"Good god... How did we never spot this place?" Bridge officer Alex Jameson was leaning on the command dash, staring incredulously out the front view port. He was in command of the Bowex Exploration Percheron Cook, and they'd possibly made the most important discovery of their lives.

They'd been plotting the edges of the Dublin system after some BMM miners reported highly unusual magnetic readings on the edge of one of their fields. When they'd turned up and scanned the area there had been the tell-tale signs - phase radiation and gravitational osculations: positive indicators of the presence of a jump hole in the area. After a short while of hunting, the ship homed in on the source.

A probe was dispatched through the anomaly. Two hours later they began to receive information. The hole was stable. For now. It could probably take the mass of the ship, but they weren't willing to risk it. They sent another probe through under orders to jump back after arrival. After ten minutes it jumped back with recordings from both sides. The hole was phase aligned both ways: it wasnt a dead end. The probe's video footage showed the jump would leave then in a seemingly icy asteroid field. From the footage quality it was hard to tell.

"We're onto something here, lads. This could get us a fat bonus if there's anything worth finding on the other side of that hole." There was a general murmur of agreement and approval from the gathered crew: two scientists, one navigator, three engineers, two pilots, three deck hands and the captain himself. "As you know, the Cook is currently only carrying supplies for inter-system charting. Were going to have to resupply before we can jump through." There were a few mutterings of disappointment, but no-one vocally disagreed. If the hole destabilised while they were on the other side, it wouldn't have been clever to be caught without supplies. Off-duty crews were frequently exposed to horror stories about being marooned in dead end systems without supplies.

"I propose we sit tight here and send the Resolution back to pick up supplies from London. Any problems with that? No? Good." The Resolution was a Clydesdale the Cook had been retrofitted to carry in the cargo bay. The adjustments made the Percheron look bulbous and distorted, often drawing odd looks from passing traffic. The bay could be vacuumed before being opened to the void to allow the shuttle to undock safely. Such ships were often cramped, hellish things, with little room for crew accommodation and stores. Even so, ExSec's wages ensured they were never undermanned.

"Sunbeam, this is Charlie Alpha reporting in. We've got some mystery-meat here. Little Romeo has been sent home for supper. Permission to go play, over?" Alex hated using secure communication. It would be far less complicated to say just 'HQ, this is Cook command reporting in, we've found something important and sent the Resolution back for supplies. Can we go have a look?' The line was encrypted anyway, so he didn't particularly feel the ridiculous jargon was particularly necessary.

Still, it helped reduce the chances of corporate espionage or the theft of work when any listeners believed the sender to be utterly insane. After a moment a transmission was returned. "Charlie Alpha, this is Sunbeam. Best check it with Mother." That meant they were running it over with the lawyers (or frauds as they were known) on Lancaster. Rubbing his temples for a moment to try and clear his head, he thought about what to do.

For starters, dispatch another two drones to establish a perimeter around the hole on the other side. Ensure there were sensors and video feeds in place to make sure nothing tried to sneak through. Hopefully that would just be a precaution though; ideally the system would be empty and free for Bretonian annexation. With Kusari knocking on the door up north, it would be useful to be expanding down south.

"Sir!" Alex turned around to see a crewman hurrying through the door with a bundle of papers clutched in his hand. "We just got this through. HQ wants an in-depth report and risk analysis before we can set off. The Resolution also just sent a message through saying they've reached New London and will be back as soon as possible. They also said they'll probably need to make two trips." Alex nodded and waved him away.

He had some serious paperwork to do.

"Ri-ight, this is the Resolution. We're looking good at the moment. Everything's stable so far. We're bringing in a rock sample for the boffins. Be back in 10'." The link popped shut. Alex drummed his fingers on the command dash again. Theyd sent the Resolution through to have a poke around and gather samples.

The hole had taken the Clydesdale just fine. The return jump would be the clincher though. From experience he knew that sending a probe and a ship through were two entirely different matters, seeing as the ion trails from a ship's engines could cause the hole to destabilise. Hence the reason the Cook hadn't been risked. Some would have seen gambling the Clydesdale as callous, but the crew knew the dangers when they volunteered.

