Chapter 283. Landfall (2/2)
The Whalers acquired a decent amount of ships in the last couple of years, but none of them possessed clean histories. Walter tentatively picked out two reasonably intact transports to bring their mechs down to the surface.
Fada and the fast-reaction squad had been assigned to the second wave after Walter and his closest men arrived first. Ves had been assigned to the second wave as well along with some supplies and some technicians.
He stared at the projection of the Glowing Planet. Now that they arrived in orbit, Ves got to enjoy a beautiful picture of a planet in chaos.
For some reason, the planet predominately glowed green. Its scarred and broken land masses showed that it had suffered enormously from the event that threw it off into space. Further exotic activity had further damaged the continents until they became an ugly manifestation of the raw forces of the universe.
”How rare are treasure troves like this?”
”Planets like these are come from the galactic heartland.” Ves explained to Fadah as they boarded the passenger compartment of the transport. ”They're not exactly common, but they're abundant enough that it won't alarm an entire star sector. It's just another tuesday for them as far as they're concerned.”
”I guess that's why they use the work junk exotics. As if any exotic is as plain as sand.”
The entire incident showcased the disparity between the galactic rim and the galactic heartland. Before the Age of Mechs, humanity had undergone a feverish expansion into the stars. As they travelled towards the galactic center, they came across increasingly more valuable and abundant exotics, to the point where most of the pioneers hardly looked back to Earth.
The galactic rim was the largest but most resource-depleted portion of the galaxy. Sometimes a treasure hunter scored a lucky find, but its value always amounted to a fraction of what someone from the galactic heartland earned in day.
The transport finished loading up the supplies and drifted away from the Happy Jelly. It turned towards the chaotic blackened landscape below and aimed for a spot near the landing site of the Blood Claws.
”Here we go, folks! I suggest you hold on to your crash seats, because we'll be going in fast!”
The transport shuddered severely as it dove towards the surface alongside a Mech Corps vessel that carried a dimensional smoother. The Whaler transport had to endure a punishing descent in order to keep up with the faster Mech Corps ship.
The Glowing Planet didn't possess an atmosphere, but spacetime didn't always work as expected up close. Even within the envelope of the dimensional smoother, the transport still encountered lots of turbulence.
Everyone's crash seats closed up around their bodies in protective pods. The systems governing the transport had judged the situation to be too dangerous.
Inside his seat, Ves quietly waited for the transport to make it through. He held Lucky in his grasp. The cat had grown scared of the intense fluctuations around them.
”It's okay Lucky, we're almost there.”
Two agonizing hours later, the transport eased its turbulent flight. They successfully reached the surface of the Glowing Planet. It landed a moment later on a crude landing pad that the first wave prepared after their arrival.
Once the transport shut off its engines and opened up the hatch, everyone released a primal roar for making it out alive.
”Alright, enough hooting around!” Fadah yelled over their comm channel. ”Get in your mechs and follow your assignments!”
Similar to Groening IV, the Glowing Planet wasn't able to support human life. Perhaps it might have featured its own alien ecosystem, but getting knocked away from a sun had a tendency to kill off everything living on the surface. Temperatures had reached far below freezing points as well, which forced everyone not inside a mech to wear a bulky hazard suit.
Even Ves didn't dare test his genetically modified body against the frightening chill that pervaded the planet. No sun rested in the sky to warm up its surface. No atmosphere allowed life to breathe any air or propagate any sounds.
When Ves stepped out to the surface, he admired the raw beauty of the broken landscape before him. Among the shards of broken rocks and the ominous glow of green, Ves enjoyed a sensation of wonder and purpose.
”Maybe I should have been a treasure hunter. Setting foot on the unknown always seems to buoy me up.”
He let down Lucky on the rocky ground and looked whether he did anything special. The gem cat had already recovered from the harrowing descent, and began to sniff the nearby terrain.
His mouth opened up in a meow that couldn't be heard due to the lack of atmosphere. It didn't matter much as Lucky raced off towards a nearby hill of rocks. Lucky deftly clawed a couple of useless pieces apart until he came across a mineral vein that glowed in low green.
The mechanical cat sliced a generous portion from the rock with his energy claws and began to shop it into finer bits before beginning to gobble them all up.
Ves laughed at the sight. It figured that Lucky would be able to locate any nearby exotics. Lucky loved to eat exotics, though Ves never brought him much due to the expense involved. The LMC would have to go bankrupt in order to satisfy his pet's rapacious appetite.
”Looks like that isn't the case here. The minerals also aren't as tough and hard to find as those found in Groening IV.”
While that made it easier for the Whalers to extract some extra wealth, it also presented an irresistible draw to unsavory people. The pirates wouldn't be content to watch on while the rest started pulling riches from the soil.
The Whalers could celebrate for now, but once the riffraff moved into action, they'd be hard-pressed to keep their lives.