Alarms blaring, emergency lights flashing red. I ran down the hallway, explosions erupting in the background. The escape pods! I thought as I got closer. I smashed a button and as the nearest escape hatch swung open, I climbed in. Seconds later the ship lifted off.

"Where are we going?" I asked the pilot. "Home," he said with a smile. He wasn't kidding. This was not Earth. It was beautiful.  The controls were very similar to all the other small spacecraft I’ve piloted before. With a press of a button and a flip of a lever I was off! I slowly throttled up, trying not to hit any debris from the doomed starship. It took me about an hour to reach my destination—the planet I had seen on my way into space.

***

I landed safely in what appeared to be a tropical area by the looks of it. The surface of the alien planet was brown and dusty, and looked similar to what it looked like from space - hilly but mostly flat with a few small craters here and there. I consulted my suit’s built-in compass, and headed northeast toward where I thought the Vanguard had crashed. My suit had three and a half days of oxygen left, and I was going to need it.

An hour later, I spotted the crash site, or at least what remained of it. I knew that the crew would have been evacuated to some sort of safe zone, so I searched for any signs of life nearby. Then I went into the vehicle bay. I can ride the speeders! I thought, but when I looked, they had all been destroyed. The speeders had an automatic deployment system, so maybe I can find one somewhere else. I continued my search in the hangar. Nothing. The ship's computer still worked, but it only responded to commands given by a human being. I tried to call someone, but the coms were dead.  I exited the ship and began to head northeast again. I must have been traveling for hours because when I finally saw one of the ejected speeders I had to sit down and take a break from all of that walking.

As I sat, I checked my map once more and noticed something very strange. There was no sign of the crash site anywhere around it. Where did I go? I thought. I'm supposed to land near the wreckage, right? One and a half long hours later, a large settlement of buildings came into view. I noticed a large tower; it looked strange, menacing. I thought it looked like a security tower, like the one at the old base. That one had an auto-target mode, and would blast anything that wasn’t authorized at the base, and if this was the same type of thing, I had a feeling that I wasn’t authorized. I got off the speeder, determined to infiltrate the base. I turned my back to the tower and walked away from it. It was almost dark now, but I kept moving. I was very tired, and my stomach was growling. I could smell food cooking over fire somewhere near. There was a large wall surrounding the base, seven or eight feet tall. I wasn’t going to be able to get over it. I cautiously walked around the walls until I found a gate. The gate was shorter than the walls - they obviously weren’t trying to keep anything out. There was a large gap under the gate, big enough for me to fit through. I slipped under the gate, careful not to tear my suit. I was inside now, and I needed to find a way to get inside the base without setting off alarms or letting anyone know I was there.

I couldn't see much in the darkness, but I was able to make out a few different paths leading through the base. Inside the wall was four rectangular buildings, two of which were connected by a translucent tunnel. The buildings were a dark tannish color with no windows. One of the buildings was probably a hangar, the two buildings that were connected looked like the main living area, and of course the other building was the security tower. I went through the air lock to the connected buildings.

I entered the first one and examined the control room. Everything seemed normal except for the fact that the big display screens were blank. Something was very wrong. I moved on to the next building. No luck. Inside the building was a few chairs around a circular table. I looked at my oxygen meter and it said that there was oxygen in the building, so I took off my helmet. Once I walked in, I saw a couple of men talking to each other, their backs turned away from me. They hadn’t noticed me yet so I looked around the room, trying to find something to defend myself with.

There was a door behind them. I decided to check it out. As soon as I opened the door, the men stopped talking and turned around. I don't know how they knew I was there, but the second they turned around, they had laser rifles pointed at me. I saw a few metal pipes on the ground I picked one up and gripped it with both hands. I think I wasn’t supposed to be there because he started yelling at me in a language that I didn’t understand. He and the other man started walking towards me. I figured that I should run, but my legs were too heavy to move. They looked like they were ready to kill me. I grabbed the pipe and threw it at the guy closest to me, hoping that I would hit him. The other man, a strong, athletic person, sprinted towards me. I hit him hard, and he fell to the ground. The first man started to run for a communication device. I threw the pipe at him and knocked him out. His buddy was a lot faster than I expected and jumped up to grab my arm. Before he could grab me though, I kicked him in the groin and he fell unconscious also.

I heard sirens approaching, and it was time to leave. Once I got to the air lock, I put my helmet back on. I looked around and then ran to the hangar bay. I ran through the large hangar door. Someone started yelling, probably at me. In the hangar were three small craft, most likely fighters. I found one that had an open hatch and jumped in. I powered it up, closed the hatch and began moving forward. As I moved farther, the ground became rocky. I slowed down and landed gently. I switched the ship into manual controls. I flew higher, making sure to avoid any debris. I don't want to be the cause of another crash. I throttled up and started moving fast, but I wasn’t off the ground yet. I pulled up and just barely missed the wall. “Woo Hoo!” I shouted as I left the atmosphere, glad to finally be off this planet.


this was made by putting in parts of the original story and letting an AI do the rest. (also the name was IA generated)