Call me maybe

Riding around on the speeder bike at full speed, will be an activity he will never stop to enjoy. It was just as great as the first time. The rush of air and the feeling of absolute speed while flying smooth across the landscape was something absolutely breathtaking. He seemed to enjoy activities that included high amounts of adrenaline a lot. There were a lot of memories of such situations in his head, that were painted in a very bright light.

He hasn't yet given up on finding signs of civilization in the lands around him. It still wondered him greatly that he hasn't found anything yet. The groups have had to come from somewhere where they could stock up on supplies and other resources. The supplies they had on them was way less than what was actually needed to properly survive in this kind of environment.

He was currently exploring the nearby land of the quarry, he would rather not move away further and stay there for at least a few days more. It was a pretty good spot and he felt that there was something more to it. Before he answered his questions he would rather not place his chances on finding such a good spot elsewhere again.

Though the repairs he made were the most basic possible, they certainly made themselves noticeable. The speeder felt just a little better and reached it's top speed much smoother. It could have been the absence of the previous weight, but he liked to think it was because of his doing.

In the next two hours he tried to not leave a certain distance from the quarry, but made use of elevated observation points that had a better view of the distance. There was nothing he could see though, so further excursions in certain directions were necessary. There was one thing he found that was interesting though.

There were some tracks in the sand that were certainly not natural. Coming down from the direction of a rock formation they went some distance into the dust dunes and curved around and up some way further down again. Finn had never really seen something something like them, but that doesn't mean much. The closest thing he could think of were lizard tracks. Strong imprints of "paws" or feet, but violent slither marks in between that went all over the place, but didn't leave that deep of an imprint.

This was a potential source of food and at the same time a potential threat judging by the size of the tracks. This was very worth it to come back to check again. Tracks can't really be left on rocks and boulders, and he definitely wasn't good enough to follow the trail any further than that. He tried to look for some more in the surrounding area but the search turned out fruitless.

Finn would come back tomorrow and try his luck again. If he wouldn't find anything then he would just give up and search elsewhere. The way back wasn't that long, It was almost at the end of his round and recognizable enough to find again.

He ate another meal of supplement protein bars and a cracker for dinner. The only thing he had to drink was very stale water and some strong alcohol wich he would not drink any time soon. Finn liked the rock he sat upon, he had a wonderful view of his surrounding and it just felt nice after sitting there for some time. It was not even sundown yet, but he was already very tired. The rotations of this planet a lot longer than he was used to, or his body and mind was capable of.

He had to get some sleep and continue doing stuff in the night, maybe he could get some shooting practice in. It was painfully obvious how lucky he was with his first shot. Had the others not fled, he would've been a goner. He couldn't hit shit. The next shots weren't even hitting anywhere close to his targets. Blaster weapons didn't really have any bullet drop, so there wasn't any excuse.

Covering himself up a little in the shady side of his hidey-hole, he fell asleep pretty quickly. His sleep was dreamless and felt quick, nonetheless he felt refreshed and fit to start another day, or night. He could still see the orange glow of the setting sun in the sky. This was something he had to get used to.

There was enough light for his shooting practice though, so there was no excuse to laze around, not that it was something he was even considering. He was pretty hyped to shot some laser bolts, maybe even becoming good enough at it to become a valid threat to someone some day. He just needed to think of some way to get some practice in.

There was not really any targets he could think of at the moment. He was pretty sure any metal parts would be destroyed after a few shots, not that there were any that were available to him. He could definitely shoot the stone blocks or some small boulders.

Some rocks were set up on top of each other and there was only the problem of carving some targets on the giant stone slabs. He had just the idea for it, He still had the busted screw that could be an alternative for a chisel and a rock that looked durable enough of an appropriate size. This was exactly what he did. It was easy enough to chisel away at some sandstone. He made some markings at a uniform distance from each other and voila, he had a perfect target. Full circles would take too long and he wasn't really in the mood of any more chiseling for now, he wanted to get shooting as soon as possible.

There was a free space in front of the targets of almost 200 meters. He began at about fifty and in a standing position. The most likely one he would find himself in when in danger. He knew from rifles back on earth to stand in a proper position. A good and stable stance, the right grip on the front of your rifle, in this case the thick barrel, the stock firmly planted on your right shoulder and slightly leaning your torso forward to properly absorb the recoil.

