Far Traveler (SaltyIrishman & NoviDome)

[Yggdrasil_Hugger]

Khara’s hands gripped the throttle of her ship tightly as alarms blared and the emergency lights flashed. Outside her window, she could see the Earth rapidly approaching. She entered orbit for a moment, speeding over ocean, then land, then ocean and land once more. The smoke began pouring into her cockpit and she coughed, her eyes watering. All at once, the ground leapt up to meet her. And everything went black.

She awoke with a start, a burning pain in her chest. She vomited, yellow bile with a red tint. Her fingers reached for her harness and released the buckles. She slumped forward. After a moment, she gathered herself and stood shakily. The window in her cockpit was shattered, and she crawled through the new hole. Her feet landed in dirt and grass and she nearly gasped. She looked around in awe. There was plants, and animals. Birds were singing, small reptiles were crawling on the trees, and something was rustling in the bushes a few meters away.

Turning her attention back to the wreck took a lot of effort, but she managed. Her ship was in a bad state, with both wings crumpled, the back entirely burnt out, the landing gear destroyed, and the engines exploded. The cockpit was the only surviving piece, and only barely. She sighed, knowing all her gear was inside. Covering her mouth and nose with the collar of her uniform, she pried open the door and stepped into the wreck. Smoke streamed out as soon as the door was open. Despite the outer destruction, most of the inside was intact.

Grabbing a pack, she filled it with extra clothes, as much intact food and water as she could fit, iodine tablets, a compass, a field journal, and the solar recharger for her blaster. Securing her blaster in its holster on her hip, she scrounged for the radio. It didn’t even crackle to life, and she tossed it aside. After picking through the wreckage for a while, she was satisfied and left the hulking metal frame. The sun was setting, so she started to make camp.

[NoviDome]

Not too long after she had left the remnants of her ship, three units approached the crash site. One of them appeared to be leading the other two. They looked humanoid, but were decidedly not human: they were descendants from humans' last innovations before they had been forced to leave planet earth for good. They were built, head to toe, of the finest metal the planet had to offer. They were an extremely unnatural, but remarkably effective species in this post-human world.

The one in the front was a striking specimen. They were an investigative unit. Their backup went by the name of 'fighter unit'. Their build was optimised for offense, but the leader's build was more... slender, and elegant. They were far more capable of being gentle, which suited their job very well.

The three approached the still smouldering ship, and came to a halt about a meter away. The fighter units were soundlessly instructed to stand back and stay alert - most close-range communication was done via a highly advanced version of what humans used to call BlueTooth - and the investigative unit started to look around the ship. They touched the hull with their hand to see if any connection could be made, but they quickly realised it was useless. Whatever this was, it was most likely broken beyond repair.