Tarianus awaited him like a murderer, lurking behind every corner. They knew little about the planet except it was exceptionally cold, snowing all year round across the planet. Nothing could be seen beneath that shroud which hung across the planet. This was the first planet he’d ever visited, and the first one the entire country had outside of the Karrastis System. Faster-than-light travel was a lie, bending science to implausible echelons of idiocy, so they couldn’t just suddenly teleport to Tarianus and make do with that. Even with fast-as-light travel, it’d taken four years to get here, which was rather quick in fact; the last manned expedition to Tarianus, Artemis 13, had taken decades to get to Tarianus, contact basically vanishing at around the seventh planet of Karrastis. The accepted theory was that the communications devices used at the time – half a century or so ago – couldn’t continue use beyond a certain distance and it then cut off. Technology had advanced lots in fifty years – though still, faster-than-light communication hadn’t been developed. Fast-as-light, however, had.
Casper pushed up the sleeve of his sleeved white shirt, glancing at his digital watch; half six. Alex would just be waking up now, putting on some morning television. They hadn’t talked in ages; everybody aboard this vessel didn’t even know if Mirnect was still a country, communications having died years ago, essentially – their last transmission from Command was from last year. The bell would be going in five minutes for the rest of the section to wake up. They’d all been quite excited about their mission finally beginning, and who could blame them? Casper was nervous about, though. That planet was not welcoming, by any strain. He bit his lip.
The bell went, ringing in its monotone loudness for a minute. Most of the soldiers had already been up, Casper knew, so all’s they had to do was get dressed, basically. They all wore the same; soft, sleeved white shirts, baggy jeans and combat boats. The jeans were adorned in winter camouflage, not tucked into the boots. It was a tad informal, admittedly.
Casper waited fifteen minutes for his friends to come out – the commanders would know they’d all been sitting in there talking for fifteen minutes thanks to the concealed surveillance cameras in the room, as did the soldiers, but nobody really cared. This was the first time the bell had gone in four years; the soldiers could sleep till whenever they wanted, though they’d all still have to do their daily exercises and practice, so it was best to get up early and get it out of the way as Casper had done. He smirked - after he’d finished the training, he’d had a shower and gone straight back to bed.
Lance Corporal Guy Campbell was the first out. With a heavy stubble and a big build, Campbell was obviously a former rugby player; he was simply too suited to that game. He had played amateur rugby before he was drafted, as a tighthead prop. His hair was messy and unkempt, his green eyes all-seeing and all-knowing. He looked over at Casper, smiling. Walking over, he placed a hand on Casper’s shoulder.
“Today’s the day, boy,” Campbell said, in good spirits.
“The day when we shall claim this land in the name of Nidia!” exclaimed Casper sarcastically, causing Campbell to laugh heartily before moving down the corridor, followed by Casper and – eventually – the others, their joyful anticipations of last night now likely replaced by unrepentant moaning about having to get up, in similar fashion to the teenagers they used to be.
Casper hung a step behind Campbell on his left – at Euanstown, they taught you this as a sign of respect to your superiors. Campbell was always quite impressed with this, none of the other twelve men he commanded doing this. Then again, none of them had been at Euanstown.
The corridor was a large one, its walls a navy blue, as were the tiles continuing on from the small viewing section back there. At the end of it was a white door; with none of that swishing crap you had to open it yourself. As they reached it, a gaggle of men desperate to catch up with the duo from behind, Casper opened the door for Campbell – they hadn’t been taught that at Euanstown, but Campbell was just as impressed. Yes, Casper thought.
The corridor led directly into a huge, vast area divided into two sections. On the furthest right was a small mezzanine-like area, with a square opening in the middle of the floor surrounded by railings. Above the opening was a hologram of the planet, with Commander Darcy and a few of his subordinates crowded around it.
In the middle of the room was a collection of cubical army green boxes, various types of guns stacked upon them. A dozen parkas and a few others pieces of equipment were laid out on the floor beside; the floor was grey and hard. At the furthest left of the room were four transparent swooshing doors, leading directly into the pods they’d be using for this mission.
The room was illuminated only be a small light bulb hanging from the ceiling, though the hologram at the mezzanine provided some light, though. Together, Casper and Campbell walked over to the mezzanine, saluting the Commander as they arrived. An acne-stricken young officer fiddled about with a computer to create the hologram, which wasn’t so much a hologram as something coming out of a projector on the ceiling, but it still looked like a hologram.
All the other soldiers arrived before the Commander began, meeting only stern glances from him.
“Afternoon, men,” the Commander said unemotionally, looking up at them. “Your mission begins today. You are to go down onto Tarianus and report everything you find directly to Control – you will be equipped with radios.”
“Tarianus is thought to be a cold, icebound planet. We expect its climate to be roughly the same as one of Deovivus’ poles. Nothing is viewable via telescope under the permament shroud of clouds, so you’re all being equipped with Liberators and SAB P15s,” he went on. “You will also be equipped with appropriate tools for surviving in extreme conditions.”
“You know the rest, aye?”
All the men nodded.
“You are dismissed.”
* * *
Casper held his Liberator. It was a bullpup assault rifle, firing caseless ammunition. With a rate of fire of seven hundred and fifty rounds a minute, the rifle was serviced by twenty round magazines; Casper had eight tucked in around various pouches across his utility belt. His SAB P15 was a little pistol tucked in its holster right now; he had four magazines for that.
He looked up at Campbell. They were all wearing their parkas, though none of their hoods were up yet. He sat beside the Kid, a young soldier just out of his teens – he knew nothing about him, but Campbell said keep him alive since he was apparently the best soldier out of them all.
The transparent door shut closed, and a monotone female voice began a countdown to ten. The men aboard the cramped pod fell silent. Upon the last syllable of one, the pod blasted off the ship, beginning its descent down to Tarianus.
((OOC: No invasions or giant fleets.))