Where the Mountain Ends (FT, Invite Only)

[Sunset]

SDF-Dulyani, GEC-782386Be, Perseus Arm, Beta Quadrant...

It was a lonely mountain on a lonely moon; The only perfect moon orbiting a spectacular gas giant that swirled with clouds of silver and gold traced with blue and purple. A wisp of an atmosphere clung to it - little more than an ozone sheen that refracted the light - but this was strangely enough to support a sprawl of rusty orange life. Stranger still that this spread out from the mountain where it flowed over the jagged slopes to spill out across the plain and over the rims and bowls of the craters that otherwise covered the gray sphere.

"...a lovely vista," Captain Andrea Mitchell continued, "And odd enough to warrant an investigation and a courtesy call."

Unlike the ragged tusk of a mountain, the Dulyani was not alone. There were star-faring civilizations that made their homes in the nearby galaxy and it would be both useful and diplomatic to involve them. Useful in that if it was an artifact of their particular civilization then the uncovering of its history and purpose might be particularly smooth. Diplomatic in that both alerting them to and proposing cooperative investigation with would expand the Republic's reputation for peaceful coexistence across the sector. With that other ships had arrived and it was the masters of these that Captain Mitchell was speaking to in conference. It had already been established that the mountain - whatever it was - was not locally owned and thus her next statement was made in confidence rather than question.

"We'll be dispatching an expedition shortly. The atmosphere is hostile so our people will be suited up and given the oddity of the situation;" The projecting spur should rightly not exist, given the otherwise cratered surface of the moon, "They'll have air cover going in and we'll be overhead as well. Their landing zone," she turned to indicate a holographic map that hovered to one side, "Is here with enough open ground for several more landing craft. Unless you're going to put a super-frieghter down," she cracked a smile, "In which case there is a secondary landing zone here that we'll also use as an fall-back extraction site..."

A few more minutes of back-and-forth and the technical details were covered and a few more passed as questions concerning those details allowed the various crews, scientists, and researchers to prepare themselves. Shuttles were manned, fighters flexed their wings to ready for flight, and the Captain ended with the unexpected; "And now that you're all ready to jump the gun, we'll see you on the surface!"

Just as predicated, a pair of fat shuttles dropped away from the lower hull of the Dulyani and arced gracefully away towards the surface followed shortly after by two heavy fighters, their weapon spars bending to follow the curve of their charges flight as they tracked along the outer edge of their flight path. The Dulyani followed high and behind as the horizon rolled towards them and the tip of the lonely mountain broke the curve. Far in the distance the brown sprawl of pseudo-vegetation materialized with the designated landing zone only a long hike from the base of the mountain...

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

SCU Patrol Cruiser Arclight
System-LSe1678-Gelipsi
Beta Quadrant

The past half-day had been an absolute whirlwind for the men and women of the Arclight, only thirteen hours ago had they been fresh from the fitting yard with a new Wave-Space core. Now they were here, in a system not officially slated to be surveyed for another 23 years, and even more astounding was the fact that they were summoned here at the request of aliens. "The Republic of Sunset" they called themselves, and now it was Captain Min'Jerash to represent his nation, which he loved so dearly, to this new polity discovered among the stars. When the two ships had docked, he had expected the quivering elastic forms of the space-jellies rumored to be in this part of space, or maybe some sort of chittering bug. Instead he got humans, nothing exciting could ever happen while he was around, a condition that he resented with substantial passion.

The translators whirred for a second and a half before they let out the telltale ping and the rising consonants and sharp vowels of Union Standard fell away and became the most comfortable language for the aliens, the same occurred for Min'Jerash and his crew, the slow drawl replaced by perfectly fluent Union Standard. After the initial meeting about half-way along the docking boom, they made their way to what Ali Min'Jerash assumed was a briefing room and the captain of the friendly ship began to brief them on the issue at hand.

There was no dissent among Alis' crew, when the projection of the mountain was relayed to his First Officers.

"Right, that protrusion is at the very least foreign, I'd even go so far as to say artificial"

When the other captain confirmed that the aliens were going to be sending down a ground team, Ali agreed that is was the best course of action and set off for the Arclight, he reached the far end of the docking aperture and watched as it first pulled away from the alien craft, then retracted fully into the bow of his own ship.

Around him crew-members moved from one station to another, carrying boxes or data-pads to their pre-determined destinations. The preparation for a ground expedition was always hectic, marines were never ready when they needed to be and the scientists hardly knew how to put their pants on, god forbid they have to watch out for themselves on the surface of a hostile world. Ali moved confidently through the whole ordeal, headed towards the CIC at the center of the ship.

He reached the dimly lit room, the holographic image of the odd mountain suspended in mid-air at the center of the circular room. His First Officer Maya Selzeki leaned on one of the consoles, looking over the mountain intently. Ali slid up next to her and spoke in the reserved tone that was considered courteous on a warship. Loudness and hectic chatter was generally reserved for combat or emergency, and a misplaced shout could send the crew scrambling for battle-stations.

