Chapter Two: The Local Forest

Jonathan put on a survivial suit. It had been designed specifically for this mission, different components could be added or taken away as was necessary to the plant he was on. After strapping on a unitility belt, Jonathan leaned over the pilot's chair and activated the hatch. He was met with a blast of frigid cold air. the local temperature was lower than Jonathan had expected by the state of the forest. It was a dark night and the only light came from the stars. Either the plant he was on had no moon, or it was not visible from his location. This didn't sit right with Jonathan; Sigma Four was supposed to have rings, and he knew from seeing the rings of saturn in person how much they glowed.
Puffs of moisture left jonathan's mouth every time he breathed out. It reminded him of cold winters when he was a child. He was struck by how dry the air felt.
Jonathan shoudl have had enough supplies to last him months in deep space, but the design of Starfish was such that he could not currently access them. The pods with all his gear were on the engine pod, still in orbit.
Jonathan took a close look at the exterior of the Starfish's landing pod. He kept from touching the surface, knowing it would burn him. All the important parts seemed to be intact.
There was a limited amount of supplies available to Jonathan at the time. The landing pod only had a limited amount of power to itself, and only a certain amount of food. When attatched to the Main body of the ship, the enines could power the pod and food could be nrought up from stores.
In a perfect world, Jonathan should have been able to explore the entire system and pick the most suitable planet to land on. His mission was to plot a suitable orbit, and then begin dropping automated parts of the vessle before he landed. the engine body of the ship would serve as a satellite in orbit to help him with scientific studies. the various equipment pods would be dropped onto the surface before he would land, and would have a satellite hook-up and generator waiting for him when he landed, along with various stores and equipment to begin the set-up of a colony.
What he had was the landing pod and. Hopefully, radio contact with the rest of the ship.
Jonathan went back inside the starfish and sat at the controlls. He tried to bring up the engine body of the ship, but the signal was weak. His range was limited, and he ship was hurteling around the plant at a high velocity. there was only a minute or two in which he could communicate with the vessle. His first priority was to attmept to stabalise the orbit. On the first pass the ship made, he ordered a quick burn of the solid fuel maneuvering jets, hopefully helping the orbit out. On the second pass, he prepared the various pods for drop. Athough the orbit was better than it was, it was still decaying fast. Jonathan estimated he only had a few days where the ship would be in a serviceable orbit, and he only had a few hours of power left in the lander pod of the Starfish. His first priority was to get a generator to the surface so he could get power and possibly set up a better communications system.
When the ship made it's third pass overhead, jonathan timed the drops as best he could. Sixteen different storage pods broke off the main vessle and began dropping towards him. He knew that with the bad orbit and contracted calculations, the margin of error was large. The best way he could think to get the supplies he need would be to aim for himself.
Within a minute, he saw firebals dropping out of the sky. It was too dark for him to accurately see where they were landing, he could only hope that they would be somewhere near his position.
On the fourth pass, Jonathan made another effort to shore up the orbit. For the time being, there was nothing more he could do. he shut the power off inside the Starfish and ventured outside to find the first of sixteen storage pods.