Pollius through the Visor (short story)

This is a short story, do read if you have time to do so, id prefer you make yourself a cup of tea or something lol, just sit back, relax, and read.

If you are reading this, I am either becoming one with Pollius, or have gotten help and out of Pollius. My name is Ollius Von Toffus, Senior Nymph of the Cult of Skefelosomkosa, OK that won't make any sense to you reader, so let my explain, in the cult there are rankings, with Nymph meaning you are new and low ranking (I only joined 2 months ago) now the reason we use "Nymph" is because the higher up members planned to call us NYMs (New Young Members), and since It sounded similar to Nymph, that's how it became a rank, now Senior, comes from my experience, I mostly do work in the orbital defence, and military branch, yet run errands like driving cargo from the cap base to skefa and take part in rituals, and I have proven myself as I have managed to gain 5 successful deliveries, 2 kills against autonomous recon drones (I did warn the higher ups yet I'm not too sure what they are doing about that) and have 4 scans of planets under my belt. Now enough background for now, you are probably wondering how I got myself in this situation of being stranded on Pollius...It all began on Skefelosomkosa, I was ordered to run scans of 4 planets, Pollius, Onsollocos, Vulco and Sergeaa, was normal at first, I took off using my missile corvette, warped to the wormhole and entered the wormhole to the Juno system. After that I headed to Pollius, it was quite a beautiful sight! Yet...unfortunately, some how the missiles detached, both of them, without explanation, then 1 detonated, followed by the next, it severely damaged my engine and the fuel tank had exploded, yeah, not so great. After that I checked on my ships map, unfortunately, I was on a crash course, yet on land. I knew it was going to be rough, yet the good news is that, my corvette was more tuned for exploration than war, so it was only me and out advanced AI on board as well as a week's worth of food and water supplies! Eventually the plummet became really...difficult.

Eventually I didn't think I'd survive...yet astonishingly, I did! It was a miracle, and it was atleast pollius of all worlds, the air was breathable and it was an already habitable world, it was a bit cold if I'm being honest but compared to vulco and Sergeaa, I wouldn't complain. Why sent to scan these worlds? Well it is due to the fact that we want to see if we will get the same odd visuals we got when the founders scanned Skefelosomkosa, a sleeping deity type of pattern, we aim to put outposts on such worlds and do our rituals in order to keep the universe safe. That's what the founders tell us...You may be wondering why I joined the cult, and no it wasn't because I hit my head or spent too long in isolation, they arent really idiocrats if I'm being honest. I joined mainly because I was curious as to what this visual on Skefelosomkosa was, what was it? Why is it biological? Is it biological or supernatural? Is it a phenomenon like how the ancient humans described "The face of mars" and the "Bear of mars" where it was just our senses making out recognizable patterns out of non biological and geological things? I had questions, which I wanted to answer, ofcourse the founders forbid excavations, yet on other worlds where it could just be a "limb" maybe such excavations would be allowed and we could find out, possibly, hence I took the job. I'm not too sure where the founders got the "Wreck havoc to the universe from" but...meh, I could live with that, thats the only "crazy" claim really, funnily enough, the Etosians call us stupid idiocrats...its quite ironic since they are the pride blinded bozos with the most bar count. Upon touch down I had activated the corvettes solar panels so that the batteries could charge so that essential systems could run if the situation got bad, although pollius is said to only have microbes...I couldn't be too sure.

I had then managed to contact the Commonwealth base on Kora for help, mainly due to the fact that my message wouldn't take that long to get to them, and they would send help quicker than if I sent one back to Skefelosomkosa. Eventually I did send it and it went through. I couldn't really sit still, not just because of curiosity, but due to the damn terrain! Steep and pretty difficult to traverse, I then checked my map and saw that there was a coast nearby, luckily, I had a tracker which the rescue vessels would pick up (I did tell them to track my signal and the corvettes, as well as the corvettes coordinates, so they can tell the tracker not at the corvettes coords was me) and I had some time and decided to go, as the droods said that the microbes are aquatic, as well, since I'm here, I thought I might as well check if the soil by the coast is fertile, as this world has seas of fresh water, not salt water and to abduct some microbes for examination. I set out and began to take photos.

