My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Amicitas Mission Three - Mission Day 2

Amicitas was bouncing up and down like a horse stung by a bee, while nearly all the lighting on the bridge and three-quarters of the control displays failed. Feihuo felt dizzy. When she heard the instruction to change the extravehicular spacesuit, she almost instinctively floated along the back wall of the cabin towards the spacesuit storage cabinet, took off the spacesuit from the charging equipment, and slid Got in. After repeated exercises on the ground, even in the most chaotic situations, these space horses can complete the change from casual clothes to a full set of pressurized equipment within a minute.

"Replacement completed!" As usual, Tingting was the first to report. In previous exercises, Spitfire always felt that the changelings were cheating by using transformation magic, which was despicable and dirty. But now, she only wanted to find out what happened to the spaceship.

"Replacement completed!" The second one is the dragon fireball. It is really easy to replace it with the thumb.

"Replacement completed!" Cherry Berry relied on experience to complete the replacement for the third time. After all, she is the only filly to have piloted a spaceship to two different planets outside of Horses.

"Replacement completed!" Feihuo himself came next, with a decisive and well-trained voice.

"Uh... um... replacement completed!" The last person to finish the job was Starlight Glimmer. As a unicorn, she should have been faster.

"Activate the emergency energy!" Cherry Berry's usually thin and gentle voice became very sonorous and powerful at this time, which always amazed Feihuo. If she were on the ground, she would be no different from Chang Ma. When in panic, she would scream and run away, and there was no way she could be counted on. But when she arrived on the spaceship, her eyes immediately became resolute, and she became a famous missile operator in the eyes of others.

"If it weren't for this ship," Spitfire thought, "I would be the one commanding it. I am the most professional military horseman in Equestria, with countless Pegasus flying and leadership experience, but look Look, now, as the oldest horse, I have become the new trainee horse on the ship. Even Starlight has had a space flight experience. So now it is best for me to sit still, talk less, and wait to be taken care of. Hurt the horse.”

"From a squadron commander to a field medic, I never thought I would end up like this."

The emergency lights on the bridge came on, and the bridge was no longer dark, but it was still dim. Cherry Berry returned to the command seat, while Spitfire found a comfortable position and sat on the pilot's seat. Their titles were very confusing. In fact, the spacecraft was driven by the commander, and the pilot could only be driven when the commander needed it. Only then took over the driving. During normal times, the driver is responsible for monitoring the data and notifying the commander when necessary. "Maltimore, this is Amicitas," Berry turned on her headset and started calling, "We're in trouble! Call completed!"

There was silence in the headphones.

"Maltimore, this is Amicitas, please reply. Call completed!"

Still no reply.

"Hughton, this is Amicitas, can you hear me?"

Not even a trace of noise could be heard.

"Gan!" Cherry Berry turned around on the seat and said, "Starlight, Fireball, go check the spacecraft to see if the air pressure has dropped."

Tingting clicked on one of the display screens. "The cabin pressure is stable at a standard atmospheric pressure," she said. "The life support exchange crystal is working normally."

"Continue to check the spacecraft, Fireball. You will probably need to leave the cabin later, please be prepared. Spitfire, continue to try to contact the ground. Tingting, perform troubleshooting on the transmission matrix."

Starlight and Fireball went to the stern to check the ship's engines, while Spitfire tried again and again to contact the ground, first using remote presence communications, and then trying the backup radio. "Maltimore, this is Amicitas, please check communications...Maltimore, this is Amicitas, please check communications...Maltimore telemetry, this is Amicitas, please check backup communications...wait..." Spitfire suddenly She fell into silence, and then tried all the preset frequencies of the radio to prevent mistakes. The result was the same as what she had seen and deduced, "Commander? I can't receive the signal of the ESA communication satellite network, not at all."

"Is the antenna malfunctioning?" Berry asked.

"The indicator light shows normal," Feihuo replied. "The only thing that can be received is noise, but no satellite signal."

Dragonfly poked her head out from under the console and closed the panel she had just inspected. "The remote presence crystal is intact," she said, "but the crystal cannot be charged."

"Isn't it true that as long as there is magic energy input at either end, this magic can be cast normally?" Cherry Berry asked.

"Yes!" Dragonfly affirmed and replied with a weak hiss, "This is not a good sign."

"Spyfire, come to the engine room quickly," Fireball's hoarse voice sounded in the communication headset, "Medical emergency! Spitfire, please come to the engine room quickly! Emergency medical treatment is needed here!"

