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Description

Here's a thing for the EQD “Space Mares” open art event. Have a long story for a description. Apologies if I rustle up anyone's science feathers!

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User: Mission Specialist Atlas Stride
Mission: Initial Survey Probe, Stage 3. Hooves on the ground
Landing Day: 4

  Base is fully assembled and operational. Only navigational systems are down, likely due the planet’s unusually powerful magnetic field. This malfunction aside, the flag is green for the rest of the Equestrian surveyor team to commence its mission to Tubecles at the next launch window in approximately two months, six days.
  There was another spacecraft that landed between fifteen and sixteen miles from my own site, within the same hour. As was reported to me, Stalliongrad has launched its own mission just two days after ours. Despite their delay, their state-of-the-art rockets assured that their spacecraft caught up with mine at a comfortable pace. Given the close proximity in our landing times, it is not possible to prove to the watching world who landed first without obvious bias. I shudder to imagine the political turmoil going on back home.
  While we can assume the Stalliongrad mission has similar goals to ours, I decided it would be best to find out myself what I could from my neighbor. Hey, I’m no diplomat. I’m going to have 267-ish days with nopony to talk to, so I may as well make friends where I can. I figured I’d better start with the only other ponies (or pony) within a million miles. I started up the rover and made my way over in short time.
  It looked like theirs was a single pony mission, like mine; approaching his landing site, I could see only one stallion at work within his strange bubble houses. I did not know his radio frequency, and there was nothing to knock on, so I just stood at the main entry flap and hoped he saw me. Fortunately, he did. He trotted over to an airlock mechanism, then waved a hoof for me to come in. Upon entering and exiting the airlock, I soon found myself inside a lab module devoted to growing plants. He stood directly in front of me, then tapped the side of his head, indicating to me it was safe for me to remove my helmet. The constant “hiss” died down as my oxygen valves closed off, and I breathed in the (comparatively) fresh air. I could finally meet my host face-to-face.

    “Hi,” I coughed. Sweet Celestia, did I mention I’m no diplomat?

    “Hi,” he responded with some amusement.

    “Um, do you speak Equestrian Ponish?” He gave me a grin.

    “Da”, he nodded. “And what brings you to my humble habitat, Equestrian?”

    “Well, don’t tell me anything you’re not at liberty to share, but…” he raised an eyebrow. “I need to ask you if your navigational systems are malfunctioning.” After a moment, he sighed and nodded glumly.

    “They failed before I even entered this planet’s atmosphere. It is somewhat worrisome.”

    “Mine are shot too. Soooo, in light of these drawbacks, I came to see if you wanted to pool our resources.” To his credit, he only looked slightly taken aback. “I have a long wait before the rest of my team gets here, and I can only assume you do too.”

    “Sure, but what about our agencies? I cannot imagine your bosses liking this…”

    “Aw, what about them? We’re scientists, right? They only ask survival and results of us. We can give them a crap-ton of both this way! We can cover so much more ground here! Besides, they didn’t instruct you not to work with me, did they?

    “Hmm, technically no…”

    “So, what do you say?” I grinned. “You wanna do science…together?”

     He went through the motion of looking deep in thought, but his eyes betrayed a rather playful joy.

Description

Here's a thing for the EQD “Space Mares” open art event. Have a long story for a description. Apologies if I rustle up anyone's science feathers!

---

User: Mission Specialist Atlas Stride
Mission: Initial Survey Probe, Stage 3. Hooves on the ground
Landing Day: 4

  Base is fully assembled and operational. Only navigational systems are down, likely due the planet’s unusually powerful magnetic field. This malfunction aside, the flag is green for the rest of the Equestrian surveyor team to commence its mission to Tubecles at the next launch window in approximately two months, six days.
  There was another spacecraft that landed between fifteen and sixteen miles from my own site, within the same hour. As was reported to me, Stalliongrad has launched its own mission just two days after ours. Despite their delay, their state-of-the-art rockets assured that their spacecraft caught up with mine at a comfortable pace. Given the close proximity in our landing times, it is not possible to prove to the watching world who landed first without obvious bias. I shudder to imagine the political turmoil going on back home.
  While we can assume the Stalliongrad mission has similar goals to ours, I decided it would be best to find out myself what I could from my neighbor. Hey, I’m no diplomat. I’m going to have 267-ish days with nopony to talk to, so I may as well make friends where I can. I figured I’d better start with the only other ponies (or pony) within a million miles. I started up the rover and made my way over in short time.
  It looked like theirs was a single pony mission, like mine; approaching his landing site, I could see only one stallion at work within his strange bubble houses. I did not know his radio frequency, and there was nothing to knock on, so I just stood at the main entry flap and hoped he saw me. Fortunately, he did. He trotted over to an airlock mechanism, then waved a hoof for me to come in. Upon entering and exiting the airlock, I soon found myself inside a lab module devoted to growing plants. He stood directly in front of me, then tapped the side of his head, indicating to me it was safe for me to remove my helmet. The constant “hiss” died down as my oxygen valves closed off, and I breathed in the (comparatively) fresh air. I could finally meet my host face-to-face.

    “Hi,” I coughed. Sweet Celestia, did I mention I’m no diplomat?

    “Hi,” he responded with some amusement.

    “Um, do you speak Equestrian Ponish?” He gave me a grin.

    “Da”, he nodded. “And what brings you to my humble habitat, Equestrian?”

    “Well, don’t tell me anything you’re not at liberty to share, but…” he raised an eyebrow. “I need to ask you if your navigational systems are malfunctioning.” After a moment, he sighed and nodded glumly.

    “They failed before I even entered this planet’s atmosphere. It is somewhat worrisome.”

    “Mine are shot too. Soooo, in light of these drawbacks, I came to see if you wanted to pool our resources.” To his credit, he only looked slightly taken aback. “I have a long wait before the rest of my team gets here, and I can only assume you do too.”

    “Sure, but what about our agencies? I cannot imagine your bosses liking this…”

    “Aw, what about them? We’re scientists, right? They only ask survival and results of us. We can give them a crap-ton of both this way! We can cover so much more ground here! Besides, they didn’t instruct you not to work with me, did they?

    “Hmm, technically no…”

    “So, what do you say?” I grinned. “You wanna do science…together?”

     He went through the motion of looking deep in thought, but his eyes betrayed a rather playful joy.