|
|
Post by The Conman on May 29, 2016 21:23:49 GMT -5
BWAAAAP BWAAAAP BWAAAAP BWAAAA-SMACK
Enarin groaned and rolled over, looking at the chrono, reading 06:30. Ever since that fateful day a few weeks ago, when he'd just been up at that hour, and Jada had decided to make him exercise, she'd made him get up at the same hour. His everything hurt, they'd done legs and back the previous day, and he'd managed to run a kilometer without nearly passing out.
She was taking her job seriously, that much was for sure, though over the past few weeks he'd realized the woman wasn't so bad. As long as he did his best, Jada seemed inclined to not make things worse, though hand to hand training was still a bit of a mess. The teen rubbed a black eye as he pushed himself up so he was sitting on the bed, and groaned, pushing an erant lekku back behind his head as he stood up, catching a glimpse of his shirtless form in the mirror on his desk.
He cringed a bit, he looked like shit.
Bruises on his torso and arms, his black eye...though the cuts and scrapes from Alanka's insanity had finally faded, the scar on his head was also nearly invisible...to the teen it'd been millennia since that'd happened, things had been moving pretty fast in the teen's life. Enarin sighed, and ambled over to his closet, and popped it open, and grabbed a red shirt that said "Keep Calm and Drink On" On it. The teen had packed for the trip he was about to embark on the previous night.
Few shirts, pair of pants, underwear, weed, the usual stuff for Enarin. He put on a pair of green tigerstripe camo pants, grabbed his wallet, credit chip ( indicating a total of 3.48 ), comm, and small pipe, and pocketed everything, picked up his bag, and padded out to the kitchen, Jada and Donnie already waiting.
"Morning..." Enarin intoned, putting his backpack on the table and walking over to the coffee machine, pouring himself some of the delicious black liquid.
"Morning, you ready?" Donnie asked cheerilly, wearing her usual morning attire, her sports bra and yoga shorts.
"For?" Enarin asked, heading back and sitting down.
"Morning Jada." He nodded to the woman, receiving one back.
"Uhh, going into spaaace, you'll have your first command, isn't that exci-" Donnie explained, somewhat excitedly, before Enarin's facepalming slowed her roll.
"Mom...slow your roll here...we're doing a supply run because you suck at managing pilots...you gave...what...35-" Jada held up 4 fingers, Enarin could have sworn he could see a smirk dancing around her lips.
"-40 pilots on leave?" Enarin explained, flatly.
"Well...when you put it like that...gods your are a downer in the morning, was hoping you'd be excited about getting out for a bit, seeing some different scenery, going on a bit of an adventure-" Donnie's tone changed.
"-notloudlyfuckingtarynat4amonthecouch-" Donnie added quickly under her breath, before continuing normally.
"You know, get out of the house for-" Donnie was explaining, her coffee gone, Enarin having to interrupt her.
"You remember the last time I went on an Adventure? Got a change of Scenery? Oh, right, I wound up in a sex dungeon for a week...Can we just not-" Donnie interrupted him, shaking her head gently as he'd been speaking.
"Nope, you're going. Jada, if he tries to take off, cuff him to the seat in the freighter and force him to look out a window." Donnie said, somewhat too cherilly, and finally.
"Mom, really, c'mon Jada, help me out here?" Enarin pleaded, looking at Jada for help.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on May 30, 2016 0:16:06 GMT -5
Jada was already up by six thirty. As a matter of fact she was up, on a second cup of coffee, and reading the fleet news on a terminal. She always enjoyed the crime reports, that was because the bastard who typed them up always tried to be neutral and respectable about the events, no matter how hilariously tilted they were. It was the only place in the fleet you could hear stories about old Klozik'tria breaking into the liquor store because some monotheistic god told him too and read it in the form of 'alcohol distribution center breached by mentally disturbed elderly man wielding pamphlets.' It was comedy for people who didn't need creativity next to the mess of weird that was reality.
