Warning. System failure detected. Hyperdrive malfunction detected. Reversion to realspace in 5…4…3…2…1. Reversion.

A pinprick of light. A flash. Suddenly a ship burst from hyperspace above a planet unknown. The hyperdrive system had fried for some unknown reason. Sabotage. The project was hated from the beginning; doomed by the very people that had sparked the idea. A last hope. A plea for survival. Washed away in a heartbeat.

Warning. Major system failure. Virus de-detec-tec-tec-tec….

The entirety of the ships computer systems suddenly shut down. The virus was quick, sparked by the reversion to real space that was initiated by the ships computer. There was no crew. It was all automated. The ship, the Future Beginnings, was the last hope for the people of a dying world. Their sun had collapsed and was sucking the planets in its system into it at a somewhat slow pace. They’d built a ship, a huge ship, and loaded it with as many as they could, cryogenically freezing them all.

The ship had launched as soon as it was loaded. Food and supplies were plentiful, but the freezing process made it so that they didn’t need to eat. Hyperdrive coordinates were plugged in for the far edge of the galaxy and they launched. It would take some time to make it to their destination. But the sabotage, the separatists, they ruined the whole thing. The ship, systems offline, drifted towards a nearby planet, sucked in by its gravity well. There would be no saving the ship with no one at the helm, a fatal flaw in the plan.

The planet beneath them, a planet without name, only a number, was X1224Z5. It was originally a research outpost for some outer rim group of planets that had formed together in a coalition of sorts. Recently it had been abandoned, or so it would seem from the lack of activity within the system. There was no greeting, no warning sirens from the planet, nothing. The ship simply continued to drift down towards the surface, sucked through the planet’s atmosphere to spiral down. The collision was imminent. The collision was huge.

The front nose of the vessel pierced the ground, sending a shockwave rumbling through the planet, uprooting trees, and throwing debris high into the sky. Miles away the rain of dirt would have been so heavy that the animals must have avoided it. The rumblings could be heard around the planet, the damage catastrophic. The front of the ship was completely obliterated. The structure within the ship was collapsing. Broken things were everywhere. Everything was broken in some way.

It was this breaking that brought Meric from the cryogenic sleep. His chamber was smashed open and the systems had shut down. He hung from the straps within the pod, arms dangling down towards the ground, lifeless. But as he was slowly brought awake the fingers twitched. The hand curled. Life was restored to the limbs and with a deep breath of air his eyes snapped open. He found himself hanging from the straps, the chamber broken, and it frightened him because he knew not what was going on. He knew that he shouldn’t be hanging if they were in space. He knew the chamber shouldn’t be broken. But he didn’t know why these were.

He reached a hand towards the release and hit it, catching himself on the floor with a grunt when he fell. A piece of glass cut deeply into his hand and he winced as he stood. Turning the hand over, he stared at it and then reached to pull the piece of glass from the wound. Tearing a strip from his tunic he used it to bind his hand so the blood wouldn’t seep out unabated. He tied it tight, pulling with his teeth until the pain was nearly unbearable. It would do for now.

When he looked about he realized that the ship was tilted. Something bad happened. The obvious conclusion. He surveyed what he could see and then walked to the next pod. Inside was his grandmother, dead. A beam had pierced her through the heart. This brought tears to his eyes and he touched his hand to the glass for a moment, wishing her luck in the afterlife as best that he could. His grandfather was long dead, his parents too. They had perished in an accident back on their home world, even before Meric’s children were born.

The setup was such that the clusters of cryogenic pods were all family members and thusly he made his way around to where his wife was. When he saw her he nearly collapsed. Her face was broken through the glass, a large piece of it shoved through her right eye and back into her brain. She was dead. The tears were a torrent; a river flooding from his eyes with no end to be seen. A hand reached out to touch her cheek gently, caressing it. He couldn’t keep looking, though. It was far too painful. So, he moved on, half expecting to find his two children dead as well.

But what he found brought him some comfort. The both of them were alive, their chambers undamaged. The cryogenics was keeping them frozen for the time being, but they were definitely alive and it was enough to lift his spirits at least somewhat. Touching the glass in front of them with both his hands he bowed his head and cried. There wasn’t a sound from anywhere around him and he had sincere doubts about whether anyone else was awake. He would look eventually, but the moment was for tears. Joy and sadness. Sweet enemies.

Before long, as always, something had to happen. A shift here, a sound from over there. It didn’t particularly matter what the noise was; each noise was a disturbing as the last. Some were more disturbing. The eerie silence being broken by noise was enough to scare the pants off some people. Meric, though, was particularly used to silence. He’d been a ship builder, working in space all the time. And more often than not he shut off his comm.

There was a loud crash from one of the adjoining chambers and then what sounded like a groan. Grabbing onto a few loose cables, he pulled himself along the slanted floor until he could grab onto the doorjamb to the next room. Inside what he saw was much the same as in his pod room. But there was a pod that had broken free and a man was climbing from it rather shakily. At least he wasn’t alone now. Someone else was awake and they could explore their surroundings before waking the others. Much safer together.

