The tune helped put her at ease. As they stabilized, she tore her eyes from the safe spot she had focused on to look up and out. The flurry of ice particles and glow of the sparce atmosphere took what remained of her breath away.
Her jaw slacked, entirely in awe. The feeling lingered for far too long until a puff of gas vaporized across the canopy. Hands scrambled to find her datapad, only barely reaching it with help of her feet to bring it up. She quickly tapped on it a few times, adjusting and securing cables to the ship and her pad. "Well that was... Somethin'. Er- yeah got some data pouring in. Hold us here for ah moment." She said in an attempt to pretend she was being entirely professional about the whole ordeal.
He dialed the throttle back and put them in a wide and circular holding pattern. "Let me know when we can move on. I might even land us a few klicks up." His eyes constantly flicked between the skies around them and his radar's display, keeping watch for anyone that might want to get rid of them from conducting what would be labelled as reconnaissance. Planetform likely had a sizable retinue of security personnel at the camp, they wouldn't be too much of a threat in a direct confrontation, but Morreti being alone altered those odds quite drastically and not in his favor.
The datapad whirled and buzzed in response as drives and circuits soaked up the incoming data. Mary's eyes were glued on the scrolling runes and symbols. After about seven standard minutes, she glanced up. "Alright, we can move on." A pause, what he said finally soaking in. "Wait y'actually want t'land? Er... Well. Do what y'think is best. Ah at least need two other sample readin's from opposin' points on th' planet. If you're feelin' risky, ah fly over their a ground site to get measure of their equipment." She left the decision making of where to go to the pilot. She had no skill in gunning it past installations in a fighter. Who even knows if they have ground defenses set up.
The sound of a restrained chuckle crackled through the communication channel between their helmets, it was the only way to hear each other over all the noise the engines made. "Dangerous thing to suggest to a man like me." He broke their holding pattern with a flick of the wrist to bring the ship back into a straight line, redlining the engines for a split second to fling the ship forward with great speed. They were on a direct course for Planetform's campsite, but when they were a few klicks away, Morreti dipped the nose.
They were going straight down like a bird that had seen prey in the undergrowth, almost as if with reckless abandon. When he did pull the ship out of it, they were skimming the snow beneath them, running through the darkness that blanketed the terrain ahead of them and with all the lights off. The only way Morreti seemed to know where he was going and how close to the ground he was, was by the feedback that would rattle his controls and warn him of collisions. "Be ready." If he was saying that, this couldn't possibly bode well.
Lights were becoming visible up ahead, after about ten minutes of this.
"Be Ready", he said. Mary had zero idea how to become ready for whatever he thought, though she would never admit it. She decided on bracing herself and attaching the datapad to her leg via the backstrap. It was all she could do before the crazed man decided to gun it, close to the surface, straight for what looked to be some encampment ahead according to her orbital map.
At least the data was rolling in. A glance at the pad's display told her that much. Attention was brought to the racing world around them once more. Figures of ice danced around them, always sliding out of the way at the last moment as Morreti made his adjustments. Lights off, the pillars and lumps were actors veiled in smoky cloth, ambient light making the cowls flutter and slide around them. When the icy performers showed hints of a living glow, she looked forward, neck craning to see. The glow of the landing site was massive. As they got closer stick-like spires clawed upwards into the sky. Communication arrays, Mary thought.
A minute or two passed and her guess was confirmed. Dishes and antennae branching off the spire like a dead tree. It occurred to her that they were headed directly for the camp. At the speed and direction they were going, it would only be a short bit longer before they were right upon it. "Morreti?" She spoke, the question implied.
There was a whirring noise from somewhere behind and beneath them, and then scratching which worked its way out to the front of the ship, lighting the ends of the gun barrels a bright red. "Relax." It was all he said before firing off a small burst of particle bolts at a cluster of antennas and radar dishes affixed to the main structure of this site.
