Boros - Legionaire War: Captain Splatto
The repairs to the Geist are well underway and are actually progressing faster than she could have imagined. It's quite the thing when you have access to modern tech on such a grand scale as this Ares Shipyard. There is a deep sense of satisfaction for sure. Esmeraldas, however, is standing along one of the long mobile platforms and have been extended to span the length of the heavy frigate, her arms crossed as she watches from outside the ship. She's already done all that /she/ can inside. Now, it's in the hands of the engineers, technicians, and the personnel that the Alliance has lended
And the Destiny slips through the black. Pinpricks of light illuminate the hull where emergency repairs are being undertaken, and the medbay is full to capacity, the doctors working fifteen, sixteen hour shifts. The ship's guns are trained towards the stationary Legion black fleet, floating near the debris of the minefield. Commander Jacy has not left the bridge; she stands, fingers gripped around a metal handrail, assimilating the information before her in silence. Aside from the critical positions, she's enforced a strict eight hour duty day once more, and the sailors and Marines are, in turns, getting rest and sleep. She will have neither, turning to a small bottle of white pills to keep her going until the cavalry arrive.
Esmeraldas smiles as the holes in the hull are nonexistent now; that's something at least. Progress. So she turns and decides to hit up one of the platform's terminals to establish a connection with the Destiny. "Ares Shipyard, Dry-dock 1 to Destiny Actual. Over." She states before idly looking back over the work that's being performed; sparks and equipment abound.
"Destiny Actual." Heather Jacy focuses on the comms screen with an effort. There's a tray on the desk beside her, an uneaten sandwich slowly turning stale. "Whatcha need?"
"Just letting you know that we're making some good progress over here. At this rate we'll be able to redeploy soon." There is a pause before Ezzi's voice comes back again. "Thanks for letting us use the shipyard. How are your repairs going? We can perhaps relieve you so you can get them done proper if need be." Though she knows they didn't take damage on a massive scale like they did, but the offer is made out of sincerity.
"Appreciate the offer." The Navy commander is noncommittal, turning to look at the schematics of the ship; far too many red and yellow shaded compartments, but more healthy greens than there was before. "We have two Navy cruisers incoming, eta fourteen hours. We're going to hold station until then."
"Understood. In 14 we'll be good to go, repaired to full at this rate." And she isn't playing. They are all stomping this out like the end of the Verse is coming if they don't. It's actually crazy and amusing all at the same time. "Look forward to getting back out there with you. We'll probably try to circle around for better positioning before the push. I'll get back with you before we launch though." Ezzi states.
"Destiny copies. Take it easy out there." Heather Jacy flops back into her command chair, trying to refocus. She takes a sip of the coffee in the non-spill cup, and rubs her temples wearily. "Gunnery. Let me know if those Legion bastards so much as breath."
The Skinny Of it? That fleet of 30 or so Harpoon loomed over Boros like a dark net of death. Now normally these small ships weren't scary or anything, not until they had been heavily modified for stealth and combat. The Harbinger was one kinda monster but this was different all together. They were fast and maneuverable, and hard to track on sensors. They'd pop in and out, never for more than a few second and only when patrol ships skirted near the mine field the destiny left behind between them and Ares which now made any assault to be carried out have to go through a funnel, lessening the battlefield area. While ship to ship comms worked and the Dest could broadcast to command from Ares, Boros and the surrounding area was still dark. Though, Zank and Vanessa have something that might be able to fix that.
Heather Jacy has returned to the bridge of the Destiny. She's finally permitted herself to take a few precious hours of sleep, although it's more napping than actual rest. Now, armed with a spill-proof jar of coffee, she's staring at the status displays. "Comms, get me our friends on Ares," she states quietly. "And find out if there are any other friendlies in the area."
Zank is actually not on the bridge of the Ares but on the Birdge of on of his Division's scout ships docked with the Ares. On board the super secret squarril mission com sat that The churara came up with. And some slight modifications by Zank to make it look like nothing more than space trash....i mean who needs to look sleek and aerodynamic in the vacuum of space?? Zank peers out the window of the bridge finding the Destiny....not that its hard to find. Dwarfing the smaller ship by many thousands of times. "Destiny this is Dead Orbit, comm check?" says the Churara ships pilot. Zank stand silently behind the man.