At first Meric didn’t really recognize the other man. They were just far enough apart that he couldn’t make out facial details and the man was looking in the other direction anyways. Not really sure whether to call out or not, he didn’t want to startle the other too much, he chose instead to pull himself into the room and find a standing place half on the floor and half on the wall. Getting out of the ship later on was going to prove to be a problem.

When the man finally did look at him, Meric immediately recognized him and breathed a small sigh of relief. Not only would he have someone to watch his back while they explored, but he’d have someone that he’d been close friends with his whole life. He offered a small smile, the best his tear stained face could affect. This man, Michael was his name, he knew didn’t have family so the man was fortunate enough to not have to endure the grief that was plaguing Meric.

“Michael.”

“Hey, Meric,” Michael said casually. “Any idea why the ship is tilted and everything’s all banged up?”

Meric shook his head. “No clue. You’re the first person I’ve seen awake. I guess we should explore.”

Michael just nodded and looked around for a moment, reaching into his pod to grab something that he’d apparently hidden there. It was a blaster. At that moment Meric realized that it might have been a good idea to have done that himself. Of course, one couldn’t account for freak accidents happening and he didn’t even know that such was what had happened. For all he knew, they could have just landed wrong at their destination. There could have been a fluke in the AI’s programming.

“Know where the nearest escape hatch is?” Michael asked.

“Yeah. Two rooms up from here.” Meric pointed behind Michael.

Michael nodded and motioned for Meric to follow him. This type of thing was probably second nature for the other man. He was part of their home planets security force and had spent the better part of his life preparing for strange occurrences that required him to use certain practiced skills such as this current situation. As a result, Michael was way ahead of him as they climbed through the compartments and made their way to the escape hatch. Not that either of them was in any particular hurry.

Some of the rooms were a complete mess. They were all pod rooms, even the one with the escape hatch. The one that they happened to pass through first, the one right after Michael’s room, was scrambled. It looked like someone had taken an egg beater and beaten everything in the room into a paste that smelled absolutely horrendous. Blood and guts tended to have that effect. Meric vomited before he could make it through the room. Michael never even looked away from his path.

The escape hatch was still sealed, but they managed to pull it open after checking if there was breathe able atmosphere using the ships scanners on emergency power. What they saw was a planet that was largely waste. It was dirt with scraggly trees and lots of large boulders. There was a lake in the distance and something that was bright from the planets star. They couldn’t make out what it was from where they were, but they both figured they might be able to get help there.

The only problem was that the hatch was so far from the ground that they couldn’t jump because it would kill them. Being that the ship wasn’t designed to land like this there wasn’t any external ladder going the length of the ship either. They closed the hatch and moved into the other pod rooms, looking for whatever they could scavenge to help them in their task. Mostly what they ended up with was a lot of wires and conduit, but they figured they could work with that so they tied it all together, opened the hatch, and tossed it out. It just barely reached the ground.

“We’ll have to enter through one of the other hatch’s when we come back,” Meric said.

“Yeah. No sense in climbing up and down all the time. Hopefully we can find some help, though. There’s a lot of people still in storage. We’re going to need some power.”

They managed to scrounge up some rations and a pack which Meric strapped on before they both climbed down the makeshift rope. At the bottom they found that the planet’s surface wasn’t dirt, but clay. If it rained, the entire planet could essentially become an ocean with trees sprouting through the water. But given the sight of whatever was in the distance, and the fact that the trees were all dry and shriveled, rain didn’t seem likely. At least there was one thing they could figure about the planet. It didn’t rain much.

As they surveyed the ship, they could see that it was solidly lodged, nose first, into the ground and that it wasn’t moving anytime soon. This planet was essentially going to become their new home unless they could get help. There was debris strewn everywhere and they had to climb out of the crater so that they could continue walking. They set off at a slow pace and figured it would be about a day’s walk to whatever was glinting in the sun in the distance. Slow going, but they would do it. And maybe they’d find someone before then. Maybe there was nothing to worry about.

Or maybe there was everything to worry about…

They were about a click away from the building when they started hearing the sirens coming from the complex. Faint and fading as they were. Michael and Meric looked at each other as they heard it, very little hope evident on each of their faces. Warning sirens were never good, and when it was the only building that had been visible on the entire planet, at least from the ship, it made things even worse. If something was wrong they might not be able to get any help from the people in the facility. Might be that there was nothing left that worked except for the sirens. Either way, it was a foreboding sign.

They kept walking, though, and eventually the building loomed in front of them. So far as they could see there were no security measures in place and there wasn’t anything moving nearby. They walked along the wall of the building in search of the main entrance to the facility. Eventually they found it on the other side of the complex and they tried the controls. Nothing happened and Michael frowned as his trigger hand fingered the blaster on his hip. Meric pried the plate off the controls and set to work on the wiring. If it wasn’t going to open then he was going to make it open. Either way, they were getting in.

“This place irks me,” Michael said. “There’s something about it I don’t like.”

“Yeah, well, it’s the only place around so we don’t have much choice but to go in,” Meric answered.