By the time Enarin and Donnie were out, wearing what Jada still considered not much, she was showered and sitting on the arm of the couch with a breakfast pastry. It had almonds, and involuntarily she reminded herself Gira'd probably go nuts for it.
She nodded re 'good morning,' and listened carefully to the tale of impending transit. Frankly it blew her mind there were 40 pilots on leave, which was probably why she remembered the number in the first place. They were operating a lot more ships than she'd thought, which was a stance common to their proverbial groundpounders who didn't fight in small craft. Still, it meant a change of pace and she was down for that. It got kind of boring in the-
Jada's eyes widened a little at Donnie's couch comment. She stared pointedly at the cushions.
"Eeeew."
She looked back to the mother and son arguing and thought again about how remarkably similar they were. Particularly the quip about the sex dungeon sold it, in her experience thus far it seemed like Donnie would say exactly that if she could. Hell, maybe she even resented the fact the sex dungeon was an experience in somebody else's arsenal of anecdotes. The family was... Open-minded in a way you usually didn't see outside of brothels. Jae'daneri had to respect it. It worked for them.
"Yes Ma'am," Jada confirmed re cuffing and what-not.
"And look at it this way Enarin, the longer you're out of the area the more time it is that your mother can't judge you for fucking a baked potato."
There was a time when Jada's sense of hierarchy and decorum would have precluded a comment like that, but now she knew that, if anything, she'd get a high five from it.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on May 30, 2016 0:52:47 GMT -5
Donnie snerked, and pointed to Jada.
"Jada..." Donnie let out a laugh, but was obviously trying to keep from bursting out.
"Haaa...Yeah, She's got the right idea, hon, if you aren't here, I can't judge you." Donnie said, with a degree of finality, getting up and striding by Enarin to get some coffee, the Teen sliding into a kitchen chair near Jada.
The teen wasn't entirely sure how to respond, he was hoping that jogging his mother's memory by mentioning the sex dungeon would make her reconsider. It hadn't worked, evidently, the woman agreeing with Jada's "brightside". It wasn't that he was going with Jada, that wasn't what bothered him, it was that he was going.
The fact Jada was there was an amount of comfort, he was pretty sure she'd be the scariest thing for miles on just about any planet they went too. The fact it was an entirely in space supply mission, so far as he knew anyway, meant it was unlikely he'd be snatched by crazed mandos. Though, Alanka was clever as hell and there were Imperials everywhere...Neither of them, Jada nor he, had any combat flight experience...Enarin could only barely fly a shuttle let alone a freighter...His mom really was desperate, which, was probably the thing nagging the teen the most. Beyond the notion of him getting captured again, of being in a slow ass freighter of unknown quality...
Desperate Donnie tended to do stupid things.
This was a stupid thing, Enarin surmised, but he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it. The fact Var wasn't present signaled she'd either tried, and failed, to talk her out of it, or she felt it appropriate punishment for plowing a blue girl on the couch and waking everyone up...and the awkward conversation with Niri thereafter.
He sighed, and took a sip of his coffee as his mother sat down back in her spot.
"Mom...Jada...I'm sayin' it right here, right now, I've got a bad feeling about this..." Enarin said, looking from Jada to his mother and back, his tone serious.
"Aww, buck up, you're just all nervous because of the dungeon. This is space, you'll be fine, Jada'll be there, grow a pair Enarin, c'mon." Donnie said, managing to sound vaguely reassuring, Enarin shaking his head, knowing his mother was trying.
He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, downing his coffee.
"Alright, lets get this show on the road, what's the worst that can happen, right?" He asked rhetorically, more to try to convince himself nothing could go wrong than anything, standing up.
