///LOCATION - NLTT-512///TIME - 18:10 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

‘BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BE-’ “Hrmpf, yeah, yeah, I'm awake!” ‘EP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP’

Eric tried finding the button to shut off the alarm-clock, only to realise that it wasn't his alarm-clock that was making the noise. Instead, it was the Planetary Body Scanner telling him that the scans were completed. After taking some deep breaths, and realising that he could barely inhale any oxygen, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't in his appartment. Slowly, his memory started to return. He realised that he was in his ship, in the middle of nowhere. The oxygen-deprived enviroment had caused some neural malfunctions, resulting in temporary short-term memory-loss.

Atleast he had gotten some good sleep, which was a good thing, as he had a difficult task ahead of him: He would have to choose the most habitable planet, and then attempt a landing on it, as his ships life-support systems would be incapable of sustaining a breathable enviroment for much longer. He would have to land on a planet with some sort of breathable atmosphere, if he wanted to stay alive until rescue arrived. He would have to fix the CO2 scrubbers that were damaged from the jump if he wanted to keep breathing, but his EVA-suit was broken, and he wasn't going to risk his live for some extra oxygen.

He started going trough the scan-results, looking at every planet to see if he could survive on any of them. There were quite a few planets in this system, which the scans revealed was called NLTT-512. Two of the planets actually had a breathable atmosphere, and gravity similair to that of all Coriolis-made space stations. He noticed that one of those planets, NLTT-512-3A, had both flaura and fauna, meaning that he would have the best chance of finding food and shelter if he landed there. The scans had also picked up some possible structures, though these could simply be rock-formations, like the rock-formations on Mars that were believed to be the home of aliens back in the early days of space-travel.

Slowly but surely, the engines started to come back online as Eric tried to re-activate the controls. One of the main engines and some of the RCS-thrusters were too damaged to function correctly, but luckily the flight-computer was of an advanced enough model to correct for the imbalanced thrust. It would take almost all of the remaining fuel if he wanted to transfer to an intercept course with the planet. Eric was about to initiate the burn, when he remembered that the UENRS had no way of knowing which planet he landed on, if they even knew which system they had to search. Fortunatly for Eric, he remembered that he was still carying around surveillance probes in his cargo-bay.

After finally connecting his VisionAR to one of the probes, Eric re-programmed the device to transmit a message to any ship that comes in the vicinity. He also overcharged the built-in beacon, to extend the range at which it could be found, but at the risk of overheating. When Eric had completed the modifications, he dumped the probe into space, and checked to see if it worked. After succesfully receiving the message, he started the burn-procedure towards NLTT-512-3A. He would have to use the gravity of the sun to catapult himself towards the third planet in the system.

Once he was at the closest point to the sun in his orbit, Eric performed a pro-radial burn to increase his orbit's inclination. This was a required step during his flight, because NLTT-512-3A itself was also on an inclination relative to the orbit of other planets in the system. If he didn't perform this maneouvre, Eric would simply pass by the planet without ever reaching it. Such a mistake would have been fatal, as he wouldn't have the oxygen-supply to keep him alive for long enough to complete another entire orbit. Fortunatly for Eric, he was an experienced pilot, who understood atleast the most basic of orbital mechanics.

After that last trajectory modification, the ship was on a course for NLTT-512-3A. It would take atleast another day before he would reach the planet, and with nothing else left to do, Eric decided that it might be a good idea to think of a better name for the planet. The first name he came up with was Erics Hope, but he quickly came to the conclusion that such a name was quite a cliché one. In the end, Eric settled on a name that was inspired by the date shown on one of his displays: 13th May. After entering the new name into the discovery-logs, Eric slowly fell asleep, partially due to the ever-lasting lack of oxygen, as his ship drifted trough the darkness of space, on a direct route to the new planet.

Initial blueprints of the Horizon ShipWorks H2215EX Divertia

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/GENESIS BIOTECH///TIME - 22:34 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

Back at the Genesis BioTech bureau at Oblivion Station, Michelle was trying to get information about Eric from the person working at the counter. Ever since Eric first set out in his ship, he and Michelle had made a promise to each other. If one of them was outside the station, they would contact each other atleast once every day, to make sure that they were both safe. This tradition had begun after Eric's first flight with his new ship, where he tried to jump to another system on his first real flight. The jump-drive went haywire, and Eric was stranded in space. Fortunatly for him, he had jumped to an inhabited system, where the UENRS, or United Earth Navy Rescue Service, was quickly able to recover him.

When they returned Eric and his ship to Oblivion, Michelle was incredibly excited and happy to see him again. Eventhough they weren't in a real relationship, they still cared for each other. Or, Michelle cared about Eric. Eric never bothered to show any kind of nice-ness to Michelle, if that is even a word. Michelle liked to think that it was. And the more Eric ignored Michelle, the more she became interested in him. There was something odd about Eric. When they first met, Michelle found him to be incredibily lazy and annoying. But after she stayed around him, sometimes without him knowing it, she found out that Eric was actually quite clever, and he certainly knew his way around problems.

One thing she wasn't too happy about though, was something she discovered when she was secretly following Eric into a pub. He had ordered a drink, but while doing so, he had pushed someone else away from the bar. he hadn't just pushed some random person away either: It was John Mc Arthur, one of Oblivion's most feared crime-lords. He had been arrested plenty of times for crimes ranging from theft of spaceships to cold-blooded murder, but everytime that he was taken into custody, the charges were mysteriously dropped before he could be convicted for any of his crimes. He had slowly but surely created his own empire inside the lower parts of Oblivion, and he practically owned all appartments on floors D trough G.

John was known for picking fights, often for the most ridicoulous reasons, and sometimes even without reason at all. Unfortunatly for most of his victims, John Mc Arthur was an experienced fighter, having previous experience in underground (Or lower-deck) fighting-rings. Even if someone managed to dodge the first swing from John, and was able to run away, they still didn't get far. The network set up by John spread for miles across the station, and most people were quickly dispatched before they could get to the safety of a police station.

John Mc Arthur was ready to fight Eric, and he was making sure to create as big of a show as he could. Looking over at Eric from the middle of the pub, he yelled:

"Hey you, at the bar, are you gonna buy me a new drink or what?!"

Eric just ignored him, taking another sip from his beer.

"Oh, so you are not gonna get me a new drink?! Fine, we'll settle this another way then! I gave you a chance, you skinny piece of shit!"

After announcing his plans to Eric, John grabbed a knife from one of the nearby tables, which he held firmly in his hand. He was ready to slice Eric to pieces, starting with cutting of his head. He had it all figured out. He was going to hold Eric's head up by the hair, to make a statement to anyone else who dared to oppose him. With this plan in mind, he set his words into action, running at Eric, knife in hand, ready to kill.

Without flinching or looking up from his drink, Eric went for his pocket.

'BANG'

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.