Lead To The Twisting...

The flight was pretty short. I didn't have too much time to think, though my thoughts did dwell on my 16 year old daughter at the academy. Ardvarkling was a bit of a troubled child, though witnessing your mother die during a training exercise can do that to you. She was still a doe-eyed, ruthless fighter though, who deserved a place in Alpha squad doing recon on all these planets. She was still finishing up in the academy though, so on recruitment day she'd be snatched right up. I was certain of it. But my thinking, having ventured from safely maneuvering to Cradle with the rest of my crew to my daughter, had put me off course. The siren alerting my 1000 feet to impact began to drone, and the impact safety measures activated. Drag plates began to slow my descent, while impact gel was shot forward ahead of impact. I triggered ascension jets and counted to ten. I hit at seven seconds in, and the impact still shocked my spine. I think I blacked out for a couple minutes until I heard the Spiral HQ on Cradle blare through my headset. Something about come in, wakey-wakey, the rest was gibberish. I was groggy, but I lugged my left arm up to my chest and pulled the adrenaline chord. A couple seconds later I was wide awake and unable to open the pod door. After some more struggling and a quick string of swears, I reached into the steel box under my seat and removed the punch gun. A couple of broken hinges and four dead bolts later, my exit door was twelve feet away from the pod and i was rolling my shoulders. I quickly checked my kit as I radioed in my amazing survival to HQ. "Spiral Knight Ardvark, survivor of the S.S. Anne calling in. Service number 4045329 dash 4. Requesting co-ordinates of rescue camp, over."
"Ardvark, I am Staff Sergent Gale. Sending you the co-ordinates of the camp now. The rest of your squad landed pretty much at our front door, what the hell happened when you entered orbit soldier?" She crackled back. Note to self: reception on Cradle is pretty poor up to this point.
"I lost control of the propulsion system on entry and was only able to use the pod itself as a steering wheel ma'am. My radio might have also been fried since I got no clear signal coming in," I replied quickly. I little white lie was a better explanation than a lapse in judgment because of my mind wandering. Easier that way.
"Copy that Knight, welcome to Cradle. You're about a click from camp, but you're gonna encounter more resistance than most of our other survivors today. We're seeing multiple enemy life-signs on your path. Be careful, your flyboy gear might be good up in space but back on solid ground, its a little bit more solid then tin foil, heheh-" she finished as the signal was lost. I holstered my pistol, unsheathed my sword, and began walking while I unbuckled my shield. What a fun trip I was in for.

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Next, dodging pokeballs, Haven and Anxiety!?
xD