|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|
11,163,955,737cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit
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#Twelve Hours Later#
Staring at the big yellow globe of Tepi-3, Captain Idris stands in the bridge of the Favala. His head officers all around him, waiting the final few minutes until the probes finish the scan of the planet. This scan won’t be able to give all of the in-depth information but it would be enough to decide whether they continue the operation or turn back now. Though that would be a failure that would mar the captain and the entire crew for the rest of their lives, not a decision taken lightly.
Not but a few, somewhat tense, minutes pass before the various lights on the console shimmer somewhat. A sign of Favala wanting to talk, the captain obliges, “Anything to report Favala?”
“Yes captain, I’ve just finished the reports covering Tepi-3 and the more in-depth report on the status of the fleet, including the station itself. What would you like to cover first?”
“Give us the fleet report first.”
“Very well, starting with the tug ships then. We have a total of seventeen tug ships, ten are required to optimally pull the station, fitting that we currently have ten deployed. The others are sitting in the various ship compartments aboard the station. Two of which are currently in repairs due to engine malfunctions, nothing out of the ordinary. Moving on to the station, an in-depth analysis reveals that there are no major or unexpected issues with anything on the vessel. Furthermore, everything is online in the network and there is none of the expected shock on the system like expected, perhaps due to the relatively short travel time. Departments are ready to begin production and the habitables are ready to be burdened by the colonists.”
A small pause and then the Favala begins its other report.
“Moving on to the prospecting. I’ll begin with the first report given by the exploration ship, EX-107 ‘Ostle’, in which it outlined a possible prime target for terraforming, Tepi-3. Tepi-3 is a currently barren world, near the very edge of the habitable ring, closer to the sun rather than farther. It currently lacks an atmosphere and due to that is constantly bombarded by radiation. Colonists would have to take shelter underground due to that. However, Tepi-3 has a promising magnetic field and perhaps in the past did have an atmosphere, though likely thin. This planet has an abnormal amount of surface materials, including some rare, likely due to having no major protection against the various asteroids. An artificial body could help protect the planet against both radiation and the asteroids, though that would require a significant amount of resources to effectively work.”
Favala’s robotic voice continued to drone on.
“A high level of volcanic activity shows a significant amount of continental shifting. If at least 63% of the planet's surface was water it would reveal a pangea formation. I've marked several possible colony positions that take this into account, along with shielding from radiation. This world is likely a young one, it would usually be expected to be rich in the base resources and sparse in the more advanced one. However due to the asteroids this wouldn’t be a problem. Without more in-depth scanning this is the limit of the report.”
The captain asks a question after contemplating for a few minutes, “Favala, how do you rate this world for terraforming.”
Favala responds, “Going by the limited inspection of Tepi-3 and the system I would encourage the crew of this station to benign the terraforming process. In my opinion it would be best to turn Tepi-3 into an oasis world, this would be the quickest process taking 357 years, even quicker if we can find a good source of water in this system. I would suggest this planet be designated a mining or industrial world. However, this analysis is composed of basic information of the planet, a more in-depth exploration could reveal hidden variables that affect the status of this candidate. The explorers should focus on finding any liquid water or large sources of gasses, as well as sprawling underground caverns to host the colonists in. Furthermore, my drones would be of little help in any ground efforts, the amount of radiation and distance to the planet would render my connection to the drones to be, at best, extremely unstable.”
The Favala lapses in silence, joining the rest of the crew in waiting for the final decision, the captain’s. Captain Idris stands for a while, claws mindlessly scratching at the console below him. After a while he states, “Favala… begin unfreezing the rest of the crew, hold off on the colonist for now. Wake up the exploration teams first, and tell the tugs to explore the nearby planets for any valuable resources.”
The head officers silently cheer, making sure not to awaken the captains ire, Favala says “Understood captain, congratulations on your accomplishment.”
The captain’s lips fall somewhat at that, he never liked the ai, they try too hard to be like Tarmon. All of them are just advanced robots that can copy their way of speaking. He shakes his head to focus on the mission, there’s no reason to be thinking of ai at this time. Instead he begins writing a report on the status of the mission and more importantly the decision on whether terraforming will progress or not. A message that would take a year to pass, quite quick for how far away Tepi is and while there are faster means of communications those are for emergency use only. In return the government would begin sending more convoys. The first convey was already sent, this contains more basic resources for any repairs and refueling the station might need including the more exotic resources. These convoys represent an easy and rich target for pirates and foreign nations so they standardly come with five escort class ships and two frigates. The more long-range destinations come with more ships of these classes with the addition of a destroyer. They aren’t far enough from federated space to warrant the heavier contingent though. That being said, they are twenty light years away from the nearest TFS controlled location, and that is only a waystation for supply and fuel.
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The first convoy ship for the Favala should be reaching the Tepi system in a few months, enough time to begin the terraforming project.
