Chapter 1: A New World
"Did you see that Ryugel-nii!? That big red light!?"
Ryugel glanced up from the controls of the space shuttle and placed his hand on his chest and with a confident smile.
"That? That was merely a solar flare Gandales."
"Woah that's so cool! You know so much Ryugel-nii!" Gandales replied with ecstatic admiration for his elder brother.
The reality was that they were nowhere near a sun… or anything for that matter; in fact they were lost trying to return to their home planet; Faram Obius. The two brothers had been going around in circles for a few days now yet alas there was absolutely no sign of their destination; however neither of the two showed any signs of discontent, the younger of the two siblings remained in absolute admiration for his brother's navigational skills; at the same time the elder was determined not to let his brother down and kept optimistic 'home is just around the next asteroid belt'. He kept saying.
The two brothers sat in silence for a while longer with Ryugel focused on piloting the ship while Gandales sat glued to the windows taking in all the sights that were to be seen.
"Ah? There's a planet on the scanner Ryugel-nii!" Gandales exclaimed trying to move the viewfinder closer to his brother to show him the planet.
Ryugel smirked and held his hand up to stop him.
"Naturally, of course we arrived at home. I knew exactly where we were all along." Ryugel proclaimed with an air of ill-deserved confidence.
Gandales began to jump up and down frantically at his brother's words.
"Amazing! Just what I'd expect from Ryugel-nii!"
"Don't say it Gandales, don't say anything more." Exclaimed Ryugel as per his usual response.
Suddenly Gandales snapped out of his excited moment; and stared intently at the view finder.
"…but, Ryugel-nii… this doesn't quite look like Faram Obius…"
Naturally Ryugel said nothing, to him his younger brother's concerns were nonsense and he didn't hesitate to descend towards the planet.
Although Gandales had his doubts about the claim; in his eyes his brother's words were absolute; there could be no doubt in his mind that what he said was true.
To that end the ship sailed full speed towards their apparent home planet; naturally it didn't take long for things to spiral out of control, as the ship shook uncontrollably red lights began to flash above them, alarm sounds blared out so loudly it was almost deafening and a warning message came over the loud speaker.
"ERROR ERROR APPROACH ANGLE TOO STEEP FOR THIS PLANET'S GRAVITY, AUTO-DEPLOYING BALLUTE."
The two of them stood stunned as the voice spoke and then suddenly began to panic, their hands scuttled all over the control panel trying to regain some form of control over the situation put on the safety override, even. It was completely unnecessary however as the ships computer was taking control of the situation for them, before long the ballute at the nose of the space ship deployed, the force of it's opening jerked the two brothers back in their seats, but very quickly slowed their decent towards the planet.
Gandales breathed an exasperated sigh of relief and mopped the sweat from his forehead and looked to his brother somewhat worriedly.
"It's nothing to worry about Gandales, this is a very normal way to approach a planet." Ryugel said to reassure his brother of his own brilliance.
"Amazing! Just what I'd expect of Ryugel-nii!" exclaimed his younger brother; his previous concerns suddenly dissipated; now in complete awe of his elder sibling.
The conversation between the two continued for a while; Gandales complimenting Ryugel; and Ryugel impressing Gandales with his 'wealth of knowledge'. Meanwhile the ship edged further and further into the gravity well of the planet.
The elder of the two brothers turned his attention back to the ships controls to approach for the landing on the planet.
"I think I need to cut away the Ballute soon…"
His finger hovered cautiously over the button to cut away the ballute, in truth he wasn't completely sure when exactly to cut it away.
"un… Ryugel-nii, the ground is starting to look pretty close."
"It's nothing to panic over Gandales; it's an optical illusion; it always looks a lot closer than it is." Replied Ryugel dismissively.
However it certainly did look as though that was the case, the ground was rapidly approaching and Ryugel decided maybe he had better press the button before it became too late and just pray for the best. His finger pressed the button into it's receptacle and sure enough the ballute disabled itself and he was once again in control of the ship; much to his surprise the controls were somewhat unresponsive it seemed as though the gravity on this planet was a lot stronger than the gravity of Faram Obius.
Ryugel took the helm with a firm grip and pulled it back to level out; but the atmosphere was... Heavy. Too heavy, with no warning the ship plummeted closer and closer into the ground.
Thud, the ship landed hard on the ground, normally this would have been a big problem but thankfully the ship had landed into a sand dune which cushioned the landing ever so slightly.
The two brothers slowly began to fade back into consciousness; and gradually gathered their bearings and looked to the other.
"Are you okay Ryugel-nii?" Gandales asked sheepishly from underneath the control panel.
Ryugel looked at him and nodded; slowly pulling himself out from underneath the wreckage.
