He was dipping in and out of consciousness, the atmosphere was burning his clothes as he fell. He didn't know how long he'd been out, all he knew was that he was falling, being pulled in by gravity towards the ground at a startling rate. He should've been panicking but for some reason it was calming, the heat was like a blanket surrounding him. Perhaps it was because he knew he'd be fine. He closed his eyes one last time as the ground approached.
When he next opened his eyes all he could see was a yellowish haze. It took a minute to reorient himself, the ground was hot, the air burned his lungs and all he could taste in his mouth was... sand? He pushed himself over onto his back and just saw the black sky, with little dots of light spattered across it.
Sitting up he took in his new surroundings, which wasn't much to behold, sand sprawled across the horizon, enveloping his vision completely. He was sitting in the middle of a jagged hole that was slowly being consumed by the desert, eagerly consuming all remnants of his rather hasty entrance.
He pulled himself out of the crater and looked down, taking into account his gift from the atmosphere, what were left of his clothes were severely eaten by the sky. He tore the rags off, as they would only impede his movement before the inevitably slid off his body. Taking a singular strand, he tied his hair back, aiding in him truly taking into account his situation. He was stuck and would be for an unknown amount of time, somewhere out there his ship was floating endlessly against the unending canvas of darkness he called home.
He rubbed his eyes and looked at the sky for any sign of movement, he saw some specks of light dancing in the distance, he lined himself up with it and began his trek towards them. His only hope was that whoever or whatever they were, they were friendly.
While he marched he tried to recollect exactly what had happened to him, he was on a rather large metallic transport cruiser, travelling between planets when it was struck by... something before it could wrap itself in space to cut down travel time. It was ripped in half and he was thrown into the cosmos, losing consciousness. He could've been traveling at a constant velocity for months before he ascended onto this planet. It didn't help that he was out for most of his journey.
...
Eventually, after what felt like days, or at least what he perceived as days, he began to see fields of black dots littering the sand, their count was in the thousands. After reaching the nearest black 'dot' he began to realize they were a lot larger up close, he was not short in stature, on Earth his measurement would be about six foot three, and it easily tripled him. It was a large, cylindrical solar battery, that also had an application of turning heat into energy, it was slowly pulsating in the sand, cause a slight ripple to form around it.
After looking at it for a few minutes, he began circling it, hoping for some sort of a monitor, or at least some indication of it's charge. These batteries were archaic, and were incapable of transmitting the power they collected towards a hovering ship, so they were usually collected, drained, and then returned to their original places in the sand. If he found out the charge in the battery, he could decide if he needed to continue further into the fields or just wait there for a ship to come collect the power trapped within the cylinder.
After circling the machine twice it became clear their was no such indicator on the device, perhaps to make it harder for thieves to steal the harnessed energy, as they would not be able to do what he was trying to do. He did however see a panel along the side, poorly soldered onto the sleek device, it was about half his size and began at the lower part of his ankle, it was the one imperfection on the machine that he intended to take advantage of.
He reached forward and dug his fingers into the metal and took a deep breath, ripping the panel from its home, revealing all sorts of wiring and electronics far beyond his expertise, as they were of foreign origin. He was no fool as to what he was doing and was not throwing a desperate tantrum. He knew for a fact that the ship that collected these cylinders, or at least the governing entity presiding over them had to have some sort of way to keep track of them, presumably a geographical locator, and a way to tell when the charge was full and ready for collection.
So he began disassembling the device, not randomly of course, while rather alien to him, there were rather universal ways to build electronics, as it was a solar battery presumably transmitting both it's charge and location. If he could find the battery within the large device, he could disconnect some of the wiring on it, leading to it being unable to do... well something. The parts weren't labelled, at least not in any recognizable way and he would feel guilty about destroying these devices, as they were some of the most humane ways to collect energy across the cosmos. Some governments out there used people as batteries, turning lifetimes into mere moments.
After taking a moment, he turned around and grabbed the panel he had haphazardly discarded onto the sand and slid it inside, not before climbing in himself, after some more poking around it became clear their wasn't anything he could recognize as a battery, so he began unplugging some, hopefully, less important wires. After a couple minutes of disconnecting the metallic cylinders internals, the machine stopped vibrating, indicating that it had stopped functioning, and he sat down. He had no idea how long it would take for a ship to appear. He closed his eyes and began to dream.
...