He fiddled around with the wires for a bit, first succeeding in closing the blast doors instead of opening the main doors. Muttering a few choice words under his breath he went back to trying to open the door. The blast doors slid open after a few more moments so at least he was able to fix the mistake that he had made. That was a better start since now he knew one way that wouldn’t get the doors open. That left a few other things to try. Though he wished he had all of his tools, and perhaps an astromech, he was eventually able to get the door to open. The smell almost bowled them over.

Meric stepped back and turned away, his stomach contents coming out onto the ground nearby. Michael didn’t fare any better. They both gave their lunches, so to speak, back to where they came from. It was the smell of death. The same as on the ship except magnified about a hundred fold and multiple days older. In layman’s terms, it was rank. Like nothing they’d ever smelled and they couldn’t handle it. Meric retched a few more times other than him vomiting, but nothing further came out. He expelled it all the first time.

After a few more moments they both straightened once more and put hands over their faces, using their sleeves like a gas mask, as if it would stop the smell from bothering them. They looked at each other and then Meric motioned for Michael to take the lead. He had the blaster. The smell of death and warning sirens didn’t bode well for things being safe on the inside. Better to let the guy with the weapon go first. As Michael walked in, he followed after him, stepping into the main room of the complex which was in complete disarray and completely empty. Judging from the side of the room, they’d underestimated the size of the complex as well.

“This place is huge, Michael,” Meric said. “I wonder what it was. I wonder if anyone’s alive.”

His words were muffled thanks to his shirt, but Michael could still understand as he just shrugged his response. They didn’t hear a sound except for the flickering lights. Power was starting to fail in the facility so if they were going to get a message out it would have to be soon. That left them little time for finding the communications room and using the equipment might completely drain the power left so they’d have to be quick with what they said. Having it get dark on them while they were deep in the complex wouldn’t exactly be fun when it came time to leave.

Michael pointed towards a map in the center of the room and they walked over to examine it. The outer lying rooms were all office space and housing. The people that used the complex lived there as well. Or had, at least. Interior rooms were mostly used for mechanical, recreation, and dining. That was the gist of the main floor, anyways. The lower floors seemed to all be lab space. That meant this was some sort of research facility. What they were researching must have been controversial because for some reason the entire place had been torn up on the inside. Not a single mark upon the structures exterior. Someone had come and gone.

He scanned the entire map and pointed to a room on the second floor of the complex which was all office space and things of that nature. The room was labeled as communications so he was pretty sure that was where they needed to go. Searching over the main floor layout he found the nearest set of lifts and glances around the room they were in. Pointing with the hand that wasn’t covering his mouth, he marked out the hallway that they needed to take in order to make it to the lifts. Michael nodded and took the lead, his blaster gripped firmly in his hand as Meric followed him.

It was in this particular hall that they saw their first sign of something amiss. The wall was smeared with bloody handprints, and there were blood droplets on the floor from where it had fallen off of someone that was moving. They followed it to a door, but Meric shook his head and pushed Michael on down the hall. They could investigate further later on. They had a greater obligation than investigating the room and that was making it to the communications room.

They found the lifts, one of them completely out of commission and there were bodies piled up in it. Meric forced himself not to look and hit the button for the second lift. Michael just stared at the mass of bodies, the knuckled of his right hand going white from gripping the blaster so tightly. When the lift arrived, Meric reached over and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the lift and away from the sight of the bodies. Someone had to be a rational mind. Surprising that it would be him instead of Michael. The guy with all the medals had less a level head than the guy who spent his life building ships.

The lift ride was short with only one floor to go. They probably could have taken stairs, but he hadn’t immediately spotted any and he was predisposed to using the lifts. The hall that they wound up in was completely deserted. The lights were flickering and there were some scorch marks on the walls where some fight had taken place recently. He didn’t want to know who had been fighting who, but he figured that they would find out soon enough. And, of course, he was right.

The door to the communications room was wide open and Michael motioned for Meric to stop. He waited for Michael as the other man spun into the door, blaster raised. After a moment he motioned for Meric to follow and he did. Inside there were three bodies. All of them Bothan. They were slumped over their chairs, bite marks covering them entirely. Something had been eating them. Unless there were cannibals around, it was a carnivorous race that had been here fighting them. Either way, he wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of running into any stragglers.

The bodies were easily moved, although nasty and rotten. They were bloated and full of gas which made them quite light instead of heavy. Michael helped him pile the bodies where they wouldn’t be in the way and then he sat down in a chair where he could watch the door. Meric, meanwhile, sat down in a chair and started fiddling with the equipment. It was odd to his hands and his first test served to only send his voice resounding through the complex. Hello to anyone that was still alive, if there was anyone.

The sound of his own voice made him grimace slightly and he shot an apologetic look to Michael before he continued to work with the equipment. It took him a while, and the power was really starting to fade by the time he had it ready. Michael had noticed this and was searching through the bins for any sort of portable light source. He found a couple of sticks that emanated light should they need them to. Meric took a deep breath, glanced to Michael, and then started transmitting on any frequency he could.

“This is an emergency request for assistance. The starship Future Beginnings has crashed on an unknown world and is not savable. We are broadcasting from an abandoned research complex on an unknown barren world. Please, if you can hear us, follow the transponder beacon. All of the complex’s power will go into keeping it alive. Please… Find us…”