Descending on the Dunes

Posted on Tue Nov 28th, 2023 @ 3:54am by Lieutenant JG Silica Tetsuhiko 'Twin-Tails' & Lieutenant JG Palu Vraaku ‘Jumja’ & Lieutenant JG Aika Thompson & Ensign Lynette Bishop 'Highlander' & Ensign Talanna Teela 'Nanny'

1,781 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: Planet Surface

The controls flashed and flickered as the Starfighter fell further through the atmosphere. Silica gripped the flight sticks tightly trying to get some sort of control back, but it was no use. The upper air currents swept under the wings of the starfighter causing it to start rolling over as it plummeted towards the sandy surface below.

"Restart engines!" she ordered hoping that the computer was still in some sort of control. However there came no response. The power conduit behind her head answered her by raining down a shower of sparks. She swore as she attempted to pull the atmospheric flaps up, a desperate attempt to level out the nose cone. At least if she could land somewhat upright she had a chance of survival, it would beat ploughing into the surface nose first.

"Come on...!" she pleaded as she tugged hard at the flight sticks. But it was no use, the starfighter was in a freefall spin and there was nothing she could do to control it. She began to feel the nausea and dizziness starting to come on as the ground grew larger and larger. "What I would do for a pot of Petunia's right now!" she smirked, if was going to die she could at least try to smile about it.

Finally she let go of the sticks, there was nothing she could do right now but accept that the craft was a lost cause. However she could at least attempt to save her life. Whilst spinning, she wrestled with the emergency locker in the cockpit and pulled out the emergency supplies. They would be essential for her survival if she was going down. Then she fastened her helmet on, threw down the visa to protect her face and after attaching her surival bag to her chair, she pulled the handle on her left.

The bolts around the cockpit windows fired, and out went Silice flying high into the air. Luckily Starfleet had included an ejector seat for when Starfighters were crashing down on a planet. She let out an ear piercing scream as the sudden acceleration caught her off guard and took the wind out of her stomach. There was a sudden jolt as the parachute deployed.

"Thank god..." she sighed in relief. She could see her starfighter still spinning out of control, the stress was too much on its hull as it began to break up. Finally it ploughed into the sandy dunes not far from where she was gradually making her way down. It instantly exploded, a shockwave caught her in the air blowing her away for a brief moment. After shielding her eyes she looked back over at what had once been her fighter. There was nothing left but a crater in the sand, smouldering wreckage and smoke. "Glad I wasn't in that..." she said. "At least I get a soft landing..." she sat back and relaxed, the hard part was about to come, but for now she could simply appreciate the fact that she was alive.

Ensign Teela's fighter was separated from Moklor's on entry to the planet and had crashed soon afterwards. Unlike Moklor, Teela tried to stay near her fighters. It was about forty minutes later when she saw a streak in the sky.

"That looks like another fighter", she said to herself. It seemed to crash only a few hundred meters away. The ensign grabbed her survival bag and holstered equipment before quickly setting off towards the crashed starfighter.

The dunes bogged her down, Teela eventually finding harder baked sand to run along.

The heat on Silica's skin was not pleasant as she slowly descended towards the dunes in her seat. However she spotted someone down on the dunes below her, it looked a little like one of the pilots. They had the same uniform on. However they seemed to be making their way towards what was left of her starfighter.

"HEY!" she shouted. "UP HERE!"

"Are you alright?" Teela shouted as she moved cautiously. "I rode out the crash too."

It took a few moments for Silica's seat to finally touch down. Then she unstrapped herself and removed her helmet. "Don't mind if I drop in do you?" she asked trying to lighten the mood.

The sound of the yelling carried, and Aika Thompson, whose fighter had soft-landed a few kilometres back, was treading along a dune looking for other downed pilots. She had a compass and a small bottle of water, but the underside of the craft had been ripped apart down to the survival gear compartment. It had been nothing short of a miracle that the crash didn't take her legs too.

"HELLO!" she called out to Teela and Silica, hoping they'd hear her too as she made her way as fast as her legs would allow.

The Orion ensign turned towards the voice, waving frantically towards Aika in the distance. Her excitement grew as she no longer felt alone. "I think something pulled us into this area!" She heard the echo of her voice cross the distance towards Aika along the gentle sandy breeze. She looked back towards Silica.