There was a flash of light and the Resolution was expelled from the anomaly. Alex gave a sigh of relief. The hole was stable. The cargo bay was vented, then opened so the Resolution could manoeuvre for docking. After a few minutes Alex felt the hull shake slightly as the Clydesdale was locked in place and the bay closed and pressurised.

After that he went back to studying the starcharts he'd had pulled up on the Navcom. Between recent discoveries by deep space flight teams stumbling across new systems, and by the telescopes of the CRI spotting new solar bodies, that would make this system... Number 49 in the Omega sector. Omega 49. He jotted that down then turned to look at the video feed.

The asteroid field appeared to be empty, which was perfect. The Resolution had tractored in a small piece of rock for sampling then jumped back. There was a beep from his communicator. Looking down he saw it was from one of the scientists: Frank Holloway, a spatial geologist. Opening the channel a burble of excited background chatter broke through before he spoke. "We're getting a big bonus for this, buddy. That rock the Resolution brought back was bisected by a strata of almost pure niobium, and we can tell you that now, and we've only just cracked it open! BMM's gonna love us. Were going to need a few more samples for consistency, but I think were onto a winner!"

"Niobium? That's brilliant. I'll have the Resolution jump back for some more when you need it."

"Thanks Alex. Well get back to you later."

This was all worth it. Alex leaned back into his chair, closed his eyes and dreamed of a fat cheque coming his way for his retirement.

"Right, this is it. Were sending the Cook through to the other side." There was a chorus of cheers. Over the last day there had been an air of excitement building among the crew as they envisioned pay rises, promotions and prestige. They were tired of sitting around doing very little. They wanted to explore.

"We'll be proceeding due relative north from the anomaly's exit at impulse speed until we encounter the fields edge. Seeing as this is uncharted territory, the Navcom will be next to useless, so we'll be relying on the Resolution to drop Nav-beacons at two K intervals as we go, to act as an anchor. As I like to call it, our very own bread crumb trail home. Local hotshots Greg Lewis and Paul Harrolds will be responsible for that one, so make sure to remind them what they've got to do!" There was a burst of light laughter at that one.

It was just sinking in that they were going to be heading into unknown territory and unknown dangers for most of the crew. Then Alex sent them to their stations, with the idea that hard work made a man less likely to think. Or worry.

Fifteen minutes later, the Resolution had undocked and jumped through, all provisions were stored and the hatches had been battened down. They were ready to jump. The Cook powered towards the anomaly, then reaching the correct velocity, entered and disappeared.

Almost simultaneously it reappeared in Omega 49. Alex heard a muffled cheer from someone outside the bridge. Now to start moving. The Resolution buzzed alongside like a loyal hound at its masters heels. Occasionally a flashing beacon would drop from its cargo bay, and the Cook's Navcom would lock onto it, keeping the course home charted. Just as the Cook cleared the asteroid field, Frank Holloway wandered onto the bridge.

"Good God... How did we never spot this place?" Alex was leaning on the command dash, staring incredulously out the front view window. Far away to the north-east there was a shining planet hanging in orbit around the systems sun. Frank was equally astounded. Alex tapped up a view screen and superimposed it onto the HUD, the image magnifying the distant planet. Clouds scudded across its surface, while below them there were the massive shapes of green continents and blue oceans.

Frank peered at the image in wonder. "If that's what it looks like, and the atmosphere, temperature and eco-systems are correct, I'd place a bet we've stumbled over a Class A habitable planet... Good god, were getting paid for this!" he yelled delightedly. Alex couldn't help but be caught up in the excitement. They were going to be famous.

"We'd better get a closer look before jumping to conclusions like that, ey?" he said lightly, a smile on his lips.

"Hahah! This is amazing!" There had been a running party all over the ship for the last thirty minutes as the crew celebrated their find. The only two people who were even close to keeping their wits about them were Alex and Frank who were trying to glean further details from the image.

"There, you see that small spot there?" Frank said, pointing at a tiny spot of light on a large peninsular. "I reckon that's either volcanic activity or some kind of settlement. We won't be able to tell until we get closer. If it is a settlement, we've got a problem." Alex nodded silently. If there were any locals around that would make claiming the system awkward. Not to mention the fact they might react unfavourably to any House explorers. Best hope it was just a volcano then.

