11-28-2017, 01:30 AM
Eliza Valdez was making her way down planet Nauru's atmosphere in her Series 'Z'. Due to the planet's still inactive docking ring this meant the whole procedure had to be done manually, something which brought the pilot absolutely no joy in doing. In fact it was the whole planet that she disliked not just the procedure of getting down on the ground. There was absolutely nothing of interest or charm to her on that Dune-like world. Eliza had been on this hellish world before and her memories were far from pleasant. It was all sand, endless sand as far as her gaze could reach. The fine grains of sand she brought back with her on board her Sabre last time took days to properly clean out of the cockpit, another thing which she found absolutely no joy in doing. The sky in front of her looked clear thus far which meant she at least had the luck to not have to operate in the middle of a sandstorm, another thing which the cursed hole that was Nauru often offered it's most unfortunate visitors. There was a very good reason why the planet was a desert world with clear absence of any water and that was it's surface temperature. Another thing which Eliza was hardly finding any joy in. There was also the fact she connected the place with a certain someone that owed her money for quite some time now and was very devoted to making sure he never pays her back. Yet another one to her very long and detailed list as to why she did not like this place. In some advertisement or praise the Maltese girl remembered somewhat vaguely this big sphere of nothing but sand was called the 'Jewel of the Omicrons'. If this was indeed the best the Omicrons could offer then the bar was set quite low. So low you had to put effort not to surpass it. Perhaps the only thing she could imagine being worse than being crash landed down there was to float forever in the cold dead space in an escape pod until the life supports systems fail and you either freeze to death or suffocate. As expected in neither of which Eliza found any joy.
As she got closer to the planet's surface she could finally see some specks and spots marking the otherwise monotone terrain of the desert world. Those were the remains of less fortunate visitors, skeletons of man-made vessels which met their unfortunate end on this barren planet and now were slowly consumed by the sandy embrace of Nauru. They served a good reminder to the young pilot to stop thinking about how bad this place was and actually focus on her piloting. Otherwise she risked adding her Series 'Z' as another tombstone in the endless graveyard that was this planet. A thought which brought her not even a slight hint of joy. Somewhere out there in the vast sand was hidden a planetary base on which she was supposed to already be judging by the Sirian Meridian Time that her heads up display was showing. Eliza was late again. She wanted to blame this on the planet somehow but at that very moment any even remotely believable reasoning behind it slipped her mind. Why couldn't they meet somewhere nicer? Like Baden-Baden? Why did it have to be this god forsaken planet? All these questions had one simple answer - because Eliza did the dumb thing to suggest it in the first place. If she had known the repercussions of opening her mouth about it she would have never done it. And how was she to know her sarcastic remark about it would be completely and utterly missed by Loyola and taken as a genuinely good idea. Or perhaps this was a punishment for something Eliza had done, be it from Loyola or the universe herself. Either way it did not matter as this brought her just as much joy as the rest of the things listed above regardless of who was to put to blame for it. The waypoint marker visualized by her helmet was pointing into the seeming nothingness. This could mean one of two things - Eliza needed a new navigation computer or this was an underground facility that did it's best to draw minimal attention from above. Luckily it soon proved to be the ladder as the top of a metallic dome soon appeared behind the small dunes that covered the otherwise monotone surface of the planet.