The Geist is actually all patched up thanks to the lended efforts of the Alliance's engineering personnel and her own staff. It's not pretty, but it's solid, which is what really matters. The repaired quadrants haven't been lifted from lock-down because there is no need. They are back to 100 percent regardless and are slowly initializing reverse thrusters to leave the Ares shipyard and return to the void of space where the Destiny has set up shop, awaiting the arrival of more ships. "Geist command to Destiny Actual, we are disembarking from Area and en-route to your location. Sit-rep?" The voice of Esmeraldas cascades through the comms and it's clear that she's concerned about what the Legion ships are up to. They have been off the grid for awhile now to make those repairs after all.
Heather Jacy's voice crackles over the comms. "Dead Orbit, Destiny, five by five. Geist, Destiny Actual copies. Hostiles are holding station, although our sensors are sub-optimal right now." Heather glances over at the engineering console; as well as the black fleet's stealth capabilities, it doesn't help that two of her own radar antennas are in-op, still yellow on the status display. "Geist, who the hell is Dead Orbit?"
Zank grins from the bridge of his transport "Captain Lines here Commander, on the Dead Orbit...we have the don't get so shot at and get the comm sat in orbit mission...figure best time to do it would be when there all looking at ya'll...bein' ya have Armor about 12 feet thicker at your thinnest point then mine..." He pauses "Captains...recommend point defense and fighter screens....this black fleet is made up of Shark Corvettes...fast quick and most likely heavily armed...plus the whole stealth thing..."
"Destiny Actual, Dead Orbit is an ally." Esmeraldas states, hoping that the broad-channel communication that Zank sent was somewhat garbled since she turned her jammer on when she realized he was about to mention anything related to restoring communications with those that might be on Boros. It definitely wasn't worth the gamble of whether or not Legion has people skilled enough to break comm encryption. She simply asks for a re-eval of his last, "10-9 recommendation, Dead Orbit? Over." By now the Geist is fully freed from the shipyard's confines and angled towards the Destiny. The engines have roared to life and power the heavy frigate through space, covering the distance fairly quickly.
Jacy grins briefly at the sound of Zank's voice. "Captain Lines, no less." A pause, then she says, "Geist Actual and Lines, how about you shuttle over? I have a gameplan that I want to run by you, and don't want to run it over open comms. I can send a shuttle to pick you both up."
The Black Fleet looms in the distance... and stuff.
"Good Copy, Over and out." Esmeraldas comms before slightly changing the headed as the Geist approaches the Destiny. It takes up an empty place in the Alliance formation before a hangar door can be seen opening and a shuttle slipping free of the ship's confines to slowly actuate it's way to conjoin with the Alliance command vessel.
Heather Jacy relinquishes the bridge to her first officer, and heads down to the secure conference facility. There will be lieutenants to meet with Esmeraldas and Zank when they come aboard, to escort them there. No formalities, no red carpet. The ship is at war.
Zank actually is surprised bells and whistles and alarms don't go off when he steps on board. "Hu.." he says and stands with Esmeraldas as the LT's greet them. "First time iv been on one of these not in handcuffs" he mutters to his fellow Division Captain.
Iriquois Pliskin, Zank's LT is with him as well. His blue eyes glance around, cigarette lit and hanging between his lips. He didn't seem care if that was okay or not. "Well... Commander Jacy has common sense I think."
Ezzi just eyes Zank and that hesitation, trying not to laugh before her green gaze falls upon his LT which solicits a head shake. "Come on." She states before gesturing up towards the Alliance Lieutenants as though they are ready to proceed. Once in the conference room, she'll head straight over to Jacy and give her an up and down before patting her on the shoulder. "Good to see you again." Then, and only then, she'll sit and breath exhale the weight on her shoulders for a few minutes as she focuses on things at hand.
Jacy greets Ezzie with a nod and return shoulder-pat, and Zank with a handshake and just the quirk of a smile on her lips. Then she gestures to the seats around the conference table. A holo-projection of the Ares-Boros system is shown, bright specks of light annotated with reference numbers marking ships. "I appreciate you all being here. There's bottled water on the side." Together with a few apples and some sort of granola bar. "The bastards are here, but we can't pin them down. They're up to something. Either they're distracting us, or they're waiting for us."
