AN: I suppose I might have decided to write another chapter of this instead... Naughty me, lucky you!
Chapter 2. Landing.
It was snowing over Canada. Large flakes of it whipped through her hair, and as the wind tried to blow it into her face she turned to her Hunters. "Come on! Not much further to tonight's camping ground!" At that precise moment, sound hit them. It made the very ground tremble. It was, although they did not know it, the sound of a sonic boom. She looked up, and saw, high above them, what could only be described as a ship descending from the heavens, trailing smoke and fire from multiple places. It had no recognisable insignia on it, yet insignia it had. She watched, horrified, as it banked left, towards them, to avoid crashing into a mountain, only to crash into some trees. It disappeared behind a rise in the ground, and a second later there came the noise that anyone who's ever been in a car crash knows: the crunch of a crash; the scream of tortured metal. The sound must only have continued for a few seconds, yet it felt like hours. When it finally stopped, the air was deathly quiet.
She turned to her Hunt: "Come! Girls may be injured!"
Jonathan raised his head. He was vaguely aware of the fact that there was hot liquid running down the right side of his neck, and over his left eye. The only sounds he could hear were the whistle of wind, and the soft crackle that must signify it was snowing. He managed to raise his head, and as he did so it all came crashing back. The hypernuke - the re-entry to an atmosphere - and the seconds before the crash. Then, all those parts of him that had been lining up to deliver their complaints broke through the daze, and he groaned as the pain hit. All of a sudden he was fully awake and aware of his situation. The bridge was listed about ten degrees forward and a few degrees to the left. He pressed the button that would release him from the seat and nothing happened. He therefore reached down and unclipped the metal buckle holding the straps that kept him in the seat. He fell forwards, for some reason unable to support his own weight, and then noticed that he was bleeding from his right leg. Forcing himself to his feet by using his chair, he bit down on the pain and tentatively put weight on his leg. It shook violently, but it held his weight. Groaning, he limped down the tilting deck until he got to the plastisteel windows. Looking out, he could see nothing but green trees stretching into a white distance, and softly falling crystalline structures past the window - almost like what at home on Remulan they called snow! Green trees was a good sign the atmosphere would be breathable, but he wasn't about to take any chances. He sealed his RemLok suit over his head, fully encasing him in a suit. He started the supply of oxy-nitrogen mix, and was warned that his suit was not airtight due to rips. He looked down and swore. He was no longer actively bleeding - the temperature, reading at only two hundred and seventy kelvin, would have done that for him, but the rip still remained in the suit. He limped over to a wall compartment reading "EMERGENCY REMLOK REPAIR KIT" and opened it to reveal a small box inside. That would have everything he needed.
He used the nano-topup syringes on his arm - all of them, as he might as well take it all with him - and watched, fascinated, as the nanotech swarmed up his arm. He saw a HUD message popup, saying "Do you wish to store this nanotech, or use required nanotech on suit repairs and store the rest?" He navigated to the second option with his eyes, and saw his "Nano-Repair" bar on the bottom left of his HUD - by his vitals - go up to eighty-seven percent. He sighed, and glanced down at his leg in time to see the final few nanobots build into the suit. He was ready to go. He again attempted to pressurise the suit, and this time it worked, a soft hiss sounding and his helmet defogging as the cold air rushed over it. He turned, and limped towards a lift. Suddenly, he changed direction, heading for the stairs. The lifts wouldn't be working, they were designed for use either in zero-g or when all the gravity was directly towards the bottom of the ship. The gravity on this planet was lighter than on his own, and he only felt about half as heavy as he was used to feeling. That was probably the only reason his leg could take his weight.
He ended up having to be very careful on the stairs, and nearly slipped on the quick-forming ice twice, before getting to a level where there was a hull breach. He walked to the hole in the hull, and saw a drop of about five metres to the ground. Without thinking, he jumped. As he fell, he suddenly realised that might not have been such a good idea in this condition. Then he hit the ground. Or rather, he sank into it. "Hahaha, thank god for snow." he grinned, feeling suddenly ecstatic. As he used his arms to haul himself clear of the ground, he saw a shimmer of silver on a nearby hilltop. He froze for a moment, thinking he was under attack. When there was no second shimmer, he started to move again, thinking he had just seen the sun reflect off maybe some metallic substance in the snow. He decided he might as well start looking for shelter, as the ship had little or no power, and none at all to life support. Therefore, the metal that made the skin of the ship had cooled down, causing the entire ship to cool.