The girl let out a sigh of relief before adjusting her trajectory for landing. Now came another part of this journey that she found no joy in - transmitting the landing codes with one hand while trying to balance the nimble craft with the rest of her limbs. The fact this wasn't the vacuum of space meant she couldn't just let the craft drift carelessly and a single wrong move could send her stalling down embarrassingly close to her final destination. The universe was merciful this time. Her display lit up in green as the codes were accepted and her craft was granted landing access. The big metal dome began opening to accustom her Sabre. Hopefully the facility was equipped with a sophisticated enough machinery to take care of all the sand that was about to blow in. Eliza really did not want to repeat that endeavor of cleaning up all the tiny pieces of sand from her ship. As she made her descent further down she raised the ship's nose and gently lowered the throttle along the way down. The touchdown was soft enough not to break anything. Good thing the ship's shielding array could also serve in a way as a kinetic dampener. The engine's roar soon silenced as the young pilot flicked off all the switches. The hangar dome closed above her head and the illumination lights switched back on dispersing the darkness that had surrounded her ship. Another sigh of relief was in order. Eliza could probably stay in there and enjoy what she had accomplished just now but every minute wasted in that cockpit was another minute being late. She unstrapped herself from the seat, removed the flight helmet and put it in front of her seat and between her legs and finally pulled the switch that opened the ship's hatch. One thing though she had not anticipated and that was the fact the top of her ship still had traces of sand which blew in right before the steel dome closed above her. With the hatch opening up this obviously poured the dry substance of her nightmares straight onto her auburn hair. It took her but a few moments to realize what had just happened and it sent her from that all too recent tranquil state of feeling content into a downward spiral of unmatched fury as she yelled at the top of her lungs:
As she got closer to the planet's surface she could finally see some specks and spots marking the otherwise monotone terrain of the desert world. Those were the remains of less fortunate visitors, skeletons of man-made vessels which met their unfortunate end on this barren planet and now were slowly consumed by the sandy embrace of Nauru. They served a good reminder to the young pilot to stop thinking about how bad this place was and actually focus on her piloting. Otherwise she risked adding her Series 'Z' as another tombstone in the endless graveyard that was this planet. A thought which brought her not even a slight hint of joy. Somewhere out there in the vast sand was hidden a planetary base on which she was supposed to already be judging by the Sirian Meridian Time that her heads up display was showing. Eliza was late again. She wanted to blame this on the planet somehow but at that very moment any even remotely believable reasoning behind it slipped her mind. Why couldn't they meet somewhere nicer? Like Baden-Baden? Why did it have to be this god forsaken planet? All these questions had one simple answer - because Eliza did the dumb thing to suggest it in the first place. If she had known the repercussions of opening her mouth about it she would have never done it. And how was she to know her sarcastic remark about it would be completely and utterly missed by Loyola and taken as a genuinely good idea. Or perhaps this was a punishment for something Eliza had done, be it from Loyola or the universe herself. Either way it did not matter as this brought her just as much joy as the rest of the things listed above regardless of who was to put to blame for it. The waypoint marker visualized by her helmet was pointing into the seeming nothingness. This could mean one of two things - Eliza needed a new navigation computer or this was an underground facility that did it's best to draw minimal attention from above. Luckily it soon proved to be the ladder as the top of a metallic dome soon appeared behind the small dunes that covered the otherwise monotone surface of the planet.
The girl let out a sigh of relief before adjusting her trajectory for landing. Now came another part of this journey that she found no joy in - transmitting the landing codes with one hand while trying to balance the nimble craft with the rest of her limbs. The fact this wasn't the vacuum of space meant she couldn't just let the craft drift carelessly and a single wrong move could send her stalling down embarrassingly close to her final destination. The universe was merciful this time. Her display lit up in green as the codes were accepted and her craft was granted landing access. The big metal dome began opening to accustom her Sabre. Hopefully the facility was equipped with a sophisticated enough machinery to take care of all the sand that was about to blow in. Eliza really did not want to repeat that endeavor of cleaning up all the tiny pieces of sand from her ship. As she made her descent further down she raised the ship's nose and gently lowered the throttle along the way down. The touchdown was soft enough not to break anything. Good thing the ship's shielding array could also serve in a way as a kinetic dampener. The engine's roar soon silenced as the young pilot flicked off all the switches. The hangar dome closed above her head and the illumination lights switched back on dispersing the darkness that had surrounded her ship. Another sigh of relief was in order. Eliza could probably stay in there and enjoy what she had accomplished just now but every minute wasted in that cockpit was another minute being late. She unstrapped herself from the seat, removed the flight helmet and put it in front of her seat and between her legs and finally pulled the switch that opened the ship's hatch. One thing though she had not anticipated and that was the fact the top of her ship still had traces of sand which blew in right before the steel dome closed above her. With the hatch opening up this obviously poured the dry substance of her nightmares straight onto her auburn hair. It took her but a few moments to realize what had just happened and it sent her from that all too recent tranquil state of feeling content into a downward spiral of unmatched fury as she yelled at the top of her lungs:
"FUCK NAURU!"