Space Odyssey: Spectre

KA-THUNK!

He could hear the noise of the connector disengaging and releasing the drop pod. Jace's pod started to slowly fall. The gravity of the planet began to slowly pull him towards it. The forces in the pod were only miniscule for the moment as he gained distance from the Anvil. A few moments later when he was dropping he could see their pods appearing on the external ship cameras he was still connected to.

A moment later there was a burst of energy as the rockets on the tops of pods fired and he began rocketing downward toward the planet.

The planet was nicknamed Bastion by the Crystoph Federation. Because in this system it was once the location of a fierce battle between an older nation and the Grand Hexarian Empire. It has since changed hands several times. But it was said the metal and debris from the battle all disappeared. Which was unusual for a battle that supposedly involved several spaceships.

Jace could feel a slight change in the pressure as the rockets fired. He hummed as he watched the screens broadcasting the view from the ships. As the pods left a trail of red flames going from the Anvil.

A minute later he was halfway to the planet when the next set of pods dropped. They were being dropped ten at a time. Two of the hangars aboard the Anvil were dropping pods. Each of them had five dropping mechanisms so they could drop five at the same time. With each of the six sets of drops a Spectre would be dropping with them.

As he got closer to the planet his pod started accelerating. Not because of the rocket on the top of it but because of the planet's gravity.

After another minute he was about to enter the planet's atmosphere when the next set of pods dropped and the first problem arose. "Dropper number seven is malfunctioning, we are going to be delayed." The communication officer quickly reported. He could see the problem when only nine appeared on the screen from the camera on the Anvil.

Jace frowned and immediately called in. "Get someone with a wrench and manually detach the drop pods. The timing will be a little off but it will be better than completely delaying the drops." Jace told them quickly as he was about to enter the atmosphere and would be unable to communicate because of the magnetic particles in the gas clouds that make up the exterior of the planet.

"Understood Spectre Jace, we will- KEERECCHH!" The communication officer was cut off as he felt the pod shudder when it entered the atmosphere. The natural jamming of the gas clouds rotating in the atmosphere were stronger than they suspected. He closed the screens that were supposed to be showing the view from the Anvil but were just showing snow now. While the communication signals had all turned to static so he quickly muted them while the visual representation of the signals turned into straight lines.

For half a minute he was fine but then he felt something was off. Jace quickly pulled up the altimeter and saw the reader was showing blank. It was unable to show readings because the device on the bottom of the drop pod could not read the distance to the surface of the planet. He then pulled up the other components for flight controls and noticed his pod was starting to tilt and rotate. It was likely because of the wind pushing the pod.

He could faintly hear the sound of small rocks hitting the side of the drop pod as it tilted. Jace groaned as he tapped a few buttons on the interactive door screen which only had the mix of gases in the background scratching against the door.

The drop pod began adjusting its trajectory. The auxiliary engines were firing on the edges of the pod. Making minor adjustments as he dropped. It only took a moment to stop the rotation but tilting had to be constantly adjusted for. But he also had to make sure that he did not end up slowing his speed because of the auxiliary engines firing.

After a minute the drop pods shuddering increased drastically. It seems there was a thicker layer of particles and dust under the first one. He had to quickly adjust the power of the auxiliary engines again. It sounded like hail against glass.

Eventually he would be pushed far off course by the force of these winds. There was a good chance the others would as well. But there was no guarantee that he would end up at the same place or even the same area.

He could not contact or warn the others yet because his short range radio was being blocked by the gases and the various particles inside of the gas. Instead he just had to hope he would not get knocked too far off course by the various forces having an affect on his drop pod.

There was a sudden jostling and then the direction the wind was pushing him completely changed. Jace was thrown forward as the direction changed and almost immediately his drop pod began a rapid spin as the auxiliary engines were no longer preventing the wind from rotating and flipping the pod. In fact they were aissiting in flipping him around.

Jace quickly adjusted the auxiliary engines with a few calculations and the pod began stabilizing its course. But the damage had likely already been done. There was no telling where he would end up. Not that it would matter.

This was a planetary invasion. As long as a large enough cleared out a landing zone the Anvil would be able to land once Jace sent the signal and theroup sent up a beacon using one of the Spectre's drop pods. There was a good chance that it would not be his pod sending up the beacon.

As the pod broke through the gas layer and he arrived in the clouds he had to quickly adjust the auxiliary engines once again. The clouds were blocking his vision but the altimeter was setting up and the readings and calculations told him he had a few minutes before he arrived at the lowest point the sensors on the bottom of the drop pod were reading. He connected to the general short range radio channel.

"S-Zero is through the gas layer. Anyone else?" Jace asked, using the code agreed on beforehand in case anyone was listening.

"Affirmative, this is ST-Thirteen. Location is currently above some landing zone for spacecraft, possibly a spaceport. I am not seeing your drop pod in the area scan of friendly targets." One of the shock troopers from his group reported.

"Understood, commence without me. I was thrown off course." Jace informed them as he broke through the cloud layer.

As soon as he was through he frowned. He was heading directly toward the top of a mountain. The mountain was surrounded by marshy swamp lands and forests. His drop pod flew directly at the mountain.

Jace quickly fired his auxiliary engines to try to adjust his course. So he slammed into the side of the mountain. He grunted from the impact and the pod screeched while the screen in front of him cracked and began blinking as it was not completely disabled. But through a crack in the door he could see light coming in from outside.

The light was coming from the gases in the outer layer of the planet. The gases were acting like a screen that let in the light. It worked by having light refract off the rocks and gases in the outer layer.

Jace's pod began spinning violently as it flew towards the ground.

He was jostled again and the drop pod bounced off another thing as one of the doors on the drop pod flew off. He could see more of the outside now. The drop pod was flying through the air again. Going upwards as the drop pod began spinning not only around one axis but both. He could see he was at least another minute from crashing into the ground.

Below him were the swamp trees and the swamp itself that was brown and murky with patches of green. He could also make out several different creatures moving through the swamp in that moment.

His drop pod would likely sink to the bottom of the swamp. He would have to destroy his pod once he had extracted all of his equipment from the drop pod to prevent the enemy from finding it and using anything inside of it against them.

As for his location at a mountain near a swamp there was no location described like this by Qwan Lee the traitor they had extracted information from. He only described a spaceport, a military style base, and a city. He had not collected information about the rest of the planet since it was unnecessary.

Jace frowned as his pod flipped through the air before he crashed into the swamp. His pod fortunately landed with the crushed door opening upwards. He was sitting facing toward the sky. The impact was a lot less painful then he thought it would be. But it also seemed he landed in a muddy part of the swamp and not near any solid pieces of mass like animals or trees.