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Archive Two

Mission Log:
MET: 02:122:14:35:17

That was quite the nap... I certainly don't feel two years older, but I've got a neck-ache that might be trying to convince me otherwise.

Stem says the Jump Drive is fully charged, so we're making some quick preparations first. A bunch of medical supplies got scattered the first time around, so we're getting stuff to hold them down... that sort of thing.

Thankfully, there's no need to get back in cryo too soon. Crystal has a lot of work to do, and we'll all stay awake until she's done. I think I can probably afford to space these logs out a bit more.

Mission Log:
MET: 02:123:08:45:21

Second jump complete. We're in the radiation field now, so Crystal should have no trouble doing whatever it is she's doing.

Personal Log:
Crystal Clear
MET: 02:123:12:20:30

I'll keep this brief, since Lime Cliff caught me logging crystalline resonance frequencies a few minutes ago and practically had a conniption. Turns out there's a whole other section for that, and how dare I use the wrong one! That must be the first time I've seen him passionate—or even anything but utterly passive—about anything at all. But, hay, I won't get between a pony and his filing.

Regardless, I have started my work, and drafted some of the others into helping me. It's already become clear that this sort of radiation is seriously messing with our charged gemstones. The mission-critical ones are all in the heavily shielded aft section with the engine, so that there's no way they'll get damaged, but the ones we've deliberately exposed to the radiation were all but drained after a few minutes.

Personal Log:
White Noise
MET: 02:142:03:12:55

Oh, buck! BUCK! ALIENS! Giant spider-things! They're everywhere! AUGH! AAAAUGH! HELP US! DISCORD SAVE US ALL! THEY'VE ALREADY EATEN PATCH! I've hidden in my bunk, but I think they know where I am. I don't think I have much ti-

The technician on duty in the Mission Control center was having a pretty boring day. His job was to read through the various reports from the Guiding Wing as they came in, print them as needed, and file them away. There was occasionally something interesting to read, and he enjoyed being able to relay messages to the ponies mentioned in the logs, but for the past week it had been almost exclusively a stream of technical data he couldn't even faintly comprehend.

And then he received a report that the crew he was nominally watching over had been attacked by giant spiders.

Personal Log:
White Noise
MET: 02:142:03:42:20

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I know nopony would ever fall for that, but I bet in about three years time when that message reaches home, someone'll have a good laugh over it.

I told Patch; he was less amused... He seemed offended that I'd let him get eaten in my narrative, and insisted that he would be better able to defend himself against giant spiders than I would. The fact that I got eaten too was little consolation, apparently.

It hadn't taken long for the technician to contact his superiors, and even though it was only thirty minutes later that the second message was received, quite a few ponies had already heard what had happened.

The next morning's papers were headlined with the story of the prank. Within weeks, toy companies had come out with a new line of 'Arachnids from Space' merchandise to accompany the Lambda Mission playset.

Mission Log:
MET: 02:155:12:35:14

Crystal's finished up and we're all getting in cryo now. Once we're through the radiation field, the automated systems should take over and we won't need to wake up until the final one. I'm still going to have my pod wake me every time, though, just to be safe.

The data in this transcript has been modified to comply with standard NPSA formatting, and to include names not logged in the original file.

Conversation logged in [unicorn ship Endeavor], involving non-crew [Focus (F)]

:TRANSCRIPT:

(F) I'm up again, and it looks like the recording system's still working. That's nice.

(F) Everything else seems to be unchanged, too, but we're entering a radiation cloud soon. We knew we'd have to pass through when we launched, but all these other system-failures have me terrified that our hull shielding isn't as functional as it ought to be. I guess we'll find out, though. I made sure I was the one who'd be out of cryo for the duration of the cloud so that the others are safe.

Mission Log:
MET: 07:281:01:44:41

Just letting y'all know everything's fine. We're two more jumps in. I'm confident enough to just sleep the rest of the way, I think. It occurred to me earlier that these pods weren't really meant for quite this many wake-ups.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:84:20:05:33

Everyone's getting up now. We're a couple days from the final jump, and then we just need to use our conventional engines to make a stable orbit around Lambda Prime. I guess I ought to run through the plan, just to make sure I've got it straight.

