The Eternal Guardian

"ALERT! ALERT!"

"..."

Zuman slowly roused himself into consciousness after hearing the blaring alarm. The last thing he remembered was a blinding light that engulfed his world before he lost consciousness. Blinking away the blasting headache in his head, his bleary eyes focused slowly on his surroundings. Looking around, he realize that he's still on the Research Habitat Section.

"ALERT! ALERT! Habitat Section is approaching a massive celestial body! Contact with Alfrun Station Main Processor has been lost!"

While Zuman was still adjusting himself to the situation, the sudden announcement by AI jolted him forcefully awake.

(Wait. Massive celestial body? What the hell happened here? Where the hell are we?)

While pondering this, Zuman climbs to his feet and take a stock of the situation.

"AI. Give me a status update!"

"Good day Professor. We are currently on a collision course towards a massive celestial body. Contact with Alfrun Station has been lost. Distress signal has been transmitted on all channels and frequencies, but we have received neither response nor reply."

"Give me a scan of the celestial body. Visual and matter scan."

"Affirmative Professor."

(Good thing I asked General Gustav for that command authority.)

A moment later.

"Professor, bringing up visual and matter scan results on the main screen."

The main screen came to life, showing him the image of a planet. From the scan details, the size seems to be roughly one and a half (1 & ½) that of Earth.

Zuman was struck speechless for a moment.

"What the hell! That's not just a celestial body! That's a friggin planet isn't it?!" O_O

He can be forgiven for this outburst. When he initially heard the term massive celestial body, he was under the impression that it was an abnormally large asteroid or meteoroid. A planet didn't figure into his initial calculations at all."

"The celestial body in question has not been registered under any records, as such there is no classification of it as a planet or anything else previously."

Zuman was again struck speechless by the AI's retort.

( The hell? Did I just get sassed by the AI?)

"Fine, so you're saying you didn't recognize it as a planet because no one ever explored it before. Which means it's a new planet. WAIT!!!! I JUST DISCOVERED A NEW PLANET????"

" Yes professor. Since you are the only human aboard this Habitat Section, the discovery rights does fall to you. And the surrounding star system does not conform to any star maps charted on record. This is essentially uncharted space."

"ALERT! ALERT! Approaching the planet on a collision course."

The AI blasted out the announcement again.

"AI, what is our distance from the planet?"

"We are 100000km from the Planet sir. At this distance, the gravitational pull is already exerting their effect on us and we are being slowly pulled in."

"Do we have enough energy to initiate thrusters to escape?"

"No sir, currently, there is not enough energy available for the thrusters to push us out into stable orbit."

That stumped Zuman for a moment. Then he thought of the alternative.

"Fine. Do we have enough energy to ensure a stable landing? I don't need a smooth landing, I need a landing where the Habitat survive. Do we have enough for that?"

The urgency accidentally made him repeat the question.

After a short moment.

"It is calculated that if we reserve the thrusters to counter balance the pull at regular intervals, we can adjust our velocity of impact. Station Shields are still functional, therefore we can survive high speed emergency landing."

Zuman's face blanched at that. High Speed Emergency Landing. That is not something one consciously chooses to undergo. Then again, it's not like he has much of a choice in it now.

Gritting his teeth, he gave the AI his acknowledgement.

"Do it. Also, have you managed to do a scan of the planet's environment? Most important, the temperature, water content, gravity strength and air breathability."

"Sir, the air is breathable with the oxygen content being 2% higher than Earth's and Nitrogen having 2% less. Average temperature is slightly higher than Earth, at 19°C. At rough calculation, gravity is around 1.5G to 2G, still within tolerance of the average human. There are 7 continents detected from the scans. The ocean makes up roughly 60% of the planet area. We have detected 3 smaller celestial bodies currently orbiting the planet similar to our moon."

(So I can temporarily live there huh.)

"Thank you then. You can begin the landing at your discretion."

"Affirmative Professor. Thrusters will fire at regular interval to ensure our re-entry velocity is within safe tolerance."

"AI, give me a visual atlas view of the planet."

"Working…. On main screen now."

Looking at the main screen, Zuman chose the southern continent, specifically, at the area where it seems to be it seems to connect the massive continent. The chosen continent looks weirdly like an uneven horizontal hourglass, and the place he chose would be the 'waist' of that hourglass.

"AI, please angle our re-entry approach so that our projected landing area is somewhere around that area. Please choose a mountain, since higher means less time for gravity to accelerate us. Not too high mind, maybe somewhere in the middle."

