August 5th
2185
Omega Nebula
Amada System
Orbit of planet Alchera
Local Clock: 10:00pm
" Aaaaaaaghh...ahhh...*******!! ""
" ******..! "
" Uzek ! Uzek, you'll be alright..! But, the more you move-"
"..Doc..I...I know, but...agh, doc,...ahh! "
" Gzzzh...hhhhhh ! Hhhh-! "
" Private-! I- "
...There was no mistaking the urgency, and yet chillingly calm that was carried with the tone that Dr. Chakwas was using .The ever formal, English-accented voice of hers, was reverberating around the hull walls of their cramped, filled-to-bursting escape pod.
Over the muffled, constant rumbling vibrations of the thrusters, and the overlapping screams and wails of the other wounded...mixing to create a wall of noise that had no words, but only pain...she was still impossible to ignore.
Nobody could hope to not listen...
" Master Sergeant Jukiaraa ! Help me hold him still...! "
" On it, Doc ! ", boomed the responding voice- thickly laced with a South African accent.
Well...some words could be heard, at least. Much more than others...considerably more.
...Though, most of them just ran together. It didn't mean they mattered any less, but...it was becoming a wall. One built by only a handful, but a strong one nonetheless.
How much it all hurt, was the bulk of what they had to say. How much they hated whoever did this to them...and worse. Raw, primal sounds...like the kind Ashley had only last heard at the Massacre of the 212th, back on Eden Prime...
" ****...geez...! "
"....Got...got any Emgel !? ( M-gel...aka " Medi-Gel " ) ?! "
Ashley heard it all. She had no luxury of shutting it out of her head, even though she desperately wish she could. At best...she could avoid hanging on every word, but...
...not much more. Only a tad.
The Doc's voice though...carved through it all. But, it had to: if anyone needed to be heard no matter what, over the loudest racket, ( aside from the CO ), it was the medics.
And Chakwas ? She was no ordinary medic..
Uvek ?
You'll be ok...you'll be ok. Understand that...remember it !
You have Chakwas at your side...
Lord, you knew better than me how good she is. She's the best...
She's the best..
As her mind wandered over to keep the mangled sailor company, the rest of the Marine shifted focus to spare one last look at the blood-drenched field tourniquet wrapped so tight around Lt. Greg Adams' leg. The snow-white, medi-gel-soaked binding was clenched as securely as it could be around the man's leg, just above the knee. It was coiled so hard, and soaked so deep and heavily with the deepest shade of red that blood is, that it resembled a coral snake knotted there...aside from the rivulets and stains of more red that tracked their way down from the shredded wound left by that screaming shard of hull plating that gotten buried deep there..
There was a lot of it as well...a lot. More than Ashley had ever seen, even from the massacre of the 212th. Just...so much of it. So much, that it looked like a quarter of the stuff was already leaked out ! Adams looked about as bad as a man could without dying because of it...to Ashley's eyes, at least.
She couldn't be sure; a medic would, but not her. All she did know for sure...was the guys she'd seen die tended to have enough blood outside them to where all you could say was " Good God...how are you still alive ?! ".
That kind of bad. And...Adams was well on his way there . From what Ashley could tell, at least...
A Corpsman she was not...but, she had some knowledge to go on. Not a lot, but some.
Thank the Lord that opening them up is way easier than closing them...otherwise, I might be a total cynic about his chances...
Geez, there's so much...God, that's a lot of it...that Lifesaver course I took is pushing its limits...!
Without question , it was. But, with how chaotic and mad the evac had been, Chakwas was the only Corpsman who'd made it aboard.
He's still awake though...barely. That's something. That's something...!
Sure, it was...but was she out to convince herself, or just facing reality ? How could she even know ? Everything seemed to be slowing down, and speeding up, all at once..
" Williams..."
The girl tending to him blinked; she'd actually begun thinking that Adams had just blacked out, given how barely-awake he still was. All that lost blood, and the shock were pulling double-duty to put him under, not to mention the MediGel's usual knack of putting a blanket of sleepiness over you. It was something Ashley was all to familiar with...as she had not forgotten it for a moment after Shepard had stemmed her own bleeding wounds after the Eden Prime Massacre.
Keeping conscious while pumped high with it ? That was a challenge, for sure, even for those who were used to soaking fire- and Navy squids like Adams were not them. That he was still ( more or less ) pulling it off was pretty darn impressive, Ashley couldn't deny..
