NationStates Jolt Archive

It was a small world, a moon actually. It hadn't even gotten more than the official alphanumeric designation replaced with a true name yet. In the eyes of the Star Empire, let alone the galaxy at large, it was not much more than another desert moon with no known strategic value or natural resources. As such, few at all ever even approached its orbit around the parent gas giant; and of those few, only a limited number ever left and those with the usual wild spacer tales of a haunted planet.

The truth of the matter, though, was that a small research complex sat on the moon's sandy surface with a destroyer assigned to patrol nearby space and guard the facility. However, said destroyer was back at her home port for a routine maitenance check and had been gone for the better part of five weeks. As such, there was nothing to check on the blip at the edge of sensor range that was steadily getting stronger.

Once the alien ship slid into orbit, the power signature of the facility would be readily detectable. Even though it was designed for low-emission for stealth reasons, that factor didn't matter at such close range.

OOC: The ship entering orbit is up for grabs. Anyone can claim her as their own. Make it a military ship or not, either is fine with me.[/

PFS Beagle, a Federal Navy Expeditionatry Yamato-II Class Super-Dreadnought was the ship in question. The Yamato-II class of ship was built to be an effective deterrant against entire fleets, so the crew were unafraid of anything that could be thrown their way. Slowly but surely, the mighty warship entered orbit of the moon.

Bridge Of The PFS Beagle...

Captain of the Beagle, Federal Captain Mattias Forga, stepped up to the sensor array

"What do you see, ensign?" he asked the young recruit sat in front of the screen

"W-w-well sir, we're in uncharted space - again" he stuttered "There appears to be some form of life down there"

"Is there?" Forga pondered, pressing his Ear-Comm-Link "Echo Team, prepare for surface exploration"

ooc: Ustio you FT now!!!!!!!!!!! i'll probably come in later

OOC: *Laughs evilly* Yes, unfortunately for you, I am.

ooc: ???? *retreats back to home then comes back with the superweapon he and Greywatch control* "you wanna go there" joking of course

OOC: having to go off for a bit, this is a brief post for that reason

IC:

Though the Beagle was close enough, and no doubt large enough, to detect, there was narry a peep from the complex. Nor would any attempts to hail the facility merit any results. Though it gave off an intense reading on scans for life, the inhabitants were either unwilling to respond or unable to respond.

From orbit, the Federation vessel would see a massive domed structure covering at least a dozen acres with a metalic surface from what looked to be overlapping plates. Scans would also show multiple sub-surface levels.

A small shuttle flew down from the bay of the Beagle to the surface. A team of several Federal Guardsmen quickly disembarked and headed inside. They advanced slowly along the main corridor, looking around for any signs of life. Although scans said the place was still running and functional, there appeared to be nothing living here

Then, as they turned a corner into another corridor, one of the Guardsmen flung his arm out in front of his collegues, stopping them in their tracks, his head cocked to one side, as if listening to something the others could not hear

"Wait!" he said, holding them back

The inside of the dome was overgrown with plantlife that extended far beyond the original boundaries they had been given. There were also signs of a firefight having taken place rather recently. The least dense path though the foliage led to a room in the core that, judging from the high-tech look of the place, had something to do with the computer.

In front of an open panel lay a skeleton with vines interwined with the bones. On the floor in front of the corpse was a row of chips that had been pulled from the computer. In fact, the skeleton's hand was gripping a chip that had been half pulled out. The main screen covering one wall of the room was flashing gibberish and static. Whoever the skeleton had been when alive, it was obvious that he had been pulling the chips to disable the computer and that they would have to be reinserted into the slots to reboot the complex's systems.

Once that had been done, the monitor would briefly blank out before an animation of a growing tree appeared only to be replaced with a map of the complex. It wouldn't be hard to figure out the dots on the map indicated people as the landing party's locations would no doubt be known to the leader and quickly matched up to the dots near the top of the map. However, there was also a group of a dozen dots two levels down in a room marked with various hazard symbols on the map. Now that the computer had been rebooted, the doors would slide open on their own.