It's Not Chance, It's Destiny (Destiny Crew)

[Tamrin]

"And maybe we can not go fry ourselves," Tamrin growled. She didn't remember much about the crash but she did remember the large expanse of gold rushing up at her, about to smash her to bits. They were in the middle of a desert.

She wondered at her reluctance to leave the ship. There were good reasons to stay. They had shelter here, supplies, and it was basic survival rule you stay with the downed ship. Of course that assumed that friendlies were looking for you which was not the case. They should move before they were found but she didn't want to.

She looked back at the control room and felt her stomach flip. It really didn't have anything to do with logic, she realized. She just didn't want to leave them alone, all the people she'd killed. This was her fault. She'd insisted on piloting. As if military grade fighters were anything like passenger cruise ships. But she was Friday, the star of the Academy and she'd been arrogant.

She looked over at the Captain to see if she had any orders and jumped up when she saw her passed out on the floor. The movement jarred her injuries but she ignored the pain, or at least endured it. It was easy to do when you got used to it. She reached the Captain and saw she was still breathing but that was about all she could say for her.

"Still want to move?" She snapped at the people behind her without turning around.

"I think you'll have to," a female voice with a strange accent said. Tamrin looked around and saw a woman standing in the door to the control room. She was covered from head to foot in sand colored clothing and gear that looked like it was designed for the desert.

The stranger tapped the wall beside her. "You left your tent open," she said, motioning back towards the control room. Behind her Tamrin could see others moving through the bodies of the dead, dressed in the same gear. Their shadows would momentarily block off the light coming in through the smashed view panel at the front of the ship, a hole open to the desert outside.

The woman pulled out gun of some sort. Others of her kind came up behind her, each sporting a weapon. They spread out in the hallway and surrounded the crew like scavengers surrounding a kill. She couldn't see any of their faces. Besides for the woman talking, they all had their masks drawn up, only their eyes exposed.

"You're on our land ketchi." Tamrin didn't know what the word meant but she recognized a slur when she heard one. "And you'll be coming with us."

((Hope no one minds the plot moving along.))

[Leo]

Leo walked down the tilted hallway toward his room, slowly in the darkness. The ground had some emergency lights glowing on either side of the tilted floor. He was almost to his room when he noticed a change in the ground. Not trusting his optics Leo kneeled and ran his good hand across the grating and brought it to his sensors.

“Water?” He muttered after a quick analysis and opened his eyes. Struggling through the snow he watched the ceiling for movement. A few moments later he saw what he was afraid of, a steady stream of water running from the deck above to the floor. That was something he’d have to check when he got back to the bridge. Like everything else he’d seen today, this was not a good sign.

Standing, he took a moment to continue looking at the watch before carefully stepping over the growing puddle. Once inside his room Leo pulled his emergency bag from under his bunk. He checked the contents with his hands, making sure everything was in its proper place. It seemed to be. He just stopped at his desk to grab a few more tools, just in case. It wasn’t like he was planning on coming back. Better to take too much than forget something later.

Leo pulled the bag strap cross his chest and stepped back out into the hallway. The bag was going to make the climb more difficult in the confined space but at least he was getting used to the motions. As he got close to the bridge level he heard people moving around, and figured more had made there way to the bridge. A few rungs up he felt a hand yank him off the ladder and into the corridor.

“Uh,” he looked up at the person in desert gear and their gun, “Nice to meet you?”

[Agari]

Agari was in frightened silence when he first saw the desert dweller round the corner and enter the control room. His hands were up in surrender even before he noticed she had a weapon. As more people entered the ship, Agari was sort of passed along and directed toward the place where the intruders were entering. He didn't know why, and he didn't ask. He was just glad that nobody had shot him yet.

Just as Agari was beginning to wonder how these people were entering the wreckage at the level of the control room since it wasn't at the lowest level of the ship, his question was answered. He turned a corner and saw the place where the hull had been breached. Covering the opening was a golden wall. No, not a wall. A slope.

It was indicated that Agari was expected to leave through this breach, and so he attempted to exit where he saw the footprints from the people who had entered. It was tough climbing up the sand wall, but he eventually squeezed through the opening and stood next to the upper level of the ship, a bright sun beating down on him. Another desert dweller was standing there with a gun pointed at him. Agari quickly raised his hands in surrender again and the person motioned for him to keep moving up the slope.

