Soon, the Robots finished setting up the JSIT. They all went back to the shuttle after finishing up their work. These construction robots were perfect for such situations. They were designed to operate on alien environments. There were even versions of the bots that was designed to operate in vacuum. They were highly specialized and excelled in carrying and building quickly. They made building solid structures anywhere a breeze. With their help, One person could easily build a whole modern complex all by themselves. With an army of them it could be done in as little as 6 days! That was an astonishing speed that was unmatched.
After the JSIT was fully assembled, the operator started to program it through her comm. It needed to be focused on certain areas and also input specific parameters. After everything was done, A protective layer started to appear around the whole machine. It would protect humans from the high energy rays that the JSIT would use for scanning.
After it was covered, It started to hum as it started scanning the whole tree.
"What's the ETA on the Completion of the Scan?", Dr. Helen asked through the terminal.
"14 Hours and 18 minutes exactly.", The operator replied.
"Good, ground team and Hawk stay at the site of the tree and supervise the scanning process. The Yuki will prepare to continue inward the terrain. We've already found a couple of interesting spots. I need Yuki to visit them and see what's going on there."
"Ground Team Copies."
"Copy that."
The probes that were sent earlier had already scanned about 25% of the whole planet! They moved really fast and their scanning abilities were also formidable. But they didn't provide any detailed analysis of the objects. Instead they just provided a 3D model and some energy readings. This helped them build a 3D model of the whole planet and also identify locations with high energy density. Usually, where there was energy there was something interesting.
Back on the Bridge, Dr. Helen was looking at the projection of the terrain that was scanned. Much of the planet that was scanned consisted of just the ocean. This was the only terrain or continent that they had found till now. Dr. Helen focused on a certain spot on the Projection. The readings here was a bit fuzzy, it wasn't quite clear what was there. But the data showed some huge energy readings in the area.
"Yuki, I want you to go to this location, Take half the escort with you. Transmitting the location.", Dr. Helen spoke through the terminal.
"Copy that."
Soon, half of the escort mechs along with the Yuki lifted off the ground and started heading towards that location. The location was near a huge mountain. The probes had already scanned over and beyond the mountain, So they had an idea about the mountain. It was big. Really big, It was about 679 Kilometers in diameter and reached a staggering 2.8 KM in height!
It was so big that it could be seen from really far away. Soon it came into view of Yuki and the escort mechs. The sheer scale of the mountain dwarfed them to such a degree as if they were merely ants in front of the Mountain. It was covered in snow all around and made it's presence known from far away.
"That's a really big mountain.", One of the mech pilots said with admiration.
"It's not everyday you find a mountain of such scale!", Another one joined him.
Soon they reached the location Dr. Helen pointed at. From the scan results of the Yuki, there was high energy spikes and activity in the area, but the scanner readings was a big fuzzy. It wasn't clear what was there. So they kept going forwards until the area in question came into view. The crew aboard the Yuki and the Mech pilots suddenly went silent.
Dr. Helen was busy following the trails of the energy spikes. There was a definite pattern in the ways the energy was distributed on the planet. The probes clearly showed that the energy trails followed specific lines and patterns and multiple of them merged into an even bigger line. This wasn't natural. Although there have been previous occurrences of such energy trails, but that usually was because of meteors that carried certain energetic exotics had crashed on the planet and left these huge planet spanning energy lines that could be followed back to the crash site.
"Is this a similar situation?", She wondered.
"What's the status of the Yuki, Are they there yet?", She suddenly asked the comm operator.
"There hasn't been any updates from the yuki or the mechs", The operator replied.
"That's weird.", She moved to her terminal and spoke.
"Yuki do you copy?"
"Yuki Copies"
"What's the status update? Are you at the location?"
"Yuki is at the location. Dr. Helen I think you should see this."
Yuki started to transmit it's feed again without waiting for her to give the permission.
As the Feed popped up and everyone started looking everyone froze.
The scene they saw was so grand that no one could put it in words. Huge towering trees covering a vast area of land, with Orange hue lighting up their bodies and the ground beneath them. The trees stood tall and proud as the light on their body hummed in a rhythmic pattern. Together the trees made up a lush forest that dwarfed even the mechs. The ground was also lit up with the same orange patterns that covered the bodies of the trees. The energy in them also pulsed in a rhythmic pattern. The ground was covered in lush foliage made up of the metallic composite found in the body of the trees.
"How can this be possible?", Dr. Helen said as she stared at the footage in awe. The chance of having such a lively and active forest right here on the surface was B1 was beyond anyone's expectations. This proved that the tree wasn't the only interesting thing on the planet.