dafeeeeeeeeeesh
Day 1:
The four ships, each carrying its own little pod swiftly made their way down through the atmosphere, cutting through the tulmutuous clouds of the unique planet with their smooth black hulls, and soon, they landed within the valley, some hundreds of kilometers away from their original point.
However, a simple gaze by the researchers and security detachment of the expeditionary team deemed the location unacceptable, it was positioned in the center of a sedimentary basin, where the degradation from the weather on the mountains has deposited millions of years of uninteresting sedimentary rocks. Furthemore, the security detachment postulates that the encampment is surrounded by mountains, which gives them a massive disadvantage when scouting the surrounding area, be it for resources, or for potential enemies, as a lot more forces were also seen entering the planet after them.
As such, the expeditionary force agrees to send one of the drones upwards high into the atmosphere, as it uses a sensory array to spot locations of high interest, be it mineral deposits, secure and easily-defendable spots of territory, farmable and fortuitous land for survival and settling, or unusual and interesting geological phenomena.
The drone quickly lifted up and into the superior rings of the atmosphere, its smooth black yet sharp-edged exterior broke through the formations of tumultuous clouds and made its way higher and higher, acquiring an eagle’s eye view of the surrounding land and, with that, spotting a very distinct geological phenomena.
After the mountain chains, the land rose up and into a kind of bump. However, the land fractured into a million tiny pieces, and increased in depth tremendously, a severe updraft of some kind of gas-like substance swept around and up the many thin and completely vertical monolithic pillars of stone, which came into a highly-fractured surface flat layer. What could have caused such a formation? Despite the setbacks this formation might bring, they decided to settle the base there, the secrecy that the gaps granted and the possible geological research were a large part of this decision.
The four ships took off and went towards the drone, determining their landing site at the center of the geological formation. They deposited the base on a gap between the large pillar-like mountains, and descended it a few dozen meters below the surface-level, securing it to the walls and suspending it above what seemed like an endless gap, filling only a fraction of such. A series of elevators were then created to give access to the surface, and long retractable bridges for vehicles and people were deployed along the top of the environment, forming a passage out of the biome. Lastly, one of the drones was sacrificed and sent into orbit of the planet, into the magnetic influences of the stars, as it let out a single FTL transmission towards homebase for the MISE, establishing quantum communications through a local encrypted way, set up inside the base
Day 2
Settled in, analysis began. It was found out that the updraft of gas was actually steam, though at the depth that they were on it was starting to accumulate to droplets again, having massively cooled down enough to be gathered as potable water (after the addition of a packet of minerals), with the skin feel or nothing more of a moderate, constant breeze that ascended. The steam convections remained a mystery until the first expedition down to the bottom of the fractured lands. For this, they produced a small cage-like apparatus where the expeditioners were strapped onto, and dawned hazardous environment suits, normally meant to work at all sorts of hazardous places. As they descended deeper and deeper, the spaces between the enormous pillars of the formation got smaller and smaller, making the pillars have the shape of extremely tall and acute truncated cones. Finally, at the end of the long journey they got to the bottom of the formation. The bottom was a very high-pressure and steam-dense environment, and underneath them, a large and endless pool of boiling water sat, spreading and weaving its way all around the tall monolithic pillars in what’d be a whole sea of boiling water located underneath the rocky formation. Mineral samples were taken of the pillars at the bottom, as well as the water of the enormous boiling pool. A small probe was sent down into the liquid, and they discovered that the bottom of this pool had small fractures where the water seeped further down and heated itself on the heat of the mantle and the depths, rising to a boil and evaporating into steam which made its way all over to the surface. The rock samples proved a theory correct: The Tall pillars are a result of a millions-year old volcanic pour, which formed tall cylindrical formations of high-pressure rock, whilst surrounded by other sedimentary formations. For some reason, the sedimentary formations eroded away tremendously quickly, whilst the tall pillars of rock remained due to their endurance to weathering, allowing the environment to become what it is.
Furthermore, there was a prominent lack of any kind of vegetation or wildlife within the place (saved from the hydroponics of the MISE base). This was due to the fact that the enormous falls and the constant highly humid and dense windy atmosphere either blew away any kind of airborne creature or prevented ground creatures from making it into the biome, preventing the entrance of any seeds or the spreading of plants by droppings.
The environment of The Pillars (The expedition nicknamed the biome that, appropriately) seemed to be highly consistent. There was never any downfall of water, as the consistent updraft of steam makes it, barometrically, a very high-pressure environment which quickly spreads its water out, however, downpour in the surrounding areas is highly elevated. Above the whole of the environment there is a consistent large cloud formation, which is normally thundering due to the electromagnetic influence of the system's star system. Though there is a lack of rain, sometimes a large and thick mist will befall down onto the top layers of The Pillars, and soon elevate again as the gusts of wind from within disperse it. Due to the lack of rain and wind that isn’t the consistent updraft, the top of The Pillars seem to have barely been touched for millions of years. As such, they are mostly composed of a thin layer of gravel, which quickly gives away to the high-resistance rock underneath it.
Caution within The Pillars is highly advised, the extreme verticality of the environment, mixed with the high humidity and constant winds makes the top levels a very pleasant habitable environment for Musavians, however, a deadly one as well. One of the expedition members slipped and almost fell down into the fractures, which made the small expedition make it a rule to always use high-altitude gear whenever one isn’t inside of the habitats. The research team will proceed to build a gravimetric telescope to look at the geodisics, patterns and influences of the star system of this particular system, and the geologists and archeologists will proceed to study any fossils they can find, and perform soundings of the interior of the pillars.
The security detachment spent their time forming small outposts along The Pillars, as well as securing the borders of this environment with security cameras and other observation devices to prevent anybody else entering the environment.
The Technicians had a field day, setting up better hydroponics, water catches and processors that acquire the constant steam updraft, making sure that none of the system that are existent suffer from weathering, which they won’t since the MISE has great proficiency in anti-weathering coatings and similar systems. They used the constant steam updraft to set up a low-voltage climatizer within the habitats, an easy task due to the almost free energy that the environment grants them, as well as very good humidity for Musavians. The humans and gels of the research team, however, aren’t so thrilled about the exterior humidity (though everyone enjoys the winds), and as such, the interior habitats have distinctly different conditions to the exterior, allowing everyone to share the same habitats.
Lastly, the Technicians set up a small series of Variable Injection Molding Factories, these devices can fabricate a wide variety of materials and objects by deconstructing them within a small high-potency crucible, and injecting them into a variable injector mold. The mold can change its shape according to the recipe inputted, due to its flexible, high-endurance, inert polymer surface, making these small factories be able to fabricate anything from simple cutlery to complex mechanical devices in steps.
These were 2 busy days for the MISE colony.
- Settled The Pillars (Unique Biome);
- Researched Geologically The Pillars;
- Set up Hydroponics, Small Factories, Bridges, and Perimeter Security within The Pillars;
- Established qcomm with MISE Mainland.