NationStates

Pellepossa was an 'Unsettled World' located in the recently discovered Tharmos System in Delta Quadrant. In the context of the Daphnai Dominion's Planetary Classification System a 'Unsettled World' was a planet that only possessed a single, meager settlement and not much else. By law it was fully part of the Dominion but in practice most of the planet was unoccupied, unsettled, and undeveloped with some areas still largely unexplored and whole swathes of territory were left unpatrolled and unmonitored. For this reason space patrols had been doubled, as well as to make up for the poor defenses of the single colonial settlement of Thaxyn and it's mediocre garrison. It was typical for early settlements to be disorganized sprawls of spartan shelters. The boundaries of these early colonies were often broad and vaguely defined, with arbitrary borders that often began "somewhere over by that rock formation" and typically ended "along this creek here" along with similar basic geographic definitions. Thaxyn, in typical daphnai fashion, was founded on a rather hilly area along the western coastline of the largest of Pellepossa's two continents, which Dominion had taken to calling Erasophi. Pellepossa was considered ideal for colonization largely in part because Erasophi was largely a dry summer climate and thus the preferred biome of the daphnai, resembling the environment of their homeworld Ardoxa rather pleasantly. Situated at the mouth of a river the daphnai hadn't even bothered to name yet, Thaxyn sat poised to dominate a large bay as it towered over the lower riverlands beyond the hills and cliffs it was situated on while languishing in the shadow of a great mountain. There wasn't much in the settlement, yes. Aside from housing there was the typical barracks for the garrison, a large hangar for spacecraft, and a market one could find in most basic settlements. There was of course also the rudimentary government complex which, for the moment, housed both the Administrator (who was in charge of both the city and the outlying lands that would soon belong to it) and the Executor (who functioned as the planet's governor) as well as other government officials and representatives of the Autarch and Her Will. There were also basic amenities in the form of an aqueduct, a public bath, a sport & combat arena, some outlying farms down in the river valley, a clearing right in front of the government building that was being set aside for a public park in the future, and off on the slopes of the nearby mountain that the daphnai also hadn't bothered to name yet were the foundations for what would be a very large temple by the looks of it which most likely would be dedicated to Amphys, Goddess of Love, Sex, and War (among other things) and Queen of Heaven. Most of these structures were temporary buildings to be replaced later, though some were special projects that could be completed in phases. Groundwork for more buildings had already been laid as the influx of colonists increased. Plans were already being laid for future settlement of Erasophi in the future, though for the moment all efforts of development were directed toward Thaxyn thus leaving the rest of the continent wild, untamed, and at the mercy of state-sanctioned frontierswomen who lived off the land as they traversed the unexplored regions in search of resources, fertile land, and idle spots for future settlements.

One area of the planet that had been neglected by the daphnai settlers--and the entire Dominon, to a lesser extent--was the southern continent, Massegos, which compared to the larger Erasophi was seen as unattractive to the colonial authorities and colonists alike. The continent was roughly 86% wetlands and very likely crawling with insects and disease as a result. This "half-sunken continent", as it was derogatorily referred to by the daphnai colonists, was the exact opposite of what the daphnai preferred to settle: it was too low, too wet, and too humid. For these reasons exploration of the continent had been limited with the thickness of both flora and fauna helping to deter anything more than a cursory look into this land of bayous, bogs, marshes, and swamps. What areas of the continent weren't wetlands were mostly centered around a single, small mountain in the center of the continent. Beyond that iconic landmark Massegos was mostly unmonitored, with only an occasional patrol periodically flying by to check for an infestation of the criminal kind that could potentially pose a risk to Thaxyn or any other future settlements of Colonial Pellepossa. Eventually the daphnai would have to do more than give a cursory glance of the continent as prime territory for settlement began to dry up on Erasophi, but for now they would stick with the climate and biome they preferred and leave the so-called "half-sunken continent" and whatever secrets it might be hiding well enough alone. As long as fertile land existed in the north the daphnai had no interest in this land of blood-sucking insects, fatal diseases, ancient carnivorous reptiles, and whatever other surprises might lay in wait in the stagnant waters of Massegos.

