Jeanne was at the helm of the Shipstern Bluff, slowly piloting it downwards into the Planet's atmosphere. The heatshield was active, and Weyland was on the co-pilot's chair, checking readouts.
"Jeanne, the fuel pressure on the return side on engine two isn't looking good. It's dropping rapidly."
"That's not good." She said.
"What do I do?"
"You wait until the temperature on the fuel valves reaches 290°C, then you shut down the engine. I'll land this thing no problem with just one, and we can fix it on the ground."
"All right."
The Shipstern Bluff punched through clouds and mist, decreasing altitude at a faster rate now. The heatshield was glowing, and the Altimeter was spinning.
"The temperature is at 250 now."
"All right. I'll fire the engine one last time to slow our descent and then I'll switch it off!" She pulled two levers, the engine's roar muffled by the insulation of the ship.
"Temperature is at 280 now." Weyland said.
"I'm powering it down now. Once the thrust level is at zero, can you close the air intakes?"
"Sure."
The ship lurched, Eran grabbing the table to steady himself. It resumed its journey, slightly hanging to the left. The remaining engine hissed, and they broke through the last layer of clouds.
The expanse of the planet below them made Eran gasp in surprise. It was a world of lush, green forests, large, swooping mountain ranges. Weyland retracted the heat shield, giving the four of them unimpeded view through the front windows at the world below them.
"Jeanne, does your computer still contain the location of the colony station where we dropped them off? Might be a good place to start…"
"It doesn't but I'm flying there on memory."
"All right."
The Shipstern Bluff soared between two mountains, across a lake, and eventually, below them, they could make out the remnants of an old colony base. The buildings were overgrown with creepers, almost completely camouflaging it.
"Is this it?" Weyland asked.
Jeanne nodded, and started reducing altitude. She was surveying for a usable landing space, and quickly found one.
A courtyard in front of one of the dilapidated buildings was paved, and almost clear of shrubbery. She lowered the ship further.
"Can you land with one engine?"
"I've done it before, but it isn't easy." she said grimly. "It's certainly gonna get bumpy, so everyone, hang on!"
Jeanne reached for the lever that extended the landing gear, and pulled it. The Indicator LED turned from red to green.
The landing gear was extended.
Slowly, she lowered the ship. The engine was hissing angrily in the back, and they would soon get down far enough to get into the ground effect zone.
Only twenty metres were left now. She stopped the descent and checked all stabilizers. Except for the jumping hydraulic pressure, they seemed fine.
She lowered further, to fifteen metres. The downdraft of the one engine shook the trees and blew leaves and dead wood into the air. The intake temperature on the engine started to rise.
"We've got dust in the intakes!" she remarked.
Down to ten metres now. The spacecraft was bucking, and sliding sideways. The building was now close to them. Manually, Jeanne adjusted the stabilizers, keeping the Shipstern Bluff from hitting the building.
"I'm going to set her down now, hold on!"
She started to reduce thrust, taking care to keep an eye on the stabilizers.
The temperature alert started to blare, telling her that the engine was now dangerously warm. The ship shook and bucked, she felt the vibration through the controls.
Reducing more thrust, she made a final adjustment to the stabilizers, and then slowly disengaged the engine.
The Shipstern Bluff moved downwards, its landing gear compressing, the impact knocking Aki down from his seat, and making Weyland swear. There was a crack of concrete under the ship, and then it settled down.
Jeanne leaned back, switching off the engine fully. "We are down and done."
"Rough landing." Aki remarked.
"Yeah. A bit too rough" Jeanne agreed with him. "So, Fred, what's the plan?"
Weyland cleared his voice. "Me, Aki and Eran will look for Paul and Akkan."
"And I'll fix up the ship?"
"Yes. We will each take a communicator, and will return before Nightfall."
"All right."
"Then let's get to it."
Jeanne had started to take off the panels on the starboard engine, getting to work at clearing the clogged fuel pipe she had diagnosed earlier.
Aki and Eran were standing beside the ship. They had checked the buildings around them, but apart from finding traces of human inhabitation. Eran had declared that some rooms did smell of xenomorph, but he wasn't able to trace it.
Weyland had asked him why, which lead to Eran launching into a full-scale explanation why xenos cannot smell each other, and both Aki and Weyland had eventually told him that , whilst very interesting, that information was not helping them. Eran had sulked for a few minutes, and clambered around the buildings not saying a word, but eventually, he had returned to Aki's side, cuddling his arm.
Weyland had decreed that Paul and Akkan had been inside the colony base, but the traces were old. They had all gone back outside, watching Jeanne undo panels on her ship to uncover the engine.
"Eran, what do you smell here?"
Eran shook his head "Old smells. Nothing new enough to lead us anywhere."
Weyland furrowed his brow "If any of you were here, and you would leave the base that provides shelter for you, where would you go? Why would you even leave?"
