Chapter 10

From the porthole she could see the planet coming closer and closer. "So how did you get here?" Davis asked.

"I stated my opinion to a superior then I got transferred." Luna answered somewhat rigidly. She didn't know these people at all, so she was being cautious around them. She also noted that Davis wore an additional medic patch on his sleeve.

"Ah, you got balls mate," An Irish accent answered and Luna looked at the red-headed woman sitting next to the man she had just answered. The lilt of the girl was one she hadn't heard of. After so many centuries in space accents tended to intermingle. "You wondering bout my accent? I'm from Rhea. My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents were pure Scottish fellows. The accent never faded. I'm Larana and this is my sister Helia. We're Scouts."

Luna nodded at the red-headed women. She could see that they were twins. "Don't mind Helia. She doesn't talk. She was born mute."

"Wait... then how does she..." Luna frowned. She didn't want to be insensitive but verbal communication was a main part of being able to join the army.

"I HAVE A VOICE CODER," a mechanical voice responded startling Luna. She stared and then noticed the silvery bands running along Helia's neck. It was a device invented close to the end of the 22nd century. Made entirely out of platinum and several Rare Earth metals. The device was manufactured to synthesise a voice by connecting it to the nervous system and thus the brain. Helia didn't have to move her mouth at all. The device talked for her.

"That's amazing. I heard that these devices are quite rare." Luna remarked and she wasn't wrong. Since humanity escaped the dying Earth they had fewer resources available to manufacture these types of devices. People would have given an arm, leg and probably their house to just get to use one.

"IT IS ON LOAN FROM THE ARMY SPECIAL R&D DEPARTMENT," Helia answered. "THEY ARE RESEARCHING THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF SUCH A DEVICE. AS LONG AS I AM WITH THE ARMY I MAY MAKE USE OF IT."

"My little sis is one of the best at scouting," Larana grinned.

"WE ARE ONLY 10 MINUTES APART," Helia shot back with an exasperated look.

"It still makes you my little sis," Larana laughed as she pulled up a holographic screen. "Heads up, we'll begin data gathering in T minus three minutes."

"The Galileo is now at an altitude of 475000 feet. We are ready for reentry," The one officer that had remained silent during the flight announced. Luna observed him. He was an older man who already had some greying hairs forming. She read his name patch and raised a brow in surprise "Haddock?! It can't be!"

"Later girly," The man responded gruffly before telling their helmsman "Deploying ablative heat shields in 7 seconds,"

"We are 900 miles from our landing target," Mendia announced. "The Persephone has confirmed that they are tracking our light trail."

"Sending out first wave of atmospheric probes," Larana announced as the ship's lights flickered.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Luna asked as she held onto her chair. She was a bit apprehensive since the lights shouldn't have flickered upon reentry. The scout ship had an EMP barrier that allowed them to be unaffected from any planet's Ionosphere.

"No it shouldn't." Mala muttered as she quickly pressed several buttons. I'm running a full diagnostic now."

The lights started flickering more as Sergeant Haddock announced that they were offcourse. "Captain initiate the leftward thrusters at a low pulse for 4 seconds to get us back on course" Telmia said. "We are getting electrical interference that is messing with my controls. Switching off the autopilot."

"Telmia are you mad?!" Mala's head jerked to her left to look at the Talarian. "Going manual is...."

"Captain this ship is about to go dark soon judging by how the ionosphere is interacting with our instruments. If we don't go manual we have no way of even landing." Telmia uttered. "I need you to trust me right now. I can do this,"

Mala's lips were set in a straight line as she gave the Talarian an odd look. She then nodded before turning her head to the side to address the crew in the back. "Everyone strap in! We are going to be landing blind!"

"Jesus!" Davis uttered as everyone made sure the seatbelts were properly strapped on them. Luna leaned back as she observed the crew. Davis and Helia had their eyes closed while Larana held her sister's hand as she reported what she could from her screen.

"Larana release the 2nd and 3rd wave of probes now!" Mala ordered.

"That's insane Captain!" Larana shouted. "Those probes aren't made for reentry. They could burn up in the atmosphere and then we'd have nothing!"

"Larana!" Mala shouted "DO IT!"

The red-head pressed some buttons and then announced "2nd and 3rd probe wave deployed. Initiating hexagonal search parameters."

The lights continued to flicker more and more and Luna shouted in surprise when she saw a small bolt of electricity surge inside the ship. "What is up with this atmosphere?!" Davis asked. "According to everything we know this shouldn't be happening."

"My readings suggest that the Ionosphere is superchar-AAH" Mendia shouted as she got shocked by electricity.

