Exploring A Second Earth

Away team missions to the surface of “Earth 2” are coming together. We will be sending down a few DOT-9s, tomorrow, to recon our landing zones, followed by Marines a little later, to secure those sites, and the away teams after that, when all is clear. We’ll know more about the surface after the DOT-9s gather their initial data.

I, myself, have been cleared for assignment on one of those away teams, and will likely be going down to the surface sometime Saturday or Sunday. I have also been assigned to coordinate historical assessments with our history department.

So far, aerial fly-overs, LIDAR scans, and orbital sensor analysis suggest that this planet’s population may have met its demise in the mid-to-late 20th century. Almost nothing remains of the great cities. Monuments are a shell of their former self. Most of the previous civilization seems to be buried under 400 years of sand, soil and foliage. If this planet is uninhabited, we may not have a true picture of what happened down there, until archaeologists start digging into the ground.

-Lieutenant Sam Archer

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May 6, 2365 -- (Original Devron Timeline)