Chapter 1: Emergency Landing
Emergency Landing
Chapter One: Emergency Landing
Captain Sharon Carson silenced the wailing alarms as the Spire of Winter hurtled towards a planet. Just an hour earlier, the massive colony ship had come under attack by Chong’s fleet. While Rigel Interstellar Mining Corporation had wisely equipped the Spire of Winter with a mass driver system, a mining laser and an enormous number of point defense laser cannons, this was no warship. Even though the great starship managed to evade them, it was not unscarred. Several strikes from the Phoenix’s powerful mining laser had landed, burning through the hull and reducing vital components to slag. With no way to do repairs in space, they had two choices: send out a distress signal and hope that a friendly ship would assist them or land on a planet and attempt repairs.
Captain Carson looked at the star chart to the left of the captain’s chair. She noticed that she had already crossed into the “Frontier”. Here, the planets were mostly unexplored and few starships – mostly research, military or mining – ventured.
“Mayday! Mayday! This is the RIMCS Spire of Winter, we have lost power! Repeat we have lost power!” she barked into the radio.
She waited for a response. After several minutes passed, all she heard was the dead static of the radio.
“Fuck!” she shouted, slamming the microphone into its holder. She’d settle for any friendly ship picking up her signal, even the decrepit Abbey Road-class corvette RIMCS Tale of Calypso would suffice.
She then pressed the intercom next to the microphone. “Gibel! Status of the ship’s systems!”
***
Engineer Ashton Gibel was inside the ship’s engineering control room near the ship’s palladium-hydrogen fusion reactor, located deep inside the ship, where it was safe from damage. Unlike fictional power sources, these reactors cannot explode. Of course, severely damaging the reactor would completely cripple the ship. While these reactors were extremely expensive (both due to the precious metal required and the high degree of labor required for such a precision machine), they were also extremely efficient and powerful, producing gigawatts of power from nothing more than hydrogen.
Engineer Gibel opened the intercom. “This is Engineer Gibel,” he said.
“Status report on the ship!”
Before he could say anything, the door marked with the radiation hazard symbol slid open and four figures in bulky anti-flash white full body suits entered. These were the crewmembers in charge of reactor maintenance. Even though the reactor was protected by powerful energy shields, enough neutron radiation leaked through to pose a health hazard; hence their protective suits. As a side effect of providing extraordinary protection against all forms of radiation, they also served very well as impromptu shielding against energy weapons – a fact that Engineer Gibel himself found out when pirates attacked the ship that he had previously served aboard – the Norfolk-class logistics ship RIMCS Incandescent Moon.
The figures then stripped off their heavy protective suits and seated themselves in the control room.
“The reactor is undamaged. But fuel tanks one, five and seven have been perforated. Approximately fifty percent of the fuel has been lost from those tanks. The remaining fuel has been shunted to the remaining tanks.” one of the crewmen said.
Engineer Gibel sighed as he read what the computer’s diagnostics revealed. It was as he feared; the life support systems, communications array and main engines had been destroyed by the laser strikes.
***
Captain Carson swore under her breath. The viewscreen showed that they were approaching a planet with sapphire blue oceans and verdant green plains. Brown and grey spires of mountain ranges peeked through gossamer strands of white clouds. In all, it was a perfect match for Earth. But appearances could be deceiving.
Even if the planet was hostile to life, she had no choice but to land there, lest the starship become the Flying Dutchman of the stars, sailing through the hard vacuum of space for all eternity.
But landing was no easy feat either. If she moved too fast, the starship would become a city sized meteor, killing everyone on board and wreaking havoc on the planet’s ecosystem.
She took a deep breath, tasting the cold metallic tang of reprocessed air – a reminder that the main life support systems were non-functional and the bridge was running on its backup supply. No, she had to focus, everyone aboard was counting on her.
“Samuel!” she barked, turning to the Peregrine Falcon seated next to her. “Run a complete scan on that planet!”