Aki rubbed his head "Leaving this place either means that they had to go further to hunt, or that they left it because it was unsafe."
Weyland nodded "I hadn't thought of the first, but the latter had come to me as well."
"You said this was a mining colony." Eran clicked to Aki. Even though he could speak English, he preferred the yautja to translate for him. Perhaps using his vocal chords caused him discomfort. "There must be a mineshaft. Perhaps they are down there…"
Weyland's brow furrowed more. "The mines, even perhaps the mining village. Its two hours walk to the north, up the mountain. Perhaps you are right. We should head over there and check." He grabbed his communicator, and hailed Jeanne up on the ship.
She gave them the thumbs up, indicating that the communicator worked, and then continued her spannering.
Weyland reached for a compass from his coat pocket, and, with him leading the way, they plunged into the forest.
Immediately, Aki was aware of the noises only a proper forest could make. It was dark under the canopy of leaves, and they passed strange-looking plants.
Under his feet, Aki felt the remnants of a road, long reclaimed by the forest. The Concrete had sprung and had been covered by vegetation.
Eran turned his head and smiled at Aki "I like it here!"
Aki smiled back "Perhaps we can hunt here after Blood Moon is dead."
Eran nodded "That would be wonderful!"
They continued walking, Eran ever so often stopping to taste the air, and see if he could scent anything, but he smelled nothing of interest to them. Only the planet's fauna, animals scuttling through the undergrowth. They slightly distracted Aki who remembered not having hunted for some time. Perhaps later they would have the time, when they found Akkan and Paul.
If they found them.
It was just as possible that they were deceased, perhaps through an accident, perhaps through something else.
But they would see when they reached the mining village.
Jeanne was working hard repairing the engine. It hadn't been a clogged fuel pipe as she had though. The actual fuel valve was sticking, and getting at that was a major hassle. She hoped it hadn't been damaged beyond repair, as all her stores of spare parts had been confiscated.
She swore under her breath. Those bloody colonials. They'd taken her clothes, her bedding, spare parts, even the books she had stored. Never mind digital ones, these were actual paper books, and now they were gone.
But what was worst, unforgivable, was that they had stolen her spirits. She always kept a few bottles in her cupboard, but they were gone now as well. Bloody colonials!
Opening the maintenance hatch to the combustion chamber, she could see the injection pipe of the fuel valve, completely sooted up. So that was the reason! Soot build-up in the combustion chamber was no good.
But it meant she would save herself the bother of actually cleaning out the valve, she could probably just manually power up the engine, leave the thrust flaps closed, and run it up to temperature. That would burn the soot clean off.
She only needed to find out why the soot was there in the first place, which meant she needed to get at the control flaps on the front of the engine near the intake area. Presumably, one of them was bent or misaligned, or jumped a tooth on the adjustment rack. All those thing she could fix pretty quickly.
But she needed another set of tools. Those had, fortunately, not been confiscated, as the toolboxes carried the same markings as the ship, and were fastened to hatch leading to the engine management.
She got up, walking along the top of the ship, marvelling the smoothness of the hull's plating. She had had the hull re-plated a year back, as some of the old plates had corroded, and now the Shipstern Bluff was gleaming in the original red, almost as perfect as it had been back when she had… taken it. The ship's name was written in large letters over the side. It was a striking, recognizable ship.
It wasn't the original shape though. The engines had been uprated, breaking out of the sleek hull at the rear. The custom-made plating around the intakes hadn't been cheap either.
She had reached the front now, and climbed down the extendable maintenance steps. When deactivated, the rungs of the ladder would sit flush in the hull, but now they were activated, sticking out of the hull and allowing her to climb up and down easily.
She arrived at the ground, and took a cursory glance at the landing gear. It was in fine shape, having survived the impact without problems.
Luckily, the hold had been empty. Flying with one engine was no trouble as long as the ship wasn't loaded, but once it was stuffed up to capacity, it would almost be impossible.
But soon, she would have both engines back and running. Perhaps there was even time to check the stabilizer's hydraulics. That would be perfect. It probably needed a few new seals and a touch up on hydraulic fluid. She immediately decided against touching the stabilizers as her hydraulic fluid bottle had been confiscated as well.
A shadow detached from one of the landing gears, and she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, just as she stepped up the ramp leading into the ship.
She heard the noise of a gun being cocked, and a voice said: "Don't move."
Jeanne froze, and suddenly felt a grip on her belt, tearing away the communicator she had fastened.
"Turn around, and keep your hands where I can see them!"
Raising her hands, she turned around, seeing the man who had accosted her.
Paul's hair and his beard had grown, and there was a determined quality around his eyes, but she recognized the scientist immediately. He was wearing a patch brown overall, his right hand was heavily bandaged, and he was holding an impressively large gun in his hand. It was Weyland's old revolver, she even recognized it. A knife was stuck in his belt. He had a certain derelict air around him.
"Hello Jeanne" he said.