The violet sand spreads beneath my boots as I exit my ship. It makes for an alluring landscape, the light of a blue sun setting reflecting off the water, blending with the purple of the sand off in the distance. The entire scene is almost trance like. If I die here tonight, at least it'll be a beautiful death. My suit sounds an alarm for the umpteenth time and my visor flashes the alert.
I was well aware the air on this planet would be lethal after a few hours, but I didn't have a choice but to land here. I lost control of my ship, I could have either crashed and burned or took a chance at survival. I've spent the last three hours trying to make repairs to my ship so that I could take off, but I've never been great at engineering. I can patch up the cables that are severed, replace broken panels. I can repair most of what I see, but I've not be able to diagnose the problem.
I'm alerted again of the poisonous environment as if I could forget. Every breath on this planet pains me as my lungs try to rip the oxygen away from whatever else is mixed in the air. It's like trying to swallow glass, and I've got no easy way out. The sun is setting and I'm losing light. Suddenly I'm wondering if this is the last sunset of my life. Should I take it in, or should I keep trying to repair these busted panels.
The center console comes to life, lights flashing, radar picking up the surroundings. That's better than when I started. I follow the sequence for ignition. There's delayed rumblings, but the burst of energy to take off just doesn't come. I pull the lever for takeoff as hard as I can, hoping to force fuel into the engine.
Is this what it means to accept fate? I want to fight against it, I'm trying but it all seems so pointless. Breathing is barely doing anything for me. I'm struggling to maintain consciousness at this point. I'm supposed to record an audio log for future references. But, I know those logs rarely get received. A last message to my family would mean nothing if they never heard it. For a moment it feels like the ship is taking off. I'm not sure, it was the ship taking off or my head hitting floor. I suppose I'll know when I wake up. It's a shame really, that sand was so beautiful.
