บท 80: Down we go
March opened his eyes, finding himself inside a capsule-like cockpit.
In front of him, beyond the blueish glass that served both as a window and as his ship's control's interface, he saw a greyish planet covered in rain clouds, with signs of lightnings.
"Great! Look at my luck! This weather is perfect!"
Despite the sarcastic tone in his voice, the weather was the least of his problem. Ships who were built for hyperspace travel would never have trouble even if struck by multiple lightnings or even a common grade missile as long as it's shield remained active.
His armor also gave him another layer of security protecting his life. Not only it was capable of regulating it's internal temperature, protect him against all kinds of projectiles while mitigating their impact to close to nothing, give him super strength by synchronizing it's artificial muscles with the user's body, and allowed him to fly in the sky with the help of the micro jetpacks strategically located on multiple points, it also looked quite cool and was 100% waterproof, possessing even it's own oxygen tank.
As his ship continued to approach the planet, a familiar beep sounded out in his helmet, informing him someone was trying to contact him. Pressing his hand on the right side of the helmet, he accepted the call, allowing him to hear a familiar voice.
"March, can you hear me?"
At this moment the bluish glass's transparency turned solid, and the image of his most trust worthy colleague appeared before him making an annoyed face.
"Mom, what is it, did I forgot to bring the packed lunch?"
"Fuck off, you bastard. Anyway, because of you I was forced to relocate to this shitty space-station!"
Even with all these layers of protection, it couldn't be said March was completely worry free. Being sent to an unknown planet to fight some unknown danger light years from the nearest hospital was never the most relaxing type of job, no matter how many layers of overlapping protection he had. So, as he saw the bald dwarf nose in the ship monitor, he couldn't help but feel assured as he knew he was in good hands, or at least not alone.... though he would never admit these feelings even before his death.
"My fault? How is it my fault!? I had no choice here!"
"Give your excuses to someone who actually cares, anyway, you will be entering the planet in 2 minutes, so let me brief you before the interference begins."
"Can't they just teleport me inside there like always?"
"I'm not the one who makes the decisions, I just inform them to you. If you want to complain, feel free to send them a letter through the human resources department."
"That's the same as asking them to fire me."
"Then just shut up and stop complaining!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So what am I supposed to do anyway? You told me I would be fighting a dinosaur."
"Technically you will be fighting a neutral drone in the form of a T-Rex, collect it's meat and deliver it back to base in less than two hours."
"Can't they just buy it in the supermarket? Why going through all this trouble just for a meal."
"If you are able to warp to the closest supermarket, buy some meat and come back in less than 2 hours, I promise you I won't tell them anything."
"Really!? Then I will... wait, where is the closest supermarket?"
"Heck if I know! All information about our location is secret! I bet even the spaceships' navigators don't know!"
"Then how the hell am I supposed to go there!?"
"That's your problem, not mine!"
"Oh! I'm happy you are not troubled by this!"
"Right? Best thing in the world!"
"Can't you get my sarcasm?"
"What!? You were being sarcastic!? And here I thought you had some conscience!!"
"Stop blaming this whole thing on me! It's not like I proposed this operation!"
"But you did add alien hunter to your profile to increase your salary by a hundred bucks!"
"What do you want!? Some money!?"
"I would happily accept! But hey, shouldn't we talk about the mission yet? I don't think we got much time..."
"Why the hurry?"
"The planet you are going has just finished terraforming. There are trillions of nanomachines in the air stabilizing it's condition."
"So?"
"So for the next week or so all kind of contacts with the surface will be unavailable... or at least that's what I was told."
"Wait, what!? What about my support!?"
"There will be none, you will be on your own. But it should be a simple job, just go down, kill the drone and go up again. Your ship won't be affected so you don't have to worry."
"Drone? Why don't you just send the deactivation code and save me the trouble!?"
"Didn't you hear what I just said?"
"Well, yeah, but can't they at least give me the code so I can activate it locally?"
"...This is just my guess but either they are too lacking and forgot this option, or they are planning to use this to showcase real life combat or they just think it's cool to watch you suffer... just so you know, I'm betting on the last one."
"So either they are too stupid or they take me for a clown. Great news. I'm really happy to hear that! Fucking bastards!"
"Those are your words, not mine. Can we start or... too late, weapons are in the back of the module, don't use the ship weapons as it will spoil the meat, there are three charges of d-shield but you shouldn't need it, don't lose your bracer and don't die!"
"Wait! Wait! Tell Liliana I-"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As the ship started descending in the atmosphere, the communication with the space-station was cut short and only static noise could be heard. Thankfully "Mom" had already warned March this would happen so he didn't panic nor did anything stupid.
"It's in moments like this that I wonder if I should convert to some religion..."
The ship continued to penetrate the thick clouds one after another, increasing his anxiety as he couldn't see the ground yet.
"Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?"
This question echoed inside his head like a young child asking it's parents during a long trip to some distant relative's home. The lack of answers made him only repeat the same question again and again, and his discomfort grew as he noticed the altitude display didn't seem to be working right.
"I'm not going to crash on a random mountain and die, will I? Come on, please at least warn me first!"
Suddenly the collision warning resounded through the ship, making his blood run cold. Visibility was poor and he still couldn't see what was going on yet, but then the autopilot executed an air maneuver, making the ship roll like dodging some missile, and Apollo had a chance to see some gigantic flying dinosaur passing meters away from him.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!? WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?"
His confusion was such that he even screamed twice.
While he once was like many boys who studied dinosaurs as a child, seeing the picture book and the real thing gave out completely different reactions. He could feel the fear in his bones that they had resurrected something that should not exist. This was just abnormal, such an ancient predator coming back to life. But he still had his job to do to earn his ticket back home, so he could only put his own opinion to rest and focus on the mission ahead of him.
Another minute going down and finally he was able to see what was hidden below the clouds. Despite the terrible weather, the scenario was still enchanting to say the least. It was like a royal garden prepared with extra care to show how beautiful nature could be.
"Wow this is incredible! When this is over, I should bring Liliana here..."
And then he saw some dinosaurs fighting. It appeared like a group of velociraptors were attacking some stegosaurus that strayed from it's group.
"Actually no, this doesn't seem like a good idea..."
Luckily for the stegosaur, the sound of the approaching ship scared not only him but his predators as well, making them temporarily give up the hunt, which gave it a second chance to live.
Ignoring the wounded dine below, March's ship continued to look for it's target and it didn't take long for him to locate it hunting in a plain.
"There it is! Let's pray it's meat is delicious! If I'm lucky, I will be able to also grab a piece."
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
SLOP
SLOP ...I hate my computer...
I lost a whole chapter because of the famous blue screen of death, caused by an error on my HD while writing the downloaded data.
This made me rage quit and get depressed so I took a few days to calm down.
Well, now that I'm back, let's get that dinosaur! But only next chapter!
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