This here was a doodle I refined off a sketch-challenge . I thought it would be fun to try and write a little story for it. Was kinda tough because I had the picture down first and wrote around it, and I think the last "story" I ever wrote was like, a decade ago when I was in school lol.

Oh well, heres some fluff to read:

The ship had docked some hours ago at a rather small and shabby spaceport on the planet's surface. The crew got some free time to spend until the needed repairs on their ship's hull and engine were finished, so the crew made some plans. Arnosh and Jago stayed relatively close to the docks and visited the rural commercial district, since there were plenty of pubs to explore. Jane and Kyra intended to take a shuttle to the nearest metropolis to go on a shopping trip and invited Rita to join them. But she turned down their offer, excused herself with reasons like “she would need to supervise the ship repairs.” or “can't leave our valuables unwatched”, and promised to go with them next time.

After the crew left for their activities, Rita stayed on the ship while the maintenance on the hull was in progress and headed for her room. It looked very organised and tidy, the few decorations on the shelves were neatly arranged and dusted, the floor polished so one could see their own reflection. Her bed was freshly made, and next to it was a cleared desk with her computer tablet stashed in its docking station. If this would've been her cabin in the military, a drill sergeant surely wouldn't find a single inducement to get her in trouble!

She double checked if all the safety locks were properly working, and if the emergency gear in her cabin was still intact and correctly maintained. Just her usual errands, since there never really was anything to outright clean.

The Vulnek stopped for a moment after checking on the emergency utensils, glancing at her reflection in the mirror that was attached to her closet door. She was still dressed in an insulating, light-weight under-suit, which was good at keeping body temperature in check when in outer Space, but wasn't the most comfortable thing to wear when docked on a planet with an atmosphere.

The constant muffled shrieking of machines and the heavy pounding onto the outer hull of the ship were faintly audible and occasionally made the room vibrate. Rita thought she could probably dress more comfortably since it appeared she would be around this planet for a while...

Opening her closet, she saw all her jackets hanging on the top rail, neatly sorted after colors. The nicely folded shirts and pants were lying next to each other side by side on the shelves, and the shoes were arranged on the bottom of the closet from left to right. For a moment she felt like she was in the mall, looking at all these rather feminine civil clothes.

Shopping never really was Rita's thing, given that she had a long past in the military. She would always end up buying very generic clothes in somewhat boring colors, mostly grays, browns and olives when she tried. Most of “her” clothes have been army property anyways, so she never even gave into the illusion of actually owning any clothes back then.

If it wasn't for Jane's constant spurring, Rita would probably still run around dressed like a soldier. The stoic Vulnek always made it seem like she didn't enjoy dressing up like that, but reluctantly agreed just so Jane would finally be happy and give her peace.

While she was looking through the jackets to pick one to wear, it dawned to Rita that the majority of these clothes were bought on behalf of Jane. She stopped browsing for a moment when she spotted a beige, sturdy and slightly battered jacket. This was the one that Jane found in a store back on their home planet Fenakra! She pulled it out and inspected it a bit closer. It was a cropped jacket, very sturdy and with two pouches on the chest. It had long sleeves which had the insignia of the Vulnek stitched onto.
Rita smiled a little, remembering Jane's comment on how cool it looked when Rita was trying it on back then, and how the insignia made her look like a true captain.

Receiving comments and compliments on her looks was something very extraordinary to the Vulnek captain, because she never bothered or identified with fashion and beauty in any way before when she still served. After all, Master Sergeant Rita couldn't have been bothered which camouflage pattern would fit her eye-color during that time... But this time was over. And she figured that she did find true enjoyment in things that she never believed she'd ever like back then.
Of course, Rita, still being as stoic and reserved as it gets, would never openly admit that to anyone. It was convenient to have her go-to excuse to dress fancily merely to try to satisfy Jane so she would stop nagging around…

A sudden urge to go out for a walk overcame Rita. Maybe it was because she was caged inside this vessel pretty much for the last couple days while on mission and just needed some fresh air, or maybe the ongoing hammering of the repairs were getting on her nerves.

The sun was already low and destined to settle in a few hours. The ship's scanner earlier indicated that it was almost wintertime on this planet, so it was rather cold and windy. The Vulnek grew up with much warmer temperatures back at her home planet, but she didn't seem to be bothered by the coldness around here. She didn't even bother closing her jacket when walking outside. She was used to temperatures like that now. Looks like spending all this time in the vast, cold Space did have some benefits after all...

Rita had a big thick scarf wrapped around her neck which was also covering her upper chest. The open cropped jacket with the Vulnek symbol on both sleeves laid heavily on top of a long shirt to keep her relatively warm. She had a black holster with some small pouches wrapped around her hip and leg but left the gun at the ship. Her dark cargo pants sat loosely on her legs and overlapped the shiny black ankle boots.
It was an outfit that she liked to wear regularly on missions with not a whole lot of action... or at least, no planned action. Actual combat situations would arguably be a bit easier without loose scarfs and jackets getting in the way... or while wearing high heels. Rita was okay with it though; she has been through worse. After all, she was battle hardened from carrying pretty much half her body weight in a backpack, together with a rifle.

There was a scrapyard near the station with lots of spare ship-parts lying around, with old bleachers here and there, and lots of other rusty junk scattered. It looked like there were races being held around here before, but it looked pretty desolate now. It reminded Rita of a mission she was sent to once, involving illegal races with dangerous self-built off road vehicles she would seize with her team.

Navigating through the rubble and overgrown scrap, the Vulnek was heading for some old, corroded bleachers with most of their paint peeled off, next to a large collapsed radio tower and some shrubs. The leaves from the trees all around rustled from the repeatedly appearing gusts, and there were constant sounds of creaking metal and bending wood.

She effortlessly got up a partly collapsed wall, jumped down onto a big, corrugated roof sheet made of metal that was stuck in the dirt, and from there climbed up the bleachers she saw from afar. Her agility surely came in handy countless times before, and it does help with not getting your clothes dirty, too!

Being up a little higher now gave her a vantage point over the place, but there was not a whole lot to see, it just looked like an ocean of overgrown scrap and various vegetation that was long forgotten…
Rita settled and sat down. She had a great look at the sun setting beneath two large trees and behind a big hill. She couldn’t help but feel at home in such a place, as barren as it was. Maybe it reminded her of the infinite savannas and deserts on Fenakra, the many long forgotten scrapyards of old tech that they had around the cities, and all the similar looking, beaten-down criminal hideouts she and her squad would bust down.

Rita was no romantic person at all, but even she could find joy and comfort from things as mundane as watching a sunset - observing how it turned even the ugliest and most bleak places into something beautiful sometimes.
Sitting there and having a bit of time to herself, she began reflecting on some things – how her life just changed so much…
From living only to serve – to experience true friendship and camaraderie.
From dedicating her life to enforce arbitrary rules made by others - to fight for her own morals.
From being a rigorous law-keeper - to becoming a lawbreaking captain of a smuggler crew.
The young captain remembered the plaguing doubts she had a long time back, wondering whether all these choices and changes really were for the better, whether she would regret these choices at some point.
But Rita snapped out of these doubts. She was sure that her life changed for the better. It has been proven often enough to her at this point.
Even if that meant dealing with more petty issues sometimes rather than bringing down criminals! ...or dressing up more fancily every now and then! Next time, she would join up with Jane and Kyra to waste some time together, as she promised…