Give him another chance, God...
Would you ?
"...Sir ?! ", She stopped mid-motion, eyes opening all the way, then turning to focus on him.
" ..How's...how's it looking..? ", the Engineer weakly gasped. He didn't seem able to speak much louder than a whisper, but despite all the jarring racket raging all around them, Ashley was just an arm's length away- it was enough.
Barely, but it was enough.
"...I gotta be sure I stopped the bleeding, sir....! ". Ashley reached again toward the crimson-colored band secured around the officer's leg, leaning closer to focus on it. Blood rested all over it, both caked thick and hard, reeking of copper's scent.
" Got to check..! One moment...!"
Her eyes flickered over it, searching for any seepage. The steady pouring of blood had stopped, yes...but he'd lost so much already. He couldn't afford any more...
There was a supply of transfusion blood aboard, though. If they could get things stabilized enough...
Or if not, Ashley sure wasn't going to run that chance. No way.
Ok...ok...looks...
...not as bad as earlier. Not as bad. That's...that's all I got.
...What I wouldn't give an extra medic ! That evac was a total disaster, and all our pod has is...well, Chakwas is top notch, that's for sure, but-
She'd be the first to say we need more.
Look at me: playing doc ! We don't have a doc, though...aside from her...!
" Alright..."
" Sir ? Its about as good as I can get it. Bleeding's stopped, ok ? "
"...Yeah. Feels like it...I think. Can't really tell, though... "
" All due respect, sir: You can't, but I can. "
Great. I just told an officer to screw off...basically. Great.
...Nothing for it now, though...
Ignoring that routine slipup for now ( not that she had a choice, as she knew...or, actually, that the Lt. was even a guy to notice right now ), Ashley continued: " Blood's stopped, ok ?! Its stopped ! I'll go get Doc, and we're gonna dig through the med storage, and we're gonna fix you the best we can. Hooyah ?! "
"..Hooyah, Gunny. " Adams nodded, returning the ancient battle cry from Earth's past. His eyelids fluttered, but they did not fall. " Hooyah.. "
" That's the stuff. " Ashley nodded back.
" Wait one..I won't be long.."
Let it be, God...
With that, she withdrew, stood, and spun on one foot as a single fluid motion. Well, as fluid as she could...because the escape pod was still shuddering, rocking, and wobbling from the effects of thundering through the vacuum of space at God-only-knows how fast of a top speed. It was still riding and coasting on the momentum of getting blasted like a mass accelerator round from the launch bays of the certainly-doomed SSV ' Normandy '.
Powerful vibrations pulsed through every surface , hard enough to shake one's molars. The pod rolled and pitched, like it was going over the crests of a stormy ocean- and everyone along for the ride had no choice but to hold on for dear life onto their seat harnesses, or plant their mag-boots down as firmly as they'd stick and then pray they'd hold. If they didn't ? Then, it was getting launched violently against the hardened metal of the pods walls...which, thankfully, hadn't happened.
As Ashley got to her feet, and surged forward , headed for the pod's now-sealed hatch, she was grateful to see that it hadn't changed: everyone was bolted down. Everyone. Yeah, there was loose stuff tumbling and rolling around- canteens or two, a ration pack...a spare medi gel canister -, scattering like ping pong balls, but the men were bolted firmly, and they were holding tight. The ones with armor on were handling the mean jostling better, for sure, but even the ones without were just tanking it without saying a word.
Suffer silently, as the Marine Corps loved to say.
But, the same couldn't be said for the man that Chakwas was tending to..
Sadly, no.
If that hadn't been the case...then he wouldn't have been still hollering with pain.
They were still deep, still agonized with that raw and primal way, and now that Ashley wasn't hands-deep with Adams' bad encounter with a chunk of steel, she was only getting hit by it even harder. As much as she could ( and did ) hear it while she was tending to Adams...now, it was all she could listen to. All she could really pay attention to, regardless of much she did or didn't want to.
The Alliance servicemember's side of her hated it, and wanted it to stop. The other side of her, though, desperately wanted to help, and now that Adams wasn't going downhill like lightning, she now had the chance.
Hold on man, hold on...!
Gonna be there soon...hold on..!
Just...just a sec..
And then, she was right beside him...and so was Chakwas.