"Selzeki, I'm thinking of leading the ground team myself, finally test out that terrestrial training"

The young, sharp-faced and dark skinned woman tilted her head to meet his and spoke back.

"I dont know Sir, you're not the young man you used to be, the marines might be a little reluctant to babysit you"

Ali stood up straight and let out a warship-chuckle, shaking his head and then looking back towards the image of the mountain.

"Alright, I agree, so instead I'm sending you"

Maya did her own laugh and started towards the hangar.

A few minutes later the thick door of the hangar slid open and a singular shuttle shot out, it was large for a transport. It also had its own weapon mounts with a swiveling ball turret under the dull nose. It banked around the Arclight and came into the same trajectory as the other shuttles, only a half-kilometer behind them. The atmospheric stabilizers kicked to life as it shuddered into the wispy and toxic air of the alien moon. The sickly vegetation now becoming distinguishable from the rocky soil, and then the looming mountain came into view, casting long and hostile shadows over the landscape.

[Sunset]

OOC: This may open up to select others; If you're interested, please take note of the tone and pacing. I'm not going to be giving any of the plot away, not even to myself...

---

The Solar Cooperative Union...

It was something of a tradition in these things; Whenever a multi-national effort was rallied and assembled to explore some new artifact of a dark civilization or world that had passed beyond memory, someone always jumped the gun. Whether they were merchant explorers who might otherwise be considered pirates (but only of opportunity) or military men who, in lieu of conquest, sought a treasure to bring back to the acclaim of their peers, there was always someone.

Frequently Argonians and often the wandering sort.

But Mitchell was an old hand - at least the feathers of salt and pepper gray that ran through her chestnut hair said so - and she had seen it all before. Thus while her statement was intended to fore-stall the inevitable she wouldn't have been surprised that her teams would have already found someone on the surface with a camp in place, a dig begun, and a scattering of artifacts on eager and brash display. On more than one occasion that had worked out in her favor when the odd little bits of jewelry had come to life, grown skittering legs, and jumped down the nearest throat to send the overly exuberant warrior-prince and his entourage lurching around the camp under their unfortunately-invasive control. They had raised quite a ruckus before being secured, and while the Captain was more than happy to tell the tale to the ship-bound Captain Min'Jerash, it was the descending transport that was of keen interest to the commanding officer of the away team.

"Here they come," Lieutenant Commander Tschida said, glancing up from the navigation display that hung off one side of his command chair to the broad curve of the artificial display that showed the nearby world outside of the wide-bodied Jade-Class, "Circle around, make it look natural. Let them hit the ground at the same time..."

Here Captain Min'Jerash had missed out; The Lieutenant Commander was an Ixut and one of a small handful of the insectoid humanoids to call the Republic home. On his home planet of Ixutsangi he had been a warrior and a scout and when his patrol had stumbled across an odd black temple among jumble of fallen monoliths in the middle of the desert, he had been the first through the strange silent portal emblazoned with the black circle and silver and gold stars that he had since learned was the roundel of the Triumvirate of Yut. From the frontiers of his homeworld to the stars of space, he still felt the call to explore. But this was Captain's orders and so the twin assault shuttles turned to swing wide, circling the open ground designated as Landing Zone One as if to survey it, and taking just long enough for the landing craft from the Arclight to join them before touching down.

"Everyone button up," he ordered, though the warning shouldn't need to be repeated. His own armor waited just inside the airlock and as the armor plates folded down around him and his perception shifted from that provided by his compound eyes to that provided by the compound network of cameras built into the suit, he was already eager to see what lay just outside.

They had seen it as they had come in but this would be the up-close-and-personal. This was one of a few patches of open ground between the edge of the whatever it was and the base of the mountain but the whatever it was had already taken on the note of flora in his mind. Rusty orange leaves - rounded squares with one corner pulled into a shallow cone - seemed the order of the day and these grew in number and type both small and large. These they could see from inside but now it was time to step foot on them but - and again, more importantly and by the Captain's orders - the first step would be to meet up with their opposites and make them less-so. The airlock cycled, the outer door slid aside, and a half-dozen forms in slate-gray armor began the quick trudge to the middle of the clearing. To one side the Mountain loomed and while the objective was meeting with and establishing cordial relations with the crew from the Arclight, he kept glancing in its direction.

The Solar Union officer had been correct and clearly so in his assessment. It had to be artificial but yet, somehow, it was not. Or it was both. It was clearly and definitely a mountain but it had that classic shape that immediately evoked the word. From Fuji to Kilimanjaro to Olympus Mons and the distant mirage of Ikiije familiar to any desert traveler from his homeworld, the tapering cone would be familiar. What was strange was two-fold; Both the vegetation that improbably clung to every nook and cranny despite the towering height, and perhaps more obvious and amazing that the thing was sideways. Not fully sideways, as if the Gods themselves had hurled the mountain like a discus and it had lodged in the proverbial eye of the moon, but there was a definite slant - just there - where a long acute angle of a ledge was visible from the ground. Of the nearly thirty kilometer base diameter, it represented an improbable slice of perhaps five or six and at the very edge where the lip dangled with vegetation it had to be nearly half a kilometer above the surface.

