Touchdown

Year: 2129

Major Thomas Fischer stood halfway down the cargo hold of the Valkyrie SSTO-TAV-37 A-class shuttle. It shook as it passed through the outer atmosphere and the temperature in the hold rose several degrees as the friction heated the outer shell. It would take only forty-five minutes to travel from the orbiting ISV Implacable to the surface, and Major Fischer was simply relishing the chance to stretch his legs.

He had been awake for nine hours in the last six years, and if he hadn't known he had been in cryosleep, he would have said they had left Earth yesterday. Now he could feel tension building like a storm in the hold of the Valkyrie; when the ramp at the back of the hold opened, he and sixteen others would be the first humans to ever land on the planet Pandora. They would be making history today, and they would be remembered for centuries.

To him it was only a year before that he had been approached by representatives of the Resources Development Administration; not just by recruitment agents, but by a man named, Roderick Blakely. The Head of RDA's Pandoran Exploration team personally offered him a ridiculous salary, even bigger bonuses and a chance to escape a planet he despised. All he had to do was sign a piece of paper. Of course he had taken the offer, who wouldn't?

Then he had been told to handpick a team from any military force in the world; a team comprising of twelve elite individuals, including himself. They were to protect the first scientists to land on the planet Pandora, almost twenty-five trillion miles away. He had taken the very best of Special Forces soldiers from around the world and formed possibly the most formidable fighting unit in the history of the Earth.

Now he was standing in a Valkyrie shuttle, with his fire-teams and a group of five scientists, waiting to make the most important parachute drop in the history of mankind. It should have been mind-blowing, but to Major Fischer it was only a detail until the mission was over.

All he had to do was wait.

Half and hour later he watched as the first lamp flicked from red to green and a voice said into his ear, 'Major, doors are opening.'

'Affirmative.'

Fischer looked around at the group he was effectively in charge of keeping alive; his men watched him carefully, all reclining in positions of studied relaxation, none wanting to be seen as impressed or worse; as if they wanted to be there. He mentally shook his head; soldiers were a strange group of men. The scientists couldn't have looked more eager; but hell, some of them had trained for almost ten years for this, but not a man or woman on board was a day over thirty-five.

'Exopacks on!' He shouted over the roar of the Valkyrie engines, despite there being a radio transmitter in each person's ear. Some of the scientists winced at the volume, but a couple of the soldiers smiled and there was a flurry of activity as the breathing masks were pulled over faces, rubber sealing preventing any air leaks. Pandoran air was deadly toxic and could kill a healthy human being in under four minutes, the exopacks effectively scrubbed out the lethal gases so humans could breathe.

The ramp began to open and Fischer caught one or two of his men craning to look out over a new planet. By the time it was fully down, every person was staring out over the forests below; not one person there had ever seen such a sight. There was now nothing on Earth to compare to the sheer scale of greenery; at least not any more.

'Prepare to jump!' Fischer barked through the com-link and there was another flurry of activity as the personnel formed two lines down each side of the cargo hold; they would be jumping four abreast. The landing zone was coming up quickly and they didn't want to have to go round for a second run.

They were all lined up ready with two minutes to go, and Fischer was satisfied as the first four threw themselves out of the aircraft without hesitation. Fischer himself was the last to go and called out his departure to the Valkyrie pilots.

Streamlining his body, he quickly overtook every other person in the sky; dropping like a rock and leading the decent towards the wide riverbank that had been chosen as LZ-Alpha. With barely two hundred feet to go he pulled his parachute and felt the g-force pull him up short, just in time to hit the sandy ground and roll to his feet, clutching his modified, elite CARB Assault Rifle just in case. He scanned the tree-line as several thumps indicated various arrivals; each was followed by a scuffling sound and variants on, 'Delta Three, in position.'

Fischer had two fire-teams, Delta and Echo, under his command; each comprising of six men. Charlie Team consisted of the five scientists, who also carried firearms but had not had anywhere near the training the soldiers had received. When the two fire-teams were in position and no threat appeared from the tree-line, Fischer spoke once more, 'Congratulations, boys: you just made history.'

Grins and a few smiles lit up the line, but they had a job to do, so Delta moved forward in a staggered line to within twenty feet of the trees, covered by Echo. Outwardly he wasn't bothered by the fact that most of the trees were several times larger than anything that had ever existed on Earth, but inside Fischer had been amazed for a second or two before training reasserted itself.

Half and hour later, Fischer was assured the area was empty of life-forms other than the trees; despite having not ventured into the forest, a thermal imaging scan had not shown up any kind of presence. His long range radio operator had contacted the ISV orbiting the planet and once they had cleared a significantly larger landing zone the first supply drops would arrive.

