USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

[#69] Celium XIX Begin

Nina announced to the crew members of the USF Progenitor frigate: Attention shipmates! Our ship is now entering Celium XIX's atmosphere. Prepare for the landing sequence to commence shortly. Thank you for your patience and attention to crew safety! Enjoy the landing!

In the cockpit, Peter and Ka'eo sat in the pilot seat and co-pilot seat respectively, allowing the auto-pilot to stay in control. Peter was reading the data scans as they appeared on his monitors while Ka'eo watched out the cockpit windows, seeing the darkness of space transition into the beautiful daytime twilight. Behind both of them was Mana, Kanoa, Alec, Stavros, Veno, Matt, and the ladies. For some reason, Max and Harrison sat in the command bridge, watching from a distance.
"So, what do we do from here?" Stavros asked. "Ka'eo, can I sit there?"
"Can I sit there?" Veno asked.
Alec tagged along, "Can I sit there?"
Ka'eo shook his head smiling, prompting Christina to rub and scratch his head delicately. Ka'eo wanted to hide feeling good, his heart opening up and throbbing.
Peter looked up ahead of them at where the ship was taking itself and said, "How much more fuel do we have?"
"Check the gauges," Ka'eo said.
Peter replied fast, "It's not showing anything."
"Then, I guess there's no fuel," Alec said.
Stavros sounding delighted joked, "Yeah! Our first crash landing!"
Kanoa chuckled.
Veno got more serious, checking the gauges more closely. He looked at all the monitors then at Peter. After seeing nothing indicating fuel levels, he said, "Eh, I no like crash land in this ship."
Mana, Alec, Stavros, and Kanoa laughed. Max laughed in delay to them.
Harrison prompted Nina, "Nina, how much fuel does the Progenitor currently have?"

Nina announced: Main fuel levels are at 10%. Auxiliary fuel levels are at 10%. Reserve fuel deposits are at 60%.

Stavros chuckled.
Alec inquired, "Why didn't it tell us?"
Peter said, "Yeah, I don't know, that's kind of low."
Ka'eo read the commentary and Nina's calculations. He said, "I think it tells us fuel is running low at 5%, only if there is still enough reserve fuel in the reserve fuel well. Usually-."
Peter spoke up, "Usually the ship will tell us earlier than that, and I think it's..."
"Ka'eo is probably right," Alec said plainly.
"Well, I no like 'probably,' I like 'for certain!'" Veno stated.
Harrison overheard and shouted, "True!"
Peter continued to explain, "We always had fuel in the ship, so we didn't really ever... have Nina telling us what was going on in terms of that. Ka'eo was usually the first one to bring up fuel levels, so we probably didn't need to listen for it."

Nina announced: Please hold on while phase two of the landing sequence commences.

The ship came to a gradual halt, then felt like it was slowly falling from Celium XIX's sky. There was a different sound coming from the ship. A loud hum went to a light breeze, after a few mechanical sounds, like a moving robotic arm and then a mechanism locking in place.

Nina announced: Ion thrusters activated. Please manually release the ship's landing gear feet. The manual release is located on the pilot's ground control panel.

"Peter, hurry up," Stavros warned with no emotional impact.
Peter said, "I know! I'm..." Peter found the manual release on the control panel and activated it, then toggled the taxi and landing lights on. He said, "You would think that the controls are all computerized already."
"I know, yeah? How sophisticated," Veno commented, chortling.
Kanoa asked, "Have you guys ever landed the ship this way before?"
Stavros responded, "We've docked at stations but it's been a long time."
Peter declared, "Yeah, it's been a long time since we've VTOL'd (Vertical Takeoff Landing) the ship. Usually we are guided to the docking bays."
"So, how you know this is going to work?" Veno asked.
Kanoa chuckled lightly.
"Is there scheduled maintenance for it?" Asked Alec.
"Yeah, you guys... make sure this thing works all the way?" Veno asked.
Kanoa chuckled lightly again then began biting his nails out of habit again.
Ka'eo said, "This should work fine, but the real question is, did we contact anyone before landing?"
Veno excitedly responded, "Oh, you mean you guys never cleared it with the outpost people?"
Peter sighed and asked, "Ka'eo, did we check in with anyone at the outpost? I forgot to do that." He thought to himself, f$ck me!
Ka'eo looked at Peter then at everyone else behind him with a grin.
Stavros cracked up, making Alec, Matt, Peter, and Kanoa laugh loudly.
Mana sighed, "Oh my God, you guys are going to get us all killed."
Veno exclaimed with a jab, "No, you are!"
Mana raised his fist at Veno as though he was going to hit him, expecting Veno to quit.
Veno defended himself playfully stressing, "Hey, don't touch me! Remember what I said before!"
Alec chuckled.
Ka'eo ordered, "Guys, quit. Relax while we let the ship... do its thing. Peter, the landing gear is activated?"
"Yeah," Peter said. "Yup, it's all ready." He exhaled and scrolled through a few panels of information on one of the monitors.
"Alright, guys! You ready to get cold?" Alec prepared.
Max asked, "Hey! Has anyone gone back to the rooms yet?"
The ladies giggled.
Matt said, "No. We've all been sitting up here on the command bridge."
Veno laughed and said, "I know. I feel like I haven't slept in days but I'm not tired."
"You can thank the USF and the AHHD augments for that!" Peter declared raspily.
"True," Ka'eo said.
Alec said, "Very true. Except, the USFMC offered better."
Kanoa said, "Oh, whatever Alec, it's the same thing." He bit his nails again.
"Well, as long as we are all-," Peter started.