As if she'd ever left, which she hadn't. From the second the hatch had hiss-slammed shut, and the Normandy's ejection system drowned everything else out as they threw the pod out and clear of their burning, crumbling-like-a-glider-made-of-balsa wood ship, Chakwas had only waited as long as she absolutely had to: the moment that the pod's monotonous VI had declared " Vicinity clear of debris ".
Well, without the ( immediate ) chance now of hitting things...
Right on cue, the doc had undone her restraints , and set about caring for the wounded Marine right next door. He'd been the one that'd been among the last to board...while on fire, as well ! Actual flames, licking the chest and upper right arm of his uniform, as he furiously beat at them while still careening toward the yawing openness of the pod hatch.
He'd made it through, yes, but not without one heck of a nasty ( and literal ) roasting. Jukiaraa, though, bless her, had helped the Doc to manhandle the casualty through the pod doors, as Ashley and Corporal Tesmai had done the same for Adams. Doing so had filled the pod to capacity, and exactly as it was programmed to do, it'd launched itself free and clear of their doomed ship...with seconds left to spare.
They'd escape death from that proverbial frying pan, but they were still getting dragged through the heat.
God bless Chakwas, though, because she was nothing if not a pro. Right by his side, with her gear bag lying open, and both hands moving as a total flurry of activity, as they applied desperately-needed Medi-Gel onto the scorched wounds.
Sounded terribly straightforward...
Sounded, though, was the operative word.
"Aghhh...hgh..hgh...hh...".
Uzek, the freshly torched Petty Officer lay with his shaved back, pressed hard against the barely-soft-enough-to-count-as-soft headrest of the seat, eyes squeezed all the way closed, and-just as with Adams- beads of sweat forming a sheen across his face.
" Private ?! Listen to me ! You're still alive ! Ja( yes )..yes, you're still with us ! "
Hands gripping his shoulders, MSgt Juikara held Uzek still as best she could. It was a bit easier now, with the painkilling effects of the Medi-Gel beginning to have an effect, but the stinging agony of the fires wasn't quite gone. Uzek was helpless to stop the spastic thrashes and flinches that just kept on coming...
...but, fortunately, Juikara was up for the job. She was a tall ( 5'10, the tallest woman on the Normandy ), stockily built, corn-fed country sheila from the Transvaal region of South Africa, and thus, one of the ( exceptionally ) few lady Jarheads Ashley had ever met who could give any of the guys a run for their money on the sparring mat...even with grappling.
" Trust God, and trust the doc ! They're gonna take care of you ! "
Against the pain-sparked, constant spasms from the wounded Marine, Juikara was definitely having an effect. The patient couldn't move as much...not anymore, and Chakwas was capitalizing on it...!
" Good...you're doing good, MSgt ! ", she cried, slathering more of the precious Medil-Gel over Uzek's scorched skin, with well-honed, deeply practiced moves. " Just a tad longer..."
" Uzek...?! I won't lie to you: Its deep. And...there's a lot of pain to come.."
" Auugh...augh...you're...you're telling me, Doc...!".
Jaw clenching like a hydraulic press, Uzek visibly fought back against the agony.
Torn and shredded, he looked like he'd been though something to warrant all of it, with his uniform sported charcoal-black marks where the fire had been, and there was the striking, stabbing odor combination of Medi-Gel ( which was oddly similar to what bleach was, frankly )...and flesh that'd been touched by flames. It was that last one that Ashley, by pure and automatic reflex, fought back against and did her level best to ignore as she came to a stop.
But, someone who didn't have a choice was Chakwas- she was right at the center of it all, and God be praised, she wasn't flinching. The Doc plugged away at the treatment, spreading the last of the 'Gel over the burned skin, while exercising great care not to press down too hard.
The sailor had been through enough pain already, anyway. There was no way she'd worsen it for him.
...I...
No...no I can't just stand here...
Not again. No. God, I wish it was something else...but...
No. I have to do this...!
Summoning her will, and compacting down her revulsion, Ashley steppard forward, and dropped to both knees.
" ...Need a hand ?! ", she called out, reaching forward to steady Uzek against his own uncontrolled reflexes. Jukiara had a good grip on him, yes...but there'd still been some space around for another set of hands.
Or, so Ashley had convinced herself..
Yet, as it turned out...
" ...Williams ! ", Juikara exclaimed, sounding surprised and exerted all at once. "...Nice of ya to join us...! "
"...Figured I could do something...", responded the other Marine.
