User blog comment:Owlfeathers0117/Caelmare/@comment-11135771-20150219191600

A small EAF fleet entered the upper atmosphere of Caelmare, with orders to establish a base of operations in the area. Reconnaissance missions and the reports from the SAA had shown that the planet's sky was incredibly hostile, but a plan had been formulated to avoid having to deal with that for the time being.

Prior to the ships' arrival, observation craft had located an optimal site for the operation; a large aerogel cloud in the upper layers, around six and a half kilometres in diameter. The fleet descended toward the selected cloud, engines straining against the winds that started to gain in strength as they dropped lower into the atmosphere.

Six Condor-class transports flew in and took up positions at regular intervals around the edges of the cloud. Their bay doors opened, allowing squadrons of small craft fitted with magnetic clamps to withdraw a single, massive cylindrical object from each ship - a thruster the size of a small aerospace warship. Carried by their squadrons of transporters, the engines were pushed against the side of the cloud, a large metal plate affixed to each by a gimbal making contact against the aerogel.

The transporters continued to push against the engines, holding them firmly against the cloud, whereupon a series of rods with drills on the ends emerged from each of the metal plates, burrowing into the silica aerogel as they extended. When the rods had reached their full length, smaller spikes fired out from their sides, embedding themselves in the cloud and holding the engines securely in place as the transporters disengaged their magnetic clamps and returned to the Condors' bays.

With all six engines now affixed to the cloud, the EAF fleet spread out around it, clearing the area above. The ship controlling the engines gave a signal, and the massive thrusters came online with a low humming sound which quickly built to a steady rumble as they warmed up. When the instruments inside each engine showed that they were sufficiently warm, the controlling ship conducted a brief systems check and then ordered them to begin ascending.

Slowly, almost unnoticeably at first but becoming steadily faster with each passing moment, the cloud began to climb higher into the sky. The ice blue flares of the engines burned bright as they continued to ascend, the cloud now edging past the EAF fleet and continuing to slowly climb as they followed it. Up it rose, higher into the atmosphere. It cleared the upper cloud layer entirely, now above even the highest solid clouds and most of the vaporous ones.

The engines reduced their thrust as the cloud reached the desired altitude, pushing it upward just enough to keep it level, but not ascending any further. The EAF ships gathered beside it, the four Condors which had not carried an engine flying over and touching down on the cloud's surface. They then began construction of a base, starting with a large antimatter reactor which would supply the power needed to keep the thrusters holding the cloud up active. Teams cut into the surface of the aerogel, creating rooms and passageways inside the cloud which would later be finished with metal walls, ceilings, and floors.

Meanwhile, the ships which had delivered the large engines warped back to Enceladus. They would return with more construction supplies to assist with building the base, which was estimated would take approximately a month to complete.