Not exactly freespace-related, but its a bit of writing work I just did up. Any cosntructive criticism is accepted, while the rest can just bugger off. If you see spelling mistakes, do realize that Iam going only on my innate sense of english alone - I have no Microsoft word to back me up here. :/
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Calm and serene were one of the few words any person could use to describe this hidden little valley. Nestled between folds of hills and mountains, it was mostly untouched by any kind of setient life. What life did exist was, for the most part, the simple, but luciously green grass that covered most of the ground. Occasionally, one may see a tree or a small deer break the continuity of green, but such sites were rare.
Rivaling the green continuity on the ground below was the blue sky above. The day was quite sunny, and not one cloud marred the sheer excellence and blue of the sky. But here again, we have exceptions.
But this time the exception was much more odd than some simple peace of wildlife, or even the bright sun for that matter. The object this time was quite literally a bright white hole in the sky. It was interlaced with patches of blue here and there, along with some on the inside.
In addition to the blue and the white of the hole was, for a brief moment at least, the dull grey hull that was routinely associated with space ships - but the ship that emerged from the hole didn't look much like a spaceship ought to.
It came through the hole at close to double the speed of sound, covering incredible distances in a single second. Visually, one may descibe the thing as a large cargo plane, but with extremely stubby wings and several oval nodes running along the bottom of the hull. It was aligned more for height and width as compared to length, having at the very center of the front the Pilot's cockpit. The middle portion was the largest vertically, extending in what appeared to be 2 giant arms or spires from the main body. Horizontally, two small wings extend from the main body here. The 'tail' as such was short and narrow, but was traditional in the sense it still had 2 elevators and a rudder. Along both sides, a rather strange symbol could be seen - similar to a pentagon, but yet, strangely different, as it seemed more like 2 upside down Vs in a box, with diagnols connecting the corners and a line running vertically through the center.
What most perculiar about the ship was not the shape, or the speed for that matter - it was the fact that at several points, it was emmiting flames, and bullet holes littered the outside of the hull, giving it the appearance of swiss cheese. It was a wonder the thing was still going - if at a downward slope. Every minute, some explosion went off (mostly around the oval pods near the bottom) and shook the entire craft, taking out huge chunks with it. The only calmness and serenity in the entire craft would have been inside the cockpit, with the pilot.
Any other pilot would have been panicking right now, but if one were seated behind him at this point of time, they would suspect nothing to be wrong if not for the such an incident was an everyday occurance. The cockpit was rattled quite often with the sounds of susbsystems exploding, and each time the explosions simply got closer and closer. But yet the pilot remained calm, moving switches and just generally trying to keep the ship together. Moving to the front and looking at him would have been quite difficult, as he was wearing a standard face mask and helmet. But his eyes were exposed (for better sight maybe) and his expression, inner feelings and to an extent, maybe his thoughts, could have been easily seen in them.
Turning back to the front would have treated one to a rather spectacular sight: another white hole appeared in front of the ship and enveloped the ship, now surrounding it with a completely blue-white environment, a sharp contrast from the lucious green hills and vallleys present mere seconds before.
But even this came to a short end - for there was light at the end of this tunnel as well. In this case however, the whiteness from inside simply continued, as the ship emerged into the exact same valley, except this time it was snowing. After crossing a certain distance, the Pilot hit a button and the ship once again was consumed by the tunnel. Remaining calm throughout this, the pilot finally spoke into his radio set. The undertones of his voice did not betray his apperant calmness. During this time, the ship once again transitioned into the valley outside, the only difference being was that it was now snowing and a few trees were present.
"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is Epsilon 4 of the 22nd. I was engaged by Chaos units and am heavily damaged. I've got ruptures all over the hull and loosing integrity to all the modules quickly. Engines 3, 4 and 5 are down, and the rest won't stay there much longer. Please advise, do we have units in the vicinity??"
The terrain once again disappeared into the blue-white tunnel.
Equally calm, a reply came back through the channel.
"Negative, all available wings are busy elsewhere - what happened to your escort?? Where is the rest of Epsilon wing??"
The pilot replied in a tone of fustration and anger, as if his patience was running out.
"Beta wing is down, and so is the rest of my squad. I'm trying to jump through to HQ command, but my drive is malfunctioning and - OH CRAP!!!"
The pilot reacted immediately, pulling up the craft as much as possible to avoid hitting the tip of a tree that was at the exit of the tunnel. The ground was getting closer and closer with each jump - and the trees were getting higher. The pilot continued, his tone now more controlled.
"Never mind that. I'm stuck jumping through a few hundred meters of tunnel before I have to drop out into different exit points. The ground is getting awfully close. Any advice command?"
The person at the other end of the line remained quite for a few seconds, before he finally replied.
"There isn't a thing we can do Pilot - your best option may be to try to crash land."
"That's it?? That's your plan?" The pilot replied, his fustration showing even more.
"Unfortunately, yes. You have a better idea?" Command replied.
The pilot was silent for a few seconds, before he nodded and replied rather shakily as explosions rocked the ship even more.
"No. Any orders for the units?? Eject or...?"
"Yes. Try to get as many survivors as possible away from the crash site. Try to get to a clear area first! Those trees will rip you to shreds at this speed."
"Understood. I'm cutting the line." With that, the pilot flipped a few switches above his head and then cut off the line. The ship once again entered into the real world, this time back in a relatively empty valley, but much, much closer to the ground.
The pilot continued to remain calm. He went to the pre-ejection procedures for the Pods, but frowned his screen showed red lights for nearly all of them except a handful. Something must have jammed the release mechanisms. No time for repairs - he simply ejected whatever could be ejected.
From the outside, one could see 3 Pods falling out from the bottom of the craft - 2 were taken out however, by the explosion of the Number 2 Engine Module. Only 1 survived and continued on its fall to the earth below.
Back in the cockpit, the pilot was tensed. The ship was now constantly shaking and rattling - the explosions were now nearly at the cockpit itself. Sighing to himself, the pilot reached to a panel next to him and released several switches. This released the air-brakes and forward thrusters, which would slow down the craft as much as possible. The display panel next to him showed him 50 seconds to impact with the ground. This number actually increased as the ship slowed down and started to give in to gravity.
The pilot adjusted, firing whatever engines were left. The time was now at 40 seconds and altitude at 100 meters. The ground was getting even closer - at this point, the Pilot could see some minor details of the ground below. The soil at least appeared a bit soft, if nothing else.
The pilot sighed to himself - he had done all he could. He reached to a box underneath his seat - inside was a single injection of Morphene and an audio casette.
35 Seconds to impact, 90 Meters, and the alarms starting to ring, warning of low altitude, low fuel, low hull integrity - warning that the pilot and the ship were simply screwed. But the pilot didn't care - he shut off the alarms and injected the Morphene into himself. At least he wasn't going to feel much pain, either way.
Then he studied the cassete before putting it in. 30 seconds now and 80 Meters to the ground. The speed really showed now as the ground rolled by.
Pressing the play button, the Pilot went limp and sat back, simply staring ahead as the ground closed in. Music started to play, and the all-too familiar voice of Frank Sinatra stated to play over the speakers. The pilot sang the words as they came out, as if on instinct and he continued to sing even though the ground came closer
70 meters.........60 meters........50 meters.....it just kept on coming, but he kept going on, unfazed.
"Fly me to the moon...let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like on Jupiter, ah-jupiter and mars. In other words....Hold my hand....."
If one looked carefully enough, in the final few seconds before impact, they could see tears forming in the corners of the pilot's eyes. The song ended there, before the ship met the ground and everything went black.
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