Diligence
Serenity class modular support ship, colony configuration
Destination: Gholgoth; Varathron
At the far edge of the system, there was a small swirling bubble, then a flash of light and then a hole as two ships appeared out of FTL. Lighting crackled from the hole and across the hull of the ships before then disappearing as the hyperdrive hole closed and the drives aboard the ship cooled, dumping their built up heat into the vacuum of space. Colonel Arvo Toivanen stood on the well lit and busy bridge of the lead Serenity class modular support ship, one of two in the system, and watched as their targeted planet got closer and closer. He, like all of the officers of High Command and the Planetary Colonization Authority, had heard rumors of Varathron from several sources. Most of these sources had been backed up by the Aumanii, which was puzzling and odd. “Why would the Aumanii back up these rumors?” pondered the colonel, placing his paw to his chin and started to rub it while he continued this thought. “They have something to gain....I just..what is it.”
Just then one of the officers turned around and looked towards the captain of the vessel. “Sir, FTL drive has been disengaged and we are safely out of the FTL slip. We have started venting our built heat.”
“Excellent.” reported the captain with a nod as he looked towards the colonel. The captain was a middle aged fenvarian, with tall pointed ears and a remarkably fox-like face, and baby blue eyes. Orange and grey fur covered his body alongside the black fur of his forearms and shins. Both of the officers were wearing white dress uniforms, but each of them had different epaulettes, the captain had blue for the navy, and the colonel had red for the army. “Seems everything went according to plan, Colonel, now we just need to get to the planet.”
The colonel then snapped out of his thoughts and looked towards the captain. “Yes...” he replied as he couldn't help but think about why they were sent here. “So far everything has gone to plan. What do we know about the planet?”
The captain looked puzzled and then brought up the notes that the Aumanii had sent them about the planet and its inhabitants. “Seems like there are a large number of humans on the planet, technology seems to be all over the place but somewhat similar to ours just with a lack of FTL travel. As well as basic descriptions about nations on the planet, as well as a number of nations to look out for. Most of them being some of the ‘power pushers’ in the Gholgoth region of the planet.”
“Mm, I see. Anything else?”
“Other than that, it seems to be a ‘super earth’ classification by human suggestions.”
“Mm, I see....very well.” The colonel then nodded and pulled up the location that they were going to be landing, it was on the southern tip of the northwestern continent in the region known as Varathron. From the looks of it, the place seemed to be semi perfect for Fenvaria colonization; a large number of fjords, mountainous locations and it seemed to be rather chill as well. But there were portions of the zone that were classified as semi tropical, habitable but rather uncomfortable for the fenvarians. As for mineral scans, that was up in the air since they couldn't get a good scan at what was in the area. But whatever was there would be used to help get the colony up and running for further development.
The colonization procedure for Varathron would also be different then most other fenvarian settlements, rather the civilians would be brought down with the military forces in order to help quickly set up the colony. Also, the Empire can not afford to lose the civilian labor force or the civilian complement as it would put a major hole in the construction efforts of the colony as well as hamper colony growth. Plus they were far from home, so any sort of civilian force would have to travel for some time before getting here to help set up the colony, thus wasting more time. So it was safer to just bring down the colonists and have them work with the military to set up the colony.
“Time until we reach the planet?” asked the colonel as he looked to the captain.
“About four days, hopefully by then we would have the cover of a storm or something to mask our approach or landing.”
“Mm” mused the colonel as he looked at the screen “I hope we do have a cover of a storm, I don't feel like fighting off several different nations with just one army formation.” The colonel then frowned and turned around to head to the elevator at the other side of the bridge. As he walked towards the elevator he found himself wondering about this planet more. For example, what sort of fauna and flora was there on this planet? Were there other intelligent species on this super earth? Also, were there any nations that would be friendly towards them? Granted the last question could be answered with the list the aumanii had sent them, but alas that list could also have some miss information as it was from the Aumanii perspective. Plus they couldn't always rely on intelligence reports gathered by their allies, sometimes the best intelligence is when you send your own group to get that intelligence.
Boarding the elevator he turned around and pressed the button to one of the staging areas, with a hiss the doors closed and the elevator started to go down. He would spend some time on the elevator and continued to think to himself about the planet and other nations, occasionally the thought about food or something that was totally out of left field. About halfway through his trip, he patted one of his pockets and felt a cigar pack, he pulled out the back and pulled one out. Putting away the pack he then pulled out a lighter and quickly lit the cigar, then started to indulge in his smoking habit. After a few puffs the elevator finally hit the designated floor and the doors opened up, revealing a semi busy staging area as people moved around. Loaders carried around boxes of supplies; while deck crew were busy carrying out regular maintenance of vehicles, assisting the loaders, checking inventory, and so on.
Carefully, Colonel Toivanen bobbed and weaved his way from one side of the semi busy staging area to the other, dodging the cargo haulers. The staging area was unusually busy as they were nearing their target area, so it was time to get stuff out of storage and moving. The first wave of colonists had to be pulled out of cyrosleep so they could begin to familiarize themselves with their equipment and jobs. It would be a long task but the first wave colonists were split into two groups, the first one usually surveyors, construction members, architects, and soldiers. Who would set up the basic road infrastructure of the colony, sites for future buildings, and finally set up basic fortifications for the colony. The second part of the first wave would be farmers, further construction personnel, miners, and others, they would be responsible for the building of the colony. However, they also would be responsible for building the basic power plant, basic refineries, basic housing, farms, and so on. Often, these two groups would work at the same time, for example the first group would plan the main roads and major intersections then from there houses and other buildings would spring up with secondary roads popping up alongside fortifications.