"Jada, shall we?" he asked, gesturing towards the docking hatch.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on May 30, 2016 1:12:25 GMT -5
It was several hours later, and they had successfully loaded the freighter with a precious cargo. Not medicine or credits, not food for refugees, but copious quantities of alcohol. The Boska had a particular kind of realism to their priorities. Sending bags of rice and building shacks was fine for some. But for others, well, there was more. People needed to drink. They needed to eat. Fulfilling the necessary gaps was where the Boska excelled. Life didn't have to be ritzy or palatial to be good. Happiness was, in the broad sense, all about taking reasonable standards and living within them. That was something the Boska handled with panache. The fact was that happiness in the Empire was tied to jobs and titles, to fancy homes and politics. The Boska though, you'd also have alcohol, food, and somebody to share a bed with.
That was what made them special.
Jada didn't forget that. She more than most had an arsenal of reasons to cherish the Boska and their quality of life. She'd spent years alone in a prison cell, that had been her quality of life. And before that slavery. The fact she was now so comfortable meant more to her than a million blank credit chits.
She stared at the starfield ahead of them and slowly nodded a little.
"So Enarin," She said, slowly trying to find a topic of conversation to relieve boredom. "How long have you been flying? Your mom's great at it right?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on May 30, 2016 1:43:17 GMT -5
In the time since they'd set out, Enarin had gotten his stuff put away and gone over the cargo. It was, nearly exclusively, courtesy of probably Gira, booze. It wasn't overly surprising, though the teen had expected spare parts. The cargo wasn't overly worrying, the condition of the freighter, however, was. It was at least a century old, and hadn't flown since the clone wars. That wasn't a guess on his part either, when he was putting his gear on his bunk, he found a newspaper from 20 years prior...and the ships log, and probably more disturbingly, it's maintenance records.
So far as the teen could tell, it'd been sitting on the carrier, disused, rotting, and being scavenged, since then. He'd taken some time to give the ship a quick once over while Jada got it into hyperspace, and was...disturbed...by the shoddiness and "jank" on display. Half the repairs were either bypasses or repairs involving bail wire and in one case, literal duct tape. The fact the thing even shambled into hyperspace was a miracle to him.
The teen decided to not tell Jada about how bad the ship was...figuring that if they made it, he'd just try to forget, and if something went wrong...cross the bridge at that point. He was worried about half the major systems, but the main reactor was what irked him the most. It's output was fluctuating wildly, enough that it was causing bumps from time to time, the ship creaking eerily around them whenever they occurred. Enarin didn't bring his tools, so hopefully nothing major would go wrong.
The escape pods looked quaint.
Currently, he was sitting beside Jada, the amazonian woman at the controls of the ship, hawking the master systems display, the reactor dipping by 5%, followed by a jolt, the ship creaking, Jada's question diverting his attention from something he, in reality, couldn't control.
Her question made him wince, internally and externally. He knew he'd have to talk about his lack of flight ability.
"Yeah, she...she was a fighter pilot before doing what she did now...from what I hear she was pretty good, would have probably had a pretty good run too, then I came along...yeah, so she does what she does now....and...uhh...yeah, I-" Enarin looked out the window, and sighed, looking back at Jada.
"-Jada, I've got a few hours of practice in shuttles, mainly...with Var. Mom, uh, she took me out once, and it didn't go well. She freaked out, I freaked out, wound up flying the shuttle right into the side of the carrier...it wasn't bad, just a bump, but she refused to fly with me...so Var taught me some basic stuff...I'm qualified to fly shuttles, between the ships in the fleet, So I mean, this isn't too different, right?" He asked, hopefully, holding on while the ship had another bump.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on May 31, 2016 21:46:20 GMT -5
Jada nodded vaguely.
Somehow it surprised her that Enarin hadn't learned everything like a complete boss, to borrow an expression she'd heard Donnie use. Somehow she'd assumed given their similarity they'd have this kind of skill overlap. Instead... Well it had to hurt a bit. She couldn't guess because she'd never had parents at all, but the sense of being disappointing to them... Had to be rough. Her nod became a little better defined. Maybe he needed a little pat of encouragement, since they were in hyperspace with not precisely a ton to do.
