Crash Landing On an Alien Planet

Log one, Day one

As the ship began to sink closer to the planet, I pressed the buttons on my dashboard as we commenced the process of breaking through the thick, hazy atmosphere. Everything went smoothly until an ear-shattering explosion on the rear right side of the ship goes off, followed by the screams of panic and distressed yelling of my crew mates behind me. The lights in the ship furiously flashed bright, angry colors alongside the sirens frantic, stressful beeping, signaling something has gone horribly wrong. The metal implant under my ear beeped as it automatically created a gas mask over my nose and mouth, keeping the oxygen flowing and the toxic gases out. I kept my eyes fixed in front of me, gripping the handles of the ship's steering wheel until my knuckles turned a pale white. Jerking the controls to the side, I threw the ship off collision courses with gargantuan trees and misshapen terrain. I could feel myself losing control of the ship as the backup maneuvers were offline, and the spring loaded seats were conveniently disengaged. I swung to the left to avoid crashing into a tree, but I knew it was too late before the ship even thought about meeting the tree.

I swore loudly as the ship jerked violently, along with my entire being. A bright red outline of the right wing of the ship manifested itself in a diagram on my dashboard. Finally the trees cleared out to reveal hill covered land. I quickly found the most elevated piece of land, and maneuvered the ship skillfully to crash land as merciful as possible.

I barely kept myself from involuntarily bashing my head off the dashboard as the ship forcibly drags itself across the ground, making an irritating high pitched screech as the metal scraped against the rocks on the ground. Autopilot deploys in my mind as my hands fling to the dashboard, quickly punching in the buttons to rotate the jets 180 degrees. Pulling on the handle with all my strength, I began pouring the last bit of power into the jets focused on decelerating our movement. A loud overwhelming hum took over the ship as the obstacles outside began to gradually come to a stop.

With my heart pounding at my throat, head aching, and a very sick feeling in my stomach, I breathed a sigh of relief as I pinched the bridge of my bleeding nose with my forefinger and thumb, in an attempt to stop the flow of blood.

"Head count. Personal status report," I tried to speak in my commanding voice, but couldn't conceal all of my distress. I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the worst. "Medic," I shouted, not turning around.

"On board, with minor injuries ma'am," a soft female voice shouted back at me in an attempt to also cover up her distress, which was painfully obvious as her voice was filled with the faint clicking of her teeth as if she was in a blizzard, freezing to death.

"Private 1," I slowly open my eyes, and drop my hand on my armrest. I continued to keep my eyes on the metal dashboard, littered with dead buttons, in front of me as I played the few seconds of pure fear we went through only moments ago.

"On board ma'am, with possible whiplash... ma'am." A male voice struggled to reply on my left, sounding guilty, hesitant, and breathless. I sighed deeply, rubbing my forehead knowing one of my most valued crew members was down for the valuable weeks ahead of us.

"Private 2," I shouted last, waiting for a response that never came. "Private 2 respond, this is an order." I demanded, but still no response, I slowly spun my seat around in mid swear as my eyes immediately landed on the gaping hole and the missing spot where Private 2, and his chair, would have been. My heart dropped as I rested my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands, letting out a deep breath of defeat.

"I'm afraid... Private 2 fell... as we broke atmosphere, ma'am," the medic spoke, saddened. I nodded slowly letting out another sigh. I didn't even have the strength to insult her on the obvious.