Force Commander Arik grimaced upon the dreadful state of Ebrillon and the now surging flow of communications traffic between all the ships in the fleet currently directing to the [i]Howling Sun’s[/i] highest echelon of command; himself. A good number of ship captains and officers were desperately demanding instructions on how to proceed with this startling new development. Even the personnel accumulated for this very mission were in disarray and didn’t know what to do; nothing in the briefing would have prepared anyone for this. For a once beautifully green world to quickly turn into an uninhabitable planet of decay and desolation, the idea or the means to bring about such devastation was impossible to comprehend. The Ascended however remained resolute in hindsight of such a terrible discovery. However it seemed that all of them appeared unfazed or heartless towards the corpse planet, even the super soldiers though still questioned their eyes but their indoctrination to the Sphere creed had made them fearless, seeming stoned-faced to any threat and thus the crew of the [i]SWS Howling Sun[/i] continued on. Queries filled the ship’s neural net regarding new tasks and surveys to be conducted as the fleet crept closer to its now dreaded destination, some of them openly personal but all were met with microsecond replies from the command staff to keep the vessel functional and adaptive. Pressured by the planet’s strange and unfortunate outcome, and the nagging comms from the other captains, Arik arose from his throne and linked himself to the technopathic communications array, eager to settle down the escalating concerns and worries of everyone in the fleet. “Attention all ships.” boomed Arik’s mind, “This is Force Commander Arik of the Highland Wolves speaking. I ask that everyone remain calm at this time. As it stands, we are reevaluating the present situation. Remain on standby and await further instructions...” He’d wish he had a better speech than that, something heroic and inspiring that made the situation appear laughable or undaunting. But the entire fleet was not made entirely of Ascended troops nor was this a matter of prideful boasts or show of power; this was a matter of five million people now probably considered damned to a horrific fate and the mastermind behind the grisly scene still at large, whatever it was. The criteria of the situation may have changed but now he had real purpose for seeing this operation out to the end. Transmissions from the other vessels had finally dimmed down after his announcement and allowed him to focus on the current situation at hand without any pings attacking him. Arik gazed at the dead Ebrillon with narrowed eyes, attempting to formulate a theory of the planets state. Long-range scans of Ebrillion were holographically pulled up, confirming that the plentiful breathable air had since been poisoned by a variety of gasses such as Carbon monoxide, Kerta Sulfide, and Sulfur dioxide. The list continued on until several unknown elements were compiled with the latest scan. Bio-Ops and Engineering were already taking on the task of investigating the foreign traces in the atmosphere. Another list came forth with new evidence submitted by Observer Tango Three; an anomaly in Ebrillon’s geomagnetic field. The analysis claimed a radical central shift with the planet’s magnetic field had caused a clouding effect where the solar rays and contributing heat from the local star would quickly dissipate. The resulting effects would have explained the north and south poles icing over their respective regions. Not only was the planet poisoned, it was also too damned cold to even live on anymore. The last aspect of Ebrillon’s fate was perhaps the more terrifying to comprehend. The lush emerald planet was matched by its sapphire oceans and canals, now turned into an ebony mass. Scans strangely couldn’t identify the former seas any longer; there was virtually little to no water traces to be found. All that was left was a substance that even Bio-Ops were reporting difficulties analyzing. Curiously even more that the earlier magnetic field reports indicated a focal point emerging from the core, specifically located in the Zeni Oceanic region. This was not the result of natural causes Arik pondered as he gone over the data himself. There were too many alien factors in Ebrillon’s demise. The only thing that could cause such planetary degeneration would have been from terraformer. It would makes sense to a dregree; there were at least a dozen reported cases of terraformer malfunctions, mostly during humanity’s automated Branching, that heavily damaged or even killed planet’s geospheres. But this was not an accident. Ebrillon was a world that never needed a terraformer when first scouted as its original state supported the conditions for immediate colonization. Arik’s eyes narrowed with the evidence as clear as day; Ebrillon was murdered and unfortunately likely the colonists too. The Force Commander opened as consensus to the entire crew of the Howling Sun for theoretical assessment. Just as it was sent, numbers were already quickly being compiled; the results were staggering as the battle tested Ascended pinged positive on his opinion. No surprise really since the Ascended always expected trouble. This kind of trouble however sounded more of the deathtrap kind that the super soldiers would ever rarely cautiously put their feet into. With the analysis check of Ebrillon ringing true to his theory, Arik’s expression grimaced as he taped the communications array once more and privately made a ping to one of the larger ATC Cruisers, the [i]Judgement VI[/i]; He wanted AISCs on the ground. - ------------------------------------------------- - Rayland fell silent at first to Kaite’s worried query. Everyone like him was natural scared at this point, probably regretting ever taking on this contract. It had just been more than an hour ago were Rayland briefed his crew on how things were going to go down. Nothing like this was ever covered in the mission parameters; now he felt like a damned hypocrite. He hated it when that happened. What supposed to be a lively green and blue world was now a white and burgundy hellhole due to whatever ill effects that claimed Ebrillon. He began to formulate what kind of operation they were going to pull now that the mission parameters went out the airlock. Given their uneventful arrival, it didn’t appear that there any hostile forces in the system. When he was an AISC, the space pirates he’d usually hunt would do just about anything to ward off Galactic Coalition advancement and were often open with their tactics. If there was an enemy here, they were lying in wait, looking for an opportunity. But wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to strike now that everyone is practically trembling? Something wasn’t right. Heavy solar activity would have downed or fluctuated common communications array transmissions which would have fried the most unshielded and fragile neural