stranded

Sparks flew as Ryan pulled yet another destroyed circuit board from the blackened access panel, an placed it into the growing pile of boards either in pieces or streaked with carbon and smoke...
He sighed, staring at the pile with a distant look, running over the events which led to this, then shaking his head an thinking up a mental inventory of how many replacement parts they still had onboard... The results were not good, and he exhaled another depressed sigh... He glanced around that the darkening, swampy forest around him, chilled slightly at the creepy feeling of being watched by thousands of little curious... or hungry eyes... the planet they manages to land on, undetected, was for the most part uncharted... it had been surveyed by long range planetary explorers, but other than 10 cubic centimeters of dirt, 9 vegatation samples, 4 lifeform samples and a few stacks of sensor data, little was known about it...
He shruged off the feeling, knowing the perimeter defence system was atleast functioning and active, able to alert them if movement larger than a certian size approached...
he sat down, taking up one of the more intact yet faulty instruments he removied and toyed with it absent-mindedly, his hands going through the default motions of fixing it, while his mind wandered...
He never really put too much thought to it, only really noticing the ability when a friend and shipmate pointed out that he had completly repaired a mobile sensor array without even looking at the damaged parts he was repairing... the ability for his mind to split up and solve problems from multiple perspectives, or to form up and tackle multiple ones at a time was an extreem gift, one that pushed him through the top engineering schools at his home, and abroad... even when he joined the military, not because he needed to, or was forced, but because he wanted adventure, something different... and indeed, this was... though he surmised at the rate the overall conflicts where errupting, it was only a matter of time before some sort of temporary draft was initiated, and he was better off volunteering than going into the services with a forced mindset...
His mind focused back to the present, glazing around at his surroundings, while his hands fiddled with the control apperture for a radio component... the damage to his attack transport wasnt severe, atleast, not as severe as it could have been... they were lucky to be alive though, and, he grudgingly confessed, mostly the crew owed that to there pilot...
She was the commanding officer for this shuttle crew now, the original CO killed in the firefight and landing attempt... Jessica Rheems, a fine, fit woman with a rather clean record... but was... for lack of a better term, a bitch...
No doubt she wasn't nearly as experienced as someone should be in that rank, getting speedious promotions, one after another... all seemingly coinciding with the beginnings and ends of relationships she also sped through, and mostly with top brass... Ryan had little doubt there was something asqew with those "legitimate" promotions...
He grabbed a spare auxillery power pack from a nearby trunk of them and connected the equipment he was repairing, and waited for the diagnostic data tool to answer with feedback... nothing happened... an annoyed grimace on his face, he set to cleaning the main contacts again, maybe why he totally missed Jessica coming outside the ship, or her increadibly annoying habbit of hovering over her shipmates to scoop up tidbits of information, or just to slightly agrivate them...
With the contacts clean again, and a final inspection of the instrument he was fixing, Ryan plugged the powerpack and diagnostic tool into the radio component and again waited for feedback..
Seconds later a few small sparks, followed by a spray of static met him and his hand, and he returned with a few curses, throwing the now useless piece to the ground... the burns werent at all bad, stinging more than hurting, and thats when he heard the muffled chuckle from someone behind him, he bolted upright, but relaxed instantly, turning slowly around in his seat to scowl at her, before picking up the battery back and other tools that got thrown as well...
"You should be more carefull with UMTD equipment Leutenant..." she quipped, more of a responce to his scowl than a reminder. "... we cant afford to loose anything due to carelessness or wolf error"
The last part stung more than the sparks did a moment ago... he held back a growl, turning his face so he could release his scowl from her view... she was some sort of fox mix... he was a timber wolf breed, smaller than normal though... he couldnt stand remarks that were ment to bite him about things he couldnt change... it was simply crude...

finish later