First Mate Molly Samuel nodded as she ruffled her feathers and headed for a chair placed in front of a console. A push of a button and several minutes later, the results of the scan came back on screen.
“Atmospheric components are 23% oxygen, 76% nitrogen and 1% other gasses. No toxic gasses detected. Temperature average is 273 to 290 kelvin. Surface gravity, one g,” First Mate Samuel said, reading off the screen.
Captain Carson nodded. At least they the good fortune to find an Earth-like planet. She then activated the VASMIR ion drives to slow down the ship as they approached. “All right, preparing for orbital insertion.”
The Spire of Winter slowly fell into orbit around the mysterious planet. The bridge was silent except for the whir of fans circulating the recycled air.
***
Dr. Zanasiu and Mr. Bigmouth along with some of crew and passengers were sitting in a café in “Winterville” – the name for the Spire of Winter’s onboard town, which was a perfect replica of an archtypical American small town. All of them were wearing the silver emergency spacesuits that the ship had on hand. Luckily, the air in Winterville was still breathable and it lacked the metallic tang of reprocessed air. Of course, this probably had to do with the fact that there was a massive volume of air in Winterville. Of course, once alarms sounded, indicating that the air had accumulated too much carbon dioxide, they’d have to don their helmets and seal up their space suits.
“I hope we make it through this mess in one piece,” Dr. Zanasiu said.
“Captain Carson is very experienced. This ship is in capable hands, even if the engines, jump drive, weapons and life support are all destroyed,” Mr. Bigmouth said. Like the other passengers aboard the Spire of Winter, he often assisted the actual crew. His specialty being machinery and technology, he was often found assisting the chief engineer.
The roar of jet engines overhead caused everyone present to look upwards. There, they saw Lt. Martin and her partner, Rainbow, gamboling overhead. The two living planes paid no heed to the group on the ground. The air was cool and the simulated weather was a clear blue sky.
Deimos approached the group; he was munching on a breaded catfish fillet sandwich. “So we ready to explore distant planets?” he asked.
“Well, not exactly, we’re supposed to be helping Nick and Dr. Kerzach,” Dr. Zanasiu began. And-”
“We will not be confronting Chong with our starship in this state!” Mr. Bigmouth cut in. “We must land for repairs.”
“And where are we going to get the parts?” Deimos countered.
Mr. Bigmouth facepalmed. He had assumed that everyone knew that the Spire of Winter had onboard factories that manufactured everything from ammunition and fuel to replacement parts.
***
Captain Carson was rapidly approaching the planet. Suddenly, alarms rang out.
“Warning! Warning! High levels of solar radiation and heat detected!” the ship’s AI blared out.
“The fuck!” she shouted. She looked at the virtual windshield (a real windshield was too dangerous for space going vessel) and much to her surprise, saw a vividly glowing sphere – far too small to be an actual star – orbiting the planet. She scanned through her brain; in all her years of space travel, she had never seen such a thing.
“Warning! Warning! High levels of solar radiation and heat detected!”
The AI’s insistent tone bought her back to reality. She pushed her curiosity aside and focused on piloting. She would normally let the autopilot handle landings but that had gotten damaged due to Chong’s attack. She took her position in the captain’s chair and cracked her knuckles.
She grabbed the joystick and activated the maneuvering rockets. These rockets were smaller versions of the VASMIR ion drives that served as the main engines of the ship. She bought up a virtual representation of her ship, the planet and the star orbiting it with the push of a button.
“All right, Captain Carson. Time to rock!” she muttered.
She then pressed a button that activated the ship wide intercom system. “Attention! We are preparing to land. Please secure all belongings and fasten your seatbelts.”
She then secured the restraints on her own seat and continued her delicate task.
***
“Looks like we’d better get ready for landing,” Dr. Zanasiu said. He and his friends flagged down an electric taxi that took them to “landing room”.