"Don't feel bad kid," Jada offered. "I didn't learn to fly at all until I was in the fleet. And I probably don't know much more than you anyway."
There was more she thought. For instance soothing him about parental standards, that they were probably too high given professional opinion. But that would be overselling it, she wasn't soppy like that. She might think it, but she wouldn't say it.
"Look at it this way right, you can practice some more."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on Jun 1, 2016 23:29:01 GMT -5
Enarin Nodded, Jada had a point. The trip would give him a chance to get some seat time on a bigger and faster ship than he was used to, even if it was about to come apart like an old bag, practice was practice. The notion of not having Var or Donnie there to bug him about staying in his spacelane or avoiding traffic was one he appreciated too. At worst, Jada would point out if he was drifting from the hyperspace course, at best she'd probably just talk about something entirely unrelated.
Her response to his admission was unexpected. The teen, upon telling most people what he'd told Jada, was used to people staring, then laughing at him. Confused about how he'd managed to not get Donnie's talent. Jada's response was...welcome to him, the woman being, unexpectedly, somewhat understanding, offering him the chance to get more practice.
The teen surmised more people needed to be like Jada.
"Hey, if you're offering, I'll take the wheel for a bit, it'll help take my mind of this hooptie of a ship." He said, gesturing towards the controls, Jada nodding and flipping the switch to pass control to his co-pilots seat, the teen taking the controls.
He flipped a couple of switches to get his displays from their Engineering setting to the flight setting. Not a big task, just the turn of a knob, and he had the info he needed to fly the ship in front of him.
"Thanks, Jada, most of the time people like...laugh, one sec..." He paused, focusing on the controls for a moment, adjusting his heading a few degrees, realizing he'd drifted a bit, the ship groaning as it bumped again while he adjusted the controls.
The teen spoke again after a moment.
"So, I've never asked, but were you born in the fleet...did we find you somewhere? You from the Diaspora, answering-" Enarin changed his voice to one as similar as he could to a propaganda announcer.
"-The call of the fleet! To defend the Boska way of Life!" He said, glancing over at Jada, then back down to his gauges and adjusting his heading again, chuckling to himself, looking back over at Jada to let her know he was "finished.".
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jun 1, 2016 23:54:10 GMT -5
Jada approved his request nonverbally, her mind was trying to categorize 'hooptie' correctly. As a term she'd never encountered the word. Contextually she was guessing 'shitstain' or 'cocksmear' were adequate as similes, but the fact was that she'd never heard it. Maybe it was some weird Boska thing that she hadn't picked up on in her time in the fleet, it seemed like there were still things that blindsided her about the new place of residence. Uncle Vito from the Old Country always had a learning curve upon moving. She filed it away to check for later, or else to forget.
If people laughed, as Enarin said, then it occurred to Jada that they had shitty senses of humor. It wasn't funny. These people would laugh at anything, hell just repeat something for ten seconds and they'd probably start to laugh.
Yellow eyes turned to look at Enarin as he asked what was, if not the mother of all touchy questions, at the very least the first cousin of all touchy questions. She didn't talk about it a lot. At all. The fact he hammed it up though was disarming, a little reassuring to her that it was just friendliness and not personal interrogation over things.
She did a quick mental calculation. Five years? Six? Probably five.
"Nar Kaaga," She said flatly in a tone that made it clear follow-up questions would be ill-advised. "I've been here five years."
There was an especially bad grinding noise and the ship lurched. Jada's eyes immediately darted back to the controls and the readouts.
"The hyperdrive is failing, taking us out now."
She eased back on the lever and they emerged into the black of empty space, and without delay or hesitation switched to the nav computer and scrolled through their stellar neighborhood. It was something, because the jolt as they did so was enough to cause some unfortunate tongue-biting, teeth grinding, and muffled curses. Luckily she wasn't easily distracted or unnerved. Angered was different.
