As the initial press of acceleration left him, 1st Lt. Russell Winters began counting. The blast radius of a Dakota class scout ship’s drive core, as well as the time in seconds, to outrun it had been some of the first facts and figures; certainly some of the most morbid, that they had learned upon qualification for the Omega branch of the Human Expeditionary League. Winters had prayed he’d never need to apply such knowledge but the day had come.

“Fifteen seconds since launch…” He whispered as his drop pod tore through space towards the second planet around the yet unnamed star. Another fifteen and he’d be clear, twenty for the rest of the crew in their escape pods. “Twenty…twenty five…” A shockwave unlike any he’d yet experienced slammed into his pod, throwing his armored weight against the restraints and eliciting another string of curses from the soldier. “DAMN IT! NO!” The lights were red again, the display in front of him flickering. He momentarily registered damage notifications for long range communications and main thrusters before crushing the now useless launch button with his fist. The pod held through the blast. He’d fully assess the damage later. For now the HEL jumper simply hung his head in mourning.

Twenty five seconds. Jess was dead and now so too were the rest of his comrades. Ten more seconds and they would have cleared the envelope, but yet again the fates had been anything but just. The other pods had weaker armor and thrusters. Above civilian standards, but the rest of the crew wasn’t in the habit of plummeting feet first through the atmosphere into live combat or rescue scenarios where seconds mattered. Those precious seconds had saved his life, but had also left him alone in an unmapped star system untold miles and at least several months by warp from home.

“Dax, Shifty, Eric, Sonja, Albert, Jess. I…” Winters croaked into his helmet. What could he say? He gave up trying to form words, instead feeling the sting and salt of tears in the corners of his eyes. He was a soldier, they all were; and soldiers died. But they weren’t Delta branch. They weren’t humanity’s front line. They weren’t singular tools of destruction. They were scientists, explorers, engineers; the bravest that humanity had to offer. They were a family, bound by a desire to truly go where no human had ever been before. And now, they were gone.

‘Lieutenant, main thrusters have taken significant damage and the shockwave has resulted in an altered course. We will no longer make planetfall given current trajectory. No other suitable targets located.’ The robotic, unemotional voice of his suit’s virtual intelligence broke through the fog in Winters’ mind. He was off course. If he didn’t do something soon there would be no possible recovery. He would drift until death. Maybe that’s better. He thought for the briefest of moments, until Jess’ final orders came crashing back to the fore of the tempest that was his mind: You will launch your pod. You will make planetfall. You will survive. Winters bit back the bile in his throat and spoke again. “Ok Jess, ok. Let’s do this then. Io, are any thrusters still operational?”

‘Lieutenant, it is likely that if the main thrusters are fired the pod’s hull will be compromised. Secondary and tertiary thrusters remain functional.’

“Define likely Io.”

‘Lieutenant, I estimate an 85% probability of hull compromise if main thruster array is fired.’

“Fine, what about the other thrusters? Can we reach the planet? What are our options for landing zones?”

‘Lieutenant, full burn of secondary and tertiary thrusters should provide enough acceleration to correct course. The pod remains too distant for any detailed landing zone analysis, but we are currently above the equatorial plane. The landing must be in the northern hemisphere. I can currently discern one and only one major landmass.’

“And if we do burn all other thrusters, how much fuel will we have left for in-atmo maneuvering?”

‘Lieutenant, I-’

“And stop saying Lieutenant all the time! You’re wasting time and I know you’re talking to me.” Winters barked as he punched in the appropriate warm up sequence for the non-primary thrusters. Usually these were used only within the atmosphere of a planet to allow for a precise landing, but he figured winging the landing was better than not landing at all.

‘Sir, less than 10%.’

“Can we hit the continent at least?”

‘Yes sir.’

