Setting Fire to the Stars (mxm)

Chapter 21: Crash

————————————————————-
Lauren
————————————————————-

To say that our landing had been a complete disaster was an understatement.

White knuckling the ship's controllers, I attempted to steer us towards the large blue planet. Symbols of an alien language scrawled across the digital display in front of my eyes. The shaking of the ship caused my teeth to rattle away in my skull.

Don't crash. Don't crash. Do. Not. Crash.

The mantra repeated in my head as my hands gripped the joysticks for dear life. I could do this. We just had to make it to the ground.

"Ugh!"

My body was abruptly thrown against the dash as our ship was catapulted forward by enemy fire. The impact forced me to push down all my weight on the controls, causing the ship to nosedive uncontrollably. The stars spun as though we were in a cyclone as we rolled.

"Pull up!" Synth shouted, clutching her chest restraints.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked back on the control sticks with all my strength. The ship groaned in protest at the sudden change, before eventually leveling out with a wobble. Several of the beeps from the alarms had stopped, save for one.

A glowing diagram of the spacecraft emerged on the screen in front of me as a red light on the dash blinked urgently. The ship shuddered with a mechanical wail as e we took more enemy fire.

When tapping on the flashing light did nothing, I hastily turned to my more experienced co-pilot. "Synth, what does that blinking light mean?"

Synth scowled, hastily tapping a couple of glowing symbols on the screen. "Polars above, they are targeting our ESG."

"Our what now?"

"External shield generator."

"That doesn't sound good." I said, glancing worriedly at Synth.

"It is not," Synth reached across the dash, her fingers moving rapidly over the symbols with ease. "I have to reboot the system before we break through the planet's atmosphere."

"What happens if you can't fix it before we break through the planet's atmosphere?" I asked, my fingers numb from the jittery controllers.

"We blow up."

Swallowing thickly, I found myself gripping the joysticks like a lifeline. "Wonderful." As our ship hurtled towards Earth, I noticed that the cockpit was growing increasingly warm. A bead of sweat descended down my cheek and I cursed under my breath at the suffocating heat. "Shit, why is it so hot in here?"

"When they damaged our shields, they also knocked out our internal climate regulator. Without the ESG, the air particules in between the ship's oridian layers will continue to heat the manifolds—"

"English, please!"

"If I cannot get our shields back online soon, our bodies will literally combust into flames," Synth explained with a serious expression. "In short, it is about to get very hot in here."