Dr. Zanasiu looked outside the taxi’s window as it sped down the streets and headed into a tunnel. The green grass and warm “sun” of Winterville quickly gave way to polished stainless steel and cold white LED lights. Armored cables and pipes lined the stainless steel walls. Outside on the elevated pedestrian walkways on the side, he could see a steady stream of inhabitants and crew walking towards the “landing room”.
***
Meanwhile, Captain Fairchild, Major Lockie, Lt. Martin and Rainbow had landed and rolled into the lift that would take them into the vehicle bay. All around them were dune buggies, speeder bikes, APCs and even some fighter aircraft and tanks. Several crew members were busy securing the vehicles to ensure that they were not damaged. The vehicle bay’s most distinctive feature was a runway that led into a tunnel that opened into a flight deck exposed to the outside. In total, the runway extended nearly the entire length of the starship – nearly two miles. A magnetic launcher – a modified version of the mass driver that served as the Spire of Winter’s main gun – was present in case a vehicle was too heavy to get enough speed to get airborne in the distance allotted. The runway ended at a heavy blast door marked with yellow and black warning stripes. The blast door was wide enough to accommodate Major Lockie’s 132 foot wingspan.
“Well, time to strap ourselves in and prepare for landing,” Rainbow said.
At her words, the four planes rolled over to their designated spots. When they parked there, clamps locked onto their landing gears and several members of the ground crew got out several strong fabric straps. The fabric straps were identical to the ones that secured the normal vehicles, except for the fact that they were padded to ensure their comfort. The workers then got to work securing them to hard points and fastening down the four planes.
After all the planes were secured, the crew chief looked at them. “Are you comfortable?”
“Yeah,” Major Lockie replied.
***
The planet’s green and blue radiance filled up Captain Carson’s virtual windshield as she slowed down the great starship and entered the atmosphere.
She then activated the braking repulsorlifts to slow the craft down even further. Nevertheless, the ship’s outer skin began to glow with heat as it slammed into the molecules of the atmosphere.
***
Night was upon the surface of this unnamed planet. Stars twinkled in the sky and a full moon shone brightly overhead in the ebon sky.
Nothing marred the skies, except for a long incandescent streak.
***
Inside a tree house, a purple unicorn mare was busy looking through a large telescope. A quill pen levitated in the air next to her as she jotted down some notes on the stars.
She moved the telescope’s field of view and was rewarded by a long streak of white. She quickly analyzed – and discarded – what it could be: not a meteor, it persisted too long; not a comet, it was moving far too fast; not the H.A.R.M.O.N.Y. defense satellite, it was descending; not a spacecraft launch from Cape Caneighveral, she was too far north to see anything. That left only one possibility – an alien ship.
She immediately tore herself away from telescope. Giddy with excitement, she quickly took down as much information as she could find about the object on a spare scroll. When that was done, she began writing a letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am writing to you to inform you of a mysterious celestial body that-
The quill dropped to the floor with a clatter as a massive sonic boom ripped through the air. Books tumbled from their shelves and an inkwell shattered, leaving a puddle of black ink.
Spike, her draconic assistant, stuck his head over the balcony. “Twilight, what’s going on?”
Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn mare, shook her head. “All I know is that some unknown object has entered the atmosphere.”
“I’m going back to sleep.”
“Spike! This is important! Princess Celestia needs to know about this!”
Spike hurried down the stairs and stood by Twilight’s side. He looked somewhat upset as missing out on his sleep.
Her horn glowed and she continued writing her letter. When she was done, the letter floated over to Spike, who breathed out a burst of green fire that engulfed the scroll and reduced it to a mist that drifted out the window to Canterlot.
“All right, all we need to do is wait for Princess Celestia to reply,” Twilight said.
***
The Spire of Winter touched down in the border between the Everfree Forest and the Drakonos Mountains. As it slowed down it landed with surprisingly gentleness for a ship the size of a small town. Many curious creatures streamed out of the forest to investigate.
***
Captain Carson smiled as she unfastened her seatbelt.
“All right, time to do some exploration-” she took a breath, inhaling the cold, metallic air “- and get some fresh air.”