Zank returns the handshake and returns the smile ever so slightly before finding his place at the table. The Churara LT joins him. He examines the Holo. "Bit of both I'm thinkin'..." he says. Zank adds "Longer they keep us in orbit the deeper they dig in and set up long ops planet side...an those harpoons ant gonna be easy t' hit with this kinda tonnage were carrying around.."
"Bullshit." Esmeraldas chimes as she leans back into her chair. "We don't have to think about getting all of us from point A to B and we don't need to even focus on what those Harpoons are doing. We just need a way to get Dead Orbit into orbital fall around Boros. Period. That's step one." She glances over the projector. "Sure we'll have to deal with them, but reestablishing communications is the priority because we have people on the ground that can help." And that's a major asset right now given the predicament. "I also might have a solution for our first objective." She states.
Jacy sips from a water bottle. She looks tired, the lines around her eyes deepening. "What's your plan, m'am?" she asks quietly, looking between Esmeraldas and the display. "How fast can the Dead Orbit go?"
Pliskin is about to say something then of course Esmeraldas makes his point and so he leans back in his chair and smokes his cigarette, scratching the stubble on his chin. He glances between the lot lazily, committing it all to memory.
Esmeraldas smirks, making sure she has everyone's attention firstly before continuing, sure to bum a cigarette from Pliskin. She lights it up and stands, "Well, since they wanted to ram us, we just might have pieces of one of those guns handy." She continues after a puff, "And there is a good chance that we weren't just sitting on our duffs while the Geist was undergoing repairs. So, long story short, we've scraped one of those rail guns together. It's not as viable beyond a single shot and we've got not ordnance, save for -- Dead Orbit." This is when her smile gets a bit devilish as she eyes over Zank and his LT. They can probably piece together where this is going. "So, clear the way with the ARC Laser and--" She makes a whistle noise before puffing some more.
Zank blinks and let Essy respond. He dose look at her a second once he pieces her plan together. "Ya know I'm gonna be on this ship right..." he says "And so will Pliskin.." He says indicating the other man with them. "I though...." he stops and realizes there looking at him. "Talk please...i need to do math..." he says.
Commander Jacy stares at Esmeraldas, then at Zank and his Lt. "Did the Geist get hit with a weapon in that last combat that lowered everyone's IQs?" she retorts. "You put a human in a ship in a rail gun and you end up with strawberry jam in a ship."
Pliskin blinks as he looks between the three of them. "Well... I imagine there's some sort of protection involved. The satellite looks like a piece of debris meant to be inserted into orbit. It might be able to be shot out of a makeshift rail gun but..." He scratches his head. "I ruttin' hate math."
"It's a risk, but we can do everything possible to isolate the passengers. Honestly, it'll just be the initial G's we have to worry about them hitting orbit fall. So, if we make proper preparations, it takes the risk factor way down." Ezzi shrugs. "If anyone has a better idea I'm game, although suggesting we run our ships into their trap, which /will/ be there, isn't going to work at all. They'll never expect this and they genuinely won't believe anyone will be inside anyhow since it will look like a piece scrap metal being tossed after a blast."
Heather looks towards Zank. "The Destiny can head towards the mine field. We'll draw their attention, then peel off, laying some more mines and shooting, and you can shoot Captain Splatto here past our wake and into atmo."
Zank is doing math "turn the gravity dampaners all the way up...isolate the cabin...turn the power down on the magnetic rail BELOW MAX" he says that last part looking at Essy. "And we need to hit atmo just right...give us time to hit atmo and launch....but." he says "That kinda entry...were not gonna be able to break outta orbit and were gonna be stuck on Boros till y'all break through..."
"Well, after a blast from the ARC, nothing will be in the projected path. Also, when you enter orbit, you'll be cycling the planet very quickly. It will slow down gradually but with a little /kick/ you should be able to break the fall if need be. The most important aspect is restoring comms on the ground. A least this way, even if we charge in for quick strikes, we know where our people are. Essentially, where /not/ to hit." Esmeraldas sits back down leisurely. Sure, she's crazy, but sometimes you need crazy. Tattoo laden, chain smokin' -- crazy.
"What's the timescale for this?" Heather wants to know. "How long before you can shoot, and how long do you need us to keep their attention after your remains have sped past my ship's ass at high speed?"
Zank looks at Jacy "I swear i didn't know this plan when i got here..." he says "Me either" says Pliskin quietly. Zank reaches over and takes a smoke out of the LT's pocket...
