While exploring a new solar system, Thornwing the Avian pilot came across another ship. He was running low on fuel and food, and was getting a bit desperate. The ship seemed to be of Floran make. Thornwing hailed it, and got a response almost immediately.
A floran woman appeared onscreen. "What is it?" she asked, without the normal Floran accent. It was still present, but greatly diminished.
"Hello. My name is Thornwing," he started. "I'm in a bit of trouble, and I was wondering if you could help. Perhaps you could "employ" me, in a way. You get me out of my current predicament and I could work for you, and give you any of the items I've found in my travels which are just taking up space on my ship."
"Perhaps," the Floran woman replied. "What sort of trouble are you in?"
"I'm low on resources and have had to jump from planet to planet, just skimming the surface, grabbing what I can, and moving on. It's been quite profitable in the matter of weapons and other such artifacts, but necessary resouces are just dropping."
"Hmm. Okay then, beam aboard my ship and we can discuss this further." And with that, the communications ended. Thornwing made his way to the back of his ship and stood on the teleporter. He set its target to the Floran ship, and then he was gone.
The Floran woman introduced herself as Slushi, a pilot with the same intentions as Thornwing: to explore the galaxy. The two began exploring properly, mining and fighting as necessary. They lived comfortably, with plenty of alien food and loot obtained from the hostile natives of these planets. Their work eventually turned into a trusting friendship. Obviously, it's difficult to spend every day with someone and not become more than just co-workers. They used Slushi's ship as a main base, leaving the Avian ship far behind.
When coming out of a jump, Slushi slammed hard into an asteroid. It broke the nose of the ship clean off, and threw Thornwing out of his bed and across the ship. Confused and barely awake, Thornwing yelled, "What the hell was that?!"
"I miscalculated a jump and came out of it directly in front of an asteroid. I didn't have the time to stop. It's okay, the damages are minor. They can be fixed within a few minutes." Slushi said, bringing the ship within the atmosphere of the nearby planet Beta Hind's Crimson 57 VI d. Only just within the atmosphere, but still there.
"Minor? We're missing the front of the fucking ship!" the Avian yelled at her.
"We can rebuild it!" the Floran yelled back.
They were grateful for the ship's advanced "Oxygen Bubble" like technology, which allowed major screwups like destroying part of the cockpit, because on a normal space ship that would have just meant instant death for all aboard.
Thornwing pulled himself outside the ship, for a better angle on the repairs. They went smoothly and quickly, without a problem. There was a gap just big enough for Thornwing to come back in to the ship through. He lined himself up with it, and suddenly there was glass in his face. Slushi made the last repair, pushing him off the ship in the process. "Oh shit," Thornwing saw Slushi mouth. That was the last thing he saw of the Floran for quite a while. He was on his way to the surface of the planet. He frantically tried to beam back on to the ship, but it was no use. The transporter wouldn't receive him for whatever reason. He accepted his fate, changing his facing to look at the planet he was moving towards.
Thornwing realized he was above an ocean, which was good. Since he had plenty of time while freefalling, he positioned himself in such a way that he would glide towards land. He wanted to hit the water only a short distance from land.
The fall was uneventful. Thornwing came closer and closer to the water. The ocean grew bigger and bigger until land was only a grey shape in the distance. With a splash, Thornwing was surrounded by the liquid. He had closed his eyes as he neared the surface. He opened them, and was looking a moster in the face. A horrible creature, with a long, gray body and fins on either side and the top. It opened its mouth, revealing many rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Thornwing quickly pulled his spear from his back and thrusted into the creature. This creature, of course, being a shark. He pulled out his spear and stabbed again, killing the shark. He pushed off of it towards the surface, and it floated away into the ocean.
The Avian surfaced, taking deep breaths and trying to see in what direction land was. He saw it, nothing more than a gray shape, barely distinguishable from the sky. He started to swim in that direction.
Thornwing could see the shore clearly now, it was just a short swim away. He relaxed a bit, and was pulled under the water by an unknown force. Quickly pulling out his pistol, he fired 8 times in the general direction he was being pulled. The force relaxed, and slipped off of his foot. "Yeah, fuck off. I'm really not in the mood right now." He dragged his body out of the water, and on to the cool sand of the beach. Making sure he was outside the reach of the ocean's waves, he promptly fell asleep.
Thornwing awoke to the sound of rain, and the pain of needles being pressed in to his skin. He looked around, and seeing nothing hostile, decided it must have been the rain. It was very light right now, but he thought if it started storming he could be seriously injured - or even killed - by this rain. He decided to look for shelter.
After walking a short distance, he found a cave. The rain had gotten worse in this time, and he was actually being wounded by it. He quickly ducked in to the cave, sitting against a wall and enjoying the sound of rain on the outside. He pulled out a bandage and applied it to his wounds (which were clearly visible, as they were the places missing feathers).
A growl echoed around the cave. Thornwing turned to his left in time to see a large, bipedal creature baring its teeth. It was yellow, and had enormous claws. It gave one last warning growl, and when Thornwing didn't move an inch, it pounced.
The Avian rolled towards the "hole lurker" (as he and Slushi nicknamed such creatures), causing it to fly over him. At this point, they had essentially traded places. Pulling out his spear, Thornwing stepped towards the creature, aiming his spear for the head of the yellow monster. The magical fire which covered the spearhead lit up the entire cave.
The creature stepped to the side, pushing the spear in the opposite direction with one of his giant claws. Thornwing lost his balance and fell forward. He released the spear, and quickly drew his handgun. The monster pounced, and was shot out of the air. The two landed next to each other on the hard stone floor, one dead. Thornwing released a breath, closed his eyes, and stayed there, face down. "Fuck you, Slushi," he whispered quietly.