Sadly, seems to be a lack of action here. So cracking open my few remaining archive files, here is a short story based upon Buster (whose character I created and adopted as a screen name waaaaay back in the day. Have to post a bio for him). This story was actually not written for the WarTavern at all...I wrote it for a creative writing course in college several years ago. I think I got an A on it, but I don't really remember.

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BREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Buster awoke with a start at the sound of his ship’s warning siren. Red lights flashed across the control panel before him, making Buster’s white rabbit fur appear crimson.
“Blast!” Buster shouted as he noticed three blips appear on his short-range scanner. “It’s a Turtle Patrol! How did they find me?”
Almost before Buster finished his thought, three blasts of green plasma exploded in front of him. Buster switched off the autopilot, powered up his plasma-blasters, and grabbed the control stick.
Just my luck. The Queen isn’t going to be happy at all if I don’t deliver these data tapes! Why can’t the turtles get over losing the Great War?
“Alright…Eat this!” Buster yelled as he turned to face the ominous black shadows, which blended almost perfectly with the darkness of space. Buster pulled the trigger, and a salvo of crimson plasma flew toward their targets. The ships dodged with professional skill, re-grouped, and converged once again on the adrenaline-laden rabbit.
Green bolts of plasma energy exploded all around Buster, who dodged them with the cunning skill of an experienced mercenary.
“Ha! Lousy aims you ruffians! Try this on for size!”
Buster took careful aim, and fired two fusion missiles at his closest attacker. The missiles flew fast and struck before the pilot could move. Buster’s ship shook from the after-shock of the blast, and the ill-fated attacker’s ship began to drift powerless.
“Now for the rest of you,” Buster said in calm arrogance. He targeted the next closest ship, and warmed up his last two fusion missiles. As his paw tightened on the trigger, three green blasts of plasma from the third ship hit Buster head-on.
“Blast it all! Lucky shot!” Buster cried as he attempted to regain control of his wildly spinning craft. Warning lights clicked on all over his control panel. His small fighter wasn’t built to withstand the powerful attacks of a Turtle Patrol cruiser, and those three direct hits had done a good deal of damage.
“I’ll get you for this!” Buster called out to the cruisers. “Just you wait! I’ll…oh no!”
Buster found himself spinning faster and faster to a nearby planet.
“Come on, COME ON!” Buster pleaded with the controls, but still they refused to respond. Buster frantically tried to reactivate the autopilot, hoping it would be able to control the ship even if his manual controls couldn’t. He punched the activation code into his control board but nothing happened, and the planet before him kept growing larger and larger.
“Okay, Buster, stay calm. You can get out of this. Let’s see now…” Buster punched the Emergency Control button, hoping it wasn’t dead like the rest of the controls. Buster sighed deeply in relief as the warning lights went off on his panel and the ships emergency auto-control system stopped his ship from spinning and began checking the damage.
“Whew, I thought I’d had it there. Wait…why am I still going down?!”
Buster activated his small view screen and checked the ship’s damage report.
“Oh…carrots.”
His reactor core was leaking fuel into space and he didn’t have enough power to pull out of the planet’s gravitational field.
“Okay,” Buster thought to himself, “I can still get out of this.”
Buster punched in the emergency landing code. What was left of his ship’s guidance systems quickly mapped out a small section of the planet below him and selected an appropriate landing site. Buster had a very bumpy ride through the planet’s atmosphere as he began his quick and startling decent to the planet’s surface.
“Please don’t let me crash…” Buster prayed as he fell through the sky.
His ship righted itself dangerously close to the ground and then dropped the final twenty feet, retro thrusters screaming.
“I’m alive!” Buster shouted as he looked around him. There was sand everywhere, as far as he could see.
“I wonder where I’m at…”
Buster clicked on his ship’s navigational computer and checked his position.
“Sandius IV. How interesting.”
The atmosphere was breathable, so Buster opened up the cockpit and took a deep breath of salty air.
“Well, this could just ruin my mission. I’d better look around and see if I can find some help down here. Let’s see now…the population is…oh my.” Buster sat back hard in his chair. According to his ship’s computer, Sandius IV was unpopulated by any intelligent beings.
“Well,” Buster said as he shook himself back to reality, “all hope is not lost. There must be something here that can help me. I hope.”
Buster pulled out a leather rations pack and fastened it around his waist. He stuck the Queen’s Data Tapes into it as well and then reached down for his blaster.
“Blast it all! It’s burnt out! I KNEW I shouldn’t have installed the storage compartment right next to the power couplings!”
Tossing the useless weapon aside, Buster pulled himself out of his small craft. He leapt down to the ground and allowed himself to take a little pleasure in the feel of warm sand between his large, furry toes.
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“This is just great,” Buster said to himself with a sarcastic air as he walked across the endless beach of Sandius IV. It was twilight and a cold breeze was blowing over the sand, whistling softly and chilling Buster. It had been three hours since he touched down and still there were no signs of life. No animals, no vegetation and no drinkable water.
