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《Liu Wang || EMI-108》
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..:: death disabled ::..
LOCALE: Raxus Secondus
TIME: A few hours to sundown
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Liu's gaze swept across several screens of information; a frightening representation of the myriad computer systems overseeing his chimaera of a starship. He had had to wire together the impossible, spending months on the microcode and schematics for logic gates. Before he had had the help of some previously junked droids (and even then), he was left alone to unite notoriously incompatible components. Nearly every piece of the starship came from a different model, information visualised by different standards on each screen it connected to. This starbound trash heap, the product of his long exile on Raxus Prime, had finally made its lift-off into the troposphere.
The cockpit became uncomfortably hot; hot enough that Liu was certain his ship would be in flames before he could ascend past the stratosphere. Sweat dripped from Liu's brow. Internal systems were beginning to overheat, and he was moving far too fast through the atmosphere to be able to see out of any window. Nearly all of the alarms he had installed went off, one by one, a discordant chorus of chimes and whines.
The ship shuddered its way through, past the mesosphere, through the sticky heat of Raxus Prime's irradiated thermosphere. He was going to make it! The ship's blasting ascent slowed to a orbital cruise. The windows were clear now, letting Liu peer down below at the planet that had held him prisoner for three years. It was no prettier in space, but a small smile crept across Liu's face. He had broke through the stratosphere before in test flights, but the entire ship by then would usually be utterly destroyed with exception to a well-used escape pod.
System alarms hushed to all but the whirring and thumping of the ship itself, though he hadn't made orbit entirely in one piece. Several components in the outer hull were lost to the intensive heat of breaking atmosphere, and Liu was certain he had lost more of his ship than his hand-jigged data-screens were capable of telling him. He took a deep breath, checked his seatbelt, and initiated thrusters. Nothing, at first. Then, sputtering, hissing...there! He sighed in relief, pulling back on the throttle gently to lift him out of orbit. He took a moment to admire Raxus itself, the star he had seen when he and his master had flown into the system all those years ago. Then, the planets. Raxus Prime was a hideous sight from up high, though to his mild shock it seemed as though the next closest planet was stunning in comparison. Oceans, forests. Surely someone lives there? Someone other than rusting and abandoned droids?
"Mᴀsᴛᴇʀ. Iᴛ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀs ᴀs ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ ᴡᴇ ʜᴀᴠᴇ sᴜᴄᴄᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ."
A rusty-red LEP servant droid, strapped to the seat beside Liu. Many of her pieces, too, had had to be replaced, though Liu's favourite were the soft green-glow optical inserts he had installed to restore the vision that she now used to peer at all of the flashing screens and lit-dials.
"No. Not yet. We can't live in space, we don't have the resources to sustain ourselves," Liu replied calmly, his gaze fixed on the planet ahead. His original intent had been to leave the star system, but he wasn't confident yet in the ship's hyperspace integrity and had had limited opportunity to test it on the surface. If he couldn't leave subspace, for all he knew it could be years before he found another star system - not to mention one that could support life.
"The next planet will have to do," said Liu. A moment to ground himself again, and a gentle
throttle-pull to bank his ship towards Raxus' second planet.
"Wɪʟʟ ᴡᴇ ʙᴇ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs, ᴍᴀsᴛᴇʀ?"
The cockpit became uncomfortably hot; hot enough that Liu was certain his ship would be in flames before he could ascend past the stratosphere. Sweat dripped from Liu's brow. Internal systems were beginning to overheat, and he was moving far too fast through the atmosphere to be able to see out of any window. Nearly all of the alarms he had installed went off, one by one, a discordant chorus of chimes and whines.
The ship shuddered its way through, past the mesosphere, through the sticky heat of Raxus Prime's irradiated thermosphere. He was going to make it! The ship's blasting ascent slowed to a orbital cruise. The windows were clear now, letting Liu peer down below at the planet that had held him prisoner for three years. It was no prettier in space, but a small smile crept across Liu's face. He had broke through the stratosphere before in test flights, but the entire ship by then would usually be utterly destroyed with exception to a well-used escape pod.
