Stellar

Chapter 11: The Stretch

They climbed the rope ladder as fast as they could hoping to escape the monster in the hive that had been following them.

"Hurry guys!" A man yelled from the ship flying above them holding the ladder.

"We are climbing as fast as we can!!" Yelled Robert.

"Go! Go! Go!" yelled Livy. They all climbed as fast as they could. They stopped for a moment and watched as every ship one by one was being shot down by the swarm of creatures. They looked and saw that all the ships below atmosphere almost don't make it. By the time the swarm was done flying, about 15 of the ships in the fleet were shot down, leaving them with only 10 ships left. They continued to climb on as fast as possible and they finally made it to the ship.

"Yes! We made it guys! We're gonna be okay! We're gonna be okay!" Robert said as a tear ran down his cheek.

"I'm so happy we made it! I can't wait to-" Jake was cut off by the roars of the beast below that was chasing them. The three looked over the edge of the ship and watched as it exploded from the ground, roaring. It almost looked like something straight out of Godzilla. The beast jumped up and SMACK!: a huge explosion and 5 of the ships were done in a matter of seconds. SMACK! again and 2 more were gone.

"Boys, I don't think we are out of it yet!" Livy said in a very concerned tone.

"Yeah, you're right-"

Jake was cut off again. This time by Robert saying, "Oh my gosh! LOOOK!!"

In that moment, a tail swung at the ship, hitting the back propeller. The smack of the beasts tail knocked Jake off the ship, but he was then caught by Livy, while Robert was fast asleep in the corner, knocked out cold.

"JAKE! I got you! Hold on! Don't let go!" Livy yelled as she looked to the rest of the cannon and soon found that everyone but the pilot was dead or unconscious.

"I'm slipping Livy! Don't let me go, please!" Jake said as he looked her in the eyes.

"I can't pull you up! You're too-" Livy screamed, but before she can even finish her sentence, Jake was talking again.

"Livy, you are a great friend and you and Robert are going to become great masters of space. But I think it's the end of the line for me." He looked her in the eyes, both of them glistening in the sun, filled with tears.

"No! I can't let you g-" Before even finishing her sentence again, Jake let go.

"NOOOOOOO" Livy yelled at the top of her lungs as she watched what felt to be like slow motion as Jake fell backwards closer and closer to the beast and the ground. In slow motion, the beast opened its enormous mouth and Jake was swallowed whole. The slow motion feeling ended as if it was a movie. Robert was now hugging Livy after he guessed what happened cause he had just woken up.

The pilot suddenly screamed, "BRACE!"

Livy and Robert looked out the window and saw two of the last three ships hurtling towards them in a heaping ball of fire. CRASH! It smacked into their ship. The ship spun out of control, losing half the crew to the open door where Robert looked out and watched as they fell past the trees, never to be seen again. The ship continually spinning was getting closer and closer to the ground.

"ROBERT! I want you to know that I've always thought you were kinda cute!" Livy said with her eyes squinted tightly ,bracing for the impending doom that was soon to arrive.

"You WHAT?!" He shouted as he looked at her, wondering why she wouldn't have told him about this until now.

In that moment, CRASH! The ship hit a tree, almost bouncing off, and then slid into the dirt.

The crew, now all dead for sure, tumbled over in their seats as Robert opened his eyes to see Livy next to him, unconscious. "Livy, wake up!" He yelled anxiously, checking her pulse, hoping she's alive. To his relief, she had a strong pulse. Robert dragged Livy's body out of the now crumbled ship and looked up to see the one ship escaping off into the sky, up to the main ship just outside the atmosphere. He thought to himself, I have to get us off this planet.

Then, Robert remembered from training that every ship higher than Version 3 has a droid repair button and emergency radio. He ran over to where he remembered it being in the simulator. "YES!" he screamed as he opened the hatch to see to a big red button and a radio. He clicked the button and about 20 different drones begin to weld and saw and scramble as they slowly put the ship back together. Robert then grabbed the radio and said "Code 8! CODE 8! I repeat, do not leave atmosphere! We are on planet with survivors! The ship is being repaired by the drones as we speak, but when we arrive we will need medical attention asap!" '

He almost yelled out of excitement when he heard a voice over the radio's static that said, "Copy that! Over." He smiled a huge big smile, bigger than anyone's smile ever, as he walked over to Livy and set her up against a tree. He wrapped her in leaves for warmth. He laid next to her and was filled with restlessness as he thought of all the things he was gonna do when he finally escaped this hellscape of a planet. He closed his eyes, laid his head on Livy's shoulder and took a deep breath. Robert let out a huge enormous sigh of relief as he fell fast asleep to the sound of the droids sawing and working on the ship.