The massive metal feet of Franken, Axton’s War Suit, clanked upon the mix of reinforced concrete and metal plating that covered the approach to the drop pods. Behind him and his Suit, Thomas and his own Suit were scuttling rather slowly, also making its way towards the same drop pod. The queue that led up to the pods was steadily decreasing in length, and Axton had the pleasure, or perhaps displeasure, of watching each newbie pilot learn how to make sure that the pod wouldn’t toss them around before, during and after its descent.

Eventually, it was Axton’s turn to stuff his Suit into one of the pods, and thankfully it appeared as though there was enough room for Thomas’ Spider-Can as well. There would be little to no room left after that, though, so Axton began to formulate a course of action that would be taken as soon as the drop pod opened up again once it had landed on the planet below.

As Franken squeezed into the drop pod, a metal clamp on the ceiling of the pod began to move, shifting over to Franken and using a powerful magnetic clamp to keep the machine from being ragdolled once the nastiness of physics took over. The magnetic clamp was stronger than Axton had anticipated and was able to actually lift Franken off of the floor and pull it over to another place.

Apparently there was too much unused room, and therefore the clamp and its other components forced Franken into another position before setting it and its pilot down and holding them in place. For safety’s sake, Axton took the initiative to manually lock Franken’s limbs in place from within the cockpit. This was to make sure that those limbs didn’t end up flailing around while the drop pod made its descent and landing, as such things would undoubtably be an issue if it wasn’t addressed ahead of time.

Axton watched through the cameras that gave his cockpit a full, near-perfect spherical view of everything from all directions as Spider-Can scuttled into the pod, only to be picked up by another mobile clamp and repositioned like all the other War Suits had been. He had to admit that it was rather humorous to watch that War Suit, which was larger than its actual weight suggested it would need to be, be lifted up off the floor and then set down just a few inches closer to the other Suits than it had been.

Of course, Thomas had other ways to decrease the overall area that the Suit’s legs occupied, but he and Axton had agreed ahead of time that Spider-Can should have its legs splayed out just a bit more than was needed. After all, the less space there was for other Suits in this pod, the fewer immediate threats there would be upon getting planetside. What better way to secretly and legally stack the odds in your favor in such a situation than by taking up more space than was needed?

Eventually the last War Suit was stuffed into the drop pod and locked in place. The doors to the pod closed shut and then locked themselves, and soon thereafter a hissing noise began to resound in the pod. Axton Checked the external environment sensors on his dashboard, and while he had expected that the hissing was from air being forced into or out of the pod, he was not prepared for what the sensors showed was actually happening.

He had expected that the air content would either reach all zeros or would remain mostly the same save for a pressure buildup. What he did not expect was that some compounds in the air were being drained away, while other were being vented in to replace them. Axton looked at the sensors with growing concern as the Oxygen content in the dop steadily climber higher. If much more was put in, then there was a good chance that the slightest spark would cause the pod to explode from the inside.

The content of the air in the pod eventually stabilized, and Axton’s worry seemed to be unfounded as more elements were added in to replace the ones that had been removed. The sensors eventually read that the composition of the air was now much better suited to avoid the transfer of heat from the outside to the things inside the pod.

Likewise, his sensors read that some more complex molecules had been added. If his memory served him right, then these chemicals would act as a sort of aerosolized passive fire retardant, though there would need to be an active fire for them to even begin to work their magic.

As he watched the air composition fluctuate and then go steady, Axton heard a wide-band message over the passive communication system inside Franken. The message was simple and continuous, being nothing more than a countdown that drew ever closer to zero.

Axton counted down along with the message inside his head, bracing himself for what he expected would be akin to riding one of those old amusement park rides. The countdown finally reached zero, and despite bracing himself for what was to come, it turned out that Axton was not fully prepared for the drop.

His gut felt like it had begun to lift itself upwards for a while before settling again as the dop reached the hallway mark between the station and the furthest reaches of the planet’s atmosphere. Axton sighed as his body settled. That was going to be the worst of it, right?

Nope!

As the pod entered the atmosphere, the machine began to shake. The tremors were slow at first, essentially feeling like some light turbulence, but this was quickly replaced by an ever more intense rattling that shook the pod to its core, along with all the War Suits and pilots within it.

Eventually the shaking became so intense that even though the War Suits had been locked in place with their feet/ lower limits forced to make full contact with the floor they began to bounce slightly off of the floor as if they were doing minor jumps of their own volition. When the pod reached the point where it was just a third of the way between the outer atmosphere and the surface, the tremors became so intense that the arms of the other War Suits began to shake and gradually flail about on their own.

Axton and Thomas had, of course, planned ahead and locked their Suits into a near immobile position. While Franken stood nearly stock still despite the repeated bounces off the floor, its weapons were unable to cause any damage to the pod or those withing. Spider-Can, on the other hand, had only two gun turrets instead of arms and a few oversized spider/ crab-like legs with metal-shearing pincers at their ends.

If the shuddering got too intense, there would normally have been the potential for the guns to misfire or the pincers to penetrate the floor of the pod. But, of course, Thomas had the common sense needed to lock those things in a certain set of positions, which lowered the chance of a misfire by quite a great deal and lowered the odds of Spider-Can’s ‘feet’ penetrating the floor.

Whether or now Spider-Can and Franken could avoid any damage from the less prepared people and their Suits during and after the descent, though, was something neither of them knew the chances of. The shaking only grew more intense, but soon that shaking was the least of their worries.

The appointed height above the ground had been reached, and the pod activated its thrusters and inertial dampeners, which caused the Suits and their pilots to make one last major lurch, which saw Spider-Can’s ‘feet’ go through the metal beneath them while other Suits slightly or drastically dented to floor with their weight.

Axton shot a glace over to Thomas through the communication systems and Thomas returned it. The two nodded at each other and steeled themselves for another massive jolt. The counter that displayed their altitude was dropping, and the pair only increased their tension as it neared zero.

They would have only a few short minutes to clear the pod and make a run for… somewhere. Anywhere would be fine so long as nobody could catch them in time for the Battle Royale to finally begin. They would have, at most, a few minutes, but all is fair in love, war, and entertainment, so whether or not they actually had a full 10 minutes or just a few second was a thought that gave them no small amount of concern.