“Then that settles it.” Winters declared, gripping the controls and pulling the trigger to activate the burn sequence. He felt a satisfying weight as the pod’s right side thrusters fired to line them up with the blue and green orb growing ever larger on the monitor in front of him. Another push came from the opposite side as the left side thrusters fired to stabilize their course. Winters looked to his left. “Seven percent.” He sighed deeply. “Ok Io, what have you got for me? Let’s talk LZ. We’re getting only one shot at this.”

‘Sir, the center of the northern continent appears to be arid, possibly a desert. There are mountain ranges on both the eastern and western border of this region, converging in the north. This is our current heading.’

Winters scoffed. “How about places where we could survive for more than a week after landing?”

‘Sir, I cannot be sure of conditions on the ground in any particular biome from this distance.’ Winters could have sworn he heard a tinge of hurt in the synthesized voice.

“Sorry Io, you’re right. I’m just…on edge. What’s south of the desert?”

‘It appears to be a tropical climate. I have identified a major storm system off the southwest coast of the continent as well as significant arboreal signatures at those latitudes.’ A red circle appeared on Winters’ screen to mark the hurricane-like structure, now zoomed in to show the northern continent and its surrounding oceans.

“Tropical…arboreal…wait, arboreal?! There’s complex plant life down there?” Winters almost shouted.

‘Yes sir, quite a bit of it.’

“It’s a shame the others will miss it. Jess’ predictions were spot on. What else have you got for me? I don’t care much for the tropics. All that moisture is going to ruin everything.”

‘There is the desert sir.’

“Happy medium Io, please? If I’m reading this right we’ve got exactly 87 seconds until I need to pull the trigger for final approach.”

‘Sir, with the distance narrowed I have identified two temperate zones on the continent.’ Two areas about halfway up the landmass on either side of the desert glowed green. ‘It would appear that the flora of the planet progresses from what we would consider tropical, to deciduous, to possibly boreal and tundra in the northern reaches. There is a significant amount of ice cap coverage in this hemisphere. Consequences for local climates unknown.’

“We can worry about that later. Looks like we’re closer to the eastern coast. We’ll try to set down between 10 and 20 miles of the coastline. Wouldn’t want to run out of fuel just in time to be buffeted into a watery grave.”

‘I believe this is an optimal course of action sir, given the circumstances.’

“Well thanks Io. I thought so too.” Winters joked as he fired his thrusters again, angling them slightly away from the center of the continent and towards its eastern coastline. “Well, we’ve got 1% remaining. Not much left to do but ride it out.” He spoke again, mainly to himself, as the pod began shaking. This time though it was a comforting sensation. It was the knowledge that if he was to die today, or someday soon, it wouldn’t be in the cold vacuum of space. At least the H.E.L. might be able to find his body. Winters exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding, slowly leaning back into his restraints and watching his display continually zoom in on the landing site. He could now make out what looked like forests, rivers, and an alluvial plain. That’s good terrain down there; building material, fresh running water, hopefully some fauna to go with that ample flora. Winters thought to himself, mentally cataloging any information he could about the region that was about to become his home. With only thirty thousand feet left in the drop, a yellow warning indicator began flashing.

‘Sir, I have identified an obstruction near our landing zone.’ Winters jerked forward again, bringing his face as close as he could to the monitor. There was no natural terrain that would have caused that warning. They had avoided the mountains and oceans by miles.

“That can’t be right Io there’s nothing…shit!” Winters eyes went wide as his hands shot to the thruster controls once more, putting all his remaining fuel into a last minute course correction that left him no time to brace for landing. With a sickening crunch, the force of the impact drove Winters’ helmet into the front of the pod, damaging the display beyond repair. The HEL jumper slumped over in his restraints as the lights in his pod faded to black. “This…isn’t…good…”

‘Ah, Lieutenant, welcome back.’ Io’s voice rang in Winters’ ears as he shook his head lightly, wincing as the pain woke his other senses. The soldier grunted in response.

“You’re just a ray of sunshine Io. God my head…damage report, now.”