But there they were, and he turned to give them his attention; "Lieutenant Commander Tschida, Exploration Command, Republic of Sunset Defense Force... But everyone calls me Lucky."

The video stream that accompanied showed the head of a wasp-like humanoid with sandy yellow chitinous plates and two large compound eyes that stretched up the side of his head while the mandibles around his mouth moved in near-mockery of a Human mouth. Whether he was himself speaking or whether it was a physical artifact of the Augmented Reality that connected him to the suit was an unanswered question but it wasn't really important compared to the obvious; Why Lucky?

Because it was a damn-sight easier for everyone to say.

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Arclight away team
Maya reflected on the days events in the time of the shuttle ride towards their destination, she was a beautiful women by any humanoid standards, her sharp features were almost elfish and her curly black hair only added to the look. She kept her hair short of course, being the dedicated soldier she was, but when she retired she decided that she'd let it grow and grow. Now she was hunched over in the red-lit bay of a heavy shuttle, 29 others all packed in with her. Some of them were the best and brightest the union had to offer, scholars and marines willing to lay down their lives. Others were corporate agents looking to find new sources of capital or thugs in it for the killing. Regardless of each team members background they all respected Maya Selzeki.

She had the trademark "ki" at the end of her name, which meant she had been born and lived on Alberhalden. A planet that was by all accounts a frozen hellhole, known to chew the toughest prospectors and miners up and spit them out like stale water. However, Maya had made it off in one piece, the exact details of her escape were shrouded in mystery and reverence among her subordinates. However, the respect didn't stop at her origins, in fact most of the "fall in line" attitude came from the patch she wore on her shoulder, a Red Lightning bolt, she was a 0-G Op, a veteran of a dozen battles to the get the Red Bolt certification. The muscle bound marines who looked on that insignia knew for a fact that this slender woman could snap them in half given the opportunity, so they didn't give it to her.

She felt the shuttle thump as it connected with the hard ground, the red light of the bay turning to a harsh green. She slid her helmet over her head in one motion while the Crew-chief of the shuttle checked all of the civilian personnel for correct seals and optimal function. Eventually he gave the all clear by banging on the door to the cockpit. The rear ramp of the shuttle plopped down onto the thick vegetation and sent a flurry of dust into the toxic air.

Maya was the first down the ramp, her stride confident and almost leisurely, even with the small armory of weapons she carried on her person. Behind her came the automated clomping of the SAWP, an armored crab mounted with a single heavy weapon. Its sharp "feet" crushed the ugly native vegetation underfoot, its sensor arrays scanning around for anything that it had been told to kill, before finding none and letting the ion cannon on its back go cold.

She turned her head one time to check that no scientists were wandering off before returning her attention to the alien form in armor that was walking towards her. For a split second she considered blowing the unsuspecting alien away, but just as quickly she pushed the thought away. "Allies" she told herself, we were here together.

They met a few feet apart and the aliens synthesized voice came on over the in-helmet radio. She tried to sound the aliens real name out in her head but gave up soon after. The video stream was jarring to say the least, but she took note to download the saved footage from her helmet VI later, maybe post it on the FedNet Video Stream.

She replied calmly, as was her style.

"Commander Maya Selzeki, Away team leader for the Union Federal Navy, but you can just call me Maya since our ranks don't mean anything to each other anyways."

[Sunset]

The Solar Cooperative Union...

"No, I suppose not, though first names are typically reserved for familiar acquaintances or friends in the Human culture of the Republic. But since we may be sharing many steps together, perhaps that is appropriate. Speaking of steps, we have either a stiff hike or a long march ahead of us and I propose to avoid either label by considering it a combat patrol instead. This is unfamiliar territory with any number of possible dangers," he went on to outline a route, both on a conjured holographic map and by the simpler expedient of pointing to the rising terrain when possible, whereby they would reach the base of the mountain by way of a series of crater hillsides, both avoiding the exposure of the ridge line and the open killzone of the crater floors. All of these were overgrown with the same foliage but there were only a few places where the terrain either forced them into the open or over a crest, "And these will serve as checkpoints. While we could just fly in closer, approaching on foot will give a chance to survey and observe for any hidden details that only time will reveal. Once we reach the base, I suggest we turn to the side and aim for that point."

He turned and pointed towards the dark cleft and the point where mountain met moon at an acute angle; "There is an old saying about turning over rocks to find the insects," he laughed, or at least what the stream showed his mouth doing was interpreted as one, "And if there are interesting bugs to find, I think we will find them underneath the rock."