" ...Lt. Adams is...he's stable ! ", she added. " Best I could, anyway ! Soon as we're done here, I'll have the doc take a look at him...!"
...Speaking of which..
" Doc ! Hey...Doc ! How's it looking ?! ", asked Ashley. She gazed down at them both, bracing her legs as best she could against the constant giant's-hand movement of the pod. " Is he gonna pull through...? "
...Geez, you sound like you're speaking from an action movie script...
For a second or so, Chakwas did not reply. Her hands kept moving though, applying the last of the 'Gel that'd thickly coated her surgical gloves, before carefully lifting them away, and shaking the excess free.
" ..One moment, Williams...". The doc did not take her eyes off her patient. Didn't divert any of her attention from him...not even a micogram of it.
Was that...relief ? Optimism ? Or, both ?
Honestly, it was hard to be sure which of those the Doc was feeling at the moment...because both seemed to showing though as she spoke now. Maybe, it was just her brand of bedside manner- and Ashley couldn't find anything wrong with it. If she was the patient here, it sure wouldn't leave her any more anxious for her chances of survival then she might already be...
And, it appeared to be doing the trick for the unfortunate Uzek, as well...more or less. He wasn't shotgunning air, at least...
Don't think about how burned skin is...
Don't, ok ? He's breathing, and he's alive. FOCUS, on THAT.
Do it ! This is NOT the Massacre of the 212th..!
Yet again, the flashbacks of that day came surging back...and the were still dragging along everything bad that Ashley had ever thought about herself, or anything bad she had been feeling, linked to a slaughter that bad. A storm of regret, self doubt, bitterness, and soul-tearing hurt that tasted like chugging battery acid...and burned about as bad.
Ashley had done all she could to compartmentalize it- or so she thought.
Seemed she needed more...
...but, it would have to wait.
Doc Chakwas, though, couldn't. And, she didn't- on the contrary, she just kept going: reaching through one uniform side pouch, and pulling out a long, thin cylinder . The Doc swiftly tugged off something from its tip, before pressing its tip against the thickest section of Uzek's leg.
" ...That...is that for the pain...? "
" Correct ", Chakwas crisply, but gently responded, acknowledging Uzek's breathless question. On top of it, Ashley could swear she saw the hint of a smile going along with it.
Bedside manner...
Its a good medicine...or so they say
A wellspring of relief- or, at least an espresso shot of it. God knew they- any of them-could use that right about now.
More than even ourselves might realize.
Ashley turned away then, and stepped back a bit. Chakwas had this thing under control- there was nothing for a grunt like herself to do here...much as she might desperately want to be useful-
" ALERT ! APPROACHING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! "
...
Out of the blue, everything had suddenly changed.
The booming announcement of the pod's VI filled every last nook and cranny of it quicker than a blink, and bounced off every surface to fill everyone's ears. Even the still-half-asleep Adams couldn't avoid catching every word...
" ALERT ! APPROACHING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! "
...or, from getting the gist of them, either. Given what was said, though...some might say that wasn't something to be grateful for.
Vbrrmmmm...!
rwwwwwwwwrr...!
...Or, to be conscious enough to be around for how the pod was shaking and vibrating even more than it had been earlier...and that was saying something. It'd been hard enough to stand upright before, but now ? With 0 warning , aside from the announcement ( barely a second ago ), the pod was twice as loud, and shaking twice as much. So much so on both counts, that it was hard to even think straight...let alone stop seeing your field of view from looking like every last atom was doing a dance...!
Vbbrrmmmm !
Rwwwwwrrrr...!
CbRBMM...
Uncommon for a Marine, Ashley did not swear. At least, not that often. But, getting thrown off her balance and right up against the opposite wall of the pod , and without any warning to speak of...well, that pretty much did it.
Just about...basically at the utter knife edge.
Talk about...downhill...!
...Avalanche-level downhill...!
" Geez...! We're...we're gonna land soon, folks...! ", warned Juikara.
" You all sittin' down...?! "
Ashley glanced, by pure reflex, over one shoulder, and saw, at least from such a quick glance, that the answer was yes...which, on one hand, wasn't shocking, but on the other...
Better safe, then sorry.
