Chapter Text
Beep Beep Beep
With a groan, Martin got up from his bed to start the day. He brushed his teeth, ate some eggs and bacon with the rest of the crew onboard, and went to his room. Inside he read up on political science to convince himself that there could be a way in his government’s bureaucracy to help increase the living standards of the poor without upsetting his superiors.
‘Why do I even bother with this? I need to put down this book and enjoy my trip. It’s the only good thing to come out of this mess,’ Martin thought.
While publicly Martin went on a vacation on his own whim after years of nonstop dedication to his job as a well-deserved break, the reality is that after multiple attempts to convince his boss combined with his own attempts at domestic policy changes led to a forced paid leave by his boss as a hint that he needed to stop what he was doing (or else). Given that Martin had no other choice and that, all things considered, this was quite lenient with the punishment he could’ve got, he decided to take the vacation with a couple other people from various worlds on a tour of the star system. The Martina was the name of the ship, a fitting name at that.
After Martin went to the gym to get some cardio in to stay somewhat in shape, he went to have a snack before heading to his room to watch some tv to pass the time. Finally, dinner time arrived; he ate and chatted with the other people on the ship, discussing their culture and government, before heading to the recreational room to play some poker games with the others. After a long, monotonous, but ultimately relaxing day, he returned to bed to start the day again.
…
BANG
The sound of metal scraping as sirens go off fills the room.
The intercom turns on and blares, “ WARNING: SPACESHIP HULL COMPROMISED. EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD IMMEDIATELY ”
Instantly, Martin snaps up from bed, frozen in shock.
‘What the fuck?! The hell was that noise!?’
Getting out of his bed and walking towards his window, he looks out, only to find in horror, debris from the ship’s hull flying out, narrowly missing his room. Unfortunately, whatever hit the ship was big, and it looked like the ship was going to break down soon.
After spending a minute (or two) denying what was happening and getting proper clothes on (he didn’t want to die looking like trash), Martin bolted out of the room. Running down the hall, he saw a handful of others and several opened rooms as everyone rushed to the escape pods. The sounds of metal creaking and possible explosions only further motivated Martin to push past his exhaustion to get to safety.
After what felt like an eternity of sprinting, he made it into the escape pod room. The ship’s piloting crew members instructed people to get in and what to do once inside. Following their instructions, Martin strapped himself into a pod and braced himself for exit.
WOOSH
The pod exited the ship as Martin held on to his seat for dear life. After the initial drop, the pods’ rockets activated to slow the descent, give Martin a moment of reprieve to observe his surroundings. Looking up, he saw the remains of the ship. It appeared some large meteor impacted it and was enough to breach the hull and destabilize it. From what little he could see from his sides were other drop pods approaching the planet. Speaking of the planet itself, things looked grim. He couldn’t see any recognizable planets near him, and the one he looked down at appeared to have little to no lights. From what Martin could tell, he was about to end up stranded in the middle of no where.
Martin panicked. ‘Ohh no, oh no, OH DEAR GOD NO! Out of all the planets I could’ve landed, it had to be the one with no civilization, no government, where everything was out to kill you. I’ll die to the wildlife before I even see another person! What the hell am I gonna do?!’
Martin didn’t have much time to ponder what he was gonna do, as the surface was quickly approaching, and he would have to think of some plan to survive.