Behind him, the other members of the team were busy with their own work. While one of the two shuttles had been mostly devoted to carrying what would clearly be the investigative team, the other had been filled with a modular supply station that had itself been fitted out as a sort of research unit. A Marine, dressed in the same armor the Lieutenant Commander wore, grasped the back and pulled the whole thing out of the shuttle's bay which almost looked like quite the feat until two loading rails uncoiled as well to lower it to the ground. More set to unpacking it and there was already a line ready to make use of its facilities. Plant and mineral samples had been gathered and the researchers were already talking among themselves in technical terms that would bore all but the most devoted arborist.

"These are the unlucky ones who drew the short straw," Lucky finished. "They'll stay and guard the landing zone while we figure out what's going on. Unless something shoots at us, in which case someone switched straws on me."

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Arclight Away Team
Maya paid close attention to Luckys' gestures and the holographic projection. She also quietly stopped the video feed without alerting her insectoid counterpart to her own discomfort with his alien appearance and the over-close video feed that brought it uncomfortably close to her face. She could at least appreciate the allied perception of the terrain, something she was less familiar with considering her background in space combat. She was far more acclimated to the whiplash pace killzones of the hard vacuum then she was with long trudging patrols on some shithole planet. Yet, something about the odd and notably unnatural posture of the "mountain" a term she doubted was applicable in the case of the strange protrusion, prompted intense curiosity from the soldier.

"Alright Lucky, me and my people will take point, the SAWP-"

She gestured to the crab-like weapons platform that followed her around like a golden retriever, except with a ion cannon on its back.

"It should keep us safe if my suspicions about this structure prove to be well placed, I would request however that my science staff stay back with your portion of the movement, cant have the eggheads taking point. Anyways lets get this show on the road!"

The bubbly happiness prompted by the prospect of combat was immediately obvious in her voice, something that probably wouldn't be lost on the alien. Behind her, a second crab-like robot came lumbering out of the shuttle-bay, but instead of weaponry and armor this one was laden with scientific equipment, sensors, analyzers, spectrographs and collection tubes all feeding information directly back to the Arclight for immediate access, no need to fly samples back and forth this way.

The clanking white Robo-Explorer had the words "Gurdy" stenciled in red across its side, while its armored and gun toting cousin had a crude skull and "Fuck You" markered along the side of the gun turret. Gurdy began to gingerly suck-up the vegetation into a clear tube, each leaf and stem making a satisfactory "Fwump" as it disappeared into the inner workings of the Robo-Explorer.

[Sunset]

The Solar Cooperative Union...

"You know, it's kind of cute," another one of the marchers commented, her portrait showing a much more familiar young woman of trace Hispanic origins with a pair of silver chevrons and the generic name Sanchez next to it. She was looking far up the line to where the Gurdy was moving along through the broken terrain, one foot carefully stepping over the obstruction of an oblong boulder. "It's like a big ol' sniffer puppy."

With that she was past and then another and another as the staggered line trekked past. Lucky had stopped, along with one of the Marines, to swap from front to back as he had randomly done all along the route. The point, as taken by the team from the Arclight, was steadily pulling them all along with their cadence marked by the irregular pssssht-phoot of Gurdy sucking up another sample - of which there were plenty. The whole group was almost to their objective now; Only around fourteen hundred meters between the lead elements and the furrowed hill where the mountain met the moon. Something about that was ticking over in Lucky's head - it mostly reminded him of the sand dunes of his home planet and stood in stark contrast to the otherwise sharp ridges and smooth crater floors where millions of years of asteroid and meteor impacts had carved out their sharply written names on the surface.

Like the mountain and the surrounding terrain, these too were covered in the same psuedo-vegetation. While it appeared dense from orbit, it was decided flat from the ground. The tallest of the tall plants was a scrub near-tree about a meter in height with a thick stalk and an array of leaves that pointed directly towards the far star and tracked its slow movements. Even the Marines, more focused on tracking possible threats than botanical insights, had picked up the pattern. Of the seven plant species observed, each was dedicated to a very particular niche to the exclusion of all others. A short, thick-looking shrub sprouted up from under the shaded side of every large boulder, for instance, while a tangle of thin stalks shrouded by the same rounded-square leaves sprawled over every clear, well-lit space.

'They are all related, obviously;' So went the line of discussion in the shared chat the so-called eggheads had set up just as much for competition as collaboration. 'But there is no sign of photosynthesis. More comparable to a fungus; They are extracting nutrients from the environment and metabolizing them via a catalytic process...' It trailed off into technical details from there but the key words were specialized, engineered, and alien. Deep probes run into the moon's regolith hadn't found any of the precursors to the self-replicating molecules that might, eventually, lead to life. It was essentially a dead world.

Aside from the rusty orange vegetation and the sudden gout of super-heated air that erupted without warning from the hillside just in the middle of Commander Selzeki's combat line. They had been moving rapidly along the leeward face of another small crater ridge when brown plants, loose earth, and large rocks blasted out laterally from a section of hillside that had looked, until only a moment before, just like any other. High-velocity shrapnel whined away as the largest rocks smashed into others and splintered into fierce fragments that spun away into the far distance. It was a single sudden burst and just as quickly it was over...