Before Feihuo had time to untie his driver's seat, Starlight's voice suddenly sounded in the earphones, panting as he spoke, "For now... don't come here for now, I'm fine... Tingting, this... all this... …Have you used any magic since this happened?”

"not at all."

"Then don't use it. I ran out of magic while casting three magics at the same time. Can you hear me, Commander?"

"What?" Cherry Berry asked, "I'm here."

"We are in big trouble," Starlight Glimmer raised his voice and continued, "The drive crystal is indeed in good condition, but I was not able to complete the scan and cannot determine whether it is damaged. The electronics module and energy supply still appear to be intact, but everything All the energy crystals were shattered, not just broken, but turned into powder."

"There just were a few floating currents here," Fireball continued to report. "The wall was partially deformed. The previous loud noise must have been caused by all the gems being detonated." He growled and continued, "These gems were originally Enough to feed me for several days.”

"Then activate the backup crystal," Cherry Berry instructed.

"We don't have spare crystals," Starlight said helplessly. "The energy array has good redundancy. Twilight and I both think it won't have any impact if a small part is exhausted or burned out. Who would have thought that they would all fail at the same time..."

Cherry Berry mumbled in annoyance, and Spitfire felt that the sound was unexpectedly in tune with hers. She originally thought that Berry would just whimper. "Okay, now what do we have left?"

"The bridge also has two spare mana batteries," Tingting recalled. "There are also eight mana batteries in the maneuvering thruster module, and there are still batteries in the space suit's thrusters."

"Where's the main thruster?" Cherry asked.

"The power supply for the main thrusters is shared with the Twinkle Engine," Starlight Glimmer muttered, "They are useless."

"That's damn great," Cherry Berry muttered, "Okay, let's think of a way. Everyone should go back to their seats and fasten their seat belts." After that, she leaned on the driver's seat and took a few deep breaths, " At least we still have oxygen and water, and enough food for thirty days."

"There's still plenty left," Spitfire said. "Amicitas is designed with a seven-horse cockpit. Fireball alone has thirty days of rations, and there are also six horses with thirty days of rations. But in fact we only have four horses."

"Three," Dragonfly added, "I'm a changeling, not a horse. I don't have to eat 'normal' food, at least, not a lot."

"Very good," Cherry Berry said, "If Fireball needs to share food with us, that's no problem. Now we can hold on for a while and wait for rescue. What about other consumables?"

"The magic power in the thruster is stably saturated," Dragonfly began to report, "Electric power... uh..." She flipped a switch, and some devices inside the spacecraft began to rotate. "Backup solar arrays are being deployed," she said. "Power is declining rapidly."

The back door leading to the bridge opened, and Fireball clawed the hatch back into the cabin with one claw, dragging the exhausted Starlight Glimmer with the other claw. Spitfire quickly left the driver's seat, ignoring Starlight's obstruction, and together with Fireball sent Starlight back to her own seat. "Stay still," Spitfire warned, going to the first aid cabinet to prepare first aid supplies.

"Stop working," Starlight's weak voice came over, "those first aid measures will have to wait until I take off my space suit. Give me some time, I just need to restore my magic power."

Spitfire blinked. She and Twilight Sparkle's friend and colleague were not close friends, but she knew very well that Starlight was one of the most powerful unicorns in the Equestrian Kingdom. She had almost inexhaustible magic power. After casting powerful magic, you can recover almost in the blink of an eye. Spitfire asked, "How long do you need?"

"Commander," Starlight ignored Feihuo's question and said directly, "We need to stop the operation of all non-essential magic energy driving devices immediately. I think we may be in some kind of weak magic energy environment."

"That's right," Tingting stared at the console and murmured, "Consistent with what I observed, the bridge's magic energy battery has less than one-third of its energy left."

"Stop running now."

CherryBerry, Dragonfly, and Spitfire began to turn off the switches one by one, stopping the teleportation magic, turning off most of the remaining internal lighting, and shutting down all quality-of-life improvement systems other than those necessary for life support. After everything was completed, Tingting said, "Okay, the situation is stable now, only the navigation ball and control system are consuming magic power... but the energy storage has not recovered at all."

"Impossible!" Cherry Berry was a little angry, "Magic energy fills the entire universe. Although the magic power will be stronger around living objects, we should be able to at least recover some magic power now. It can't be enough to barely keep the equipment running!", she Yangho pointed to the only device still lit on the console, the nearly brown navigation ball.

