Pilot (3)

The apprentice went back to the intersection of hallways. Hastily, getting into the Hangar of fighter crafts.

She didn't know what to actually do. Her master's dead. The Krekins were dead. Everyone was gone and not a single escape pod was left behind.

Because of this bookbag. Seems to be known now as a curse.

She wanted to mourn for her dead master, yet it's a bad time.

There was the need to get away from here as soon as possible.

She checked the fighter craft and part of it was busted, probably due to the impact earlier. There was no time and the craft will not last when it will be used for heavy and long ride.

By pressing a different button through H-Wav ProD, she asked HERMES (Handheld Electro-Response Management Expert System), a portable talking AI assistant that aided her throughout the journey.

"HERMES, locate the nearest, safest and habitable planet from this current position."

She was never going to make the delivery on time, so the apprentice decided to just stay in the nearest habitable planet.

[Understood, Watchdog. Radar on. Checking the data. Wait for five minutes.]

Her codename was Watchdog while her master was called Twilight Reaper. It was created while she and her master were on a mission that required espionage to protect their identities and secrets of the mission.

[Planet location discovered. Sending coordinates.]

The coordinates of the discovered planet appeared in holographic manner from H-Wav ProD.

"No time to delay."

The Apprentice went on inside the cockpit. All the controllers were familiar to her, the handles, buttons, monitors, direction finder etc.

The airlock door automatically split into two, there was a gush of air pressure coming.

The small woman pushed the lever at the side of her seat, reviving the gravity-assist engine while all the lights inside flickered especially in the display monitors.

Her fighter craft deployed. Leaving everything behind as it exploded and become one completely as a waste with the asteroid in the surrounding area.

Looking at her monitor, there was a red color on one of the thrusters.

If it was busted, the landing later on will surely be rough or not even perfectly happening.

She pressed the left button of the wheel, distributing the energy from the working thrusters to the busted one. Both were fifty percent, working but the speed decreased.

"Ugh, damn it!" The Apprentice angrily cussed and yelled as she maneuvered the fighter craft far away.

She was the only survivor. It was too hard to accept when this delivery had gone wrong and killed her master. All because of this special bookbag that put everyone on the old TB-09 Legacy in danger.

But it was also an important item that shouldn't be put on the hands of a bad person.

Full throttle and focus on her safety. Her monitor alarmed loudly with red light when a sudden asteroid came into her view.

"Ah, crap!" She took a hard left, taking the fighter craft three-sixty degrees turn, causing her head to hit the headrest.

She exhaled deeply. Of course, she's not fine and not equipped to this kind of situation as she was now alone. It was not that difficult when her master was still there for her.

Another exhale came. Her heart was racing hard as if it's going to burst out from her.

She was on edge, hands shaking. She thought she was going to die.

[Watchdog, your heartbeat is increasing.] HERMES said.

"You don't have to tell me that!" A sudden angry outburst came out from her.

"I know that…" She mumbled as she gripped the control wheel.

"I'm sorry." The small woman took a deep breath and continued voyaging the space.

Calm and steady as she piloted the fighter craft.

It took several minutes to arrive to the outersphere of the said planet. It was small but enough to sustain a life. Hopefully, she will not meet any dangerous lifeforms. She had gotten enough of trauma that happened earlier.

The Apprentice piloted her craft steadily, entering the planet. The first thing to see was wide area of land formations, some islands, ocean…color purple? It was very unfamiliar for her to see a liquid in purple color, more so for massive bodies of water.

Although, that's how it was since this planet was not the same as Earth or Minos T.

The concern here was HERMES can analyze data and draw conclusions when a person set foot on a certain place. It will scan out the area using the eyepiece and the data gathered will transmit to the H-Wav ProD where HERMES had to analyze them. It was based according to the existing Universal Archive.

Universal Archive contained information relating to space. Categorizing them into plants, animals, races, technology, culture, planets, chemicals etc.

Exploration of the planet can come in handy and risk at the same time.

First, if there were newly discovered species, the data gathered will be sent to the Universal Archiving Council and they will be the one to accept and add the information on the Archives. Second, exploration of planet was also dangerous when everything was unknown, there was a possibility of death when in contact with overpowering species or unpredictable environment.

Meanwhile, the Apprentice took that risk. She maneuvered the wheel while controlling the fuel.

Right now, she was in the domain of Cerelius X.

However, after few moments of silence, the craft just stopped functioning.

A loud blaring alarm echoed annoyingly inside the cockpit.

[Alert. Experiencing higher heat flux.] HERMES warned.

The fighter craft shook and in turmoil, The re-entry of the craft was failing as the entry angle was too steep. Heat flux was higher than the heat shield can take, causing it to burn through around the craft.

"Gahh!!"

As the fighter craft fell from the sky, thermal problems arose. She was feeling the heat inside her cockpit.

"Oh, fuck it!" The small woman activated her space suit from her choker device and unlatch the top of her craft. She didn't do the ejection seat because it was jammed.

For safety reasons, she was wearing a suit just in case. The craft was no longer functionable. The burning had reached inside the cockpit, no way to save it.

Good thing, the bookbag was with her and still safe, or else. After all, it's hard to leave something when it is so important.

The Apprentice took the leapt. The jump was scary and dangerous but with the aid of Grav-Suit, it made her fall less rough. She spread her arms and legs like an eagle as she fell from the sky.

At the same time, the fighter craft burned completely, and parts of it dissolved. Its debris had fallen somewhere in the ocean and land while the broken cockpit just glided straight through the land, tumbling after and leaving the soil and part of forest destroyed.

On the other hand, she had fallen on the branches of big trees, snapping and crackling of sounds continued until it stopped as she landed her back on brush pile.

"Oh god, my back…HERMES, status."

[According to the scan, you have received bruises on your arms and torso. But nothing severe was damaged.] HERMES reported.

"Alright." She exhaled and kept her position.

"Alena Ariantte, is now on Cerelius X."