So far he hadn't done anything bad enought to get himself killed, and Agari wanted to keep it that way, so he started climbing without hesitation. Before long he reached the top of the sand wall where there were a few people guarding supplies or goods of some sort. While armed, they didn't direct him to do anything in particular, so he took a moment to look around.

The first thing he noticed was that he was perched precariously on top of of an enormous sand dune. The second thing he noticed was that their ship was lodged into the side of said sand dune. It seemed they had lucked out in that regard, because the dune allowed the ship to come to rest at a nearly level orientation.

The third thing Agari noticed was that, at least on the surface, the ship didn't look like it was going anywhere any time soon. Parts were missing here and there. There were a few spots of smoking wreckage trailing behind the ship. And as Agari followed the trail with his eyes, he saw a spot where the ship must have cut a wedge out of a different sand dune before coming to a halt in its current one.

"What a mess," Agari muttered to himself as he watched someone else making their way up the slope.

[Huria]

Huria stood by the hole leading outside and grinned as each prisoner was marched by. It was undoubtedly a good catch and one that the Cabri would want to get his hands on. This should keep him off their backs for a little while longer.

Two of her men carried the wounded captain up the hill on a stretcher. They didn't carry many of the collapsible ones with them, mostly because they believed in letting the desert have you if you were that bad off. But they'd figured they'd need them for the off worlders. Unfortunately that hadn't needed many. A lot of the crew of this ship seemed to have died. But the ones who were alive were being grouped together right outside the ship.

Huria turned her mind to a few calculations. None of these water bearers had a scrap of desert gear between them and it was just past high noon. No one would travel at this time but they couldn't stay near the ship. They'd have to head for Death Valley and hole up until the night came. Perhaps then-

"Kaido." Huria turned around and saw her second in command standing behind her. He had been the first to give her the name Kaido. She didn't completely agree with its implications since they were basically saying she was as good as a man because she was like one. But you couldn't change a culture in a day and she knew the nick name had been given out of love and respect and holding on to those was worth more than making a fuss about sex dynamics.

When Huria took a closer look at the "man" her second was escorting she understood why he'd gotten her attention. Her grin returned as she saw a few of his injuries. She'd heard about fake men from some of the off worlders she's spoken to but she had never seen them. She walked over to him and took a closer look, examining the thing like the mechanical wonder he was.

"What have we here?"

[Leo]

Usually Leo didn’t allow himself to be lead around by someone who probably meant ill on him. Unlike those other times this someone was impressively armed and Leo was down an arm. He wasn’t sure what the weapon was but based on how the visitors to the Destiny were holding them, they probably weren’t pop guns. Leo was already going to have a handful fixing his shoulder no need to add a bullet wound (at the least) to his repair list.

Stepping outside of the ship caused him to grimace. At first his vision whited out from the sun reflecting off the surface, but recovery brought no relief. He tried to cover his shoulder wound with his left hand to protect it from the desert. Sand in his systems would have been one of the worst things to happen to him. He ran through a list of reasons to get a better fix including it grinding between his joints, grains clogging possibly vital systems, and it making his injury worse at least.

Apparently he moved to quickly for his guard. The man reached grabbed his hand and checked for a weapon or something. Then his eyes unfortunately moved to his shoulder. Leo groaned as the man’s eyes widened and said something in a language he didn’t have programmed. He took the opportunity to reclaim his hand and cover his shoulder again as they continued up the sand dune.

When they reached the top the man called out a name and pulled his arm away from his shoulder again. He was about to yell at the man, language barrier and threat of harm be damned, when a woman came into his blurry plane of vision. While he couldn’t see exactly what all she was looking at but he could practically feel as her eyes took him in. On impulse Leo tried to take a step backward.

“What have we here?”

“Uh,” Leo looked uselessly to his sides partly surprised she spoke a language he knew, “You have a Leo.” He wished he had something better to say but the situation had him at a loose. On the ship he had some sort of control, on a planet surrounded by possibly unfriendly people he didn’t. He shifted his weight to his other foot and tried to hold the woman’s gaze even though his eyes wouldn’t focus.

[Tamrin]

Tamrin didn't wait for someone to wrench her to her feet. It would have made her pass out with the state her shoulder was in. When the intruders came over to her she stood up and allowed them to lead her outside. The change in temperature was dramatic. Even though the ship had been open to the desert the shielding had kept the internal temperature pretty stable, even after the crash. But outside it was unbelievably hot. There was no way anyone could stand out in it for an extended period of time, especially without the suits that the natives seemed to be wearing.

