~Back to Earth~

Like a comet, the escape pod was plummeting at full speed through the atmosphere like a fireball through the sky and creating a smokey streak in its wake. The remaining soldiers who had made it into the emergency escape pod, gripped the armrests on their chairs while breathing heavy as the force of the freefall was pinning them back against their seats. Sweat beads trickled down their temples as the temperature in their cabin continued to crawl past the one hundred degree mark.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Captain Mason shouted to his crew, even though his warning didn't matter.

There was no way to avoid crashing since their engine was blown, which meant their survival after impact was unpredictable. As the planet's brown terrain grew closer and closer in the pod's viewing window, the soldiers began murmuring prayers, curse words and regrets. Their heads whiplashed backward and then forward as the starship finally made impact into the dusty ground, creating a crater around them. Loud beeping and lights flashed around them, indicating that their computer system was cappoot.

Hopefully their oxygen system was not.

"Warning... Warning..." a robotic voice echoed. "Cabin oxygen levels dropping."

Captain Mason wheezed as he loosened the neck on his space suit while speaking out to the robotic voice, "Zeta, how much oxygen do we have left?"

"Twenty percent."

"Zeta," he wheezed again. "Assess exterior environment."

The beeps and flashes continued as the crew fumbled to free themselves from their seats. Some dropped with a heavy thud to the floor, while others managed to land more gracefully.

"Exterior oxygen levels stable," Zeta replied.

"Thank you Zeta," Captain Mason exhaled. "Is everyone alright?" he shouted out.

"Fine... I think," Lieutenant Ramos answered, her voice raspy and choked.

Captain Mason unbuckled himself and his body dropped down like a sandbag onto the control pannel in front of him. He gasped as the air flushed from his lungs like a whoopie cushion. Seconds of inner panic passed through him before the air finally returned to his lungs in a sharp inhale and then a fast exhale.

"You alright?" Lieutenant Ramos asked.

"Absolutely peachy, like my Momma's cobler." He pushed himself up with wobbling arms and then pulled himself over to Lieutenant Ramos. Blood was streaked across her face from a deep gash on her forehead.

"I can't get loose," she coughed.

"I've got you..."

He pulled a knife from his cargo pocket and sliced it across the buckle to release her. Immediately her body slammed down onto his, knocking them both onto the control pannel and knocking the wind out of Captain Mason again.

"Captain!" Lieutenant Ramos rolled off of him and slapped his face back into consciousness.

"I'm alright..." He took in a big gulp of air.

"Captain!" another voice shouted out as Zeta began speaking.

"Oxygen levels: fifteen percent."

"Captain!" the other voice shouted again. "We must get outside, oxygen is dropping fast!"

The crew managed to get to their feet and grab their supply kits, along with airmasks. It was better to be safe than sorry. Captain Mason held onto Lieutenant Ramos, while the others held onto each other as they walked their weak bodies to the escape pod's entrance.

"Zeta, disengage airlocks on Southern Port," Captain Mason commanded as they reached the door.

"Negative. Radioactive storm cloud located on radar. Access denied."

"Zeta!" Captain Mason said urgently as sweat dripped down from his face. "We need to get outside! Or we will die in here!"

"Negative," Zeta replied. "Access denied."

"Screw this! I'm not letting some computerized A.I. tell me what to do!" one of the soldiers barked and began tearing open Zeta's control pannel. "From here on out, you will obey!"

"Garrison, WAIT!" Mason shouted.

"Warning, system will engage protective shield," Zeta's voice echoed.

"Damn it, Garrison!" Ramos shouted and cocked her laser gun. "Stand down!"

The rest of the crew began shouting at Garrison, commanding him to stop, meanwhile Zeta gave another alert, updating them on the fact that they only had ten percent of oxygen left. This only encouraged Garrison to pull and rip the control pannel's wires with even more urgency.

"Engaging protective shield in five, four..." Zeta announced.

"DUCK AND COVER!" Mason shouted.

As painfull as it was, he pulled Lieutenant Ramos into a tuck and roll, propelling them away from the door while quickly dragging her behind a wall. He covered her protectively as a loud sizzle crackled through the air, followed by screams and then silence.

"Threat eliminated," Zeta announced.

Mason breathed heavily as he lifted his head and looked over Ramos. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She nodded with an exhale of relief and then threw her arms around him. "Are you?"

"Yes."

He helped her to her feet and together they rounded the corner to check out the damage. A pile of steaming goop, was all that was left of Garrison.

"Zeta..." Mason said, his voice now trembling. "Please, disengage the airlock."

Sharp pumping sounds errupted around the door, indicating that the locks were disengaging. The crew looked around at each other, almost in disbelief, but mostly relief.

"Zeta, why didn't you follow my command the first time?" Mason said.

"You didn't say please," Zeta replied.

"Can't argue with that!" another soldier agreed.

Mason then stepped forward, twisted the handle of the door and nodded for eveyone to put on their airmasks. As soon as he pulled it open, air rushed into their cabin causing them to stumble backward from the gust.

"We need to set up the beacon. Star Command needs to know that we had to do an emergency evacuation from the ship in the escape pod," Mason said as he stepped out. "We're completely off course, but they'll be able to redirect us to our target location."

