Terran Alliance: The Odyssey

Chapter 3- First Contact

Chapter 3- First Contact

As the final shuttle touches down on the surface of this new planet, the commander of the 61st Motorized Infantry Brigade, Colonel Petro Shevchenko scans the area up ahead with binoculars, but without a sign of sentient life anywhere in sight.

The 61st was a decent show of Terran land power. The brigade was made up of 4,092 Ukrainian troops, with a number specialized for operation in mountainous regions. The brigade included a tank battalion of 52 T-72 main battle tanks, 3 rifle battalions, and an artillery regiment.

Shevchenko knows his orders. The 61st is assigned to simply survey the area. Initial scans of the planet suggested that there may be sentient life somewhere in an area about the size of the state of Texas in America. The 61st has been ordered to survey the area and attempt to find out what sentient life inhabits this planet.

His XO comes up to Shevchenko. "Colonel, we are ready to move," the Lieutenant Colonel says.

Shevchenko nods. He then pulls out a map he was given that was hastily made of the area where he landed, then pulls out a compass he brought from home. Looking at the compass and comparing where it's pointing to landmarks shown on the map, Shevchenko says, "Alright. We will move towards magnetic north-east. That should take us right through the center of the search area."

"Understood," the XO says before he starts issuing orders to the brigade.

Within a few minutes, the brigade begins moving towards magnetic northeast. Shevchenko keeps the tank battalion in the middle of the brigade to avoid overly intimidating any sentient life they come across. Shevchenko is riding in his personal Kozak-2 armored truck.

As the brigade moves north, the scouts at the front of the formation are continually scanning the horizon with electronic surveillance equipment and simple binoculars, looking for any sign of life forms. Although they spot animals running across the landscape, mostly fleeing from the advancing brigade, they see no sign of intelligent life.

For hours, the 61st continues its advance over the landscape, moving relatively slow to ensure they don't miss anything important.

After almost 5 hours of searching, the brigade has traveled almost 120 miles. So far they have seen nothing, and no sign of civilization. The troops of the brigade are starting to get a bit bored, and wondering if there really is going to be any intelligent life here on this planet.

In his truck, Colonel Shevchenko has actually fallen asleep. For the first three hours, he'd been on full alert, but after that, he had started to get less alert, and given how long he had been awake without sleep, he'd finally fallen asleep a little over 4 hours into the search.

Suddenly, he feels himself being shaken awake. He looks to his right and sees his XO is the one shaking him awake.

"What is it?" Shevchenko asks.

"Colonel, the scouts have spotted buildings up ahead, and they believe them to be inhabited. Do you wish to proceed?" the Lieutenant Colonel asks.

"Yes. Proceed towards the settlement. Tell the scouts to alert me as soon as they get a look at the inhabitants," Shevchenko orders.

The brigade slows down slightly as it proceeds towards the settlement. As they get closer, they realize it's not a tiny village, but at least a decent sized town, if not a small city. Trained negotiators move to the front of the brigade, ready to try and begin negotiating with the natives. A protocol droid with a large repertoire of languages is with them. At the same time, Colonel Shevchenko moves up closer to the front of the brigade.

As the first platoon approaches in several trucks up to the town, the Ukrainian troops can see figures beginning to come out of the town towards them. It only takes them a moment to realize that the individuals in question are all armed with medieval type weapons.