“Stupid turtles. This certainly is a fine fix up, stranded on a deserted planet with only a single day’s ration of food and water. What fun. What excitement. What…”
Buster’s speech drifted off as he stared at a large wooden bridge before him.
“Someone does live around here!”
Buster walked up to the bridge and examined it. It was old and worn out, with several planks missing. Buster wondered whether it would hold his weight or not. The sandy gorge it extended across looked pretty deep.
Might as well try it. It looks pretty sturdy, even if it is old. Besides, maybe whoever built it is still around, perhaps just over that sand dune ahead.
Buster stepped out on the first plank, and lightly bounced a little.
“Good, looks like it will hold.”
Buster carefully began to walk across, examining each plank as he did so.
“Well, that was uneventful,” Buster said to himself as he reached the other side of the gorge. Buster climbed the hill of sand ahead of him and the view that opened up before him as he made it to the top gave him yet another spike of hope.
“A whole village! Who could have built all this?”
Large, square buildings made from the same old planks as the bridge rose up before him, some quite tall. Buster ran down the sand dune and trudged through the sand into the midst of them.
“Hello!” Buster called out, but he received no answer.
“Hmm…looks like it was deserted a long time ago. Figures.”
Buster began to examine the buildings, hoping maybe there were some tools or other objects that he could use to repair his damaged spacecraft. To his puzzlement, he didn’t find any doors or openings save a few windows. Then his eye caught site of a wide hole near the bottom of one of the buildings.
“What’s this? Looks like it was built in here.”
Buster began to dig through the sand around the hole and discovered that it was a doorway.
“Well, that’s just great. Place has been abandoned for so long the sand just piled up around them. Well, there still may be something inside them. Better start digging.”
Buster dug out the doorways of different buildings for hours, but was sorely disappointed. Every building was empty, save for some spiny vegetation, which grew up through the cracked, aging floors.
“Nothing here at all. What a waste.”
Buster walked out of the village disgusted. He was tired and he was hungry, so he decided to eat part of his ration. It was only a day’s worth, so Buster only consumed a third of it, hoping to make it last as long as possible.
“I’m not going to get very far this way. I’d better find some food and water around here, or I’ve had it.”
Buster lay down in the sand and tried hard to fall asleep. After a few minutes he dozed off, but his sleep was not very restful. In his dreams he fought with an army of turtles; always advancing, always more and then suddenly he was falling, only to end up back on the battleground.
Buster awoke only a few hours later. It was very dark now; only the stars above offered any light. Buster got up and started to walk forward through the dark and almost fell head first down a great hole in the sand. Maybe…wait, what was that? Water! Buster could hear it from down in the hole.
“If I’ve any luck at all, it’ll be fresh.”
Buster leapt down into the dark cavern.
He fell for what seemed like hours, finally landing hard on a pile of sand. Spitting it out and rubbing a few bruises, Buster got up and tried his best to see through the all-consuming darkness. The sound of water was very near.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Now I’m stuck down here. Brilliant, Buster, just brilliant.” Buster said, trying to comfort himself with his own voice. “Well, now, let me think a minute. There’s water running down here, so if it can get in, maybe I can get out. Lessee now…let’s go…this way.”
Hands stretched out before him, Buster walked slowly through the darkness toward the sound of water. With some discomfort, Buster walked into the cavern wall.
“Great,” Buster said as he listened carefully, “the water is behind this.”
Buster seemed to think he could hear the water above him as well. He crouched down, and leapt as far as his tired rabbit legs could leap. As he reached the height of his assent, Buster groped along the wall, searching frantically for something to grip. Just as he began to fall back down, his paws grabbed hold of a small outcropping in the stone wall, and slowly, inch by inch, Buster climbed the cavern wall, feeling for every grip and foothold.
In the dark listening only to the unseen water and his own breathing, the assent seemed to take weeks. Finally, Buster’s paw reached up and felt what seemed to be the top of a ledge. Pulling himself up, Buster took one step forward and plunged headfirst into an underground basin of water. Gasping, Buster pulled his head above the water.
“Ahh, knew I’d find it.”
The water was ice cold, but Buster didn’t care. He took a long drink, and looked down into the icy pool.
“Light! There must be a way out down there!”
Buster took a deep breath and dove down into the deep water, his eyes trained on the faint blue spot of light shining in the darkness. He focused fully on it, concentrating on it, struggling to keep his mind off the icy water. His lungs began to ache as he swam, and Buster began to wonder if this had been such a smart idea. Finally, he reached the source of the light. It came from a small hole in the cavern wall, and beyond it the water was blue and transparent with light from somewhere above. Buster pressed through the hole and began swimming upward, his lungs crying out for a breath.