Luckily it didn't look like they planned to stick around very long. A small crowd of survivors was forming outside the ship but already some of the natives seemed to be leaving to scout their next location and the ones who remained looked anxious to leave. Tamrin wondered if this was just going to be a death march across the desert but she figured they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of finding the survivors if they just planned on killing them.

Tamrin took her place next to the scientist who had pulled her out of the control and waited to be told what to do. It was not a position she was used to being in but she liked to think she had enough wisdom, or at least survival instinct, to know when to keep her head down.

"I guess we're leaving the ship afterall."

[Agari]

Agari looked away from the landscape briefly so he could see whit was that was talking to him. It was the woman from the ship. The one who hadn't wanted to go look for help. Agari redirected his attention back at the seemingly endless erg in front of him. "Pfft. If only it were under better circumstances," he commented a bit bitterly.

Actually, it was probably in their favor that they were being taken prisoner. If they were actually even prisoners at all, that was. Maybe these people were just being cautious around strangers. But either way, the sand people would surely know their way around the desert. Know where to find food, shelter, and most importantly, water. Agari himself knew a little bit about surviving in the wilderness, but definitely not enough to survive here. Not without the ship's resources.

"Where do think we're headed?" Agari asked, indicating the captors who looked about ready to leave. "Think there is a city, or at least a village around here?" he asked rhetorically. Then, pointing at a random dune over by a rock outcropping he said, "With all these sand dunes blocking our view, I wouldn't be surprised if there was one just over there."

Agari had no idea why he was being so chatty with someone he hardly knew. Probably due to stress or something. But whatever the reason, at least she pointing a gun at him.

[Luce]

Luce sat quietly as the desert natives moved around her. She couldn't really have done anything about them even if she'd been inclined. She'd already passed out a few times from blood loss and her already naturally pale complexion was an unhealthy shade of white. She winced as the dressing was applied to her leg but she didn't have the energy to do more than that.

The man working on her said something in a language she didn't understand but Luce got the gist of it as one of the other raiders peeled away and went to go talk to the woman who seemed to be in charge. The blond, desert woman had been looking over Leo but she turned her ear to the report before turning to look at Luce. Their eyes met and Luce saw the other woman smile. Luce's eyes grew hard. There was a lot of danger in a smile like that but she didn't feel like it was directed at her, at least for now.

The one who'd gone to report came back and gave some directions in the same, fluid language that Luce had never heard. Which was odd enough. She'd been all over the known galaxy and she would have bet that she had at least come in contact with most of the human languages being used. She was put on a stretcher and carried towards the rest of the group. She craned her head around to try to spot her family. She hadn't had time to look for them. But she didn't see them before she passed out again.

[Huria]

"I do now," Huria said in the same off worlder language. She was glad these people spoke it though, when she'd learned it, she'd been under the impression it was a common trade language. She was glad her instructors had been right.

Huria ran a hand over Leo's chest, her eyes roaming over his body. It was nearly impossible to tell he was an android at all. If he hadn't been injured she may not have known. But he had a few cuts and scrapes that were bleeding white.

The possibilities of androids had always fascinated her since the first time she'd heard reports about them. Machines that could think. Could they feel? Her hand started to drift towards the creature's waist but her exploration was cut short when Jaykawb tapped her shoulder.

"We've stabilized the leader Kadio. We can move whenever you're ready," he said in their own tongue. Huria raised an intrigued eyebrow and looked over his shoulder at the woman still in the shadow of the ship. She saw stone eyes looking back at her and grinned. These people may be refugees but they obviously weren't ready to roll over and die, even the ones who looked half dead already.

"Alright. Let's move then. The sooner we find shelter the better. Space out the troupe around the prisoners. Order everyone to share their water once an hour." Jaykawb's shoulders twitched at the order but he didn't question it. He knew better. "I want to be in Death Valley within three hours." Jaykawb nodded and headed back towards the ship. Her troupe began to form up around the survivors of the crash and began to heard them in a particular direction.

"What do you want me to do with this," Ke'rehl, her second, asked. He was still holding the arm of the android. Huria's sharp eyes looked over the android. She would love to indulge her curiosity but she'd switched back into her leadership role.

"Put him with the others," she said with a wave of a hand, her mind on other things. "Ke'rehl." Ke'rehl had turned away and begun to drag the android with him but he stopped. "Make sure he isn't harmed. I want to play with him." Ke'rehl nodded and turned away.