She then pushed a button. “Planetary exploration team, prepare for expedition!” she shouted into the intercom. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She was getting tired of the recycled air inside the sealed bridge but she had no idea if dangerous pathogens lurked outside on the planet.
***
Inside the hangar, workers unstrapped the four planes.
“Well, that wasn’t too bad,” Captain Fairchild said. He then heard Captain Carson’s voice ring out from the loudspeakers overhead. He then turned to the workers. “All right, you know the drill!” he barked. Like the other vehicles, he, Lt. Martin, Major Lockie and Rainbow had their weapons unloaded while in the hangar bays. There was a section in Winterville that he could do live fire exercises on, though.
After several minutes of the four planes giving their orders for weaponry and equipment, the crew chief sent her workers to fetch the requested ordnance.
Captain Fairchild sighed in contentment as one of the workers scratched him just behind his wings.
“So what do you think we’ll be facing?” Major Lockie asked.
Rainbow’s wingtip lights flashed red then green – the aviation equivalent of a shrug.
“Well, from what Captain Carson sent me, the planet appears to be deserted. So I’ll pass on the anti-armor ammo for my main gun. But just in case, I requested two Maverick anti-tank missiles,” Captain Fairchild replied.
Several minutes later, a group of men wearing powered exoskeletons led a convoy of small electric trucks carrying the planes’ ordnance.
Two of the men guided a forklift carrying the ammunition drum that contained the 30 mm rounds for Captain Fairchild’s GAU-8 Avenger rotary cannon. He usually carried a 4:1 mix of depleted uranium armor piercing rounds and high explosive incendiary rounds. As uranium was not exactly common in space, a substitute utilizing steel that that was magically enhanced to be denser and harder was developed (thanks to a joint effort between Mr. Bigmouth and Stripetail). While this material lacked the incendiary properties of depleted uranium, its armor piercing qualities and density were essentially the same.
He concentrated on his mission while the ground crew positioned the ammunition drum underneath him. Luckily for them, all Captain Fairchild had to do was lower himself over the drum and his gun would take care of everything else.
He yawned as he felt a rocket pod clipped onto a wing hard point. Several of the ground crew sniggered; apparently a living A-10 yawning was quite a bizarre sight. Captain Fairchild paid them no heed.
At the same time, several other men were arming the other living planes.
After half an hour had passed, all the planes were fully armed. Captain Fairchild carried HEI rounds in his cannon. In addition, all eleven of his hardpoints were filled: four 70 mm Hydra rocket pods, two each of high explosive and flechette, each pod containing nineteen rockets; two Sidewinder heat seeking anti-air missiles and two Maverick laser guided anti-tank missiles all took up his eight wing-mounted hardpoints. An ECM (electronic countermeasures) pod, a flare and chaff dispenser and an environmental research pod filled occupied the three hardpoints on his belly. The final piece of equipment was a set of cameras. Three other ordnancemen came in with the cameras. Thanks to the fact that these living planes had elongated snouts, the cameras fit on the planes like a horse’s halter. Consequently, the living planes started referring to them as such.
Major Lockie and Rainbow groaned as they stuck their heads through the halters and the ground crew buckled them. While the halters were made to ensure that the planes were comfortable, those two felt that it was demeaning to wear what was essentially a piece of tack.
On the other hand, Lt. Martin and Captain Fairchild were much more enthusiastic about wearing them. This of course, led Rainbow and Major Lockie to crack jokes about their kinks.
Soon, all of the planes had their camera gear on. All of the plane’s halters were color coded – subdued cyan for Rainbow, black for Major Lockie, dark blue and gold for Lt. Martin, dark grey for Captain Fairchild – and had their name and rank on a metal plate. This was needed as each plane had a differently built snout.
Captain Fairchild carefully pivoted in place, being careful not to crush the ground crew. “How do I look?”
“Badass as ever,” Major Lockie deadpanned. He then turned to the crewman in charge of his weapons. “Have you loaded everything?”
The crewman nodded.
