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Note: Barokan day is 33hours, Barokan year is 411 days. 6months=205
A small flash of light signaled the arrival of the small prospector vessel. Its rough and industrious hull pitted from micro impacts and general use. It sat in place for a day observing the planets passively, and then quietly took off for its journey through the solar system.
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Observation Log - 27~40~Y
Most strange thing came into sight! Standard observations of orbiting bodies interrupted by . . . crossing object? Might have been a fluke, but requires further study. Recording was catalogued, will study further.
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Observation Log - 61~40~Y
Upon further study, object had a trail behind it. Not like a comet. Comets have long trails. This had multiple, short trails of brightness. Could be heat exhaust, if somebody got a vehicle up there. Note: ask on telecomm about potential skyward research.
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Observation Log - 113~40~Y
Returned from Three Brothers personally. Initial report was turned down as a fluke. No such endeavors. Waste of time, she says. Saw it again recently, this time it came closer. Not that much, though. Clear heat patterns in emission, flare, etc. Object was metal and flying.
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Observation Log - 180~40~Y
Certainty is 100%. No doubt. This is a VEHICLE. Sent extended report to Proclaimant, but no response has come. The usual check-in from Behemoth did not come. The worries are about the beasts tampering with the cables again. Note: Send a search party with repair equipment and armor. Keep wildlife-wrought casualty to a minimum.
"Looks like we've found a good one, skipper." The chel manning the sensor console reported from his seat, the captain leaning over her shoulder.
"A couple of habitable planets with good traces on copper. Even a gas giant with quite a collection of moons. "
"Only three? What about the fourth?" The captain asked.
The sensorchel shook her head. "Not feasible, even the works on Xiphan would pale in investment needed to take advantage it."
She leaned closer to her array slightly. "That's odd, looks like one of these was is a post-paradise class. Frozen now, no radio waves or signs of life. Gravity is slightly heavy, but it should have large deposits of fossil fuels from the wildlife that died out."
"Poor buggers." The captain said before turning away to stand looking important on the bridge, "Welp, at least that means we won't have to deal with any natives. Chart it, leave a surveyor, and then move on to the next system, we'll report it on our return to port."
There was a small flash as a torpedo-like object was launched from the ship, it powered away into high orbit around the planet. With that, the ship quietly slipped away without fanfare, thinking it had been witnessed by none but the stars.
Slowly the "torpedo" opened up on one side and three smooth objects silent flew out and headed towards the planet.
"Everybody ready?"
The Marokan in the driver's seat peered back to see his suited-up subordinates. The question was unnecessary. Once they got in that van, they were always ready. Especially out there. It still felt natural to ask, anyways. With a sigh to counter the silence, the horned creature started the vehicle, setting out on the repair journey.
~~Some time later~~
Following the line was a tedious task, but it was simple in nature. Every 100 yards or so, the van had to stop, connect up with an onboard computer, send a message back to the Observation computer, and see if there was a connection. If there was, then that area was fine. If there was no connection, then somewhere in that last 100 yards there was a break. This time was fairly ordinary. Some ways out, the disconnect was made. Simple enough. The party exited the vehicle, the Astronomer included, armed with their toolkits and mining lasers (the best deterrent for those beasts was, of course, the most powerful thing to cut through rock to date). What they weren't expecting was what caused the break. The group came upon. . . a thing.
It first announced its presence when one of the crew was sprinkled with a lump of half-frozen soil falling on him. Looking up there was nothing. But then another clump of soil was violently expelled up from a distance and landed amongst them.
"Careful!" The Astronomer, Tera'be commanded the others, using his telepathy rather than his mouth. After all, their maws were effectively muzzled in protective gear, so the next most efficient method was their mental connections. The team, clothed in more leather than the average civilian as a protective measure, spread out slightly, forming a line to approach the mound with. If it was some beastly trick, they would be ready.
Walking towards the source of the eruptions, they came upon what looked like a mound of snow with a tube sticking out of it, as they watched, yet another clump of the soil was fired out of the tube with a small pop of compressed air and carried away by the winds.
A psychic message began to relay among the group. Mostly it was confusion, because the only things they’ve known to tunnel were molebeasts and themselves.
"Well, don't just stand there! Melt the snow!" Tera'be hissed at his subordinates, gesturing with an axe for the team to begin. The others shrugged at his words, firing pulses into the snow in order to carefully excavate whatever it was that was drilling into the soil.
As soon as they fired, a light turned on from within the snow mound, dulled by the covering over it. It swung around towards them, shaking over its covering as it did so revealing the light source on the tip of a long limb.
A simultaneous gasp came from the group, alarmed at the. . . thing. Before Tera could even give an order, the lasers lanced out into the metal creature (they had hardly dealt with sentient machines before).
"No, no you fools! It's not a snowbeast!" the superior cried, only to be answered by, "Better it than us!"
Quickly the thing under the mound of snow shifted, as though trying to escape, but as the hot cutting beams sliced into it, something glowed, and then there was a violent explosion of air and the occasional little piece of metal. Snow was thrown everywhere in a miniature blizzard.
As the mist cleared all that was left were the quickly cooling remains of an unknown creature thrown over two meters away from where it had stood, shattered into bits and pieces.
Tera'be, thankfully, was not close enough to get knocked back, but two others out of the party were. Shards were actually embedded in the leather of those two, but none pierced the bodies - a fact they were thankful for. If the Astronomer could leer at them, he would. But, they all were wearing goggles, so he ran over to the various pieces of scrap, gathering them up.
The horned one commanded, "You two, on your feet and repair the wire. And as for the others, you can help me collect the pieces. Something different is around here, and I'm going to figure this out, damn the Proclaimant."
There were plans to be made. Yes, many plans.
The two on hole fixing duty exchanged their own personal ridicule of their funny, short-tempered leader as they observed the hole the device had made. It was an inconvenience, but something like that could be filled with packed snow.