Translation was achieved in the late afternoon on the northeastern continent of Tanshin II, deep in a Desolation Zone. An incredible stroke of luck, even if the region was eminently unsuitable as a base of operations.

The 'Desolation Zones' are the terrestrial feeding and hunting grounds of the deep ocean megafauna - but they are not the wastelands the name suggests. The local ecosystem is perfectly adapted to the tidal waves, mass destruction and topographical devastation caused by the oceanic titans. From the vantage of a levitating drone the landscape looks like a lush steppe environment with clusters of thin pioneer trees amidst massive tangles of grasses and shrubbery - perfect tank country. However, topography scans warn that the ground beneath is a nightmare. The combination of titanic footfalls and the devastation of trees being ripped out by the roots and the soil being turned by massive digging claws render the soil and rock a chaotic and hazardous network of trenches, ravines, blind deadfalls, and fast-moving rivers. Imagine if WW1 had been held in the rainforest and Mother Nature had been a field marshal.

Dismounted heavy infantry or tracked vehicles will find strategic movement extremely difficult - but on the flipside, this terrain is ideal for light infantry. Cover is abundant, camouflage opportunities are endless, and migratory herds of swift-moving grazing animals will foil most bio or heat sensors. Atmosphere is a normal oxygen-nitrogen mix, though with the density of pollen, disease particles and microcontaminants it's not the sort of place to send anyone with allergies. The Desolation Zone ecosystem is optimized for rapid regrowth after catastrophe and that means flooding the air with seeds.

Gravity is unusually low, at 0.7 Earth standard - no doubt contributing to the proliferation of titanic life forms - but the drone's sensors report deeply unusual anomalies linked to the ongoing stellar disturbances. Apparently local gravity conditions are fluctuating between five times standard and absolute zero, though these are mostly smaller events. These flickers last ten minutes to an hour, with a radius between five hundred meters and a thousand kilometers. It does not initially appear that these bursts are intelligently directed.

So far so unusual - but things [i]really[/i] get surprising when the drone switches to scan for power sources. And there, burning in planetary orbit, is an absolutely blinding power spike. It's the output of an unshielded battleship reactor at maximum burn, a frankly ludicrous output of energy - and not least given that it seems to be coming from a [i]cruiser[/i] sized object that is not engaging in combat operations. Currently the object is operating on the other side of the planet's orbit, making getting a good look at it difficult with the drone, but with that reactor output scanners could sense it from anywhere in the system. 

Whatever this object is, it seems to be inert. There are no signs of directed movement, no active scanning pulses. From the scan results, it is about as reasonable to think that this is an ejected battleship reactor core as it is to assume it is a starship.