The World Beyond

Check for atmospheric conditions (air content, temperature, etc).

>>300795
>Check for atmospheric conditions
A smart idea. The computer takes a sample of the air by opening a special valve on the side of the door that leads out. It sends this air into a series of filters that screen any chemicals deemed 'hostile' to human life.
The readings come out as thus;
>45% Oxygen
>45% Nitrogen
>9% Unknown
>1% Carbon Dioxide
The atmosphere seems habitable. There's a little more Oxygen and a little less Nitrogen then you'd like, which would make breathing a bit of a labor. Your suit could serve as a oxygenator until you can adjust.
You have the computer check the Temperature.
>69.25 degrees. Humidity of 52%
A little chilly for you. You set your suit accordingly to adjust for this as well.
>The waves beat against the landing legs of your ship. Crisp blue waters.
>The three moons in the sky move softly overhead
>The dense atmosphere's clouds hand high in the sky
>Everything is peaceful.

>>300809
Let's take stock of our equipement.

>>302583
>Take stock of equipment
You take stock of what you have; a few automatons used for collecting samples in hostile areas of the planet, like the deep ocean, volcanoes, etc. You even have a small All-Terran-Vehicle. You even have a small automated farming machine that will assist, not do, the farming for you. You must still rely on getting water and compost, but you have seeds; tomatoes, apples, onions, potatoes, and some wheat. Classic things from back home. You were asked what you would want to bring to grow, and you picked your favorites. Only thing you couldn't pick was Wheat. It would be your fallback crop in case the others failed. Well, time would tell whether you would last or not.

Oh, and some entertainment from back home. A computer, with built in wifi (It can, surprisingly, reach Earth, but because of the far distance between the planets, you have a lag time of 55%.) So you use it mostly to transpost your videos back to the public.
You have a generator that uses manual labor for power, hooked up to a bike-looking device. Just in case you were to loose access to gasoline.
Several generators, actually.

We're still on the beach? Check water salinity and chemical make up.

>>308660
>Check water salinity and chemical make-up
You don your suit and open the airlock, and are immediately beset by a strong gust of wind. Once it subsides, you see a large storm brewing on the horizon. Better make this quick. You stride over the beach slowly; this planet is a little bit larger then Earth, so the gravity here is just slightly more demanding. You scoop up some of the ocean water and make your way over, when you think you see something of a crab dig under the sand.
>Investigate if it's a crab?
>Or head back to the ship?

>Investigate if it's a crab

>>308970

>>308768
>Head back to ship
>Check severity of brewing storm

>>309800
Seconding. We can find other crabs

>>308768
I want to have a weapon on hand before we go poking the wild life, just in case they don't like it.

File: Entry_0007_Crab.png (5KB, 453x220px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 453x220px

>>308970
>Investigate if it's a crab
Despite your baser instincts saying it could be dangerous, you fall to one knee and pull some sand off the creature. It was humanity's first experience with alien life, so you feel as though you must take this risk, even if you don't have a club just in case.

It was small, big enough to fit in your hand. A dark green-looking carapace that shimmered a soft blue in the light. Upon closer inspection, the apparent texture of the shell gave a sort of grid-feel to it, with slightly raised squares all across the top. Two small, circular eyestalks rose from the center of the shell, rather then the front. Two pincers of a few centimeters were positioned on both the front and back of the creature, while four legs poked on both sides symmetrically.

Such a bizarre looking thing, and with it's stalks pulled your way it seems to be thinking exactly the same about you.

You set the little fella' down, whom immediately burrows, and you head back to the ship. Once inside, you immediately go to your computer and make a quick sketch of the crab. It's crude but you have work to do and can't spend it on a drawing You can give it a name later.

Does our ship have navigational GPS? If so I want to scan the planets structure. Also do we have any rations?

I don't think a GPS system will be enough, we should take satellital pictures for that
We could investigate the plants, too.