Just a little bit more…just a little bit more, Buster thought as he struggled to continue swimming.
With a tremendous gasp, Buster broke the surface and almost hyperventilated as he took in air.
Buster still found himself in a cavern…but what a cavern! The walls were crystal, and light was playing all through them, shimmering and reflecting off the water. There was no place to stand, save a small ledge on one side of the cavern, and a large, gaping hole on the opposite side.
Buster swam over and pulled himself up on the ledge. He glanced down at the sopping wet ration pack around his waist, and quickly examined it’s contents.
“Well, the food is ruined, but the data tapes are okay. Of course, that won’t matter much if I can’t get out of here, but…”
Buster closed the pack and began to walk around to the other end of the cavern, sliding his paw across the smooth crystal as he did so.
“Well, Buster, looks like the only way out would be through that hole over there.”
Buster leapt back into the water and swam over to the large hole. No sooner had he stepped in, though, than he heard a faint clicking sound from deep within the hole, a sound that grew louder as it approached.
“Uh oh…what could that be?” Buster started to sweat as the sound grew closer and closer, and then a giant leg, armored in orange shell, reached from around a corner, touched down, and was then followed by another, and then a large claw, and then a…
“GIANT CRAB!” Buster shouted as he dove into the water, swimming furiously for the ledge at the other side.
The crab stood at the entrance of the large hole, studying Buster through impassioned eyes. Buster pulled himself up on the ledge and stared back, wondering if it was hungry.
The crab walked off the platform and fell into the water with a large splash, and began to slowly swim out to Buster.
“Hey, hey pal, you just stay where you are! Ack! Get away!”
Buster ran to the side as a large claw reached out of the water and grabbed at him.
“Cut that out!” Buster yelled as the crab continued to reach for the frightened rabbit. Buster was running out of room as he skirted to the side again. A few more feet, and there would be no place left to go.
Not willing to take that chance, Buster dove into the water and began swimming hard for the bottom. A quick glance behind him revealed that the crab was doing the same thing, slowly pulling its hulking body through the water toward Buster.
Buster looked around for the hole he had come through. He instead found three holes, each at a different end of the cavern. Praying, Buster swam for the closest one, hoping it would come out someplace. The crab couldn’t get through the small hole, but Buster didn’t like the thought of drowning either. In fact, Buster figured that if that was the choice, he’d rather be eaten by the crab. At least that way one of them would benefit from Busters demise.
Buster was only inches away from the opening when a large claw came crashing down in front of him, blocking his exit. Buster turned to see the crab staring right at him. The second claw grabbed Buster around his midsection, and lifted him up. Buster was frightened and his lungs were screaming as the crab began to swim slowly upward with Buster in his claw. The crab was a slow swimmer, and Buster passed out for want of oxygen before they reached the surface.
Buster awoke in a dry crystal cavern, his chest aching. Looking up, he saw the crab staring down at him.
“Okay! OKAY! Just eat me now!” Buster said as he cowered beneath the crab.
The crab just looked at Buster, and pushed a small crustacean toward him. Buster looked at it quizzically, then back up at the crab.
“What’s this?” Buster asked as he picked the strange shellfish up. It was about as big as a large shrimp, and it appeared to have been seasoned with herbs. Buster was dumbfounded.
“Wha…you…thank you.” Buster said, feeling a little embarrassed. He pulled the shell off the morsel of food and tasted it. It was actually quite good, and Buster began to feel ashamed of his fear.
“Uh, you know, next time you could act a little more welcoming when you have guests. You know, try not to scare the fur off of them.”
The crab just starred down at him, and then walked off down a winding passage.
“Hey, where are you going?” Buster called after him. The crab turned around and beckoned to Buster with his claw. Buster got up and followed as the crab walked him through a seemingly endless maze of crystal passages. After a while, the crab led Buster up to the planet surface, and stepped out into the morning sunlight. Buster followed, and the crab pointed toward a large, vine-covered rock several feet away. Buster walked up to it.
“A spaceship!” He shouted as he pulled vines off of the shimmering ship. “This must have been here for years! I wonder who could have left it.”
Buster opened up the cockpit and stepped inside. After a little searching, he found the power switch. With a slight whine as power surged through the aging electronics, the ship came to life.
“Amazing! Why, this must have been here since the Great War! I wonder what happened to the pilot…”
Buster looked up to see the crab walking back toward the cavern.
“Hey, how did you know that I…” Buster stopped short as the crab turned to him and waved a claw.
“Thanks.” Buster said quietly as he waved back.
From inside his mind, Buster heard the reply; “You’re welcome.”

I enjoyed your story quite a bit, Buster. Nice to see you back in the forums!

Nicely written, good grammer, entertaining too. Nice job.

Who knows? Maybe I'll try my hand at something one of these days...

A fun romp through the jjverse. Love it! Would like to see more from you!

I've got an unfinished story here I would like to complete. Might start posting it up.