“All right, let’s get ready to rock!” Captain Fairchild said.
“Easy, we’re just exploring the planet, not engaging in a military action,” Rainbow said. Her crewman loaded the last AMRAAM missile of six in her internal bay. She also carried two Sidewinder missiles on her wing hardpoints. The last two wing hardpoints were occupied by an environmental research pod and an ECM pod. She still wore the baby blue paint and rainbow thunderbolt roundel that she had on when she performed at Dixie and Scooby’s wedding with the rest of the Silverbolts.
Major Lockie just carried standard high explosive fragmentation shells for all of his guns. His bomb rack had been removed and replaced with an environmental research pod. And since his weapons now had automatic reloading systems, he no longer needed to carry a crew in his cargo hold to load his weapons.
An ordnanceman patted Lt. Martin’s flank as the environmental research pod was attached to her belly hardpoint. “All right, you’re all set,” he said.
Lt. Martin’s wingtip lights flashed green – the aviation equivalent of a thumbs-up. She mounted two Sidewinder missiles on her wingtips. Her two remaining belly hardpoints mounted – of all things – “Durandal” anti-runway bombs.
“Eltee, what the hell are you planning to do with anti-runway bombs?’ Rainbow asked. “As was clearly stated, this is an environmental research mission; we have more than enough firepower already. Remove those bombs immediately and replace them with a flare/chaff dispenser!”
Lt. Martin tried to find an explanation but came up empty. “I dunno, I just have this feeling I might need them.”
An ordnanceman came up to Rainbow. “I can explain, Major Douglas,” he said.
Rainbow frowned. Only those outranking her could use her real name. She earned that callsign, damn it! “Explanation, ensign?” she demanded tersely.
The ensign flinched, Rainbow towered over him and her rose eyes seemed to pierce into him like the shells from Captain Fairchild’s cannon. “Yes,” he said, regaining his composure. “Our external cameras show in a mountainous area; munitions intended for destroying runways may serve a purpose.”
Rainbow screwed up her eyes in thought. “So because we don’t have actual bunker busters, this is supposed to serve as a replacement?”
The ensign nodded.
“Very well, carry on.”
The ensign saluted and returned to his duties.
“Is everyone loaded up and ready?” Captain Fairchild asked. His airframe tingled with anticipation.
“All right, let’s roll!”
Red lights flashed as Captain Fairchild moved into the runway and an angled metal plate rose upwards from the metal floor.
“Engines on!”
With those words, the whine of the living A-10’s engines spooling up echoed through the hangar. He then began to slowly move forward but he quickly picked up speed. The metal plate safely deflected the jet wash into the air, keeping the other vehicles from being damaged.
After he passed the midpoint, the blast doors at the end of the runway automatically slid open, thanks to a transponder attached to the top of his landing gear
***
Captain Fairchild thundered through the blast door and into a brightly lit steel tunnel. The walls were lit with blue arrows that flashed in a rhythmic pattern towards the tunnel’s end. The drone of his engines reverberated in the tunnel, causing his mind to wander as he gained speed and slowly rose off the ground.
A loud clank bought him back to reality. Ahead of him lay an inky black void ringed with the cold blue of the flight tunnel’s navigation lights. A few seconds later, he shot into the night sky.
The cool air felt refreshing against his airframe and his twin jet engines hungrily gulped the crisp air. All he wanted to do was fly lazy circles around the ship and take in the cool air. But alas, he had a mission to do.
He activated his camera and night vision system as he circled around. To the north was a massive mountain range and to the southwest was an enormous forest. To the east was the downed Spire of Winter. He chuckled as he realized that their landing had essentially put a whole town in the middle of an undeveloped wilderness.
The roar of afterburners and the thrum of propellers told him that the others were coming. He wheeled around and spotted Major Lockie along with the other two planes flying towards him. Their inbuilt night vision systems gave their eyes an eerie green glow.
“So how will we explore this new planet?” Major Lockie asked.