>>311253
>>311272
You sadly do not have a satellite in orbit, so using navigational GPS is impossible at this time. You do, however, have five probes you can launch. But you need to do this sparingly. They only have 1 hour of power from their batteries before they have to recharge with their solar panels.
>Check the water?
>Check the weather?
>Launch a probe?

>>311283
Water and weather. We'll deal with the probes later.

>>311283
We already took a water sample
Check the weather

>>311300
>>311305
You place the water sample in a small dish, then pushed it into the scanner by the main console. It'll take a few hours for it to scan completely, so you have some time.

You head to the bridge, which was in the center of the ship, and turn on the outside cameras. Yup. That storm was brewing badly. You decide to lock down the ship.

Your ship, being designed for this purpose of single-person colonization, was designed to take the worse of the worse on Earth, which could possibly be only the slightest on another world. All the windows become locked with thick metal plates that slide into place. Spikes drive into the sand and open up deeply underground. The ship actually lowers itself to present a small profile, and you are just beginning to realize that maybe you could have lifted her up and placed her in a cave. There's still time to do so, but looking for a cave this big could use up valuable time.

>Risk it?
>Stay put?

Fuck it, if I can't survive 1 storm I should be dead anyway
>risk it

>>311366
>You disengage the lock-down and turn on the ship's thrusters.

Your ship had twelve thrusters, each a meter wide. They were used for small hovering, pushing your ship in particular directions while in space, and for boosting in-atmosphere. They had the thrust of a late model 2259 Jumbo Jet, a late ancestor of the 747.

They can each, individually and at full power, put out enough thrust to go 500mph in 0-to-6 seconds. However, you don't need to go so fast.

You set it to their most minimal power range that still gave you hovering capabilities. You turn the ship 180 degrees, and cruise over the beach. Maintaining an altitude of at least 10 meters above the water and sand.

>>311407
Is our ship amphibious? I assume there's ample outside lighting so a slight dive in the ocean just to see wouldn't hurt right?

>>311432
As stated in the briefing, this thing was designed to take more punishment then any vehicle on Earth. It was amphibious to a depth of 10 kilometers, but you personally had always had a fear of the ocean. Something about almost drowning as a kid and no one but the dog came to help.

Still, you're in a giant shell; if you can't find a cave soon, you could always put her in lockdown under the water. It would take ten minutes, though, to transform into aquatic mode.

>>311443
Continue my cave search, never stopping, but taking in all I can about the scenery

>>311451
The outside cameras will record all that. You can admire the scenery later, when your life did not depend on finding a... Cave! There, you found one!

The ship slowed, backed up, and turned around. You had a small scan go through, and found that while it was the appropriate size to accommodate it, it wasn't that deep - at least five meters of the ship would be facing the storm. Which side should face it?
>The back
>The front

>>311470
front

>>311531 - The Front
>Good choice, the main engines will be protected
You slowly begin to push the ship backwards into the cave, the small pointed rocks hanging from the top scrap against the metal shell. They break off, the metal unscathed. Not even scratched. That paintjob they gave it back home really helped with that. You lock down the ship again.

You move to the back of the ship, where the science equipment is. You spent half an hour looking for a cave, and look like you still need another half-hour before the water sample is done being checked. You could make an update on your report, or possibly check the status of the ship. Which should you do?
>Make report
>Check ship
>Use the bathroom

>>311611
Use bathroom suspended animation makes my tummy hurt

>>311662
It certainly does; the day before you were given any meal you wanted. You asked for a big platter of homecooked Schnittzel und Pomme Fritz, your favorite.

If only it went out as nicely as it went down.
>Ten minutes go by
>The storm hits
>It's a tropical storm, now that you think of it
It begins to rain hard, and you can hear it on the inside of the ship. And the suddenly loud thunder helps to scare the last meal of earth out of your system.

Let's check the ship and then make a report.

>>312082
Agreed
Also we should start to worry about how long this storm is gonna last and how long night/day is. If our probes never get any sun they're basically useless

>>312082
>>312756
>Check the ship and then make a report/See how long the storm will last

Once that nasty business has been settled, you clean up and head over to the bridge. It has all the controls necessary to make a full scan of the ship.

