Ignition Broker: Chapter 38 Floating Like A Feather

Chapter 38

Floating Like A Feather

“I see your face, I can tell you are frustrated just from your posture and expression. That said, if you have time to show your frustration, that means you also have time to fix your frustrations, so do that instead.” -Marcon’s motivational speech on maintaining positive body image

Grr.

Arla fought with the controls, it was her own fault for deciding at the last possible second to turn back. Her reason for turning back? Well simple, rather than going north, to the clear primary node on the planet, she instead opted to go south, to the lesser secondary node.

All that planning, all that speed to get here, to make her claim on the planet matter meant nothing at this point. As it was seemingly fated for her to go to the southern node, despite its clear disadvantages. The terrain was rockier; the native inhabitants were both sentient and semi-aggressive.

According to the notes, so long as you avoided messing with their garbage that was strewn about you would not be attacked. That said, touching the garbage was a clear act of aggression and met with extreme hostility on the part of the natives.

The only problem was, that in order to make the quota of raw resources needed to both survive and come back with enough resources, the southern team would have to interact with that very group of territorial nomads. Nomads that would remain hidden at all times, only appearing to ambush you, once you broke some unwritten rules.

However, Arla felt something when she made her vertical pass over the planet as she tried to make her way to the northern landing spot. That something was a hunch, an echo of want within her soul, something that called out to her in a way that she hadn’t felt in a long time, if forever.

Then to highlight the odd sensation she felt within her, she received a class quest.

Cerusian Specific Class Quest: Tinkerer Needed: You have stumbled upon a lost colony of sentient beings from your home universe that require a competent Tinkerer. Assist the lost colony and help them navigate to the stars once more. Rewards: Enhanced Cerusian System advantages.

For a moment, she thought about avoiding the quest entirely, for it was clear that this colony had been here for a long time. Also, from her understanding no lost tribe of Cerusians existed, otherwise this group would have easily been found and reunited with long ago.

While Arla was contemplating the implications of going down and helping the lost colony when she got the final message that altered her mind, made her change landing spots and began this whole crazy last second change of plans.

Warning: Choosing to Ignore a plea for help designed for your class specifically will result in loss of future features, and future requests like this one.

That was it, the final reason needed to get her to change her mind. A two-fold thread, one that promised lack of future features, whatever those would be, and the lack of being warned of future class specific quests.

While Arla was not entirely certain, she felt that from her time interacting with the alternate system that a Tinkerer was meant to be some sort of rare, or missing class. Still, the warning had done enough to get her to change her mind and to do multiple things all at once.

First, she put in a change of zone registration confirmation to command. Then she began doing the arduous task of turning the lumbering behemoth of an Empire Star Shuttle around. An act that currently felt akin to trying to get a brick to change its trajectory upwards, after being thrown.

Still, Arla worked it, going for a long slow wide arc, to avoid drag on the recently deployed wings, while also straightening out her landing angle.

From an initial scan of the planet that was made while in orbit she got landing points for both spots, as was protocol. These images would help the trailing team make up some time, so they could find a spot and land relatively easily. This want to assist the trailing team was perfect, as it meant that Arla now had a read out and design of the southern hemisphere, and identified three possible landing spots.

The first was in the exact center of the craggy and jagged mountain area of the south. A second was at a spot at the base of the mountain that looked like it would be overrun with flood water during rainy seasons. The third spot was quite possibly the worst in terms of getting to from a landing perspective but had everything needed for prolonged exposure, fresh water, vegetation, and a supply of wildlife that seemed to flourish just north of the end of the craggy mountain region.

Area three’s difficulty came from the fact that landing would require skill, precision, and a ship that could maneuver the way you wanted. While Arla was fairly certain she could fake the first two, it was that third one that she was worried about.

Unfortunately, by the time she managed to steer the brick of a ship around, the angles were off for the first two, meaning she had to either waste yet more fuel to get to those areas, or barely adjust her approach and try to stick the landing for landing zone three.

Realizing that landing zone three was the most optimal, aside from the landing and subsequent future takeoff, she opted to go with this one instead.

“Buckle up, we are about to have a rough landing,” Arla called out, her voice and face a mask of calm. She didn’t want her crew to react to the panic and anticipation that she felt currently.

Solar screech.

There was the unmistakable cry of burning materials as a ship entered atmosphere.

Ruffle.

Instantly, Arla already in tune with the movements of her ship felt the strain and wear on the vessel. Even with all the layers of metal and military protection, the sudden shift and resistance of her controls was easily felt. Still, Arla had gone through hundreds of atmospheric landings thanks to Marcon, many with vessels far worse than this one. That was why some of what Arla focused on dealt with the idea of landing from atmospheric entry, a process that few of even the great pilots are actually proficient at.

Rather than resist the entire way and grind her braking units to dust, she instead evened out her angle and opted to glide-push her vessel to the landing spot. Only once she was over her landing zone did she give a quick full burst of the take off thrusters once for three seconds, then twice for two additional seconds. By now her rate of descent had stalled completely once, only to be picked up by gravity again.

From here they fell the way a carton of dropped eggs would, which is what they effectively were at this point. Arla watched as her instruments screamed at her with muted blinks that she was beyond military regulated speeds and vectors to act.

