[IC] Gaia's Glory [A Sci-Fi Nation RP]

[Lady Selune]

The Landing

This... This is a fresh start. Daniel watched through the view screens embedded into the ship as it spiralled, the blue orb of Earth lazily rotating below them. Where there was land, grey and brown stretched, South America a yellow plain from which it would never recover. Africa, torn apart by drought, was almost deserted, only a few enclaves in the very south, where Namibia and South Africa clung on for dear life, and in the very north, where Egypt, the once-cradle of humanity, sullenly stood. Australia was ashen, Canada frozen... He could remember when it was all green.

He turned to the crew on the 'bridge,' of the colony ship, where officers scurried about, preparing for the jump into the Outside; the area where space and time no longer applied. Finally, a crewmember looked up. "President? We're ready to enter the void. When you wish..." She indicated towards a large panel, where a touchscreen sat. With a few taps, the screen flashed red, and he looked down on it, taking a deep breath. 'Jump?' was the singular word on the screen, with two buttons, one red, the other smaller and grey.

Closing his eyes, Daniel pressed down on the red, a jolt running through his body as the entire ship vaulted through everything known. To an observer, it would have simply been swallowed up all at once, as if God himself had simply plucked it away from sight and hidden it somewhere, inside it would be like nothing happened, however...

Four thousand lightyears had been traversed in the blink of an eye. Who knew how long it had actually been, time was a finicky thing, and one of the first tests of the device had turned up ten years- ad that had been a short jump, just to Mars. If they had miscalculated in any way, they could be thousands of years in the future- or past. At least, that was until they confirmed the time on-board. Three minutes; that was how long the special anomaly that marked their passage lasted. Below them, the world of Gaia sat, an unassuming green surface, dual moons merrily spinning around it.

They descend rapidly, the small amount of fuel remaining on board being used to ease themselves down to the surface. They had to be careful, after such a large jump their plasma generator would be down for substantial length of time, a number of months, perhaps even a year. With expert piloting, they landed in a grassy savannah, the Might Of the North hissing down for the last time.

Welcome to New London

[OfWindAndRain]

The Site of the New Horizons Colony, 3 hours and 23 minutes until Colony Cruiser Wanderer makes Landfall
Three dropships touched down in an open meadow, alien grasses waving in familiar breeze- a distant forest of unknown plant species surrounding the area.

Each dropship were VTOLs- quad-engine beasts large and strong enough to carry a platoon of infantry and a main battle tank in its bowels, or a giant shipment of supplies, or otherwise. Large spheres were on either side of its rear landing gears; the gun turrets hid their weapons in the hull of the ship. The front rotary cannon was retracted to its port just underneath the dropship’s cockpit, and the extra armaments stored underneath the two wings on either side- the same wings that supported the swivel-ball-mounted jet engines. Small Active Protection System (APS) turrets had already popped up from their place inside the top and bottom of the aircraft, scanning for threats with their dual-purpose radar.

The rear of the settling HCC-44 dropship popped open, and then hydralics began lowering it the ground as the inside’s atmosphere depressurized and equalized with the planet’s.

It was not the mission commander that walked out of the first ramp, but rather a team of four bulky exosuits, pioneers of the colony that act as security and labor. There were four slots for direct-use utility items- one on both forearms, and two can be mounted on the back of the shoulder, with arms that lift them up and over. A .30 caliber machinegun was mounted on each one of their left shoulder, only one carrying a heavier .50 caliber. On their right arms was a flamethrower, a hose locked to their arms leading back to a large cylindrical tank sitting horizontally at their lower back.

There was no sign of natural wildlife, as the twelve total Advanced Mechanized Infantry Support Units (AMIS) marched out of the four dropships, each of them standing at eight feet tall, and armored only to protect the wearer from the environment and from heat.

The dropships lifted off as they disembarked, starting to circle the area and wait for the colonization ship to arrive.

Eight of the armed AMIS units spread out in a circle, equidistant from each other, and walked to the edge of the meadow. It wasn’t circular, of course, but that didn’t matter too much. They were instructed to leave a circular ‘green’ as large as they could make it, and then start burning until they ran out of fuel. The idea was to have an area that can be used for both research and pleasure, and dedicate the surrounding area to future expansion. The colony ship itself was landing nearby, in an open field; the remaining four of AMIS’s would be burning a path to said field.

They had been launched from the Wanderer as it entered orbit, another half-dozen ships arriving at more or less the same time as it. To ensure they claimed the spot they had planned all along, the three dropships had been launched, jetting down into the atmosphere before anyone else. There were research posts on this planet, but this mission had one goal- supremacy.

