Death Star

An aging pilot who’s spent two decades drifting from world to world finally sees retirement on the horizon, only to be pulled into one more mission. He’s paired with a cocky teenage prodigy, a boy named Jones, whose over‑confidence threatens to overturn the veteran’s careful plans. As their rocket tears through the thin atmosphere of an unnamed planet, the tension between seasoned caution and youthful bravado builds to a fever‑pitch. The descent is a precarious ballet of thrust and terror, promising a landing that could end a career—or a life.

When the craft finally slams into the alien surface, the impact leaves both men bruised and the cabin torn open, exposing the harsh landscape beyond. Hurtz, his body aching, finds himself clinging to the remnants of his dream—a quiet plot of land he’s longed to call home. Yet now, stranded with the defiant boy, he must decide whether to let go of his retirement fantasy and face the unknown together. The story unfolds as a tense, character‑driven struggle for survival against a world that promises both danger and redemption.