Stepping out of the Steel


YEAR: 52028 HE

SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class

CHRONICLER: Markus Hadey

LOCATION: Matriark II Landing zone, Hahao.

 

DAY ONE HAHAO EXPLORATION CHRONICLE

Sub-Captain Ortner, a five-strong armed protection unit, the professors, and I, stepped onto the virgin earth of the newly named Hahao. The air is as breathable as Earth, with a near identical mix of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, and Argon. Regulations stipulate: full Purple Hazmat protection gear must be worn until virology can confirm there are no hidden alien viruses in the surround. There is a hot dusty breeze in the air. Luckily, the Hazmat suit has air-conditioning.

     The Matriark II lies on her side like a downed skyscraper made of black steel. The thrusters are out of action as they were designed to absorb the impact upon landing. The rest of the ship is functional and will be running green within the week. The antiquated nuclear power-cells will be stored for future use.

     Sub-Captain Ortner is on high alert. The scans have found many signs of plant and insect life. No mammals have been spotted as of yet. However, the drones only managed to scan a twenty-mile radius. There is a high chance we could encounter something large and dangerous.

 

The nearby trees have huge oval leaves that glimmer with a green metallic sheen. Their trunks are enormous with a height and girth beyond anything seen on Earth. They will provide us with ample timber in future.

 

The scientists are in great spirits. They don’t seem to mind we fell short of our original mission target. Their grins are in stark contrast to the stoic frowns of the hyper-alert protective unit. The unit’s guns remain pointed at the ground for now.

 

The Matriark II, set forth to reach the Mom-z14 galaxy. It was the hope, that once a habitable planet had been colonised, the engineers could build a series of skip-discs back through the galaxies, to form a Skip-drive highway that could cut the journey time from ten millennia to ten minutes.

    

The plan for today is to gather as much information on our immediate environment as we can before we begin to build Hahao’s first farming settlement. The 40,000 strong crew members have all they need within the ship for the time being. Now they have been defrosted, the food and water needed to sustain them has increased beyond the ships sustainable threshold. We have a year to cultivate enough crops needed to sustain us indefinitely.   

 

When we are ready, the embryologists will begin the mass population initiative. The initiative can only go ahead when the Captains and heads of departments agree it’s safe.

 

The scientists have huddled round a gulch. The protection unit appears to be spooked. The joyous excitement of the scientists is not shared by the protection unit.  

I have just seen the cause of the commotion. There are footprints in the dried mud inside the gulch. The footprints appear to be humanoid in origin. Sub-captain Ortner has ordered us back to the ship immediately as a precaution. He doesn’t want to encounter the maker of the footprints with such a small force.     

 


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