FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hope was now lost. A tremendous racketing engulfed the small ship as it disintegrated through the void of space. There were no means of survival if someone boarded the ship to that point. But the unpredictable and sometimes merciless universe had decided to be kind this time...

"A planet!" The creature yelled in its own strange dialect. "We have to land this thing!"

"We don't know if that planet is safe!" Another creature replied as it also fought with the controls of the ship that were now virtually useless.

"Do we have a choice?!"

To that point, they didn't. The ship now flew inside the planet by its own. All controls were lost and they served for nothing but weak stabilizers. There was no way to control the speed, angle, brakes, nothing at all.

"Shields are gone!" On of them yelled. The cabin was now being swallowed by an orange glow, caused by the friction of the planet's atmosphere.

"Hull's status!?" The other demanded.

"What hull?! 40% of the ship's structure is gone!!"

The ship was well crafted. It did what it could to withstand the brutal forces that now ripped it apart. But it had a limit.

They had made it through the entry, but the damage was too much. The ship finally lost all power. Everything stopped working and the ship's interior was now all black.

"The ship's systems are gone! We are dead weight!"

"Deploy the emergency glider!"

The ship didn't have any windows or windshield. In case of emergency, there was a lever that released a portion of the ships' front panels to make it possible for the pilot to see outside. Unfortunately the lever was stuck.

"I can't release the nose!" The one who piloted the ship yelled anxiously. The other tried to help him. "Forget it! Just release the glider!" He insisted.

He had counted 40 seconds after they broke atmosphere. At their speed, it would take them about a minute and a half to crash on land. They didn't have many options.

The ship was equipped with a pair of wings that were released in case the energy source failed. This was their only hope for survival. One of them barely made it to the release control of the wings. We are going too fast... the wings won't resist. He thought to himself.

"What are you waiting for?! Pull them out!! I know we are going too fast, but it's our only chance!!" The pilot yelled after he saw the other doubt for a second.

He was right and the other knew it. He pulled the lever and for a second, nothing happened. But after this, an enormous force made them spin out of control in mid air. They had less than a minute...

"Only one deployed!" One of the creatures yelled. The force of the aerodynamic drag made the front panel of ship finally detach from it. They could now see outside. But they still had a problem and that was that they were still spinning out of control.

The same creature that had deployed the wings of the ship fought with the releasing mechanism over and over again. Thankfully, the second wing deployed.

Just 1500 meters from ground, the ship finally stabilized. But they were heading directly to ground.

"Help me!" The pilot yelled. The other managed to reach the cockpit again and helped the pilot to pull the directional control. It was not of much use, but they somehow managed to straighten the nose of the ship and glide steadily.

But their speed was still too high. Even after they managed to reduce it, the stress that the wings received was too much. One of them ripped apart just 20 meters from ground.

"Hold on! I've done everything I could!" Both of them braced themselves holding each other and closing their eyes. Both fell to the floor and held for their lives.

A huge explosion-like impact shook them to their very souls. Up and down didn't exist no more, just chaos and destruction...

Minutes passed after everything was finally in silence. A faint cough woke one of the creatures up.

"Are you alive...? Please tell me you are..." One of them whispered.

The planet was covered in nothing more than soft sand. That had somehow diminished the impact, letting the ship absorb the damage gradually by disintegrating until only the reinforced cockpit was left.

"...I am... I think." The other responded. A sigh of relief could be heard. "What about you?"

"Well, I am talking to you right...?" He said while coughing sand and smoke from the impact.

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't know..."

"Can you move?"

"I suppose. But I'm not sure..."

"Good. Stay immobile for a while. If you feel any pain, let me know."

"What about you? Can you move?"

"I don't know either. But if we are still alive after what just happened, that could be a good sign."

Both were very grateful that not only they were alive, but that the planet was letting them live in its atmosphere.

They now had to wait and see if they were injured, and hope they could find a way out of that perpetual dune desert. If this planet had oxygen, there could be a good chance that there was life in it; if they were luckier, maybe civilization.

It was not the first time they faced such a life threatening situation. Somehow, they would find a way back to their home planet.

Little they knew that this place would change their life forever...