"Frell," She spat angrily as the results went by. "There's nothing in sublight range."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on Jun 2, 2016 0:27:44 GMT -5
Enarin noted some edge to Jada's tone as she answered his question, and made a mental bookmark to just not bother her about that sort of thing again. Woman didn't seem overly comfy with taking about it. Given the fact that a good number of the Boksa who'd been picked up came from...rough...situations, it wasn't uncommon nor unexpected. From what Donnie had told him, Var had it pretty rough before she'd found her, and Vax had actually picked up a "stray"...on of his many babymommas...and her story was pretty brutal too.
That though thunk, Enarin had always, up to just a few seconds prior, figured Jada had always been in the fleet, her scars were from some accident out on a mission...Didn't take a rocket scientist to put together that the two were probably related though, he surmised, feeling a bit anxious about having asked the questions.
He had no idea where Nar Kaaga was, he'd never even heard of the place. Though, it's name did make it obviously a Hutt world...or at least previously a Hutt world.
Jada's response about how long she'd been in the fleet explained her accent. Enarin had noticed she had a bit of one, he couldn't place where it was from, always figuring it was just the way she spoke. Upon finding out she wasn't born in the fleet though, it made some sense. The teen was about to respond, anxious to change the subject, the woman obviously uncomfortable, when a number of things happened at the same time. A few warning lights went off, Jada took them out of hyperspace, and the ship lurched and groaned as it returned to realspace, tossing Enarin forward, the teen bringing his arms up in time to stop his head from hitting the console. The whole thing happened so fast that all he managed to get out was a string of profanity.
After a second or two, Jada obviously unfazed by the whole thing, announced that there was nothing within sublight range. Enarin sat back, and blinked a few times, and shook his head, before looking back down at his console and flipping it to the MSD to see just what'd actually happened, and how bad the situation was.
"Hang on, we might be able to just Batphone the fleet..." he murmured, flipping through the clunky computer system, getting to the comm system, which was returning Error 403...Subsystem Unresponsive.
"Oooorr...Not...Comm's down. Well that sucks..." He continued, looking over to a very angry, very large, very dark woman sitting to his left.
The teen quickly looked back at the MSD and flipped to the Engineering display, analyzing the situation.
The Hyperdrive wasn't cooked...not completely. It was overheated and had shed a good ammount of it's protective coatings, Enarin guessing because it was misaligned, causing it to work too hard, and thus overheat. It was a good thing Jada had reacted when she did, and stopped the thing from self immolating, apparently it's sensors had been bi passed so it'd run, he once again guessed. The other problem was that the main reactor wasn't too happy with the state of affairs either, the unit using way too much fuel to maintain it's idle power setting. Basically, the unit wouldn't be able to put out enough power to sustain a long jump, even if the hyperdrive could, and because he couldn't trust the sensors was probably running way hot and way over pressure.
If the Hyperdrive didn't fail, the reactor would, or one would cascade into the other, then they'd really be boned.
The upside was, however, that Enarin figured he could probably, maybe, perhaps, coax the old boat into one more hyperdrive jump, a short one, 4 maybe 5 light years, 6 at the outside.
"Well..." He burbled after a moment, glancing over at Jada.
"The good news is that the Hyperdrive isn't entirely fucked....Is there anything habitable-" Enarin paused looking out the window for a moment, then back into Jada's yellow eyes, a rare serious look on his face, figuring he'd rephrase so Jada didn't think palm trees and pina coladas.
"-by habitable I mean an atmosphere that won't immediately kill us-" He continued, looking back to his MSD, his hand going to his chin, his head bobbing from side to side for a moment, before looking back up at Jada.
"-Within...4...maybe 5 lightyears?" He asked, hopefully.