Pliskin eyes Zank as he takes a smoke from him... "I'll put it on your tab..." He comments offhandedly.
"We could do it now, but we still need to line the satellite's interior... just in case.." Ezzi states
Zank looks at her "We die?'
"Just in case our math is slightly off. So you /don't/ die."
Having decided what's going to go down regarding Zank's 'dead orbit' and it's sat payload that should help reestablish communications with the ground without Legion any the wiser was the way to go, the mission was now underway. The fleet still sat in orbit over Boros, other than typical patrols that could only really be observed visually as the sensor situation was still iffy they just sat there and waited for their opposition to act.
At the appointed time, the Destiny slowly swings around, the ion engines starting to propel the battleship towards the Legion fleet. It picks up speed, the turrets swinging around towards the black ships ahead, and the forward shields are buzzing with power. On the bridge, Heather Jacy says quietly, "Alright, we know the drill. Lines will be right behind us. We'll get up in their nostrils, then break left. As we turn, squirt that tight-band back to the Geist to get them to launch. I don't want that asshole Lines driving his death-pod up my ass."
Zank still hates this plan. He hates this plan ALOT. Like not ALOT...LIKE ALOT ALOT ALOT. But it has merit and the last 24 hours have been spent reinforcing every key structural support and weakness in the small Division ship. He also know this will probably end badly but hell that's most of his life. He sits now strapped down as tight as a restraint can in the pilot seat of the craft. He tricked LT Pilskin off the ship and locked him out simple enough and also stored enough small arms to start a small war on the ship in-case he some how ends up on the surface. Big if. The ships gravity dampeners are turned to the proverbial 11 and Zank sits breathing looking out the view-port of the ship. Literally down the barrel of a gun...."this sucks"
The meeting is over, plans laid out, and yes there are some risks. Esmeraldas has returned from the Destiny and is currently charging the ARC laser to fire while Zank has his LT get ready to be shot out of a gun towards Boros's orbit. She opens a comm with the 'Dead Orbit' "Are you guys all set in there? Everything's ready to go up here. I think the Destiny is moving into position as well." She checks, "Yep. Tee Minus 2 minutes. Better pump and dump quick if you gotta." She states with a bit of a crazy cackle.
Zank hits the comm to the Giest bridge his breath raspy in the suit helmet he were. "you owe me so many drinks if i live through this..." he pauses "An if I don't...make sure my family is taken care of..."
The Destiny picks up speed. The Navy gunners are holding their fire, relying on the shields to protect them as they accelerate towards the remains of the minefield and the Legion ships. The very best two gunnery crews in the dorsal turrets have a very special assignment; they're to blast a path through both the remains of the minefield and any ships in that path, the path that Lines is to hurtle through momentarily. The other crews have orders to fire at will at the black ships, but Jacy has not yet executed that order. She watches the clock count down...three, two, one... "EXECUTE!" As she speaks, the helmsman swings the yoke around and the ponderous battleship starts to swing left. The shield power is shifted to the exposed upper side, and the turrets blossom with fire. Those two key fire teams are blasting a path through the debris, while the others are hitting the Legion ships with all they have - energy weapons, kinetic weapons, torpedoes and mines, even the hyper-velocity cannon is warming up.
It's a bit difficult for any of the weapons systems to get a lock on the swarm of black ships. There are explosions but the sea of ships whips around and buzz like a bunch of gnats against a big clumsy thing. Some of the Kinetic/visually aimed weapons do a better job, taking a few ship here and there but not a significant amount to the point where they can't launch an effective barrage of missiles against the Destiny. Which they do, pounding against the shield and starting to weaken it. They don't pass through the mine field, and some of those minds do in fact track against the Destiny, their mother, and detonate if she gets too close.
"Mark." Esmeraldas says over the comms as the ARC laser blasts a solid blue beam out into the black before them. Just as the beam dissipates the Dead Orbit is shot out of the cabbaged together rail-gun to ride at the tail of the deadly beam until it's long gone, leaving them hurling towards Boros at a rapid approach angle, whether they were ready or not. The only thing left to do is wait and assist the Destiny now.
"Port-side, come a-bow. Provide cover fire for the Destiny, Weapons free." She states as the targeting systems queue online and begin to light up blips intermittently. "Try to make sure we pick off any mines that they might pull towards them as well. This is what we've trained for boys!" She seems to be enjoying herself a little too much in regards to the seriousness of the situation.
