"Well Hesiu, what's it look like?" said the captain, looking at the desolate scene surrounding the crash site, still covered with red sand which was slowly being blown away by an erratic wind, revealing hillocks of mostly bare stone. He heard Hesiu grunt as he banged his head on an engine cowling.

"Is bad." The hispanic mechanic replied, frowning at the sand-choked intakes. When nothing more was forthcoming Stanridge asked just how bad it was. Hesiu replied "Is going to be a lot of work", and climbed back under the engine. The captain dropped a cigarette into the sand and stubbed it out with the toe of his worn flying boots.

The Rustbucket, as Stanridge called it, had done very well not to have been torn to pieces. As it was, she lay injured on her side, the starboard engines still buried under a few metres of coarse red sand. The gasbag sagged, the skeleton beneath much in evidence. Stanridge and Hesiu  had repaired the gashes in the fabric as soon as they had dug themselves out, but even so the old ship wouldn't be able to lift it's own weight until they had sourced some more gas, even after using the emergency pressurized cans Stanridge had wisely taken along. The cabins were ankle deep in sand, and the engines clogged with it. The name painted along the side of the cabin was gone, paint stripped away, no longer would the ship be named "Roquelle" in official documents.

Stanridge gave the bleak landscape a last glance, then climbed back in through the hatch.

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*Put on hiatus for a while - please ignore for a bit till I get round to fixing it*


This story was partially inspired by Philip Reeve's world in the Mortal Engines series, but having read any of them isn't vital. This is my first work on Protagonize, so be nice ;).

Feel absolutely free to use my characters as you see fit (within reason ;) ), don't hold back, add if you feel the inclination.

Captian Rick Stanridge is a veteran pilot in his early forties, rugged of appearance and gruff in manner. However, he is good and loyal to the people who have won his respect or counts as friends. A practical man with plenty of hard won experience of the rougher side of life.

Hesiu is a young and gifted aero-engineer, not yet twenty, who took a working berth on the Rustbucket a few months ago and never left. A bit of a thrillseeker and not so down to earth as Stanridge.

If you want to introduce new character feel free, but the ol' Rustbucket wasn't all that big, so a limit of three or four new characters ought to keep things fairly realistic.

If you want to insert a character or two right now, I suggest having them recovering in the cabin. Or, you could write what happened during the storm... Give 'em a role or make 'em a passenger, or have them turn up in the wilds, whatever.

I'm going to wait a few days before continuing, in case people want to add a character this way, so no rush :)

updated Jun 2 '10 by kristanigrad