The almost brown color kept echoing in Fei Huo's mind, and she found that the scene looked familiar.

"Magic energy only exists in the universe near the horse star," Starlight Glimmer responded. "It is very likely that some places have abundant magic power, while other places have very thin magic power..."

"But Xinxing is not a place with thin magic power!" Cherry Berry insisted, "We have launched a detector around Xinxing, and we know very well that there is enough magic power near Xinxing to support teleportation magic!"

Orbit (orbit) echoed in Spitfire's mind again, and she thought about what could go with this word.

"The orbital position of Star at that time was different from now!" Starlight Glimmer interrupted Cherry Berry, and she regained some strength, "There are still so many unsolved mysteries in this universe, and we have no way of knowing... "

Spitfire reached towards the console and activated the momentum wheel, causing the spacecraft to shake slowly. Almost at the same time, a large area of ​​rust-red reflected in the front window of the spacecraft.

"Spike, what are you doing—my dear Celestia!" The scene outside the window shocked Cherry Berry. "This is not the star! We shouldn't be so close to it!" The red planet almost filled the entire observation window.

"I noticed the navigation ball," Spitfire explained quickly. "The orbital direction indicators have all turned brown. If we were still in the solar orbit as planned, the direction indicators should be blue. So I... "

"This is not a star at all!" Starlight Glimmer shouted, with a hint of fear mixed in the shout, "these volcanoes are all in the wrong position!"

Dragonfly straightened up and activated the backup map navigation system. Normally, flight route planning was transmitted in real time from the ground station, but Amicitas was the first spacecraft in Equestria to be equipped with a backup navigation system. The map shows the orbit of a single star and a single planet at their location. The computer screen is redrawn several times per second and the display is erratic. Dingying zoomed the map to the planetary level. "This is obviously not a star," she said. "There is no Alexander Mountain here. There are only two small celestial bodies orbiting it closely... And... wow," she breathed, " There was supposed to be only one satellite, but there were at least eleven.”

"That's not important now," Cherry Berry sighed. According to the predicted flight trajectory, they were flying towards the planet and would hit the planet's surface within forty minutes. "Starlight, is there a way to power the engines through the bridge?"

"This is no longer our solar system!" Starlight sobbed, "Maybe it's not even in the same universe!! Oh my God, what have I done?!!"

"Calm down, Starlight," CherryBerry said, in a tone that even a soldier at heart like Spitfire would admire. "Something's wrong, fix it. Can we get power to the engines?"

Starlight Glimmer took a few seconds to catch his breath and steady his breathing. His left front hoof swayed with his breathing, "Yes! Uh, yes. It will take about ten minutes. But even if both batteries are fully charged, it can only run the engine at full speed for three seconds. Seconds. These backup batteries were originally only used to power the bridge, not the engines at all."

"What's more, we are still far from full," Cherry Berry took over, "and most of the control surfaces have failed. At present, we only have the RCS propulsion system left. At least we can first transfer the energy of the bridge to Where to go?”

"Unless there is a horse out of the cabin," Starlight replied, "the existing thrusters, like the original chemical energy thrusters, are independent of the hull."

"Well, at least the good news is that things are getting easier," Cherry Berry replied, with a typical military dark humor. Spitfire was even distracted and curious as to whether this earth pony's parents had really been soldiers. "Well, Spitfire, pay attention to the thruster reading, and tell me immediately if it's lower than 20 percent. This is my bottom line for safety. We have to try our best to recover from a vertical descent. If fate favors us, we can rush through the atmosphere. , back into space. If time passes, at least we can achieve a controlled touchdown."

"And if the sky is going to kill me," Dragonfly murmured, "then we're going to be 'a little' unlucky."

"A bit unlucky?" Fireball said, obviously he didn't understand the tone, "Do you think we are not unlucky enough today?"

"No one is going to be unlucky today!" Cherry Berry yelled, "I will definitely ensure that this ship lands safely, we will all evacuate safely, and everything will be safe and sound!"

Feihuo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. On this side, Cherry Berry is not afraid of danger and handles it calmly. Ease the panic of the crew, try to increase everyone's confidence under the current situation, and start solving the problem at the same time.

On the other side, the data is indeed correct. This planet is not a star. It doesn't matter what it is, but it is directly blocking the path of the spacecraft. For a ship flying at the orbital speed of Mars and still accelerating, It is undoubtedly fatal to the spacecraft. I am afraid that only Faust himself can save their lives.