The Destiny continues its broadside pass across the left flank of the Legion fleet, rolling slowly about its axis to allow the ventral cannons to take part in the action, giving the crews of the dorsal mounts a short breather, and spreading the shield damage. The ship is shaking with each blow, the shields glowing and sparkling and blossoming with red fire. "Shield breach in hull sector eight," an ensign says quietly. Another, on comms, is tracking the streaking Zank. Phrasing, I know. Heather replies curtly, "Damage control to sector eight. Tell me if any of those bastards are following the Dead Orbit. If they are, concentrate fire on them."
Zank tightens his grip ever so slightly on the yoke just as the Mark comes and he goes from 0 to Oh my god fast in record time. Even with all the dampeners and locks in place the G forces are enormus and Zank is crushed into the seat. Blood trickles out his nose and across his cheek. Zank is barley able to keep him self concious--the screaming helps though.
The Destiny is able to disperse the damage her shield in a rather efficient fashion. What she lacked in specs compared to the now dead Harbinger she made up in the experience and training of her personnel. They were steadfast and knew their ship through and through. The Geist does wonders as well, keeping any attracted mines off the Destiny as well and intercepting some of those missiles. When the Arc Lazer fires brilliantly she actually takes out some of the swarm. A single ship or two. Zank is getting the rocket jockey ride of his life as he speeds near that of light towards boros, she ship skipping initially off the atmosphere a few times like a rock on water before settling into a fast orbit... yet degrading. The clock was ticking to drop his payload.
But he does stay conscious because he's a bad mudafukaaaaah. Anyways, back at the Geist: The ship counter maneuvers to the Destiny, swinging out around the minefield to put the Legion Fleet at their port-side while hammering anything that shoots back at the Alliance Warship. There are a few close shots that actually nail a missile right before it was going to throw impact upon the vessel. There are also a few errant explosions in the projected path that the laser cast it's ray upon, those pulses of orange still gleaming in the dark. "Geist, Destiny - We're pulling onto the opposite side and providing cover fire."
"Geist, Destiny copies." The young Lieutenant's voice at the comms console on the bridge is high and anxious, her first space battle outside of the sims. The well-oiled machine that is the Destiny starts to circle towards the far left end of the Legion ships, aiming to come around from behind. From out of deployment chutes, more innocuous small flat-black mines trickle, seeding a path of destruction to any of the Legion ships following in pursuit. "M'am, the Dead Orbit has reached atmo," chimes in a radar tech, and Heather Jacy mutters a curt, "Understood."
Zank's ship still screams across the black and after a few terrifying moment and a short bought of near blackout he manages the raise his hand to fire the foreword maneuver thrusters in hopes of at least slowing himself down enough to function. The thrusters would bleed a signature but he has no choice and hopes that the chaos going on will not draw attention to a small thruster blip.
The Giest begins to quicken it's pace to match the Destiny's so that the two ships are in sync to put the Legion fleet in between them, at an angle of course. It would be a shame to mistakenly allow the other to take a round. But all in all? They are playing it safe and strategic. The Legion have numbers but they are getting sandwiched by two war ships that have space superiority and a hankering to destroy everything that moves between them. The Giest's personnel are making the compartments rain as they keep the rounds coming, one after the other. When the info about Dead Orbit is brought up, Esmeraldas just nods and order them all to focus. Zank knows his shit, he'll pull through.
Lucky for Zank the Legion ships are far too preoccupied with keeping the Destiny and Geist from breaking their lines than a few small thruster fires from a very small object that they didn't even notice was shot towards the planet. His Orbit was stabilizing because of that. Meanwhile the Geist is doing wonders, along side the Destiny... but still it was a match of distance. None of the Legion ships were going to come chasing through the mine field and the two other ships engaging them. However on the other hand this causes a problem as a weapons lock is near impossible at this point. No matter the fire power... they'd run out of ordinance before all the Legion ships were toast.
"Geist, Destiny Actual." Heather has taken the comm unit in her hand. "I think we've done our job here. Let's do a split pass through these bastards and then break for Ares. Keep them confused enough they don't start poking around in atmo."
Zank may have slowed his orbits decay but its not gone completely. Eventaully the ship will fall to the planet. But if Zank can get the comm sat launched and re-power the reactor before he free falls he should be able to correct the orbit and be fine. He sets to work un-clipping himself and making his way to the cargo bay to get the sat launched in a safe place in the debris field.
