“Touchdown in 5...4...3...2...1...We have landed.”

“WOO! We're here boys!”

Cheering from the entire crew aboard the craft echoed as the rumbling of the engines died down.

“Alright, settle down. Ariel, how're our communications holding up?”

“Command, you want to answer that?”

[“Loud and clear Shuttle”]

[“Command here, How are things up there?”]

“Sensors are picking up a Terra like atmosphere! Hey command, are you getting this!”

[“We see it, Captain! Incredible! The readings are almost perfectly matched to Terra’s! Of course, there are a few discrepancies, but really, its amazing!”]

5 crew members looked around the capsule, runes and modern technology merged to create an airtight environment. An assortment of races from Elves to Humans celebrated the success of the mission which had been the topic of scorn and humor for many back on Terra. One man, who was sitting near the airlock pulled off his heavy harness and disconnected his breathing gear.

“Hey, who wants to go for a space walk!”

“Captain your breathing gear!”

“Didn’t you read the sensors? It’s practically earth out there.” the human said with a laugh.

[“Command here what's going on.”]

“Shuttle here, the captain is disconnecting his gear to get out of the pod!”

[“Negative captain, do not leave the shuttle.”]

"Great...he's in one of his reckless moods again isn't he?"

“Better hurry up or I’ll stick the flag in first!”

The man crawled into the airlock and shut the door behind him. His teammates hurried to suit up and put on their gear, motioning for him to wait.

“Sorry! Can’t hear you! There's uh, glass” he said tapping on the thick airlock window.

Suddenly the overhead speakers came on.

“Captain, Command is ordering you to remain in the shuttle until sensors finish their scan.”

“Screw the sensors. I didn’t wait months of planning and preparation for this.”

The man grabbed a flag with the emblem of a silver phoenix stitched on and unlocked the outer door.

“Sir-”

Fresh air flowed into the airlock, washing away the scent of the recycled air. The exterior lights came on illuminating the area around.

“Always wanted to say this. One small step for man…” he said as he stepped onto the steel ladder reaching towards the ground.

But before he could touch the ground, a thunderous BOOM could be heard in the distance. The ground shook and the fallen Captain had a very bad feeling something was wrong.

“Captain! Please return to the shuttle! Quickly!”

In his field of vision, he could see shifting shadows in the distance on the ridge near where they had landed.

“Sir! Sensors are picking up large objects headed our way!” called out the 2nd in command from the airlock loudspeakers.

He quickly ducked back into the airlock and emerged again with a flare gun, firing into the air. The magically enhanced flare lit up the area around for miles around, revealing a sight that chilled him to the core.

“You know what! Mars looks great this time of year! There's Mars in this universe right?! Get us in the air!”

He quickly shut the door as quickly as he opened it and started the launch sequences as an avalanche of several billions of tons of gray and black stone and dirt rolled down the slope towards the shuttle.

“Sir! The engines are on cool down!”

“Ronny, get the engines online!”

“I can’t! The maintenance computer keeps pinging the main computer with requests! I need to reboot the system!”

The shuttle they were using had been completed shortly before the launch and had many corners cut due to budgeting, thus much of the equipment was not in top shape. The rumbling of death was so close now that objects magnetized to the desk started to rattle and come undone.

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

A loud “bang!” echoed throughout the shuttle and the lights went out. Screams erupted and metal groaned while everyone prepared for the end. But as soon as it started, the loud groaning of metal and the rumbling of an avalanche stopped. Everyone held their breaths and emergency lights came on, illuminating everyone in a red glow.

“Ronny, damage report.”

The pale-faced, red-haired dwarven engineer looked back as his terminal finished rebooting.

“Generator 1 is offline. Number 2 and the auxiliary are damaged but capable of getting us in the air. The hull is punctured. Whatever hit the generators punched right through the armor like paper.”

“Ariel, comms?”

“Sir, the antenna has been unaligned. It will take some time to recalibrate it and get a signal back to comm-” responded tall elf.

“What the hell was that!”

The hot temper of the Beastman in uniform boiled.

An avalanche. The shuttle's landing likely caused the area to destabilize and start a chain reaction.” said the glasses wearing elven scientist.

“But we scanned the area before we landed! That shouldn’t have happened.”

“Maybe someone should have waited for the scans to come back before jumping out like an idiot.”

“2nd Lieutenant, cool you attitude. The captain was not responsible for what happened-.”

“Then who was!” beastman interjected.

“James knock it off. I think the better question right now is why are we all not dead.”

Everyone was grim and silent. The sound of the cooling fans inside each terminal could be heard only to be broken by a single sound.

Knock

Everyone froze and turned to face the side of the shuttle where the sound had come from.

Knock knock, knock

“Ariel…”

“External sensors are down.”

“Maybe it's just a pipe…”

Knock knock

“Can pipes change rhythm. James, grab the weapons.”

The beastman took out a silver key and opened a cabinet in another room. From it he took several small round objects and 2 rifles.

“But sir, this could be alien life! We don’t want to scare it away. We should be trying to communicate with it.” said the glasses wearing scientist.

“Little miss, I suggest you shut up and stay quiet. If you want to go out there and have a tea party with whatever that thing is, be my guest but don’t get the rest of us killed in the process.”

The elf girl withered under his fiery temper and shrunk back into her chair. The other crew members saw this and glared at the hot headed man. He had been this way ever since they could remember and his temper never got any better no matter how much time passed.

Knock knock

“Enough, this is how it’s going to go. I’ll head out through the side airlock and attract it’s attention while James goes through the top. If anything happens, shoot to kill. Ariel, work with Ronny and get this thing flight ready. Lia, you're on comms. You don’t need to set a course just get it into orbit. And above all keep the door locked.”

He looked at each and every one of them, all merry attitude from before gone.

“Let's go”

Everyone moved about their duty as the sound of knocking continued like a song at a funeral march, each knock like the sound of a hammer on a nail in their coffin.

“Ready?” called out the captain.

“In position,” said James.

“Captain, please reconsider. Alien life...Didn’t you at one point say you wished to come across it and make peaceful relations!” said Lia over the comms.

“That was a joke! Sigh Fine. If we don’t have to fire we won’t, but no promises. James?”

“As long as it doesn’t make any sudden moves.”

“Good, now ready. 3...2...1...Opening hatch.”