Get into orbit. Scan for any anomalous heat-sources and perform visual surveys to see if there's any obvious indication of Discord's current or past presence. Locate a stable landing site and take the lander down. Let Crystal, Lime, Noise, and Patch do their thing. Make contact with Discord if possible, and deliver the message. Piece of cake.

Not carrot cake, though.

Personal Log:
Patch
MET: 18:86:05:30:12

Cap' says we're about to make the last teleport, so I gave everyone a small anti-emetic to hopefully counter the nausea. I'm just looking forward to seeing Lambda Prime; both because it's such a big deal, and because I am sick to death of zero gravity. I cannot wait to get out and stretch my hooves, even if it is in an environmental suit.

Plus, once we do get there, I'll actually have something to do. It's great that nopony's been wounded, but there's only so much a doctor can do with healthy people. I am more than ready to get my hooves in the dirt and see whether the soil is at all viable for supporting plant growth.

After entering the final command on his console, Thatch Roof pressed himself back in his chair and waited. The steady hum of the electric lights seemed to grow in intensity, but it soon became clear that it was coming not from those lights but from the internal structure and external hull of the ship itself. The ship did not feel like it was moving, but objects near the walls of the cabin began being accelerated toward the center. The hum reached a crescendo and took on a pulsating, throbbing rhythm. In a moment, the lights shut off and a bright flash came from seemingly everywhere at once.

When Thatch opened his eyes, the stars outside his window were different. He shifted in his chair to see towards the rear of the ship, and hollered "It's over! If you want to see the planet, get up here!'

It didn't take long for everypony to stagger in and crowd around the cockpit. The captain made a few adjustments before putting his hoof into the attitude controller and using it to gently rotate the craft. As it turned, the view out the window gradually shifted, bringing the planet into sight. It was still a significant distance away, and few details were discernible, but smears of blue and white could be seen.

The crew observed it in silence for several minutes before Stem Bolt whistled. "Hard to believe."

"Yeah..." White Noise frowned in confusion. "What is all the blue, though? Are we seeing the atmosphere, or is that water?"

Crystal leaned forward. "I think... I'm not sure. It is an awful lot for it to be water, though."

"Once we're in a stable orbit, there'll be plenty of time to get a better look. If you all could clear out, though, a bit of space would be great."

Personal Log:
Crystal Clear
MET: 18:86:07:42:14

It's water.

Thatch finished the burn to get us in orbit a while ago, and we got a telescope lined up with the planet. It looks like much of the planet is covered in water, and the land... The land has a pretty distinct green tint.

It's like... You know those photographs of the old earth-pony ruins? The ones they took from orbit, where you can see the lush grass and trees and stuff all around. It's like a whole planet of that. There are definitely a few deserts too, but nothing like Eris. This definitely explains the oxygen atmosphere we detected.

Oh, it's also got a moon; a big one. It had me worried for a minute, since we're in a higher orbit than it, but I asked Thatch and he said that it won't be a problem for us.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:86:07:58:37

Well, we've done as much gawking at the planet as we can for right now. At least, as much productive gawking as we can... I'd still be happy to look at it all day. Even if Discord's not down there, the fact that we found life is more than enough to count this as a victory. Our original plan had been to take the descent craft to the surface almost immediately, but now I'm wondering whether this warrants extra precaution. This planet looks like a vast jungle compared to Eris, and if its plants are anything like those of our forests, I'm not confident that an environmental suit will be enough.

I'm going to bring our perigee lower, and ask Crystal to look for any areas near the equator with less vegetation when we make our next pass. Patch would kill me if we landed in a desert, but she'd better be prepared to settle for a grass field.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:87:14:25:12

We've reached perigee now, and Crystal's charting a basic map of the terrain. I've decided to go ahead and bring circularize our orbit at this altitude; it should be a whole lot easier to see the other side of the planet as well, and now the moon won't be blocking our line of sight periodically.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:87:21:40:53

Alright, without specialized surveying equipment that nopony bothered to pack, we're probably not going to get a better understanding of the terrain than we have now. It's like this: The planet seems to have two major landmasses, which altogether cover roughly a third of the planet. The remaining two thirds is covered in vast oceans. The larger of the two landmasses connects to the north pole and reaches close to the south one; the equatorial region is primarily desert. To the north is a large expanse of forested area and several mountain ranges that would make landing nearly impossible. There's a vast expanse of grassland to the north of that which would be ideal for landing, but its latitude is high enough that we'd need to burn extra fuel reaching it. We have enough in reserves to make it manageable, but it is unnecessarily wasteful.