"...Looks like it...! ", Ashley confirmed. " But, clock's run out ! We gotta get set for planetfall..! "
" Agreed ! "
Chakwas stood, shoving the last of her medical gear away to the depths of her bag where it'd come from. " ..Find your chairs, girls ! Both of you ! "
"...Yes, ma'am ! "
" On it, ma'am ! Juikara ! Let's hustle ! "
" You got it ! "
As ordered, both were up, and responding...fighting the pod and its outside abuse every step of the way.
With such force, that Ashley found herself swearing aloud.
It...wasn't the most caustic of the English language's cusswords, and sure: Leathernecks swore because they were Leathernecks. But her papa had raised a girl with a traditionally clean mouth, and despite living the life of a Marine, Ashley still couldn't help but stick to a bleep-free vocabulary as much as she could.
Then again...there was still that Marine side of her...
" **** ! "
...Which couldn't be suppressed 100 percent...
" Ha ! You having fun, Williams ?! ", hollered the Marine Ashley had nearly crashed with.
" ...Take a wild guess, Robeck ! "
Despite freely letting some anger pulse through her voice as she regained her footing, Ashley still didn't doubt that the oddly un-Canadian Marine from Ottawa would be shut up that easily- and as she staggered away from that side of the pod, before nearly getting tossed again...she found that she was right.
Annoyingly...
Only other NCO on this tub, and it had to be her...
Lord, give me strength..
More than a tad, hopefully. She was counting on it, because things were easily going from bad to worse quicker than a round out of a Volkov Sniper Rifle !
And not just for herself...but for all these Squids and Jarheads stuck along for this deathride from the devil. They were here, screaming and hurtling through outer space, headed right on course ( as much as an escape pod could be said to be..." on course " ) for...some planet.
Which one, though, none of them had any clue. None at all...and how could they have known ? The Normandy had just gotten the space-equivalent of a hit-and-run strike- or, a t-boning. One moment, it'd been business as normal, and the next...
Explosions. Noise. Fire. So much of all of them , and all happening so fast, that it seemed to not actually be real...except that it was.
They were up this creek, like it or not, and that led to-
" Buckle-! "
Vrrrrrmmbbmm !
Cbrrammm !!
" ALERT: APPROACHING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! "
"... Buckle up !! ", Ashley yelled. Summoning up her best impression of one of the angry sergeants who ran Marine Basic Training ( as if there was any other kind ), she swung around to address the rest of the pod riders, she lunged back toward her own seat at its back, while doing her level best to not get tossed facedown from the nonstop and borderline dancing that the pod was doing. It was only getting more jarring...as if that was even possible. It was like riding the fastest, angriest, and most ornery roller coaster that'd ever lived- complete with that " stomach getting shoved up through your throat " feeling everyone hated/ loved.
Wouldn't be surprised if Juikara is actually enjoying herself with all this, Ashley mentally accused , as she finally reached her spot.
" Lt. Adams ! ". Ashley dropped to a knee beside the wounded office, reaching out to lightly grab his shoulder. The bloodstains on his leg were still there, yes, and as red as ever
" Sir...Sir, can you hear me ?! "
" We're about to make planetfall...! "
" Sir...! We're hitting atmo...! "
...There was no response. Adams's head lolled forward, and off to one side. Struck by a sudden flash of concern, Ashley reached out and reflexivity felt for a pulse on his neck.
Come on...!
Aha...!
God, thank you. Still got some life though him...
Yes...there was. He was out cold, but not gone.
Worse than that, though ( much, much worse, by about a thousand ), was that they-
" CRITICAL ALERT ! ENTERING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! ", the VI helpfully piped up.
As if you're just on a test run over the island of Key West...
Be grateful you're not an AI...
" CRITICAL ALERT ! ENTERING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! "
Hauling down her restraints, Ashley locked them tightly and firmly across her thighs and chest, slamming the locking mechanisms closed with a reassuring series of clacks. Emphasis on " reassuring "...because of all the most obvious reasons why.
Stealing a glance to her left, Ashley saw Chakwas- already seated and secured, along with her patient- fighting heroically to keep Uzek's head from bobbing around like a doll, as she got him secured with the seat's headrest-lock.
Blessed are the caregivers, the Marine recited.
Blessed...
" Keep. Your. Asses. Hunkered ! ". A voice, laden with a thick South African accent, boomed through the pod. " Heads. Secured ! Grip that torso restraint like you got a spine ! "
Well now...