World: Ud^he-um^gobh^x_oxou^m_hla^ba
Roughly translated: “Farflung Marshland”

---

The target world was not ideal, that much was certain. Specifically, it was somewhat far from any established ixee communities that existed as part of the United Dominion and it was definitely in an volume of space that was generally considered to be “claimed” by a state that did such things. But ixee did not acknowledge such things for the most part; perhaps at the highest levels of the Dominion, there was a push to establish a military exclusion zone around its core cluster of worlds, but that was truly all and at the end of the day the zone only existed if it could be strictly enforced.

The world’s larger continent had a settlement on it. That was known ahead of time. The settlement was small, however, with a negligible population. Its society seemed to be advanced, but O^wfox was unconcerned. She was already in her transit pod, along with a dozen other ixee pioneers in their own, by the time the Dominion ship arrived in the staging area.

It would take a couple days for the ship to load all of the supplies to build the greater structures of a community, and everything would be sent in a single shot. Per usual, the Dominion’s exacting schedules for its ships meant that there was a precise timeline for everything, and it all was already planned. She did not know the exact timing - that was for the military to know and her to deal with - but she did know that once the ship unloaded its prefabs and equipment for the new community, it would be sent immediately on to the next task, whatever that was.

The Dominion ship was the typical sphere with its powerful gravitic core naturally pulling the cluster of transit pods closer to it until the effectors kicked in and they were all at the whim of the controllers onboard. The pods were brought together into a tight cluster and began orbiting the ship. As they whirled around it faster and faster, O^wfox could feel herself being pulled down toward the floor of the pod and she relaxed her joints to fully flatten down. Unconsciously, her tail tip thrashed in defiance of the gravitic force but eventually even it tired and stopped, slumping down to the floor.

In the distance, she noted on the monitor, a singularity formed. It was small and tightly controlled, but placed distantly to avoid disturbing the staging site’s planetary body and any of its moons or artificial satellites. As it reached the apex of its lifespan, the pod spun to change axis and she felt weightless for just a moment before pressing back against the floor as the ship hurled her and her companions toward the singularity.

Inside the pods, nothing could really be felt anymore. They lost acceleration - they lost any sense of time or space. There were infinite possibilities as to their location, anywhere along the straight line between and beyond the singularity’s point and the point of emergence. While her pod kept her extant and conscious, there was little she had to do other than wait while the system figured out where its rightful point of existence was supposed to be. Fortunately, waiting was easy when time ceased to have any meaning or impact.

At the point of emergence in orbit over the target continent of the world that she would be christening the Farflung Marshland, the gravitational anomaly ejected her and her fellows back into reality, returning to them the acceleration that had been bestowed upon them by the transport ship. They remained a tight cluster as they hurtled down and into the atmosphere as bright, burning tails of flame. The pods did do their best to brake in the air, but ultimately the speed could never be fully arrested and so she and her group aimed at the ocean and prepared their single-use grav cores to cushion them as they made impact with the water.

Splashdown was always hard, but O^wfox was used to it at this point, having been orbitally inserted into spy missions, warzones, and at least two other community scouting operations. She braced herself down against the floor of the pod and set the core to release its power automatically. When it did, she was thrown up toward the ceiling, thankfully only a foot or two above her flattened form, and then slammed back down into the floor, absorbing the impact across all fives and her belly. The crash restraints groaned against the movement and did stop her from hitting the ceiling, but could do nothing on the way back down.

She checked her systems first. No damage to the exterior, cargo still in place. The hatch appeared to be in working order.

