[Baron's log 2 02:00Location: Earth]
The ship was out of control
In the middle of my musings, our course had turned head on into an asteroid shower. Blazing balls of light flew in every direction; some coming much too close for comfort. The ship tumbled, rolling us around in its insides like clothes in a washing machine. There was little to be done. I was squashed against the controls, Arthur pressing into my back, and my common sense told me trying to push him off wouldn't have worked well. Boxed in and dizzy, there was nothing we could do to stop the asteroids from pelting us, and they did so mercilessly.
Suddenly, a huge chunk of space rock barreled into our ship, and this one seemed to be too much for the little pod to handle. The ship rocketed down, fire blazing in its windshield. We had entered into some planet's gravitational pull. Great. That meant that if we didn't burn up on entry, we'd probably crash violently into the ground and die that way. I wasn't about to let that happen. I refused to die in such a shameful way, and especially with this buffoon as the man who perished with me. Not to mention I hadn't reached all of my life goals yet.
I had never tied my own bowtie.
I wouldn't stand for it. A mundane reason to try to live, yes, but it brought me to action. I sprung onto the controls, pulling them hard, trying to stabilize us. No matter what I did we wouldn't land smoothly, but maybe I could keep us alive. The tiny ship hurtled towards the ground, getting closer and closer and closer to impact, my ears roaring and my arms shaking violently as the rocket rattled under pressure.
I don't know when the impact came, I just know it was hard. I couldn't see anything, my eyes were shut tight, but we smashed into what felt like metal trees, and crashed into an ocean. We sunk several yards deep, then bobbed back up into the surface, rocking back in forth in the waves. Sensing we had finally stopped falling, I opened my eyes and looked through our windshield. Clear water covered half of my view, small particles of what looked like dirt floating nearly inches away from the glass. Above that, however, I didn't know whether to be happy or wary about.
The planet we landed on was obviously civilized. I could see lights in neat rows, signaling a path somewhere. I opened the emergency hatch on top of the pod and poked my head out to get a better look at our surroundings.
Yes, the inhabitants were definitely civilized. There were buildings jutting up in every direction and of all monstrous sizes. Many of them were still dotted with lights, little figures of whatever toiling away inside. I turned my head, noticing again the bright lights hoisted on poles, lighting the way of strange land vehicles that were speeding across what could be recognized as a roadway. After looking for a bit longer, I noticed that one of the metal rods had been broken in half, wires protruding from it, seemingly still active. That must have been the "metal tree" we hit.
The sky itself was dark, a few stars peeking from behind the shadows. I looked again, harder this time. Something was off. I searched the sky for a few moments, confused, when my eyes rested on what had seemed to be missing. A moon sat in the middle of the sky, half full and so… so far away. Only one, a loner. It was eerie, not having the three large moons of Galaluna overlooking the skies. Just this small loner, singular, by itself. Maybe that's why this world needed so many lights.
"Hey, whatcha lookin' at?"
Ah yes, Arthur. I'd almost forgotten about him. The oaf pushed his head through the hatch, his wide back crushing me against the edges of the opening. He then looked up at the moon, the faint light from it glowing on the lenses of his square, thick-framed glasses.
"Oh wow….that's really pretty!"
The innocence and childlike wonder of the statement stung me. Arthur was too accepting, too simple. I scoffed.
"It's just a pitiful moon"
The next point on our agenda was to find a way to land. It didn't take long to notice that the nearest bank was a short swim away. Just a quarter mile. Not much for a Galalunian soldier. I checked back in the pod for anything worth salvaging, but really all we had was food product, and most of it wouldn't survive the swim.
I reemerged and came face-to-back with Arthur, him having decided to sit at the edge of the porthole. I tried to push him out of the way, but he moved barely an inch, gladly just enough for me to squeeze out.
I stood on what little space was left of the tiny pod and pushed up my sleeve to reveal my armored watch. The yellow lights on the face lit up as I turned the dial, initiating Deep Sea Mode. A tight, blue waterproof suit wrapped itself around my body. I activated my mouth piece with my webbed fingers as the clear dome closed over my head. When the helmet clicked shut and I could hear oxygen begin circulating, I jumped into the water, nary a splash coming after my entry. I waded for a few seconds, trying to adjust to the temperature of the water, when I spotted Arthur, who still hadn't budged from the ship. This was annoying. It was enough that he'd tagged along on this trip, but now he was holding me up. I should have left him right there.
"Hey, can you not swim?!" I shouted. The scenario was more likely than I would have wished, and if it were the case I really would leave him until something came to either eat or rescue him.
"Oh, uh sorry! I was just looking around a bit!"
"Well you're wasting your time! There's nothing to look at! Now get your butt in the water or I swear there is a button on this watch to self-destruct that ship with you on it!"
With that, Arthur quickly activated his watch and dove into the water, a crashing wave following his entry. He popped back up with a goofy smile on his face, wading in the water in all his girth.
Absolutely no class.
