Footsteps on the Stars

Prologue

Date: Approximately November, Year 2840

Sol opened his eyes, and upon witnessing the devilish glare of a bright red sun, closed them again quickly. He painfully rolled over onto his belly and spit the sand out of his mouth. Planting his forehead firmly on the ground he slowly rose into a kneeling position, gently opening his eyes and letting them adjust to the foreign light. Sol attempted to stand and was promptly rewarded with a sharp pain in his left ankle and another mouthful of sand as he fell back onto his belly with a painful yelp. "Broken! Dammit!" he snarled in frustration. Using his hands and dragging his leg limp behind him, Sol managed to turn himself around and get a good view of the ship. It was a beauty, a VTOL Class 4A-Delta Cruiser which had been fondly named "The Nemo," which was depicted in an eloquent red lettering on the sides and wings. Except that the lettering was no longer there. The left wing had been ripped off and was nowhere to be seen, presumably coming off while entering the atmosphere, while the entire front half was crushed like a tin can.

Muttering a curse at the loss of the ship and a prayer that his comrades had survived, Sol crawled frantically towards the desolate corpse of The Nemo as fast as his broken ankle would allow him, tears beginning to run down his face. "Felix! Laevus! No!" he screamed, banging his fists futilely against the middle hatch of the spacecraft until his hands were stained red with his own blood. Stopping for a moment to think and gain his composure, Sol realized that somehow he had been thrown from the ship, so there must be another way inside. On the other side of the ship was a hole where the meteoroid had struck, leaving an elongated gash the width of a small car in the frame. Not bothering to avoid the sharp metal edges, he added more cuts and scrapes as he lifted himself through the gash and into The Nemo to determine the condition of his companions. Tears once again trickled down his face as he saw the crushed and burned body of his captain and pilot, Felix, whose eyes wide open in horror, burnt flesh and half open mouth stared up at Sol as if asking "Why?" Hurriedly shifting his gaze away from the gruesome sight toward the back of the ship he saw Laevus, his beloved, strapped limply into her seatbelt. Not a single scratch or burn scarred her pale face, but her neck had been snapped during the crash.

Sol pulled himself back out of the ship and wept upon the ground, a million memories playing through his head and a million dreams shattered in an instant by fate. Hours later he could no longer cry. The deaths of his friends combined with his wounds had sucked the energy out of him like a candle caught in a mid-winter wind. Slowly he fell asleep resting against the side of The Nemo, staring across the desert toward the red sun that was laying down to rest beyond the horizon. It sank lower and lower, twinkling as if mocking him until finally succumbing to the darkness. "I am alone."

ooohhh i like it. Might trymy hand at writing.

Not bad, a very ominous ending

I second that.

I really like the descriptive nature of the text and the effects that you use to convey the atmospheres' eeriness.

Nice work!

Very cool

Awesome start.

Woah this is one of the few stories here that makes me think 'WRITE MOAR'

Thanks guys. I wasn't really sure if I would continue writing it, but I guess I'll have to try. Hopefully I'll be able to update it on a weekly basis, although it'll probably be more like every other week since I'm rather busy in school right now.

WHOA!The name was so, WHOA!