What stood before them was a massive planet.  A world that was bigger than any other they had ever seen, but its mere size was not the only impressive characteristic.  They saw warm sunlight scattered across its large oceans reflecting memorizing pure blue colors.  Great continents with gigantic mountains that seemed to touch the sky.  Flowing valleys of endless plant life where every color showed with brilliance and splendor.  Huge forests of enormous trees covered the land.   Every detail of the planet visualized perfection.  Even the atmosphere had not an ounce of pollution throughout its layers of fresh, clean air.  If you were to describe what true beauty is, this would be your paragon.

Tharros broke from her shock to scan the planet and found that it held life, what type of life she did not know.  She continued to scan the area and found that this was not the only planet.  Other planets surrounded this enormous world at different distances.  These other planets showed to be less in size, but they were as vibrant in color and held all the characteristics of the one that stood in front of them.  The scanners showed that there were twelve in total, and all appeared to be able to sustain life.  The last shock came as the scanners showed that these worlds orbited not only one sun but two.  Six orbited the sun that had the largest surface area and five surrounded the second sun.  Only one planet orbited both suns which were exactly where the coordinates of their destination were found.

Another huge rock of the ship and explosion in the engine room jarred the crew from the shock of their discovery.  Dyamion reviewed the system logs of all the different warnings that were appearing on his control panel.  The most serious warning made him shake his head and take a heavy sigh.  He looked over at Tharros. “The reactor is shutting down.  The integrity of the conduit to the main chamber is starting to breach.  We have a few minutes at best.” He looked back at his control panel and continued to review the logs.  “There are other warnings of cracks in the ship’s hull and other parts of the ship which will begin to tear this vessel apart.  Since we will have no power, there is no way to prevent this.”

Tharros then immediately engaged the throttle and began heading at half power towards the giant planet.  Dyamion yelled out, “What are you doing?”

“We need to land now, and that planet is our best chance of survival.”

“There is no way you will have enough power to land us safely.  You will not even have enough power to get us there.”

“I did not say land safely only that we have to land, or we will not survive.  I am hoping the engines will give us enough momentum to enter the planet’s atmosphere and then…”  She trailed off while still looking straight ahead with the throttle engaged.

“Then what?”  asked Atromitos with fear in her eyes.

“One step at a time,” replied Tharros in a barely audible tone.

The ship was beginning to shake harder.  Sounds of crumbling metal and pieces flying off the vessel could be heard.  Looks of worry could be seen as the crew looked around at the ceiling and walls of the bridge while they held their breath hoping they were not suddenly sucked out to space.  Small explosions could still be heard from the cargo area and engine room. They knew it will be a miracle if they survived this.

One last explosion rattled the ship and immediately you could fill their momentum slowing.  The engines were beginning to go out.  “The reactor is down,” shouted Dyamion.  “In a few minutes, we are floating wreckage in space.” 

“Let's only hope we have enough momentum,” exclaimed Tharros.  “Any power in the shield generators?”

“Two percent,” laughed Dyamion.  “Do you want me to push that to the engines?”

“Not the engines,” said Tharros surprising Dyamion.  “Push it to the landing thrusters.”

“What are you planning?” asked Atromitos nervously. 

“We are still heading towards the planet,” explained Tharros.  “Once we enter the planet’s atmosphere…”

“IF we enter!” shouted Dyamion.

“Once we enter,” said Tharros looking at Dyamion with her yellow eyes narrowed, “gravity will take over and we will fly…”

“FALL!” shouted Dyamion interrupting again.

“Fine! Fall,” agreed Tharros, “to the planet surface.  Just before impact, I will engage the landing thrusters and bring the nose of the ship up, lessening the impact.”

Everyone stared with gaping jaws at Tharros.  All except Igetis.

“Sounds like the best option,” remarked Igetis.

Screams and shouts of anger came from everyone as the ship continued to push towards the planet.  After a few seconds, Dyamion stood and raised his hands to calm everyone down and then said calmly but with noticeable tension, “That is suicide.  There is no way we can withstand that impact even with engaging the landing thrusters.  We do not even know if two percent of power will engage the thrusters.”

“Then give me some other suggestions!”  shouted Tharros.

“Escape Pods!”  yelled Gennai.

“Rat, there are no escape pods on a cargo ship,” replied Tharros.

“Why not?”

“Because it is not a warship…and there is not enough time to explain.”

“Orbit the planet and find a way to generate power,” remarked Filos.

“The ship is tearing apart as we speak.  With no breathable atmosphere, we will suffocate in space.”