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Arclight Away Team
The steady crunching of boot-steps on the sickly looking plants of the alien world had begun to form a rhythm in Mayas' head, every couple of seconds the cord would start anew but never stray from the progression. She sounded it out in her head even though it was in progress already.

Crunch-crunch-crunch-crunch-clank-crunch-crunch-crunch-clank

That was how it went she decided, a simple tune, if not a relaxing one. The crunch of anything underfoot reminded her of home, spending time walking through the angular corridors of Kazelveski Crater, heating tubes and electrical wires hanging like jungle vines overhead, a thin layer of frost collected on the floor even this deep beneath the surface. She could remember how her mother would bundle her up in three different coats, three hats and two scarves, how silly she must have looked to the harsh men of the ice-world. Maybe that's why she joined up with the Marines, in an attempt to shed her silly childhood, become what she knew she was. Or, maybe she was trying to relive it, find the same since of companionship and belonging that her single-mother bathed her parents bathed her with all those years ago.

*FWOOM*

The earth just inches behind her went from solid ground to a torrent of death as superheated air and high-velocity rocks were sent jetting upwards. Her entire body was caught by the force of the venting air, tearing the rifle from her grasp and carrying her several feet backwards. She felt as though she was suspended in mid-air for what must have been a half second before she went tumbling back to the ground, making hard contact with the ground, her armor doing its job perfectly. The gel layer keeping her skin and bones from being split, while the nanoweave ceramics made easy work of any pebbles or rocks that might have otherwise cut her apart.

She didn't even have time to react as the earth that had been ejected into the sky came rocketing back down as deadly projectiles, she curled up with her arms over her hands as her suit shields flared brilliantly before failing under the onslaught of falling rocks. She felt a half dozen smaller pebbles impact her but do little against her armor, and after that the chaos subsided and she pushed herself up.

Finally re-focusing herself, she found that her HUD was flashing a dire red, displaying one of her marines had flatlined and was brain dead. His name was Kindrys Espante, a gruff young man from the lower wards of Strinda. She looked around the area and confirmed that the rest of the team was intact, but it seemed that Espante was unfortunate enough to be at the epicenter of the blast. She stomped over to him and surveyed the marines shattered body, a larger rock had cleanly caved in the back half of his helmet and presumably his skull.

She activated her radio and spoke, hearing the raspiness of her voice, she must have been screaming as she covered herself but she couldn't recall even opening her mouth.

"Fuckin' A, anybody else hurt? No, good."

Without consideration for the reforming patrol of soldiers, Gurdy clomped upward to the edge of the fractured ground and began projecting a red holographic lattice over the anomalous area, scanning for any sub-surface signatures or any remaining danger. Meanwhile the SAWP had re-heated its ion cannon, the spinning heat vents on its side roaring with vented energy. Even the robots were on edge now.

[Sunset]

OOC: If you are interested, telegram me. Case by case basis, and there will be a test at the end of the chapter.

---

The Solar Cooperative Union...

"Is everyone okay?"

Without even a hop or a skip, Lucky was airborne and flying towards the site of the explosion while on the ground below him the scientists and researchers were either running forward or stopping to look at their own instruments. The Marines had taken a different tack; Like the robotic minions from the ArcLight's away team, they had turned to face outward, scanning the terrain around for any kind of threat or even the hint of one. Most had moved behind hard cover and now as he zipped over the head of one only the barrel of her heavy rifle was visible to the outer perimeter, the stud of sensors and the pitch black bore the only thing left exposed. Gravel crunched under the thick boots of his battle armor as he landed, careful to stay out of the way but close enough to the edge that he too could look it over.

The once rock-strewn hillside had been blasted away to leave a thick spray of gravel, shredded plants, and other debris across a wide fan that stretched far out into the open bowl of the crater. A thin layer of dust was already filtering out of the atmosphere to cover all of the plants with a gray outline that revealed the wide extent of the burst. This wasn't of primary interest though; Instead it was the network of cracks that created something of a bowl-shaped spiderweb pattern across the face of the exposed rock. As the Commander's sensor readings would indicate, these seemed to run deep into the hillside and in fact sharply swung away after only a few meters to head towards the heart of the moon under the mountain. It was also functionally impassable, at least for anyone man-sized. Whatever chamber had originated the build-up of gas required, it was far enough away so as to be invisible. It had also done heavy damage to the tunnel - if one wanted to call it such - as well with various points being effectively sealed off by newly-broken chunks of rock.

"A volcanic vent," someone nearby volunteered, turning to look up at the sharp cone-shaped mountain.

"That's bad luck though," Tschida answered but his continued thought was cut short by a sharp rumbling under his feet.

A hundred meters away another sharp blast went off and again the hillside erupted, this time shooting hot gas harmlessly up and out. Then there was another and another until the entire combat patrol was neatly bracketed by erupting vents. Large rocks went skyward only to plunge down again on heads and shoulders while ochre brown bits and pieces sailed sideways to come fluttering down. It was a near constant rain now and still under their feet the rumbling grew more intense.

