There were so few flames.
That was what startled her the most about the crash site.
The fallen vessel lay grounded and obliterated, burnt corpses and mangled bodies littered around the hard and dusty earth, which had fractured from the impact. A crater hole rested about eight hundred feet north-west where the heavier part of the ship had impacted with the ground and knocked the other sections away from the sheer force.
The majority of the debris was obscured by smoke and dust lifted by a heavy wind, the huge amount of oxygen negatively corresponding to the number of fires around, which were struggling to remain lit and already dying, probably due to a lack of fuel. There was a resounding silence all around.
No screams. No cries and coughs.
Everyone was probably already dead.
SH-47 lay pinned to the earth, her lower body crushed to the floor by the weight of the heavy sheet of metal that had fallen off of the ship's outer plating. It was not much bigger than her in size, but it felt so much bigger. There was a dull but constant pain in her right ankle, which made her grit her teeth from the pain every time she attempted to shift it.
Everyone but her was dead.
She was alive.
She'd survived.
The gears of her brain had slowed and clogged from the initial shock, but they soon started to revolve again and to whir as the realisation fully sunk into her brain. She was alive and everyone else was dead. They couldn't have coped with the current levels of carbon dioxide and toxic gases. She, on the other hand, apparently could.
SH-47 had no idea what was beyond the crash site and if there was any civilised life out there, if there was any water at all on this seemingly barren world. But she wasn't going to find out unless she went and looked.
She just needed to free herself.
Inhaling a deep breath, she lifted her tremulous arms and placed them underneath the sheet. Mentally, she counted to three, then heaved.
There was a sudden and tremendous pressure on her ankle and she clenched her jaw and gnawed her teeth, persisting with lifting the plating and attempting to flip it off of her so that she could stand.
As strong as she was, it was a difficult feat to accomplish. Especially with all the weight shifting on to her suspected broken ankle. The pain should have been a good sign that it was working, that she could flip it off of her.
But it was torturous.
After a minute, she let out a defeated gasp and a cry and let go. It slumped back into its original position as she wheezed and let her arms fall to the ground once more.
She felt ridiculous. She shouldn't be so weak in the face of pain, in the face of adversity! She had been trained to block out the pain and focus on her goals rather than her nerves.
But she had been condemned a failure regardless before. Why should things be any different now?
Wallowing in momentary self-pity, she eventually decided to try again.
She did and focused a lot more of her energy into the task. It was difficult but she made some progress, lifting it further than she had done previously. But it still came crashing down upon her once more when the agony in her leg simply became too much.
Staring ahead at the empty horizon and terrain, SH-47 wondered if anything (or anyone) had even seen the crash. Could anything even survive here? Was this a civilised planet or a lawless and inhospitable one?
Then, she noticed something. She initially had to squint to make sure she could actually see so far away and then realised that she wasn't hallucinating- she could actually see something.
She could see someone coming towards the wreckage.
SH-47 could only make out a humanoid figure coming out of the blurred horizon and approaching the crash site. She couldn't make out any other details but it was definitely a humanoid species. Where they'd come from, she didn't particularly know or care. She wasn't alone and soon she'd be out.
If they decided to help her.
If they decided not to kill her.
The realisation that they might not be a friend to her or maybe even an enemy stung her to the core. What if they were an enemy? What then?
Her gaze roved over to a phaser a resting just out of her reach. She stretched towards it and her fingertips only just brushed the base of the handle even then.
Letting her panic flood her body, SH-47 went back to attempting to move the metal plating off of her body. She had no idea how far away the humanoid was now and didn't dare look- she had to focus all of her attention on freeing herself if she was going to do so.
All the while, it got heavier and the pain increased constantly but she kept pushing and heaving.
Come on.
You're nearly there.
Nearly there…
The pain reached its climax and she found that she couldn't hold it in anymore and let out a loud a loud scream as the metal plating finally flipped over behind her and off of her mangled leg. Her breathing wracked for a moment afterwards and she gave a weak laugh of triumph- she had actually done it. The instinct of survival had seen her through the struggle and she had done it.
Then she heard it.
Crackling. The sound of movement behind her and the shifting of metal. A low growl.
Slowly turning her head, she saw it.
A monstrous insect-like form towered above her, hundreds of spiny legs running up and down its body where it was not covered by bony carapace. Antenna twitched and moved through the air then pointed in her direction as its mouth pieces.
