The commander could not count how many times he had heard this phrase ever since the first casualty. “Clara! what happened?” he shouted.

Upon a screen a female figure appeared: “The blast hit us at the exact moment of the jump. engines sustained heavy damage.”

“What about the jump?”

“We are slowing down with the last fuel. Due to the engine's destruction no new fuel is available.”

Overlooking the panic the commander pondered. Using up the last energy to get out of a hyperspace jump would leave them stranded. The odds of finding a habitable planet where they landed were slim. if one big enough to hold the entire colonyship.

He decided “how much of that fuel would be needed to keep us spaced?”

“About 70%” Clara noted.

Suddenly a screen popped up showing a man who looked like he could be a mercenary. -”Rainor here. We lost Hanz in the hangar bay. poor bugger got crushed while he was sleeping in his mech.”-

a big loss for the commander. “Clara use 50% of the remaining fuel to ease us out of the jump. Once the speed is slow enough where the hull can take a hit from a meteor, use that to slow down more.”

-“Risky move commander. tell me how screwed are we?”- Rainor chimed in while still on call

The commander went straight to business “Rainor are you piloting the rainmaker and what is your position?  Are you near the impact site?”

-“Close, according to Clara I'm just in the deck below. also, Bertha called dibs on Hanz's flamethrower.”-

 The commander sighed, leave it to these guys to make jokes like that. “where is she?”

-“Up above trying to seal the breach. using said flamethrower, mate.”-

Another screen popped up on the commander's console showing a tanned woman. her hair was tied together making it not quite a ponytail. But had her hair looking more like a fuse on a bomb. -“Bertha reporting as busy here.”- she said.

Clara's voice came over the intercom “MINOR IMPACT IMMINENT!”

*BANG*

The massive spaceship had hit a meteor to slow its speed down after the shake the commander returned his attention to the console “Bertha what's the situation in the engine room?”

 -“Looks like it was a nice blast, the place is completely fubar sir. me and Jack are using pieces of the broken engine to seal the breach using Hanz's old flamethrower as a blowtorch. sucks how he died but I'm keeping this by the way.”-

“Keep sealing and use whatever you can. pilots dismissed.”

The screens vanished from the console and in between the shakes from meteor impacts. The commander had time to consider the situation. He had just managed to escape raiders trying to destroy his colonizer ship for resources. On board were 5 no 4 pilots and 1490 crewmembers of which 24% had family among the remaining 4586 colonizers and researchers. “Clara, how are we doing?” He asked.

Clara, the pride AI of the advanced programs federation, a system designed to respond to as many wants, needs and situations as possible. of course, his ship just had to hit one that they didn't foresee. “Several sensors in the engine room are down. connection to environmental controls is down and the long-distance comms are damaged by our method of slowing down.”

“Resources?”

“90% secured. We lost some engines and a few materials. the death toll so far is 406.”

The commander hated the number already and accidents still happened during the shakes “How did Hanz die?”

“Crushed by a beam. Most of our pilots were relaxing in the hangar. During the blast a beam got loose and crushed him in his mech destroying him and part of the interior. The others quickly used their own mechs to secure the area.”

The commander hated losing a pilot. They were difficult to find and train. 

“Planetary gravity detected, the planet early scans indicate it is habitable.”

“At least the xenobiologists will be happy. What are my options Clara?” 

“Our best option is a crash landing using the remaining fuel to slow our descent”

“Estimated casualties?”

“Including so far. about 15 % of our total population.”

“Proceed and send out an alert for the crash.” The commander felt he had stressed far more in the past half hour than in the rest of his 856-year lifespan. Even with every anti-aging supplement these years, age was catching up. with the situation before him it looked like he would not beat the recorded record of 906. he'd be surprised if he'd even survive today. 

*** 

Meanwhile in the engine room Jack and Bertha were using their mechs to seal the hole in the back "love this thing" said Bertha using a flamethrower set as a blowtorch on the wrist of her mech. Blast was the name of her mech, a bulky heavily armored frame with a cartoon explosion painted on the front that advertised her biggest passion, or rather obsession to everyone. "All sealed, it'll hold while Clara and the commander find a solution."

Surrounding her were remnants of fuel converting machinery and engines originally powering the main thrusters of the ship. what was once a giant room filled with these machines was now reduced to rubble by a chain-reactions of explosions.

"I hope they find a solution. because I can't think of one here." The voice came from a less armored model of mech holding 2 massive blades on its back. He walked in through the hangar door leading to other engine rooms. The voice belonged to Jack. A lean looking man sporting a short beard and sunglasses hiding his shifty eyes. He was piloting his mech Knives. “There is no engine left for the main thrusters.”

“Does that mean we're adrift?” an engineer wearing an oxygen mask asked from an upper catwalk.

 as he asked Clara's voice came on over the speakers “PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY LANDING t-minus 20 minutes.”

Jack chuckled, “Does that answer your question?” he shouted as the man ran for a door to search for a secure seat to strap in for the crash. 

Blast tapped knives on the shoulder “we better make haste down to the hangar bay so we can strap our mechs in.”