"It'll take an hour or so to assess the damage of the escape pod's computer system," Ramos replied. "We took a hard hit, so who knows if we'll be able to contact Star Command."

"Well, if anyone can fix our computer system, it's Fox." Mason looked to their engineer.

"I'm on it Captain!" Fox said and she immediately rushed back into the spacecraft.

"Carter and Martin, you two go haul out the beacon. With the storm coming, we need to activate it ASAP, and Ramos, let's stitch up that wound."

"Yes Captain!" The men rushed off.

With trembling hands, Mason opened an emergency kit and began tending to Ramos's deep cut. His hands were shaking so much that he could hardly thread the needle. Noticing this, Ramos placed her hand over his. "We'll be ok. Star Command will find us."

"What happened up there?" Mason exhaled a ragged breath. "How did that fire breakout on the ship? Zeta is supposed to set off the alarms and the extinguishers as soon as an emergency like that occurs."

"I don't know..." Ramos shrugged sympathetically, while giving a gentle caress to Mason's hand. "We can't worry about that. At least we got to the escape pod in time and now we just have to push forward."

Mason took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "What a mess. We're completely off course..."

"We'll figure it out." Ramos leaned in and brushed a kiss against his lips, but Mason quickly pulled away.

"Don't do that!"

"Why?"

"The others might see and now is not a good time to for them to find out about us."

"I'm sorry. I just hate seeing you so..." Her eyes scanned over him. "Shaken."

"It's just the adrenaline leaving my body. I'll be fine. Now hold still so can I stitch your forehead."

"So bossy..." Ramos laughed softly, but complied.

As Mason pierced through Ramos's flesh, she winced, but he continued threading the wound. It was silent as he finished the task and then spread a bandaid over it. Before putting the emergency kit away, he glanced around and then pressed his lips to Ramos's bandage.

"What was that for?" She grinned.

"Just glad nothing serious happened to you."

"We're going to be ok." She took his hand again. "As soon as that beacon is set up and Fox fixes whatever damage was caused in the crash, we'll contact Star Command. Our mission hasn't failed."

"I know you're just trying to make me feel better, but in all my years of leading missions, I've never had something like this happen."

"Well, to be fair, no one's ever attempted a mission back to Earth. You are the first to lead a team here, and look around us..." Ramos motioned out. "We're here. Back on Earth! We're the very first team to touch this land in centuries. This isn't a fail. We can still find our target location, so don't be so hard on yourself. There's a reason you were picked to lead this mission."

"And what was it?"

"Because you're Captain James Mason, the space cowboy! If anyone can figure this out, it's you."

"Oh come on, give yourself and the other's some credit too. We were all specifically picked for this mission, not just me."

They held each other's gazes, with smiles stretching across their lips and their fingers still entwined. The breeze picked up around them, causing some of the dust to swirl across the dry earth. Mason finally looked away, but only to cast his attention to the dark storm clouds in the distance. His nose twitched and he held his palm up, catching a water droplet.

"Starting to rain," he noted. "We should get back inside and wait for it to pass."

They gathered up everyone's backpacks and started making their way back inside but paused upon seeing Martin.

"What is it?" Ramos panicked, searching his eyes.

"Captain..." He swallowed. "Apparently our escape pod is the M1 model, which means our only beacon is back on the ship."

Mason cursed. "Right... of course they'd give us the M1, instead of the M2 which has an extra beacon IN the pod!" 

"Yeah..."

Mason stared up at the sky where a faint smoke streak was still present from when they pierced through the atmosphere. With the beacon on the burning ship in space, they were practically sitting ducks.

"Well that's just perfect!" Mason shouted, as he slammed one of the backpacks down.

"It's ok," Ramos insisted. "With Fox's engineering expertise, we can rig a new beacon."

"But we only have enough food to last us five days..." Mason rubbed his temples. "It won't be enough with the time we'll need to rig a new beacon and then trek across unfamiliar terrain for who knows how long, to get to our target location."

"We'll figure it out."

"Whatever we manage to rig together won't have GPS," Mason clipped.

"What about Zeta? Can't Fox plug her into the new beacon?" Martin asked.

"Zeta was only programmed to work within a quarter mile radius of the ship and escape pod. If Fox uploads her into the beacon, Zeta won't work once we travel onward."

"Do you think Fox could reprogram Zeta? Get her to function away from the escape pod?" Martin asked.

"It's worth a try." Mason nodded.

Suddenly Carter appeared, stumbling from the pod's doorway. His hand was clutched around his mouth as he began vomiting.

"Carter!" Ramos rushed to him.

With a face that had gone bleach white, Carter looked up at everyone. "Zeta... she... killed Fox."

"What!?"

"Zeta wasn't following Fox's commands, and then, zap! Zeta turned Fox into goop, just like Garrison!" Carter sobbed.

Mason cursed and began pacing as he fought back panic. "We can't go back inside the pod. Zeta's program has obviously been compromised and I can't risk her killing anyone else."

"What do we do about that storm?" Ramos eyed the dark clouds fast approaching.

"We do this the old fashioned way."

Gathering up the backpacks, the four of them inhaled a deep breath and began trekking into the unknown for shelter. They were beaconless, with only their instincts and maps to guide them to their target...