Twelve Days Later...

Hylli system, RSC-2W-0063 “Dara Tonn” In parking orbit over Steinhull

Sinn'Are'Sen sweeps his eyes across the visual displays in patient arcs. Displayed is the crashed Ovaettr space station. All that is visible on the surface is an uneven jagged pyramid of metal. Time has clearly allowed nature to reclaim most of the impact crater around the structure, filling in pulverized stone and dirt with grass and scrub land shrubbery. Scattered scraggly trees dotted the area.

“I don't see anything that would prevent us from landing right outside of the Ovaettr station, but I do have to ask how we get down to the ground in one piece. It's not like this hull has atmosphere breathing turbines...”

“This hull does posses limited counter gravity capability by manipulating the Inertial compensator. In addition all of my exterior surfaces are rated for stellar inner cauldron exploration, so the heat of reentry will prove to be no issue. Given the low thrust output – the technical term is delta V – of my ion thrusters a gentle re-entry is not an option. We could go for the aerobraking approach and just 'skip' off the atmosphere until we bleed off enough speed, but that will cost us in accuracy on the landing zone.”

“So what other option do we... ballistic re-entry and a suicide burn of sorts. Nose down and accelerate into the atmosphere until aerobraking kicks in, flip to a belly-first landing profile while we still have maneuvering, then dump everything into the counter grav to cut our velocity to zero and touchdown!”

“You are forgetting our horizontal velocity: the counter gravity might catch us at a fixed height above ground, but we'd be a surface skimming unguided projectile at terminal speeds. The idea is sound however. Translated to actual functional orbital mechnics... We would have to point 'nose backwards' and burn retrograde to reduce orbital velocity and thus the 'height' of our orbit. Aerobreaking would kick in when we got sufficiently low, so we would have to flip to a more aerodynamic profile to avoid picking up extra speed during the decent, then cut in the Couter gravity."

“That means well need to cut out mopst of the aerobraking if we want to land on a point, or we can accept a bit of scatter on landing and aerobreak for longer to reduce the strain on the inertial compensator. What do those flight profiles look like?”

“Hellish and dangerous respectively. The effectively pure vertical drop option its technically possible, but the line between success and highly complex suicide are within the margins of error of my calculations. And the stresses would be at the very limits of my internal systems when new. The chance of the inertial compensator failing at some point during such a maneuver, assuming the gentlest possible version of such a maneuver is used, is thirteen point one three repeating percent.”

“Yeah, no, let's forget that option then. How much scatter are we looking at on an aerobreak-heavy landing?”

“One hundred seventy five meters at most. The variation is elliptical, not circular, as most of the variance comes from the exact amount of horizontal velocity we bleed off.”

“Alright. So we can't try to land right next to the Ovaettr station ruins. I guess I'll have a bit of walking commute every shift. Oh well. Put up a target zone on the display and let's play with exactly where we want to land. Adjust it's size and shape as we move it around please, so that I can see what effects a change in landing zone will mean in terms of possible dispersion.”

“Easy enough to do. Anything in now in red on the display is an area we need to avoid on landing. I've put a two hundred and fifty meter exclusion zone around the Ovaettr station ruins themselves, and twenty five meter radius exclusion zones around the trees. Landing zone is an ellipsoid one hundred seventy five meters long and ninety meters wide.”

Sinn squints at the scattered red circles on the display.

“The trees are just close enough together to be annoying aren't they. We could use that clearing to the north, half a kilometer distant from the visible edge of the ruins. The terrain there looks fairly good...”

“Here, let me display the projected landing zone. It does look good but it we have to divert there aren't any other options close by. There's a cluster of three possible landing zones on the east side. We can target the central one and then divert left or right if we have to.”

“But there's that ridge line between those landing zones and the Ovaettr. I would have to climb it each way on my daily commute. A little exercise won't hurt but there is no reason to pile it on pointlessly. What about the west side of the Ovaettr station ruins? The terrain there is relatively flat if the topographic overlay can be believed.”

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“The west side side also has the highest density of trees. There are several clusters of possible landing zones, but no more then a pair of which can be utilized from a given reentry trajectory.”

“'One is none, two is one' eh? I can understand that. North, east, and west are all out which leaves the southern side of the Ovaettr station ruins. I do not see any landing zones, much less clusters of them, close to the Ovaettr station ruins. I can pull a kilometer walk commute each way if I have to, but that will limit the weight of supplies and tools that I can carry. I'm in decent shape, but I was never the strongest or toughest human in any of my classes. Revolver, knife, the pickax, and my armor...”