"Affirmative sir. Thrusters firing now to correct our approach angle. Sir, please find a secure location to secure yourself in."

"Alright."

Saying that, Zuman hurriedly went to the research lab control room and buckled himself in one of the chairs there. He can feel the Habitat shaking as the thrusters attempt to realign it.

If one were to view it from the outside, one would see a big rectangular object moving towards the planet. The object would at regular intervals, eject plasma trails, evidence of the thrusters doing their job. When the rectangular object reached the atmosphere, it is already positioned 'upwards' correctly. Also, due to limited resources, the AI attempted to compensate by adjusting the angle so that the Habitat will the atmosphere at an angle instead of directly 'downwards'. This is so that they can use atmospheric drag as a natural way to dissipate the velocity.

Think of a ball and a needle. Instead of the needle directly piercing the ball and exploding it (in this case, the exploding one would be the Habitat), you grab the needle, then gently float it around the ball at an angle before touching ball with the needle point lying at an angle away from the ball. The visualization is similar, if only at an elementary level.

From the ground, one would see a big red glow coming from the horizon. Then this glow would down fly in the sky, followed by loud booms, as the object would be travelling in supersonic speed. One could be forgiven to think that it is the end of the world. After all, to see a 5km wide burning object flying so fast in the sky, it is as if the sun has fallen from the sky.

As the Habitat flew in the sky, the AI kept firing thrusters at an angle whenever required so that their approach angle would take the most advantage of air drag, allowing them to reduce velocity in an economical way. After all, thinking about it cynically, there's no one that will complain to the government about the noise. So they can take all the time they need to ensure safety.

Zuman was in his chair, patiently enduring the multiple G's due to the high speed. It is a good thing that all the furniture, especially beds and chairs are designed with built in shock mitigators as part of the Safety Code Regulations. While there are shock mitigators, that doesn't mean it eliminates the multiple G pressure totally, only alleviate it enough that person using it would at worse suffer a splitting headache all the way, at best feel a slight dizziness. Zuman is currently somewhere in between, though it is getting better as they keep on losing speed.

"Professor, we are reaching the target landing site soon. Based on calculations, we will hit the mountainside soon."

"Alright. Just how big is this mountain range?"

"The mountain range span around 50km. We are hitting it at the outskirts, one of the lower mountains."

"Noted."

"Impact in 15 minutes professor."

"Thanks for the heads up."

And so Zuman waited.

The Habitat sped across the sky. The animals in nearby area looked up into the sky only to see a red glow galloping in the sky before they ran away in fear.

"Thrusters firing now on final approach."

The AI warned him.

As the mountain starts coming into view at breakneck speed, the thrusters starts firing in reverse so that the crash velocity won't result in them being broken to pieces, even with shields on. From the outside, it's as if the rectangular object is firing at the mountain, an illusion to be sure since these are just plasma trails from the thrusters.

"IMPACT!"

With a loud bang, the Habitat crashed in to the mountain. The land in 50km radius shakes strongly from the impact, as if it was a volcano eruption. And it triggered a massive landslide in the surrounding area due to the momentum. After all, a 5km area crashing is no joke, even at non-catastrophic speed.

-

Zuman was dazed from the impact.

"Professor, are you okay?"

The AI inquired of him, after noticing Zuman was dazed and not moving.

"Give me a few minutes. That was some rough landing huh."

"Yes professor, I'm sure that would qualify as a rough landing at the least."

(Is it just me or is the AI sassing me again?)

Looking around him, Zuman finally noticed the chaos and destruction. There is at least 1 broken monitor for every 3 monitors. The lights are working, but they are flickering at intervals.

"Do we have a method of replenishing energy supplies?"

Zuman inquired of the AI.

"Solar energy collectors are working, but they are not efficient enough to power the whole Habitat."

The AI replied to him.

"How about powering only certain portions of it? Specifically, the portions I will be using as my living area? I will probably take this lab and the corridors leading to the exit."

"In that case, the solar energy collectors would suffice and we would even have the chance to replenish the energy reservoirs."

"Alright. We'll do it that way then."

After that, Zuman started walking around so that he can take stock of his situation.

(I am lost in uncharted space, crashlanded on an unknown planet. What do I do now? Waiting for other humans would take time. Survival is definitely the first priority.)

-

And so begins Zuman's early days on the unknown planet.