“Well, seeing as there is nothing really here that can pose a threat, I suggest we just volunteer,” Rainbow said.
“In that case, I’ll take dead south,” Major Lockie said.
“I’ll head to the mountains,” Captain Fairchild added.
“In that case, eltee will head to the forest and I will head west,” Rainbow said. “Now get moving!”
The planes immediately split off to their destinations.
***
A siren wailed inside the town of Winterville. With so many inhabitants and the life support systems damaged, it was inevitable that the levels of carbon dioxide would become dangerous. As a result, everyone was clad in the silver environment suits that were at literally every street corner. Nevertheless, they were walking around town like nothing happened.
“Great, like we need any more setbacks?” Deimos deadpanned. His voice was slightly muffled by the environment suit. Two scrubbers fastened to his waist provided clean air and an air tank on his back provided a backup air supply. His eyes were hidden behind a mirrored visor.
“Hopefully, the exploration team finds out that this planet has no hazards and we can get some fresh air,” Mr. Bigmouth said.
He leaned back on his chair in the Winterville Café – not as hard a task as it seemed thanks to the flexibility of the suit. He could hear the faint hum of the electric cars passing by the café.
***
Major Lockie scanned the skies around him as he cruised through the air at 250 miles per hour. Suddenly, he spotted a city made of clouds rapidly approaching him. Even though he could fly through clouds with no issues back on Earth, he figured if that the clouds could take the shape of cities, flying through them was not a good idea. He wheeled around, his wings narrowly avoiding a towering minaret. Luckily, his halter was equipped with a camera so everything was recorded. He then climbed in altitude and flew over the cloud city. To his surprise, he could make out roads and sidewalks made of cloud. Even more shocking was that the Geiger counter on his bomb rack suddenly spiked up to the maximum and then plummeted back to zero. And repeated this action multiple times.
“Strange, why would the radiation level spike to such a degree?” he muttered to himself. This did not worry him as he was immune to radiation – except for his electronics. Even then, it took doses 200 times greater than the Human lethal dose to cause damage and he had an internal alarm to warn about that.
He tuned out the incessant ticking of the Geiger counter as he continued flying. He was extremely surprised to find a town – and from the looks of it, an inhabited one – directly below the cloud city. The fact that a town could thrive in an area with such a high degree of radioactivity was a complete shock to him.
Major Lockie made sure to angle his halter cam to film the town as he flew over it.
***
Twilight Sparkle wriggled in her bed. All she heard in her dreams was a low droning buzz.
Spike muttered something and rolled out of his basket, landing on the floor with a thump. He rubbed his head. Suddenly, he too heard that low drone.
He dashed over to one of the windows and he spotted two steadily blinking green lights in the distance. And those green lights appeared to be getting closer.
***
Major Lockie was halfway to Twilight Sparkle’s house when Captain Carson ordered him to return to base.
He then sighed, wheeled around and headed back to the Spire of Winter.
***
The other planes had landed on the exterior flight deck and were taxiing to the external elevator where they would be lowered into the decontamination room.
***
Several minutes later, Captain Fairchild, Rainbow and Lt. Martin were parked in the hangar. Their environmental research pods and halters had been removed and set aside.
“Well, now what?” Captain Fairchild asked.
“Wait for Major Lockie to return,” Lt. Martin said.
Captain Fairchild looked around; the ground crew was busy doing their duties but they were wearing silver environment suits instead of their navy blue flight suits. Of course, low oxygen levels were not a hazard to the living planes, except for the fact that it made it more difficult to ignite their engines. Luckily, their fuel contained a special oxygenating compound that allowed combustion in low oxygen environments.
A steady beep followed by the whir of electric motors signaled that Major Lockie had been decontaminated and was present. The ground crew got to work removing his equipment.
“Well, what’d you find out?” he asked.
“Well, the air’s perfectly breathable. There’s no pathogens, toxins or radiation in the atmosphere,” Rainbow said. “Also, there doesn’t seem to be intelligent life around here. All I saw were animals that looked like Earth animals but I am hesitant to say that they are Earth animals.”