System alarms hushed to all but the whirring and thumping of the ship itself, though he hadn't made orbit entirely in one piece. Several components in the outer hull were lost to the intensive heat of breaking atmosphere, and Liu was certain he had lost more of his ship than his hand-jigged data-screens were capable of telling him. He took a deep breath, checked his seatbelt, and initiated thrusters. Nothing, at first. Then, sputtering, hissing...there! He sighed in relief, pulling back on the throttle gently to lift him out of orbit. He took a moment to admire Raxus itself, the star he had seen when he and his master had flown into the system all those years ago. Then, the planets. Raxus Prime was a hideous sight from up high, though to his mild shock it seemed as though the next closest planet was stunning in comparison. Oceans, forests. Surely someone lives there? Someone other than rusting and abandoned droids?
"Mᴀsᴛᴇʀ. Iᴛ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀs ᴀs ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ ᴡᴇ ʜᴀᴠᴇ sᴜᴄᴄᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ."
A rusty-red LEP servant droid, strapped to the seat beside Liu. Many of her pieces, too, had had to be replaced, though Liu's favourite were the soft green-glow optical inserts he had installed to restore the vision that she now used to peer at all of the flashing screens and lit-dials.
"No. Not yet. We can't live in space, we don't have the resources to sustain ourselves," Liu replied calmly, his gaze fixed on the planet ahead. His original intent had been to leave the star system, but he wasn't confident yet in the ship's hyperspace integrity and had had limited opportunity to test it on the surface. If he couldn't leave subspace, for all he knew it could be years before he found another star system - not to mention one that could support life.
"The next planet will have to do," said Liu. A moment to ground himself again, and a gentle
throttle-pull to bank his ship towards Raxus' second planet.
"Wɪʟʟ ᴡᴇ ʙᴇ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs, ᴍᴀsᴛᴇʀ?"
"I don't know yet. I don't even know if we'll be able to make it back - I lost sensors on the hull plating, so I don't know how much we lost breaking atmosphere. I would estimate at best we've lost 12% of the outer hull. At worst, 35%."
The LEP droid flattened her bunny-like ears, as though considering what Liu had said.
"Wᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ʀᴇᴘᴀɪʀs ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜʀғᴀᴄᴇ," she eventually declared.
"Just the two of us?"
"Wᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ," she replied.
"We'll have to see."
Crawling along at subspace speed, what remained of the Menagerie traced the orbit of the second planet, letting gravity coax the ship into orbit. The descent to the surface was considerably easier than the ascent: gravity's gentle tug became almost violent the more the ship soared towards the ground. Once more, his windows were utterly fogged over by smoke and moving too quickly to make out any details. He watched nervously as 3 more of his systems went completely offline, some of the screens now crackling with static interference. Descent may be easier than ascent, but landing? He had never landed before at such a high velocity, and it occurred to him that his only hope of landing in one piece was either to find water or use the ground to slow him down. Fear sunk in like hot coal in his chest. He couldn't see anything.
As the object proximity alarms began to ring, he knew he was close to the ground, and pulled hard back to raise the nose as much as he could before his ears began ringing from the explosive sound of a starship carving a path through mud and stone. No longer confident in his seat belt, he hung on for dear life for what seemed like a terribly long time before, finally, the ship slowed to a stop. Liu took a deep breath, looked back at EMI-108 to see if she was OK.
He sat like that for a while, somewhat paralyzed by shock: the adrenaline of survival and the shock that he had actually made it off of Raxus Prime.
"Mᴀsᴛᴇʀ? Iғ I ᴍᴀʏ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ sᴜɢɢᴇsᴛɪᴏɴ. Wᴇ ᴍᴀʏ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴀᴍɪɴᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ sʜɪᴘ, ᴛʜᴇɴ sᴄᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʀᴇᴀ. Tʜɪs ᴘʟᴀɴᴇᴛ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ɪɴʜᴀʙɪᴛᴇᴅ."
"And if it is, that crash will have attracted a lot of attention," he concluded for her.
"Pʀᴇᴄɪsᴇʟʏ. Mᴀsᴛᴇʀ. Aʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀᴅʏ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇɢɪɴ ᴍᴏᴠɪɴɢ?"
"Alright. Let's see how bad it is," he sighed, before unstrapping both himself and his droid and trying the door. Too badly dented in to function, but the right-side window had shattered during the crash, so he clambered out of the ruinous heap, stepping outside to see the long tract of upturned ground.
"Oh, no."
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