The great blue jewel stood out against an endless black space and not just for its awe-inspiring appearance. The Mothership's life scans showed a fertile but primitive world brimming with near-limitless potential. If anyone else from their society had come across it, it would have either been allocated for resource harvesting or worse marked for colonisation but as a team of researchers this world offered a chance to study life in its earliest state and in a way they had not previously had the chance to do before. Most worlds they came across were either, barren, gaseous or just generally unliveable. But this planet existed in contrast to an otherwise empty dead universe. Upon entering a natural orbit observation drones were launched to all corners of the planet and it wasn't long until strings of data began reaching them. Most of the results showed lesser species but one particular grouping became of greater interest as each drone observed them.
These various pink and darker-skinned bipeds looked almost all hairy, and indomitable. The grainy footage being transmitted to the viewscreens of the Mothership showed a clever ferocity that they all agreed could mean trouble if these alien beings were ever able to leave the planet's surface. Even the thought of these aliens becoming aware of them had the crew on edge.
The ship's Overseer Urlak'thul stood at the command centre's elevated observation platform that looked out upon the enticing blue world. He was soon joined by the much younger Researcher, Mokvel who had previously been diligently cataloguing every single biped as it was sighted on the drones. He quickly learned that compared to them, the pink and brown skins looked different from one another.
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“This world must remain off the official record. I fear it will unsettle many and possibly incentivise the Blue Warbands to interfere with our business.”
“As you wish, the data will remain inside our terminal network. Are you still wanting to send a ground team to the planet’s surface?” Mokvel asked.
The words hung heavy in the air, and the Overseer rested their large hand on the glass that reflected their oval-shaped grey heads. "All you need to do is extract a small amount of specimens, soil and other organic samples. There should be in theory no reason to interact with the Terrans."
“Will that be their official name?”
“We have to call them something, and it is fitting. Terra after all means home of life.”
"And what if we have to deal with any number of them?" asked Mokvel.
“They will have to be disposed of, but I’d prefer if that was avoided. At all costs”
"Understood, I will begin preparations for the expedition."
Before the scientist could be allowed to leave, the Overseer rested a hand on their shoulder. "I understand this will be your first away mission, do not disappoint me, Mok. Provided it all goes as planned, I will put your name forward for the Deep Space Expeditionary Project. There's a greater unknown beyond this world with plenty more secrets yet undiscovered in this vast universe. As pretty as this jewel is, we cannot remain here for long."
Mokvel knew that better than anyone, still, he would never pass up on the chance to set foot on an alien world. He couldn't even remember the last time he left the ship.