As they cleared the third hilltop, they got their first good sight of the ship. It was massive. When I say massive, I mean it had to have been at least a kilometre in length. It lay nestled in the valley, taller from bottom to top than this hill by far, and it was on fire still. Only in one or two places was the fire emerging through hull plating, but there were many more holes where smoke coiled out like snakes. It appeared to have originally been painted in white, orange and silver, but the paint had blackened and peeled towards the nose, where the ship had re-entered the atmosphere. It gave the nose of the ship a fuzzy, unfocused appearance. She turned back to her hunt again, and called "On! We must reach them! A ship this big must have had some girls aboard!"
Jonathan snarled in anger as he walked through the innards of his ship. She had been his home, and now he was returning for the last time before he left her possibly forever. Given enough time, he could definitely get her back up and running, but he didn't have that kind of time. His RemLok wouldn't insulate him against hostile locals if they had anything more advanced than basic muskets. He was about to round a corner when the sound of what could only be two girls talking reached his ears. This ship didn't carry anyone other than him, and definitely not girls! He crouched back behind his corner, careful to be completely and utterly silent. He could hear them walking towards him now, not even trying to be silent. As they drew past him, he jumped on them from behind. Taking the first one by surprise, he knocked her out silently and moved onto the second one. She drew a dagger as she saw her friend hit the floor, but he was already on her. She struggled against him as he pinned her to a wall and covered her mouth, but then he felt the thud as her knife made contact with his suit, skittering across the nano but not penetrating it. He let her go, stepping back. She came at him, snarling, and he slammed his hand into her wrist as she stabbed at him. He had been intending to disarm her, but as he made contact he heard and felt her bones break. She staggered back, giving a soft cry of pain, before picking up the fallen knife and coming at him again. He this time tried to catch the pressure point that all elves had on their forearms, forgetting she wasn't an elf, but again he heard the wet crack, again he felt the arm giving way under his hand, and again she fell back, this time falling over and crying out. He saw her turn away, thinking she was about to die, and he knelt next to her. "I'm not going to kill you, just tell me: What are you doing on this ship?"
She whimpered.
"Please, I didn't mean to harm you. Guess you're weaker than I thought." He stood. "Well, if you're not going to talk, I can't just leave you here. This ship's very cold and you'll be dead in less than an hour on that floor." He picked up her friend in a fireman's grip. "Don't move, I'll be right back." He carried the unconscious girl to the hull breach he'd exited through, and threw her out. He heard a gasp and what he tentatively judged to be a female scream. Shit, there had been people. Should've checked. Fuck. He ran back through the corridors, knowing he only had minutes. The other girl was where he had left her. She appeared to be asleep. Hoping against hope she hadn't died of hypothermia, he slapped her on the face, feeling guilty. He'd already caused her enough pain. Her eyes fluttered open. "Can you walk?" She nodded. "Good, let's go. It's not a long walk, but I may have alerted some of your friends. No hard feelings, but if we come across anyone alive I'm not waiting for you, even if they aren't your friends."
"No... hard... feelings..." she murmured.
"That's the spirit! Come on now, we don't have long." He got on the side where her wrist was broken, not her arm, and used her arm to hoist her over his shoulder in a fireman's grip. He carried her towards the hull breach, and they reached it fairly quickly. "This might hurt even more. I'm about to jump."
"Jump?" she managed to hiss. "Are you mad?"
"Maybe!" he grinned. "But that's the best bit!"
He jumped. He landed without even denting the snow this time, as he had realised that he should treat it like he did snow on his own world. He straightened to find a whole bunch of bows pointed straight at him, by about thirty girls of indeterminate age. If he had to guess, he'd place them between twenty-five and fifty of his years. "Put the bows down, girls. You won't even put a dent in this suit, even if all of you fired at one spot. All you'd do is injure your friend here further."
