Sunlit Moor

@sunlitmoor

Soldier with the Equestrian Space Program. ((Member of the Equestrian Space Program RP group.))

98 posts

equestrian-space-program

New Discoveries

The scout team passed over the top of the mountain, and saw before them the first alien city ever seen. In the center of the city was a massive ziggurat that towed above the city, with the rest of the metropolis spreading in an orderly grid around it. The residents of the city were reptilian, walking on four legs much like a pony, but had feet and hands. The buildings were made of dried earth and wood, indicating a basic technology level.

However, the streets were empty. The city’s populous was centered around the ziggurat, and a royal fanfare of drums can be heard from the team’s position atop the mountain. A robed individual emerges from the top of the ziggurat with a long staff, with a conical object floating above it. Underneath, a large portion of the crowd is adorned with armor and weapons.

____________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, far above, the communications crew is furiously trying to decode the transmission. The sequence of short and long beeps doesn’t correlate to the standard Equestrian Morse Code, but the team has been able to find its source; however, reaching it would require another ground team.

...Well that doesn't look good. Think we're going to have trouble, Captain?

equestrian-space-program

Planet Side (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

The three began hiking up the mountain, and the two pegasi quickly begin to outpace Saving Throw, who is frequently taking short stops to collect more samples, focusing mostly on what fascinates him the most.

“Pick up the pace! I want to reach the vantage point today…”

The doctor does a short run to catch up to the other two, mumbling to himself quietly.

Sunlit rolls his eyes at the doctor's pace as he continues his hike.

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

Saving Throw leaves the craft a little bit more cautiously, already taking notes on his data pad, as it analyzed sample of the planets air, and opening one of the metal boxes revealing an array of sampling equipment.”We should be able to see this city on the top of these mountains, but we should take it easy though, the air here is thinner than we’re used to.”

“Like upper Equestrian atmosphere thin, or thinner?”

“The former.” The doctor replied, taking a few samples of the soil for later testing.

"Us pegasi should be fine, then." The former soldier looks around, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of potential danger. He only brought his sidearm with him, and not having a rifle was making him nervous.

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

Stratus gives the order to descend, making sure her rifle was loaded before stowing it away. She sits, all sense of foolishness gone now that they were on a proper mission. ”What can you tell us about the planet?”

“The planet is about the same size as Equestria, but more dry and baron. However that is probably because of the sun beginning to expand. The air is breathable, and has a slightly lower concentration of oxygen.” the doctor continues reciting from his data pad.”There are three possible places we can land. One looks more scientifically useful, there’s a large body of water and plenty of plants and animals that I can take samples of, but their isn’t much sentient activity. Another is much closer to a much larger city, we’ll land on high ground and we should be able to observe unnoticed. The third is a location that is much more isolated and baron than either location, but our scientists are reporting strange magical disturbances in the area.”

Sunlit speaks through the helmet’s respirator, which distorts his voice. “I think the area with the magical disturbances is the best choice…” He clicks the respirator off, returning his voice to normal. “…But it’s up to you, Captain.”

“High ground. Always take the high ground first.” Stratus’s soldier instincts kick in. ”Bloody hell…I wish I brought along a spotter…” She blinks, frowning. ”Oh…uh…scratch that. High ground normally means a great sniping spot. Even better up in a cloud…but we’ll use it to observe, then make our move from there.”

Sunlit nods. "Sounds good to me."

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

Stratus gives the order to descend, making sure her rifle was loaded before stowing it away. She sits, all sense of foolishness gone now that they were on a proper mission. ”What can you tell us about the planet?”

“The planet is about the same size as Equestria, but more dry and baron. However that is probably because of the sun beginning to expand. The air is breathable, and has a slightly lower concentration of oxygen.” the doctor continues reciting from his data pad.”There are three possible places we can land. One looks more scientifically useful, there’s a large body of water and plenty of plants and animals that I can take samples of, but their isn’t much sentient activity. Another is much closer to a much larger city, we’ll land on high ground and we should be able to observe unnoticed. The third is a location that is much more isolated and baron than either location, but our scientists are reporting strange magical disturbances in the area.”

Sunlit speaks through the helmet's respirator, which distorts his voice. "I think the area with the magical disturbances is the best choice..." He clicks the respirator off, returning his voice to normal. "...But it's up to you, Captain."

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

Sunlit puts on his helmet, a small sidearm attached to the side of it, and grunts. “Ready.” The sidearm rotates, pointing straight up as the safety engages.

