The world was only flames and shaking. But Amelia held the controls steady in both hands, arms tense as metal cabling. She ignored the flashing warning lights all around and focused on the bobbling gyroscope while doing minute alteration with the stabilisation pedals.
"Keep her steady!" her co-pilot Storandor said above the din.
She bit back her retort as the ship suddenly jerked and trashed them around in their harnesses.
"Altitude: fifteen thousend meters and decreasing", the system servitor loudly droned out in its calm monotone voice. A clear contrast to the mayhem around it. "Speed 548% of recommended cruising speed."
"Oh shut it you two!" Amelia exclaimed and refocused on the pedals and the counteracting of the slow spin that the latest air bump had initiated. The fire was diminishing slowly and when peeking out through the burned glass she could see what could be clouds. Beneath her breath and Storandors hearing she whispered a silent prayer, "The Emperor is my guide. The Emperor is my strength. The Emperor protects his faithful".
As they plunged through the high cloud cover the flames diminished and one after another disappeared, leaving only black smears on the metal and armourglass of the chiropter. As the speed continued to diminish the control slowly came back. The shaking continued, but not as heavily as when they first entered the atmosphere. Suddenly they were through the cloud cover and could see the flowing landscape stretching out in all directions.
"Altitude: 5000 meters and declining" the servitor droned. "Speed 474% of recommended cruising speed."
Amelia slowly leveled out the craft and found a steady bearing southwards towards a lonely mountain in the distance. She took a first deep relaxed breath and looked over at Storandor who met her gaze with a proud one of his own. She quickly looked away.
"Not bad for a first entry. I must admit you gave me some doubts when you tried to shake off our starboard engine but you came through nicely enough." the veteran said while nodding to her appreciatively.
"This isn't my first atmosphurning, you know!" she said while keeping her gaze focused on the instrument panels. She quickly turned off alarms and checked meters as she'd done a thousand times before. In simulations. The habitual movements hid her adrenaline shaking hands. "Don't you have sensors to check?".
Storandor just chuckled and started activating the chiropters' advanced sensor suite. "There's a difference between landing to refuel on an imperial world and nose diving into the unknown above a lost planet." He turned around to look at the servitor strapped into a wall socket. "Hey you, junkbrain! Do we still have contact with the Righteous Flame?"
The servitor turned its dead eyes in Storandors direction but looked straight through him.
"Try its designation." Amelia chimed in while still trying to shut off the last of the warning lights.
"I've never flown with a vox that required its own junkbrain to function" Storandor said defensively. "Junkbrain, 72B! Do you have contact?"
"Sensor suite communications operational at 87% transfer integrity" 72B answered, still looking in Storandors direction.
"There you have it captain, we can even call for help when your luck runs out" Storandor said.
"And your sensors, operator?" Amelia said more confidently, ignoring his jibes and steering the chriopter in a shallow bend around the mountain to preserve their extra speed.
"Thermal, green. Object counter, green. Geoanalyser, still warming up..." Storandor stated while checking his instruments but changed subject abruptly, "is that a fraggin village?"
Amelia also noticed the small cluster of buildings at the foot of the mountain they were rounding. The village consisted of just a couple of hundred buildings. Peculiarly enough they seemed built in stone. Her heart sank a little when she saw that many of the buildings seemed collapsed. Maybe they were too late.
"It seems like at least some of the colonists survived their isolation in the storm" Storandor stated from his instruments. He tapped one of the small screens, "The ocularis found people down there."
Amelia tried to reach over to see the screen but they had already passed the mountain village. They flew on over a large lake and saw more small signs of settlements dotted along the coast and another village seemingly built partly in the lake. This one wooden instead of in stone. She slowly altered the course to travel south west over a dark forested area.
Storandor continued reviewing their already gathered data. "It seems they have regressed" he said thoughtfully. "I find no thermal exhaust from industry or generators and no signals either. Not even from a friggin voxcaster."
"We found colonists the first minutes searching, what are the odds for that if the colony had failed completely. Maybe these are just some outcasts?" Amelia retorted while she searched for more clues in the forest below. Even from this height she could feel the dark age of it and understood if the first people wouldn't want their main colony at its edges.
They left the forest behind and turned south before a long mountain range, following a beautiful valley. High on the mountain winds they saw eagles soaring, almost as high as their craft flew. As the last of the bonus momentum left them they settled into the chiropters' comfortable cruising speed, double that of sound. They flew in silence, both in awe of the landscape but also as the signs of the colonists were few and far between, even along the large river flowing through the valley. Amelia turned south east again, continuing their ordered zigzag pattern. They passed the southern outskirts of the dark forest and reached an immense desolate plain that almost screamed at them with it's lack of roads, rails or real settlements. The pilots' silence continued as the landscape took its toll, only broken by updates from the servitor.