The girl who appeared to be the leader stepped forward, calling "Somehow, I think he's right. Put the bows down, but be ready if he tries anything." It was only then he got his first good look at her. "Put down my Hunter." She seemed angry, even though he hadn't done anything except defend himself.
"That wouldn't be advisable. I had to break her wrist and her arm to stop her trying to stab me, and I recommend you should wai-"
"Put. Down. My. Hunter. Right now."
"Very well. She screams, it's your fault." Jonathan slung the girl off his shoulder and she groaned as she hit the ground.
"I meant gently!"
"I know. Problem is, when you have thirty-one hostile girls not very stealthily trying to point bows at you, it irritates you somewhat, even if you know they can't hurt you."
The girl glared at him, before saying "As of now, you are my prisoner. Do not attempt to escape unless you wish to die. Also, take that suit off."
He sighed. "I will see if I can without dying. Computer, what is the atmospheric composition of this planet?"
The suit responded by saying "The current composition of the atmosphere is: nitrogen (seventy-eight percent), oxygen (twenty-one percent), argon (zero point nine percent), and trace gases (zero point one percent)."
"Elaborate on trace gas composition."
"Trace gases include amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. Lower altitudes also contain quantities of water vapour composed of hydrogen (one part) and oxygen (two parts)."
"Analysis?"
"Analysis: Breathable. No short or long term effects to elf physiology."
"Disengage all suit nano."
"Disengaging."
He watched the people... Hunters? Yes, that seemed right, judging by what the girl in front of him had called the girl he'd brought back. He watched the Hunters' eyes go wide as his suit smoothly melted away into the power pack, backpack and retro control system combo at the back with a certain amount of amusement.
Her hunters raised their bows again, and she saw the boy opposite her, for he could be no older than seventeen, roll his eyes and sigh. "Come on, I've just crashed on an alien world, saved two of your Hunters instead of leaving them to die from hypothermia and now trusted you enough to remove my suit. You could at least return the gesture by not looking like you're ready to kill me for making the slightest move."
One of her hunters snarled "But we are, boy."
She raised her hand, and watched the Hunters lower their bows. "Who are you?"
The boy looked surprised that she'd actually done as he'd asked. "My name is Jonathan Elwyn Walker. My rank is Commander. My ship is - sorry, was - Yr Arglwyddes Lwyd. In this tongue, that roughly translates to The Grey Lady. And who might you be?"
"My name is Artemis."
"Good to meet you, Artemis." He held out his hand, as if to shake hers, and after a second's hesitation she allowed the contact. His grip was firm, and his hand completely enclosed hers. After a brief handshake, she withdrew. Only then did she take in his appearance. Blood appeared to have been freely flowing from a nasty and deep looking cut on his leg, but whether his own body had stopped the blood from flowing or it had frozen, she was not sure. All the same, it would need tending. Above his left eye another cut appeared to have also frozen shut. However, this wound, while minor, would have been much more annoying, as it looked like blood had been freely flowing into his eye.
"We pitch camp here." she barked, knowing that the ship would provide good shelter from the wind.
"I wouldn't adv- I wouldn't advise that." the boy, Jonathan, coughed.
"And why is that?" she snarled, suddenly angry he'd had the audacity to speak.
He held up his hands. "From what I saw before the impact, she took a nasty beating in space, and worse during the uncontrolled descent. Her drives could go any time. If they do, and they take the powerplant with them, big boom. No more ship, no more valley, no more hills for about a mile radius, no more Hunters."
"No more Jonathan Walker, either."
"That's as may be, but right now I'm more concerned about thirty lives than my own."
"Very well. We will walk for a few miles, if your leg can take it."
"Don't worry about my leg."
They trudged off, Artemis wondering about this mysterious person they had captured and what he would mean for Olympus, always firmly convinced there were no other worlds or civilisations. Maybe their roles meant nothing, a local influence only.
As they faded into the night, the ship settled slightly, and there was a soft hiss of flowing snow.
2,731 words.
Big chapter by my standards! Happy leap day! Just think, if it were not a leap year, this book would not exist!