forum "It's all coming together..."

Started January 22, 2023 by @EldritchHorror-Davadio health_and_safety emoji_events

tune

Sinead opened their eyes again when the man sitting next to them spoke, feeling a stab of panic upon seeing a sheet of metal where the viewscreen should be. This whole thing had to be some kind of cosmic joke.
"I'm a botanist," they said, quietly, shakily. He had asked their name. "I'm Sinead," they said, louder now. "And I'm a goddamn botanist. An astrobiologist. I grow carrots. I was hired to grow carrots in space and I grow fruit hybrids for fun and I never even got a driver's license. Oh my god. We're gonna die." In a panic, they looked around and upon seeing nothing useful, did the only thing they could think to do: kick the wall. Hard. Aside from a brief flicker, nothing happened.
They were going to die in a tin can in space, and Sinead would never even make headlines - no. Though perhaps true, that line of thought had to be given up before it even began. They had to think. They were a scientist, albeit in a completely unrelated field, but a scientist nonetheless. "Shit. Ok. We have to - " they took a quick breath. "This thing has thrusters, right. Thrusters are heavy, there's a heavier end of the pod, meaning that when we hit the atmosphere, the gravity of the planet will theoretically pull down on that end more. If we turn off the thrusters for a few seconds, we'll be upright." Probably.
Think. There were no visuals to show it, but they were still moving, and fast. Think faster. Decent sized planet, decent amount of gravity. "We should be able to feel the pod turn, and that's when you re-engage the thrusters, or however that works. You'll have to do bursts or half power or something so we don't shoot ourselves right back into space." As far as Sinead was concerned, this was either a stroke of genius, or they would have to hope to crash so fast they didn't even feel it.

Chet's heart sank as his companion looked just as panicked as he felt. He listened to the guy theorize, and nodded slowly. "At the moment we're in freefall… I don't think we're tumbling, but I'm not sure. The pod might have inertial dampeners…"
He looked over the console carefully, trying to read the symbols. These things were meant to be intuitive, but they also usually had AI and sensors, and he had none of those just now.
He glanced at Sinead. "You don't know me… but we're gonna have to trust each other." He looked back down at the console, and made a decision.

"Hold onto something."

He hit the parachute release, and felt the pod immediately orient a particular direction. It was slight, which was a good sign. That meant they did have inertial dampeners, which might just keep them alive, even if they did crash.
They were slowing, though not by much. The parachute would only do so much. However, now that he knew they were in the right direction…
Flutter the thrusters.

Engage. Burn for a few seconds. Disengage. Let the parachute catch them. Engage. Repeat.

Chet was quiet, listening, trying to get any sense of where they were in the air. He wanted to reassure Sinead, but he didn't have enough information for the man to believe him.

The hours passed. Chet kept up the cycle, and nothing drastically changed. Eventually, the sounds of wind on the outside of the pod had gotten quieter, and Chet began to tense every time he let off the thrusters. He began to let them burn longer, just worrying that if they hit the ground with the thrusters off, it would be bad.
He had just disengaged the thrusters to let the parachute catch up, when the pod glanced off of something outside. It turned, throwing Chet and Sinead sideways, before there was a sudden jerk, and most of their motion stopped. There was some side to side movement, almost like they were swinging somehow.

Chet glanced over at his companion, his eyes wide. "I think we made it."

He sat for a moment, considering, before he reached up and adjusted the helmet on his vac-suit. They had no clue what the air would be like here. "Make sure you're sealed." he admonished Sinead.
Once they were set, Chet stood and moved towards the door. They were at an odd angle, he realized, as it felt like he had to walk up a slant to the door.
He tapped the door panel, and the vacuum sealed door blew off, and tumbled away. Air of some kind rushed into the pod, and Chet found himself looking up, into the sky.
The first thing he noticed was the wreck of the Deus slowly breaking up and tumbling to the planet's surface.
The second thing he noticed was their parachute, which was tangled over what looked like the top of… a tree sized mushroom?
He glanced over the edge of the open doorway, and immediately stepped back.

They were hanging easily 50 feet in the air.
Not safe yet…

Their descent took a lifetime. Sinead never knew falling could take so long; it felt like they had aged 50 years over the past few hours. They had no concept of how to work the pod, and so spent the entire drop offering whatever support and encouragement they could get out through gritted teeth.
"You got this. You're doing good. We're gonna be fine, you're doing great."
The stream of words was trivial, and unproductive, and Sinead couldn't manage to turn it off.
"We're just fine. Just fine. You've got it."
It was impossible to tell at this point whether the words were meant for their companion or for Sinead themself.