SH-47 was frozen to the spot, not sure what action to take. Was it going to attack her? Was it carnivorous?
The creature recoiled for a minute, rising into the reddened sky and tens of feet into the air. Then, head first, it ploughed down straight towards her.
She twisted her body as fast as she could and propelled herself towards the phaser, not sure how much good it would do. She wasn't even sure if she had enough time to seize the weapon then turn around and fire it. But she had no other options.
She didn't want to die here.
SH-47 grabbed the phaser and whipped around on to her back, ignoring the agony in her leg as best as she could.
There was a laser blast and the insect reeled backwards, shrieking from the force of the blast, which had knocked it back a good distance.
But SH-47's finger never even pressed down on the trigger.
Shocked, she turned to see a tall male human stride past her, armed with a broken laser turret, which seemed to be the weapon responsible for the blast. She shuffled backwards as best as she could as the man fired again and again, aiming at an area the carapace did not cover, just below the head section.
Within seconds, the monstrosity fell to the ground, dead. The ground quaked as it impacted and a small shockwave of dust blasted into her and the man, who was standing a few feet away from its body. She twitched and tensed as the force ploughed into her for a moment, then wearily watched the man approach the body, seemingly analysing it for any remaining signs of life. Judging from the man's stepping back, she assumed that he had found none.
Then he turned to her, greased and messy dark hair blowing in the wind, pale eyes cold.
SH-47 gulped and shuffled back again, her injured leg dragging along the floor as she went. Phaser still in hand, she raised it slightly in his direction, not sure whether he was friend or foe. His eyes followed her movement, and then roved to the phaser still in her hand.
He moved forwards, slowly, towards her.
"Who are you?" she demanded, though the shakiness of SH-46's voice made it sound more like a plea than a command.
He ignored it regardless, approaching as she struggled to maintain the distance between them.
"Lower your weapon," he instructed icily, his voice low and cold.
She didn't obey, still moving away. He hadn't complied with her request- why should she comply with his? He hadn't shot her, for some reason, though she got the feeling that didn't necessarily mean that he meant her no harm.
After a moment of moving away from him and pointing the phaser at him, his pace quickened and he was upon her. The phaser was snatched from her trembling fingers and thrown away, into the dust. His hands seized her arms and she twisted and tried to yank away from him, exclaiming, "Let me go!" She was surprised by the sheer strength she could feel in his arms against her own, even if she was slightly weakened.
Her arms were forced together in front of her and, in an instant, cuffed together by some arm restraints. Her panic intensified, as did her attempts to free herself from the man's grip. She had no idea what he intended to do but he gathered that she was about to be taken as some sort of hostage or something of the like.
Regardless, she was lifted off of the ground and flung over his shoulder like a bag of feathers; cuffed arms limp before her and only those, his back and the ground visible to her. "What are you—"
"Quiet," her captor interrupted, standing up fully. The ground shrank away and he began to move.
"Put me down…!" she objected, ignoring his demand.
"Be quiet, or I will sedate you." His voice was now hard, and threatening. It made her tremble with a deep and resounding fear and for a moment, she was quiet. She had never felt so helpless in her entire life- bound and carted off like a maimed animal.
She gritted her teeth in anger and from the discomfort in her leg. It throbbed at every step this man took and she had no idea how badly injured it was.
For a minute, they continued in silence, but the confusion and the terror of what could lie in store for her began to consume her rationality. She'd just gotten out of one bad situation only to fall into another one and it was absolutely infuriating.
"Where are you taking me…?" SH-47 murmured, her voice quiet.
"I feel no desire to tell you," was the response, in a warning tone. Clearly, they didn't feel like talking.
"Well, it's your obligation to…! Tell me where you're taking me…!" She ploughed her cuffed fists into his back in annoyance. Then they stopped.
She felt him shift her bodyweight off of his shoulder as he stopped and she heard the rustle of his layered clothing. Afraid of what he had warned her he would do if she made trouble, she commenced fighting back again, even though it was futile. Her body was lowered to the ground and there was a sharp sensation in her upper-arm that made her jump out of shock.
Her vision grew clouded and the scenery melded into one mass of fuzz and blur as her lashes flickered and grew heavier and heavier.
She tried to ask what he had done but no words left her parted lips as she felt herself lifted up once more on to the man's back. As they resumed walking, her eyes finally fluttered shut and all went dark.