Eight exosuits engaged their flamethrowers at more or less the same time, sweeping back and forth in short bursts, letting the chlorine triflouride fuel- jetting out from high-pressure nozzles in extremely small amounts, at high speeds to coat a large area with surprisingly little- burn through anything and everything. As a fuel that could literally burn through concrete, it was deemed efficient enough to be used to clear large areas of foliage. The flames cut straight through the foreign softwood of the native trees, easily more flexible and more fibrous than Earth trees. Within twenty minutes, the mechs had gone through only a fourth of their fuel supply, and had continued a steady advance to burn an area large enough for a small town to be erected.

Dutifully, the remaining four had chosen the direction that led to the planned spaceport, and took turns, glassing a pathway to the spaceport by using more fuel than strictly necessary to melt the ground as well as the trees in the way. The heat all around them was intense, but their carbon nanotube suits kept them cool and safe from flame and smoke, the only effect the razing having on the exosuits being the titanium alloy frames and thickly insulated electronics receiving soot marks and a tiny bit of melting, respectively.

8 days and 16 hours after Landfall
You could hardly see the scorched soil anymore, thought Mission Commander Lawrence Iverson. The majority of the scorched area had holes dug deep for foundations straight to the bedrock, allowing for concrete to be laid without any fear of sinking into the ground or somesuch. Various construction equipment that had been brought dug the great underground portion that housed the colony ship’s reactor, the containment system set up before the ship had even begun dismantling.

Now, the mentioned reactor had already been installed- it was one of the first things that needed to be completed. Housing was being set up, and a fence had been installed in the green foreign lawn that sat at the center of the colony. Barracks had been set up as well, with an accompany mess hall. A dozen and a half other buildings were currently in construction, colonists rushing to and from piles of supplies and the construction sites, working to finish the initial settlement so research, expansion, and manufacturing can commence. The same digging machines that had been dedicated to assisting the power plant’s construction were now halfway between the colony ship and the new settlement, working busily away to create a strip mine. The dirt they dug up was deposited in a wide ring all the way around the future colony, piled on top of a concrete and steel-reinforced wall, before being topped with an electrified steel fence.

There hadn’t been any problem with local wildlife, though sensors set up just behind the fense picked up movement on the edge of the burned perimeter- here and there, intermittent, but generally shying away from those who brought flame and metal.

A good start on a new world.

Summary

Colony ship landed, dismantled
Powerplant online; cold fusion reactor
Basic wall erected
Foundations laid
Barracks/Mess Hall constructed
Many other constructions in progress
Strip mine in progress

[Lauder]

Earth was a fleeting sphere behind the Korean transport, civilians looking out as they approached the colonial ship meant to whisk them all away to the new world known as Gaia. It was a rather small and unimpressive in its stationary orbit above the planet, but it only grew in magnificence as the colonists drew closer to what was the one ship their esteemed King cared about. Of course, their lord also cared about the lives of the citizens on board as they were the last hope of Korea ever becoming known as a superpower. It was a thought that lurked in many Korean’s minds that day, especially the colonists who saw this as a chance to please their lord, unless their assigned governor did not run the colony into the ground first, a small chance that may happen as the king had gone through extensive requirements to choose the person that would lead New Korea to glory.

Within minutes, the colonists were aboard the ship,     the New Seoul; the ship that would be acting as the home for the colonists before transforming into the capital of the entire colony. One such colonist Oh Ji-Tae watched as the ship lurched forwards, before disappearing should one have been watching from the outside. Then, it came to a stop, orbiting now what was Gaia with its pristine surface, ready for the colonists.

They all knew that they needed to be sure not to destroy their new home, lest they see another Earth, but at the same time, the planet was undoubtedly busting with raw materials that Korea strived for. The ship began moving into the atmosphere, activating thrusters to began slowing down the ship’s velocity. Ji-Tae gripped the sides of his seat as he felt gravity pulling him down towards the planet, luckily for everyone, the straps held, albeit loosely fitting at that. Yet, with careful flying the ship made it’s bumpy landing, scraping into the ground, leaving a trail of destruction in the rocky ground. It slowed to a halt, finding the colonists inside frightened for their lives.

No one was hurt, except for an old man who suffered a broken arm after his straps gave way on the landing. The intercoms of the colony ship came to life, “Welcome to New Seoul of planet Gaia,” the voice of the governor stated, a cheerful tone. The colonists unstrapped themselves and cheered, happy that they had not died upon the landing.

Now it was time for the fun to begin.