After the first wave of colonists would come the more specialized personnel like clerks, upper management, colonial politicians, and so on. Who will provide governmental stability and some normaliness to the colony. The Colonel sighed as he reached the far end of the bay and saw a group of troopers standing at attention. Most of the troopers appeared to be fenvarian, or they appeared to be evandari, anthro feline. However, there were some that appeared to be human with canine or cat ears, which poked out from under their patrol caps. One of the officers addressing the troopers turned around and saw the colonel approaching, quickly the fenavrian hybrid saluted him.
“Colonel, it is good to see you.” started the hybrid in a smooth voice, she then lowered her arm when the colonel saluted back. “My troopers are ready to drop with the first wave”
Colonel Toivanen looked over at the troopers and at their patches which read ‘Sky jumpers’ ‘229th Regiment, 1st Battalion, C company’ a unit that favored rapid descents often right onto locations. They often used scout sized drop pods or their own gunships to get to the battlefield, in short these soldiers are air assault/paratrooper types. “So it seems, you guys can't wait for the rust of a drop can you?”
The female hybrid nodded and laughed “No, sir we can not. It is in our blood and training, they do not call us the ‘Sky jumpers’ for nothing, hahaha”
He nodded “So, since you guys are going in first, mind going over your drop plan with me?”
“Certainly, sir” the female nodded and then pulled out a holographic projector of the area that would serve as the fen colony. “Our unit will go ahead of the colony ships in our drop ships and our landing ships to clear out any possible hostile forces at the LZ. Once we touch down we will move out and start clearing the area as much as we can before the heavy armor arrives. Once the heavy rolls in, we then will push further in and further clear out the area. Once the area has been fully cleared out, our colony ship will land.”
“Good, our colony ship will land on the mouth of this bay while the second colony ship will land on the furthest point of this peninsula, protecting the entrance to the bay. From our scans this area is slightly cooler than the rest of the rest of the zone, pretty much what we are used to, but don't get lazy. The other colony ship will be pulling something similar to your plan as well.”
“Gotcha”
Landing Zone Alpha, Ft. New Festung
4 days later
Against the grey sky a large piece of machinery slowly headed towards the continent of Varathron making sure to stay a bit high to avoid as much detection as possible. It appeared to slowly burst through the cloud layer, like a spectre cutting through the smoke. The massive ship then gently glided down to a massive landing zone that had been set up the day before by advanced elements who now watched as the colony ship headed towards them. As the ship made way to the landing zone, it slowed down and massive slabs of metal started to protrude out of the bottom of the ship. It wasn't long before the ship then touched down with a mighty thud, throwing up dirt and dust everywhere. It even began ripping some trees out of the ground and flinging them off to the side, while others had just been knocked over from the engines and the crushing weight of the ship before finally coming to rest. The advanced elements of the colonization looked up as parts of the ship started to hiss then, a massive ramp dropped then followed by several large hydraulic platforms lowering down to the ground. On the platforms there were dozens of vehicles, many of them being various calibers, most of them however were military vehicles. Once the hydraulic lifts hit the ground the armored vehicles rumbled off followed by their infantry escorts as they pushed forward into the forests around them clearing more land for the colony. This first wave of troopers and armor would establish the perimeter of the colony by digging basic trench lines for infantry and tanks, as well as firing ports for the artillery pieces.
One of the military vehicles, diverted from the armored column and headed towards the pathfinder dropship, slowly bumping along the rough ground before coming to a stop near the pathfinders. Out of the vehicle stepped the colonel who was flanked by two troopers in full combat gear, as the colonel approached he noticed that the pathfinders were stilling around by a campfire enjoying a bit of rest. He smelled the faint stench of some spice cigars, a popular type of cigar that was common in the Empire. Personally not his favorite but would smoke them on occasion when he was in a mood for them or was at special occasions. Finally reaching the pathfinders, the colonel nodded at them and said “So, what did you find?”
“Well, this area has a few very tall hills surrounding us, however, 1km away from our landing site is a huge hill that would be perfect for setting up the fort or some sort of artillery station to cover this entire valley.”
“How is the soil up there? Would it be able to hold our later fortifications?”
“Very much likely, it might not look like it but under the soil of that hill there is a solid rock layer, more than perfect for anchoring our fortifications and providing cover against artillery shells if we dig deep enough.”
“Soil fertility and mining?”
“Quite good for our landing zone, I am guessing this area used to be underwater at one point or has some flooding issues. We couldn't really get a good read on it, but play our cards right we could have some very fertile soil. As for mining, again we couldnt get a good read, but I suspect there is a good amount of iron and other basic resources here. Nothing overly advanced, but it should help us get on our feet.”
“Good, well it is a start....” replied the colonel as he looked around “I want your team ready in the next twelve hours, your next assignment is to push further into the area and see what else you can dig up. I want to know if we have a neighbor or anything, do not engage unless you have been engaged. I really do not feel like dealing with a major diplomatic event.”
“Yes sir” replied the lead pathfinder with a nod, then without another word the colonel turned around and headed back to his light recon vehicle, quickly climbing aboard and soon the vehicle darted off heading back to the colony ship. As for the pathfinders, they went back to relaxing and smoking their cigars as they sat near the campfire, enjoying their relaxation for the time being. Hopefully this world did not throw them into hell in a handbasket.