The second landmass is narrower, but also spans the distance from pole to pole. Its equatorial region is almost entirely mountainous, and there are no especially viable landing sites beyond that, so it seems our choices are limited to desert or a grassland unfortunately further north than we'd planned. I'm going to see what Crystal says about it, and verify with Stem Bolt that the second site isn't overly wasteful.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:87:22:06:34

Problem solved. Crystal pointed out a third option, still north but much nearer the equator. It's on the western coast, bordered by mountains on one side and wooded areas on two others, but it is large enough to provide sufficient maneuverability, and we'll have a good sample of geological formations and plant-life. We're going to need to wait for our next pass to land, but fortunately, it doesn't take long at this lower orbit. I told everypony to make sure everything they need is in the lander. It ought to be about mid-day when we set down, and clear skies all around. Good thing we chose this continent, since the dark side has been terribly overcast.

With all their supplies stowed in the landing craft, the crew climbed inside and strapped into their seats. In truth, the 'landing craft' was just the fore section of the Guiding Wing. It contained the medical bay, the tool storage, the common area, and the bunks. It was controlled by the same cockpit that Thatch had used to guide the ship thus far. Once inside, Thatch Roof sealed the bulkhead leading to the jump-drive, and disengaged the docking clamps holding the sections together. Pulsing the reaction-control jets momentarily, he gave the lander enough lateral thrust to push away from the aft portion of the ship.

This design was chosen because there was no viable way to shield the jump-drive from re-entry heat, and because the drive itself was so massive that a huge amount of extra fuel would be required to return it to orbit. The lander craft, once clear of the other section, was free to ignite its engines and begin decelerating to achieve a suborbital trajectory. Its rear section, where it would be entering the atmosphere, was no longer very aerodynamic given the removed compartment, but the engineers had ensured the ship was stable enough to remain upright through the process.

Despite all this careful engineering, none of the passengers had ever experienced a more terrifying landing, pilot included. Thatch was forced to make constant adjustments with the reaction control system, and at one point needed to ignite the main engines and burn a considerable amount of fuel to keep the ship steady enough.

Once the aerobraking part of the descent was finished, Thatch verified that he was over the landing site and deployed the parachutes in sequence. The first was a large drogue chute to begin slowing the craft without jarring the ship; that chute alone would be unable to bring the ship to a safe landing speed, so moments later a much larger, much wider parachute opened up and brought the ship to a steady couple of meters per second. Looking over the displays with a relieved expression, the pegasus at the helm pushed one final switch in order to deploy the landing struts.

As the first leg made contact with the ground, the piston-like structure compressed in on itself and gauged the amount of resistance the ground offered relative to the measured speed of the ship. When the tilt sensor's alarm tripped in the cockpit, it signaled the legs that the ship was beginning to fall in the back starboard direction and the leg compressed further. The next leg contacted the ground, and a similar process ran again, calculating the slope of the ground and adjusting the length of the landing legs accordingly. Within the span of a second, the ship had stabilized.

Mission Log:
MET: 18:87:23:54:32

'Contact light,' you guys. We're here.

We touched down a couple minutes ago. Stem's already up and making sure everything's a-okay. The others are milling about and enjoying actual, Eris-like gravity. It still doesn't feel like more than a couple months have passed, and the cryo-pods did a decent job of preserving us all from atrophy, but it's just weird to think that we've been in space for eighteen years.

I need to go do some push-ups or something.

As the elderly yellow earth pony pushed open the door to the throne-room, a dramatic tribal drum began to play. As she walked forward, approaching the circle of crystalline thrones, it intensified. The rhythm grew faster, the volume louder. As she bowed before-

"Spike, enough!" Twilight smiled apologetically at the mare before her. "He's been practicing. Now, please, what is it you're here for?"

"Ah live out in White Tail Woods, Princess ma'am, an' we don't have any mail service out there so'm here to tell ya... Somethin' strange happened yesterday in the clearin' north of my home."

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