1338 Local Time
Earth Orbit
Gideon Clements felt the shudder of the frame around him. His eyes were closed at the moment as he processed the data emerging from the drop pod's external and internal sensors. He could feel the gravity of Humanity's cradle settle into his flesh and almost draw a creaking noise out of his cybernetics. Through the external camera feed he watched the moving horizon of Earth's atmosphere envelop him as the pod's wake drew roiling sheets of shifting whites, oranges, and reds across the camera feeds.
The cyborg was hooked into Mavors, which was in turn hooked to the internal rigging of the pod. This was his first assault drop and he had to admit it got his adrenaline going a bit. He wasn't expecting resistance at the landing zone; in fact he would probably be the only sentient creature for a hundred miles around the site once he hit dirt. That suited him just fine. The pod streaked into the azure sky and tore through some light cloud cover as it finally lost it's fiery wreath. An altimeter warning flashed in his connection's mind's eye, and as he finally reached out to grip the Armored Core's controls his eyes flashed open at the same instant his neurons pulsed.
Were anyone to look up at that moment they'd see the pod explode in sequential detonations along obvious fault lines in the hull and blossom open in the rushing wind. A trio of heavy-duty parachutes deployed out of the shielded top of the pod as Mavors' black hull was revealed to be harnessed in as though it'd been rigged to a giant parachute backpack. At a second altitude marker Gideon sent another pulse through the machine's connection to his spine and the clamps holding the Raven disengaged with a harmless shower of sparks. The first action had slowed him down enough, and the second release gave him the ability to fire his thrusters enough to move and direct his fall to an open area of the ground. The landing was smooth as glass, marred only by a flareup of dirt and minor detritus on the ground as his machine hit terra firma and safely disengaged it's thrusters.
"And touchdown," he murmured to himself as the machine's head lifted to scan the area and confirm his coordinates. The unusual head's lenses flashed red as he engaged active sensors, the confirmation of his position showing he was a few hundred meters southwest of his target destination. Easily remedied. Gideon smiled gently to himself as he lit the thrusters and sailed easily to a sparse clearing of trees arranged in a concave half-moon around an open patch of ground. What drew the Martian's attention was a patch of ground roughly half-again Mavors' overall width's footprint. The area was pretty lush with vegetation even to Gideon's untrained eye, but this patch was practically vibrating with vitality.
"... Seriously? You're pretty obvious, aren't you?" There was no gleaming rift; no abyssal hole in reality; no ancient-looking gateway. Just a very suspicious patch of ground and open air above it. Still, there was no mistaking the aura of the place. How in the bloody Hell the League had found this spot was beyond him, but it was clearly something. His mind flickered to and fro as his Armored Core's detection systems swept the space and the area. Nothing noteworthy came out other than the raw purity of the nearby air registering damn near perfect, with a slight breeze coming from the direction of the ground patch. The cyborg smirked, and simply pressed forward into the area.
Now the question was if this was something he could access. It wouldn't do if he couldn't complete what seemed like a fairly easy first mission back. He did have a reputation to maintain, after all.
Earth Orbit
Gideon Clements felt the shudder of the frame around him. His eyes were closed at the moment as he processed the data emerging from the drop pod's external and internal sensors. He could feel the gravity of Humanity's cradle settle into his flesh and almost draw a creaking noise out of his cybernetics. Through the external camera feed he watched the moving horizon of Earth's atmosphere envelop him as the pod's wake drew roiling sheets of shifting whites, oranges, and reds across the camera feeds.
The cyborg was hooked into Mavors, which was in turn hooked to the internal rigging of the pod. This was his first assault drop and he had to admit it got his adrenaline going a bit. He wasn't expecting resistance at the landing zone; in fact he would probably be the only sentient creature for a hundred miles around the site once he hit dirt. That suited him just fine. The pod streaked into the azure sky and tore through some light cloud cover as it finally lost it's fiery wreath. An altimeter warning flashed in his connection's mind's eye, and as he finally reached out to grip the Armored Core's controls his eyes flashed open at the same instant his neurons pulsed.
Were anyone to look up at that moment they'd see the pod explode in sequential detonations along obvious fault lines in the hull and blossom open in the rushing wind. A trio of heavy-duty parachutes deployed out of the shielded top of the pod as Mavors' black hull was revealed to be harnessed in as though it'd been rigged to a giant parachute backpack. At a second altitude marker Gideon sent another pulse through the machine's connection to his spine and the clamps holding the Raven disengaged with a harmless shower of sparks. The first action had slowed him down enough, and the second release gave him the ability to fire his thrusters enough to move and direct his fall to an open area of the ground. The landing was smooth as glass, marred only by a flareup of dirt and minor detritus on the ground as his machine hit terra firma and safely disengaged it's thrusters.
"And touchdown," he murmured to himself as the machine's head lifted to scan the area and confirm his coordinates. The unusual head's lenses flashed red as he engaged active sensors, the confirmation of his position showing he was a few hundred meters southwest of his target destination. Easily remedied. Gideon smiled gently to himself as he lit the thrusters and sailed easily to a sparse clearing of trees arranged in a concave half-moon around an open patch of ground. What drew the Martian's attention was a patch of ground roughly half-again Mavors' overall width's footprint. The area was pretty lush with vegetation even to Gideon's untrained eye, but this patch was practically vibrating with vitality.
"... Seriously? You're pretty obvious, aren't you?" There was no gleaming rift; no abyssal hole in reality; no ancient-looking gateway. Just a very suspicious patch of ground and open air above it. Still, there was no mistaking the aura of the place. How in the bloody Hell the League had found this spot was beyond him, but it was clearly something. His mind flickered to and fro as his Armored Core's detection systems swept the space and the area. Nothing noteworthy came out other than the raw purity of the nearby air registering damn near perfect, with a slight breeze coming from the direction of the ground patch. The cyborg smirked, and simply pressed forward into the area.
Now the question was if this was something he could access. It wouldn't do if he couldn't complete what seemed like a fairly easy first mission back. He did have a reputation to maintain, after all.