A Dead Earth[IC-Semiopen]

"Hmm... nothing too good, unfortunately.", Alexander said, while looking himself at the scans. "Firstly, our scans of the systems haven't revealed any other lifeforms or active ships than those in our fleet.. of course, it's hard to tell with the wrecks on an entire fleet scattered around, but I say that it would be safe to guess that we are alone. For now, at least."

The main holographic projector in front of him then showed a projection of the planet in whose orbit Prinz Eugen and its battlegroup currently were, Terra Nova. The New Earth. Or, how it was called now rather, Terra Mortuum. The Dead Earth.

The projector projected two different but also similar holograms. One of them, was clearly and older one, and it showed a planet similar to Earth, maybe a little bigger. The planet was... beautiful. Even if the humans right now lived on all sorts of different planets, it was probably one of their features that they liked the type of planets similar to their own old homeworld, Earth. Planets with blue oceans, green lands, planets with nature, blooming with life. And this was apparently one of them.

 Most of the landmass of the planet was gathered in its eastern hemisphere, forming a rather huge continent, from the looks being the most populated. A smaller island like continent was really close to it, probably having broken from the larger one sometime in the past, creating a small, internal sea, connected to the larger planetary ocean by two larger straits. Through the center hemisphere, there was a large ocean, one that made Earth's Pacific Ocean feel a little small In the southern hemisphere of this ocean, a rather small island continent, rather on the size of Earth's Australia, was staying there alone, surrounded just by small chains of islands. In the western hemisphere, three island like continents, each a little larger than the island continent in the west were near each other, close enough for the water between them to form like some sort of an internal sea, visibly connected to the planetary ocean through three straits, between the continents. Both the Far North and the Far South were covered in ice, the large continent in the east touching the northern ice a little.

 It was clear that the planet was inhabited, multiple cities being also able to be seen but simply.. the planet wasn't polluted at all. It seemed that... it's inhabitants were living in harmony with the nature. It wasn't like on Earth, where the human cities seemed to scar the surface. It was simply.. different. The water was covering a large part of it, blue, and the continents were green, covered with forests and jungles.

On the other hand, the other projection showed a planet of the exact same size, but it was covered in thick, black, radioactive smoke, not leaving anything beneath to be seen. It wasn't that hard to realize what was with those two projections.


"Yeah, the one in the left is Terra Nova before the beginning of the Second Secession War, as when it was the capital of the Federated Colonies. The one in the right is how it looks now.", Alexander said, probably answering Haruna's unasked question. "Because of that thick radioactive cloud layer, our sensors simply can't see what's beneath it. It's impossible. Ever since its collapse, there was only one time a Colonial expedition has dared to descend through those clouds, and they were lost before they sent back their data, so the only information we have about the layout of the planet is the old data from before the Twilight. "

The projection with the planet how it was now disappeared, and the one with how it looked like was enlarged, bringing the zoom on the larger continent in the east, more specifically, on the center of it, where the small internal sea was, and even more specifically, on a small island being a few tens of kilometers away from the coast.

"We're going to land here.", Alexander said, pointing at a city rather in the middle of the continent. "That's the city of Aquileia. That's where the Colonial expedition that had come to Terra Nova at the beginning of the First Intergalactic War landed. We'll have to search for any signs of them, see if we can find out what happened to them. After that, we'll have to reach the Capitolium." Now, the Colonial pointed to that small island, that was actually, a city covering an entire island. "That was the capital city of the Colonies. That's where the Colonial Archive is. From Aquileia to the Capitolium there are about 100 kilometers, but we'll find a mean of transport down there."

The projection showed the route. "Unfortunately, we can't bring any of our men down there. We two will be shielded for radiation by our swords, and Prinz was specifically made not to be affected by radiation. Our crew members unfortunately... even with all protection, they would die in a matter of minutes. The Terrans dropped almost all of their arsenal down there, specifically dirty bombs. That planet won't be able to be inhabited in the next million years or so. We'll have the support of drones, but even so, it will be only be the three of us. The ship and the battlegroup will remain in orbit, but we won't be  exactly able to communicate with them, unless the storm in the clouds comes to an end." Alexander then stopped, looking worryingly at Haruna. "Or.. can you do it? If you're still not feeling well you can... remain on board the Prinz Eugen and rest a little more, lead the operation for here. I'll be fine, it won't be the first time I go on a mission only with Prinz." Even if he was clearly trying to hide it, the Colonial still seemed to be worried.

