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Frackin' Universe is an awesome, in-depth modification for Starbound that adds all new depth into the game. I highly encourage you, reader, to play the game with or without the mod, however you choose.

Chapter 3: Chiron Wake II (Part 1)

Murian awoke to the rumble of re-entry. Looking out the front window of the cockpit, she saw the stars begin to diminish through a haze of red-hot atmosphere. She turned her head to where Morton sat, to see him resting peacefully in spite of the turbulence. How does he sleep through reentry?

She turned back to the front, where her fingers moved lazily across the interface before her. She tapped a small caricature of a planet, which grew to fill the cockpit window. After a few more offhand motions that caricature magnified to a specific point; a portion of the surface, a dotted line, and a dot labeled 'PSS Fair Day' slowly moving along it.(1) Details of the planet's conditions were listed beside it, stating that it was a lush terrestrial world with nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere.

"S.A.I.L.," Murian asked, "Are there actually any current settlements on this world?"

"There are no currently inhabited settlements on this planet." (2) came the automatic reply. "However, there are abandoned settlements present, as well as a discontinued archeological site, formerly registered with the Terrene Archeological Corps." (3)

"Really, now?" she mused for a moment, "Can the ship land at the archeological site?"

"Negative" S.A.I.L. said. "The site shows signs of extensive overgrowth, but there are several viable landing zones nearby. They will appear on the screen momentarily." After a short moment, the images on the cockpit shifted to a square blue map of one region. In the center was a small incomplete archway icon, labeled 'Archeological site #334165'. Around the designated ruin were several highlighted areas, each labeled a number '1' through '6'.

Scrutinizing the screen for a moment, Murian leaned forward and pointed. "Site two, can you land us there?" she asked.

"Affirmative, adjusting course…" S.A.I.L. said. The map that formerly covered the windscreen of the cockpit shrunk to a small corner to the side.

By now, the pink-red glow of reentry had begun to subside into the relative clarity of the planet's atmosphere. Near the bottom of the cockpit, she could see the distant green forests and plains below, slowly rising to meet them as the ship glided to its destination. After a while, Murian could recognize individual trees in greater and greater detail.

Eventually, the ravaged shuttle slowed to a tilted hover (4), descending below the trees. Once it was within a meter of touching down, it dropped gracelessly to its side, settling into the ground at an angle. After a second, S.A.I.L.'s synthetic voice spoke again.

"Landing Complete. This ship may not be capable of taking off again without repair."

"That should be fine for now." Murian said, turning to see Morton stirring in his chair.

"Is everything alright? Are we hit?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"No, we just touched down on the surface." She told him.

"That was a landing?" he asked incredulously.

Murian looked back to the screen, before fiddling with her seatbelt. "You saw the ship, Morton, not to mention us going FTL in atmosphere." The straps retreated into their alcoves. "It's a miracle we even made re-entry." She leaned over to pick up the longsword; it had clattered to the floor when the shuttle 'landed'.

Sword in hand, she turned to face Morton, who was now unbuckling himself from his own chair. "Hold up," she stopped him, "I need to check your head wound. Let me get the first aid kit."

After changing out the bandages around Morton's head, she brought out another pair of pre-packaged meals. They ate in the cockpit as Murian pulled up the map on the wind-screen. "Alright, so we're currently landed in a small group of settlements, specifically, site two." she said between bites, pointing to the area on the map. "The two closest areas of civilization, both abandoned by the way, are a mine," she pointed out one dot on the map, "and an old PArCorps site here."(5) Her finger moved across the screen to the virtual arch in the center. "Now I'm thinking we should hit the mine for raw materials to try to fix the ship, or at least get comms up again. What are your thoughts?" she turned to Morton, who had an eyebrow raised as he studied the map.

"I'm actually thinking we should investigate the ruin first." He said. "If that's an old PArCorps site, we might find more intact supplies that might be left over, possibly an installation, or comms prefab." He said as he squinted at the map. "Depending on the site, we could find something useful in the ruins themselves." (6)

"Hmm, good point." She conceded. "We should hit the mine after, though."

