Welcome to the 113th Drabble contest. 17 stories have thudded onto the ground and now await your inspection.
My heartiest congratulations to someone we all know and love, the winner of last week's Drabble Contest, ME!. I came up with this week's topic, "Planetfall".
Above me is a bunch of options in a poll. It's a multiple choice poll but please limit yourself to only three votes. The results of the poll will be announced on Monday morning. Not only will the winner receive a stylish imaginary toilet paper crown, they will win the honour of deciding next week's topic.
Voting is free to everybody. But here's a warning to the contestants. DON'T VOTE FOR YOURSELVES! Anyone caught voting for themselves will have a planet fall on them.
01 - Erik Marcaigh - The Gravity Well that Never Runs Dry
He entered low orbit in the upper atmosphere. To fight gravity's effect, the computer had to compensate with its thrusters so the Anaconda wouldn't get pulled down.
Erik stood up, walked over to DocStone, and untied him. "Bring him back to life."
Sweating, Doc got straight to work. He had no idea how many times Simoof's body could take the punishment before finally giving up. The brain was deteriorating from lack of oxygen.
Moments later, Simoof arose and was led to the cargo hatch.
"C-candy," Simoof queried.
Erik kicked him out of the hatch. "As soon as you make planetfall."
02 - Splendour - The fall of a planet
The gas giant, scant light seconds away, glowered like a vengeful titan under the ruddy light of the distant star. Around the equator vicious storms raged, stirred up by the constant bombardment of debris. Vast lightning storms lit the upper atmosphere, punctuated by streaks of brilliant light and great flashes as larger rocks met their end.
This cosmic light show, no matter how spectacular, was secondary to the drama unfolding before the survey ship. A once inert rocky moon, its orbit having decayed, was being turned inside out by tidal stresses. A planet was dying. A ring was being born.
03 - Listeri69 - You can't Tuna fish.......
The market in Boston Base was huge, recently refitted to have a realistic sky and weather patterns drew in many traders from around the galaxy and Psykokow had a Chango seafood catch to sell.
'CRABS!! I GOT CRABS! FRESHLY CAUGHT TODAY' he shouted 'WINKLE PLACE YOUR HANDS ON MY FIRM WINKLE'
'COCKLE STICK MY COCKLE IN YOUR MOUTH' he sighed wondering why his catch wasn't selling 'POLLOCKS, TROUT' nothing what was wrong with these people he thought to himself.
He'd purchased this catch being told he would make a fortune
he had however forgot the key phrase 'Plan to fail'
04 - DocStone - To Catch A Falling Star
He first got the idea from a magazine left in one of the station rooms. “Come Visit Certanus Prime – feel the sun on your skin and the sand beneath your feet.”
He’d never made planetfall before – he was spaceborn and had spent his entire existence orbiting the planet below, forbidden him until now.
This was his chance. The bridge was quiet, and Fredericks was asleep on duty again; too many “free” drinks the night before.
Silence the alarms, full power to thrusters, set course for Certanus!
As he entered the atmosphere the station AI could feel his skin warming already……..
05 - moose666 - Wreck
Jake stood surveying the wreckage of the orca, watching the crash investigation team go through it with their fine tooth combs.
The radio crackled to life.
"Found the crew manifest sir."
"Good, anything unusual?"
"Ehmmm, i'm not sure about the flight deck crew, they look like pseudonyms."
"Read them to me."
"Ok, we have... commanders Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee fvk, and Bang Ding Ow"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm, someone definitely extracting the urine there, but who..."
Without warning, potatoes and poached eggs began falling from above, along with pieces of paper bearing the name...
"Psykokow."
06 - Alien - The Alien Chronicles: Part 2
The Equinox followed the mysterious object as it entered low orbit.
"Captain, the object is maneuvering for re-entry, shall I follow it down?" Ferbus nodded in approval.
The Schnellzoot tribe were busy having their Crumpetball Qudditch Challenge "wir haben nur sieben Minuten zwei Tore zu schießen !" The crowd in attendance at the Games considered the state of play, it was going to be close.
Play was halted as a shiny metal object burned down through the atmosphere. The players scattered from the field.
"Science officer, prepare a team to go and contain the object." Ferbus' officers scrambled to the airlocks.
07 - Simoof - In the end there was darkness.
Godfrey stared at the blue planet from the small window in his private quarters.
"Idiots."
The colony was failing again.
Godfreys son entered the chamber,
"Do you want me to go back down? I could show them the w..."
"No. Not this time. It took less than 2000 cycles for them to destroy everything. I must take some of the blame. We should concentrate on the others."
The silence in the room thickened as they both looked mournfully at the blue orb one last time.
Never before had they let a Planet fall. This made Godfrey and Jesus sad.
08 - STRONTIUM DOG - indubitably green
captain grim saluted his rookie lieutenant.
"I need you my lad to go planetfall , and mark one eyeball the surface whilst following a dot scanner and tell me what you see...
any slower and the sam,s defences will lock you up ma we lad!"
"shoudnt be a problem captain " replied the young lieutenant full of youthful exuberance.
the captain watched the communications screen as the young lietennant nimbly dodged the asteroids whilst afterburning, then skim the planets surface, and slow....... right down.......
