Xanadu

It wasn't the ideal landing force, but after a month Logan had begun developing cabin fever. There was only so much planning he and his officers could do, and the shuttles were loaded with what he needed. His first platoon was thawed, and that was enough to get a base camp started.
His biggest concern right now was the fast approaching first atmospheric entry. It had been done countless times on "old" Earth, but that atmosphere was always Earth's; this one was an entirely different planet, and it would be guess work. The information gathered, assuming they survived, would be transmitted to the next shuttles. He sat at the back of the cockpit with his Staff Sergeant Gordon Harvey.
Suddenly the shuttle began shaking madly. The pilots calmly barked jargon at each other, more teenaged punks wrestling with the colony's fate. Who decided this shit show oughta be child's play?! Then the windows went ablaze for what seemed like forever.
Finally the windows cleared and the ride smoothed out. The shuttle swayed side to side bleeding speed, and then took a sharp turn until it pointed north, to the land mass chosen as man’s continent of origin. Logan had enough time to settle his heart before the next problem presented itself.
The landing zone was chosen for several reasons regarding the colony itself, but the behemoth shuttles required a landing strip. Granting that there were no airports, this shuttle had been fitted with massive shock absorbers on skis; sleds in actuality, and the heavy equipment on board would be using them for that purpose later. All that was left was the hope that the LZ was as smooth as it appeared from space, easy.
The pilot grabbed intercom, “Please insert your mouth-guards, the fun is about to begin.”
A moment later the LZ was fast approaching, and Logan sent wistful blessing to whoever invented the uncomfortable soft plastic inserts. At first he thought the touchdown had been a failure. The impact had been immense, and the grating thunder was deafening, surely the belly was being ripped out from under them. He thought the Pilot had made a mild cuss, but then he was slammed into his harness yet again as the chutes caught air. You'd think the longer this belly flop went on, the smoother it would get, but no, he was beginning to think they would die of shaken baby syndrome. The pilot barked something over the noise, and he was again slammed into his harness as the sprung rakes dug aggressively into the dirt.
A moment of absolute calm came over them, shattered by the pilot's comical, "yeehaw." The co-pilot shot him a clenched tooth glare, then the bull ride began again, the shuttle must be falling to pieces around them. He was slammed into his harness again, as the forward boosters were engaged. The bouncing finally smoothed out, and then ground to a halt.
The PA crackled to life, as the pilot smoothly announced their arrival, "Thank you for riding the Bodacious, please vomit outside and enjoy your stay."
The co-pilot sneered at him as he unbuckled himself, "fuckin cowboy!"
The pilot chuckled back, "you lasted eight seconds, what more do you want."
"Fuck you!"
Logan blinked a few times, "eight seconds?"
Gordon's growl answered him, "no, Major, by my estimation, that was almost half a minute. If I were to guess, we missed our LZ by about a mile"
Logan rubbed his nose, then began unbuckling himself, "squad A is to get some grub happening, so we can all vomit properly; squad B to get tents set up; squad C to get the heavy equipment off loaded. This is the last landing like this."
"Yes sir!"
"And get these skis off." He stood and with shaky knees waddled his way to the aft while Gordon passed on his first dirt-side commands.
Logan held himself up with the help of a grab-bar as he waited for the tailgate to lower, the scene that greeted him made him wince. The view of the long trail of torn up soil framed by waist high grass stopped at a rise which had given the shuttle some calm air time, then continued on as the lower level came back into view until a few kilometers south to the equatorial coast; it was to be the first gash of planetary abuse they would inflict upon the surface. If his mother were here, she would have lost her shit; as a faithful Greenpeacer, there were many things she refused to accept as part of life. Still, if the soil checks out, he could write up the torn land as farm tilling... yeah sounds good, even though the stretch beyond the hump was going to be smoothed out and packed down in preparation for the following shuttles.
After double checking his sidearm, he flicked his wrist in a mock charge, and ambled down the ramp to set humanity's first footprint in the soil, and take in the first official breath of native air... coast, wet dirt and jet fuel exhaust, yummy.
He was soon joined by First Lieutenant David Gibbs of Squad-B who was swinging a camera around. Logan nodded a greeting and said, "We have three days before our first rain storm, I expect to weather it well," and he pointed to the area the encampment would begin, beside the river, right of the hump; and a good sized stand of trees just up here, things were looking good. "Strap a ski to the tractor, and use it to sled everything over there."
"Understood, sir."
"Well Xanadu, humanity has arrived. I hope you're ready."
"Xanadu, sir?" Gibbs turned the camera onto him.
He nodded, "Paradise."

Geography

75% water

Alternative Name(s)

Paradise

Type

Planet

Location under

Xandian System