Two Months Later:
It was so much like Earth. Taylor Walker stood beneath the thick tent awning Major Perry had set up for her lab and stared into the lush valley stretching out before her. The humidity had peaked; thick and heavy for midday, causing her to strip off the outer uniform shirt she normally wore. The light grey undershirt was much cooler, more comfortable in the growing heat. She wished she could strip off the uniform pants as well.
She stared around the deserted area of the camp they had set up. Ivan and Mike would be gone for hours yet, searching the surrounding forest and hoping to meet up with other members of the four teams that had entered the atmosphere with them weeks before.
The magnetic disturbances from the planet weren’t apparent from space, but the minute they had entered the atmosphere, all electronics had gone haywire. It was an unexpected development, as there had been no problems with the unmanned robotics sent in for years to take samples from the planet.