"Maybe they just left this quarter of the continent for later" Storandor tried as they saw the end of the plains in the form of yet another mountain range, but his heart was not in it. More seriously he stated "even if the colony failed we should have seen some remnants of cities or something. Right?"
"The colony didn't have many decades before the isolation. Maybe they didn't have time to expand or… or... " Amelia tried but Storandor interrupted.
"Or maybe this place isn't as nice as we had hoped? Maybe they had no chance without outside help." he said.
"Fraggin grox balls!" Amelia exclaimed and veered off to the west instead of continuing over the mountains. Storandor cursed back under his breath as the G forces and the shaking took them. He cursed again when he looked past Amelia over the mountain range and took in the sight. There was an active volcano dominating the blackened landscape on the other side but there also was a lone, black tower in its shadow. It was larger than anything built they have seen on this world until now, and it looked menacing.
"Where did that come from?!" Storandor exclaimed while he continued looking over Amelia through the cockpits' left side window.
"Radiation! Storandor, check the fraggin radiation alarms." Amelia exclaimed back. "That is obviously some kind of weapon test site gone wrong or something"
Storandor collected himself and checked the instruments as they continued along the mountain range. "Nothing except the background radiation."
"Doesn't our planned route take us right above that blackened area?"
"Yup, but no thanks" Storandor said while shaking his head. "This area is just a small part of the continent and we can go around it, so let's. Let someone else stick their head in that trap."
Amelia just nodded and continued along the mountain range and tried to focus ahead. As the mountain range bent southwards, she followed it. They passed a valley into the blackened area completely shut off with some kind of wall, matching the tower in its threatening style. To the west of them the river from the beautiful valley reemerged and lifted their spirits a bit. They followed it south and promptly reached another village, built around a bridge over the waters.
"Another human settlement!" Storandor said, concentrating on his small screens. "I see people again. Completely different clothes than last time though. Maybe they split up into factions after the isolation."
Amelia's answer got stuck in her throat as she habitually scanned the horizon. She pointed to the right past Storandor. It looked like there was a small hive city in the distance, in the beginning of another mountain range. She banked west again over the bridge village and directed them towards the new sight.
"Is that what I think it is?" she said excitedly. "Could we have found what's left of the colony?"
"Emperor willing" Storandor said hesitantly while altering some dials on his equipment. "But look down beneath us. There's farmland. A lot of actually used farmland. That's a good sign. Still no sign of mechanization though."
"That's no hive" Amelia stated when they got closer, but added hesitantly "...or is it?" The city was built in terraces up the mountain side and the houses almost glowed with their whiteness in the morning sun. It was obviously a small city and probably an accomplishment with the local's medieval tools. But it clearly wasn't the hive it looked to be from a distance.
"It's clearly inspired by a hive, why else would anyone go through all that trouble?" Storandor said while he tried to study the achievement both through the screens and the windows. "But it's a bit above our paygrade to classify it exactly, I think."
Amelia nodded and took another flyby past their first definite proof of the lost colony. It was beautiful, built around a high cliff. Maybe for some kind of religious or symbolic reason?
Storandor interrupted her theorizing with some taps on his wrist chrono. "We should continue the sensor sweep." he said, "It has been almost an hour since entering and we have to do two more zig zags across the continent to cover it all. With the air density and oxygen ratio of this world we have to be done within 3 hours to be able to reach high orbit again."
Amelia nodded and steered off from the gleaming city. "Two hours should be enough, no problems." she said. Now with more confidence in their mission. "Let's see if we can find another one of these cute hive puppies."
They both chuckled while enjoying the green farmland swishing by below.
"Could you imagine" Storandor said, "if we would have had to cross this continent on foot like these people below?"
They both laughed at the thought and Amelia added "Sounds like something the Imperial Guard would do just for fun but I say 'no thank you'. It would probably take days, maybe even weeks!"
§ § §
I love theorizing about the implications of two worlds colliding and these two are two of my favorite ones. I hope someone with the same taste in crossovers/possibilities finds some value in this story. I have lots of ideas to get out of my head so there will be more.
This is my first story in English (second language), my first fanfiction and thereby also my first crossover. I would appreciate all constructive feedback on story structure, characters, my ideas, presentation, lore and most importantly, my English writing. I am choosing to publish on this site mainly for the ease of getting feedback to improve my writing.
Thanks for reading!