“This is O^wfox, verifying splashdown ten-point-four kilometers from dry point. I’m activating my transponder and will be exiting to this point five kilometers from dry point for rendezvous.” She sent the target location out to her companion pods and released her straps. The hatch was above her, so she rolled onto her back to get it open and then lifted herself up onto the exterior of the pod, shoving off the interior of the floor with her tail. The sky seemed to be lightening here, at least if she remembered well enough how the day cycle worked. It was cool, though relatively windless at this time. She couldn’t help but wonder if that was always the case. It was certainly preferable as a lack of strong waves and currents was generally easier to deal with when crossing an ocean. At least, it was for ixee. Perhaps it was less so for peoples who needed water vehicles to manage; she couldn’t really say.

Taking the crash restraints and clicking their clasps together to form them into a cable which she could then secure one end to her suit’s outer vest behind her upper arms and the other to the nose of the ovoid pod. She then opened her mouth, moving the breathing tendrils to the side and sucked in air to swallow and hold in her stomach, increasing her buoyancy before slipping into the ocean.

And then she swam, as ixee were built to do, towing her pod with its cargo behind her, expending her energy solely on moving forward, never on having to stay afloat thanks to the stored air.

In the distance, she thought she could see another pod doing the same. If so, it had landed too close to hers. The cluster formation must have been more dense than protocol, but there was no use concerning herself about that. Either they all landed safely, or they didn’t, and dwelling on it wouldn’t make any difference.

Once they all reached land, they would review their options on where to set up the survey site and begin preliminary work on settling. If everything went well, they’d have found an ideal location and begun planning work by the time the ship arrived.

Patrolling an entire planet required resources; resources that tiny colonies on the fringes of civilized space were seldom given. That some sort of alien force could slip past the meager patrols and land on Pellepossa undetected was all too likely, yet it was such a rare occurrence that there was never an official contingency in place for when it did happen and, assuming the trespassers were not innately hostile or subversive in nature, the response of the local garrison was left to the discretion of the planet's Exarch. Unofficially the Exarch of a developing colonial world would often employ the services of the Taiphis--the Colonial Scouts--to regularly patrol the wilds and to keep watch for unwelcome intruders. These were rough ladies with special forces training who often operated independently, left to the mercy of the elements with nothing but what they could carry or scrounge from the wilderness. They often spent months, even years, away from civilization as they lived off the land, moving from place to place and watching out for squatters and pirates and the like. The Taiphis were known primarily for their solitary nature, their survival and martial skills, and their general unfriendly demeanor. Away from the prying eyes of state security forces and nosy neighbors frontier was often quite lawless, and the Taiphis often treated it as such. The wilds were a dangerous place. It wasn't unheard of for scouts to venture out and never return, falling victim to mother nature's cruel embrace, alien underworld scum, or even their fellow Taiphis with whom they might have had a grudge.

Nerys Popha'epti Ecameni'opti Iranax'ossé Uphema'ossé Agamex was a veteran of the Taiphis. She'd served in the organization for over 90 years now, having conquered the wilderness of dozens of planets in that time. She'd slain her fair share of wild beasts, smugglers and bandits, and even her fellow Taiphis; though the latter killers went intentionally untallied for obvious reasons. Command frowned on friendly fire. But that never stopped the Taiphis--a rather competitive group--from doing it anyway. Honor didn't exist in the wilds, they believed. The frontier wasn't the battlefield; it was every woman for herself out there. Nerys was more cynical about it than most. The first time, it was self-defense. Her comrade had gone mad from some kind of alien disease that had managed to breach her environmental survival suit and was preying on her fellow scouts out of pure (somewhat justified) paranoia. Nerys refused to be the next victim, and she was fortunate enough not to be. But each successive kill was less justifiable than the last until, finally, it became a force of habit. Sometimes she had force herself not to kill her comrades. Sometimes she forgot to care. It happened.

