[ WP ] The humans of earth have ventured to another star system to find a planet inhabited by ... humans .

Above a small muddy brown planet the universe seemed to split and rip. The shimmering green portal stayed open only long enough to let a long menacing black ship slip though. Its hull all sharp lines and angles, its cannons sticking out like jagged teeth. The ship flew above the brown planet, its swept back wings and pointed brow cutting though the ether as it moved into position. 
 
 For breathless minuites the ship floated above the planet, its guns and sensors turned on the ground below them. Currently the ship sat between the planet and its only moon, a small red ball of rock that looked like a chipped marble. If anyone on the ground below had happened to look up into the sky with a telescope they would have seen the ship silhouetted against the moon. 
 
 `` Sir sensors report scattered settlements. The planet seems to be covered in large swathes of jungles and swamps with thunderstorms popping up everywhere.'' said the ensign sitting at a terminal off to the right of the captains chair. The captain looked out at the planet though the large windows that circled the bridge in a half dome. 
 
 `` Is there any sign of life or are these just more ruins like the other twenty planets we've scanned?'' asked the captain looking over towards the ensign. Even after all of the planets and moons they had visited there was still the spark of hope in his brown eyes at the hope of finding life on some planet. 
 
 `` I would n't get my hopes up to much Sir.'' said his XO from the chair behind him. `` We have been at this for a while and all we have found are about twenty habital planets and a hundred or so moons.'' said the dour looking man. Before the XO could finish his statement a tall Blond haired woman turned in her chair and started at him. 
 
 `` WE have only been at this for a couple of years and have only managed to cover only half of the expected area we were expected to. In fact its amazing that we have found anything.'' she said starting rant at the XO before looking over and seeing the look her captain was giving her and tapering off. 
 
 `` Sir i request disciplinary actions for Commander Carter she was out of line.'' stated the XO before the captain raised his hand. 
 
 `` Ohh stuff it Wolsey, Carter is right. Its amazing we have found anything. Not to mention that most of the habitial planets we have found have had ruins of humanoid settlements on them. And there have been abandoned mines and what looks like shipyards found on many of the moons or floating in gas giants.'' said the captain before sighing and running a hand though his slightly longer than regulations brown hair. 
 
 `` Umm Sir, sensors are reporting... life down there. And not just plants and trees but acctual living breathing creatures.'' 
 
 `` Any sign of intelligent life or are we talking about just a bunch of space cows?'' asked the helmsman. Carter turned to her sensors and looked at the numbers and images going over her screen. Her eyes widened in shock when she read the screen. 
 
 `` Kyle turn the ship over to a heading of 128.9 by 875.4 by 293 and stay there. Lara turn the sensors on the southern continent and tell me what the scans say.'' yelled out carter in a high excited voice as she started to type furiously at her terminals keyboard. 
 
 The captain just watched and listened in bemused silence as his people went excitedly about their job. A part of him felt that he should be angry at Carter giving out orders but she seemed so excited he felt that he could let it go. He tried to listen to what she was saying but all of it sounded like gibberish to him. He allowed this to go on for another ten minutes before his curiosity won out over the patience. 
 
 `` Carter... Carter....CARTER.'' he yelled making the woman jerk around in attention and throw a robotic salute in surprise. 
 
 `` What sir?'' she asked sucking in a quick gulp of air. 
 
 `` Would you like to share what is so amazing with the rest of the class or are you going to leave us all in suspense?'' he asked fighting back a smile that was forming at the edge of his lips as he watched his flustered science officer try and catch her breath. 
 
 `` Sir its amazing the sensors are detecting life down there, not just plants and animals but actual humanoid life. But that is n't the most amazing part.'' she said looking at him with a happy gleam in her eyes. 
 
 `` You mean there is something more amazing than possibly finding the first proof of other living intelligent life?'' he asked expectantly and only half sarcastically. For a while it had been a theory that the universe was underwent some sort of galactic extinction and that was why they were only finding ruins. Others thought that they were just the ruins of planets whose people did n't make it past the atomic or fossil fuel age. 
 
 `` Well sir the sensors are getting mixed readings. At present the readings from the scanners would lead us to belive that they are only now starting to burn large amounts of coal. But the weird thing is there are large amounts of radiation left not just on the planet but on the moon to. In fact the section of the moon that is missing the large chunk has some weird gravitational readings coming off of it.'' 
 
 The captain looked out the window towards the distant red moon. Even from their present distance they could see what looked like a large chunk missing from it. Like a giant had taken a large bite out of it. Or like something had been fired at it and bounced off. 
 
 `` What kind of radiation are we talking about?'' he asked 
 
 `` Parts of it make sense like the large amounts of radation that would be left after a bombardment from large scale plasma weapony or a nuclear strike. But the rest, well i have n't seen anything like this except on some writings on black holes and dwarf stars.'' 
 
 `` Did they do this to their selves?'' asked Wolsey from his seat behind the captains chair. 
 
 `` No it seems more like it was an attack from the out side. Some kind of strike meant to wipe out an entire planet.'' Said Carter. 
 
 `` Well it looks like some people survived. Lara find us the largest population center, John when you get the location set us into a synchronized orbit and we will take a shuttle down.'' Commanded the captain. 
 
 The ship quickly cut though space, its dark hull hiding between the dark between the stars like some sort of predator. When they got within a few hundred kilometers of the planet the sensors picked up a new signal. A small sound started to play on the intercom as it picked up the beacons transmission. 
 
 `` What is that sound its... beautiful'' said Lara listening to the beacons transmission in her earpiece. `` Its like a birds song, like what ever its saying is being sung instead of said.'' 
 
 `` Carter where is that transmission is coming from?'' asked the captain. 
 
 `` Survey says, a large temple sitting in the center of what looks like a small village on the southern coast of the smallest land mass. 
 
 `` Kyle change of plans. I want you to set us down right on top of that temple ASANow'' 
 
 `` Is that a wise idea sir? I mean a large warship floating above their heads wo n't be the warmest hello'' asked the pilot as he started to input the information into the NavComp. 
 
 `` No but something tells me that i do n't want to have our only means of fighting all the way in space if we need it.'' said the captain. 
 
 `` What makes you think we would need to fight. These people do n't seem to be much beyond swords and arrows.'' Said Wolsey in a nasally voice. 
 
 `` Well something wanted these people dead. And a beacon just happens to turn on when our ship, a ship capable of hyperspace flight comes within range of it. I just want to be safe instead of sorry.''
