Crash Landing Hearts

chapter 1: the first crash landing

"My name is Riker Newmic, and about ten years ago, I was a mercenary, fighting for whoever had the most credits. Money was all that mattered to me back then. But one day I did something stupid... and it was both the best and worst decision of my life..."
Deep in the void of space, a planet, like a great brown marble, floats among the inky blackness, orbiting two suns. Wüste. A hostile, desolate wasteland composed of sand and rock, known for being a ship graveyard and hosting some of the most treacherous terrain and hostile creatures in the galaxy.

"Warning! Warning!" the ship's onboard AI blared. "Rear engine failure detected! Drifting into a planetary body!" There was no time to send a distress signal. I had to act fast, so with a lot of effort, I wrestled for control of the ship, which broke through the cloud cover and started plummeting to the sandy ground below.

"Crash landing imminent! Brace for impact," The onboard AI blared again, as it scraped two dunes. I screamed, "OH FU-" but that was all I could get out before the ship crashed into a large sand dune, which threw me into the ship's controls, knocking me out cold.

A while later, I woke up to the smell of fire, and when I opened my eyes, flames danced all around me. I got up and tried to activate the fire suppression system, but the power was out, so I grabbed a fire extinguisher and doused the flames. I took a look around the ship, trying to find anything that would be useful. I deployed the onboard solar panels, which brought some systems back online, including the ship's AI, A.C.E.

">Running diagnostics check.
>Check successfully passed.
>Reboot sequence initialized.
>Reboot sequence successful.
>All integral systems online.
>boot up initialized.
>10.89%
>58.99%
>98.56%
>boot up sequence complete.
Hello sir! Thanks for bringing me back online. It's good to see you survived the crash. Are you hurt at all, sir?" A.C.E's tinny mechanical voice rang through the ship's speakers.

"It's good to hear that voice again, buddy. I don't feel hurt. Could you do a bio scan?"
"Of course, sir, one moment..." "Mostly small cuts and bruises and a concussion, but nothing major."

"Good to know. Transfer to me so we can get off this ship."

"Yes sir!" he said to me and the screen went dead, but after a moment from the AR implant my head, a closed system that allows AI to, for lack of a better trem, ride their human compatriots. A.C.E. said, "Transfer complete.  Now let's get out of here."

I grabbed the salvageable supplies, including my custom combat armor, and walked to the ship's exit ramp. I pushed the button, but nothing happened, so I punched it, and the ramp lowered; I stepped out. I looked all around me and was met with desert in every direction, a vast expanse of sand stretching beyond the horizon. Then I looked up at the sky and was met with a large cloud ceiling, with only the two dots of the twin suns visible. And the Wind whirled all around.

I took one last look around before speaking to A.C.E. "Looks like we're in it for the long haul, buddy." I said, taking one last look at my ship before walking away from the ship.