The altitude decreased rapidly, and Kaus could feel the blood rushing into his head. Barely thirty minutes ago he was asleep and unaware of the events that had taken place that had him strapped to a dropship and descending into Invictus. The craft, holding about thirty people, plummeted into the planet with one working engine; the other was destroyed by debris from the Olympus. Two pilots sat in the front of the ship, desperately trying to take control of the situation. Kaus looked down at his hands, which were trembling. Flakes of dry skin were visible on his hands, a side effect of interstellar sleeping. The ship was dark, with a single floodlight lining the top of the body. Most of the ship's power was being diverted to the engines, and the lights occasionally went out, leaving the survivors in darkness. He struggled to make out anything the others around him were saying.

“--78 percent of the crew--”

“--Has anyone seen my-- --ther ship?--”

“--veryone hold still, we're going to try to land as safely as possible!”

Kaus closed his eyes. A headache, as if a nail was being driven through the side of his head, rendered him barely conscious and somewhat blind. He slowly felt himself rising out of his seat, his safety straps holding him down.

“We're gaining speed!”

“Pull up!”

His ears began to cut into his skull. He guessed it was the pressure of Invictus. 

The dropship hurled itself into a massive lake. After it touched the surface, it traveled a good 800 meters before resting itself on the shore of the lake leading into a forest. The ship's nose was buried deep in the soil, with it's backside tilted about 20 degrees upward. The ship had landed with no lives lost.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now opening the bay door, please keep yourselves strapped in and still.”

Kaus watched at the middle of the floor opened and formed a ramp that led down into the lake. Once it stopped, people began unbuckling themselves and walking around inside the dropship, making sure they were alright. Kaus shook his head and exhaled while keeping his mouth closed and his nostrils pinched. His ears popped, and finally he could hear the people around him. He got out of his chair and walked over to the cockpit where the two pilots were still sitting. He knocked on the metal walls to get their attention, then leaned in so he could see them.

“That was a real Sullenberger stunt there, guys.”

The co-pilot turned around. “Sullenberger?”

“Yeah. Crashed his plane in the Hudson River almost a century ago with no casualties.”

“Is everyone alright?”

“No one's dead, which is alright enough for all of us.”

People began diving into the lake and swimming to shore. Kaus, however, stayed with the pilots, as the only thing on his mind was reaching Landfall. They opened a holographic terrain map on the dropship's navigational computer.

“It looks like we went down somewhere to the west of Landfall.” the captain said, pointing at the little red dot on the map labeled “Landfall”.

“Approximately 8.5 kilometers, actually.” the co-pilot calculated.

“What do we do for food?” Kaus asked.

“Well, we have three supply crates on board. If those are all full, we can easily make a trip to Landfall and back to the ship.” the captain answered.

The pilots got out of the cockpit and pushed the three crates off the ship. As expected, they sank to to bottom of the lake, which was no more than eight feet deep.

“I don't believe we have exchanged names, gentlemen.” Kaus stopped them before they jumped off of the ship.

“Captain Julius Bernard.” the captain said, removing his flight helmet.

“Lieutenant Eli Sartre.” the co-pilot shook Kaus's hand.

“Hettinger. Captain Hettinger.” Kaus said, extending his hand to meet Eli's.

The three grabbed their backpacks which were piled up under the seats and abandoned the dropship. In little time, the three supply crates were recovered and the supplies were rationed to the survivors, who were still recovering from the crash. After the food was distributed, the survivors were ordered to stay together and not to wander off. The captain grabbed Kaus and took him over to the waters, making sure the others didn't follow him.

“Do you notice something strange, Hettinger?”

“Other than the Olympus going down, I don't think so.”

“If this place was a colony, I'd expect that we'd see a radio tower or at least a sign that the colonists were here.”

“You know, I didn't notice that.” Kaus said as he looked around, realizing that the planet looked pretty much uninhabited.

Julius pulled a handgun out of his vest and gave it to Kaus.

“Can I trust you with a gun?”

“Of course.”

They turned around and lined up the passengers to make sure everyone was accounted for. Once they made sure all 28 passengers were fit for walking, Julius ordered six people to carry the crates, and everyone else to stay near them. Eli removed a small automatic rifle from his bag and slung it over his shoulder. The group moved into the forest heading towards Landfall.