“Armor?”

“The 'leather vest' I have in my quarters. It's RSC issue and reinforced to provide some protection against environmental hazards and even token resistance to gunfire. Problem is the damn thing is almost ten kilograms in weight and the pickax is another four. My revolver and knife only add another kilo between he two of them. Given my medical history, if I recall correctly, I can carry eighteen kilos comfortably for any distance, and twenty nine kilograms for up to an hour before fatigue starts to set in.”

“So you could carry an extra three kilograms of material with ease, or twelve kilograms if you pushed yourself, in addition to your usual equipment. That would be enough for some small specimens but not many of them. If you left of the armored vest, then those numbers jump to thirteen and twenty two kilograms available, which is enough for a decent volume of samples.”

“I think we have to go with a southern landing zone, and I'm going to need to leave that armored vest behind for now. Perhaps I can requisition something better suited...”

“Speaking of, the monthly Republic Credits should be coming through over the hyperpulse comms. As a second-wave RSC scout you should receive seventy credits per month to expend on 'non essential' requisitions. That should help you to secure some additional equipment.”

“It would be a week and ten credits per item for delivery out here. I've forty credits in the bank, so I should have a hundred and ten to work with. I should be able to get some better armor with that, but I'd also like a respirator...”

“I'd rather you did not suffer needless injury due to leaving what little armor you do have behind Sinn. Take a look at the requisition forms and see what you can get. If you can get armor that weighs less we'll go with the southern landing zones. If not well settle for the western landing zones. “

“That sounds reasonable. Would you mind running preliminary calculations on both western and southern landing zones while I wrestle with the requisition forms? I get the feeling that I'll need to put in a solid case for an armor upgrade before I even land to begin my mission.”

“Calculating now. The communications console will have the requisite forms and access to your Republic citizen account. You'll need to input your account number and sundry of course.”

“Going to make a copy of that too, just in case?”

“Negative. I see no point in attempting to use your account or identity in the event of your death. There are simply too many routine security checks for such a deception to persist.”

Sinn rolls his eyes at Dara Tonn's deadpan delivery.

“That's... reassuring I guess.”

Sinn rotates around to the communications console and pulls up the RSC's equipment availability index to see what he could requisition. A powered hostile environmental suit was far outside his reach at eight thousand five hundred credits. Even hardened environmental suits with their carapace inserts were several hundred credits. Doing the math Sinn found that he could afford a respirator and an actual hostile environment vest with ten credits to spare if the forms were approved. This would cut his armor weight by four and a half kilograms once the extra weight for the respirator was added in.

“Hey Dara Tonn.”

“I'm still here.”

“Where else would you be? Don't answer that. I think I can get a hostile environment vest. Start planning for a southern landing zone.”

“How much would that reduce your burden by?”

“Five kilos, though the respirator claws half a kilo back.”

“Leaving you with seven and a half kilos, sixteen and a half at fatigue rate, to work with. Send the forms in and see what the response is and then we can go for landing.”

“Can do. Standard forms, standard responses. Think I'm going to try and Luck Bend to see if that helps any...”

“I will observe with interest.”

Sinn felt the first Luck Bend incantation fizzle, a rare occurrence, and tried again ten seconds later. The second time it succeeded and Sinn set about filling in the requisition from for a hostile environment vest. Feeling good about his stated reasoning of the weight reduction being a strong aid towards mission success Sinn switches over to the forms for the respirator and starts in on them. He gets halfway through before pausing to reconsider. Upon reflection Sinn erases the forms and starts over.

“That was interesting.”

“What was Dara Tonn?”

“The respirator requisition form you discarded had no obvious errors on it. I calculated that it had a seventy percent chance of being approved.”

“It felt 'off' to me. With Luck Bending active, that is a bit more then a gut feeling. Try your calculations onthe new form.”

“Ninety seven percent chance of approval. For both the hostile environment vest and the respirator. All because three words were changed. Interesting that Luck Bender works in that way.”

“Time to hit send and see what we get back... Double approval without the 'needs review' flag. Nice. We are go for a southern landing zone. Dara Tonn, Pick the best one and refine a course for it. I'm going to rest up before we begin the maneuver.”

“I'll let you know when I need you in the cockpit. You are going to want to be strapped in for this one.”