"More the merrier I guess..." Silica said in response. Silica began to wave over towards Teela, noticing her blue uniform from a distance. At least with three of them they will have a better chance of survival.

Teela approached. "Some force split Shell-Squid and I apart from each other mid-flight. We lost contact with the Tokyo and scrambled back to investigate. It must be on the surface too." She felt a pained worry, hoping for the best.

"Even if it's not, there's no way we're flying out of here with our Starfighters," Silica replied. She looked around at them all. "Who's ranking officer in this situation?"

"I think you are," Aika said as she joined Teela and Silica. "We're the same rank, and both third in our squadrons, but you're Squadron A." She held up her compass and water. "This is all I could salvage."

Siilica shuddered at the thought of being the current ranking officer. That meant she was now responsible for all their lives, it was only a few months ago she was an ensign. "I guess, the first thing we should do is find shelter and water..." She looked around. "That might be hard in a place like this..."

"Did anyone see anything on their way down?" Aika asked. "Some shelter maybe?"

"Nozomiiiii!"

The three of them perked up. The voice was faint, but there was no doubt in their minds that they'd all heard it.

"Iowaaaaa! Soraaaa! Someoooone! Anyone?!"

"Who's that?" Silica asked. She knew that whoever it was was shouting for their other pilots. "Hello?!" she asked loudly, calling out to whomever was looking for the other pilots.

There was a pause.

"...Hello?" the voice called back with an air of mild hesitancy. "Who's there?"

Silice seemed a little taken aback about being asked who she was. Truthfully she wasn't sure who she was talking to. She looked at the others with a look of nervousness. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Silica Tetsuhiko of the Federation Starship Tokyo!" she called back.

'Wow... that sounded so official...' she thought to herself as she couldn't help but smirk. She had never actually introduced herself that way before.

"Oh, thank God!" the other voice replied. "You have no idea what a relief it is to find another survivor out here... er, give me just a second!"

Atop the crest of a nearby dune, the three of the watched as the silhouette of yet another pilot limped into view. With her back to this sun, it was difficult to make out her features, though she was of distinctly feminine build, and her somewhat awkward gait indicated towards the likelihood that she had been wounded in the crash.

"Over here!" She called out, waving her arms to try and get the other pilots' attention.

Silica looked at the others as she waved back making her way over. "We're coming!" She called back leading the others towards the figure. She began to naked haste, getting quicker as she approached, the bright sunshine behind the pilot made it hard to see their face from a distance.

As the three of them hastily clambered their way up the dune, Silica could just barely make out the pilot's face. If memory was serving her right, she was one of Triumph Squadron's pilots; granted, one that Silica wasn't all that terribly familiar with, as she tended to keep a low profile and stay out of everyone's way, but one whose face Silica had seen enough of for her to recognize.

Silica finally found herself face to face with the pilot. She looked her up and down. "Ah, you're that English girl... Linda...? Something like that was it?" she asked rubbing her head as if searching for answers.

"Lynette," the Ensign corrected, her breathing ragged and fraught with exhaustion, especially after such a long hike. "Ensign Lynette Bishop, Triumph Squadron."

Silica clicked her fingers. "Yeah thats it!" she said with a smile. She then noticed the large gash in the ensign's leg. "You're injured, we need to sort that wound out before we go anywhere." She said. "Does anyone have any emergency medkits with them?"

She was met with silence. Silica sighed as she began to rip away some of the fabric on her trousers. "Here, lets get that bandaged up. We don't want it to become infected. I'm not a nurse or anything, so this might hurt..."

"Nngh!" Lynette winced as Silica began to dress the wound.

"Sorry, its not pefect." Silica said as she finished tieing the fabric around the gash in her leg. The blue fabric that had once been her uniform was starting to darken from the blood seeping into it. Silica knew it was only a temporary fix before they needed to seek more permanent medical attention for her. "Say, I don't suppose you saw anywhere we could find shelter?" she asked. "So far we've not seen anything."

"Not so far as I could tell, sorry," Lynette apologized. "You three are honestly the first thing I've come across since crashing here."

Silica seemed deflated at the answer. She was at least hoping for some sort of shelter, an old ship wreck or a cliff. Hell, even an old tree to give them a brief moment of shade. But there seemed like nothing but sand out there.

"Well..." She said turning to the other pilots. "Any ideas on what to do now?"

To be continued...

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