[b][i]Garden system, a week later[/i][/b]

Not long after landing, one of the ground teams found what was very close to being described as ‘the ideal place’. Now, seven days later, the mountain meadow was specked with several raised prefabs, three hardened landing sites for dropships and shelters for survey vehicles, all walled off by a razorwire-topped fence with several hundred ampera going through it. Six raised platforms, enthusiastically called ‘towers’, were fitted with twin-linked 20 mm AA autocannons that have proven quite useful on night two when a winged creature took interest in the outpost. Said creature lay gutted on a trailer, swarmed by biologists.

Over the past week, five nearly identical outposts designated ‘A’ to ‘E’ were established - A and B in the mountainous area, C in the lowlands on the current shore, D in the desert area and E, the smallest and most disliked, on the ice cap.

Aside from the winged creature, later identified by its teeth and the way its jaw was built to be a herbivore, earning the gunner the moniker ‘First murderer of Garden IV’ by his squad, very few examples of local flora were encountered. The most commonly sighted animal was a knee-height quadruped dwelling in the lowland forests, but no specimen was captured yet. Just a day ago, a towed sonar buoy, deployed by a Faira trainee pilot, briefly detected some aquatic animal the size of a small vehicle before it devoured said buoy, halting all study of it for the time being.

Despite being native forest dwellers, the woods of this planet were, figuratively and literally, alien to the Narix. Where the woods of Naris had thick undergrowth and conifers, Garden featured forests with bare floor and trees with leaved canopies that in most places formed a homogenous layer, blocking most sunlight from entering the dense woods. Almost miraculously, atmospheric makeup, pressure and temperature allowed for operation of their engines without a hitch as well as supported life without sealed suits, but care was being exercised until it was known what plants were dangerous and native viruses and bacteria could be studied.

Outpost ‘F’ on the other hand changed location frequently. The ECR Enlightenment has been modified with makeshift landing struts, now serving as a Faira operations base and as a mindspace powered space elevator along with the ECR Visionary above it on geosynchronous orbit. The Faira were conducting far different research, the Strike fleet and elements of the Second fleet running drills on the ground. The entertainment consisted of an arena set up in the area, where anyone could issue a challenge to someone else in a one one one duel. The Narix were in for a shock when Virgo requested and successfully defeated a Patriarch tank as her opponent, and the block B Positron fighter held against it surprisingly well.

Inside, a collection on engineers were working day and night on a truly multipurpose strikecraft, resulting in a modified Faira transport armed with the short version of the HYVEL cannon in dorsal and ventral turrets, VLS for the missiles, a plasma cannon turret on each side, engines modified to accept water as a plasmatizable medium and a shield system taken from the Baryon heavy bomber. The craft was hastily assembled on the Explorer and now was conducting flight tests of it’s modified engine pylons with lifting surfaces. Already the data gathered was giving shape to a dedicated hull design, rather than a filled up transporter. On the airstrip built on one of the deserts, a band of hangar workers was fitting a new delta wing and vertical stabilizers to a block B Muon bomber to test if the beloved tool could be used against planet-side targets as well.

At the Star node, the Vanguard fleet was preparing to lead another expedition through to the unknown, leaving the Strike fleet to guard the Garden system while it ran it’s drills.

[b][i]Garden IV, Outpost ‘Asteroid’[/i][/b]

“So… You like this cold and humidity?” Commander Mirai on shore leave asked of her second in command. “Although I suppose it counts as ‘open space no ceiling’, so it must be heaven for you.” the Faira smiled cheekily.

“Veeery funny.” Auraxis shook her head. Now even aliens were making fun of her stature. “Temperature’s fine enough, but the humidity could use to go up another twenty percent. And on the subject of height, ask some of our shorter comrades how they feel, running around in this.” she pointed at a picture from Outpost C, showing a rolling plain consumed by shoulder-height weeds. “Someone should get Ascari in the middle of all that, we’d need a week to find him.”

“Assuming we’d search.” Mirai snorted. “You want more humid? Yuck. Now I officially lost all desire to go see your capital.” the Faira groaned, “I can’t get this mess out of my antennae, you know how sensitive those are? You try to dry that with a towel. Most of us are going helmet-on all the time.”

Auraxis tapped her helmet. “As are most of us. Most of us don’t want to be the first to catch some weird alien plague. Some keep the suits sealed, I trust the filtration pack. And come on. Sure, whenever fighting starts in the simulators, Ascari can’t tell his arse from his elbow, but he did broker the peace. Alright, he kept the tensions as low as possible until more qualified people arrived. That doesn’t mean I want to be a part of his fleet, no thank you. And if by some unthinkable way he makes it to the Council, I’ll erase my documents and head for the Nebula.” Auraxis laughed. “Although having Ascari in the council would mean Fifth would get a different commander, every coin has two sides.”

