Ok so here's my #2 short. This time I took the first body paragraph of my last story and wrote that into the whole story.
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Captain Thomas Gladion yanked hard on the stabilizers in a futile attempt to right the plummeting craft. He wasn't even supposed to be flying the ship, but with their pilot being critically injured, it was his job as captain to get his unit to safety. The crew were cursing and stumbling to find their seats just as sparks erupted from the console, nearly blinding him. His co-pilot, Zachary Ty, shielded his dark brown eyes as his arms flailed out trying to grab the extinguisher. A hiss sounded by Thom's ear as soft white foam blanketed him and his instruments.
The fires had stopped, but now Thom had to scrape away the sticky repellent just to find the controls. He yanked again but the sinking feeling in his stomach told him that they were still falling, and fast. One engine was completely dead and the second was sputtering with its last breaths of life; this did not seem promising. And where they would land was uncertain as he was not able to see the world below through the cracked windshield. Then as if things couldn't get worse, he heard the low hum of the generators powering down forcefully as the ship was plunged into darkness.
Blinded now and still falling, Zach thrust the ship into a spin to try and slow the speed of their descent while Thom groped for the emergency parachute. After what seemed like an eternity, he flicked something and the ship jerked back suddenly, signaling that the parachute had been released. They slowed down dramatically, plastering everyone to their seats, but Thom didn't believe it was enough. His heart was racing when he realized that in this pitch blackness, he had no way to tell if the ship had righted fully. He pressed against the force of the slowing and grabbed the wing controls, jostling them wildly, trying to get them to catch the air.
It was not enough, however, as they hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Rocks and dirt sprayed over them as they literally bore into the soft earth. The cabin began filling with smoke and Thom feared that another fire had started in the engine which would ruin it for good. Finally they slowed to a faltering stop, rocking this way and that until they settled almost peacefully in silent, velvet night. It was at this time that Thom found the emergency power button, illuminating the world around them including the red, scaled faces of the native Etiri.
The crew sat in silence for a moment staring blankly into the Etiri's angry golden eyes and patting themselves to make sure all their pieces were still in place. Finally, it was determined, as the air cleared of smoke, that the crew would have to go the way of the smoke – out. They were all a bit wary of appearing in the midst of an Etiri village – no, a city – but they pried the battered doors open anyway. Hundreds of Etiri rushed in, grabbing at the soldiers' hair, limbs and clothes and dragging them roughly into the Etirian Night.
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