The teen's plan was simple. Do a short, but sweet, jump, hopefully not blowing up the hyperdrive, to whatever planet they were going to that was somewhat habitable. If everything went according to plan, they wouldn't need to worry about how habitable because he'd just fix the comm in orbit and they'd get picked up. If everything didn't, they could land on the planet, and be able to survive longer...hopefully long enough...to get picked up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jun 2, 2016 13:59:02 GMT -5
Enarin wasn't idle after his stream of cursing died down. He immediately started examining displays, and Jada realized that she'd been forgetting his skill set again. He was good at the mechanical and technical aspects of this, he understood what the problems were. More importantly he knew how the machinery worked rather than just how to use it. Of course it made sense he would, he was smart, educated well enough. Jada'd had five years to learn to read and write properly, and everything else was 'nerd stuff' to most of the people she worked with.
Lucky that he could get them a few lightyears boosted.
Jada rapidly scanned the list for something in range.
"Four and a half lightyears, P3X-772."
She read the data. Republic Geographic Survey P3X-772, a desert moon with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. Orbiting a gas giant. Absolutely nothing noteworthy about it, except that it was breathable and under five lightyears away.
"The only other one is... Eight lightyears away," She continued, reading about something not a lot better, a waterworld. "I'm laying in a course for P3X whatever," She finished, silently adding a 'and I sure hope you know what you're doing.'
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on Jun 2, 2016 18:46:39 GMT -5
Enarin Smirked.
"Heyo!" He said, reading some more info from the MSD, everything looking ok..ish.
The fact the planet had a six digit survey name meant it was probably entirely useless. Too hot or too dry or both, and lacking any useful minerals. Just a ferrosilicate ball of hot and dry that happened to be blessed with a Nitrox atmosphere. As far as Enarin was concerned, it might as well have been paradise. He didn't want to have to land, but if he did, it was better than the alternative...freezing to death in space.
Jada's course passed to the hyperdrive computer and the system started to immediately complain at him, about thermal limits, power limits, pretty much everything. The Master Alarm started sounding before he'd even initialized the startup procedure. The teen was a bit surprised, but it made sense. Given the situation, he shouldn't have been trying to jump.
But the Computer didn't realize they were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.
"Let's just ignore that..." He said, pressing the alarms to shut them up, the lights continuing to flash ominously, the drive computer coming up with a jump solution.
"Alright, Jada...you might want to strap in, this could be a rough ride." Enarin said, looking over at Jada while strapping himself into the seat.
The teen took the controls in his hands, took a deep breath, and let it out slow, as his left hand landed on the hyperdrive's control stick. He closed his eyes, pulled the lever, and all hell broke loose.
The jump into hyperspace was the roughest thing Enarin had ever experienced, the teen getting bounced around like a ragdoll while the ship shambled through the dimensional barrier. The craft groaning around them, and the lights flickering as the ships computer pulled power from non-essential systems to keep the hyperdrive running. Enarin, after a second or two, grabbed the controls and manhandled the ship back onto it's course, correcting the drift the hyperdrive had imparted from it's transition to subspace. The ship vibrated and shook mercilessly, tossing the teen around as he held on, the control imputs becoming less and less important as they drew closer to the target.
Alarms and klaxons started going off after a few seconds, Enarin glancing at them and mentally filing away their meanings for when they popped out near wherever they were going.
"Just a little...More..." Enarin said, through clenched teeth, the ship bucking, followed by a very distinct and loud bang, as they hyperdrive cut out, throwing them around heavily, the planet zooming in very quickly, the ship being dumped out into a low orbit, Enarin's seatbelt holding him from smacking his face on the console.
The teen shook his head, noticing the regular lights had been switched for the red illumination of the emergency lighting. Enarin looked up, through the window, sighting the tan colour of the planet, looming very large in the window, the ship obviously in a very low orbit.
