The Cruellest Thing

The Crash

She coughed. Something heavy was lying on top of her. She was hot and for a moment she was confused until she remembered what had happened. Her head felt weird. She was dizzy. Slowly she realized that she was under a piece of metal – a part of the cockpit from the look of it.

"Wex?"

No answer. The only sound was the cracking of fire. She couldn't see it, but she could feel its heat. She wanted to push the large piece away from her, but as soon as she lifted her right arm she screamed in pain. She glanced at her arm. There was no blood visible yet it hurt. She gritted her teeth and managed to lift her knees so that she could push the metal away. With a loud thud it fell on the comm.

"Wex?"

Still no answer. She stumbled on her feet and limped towards the section of the cockpit where the pilot usually was. She had to push cables and debris away, but then she saw Wex. He was slumped over his controls.

"Wex!"

Rose grabbed him by the shoulder with her left hand and pulled him back. His chest was bashed in, blood and gore covering the controls in front of him. She coughed again and threw up.

The cracking of the fire seemed to get louder, the smoke thicker. She had to get out.

She stumbled towards the exit. The emergency hatch was jammed and she howled in frustration when she was unable to move it even by an inch.

She coughed again and pulled a hydrospanner from her utility belt. At first she tried to use her right hand to open the access panel next to the door, but the burning pain that shot through her arm right up to her shoulder made her almost pass out. She put the hydrospanner in her mouth and fiddled the panel with her left hand open.

Her hand trembled and it took her a few torturous long moments to activate the manual override. When the hatch finally opened she laughed and cried at the same time.

She stumbled out of the shuttle and walked a few steps until a coughing fit forced her on her knees. She fell on the grassy ground and saw trees from the corner of her eye. She threw up again and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Rose turned around and saw the shuttle engulfed in dark smoke – or rather what was left of it. A long swath of destruction through the surrounding forest revealed that they had landed a couple of hundred meters ago and slid through the vegetation until all but the cockpit had broken to pieces.

She closed her eyes for a moment in an attempt to calm down. Breathe, Rose, breathe. At least she was still alive. She was the best mechanic in the resistance! She could salvage what she needed and build a transmitter!

She opened her eyes again and scanned the burning debris. Then she glanced at her arm. First things first. Carefully she used her wire-cutter to cut her sleeve open. She pressed her lips together as she pulled the fabric away. She was no medic but the unnatural way her bone was bent made it clear that her arm was broken. She gulped. At least it wasn't an open wound.

She examined her other limbs, despite a swollen ankle she had no other injuries. Her thoughts returned to Wex and she had to blink tears away. A single sob escaped her lips before she could pull herself together. Calm down, she told herself, she had to keep a cool head. Rose looked again at the shuttle. She couldn't salvage anything as long as the fire was burning. She had to find a place where she could rest. She coughed again, her throat was burning; she had to find water too.

She scanned the environment with her eyes. The trees had leaves, and the rich vegetation around her made it appear that there was no water shortage on this planet. Whether the water was poisonous to her was another question of course.

She found a river not far from the crash site; cautiously she dipped her hand in it. The water was cold. First, she smelled the water, then she tasted it. It tasted a little like moss. Finally she cupped her left hand and drank.

She sat by the river for a bit and watched the stream, it calmed her a little. When she got up again, her ankle hurt. She checked it again, it seemed more swollen than before. Great.

On her way back to the wreckage she suddenly smelled smoke. It carried a rancid stink with it. Rose stopped dead in her tracks. The new smell came from north-east, but her shuttle was in the south. Was it a settlement? No, the smell reminded her of a short-circuited panel ... the First Order shuttle! It had to be near, or at least nearer than she had thought.

Should she check it out? Or should she just ignore it and hope that the crash had taken care of them?

She chewed on her lip. If they were alive she needed to know ... but if they were burnt to crisp is was an unnecessary trip that could worsen her ankle's condition. Damn.

Rose clenched her fist and started to walk in the direction the smell was coming from.

About twenty minutes later she found the crash site. She hid behind trees as she crawled closer. At first glance it was as badly damaged as her ship. She noticed to her dismay that the daylight had gotten dimmer. Perhaps she should head back, or at least look for a safe place to spend the night.

Just when she was about to leave, she heard a creaking noise. Rose let herself fall on the ground and hissed in pain as her right arm brushed against a tree trunk.

The creaking noise got louder. Something was moving inside the shuttle. After a few minutes of silence the emergency hatch was blown open. Rose ducked and squinted her eyes.

A man in a charcoal uniform stumbled out of the wreck, his face was bloodied and he limped. Rose sucked in her breath, she couldn't recognize his face at this distance, but the red hair gave his identity away: it was none other than General Hux.

She clenched her fist and narrowed her eyes. Of all the people in the galaxy he had to survive the crash!

Hux seemed to gather his bearings, then he turned on his heel and went back in. Moments later he reappeared, dragging a lifeless body into the open.

He knelt down beside the pilot and opened his jacket. He checked his pulse. After a few seconds he got up and limped back into the shuttle. When he reappeared he had a backpack with him, he limped farther away from the wreckage until he was out of sight.

Rose exhaled. Great! Hux was creeping around in the woods, probably armed and with a backpack full of supplies. Well, at least she knew he was alone, the way he had left the pilot told her that he was dead.

But where was Hux heading? Was there a First Order base somewhere? She rubbed her temple. She had to get a signal as fast as possible out to the resistance. The sun had already set, but Rose decided that she wanted to try to return to her shuttle nonetheless. She crept back until she felt it was safe and stood up. She slowly made her way, the darkness made it difficult to find the path.

Suddenly she tripped over a root and fell. Out of instinct, she tried to reach for something to hold onto, only to scratch her left hand open on something with spikes.

She groaned in frustration and dragged herself back up. She was tired, hungry and thirsty. But she could make it, she could fix this, she told herself.

As soon as she saw the contours of her ship, she leaned against a tree and slid down to the ground. She was completely exhausted. She would rest for a moment, just a short rest ... she thought as her eyes fell shut.

When she woke the sun had already risen. Rays of sunlight broke through the canopy of leaves and shone on the still smouldering shuttle. Her throat felt like a Tattooinian landscape and her stomach rumbled.

Rose decided to check on the long range comm first. At the same time she could check if there were ration bars left. She limped to the shuttle and entered.

The transceiver had been badly damaged. One look at the fried chips told her that she needed to replace them. The chips from the fuel injector in the wings should fit, the question was where they were. So far she hadn't seen any traces of the wings.

Rose shifted through the debris and found three ration bars, but no water reserves. She devoured one bar and decided to make a trip to the river. After that she could follow the path of destruction to find the fuel injectors.