"Hrm, well hope for the best then Frank. Youd better identify that down there as a volcano when we get near enough though!" Both men peered at the image for a little longer in slience before Frank spoke again.

"As the ship's captain you get the honour of naming this, you know." Alex nodded slowly. He knew that and had been thinking about a name to put on the paperwork.

"Planet Sydney should do well." Frank nodded. It was a good name. Most captains kept a shortlist of names they'd like to give to their finds. Sydney was at the top of almost all of them. Just as the BAF had a history of several hundred HMS Victorys, Sydney was a popular name in exploration mythos. "Well, best round up the crew and get this girl ready to move. We have a planet to survey."

Fifteen minutes later the Cook was proceeding towards the planet at cruise velocity, with an estimated time of arrival being an hour from then. Twenty minutes later, disaster would strike.

"Get those engines restarted now!" There was another rolling boom from below as one of the Titans swooped low, strafing the Cook from end to end with neutron fire. Red lights blared all over the bridge, claxons screaming. Halfway to the planet, a wing of Corsairs had got a lock on them and gone in for the kill.

Alex had wheeled around and aimed back towards the hole to Dublin, the Resolution flying just ahead. But the Titans were fast and soon knocked the Cook out of cruise. Now it was a game of endurance. The Titans were slowly hammering away at the shields, chipping them away bit by bit. Down on engineering one of the shield relays exploded, and a hole the size of a small car was ripped open in the shield bubble on the ship's underside.

"Engineering, what the hell are you doing? Get shield integrity back up!" Alex bawled down the intercom. Static and the sound of profuse swearing crackled back. The Resolution had just breached the edge of the asteroid field and was relaying an all bands distress call through the probes around the hole, hoping to bounce the transmission through the anomaly and call for help. Alex watched in silent despair as a Titan broke away and went streaking after the fleeing Clydesdale.

Desperate measures in desperate times he thought faintly. "Engineering, shut down cruise engines, reroute power to the shields and weapons. Proceed on burners and impulse." It was all going wrong... To his left, Luke Gordon (a crew member trained in gunnery) was wearing a Sim-Helmet that plugged him directly into the weapons controls. Occasionally he'd twitch as a battle of velocities, attack vectors and tactics unfolded behind his eyes. Then the Cook's weapons unleashed themselves on the nearest aggressor, dropping its shield and causing it to go evasive.

Alex yanked on the helm to try and roll the Cook sideways to avoid an incoming missile, with partial success. Instead of ripping through into the vulnerable underside, it exploded on the port side's already taxed shields, setting off yet more emergency alarms.

"Cook this is the Resolution! We're through! The Corsair is gonna be on us any moment though! Were making a break for Graves. Good luck, sir!"

There was a significant force entering the system this time: two exploration Percherons and an escort of three Eagles. This time Bowex wasn't going to run. One of the Percherons was outfitted in a similar way to the Cook, with a shuttle contained inside. The other was standard edition, but filled with personnel instead of freight. Security forces, scientists and surveyors mostly.

"Lovewell, this is the Carteret. We're going to drop the Endymion for atmospheric survey. Eagles, cover our back." Shortly after the transmission was sent, the Carteret's cargo bay split down the middle and began to slowly open. After the bay was fully exposed, the survey Clydesdale Endymion dropped out.

Engaging its engines, the little Clydesdale closed the last five Ks between the convoy's location and the planets atmosphere, streaking towards the clouds suspended far below. Just as the first wisps of atmosphere juddered and shook the hull, they killed their primary engines, relying on directional thrusters to see them down.

The command crew on the Carteret looked on with bated breath as the Endymion's hull glowed red as the flames consumed it. It plummeted downwards like a small metal meteorite. Inside, the crew were thrown around by the G-force, the captain gripping the helm hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Atmospheric decent without docking ring assistance was pure hell. A few nerve racking moments later the demonic scream subsided and the flames receded. The captain glanced over at his co-pilot, who had her eyes shut. He was going to have to buy her dinner after this.