"We've lost communications with the Persephone," Mala announced as more and more instruments died. Soon the entire cabin was dark as the ship continued to descend. The blue and green planet of their ancestors was before them on the viewport and they were the blazing ball of metal heading straight towards it.

"Thrusters are offline, radar is offline, telemetry is offline, landing gear is offline....." Telmia announced as she gripped the steering wheel.

"Telmia for Thor's sake! Tell me what is not offline!" Mala growled. "I need some good news right now."

"Good news is that the heat shields are holding and we are not a steaming pot of Dalari stew yet." Telmia announced. Luna had closed her eyes after activating the helmet of her bio-suit. The others had done the same as they braced for impact. It was nerve wracking for the next few minutes before their scouting ship made contact with the planet's surface.

When Luna came too she squinted as she found herself staring at a blue sky. "Good to see you awake," She saw Davis appear above her. With a shaky hand she pressed the button that would disengage her helmet when she saw that he wasn't wearing one.

"What happened?" Luna then asked as she looked around. She saw that Mendia had a bandaged hand and Captain Mala was taking apart some device. Telmia was seated nearby and still had her helmet on. Luna thought she was probably being cautious with this planet's atmosphere. Helia, Larana and Haddock were nowhere in sight. On her other side she could see the trail in the dirt that the scouting ship had left as it landed. She then blinked as she realized what she was seeing. "This is dirt! Grass! Trees!" She exclaimed as she suddenly sat up. "Oh my Thor! Those clouds look so white! This is better than any book!"

"Please don't start kissing the sand like Helia did," Davis grumbled. "She disliked getting it off her tongue."

"But this is extraordinary," Luna uttered. "Seeing all this. It just pales at what we were taught in class."

"Class? You one of those Highborn kids?" Davis raised a brow as that statement got everyone's attention.

"Well...... I guess......" Luna said as she looked at the others. "I was until... well......" She then changed the subject by asking "You don't like highborns?"

"No no!" Davis quickly respond. "I just didn't expect it. I know Helia and Larana have that background but most of the army is from the lower class. It's just weird to see another Highborn that is so down to Earth. Yes, pun intended!"

"The social hierarchy that humanity has created in the colonies is very interesting." Telmia said as she observed. "Our race had such a hierarchy until 'The Ruin'."

"It did?" Luna asked with great curiosity.

"Indeed. But our class hierarchy was non-negotiable. You stayed in that assigned class for life. You humans however added a merit system to its workings which allows for any individual that contributes plenty to the colony growth to move up in rank. It is intriguing. If our race had adopted such an aspect to the class system then 'The Ruin' might have never happened." Telmia spoke as she explained her observations.

"What do you mean by that Telmia?" Davis asked. "Wasn't Titan's ecosystem destroyed by a planet scale natural disaster."

"She doesn't have to tell you if she doesn't want to," A gruff voice uttered and Luna and Davis turned to see Sergeant Haddock approaching them while carrying a toolbox. He then turned to Captain Mala and said "The Galileo is shot. No radio, no anything." he announced. "I can fix it as best as I can but it will take time. Best thing for us is to wait for the search party when we don't check in." He then turned back to Luna and Davis. "As for you two. Don't ask something you don't want to know."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Luna's brows shot up as she turned questioningly towards Davis.

"Rumor has it that Haddock had been part of the Sirius exploration team." Davis explained.

"He was on the team that made first contact with the Talarians?!" Luna's brows shot up more.

"But all of that is now hush hush." Davis bent down and then whispered to her "I couldn't even hack his army records."

"Jila please don't..." Telmi frowned while addressing Sergeant Haddock. "It is not like we Talarian's are keeping it a secret."

"But you of all people should not have to relive it," Haddock answered back as Luna and Davis backed off on their questioning. Both could feel something more was the matter here but they decided to drop it. If the Sergeant had been part of the Sirius team than he was more dangerous than he let on.

It was a couple of minutes later when Larana and Helia came back. Luna supposed that they had been sent on a scouting mission.

"We found Arcadia," Larana announced. "There's activity,"

AN: Soooooo, both Harrypanther and I went to see Eps.9 of Star wars. And we both had our opinions on it both the good and the bad. So Harry decided to write her own version. Those that have read or seen her story Ouroboros will know this. I would definitely give it a read :) But she sorta challenged me to create a version of eps9 of my own. Now I ask you my dear readers, would you want me to publish one. With the holiday season it might just end up being a oneshot. The question you need to ask yourselves is.. "What could possibly happen if we let Vala loose in the SW universe?"