"captain I am not afraid of being locked away by Sam, I will break out and..... ssssssssssshhhhhhhhkaboom
09 - Frank - Lunar Rover
The two spacemen stood looking from the foot of their ship. "It's just a dustball!"
"Well, the captain wants a survey. The sooner we start..."
"I could tell it was a dustball before we landed!"
The captain leapt out of the ship unhindered by his spacesuit. He threw a ball as hard as he could. Something came bounding out of the ship in a heavily modified suit; now with four legs, and room for a wagging tail.
The men could hear their captain shout "Go get the ball" through their earsets, and they winced at the enthusiastic bark this caused.
10 - MrMogadon - Technological Shift
The Exodus-class spacecraft “Mayflower” splash-landed 800m from land, sending up plumes of water and steam as the molten shielding rapidly cooled.
Automated systems started the task of waking the 500 strong crew from deep hibernation; whilst hydraulic legs stabilised the enormous ship in the shallow waters and sensors confirmed a breathable atmosphere and viable ecosystem.
1500 years since launch. Perfect. No glitches or mishaps whatsoever. Leaving everything and everyone behind had been worth it: New Eden awaited.
Frank drinking on the litter-strewn shoreline, pondered. “They’re not going to be happy. Since inventing FTL we’re now only 1 hour from Sol”
11 - Ian Phillips - Hard Landing
Early in 3302 I found something unique. An earthlike planet, with a moon.
Hmmm? What's that you said? Nothing special about that? No, you're right I'll stop telling my story then.
Oh. You do want to hear it?
Well, this planet had lights. And satellites
I landed just on the dark side of the moon and travelled to a point I could observe the planet in my SRV by driving up a mountain.
Trouble was, that even in the light gravity of the moon the ground was too unstable to hold the SRV.
The SRV fell and destroyed the evidence.
12 - Clef_Hanger - What's the giant leap like?
.
They had eventually come across an Earth-like.
This planet would make him wealthy.
He'd finally be able to pay off all his debts and stop them sending people to kill him time and time again.
It wasn't the ship's A.I.'s fault. It had been programed to land on the higher ground for good visibility
and for a quick take-off, should the need arise.
The top of a mountain seemed ideal.
Exuberantly, Simoof bound out of his ship..................and over the cliff.
"Wow," he thought, as he tumbled the two miles to the surface.
"That first step's a killer!"
13 - cleonymus - The improbabilty of planetfall.
The impact had been considerable. Commander Cleonymus gazed over the lip of the crater with a puzzled look on his craggy face.
'I know what the system defence force said, but we still have to actually confirm it.'
His minion tapped him on the shoulder and pointed excitedly. 'I see something there'.
They both wandered in the direction of the strange mass, scanners at the ready. It seemed to be large white and blubbery. And there was a distinct smell of fish.
The analyser burped, the conclusion shimmering on the display.
'There - they told you it was a whale.'
14 - Edith_The_Hutt - The drop
At fifteen hundred hours a squadron of twenty Fedral Dropships entered the planet's mesosphere and began a controlled plummet.
With thrusters and control surfaces only they maintained proper attitude, using their heat shields to brake against the atmosphere below whilst blending in with a thousand simple decoys, co-launched to distract air defences.
A hundred meters from the surface they banked, using full engines to turn their suicidal plunge into a rough landing. Rapidly they disgorged infantry and armored fighting vehicles before taking off again, this time to provide close air support to their former payload.
Operation HAMMER STRIKE had begun.
15 - W4rSkuLL - Watch your back
There is a time when you wonder about the meaning of it all. The universe, stars and planets.
And the dependency of your own ship. Will it break down or make it back home.
Long hauls between star ports, and earning those precious credits to feed the family.
Jamie was tired, he thought about home. After a month out in space, going between Lave and Diso spaceports.
It was good to know he was heading for planetfall.
If he could just understand what the blip on the radar was.
"Well, probably nothing".
The Thargoid warship closed in for the kill.
16 - Galactic Midden - The Purrfect Revenge
As I orbit the Earth I nap on my station; warm, fuzzy, content, from gentle vibration.
It wasn't always this way,
peaceful,
sublime,
nines lives gone to time,
but now I remember,
below was the planet I know.
There was one never mooed who gave shelter and food, a shouty one with a voice, lots of bleeps and loud noise, aaaand
Then there was one who really got on my whiskers, who'd steal my chair and biscuits!
"AH, THERE YOU ARE SPACE KAT, RIGHT ONE WISH BEFORE YOU RETIRE"... and that's when they killed Simoof!
Peace at last, miaow
SK
17 - Missileman - Might as well Jump
The clouds parted and there was the entire Imperial fleet bearing down on us,
of course I could do nothing in my scarab even tiny things can only hide for so long.
The only chance I had left was to jump straight into my ship orbiting the planet.
I dodged the fire from several laser cannons, rotated the jets on my scarab jumped and prayed.
The sensors of my pursuers lost me as i left the surface.
But that's where my luck ran out.
My ship had been destroyed I had evaded the entire fleet
But not my own death...
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