<div class="floatleft">(http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h242/jenna_sheffield/Elliquiy/MarsColonyHeadshot.png)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Character name:</strong></td><td>Dr. Katelynn Royse</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Location:</strong> </td><td>Aboard the Tilt-Rotor</td></tr><tr><td><strong>With:</strong> </td><td>The Whole Gang</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Doing:</strong> </td><td>Sitting in her seat on the Tilt-Rotor</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"All passengers and crew to return to your seats NOW. Full EVA suits. Put those lids and gloves on, people. We're coming in hard!"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Katelynn jolted out of her thoughts as the Colonel's words thundered through the cabin. Her training kicked in and she had her helmet over her head and snapped into place within moments...her body moving on automatic rather than her having to think about it.  Ahh...the wonders of training.  Out the window the engineer could see the rotors begin to tilt back into their upright positions.....then saw one of the blades begin to coast (she could tell as the blades returned to zero pitch to reduce their drag as they rotated through the air).  As soon as they were without the second, counter-rotating blade assembly she felt the aircraft begin to auto-rotate thanks to the law of conservation of angular momentum.  Helicopters did it when they lost their tail rotors.  A descending tilt-rotor was essentially a helicopter....and without the counter-rotating engine, the fuselage began to slew.  Looking back at the tail section, she could see the rudder hard over....trying to counter it....but proving to be less and less effective the slower they moved.<br/><br/>Luckily for them though, the Colonel proved to be a pretty competent pilot and set them down with a minimum of fuss....though from the force of the impact and the auto rotation in addition to the subsequent jolts afterwards, Kate was pretty sure they wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.  Yes...they were down....and down they would stay.  Quite some distance from home with a busted airplane.  With a bit more luck the environmental systems aboard would continue to function and the airlocks would be fully intact.<br/><br/>As soon as the vibrations from the second engine began to die off, indicating that they were powering down, Kate was out of her seat and moving along the windows trying to get a better look at the engine nacelle.  She'd have to get out there and look at it before she could say anything for sure....beyond the fact that it was broken.  They wouldn't be going anywhere without getting the second engine operating.  But even before they looked at the engine....she wanted to know what the readouts were on the instrumentation.<br/><br/>Moving forward, she stuck her head into the cockpit.  "Colonel....everyone alright up here?  What happened with that engine?"