The vessel moved through in clear air now, banking over to the right before settling on to a course, with the front end dipping down slightly. The gloom that laid over the ground below  resulting from the thick and consistent cloud layer set a foreboding atmosphere. Vegetation and plant life were distinctly absent from the surface. The barren hillsides composed of rocky ground that were punctuated and met up with patches of dirt that seemed almost gray as opposed to an expected brown. 

The outline of buildings came into view, that’s all they were now outlines or shells, abandoned, and either broken and split apart, or weathered and decaying, some were a combination of all four.

On a monitor in the aft compartment an alert blinked, and an area flashed yellow, it seemed a perfect circle on a monitor, but looking down on it the edges were jagged and mangled, the twisted remains of building and ground melded together and poked skyward. 

This was an impact crater! A stark reminder of what had gone before. A reminder of just how needed the station above was. A reminder of the need for those on the vessel to be diligent in their search for the specific target. 

“The starting search grid is an impact crater? As if we needed additional impetus.” Eviea commented aloud. As the vessel hovered over the crater long enough for the onboard sensors to sweep through, the outline had already been established, but they were searching for the specific metallic indicator.

 “There’s nothing here, moving to grid two-bee.” The pilot started with a little frustration.

In the aft compartment a number of indicators flickered briefly, one that picked up an airflow within the rocky crater side. “Possible cave network.” Isshan murmured to himself, then another indicator, lifeforms, flickered briefly as they passed of the edge. The primitive sensors record clear but brief signs of life. “Life.” He stated into the comm.

“Impossible, we’ve been known to have glitches with our scanner equipment, nothings been living here for a year at least.” The technical crew person responded, firmly yet unhurriedly, convinced of the facts she related.

“Burst transmit to the Roo as agreed we can analyze later.” Eviea decided, walking the line between completing the task and not dismissing the unexplained out of hand.

The ship slid forward and then pitched down and banked over to the left, moving away from the crater and into the settlement areas, which was dominated by fallen and decaying buildings, twisted and broken roads and walkways. As they hovered above a partly toppled building, scanning and probing at the ground below the beginnings of an open space in the top right corner of the search area caught Eviaes attention, speaking into her open comm. “Focus in on the upper left quadrant, it looks like an area of open ground in settlement, prime spot for planned hard landing.”

“I see your reasoning, why drop it in the middle of nowhere when there’s a settlement with neat defined edges, and why put it down in a building when there’s parkland or what used to be parkland to aim at.”  Isshan rattled off while gliding hands through the adjustment sliders for the scanner settings, finding this particular part of the interface relatively intuitive. 

“Let’s see what we have there shall we?” A few moments of intensive staring and concentration later. “Looks like disturbed ground in a linear pattern, with metallic partials and residue, extending into the adjacent grid.” Looking up and around with a smile, the technical jargon was commonplace for him.

“Bearing relative to grid, Aay-One?” Came the pilots request over the comm

“Eighty-two degrees, which should take it into a three grid. Three – Ell to be precise.” Isshan read off the display, providing guidance to the pilot.

“Port turn ninety degree. Zee plus one eighty-five meters. we’ll skip to that grid.” The pilot relayed before making the course adjustments.

The craft turned sharply in mid-air, the nose now pointing away from the tangled and twisted rubble towards open ground, the bare earth looked almost gray from up above, a rectangular space that once hosted manicured lawns, swaths of flowering plants, a coppice of trees, starved of light and hammered by downpours, they withered and died, leaving only the gray outline, an outline into which a trench had been plowed, not by hand or ground machinery but an object cast onto and into it from above. 

The deep scar followed a predictable path before ending in semi-circular bank of earth, that half buried a lone octagonal object, the escape pod containing the artifact they had been sent to retrieve. The craft slid effortlessly to sit over the top of the half-buried pod, separated by several hundred or so meters of clear air, then paused awaiting the next command actions of its occupants, its in-atmosphere repulsion units working flawlessly to keep it steady and stable.

“If we position in such a way, the exhaust jets might be usable to shift a bit of the dirt, making recovery with the grapple a little less of an effort. If that would be agreeable.” Eviea suggested, considering ways to complete the task with less effort.