"Hm… it looks as though we are still in one piece."
The two cautiously stepped around the damaged cockpit of their downed airship; Ryugel pushed a few buttons on the monitor to assess the damage to the ship.
The prognosis was not good.
"This… looks like it's going to take some work." Ryugel said with his hand rubbing his chin inquisitively.
Gandales looked over his shoulder at the monitor and his jaw dropped; he suddenly began to panic and jump up and down.
"This is really bad Ryugel-nii! How are we going to fix it!?"
It took a brief moment of thought before Ryugel carelessly threw his arm out with confidence.
"We simply need to find a settlement where we can get a few parts to make repairs."
Gandales started pumping his arms excitedly at his brother's confidence over the situation.
"Woah! Ryugel-nii is amazing! You always know what to do Ryugel-nii!"
"Don't say it Gandales, don't say anything more." Said Ryugel with a smirk on his face.
And that was that; the two's course was set; explore the unknown planet they have landed on and find help. The two began to pack supplies into their bags and before long they were heading out of the airlock of the ship.
The planet was strange to say the least; it looked like a desert; but the sand was dark grey and the sky was a similar shade of grey, the vast planes of sand were only broken up by various sparsely placed strange trees that looked like gigantic vibrant orange Douglas fir trees.
"Ryugel-nii! Where are we? I've never seen anything like this before!"
The elder brother stopped and placed his fingers on his temples; thinking to himself.
"…I have no idea!" exclaimed Ryugel suddenly; causing Gandales to fall to the floor in shock. "I think we may have stumbled upon an uncharted planet." He continued.
"…uncharted… planet…?" Gandales asked somewhat confused from the ash coloured desert floor.
"It means a planet that no-one has discovered before." Ryugel confirmed for his younger sibling.
"Amazing! Ryugel-nii discovered a new planet! Just what I would expect!" Gandales yelled excitably as he jumped back to his feet.
"It's quite a discovery that's for sure" The elder brother said with a smile and a nod "However… that means the likelihood of us finding replacement parts here is incredibly slim."
Gandales paused for a moment to think about the best thing to do in the situation.
"Hey maybe we could turn on the emergency beacon? We can take the portable comm unit with us so we know if someone comes to investigate and help us."
Ryugel's eyebrow twitched angrily that his younger brother had suggested the idea before he could think of it.
"Of course, I was just about to suggest the same thing." Ryugel snapped back suddenly.
"Just what I'd expect of Ryugel-nii!" Gandales exclaimed completely oblivious to his brother's dishonesty.
The two brothers then proceeded to switch the ships emergency beacon on; making sure to take the ship's portable comm device with them. The journey of exploring the planet was all set and ready to start; the two brothers stood at the airlock door of the ship looking out over the horizon taking a moment to themselves; although the prospect of the situation they were in was daunting, scary even. But at the same time they couldn't help but feel a joy deep in their chests that they were together to experience it; a new place; a new adventure; a new world that nobody else had discovered before.
Ryugel was the first to take one step forward; Gandales quickly matched his pace to follow alongside him. While mostly featureless; the desert was very pleasant to walk through, the air was warm but there was a cool breeze blowing through. The walk was so enjoyable that the minutes faded into hours; they had been going for so long that the sun was now sitting right on top of the horizon.
Almost as if it signalled them, fatigue set in and the two siblings decided it might be best to sit down for a moment and stop for a drink.
"Hey… Ryugel-nii..." Gandales asked curiously "…do you think it's strange that we haven't seen any animals or anything? Other than those big orange trees I mean."
Ryugel took a big sip from his water bottle and sat deep in thought for a moment.
"That's true… I think I might have seen a couple of little bugs and things but nothing big… in a planet hospitable like this you'd think there would be…"
The elder brother's thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly noticed on top of the sand dune behind his brother a creature had suddenly appeared.
The creature could be likened to a frill-necked lizard; only much larger; it's head reached about chest height of an adult human; the creature's skin was scaled and a dull dark green colour; the frill on its neck was patched with a vibrant red colour that faded into orange as it reached the tips of the frill.
Ryugel looked up and pointed at the creature with his jaw dropped; Gandales turned around to look and his face lit up as he saw the creature.
"That's amazing!" Gandales jumped up from the ground and started to walk towards the creature.
The lizard-like creature opened its mouth and made a strange squealing noise; before running back over the other side of the sand dune, almost mesmerized by the creature Gandales ran after it without a second thought.
Ryugel jumped up from his seated position and worriedly ran after his brother; he chased him as he saw his silhouette disappear over the other side of the sand dune.
"Gandales!" Ryugel called desperately as he chased after his younger brother; he reached the top of the sand dune and suddenly stopped himself; his eyes couldn't believe the sight laid out before him.