As she peered through the scope of her NU-114 multipurpose rifle at her fellow Taiphis she didn't particularly feel bad about what she was about to do. She didn't feel anything, actually. She waited, but not out of hesitation. She had to align her shot just right. The poor girl hadn't spotted her yet so she had to make sure the first shot was the last. If she didn't hit the right spot her easy kill could easily become a several hour firefight. Her target was much younger than her, still a bit a green to the scouts and how they worked. Probably hadn't even killed one of her comrades yet. Easy prey. Naive, unsuspecting, so proud to be serving the Dominion. She had no idea how things worked in the wilderness. Not when she first joined the Taiphis, not when she left for her first assignment, and not now as a bolt of molten plasma punctured her suit and torched her lungs killing her instantly. Nerys felt nothing as she pulled the trigger or watched her fellow soldier collapse dead at her own hands. Not even a snide remark or a wicked grin. She simply didn't care.

The shot had been from a fair distance away. Nerys didn't mind having to hike a few miles to reach her victim's corpse, though. She spent the whole walk humming an old tune she'd forgotten the words to, watching the leaves on the trees rustle in the wind and occasionally spotting a docile critter or two skulking about. With her head in the clouds she almost forgot where she was going, till she almost tripped over her victim's still-warm body. It was dangerous to wander so absent-mindedly. She made a mental note not to do it again, lest her's be the next body to fall. Nerys knelt down and rifled through her victim's belongings, accosting the scout's ammunition, water, and food. She wasn't using them anyway. But this wasn't what drove Nerys to kill the poor scout. No, it was something more specific she was looking for. As she picked each pocket clean she grew more and more frustrated. "You better not have used it all." she grumbled as she continued to search for the specific loot that had driven her to murder her fellow scout.

Finally, she found it. It was a small, thin, cylindrical silver box that wasn't much bigger than her hand. She popped the already-loose lid off to get a glimpse at the contents, and she smiled. The stone grey-colored, goopy contents were still there. It seemed the scout hadn't used much of her rations. This made Nerys happy. The substance--called 'kolai'--was a narcotic advertised as both non-addictive and stress-reducing. It's effects were meant to last 12 hours. It actually lasted 140. The resulting 'crash' as kolai wore off was so intense that it failed in it's express purpose of being non-addictive. Withdrawal symptoms were extremely painful, and sometimes even fatal. This would come to the surprise of no one who had been involved with the drug's creation, nor those who were tasked with scrutinizing it before it's application in military use, nor any one who had actually taken the drug. The Taiphis were often idealized as heroic explorers expanding the borders of the Dominion and securing the future for the daphnai race. The truth was less romantic: they were outcasts, washouts, losers, and flunkies who had been foisted into a an open-air laboratory; used as disposal guinea pigs by the military for the latest absurd experiments. It was a place of punishment for deserters, traitors, cowards, psychotics, criminals, and incompetents. New recruits were often led to believe that service in the scouts could earn them redemption and allow them to regain their honor. In truth, it was a death sentence. They'd be deliberately shuffled to the Taiphis not to redeem themselves but to die miserably for the sake of unethical scientific research. If the military deemed you too worthless to serve, you found yourself in the Taiphis being fed just enough propaganda so as to get you to drink the poison they gave you of your own free will.

