Tank Borne

Part 11: landing the shuttle

Liana woke up and noticed her bed was on the floor and that there were holes in the wall where it was mounted.
How the hell! She thought then she heard a rumbling sound from behind and felt something stiff and heavy over her arms and draped under the blanket. She was hot and slipped the blanket on top carefully off her shoulder and noticed a huge Youtja arm over her! Liana turned her head slightly and looked over her shoulder and saw Synsyn sleeping and purring still behind her. She turned her head back trying not to wake him and wondered why the big guy ripped her bed off its hinges and decided to use her as a body pillow.
It's warm and comfortable but damn big guy you didn't have to tear the bed off did you?! She asked herself while looking at the holes in the wall. She was asking herself why too when she felt her face was sticky and so she slipped her arm out and felt dry tears on her cheek.
Did he bring me to cuddle because I was crying? It dawned on her as she thought about it. Liana felt warm inside that the big killer monster was actually a giant softy to her.
Synsyn stopped purring she noticed so she turned under his arm and faced him. She smiled and blushed feeling shy and said, "thanks but did you have to destroy the bed?"

He yawned and stretched like a cat on his side then shook his head at her and said, "not upset."

Liana thought for a second and asked for confirmation, "you brought me to you because I was crying?"

"Sei'ii (yes)." He said and nodded before getting up. Liana got up and went to the bathroom. When she was done she went to the cooler and noticed one of the water bottles was moved and half empty then took it to Parker. She opened the small chamber and gave him the water when he said, "your pet gave me some earlier."

She smirked and said to him, "kinda smart for a pet don't you think? He has a name, you should use it, it's Synsyn or Syn." After which she left Parker with the water before he could say anything else and went to the cockpit to see what Syn was up to. He was looking at a ping on the screen and Liana saw it too. When she read the text and looked closer at the image she said to Synsyn, "we can land there. That'll have to be our home. Both species will allied to breathe its atmosphere but it looks like it has violent rain storms and lightning . Scans show large animals with tough hides and large and small bodies of water. We'll have to scan for plants to eat and mark safe and dangerous ones but we can learn these things before our equipment fails. Time to land and build a home I guess." She stopped rambling and looked at Syn instead of the console and asked, "ready?"
Syn's nodded and Liana said Parker would have to sit in the seats for a ground team by the shuttle door. It was within view where they could keep an eye on him so they got Parker and strapped him in after filling him in on what the plan was. He didn't like any of it but they said after they built a base for them he could come or stay with the shuttle and wait for rescue. He of course said he'd stay but Liana informed him that she was going to take all weapons.
With everyone later strapped in and a course was set to land by a lake, they found they made their way down into the atmosphere of a new planet.

The shuttle shook as it entered the planet's atmosphere and Liana was at the console tweaking controls and constantly adjusting for their landing. When the broke through the heavy clouds the ended up in the middle of a rainstorm.

Alarms went off and a hologram of the shuttle showed in view before Liana. It showed that one of the back thrusters was coming loose and that some debris was falling from the back.

"Fuck! We are breaking apart from damage caused because of your people Parker!!" Liana yelled and look back.

Parker just clung to his seatbelts and said' "sorry."

Liana went to work on the controls and lowered the burst on the breaking thruster and put the pull to the other one on the back and below the cockpit. It thrust the front end up which was perfect anyway for landing. The decent slowed again and became smoother with less shaking.
Synsyn showed Liana he could see the lake and she nodded saying, "I know. We're close now. Just have to turn and land in that small clearing of trees. Might provide protection from winds."

When they got close enough Liana wasted a bit of fuel to turn and position the shuttle but they made it and landed in a good spot. Just like planned it was next to a large lake on the new world that had lots of trees and vegetation that looked beautiful from where Liana sat in the pilot seat.

Synsyn was the first to stand up and lean over the console and look closer out the window. Liana just was calming down after a kind of rough landing and couldn't believe they made it to a planet that was supposed to be her new home.

Need to look around and build a base but this rain, she was thinking while watching the rain beat down on the window. They couldn't hear it but it seemed to be raining pretty hard.

Liana unbuckled herself then Parker. She called for Syn to help her put him back in his room of the airlock. He protested but Liana just grabbed him and said on a rough tone, "we don't know what's out there. I have to scout with Syn, I'm hoping to find his people and of some alien sees you they'll want to skin your ass kinda like I want to!"

She shook him once then let him go then walked away after locking him in. She left food and water in with him along with a bucket for emergency purposes.

Synsyn was at the door waiting for Liana to put in the code and let him out. Liana grabbed a rifle and knife from the weapons locker and before locking it back up she looked to Syn and asked, "rifle or knife?"

Synsyn pointed to the knife in her hand and she handed it over and took out another for herself.

The one she handed to Synsyn had a sheath made for a thigh holster to be attached and o a belt so she grabbed a weapons belt from the locker and showed him how to put it on and put the sheath on it. All set and ready to go now she unlocked the door and it opened and extended the ramp down. Syn didn't wait for the ramp and jumped down onto the ground while Liana just walked down the ramp. She was scanning the area with her tool on her wrist. It would ping and highlight plants green, purple or yellow and she read the text saying green was safe, purple was poisonous, and yellow meant cook to eat.

"Hmm well we have some poisonous plants here but if you touch them and not eat them we'll be fine. I'm going to scan the water to see if we can drink it without cooking it."
Syn was looking down at her and followed whine her.

Liana reaches the lake and listened to the rain beat down on the water. A sound she hadn't heard in such a long time and something Synsyn never got to see in his short life he was enjoying right about now.
Liana scanned the lake and it showed small traces of bacteria but nothing to be worried about. All in all everything was normal on this planet. So much you could almost mistake it for Earth except Liana noticed that everything was proportioned bigger but  the same.

Liana took some water in her hands and took a sip. The fresh water was so cool and refreshing she couldn't help but take some more sips till she drank too much but she didn't care. Some time away in this tranquil moment in the rain, which want really cold but warm rain like a late summer rain she remembered from back home. "The water here is good and it looks like if we can find some animals to scan we'll have a proper meal for a change!" She said then turned around.

Synsyn was gone... Liana panicked and followed his tracks till they led to a big tree and she saw marks where his claw scaled the tree and then disappeared.

Liana looked up at the last sign of Synsyn and didn't care about the rain hitting her face as she thought, did her just leave me? Alone. With Parker!

She growled to herself, she didn't want to be alone with Parker, she liked Syn but he wasn't in sight. She was mad but more worried about the Youtja.

Hah! Worried about him. He can take care of himself but he better not come back without a kill or something!