Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Looks like something is affecting the scanners. Run the restart cycle as soon as we land on the ground. It will take a moment but is probably necessary with the readings we are getting." Jace explained as he looked at the readings. According to the readings, twelve ships appeared in orbit around the planet and had a firefight which lasted the span of three seconds before all twelve disappeared." Jace told her, "which is impossible. So instead we are just going to have to reset the scanners."

The ship jostled slightly as it landed. "Okay, we have landed. Do all the necessary safety checks for departure just in case. Commander Jace, would you like to join me at the ramp?" Captain Neslie offered and waved a hand towards the door that leads to the back of the ship.

Jace bowed his head slightly and walked out first. He was dressed in a simple shirt and cargo pants. The only odd thing about his appearance was that the clothes seemed to indicate a lack of something. That thing being the objects he usually felt weight from, like a knife or pistol.

"Are you sure you do not want to change into something a bit more… professional?" Neslie asked as they passed stations of consoles and a weapons rack before arriving at a ramp. She stopped next to a pillar that had a control console on it. She manipulated the screen for a moment while watching Jace.

"No, I prefer to be ready to fight. Suits or formal clothes are typically inhibitive by nature." Jace informed her as she stopped manipulating the screen and then the ramp began to creak and lower as she pulled her hand away.

"You just don't like suits." Neslie mumbled as the ramp lowered and Jace began to walk down it before it completely lowered.

He walked out into the humid air and looked around for only a moment before walking across the uneven rock they landed on and toward a group of four people who were waiting. Jace switched seamlessly into the Imperium Common dialect. "Hello, I am Commander Jace Wintry of the Cerberus Unit. To whom am I addressing?" Jace reached out a hand to shake.

The four people were all completely different and none of them seemed to be completely clean or dressed in formal clothes. Which he did not mind, but someone else might have taken it as an insult. The man in front spoke first, he was dressed in a blue coverall with plenty of pockets and covered in grease and other dried liquids. He has white hair and an unruly white beard and mustache. His blue coveralls had a few sewn on patches and what looked like a rank marking that had been replaced with the word 'Mayor' located right above his left pectoral. "The people here call me Mayor Grames but I used to be a captain of a colony vessel. We set down on this planet and started a colony. Unfortunately it appears we ended up in your territory."

Jace shook Mayor Grames hand and felt a bunch of grease transfer to his hand. Once they were done shaking hands he looked at his palm to find it covered in a thin layer of oil. "Don't worry about it. I am here more to see about establishing yourself as an independent colony with autonomy."

"You mean… we will rule ourselves." A younger woman with darker skin asked. She was dressed in some jeans, work boots, and a crop top. Leaving her midsection out in the open to see. She has a pair of heavy gloves hanging from her belt. Her hair was done up in a pony tail. "If this is some joke…" She left her meaning in the air.

"No joke." Jace shook his head. "All settlements in our territory are going to be autonomous. We just bring the military presences to both space and on the ground when necessary. There are plenty of things you can request since your territory has been absorbed but we will require just as much once you are a stable colony."

"So we are autonomous until we request too much help." The woman scoffed.

"Jazz, that is enough." An elderly woman stated. She was dressed in some work clothes too but had a large green cloak on as well. "I apologize for Jazz, she is coming off a nineteen hour shift to repair our power core."

"No problem, honestly she summed it up perfectly." Jace hummed. "Now then," He looked past them toward the ramshackle town they had set up. "Is there anything you can think of being necessary? Because it looks like you might be struggling with… something?"

"Earthworms, or at least a distant cousin. It looks like someone tried to adapt the planet and screwed up the adaptations. So all the creatures widely mutated into monsters. We have yet to locate many of the monsters nor where they set up a colony but we have encountered several creatures including the earthworms which have literally eaten some of our people whole." The last of the four, a young man explained. He was dressed in clean blue coveralls and had plenty of technical devices on him. Including a data pad that was in hand. "Also, sorry for the late introductions but I am Oliver and this woman is Cynthia."

Jace hummed and nodded. "Captain Neslie, can you grab some data pads from the ship? I have a feeling we are going to be negotiating a bit longer than I thought."

"Do you want chairs too?" Neslie asked as she started walking back up the ramp.

"Sure." Jace answered honestly, ignoring the glare she sent his way. "Now what do you need?"

"Well a military presence seems like it would be beneficial for both of us. But we need materials to mix and pour concrete, we need rations and a few other basic necessities like water. Unfortunately it appears the planet does not have natural underground aquifers." Mayor Grames began to explain. "Honestly we do not know what you can provide."

"We can whip up some technology to absorb and condense the humidity into water. Ground sensors so you can more reliably detect earthworms and anything else that might be lurking under the ground. As well as anything moving above it. Concrete and other materials we can bring in but it might be better to find a local resource you can utilize instead." Jace explained as he frowned and looked at the buildings.

The ground shook and Jace raised an eyebrow as people flooded out of the buildings almost immediately. The people were organized in their evacuation. None of the buildings collapsed after a minute of subtle shaking which subsided until it was gone. "Sorry about that, the tectonic plates of this planet constantly shift. It causes the planet to change constantly."

"That is an interesting feature. It will make road creation a nightmare." Jace chuckled as he looked at the buildings. "Although I think the item at the top of our list should be creating a way to keep away hostile creatures or to make certain your buildings are sturdy enough to survive a severe ground quake."

"Umm…" Jace turned and looked up the ramp to see Officer P'lice. "Sorry to interrupt. But there is something you should see on the scanners." Captain Neslie walked past her.

Neslie was carrying a few data pads. "Go take a look. I can take care of this." She told him. "We are going to go over the basic rules and regulations before we start discussing the agreement we can make with them."

"Thanks." Jace moved back up the ramp and wiped his oily hand on his cargo pants as Officer P'lice turned and led him back toward the bridge. "Are you going to keep me in suspense or are you going to tell me about what this is about?"

"I checked the scanners and restarted them just to be sure. But I am getting readings from space that do not make sense. Including the fact that the satellite that was up there has been obliterated and a chunk of one of the astral bodies is missing." Officer P'lice explained that they made their way to the bridge. "The energy readings I am getting are labeled but not with any variables I can understand."

Jace hummed as they walked into the bridge and she showed him the scans. He froze as he stopped at the energy readings. "No wonder you are confused. These are tachyons, and these are experimental energy variables that are only supposed to be theoretical." He frowned as he looked at the scans.

"So… what does that mean?" Officer P'lice asked.

Jace felt a thought pop into his mind with a simple statement.

Ignore it.

"It means, save the scans and consider whatever happened as a random event. Then never discuss it again." Jace informed her as he turned around and started walking away. Clearly some time traveling nonsense just happened but it was already over and was not his problem.

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