It had been over two months and their goal of reaching the surface alive was finally getting close again. Reece hoped that there wouldn’t be any more surprises. He decided to pass some of the remaining time fabricating a couple of additional blades. The blades would be all they had to defend themselves against whatever lurked below until they could find some firearms. He hoped they could find some guns and ammunition quickly.

The trio would be exposed when they first landed and may need to fight their way through a mob of the infected. It would be better if they had a couple of swords, spears, or axes instead of just fists. He was a little excited to try them out on the infected and begin reclaiming their world. He still had trouble calling them zombies. The evidence was clear, but the reality of it was still too surreal.

Regardless of what they were called, they would still need to be stopped. It seemed like severe damage to the brain would do the trick and Reece wasn’t sure which medieval weapon would work the best. So, he decided to make a couple of each. There wasn’t much more work to do. Luckily the engineering lab had been set up to be able to repair tools or even fabricate them if necessary. It didn’t take long to have a small arsenal that would make some ancient medieval knight proud.

“We’re really going old-school now,” Reece laughed to himself at the absurdity of the centuries-old technology.

That gave him another idea. He had been so focused on weaponry that he hadn’t put any thought into defense. Obviously, constructing chain mail or plate armor from the times of chivalry was out of the question. Some well-placed metal-alloy plates, sewn into their flight suits could offer some protection from small arms fire or infected bites. It took a couple more days, but he managed to add some thin plating to all their flight suits. He made sure it didn’t add more than about ten pounds to each suit and wouldn’t impede their movements in the slightest.

During this time, Aika had been busy disabling the software fail-safes that would have prevented the station from leaving orbit. Luckily, she had been going over some of the software diagnostics tests when she came across the fail-safe processes running in the background. After that, she went through each software system to ensure there wouldn’t be any more surprises.

Pasha had been compiling and writing down all the pertinent information he had gleaned off the backup drive in case they had no way of accessing it on the ground. He also relayed that info to Ground Control as he compiled it during their daily communiques. Once he was satisfied, he removed the backup drive and stowed it in the shuttle with everything else that Aika and Reece had been stockpiling in preparation for the descent. He never notified Ground Control of their impending descent, just in case the Order had figured out a way to intercept their signal.

When all three had finished their work, they completed a once over of the station to make sure they had everything…again, and to say goodbye to the only home they had known for over two years now.

Finally, the day had arrived for them to embark on their journey to reach the surface. They met back up at control. Pasha had set up an automated routine with Aika’s help that would start the descent of the station. The station’s event-timer read just over forty-five minutes as it counted down. They had prepared as much as they could. Now everything relied on luck and Pasha’s piloting skills. Reece hoped all the simulator training that Pasha had been doing aboard the shuttle would pay off and they’d reach the ground safely.

They donned their black flight suits over the plated suits that Reece had prepared for them. Once fully dressed for the descent, they grabbed the last of the items they desired to take with them; black combat boots to swap to once they made landfall, their helmets for the flight down, apples to munch on before go-time, and several jugs of clean water to get them through their first few days on the surface.

“After all of this prep work,” warned Reece jokingly as he loaded the last of the water jugs. “You’d better not get us blown up or have us explode on impact with the ground.”

“And what if I do?” joked Pasha right back at him. “What’re you going to do, kill me?”

Both men laughed, more to calm their nerves than anything else.

“Okay, children…let’s get a move on,” chided Aika as she slinked past the two men to take her seat aboard the shuttle. She would act as Pasha’s co-pilot. Reece entered next and got in position behind the pilot’s seat. Once Pasha entered and took his seat, Aika’s fingers flew across the shuttle’s control panel; activating the flight and navigation systems and closing the shuttle door. They had rigged up a control to release the station’s umbilical when the time came, and she had control over that too. They wanted Pasha concentrating on nothing but flying.

“This is very stimulating!” exclaimed Pasha as he literally shook in excitement.

He laughed almost maniacally, seemingly giddy with joy over what could potentially be the craziest thing he had ever done. Reese reasoned that Pasha was clearly an adrenaline junkie and he was about to get a major fix.

Reece’s stomach had some proverbial butterflies, but he was holding it together. He looked over at Aika who was sitting stock still but starting to sweat.

“Hey, babe,” Reece called to her to get her attention. “How about a good luck kiss?”

He did it as much to clear her mind as for a good luck charm, but it broke her from her daze, and she smiled and nodded at him. He leaned into the front seats and gave her the most passionate kiss he could under the circumstances. After a few seconds, Pasha cleared his throat as he was starting to get uncomfortable and Reece broke it off. It had the desired effect, and Aika seemed clearheaded once again.

“You have one of those for me?” asked Pasha mirthfully.

“Sure,” answered Reece as he leaned back in and gave Pasha a quick smack on the cheek.

“Oh” yipped Pasha. “That’s not what I meant, but I’ll take it!”

Aika giggled and leaned in and gave Pasha a peck on the cheek herself.

“How’s that,” she asked.

“From both of you,” answered Pasha, “I can die happy. Not that I plan for that happening today, mind you.”

“Okay, let’s keep it that way…” broke in Reece.