Pollius was beautiful! What made it better was that I had my ambient Playlist to keep me sane, and no its not some crazy "Cult music" it was just your regular ambient synthwave music, nothing out of the ordinary. My tether helped made things easier, and my rations were packed for mobility, and yes, it was normal food, not some wierd cult thing (we don't have out own cuisine style nor wierd foods!) Eventually I saw Pollius's 2 moons, Pollosk and Pollum overhead, quite the sight to behold if I'm being honest! Pollius's rings also were breathtaking.

I can see why the droods would want to colonize such a world, yet the terrain, I'm not too sure how they are going to get around that, yet the droods are smart and most things they design are designed with practicality in mind! Like my suit! Drood suits may not be the best when compared to Commonwealth exploration suits or Fordian belt exploration suits, yet the droods do make them and sell them for a cheaper price, hence the cult buys them in Bulk! And I happen to have one on. Eventually I traversed quite far...or so I thought, I could still see my corvette from quite a distance, by the way I used zoom here.

Yep...I then felt a bit hungry and had a dried meat bar, this bar consists mainly of lean meat from genetically engineered cows, while having some dried betries berries and some fat being used to keep it together, the Cult was inspired by a text from Old Terra, describing a very effective and efficient food used by Native American tribes, called pemmican, if I remember correctly, ancient texts and videos say it could keep one going for days, and didn't really need any preservation method as it could last about a year until expiration (Aludra877 here, the pemmican part isnt fiction), the cult often does keep such bars, our foods are made with practicality in mind. It was pretty good, and I then began to traverse the environment again, the traversing, after consumption didn't really get to me for a while. I'm quite used to traversing Skefelosomkosa, either in a vehicle or just by myself, yet here the gravity is more intense, so it was bound to get to me. The views were beautiful, the mountains high and tall, it was as if I were standing on the shoulders of giants...yet, very pimple filled shoulders.

You may be wondering how I took that, it's simple, it was just a standard issued drone, yes we have those, these drones can't sample yet they are made to give us a view of the landscape from a birds perspective so we know how to traverse the environment properly and safely, or to just see if the environment ahead is safe to traverse, very useful If I say so myself. I hadn't encountered any fauna across my travels hence indicating that life here may perhaps be on the microscopic spectrum after all.

After a few kilometers...and canteens of water, I had made it, the coast was in my eyes, and wow...thats all I could say, wow, magnificent, absolutely wow! I couldn't believe it the crystal clear waters...this was my first time seeing an ocean close up, in person, I grew up in a space hab and it was comfortable, eventually, when I moved out I decided to be a colonist to go to Defolosonta. And then I joined the cult, and ofcourse, Skefelosomkosa is dry!

I then proceeded to find a way to get my samples, fortunately I tethered my way to a small island...if you could call it that

I then took my samples, and yes! I had caught some tiny microbes! I had examined them using a small portable microscope and they are truly alien!. Water is fresh as described and soil samples are fertile! On planet agriculture is possible, which is neat! I also checked underwater to see for any life, yet was met with nothing really, albeit, the underwater views were nice nonetheless.

Eventually, I had received a notification, which said that the Commonwealth ships were nearby, I had then set myself on a really tall rock and then waited, the view here was still very nice, as well as pollosk.

Now I'm wondering...what would happen when I get back...would I be ranked down? I mean it wasn't my fault, the ship has a black box in order to show what happened, so I doubt that, as for the wrecked corvette...I'm sure the Commonwealth will pick it up and leave it in a hangar on the Kora base, until the Cult of Skefelosomkosa comes to pick me up, and the corvette. I mean the cult will take it, it still is their property , as well itd be illegal to leave it on pollius, since it is classified as "pollution". I hope that also the ship did scan the planet in the mean time...

Update (currently on a Commonwealth cruiser heading back to kora), they did take the ship back, and the founders came to Kora...they said that if the scan is completed I would get promoted! They did believe my story about the missiles, (I think they know that such old tech is bound to have errors) as I managed to abide by the nessecary protocols to keep the mission going, namely keeping the solar panels activated and initiating the scan, as well as doing additional research on Pollius, I'd be promoted to Grand Nymph. Quite the rank if I say so.