The craft swung around, pointing the rear and the cargo compartment at the capsule. It lowered and slid backwards slowly and with care. The exhaust biting into the compacted dirt surrounding the capsule, shifting some from the surface and then gradually digging in churning the ground. The craft slid forward slightly and then hovered in place.

“Aft compartment go to work.” The pilot barked over the comm, the first really hard command he’d given.

“Powering up the Grapple system and standing by.” Came the deliberate and firm voice of the Sherwings Technical specialist, who after a few moments made the following request, setting the recovery in motion. “ Im a go. Can you operate the door and ramp mechanism?”

“Of course. Exterior door opening, now.” Isshan stated as he tapped the affirm key and set the automated process in motion. There was an audible sucking noise that followed the clunk of the beginning of the action, followed by a gust of dust that rolled under and through the gap, the action paused and the forward section of the floor dropped to form the ramp that would facilitate the recovery process, the rising action resumed, more dust and now larger debris pieces were blown into and onto the deck, and the hazy view of a ruined and desolated world scrolled into view and the door continued to rise, until it was judged enough. 

Just below them through the haze Isshan could just make out their target object, the escape pod half buried in what would have been lush grassland, now just a dirt bowl. 

“I have a visual on the artifact, the jets have done some of the work for us. Hopefully this should lift out without too much trouble. ” Isshan observed as he looked out of the sizable opening, grasping hold of a helpfully positioned strap, he leaned further out and over, it wasn’t often retrieval operations we so hands on and he was quite enjoying himself. He only had to wait a few more moments before hearing.

“Firing grapple.” A clamp and a length of cable stabbed out from behind him and into the haze, settling on the object in question, it encompassed the top and the side of the capsule across one corner. “Capture success, holding firm, retracting at point 5.”

The capsule eased free of the dirt that had long enclosed it, leaving behind a deep depression at the end of the long furrow, and kicking up a fair cloud of dust, it was soon free of the ground and being pulled upward towards the rear opening of the hovering vessel, the distance and angle had it whacking and scraping along the surface.

Isshan looked back and stated calmly.. “It’s taking a bit of damage on retrieval in our current position.”

 “Pilot, Technical, pull us up and aft point two.” The Kerarac technical officer requested. The vessel slid into position, the result being the capsule now hung free on the end of the clamp. 

Not clattering against the dirt and any other debris below. The cable wound in steadily, easing the capsule upwards, the angle of the ramp section meant a small collision, the warm sounds resonating through the aft section. A few moments later the capsule was pulled over the threshold, until it was wholly on the ramp.

Isshan watched as the object was manipulated and drawn past him into the bay, as it glided by he noted something that made him pause and caused a moment of puzzlement. 

He watched as it came to rest on the deck, he turned back to the controls and keyed in the sequence to reseal the launch bay. There was a hydraulic whine as the deck leveled, then the door began its measured progress towards the deck and clamped shut.

“Interesting detailing on the topside, most of our escape units are utilitarian. I assumed this would be the case here, seems that was incorrect.” Isshan stated as he approached, throwing a glance at the technical officer for any signs of nerves, but if they were there he failed to notice. 

His suspicions now raised, Isshan set his tricorder onto discrete, then worked and manipulated controls and keypads, estabilding parameters and setting up filters and for the data, punching in the confirm and execute command allowing the scan to begin and watching the feed. It threw up a number of anomalies, including one big one, for a moment there was a large notice on screen in red. 

‘ALERT: LIFEFORM DETECTED’

Isshan flicked this to the background and sent all the gathered data to the Rubidoux science department for further analysis.

“All secure back there? Are we clear to depart?” The pilots voice over the comm broke any thoughts Isshan was having, He nodded to the Technical officer.

“Capsule secure.” Came the response, as the said officer keyed a set of clamps to move into position.

“Beginning assent, hold on back there.” Came the pilots voice.

“Commander, two anomalies, one lifeform, there’s more to this.” Isshan stated over the secured comm between the two starfleet personnel, while he returned to his former seat and strapped himself down.