Planning for the desert heat.

Opening the hatch to the pod after waiting an hour when the pod stopped shaking from the crash, cadet Smith finally got the hatch open and winced when a rush of hot air met his face. “Shit… Might want to cover your faces guys, it's hot out there.” shoving the wide metallic door forward and letting it swing past its bolts to clank against the metal walls of the pod’s exterior, five crewmates staggered out and guarded their faces against the heat of the sand under their feet. The friction heat that had built up upon entry through the planet’s atmosphere had made the pod’s surface so hot that upon crashing into the sand dunes it now rested on instantly glazed the fine particulates into molten glass. Looking around, the bewildered crew looked over to the other dunes, finding two other pods resting on a molded blanket of still steaming molten glass. Even as the sands cooled, the stink of burning sulfur and carbon filled the air with black plumes of smoke billowing up line thin strands from the pod’s navigational thrusters which slowly faded, but the scent still lingered.

“Jeez… What a mess.” Engineer Cassandra coughed, waving the smoke out of her eyes and grabbing a cloth from her toolkit, placing it over her mouth to drive out the soot. Watching the doors to the other two pods open with their crews stepping out one by one, the Engineer smiled, looking back to her own teammates before waving to the other survivors. “Is everyone OK?”

A few seconds passed before the nearest pod from hers called out, a pair of crew members tiptoed over the cooling glass and looked to regret their action before jumping back to the opening to the pod doors. “This area’s still hot from re-entry, we might be a while.”

“Same here!” Called out the third pod, the voice more distant at the furthest to land nearby. “I’d give it another hour or two before we can step out into the open area.”

Waving back to the two pods, Cassandra looked back to her superior officer, Lieutenant Santos who had just tied a sling for his sprained wrist. The impact, despite being cushioned by the parachutes and airbags had dislodged a case of equipment that landed heavily on his arm. Seeing his fingers squirm meant that the damage wasn’t permanent, but it also meant that he’d probably need help opening jars for the next day or so. “Looks like we’re stuck inside of here until the glass cools sir.”

“Aye, if we had some music we could pass the time…” Rubbing the bridge of his nose and placing his glasses back on, Lieutenant Santos got up to his feet and looked to the others who managed to get to the pod before the ship exploded, his crewmates looking shaken from the experience. “At the very least we can busy ourselves by taking stock of what we’ve got to work with, Cassandra call out to the others to make a manifest of our equipment, once the glass cools we can group up and find a way out of this area.”

Nodding back, Cassandra stepped outside where her voice could be heard as she hollered to the others. Santos sighed and looked back to the rest of his teammates. “No need to worry everyone, in a couple of weeks we should get picked up, but before that, we need to get an idea of what we have and how long that’ll last.”

“What do you mean?” Asked a shivering Rebecca, stroking her ponytail as a coping mechanism while the rest of her crewmates looked up with the same confusion.

“We landed in the middle of a dessert, its night right now but when the sun comes up this cool night is going to become a boiling morning.” The cadets finally realised the situation they were in while their lieutenant continued. “First thing’s first is the pods have an environmental control system but that will only last so long as the battery does, the next is water… If we can find an alternate source after our current water supplies run out, we might stand a chance of enduring the daily heat.”

“Lieutenant Santos?” Called out Cassandra, stepping back into the pod and joining the rest of her crew, the woman sat down on a makeshift chair that folded out the side of the pod wall. “I called out to the rest of the crew, they’re sorting their equipment and supplies now, if I’m right we should be able to join up in about a couple hours.”

“Good, good, let's get started with what WE have in here.” Clapping his hands together and rubbing his palms tightly, Santos looked to the others and gave a nod. “Well everyone, time to see what we can salvage… And see if we can keep it working for two weeks.”