“Hmm. I found a town dead south of here.”
All movement ceased as the living AC-130 spoke. A clank broke the silence as a stunned mechanic dropped a wrench. All eyes turned to him.
“A town?” Lt. Martin asked in a whisper.
“Yes, but that’s not all, the level of radiation in that area is extremely high. As in, a Human could receive a lethal dose in minutes. And from the looks of things, that town’s inhabited.”
“So this planet does have intelligent life after all,” Rainbow said. She then turned to ground crew. “I want all information here to be recorded and sent to the scientific team and Captain Carson!”
“Will do, Major Dougl – I mean Rainbow,” an ordnanceman said, quickly correcting himself when Rainbow glared at him. He wondered why Rainbow was so sensitive about her real name when the other living planes let their real names be used. He made a mental note to ask one of the other planes about it. He then activated the radio inside his suit and relayed some additional information.
***
Stripetail, Mr. Bigmouth and Dr. Zanasiu were inside the science lab and analyzing the data (along with a few air samples) that the vehicles had obtained. Of course, everyone was clad in the environment suits that were provided thanks to the low oxygen levels.
Mr. Bigmouth looked up from a printout that displayed the readings from the spectroscope. “It looks like the planetary scan is correct; the atmosphere is, in fact, remarkably similar to the atmosphere of Earth. Albeit the oxygen levels are a bit higher.”
Dr. Zanasiu examined the printout for the mass spectrometer. “There aren’t any toxic chemicals in the atmosphere.”
A technician looked up from her sample of air from Major Lockie’s flight, which was sealed inside a lead box reinforced with an energy shield. “It doesn’t make sense! With radiation levels that Major Lockie recorded, the air’s radioactivity level should be above background levels. All I’m getting is background level radiation!”
Stripetail looked up from his stack of papers prepared by some of the other technicians. He scratched his mirrored faceplate with a gloved finger. “If I may,” he began, “the environmental research pods that the three living planes carry also carry a charged crystal detector intended to detect magical fields. It is possible the equipment misinterpreted the results as conventional radiation.”
Luckily, Stripetail had briefed the science crew on the nature of magic, so they treated it much as one would treat another discipline of science.
“So will this magical field kill us? Dr. Zanasiu asked as he put down his papers.
Stripetail shook his head. “No. While exposure to intense magical radiation – like that produced from certain magical manufacturing processes – will cause intense discomfort or even unconsciousness; it will not kill or cause permanent injury to non magical creatures.”
Mr. Bigmouth cleared his throat. “So what shall we do?”
“We send this data to Captain Carson.”
With that said, a concise report detailing their findings was teleported to Captain Carson.
***
The air inside the bridge had finally become unbreathable as the backup life support systems failed. Luckily, breather masks were within easy reach. The report flashed into Captain Carson’s lap. She quickly scanned over it. She smiled as she realized that the atmosphere was perfectly safe.
She activated her mask mounted radio and spoke. “Attention please, this is your captain speaking, the air outside is safe, please exit the starship in an orderly fashion.”
Her message was broadcast through the whole ship.
***
Dr. Zanasiu and his group left the laboratory and followed the crowd heading out of Winterville. As they walked, they seamlessly blended into the faceless mass of environment suit clad figures. The silver environment suits seemed to mesh perfectly with the silver walls that characterized the rest of the starship.
***
Inside the hangar, the four living planes were lined up on the runway in preparation for takeoff. Captain Fairchild was the first to take off. As they were capable of starting their engines without external assistance, the ground crew was dismissed.
***
Over an hour later, the entire population of the Spire of Winter had left the starship and spread out around the surrounding area. Most of them had taken off their helmets and inhaled the crisp, clean air.
“Wow, this air’s like that in the Great Valley,” Ms. Swimmer said. As she preferred not to wear a space suit, she relied on an enchanted necklace to provide her with air.
