Main Compound – New Colony of "Beautiful Horizon"

Western Coast of the Main Continent
Northern Hemisphere, Planet Epsilon Eridani EE-L5

October 06, 2154 C.E.

God, it feels great to be planetside once again, thought Director Jonathan P. Teller as he sat back in his deck chair, a cold beer in this right hand. The golden light of the sun setting on the ocean to the west was a simply breathtaking, like something out of, why, a New Zealand tourism commercial! Come to think of it, this was probably the first time since they had left Earth, six months ago, that Teller finally had a moment to relax.

The last three days had seen a flurry of activity, every day's itinerary jam-packed from dawn, up 'til late into the night. The good news, at least, was that things were progressing exactly on schedule. Valkyries 01 and 02 had arrived and had been completely unloaded; the Marines had established a defensive perimeter; and the central command headquarters of the new colony was starting to take shape, assembled as it were from prefabricated units. Give it another couple days and shuttle drops, and the fabrication plant could commence operation.

Of the four habitable worlds found in the star system, EE-L5 was by far the least populated, with upper estimates based on the satellite scans maxing out at no more than 25 million at most. This meant, of course, that it had been relatively easy to set up this colony in peace, on this relatively empty stretch of prime coastal real estate. Nevertheless, because of this, it had been decided early on that L5's sparse population would make it one of the priority candidates for concentrating colonization efforts on this world in particular. That, and, to be honest, Teller didn't exactly trust leaving neither the first nor the second most important colony in the system to Fred (no offense to him).

Thus, while the L0 and L4 colonies would be more focused on mineral extraction and industrial production, with L0 in particular based on the study of this "magic" phenomenon (which the science team were now officially calling "thaumaturgy"), the colony of Beautiful Horizon (as they had voted to name it) here on EE-L5 would be focused primarily on agriculture, smaller-scale industry, and future residential and tourism functions as well. Meanwhile, the UNSV Belo Horizonte had since moved on and was now in orbit over EE-L0. Directors Django Lombardi and Akane Saito were still aboard; they had requested, and Teller had agreed, that they wait a few weeks or so and observe the planet for a bit before making landfall. Given that L0 was indeed the largest, most populated, the most "thaumically active", and also the most potentially dangerous planet in the system, their caution seemed reasonable, even if every day they didn't have a colony up and running was costing The Company™ valuable time and money.

And then there was the news that just came in that the fourth world, Planet EE-L3, located on the other side of the star (and named as such because it was on Planet EE-L0's Lagrangian L3 point) was also now confirmed by their forward probes to be inhabited by humans. Truth be told, this news didn't really shock anyone so much anymore, because with three out of four worlds already found to be inhabited by humans, it was only natural to suspect that the fourth one would have them too. What was surprising though was that the humans they found here were a lot different from any of the other planets, both culturally and technologically too. All the same, however, it had been decided that with resources already stretched as they were between L0, L4, and L5, no missions to L3 would be made until once the UNSV Joseph Conrad arrived bringing additional supplies and personnel from Earth.

In fact, come to think of it, each of the worlds in the system presented its own unique geographical, anthropological, ecological, and now thaumaturgical features too, and thus with it, its own unique set of challenges. EE-L5 was no different. Even before they had made planetfall, the forward recon probes had identified at least several different humanoid species on this planet that looked like damn dwarves, elves, and some real frikkin' ugly orcs and trolls (yes, could you believe it? Just like something out of one of those classic fantasy books by German writer J.R. von Tolkynen), as well as a miniature humanoid species that the folks over in the bio unit were pretty certain was an off-shoot of this planet's own strain of Homo sapiens...

Bzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzz.

Teller heard his MyPhone ringing and picked it up (cell phone service being such a basic necessity for life, that was one of the first amenities set up at the colony, right on Day One). He could see his assistant Angela Cheong's name displayed on the holoscreen. Shit. This meant that whatever she was calling about must have been important, because she knew better than to disturb Teller under any other circumstances.

"What's up, Angela?" he asked.

"Mr. Teller," she replied, "we've just received news from our colony over on EE-L4. They've established first contact with the natives. According to Fred, he's met with some kind of local king."

What, already? That was fast. "Where are they right now?"

"Fred's taking this native chieftain back to the Colony as we speak, to negotiate a trade agreement, or something to that effect."

"Try and open a direct line to Fred. Now," commanded Teller, "I'm heading to the comm room as we speak." He immediately got up and began scrambling back to the main command center. He had gone over the protocol for these kinds of First Contact scenarios with Fred and all the other colony managers before – now was the moment of truth to see if any of it has sunken in.

Footnotes: as we know by now, "Planet EE-L4" is the official designation that the Earth humans have given to the planet that Westeros is located on. In this chapter, we got a bit of a glimpse into Westeros' planetary neighbors. Remember that the planets are named as such because of which Lagrangian Point they are located at (Planet EE-L0, being the largest world, is thus located at the "L-Zero" point). And I'm pretty sure based on the brief description Mr. Teller gave in this chapter that we can figure out more or less which planet EE-L5 is supposed to be...