The crew was ordered to infiltrate the Aryan base . Headquarters recommended keeping the trader cover for now, and change cover to a private scientific expedition or private survey ship at some dark point. They took on experienced survey personnel to support the cover, altered the ship’s appeareance via the holographic paint, and changed the name to the Peter Weller.
En Route to the Unknown
On arrival at the second dark point past Ilrin, the ship was hailed. Bletherin told them that they were out on a survey mission. The other vessel was also a survey ship returning from another nearby system. They exchanged pleasantries before the Peter Weller jumped to Loranis.
On Loranis, Grendel noted a message cryptically looking for contact with another Heffulump. Then they jumped Kycra, where there was a terraforming survey on the second planet in progress. They encouraged the Peter Weller to travel toward Seran-1, where they detected a potential life-supporting planet.
Seran-1
After they jumped to the dark point before Seran-1, the backup pilot emerged from the hyperspace piloting chamber shaking, saying that he thought saw the dragon. Alex’s sensors detected that the pilot had swerved in hyperspace to avoid something that was not a ship, but could not determine what it was. The pilot thought it was bigger than the ship.
The dark point itself was empty, so they jumped to Seran-1. There were two moons of interest orbiting the central gas giant. The inner moon was almost habitable, but only need some more atmosphere. It was highly chlorinated. They investigated the outermost one first, which indicated microbial life forms in the methane-laden ice.
Alex sent a probe to the inner moon, but before any data was sent back, he detected lights on the dark side, indicating gaslights if not electricity. There was also broadcast television. Alex analyzed the transmissions and deciphered them. The indigenous species appeared to resemble spiky starfish at a tech level comparable to mid-twentieth century Earth.
Alex’s probed buzzed the planet. Monitoring the transmissions, Alex found a news report indicating a rocket launch. A few minutes later, the rocket appeared nearby. Apparently it was their first space launch. Some time later, UFO sighting reports started appearing. Bletherin identified the planet as inhabited and not available for colonization. They left a satellite in orbit to record the transmissions to aid in future negotiations.
The outer moon was much colder. It was barely habitable for Heffulumps, but other Collective species would need to make it considerably warmer. Having completed the survey, they jumped into the first Unknown system. It consisted of a gas giant with several frozen satellites orbiting it.
Into the Unknown
The next system was a binary system. There had been three planets, but one of them had broken its orbit and was drifting into space. It appeared to be covered with molten lava and otherwise crisped. It had probably traveled too close to the twin suns.
Analysis suggested that it was the outer planet and it had been struck by something that knocked it out of orbit. Alex put a beacon on the rogue planet in order to keep track of it. The study of rogue planets was a fledgling pursuit. It was designated as Stray by the Harth survey team.
The innermost planet was a water world. It had no moons, but it was unclear whether it had tides. Grendel was not attracted to the planet as the Heffulump homeworld had creatures that consumed anything that approaches the oceans.
There were no landmasses, artificial or otherwise, but there appeared to be floating plantlife. They mapped the geography below the surface and scanned for intelligent life. There were no indications of any technology, but there was a thriving ecosystem under the water. Alex detected some communication, but more align with animals intelligence.
The system was designated Momoa and the water world as Momoa-1.
The Next System
Kovac lectured the backup pilot on his poor performance, but the next system was a dark point with no planets. There was a derelict Gfrar ship in orbit that had been stripped of anything of value. Grendel insisted on investigating it.
On board, he found that even the drive was removed. It appeared to have been ejected for some reason. He found some sort of personal communication device. He suspected that the Gfrar had intended to come back to break the hull down. It was clear that they did not like to waste anything. The vessel appeared to have been abandoned about a week ago. They fully documented the hulk for future analysis.
The New Nazi World
Kovak took the helm. Alex put the ship in stealth mode. Grrr was had the weapons ready.
Kovak made the next jump. There was a very Sol-like system with six planets. The innermost planet was in the habitable zone. The outermost planets were in mutual orbit around each other, but the formation did not look stable for the long term. There were two gas giants, and two other smaller planets.
Upon arrival, the Peter Weller was immediately hailed by a ship of about the same size using Collective standard protocols. Bletherin introduced them as a survey ship. The other vessel told them to move on as the system had already been surveyed and claimed. The speaker was wearing an Avalon uniform was was hostile toward the Garlan.
Scanning the system, there was an apparent base on one of the moons of the outer gas giant. There were also two other similar ships in the system. They were all well-armed local enforcement cutters. The other ships were not approaching.
Bletherin suggested that they register their claim to avoid future surveys, but the officer declined. Bletherin surmised that the officer was not authorized for such things.
Bletherin told the officer that they had to wait for the pilot to recover before jumping out. In the mean time, they charted the system to identify where to in system to jump to. Alex prepared a stealth probe to eject along with the garbage before jumping out.
Jumping Away
Kovac performed an in system jump, but the stealth system was acting suspiciously. It did not appear that they were seen. They deployed stealth probes and detected a ship that was about to jump right on top of them.
The Peter Weller jumped further out into the unknown. They arrived at a dark point with an actual black hole present. There were no signs of pursuit, but there was a debris field, and Alex hid the ship in it.
Back to the Nazi World
Kovac jumped back to the system to collect the stealth probes. The stealth system appeared to function that time. The cutters neither hailed or approached them. Only two of the cutters were present. The probes were at the expected location and they recovered them.
One of the satellites had observed the moonbase. They were growing food there, which suggested that they main planet might not be able to support terrestrial plants. It looked like a typical terraforming facility, aside from the beefed up defences.
The other satellite viewed the main planet. It was slightly larger than Earth with higher oxygen levels and slightly greater gravity. It was very earth-like. It had a complex, fully developed ecosystem. It looked like earth with a different map. There were two settlements on the dark side visible by their lights.
The planet’s moon was much larger than Earth’s moon and pink rather than grey. The planet probably had quite volitile weather patterns.
Infiltration
They discovered an asteroid orbiting between the planet and the moon. There were no signs of activity on the moon itself. Alex parked the ship under the cover of the asteroid. It appeared that their security was focused on the cutters preventing interlopers than defences on the planet, and the cutters did not seem to notice them.
They observed the planet for a full day to map the entire surface. There were only the two settlements, and both were fairly small. They were about 200 miles apart and reasonably close to the coast. They were both in the temperate zone. There were very big trees and the area was very jungle-like.
The command staff, a female survey scientist, and some security personnel took a shuttle to the surface. They landed in a remote area closer to the northern settlement after a turbulent flight through the atmosphere. It was next to a river in a heavily forested area.
When he opened the hatch, Grrr detected the presence of a large predator. Grendel noticed shapes moving through the trees. They were bipedal, feathered creatures, and they observed the ship warily. One approached and examined the shuttle, then they all ran off.
Into the Jungle
Kovak and Grrr were overcome by the heavy oxygen atmosphere and had to take some time to adapt. The survey scientist warned against smoking and sparks, even though the humidity was oppresive and rain was imminent.
The scientist gathered leaves and samples as they progressed, and found a foot-long pre-flight feather. They disturbed proto-birds with their movements. They discovered a trail moving in the direction that they were going domonated by three-toed claws resembling veloceraptor feet, but they did not appear to be recent.
The jungle was quite noisy. The trail split into two. They saw a veloceraptor like creature, but ran off. Then the jungle went quiet. Grendel climbed a tree.