While they stepped on the industrial elevator connecting the 2 floors, Jack noted “20 minutes till crash and we got a 5-minute elevator ride.... fun. “

The civilian deck was in a frenzy. people frantically strapping themselves or their children in emergency seats, people searching for free seats among them was one man assisting whoever he could. 

“Thanks Sniper” said a woman still shaken but now that she was strapped into a secure seat, she felt a little bit calmer. 

Sniper stood up and rushed towards the hallway as Clara popped up in his helmet screen. “Incoming call from Jack” she said. 

“Accept.”

Jack's image popped onto the screen -“so Bertha and I are having a tense elevator ride. How's your day?”-

“You seem convinced we'll all survive this” Sniper stated as he turned a corner. 

Jack looked surprised -“I'm not worried. Are you running? Where are you headed?”-

“Environmental controls”

-“why?”-

“Because Clara lost connection to them and if the artificial gravity is still online as we land. it's liable to keep rising in pressure and crush any survivor of the crash.”

 A small moment of silence from Jack followed until he said “well I'll let you save who's left of us then.”

“Who's left of us?” Sniper asked. 

“Oh yeah.” Jack responded “Hanz is dead.” Jack explained what happened before logging off. 

Suddenly sniper felt slightly lighter. as he held onto a nearby emergency seat Clara popped up “Sniper the artificial gravity is slowly shutting down.”

“HOW?”

 a screen popped up this message came from a PDA. a slightly aged looking man showed up “Don't worry I got the gravity controls.”

“And you are?” Sniper asked.

“My name's Edward. and the controls are down so the gravity will start adjusting to the planet.”

 “Good job. Now secure yourself for the crash” Edward had a pained expression which caused Sniper to wonder. “What's wrong?”

 The man sighed and said, “Well, someone got lazy in this station and did not secure his tools properly. my leg is hit and the nearest secure seat is…”

“I can get there and carry…”

“Don't bother!” Edward shouted. The man took a deep breath to calm his nerves “in case you hadn't noticed I'm aging normally. I stopped all treatment 50 years ago.”

 “You planned on dying.”

“last thing I wanted to do was get the colonists to their new home. we're here I guess.” 

Sniper was silent as Edward talked about what he had seen and done in his life until a last quake of the ship bashed him against a wall and his body disappeared from view and Clara confirmed he was gone.

 Sniper had strapped himself in a free seat and asked Clara. “Would I have made it there?”

“The probability was highly unlikely.”

 “No matter how long we live, no matter how many times I see it happen. It always sucks to see someone die like that.” 

“didn't seem that way about Hanz though”

 “Clara you know Hanz. he would've never forgiven them if they didn't keep their joking attitudes. He loved that. we'll mourn after we survive this and if not.... we'll just meet up at whatever bar the afterlife has.”  

***

*10 minutes till crash* 

Clara informed the commander that she found a spot to land and would try to move towards it. Meanwhile Bertha and Jack got off the elevator to secure their mechs in the hangar bay. 

“I was afraid you wouldn't make it” said Rainor, his mech already secured in its repair station. Rainor's mech had the same frame as Bertha's but where hers had some form of grenade launcher. rainor's rainmaker had a sized up minigun attached. 

“No, you weren't” Bertha joked back, her mech finally secure, they braced for impact. Jack noticed his repair station was bent due to the beam. The other 5 had empty frames stored and one other had sniper's mech watchtower so he secured himself in a mechdropper. a dropship designed for dropping mechs onto the field.

“Think that will work?” rainor commented

Jack responded “I sure hope it does.”

*5 minutes till crash* 

The ship had entered the planet and crossed several locations. With the remaining fuel it steered itself towards a spot that looked like desert; however it could not completely turn towards it and was headed for a mountain range. When it hit the ground, it had just missed the mountain range and landed in a savanna nearby skidding over the ground. throwing around all kinds of dirt and debris until it finally came to a halt. 

*Crash landed* 

***

In the command center people didn't have much time to settle. some immediately sprung up to those who were hurt from loose items. *sigh* The commander felt like he had just faced God and won. but he still had his job to do. “Clara. give me the total losses so far.”

 Clara displayed a screen showing the requested numbers 

-729 confirmed dead 

-644 heavily wounded 

-1054 light wounds 

- all main engines destroyed 

- 10 canisters of emergency oxygen lost 

- Mech designation Hellfire interior destroyed 

- Mech designation Watchtower damaged... 

The list went on for a bit. as the commander went over the list he continued. “Initial scans of the planet we landed on?”

 “Initial scans indicate a similarity to the origin planet earth. oxygen, plant life and human life.”

 That last note struck the commander as odd. Usually when they found life resembling humans on an unknown planet, Clara would designate it as humanoid lifeforms. yet now she just said human life. “You mean humanoid life? Did the crash damage your database?”

the image of Clara shook her head and said “the databases are secure and the life sign detected resembles more than 97% similar to a regular human female.”

 the commander was stunned. the closest alien lifeform they had found to humans was around 70%.

“Not to add to the strangeness commander but it is approaching our ship.”