With Luna in a well-fitted suit of armor I was already a lot more at ease. Of course, having her come down with me to the planet surface was still not something I was really that happy with, but she could be incredibly useful, together with Grayson, to find out more about anything we’d find on the planet's surface. 

I got into the shuttle right behind her, where the rest of our squad was situated. I’d asked the hangar crew to load up some land vehicles, so we had a bit less room than usual, so we could only have six people loaded up, and because Gunny was wearing his heavy combat exoskeleton, that number had been reduced down to five. We were going down with four shuttles, so that would still give us twenty-three boots on the ground. 

“So this big box is supposed to be the land personnel carrier?” Grayson asked. 

“Yep.” Gunny nodded. 

“It doesn’t look that big.” 

“It will fold out once we drop it on the planet's surface. We managed to reduce the space needed thanks to some Dokazuuk help.” I explained and walked over to the cockpit where our pilot was patiently waiting for the order to lift off. 

“Oooh.” Grayson said as he kept watching the box. 

“Ellie, you can give everyone the green light to lift off.” 

“Okay Commander.” 

I tapped the shoulder of the pilot and gave him a thumbs up to signal that he could fly out first. In a matter of seconds, the four shuttles were out of the back of the UFS Roald Amundsen and on their way to the planet surface.

The trip down would not take that long if everything went alright. 

“Commander.” Luna said. “Aren’t you supposed to strap in? Ellie told us we might go through some rough turbulence…” 

“I’m not going anywhere if I got my magnets on, but if you prefer it, I’ll buckle up.” I looked over my shoulder. It didn’t really matter if I was standing up or sitting down, but if it made Luna feel better, I would not go against her. So I did as she asked and sat down next to her. 

“What do you expect to find on the planet, Commander?” This time it was Gunny who asked. 

“Could be anything, really. We’re flying towards the entrance of the biggest structure that Ellie detected. If anything would be generating that shield, I think the highest probability of us finding something, is in that compound.” 

“Part of me is hoping that we don’t find anything.” Grayson admits. 

“That mustn't be the scientist part, then.” Gunny laughs. 

“Oh no, the scientist part of me definitely wants to find stuff, but it’s incredibly scary, isn’t it?” 

“You are right on that one.” I replied. “But the positive thing is that there’s definitely no bugs here.” 

“Thank the Goddess there isn't. I really don’t like those things.” Gunny said. “Although blowing them to pieces, I got to say that was pretty fun.” 

“That’s true.” I laughed. 

 

The rest of the ride down was surprisingly quiet. So quiet that even the turbulence that Ellie had predicted didn’t appear at all. Although that made the approach to the planet even more ominous instead of making it better. 

“We are about to touch down, Commander.” The pilot called out.

“Alright, just go slow and steady.” I replied. 

“Touching her down in thirty seconds.” 

I looked at Gunny and Private Blanchet, “Ready?”

“We were born ready, ma’am.” Blanchet replied. 

“What they said.” Gunny laughed.

I gave them a nod, for they could not see my smile through my helmet. “Luna?” 

“I’m ready, Commander.” Luna nodded as well. 

“Noone’s going to ask about me?” Grayson looked at me. 

“You’ll be fine.” Gunny gave Grayson a pat on the back, after which the nose of the shuttle flared up for just a second before we finally touched the ground. 

Gunny, Blanchet and I immediately unbuckled and dismounted the shuttle from the side while the land rover was being conveyed out of the back. 

 

We’d landed on an open field, not far from the presumed entrance of the compound. A few seconds after we’d left the shuttle, the other shuttles started to land as well, also dropping off their payloads. The rover had already started unpacking itself by the time I’d come around to the back of the shuttle. 

“Wow…” Grayson said as he laid eyes on the rover’s transformation from its stored shape. Just as the wheels unfolded underneath it. 

“I’m excited to test this one out.” Gunny said. 