For the security detachment on the ground, this would be a chaotic thing to have go through. The howling of the wind had taken on a different tone, more mechanical. By the time it became apparent that it was a ship and not the wind, the radar towers had been put out of commission as well as the communications array. They could neither confirm what the ship was, what group it aligned with, or what its exact heading was. Nobody could call for help now either, and without a bead on the ships course, the chief of security refused to clear for any of their own birds to go on a wild goose chase. The most sensible thing for them to do was switch their perimeter guns onto manual control and rotate shifts until all the broken equipment was fixed over the next few days. And when the guards on perimeter duty were questioned as to what they saw, nobody could produce a compelling account beyond allegedly seeing a ship that bore a silhouette vaguely similar to the BDR series, which the chief refused to believe for obvious reasons.
It was by all means a minor setback, but this stunt had gone according to plan. Morreti could now have the ship linger in a more than large enough crater roughly seven klicks out. "Got what you needed?" The most concerning thing had to have been the fact that he didn't seem phased by any of this. If anything, he'd enjoyed himself.
An involuntary yelp of surprise escaped her when he opened up on the arrays. Staring out at the hit target, sparks and falling debris made it almost look pretty. Dark metal and fused rubber flaked down into the surrounding ice, peppering it with small blackened spots. As they circled around and eased into the crater, Mary eased. She didn't realize she had tensed up for the entirety of the run up, but it felt good to slacken. It was exhausting flying with this man.
She glanced down at her pad to review what was captured, then up again to speak. It didn't matter which way she looked due to the helmet communication system but habits are hard to break, and she was no fighter pilot. "Honestly, yea'. With that little stunt o' yours, got readin's on their whole setup, pings off their compound tanks, an' general equipment. Runnin' this might take ah bit, but this is more than ah could have asked for."
He gradually cut the ship's vertical thrust to set it down at the deepest point of this crater, the gear coming out the moment sensors detected solid ground beneath it that was level enough to land on. "Right, you do that." While she was still looking down at her datapad, Morreti reached beneath the control panel in front of him and clicked at a button just out of sight. This caused a compartment to pop open and eject a flask and two cups. Since Atka's atmosphere was classified as breathable, at least relatively, he took his helmet off and flicked a few switches to have the ship cycle in air from outside. With some degree of consideration, he poured the contents of the flask into both cups and then offered Mary one.
Upon closer inspection it appeared to be a cup of hot chocolate, emitting a comforting amount of steam.
The runes scrolled and flashed. It was going to take a few moments to transfer the scanner data to her pad. It was capible, but nothing like a shipboard computing system.
As the cup was offered, she took it, shrugged her helmet upwards some, and took a sip. The warmth was a welcomed taste. It felt good in her hand. This was a limited luxury to her. A moment of peace. Beyond that, it wasn't often she felt a planet's natural gravity. She didn't let herself feel it prior due to the result of the last and only world she had resided on.
Instead of dwelling on it in silence, she spoke in her normal playful tone. "So do y'act all smooth and cool around any non-hostile outsider? Ain't think I've not noticed the overly slick way y'do things. Or-" She paused for dramatic effect. Even if he couldn't see it, her voice conveyed the smirk. "Is this how you just treat your lady friends?" She sipped at the warm beverage after her jab, as if punctuating her point
True to his nature and reputation, he didn't shy away from answering directly or play coy. "Not an act. It just depends if I find them interesting or not." Despite the honesty, it was an answer that didn't directly address whether it fell under the former or latter, and that was deliberate. It left it open to interpretation, provoked thought and interest. "Do you usually flirt with dangerous men from a backseat? Or is that just for me?" It was a spin on what she just asked him. The fact he was mildly amused by this line of conversation was clear from his reflection on the canopy, something she had an unobstructed view of.
She might not have guessed it, but he had flown this far and landed in this crater for a purpose. Ascending its way up the miniature horizon they were hidden within, was a pale blue sun. It illuminated the snow and rock around them with a dull glow, too far away to convey a sense of warmth, but comforting all the same.
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