"Starlight, remove a battery and start the engine for me," Cherry Berry said, "Even a few seconds of low thrust is better than nothing, and maybe it can allow us to recover some energy. Fireball, make sure everything is It's securely fastened. After that, you go back to your seats and secure yourself. There will definitely be bumps along the way."

Spitfire tightened his seatbelt and nodded to indicate completion. This is destined to be a flight full of hardships... They can only hope that the final landing will not be so fatal and so unexpected.

Magical thrusters can produce unpredictable effects in alien environments.

When the spacecraft was trying to change from vertical acceleration to horizontal acceleration, not far in front of the spacecraft, under the small desert planet and the thin atmosphere, an already overwhelming sandstorm was gathering, forming an unprecedented scale. Sweeping towards the largest man-made structure on the planet. Millions of miles away, observers on another planet observed this unexpected and puzzling change in the sandstorm, and hurriedly issued an alert to the people in the building, asking them to prepare to evacuate the building and escape from the planet. planet.

However, the pilot of the spacecraft knew nothing about all this. Relying on the experience of flying various spaceships back and forth many times, she was using all the methods she could think of and guessed to carefully adjust the thruster strength. On the other hand, he tapped his hooves anxiously, waiting for the spacecraft to recharge. I don't know whether it was her skill, fate, or her panicked prayers that took effect. She almost miraculously got the spacecraft out of the impact path and began to prepare for a smooth re-entry into the atmosphere. But she still couldn't make the impossible possible. The thin air and dust storms on the planet clung to the spacecraft, causing the spacecraft's lifting body to slow down sharply. It neither had enough speed to stay aloft nor slowed down fast enough to complete a normal landing on the rugged surface.

In panic, the emergency solar panels that had been folded during re-entry were re-deployed. Almost instantly, they were torn off the anchor, and the speed of the spacecraft did not slow down at all.

The emergency parachute activated, followed by the landing chute. They couldn't last more than a few seconds before being torn into pieces. In the end, the desperate pilot could only raise the nose of the plane in an attempt to stall the spacecraft. The thruster load exceeded the charging speed, and it stopped with a crackling sound. Due to continuous use, the spacecraft's momentum wheel exhausted its last energy and automatically stopped running. With no other available control surfaces, the spacecraft turned nose down again, relying on the slight lift accumulated during the descent to barely glide over the edge of a low and shallow canyon.

Immediately afterwards, the spacecraft rushed to the ground, and it did not even have enough energy to lower the landing gear or control the direction. It can't do anything.

The loud noise of the impact barely covered up the sound of the sandstorm, and the high-speed sliding belly of the spacecraft landed with a bang, bringing up bursts of flying Martian dust and gravel along the way. As the protruding rocks on the ground got stuck on the short wings, the spacecraft slid left and right, but it also avoided the rocks standing straight on the taxiing path.

The ground beneath the spacecraft gradually rose, causing the nose of the aircraft to gradually penetrate the surface, and the spacecraft's taxi slowed down. Until finally, with the sharp and ear-piercing twisting sound of metal, the spacecraft jolted to a stop, with several kilometers of scratches behind it.

When the crew members woke up one by one, they suddenly noticed a flashing beacon displayed in the miniature navigation ball inside the helmet.

The last astronaut on Mars sat in the living cabin, alone, and recorded the following text on the keyboard:

This is the situation now. I am trapped on Mars with no way to communicate with Hermes or the earth. Everyone thought I was dead, but in fact I was in a living capsule that could last for thirty-one days.

If the oxygen synthesizer failed, I would suffocate. If something went wrong with the water recycling machine, I would die of thirst. If the cabin ruptures, I will probably explode instantly. If none of this happens, I will eventually die from running out of food. So, I'm dead.

He paused for a moment, thinking this was a good ending to the log, and moved the cursor to the save button.

At this time there was a knock on the door.

He stretched his fingers to the keyboard again:

And obviously I have hallucinations now, probably caused by excessive blood loss. I actually thought I heard someone knocking on the No. 1 airlock. This is obviously impossible. After all, everyone has left on the upgraded vehicle (MAV) and will not come back again.

Then there was a more determined knock on the door.

My day? Come again? There was definitely something knocking on the door of Airlock One.

Mark Watney saved the diary, stood up from the chair (without paying any attention to his wounds), and prepared to open the door.