Alexander seemed to hesitate, before he finally sighed, accepting it. "Alright... but please be careful.", he asked Haruna, still looking a little worried. Though, for now at least, Alexander choose to focus on the mission. It was certainly going to be a difficult one... going on a planet that was a radioactive hell, a planet that had abandoned centuries ago, a planet on which they had no idea what was happening... even so, as Ancient Sword wielders, he and Haruna were one of the very few that actually had a chance of going there and recovering the Colonial Archive. They had to do this, not only for the Colonies, but for the entire galaxy. The information there could be priceless for their war effort.

"Alright. We have to gear up. Even if we have our Ancient Swords, that doesn't mean that we'll go there empty handed.", Alexander said, before he sighed again."Prinz, come on too. Let's go.", Saying that, Alexander turned around and started to walk towards Prinz's preparation room, followed by Haruna and Prinz Eugen. This was going to be the first time Haruna would take part in what the Colonies called an orbit-surface landing, so an explanation had to be first.

Arriving in the preparation room, Alexander and the two girls were awaited by a Colonial officer, who quickly spoke with Alexander in a Colonial dialect that not surprisingly seemed to be a completely different language from Colonial standard. The Outer Colonies and their strange dialects. The officer then saluted and left the room, leaving the room. Alexander then turned around, and looked at Haruna and Prinz.

"Alright, short instructing. This..", Alexander said, taking out what looked like a rounded disc, "Is the Colonial Nano-Tactical Combat Battle Armor, or for short, the nanosuit. It's made out of what we call smart veranium, a special variant of the same metal we use in the armor of our ships, so its extremely resistant. It won't be that much against the radiation, the swords will take care of it anyway, but it will be good against whatever else might await us there. You put the disc like this on your chest", he demonstrated, "Ant it will expand, turning into the suit. Be sure to wear something comfortable beneath it. It will automatically adjust to your size, so there won't be any problems regarding that."

The Colonial then took something that looked like an orange syringe. "This, is a cocktail of stimulants and anti-radiation medicine. If for some reason, you lose your sword, inject one of these immediately. It should give you around 15 minutes of survival at most. Have one where you can quickly grab it all the time. 30 seconds of exposure are enough to give a normal human twenty times the lethal dose of radiation. Though hopefully... nothing like that will happen."

Alexander then used the small bracelet like gadget to once again project a map of Terra Nova. "We're going to use a capsule to land at Aquileia. The capsule might be a little small, and we won't have that much control over its landing, but its resistant, and it won't be affected by the radioactive storm. When we're going to launch, the eye of the storm will be right about Aquileia, so we'll take a risk. I do hope that everything will go good, but it might get a little shaky."

The Colonial then stopped the projection. "I'm going to let you two change, and I'll go and do the same  thing. We'll meet in the hangar in 20 minutes.". With that, Alexander left the room, leaving Haruna and Prinz to change.

---

Exactly twenty minutes later, Alexander arrived in the hangar, and started to speak with some of the crew members there, trying to get everything ready for the launch. He was wearing the grayish nanonsuit, and strapped on his back, the sheathe of Mosrael. The mission was going to start.. and it was going to start really soon.

Prinz was also wearing a nanosuit right now, the suit having of course also adapted to her body. Unfortunately though, her body.. didn't have the same curves and feminine features like Haruna had, so obviously, the different between how Prinz looked with an uniform on,and how she looked with the suit on, wasn't as big as in the Jupiterran girl's case. Just as always, the appearance of the ship models of the Colonies was randomly chosen. The Science Division wasn't totally understanding how that technology was working, since even if it seemed that the idea of building human models for ships, so that they could interact with humans, and improve their awareness and strategy, had started on Earth, the technology used was older. That's why, there were no explanation for why most of the models turned out as girls or women, or why they looked like they did.

Maybe, Haruna's.. assets, were making the blonde girl feel a little envious, or at least that's what anyone would have initially assumed, considering the way she was looking at Haruna's curves. She simply seemed to absorb every last detail... but when Haruna came next to her and patted her shoulder, Prinz blushed a little, probably thinking that she was caught. However, when she realized that this wasn't what she was talking about, she smiled.

"Danke, Frau Vizeadmiral!", Prinz said, with a smile on her face. After that though, the girl stopped for a moment, looking at Haruna with her green eyes. It seemed that the ship model wanted to ask her something, but she was struggling to find a proper way to do so. Eventually though, Prinz started to speak.

