Arrival — Part One of Landed
Before this story starts I would like to thank everyone on Worldbuilding SE for helping this story come alive. This is part one of a series with a currently undetermined amount of parts. Any similarities to existing pieces, people or real life events are entirely coincidental (except in scientific cases; for example, Newton’s laws are still called Newton’s laws)
It was exciting day on the X2-Star Cruiser LXIV¹, they were orbiting the moon, currently without a proper name and only called FMC-465b². Today everyone was finishing up preparations for the landing which would happen soon. Pre-landing checks were being made and everyone was making sure everything was secured.
¹The X2-Star Cruiser LXIV is the second latest star cruiser design, the latest being the X3
²The moon FMC-465b is a moon of a saturn like “hot jupiter” with large rings which were part of the economic interest when the moon was discovered
Jogging towards his cabin was Sam, a teen, he was the typical prepper, always had everything he could need to live on an alien planet, all of it. He was on his way when he saw his friends Jack and Allyssa. “You guys wanna come to my place for the landing?”
“Why not?” they responded “it’s better than alone”. And so they were off, speeding to Sam’s room. When they arrived they settled in just as the intercom started blaring.
“Hello this is your captain speaking, we will be entering atmosphere in 15 minutes” said Captain John Coe the third, “Please stay in your cabins while we re enter” the intercom sounded with a beep letting everyone know the message was over. Everyone was excited for the moment they would step foot on an alien planet.
“Ooh I can’t wait” said Allyssa full of excitement. They would see new things nobody had seen before. They would discover new things, make history. Discover new locations, and get to name them!
15 minutes had passed and the intercom sounded to let everyone know re entry was starting. Everywhere in all 25 floors³ of the ship people were excited to discover new things.
³The ships size is 100 meters tall, 200 meters wide and 300 meters long, it has an egg like shape
“Oh man I can’t wait to see the animals and plants and…” said Allyssa practically screeching with joy. She couldn’t wait to discover new things. And she always was fond of life.
“It’s gonna be amazing” said Jack, bursting with excitement. All over the ship similar scenes were happening. The ship was starting to enter the atmosphere. Everything seemed fine.
In the bridge everyone was busy checking meters and gauges. One person realized something seemed a bit off. “Captain, take a look at these readings, it looks like our heat shielding was damaged somehow.” Indeed the heat shielding was damaged, and badly, bad enough to cause catastrophic damage.
“What, thats oh no…” Instantly he slammed a button to sound the alarm. “You go and try to get it under control” he was barking out orders. “I cant let this happen” He had an idea. “Get everyone to the higher decks” he continued “Make sure everyone is secure”. Everyone began doing their tasks. Alarms were sounding and everyone was moving at lightning speed. Just then a bang shook the ship. They were breaking up mid air.
Meanwhile in Sam’s cabin Sam was activating the airtight extra lock on the door. The explosion shook the cabin, knocking some things off shelves. They realized that the ship was exploding. Another explosion rocked the ship. “Oh no…” The lights flicked but recovered.
“Are we gonna die?” asked Allyssa completely terrified as alarms blared. More things were falling.
“We will be fine, we’re central, it will be fine” Sam said, half trying to convince himself. More explosions rocked the ship.
“But…” complained Allyssa
“No buts, we will be fine” snapped Sam. just then the intercom made an announcement.
“Brace…” another bang interrupted “for…” another bang shook the ship “impact…” the voice was strained, almost in pain. Then everything went black.
The group awoke the next day, or was it later that day, they weren’t sure which. They had landed for sure. The main light was hanging down and flickering. The shelves were ruined but most things were intact. The impact had knocked them out and they had just awoken.
“What happened…” said Jack “Ugh… my head hurts” he was aching.
“I think we crashed…” said Allyssa “Wasn’t that kinda obvious”
“Let’s go outside” said Sam “They said it would be habitable”
“Let’s hope its true” said Jack. They opened the door and fresh air flowed in. They walked into the hallway. They saw open air just down the hall. The frame was deformed and a hole had formed right down the hall from them. They were stunned by the damage that had been caused. There were holes scattered around the visible parts, massive girders were melted and sagged. Massive parts of the ship were ripped up letting the see the ruins. They stared through the hole, they saw an island nearby, filled with plants and animals.
They had landed in a lake, the ship was partially submerged. There was destruction everywhere. It was clear that the ship would never go anywhere again. They noticed they could get down to the water if they went further down the corridor. “Lets go down there, see if we can get to the island somehow” said Jack “do you have a boat or something to get our stuff across the lake”
“I got something we can use” said Sam. They returned to the cabin and grabbed an inflatable raft and filled it with everything they had. “Lets go” they went to the place that went down to the water.
“lets hope this floats” said Allyssa worried it would sink with all the stuff. It floated, but they realized they would have to swim by it to push it. “let’s dive in” They jumped in the water and pushed it along. At last they reached the island.
“Well we arrived all right” said Jack as they looked around, there were trees and grass. the dirt was an orange tint. There were birds all around, the plants were all colors and so was everything else. It seemed so much like earth, or at least how they were told it looked, and how the gardens looked. Everything was natural, perfect.
“its amazing” said Allyssa admiring the beautiful life around. “It’s so, natural!” They stared at everything. Then they noticed other people arriving too and one that arrived before them came up and greeted them.
“Welcome, We’re glad you have arrived” he said.
