(5) Welcome To Base

The salvage vessel lowered slowly into the atmosphere, with the landing thrusters firing there was the most incredible noise Tarkath had ever heard. His entire body was shaking violently, as he sat staring out of the window at the planet below, he couldn't help notice how beautiful it looked, like a big green emerald shining in the darkness of space.

He had seen it before, during the battle, and since then through the windows of his captor’s ship, but not from this close, it seemed almost unreal. As they lowered closer to the planet he could see the continents covered with bright green vegetation, separated by vast oceans of sand.

The ship's shaking made it almost impossible to focus properly on the ground below, everything was blurring together, with all the colours mixing and blending to create a beautiful shining green like he had never seen back on his home planet.

His thoughts drifted to his homeworld, the expanses of plains and sparse grasslands that he had been so used to as a child. At that he was suddenly very worried about his family, and wondered if they knew he was alive.

He had not been allowed to contact them since he was captured, but not counting the incident in the holding cell he had been treated well and had even become quite close friends with Endrin. He had learned a lot from him about the fruitlessness of this war that was going on.

Endrin still maintained his authority and seemed just as mysterious and powerful as the day he had woken him in the cell, but he could see Endrin's human side, and had come to trust in him and his judgment. Tarkath could see why he was so well respected among the men he commanded.

As the ship got closer to the surface, a large desert area between two small continents, the shaking eased, and he could see a large tower directly below reaching into the sky. The thrusters seemed to become quieter and quieter as they reduced their force on the air.

The ship sank slowly and the tower came could be seen clearly, thousands of windows all the way down and round the construct. Tarkath looked closely at the upper levels, people bustling around behind the small windows carrying on with their work, ferry resources and other supplies to and fro. As the vessel drew closer to the ground he could see all kinds of ships, silent in the parking bays behind giant windows and doors.

Abruptly the most incredible bang shuddered through the entire ship and then ceased. Tarkath's chair almost shook itself from it's fixings but everything settled and all became silent, the engines had stopped, the vibrations slowly disappeared and everything was still.

The ship had landed. This was Base.