Mountainous

The lifeboat took a few minutes to settle itself down on the alien terrain, it’s landing gear checking the ground for stability as they slowly took purchase and lowered the vessel down with reasonable gentility. The five inhabitants of the pod waited an extra few moments as the captain sent ANDY out to run an analysis on the atmosphere, sending a diagnostics stream back to her reader.

“I thought you had checked this all out on the ship?” Sam pointed out, feeling himself grow antsy trapped in such a confined space for so long. “Isn’t the atmosphere breathable?”

Through her helmet the corners of Alice’s mouth tugged downwards into a frown, but even as she replied she did not tear her eyes from the readout. “The atmosphere is breathable, but that doesn’t mean that the air is free of germs or biological factors that could be deadly.”

Eventually the woman closed her reader and looked up at the rest of them. “All good on ANDY’s end,” she rose from her seat and over to the hatch, “let’s go see what’s going on with this moon.”

The first thing that struck Sam was how much it looked like earth. The lifeboat had set down in a clearing and while there wasn’t much in the way of grassland, they were surrounded by forestland and mountains in every direction. Sam inspected the soil beneath their feet and noted that it was dark and damp, and judging by the clouds hanging about it had not long rained. He nodded to himself, that at least covered the problem of water if they ran low.

The others took out all manner of tech and went about running scans, babbling to each other in the usual science lingo that Sam usually ignored. It did serve as a reminder though, and Sam returned to the pod and gently pressed his hand to the open panel on the hull. His biometric data was fed into the ship and a compartment opened itself, revealing a decent collection of pulse rifles and plasma pistols. He took one of the rifles and holstered a pistol, both weapons becoming magnetised to his suit. The compartment quickly sealed itself again once he moved away and Sam felt himself fall into the familiar pattern of duty.

He had served for three years in the lunar colony defensive before falling into the private sector, and the training had never really left him behind. The rifle was a reassuring presence in his hands, and his whole body felt itself move with greater purpose as he explored some more of the clearing, inspecting the occasional bush of yellow shrub for any sign f life, great or small. He cast his gaze towards the treeline, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There was a decent chance some animal lay in wait, no doubt watching the intruders of its habitat with guarded curiosity. For now Sam figured they would be safe, but the clouds continued to gather above and his suit’s readings indicated that it was getting close to sundown.

“Captain,” His words interrupted the gaggle of scientists from their conversation, “what are we going to do about camp?”

The woman looked at for a moment and then back at the lifeboat. “There’s equipment on the vessel and it’s getting dark, we could just set up camp here.” She must have seen his apprehension, “you don’t agree?”

“We’re a little exposed out here,” he replied, watching the treeline again, seeing the branches of the alien plants move in the wind, “I’d prefer it if we moved to somewhere a little more sheltered.”

“Nightfall’s coming fast officer,” she told him with more than a little bit of authority dripping in her tone, “it’ll be safer to move everything when we’ve got daylight and see if we can’t try and find the other pod. Right now I sat we hunker in, get a camp set up and tough it out for the night, yeah?”

Sam didn’t agree, but in this situation the captain was calling the shots and he wasn’t keen to try and cause dissension. He settled on a nod. “As you say, Captain.”

Night fell quicker than he had anticipated and the group went about setting up gear that had been packed in pod for such occasions. The tents folded out on the press of a button and the material was relatively well insulated against the weather. They formed a semi-circle around the reassuring hulk of the pod itself, and after Catherine had deemed it appropriate they slowly began to remove their suits and get a small fire going with materials the Company’s survival kit provided.

The fire made Sam uneasy, especially with how utterly dark the rest of the clearing was at night, but the others seemed to enjoy its warmth so he took a spot in the circle with the rest, his attention always drifting for any sign of trouble. Dinner was a collection of protein bars with some synthetic chocolate as dessert, the most they would allow themselves on the current rations.

“The soil looks rich,” Miguel commented mildly, “We might be able to get some crops growing once we getter sense of the climate.”

Catherine pondered that. “We’ll have to do a secondary scan for the presence of mites,” she took a small bite from her protein bar, “on that note we should also get ANDY to take some samples of water and check for any forms of local fauna.”

Sam watched the two of them from the corner of his eye. Catherine was a physically small woman and more cute than outright beautiful, but she could be forceful when she needed to be and Sam found her to be endearing. Miguel was very much a different matter, a rotund man who recalled a bear with his size and strength, but with a relaxed personality that never seemed to come into conflict with anyone.

For the first time since landing Yuri seemed to lighten up now that he had a technical problem he could discuss and the scientist began listing the ways of which he could rig up a device to help them test soil and water purity. Sam had always found Yuri to be a strange one. He was a young man, perhaps only in his mid twenties, with features that seemed soft and vaguely feminine, yet he was one of the brightest of the whole crew and a reputed genius to have nabbed a position at such an age. The tech however did not deal well with situations outside the lab and often clung to whatever aid he could get.

“Everything alright,” came a quiet voice from his side. Captain Alice had finally shed her helmet and her beautiful features were on open display to the world. With her sandy short blonde hair, perfect cheek bones and vibrant blue eyes, Sam had wondered more than once if the captain was a product of genetic engineering to look so good. She smiled at him. “You look distant.”

Sam shrugged. “I’m keeping my eyes open,” he gestured to the darkness surrounding them, “who knows what creepy crawlies like to play during the night.”

“Don’t be afraid to relax, Officer,” Alice tapped the little spherical robot perched on her shoulder. “I’ve set ANDY to sentinel mode, so he’ll warn us if anything gets within ten feet of camp,” she gave him a scrutinising look, “you should try and grab as much sleep as you can, we’ll have a big day tomorrow.”