circuitry, could have even trapped the scouts here. But the fact that there was hardly any sign of life. Rayland also would have imaged the planet scorched perhaps due to massive solar flares if that as the culprit but Ebrillon was basically iced over; the opposite of what the star could have done to the planet given the criteria. A virus or plague could have generated such noticeable decay but would not have an influential impact with the rest of the planet. Considering the effects, it was impossible for him to comprehend what had taken place. But his gut lurched with the dreaded feeling this was trap. But with little evidence to support such a natural claim, he was better off keeping his mouth shut and letting the geeks of the [i]Howling Sun[/i] check this out. “I can’t say.” Rayland finally replied, answering Achieng’s own question too, if that was even considered an answer, “We would have to reconnoiter the planet before doing anything else.” For a moment, Rayland didn’t notice the amount of pings arriving to his terminal from other sectors of the ship. Everyone on board was also concerned about the discovery and wanted answers, answers that he couldn’t give at the moment. Anything that he could say would be the same unhelpful response from earlier. [color=00aeef][i][b]“Captain Rayland Sul’tari, incoming transmission from the SWS Howling Sun, on all channels. Patching it through now.”[/b][/i][/color] Towan suddenly announced. “Attention all ships; this is Force Commander Arik of the Highland Wolves speaking. I ask that everyone remain calm at this time. As it stands, we are reevaluating the present situation. Remain on standby and await further instructions...” Rayland eyed the ping counter slowly deescalate from its original number; at least that was one problem taken care of. The Force Commander’s announcement however was hardly considered insightful but given the circumstances, even the Ascended didn’t know about the situation. It didn’t feel like the best thing do, but they were practically being told to wait. “There you have it…” Rayland sighed. - ------------------------------------------------- - Kerra Qoun, or “Cobalt” as her squad mates referred her by like they did with their own callsigns, made herself comfortable and secure within the harness of her own jump bay. The squad’s dropship groaned to life as it prepared to take off from [i]Judgement VI’s[/i] hanger. Chatter was at all time low though no one could really blame the AICSs from being at the least bit intimidated by the fact they were going to hit the dead planet as an advanced recon force to secure a landing zone. While jumping in to hell itself was their insane passion, jumping into a planet with little intelligence on their vector didn’t sit well with them, especially not on a month old dead rock. Apparently the Force Commander needed fresh eyes on the ground since earlier scans and LRVL Scope captures reported negative on any activity on Ebrillon. The only things that seemed active were the colonial city and the spaceport’s sub generators constantly flagging an OK status. That meant power could be partially restored to some of the sectors of the megalopolis and, hopefully, return environmental systems back to full functionality; if that was even still possible. But the more desired piece of the mission was the city’s main black box or any salvageable data stores that could shed at least the faintest of lights on what happened to the colony. Kerra could feel the dropship shuddering with the high-powered rockets propelling the craft into the air, thrust vectoring engines rotating the craft assumingly into a launching position. It wasn’t long until the dropship’s rockets really became active as she experienced the small push of gravity against her as the dropship shot out of the hanger bay and into local space. She peered out the ship’s viewport, taking note of the other frigates and destroyers spread out around her into their defensive formations. Admittedly, this was the first time she and her other squad members were a part of such an amassed force of warships. She would always hear war stories from the more senior AISCs talk about their tour in the Interstellar War where they would travel along side an entire invasion armada whose immense size could have dimmed the sunlight of a planet unlucky enough to play host to them. The landings would be so intense that many of the AICSs got to see heavy rail-cannon rounds up close before they hit the planet a second later. The feeling of being with an force such as this made her feel invincible but she knew better than to get overly cocky, especially with what she was about to literally jump into. “Squads Charlie and Delta, this is Harbinger Three. We are currently on schedule with five minutes before the atmospheric dive point. Check your equipment and heat barriers for final assessment.” Kerra’s on-board computer guided her through several checks of her gear and weaponry. First was the impact bracers deploying all around her suit in case of a hard landing; she could remember AISC training years back where she had to land without the use of her jump jets. The initial contact with the ground was always nasty. Next came the jump jet pre-firing to ensure full operational capacity. The boosters glowed bright orange, igniting small flames from nozzles until they quickly died down after completion of the check. Lastly and the most importantly was the heat shield; the only thing keeping a AISC from roasting up while in atmospheric re-entry. The barrier basically absorbed the heat while entering into the atmosphere until dissipating in a series of quick pulses that prevented a heat build-up. “One minute until arrival at atmospheric dive point. Cycling out oxygen now.” Her computer instantly identified the draining loss of air and secured Kerra’s suit from any feasible outlets for oxygen to escape from. In that exact moment everything from the outside her suit had gone completely silent with the dropship now depressurized. Moments later, her own jump bay locks has detached with the cover folding over her head, revealing Ebrillon’s decayed surfaced below her. On her vox, Kerra could hear her CO barking orders to the rest of her own squad but her mind was solely focused at Ebrillon. Suddenly that moment of invincibility quickly fled away just like her now deteriorating motivation as she was faced with the countdown before Kerra had to move one foot forward for the big one. The reports of the planet’s condition were now adding up and she nervously took hold of the bars above her to secure her spot. It was then her jump bay lit up green; the signal to jump but for a brief moment, Kerra had hesitated, not wanting to move an inch. But the sense of duty pushed her to go. It was either that sense or the manual “jump assist” mechanical arm that would nudge a nervous AISC out of the ship. Kerra made her move and leaped out of the comfortable confines of the dropship and quickly began a free fall towards Ebrillon, into the jaws of hell.