“So am I.” I replied and then looked around. The other rovers were also unfolding, while most of the marines formed a bit of a perimeter around the shuttles. 

“A-are the shuttles going to stay here, Commander?” Luna had her rifle out but she was holding it steady as she’d learned in basic training. 

“No, they’ll lift back off in a bit once we are ready to move. Some will stay in orbit of the planet, while others give us some cover from the air. If we need a fast pickup, they’ll be able to come and get us pretty swiftly.” I replied. 

“Okay.” Luna nodded. By now, the rover was already fully operational. The ‘box’ it was in was just folding up underneath. 

I gave the signal for our pilot to lift off, which he swiftly did. The other shuttles followed suit quickly after. 

 

Gunny mounted the back of the rover and sat back down again. Putting his heavy weapon on the weapon swivel that the rover provided. That way he could also connect it to an ammo belt that was being fed from the rover instead of his own supply of ammunition. 

“Do you want to drive, Commander?” Blanchet asked. 

“No, you can go ahead.” 

Blanchet nodded and got on the rover as well. Before I got on myself, I first helped Luna and then Grayson get on the rover. Though Grayson definitely had more issues than Luna had. 

“Grayson, have you really not been in any kind of armor before?” 

“I am a scientist, Commander. They didn’t hire me for my hand-eye coordination.” 

“Oh well, if everything goes alright, you won’t have to move around that much.” I sat next to Luna as Blanchet started driving. It wasn’t really the smoothest of rides but the suspension was doing its best to give us a relatively comfortable drive. 

“Want me to drive all the way up to the structure, Commander?” Blanchet asked. 

“Maybe park it parallel to the doors so we can get away faster if things happen.” I replied. 

“Copy that.” 

“It does look like a nice planet.” Gunny commented from his seat in the back. “Nice blue skies, Green fields of grass with all kinds of flowers… I wonder what the air would smell like.” 

“It’s a lot cleaner than on planet Earth, Gunnery Sergeant.” It was Ellie’s voice that came over the intercoms. “There’s a distinct lack of air pollution on this planet’s atmosphere.” 

“Hey there, Ellie, nice of you to rejoin us.” I smiled in my armor. 

“I have never left, Commander.” 

“I know, I know.” I looked back at Gunny. “Don’t get rid of your helmet just yet, though. Just as an extra precaution.” 

“I won’t.” Gunny replied. 

But Gunny was right though. The wind was pushing around the grass around us, with a sun very similar to our own standing high above in the blue sky. A white cloud dotted here and there. It reminded me of some old pictures you could find on the internet back on Earth. 

In a way, it would be terribly sad for us to colonize this planet, but then again, it could also be a good chance to start anew. 

 

Ten minutes later we got close to what looked like a grassy hill from afar, but in actuality was some kind of big stone bunker door. It was clear that whatever this door opened up to, was going down into the earth. 

“Want us to dismount, Commander?” Gunny asked. 

“No, just keep the engine running. I’ll see if I can find something.” I hopped off the rover and walked over to the big stone door. Even from up close, I couldn’t really tell how it would open. It was as if from all sides, it so perfectly connected to the rest of the stone that it looked more as if someone had just hewn out an area of stone and left it like that, just simply to look like a door. When I ran my hand over the stone’s surface, it was as if my hand was running over glass. Just an incredibly smooth surface of gray rock. But I couldn’t really find anything that looked like a button. 

“Commander, want us to deploy the explosives?” Blanchet asked. 

“I don’t know if that would even dent it.” I took my combat knife out of its holster and tried to chip away the tiniest fleck of stone, but it just wouldn’t do anything. Even if I used all my strength, nothing happened. 

“What now?” Luna asked. “Want us to get off so we can take a look?” 

“I don’t know… Why can’t these doors just open?”  Suddenly a blue light shone front somewhere at the top of the door down upon me and our rover. 

“Uhhhhh….” I backed away slowly