Emerging from the Warp, the Elven Voidshio found itself in a strange starless system with planets orbiting some sort of gravitation phenomenon.
The elves within the Voidship were all unconscious, therefore they could not steer the ship as it was headed to a strange starless planet. Weirdly, however, the planet produced its own light. The atmosphere aglow with ethereal light. It wasn't blinding, instead, it was as clear as any blue and green planets in many star star systems. The planet seemed to pull them towards it, not in orbit-like way, but pulling it as if the planet had a rope around the Voidship.
It was slow at first, but after the Voidship entered the atmosphere, the ship plunged even faster. The atmosphere created friction on the exterior of the ship, violently shaking it and engulfing it in flame.
The Elves were awaken by the extreme situations.
Cellaeth, the female elf warrior, stood up and sprinted to the command center.
"Captain! Our ships is out of our control and the gravity of this planet is too powerful for our parachute to work."
"Activate our emergency thrusters!"
"It doesn't work! Our solar energies refuse to activate."
Cellaeth cursed. "Elralya, we need your psychic energy!" When she turned around, she saw that Elralya was still unconscious. "Darn! I have to use that."
She quickly shattered the emergency box and took out a crystal before inserting the crystal into a pod. The pod then launched itself into a tube that swiftly transported the pod into the center of the Voidship.
In the center of the Voidship were psychic crystal matrices, specialized structure that harness psychic energy and convert it into power for the ship's systems. These crystals amplify and store psychic resonance, providing a stable source of energy for various functions, including propulsion, shields, and life support.
Right when the pod entered the structure, the Voidship rumbled into life and its propulsion activated, slowing its downward trajectory.
However, they had underestimated the powerful gravity of this planet.
"Captain, at this rate, the ship will crash! It doesn't matter if we die, but if Elralya dies here, the Elven's ambition might be hindered for a couple decades."
"Crashing in 30 seconds!" the system announced.
Cellaeth gritted her teeth. "There is no other choice. We have to do something to protect her."
She then explained to everyone that they should gather around Elralya to softened the crash around her. Their skin, meat, and muscles were much softer than the materials that made up these ships.
The crash won't be soft, but it was their best chance to give Elralya a slight chance of survival.
All of the elves gathered at their place, preparing themselves to become a flesh cushion. They already grabbed anything that can softened Elralya's crash, and even tied dozens of pillows around her body.
"Crashing in 5."
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1"
"Brace for impact."
Boom! Crash!
After the crash that destroyed the Voidship, almost all the elves died except for two.
Elralya who had blood all over her body slowly opened her eyes. She woke up with great pain all over her before she realized that Cellaeth was tightly hugging her.
She was confused at first but then she saw the wreckage of their ship. She was horrified when she realized that they had crashed.
"Cellaeth, wake up!"
As she was trying to wake Cellaeth, two silhouettes loomed over her.
…
"Okay, do we have any high-incentive missions to pick?" Aldred asked.
"You've been asking that question 10 times today," Salamander said.
"We need money."
"Ughh, fine. Let's see our options."
They were currently now in a living room of an apartment they rented in Aegis IV. It wasn't luxurious, but it was comfortable, cozy, modern and minimalistic. Their ships were currently being upgraded.
This planet had one of the best shipyard after all, so they took the chance to upgrade the Galactic Rover. Salamander believed that the ship need more capabilities such as surviving in a more harsher environment.
He did not increase its firepower, because he believed Aldred would be enough to cover that.
Salamander activated the comns on his wrist. A screen popped out. He quickly pick the highest pay in his level.
"Exploration of a xenos world on the outer edge of the Imperium. It pays 40,000 Galactic Credits for every valuable planets we discover."
Aldred considered for a moment before he replied. "I don't think our ship can travel to the outer rim of the Imperium on its own yet?"
Salamander nodded. "That's true. Let's look at something else."
"Extraction mission. The pay is 600,000 Galactic Credits."
"That much? What kind of mission is that exactly?" Aldred was shocked to hear the large amount of credits he could earn in a single mission.
"It's about extracting an Imperial Commander in a warzone. I don't think we are capable of that yet," Salamander commented.
Aldred sighed. "Can you give an option that we can do realistically?"
"Okay, this one might be your interest. Infiltration of well-defended facility. There is an unnamed planet in the rim of Stellar Clusters reported to hid a secret base of the Orcs. The reports speculated that the orcs are building a war infrastructure under the surface of the planets and will use it as a future spear-head to support their invasion of this star clusters."
"How much is the pay?" Aldred asked.
"50,000 Galactic Credits."
"Alright. Let's do that one."
"Does everyone agree with this?" Salamander asked.
Cleome and Shinari nodded.
"I am good in infiltration," Shinari said. "It's where my abilities can shine."
"And I am good at blasting things," Cleome said. "I can shine anywhere."
Salamander rolled his eyes. "Cleome, almost all of us are good at blasting things."
The group waited for a couple of days until their Galactic Rover finished their upgrade.
When they entered the spaceship, they were shocked to see the change of interior. It was metallic grey before, but it was now crimson red with white lines creating an artistic tapestry all around. Every corners were painted with red glossy color that reflected light.
"They did an amazing job." Salamander nodded in satisfaction.
"What the hell did you do to my ship?" Aldred asked.
"I got us an upgrade. No need to thank me." Salamander chuckled before he sat down on his new extra-comfort seat with heater and built-in electric therapy.
"Now we can explore the stars in comfort." Salamander steered the Galactic Ship out of the dock.
Aldred could only sigh and accept the modification. It wasn't that bad now that he looked at it carefully.
Cleome and Shinari had no problem with it either.
"I hope you don't spend too much money for this," Aldred said.
"It's worth the price," Salamander said before activating the warp drive.
Swiftly they were teleported near a space station just floating in the emptiness of space.
The Galactic Rover quickly got a confirmation identity and a screen popped out, revealing the face of an officer.
The officer frowned after seeing them. "What is this? Where are the rest of you?"
"There are only four of us," Salamander said.
"Only four of you?" The officer seemed angered. "This is a critical mission. You are about to infiltrate a secretive orc base. How do you expect to do that with only four personnels? Wait a minute, your records here say that you only did one mission before this."
Salamander smiled. "You can check what type of mission that is and how we contribute to it."
The officer frowned before reading their CV in detail. "Destroying the engine of Destroyer-Class demonic battleship? How is that possible?"
"That's not mere luck, officer. Have trust in us."
The officer hesitated for a second before he agreed. "Fine. The four of you will do. Remember, your goal is to destroy as much facilities as possible, after that, you can leave immediately. I will send you the details of the planet and the hideout."
The screen vanished and lots of data entered the Galactic Rover.
Salamander skimmed through it and his face did not look too good. "Darn. This planet is terrible."
"Basically, it has powerful gravity and its atmosphere can prevent our spacecraft from producing thrust."
"So what do we do?" Aldred asked.
"Our best chance is to leave the Galactic Rover in orbit and use the infiltration pod to land on the planet."
"How can we leave if we do that?"
"Those orcs must have ships as well. We will steal their ships and use it to escape the planet."
"I don't know. That plan seems to idealistic," Aldred said. "Will that even work?"
"Well, do you have any better idea?"
Unfortunately, Aldred did not have any better idea. He was completely out of his comfort zone right now. He knew a lot of things about fighting, but he never had to consider anything about gravity and atmosphere before.
"Fine. Let's do this," Aldred said. "50,000 Galactic Credit is on the line, people. Let's get the money and buy things for ourselves."