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Arclight Away Team
As the mountain came apart beneath them the collection of Union marines back-pedalled until they were pressed in a tight circle around the the SAWP. Its Ion Cannon now practically glowing with energy ready to be discharged, Gurdy carried on with its scan of the broken ground, unphased by the falling debris. A particularly large fragment of earth was thrown towards the clustered expedition, however its arc was interrupted as a brilliant line of energy made contact with it and sent it flying in the opposite direction. A second incoming rock suffered the same fate, other smaller stones were completely disintegrated by the furious storm of fire cascading from the SAWP's mounted gun.

Commander Maya took the chance granted by the SAWP to radio Lucky and bark out a question over the radio, the controlled-fear obvious in her voice as she shouted over the rumble of the exploding earth and the roar of the auto-cannon.

"What the hell is the plan? Move forward or pull back? This position is untenable, if we stay he-"

She was cut off as a boulder falling back to earth squashed the native flora and sent her staggering backwards, the already fractured ground crumbling into a deep crater, she stumbled backwards but was unable to escape the rapidly expanding mouth of the crater. She lost the footing on her left foot first, tumbling headfirst into the dust obscured opening. A wave of pebbles and dirt clods went with her, making any sort of bearing or attempt to stop futile. She could only pray that the crater didn't open up into a deeper passage or whatever the source of the venting was. She let out a gasp on the radio as she disappeared into the expanding cloud of dust, her fate unknown to her marines or the allied expedition.

[Sunset]

The Solar Cooperative Union...

"Head towards the mountain!" Lucky turned to point, just as the Commander disappeared from view, "Maya?! Maya!" He ran forward, stopping at the edge of the new crater to find himself and those around him looking down the smooth sides of a lava tube. New or not, the walls were glass-smooth and purple-black with obsidian flecked with large chunks of smoothly melted rock. A scattering of debris clung here and there but most had flowed down the tunnel after her. "Maya!" He switched to the external speakers, calling out in the thin atmosphere, "Commander Selzeki!"

He didn't, nor could he, wait too long for an answer. All around the vents were still belching up occasional gouts of super-heated air and sending the occasional rock or puff of dust skyward. It wasn't a threat - the SAWP was taking care of anything large or heavy enough to threaten the teams on the ground - but there could always be an accident. For a moment the question of whether it was an accident reared its ugly head but he pushed it aside; Either way, there was a man down and they had to do something about it.

"Come on," he gestured to two of the more adventurous-looking of the Arclight crew that had moved closer to the rim, "I'm going down there. You too," he pointed to a Marine that had rushed over. Lights came on to pierce far into the darkness and for a moment there was a shimmer in the air as they lit up the toxic atmosphere with a spray of sparkles. A single forward hop took him over the edge and he fell, though slowly, to follow the twists and turns as it plunged into the earth. Immediately it was apparent that it too would end up under the mountain and as he disappeared from view he called out orders, "Everyone else, move! Towards the mountain, head for the cleft! But don't go underneath!"

It seemed unlikely that the vents would run that close to the base but there was every chance, in his mind, that if this was deliberate then the massive overhand could be just as much of a trap as the surrounding ground. With their orders given, the Marines began to carry them out. Sweeping the accompanying researchers up in front of them, they hurried the whole mass towards the slot where mountain met moon in a chaotic rush even as more vents erupted all around them. Scientists and Marines alike went flying, thrown high by the geysers with the more prescient among them stopping themselves in mid-air while others fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

"Maya! Maya..."

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Arclight Away Team
Private Samuels and Specialist Al-Assad were already headed into the opening as Lucky gestured towards them, however they didn't have any sort of jetpacks or thruster so they hit the ground rolling. Both of them carried on with the downward twists and bends of the lava tube, small titanium spikes slid out of their boot heels and searched for a grip among the slick obsidian. Their helmet-lights cast cones of illumination through the otherwise murky darkness that choked them in the underground tubes.

Al-Assad spoke in a hushed tone, seemingly afraid of waking something up.

"This place has my bad-shit meter maxed out man"

The normally snarky Samuels just nodded, keeping his rifle pointed past Lucky. A few minutes into their search a figure emerged from the inky darkness and carried on towards them. Mayas' blue armor was now scuffed and battered but otherwise still maintaining integrity. She made the "Quiet" motion with her fingers and got close to the group.

"I'm almost certain that we're not alone down here... feels... intentional"

With that, she and the team turned towards the now distant exit, but before they could escape the rumbling began to send fragments of the ceiling down in a creeping pattern. A cave-in.

[Sunset]

Down in the Tunnel...

The Lieutenant Commander swung around; He and his Marines could fly out but the three from the Arclight couldn't and he wasn't about to just abandon them. The cracks in the ceiling were walking towards them in a steady spider-web pattern with a mixed curtain of dust and debris raining down before the newly separated plate loosened and then fell to the floor. Right behind them came larger chunks that had been held in place by the curved ceiling but were now free to slam down, crushing whatever might be underneath and dragging more down with them. In a moment it would become an avalanche and he was left with only that moment to decide.