That's the side of you I can tolerate, Jukiaraa...!
As if you don't use the others that often though. Oh...but you do
Anyway..
" Brace...brace positions ! , yelled Ashley, clenching her harness, and bracing herself as firmly as could be against the hurricane-strength forces battering the pod...which wasn't much.
As if, though, she couldn't do anything else. Or, everyone else for that matter- because they weren't. Between their training , and two sergeants yelling at them- one with a South African accent-...and that they were riding an escape pod spit out from an exploding frigate, headed toward the surface of a planet they knew zilch and squat about !
All the God-alone-knew-how-high risks were going trough Ashley's head as quick as thoughts always did: Could they breathe the air down there ? Was it well-below-sub-zero cold, or scorching hot like a set of antimatter thrusters ? Were there airborne contaminants...like those microscopic creatures on Eletania ?
Was their ( unselected ) LZ ( Landing zone...though, " Crashing Zone " would fit better ) dead center among a marshland...or a glacier ? Was it-
...And, on, and on it went. Every disaster scenario- or, at least the ones higher up the likelihood ladder- just kept on following each other on an endless runway train...
" Brace..! "
...Through her subconscious, however. Yeah, she could hear them, and was aware, but she couldn't focus on them now...
" ALERT: ENTERING PLANETARY ATMOSPHERE ! PLEASE BRACE FOR FRICTION BURN ! "
...whether she wanted to, or not.
VRAAAACCKKKKKMMM...!
VRAAAAACCCCKKMM...!
The VI, as it was rigidly programmed to do, was telling the honest truth: The screaming crackle of flames from carving though atmo at speeds like theirs finally blocked out any hope of thinking to yourself. It wrapped itself around the pod like a coiled snake...and blended all-too-perfectly with the nightmarish shaking. Combined, they were pushing pretty much everyone's spatial awareness right about to where they were going to lose it.
Doubt Jukiraaa's one of them, though...
Closing both eyes, Ashley doubled her hold on the harness- hard enough to get her whole hands aching. With both legs, she planted her soles onto the floor, clamping the mag-locks against the cold steel with a set of shuddering clunks.
Mentally, she did her best to go somewhere else...
Slip away to...anywhere but here. If there was ever a use for memories, or faith, or, probably best of all, both...then-
Now was it. And, it was not as if she had a shortage of memories to draw from. Or, any experience with ( at the risk of sounding...bizarre ) separating the comfort of the mental of the all the abuse of what the psychical threw at you...which was also known as " Surviving SERE training on Terra Nova ".
All the ice cream sundaes with my sisters at the dock while saying goodbye to dad...!
First day at church...
Getting kicked by Gunny Elison on Titan-
...Yeah, that sucked, but its something..!
She exhaled, and did all she could to embrace the raging maelstrom of racket movement, and not fight it. The fires, the thrusters...the groaning, creaking metal, and the might of all the Newton forces at play.
And...one above them all...
One, that stood out like a lighthouse-
"...Vince..."
Spectre...Spectre Vince Shepard, as the Council would call him. But to Ashley...
If there was anything to cling to know, aside from thoughts on God...
Him
Yes
" PLEASE BRACE FOR FRICTION BURN ! "
.Easier said than done, however. Sure, she'd been trained for this, and yeah- the training was helping, for sure. It'd been as realistic as possible...minus the " Unknown Alien vessel that attacked out of the void and severed the Normandy's hull with a single shot ". Aside from that, though, her Space Operations Training had been thorough, robust, and had even managed to impress the Turians, out of everyone. It'd left her pretty well equipped...
Hasty exits ? Check.
Landing on a hostile world ? Check
Hopelessly scattered across a wide area, or multiple wounded personnel with a minimum of medical staff ?
Check. They'd done all they could to check everything...everything.
And...yet...
" PLEASE BRACE FOR FRICTION BURN ! "
...But, there were still so many unknowns.
" BURN ONGOING ! "
So much they couldn't have anticipated. There was no controlled environment, and no extraction plan-or fall-back base, orbital scanning, or...anything. They were going headfirst toward what could be a space-based tale of...
...What was that ancient movie called...?!
Agh...Oh !
Oh, right...
..." Castaway " ! That's it...
that's the one...
Yes...that's what they were now. They hadn't even hit the surface of that world below them yet, but that's already what they were.
All of them now...
Castaways.