The Crash

Holy Alpha my head hurts. I groan, pushing something cold, hard, and definitely metal off me. I try and blink the fuzziness out of my eyes without much success. I sit up, ignoring the rush of pain to my torso, and lean against the wall of the ship to take in the damage.

Everyone seems fine, if not unconscious. The ship’s automatic cushioning system must be the only thing that has kept us alive. It’s nearly completely destroyed, with several holes in the roof allowing starlight to shine through. Well, we are certainly not going anywhere for a long time.

I check my head and stomach for any wounds, and the most I find is a simple cut on my thigh. Probably from whatever that metal thing was, but until we can get the Vitalizer up and running, we can’t do much about it.

I try and stand up, then immediately regret my decision as I find the floor far too close to my face.

“Ugh…” I push myself up using my elbows and crawl over to where my teammate, Bell, is lying.

“Bell, wake up. We got work to do,” I say, shaking her awake. She mumbles something under her breath and waves me away. I roll my eyes. “Bell!” She groans, and shoves me away.

“Fine… Woah, what happened?” she says, pulling herself up using one of the chairs.“Is everyone okay?” Data groans from behind her as a response, standing up shakily.

“I think so. However, the ship itself isn’t going anywhere,” he says, kicking a sheet of metal with the toe of his boot.

“Okay, good. Hey, has anyone seen Nova?” Bell says.

“Uh, I think you should look at this…” Nova stands, dumbstruck, at a large hole in the wall. I stumble over to Nova and see outside the hole of the ship, an old rundown building completely overtaken by plants.

“What is this planet? I have never seen plants like these before…” I step out of the ship and start to walk towards the building when Bell pulls me back.

“Don’t do that! We don’t know what they can do.” She grabs a metal pole from the system and pokes one of the plants, which just flops in response. I shrug. “Seems good enough for me.”

“That’s… that’s it? That doesn’t seem safe,” Data says, warily eyeing the greenery. Nova, on the other hand, gladly jumps out of the ship and starts towards the building.

“Well, I, for one, do not care if it is safe or not. We need parts. Otherwise, we are stranded. Come on.” She continues walking towards the building, with Data following behind. Bell looks at me, shrugs again, and runs to catch up. I take a little longer, feeling the strange plants, before catching up as well. Nova pries open the door and shoves it to the side, and we flood into the old building.

Mold and dust cover the ancient marketplace. Shelves line the wall, and something called SPAM rolls to a stop near my feet. I kick it to the side, and we all start scrounging for parts.

Unfortunately, it seems that this is not a place to find replacement parts for your rocket ship. Nova groans, and throws down a can, splattering the long-expired contents everywhere. She cries out and slams her hands on the counter.

“Ugh! We are going to be stranded on this stupid planet that is probably abandoned with no parts and no hope of getting home, and we are going to have to live on a planet that is probably uninhabited! All because Data didn’t refuel us properly!” She sneers at Data, running her hands through her hair.

“Hey! It’s not all my fault! Cycle managed to navigate us into a ditch far away from anyone else!” He jeers at me. I start to feel my anger rising, and my fists clench.

“Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you just shut the hell up-”

“Everyone stop it!” We all turn to face Bell, “Can’t you hear that noise?” She’s right. There’s a sort of, cracking sound at the windows, the doors, the walls… it’s everywhere.

“What in Quota’s nine moons is that?!” I shriek, as a previously docile fern wraps around my legs.

And so, the roots and plants from the outside of the building begin their attack.

And so do we.

We have been surprised like this before. On one of Phora SFJ’s moons, we were attacked by a bunch of terrifying twelve-legged fuzzy creatures. Yes, they were soft. Yes, I did count their legs. Point is, this isn’t new.

I smile, I have been waiting for a good fight for a long time. I take out my duel gamma guns and blast the plant to smithereens. Although, it doesn’t take too long till another one comes flying at my face. I duck and try and kick the stem. It easily dodges and wraps around my leg, pulling me off balance. I fall on my back, and see the stupid ass plant get ready to strike again, this time with a large barb sticking out of its yellow flower. I dodge, rolling out of the way just in time, and blast it again with my gun.

I’m helped up by Bell, and we stand, back to back, shooting at anything that even looks at us wrong. Except for Data and Nova of course. Well, maybe I hit them once accidentally. So sue me.

We are doing well, they take a few shots to go down, but that’s fine. Ammo isn’t a problem for us, Data helps us out with that. Speaking of Data, he looks… a little crazed in battle, with his flamethrower mowing down more plants than we could even dream to. Nova is in the heat of the battle, up close and personal with a huge bluebell looking thing, whacking it over and over with her charged spear.

As we are cleaning up the remainder of the evil herbs, I look around myself. Maybe we can do this. Maybe we can survive through this death trap of a place. We have our disagreements, but in the end, we are a family. Whether we like it or not. We can do this! We can get back home!

And, as I am having that thought, our ship completely falls to pieces with a loud crash. Well, we sure have our work cut out for us. I wouldn’t have it any other way.