"Deeper," he shouted, thought whether it was over the radio or through the thin air he didn't have time to worry about. "Keep moving! Deeper!"

If they were lucky - if he was - the tunnel near the surface might be the only weak spot, fractured and stressed by whatever had caused the sudden eruption. If he was not; Something in his subconscious mind reminded him of the tombs of his native civilization. They were built in elaborate chambers under the oasis cities and they too were sealed off in a rain of heavy rock slabs and lingering dust.

They were aided in flight by the relative uniform nature of the tunnel. As men in armor both carried and powered ran along, lights raced along with them to illuminate the ground ahead as well as the undulating surface of the distorted hoop to the tunnel walls. Maya was right; There was something wrong about the passageway and Tschida was just starting to realize what it was - too fresh, too new, with none of the debris a thousand or even a hundred years would build up - when something loomed in the darkness ahead. A shape, there for just a moment, but broadly humanoid and painted on the wall where it curved sharp to the left by the Specialist's helmet lamp. He slowed but it was gone, replaced by a looming pillar of rock that half-blocked the tunnel.

Up on the Surface...

Half-dragging a pair of researchers along who, by the looks of things, enjoyed their cookies a bit too much, Ensign Sanchez reached the cleft of the mountain just in time to turn around and watch a long section of ridgeline vanish as it collapsed in slow motion into the tunnel underneath. For the moment Emerald was less concerned with underground than above, though the two were connected. Every other step it seemed a new vent or geyser had been waiting until just that very point where the smooth ridge that rode one side of the mountain like a wave tapered away to nothing and opened up into the hatchet-blow wound at its base. Soldiers, scientists, researchers, and adventurers had gone flying like ten-pins and there wasn't one of them who had escaped without some kind of tumble or injury. Between where here and there ended the ground was littered with wilted vegetation, discarded sample containers, and even the occasional weapon that might have been knocked free in the rampage.

"Has it stopped?"

She looked around again. The whole line of them was now pressed up against the joint of the mountain and, as plainly as she'd spoken it, the seemingly random events out in the rusty-orange savanna had also. Aside from a few pseudo-leaves still tumbling about, there were no more gouts of super-heated air or blasts of rock and stone.

"As if someone had flipped a switch."

Her's was not the only similar observation and many were now looking up at the mountain in question.

"But was it trying to drive us away, or drive us back?"

That answer came quickly and with a loud rumble as part of the hillside above them began to slide away...

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

Tunnel Team
The two marines swiveled on their heels as the figure before them faded into the blackness, they both let a string of hyper-accelerated tungsten fly into the darkness, but they were seconds to late as the rounds chewed into the far wall. Maya had now drawn her sidearm, a boxy pistol that detached at the hilt to allow the operator to slide in the ammunition. The ammunition was not a typical bullet but instead a canister of tungsten flechettes, sped up to incredible speed they would do grievous damage at close range. She had now refocused completely as they moved deeper into the tunnel, beams of light crisscrossing the choking blackness.

Despite their lack of power armor or jet packs the Union Marine Corps was still brutally capable of killing humans and aliens alike, training lasted for a year. This was feasible for the union because the military itself was small, limited in scope and rarely over-stretched, so they focused on making the units they had excellent. Maya had the utmost confidence in her soldiers as they pushed on, their grenades and sidearms jangling around their wastes. Maya had known Hashi Al-Assad for years, they had met raiding a pirate cruiser over Jova, she was the better soldier but he was a far more sociable person. She had decided to enlist as a Zero-G, he had served as a recruiter during that time.

Something moved in the dark before them and she whipped her Flechette-Pistol towards it and readied her trigger finger.

Up Top

The SAWP was a killer, not just a mindless machine, but a hunter, an artificial intelligence purposely imbued with virulent nationalism and rage. It looked through the eyes of a individual who would gladly die for their country and took immense pleasure in killing for it. The SAWP knew in its silicon mind that this place was a place of prey, where it could hunt with its curved blade and bloody teeth. The stones that it slaughtered were but tidbits to its voracious appetite for killing. Now as its human allies fled beneath the cleft and the stone of the mountain slid away, it would grin with a fanged smile if it had a mouth. Finally, whatever emerged from this place would be a fight.

In anticipation it dug its titanium claws into the earth, its ion cannon ejected a near-molten heat-sink and a fresh one slid in, the targeting matrix was overclocked, the survival matrix de-powered, the plate over the missile pods slid away and it primed its hydraulic joints for a deadly charge.

[Sunset]

In the Tunnels...

Whatever shadow or shade had made itself known had already disappeared but where it had been also presented the only escape. One after another chunks both large and small rained down from the ceiling to fill the undulating cylinder. Already the point closest to the surface was clogged with material forming a steep ramp back towards the surface. There was a moment of hesitation; This could be used to make an attempt at the surface but already the ground was proven unstable. What if another quake was to bring the sides down as they climbed? This would leave them truly buried alive.