"Frau Vizeadmiral... did... something happen between you and Herr Admiral?", Prinz asked, a seemingly puzzled expression on her face. "Nein, it's not like that, but...", the blonde girl blushed a little, thinking about the possible interpretations of her question. "I've.. never seen the Admiral like this before. Before... even if he was trying to look calm and detached, and was smiling, it wasn't.. it wasn't him. He was acting like that.. for us, for the crew. His eyes... his eyes were always sad. I knew that something had happened to him in the past, and that, before I , this ship, was upgraded, this was the ship commanded by his father, and the place where his father died. I thought.. that maybe it was my fault, and tried to make him happier. But now.." Prinz stopped once again, searching for a way to properly say it.

"But... ever since he met you, Herr Admiral... he really seems more happy. And when he's smiling.. he really seems to mean it. That's why... I wanted to ask.", the green eyed girl ended her question, a little flustered.

After Haruna reassured Prinz that everything was alright while she was hugging her, the blonde ship model seemed to be much more calmer than before. Smiling, Prinz looked at Haruna. "Danke, Frau Vizeadmiral!", the green eyed girl said, probably really reassured by the fact that she wasn't the fault why her Admiral had been so sad. It was something that had been really affecting her for a while ,but she just never had the courage to talk with the Admiral about that. "Und danke.. for everything you have done for Herr Admiral. I've never seen him so happy before, and for that.. danke."

After giving Haruna one last hug, Prinz made a step back. "Should we go, Frau Vizeadmiral? Herr Admiral must be waiting for us in the main hangar."

Alexander stopped looking at the hologram, that was showing the trajectory they had to take, complete with calculations and other physical coordinates, and looked at the two girls who had just arrived in the hangar, smiling. "Alright, let's go!"

Led by Alexander, the two Colonials and the Jupiterran started to walk towards their capsule. Even if the Prinz Eugen was only a medium sized battlestar by Colonial standards, its two main hangar's were still pretty long and large. As they were walking, the Colonial man noticed that Haruna was gripping the jacket tightly, and that she was blushing. It was true that practically every last crew member that passed near them looked at them, after all, you can't see the Admiral, the Vice Admiral and the Model going on a mission every day, but Haruna seemed more worried about how the suit was accentuating her.. curves.

"Are you trying to hide something?", the black eyed Colonial teasingly asked, making Haruna blush a little harder. Alexander merely smiled, but they then arrived to the capsule.

A couple minutes later, all three of them were safely placed inside the capsule. In the front, Alexander was occupying the pilot's seat, and behind them, in two joined seats were Haruna and Prinz. Then suits had expanded, containing now the helmet, the mask, and the breathing machine, the mission was going to start.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the one way flight from Prinz Eugen to the wonderful, radioactive hellhole of Terra Nova. This is your captain speaking. We're going to fly directly through a storm in the radioactive layer of clouds, but don't worry, we're only going to experience extremely harsh turbulences. We shall crash land near the dead city of Aquielia, from where our crew will ensure you a top class guided trip to the Capitolium. Thank you for flying with Colonial Airlines.”

After finishing his jokingly introduction, Alexander made the last checks. “Alright, I hope your seat belts are tightly fastened. Launch, in 3,2,1,.”

The capsule was launched in space.


Under the control of Alexander, the capsule approached the planet, entering its atmosphere. Alexander was visibly more and more stressed, as they were approaching the layer of black, radioactive clouds, and inevitably, they entered it.

Most of the capsule’s sensors were shut down, inoperable, and all contact with the Prinz Eugen was lost. The other sensors were greatly affected by the storm in front of them, and practically flying blind, the Colonial was trying to to deviate from the trajectory they were in. Right now, they had to be into the eye of the storm, but any deviation could become fatal. Suddenly though, the capsule was hit by something, and thrown off course.

“Damn, the automated defenses are still active… I’m putting this completely on manual. Hold tight, this might become a little bumpy..”, Alexander said, trying not to sound worried. Closing his eyes, and only listening to the beep of the senors, Alexander started the evasive maneuvers. Up, down, right, left, with fast and sudden moves, he tried to avoid the missiles that were being launched at them by the old automated defense systems on the surface. And he almost managed. But one of them hit, shaking the entire capsule. A couple seconds after the explosion, the capsule left the layer of clouds, the sick and dead land being visible down below.
“All hands, prepare for crash impact...”, Alexander screamed, trying to pull the capsule up, but it was a little too late. It crashed right into the surface.


