Project Demeter

[Dane Summers]

Fighting to quell the queasiness in his stomach - atmo' landings were always tough on him - Lucas fumbled with the five-point harness on his jump-seat, and eventually pried himself from its grip. Bending down to get his pack from underneath the seat, barely catching his glasses from sliding off his nose, the cool air of Yuma wafted into the Celestra cargo bay, as the soldiers stepped off. It felt hot, for a moment fighting for dominance over the artificial chill of the ships canned air-conditioning. He shrugged into the backpack, as someone, Crowe maybe, was yelling for him to get a move on. All the soldiers looked alike.

With his secondary computer strapped to his wrist, he removed it, held it in hand, and took some atmosphere readings, making his way off the ramp, into the sunlight of the tropical beach of their LZ.
In a word, it was beautiful. Surveyors on the surface had always remarked that Yuma was one looker of a planet. It had an air of undeveloped beauty - every landscape unmarred by human habitation, the ecosystem unbroken by human meddling, the atmosphere untainted by human industry. Well, that would all change at some point, but for now, it was all unspoiled. The atmosphere readings were nearly identical to earth norm, the only difference being a slightly higher increase of oxygen concentration. Experts said that the higher concentration, at least until you got used to it, would make you feel more energetic.

The LZ was right next to a rather large base camp. The beach extended only partially from a thick and forbidding looking jungle. Built on the yellow sand, and extending a bit into the sea, the base was all metal walls, and dome like buildings. It housed a some two hundred people, mostly planet engineers, doing testing on the water, gathering plant samples, and, occasionally, sending forage teams into the jungle to find indigenous food - whether fruits, vegetables, or animals. The LZ itself was nothing more then heavy metal grating spread out in a strip over the flattest portion of the beach - it made something akin to a flat metal surface.

With the marines spreading out, Lucas turned his attention to the thing that he really wanted to look at - the jungle. It was thick, dark, and somewhat forbidding. He suspected it didn't extend farther into the beach because of the tide - apparently the flora did not subsist on the salt water of the ocean. The foliage rustled, in what Lucas nearly mistook for the wind - while there was a light breeze, only a portion of the foliage moved - and only because one of the marines had wandered within a couple yards of where the jungle started.

Lucas smiled - these plants were so interesting.

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