Annika opened her mouth to tell Orion that she didn’t know how to use a flight suit but before she could do so one of the pilots shouted a startled oath and there was a sudden tremendous blast of wind and sound. Annika screamed as there was a confused sensation of light and ripping wind and she was tumbling through black empty space. The sky wheeled kaleidoscopically and she had a momentary glimpse of the runt shuttle breaking apart and disintegrating in a fireball, though she could hear no other sound over the deafening roar of the wind as she tumbled in freefall. The whipping wind tore her habit away and her braided hair snapped like a torn halyard on a sailing ship. Ice cold fear gripped her as she plunged downwards toward the dark earth. A distant analytical part of her mind registered that the shuttle had been hit with some sort of anti-aircraft weapon that had torn its belly open like a gutted shamene. Desperately she tried to form a prayer to the Pancreator but the rushing air stole the word before they could sound.   

Suddenly something caught her around the waist and she felt like she was wrenched upwards by some mighty force. For a disoriented moment she thought the Pancreator had provided a miracle, and perhaps he had because, incredibly Orion had his arms around her, the wings of his flight suit deployed at full breaking thrust. The suit was designed to carry a knight and his full armament so her slight additional weight proved of little consequence. Orion shouted something to her and she had to read his lips to make out ‘hold on’. Convulsively she closed her arms around him and he let her go, snatching up the controls of the flight suit and breaking hard. The wings flared out to maximize the deceleration and the rush of the wind died away for a few heart beats.

“Hold on!” Orion shouted though she couldn’t possibly have tightened her grip around his armored torso. She had a fraction of a second to glance downard to see the green canopy of the massive trees which covered much of the surface of Gwynneth racing towards them. The weight might not be a problem to the flight suit but maneuverability obviously suffered as Orion desperately tried to steer them through the massive branches. Much of the maneuvering time that would have allowed him to pick a safer landing ground had been wasted in his neck of nothing dive to catch her and he hadn’t had sufficient altitude left to bleed off his airspeed. Branches whizzed past them as the plunged through the canopy. For a moment it seemed like Orion might manage the impossible feat and then the wing of the flight suit clipped a branch with a crack like a rifle report. The world corkscrewed and there was another crack as Orion hit a branch, his armored back taking the brunt of the impact and then they tumbled down, slapping against the limbs of trees over fifty meters tall. Orion lashed out with his arms in a primitive effort at parkour as Annika clung to his chest and screamed. They hit the ground with a crash, Annika landing atop the armored knight with enough force to drive the breath from her lungs and silence her scream.

For a moment they lay on the loamy forest floor as Annika frantically tried to draw breath. A rain of blade like needles rained from the trees above like winter snows and the shrieks of irritated forest creatures slowly died away. Annika finally made her chest work and gulped down a lungful of the cool moist forest air. It was mildly inappropriate to be laying atop the knight, but it was several more moments before she could force her bruised arms to release Orion and roll onto her back staring up at the hole they had torn in the canopy. Blood trickled into her eye for a shallow cut on her eyebrow, but it was a miracle that she was alive, much less able to use all of her limbs. She tried to form a prayer of thanks but all she managed was an insightful:

“Ouch.”

[@POOHEAD189]