With the first shots, he adapted his stance and got more comfortable. The sound and feeling of firing his rifle in a safe environment was also quite enjoyable. He hit some rocks stacked on top of boulders, but missed even more shots. It was getting easier though and he was getting better. A few shots even hit the targets dead center.

He fell back to a hundred meters at some time and continued. There he also tried some other positions like laying down, not using the iron sight and one handed, to get a feel of it if it was ever needed. The blaster pack was empty after some time, which was unfortunate but expected. He still had three left, so he just exchanged the gas pack after fumbling around a bit.

At that he also tried to find out what some other things on the rifle did, like a turning button that at first didn't do anything, but when firing, the power of the shot changed. It was a switch to change the intensity of the laser bolt, it was already set on the lower end, but not at it's weakest. 'Sweet!'

The strongest bolt the rifle could fire made quite some noise and was also equally powerful. It blasted a sizable hole into the side of the slab, he would not want to get hit by something like that. He would need to be extremely cautious of any enemies with blaster rifles, which there was sure to be a lot of. "Slughtrowers" didn't hold a candle to blasters in a direct firefight.

The only way they defeated the lizards must have been with the advantage of surprise and the lack of armor on their opponents. The only piece of armor he found belonged to the possible leader of the vagrants and was shot through, probably by a powerful blaster shot, so the safest way was to just not get hit, or best of all not even being spotted and fired upon.

At the distance of 150 and even the almost 200 meters, hitting the target was becoming harder and harder. When in a lying position he could still hit them at an acceptable rate, though it was hopeless when standing up. He had to get used to breathing the right way and locking his arms in place to not sway with his rifle. It was very hard to get it all right and he was getting more and more tired, it wouldn't make sense to just keep on going. He got way more comfortable with the blaster than before and was just a little more ready for a confrontation. So his goal was achieved.

The rest of the night was spent again on his favorite rock on top of the plateau, this time playing around with the holographic tech he had lying around. The runic language still made no sense to him and he was not getting any closer to figuring out the use of these devices. Sometimes after pressing a few random things, he came upon documents that he couldn't read.

He hoped to maybe find a map somewhere in them and find his way to a civilized location. For now he wasn't getting closer and the constant clicking of random things while expecting something different was a sign for insanity. It made him pretty frustrated. By this point he knew what button did what, but there was just too much to look through and without knowing how to read the texts, was basically pointless.

After eating a bit more, he just decided to get some sleep. He was a little tired and he could make the best of the next day after being refreshed. There was also the thing of finding a solution on how to climb into the quarry and come out again. He had gotten a new idea when firing today. The possibility of maybe chiseling climbing grips into the walls to climb back up again. That would take way too long but he felt that he was getting somewhere.

Anyway, sleeping was first on his agenda. He didn't sleep that long and got woken up by the sunlight and a beeping sound. First he awoke with a panic, but calmed down again after realizing that it was not a grenade that was about to blow up into his face. It was one of the communicators in the small pile of holo tech.

This was a critical situation, it looked like it was an incoming call. Should he try and accept it or let it ring? There was the possibility of compromising his location, which was bad because he was basically the only survivor of the group and the other party would think him the enemy. On the other hand he could maybe get help, because again he was the only survivor of the group.

'Would they even understand his language'. As far as he knew, he was speaking English, and English was probably not a very widely practiced language. 'Or was it?' He didn't know! The question solved itself. The communicator stopped beeping and silence reigned again. Only now he noticed his increased heart rate and just how nervous he was. Phone calls with strangers seemed to be a recurring problem for him.

He didn't get that much time to think about his previous question of what to do. The communicator begun beeping again a minute later. In a haste he quickly threw cloth around his head and made an acceptable shemagh. For a moment he considered of putting on his glasses but chose not to and just pull up the hood of his cloak. He looked presentable enough and at the same time not too suspicious.

With a press of a button he accepted the call. This was it. This was a golden opportunity, or maybe his death or hounding through the deserts. Most probably he would screw up, they would not be able to track him and nothing would happen.

'This was his first holo call!' The excitement relieved some of his nervousness. 'No time to think!' A bluish image began to flicker into existence.