Mapping

Posted on Sat Oct 18th, 2014 @ 12:24pm by Major Patrick Smith

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Charu

***Charu Airspace***

"Computer time until completion of the current search grid?"

"12 minutes until final scan is complete. Recommend climbing too 45000 metres to speed up the scan."

Patrick rubbed his eyes as he stood up from the bunk he had been lying back on daydreaming. It had been a long trip around the new planet and while he had seen much more than the ground crew would for a while he was bored out of his mind. Recon was only ever fun if there was a chance of getting caught, but with an uninhabited world he had the run of things. Sitting back down in the pilots chair of the Blackbird he slowly manouvered the craft up to a high altitude and turned on one of the aft view screens. Snaking out behind him, getting clearer were the obvious contrails that come with flying in this mid range of the planets atmosphere.

On a separate screen beside him he pulled up the detailed 3d image he had built up over recent days and started spinning around it reading the pegged notes he had made. Happy that the spots he had highlighted for colonies and stealth would suit he began looking over the current flyovers results. He had spotted a good mountain range in this region which although not hard to miss, did offer some good opportunities for hiding in the cave systems which his scans picked up. Pat marked it with a note for Sakketh's chaps to do a proper scan with stronger equipment. Settling back it wasn't long before the computer beeped and informed him it had finished the last details of the scan.

"Alrighty then. Computer transfer all survey scans of the planet Charu to the Hammond. Time to get out of this place and get some proper food and a shower." As much as Smith liked his craft the lack of proper facilities meant that on trips like these home luxuries were always a glad calling home. Pulling the Blackbird up he throttled the engines up and began accelerating to break atmosphere. Smith briefly mused about how easy this was now compared to when humanity first took to the stars as the planet began to shrink behind him. As he began to plot a course back to Starbase 900 the computer pinged to signal the completion of the data transfer.

Sending the blackbird into warp Patrick sighed with relief to be heading home without any kind of drama on his mission. He would be glad to get back to the business instead of the never ending time to think that came from being a lone scout. This was by his choice he admitted mentally knowing if he'd had a science geek on board he would probably have abandoned them on the planet by now anyway. All the same no more time to remember passed operations would be welcomed. Especially 'Gauntlet 52'.

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Major Patrick Smith