The launch of a lander is a lurch of rapid motion followed by sudden weightlessness that bounces everyone off their securement harnesses as the lander leaves the artificial gravity of the mothership.
It is a bit disorienting every time, feeling like up and down have ceased to exist, which in a way they do while you are in space.
The recruits haven’t experienced it before, but the consensus of their first drop is that the launch is definitely better than the translation to faster than light transit. At least this doesn’t feel like their insides are being twisted inside their bodies.
Max can feel that the thrusters are still activated, which makes no sense since the Abraham Kepler is still approaching the planet, they didn’t need the extra speed to make an approach on the planet at near structural load limits.
“Nico, check the lander settings and find out what the hell is going on,” Max calls over the secure command channel. Nobody will hear it but her and the other Crusader Pilots, so he doesn’t bother to censor himself.
“Found the issue. Sending the data to Command.” Nico answers without elaborating.
Max checks her thoughts and finds that the launch orders have been modified, without a verification code. Every Lander in the first wave is headed for a spot near the planetary capital that is crawling with Narsian troops and anti-lander firepower.
The only viable answer for it is that the ship’s launch codes were compromised by an internal traitor, or that the Narsians have a hacking ability much more advanced than the Kepler military was aware of..
Following her thoughts, Max can see that Nico is busy using the anti-collision data network to reroute as many units as possible before they reach the point of no return, where it will be too late to significantly change their trajectory.
They do have thrusters and can reroute, but that involves losing a lot of orbital speed first, and by the time they do, they will be within range of the capital.
“Confirmation, course alteration signal came from the planet,” Nico calls over the Command channel and Max relays it back to launch control, who rapidly works to change encryption codes before the next wave of Landers is launched.
The choice of encryption code is left up to the individual launch officers, which will cause some chaos since the Landers won’t be able to communicate with each other on their way down due to varying encryptions, but that is better than having them all fired directly at a death trap.
[Shining Darkness to Stalwart. The original target is no longer viable. Your mission will be updated after landing.] General Tennant informs Max over the mecha’s heads-up display.
Checking the targeting data, Max can see that the General is correct, they fell too far while Nico was correcting everyone else’s trajectory to prevent them from landing near the most dangerous points on the planet, and now they will be landing on the far side of the planet from where they were originally intended to be.
That’s an unfortunate, but entirely too common outcome, though it is more often due to emergency evasions or damage than a successful hack of the launch computers.
“Do we have any data on the new landing zone?” Max asks, looking over the map. There is data there, he just hasn’t studied it at all, since it was thousands of kilometers from their destination.
“Predicted drop zone is a tropical swamp. Population under 10 per square kilometer for the entire region. Enemy forces unknown.” Nico responds, and Max hears the other officers give a short laugh.
“So you’re saying that I’m going home?” Vincente asks, being from a tropical swamp himself.
“You’re in luck Captain. The last time my unit found itself in a swamp, there were giant beasts that could eat a Corvette class mecha. This one doesn’t show any life signs over three meters long on the initial scans.” Max jokes.
“I heard about that from the other convicts. Back when you were stationed on Belmont, right? Capturing the planetary Governor alive was possibly the greatest bit of luck I’ve heard about in a while.” Paul agrees.
“That’s the time. Though after the flood, you could almost call the bridge defense a swamp.” Nico joins in, helping cut the tension they are all feeling after the attack on their guidance systems.
“Don’t remind me. Giant Cygnus Mecha everywhere, and I was still stuck on Line Mecha detail.” Vincente complains.
The very fact that these three survived owed a lot to their pure skill levels. Command didn’t intend for the Convict Units to survive, they were there to soak up bullets to save the better-behaved troops. The fact that Max brought so many of them back was a shock to everyone, including the few other remaining convicts.
The joking only works for a little while though, they have entered the atmosphere much faster than intended, thanks to the change in their course, and the whole ship is shuddering and creaking under the strain as the thrusters work to keep it on course and reduce the speed.
Once they get a little lower the Anti Gravity field can be engaged to assist with the descent in addition to the thrusters, but for now, it’s pure fuel-burning power that is slowing the flying brick hurtling towards a populated planet at thirty times the speed of sound.
After a few minutes the violent shaking begins to subside as the lander gets close to normal entry velocities, but now they have dropped low enough that they are in range of the defensive guns as they pass over the more populated regions of the planet.
The explosions are still somewhat distant, a constant thudding as they drop, steady enough that the infantry soldiers, who aren’t protected inside Mecha, feel the vibrations more as background music on their way to hell.
Even those slowly go silent though, as they cross the horizon and move out of sight of the cities. So far the Narsians haven’t put much effort into the rural areas, beginning their invasion with the highest priority targets, and agricultural areas are low priority since the Narsians are unable to process most human foods.
[Altitude ten thousand meters, beginning final approach.]
[We have our landing zone, updating coordinates] Nico adds over the intercoms, relaxing the troops a little.
In their minds, if the XO is personally updating their landing zone, it must be safer than whatever Command had in store for them. Of course, they have no idea how close everything went to going fatally wrong, since the earlier discussion was on a secure channel.
The spot Nico has picked for them is a large, rocky ridgeline lifting out of the swamp like the back of a prehistoric animal. Sensors detected a large empty cavity underground, possibly an abandoned mine shaft, which is suitable as a bunker for the infantry, or will be after it is reinforced a little.
The plan visible in Max’s heads up display is to put the lander in front of it as a makeshift defensive wall, giving them shelter from two sides and providing some cover for the Mecha.
[Prepare for Landing] the ship’s computer announces, before the fifty meter long box gently settles onto the rocks and powers down.
“Everyone move out. Team Alpha and Team Bravo secure the perimeter, Team Charlie secure the caverns.” Max calls, getting ready to move himself into position to support the teams.
The teams are a bit rough, not quite in sync with each other, but they are all on mission and in under 20 seconds the lander is empty and the Mecha teams are spreading out while the infantry forms the inner perimeter.
[All Clear] come the unit reports one after another.
[Radar shows no drops within 100km of our location. Orbital scans show no inhabited areas for 300km.] Nico reports and Max sighs. They really are in the middle of nowhere.
[Find a way to contact command and give them a sitrep. Once they know we are here and alive they will likely have to adjust their plans for the unit.]
[Caverns Clear. It looks like this was a Uranium Mine at one point. The lower shafts are sealed, but the upper caverns read safe levels of radiation.] Team Charlie reports in.
Just what they needed. The Narsians use uranium as their primary fuel for their powered equipment and energy weaponry. If they are sitting on a Uranium mine, Command will want them to hold it all costs, keeping the enemy from refueling.
[Get the caverns mapped. I suspect we will be here a while.] Max gives Charlie Squad their orders while Alpha and Bravo squads get settled into position.
They won’t start building anything yet, as this location might already have an assigned defense team, but they can at least dig some foxholes and get the Anti aircraft guns set up. The infantry is always happier after the heavy support is in place.
[Central Command to Stalwart. Hold position until further notice. Reinforcements are coming with the third wave.]