Again, the military expected you to crash and grind gears like an old grandma making her first planetary landing, after a lifetime of space travel. This was why, the alarms only blinked their frustrated warnings at her, versus setting off annoying sounds and blinking.

Finally, at five hundred feet from the ground, Arla engaged her last major burst, going full burst for two seconds, then 80 percent for one, 40 percent for two, and finally landing with a gentle bump after dropping again to 20 percent.

Before anything, Arla jettisoned out a quick layer of flame coating gel that would also form into a semi-permanent landing pad for future take offs. This way, any fires that might have started from the landing would be immediately extinguished, and the vessel would have a firm landing pad to take off from should the need arise.

Looking at her fuel gauge, Arla realized she was down to her final three eights of fuel, apparently all of her power adaptions had helped with her fuel economy to his point.

Mentally she made a checklist to check the drag on her right wing, as it seemed to react a tenth of a second slower than the left wing. Still, overall the landing had been okay.

At least that is what she thought.

Click.

As she stood up to exit the vessel however, her thoughts of how well she had performed came back at her, as she saw everyone staring at her confusedly.

Seeing their confused faces Arla just shrugged to herself realizing that these fancy elites must be used to better landings, or something, as no one was even moving.

Perhaps they think the myth about the landing gel taking hours to adhere were real? These were myths perpetuated by older pilots and crews that said, if you went out within the first hour of dropping the sealant you would lose a boot while the mold congeals and hardens.

While there was concern if you stood in one place immediately after spraying the ground, it would at most grab the sole of your boots, at which point just taking off your shoes would be enough to escape. Of course, the idea of having to explore a new planet barefoot was a bit of a blow to many would be adventurer’s careers before they even started.

Yet, no one seemed ready to move, not even by the time that Arla got to the hatch at the back of the ship.

Finally, staring back at everyone who were all buckled in and staring confusedly at Arla, Arla finally broke the odd tension by saying two words, “Y’all coming?”

Then as if a spell had been broken, her fellow squad mates shook their heads and began to look at Arla.

This was enough for Arla who had already sealed her clear helmet to her head as she exited the main hull, entered the pressurization cabin, got sprayed down to remove foreign bacteria or elements, and then exited. All in all, the entire process took less than thirty seconds.

By the time she was out, she could already hear more people at the first sealed door ready to enter and go out to explore with her.

Looking around, Arla realized the first part required for her impromptu quest, of landing safely was now over. With that she was now onto her second phase of trying to find this supposed lost colony of people.

***

(Cadet Rayalta)

Cadet Rayalta found herself sitting in utter shock and amazement. By this point she had grown to trust the word of her Commander, the A-Ranker who seemed anything but a typical A-Ranker. When she said to jump, you jumped, or you got hurt then you understood why she told you to jump in the first place.

When she said she would handle half the opposing team’s squad by taking out the left flank during combat maneuvers, she would and did. When she told you to lay low and wait until the enemy rushed past here, and open fire only when they hit this line, one that she drew in the ground, you did. Because for some reason that unit would go right by that area in the exact way noted by Commander Proma, and you took the easy win.

That was why, when the Commander gave those ten words that elicit fear in everyone, you listened.

“Buckle up, we are about to have a rough landing.”

Not only did you listen, but you also followed orders, while not wanting to show her fear outwardly, she couldn’t help but feel the bulging pit within her stomach grow.

It started with a rumble, then there was a clear point where they began to drop at an angle, like a football coming out of its arc. That’s when Arla did something completely crazy. Rather than engaging the typical landing gear that you are instructed to, landing gear that would do little other than slowing down your descending rate by half, and only if you engaged the brakes constantly, she prepared for lift off instead.

Engaging the full might of the thrusters upwards, even going so far as to even out their balance. Making it so they were apparently parallel to the ground.

After that, it was just a slow controlled freefall, one that ended with a graceful bump on the ground.

Cadet Rayalta, like the others looked on in shock as that was the smoothest landing from breaching atmosphere to perfect positional ground landing that she had ever experienced. While she didn’t want to brag, her family was old money, meaning she had been driven and flown with the best. Even for carriers that specialized in breaking the trip into multiple parts, from going to space, to getting to an atmospheric landing zone, to then taking another vessel from that same transit station to a specialized landing spot on a vacation planet, those landings were not as friendly as this one.

“Did you see that? We landed like a feather?” Lisom was the first to speak, once the commander made her way off the ship.

Rayalta who was still in shock from how everything unfolded around her paused and then shook her head.

“Yeah, that was,” Rayalta stammered as she tried to come up with the words to describe what happened. “Incredible.”

“I know, right?” Lisom exclaimed excitedly as he seemed to wrestle his way free of his straps, “I didn’t even need these,” he said as he exited his protective restraints.

As second in command, it was Rayalta’s job to ensure their successful landing was relayed. Getting up from her seat she went over, saw the last broadcast confirming a successful landing. Then scrolling back up she looked and saw where it was that they had actually landed. Seeing that they were in the dreaded southern hemisphere, Rayalta wondered “What is this?”

As suddenly Rayalta felt betrayed, by the commander no less for not telling her where it was that they were landing.

“What is its?” Lisom asked, coming over and seeing the display that Rayalta was now looking at. The display that showed them clearly in the less desirable southern hemisphere.

“Wait, what?”