He swam over to me and I pointed toward land in case he had just so quickly forgotten where we were headed. I then dove underwater and began stroking toward shore, looking back every once in a while to make sure Arthur hadn't drowned himself. It was a short swim, I'm an excellent swimmer and Arthur didn't flounder about too much. When we reached the bank, I immediately disengaged my helmet and sat at the base of the rock wall separating the beach from the street. The crash had taken more out of me than I had anticipated; there was no other way that swim could have made me so tired.
Arthur arrived on shore shortly after, and disengaged his own helmet. He walked over to me, concerned, but I brushed him off and stood up on my own. I then turned to the rock wall, and watched several cars speed past, making sure they were far enough away from the edge for us to climb up.
I was still tired from the swim, but I immediately grabbed the looser stones and began to climb. Arthur, surprisingly, wasn't slow on the upkeep and started after me. When we reached the top, I peered over for a moment to see what we were coming in to. We had arrived in front of what looked like a couple of shops across the street. No cars were coming, and any that could come by were safe enough away from the edge, so I pulled myself onto the ledge and peered out to where our ship still floated in the water. As Arthur was lifting himself over, I took out my watch once again, clicked a button on it, and the front window of the pod opened, filling the entire ship with water, sinking it. Arthur turned around, surprised, but he didn't question my authority in the matter and brought himself up to land.
I panned the street to take in even more of this strange landscape. We had come up in front of what seemed like stores, retail. Alien clothes hung from the windows, and signs blurted on about "huge sales" and "everyday low prices". On one, a woman was smiling and sitting next to a beach, a cold drink in her hands. It took a few minutes to figure out that the ad was for the sandals on her feet. If anything, at least that proved the people on this planet were humanoid.
Or I could have learned the same thing by just looking a few feet down the road. There were residents, a tanned young woman and a blonde, beefed-up dunderhead staring at us. The woman was curled in the man's arms in fear and confusion, as though we were about to bite her head off. I was considering it, but it was obviously a waste of my time. I nodded to Arthur telling him to move on, clicked my watch again and returned to my normal soldiers uniform. Arthur sheepishly did the same, and red in the face did a courteous bow at the couple.
"Sorry to have um…ruined your walk" he said, for some reason embarrassed. The boy blushed, awkwardly came out of his bow and followed me to one of the retail shops.
The meeting with the couple hadn't been a complete waste of time. The experience brought up the issue of blending in. If we were going to stay here until we found a way back, it wouldn't do to be gawked at or closely under the eye of strangers. Pushing the door open to one of the shops that seemed to carry mostly menswear, we were met by a ring and the smell of shoe polish. Even in this strange land, there was always the smell of a clothing store, one that I happened to welcome.
I pointed Arthur in the direction of the plus sized menswear, as we obviously did not shop in the same sections. He trotted over to his section, and started to flip through the clothing. I rolled my eyes and went on my own little venture. A merchant with a bowler hat was watching us from behind his desk, and I occasionally shot him dirty looks. After looking through several racks, I found an ensemble I thought good enough, and spied a door marked "dressing room". I assumed that was where I went to put on the clothes before I left with them, strange planet, and found a little stall to get dressed in.
I emerged from the back room in my new, alien, clothing. I had chosen a grey sweater that for some reason came up to almost my chin, and rebelled against any attempts at subduing it. I rolled the sleeves up to my elbow, and feeling the sweater a bit loose added a low cut vest. I had selected a pair of khaki colored pants I thought fit me well and added a darker colored belt, still feeling a bit loose after having been strictly army clothed for so long. A pair of square toed shoes finished the odd look, the brown leathery texture comfortable yet controlled.
I gathered my old uniform, and having little idea what else to do with it I threw it into a nearby garbage bin. As I was throwing away a stray button, Arthur emerged from a different changing station. His chosen articles weren't exactly what I would have chosen, but what can you expect from a heathen. His arms were uncovered, his top of a loose material, but not so loose as to not somewhat define his pectorals. He wore shots, past his knees but still shorts, that had many pockets for storing odd things, and his shoes were open toed and all around ghastly. I honestly wonder to this day where he found such things in what seemed like a formal store and all I can come to is the bowler hatted merchant pointing him in that direction out of pity for the mammoth's size.
Speaking of the merchant, I turned to him and eyed him for a moment, letting him know I ha caught him staring. He cowered behind his desk at us, and thus satisfied me enough to take my leave.
"Thank you for your services, we won't be needed them any longer."
and with that, I motioned for my ill dressed companion to walk out. He hesitated for a moment, for some unnamable reason, but he eventually followed, as he always did. I opened the door, and we heard the familiar jingle of the bells from when we entered.
and a blaring horn came with them.
A red light buzzed at two pillars on either side of us, blinking in tune with the horrid noise. Sure this was some sort of a sign of danger, of attack, I clicked my armor on and had my guns ready to fire. The merchant screamed and ducked under his desk, leaving his shop open. We waited for a few seconds, battle positions ready, but nothing came. Taking a deep breath and ready to 'confront' someone over this false alarm, I reached out to disable my armor.
Out of nowhere I was on the ground, pinned, shattered glass to every side. I opened up my eyes to look up at my attacker, and came face to face with something I didn't expect to see in a place so foreign.
Another MANUS armor.