“Right, I have a hike, you two can fly.” The doctor said, putting a slimmer headset on and picking up his boxes.”Ready.”

“We all are walking. We’ll approach things as normally as possible. No flying, no magic, no randomly shooting things. Let’s go.”

The XO nods in agreement. “Let’s go.”

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

“Right…okay…” Stratus thinks for a moment. ”I think that we should send a transmission to them. So we aren’t mistaken for a hostile force. Which brings me to another point. Only fire if directly fired upon.”

“Whether or not they’ll be able to receive the transmition isn’t entirely clear. From up here it looks like their level of technology is relatively primitive.” the doctor said, reciting various notes on his data pad,”but it should be possible to land on the surface without being noticed. We’ll have a bit of a hike to do though.”

Stratus smiles, her wings fluttering happily. ”Alright then! Are we all ready?”

Sunlit puts on his helmet, a small sidearm attached to the side of it, and grunts. "Ready." The sidearm rotates, pointing straight up as the safety engages.

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

The next morning, the hanger crews quickly prepared on of the ships small transport craft for the descent to the planet’s surface. The three agreed to meet at the small briefing room next to the hanger, and the ships crew diligently prepared everything the small team would need on the planet’s surface.

Sunlit makes his way to the briefing room, hastily packing the last of his supplies into a saddlebag as he flies.

Saving arrives soon after, with a two small metal box as well as a smaller saddle bag. “Good mourning, I trust you’ve slept well.”

"I slept fairly well. Took me a long time to calm down enough to sleep, though."

equestrian-space-program

Descent (Stratus, Sunlit Moor, Saving Throw)

The next morning, the hanger crews quickly prepared on of the ships small transport craft for the descent to the planet’s surface. The three agreed to meet at the small briefing room next to the hanger, and the ships crew diligently prepared everything the small team would need on the planet’s surface.

Sunlit makes his way to the briefing room, hastily packing the last of his supplies into a saddlebag as he flies.

equestrian-space-program

Arrival: X-35

“Oxygen, water, plants, cites even.” The doctor says, too much at awe to elaborate further,”We should be able to get a small team down there without being noticed.”

“Excellent! I’ll go down, you’ll come with. We’ll need science and comms, anything else?” She pauses. ”First off we should see if they’re in a welcoming mood. I don’t want to start off as an enemy to a newfound civilization.” Stratus seems to be a mix between awed and excited.

“I volunteer for the expedition. On the off-chance they’re violent, you’ll need ponies down there who can fight.”

equestrian-space-program

Arrival: X-35

“Keep an eye on all sensors. If something so much as moves out there I want to know instantly.”

equestrian-space-program

The crew of the ship are alone, so if any intelligent life does exist, it is not yet space faring, or at least, not to a significant degree.

The outer most planet orbits around the sun very violently; its moons are small, and the gas planet itself is wrecked by turbulent winds. Close examination of the atmosphere shows the typical make up of mostly hydrogen and helium; closer examination of its deeper levels would require a probe to be sent into the planets depths

Sunlit makes a copy of all relevant information, and saves it to a microdrive to send to the Admiral when a chance shows itself.

“Captain, this system seems dead to me.”

“Right. Scan each planet and we’ll move on. We need deep core probes in order to scan that gas giant. In the meantime keep sending the data to the Admirals and science teams back home.” She pauses, yawning. ”And someone bring me some coffee or something…”

Sunlit taps at the screen a few times. "Orders distributed. And coffee should be delivered to the bridge shortly." He smirks, seemingly amused by the captain's drowsiness.

equestrian-space-program

Arrival: X-35

“Keep an eye on all sensors. If something so much as moves out there I want to know instantly.”

equestrian-space-program

The crew of the ship are alone, so if any intelligent life does exist, it is not yet space faring, or at least, not to a significant degree.

The outer most planet orbits around the sun very violently; its moons are small, and the gas planet itself is wrecked by turbulent winds. Close examination of the atmosphere shows the typical make up of mostly hydrogen and helium; closer examination of its deeper levels would require a probe to be sent into the planets depths

Sunlit makes a copy of all relevant information, and saves it to a microdrive to send to the Admiral when a chance shows itself.

"Captain, this system seems dead to me."

equestrian-space-program

Arrival: X-35

After the appropriate checks and counter-checks, the ship and its crew entered FTL travel, propelling themselves where no being had every gone before.