Nerys remembered when she was an initiate. Naive, innocent, patriotic. Now she lived for her next fix, like all her sisters in the scouts. And she was willing to kill her sisters to get it, just as they were willing to kill her to get theirs. Nerys savored every drop of kolai she shoved into her mouth. She had save some though, for later. As she closed the box and put it with her other things she looked down at the young scout she'd murdered. "What'd you do to end up out here, huh? Piss off the wrong people?" she asked the corpse. She laughed at the silence. "Well at least you died pretty. That makes one of us." Nerys stared at the dead girl for a while, her mind going blank as the kolai took effect. Trapped in this trance she barely noticed the pods falling from the sky in the distance. But, out of the corner of her eye, she did notice them. They were faint specks on the horizon; descending far off across the unnamed sound that separated Erasophi from the swampy southern continent, Massegos. Even as the delirium--a side-effect of overuse from kolai--began to set in she retained enough sanity (loosely speaking) to tell what she was seeing was real and that it was not natural phenomena. She didn't know what it was, exactly, but she knew it was there. She looked out over the waters with a dazed look. Nerys reached for the scope on her rifle, flipping a switch and pushing it forward to detach it from her weapon. She brought it up to her eye and peered through it, spying on... whatever it was she just saw. She still wasn't certain. It was metal, whatever it was, and it was beginning to move toward the shore of Massegos' coast. "Hmph." she muttered. She reattached the scope to her rifle, and without hesitation brought it up and began to fire at the horizon for several minutes. Every shot missed and the plasma dissolved into steam as it hit the ocean. They were too far, whatever they were. If there was anyone--or anything--over there they probably didn't even hear or see her shooting at them.

Nerys simply shrugged. Technically she was supposed to report this development to Thaxyn. Maybe she would, too. But not now. Eventually. Maybe. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and turned away from the strange, distant scene. Maybe it was a hallucination? She always forgot how convincing they could be. Slowly and aimlessly she wandered out into the forest again as the delirium began to expand it's hold over her at the expense of her lucidity. It wouldn't be long until she passed out. Maybe when she woke up she'd call it in, if she remembered. If she woke up.

The initial camp was put together just in the treeline in a location protected by some large mangroves. The ixee pioneers had pulled their pods ashore and then teamed up to haul them across the natural sandbar and back into the brackish shallows of the forest. There were three entry points through the trees, one of which was only accessible underwater, and the pods were arrayed in a circle and angled such that the top hatches were angled slightly toward the interior of the circle.

Two of the pods had been thoroughly dismantled to form a covered and defensive living space in the middle of the ring of landing craft. It was anchored to the ground under the water by both the weight of the floor and long reinforcing bars shot deep into the mud. The interior was only bailed out a little and had access to the water below, as ixee had no qualms about wetness and in fact thrived in such conditions. Here, the pioneers slept huddled together in safety whenever they weren’t out surveying or patrolling the perimeter.

It was a good position: defensible, resource-rich, and laden with escape routes for anyone who was good underwater. Ixee, incidentally, were exceptionally good at moving underwater.

They had yet to pick up any signals from orbit or from flyovers. As expected, the locals seemed to had little or no interest in this place and as such had nothing approaching a right over it as far as ixee were concerned.

As near as O^wfox could tell, there wasn’t any intelligent life anywhere near within the mangroves or the wetlands further from the shore. She stalked through the reeds and tall grasses, her mouth tendrils twitching as she carefully smelled the air and flora around her. So far, nothing seemed poisonous, and none of her instruments indicated a need for more caution.

Low to the ground as she was, with a rifle slung over her back and her hand terminals strapped to her sides, she could see a variety of prey animals whenever she climbed a rock or outcropping. They never noticed her. As large as ixee were, they were also exceptionally quiet by nature. Her ancestors had been ambush predators on land and prey themselves at sea, and those traits which kept them alive then had well survived their million-year journey to today. On top of that, their suits were built for adaptive camouflage, self-adjusting for angle of view and weather conditions.

She took a break to sun herself on one such outcropping, loosening the back of her suit for comfort and to let in some more of the direct sunlight. It would still help keep her unseen from the sides, though perhaps a satellite could well spot her and point her out. She assumed that wouldn’t be an issue, though, as they hadn’t detected that well-formed of a satellite constellation in orbit. She had been wrong before, however. It was difficult to judge what the people on the dry continent could do just based on the look of their tech and whatever signals their intelligence service had captured and analyzed.

As she rested, becoming one with the rock and taking in the energizing heat and ultraviolet, a small frog hopped up near her. She was still and the frog did not seem to notice. The sniffer systems in her suit beeped in her ear piece and her lower arms slowly withdrew one of her computer modules - a single-handed hemisphere which fed directly to her retinal display. It added additional scanning power, analyzing far more quickly and thoroughly. It was mostly water, of course, and naturally there were various trace heavy elements likely from its local diet. Most importantly, though, there was nothing biological which set off any alarms regarding toxicity.

Well, then, there was only one thing left to do. She opened her jaw and shot out two of her mouth tendrils, pinching the frog between the two, and pulled it into her mouth to swallow it whole.

She didn’t really like raw or living food very much. She certainly didn’t like the feeling of it dying in her throat, and she had never gotten used to killing things with the tendrils, as she generally avoided live food. But she was tired, hungry, and this qualified as proper pioneering. Her wants and likes were irrelevant.

Yawning, exposing all five of her mouth tentacles to the cool moist air, she settled in for a nap to see how the frog made her feel. Her suit could handle things from here.

Administrative Compound, Thaxyn

Aphixys Naos'epti Lurmessa'opti Yossi'kyné Malerys'ossé Vanelyx was the daphnai who held the distinguished honor of Exarch (Governess) of Pellepossa. Under normal circumstances this would mean she had a large number of Matriarchs (terrestrial territory administrators) under her supervision, however due to the relative youth of the Pellepossa colony and the fact Thaxyn remained the planet's sole settlement this meant she only had one Matriarch by her side--one Nemexa Rephi'epti Narxys'opti Philoson'kyné Ekolos'kyné Danyssa--who also served as her second in command. The two displayed remarkably different personalities, with Exarch Aphixys being a rather serious and professional figure while Matriarch Nemexa proved a generally positive and questionably "pious" character. The two were hunched over a holographic table depicting the meager settlement of Thaxyn and it's immediate surrounding areas as they discussed present, ongoing, and future developments of the region while a number of other, lesser officials stood in attendance.

"The *entire* mountain? You can't be serious." asked the Exarch, befuddled by her colleagues' ambition to turn the nearby mountain into a grand temple to the goddess Amphys. The Matriarch smiled brightly. "Oh, but I am! Just imagine it: every inch of the mountain as part of a single, grand complex; both a temple and a monastery - a site for pilgrimage, worship, sacrifice, ordination, reflection, and most importantly a massive orgy chamber right in the center. And when I say 'massive', I mean truly *massive*! Bigger than any ever built before!" the Matriarch rambled with a spark in her bright red eyes. The Exarch shook her head in disbelief. "Exactly how many people do you plan to fit in this 'massive orgy chamber'?" the Exarch asked with skepticism. "Hhmmm. Good question! Couple thousand, maybe? Give or take? Depends on how much room we have to work with. Maybe the orgy chamber should be built first...?" the Matriarch said as she pondered the scope of the project. The Exarch pinched the bridge of her nose. "It doesn't *need* an orgy chamber."

The Matriarch shrugged. "No, it doesn't *need* one but it's *holier* if it has one. And the bigger it is, the holier it is!"

"And how exactly did you come to this conclusion?"

"Internal reflection and intense prayer sessions, of course. The Goddess of Sex, Love, and War would surely better appreciate a large and grandiose orgy chamber, wouldn't She?"

A Priestess of Amphys, who had stood rather silently in the corner while this exchange was occurring, attempted to speak up. "That's not-"

The Exarch interrupted her. "And did these 'intense prayer sessions' happen to take place in brothels by chance?"

"Maybe? What's it matter?"

The Exarch huffed. "Look, I enjoy a good orgy as much as anybody. But what you're proposing is building an 'orgy chamber' that can house more people than presently live on this entire besotted planet."

"Exactly, that's why it's so great! The bigger, the better! And holier, too!"

The Priestess attempted to speak up again. "That's not how it-"

Exarch interrupted her again with a loud sigh. "This is all moot, anyway. We're not going to turn the entire mountain into a temple. Grand and imposing as it may be, we don't have the resources for such a project right now nor will we likely have them in the immediate, foreseeable future. Not to mention the costs of such a project would be astronomical - so we can't even afford it even if we did have the resources."

The Matriarch was upset. "Don't you care at all about the purity of the souls of our dear colonists? How can they cleanse the corruption from within if they don't have a massive chamber to dedicate their lustful energies to the Goddess of Lust Herself? And the other stuff too, I guess."

The Priestess, once again, attempted to interject. "Can I just say-"

Once more, the Exarch interrupted. "Oh, please. We all know that's not why you want to build a giant orgy chamber."

The Priestess gave up, placing her face in her palm before storming out. As she left another official entered the room, a communications officer judging by her black and brown uniform. "Exarch." she interrupted and offered a salute. The Exarch turned to the officer with mild annoyance, though not directed at the officer herself. "At ease. What is it?' The officer cleared her throat. "Ma'am, we have a report from one of the scouts of 'metal objects' falling from the sky off the coast of the southern continent." The Exarch raised an eyebrow. "Given the tendency of those lunatics to hallucinate due to being doped out of their minds half the time and itching for their next fix the rest of the time, exactly how reliable would you say this report is?" the Exarch asked with skepticism. "I double-checked with one of the satellite officers. They detected what they called 'faint but unusual activity' in that area from SS-171. The satellite in question was not in a good enough position to get a better reading." The Exarch furrowed her brow. "And they elected not to report this 'faint but unusual activity', why?" she asked somewhat irritated. "The officer in command believed it to be a... glitch." the communications officer said, nervously.

The Exarch was visibly furious. "Alright, I'm giving you two orders: First, find the sock-licking officer that made that call and execute her for incompetence. Make she sure *knows* she's being executed for incompetence, and why she's incompetent. It's more satisfying when they know. Second, get a patrol gunship down to Massegos to investigate. I want to know exactly what is done there, where it came from, and if we need to obliterate it through coordinated kinetic bombardment or not. I'll not have pirates, smugglers, deserters, conscientious objectors, or any other scum squatting on my planet right under my own damn nose. And you!" the Exarch turned to the Matriarch. "Go to the fucking brothel already and quit thinking with your sword. You're not getting an orgy chamber; deal with it." The Matriarch, insulted, scoffed and stormed out. The comms officer saluted the Exarch before departing to carry out her orders. "Everyone else is dismissed. Get out, or get shot." The rest of the individuals in attendance heeded the Exarch's order and departed with haste.

The Exarch turned off the holographic table and then retired to her office, opening a bottle of expensive alcohol and pouring herself a glass as she sat down behind her desk. She closed her eyes and took in the silence for a moment before it was interrupted by a faint, distant gunshot. The Exarch smiled as she took a sip from her glass. "Ah. Music to my ears."

Massegos

The PXN-13 Lightning was a long-range anti-gravity light troop transport and fully-armed gunship designed for the insertion of reconnaissance, sniper, or special forces teams in potentially hazardous combat zones. Although it's armor and shielding was adequate the true strength of the vehicle was it's speed, stealth capabilities (consisting of a sensor scrambler, heat signature masker, communications signal jammer, and low noise pollution), and most importantly it's firepower which comprised of two Gatling coilguns underneath the chassis, a mounted heavy machine gun on each side of the chassis for use by passengers, and four missile batteries slung under the 'wings' of the craft. The craft also possessed a guided missile signal hijacker and deployable decoy flares for defensive countermeasures. The ultimate purpose of the Lightning was to silently yet swiftly sweep into a hotzone and provide cover fire for ground forces to aid in extraction or infiltration. The vehicle was suited best for overwhelming enemy forces before they could respond and wasn't designed for long-term sustained heavy fire, meaning that speed was crucial for peak operational performance. Like most Dominion vehicles the Lightning had a sleek, ergonomic, and pseudo-luxurious design that made the craft look more fragile and expensive than it actually was. Although the craft wasn't as damage resistant as most daphnai gunships it was a lot sturdier than it's appearance suggested, an intentional design element meant to fill enemy combatants with overconfidence in their ability to bring the craft down with small arms.

As the Lightning was designed with stealth in mind it was delegated primarily for night time operations and thus had a coat of black paint to decorate it's hull, in contrast to most daphnai military vehicles which either sported traditional white and blue markings or the appropriate camouflage paints depending on the area they were being deployed to. Having chosen a rather odd route to Massegos that took it far out of the way of the alleged impact zone of the falling metal debris so as to further evade detection. The gunship arrived at it's designated zone swiftly and performed a quick cursory search of the area using both it's spotlight and sensors to search through the brush of the swamp for any signs of potential threats. Nothing but wildlife was detected, much of which scurried away shortly afterward as a daphnai recon team deployed to the mostly-dry landing zone from the safety of their Lightning. The swift and silent Lightning deployed it's contingent of 8 recon troops before switching off it's spotlight and departing the continent altogether, leaving the troops to fend for themselves. It wasn't long before the black-clad transport gunship disappeared into the heavens as it blended with the cloudy night sky.

Leading the recon team was "Arga" Argavossa Nossy'epti Homé'opti Naxi'kyné Lavessa'kyné Morassos, Commander and "Minar" Minarlossé Bephosa'epti Kevosé'opti Nixanos'kyné Yephessa'ossé Marvalos, Lieutenant Commander. Outfitted with AN19 multienvironmental combat suits, NU-114 multipurpose rifles, ample food stores, medical supplies, munitions, and long range sensor and communications equipment the recon team--codenamed AMX 121--was tasked with trekking a lengthy distance to the coastal region close to the impact zone to investigate the largely unexplored continent for signs of an off-world presence. The recon team was given strict instructions not to engage any potential hostiles except as a last resort and were primarily tasked with observation and intelligence gathering. They were tasked to avoid discovery if possible and were encouraged to only engage if the potential hostiles engaged them first, or if the team believed the potential hostiles were believed to be a threat. After checking their supplies the recon team began the long trek across the lawless continent which lasted several days, during which the recon team was forced to stay vigilant in order to watch out for potential hazards and threat.

A forward scout, using one of the rare elevated positions available on the swampy landmass, was the first to spot the alien camp through the scope of her rifle. She quickly doubled back to Commander Morassos to relay the information and the recon team thereafter set up a small camp nearby to monitor the aliens. Observation, too, lasted several days as the daphnai soldiers attempted to ascertain the nature of the camp and it's occupants. During this time period the recon team had to be careful and avoid discovery by the alien sentries and the camp's inhabitants using the cover of night time to move more freely but still keeping their distance from the aliens. After several weeks of monitoring the aliens Commander Morassos and Lieutenant Commander Marvalos convened to discuss the team's observations.

"Physical traits suggest amphibian biology. Semiaquatic. Nativity highly unlikely, species unknown. Lightly armed, lightly armored. No apparent spacecraft evident. No apparent contraband evident. Organized, communal. Assessment?"

"Colonists, settlers."

"Threat assessment?"

"Minimal/none."

"Have they detected us?"

"Unlikely. If they have, they haven't reacted for reasons unknown. Orders?"

"Fall back to insertion point. Exfiltrate and debrief."

"Understood."

Their mission complete, the recon team returned to their landing zone - a hike that took several days. Unaware of the alien's technological capabilities the recon team sent out a code message in small bursts to prevent interception. Once again under the cover of night a Lightning gunship arrived to pick up the recon team and return to Thaxyn to debrief the Exarch. The recon team never knew if they'd been discovered or not, but if they had the aliens had apparently made no attempts to contact them for whatever reason. Once debriefed the Exarch would have to decide how to proceed.