Another blue studded beam launches out across the void but it actually shifts at a diagonal with the movement of the Giest. Even if it doesn't hit anything, it would do a damn good job of corralling those that would evade right into the Destiny's line of fire, narrowing down the amount of guess work. A call comes through from Jacy and Esmeraldas complies, angling the ship for one last split pass before simply moving back towards Ares.
Heather suddenly spins, calling out sharply to the communications Lieutenant, "Comms, I want you to send out jamming signals wide-band. Every damn frequency there is except the one to the Geist. Modulate the jamming randomly. Engineering, I want the jamming to reach Boros. If you have to divert power from the shields, do it. Gunnery, pick your targets. NOW!" She has a hunch that the Legion ships are intercommunicating, and if she can disrupt that hive mindset, she can target them more effectively.
The Sat launch is successful and goes off without a hitch, floating away in a stable orbit away from Zanks small ship. Though only a few moments later the ship starts to shake as it begins to descend into the Atmosphere, flames licking the side. The Geist's Arc attack is pretty successful but those Harpoons are not slouchy or slow and they are by far the oldest and most experienced Legionaries out there. Though as they're funneled into the Destiny's fire they back off and head closer to the planet to escape the wild barrage.
Its a dam good thing the comms are jammed because Zank's comm would be one long censored recording. The Sat launch went surprisingly well. As Zank gets back to the ship and it begins to shake he rushes to bridge to fire the reactor. He sits and begins thr start up only to be meet with a thousand warning light about a whole bunch of stuff wrong. Apparently ships ant meant to be shot out of rail guns.
Zank is in trouble. Half the small ships systems are not responding on of which is life support. So suit stays on for now. No hull breaches yet bit this landing isn't standard. The ship shakes and rattles as it enters the upper atmo flames starting to lick over the sides. The normal retros not or unable to slow the ships decent...Zank starts to see which systems are still working. The maneuver thrusters the left engine...and a single bottom fire retro rocket at half power..
Zank braces as the ship lurches hard. It tears into the atmo lighting up like a comet of fire streaking across the planets sky. Zank is doing all he can just to keep the ship level firing the maneuvering thrusters to keep the drop level. "come on.." he says under the roar of everything happening. Its at this point there is a load sheering sound and were the right engine was attached to the ship is now gone..Zank watches it go and blinks "....crap."
Zank's luck hasn't changed at all. He attempts to reboot the retro systems twice ands fails much to the mans growing frustration "Gorram-it I ant done all this just t' die on the tail end..." his thoughts move to his daughter and Jisae breifly. He shakes it off and dose back to work. The planet is getting bigger and bigger by the second. Zank hits the emergency decent air foils on the exterior. Some of the flaps manage to deploy slowing the ship some what but raising the nose as well.
Zank's deployment of the flaps causing the nose to rise and the resulting air flow causes a lot of the flaps to sheer off returning the ship to its decent. "oh come on!!" he shouts. He attempts to reboot the retros again is greeted with a failure.
Zank is running out of time and he again tries to reboot the retros with no luck. He fires all the lower maneuver thrusters , which slow his decent by a fair amount its still not going to be pretty. He fights to keep the ships nose up keep the flight path level.
Zank manages to keep the ship level as it descends. The landing will be horrible but he might make it. Zank turns on his comm unit and is about to transmit when the computer beeps and reads a Retro restart. Zank actually breaks the retro fire switch when he hits it.
The Dead Orbit's retros fire with a resounding roar. They should have been fired miles back but now is a good a time as any. The ship heaves from the sudden counter force. So much so that the ships other engine is torn off. The ship is only a mile and half up at this point. So that engine matters little. The retros scream as they fight gravity and Zank fights to keep when ever he has left flying level....
The Dead orbit finally impacts Boros with bone crunching force. Zanks keeping the ship level and even and the luck of the retros restarting allowed the ship to slide on impact instead of simply hitting the ground. The ship digs into the planets soil and rock gouging the landscape. Pieces rip off and scatter across the area. The ship finally comes to a steaming halt in the middle of a clearing. Steam rising from its super heated hull and sparks arcing back and forth in places. Zank is rocked and knocked around in the ship and once its stopped he takes a second to make sure hes actually alive.
"ow" is all he can muster...
