The planet itself didn’t have a name.
It had a designation for sure but one can’t really consider X3-C4O20 to be a proper name. Covered in green and blue, the planet was planted firmly in the goldilocks zone and as a result sported a very life friendly climate. If it went out in public more, it could have passed for Earth’s younger brother but alas this particular planet was a bit of a recluse and lived on the far edges of habitable space. It currently had a few visitors though.
Two species in particular had an interest in the place, the wolf-like xythalaxns and the ape-like humans. The system sat a little outside human territory and was habitable to begin with, which in the human’s minds made it quite an ideal place to try and set up shop. They’d lived on planets with worse climates so one where they could walk around and breathe the fresh air was alluring. A competent team was put together and launched on a colony ship. For the xythalaxns, it was a bit farther from home and a little heavier on the gravity side than they were used to but appealing nevertheless for many of the same reasons. The system also had quite a few resources the xythalaxns had trouble procuring in their local galactic neighborhood but to get at those they needed to establish a foothold. Another competent team was put together and launched on another colony ship.
The first twist of fate occurred when both colony ships arrived at roughly the same time. Diplomacy wasn’t the most common thing in the galaxy as it was rare for multiple alien species to evolve with similar planetary conditions and ethics. As a result, most alliances were surface level with barely any real interaction between two species in any significant number. Luckily for both parties, this was one of those rare instances where everything more or less lined up and both species had interacted with each other in the past. Communication channels were opened and arguing immediately started.
The xythalaxns argued they had arrived first and as such had claim to the system and the humans argued they had arrived close enough and the system was closer to their territory anyways. The arguing continued back and forth until an agreement was reached that both sides were unhappy with. They would land relatively close and spread out from there. More arguments broke out over exactly how close to the other, where, and who got which side until once again both groups were unhappy but in agreement. The landing process began for both parties and they began to set up. Both parties kept an eye on the other but for the most part they minded their own business.
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About half a year after both parties had landed, the humans had detected some disturbances in the atmosphere that were indicative of a heavy storm. Command decided to take advantage of the opportunity by setting up some weather spikes to keep an eye as things progressed. Designs were drawn up, printed, and assembled before being attached to three teams to be assembled in the fields.
Each team consisted of an engineer, who would activate the device itself and generally verify that it was reporting back to base properly, and a small military detachment. The detachment was there to act both as a bit of extra muscle in getting things set up and protection from the local wildlife. The creatures of the planet came in all shapes and sizes with a select few being particularly big, angry, and willing to act on it. A few attacks had been reported by the xythalaxns and high command wasn’t particularly interested in losing their engineers.
After marching through about 5 hours of alien forest, the group had settled down and stopped for a break. Aside from the engineer, they only had a general idea about where they had to go but were frankly glad to be out of the base. The engineer for his part was beginning to feel annoyed. The weather spike he had dutifully tested and dragged all the way out into the middle of nowhere was having trouble connecting back to the base. It had connected just fine at every stop prior and diagnostics said that it was still working. Currently he was praying that he had the tools required to fix it because if he had to drag it all the way back in order to fix it, there was no way he was getting this set up before the storm hit.
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It was at this point that the second twist of fate struck in full force. The storm that had been brewing for some time was in fact rather more dangerous than anyone had anticipated. It was an ion storm, notable for the large amounts of energy and magnetic fields that it could toss around and the fact it ran hell on the human’s tech. Well insulated technology generally didn’t have anything to fear but smaller pieces of tech, like the handheld railguns the soldiers carried, did. A few discharged with great force and without discretion.
The xythalaxns had lost one of their farmers to the unknown beast in the last week. The large claw marks found in the victim’s body had prompted a rather rapid response and visceral response. After sending out a quick warning to the humans, a hunting party was dispatched to deal with the threat.
The creature itself proved to be elusive as the hunting party tracked it back to its lair only to find it gone. Following the traces north, the xythalaxns found their prey to be particularly annoying. This particular creature seemed to enjoy some manner of natural protection from their thermal imaging tech and evaded them thus far. It would be an understatement to say the entire party was on edge when the misfired railgun rounds tore through the woods and blew off an arm. After a brief moment of shocked betrayal, they decided on a more measured and reasonable response. They decided to fire back.
The humans, for their part, were caught flatfooted when the forest started blowing up around them. To their credit, they managed to recover quickly and began returning fire but the damage was done. One of the opening rounds from the xythalaxns exploded particularly close to the engineer. He’d been struggling to hold up the weather spike and pull his pistol at the same time when it detonated lethally close. Fortunately for him, his work lugging the spike around for over 5 hours was rewarded as it shielded him. As a result, he was simply rendered unconscious and thrown out of sight into the forest, a fact which was missed by the combat personnel. Several people on both sides began dropping.
It was at this point, the cooler heads in both groups decided their bosses should probably know what was going on. Both attempted to call back to the base only for both to find their communications interrupted. Down a few men and armed with faulty tech, the humans beat a hasty retreat home. The xythalaxns likewise disengaged to lick their wounds only to find the few survivors under threat from the original prey.
Upon receiving the frantic warning, human command decided to play it safe and raised some of the energy barriers around the base. Confident in their strength, they wanted to wait things out and see if diplomacy still wasn’t an option. The human’s shields were not prepared for the havock the storm would play on them and were quickly overloaded feeding back into the base’s generator. Alarm bells sounded across the base as the generator threatened to go. With the remaining two engineers out of the base and unable to be communicated with, human command raced quickly collected them and escaped into the atmosphere.
Bloodied and wounded, only one xythalaxn made it home to communicate the incident before. The xythalaxns decided to wait reading a few of their own defenses until an unauthorized warning shot was sent after the humans. It was sent using one of the xythalaxn orbital launchers, only intended for resupply. It didn’t have much effect beyond the message sent.
Activating their Ender Drives, the human colony ship left a scathing message in the form of a satellite and slipped out of the system.
Down on the planet, an engineer woke up in the woods. Shifting just a bit, he could tell he was covered in innumerous small bruises and cuts, his ears were still ringing a bit, and worst of all his mouth was dry. Checking his dataslate without getting up, he groaned seeing the lack of connection. Struggling between being happy to be alive and annoyed at the very same, he uttered the first recorded statement of many.
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“Dear Diary, I hate everything.”