November 23rd, 2064
Equestrian orbit
ULC Nightmare
0900 Hours
Alarms sounded throughout the Nightmare as its crew raced back and forth. Most of them had recently been woken up from Cryo, and they still felt the after effects of 'freezer burn,' an effect that still hadn't been fully explored. It’s caused by going into cryo while wearing any type of clothing. Most of them were also wondering why the hell they weren't told of it before hand.
After the ships had come out of warp, they were immediately woken up upon the discovery of advanced alien life spanning one continent entirely and two others partially. There was also one more continent on the other side of the planet, which was strangely completely coated in ice despite the fact that the rest of the planet did not appear to be affected by any known ice age.
The planet itself has the mass of two Earths, with a radius of one-point-two-five and a surface comprised of sixty-one percent water and thirty-nine percent land. Its atmosphere was remarkably similar to Earth's with seventy-seven-point-nine percent being nitrogen, twenty-one percent being oxygen, and one-point-one percent being comprised of other elements.
None of that seemed particularly remarkable compared to what the scans had discovered next.
The entire planet was radiating some kind of energy, from the smallest creatures to the highest mountains. Further scans had detected a few other variables of this new found energy as well; some were even speculating that it could be used as a power source.
"All ships reporting a green light, Captain."
"Affirmative, Adan. Patch me through with Admiral Tyson."
Adan was the ship's main AI and was recovered from a crashed military ship on the surface of Luna. Although most of the ship and its armaments were destroyed, the central AI cores were always kept within the center of the ship, miraculously protecting her from the damage done by the impact and the battery of gunfire that had brought the ship down in the first place. She liked to be referred to as she, but AIs can change their voice and the physical appearance projected by holograms.
"Roger that, Captain."A holographic projection of the admiral suddenly appeared in front of Vergil. He noticed crew members running back and forth in the background as well, no doubt doing the same thing they were.
"Admiral, I’m sure you have been presented the results of the scan." Vergil said as he straightened himself out.
"Indeed I have, Captain. And these results are very promising, but this... energy could be dangerous to us. Automated drones are currently being prepped for launch to study this thing more. Civilians should be taken out of cryo once it is determined that it is safe for human habitation. The probe will be sent to a vast forest that seems to span half of the main continent. The energy readings within this location and its surrounding areas are unusually high. Luckily for us, the forest itself seems uninhabited by any of the advanced residents of this planet." The admiral explained as he read off of the holographic tablet, displaying all the current information about the planet.
"What of the natives themselves, Sir? They seem to present a problem if we ever wished to expand beyond this single continent in the future." Vergil stated as a crew member handed him a report, which displayed the same information the admiral had just explained.
"For now we will avoid contact with the natives. But sooner or later we will need to establish first contact with them. Our best bet for a colony would either be the untouched continent, which is completely isolated as far as we know. Or the large forest, which seems to cover enough land and be far enough away for us to go unnoticed until contact is made, given the local’s technological stance." The admiral replied as Virgil put the report away.
"Affirmative, Sir. Standing by for further orders."
"Prepare an exploration team to be sent to the uninhabited continent. The Mark IV MPA Armor should keep them safe from this mysterious energy."
"Roger that, Sir. We'll have a team down there by 1600, Captain Virgil out." The connection was cut and the screen faded away. "Adan, prep a team of marines for planet side"
"Yes, Sir."
Commander Jason Broadway, along with the rest of his squad, had just been taken out of cryo five minutes ago. They had been told to get ready for planet side; needless to say, he wasn't very happy with being stuffed into armor with fresh freezer burn. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience.
They had been stationed on the moon before the world went to hell in a handbasket. He along with his company were to serve as garrison if any wise guy thought it would be a smart idea to attack the moon, which at the time was still vulnerable due to it being nothing but a mining colony. After the war had broken out, the moon saw an increase of investment from nations and companies alike for the purpose of more H-3 being extracted, and with increased size came more protection. While the moon was neutral in the whole ordeal, similar to Sweden during world war 2, there were still countries that didn't like them supporting their enemies, but they had to do what they had to do.
"Hey, Jason, you think we'll see some aliens down there?" asked Michael, the heavy weapons specialist of Alpha squad, as he equipped his armor.
"I doubt it; We've been told not to expect any sapient life. but we’ll still have to watch out for any indigenous lifeforms roaming around anyway." Jason replied as he finished putting on his armor before grabbing his M92AS Standard Assault Rifle, his Y23B multi-barrel rocket launcher, and his standard equipment.
"I think they should just send those eggheads that tagged along for the ride too; they need to actually do something for once." A voice grumbled from the far corner of the room.
"We need to clear the LZ first before they can go. You should know this, Jane." She huffed and went back to checking her weapons and armor, making sure they were in peak condition. She was the medic of Alpha Squad.
"I say we go and take the land that’s already there from these things. They're still probably using pointy sticks for stabby-stab." Added another voice coming from the doorway.
"Jesus, Luna... did you all hit your heads inside those tin cans or something?"
"No, they're not the ones who need to start fucking immediately. While we, on the other hand, do. If we want to actually get to reasonable population levels, at least." Luna replied with mild annoyance as she began to equip on her armor. She was the sniper of Alpha Squad and had just been checked out of the med bay.
"Enough, you three. We're oscar mike in thirty; meet up in hangar bay Z1. We're taking a hawk down planet side."
The Hawk was a multi-purpose dropship with a sleek design meant to serve as a transport and provide air support to ground troops, it was salvaged from a military base near the main city of the Lunar colony and it possessed a 30mm auto-cannon on its nose and powerful F1-5 propulsion engines to propel it along with additional equipment such as active radar and scanners, it made the dropship quite the powerful opponent to face in combat.
"Roger that, Sir!" They said as they snapped to attention.
"At ease, now hurry up and stop talking shit, marines!"
November 23th, 2064
Hangar bay Z1
ULC Nightmare
1500 Hours
"All systems check... we are ready for launch."
"Affirmative, Badger One. Approach with caution, several anomalies have been detected within the LZ."
"Roger that, Fortress. We are go for departure planetside."
The drop ship's engines lit up as it started to hover inside the hangar. After a few seconds of hanging in the air, its engines shifted backward, slowly propelling the drop ship out of the hanger and to the planet below.
"Safe flying, Badger 01. Fortress out."