"Commander, I'm sorry to disturb you, but there's a call on the RRS for you," a man called sheepishly as he knocked on the door.
"Shit," Nephenee hissed as she jumped out of bed, "Just sneak out when you get dressed. Gatrie's team is probably checking in." She quickly put on her jumpsuit and her long hair up in a ponytail before carefully leaving the room without allowing a good view inside. Running full speed, she made it to the RRS in less than five minutes. As she had expected, it was only Gatrie's team checking in. Unfortunately, she was still half asleep on the call, so she couldn't pay attention very well. When the call ended, she groaned and stretched for a moment before heading out the door. Innes, completely dressed and much more awake looking than Nephenee, met her at the doorway with two cups of coffee in his hands. She quickly grabbed one of them and walked alongside him as they strolled through the FOB.
Innes asked, "Were you right? Just Gatrie checking in?"
"Yeah, it was just that," Nephenee sighed as she pulled up the report again, "Except he said they've made contact with a plant-based advanced intelligence. Assuming his report is accurate, this being terraformed the planet in real-time."
"But it also looks like the entity is peaceful. Maybe we gained an ally instead of a foe," Innes tried to stay positive as he skimmed the report.
"Did you get out without being seen?" Nephenee whispered, "I left in quite a hurry this morning."
Innes nodded and winked, "I also went around to the projects we have going at the moment while you were on the call. The first level of the base will be completed in a few hours, though the second level will still be another day or two. The crafting station is up and running; they should have the spell circle enchanted on three items by nightfall. And the research center has been put on hold until the second floor is finished since we're integrating the design for that into the FOB. Any other questions?"
"No, I think you covered everything," Nephenee smiled as she took another sip of coffee, "Thank you for the coffee."
"Of course. I'm going to get a little morning training in before I inspect the perimeter unless you'd like me to do something else," Innes smiled. Nephenee shook her head, so the two parted ways for now. She couldn't help herself and stared at Innes until he disappeared from view with a big grin across her face. Making her way to the command center of the ship, Nephenee began reviewing the data Jask had collected from scans so far. The reports still indicated that no other ships had entered the scannable range yet, but something was off in Nephenee's eyes.
"Jask, are you ready to work?" Nephenee chuckled as the AI orb popped onto the screen, "I want to take a better look at a couple of these scans. Pull up incident four and seven."
Jask chimed, "What are you looking for, miss? I can better assist you if I know what's special about these events."
"These two events were small projectiles that entered the system, right?" Nephenee questioned, "Show me the trajectory of these objects. And pull up any additional information you have about these as well."
"I apologize, but I was unable to scan these properly given their size and speed," Jask beeped as new charts appeared on the screen, "Based on what I did uncover, they were of a similar size, shape, and material composition. Remarkably, they came from the same area of space near the edge of the system, the asteroid cloud."
"Where did these two land? Can you at least give me that?" Nephenee frowned.
Jask answered, "Object four entered Paloth's atmosphere yesterday morning and can no longer be traced due to its size. Object seven entered Temia's atmosphere this morning and made impact ten miles north of here though the condition it is in is unknown."
"Why didn't you say anything? And why didn't we hear anything?" Nephenee shouted, "What if this is more alien technology? Come on, Jask."
"Sensors detect only objects massive enough to cause serious damage to the planet while this entry was less than five percent that massive. It should have burned up overhead," Jask commented.
"Should have. Jask, give me coordinates of where this object is, if it still exists," Nephenee ordered, "And cobble together a team. We're going to go check this in person."
Jask responded, "Yes, ma'am. Where should I direct the team to assemble?"
"Outside the FOB in ten minutes. I'll meet them there," Nephenee directed Jask as she got up from the chair and left the command center. She headed back to her cabin first to grab her rod before setting out to find Innes before she left. As usual, she found him cross-legged in meditation in the training room by himself. When she got close, he opened his eyes and looked up at her.
Innes asked calmly, "What's going on? You seem on edge."
"I'm leading a team to scout to investigate an anomaly Jask picked up about ten miles from here," Nephenee answered with a hint of anxiety in her voice, "It shouldn't take long, but if I don't check in within a couple hours, sound the alarm and go into lockdown."
"Is there more Mantoan technology? Or something worse?" Innes questioned as he stood up.
"It could be nothing, but if it's not, we need to know," Nephenee explained, "Take care of the base while I'm away." She turned away quickly, trying not to turn this into an emotional goodbye, but Innes grabbed her hand quickly, pulled her into his arms, and gave her a deep kiss before letting her go.
Innes blushed, "Don't worry about us. Just come back alive and in one piece." Her cheeks also turned bright red when she faced him. She nodded shyly and walked towards the Humvee still in the cargo hold. Due to the distance, she wanted to drive closer before approaching the potential crash site on foot. The engine roared as she got in the driver's seat and turned it on. Without hesitation, Nephenee drove away to pick up the other members of the scouting party who were waiting outside the FOB as she had requested. They pulled away quickly from the base and drove towards the crash coordinates. Due to the variable nature of the planets' surfaces, the Collective engineered this vehicle to go through any terrain with its deep treads, flexible suspension, and six-wheel drive. However, it was a slower ride due to that and took about twenty minutes to go ninety percent of the way. Up to this point, the land had been covered by brush and grass as well as rather flat, yet when they stopped, they noticed the ground before them was pushed up to a ridge, indicating an external impact of some kind.
"Everyone, get out and be on guard," Nephenee cautioned them, "We're going to walk the last mile to the coordinates."
"It looks like there was an impact here, Commander. What are we looking for again?" one of the team asked.
"Just stay a little bit behind me and cover my back," Nephenee ordered, avoiding the answer to their question, "This should be a quick in and out mission." Hesitantly, they all piled out of the Humvee and slowly walked towards the coordinates. Since Nephenee hadn't fully explained the situation, the team's nerves made them a bit jittery, such as jumping away when a plant with sticklers caught on someone's pant leg. Still, it was only a ten-minute walk to the peak of the displaced dirt. Once they arrived, they could see the true effect the impact had on the land as a crater roughly a mile in diameter and several hundred feet deep lay before them.
Nephenee surveyed the area and decided, "You four are to stay here and keep watch. I'll make my way to the epicenter." The four others saluted her and drew their weapons as they spread out along the ridgeline to get a more complete view of their surroundings. After expanding her rod into a tall spear and covering it in magik, Nephenee boldly made her way to the center of the crater. At first, she couldn't see anything remaining in the middle, so she thought that Jask had been right, that it had just been an asteroid. But as she got closer, she could see a small spot on the ground that was colored strangely, like a black object against a navy-blue background. Once she was fifty feet or so away, she could see it: a shiny black orb with a green glow leaking from the cracks. Immediately, she pointed her arm towards it for Jask to scan.