"Deeper!" Tschida ordered, following his own example to set off at a run. In front of him the armored Marines led, moving on the bounce down the tunnel with their guns out and leading the way. At each twist and turn they moved to the inside and the outside of the passage presenting a double-threat to whatever might lurk beyond. If there was something, it wasn't making itself known nor was there opportunity to do so. Aside from the odd bulge or indent, the tunnel looked as though it had been carved out by water and then lined with some smooth substance. Whatever had made them, the simple judgement that it had originated under the mountain as the twists and turns led them near-directly towards the topside monolith.

Up Top...

It was a moment of revelation. As men dashed to either side or were swept away by the sudden onslaught, the villain was revealed. Underneath the long gash of rumbling earth the dull brown of something organic and perhaps vaguely alive was revealed. Grotesque curves bulged outward - the force that had pushed the layer of rock above away and onto the heads of those below - while a series of vents of varying sizes ran along top or bottom. To compensate for the lesser mass of the avalanche these began to belch out a green vapor that rolled down the side of the mountain and left a bubbling hiss where it fell.

[The Solar Cooperative Union]

The Surface

In moments like these the sailor-tongue of soldiering folk often did the best at summarizing the general feeling of any group now facing an organic monstrosity from some xenoterror bent on destruction. As the ground opened up like a burst blister and spewed forth vile organic weaponry the general consensus was that this was indeed at least one of the two following categories: "Oh holy fucking shit" or " Sweet mother of god what the fuck". In light of this consensus the Arclight crew went tumbling or running down the shifting slope of the incline that had revealed itself to be the buried enemy, looking like schoolchildren delighting in snowy hillside on a day off, except for the grotesque acidic cloud that bubbled after them. Science crew made a straight b-line for the shuttle, while their curious robotic assistant Gurdy was swept off its feet by the cascading earth and seemingly evaporated into the advancing cloud of acid.

Its well armed brother the AWP unleashed its first salvo of missiles as if to deliver a hardy reprisal to the entity that had taken its fellow robot, the small warheads streaked forward like hydra heads and impacted in snaking lines across the emerging hunk of flesh that now presented itself. The ion cannon sizzled for a moment before letting loose a spear of energy that slapped hard into the enemy, sizzling the organic matter but not halting the creatures emergence. As the retreating organic force made it past the AWP, it began to take measured steps backwards to avoid the rolling clouds of death that had claimed Gurdy.

A clap of thunder slapped the atmosphere as a hyper-velocity railgun round came shrieking from high orbit in a direct descent from the Arclight which had positioned itself directly above the emerging creature. This attack had significantly more effect as chunks of the bio-weapon were sent scattering into the air while the shockwave disperse the thick cloud of acid. A round from the Sunset ship also made its mark and halted the monstrosity in its place, before it shifted directions and began a rabid burrowing into the besieged earth. Avalanches of dirt and stone were sent flying as unseen appendages tore deeper into the geology of this strange moon, a final shot from the Arclight glanced dug itself into the earth, indicating that the creature or whatever had just attacked the assembled sentients was now out of reach of the menace of orbital weaponry.

Acting Officer Peter Xander was not in any way prepared for this, hot tears running down his face behind his opaque faceplate as a handful of marines and scientists moaned or shrieked, having been licked or partially engulfed by the digestive agent that had sizzled down the slope. Ceramic armor protected much but at the joints and apertures of the suits the acid had found its way in and left terrible wounds, one scientist had lost his entire right arm to the terrible organic weapon. More than a few of the team were unaccounted for, he could only assume entirely dissolved or swallowed by the horror they had stumbled upon. He had to keep his head though, so he ordered everyone but himself, three marines and the AWP back to the fat shuttle that still lay in the sickly soil of the surface.

Cascading sonic booms echoed as he looked up to see a heavier shuttle descending from the atmosphere, it was Unionite craft, but bulkier than the one they had originally descended in. It touched down and the rear door slammed down onto the surface to reveal a cadre of armored marines who wheeled a cylinder covered in tubes and machinery out of the craft. If the appearance of a mystery device didn't smell ominous the black armor clad JNI officer that emerged after it certainly did. Spooks very rarely made casual appearances, in fact they got their own sleeping quarters and office on the cramped conditions of a warship, a fact that spoke to their priorities being different than the rest of the crew.

In the tunnels
The situation had not presented any other options besides a rapid advance deeper into what were now known to be tunnels created by whatever was behind the activity on this planet. Maya hated the idea of being in a trap but her training kept her calm and focused on the dark tunnel in front of her, weapon raised and mental state steeled for anything that might come. The motley unit of varying rank and species kept up their advance until they emerged into a larger open space, still rounded and smooth but with one wall composed of what could only be described as shifting organic material. Hashi raised his rifle as if to shoot the strange wall but she quickly motioned for him to lower it. Unaware of the open hostility on the surface, she figured their might be room for something other than mortal combat.