” one of the pilots shouted from the helm. It was hard to hear over the blaring alarms and the loud groan as the ship burst through the atmosphere. The vibrations were so strong I wondered if the ship would burst apart at the seems, jettisoning the detachment of seventy five soldiers into the unknown oblivion that awaited them outside of the hull.
I stole another glance out of the cockpit window, there was nothing to see. Thick gray mist blocked all visibility and the pilots were frantically struggling to come to terms with what the sensors were or weren’t showing. I looked at the men with me, if there was any fear to be seen, it was hidden behind matching white helmets. They sat quietly, some gripping the harnesses securing them in the seats so hard I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to let them go after we landed. I felt the ship rise, then suddenly slam into whatever this world was made of.
****
That was yesterday. I awoke that night drenched in a cold sweat, vision blurred and a righteous pain in the right side of my head. Even though I stayed securely fashioned inside my seat, the impact of the flying debris was enough to crack my helmet. I could feel the damp of the gauze wrapped around my head and knew when I pulled my fingers away I would see blood. “Take it easy soldier, you’re going to need the rest,” a low hoarse voice grumbled in my ear, “We’ll get some Bacta for you unless the other wounded need it. You’re in pretty good shape out of most. Might just have to heal the old fashioned way.”
My vision focused on a hardened face, two scars criss-crossing on his cheek below his left eye. KG-012, but to us simply Captian. As I gathered my surroundings I propped myself up on my forearm, pain seizing my body. Capain put a hand on my shoulder, “Easy lad. Easy does it”. His normally stark white armor was blackened by flames and smoke, the orange pauldron signifying his rank almost burned completely off. It was then I looked past him, there were only a handful of survivors. He must’ve seen my fright, as he lowered his head and quietly whispered, “Twenty five remaining”.
I leapt to my feet, my body ignoring the fires of pain registering at every nerve tip. “Out of eighty aboard?!”
Captain raised a hand for silence, “Pilots and many others were killed on impact. We hit the side of a mountain I assume, couldn’t see out the viewport through all the fog. The crew hold was ripped open, some men along with it. At some point the ship began rolling, the screeching sound of durasteel against the ground kept me conscious. Suddenly, just as it began we stopped. Thankfully I was able to get myself free of the restraints along with several others and those that weren’t in pieces were pulled from the ship. We managed to salvage some food rations and weapons, even got some Bacta but it won’t last long. There were more men, but they disappeared in the mist…..”
I realized he was facing me, but his eyes were looking somewhere far past me as if I didn’t exist. I knew that look, the look hardened soldiers had when they finally met something that shook them. That thing that finally found the flesh and bone under the statuesque persona seen by others. Something was very wrong here. I looked past the captain, a fire had been lit in the middle illuminating every inch of the small cavern we had turned into our makeshift fortified position. Men lay broke in every corner, some missing limbs, others barely holding it together. I felt the familiar grip of an E-11 blaster enter my palm.
“You’re going to need this, come with me,” Captain grumbled as I followed him towards the mouth of the cave. As we exited the threshold, the best I could tell we were in an elevated position, the only clue the descending pieces of ground to either side of me. A fog choked this world in a smothering embrace. I guessed the sun was rising as the void of darkness shifted to a sheet of dark gray. As the gray lightened to white, the only visible landmark in the distance was the tendrils of jet black smoke rising above a barely visible tree line.