Landing

[Geometrian]

The following is a dramatization of one of my first landings. Note that the language deliberately does not restrict it to KSP.

Jebediah realizes something is wrong. When you don't do the math, this sort of thing can happen. Jebediah's spaceship is on a one-way mission to a base on our planet's closest celestial neighbor and now, 1km below him, the dusty grey surface is approaching rapidly.

What Jebediah has just belatedly realized is that his ship lacks adequate fuel to make the descent. In fact, there is nowhere near enough.

There is no time to lose. Jebediah powers up his SAS system, and the whir of the capsule's three reaction wheels ascends to an anxious drone. Once they reach full speed, Jeb twists the attitude control stick and the craft rotates against their angular momentum, lining up the ship's rocket nozzle against its decent vector. There's nothing for it now. He punches the gas.

Hydrazine monopropellant hits an Iridium catalyst, and the resulting 800 C fireball blasts tailward. As the ship decelerates, the flame inverts, engulfing the capsule in fire. Jeb holds down the throttle, face distorting under three Gs. The surface is alarmingly close now, and the altimeter is still clicking downward. A loud bang signals the end of the reserves. Jeb floats from his seat in free fall.

Jebediah engages the autostabilizer and opens the hatch. The stars glisten overhead, unobstructed. Lights from the base are visible to the naked eye below. He crawls outside, takes one last look at the ground, and jumps into the void.

The capsule falls away below him, and Jebediah engages his RCS MMU, firing the microthrusters upward. It's going to be close. Below him, the capsule impacts the surface at 50m/s, throwing debris high in the low gravity. 20m/s, 15m/s, 10m/s, 5m/s, then Jeb lands hard, rolling backwards to soften the blow. After a moment of silence, Jeb stands up. The lights of the base twinkle perhaps 2km distant, but for the moment at least Jeb stands amid the wreckage, still alive.

[Bengsch85]

You paint a picture very well with your words! I like that you didn't keep it exclusively for KSP, it adds a different feel to it. Keep up the good work!

[Patupi]

For some reason almost all of what I've read (and written for that matter!) on the forums has been in past tense. It seems... odd to read in present tense, but once I got used to it again I liked it. Nice description and you get a lot of detail without overwhelming the reader. Good going!