[gorgenmast]

A brilliant flash of white light and Hawking radiation momentarily punctuated the blackness of space, heralding another arrival from Earth. In an instant, the blinding effulgence vanished, and in its place drifted the starship Vanguardia. As the vessel basked in Theia's warming glow, any first impressions of the Vanguardia's grandeur or majesty were quickly dispelled. A conical shield of burnished vanadium-titanium alloy at the front of the vessel was pitted and pocked with a dozen craters - the aftermath of the Vanguardia crashing into microscopic dust motes at relativistic speed - was all that protected the vessel's delicate body from the rigors of the void. An open skeleton of metal scaffolding painted in white insulative foam comprised most of the vessel's shape, and a circulatory system of wiring, tethers, and ducts was webbed over this framework. Pressurized modules and interconnected tunnels coursed through the Vanguardia's frame like inflatable hamster tubes. An exposed void drive was interwoven with a network of wires and tubing to fuel nacelles and thrusters at the rear of the craft. The only parts of this awkward contraption that might survive a landing on any solid planet were two large glideships docked with the pressurized nodules at the center of the vessel. Vanguardia was by no means an impressive vessel. It was a rushed, flimsy contraption built in orbit by a people desperate to flee their doomed homeland and sow the seeds of a new nation in the stars.

The Chileans understood that their nation's time on Earth - and perhaps humanity's - was nearing its end. Antarctica was melting into slush, threatening to drown the nation within the space of a decade or so. Having nearly been destroyed by their equally-desperate neighbors, Chile was in no position to fend off her enemies when the Argentines decided to finish the job. Caught between the rising Pacific and a resource-starved dictatorship, the Chilean people had nowhere to go but up.

Trying times to be sure. But Captain Javier Faustino was no stranger to trying times.

Captain Faustino sipped on a microwaved pouch of yerba mate as he settled into the command seat of the Vanguardia's bridge. Bridge was perhaps an overstatement for this cramped space; the command and control center of the Vanguardia was merely another pressurized module positioned behind the vessel's nose shield. Dozens of display screens were mounted at the front of the bridge, each displaying a multitude of data points, ship system statuses, and external camera feeds of various points on the spacecraft. But in the middle of all these glowing screens there was a plexiglass viewing cupola pointed out ahead of the ship in order to provide the bridge with a spectacular view of whatever lay in front of the Vanguardia. At least, it would if the huge vanadium shield at the front of the starship were not in the way.

"Go ahead and fire the shield separator charges," Faustino asked of the flight crew at their terminals. "Let's open the blinds."

((Suggested listening))

The ensigns nodded in silent accord before rapping away at their keypads. A series of dull thuds resounded through the Vanguardia as the locking mechanisms holding the shield in place disengaged, followed by a abrupt roar of a pyrotechnic device pushing the vanadium shield up and away from the nose of the Chilean starship. The viewing cupola filled with Theia's golden light as the grayish-yellow shield tumbled slowly out of view. And squarely in the center of the newly-unobstructed windshield, Gaia Secundus was framed in the blackness of space. As the planet came into view, the flight officers craned their heads over their terminals to look out the cupola and the Captain leaned forward to get a better look of this ripe virgin world.

At this distance, the planet was roughly a third of the Moon's size as seen from Earth's surface. A marvelous, multicolored gibbous of azure seas, wispy white cloud formations, orange and yellow ergs, and pinkish salt deserts. But most astounding to Captain Faustino and the flight crew was the abundance of green on Gaia's surface. A hundred shades and hues of brilliant green bespoke a quantity and diversity of life that had not existed on Earth for ten thousand years. The Chileans thought back to their last glimpses of their own dying continent - the vast Amazon rainforests withering into a brown tumor of defoliated plantlife creeping across the equatorial zones of South America - and they could not help but to be astounded by Gaia's unspoiled beauty.

"We're going to have to do better on this planet," Faustino said to no one in particular between sips of yerba. "This is our species' last shot at survival, so let's not blow this."

"Captain, we have four hours until atmospheric entry after these last course corrections," a swarthy Brasilian-looking ensign called out.

"Right on schedule," Faustino acknowledged with an approving clap. "Wake the non-flight crew for landing procedures, and see that all cargo is secured and stowed; those glideships are going to be a bumpy-enough ride as it is without 300 tons of gear jostling about."

"Yes, captain," A pair of ensigns declared.

"Now, my understanding is that we're not going to be alone down there. There are some outposts and early settlements on the surface as it stands. Do we have any idea where those might be located?"

"None yet, captain," the communications officer reported. "I am in the process of contacting the surface on several frequencies."

"Please do. And figure out who, if anyone, is going to be under our flight path. Glideships this size entering the atmosphere at this speed are going to make a hell of a sonicboom. You might advise them to plug their ears."

[null123]

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