>Ship Model: Bug-Eye P47 'Voyager'
>Registered name: Exitus
>Self Defense Weaponry: Opperational

-Blah blah blah. You don't want a full review of the ship, you already know it! You configure the scan to check for any damage to the outside hull.

>Hull Integrity: ->100%

Good. The storm's torrential downpour and flinging rocks aren't causing too much of a problem. But a thought does come to mind. If the storm lasts well longer then three days, there's a chance you could loose all power until it's subsides; you'd have to go outside and manually open the Solar Panels. You don't think it should last long, but just in case, you set the first auxiliary power supple into emergency mode, which would kick in should you do loose power.

>>313274
I think a quick scan of the cave and it's inhabitants, microscopic or otherwise, wouldn't be a bad idea
If nothing is found, this is a very bleak beginning to colonization of this planet.
Do we have any communications with the other 99 voyagers?

>>313340

>>313340
This

>>313340
>Scan the cave for anything/Do we have any communications with the other 99 voyagers?

The thought comes to mind, so you decide a short scan of the immediate area behind the half the ship sticking out would be in order. A small pole with a glass block pops out of the very top of the hull, and sends infrared beams as deeply into the cave as it can. After wards, it begins to do a full electromagnetic scan of 1.5x magnification, just to see if any microbes could be found on the wall directly adjacent.

Although finding that crab-like creature was a good sign, finding more diverse life would be an even better one. The pole sends information back regarding the interior of the cave, and showed that about 50 meters further back is where the cave finally stopped, where the ocean water could not go further. The walls were smooth and undulated like waves, while the floor was covered in a mix of sand and water. If there were other aquatic or semi-aquatic creatures in this cave, they were either hiding from the noise of the storm and from your ship, or were not here.

The pole extends closer to the wall closest, zooming in to several times magnification. At first the image is hazy, unclear. But after it stays in position for a few minutes, some signs that microbial bacteria were found. Strange things, looking like plankton and strange-looking hydra.

You quickly make a report about this, and make a note to scrap a sample off for later.

>Communicate with the other 99 Voyagers
You unfortunately cannot do that. Each ship was given a direct link to Earth, as it was thought that the other Voyagers would be too far away to receive any transmissions. Only by leaving messages at the central observatory on Earth can you communicate with the others.
>Lame.

>>316533
Let's give a full report to Earth's basd on everything that happened until now and the ship and supplies state.
Oh, and ask for any instructions or procedure advices.

>>318763
*Let's give Earth's base a full report (...).

I say sleep through the storm, we got nothing but time right?

>>318763
>Give a full report to Earth based on everything that's happened
And so, you begin to write down your report to send to Earth. How would such a thing be sent to Earth, when you're all the way in another part of the visible night sky? Well, the answer is the high powered Close-to-Gamma-Ray Radiation used to send the transmissions. A large satellite dish unfolds itself in the back of the ship, taking roughly close to an hour because of the delicate nature of the dish. Once there, it will focus twelve beams of radiation into a, in laymen's terms, convex magnifying lens of sorts. Inside the dish's actual concave structure you would find a strange machine used to generate enough power to convert the radio waves into near-gamma-ray radiation beams. Once there, all that's needed is to point the dish toward Earth and fire a catalyst to send the beam flying far into space.
That would be the plan, but with the tropical storm happening outside, it would be shear retardation to activate the dish now. It's too delicate and would be torn apart in the monsoon.
Still, you write up a report as best you can - a rocking ship makes it hard for your fingers to touch the keys - and save it to the C: Drive.

>>319214
>Go to sleep
You are tired. This whole little adventure has been quite something. Finding alien life, landing on a beautiful ocean-rich world, attempting to survive in a monsoon. You head to the bed, which just happened to be near the science lab. With how the ship is laid out, and because no one else would ever be here, theres no need to stick to conventions regarding ship-furniture-placement.
>You close your eyes as your lay down
>Yawn softly
>And begin to tumble down the rabbit hole as the rain batters against you.

Chapter end?