Far above there were a few ragged cheers from the accumulated crew as the tiny image of the Clydesdale far below stabilised. There were a few laughs as the little freighter turned a slow victory roll far below. The ship swooped down low, the scream of it's engines shattering the serine peace of Sydeny's rolling grasslands. A herd of shaggy black, three legged bovine looking creatures stampeded as the freighter shot past overhead.

"Carteret, we are green. Upper atmo sample is back. We've got good air up here." Behind his flight visor the Clydesdale's pilot closed his eyes for a moment, relying on his steady hands to keep the ship stable. The Endymion was coasting along at a steady speed above a sprawling rolling grassland.

The plain stretched as far as the eye could see, with no animals visible, other than the black bovines that had been so unsettled by the foreign invasion not long earlier. A tall grass that appeared to have a yellow fruit and blue stalk swayed in the wind. As the wind ruffled the ground, the earth would shift from yellow to blue with the grasses' movement. He looked over at the co-pilot again, who was carefully reading a display bank that was giving her vital statistics about the air they were flying through and the ground they were passing over.

"Best launch the pulse. If we're going to take her down, I want to know what we're landing on." The woman nodded, then removed the safety cover from a small switch and flicked it. The lights dimmed for a moment as masses of power was rerouted from the primary generators. The topographical pulse generator in the central cargo area lit up, drowning the sound of the engines with the roar of mechanical process. A short while later, the bridge lights returned to their prior luminosity, as the source of the power drain completed its work and shut down. There was a laboured hum from the dashboard data processor unit as the reams of raw data that had just flooded it were analysed, sorted and presented.

The main viewscreen shimmered for a moment before a map grid of green lines was overlaid on the scenery. They showed the contours of the land the dips and hillocks that were not immediately obvious to the eye. The computer selected a flat zone about two miles from the ship's current position. Within a few seconds it had closed the distance, the engines now idling as the ship coasted around in a holding pattern to maintain velocity.

I guess we should take her down. The captain nodded gingerly at the co-pilots murmured sentence. They would potentially be the first people ever to set foot on a newly discovered planet, possibly something no other living Bretonian could lay claim to. He eased the throttle back further yet, beginning the final decent.

The air was thick and stuffy with tension. This was a moment of history; the moment Bretonian assets first landed on Planet Sydney.

The Lovewell was a hive of activity, with the accumulated support staff pouring over the samples the Endymion's crew had brought back. There were several sprigs of the strange grass, and the captain had tracked down and shot one of the bovines for examination. They'd also brought back soil and air samples for analysis.

"This is interesting..." One of the stooped scientists straightened up from his microscope to peer over his shoulder. "Paul, look at this." A middle aged man, going slightly bald on top wandered over. "Look, I just dissected and spread the grass-type plants the survey team brought back. Look at the exterior husk." The man bent over the eye piece and squinted down at the miniscule sample below.

"Gordon, you're right... That is interesting. Peculiar at least. We'd better show this to Dave." Dave Langley was the ship's resident microbiologist, who was responsible for identifying and cataloguing variants of bacterium and viruses any expeditions might happen across. "We're going to need a few more samples to see if that's evident across the specie, or just an anomaly washed up on that exibit." Gordon nodded slowly.

"It's strange. I'm no expert, but that looks familiar. Similar a strain of Staphylococcus aureus I happened across on New London, actually. It has the same rather uniquely shaped flagellum. I would wonder how that could have spread to this environment, devoid of human interference." Paul mulled that over for a moment.

"You may have misidentified it. Leave it to Dave to work out what it is. Just bag that up and send it over to him." Gordon just shrugged.

"I'm just saying that... That a bacterium bearing staggering resemblance to a strain known to be spread by human colonisation is a highly ominous sign to pick up on." The scientist hauled himself to his feet and stretched for a moment. "Still, I've heard they've already filed a claim with the astrological union over Bretonian sovereignty of the planet. One of the template units is being prepared to go down planetside once the air samples have been confirmed and there's been a orbital sweep, too."

"These are good days to be in the exploration business, my friend", Paul said reassuringly. "Forget the bacteria and think of the pay cheques we'll be getting once we're home again."