Touchdown on the Crystal Plateau

Three fighters swooped through the low clouds, touching down slowly onto the black plains below. Their landing gear crunched into the deceptively fragile rock surface before settling into place.

Aside from the lights of the ships, the only other source of illumination were the hundreds of crystalline structures dotting the landscape. They may have stretched out for miles, if one could see beyond the thick, dark fog. It was oddly quiet.

The three starfighter pilots hadn’t intended to land on this strange world. What was meant to be a scouting mission turned into a bloody engagement with deep-space raiders. Though reinforcements from C-Fleet moved in swiftly, the enemy proved to be overwhelming.

As far as they could tell, the three pilots were the only survivors of the battle. Without an energy source, a slow, choking doom was inevitable. Time was invaluable. The pilots hoped that the enigmatic crystals could be a source of fuel…