Dr. Dan Whitley tried to wipe the sweat off of his forehead and frowned as the back of his hand hit the Perspex faceplate. They had made it to the edge of the tree-line without any mishaps and privately he was marveling at the life blooming before of his eyes; all kinds of never-seen-before plants sat right in front of him, but there wasn't yet time to catalogue and photograph everything in sight. They had four hours to clear a landing area for the first supply drop.

He wrapped the wire he was holding around the base of a young tree and passed the unraveled cord along to the soldier on his right. They were using simple explosives to devastate a small area of forest for use as the first human base on Pandora. He found it slightly ironic that the first thing a company named, The Resources Development Administration, did upon arrival was blow up part of the ecosystem.

Common sense however, kicked in and told him to get a grip; without a landing zone no supplies could possibly reach them on the planet surface. His training screamed at him however, and he was sure his old University Professor would turn in his grave at the thought of the destruction they were about to wreak on the local fauna.

Harry Janko was privately amazed to have been chosen to be one of the first humans to land on Pandora. At twenty-five years old he was the second youngest on person on the team who had just landed, and he knew he owed the privilege to his Uncle who had originally been chosen by Major Fischer but had declined the offer and recommended his nephew instead. He knew Fischer had been dubious of the younger man's skill, but his record spoke for him and he had been accepted onto the team. Harry had advanced through school as a prodigy; leaving two years early to start a Medical Degree, sponsored by the United States Army, he had completed his Doctorate and specialized in toxicology and then battlefield surgery. Then he had been sent to the Amazon Basin when the fighting flared up; a year ago he had received a call from a Major Thomas Fischer, requesting a meeting.

He had gone to the meeting, listened to the man, taken hundreds of physical and mental tests and exams, before being confirmed as a choice for the first Pandoran Expedition. Then he had met his team mates. Under Captain Crighton, who led Fire-team Echo, he had relearned and sharpened his combat skills, with the most vigorous training regime he had ever seen. He had taken close combat training, wilderness survival, AMP suit training, weapons handling courses and honed his mind to a razor's edge with everything that he could possibly need to know for the expedition. Now he knelt on Pandoran soil with squad mates; John Kano, Elroy Kuritz, Doug French and the giant; Hendrick 'The Bison' Kurts. The joke with Kurts was that at seven foot two, he didn't need an AMP suit to run around in.

Harry was in awe of the legendary Major who had fought on every battlefield of the last two decades; Korea, China, Somalia and most recently in the Amazon Basin over the water crisis. At thirty-four he was the oldest person on the current team and an intimidating presence even among the hardened veterans currently ranged out across the site that would soon be cleared for the supply drop.

Four hours later Dr. Abigael Georgés listened as the radio guy called up the approaching Valkyrie, 'Valkyrie Two, this is Echo Six; you are cleared in hot for supply run. Yellow smoke will mark the target area, I repeat, yellow smoke on LZ-Alpha. Over.'

'Echo Six, this is Valkyrie Two. Confirm: Yellow Smoke marking LZ-Alpha. Over.'

'Confirmed. Echo Six Out.'

The radio guy, caught her eye as he finished the supply drop conformation and grinned at her.

Abi sighed and looked around at the two hundred foot square that had been cleared over the last few hours. It was now simply a mess of fallen timber and leaves. She understood though that such destruction was only the beginning for a permanent base that would lead to so much discovery; the sacrifice of a few plants was easily worth the gain.

She spun round as she heard a bird-like cry from across the river and used a hand to shade her eyes so she could peer across at the other side. Nothing emerged however, and she found herself strangely disappointed. She had years to go exploring once the base was up and running though, but she begrudged every minute lost in preparation.

Major Fischer watched as Valkyrie Two made its approach, even at its lowest flight speed it still left long, white twin vapour trails across the sky in its wake. Above the lush forest and against the endlessly blue sky it was an amazing sight; and a first for many of the people standing on the riverbank. Only those who had been a part of the recent wars over the remnants of the Amazon Basin water supply had ever seen anything remotely comparable to this.

Fischer watched dispassionately as four huge crates dropped out of the back, falling slowly towards the ground before three parachutes flowered above them. The fourth crate plummeted like the solid mass of equipment it was and Fischer closed his eyes momentarily; he didn't need set-backs at this stage.

Suddenly the parachute burst out; but it was too late and the crate had fallen well beyond the line; the faint wind would carry the others onto the landing zone and cleared area, but it was obvious that the fourth crate would land somewhere among the trees.