For a few seconds, no one spoke. Then one voice was heard.  “I told you it was the best option,” remarked Igetis giving his sly smile to Tharros. She rolled her eyes and turned back around to view the distance to the planet.  The rest of the crew gave heavy sighs and many of them started to offer prayers.

“I believe trying a distress message again would be a wise idea even with our very limited power available,” said Tharros to Dyamion

“Agreed,” replied Dyamion.

Tharros brought up the communications system and relayed the same message as before, “This is Titan One.  We require assistance.  Our ship is damaged and is needing repairs.  Please respond.”  It was sent out in all known languages.  After a thirty-second wait, she sent the message again.  Still no reply.

“Any new communication on your end?” asked Dyamion partly joking to Igetis.

Igetis looked at Dyamion.  Smiled and said, “No communication like what you are hoping for.”  He then looked straight at the planet. “But there is something very odd at what I am sensing.”

Dyamion felt a cold shiver up his spine and looked at Tharros.  When their eyes met, he knew that she felt as he did.

Titan One was now close enough to feel the gravity pull of the giant planet.  The momentum of the ship was pushing them into the planet’s atmosphere.

“It appears that we have enough speed to enter the planet’s atmosphere,” said Tharros.  “Step one, complete.”

“If step two was not crash landing on an unknown planet,” said Gelio from her seat at the back of the bridge, “I would be very excited right now.”

“Me too,” agreed Dunamis standing strapped to the wall for support.

The ship continued to shake, and more parts were ripped off but continued to push forward towards the giant planet.  In no more than thirty seconds, Titan One would be falling helplessly towards the planet's surface.

“Remind me again why we escaped from the Kraken to find us falling helplessly towards the surface of an unknown planet deep within a giant nebula in the vast depths of space?” asked Gelio with her sarcastic tone.

“Talk to the ‘talking fish’!” shouted Atromitos.

Now completely in the planet’s atmosphere, the crew could more visually see the surface of the planet.  The heading of the ship appeared to be falling towards a large mountain range.  The crew could only hope that their trajectory in falling would keep them high enough to pass these mountains. 

As they approached the mountain range, Tharros closed her eyes and hoped for the best not having any control of the ship.  Dyamion held tightly to his chair as the ship continued to shake.  More metal parts teared away from everywhere of the falling vessel.

By mere fantastic luck, their falling trajectory flew the ship between two of the tallest mountains.  While missing the mountain on the left by more than a thousand feet, the ship scraped the rocky edges of the mountain on the right shaking the vessel even more with a tremendous jolt.  Debris flew everywhere on the bridge.  Dunamis smashed against the wall.  Both Tharros and Dyamion flew forward against their control panels, their seat belts pulling them back.  Screams and shouts of panic were heard as they all knew the worst was still to come.

Tharros could see that they were close to impacting the surface of the planet.  Hoping for a giant ocean, they were falling towards an open valley of overgrown plants and shrubs.  Only a mile from where they would first hit was a forest area with giant trees that would not be helpful.  She readied her hands to ignite the landing thrusters knowing only a small amount of power was available and would slightly help the impact, but hopefully enough for them to survive.

Dyamion continued to hold tightly to his chair and stared at Tharros’s hands as she readied to ignite the thrusters.  He wondered why she had not yet pushed the button.  They were less than twenty seconds from impact.

A few seconds later, Tharros hit the button and prayed that they would ignite.  The thrusters immediately pushed forth a gigantic force that lifted the nose of the ship slowing their descent.  The thrusters continued for three to four seconds and then sensors lit up everywhere on the control panel showing that the landing thrusters had failed, and they were falling helplessly once again.  They were only a thousand feet from the surface of the planet.

Titan One impacted the ground with a huge smash, but luckily the thrusters did their part.  The ship hit first with the belly and back of the vessel forcing it to bounce upward then gravity pulled the vessel once again to the surface and another powerful crunch was heard.  Huge parts were tearing off and metal was scraping against anything it touched. The force of the impact pushed the vessel to turn sideways and began to roll.  It rolled once smashing the top.  Metal, glass, and other debris flew hitting the crew at different areas of their bodies.  The ship began to roll again but they had entered the forest area where giant trees were found.  The bottom of the vessel smashed into three to four trees at once sending them toppling over but the impact slowed their velocity tremendously.  Titan One finally slid to a stop with dirt, rocks, and trees still flying in the air.  Explosions could be heard, different liquids poured from large cracks in the metal exterior, a fire ignited and began to spread, and no life was yet to escape the crashed vessel.