With a final, violent jolt, the ship broke free of the dust cloud and surged into the blackness of the upper atmosphere. Below, the cratered ground became a distant map. Ahead, the tiny, glowing lights of New Hope Base appeared on the horizon—a lone campfire in a desert of stars.
Elias let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. The VID-2 was battered, scorched, and low on oxygen, but she was still flying. VID-2_mp4
"Keep it together, girl," Elias whispered, gripping the flight stick. With a final, violent jolt, the ship broke
"Systems check," he muttered, his voice raspy from hours of silence. Elias let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding
Elias looked out the reinforced viewport. The landscape of the Mare Tranquillitatis was a monochromatic nightmare of jagged craters and long, creeping shadows. He was three hundred miles from the main colony, carrying a cargo of stabilized isotopes that the med-bay desperately needed to fight the outbreak.