‘Sir, you have suffered non-concussive head trauma due to the sudden nature of our landing, but otherwise you are in good health. You were unconscious for 6 minutes and 29 seconds.’

“The pod Io.”

‘Sir, the impact itself was not outside of normal operating parameters in terms of force applied. However, due to the earlier damage sustained in transit certain systems were compromised.’

“Please just tell me the nano-fabricator is working.” Winters pleaded.

‘It is, sir.’ Winters could have wept with relief.

“Ok, let’s take a look at…oh.” He finally noticed the smashed panel in front of him. “Well then Io, please continue with your report.” Winters commanded, gingerly unbuckling his restraints as the spinning sensation slowly left him.

‘Yes sir. Life support systems remain undamaged and functional. Solar power array is damaged; I estimate 46% capability. All communications equipment is compromised or destroyed. Weapons and auxiliary armor undamaged. Hull integrity at 82% with internal environment remaining isolated. Fuel reserves at 0%. Main thrusters destroyed. External sensory array compromised but functional. Main display-’

“Smashed to bits by my big head. Yeah, I got it. Thank you Io.” Winters replied, now standing freely inside the pod. It wasn’t overly cramped, but after everything he’d experienced since arriving in system, he wanted nothing more than to get out of it. But this wasn’t a normal landing where he’d charge out guns blazing or shield raised. No, nothing about this landing had been normal. “Io, do you have access to the external footage from the landing sequence? Can you bring it up on my HUD?”

‘Yes sir, where would you like to begin playback?’

“Ten seconds before final course correction.” Winters said as the heads up display built into his helmet’s faceplate came to life. A small video window popped up in the bottom left corner. Flicking his eyes in the appropriate sequence brought the window front and center, expanding it to encompass most of his view. The image was blurry as expected, but Winters could make out a small patch of brown earth, presumably the ‘obstruction’ that had set off the pod’s warning protocols. “Walk it forward three seconds.” The object grew larger. “Another three…one more. Hold there.” Winters stopped the feed just before he’d wrenched the pod onto its final heading. The brown area took up a larger section of the screen now and Winters could make out various shapes that did not appear to be natural in origin: a group of lines and rectangles surrounded by an oval. The forest had been cleared around it and showed unmistakable signs of agriculture. “Mother of god. Io, is this what I think it is?”

‘Sir, that is impossible to say. I cannot read your mind.’

“Oh for the love of…” Winters brought his hand to his face. The ‘augmented personality mod’ he’d installed a couple systems back was becoming more trouble than it was worth. “Io, that’s a settlement isn’t it? A pre-industrial settlement constructed by intelligent beings?”

‘I estimate a 95% likelihood of that conclusion being correct sir.’

For a long moment Winters did nothing and said nothing, staring at the image on his HUD. A pre-industrial settlement. He had almost cratered a village, to say nothing of the fact that even with the final thruster burn he would have landed less than 5 miles away from whatever this population center was. “Uh Io, can you read first contact protocol please?”

‘Yes sir, the following is an excerpt from first contact protocols established in the human uplift treaty of 2027. Upon discovery of new intelligent life, an assessment must be made from orbit regarding the condition of the new species. Under no circumstances are species at a pre-industrial level of development to be interacted with. Species that exhibit post-industrial, but pre-spaceflight levels of development are to be contacted only with approval of the joint Human-Ghaelen exploratory council. Species that have achieved spaceflight are to be contacted with an offer to join the galactic community pending that the conditions specified in section 3, sub-section 14 are met.’

“So what you’re saying is…”

‘We have broken pretty much every rule in the book.’

Winters leaned his head against the back of his pod, closing his eyes and trying to fight off an oncoming headache. “Well, Jess would be proud. But could this day possibly get worse?”

‘Yes sir, it could.’

Winters growled back. “How?”

‘Bipedal life form detected within 25 foot radius of the pod sir.’

“You have got to be kidding me.”