"Wellp...we're here...I think main power's out, but we've still got thrusters...I think. I don't have any displays...you're the only one with anything 'cause we're on backup power, how's our orbit?" Enarin asked, gesturing to Jada's still lit up displays, hoping they had at least a few so he could select a (crash) landing site, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, the crazy bucking making it ache somewhat.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jun 2, 2016 19:07:38 GMT -5
Jada didn't hesitate to strap herself to her seat as Enarin cautioned her. Judging by the red lights and alarm blaring it was going to be... rough. He pulled the lever, and the bet way Jada could describe the resulting experience was to point to a carnival ride that spun you around, then to suggest it was on fire and on the deck of an ancient sailing ship during a storm. It was a very, very good thing she had a strong stomach, because by the time they slammed out of hyperspace with a jolt like a speeder wreck, the symphony of alarms shrieking were reason enough to vomit from stress. Then there was the motion.
They were around the moon at least, a stroke of luck. The giant beige gas giant it orbited was below, and at least they weren't doomed to go into it.
Enarin asked her about the orbit.
"What orbit?" Jada replied, her voice thick with gallows humor. "We're re-entering now or burning up in an hour. Better find a landing site in the next few minutes. Preferably something nice and soft, because I have a monumentally bad feeling about this landing."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on Jun 2, 2016 19:37:10 GMT -5
Jada's response triggered a chuckle from Enarin, the woman communicating her point with very few words. They were on an unstable orbit, and they could either have a semi-controlled reentry, or...not. Given the lack of fuel available for the thrusters, the choice of landing positions was basically, limited, at best. While Jada had been explaining the situation, the teen had hotwired his display to work, so he could get an idea of what was going on.
The Hyperdrive and power core were either missing or so damaged the computer thought they were, the cargo hold had partially depressurized, bulkheads slamming down to protect the rest of the ship.
Jada wasn't wrong. They were sitting at 70km and falling fast. The teen estimated they had 2, maybe 3 orbits, before re-entry, giving him a little under 3 hours to come up with a location. Which, unfortunately, he'd have to do from space, without sensors, as they were offline along with just about everything else. Lucky for him, about the only thing he'd inherited from his mother was her ridiculous eyesight. The teen unstrapped himself from his seat, looking up at the planet, the only way he had to find a landing spot being best guess. The nav computer had already worked out the planet's diameter and gravity, so he could pick a spot and it'd guide them in, hopefully, but the computer had no idea what the surface topography was like...
From 70km, Enarin would only be able to make a very slightly educated guess...the teen wished he'd paid more attention in exogeography...instead of posting dank memes on spacebook.
He sighed, and looked over at Jada.
"Wellp, we've got a little under 3 hours before we're screwed, provided we don't run out of reserve power before then...unless you've got a pair of binoculars, this is how we're gonna find a landing spot." Enarin explained, gesturing out the window.
if the power goes, then i'll have to get really creative...he thought, hoping it wouldn't come to that, his idea of creativity at that point teetering somewhere between utterly insane and downright suicidal.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Moff Poobah I on Jun 2, 2016 20:25:42 GMT -5
Jada somehow expected more to what Enarin was saying. If he was going to inquire about orbits then it seemed like there was some kind of targeting for landing, but when he had to start commenting about binoculars that was very definitively a bad sign. It meant that they were going down, and that was the only general direction to count on.
"Right," The black Twi'lek added, "Seat of the pants guidance. OK."
She tilted the nose of the freighter down to the suitable angle and tapped the thrusters lightly to coax them in.
Three hours or three minutes, it didn't matter if the end result was going to be death anyway. Well, what was going to happen was going to happen. No sense worrying about it.
"I've uh, not gone in like this before. Don't suppose your mom has any advice about crashing?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Conman on Jun 2, 2016 21:30:21 GMT -5
"Uh...No...aside from try not to...I'd say looking for somewhere, flat? Maybe?" Enarin suggested, trying to help Jada get the ship on the planet, preferably in a single, large, piece.
The teen felt the thrusters nudge the vessel, the computer spitting out a new suborbital trajectory, suddenly, he had a sinking feeling in his guts as he flopped back into his seat and got strapped back in. The ship's outer hull was probably designed to survive a reentry, barely, most were, but at it's age, the teen figured they'd have less than a full deck by the time they got to the ground. Hopefully the bits that would invariably fall off wouldn't include the bit he and Jada were occupying.