Suddenly, a red light on the control panel lit up as a loud double beep emanated through the small cockpit. Near it, an organic crystal screen displayed 10:00:00 and instantly started to count down from the ten-minute marker in one-hundredth-of-a-second increments. The trio knew that indicated that Zhengzhou Station would begin to plummet towards the surface of the Earth as soon as the white-on-blue timer displayed all zeros. Each of the three astronauts donned and secured their helmets. It was a precaution in case of hull penetration which was a real possibility with the insane plan they were about to execute.

“Comms check,” announced Aika through the helmet’s intercom feed.

“Check one,” called back Pasha.

“Check two,” added Reece.

“Comms check good,” finished Aika.

The last three crew members of the Zhengzhou Space Station double-checked each of their assigned systems as the counter madly ticked away. By the time the screen read less than a minute, the engines were primed, all circuits were checked, and all systems were green. There was nothing left to do but wait.

“Here we go,” grinned Pasha at the ten-second mark. “There’s no turning back now!”

As the counter flashed all zeros, they felt a slight lurch. The space station had just changed its course ever so slightly. That would make it harder to quickly detect the change in velocity by any remaining surface sensors. The shuttle simply went along for the ride via its umbilical connection. Now a new counter flashed onto the screen. It read 14:32:17 and began counting down instantly, just as the counter before it had.

The first four minutes were relatively calm as the shuttle’s altimeter showed a slowly decreasing number and the speedometer showed a slowly increasing number. By the time they started feeling the ionization of the plasma shroud, they were traveling at Mach twenty-five and had halved the distance to the earth. The shroud began superheating the front of the station, causing the temperature sensors to light up. The feeling of descending through the atmosphere started as a tickling vibration but soon became a violently bumpy ride as they passed the twelve-minute mark.

They could hear the roaring friction of the atmosphere as the space station tore a hole in it. Two and a half minutes seemed like an eternity for the trio of white-knuckled astronauts. For two of them anyway, as Pasha smiled casually at Aika and gave Reece the thumbs up since he couldn’t turn his head that far. Soon, he was giggling from pure joyous excitement.

Reece knew the shuttle and umbilical could take it, but the extreme shaking still made him nervous nonetheless. The rumbling leveled out to a dull roar while the shaking of the shuttle settled down, but only slightly. At the one-minute mark, the shuttle beeped at them to get prepared to detach. Pasha looked over at Aika again, this time with his game face on. They were nearing missile range and had no desire for the shuttle to meet the same fate as the space station.

“Let’s light this candle,” he announced as he started the cluster of engines.

“Prepare for separation,” announced Aika at fifteen seconds.

She counted down for Pasha as they had to coordinate the next few seconds perfectly.

“5…4…3…2…1…MARK!”, Aika loudly announced as she mashed the detachment button.

The shuttle heaved to the side as it was violently released from the hurtling space station. As the shuttle drew away, they got a look at the front-end of the station. It was a gigantic fireball, made of molten metal. Flames from orange to blue wrapped around the sides of the station like fingers. Still, it was holding together so far. That’s all they could hope for.

Pasha lightly guided their shuttle, helping it drift off and below the plunging monstrosity of metal and fire. It was at that moment when they saw the first object hit the station. It looked like a tiny dark shape and flew straight into the center mass of the falling structure. The instantaneous explosion told them that it was a missile strike. Still, the station easily held together. The surface-to-air missile was soon followed by half a dozen others and Aika and Reece noticed that pieces of the station were hurtling all around them.

Pasha was looking dead ahead and guiding the shuttle up and around a large chunk of what looked like the mess hall before diving under another chunk of charred and burning metal that couldn’t easily be identified. This continued for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds of Pasha dipping and strafing around random pieces of the space station and missile debris.

Missiles continued striking the station in volleys of six or so. They seemed to be timed to strike in clusters before a long pause, and then the next volley would hit. Pasha was staying extremely close to the station, even as he dodged and weaved through burning debris from the disintegrating structure. Reece understood the need for this, even though every survival instinct yelled to get as far away from the numerous explosions as possible. He also knew that they had a decent shot at dodging the station’s fiery debris field. It was at least better than the deadly missiles they’d face if they moved out of its burning shadow.

The space station continued to get pummeled as it continued through the Earth’s atmosphere, but for the most part, the structure held together. At this point, Reece and Aika noticed the ground rapidly approaching, but their stomachs lurched suddenly when Pasha spun the shuttle counterclockwise to avoid another flying piece of debris. No sooner had he finished that maneuver, than he did a wider loop back towards the right in a clockwise motion. A dark object zipped by them and they felt the shockwave of an explosion from behind them as the apparent missile violently exploded. Pasha had to slow the shuttle and realign back behind the falling space station.

“I think our secret’s out,” said Pasha over the internal comms. “Hopefully, we bought ourselves enough time to land this bird before we get blown out of the sky.”

Unfortunately for the three astronauts, a missile curved around the station and detonated on the station’s backside far too close for their comfort. The shuttle was riddled with shrapnel from the fiery blast. Aika yelled in shock and surprise while Pasha merely grunted. The control panel started flashing red and orange warnings and Reece noticed at least two holes in the cockpit's front window. Wind immediately began whistling through the small breaches.