#2 Months Later#
A few months passed and, like expected, the transports arrived in the system. They’ve been on their journey for a year and a half, traveling much slower than the station though leaving much earlier. Upon entering the system they are treated to the sight of a technological beehive, not that the Tarmon know what a beehive is. The station being the hive and a center of activity for multitudes of small ships that are harvesting the resources from the two asteroid belts in the system. The tug ships slowly meander through space carrying those harvested resources back to the station in order to produce the heavier industrial equipment that the colony will eventually use. A huge difference compared to two months ago, an effort that only a disciplined captain and an amazing megastructure can produce, not to undervalue the excited crew.
The transporter brought with it not just needed exotic materials, specialized parts, and fuel but also information. It will take ten more months for the report to reach TFS space and another year for it to come back so this will be the newest information for a long while. Lots of things have happened in the over one-hundred years from when the Favala set out. Some great news was that the construction of the TFS-038 was finished, dubbed the Miskuloum, it’s unknown where its destination is as is standard practice but it has set out. Rising tensions with the Sekull coalition has started becoming more and more apparent. The Sekull coalition is a coalition of stellar empires that are opposed to Tarmon’s domination of the Ora’s Eye stargroup, though it started as purely economical it has been found out that they have begun coordinating in a martial way as well. Worrying news, even the TFS wouldn’t be able to withstand the might of the coalition if war were to break out. Some news of less importance is that the infamous pirate band, Sons of Loshik, were wiped out by several small TFS assault fleets. They’ve been plaguing the outer regions of the TFS for years now. Other, more inconsequential, things have happened, commerce pacts, leadership shuffles, elections, and other things like that.
Though the information is still outdated, it’s more up-to-date than what the Favala had access to. After the information and supplies had been transferred over, the ships in the fleet would undergo repair before setting out for the trip back to TFS space. They would likely get there sooner than the report would, so the captain had them carry the report over with them. They left soon after the repairs were finished, just routine maintenance. They did leave two of the escort ships, just in case. Favala itself is well equipped to handle enemy fleets but the various resource gathering ships are not so lucky and pirates love to do hit and run style attacks. Having escorts out there will at least give the crew of those ships comfort of the mind against that.
Anyway, back to the mission at hand. All of the secondary crew have been awakened, that is everyone aside from the colonists are awake and working. In total, that is close to five-thousand people, though many aren’t necessary for running the station; they will be useful specialists when the first colony is founded. Speaking of, expedition parties haven’t started working on finding potential colony sites. The mapping of Tepi-3, though not a large planet, has taken a while. This mapping is for knowing surface geographics, useful intel for deciding where the colony will be. The issues faced by the teams is mainly the radiation causing breakdowns in their equipment meaning they often have to come back to the station for repairs. Furthermore, the terraforming stations themselves are usually supplementing this mapping with bots but also due to the radiation that isn’t an option except for small patches of the planet during its night cycle. Though there is no time-limit here and the more lengthy terraforming projects, the ones worth doing anyway, can sometimes take close to a millennium. So, taking a few extra years to find the best place to plant the first colony is completely fine and encouraged over coming to a rash decision based on incomplete data.
What the expeditions have dug up so far is mostly what was expected, various basic resource deposits, rock layers that will later be useful to measure what the water levels should be. Screening some of the more “popular” sites for meteorites to land has resulted in some exotic resources that will be useful once the planet isn’t in its colony phase. Like the Favala expected, this world would be best suited to be a mining planet or industrial world, if it becomes a strategic location in a few hundred years it could even become a planet focused on naval production. That would be the best hope for Tepi-3, it would ensure that it becomes something more and the TFS would put more importance on it and try to terraform it further. With the goal of turning it into an arid world type, likely a Veld world, much like the Tarmon homeworld.
Aside from the main planet they had also been focused on their efforts on exploring the other stellar bodies present in the solar system. And while planets take a while to fully explore they've made good progress on the numerous asteroids. Two separate asteroid belts hang around the system like wreaths, one between Tepi-6 and Tepi-7 and one past Tepi-9 where the system ends. These asteroids are abundant in base resources and many of them have small amounts of water. The other planets are not acceptable candidates for terraforming but many of them are distant enough from the sun to survey using drones. Still, two months is not nearly long enough to find anything of note, if anything exists. Although Tepi-3 does not possess a moon, there are many in the system. Most of them can be found orbiting the two gas giants in the system. A few of them could be considered good colony targets, though they are too far out to terraform into something that has the potential to contain life, at least not naturally.
With time those will be colonized too, and the entire system will become home to the Tarmon Federated Systems and its citizens, not all of which are Tarmon. All that’s left to do is wait, wait for the terraforming, wait for the response from home, and wait for more transports. Not to mention exploration. All in all, Tepi seemed to be a very young system, and one that can have a bright future ahead of it if managed properly.
Captain Idris stares out the windows of the bridge, able to see the planet below. Something that sends him into a spiral of pondering where he feels the weight of his duty and everything that comes with it. He will be the one to lead this entire operation. Everything, the good and the bad, weigh on his shoulders alone. If he prevails, he will be known as a hero to all who inhabit the planet after him. Should he falter, not only will his name be lost from history but so will the Favala and everyone aboard it suffer the same fate. Never to be remembered because the Tarmon Federated System’s terraformers never fail, such a failure would be the failure of the entire Tarmon race.