The system was occupied by a single orange star, surrounded by four planets. The first orbited far from the star and was a cold desolate gassy planet. The next two were far more promising, rocky planets of average size, and an ideal distance away from the star. Coincidentally, the speed of their orbit meant that they remained, for the most part, on opposite sides of the system’s sun. The final planet orbited close to the sun, so close in fact, that the planet was being torn apart by the shear gravitational forces of the sun. Closer examination of the system’s sun indicated that it is nearing the end of it’s life cycle, and beginning to expand.

If any life exists in this system, it is doomed within the next century.

Saving Throw stands in awe at the ships primary observation deck, as his data pad is flooded with the information being passed back and forth between the ship’s science crew.

Sunlit is on the bridge, watching in awe.

“Oh my ‘Tia.”

He sits back down in the XO’s chair. “Somehow, I doubt anything’s alive here.”

“I agree, but we have to check. Get the science team running full scans, I don’t want a single part of this system unchecked.”

Sunlit activates the computer attached to his seat, and works to send the captain’s order’s throughout the ship.

equestrian-space-program

Arrival: X-35

After the appropriate checks and counter-checks, the ship and its crew entered FTL travel, propelling themselves where no being had every gone before.

The system was occupied by a single orange star, surrounded by four planets. The first orbited far from the star and was a cold desolate gassy planet. The next two were far more promising, rocky planets of average size, and an ideal distance away from the star. Coincidentally, the speed of their orbit meant that they remained, for the most part, on opposite sides of the system’s sun. The final planet orbited close to the sun, so close in fact, that the planet was being torn apart by the shear gravitational forces of the sun. Closer examination of the system’s sun indicated that it is nearing the end of it’s life cycle, and beginning to expand.

If any life exists in this system, it is doomed within the next century.

Saving Throw stands in awe at the ships primary observation deck, as his data pad is flooded with the information being passed back and forth between the ship’s science crew.

Sunlit is on the bridge, watching in awe.

"Oh my 'Tia."

He sits back down in the XO's chair. "Somehow, I doubt anything's alive here."

Sunlit watches Diesel work, but doesn’t offer to lend a hoof. His specialty is breaking things, not fixing them.

“I suppose you have an idea of what the problem is now, Chief Engineer Diesel?”

diamond-dog-diesel

Diesel finishes the last one, then looks back to Sunlit, “Not yet, but soon sir,” heads over to a wall panel, using a different tool to pry it off and set it to the side to look at the systems behind it.

After several minutes pass, he grumbles, “Alright, still not a clue… what in the name of dog is going on around here.”

"I would say sabotage if this was during the Equiton Wars, but... Yeah, anyway."

“I’m Executive Officer Sunlit Moor. I still have no idea how I got this position, but anyway…”

After a few more seconds of walking/flying, they reach security deck. Everything within is completely soaked, and yet the sprinklers continue to run.

diamond-dog-diesel

Diesel growls a bit that the water is still going off, he pulls out his communicator from one of his toolbelts pouches, a device of silver wrapped around a gem, “Engineering,” he waits a moment, someone answers back through it, “This is Diesel, I said turn OFF the water for the Security deck!” There is another muffled response, he grumbles a bit, “Of course…” He puts the device away, looking towards Sunlit, “Seems there is a problem in the water cells, pressure is far higher then it should be and they can’t shut it off at the source, give me a minute though,” He heads into the soaked area, moving sprinkler by sprinkler, he uses a tool from his belt to manually close each of them, dripping wet by the time he is finished, not a true solution though.

Sunlit watches Diesel work, but doesn't offer to lend a hoof. His specialty is breaking things, not fixing them.

"I suppose you have an idea of what the problem is now, Chief Engineer Diesel?"

diamond-dog-diesel

He shakes his head a bit, not seeming worried, “Nope, no theories, plenty of possibilities, but nothing can be ventured till I get a look at it myself.”

“Fair enough.”

“…We haven’t been formally introduced, have we?”

diamond-dog-diesel

“I don’t believe so sir, Diesel, and I guess I’m in charge of Engineering sir,” Though they hadn’t been introduced yet, Diesel made sure to read up on his superior officers once he got this assignment, not much, just enough to recognize them and know there names.

"I'm Executive Officer Sunlit Moor. I still have no idea how I got this position, but anyway..."

After a few more seconds of walking/flying, they reach security deck. Everything within is completely soaked, and yet the sprinklers continue to run.

Sunlit Moor @sunlitmoor - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag