Chapter Text
2157-AE
Jarilo Star System
He shifted slightly in his seat, the plush material pressed tightly beneath him. Reaching up overhead to shut off main engines with his right hand as he kept the wheel steady in his left, and sharply pulling back on a few levers. Some of the buttons to his right periodically flashed as the old ship creaked under the command, a long pause kept his muscles tight before the ships main lights flashed back on. He looked over the command center and over his shoulder to check for any abnormalities, and only once they had set the ship to idle and checked for damages did they finally sigh out a breath of relief.
Sampo unbuckled his seatbelt, the sharp pain of a cramp in his thigh made him wince a bit before he continued on towards the storage room of the ship. he rounded the hall and made a few stops in other rooms, collecting important belongings, he wouldn’t be gone for long but not knowing exactly how long the trek to the city would be, he didn’t want to take his chances. he packed a generous amount of food and supplies, multiple jackets, goggles, gloves, scarves and everything in between.
Finally descending into the storage room of the small ship, he gathered his belongings into the landing pod stored away among the various crates and built-in shelves, pushing away some stray boxes and tying down any loose objects. He took a moment before stepping into the smaller craft to stretch his limbs, reaching up and letting out a sigh, his eyes stung slightly and his hands were sore. The pod door opened upwards to a seating arrangement for one, he fitted himself into the custom made craft and started up exit processes.
Multiple rounds of checks and procedure later, an automated voice rang through the ships system as the storage hatch opened, he readjusted his hands on the steering wheel and let the roar of the engines firing up consume his thoughts. The breaks released and the pod slid down the track as the craft was launched into space, tether line stringing out behind. the icy planet visible in all of its glory beneath him, Jarilo-IV according to official IPC logs from over half a dozen Amber Eras ago, though probably different colloquially, it was still a beautiful planet.
The otherwise constant ice was broken up by vast oceans, the vauge outline of massive glacier peaks could be made out and dottings of civilizations, buildings scattered the landscape a little ways out from where he was landing. Refocusing his attention back to the machine, he made sure of the trajectory, location, weather and other variables. He would have done more research on this planets storm systems if there were any records of the place besides the ones from ages ago.
It wasn’t long before his descent into the atmosphere began, he had parked his ship just outside of the planets orbit.
‘Entering Planets Atmosphere’ the disembodied feminine voice of the system rung out, it continued, ‘Unexpected Turbulence’, except this systems AI never ‘expected’ the turbulence that anyone could predict, especially from a ice covered planet, It was an outdated craft after all. Nearing the planets surface they began to manually trigger some custom actions for landing procedures, the craft began to shake slightly as his vision was obscured due to the snow, ‘Unexpected Turbulence’ the system chimed again. ‘that shouldn’t be going off again..’ thought to themself, with the snow blocking most of their view they dragged up a radar map of their surroundings and froze.
The ship was off trajectory. ’Unexpected Turb- Off Path, Correct Immediately’ The system interrupted itself with the warning, Sampo quickly disengaged autopilot and tried to pull back upwards, the systems were bugging out and he couldn’t see his altitude anymore, it kept flashing outlandish numbers. If he could get back up into orbit he could fix the problem, but the shaking got worse as he could feel whatever was hitting the craft leave dents in the metal. He heard the engines failing and his breathing quickened as lights started to shut off as the system wasn’t responding anymore, “shit shit shit,” he could hear the blood rushing through his ears and his heart pounding.
He reached up for the button to start Crash Procedures, airbags, oxygen mask, engine shut o- the ship hit the ground with a loud screech followed by a crunch as he was jolted forward into the recently deployed airbags, his face barely stopped from slamming into the console, blacking out from the impact. Stinging pain flushed through his body and when he came to shortly after, the only sounds audible were of his breathing, the hiss of the wreckage and the howl of the wind. this was the worst case scenario he dreaded, shipwrecked on a foreign planet, opposite from the only civilization visible in the middle of a snowstorm.
He slowly peeled himself out from under the crumpled door and out of the craft, his entire body sore and likely bruised. His eyes had begun to sting as he tried to keep out the cold surrounding him. His breaths came fast and unfulfilling, not doing anything to help the dread that was settling into his gut.
He was stuck here now. What was supposed to be a supply run had so quickly turned into him being stranded, he berated himself for not stopping to replace the backup engines last week or to make sure he brought materials to repair the ship, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. he needed to salvage what he could and find shelter, aeons know how much daylight he has left. He looked out as far as he could towards the icy planet that would either be his new temporary home or his final resting place.