“I suppose. So, picked a construction site for your weekend home yet?” Mirai grinned, “There are talks in our fleets of an underground base on Garden I. I don’t know how to feel about that. We’d still have no sun, but at this point, any place to expand the population might be preferable. It does help that the resources for it are not even at the site of construction, they are literally the construction site. We could blow up a hole under the surface and mine out form there. The rear admiral said it could even be undetectable and resistant to a Lucifer attack. She was quick to boast that the Singularity would still slag it, but hey.”

“No, I’m saving up for an apartment on New Frontier to retire to one day. Don’t have to bother with bad weather on stations. You don’t like the humidity here? I dare you to visit Naris during either rain season. If the Singularity points its guns at any Faira or Narix, something’s fucked already. And I’d be careful about underground bases before thorough geological surveys are complete, remember the Quake Island? And the expected flooding when the planet starts heating up? But if you go through with it, don’t forget to ask, we happen to be quite good at that. Maybe we could start selling spent mines to you for cheap?” she teased her commanding officer.

“No, thanks. So, any plans for the shore leave? I’m thinking of going to the Airfield and pulling rank to get to fly the delta-Muon around for a while. Total forty Faira alive right now flown an atmospheric strikecraft of any type. I’d like to get that one on my have-flown list.” the Commander asked.

“Sounds fun. Sadly, not a thing for me. First year of national service, they tried to make me an APC driver, except when I finally got myself to the seat, my head was sticking out of the hatch so I couldn’t close it. I’m not joking, I cannot physically fit into the cockpit of any strike craft we have available. I heard they are organizing a hunt for the sea monster that ate one of our sonar buoys, think I’m going to watch. Apparently, their existence is confirmed all over the equatorial seas.”

“Well, I’d be hesitant to call them seas, compared to Naris. With the ice caps sucking most of the water available here, they are pathetic little lakes. You could walk the entire circumference of this rock with a dry foot right now. Wait ten thousand years, then it will be a sea.” Mirai snickered, “It’s [i]still[/i] not dry enough though for our tastes. Speaking of Strikecraft, they put together the mother of all uglies to test some of the concepts, but it looks like it could pull a few Gs and cause havoc to ground forces with those HYVEL turrets. You could fit into that, that cockpit is made for long haul transports, it is sizeable and comfy.” she suggested.

“Maybe, but I’d prefer not to break something. Aside from three years as a paratrooper, I don’t have any experience with flying. Though it’d certainly be nice to see the lakes from high up. It’s so weird, there’s so little iron in the water it’s not blood red. Almost tempted to go for a swim once that beast is gone, but who knows how many centuries worth of fishcrap are dissolved in it.”

“And now I have that image in my head. Thank you!” Mirai groaned. “Seriously though, they made that overhauled transport sub-surface worthy. I think they all have a major case of The Casei. That one I do not want to test. Stuck in a metal coffin that is slowly sinking into crushing depth is not my idea of fun time. Did you hear what M of A Virgo did to the Patriarch?”

“You’re welcome, sir. Yes, anytime a tank is alone, it’s crew is asking to get killed. Wait, Casei? That name sounds familiar. What was it…? It’s not the madwoman that created the fighter/walker hybrid, is it?”

“Yes, but with bare hands? Well, okay, suited. And that’s the one. I mean they changed it to treads now, but it’s holding out against the Patriarchs in groups five against four. Not bad for what is basically a strikecraft with a kickass landing gear.” Mirai shrugged, “I still prefer a Frigate, don’t get me wrong.”

“I served with a few tanks during my infantry years. How many casualties can the whatsitcalled evacuate? How long can it operate without support, as in ‘how much food and other equipment can it carry with it’? Where does the crew sleep on or in it? Can you make repairs it in the field? Maybe mark those down to improve it in the future. And on a personal level, very few experiences beat jumping out of a transport plane at several thousand meters, accompanied by a tank on a loading palette being flung out of it.”

“Well, I’ll give you the troop compartment, that is a good thought and not doable on the Positron. But if you take into account that it is designed mostly for our use, the food and sleeping space aren’t important. Regarding repairs, probably easier than the Patriarch, considering it is one of the modular fighter designs. And no offense, I’d rather have a tank that can fly itself to orbit than needing a pallet and flimsy pieces of cloth and string.” Mirai hated on the parachute. “Well, here’s my stop.” the commander said as they came to a ring on the ground marked for the Faira jumpers, “The boffins found some kind of sweet fruit on this rock and are now fashioning a still and bar at the outpost ‘C’ biolab. Want to meet there to see what they make before we leave?”

“Flimsy pieces of cloth and string are multiuse. Unless you have one of the older, silk ones and drop it into a puddle of engine oil, that’s a certain recipe for untimely death.” Somehow, Auraxis wasn’t surprised that was the first thing on their mind upon confirming the fruit wasn’t harmful. “Drinking before returning to duty? Now there’s something you don’t see every day.” she laughed. “Don’t get lost up there, not many airstrips around yet.”

”Worst case scenario, I’ll just need to head for the frigate.” Mirai waved off before she was jumped away.