"Yeah, we can do that." He nodded, before he perked up, "Oh, you got your AV's, right?" (7)

"Of course I did." She answered, stepping over to the doorway of the cabin. "They're required for service. C'mon, let's get some meals for the road."

They stepped into the main cabin, which now sat at an angle. On the ceiling, one of the lights was flickering, bathing the broad room in a nauseous off-white. The two walked across, and each taken a few more of the pre-packaged meals in hand, before making their way to the shuttle's cargo door. "S.A.I.L., can you open the door?" She asked.

"Affirmative Murian, I will assist in your navigation to the archeological site." came the synthetic response.

Several mechanisms within the door creaked and clunked into place, and there was a sharp hiss as the ship's atmosphere equalized with the one outside. As the hiss faded, and the door began to slide open with a grinding screech.

As it opened, Murian and Morton covered their eyes as they were bathed in dusty golden sunlight. As they opened their eyes, they simply stared.

Brown-trunked trees rose from the grass, blue-green leaves growing from their branches. The grass itself lightly rippled, and occasionally a flower peeked between the blades. Beams of morning sunlight were made visible by the mist in the clearing, and shown off the dewdrops in the grass like a million tiny gems. The calls of a handful of birds skipped out over the clearing, their calls gradually bringing the pair from their stunned stupor.

Murian struggled to find words. "The…I…uh…" she breathed, her eyes darting about.

"Sweet mercy…" Morton muttered.

Eventually, he remembered why they were there again, and shook his head. "C'mon." They then stepped out of the shuttle. The ground was soft and porous.

"Murian," a small voice spoke from her badge spoke aloud, "The archeological site is orbitally (8) north-east of your position."

"Uhh, right then." She reoriented after making a few small gestures and equations to herself. "Let's head out. We can talk along the way."

As they turned to leave, Morton glanced back at their ship. Its otherwise copper-red and grey hull was adorned with scratches, pockmarks, and ripples in the outer plating. The majority of its front was scoured clean of paint, and the dull metal creaked and steamed in the mist.

"'Miracle we landed' indeed." He remarked.

Footnotes

(1): Despite possessing open-point teleportation technology, most Protectorate shuttlecraft are built to be able to land on planets, usually in the case of a non-functioning teleporter, or exceptional situations.

(2): Many planets within even the most populous areas of known space aren't colonized to this day, and boom-town settlements often occur on worlds rich in exotic ores or containing archeological value.

(3): The Terrene Protectorate Archeological Corps, currently headed by the former Grand Protector Esther Bright, is an organization dedicated to the study of the various ancient empires through the study of their ruins and artifacts. Due to the growing instability with the Miniknog Regime, they had lost much of their funding in lieu of keeping the Protectorate Military Forces in a state of readiness.

(4): Protectorate shuttlecraft, and indeed many designs of shuttlecraft, use series of micro-thrusters to maintain hover in gravity. Damage to these in such extensive manner as to leave the ship unable to completely compensate for a tilt can be extremely precarious for the shuttle and its occupants, as it risks spinning out of control and crashing.

(5): PArCorps stands for Protectorate Archeological Corps.

(6): If the ruins belong to either the Ancients, or the Ancient and Powerful RAMpire, the ruins tend to be fairly advanced, often even surpassing Protectorate technology in some regard or another. Often they also tend to be guarded if they are especially valuable.

(7): Adaptive Vaccinations (AVs) are the predominant reason why most interstellar endeavors aren't hamstrung by pathogens of one form or another. The Terrene Protectorate requires that protectors receive these in order to actually be recruited. They were one of the earlier, more successful, efforts to re-create floran greenfinger biotechnology, and as such, are very common, even among lesser states.

(8): As not all travelers seem to pack compasses, nor may they always have a planetary surface map available, "orbital" cardinal directions have come into use as a crude form of navigation with a single guideline: The local star rises in the 'east' and sets in the 'west'. Naturally, this only really works for single star systems, and non-tidally-locked worlds.