File 1.1 - First Steps into Hell

The vibration from the ship’s hull rattled through the cabin threatening to snap the bolts that anchored six chairs. Each howled a pained tone out of sync. All were hastily fastened into the rear compartment behind the pilot’s cockpit. Components within the fuselage that weren’t even known to exist pounded and groaned all around them, ceaselessly. The mechanically orchestrated symphony of chaos was the only music that attempted to drown out the warning sirens and messages that played in a finely irregular pattern that tempted the sanity of even the stoic.

One of the six seats stayed longingly vacant as its passenger was in the co-pilot seat in the cockpit. Its missing companion was twenty-five year old Commander Callein Tulother. His gray and purple helmet left much of his head concealed leaving only a little of his red-orange hair breaking free. While seated in the co-pilot position it didn’t mean he provided aid to the pilot. All his dark green eyes did was watch the panel in front of him to provide him a sense that he was in control. Everything around him fought to make it obnoxiously clear that all he had was his own anxiety to grasp.

The mission alone was dangerous, but it was the procedure required to do the mission that provided the greatest threat to them. No one knew what to expect from the start. Even the scientists could only guess at what they were doing and prayed while they sounded confident in their fancy university taught tongues that left the simple minds of Callein and his team to have faith. What they attempted had never been done before and until recently considered taboo and forbidden. It carried more weight than plainly being unknown, for it was engrained into every child. They were entering the land of death that did nothing but steal, torture and revel in the delight of pains of others, in other words Hell.

Seemingly having a painted-on smirk across his face was Rinn Ellune the only pilot in the fleet crazy enough to take on such a mission and enjoy it at the same time. To be the first man to accomplish this was enough reward for him. Yet he had to be the only one on the ship that wasn’t unnerved by the buckling coming from the hull. It was difficult to discern whether he had some faith that the ship would hold together or he flatly was insane enough already not to care.

Wearing a gray and purple pressure suit like Callein, Rinn’s right hand separated from the manual controls to push a couple of buttons on the display screen. The immediate results pulled back the heat resistant panel from the main windows in the front that continued smoothly to the side. The hydraulics went barely acknowledged, held fastened to the thick metal panels. A measured relief came as an audible drop in the percussion around the entire ship.

Rinn’s helmet tilted to the sides allowing him to check his space quickly as his right hand ran through entry procedures. “Shield Penetration completed, continuing atmospheric entry,” said Rinn calmly through his helmet’s internal headset. “Hold on to those lunches of yours!” The thrusters on the ship suddenly lit up, returning the rocking to the ship with increased vigor.