Some time later, Alexander, Haruna, and Prinz were laying on the ground, a few hundred meters away from the burning capsule. Luckily, they managed to leave just in time. They seemed to be alright, for now, with nothing more than a few scratches each. The nanosuits managed to do their jobs, protecting them.

Their surroundings were really… desolate. It seemed that they had landed somewhere near a former major road, filled with old, rusted vehicles, that probably remained there as they were when the nuclear bombs hit. The permanent shadows of the people who had died during the blast were still there, and tired by the insane beeps of the Geiger counter, Alexander had put it on mute long ago.

The air itself seemed to be sick, so breathing it clearly wasn’t recommended. The light around them was dim and yellowish, sick, the few rays of sun that managed to go through the layer of clouds clearly weren’t enough to lit the planet, so the use of flashlights might be required, even for now, the luminosity was acceptable.

“Well, we won’t go back using that.”, Alexander said, standing up. At the edge of the road, a few meters from them, it was something that looked like an old skeleton wearing light blue, tattered clothes. The dead body of a soldier, preserved by the radioactive atmosphere. And it seemed like it was sitting on something. Approaching it, Alexander looked at it for a few moments.

“This one is rather new.. the expedition?”, the black haired boy said, speaking more for himself. Prinz was still laying on the ground, probably a little shocked by the entire crash landing thing, and by the way the dead planet looked like. Suddenly, Alexander kicked the body away, revealing something that was beneath it, a holographic projector, brought back to life after centuries, showing the blue hologram of a sign.

Aquileia- 10 kilometers.

"You're.. right. I don't like this..", Alexander said." This planet.. it's supposed to be dead. Everything should be dead. But.. something is wrong. I can't exactly say what, but something is wrong."

Just like Haruna, Alexander's hand was on his sword's handle, ready to draw it in case of danger."Are you okay Prinz? I might have landed a little too rough.", the black haired man said, seeing that the blonde girl seemed to be scared." I'm... okay, Herr Admiral.", the green eyed girl answered. Alexander didn't seem to be completely buying it, but since Haruna was gently keeping the girl next to her, he chose to leave Prinz in her care for now. "Alright, let's go. We'll have to walk a little, unfortunately.".

The three of them started to walk on the old and cracked highway, heading for where Aquilea seemingly was. Everywhere they went, the road was the same. Cracked, damaged. Permanent nuclear shadows. Old, damaged cars. Death. But that same feeling of danger never let them go.

Eventually, from upon a hill, they were able to see Aquilea.

The city was rather huge, filled with skyscrapers. The highest of them was broken in two, its upper, broken side, leaning on a smaller skyscraper right next to it, seemingly ready to fall at any time. Large solar panels and wind turbines were visible everywhere around. Right now, the city was death, but once, it seemed to have be a really nice place to live. And that's when it happened.

Like a hallucination. For a few moments, the three of them saw the city like it was before... filled with people.. green, the nature harmoniously bending with the technology. It was almost evening, and the people were returning home. That day, everyone had celebrated the Armistice Day, a federal celebration between the two wars, celebrating the Terran-Colonial Armistice. Everything was calm, peaceful, and happy.

Then, the dream like image seemed to break, showing them something else. The sun was setting. People were running, hitting each other,screaming, crying, the crowds were desperate. On the roads, people were abandoning their cars and running away. And in the air, there was a terrifying sound. The alarm that had terrorized so many humans ever since Mankind first gained the power to split the atom. The nuclear attack alarm.

Up, in the sky, thousands of small points appeared. Some of them, partially in the atmosphere of the planet, were clearly Colonial Battlestars, even If they were gray and old. All around them... there were Terran ships. A small battle seemed to be happening, before the Colonial ships simply fell, and crashed through the atmosphere, burning. All of them. Then, missiles were elaunchsd by the Terrans. Thousands, and thousands of missiles. When the first of them hit the ground, people were screaming, praying, but everything it was in vain... the ground was shaken by the explosions, the light turning into a sick yellow. And then.. the mushroom clouds...

The hallucination stopped just as fast as it had started. Breathing heavily, Alexander made a step back, realizing that they were still here, in the present, near the dead city.

"Did you... did you see that?", he asked, still trying to process what happened. Prinz, even more shocked, quietly nodded.