"Jada, you handle the thrusters, I'll handle the S-turns, hopefully we'll be able to bleed off some speed before we run into the lower atmosphere, and it'll buy us some time to get over a nicer landing area." Enarin suggested, grabbing his controls, and looking over to Jada.
His plan was pretty simple, get into the thin upper atmosphere, do s-turns until the ship had slowed down enough to take lower, find a landing spot, point it at the ground and try not to hit it too hard. He hoped the ship's brick-like aerodynamics would slow them down in a hurry, and it's bulk would provide some measure of protection from the inevitable impact.
"Ok...I need a three second burst, retrograde." Enarin said, flipping the gravity and atmospheric handling off, needing every watt available.
He felt the ship shudder as the thrusters on the front of the vessel lit up, slowing it, shoving him against his restraints as they slowed the ship into a suborbital trajectory. Atmospheric interface didn't take long, they were close already, the first wisps of fire starting moments after Jada had let off the thrusters. The vibrations started as well, initially small, but they grew quickly, rattling and shaking the ship around like some kind of cork in a hurricane. Enarin fought with the controls to get the ship to start turning.
"JADA, ROLL LEFT, YAW LEFT, 1 SECOND, GO" He yelled over the din, hoping the thrusters would get the kick they needed to make the brick of a ship turn.
Enarin hawked the controls, waiting agonizing seconds while they did nothing, but slowly, the roll and yaw indicators started moving, and the ship's vertical speed slowed a bit. He held the configuration for a few moments, the horizon disappearing from view, the teen counting off three in his head before speaking again.
"ALRIGHT, LET'S DO IT AGAIN, ROLL RIGHT, YAW LEFT, 1 SECOND, GO" he shouted, feeling the ship shudder as Jada kicked the controls, rolling the ship around.
The pair of S turns completed, and the ship's velocity indicator now showing a mere 2.3km/s, at 30km, Enarin decided it was high time to start looking for a landing situation, when a number of things happened, all at the same time, and none of them good.
The windshield started to crack, slowly at first, then rapidly, there was a very sickening sounding groaning coming from somewhere behind the pair, and, as if on que, all the screens went dark. Enarin stared at them for a second, then at the windshield, and blinked.
"OHSHITCOVER!" he shouted as loudly as he could, putting his chin on his chest and his arms over his head, hoping Jada had too.
The teen managed to get his head up just in time to be whacked by a piece of the dashboard flying at his face, knocking him out.
=-=-=-=-=-= Some Time Later =-=-=-=-=-=
Enarin coughed, sputtered, and spat out some blood accumulated in his mouth, opening his eyes, surveying his surroundings. It took a few seconds to regain focus, his head pounding, as the teen tried to figure out where he was. Enarin looked around, wondering, for a moment, why he was on his side, his legs squished together, and his arms to his right. After a moment he realized the ship was sitting, leaning on it's right side. As if on instinct, he popped his harness off, and started gingerly moving his limbs, as the cockpit and it's utterly destroyed nature, came into view.
The windshield and it's frame were gone. In fact, most of the top half of it was missing. The console ahead of him had it's top torn off. He looked to his left. Jada was missing, though her seat was still present...the teen hoped she'd survived. As Enarin moved his limbs, he realized, much to his own surprise, nothing was broken. Everything hurt but there wasn't, incredibly, any lasting damage. He used the armrests to pull himself up to squatting position on the seat, then stood up, peeking through where the missing roof would normally have been.
The ship had come down in a valley, of sorts, getting sandwiched between the walls. The floor didn't look too far down, he could climb, and the Valley wound forward as far as Enarin could see. The walls looked to be layered sandstone, and the floor mostly sand with some rocks strewn about...though there weren't any plants to be seen. The teen wasn't sure weather to leave the ship or not, and hoped Jada was ok, and that she'd just gone to take a look around.
"JAAAADDDAAAAA!" He called, as loudly as he could.
|
|