There was a scraping noise on the side of the pod as they grazed something, turning them abruptly sideways, and then a sharp jolt, and they were no longer falling. As per their partner's reminder, they adjusted their helmet, checking that the seal was tight. Said partner was poking his head out the door and looking around, but took a step back immediately after looking down.
"What? What is it?" They asked, and poked their head past Chet to look out. Their first feeling was of relief that they could actually see the ground. Their second, of course, was some kind of hysterical desperation at the fact that it was somehow still so far away. In the back of their mind, a redwood-sized mushroom was absolutely fascinating, but they could only study it further if they managed to survive that long.
"We're so goddamn close," they groaned. "How are we supposed to get down there?" Maybe every life pod came equipped with 50 feet of rope.

They turned and started poking around the inside of the pod, carefully as they were still hanging from a fairly thin cord. There had to be some sort of tubes or wiring that they could scavenge. Nearly anything could be used as rope if you knew how to wrap it. Which Sinead didn't, really, but how hard could it be to make a rope?
"We don't happen to have a spare parachute in here, do we?" They muttered while they tapped around on various parts of the pod. Fortunately, a part of the pod's design was to be scrapped for parts, and so the inside wasn't difficult to get into. After struggling for quite a while, they managed to remove a panel from the wall, revealing a hoard of cables.
"Are we gonna need these for anything else?" They looked up at Chet, "or should I start pulling?"

Sinead had kept up a constant stream of encouragement, and the sudden silence was jarring to Chet. His companion had reacted the same to their predicament. Chet had thought for a long moment, though when he'd turned, Sinead was tearing apart the inside of the pod. The cables were a good idea, but they reminded Chet that the pod still had power.
"Actually! We've still got thrusters… we could just… do a quick burn up above the-… shroomtree? And then let the parachute carry us down." He looked back out the door, and realize they were at the wrong angle to do that. Also, there were tree sized shrooms all around them. Some kind of mushroom forest? In any case, his idea wouldn't work.
He was still loathe to lose a power source. "I don't know about yanking the cables loose… we may need the pod to still have power…" He walked over to the console and looked at it for a moment, still deep in thought, when he noticed a blinking icon. It hadn't been there before the pod had stopped moving. He tapped it and a panel dropped under the console. Ducking down to check, Chet found what looked like a row of thickly packed backpacks. They were labeled Survive and Thrive! He snagged one, and started to unzip it, before realizing there was a pull tab, like on a parachute. His face broke into the first smile in a while, and he grabbed a second one, before walking over to Sinead.
"Parachutes. We should be able to get down just fine."

They were going to make it.

Sinead paused and released the cables as their companion theorized, before pushing some kind of button and immediately finding the single most useful thing he could possibly have uncovered. "You've got to be fucking kidding," they groaned, grabbing a backpack anyway and pulling it over their shoulders. They walked back to the door, looking out and over the edge before immediately turning back around and placing themself behind Chet. Sinead wasn't particularly afraid of heights, but they were unfortunately afraid of falling.
"Congratulations, you've been promoted to team leader. Lead the way," they gestured broadly with an exaggerated smile. Worst case scenario, if their parachute failed, at least they could try to land on Chet.

Chet chuckled quietly at Sinead's annoyance. He'd just got lucky, the botanist had put in all the real work to find them a way down.
He looked over the edge again as his companion promoted him. He checked that his backpack straps were tight on is shoulders, that the buckles were done up across his chest like they were supposed to be. He glanced back at Sinead, before stepping off the edge, pushing forward a little bit so his parachute wouldn't hit the pod.
He yanked the string immediately so the 'chute would be able to open fully.
There was a moment as his backpack self-unzipped quickly, and the canvas of his 'chute popped out. It did immediately open.

Except it wasn't a parachute.

What popped free from his back was a canvas and telescoped-pole tent. Probably air-tight, insulated, waterproof, and tear/cut-proof. Very helpful for someone trying to survive out in the open.

Not so helpful for someone trying to survive a 50 ft fall.

Chet yelped as he realized there was no help, and frantically tried to grab something on his way down. Unfortunately, he'd pushed himself away from anything he might grab onto, and he continued plummeting the rest of the 50 feet.

There was nothing he could do. He was going to hit the ground at speed.
He made the split second decision to tuck his legs and head, and wrap one arm around his legs and one over his head. Maybe as a cannonball he'd survive.

He hit the ground with a loud thud.
And immediately bounced. Not straight back up, and not all the way up, but a good 10 feet in the air, and over to his left. He'd landed on his hip, and the impact had broken his grip.
He landed again, this time sprawled out on his back, and bounced much less. He rolled more this time, and finally came to a stop several feet away. A loud groan escaped his body, mostly without him thinking about it, and he looked up at Sinead, trying to call up to him.
"……….Not a parachute…….."