The view from the window was absolutely mesmerizing- All those stars, a glimpse of Kovomaka as they sped away from it- And kept Kazuki busy for a whole two minutes before she got bored. The view didn’t change at a very quick rate, really.
She looked around, and saw the classmates who weren’t currently attempting to control a spaceship in the cockpit strapped to their seats as well. At a lack of better things to do, she moved herself into a slightly uncomfortable position and grabbed the papers torn from the ship’s manual.
Kazuki wasn’t the most technically talented of people, and as she carefully read the pages and studied the detailed drawings of which parts fitted where and how, she realized she would probably need Onigiri’s and probably Ramen’s help at fitting the weapons- Unfortunately. Asking for help wasn’t something she did very often.
She read on, taking occasional breaks to look around at her classmates and checking for any signs of danger- Any unexpected alarms, flashing red lights, the like. You never knew with those guys in the cockpit, flying this thing.
After an hour or so, she’d gotten to what looked like the last page of the Upgrades chapter (Z-Ray Pistols), which was odd because she was only halfway trough the wad of paper. She skipped a couple of pages and was mentally assaulted by a bunch of technical terms and vibrant diagrams of coloured buttons. What she did manage to gleam from text, is that all of this had to do with initiating the landing sequence.
…Which meant Kiento had no idea how to do that right now.
An emotionless and robotic voice lingered from the cockpit, carrying a dreadful sentence. Warning; Planet collision imminent, please activate landing sequence or change course.
Oh
Shit.
The one thing going trough her mind was to unbuckle her seatbelts and get over to the cockpit, with the landing manual. Then she realized it was stupid, because they didn’t exactly have the time to carefully read the whole chapter. Even if it had been a rational thing to do, she couldn’t have. She was frozen in her seat, her nails clawing at the fabric. Kazuki did not like the idea of a crash landing.
‘We are now coming in for landing, please fasten your seatbelts and keep your chair upright.’ Kiento’s voice said over the ship’s intercom. ‘This will be a rough landing, so if we don’t make it, I am truly sorry.’ Oh, yeah, I feel so much better now. You stink, Kiento.
Main Engine; Offline. Speed rapidly decreasing, The robotic voice of the ship said, still in the same matter-of-fact manner. The silent and smooth glide trough the vacuum changed into a sudden hint of vibration, and soon turned into violent turbulence as they descended into Erd’s atmosphere.
Kazuki held onto her chair for dear life, even though she knew it wouldn’t be much of a help. She knew hey were getting close to the surface now, as she heard the patter of sand against the rocket’s hull. The ship was starting to fly at a more horizontal angle, which she guessed was a good thing. She hadn’t seen anything about retractable wheels in the Upgrades chapter, but they could be a basic component. She’d never heard of an official horizontal landing strip on Erd tho-
And then the rocket hit the surface of the floating continent, sending a teeth-clattering shock trough Kazuki and probably everyone else aboard the ship along with some uncomfortable strains where the seatbelts had held them tied to their seats. They plowed trough sand, surprisingly enough not digging themselves in, and eventually came to halt. Kazuki finally let go of her breath, and shakily took in some new ones.
‘We’ve had a successful landing! Welcome to Erd, and thank you for flying with Rabbit Spaceways!’ Kiento’s voice rang out from the intercom again.
Oh, you little-
Kazuki’s thoughs were interrupted by Ramen, who was running past all the seats towards the door. As an Earth mage, of course he’d be happy to come to Erd.
Kazuki unbuckled as well, and stood up. Her legs were still bit wobbly- Both from the near-disaster with the rocket and the sudden increase in gravity- but she attempted to shake it off with some level of dignity and followed Ramen outside.
Upon leaving the rocket, Kazuki was met with warm breeze and bright sunlight, more then enough to make her squint her eyes. Hey, lots of warmth and sunshine? She thought she could like it here.
‘Now!’ Ramen shouted, pointing his finger in what seemed like a random direction to Kazuki. ‘First I have some friends to say hi to, and then, supplies.’ He finished. Kazuki rolled her eyes. ‘Shouldn’t supplies be the top priority on that list? Seeing as without it, we, y’know, can’t survive?’
A dreaded though appeared to her at that moment. ‘Hold up. How are we going to get the money to pay for supplies, rocket fuel and the upgrades? I’m sure Mr. Kalamari thought of that.’ She went back into the rocket, brutally obstructing the rest of her classmates who were getting out to bathe in the Erden heat as well, to search trough every locker, cupboard and glove box. There had to be a blank cheque, a credit card, a bundle of cash stashed somewhere. Where else would they get their income from?