[Tamrin]

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough," she said as the group began to move. Tamrin began to trudge through the sand, the shifting ground pulling at her feet. The sun above was merciless and she was just glad she'd received the anti-radiation modification to her skin that most military personal were required to get. It wouldn't block the heat but it worked as a semi-permanent sun screen. One treatment was good for about six months. But she knew many of her fellow ship mates weren't as lucky and she only hoped they got where they were going quickly.

She glanced over at Agari. "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier and the way I spoke to you and all." She was cradling one arm with the other since her shoulder was still dislocated.

[Agari]

"Hmm?" Agari said, looking to Tamrin once again. "Oh, don't worry about it. Stressful situations and all that. Not that we have run out of those yet... But anyway, I'm used to that sort of thing. Kids who take mostly science classes have a tendency to draw negative attention like that."

Agari was about to look back out at the landscape again, but then changed his mind. Now was probably as good a time to introduce himself as any. He held out a hand. "My name is Agari Coid. I am, or was, in charge of hydroponics and other planty stuff aboard the ship. And you are?"

[Tamrin]

Tamrin made a sound when he said science kids got picked on. It was a sound of amusement but it sounded as if it was partially forced around other emotions. She didn't know much about who got picked on in regular schools. She'd been the orphan in her school but she wasn't the only one. All of the kids from her orphanage had attended the same school and there had always been a bit of 'we look out for each other' feel to the group once the kids had gotten to school. She'd never had to step very far outside her own group if she hadn't wanted to and, when she did, everyone else knew she had their backing and no one had messed with her. That had made her pretty immune and well as blind to the usual power dynamics of school systems.

"Tamrin Vant," she said, in response to his question. "I'm a pilot in the Fleet but I got stranded on this ship when Earthfall hit. I was-" she found that she didn't want to admit she'd been flying the ship when it had crashed but she forced herself to say it anyway. If someone was going to retaliate she'd rather it be sooner rather than later. "I was flying the ship," she finished, staring straight ahead of her.

[Leo]

At first his eyebrow pinched in confusion at the strange woman’s next words to him. After a few seconds the proper circuits finally fired and Leo understood what she meant. He glared at the woman best he could given his eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had owned him, and Leo practically swore to himself he would never end up in that position again. It had taken him a long time to bring himself to sign a contract, now this human tried to take it away with three little words.

He tried to pull back defiantly as she started touching him. It reminded him of his time on Kessep and the people he had to deal with. Half of the customers didn’t even notice him, the other faction thought he was the most interesting thing they had ever seen. Leo stopped counting the times they tried to grab onto him or touch him. Leo clenched his jaw as she continued her inspection, only forcing it to release so he didn’t crack his teeth. That however did not stop him from letting out a low growl as she continued working her way downward.

With his desire to ensure his safety being over taken by anger he tugged against the man holding him when the women left. He considered how easy it would be to let go of his shoulder and break the man’s fingers. Leo sent another glare at the women as he was dragged toward the group of survivors. As some of his crew mates tried to patch things up Leo continued to simmer as he thought of several unlikely but satisfying things to do to those holding them hostage.

[Agari]

"I guess I'm not the only one who got str- Wait. You were flying the ship?" Agari could hardly believe it. He had been talking to the person who had crashed them in this desert all this time and he didn't even know it? It made sense seeing as how he met her on the bridge, but still, this wasn't something Agari had expected. To tell the truth he wasn't sure how he should react to news like that.

"Well," Agari said, not sure where he was going to go with his response. "I can't say I'm happy you crashed us here. In a desert of all places..."Then he added, "But it does beat being blown to smithereens in orbit. And at least a crash landing is better than no landing. At least we aren't dead. Not all of us anyway..."

Agari didn't really want to stop the conversation on that note, but he couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't sound completely heartless. And besides, it looked like their group was about to start moving out.

[Asher Davis]

Asher walked along with the others, off by himself. He briefly looked back at the Madras over his shoulder, but didn't pause as he did. He couldn't help but feel a little unsure as he walked away from the ship. This wasn't turning out well, and for a passenger who hadn't had a real place in the crew to begin with.... well, he really didn't know where he fit into the group now.

For a moment the view blurred, and in a panic he thought of his glasses. They were no doubt still on the ship, but buried in his room. It took him a moment to realize that he still no longer needed them. The blurring wasn't a loss of vision, but tears. He couldn't help it. He was a little scared and a lot regretting his decision to strike out on his own and "find himself." Yeah, great idea this was. You might be lucky if it doesn't get you killed.

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Continued In: Night in Death Valley