Mr. Bigmouth took a deep breath. His helmet was tucked under his arm. “You’re telling me.”
Several repulsorsleds emerged from the vehicle door. Their cargo consisted mostly of supplies for setting up camp such as prefab shelters, portable fusion generators but several other sleds carried food and weapons.
Captain Carson and her crew got to work directing those around them. The Pelvanida Group along with the Omniderate and ship’s detachment of soldiers got to work arming themselves and forming a defensive perimeter as other crewmembers started setting up a prefab town under the lights that were carried out from the Spire of Winter.
Stripetail himself had entered the Spire of Winter to clear out the stale air with a spell. Unfortunately, this was a time release spell that took several days to work.
Dr. Zanasiu and Nani grabbed their weapons – Kel-Tec KSG shotguns. Although they were reluctant to give up their cherished Remington 870 shotguns, once they saw how they could carry fourteen rounds in a compact package and even carry two different loads, they immediately fell in love. Strut, on the other hand, had problems getting used to the ammunition feed located behind the trigger so he kept his old Remington 870.
“So you thinking about teaching Lilo how to shoot?” Dr. Zanasiu asked as he slid shells into the magazine.
Nani was loading her shotgun. “Not until she’s old enough.”
“Good point.” Dr. Zanasiu then switched over to the other magazine and loaded it with FRAG-12 rounds – essentially a grenade packed into a 12-gauge shotgun shell.
Dr. Zanasiu then left to take his position with the other guards. Deimos arrived to fetch his Barrett M82 rifle. He then saw Nani topping off one magazine with buckshot and then filling the other magazine with taser rounds.
“Nani!” he barked. “Didn’t I tell you to never mix lethal and less-than-lethal rounds!?”
“But what if we want to capture someone?” Nani protested.
“I’m more concerned about you accidentally using less lethal when lethal force is desired. I don’t give a shit if use accidentally use lethal when you want less lethal. To me, if you have to shoot someone, you might as well kill them.” Deimos then continued loading the magazines with .50 caliber ammunition.
Nani thought about what Deimos told her and realized he was right; using a taser round when someone was shooting at them could get her or one of her allies killed. She then ejected the taser shells back into the container and looked at the other ammunition offered – everything from door breaching slugs to incendiary and high explosive rounds were available. She shrugged and started loading several slug rounds into her shotgun.
***
Captain Fairchild, Tarrax, Spyro, Cynder, Rainbow, Lt. Martin and Major Lockie were flying overhead.
“Well, it looks like this is a beautiful place,” Cynder said.
Spyro nodded. “Too bad we can’t stay here. That nutcase Chong’s probably on his way here right now.”
Lt. Martin flew next to Spyro. “So what shall we do?”
“That is up to Lord Stripetail and Captain Carson to decide,” Tarrax said. “Though it would be wise to explore the town that Major Lockie has found but it would be best to do so during the day.”
Suddenly, Captain Fairchild spoke up. “Guys! Be on your guard! I’ve got a large object on radar!”
“Forget radar! I have a visual!” Rainbow shouted. Sure enough, in the distance, a massive figure was silhouetted against the moon. Judging from its shape, it appeared to be a dragon about the same size as Tarrax or Major Lockie.
“Shall we try negotiations?” Major Lockie asked.
Tarrax nodded and flew up to the dragon. The four living planes heard snatches of Tarrax’s native Draconic tongue – a distinctly musical set of whistles, hisses, growls and other noises.
Suddenly, the other dragon gave an ear piercing roar and flew straight at him. Tarrax adroitly dodged the dragon’s charge and continued negotiations. In response, a blast of golden fire was aimed at Tarrax, who quickly put up a shield.
The living planes, Spyro and Cynder got ready for battle.
“This should be fun,” Cynder said with a smirk on her face as the plate of her magic armor began to cover her body. Finally, her head was encased in an armored helm. Her eyes glowed an ominous pale green as she prepared for battle.
Captain Fairchild’s GAU-8 cannon spooled up as well. “Let’s rock.”
