Fire Moon
The Wayfinder bucked like a wild beast caught in a storm. Volcanic thermals clawed at its hull, rattling every panel and groaning against the inertial dampeners. Brains gritted his teeth at the pilot’s seat, hands flying across the controls. "Stabilizers are protesting," he muttered. "But they haven’t quit yet. Unlike most of my exes." Cap’in braced herself against the console, her fingers white with strain. "Every rock we land on wants to kill us. Lava, ice, cannibals, cursed AI. You’d think one damn planet in this galaxy could just not be homicidal." Beside her, 5E tilted his head, his optics flickering as they filtered incoming data. His voice buzzed with dry precision. "According to my trajectory assessments and environmental hazard metrics... we should have turned back five parsecs ago. There’s a 71% chance the landing pad below is partially molten." Brains shouted over his shoulder, "Oh come on! Tier-Five Imperial research stat...