Here's few things you are supposed to have IC knowledge.
* This planet has slightly stronger gravity than Earth, 1.1 G. It shouldn't bother you since the mothership slowly raised its gravity to this level over the long trip.
* Length of day is a bit over 25 hours.
* Year lasts 280 Earth days.
* It's rotation axis is titled like Earth's but not as much. Seasonal effects will probably be less notable.
* The planet has three moons. All about same mass, but different size and shape.
"Now. This is something I like. Guys, let me do a quick atmos check, and then we're good to go. Oh, and get me some water from that lake. And the river."
Run tests for the atmosphere and the compounds in the air. Try to spot the gases emitted by the life forms.
Also, make myself a coffee.
You are about to check the sensors when Meteorology units helpfully send their first report.
Atmospheric pressure on sea-level is same as on Earth, despite of stronger gravity.
Composition of atmoshpere: 75.6% Nitrogen, 23.3% Oxygen, 1% Argon, 0.03% Carbon dioxide, remaining being mix of helium, neon, hydrogen and methane.
Preliminary analysis of weather patterns indicate that our pre-existing forecast models may be usable with minimal modifications.
Please except proper forecasts in near future.
Your own measurements show presence of dust and traces of some organic matter. That might need more detailed analysis later.
You pour yourself a cup of coffee. It looks a little watery so you carefully take a sip. And promptly spit at back.
"What is this shit?"
You send angry high priority message to the IT-support complaining about how your profile isn't synchronized with this coffee maker. Two minutes later you receive a response. The IT guys offer their deepest apologies and tell your profile is now properly sync'ed. They promise to solve why this happened in first place and promise it will not happen again. You pour another cup of coffee and sure enough, this time it's exactly how you like it.
I think I'd like to discuss with the other people in the base about exiting the base and checking out these flying birds. Do we have any straight up weapons? If so, I'd like to grab one, preferably a rifle, and then exit with as many people as want to join me, all the while muttering about these damn bloody bugs and how I'm too old for this.
You get a .308 caliber rifle from armory and head to the airlock, waiting for the doctor who volunteered to come along.
Hmm.
New plan.
Grab a submachine gun, and load a clip with a different tranquilizer for each shot.
Once we bring one of the bastards back, we can run some simple tests to see what works on what animals.
Replace my previous pistol with a taser pistol.
Let's see. Taser pistol, net gun, tranq submachine gun, and shotgun.
I think I'll be good.
Take scientist advice and wear a hazmat suit
(Well, that's one way to check what works. Let's hope every bullet will hit its target.)
You follow Theron to the armory and get your gear. Unlike your boss, you decide to follow the protocol and wear your enviro-suit. It's nice fullbody suit made of layered materials providing complete insulation from external atmoshpere, protection against pierching and impacts and thin hydrophobic layer to shrug off water. The helmet is also very form fitting, providing you neat HUD, motion sensors, infrared and low-light vision.
With that done you head to the airlock and wonder if your boss is trying to get himself demoted.
Go with the group heading to check out the birds
As everyone else has non lethal gear I take a large caliber hunting rifle and a smg along with taser pistol and wear a environment suit like the research team suggested. I watch for predators and any large roaming animals that could be a threat
Worried of possible dangers of large game you get smallest gauss rifle you can find. It will sure drop down biggest predators and absolutely annihilate any hostile bird you might encounter. Having healthy dose of paranoia you too wear your eviro-suit as protocol demands and head to the airlock.
"Our first order of business is to get a lay of the land and captured anything we can. If we get rid of the animals, predators are less likely to appear, which means that we can study them when we want."
Grab a pair of binoculars. Take the weakest and strongest tranquilizers and a dart gun.
You get your binoculars and try to give orders to your subordinates. Quite soon you find yourself peer pressured into bird hunting. This isn't starting well, your authority already crumbling.
Take a first aid kit, water testing kit, some food and water, a small pistol, and some small liquid canisters. If we aren't already wearing some, put on some sort of anti microbial suit, and insist the others do the same. Contact geology team.
"Have you found any traces of unnatural constructs that could indicate intelligent life?"
After receiving their reply, he turns towards György.
"On it. May I ask a security team member to accompany me, should the avians be hostile?"
EDIT: Also, check in with any other biology teams to ensure they've landed safely. See if they've found anything unusual.
You follow the protocol to the letter and prepare properly for trip in alien enviroment, packing enough water and liquid food to last at least a day. As you walk towards the airlock you send your questions to other teams. All other units have landed safely, expect Geology Unit 12 whose target site is furthest away. And no, nobody have found anything particularly interesting yet as most of them have landed only few minutes ago, as Geology Unit 7 points out in rather rude manner.
You reach the airlock and...
"WHAT?! WHERE IS YOUR DAMN ENVIRO-SUITS?" Breaking your quiet habits for a moment you proceed to give Alex and Theron education why it would be good idea to wear enviro-suits on alien planet, the health benefits it offers and very detailed description of possible dangers of NOT wearing one. They both go back to get their suits looking a bit embarrassed while you shake your head in disappointment.
Once Alex and Theron come back you all step into airlock, get throughtly disinfected and be lowered onto the surface. You carefully step on the grass and slowly head to south. The grass is thicker than you expected, probably due gravity, and as you walk you notice it is very resilient. It slowly rises up behind you, completely undamaged after being stomped down.
The team stops about 30 meters away from the birds and Alex takes better look with his binoculars. The birds are big, having wing span of 1.5 meters, and come on two color variations. One is dull gray like the rocks they are resting on and other is black with thin white stripe going down its long throat. Their beak is dull yellow and almost as long as their neck is. Untrained person would completely mistake it for native Earth bird, but you aren't untrained and their four eyes are striking reminder that they are in fact an alien creatures.
For most part the birds don't seem to care about your presence. Except few which are looking at your direction. Or at least you think they are looking at you since they are facing your group. Their eyes give them so wide field of vision that they could be looking basically anywhere.
1. Alex Raman, Theron Drakosen, Cromwell Jackson, Mark Redtail and Jonathan Pendle.
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Topic: The Mind: Day 4 - Finale (Read 114119 times)