Teclas Tales (Tales from the 2100's)

[AtomicTech]

Hey Everyone!

I've been working on a sci-fi universe that gets told in a series of short stories. I recently finished the first of many stories and I wanted to share it here. Please enjoy Teclas Tales.

 

The Arcadian's four Crux engines were rapidly deteriorating with each and every second that passed. Calvin and Howard had barely escaped an infantry of automated defense drones, dead set on protecting a Rebel communications and intelligence outpost. The engines had sustained heavy damage to their temperature regulation systems and were threatening to either shutdown or explode in an impressive fireball. They had set a course back to the Union base located about two lightyears away but had to veer off course when another infantry of drones came after them.
"We're sustaining heavy fire to the rear deflector fields! I'm not sure how much more of this we can take!" Howard yelled over the noises of an overworked spacecraft. 
Suddenly, the spacecraft jolted forward as a missile had pierced through the field and hit the left side of the upper right engine. It exploded in a massive fireball spewing bits of metal and small components all around. Many of the pieces hit the other three engines, threatening to shut them down, but they thankfully endured. A few of the pursuing drones were hit with larger pieces of shrapnel and promptly exploded taking out all of the pursuing enemies. Calvin let out a whoop of joy before he saw the Big Brain Navigation Computer's calculations of their trajectory.
"Good god! We're on a crash course with Teclas!" Calvin said with a horrified tone.
"You're kidding right?" Howard said with disbelief, "Telcas, the water world!? Do you know how hard it is to land there, some of the best pilots have tried and none have succeeded!"
"I think we have floatation devices that should help with the water landing." Calvin said, trying to calm his friend.
    "Well, what damn good are floatation devices going to do when we need another engine!?" Howard retorted while pulling up the spacecraft's engine status, "I'm not even sure if we have enough Thrust to Weight Ratio, fuel, and power to even get close to landing!" 
Calvin was immediately struck with an idea that could save their lives.
"The SDC program was originally started by AtomicTech and was transferred to the Teflos R&D Unit. Early designs, prototypes, and models used two Crusader 20-06 "Whiplash" engines and handled pretty well," Calvin told Howard, "I'll need to get out on an emergency EVA to go make external modifications to prepare for the landing."
    "I'll trust your judgement, we have about 30 minutes before we first make contact with the atmosphere so you'll have about 20 to 25 minutes to make the modifications." Howard said, calming down quickly.
"So then that's what we'll do!" Cal said while dashing to the spacecraft's rear locker to grab his EVA suit, the Portable Fabricator Unit, and his box of random, but rather useful tools. "He pulled the helmet over his head and pressed the small green button near the underside of his right ear. With a quick whirr, a few small snaps, and a quiet hmm, a silver, slim, form suit had covered his body. This was a basic pressure suit that needed an exoshell to function properly which was almost fully charged and sat obediently next to where he had grabbed the helmet. Calvin quickly put on the exoshell's backpack and pressed another small green button. Within an instant, his whole torso and legs were covered in a protective shell and he was ready to start the modifications. "Ittekimas!" Calvin radioed in to Howard. 
Howard glanced back annoyedly, mumbling to himself, "I hate it when he speaks in Japanese, he knows how much it annoys me."
About 17 minutes later, Cal radioed in with some disconcerting news, "I had expected that I would be able to use the other one of the upper engines for parts and be able to reconfigure the programming of the Byeol warp drive to get it to produce thrust. Reality had other plans, the Byeol was so excruciatingly hard to reprogram and the upper engine had sustained a lot more damage than the sensors had picked up."
"Yeah," Howard responded from the Arcadian's command cabin, "The Lightyear Corporation makes great warp drives, you'd think they'd make their warp drives easier to work with."
"It took a lot more work than I had planned and I'll need to spend more time amending the stupid software." Calvin continued, "All things aside, I have great news!"
"Really? What is it?" Howard replied with a detectable hint of glee.
"I was able to stop the engines from degrading any further and working at 70% capacity! It should be more than enough to safely pull off the landing."Calvin said, matching his friend's excitement, "I'm going to head and finish the programming." Calvin carefully drifted over to the Arcadian's starboard hatch fully expecting it to fall apart or have a similar devastating failure. He gently pressed the key into the entry pad, wincing at each press. The mechanics of the hatch hummed to life as it slowly opened to allow Cal entry. He put his left foot in first and was thankful to once again have the welcome embrace of gravity. Howard was by the hatch's internal control panel diligently controlling each of the Arcadian's systems to allow Calvin in and not vent out all the oxygen into the void of space. Howard reached his hand out and firmly grabbed Calvin's gloved hand with his own. 
"Are you alright?" Howard asked.
"Better than alright," Cal grinned,"we have a chance of pulling off the first successful landing on Teclas!"
"Well maybe we should be concerned about surviving rather than pulling off one of the hardest landings in history." Howard cautioned while walking with Calvin towards the command cabin. Calvin and Howard sat down ready to get to work. Neither of them bothered to remove their space suit. Howard quickly got to work on prepping the Arcadian's systems for landing while Calvin's fingers flew across the console's keyboard as he frantically tried to finish his program in the few remaining minutes they had before landing. 
    The time had come to put their skills to the test as the atmospheric detector began to read the first wisps of Teclas' upper atmosphere. Hot plasma began to lap at the sides of the spacecraft, turning the hull of the spacecraft a magma-hot white. The spacecraft began to rattle and shake as it fought through the atmosphere, the Kaze's heat radiators assisting in its epic fight. 
"A minute and 30 seconds until landing burn!" Howard called out.
"Reaction control wheels pushed to 85% capacity but holding attitude successfully." Calvin called out.
"One minute till landing burn!" Howard called out, "Landing attitude held, automatic landing disabled."
"Engines at 100% temporary capacity," Calvin called out with a hint of glee, "engines successfully pre-throttled!"
"Engine lighting in 3, 2, 1 and active!" Howard said, again matching his friend's tone.
Calvin and Howard were thrown back into their seats as they were pushed to the limits of survivable G-forces. The Arcadian groaned and whined, clearly not liking the G's. With a horrible wrench, the spacecraft's remaining upper engine tore off and took a wing strake with it. The Arcadian began to spiral out of control. Calvin sensed this and triggered the emergency strake removal protocol in hopes of regaining control. The aerodynamic strain was too great and the hull tore itself to pieces flinging the hunks in every direction. Calvin, still trapped in his seat, was flung away from Howard in his respective chunk. He tried to release himself from the chair but a piece of the control console tore off and slammed into Calvin's forehead, instantly knocking him out.

Edited September 7, 2021 by AtomicTech
Made a minor mistake

[StrandedonEarth]

Calvin and Howard seems pretty close to Calvin and Hobbes, and your story does sound rather like a Spaceman Spiff scene. Not saying that that’s a bad thing, but that’s my impression. Never stop writing; you never know when you might start channeling the greatest story that hasn’t been written yet.