Once the mechanized winch was securely anchored, the ascent became much easier. The rest of the squad didn't have to free-climb the vertical drop like Jason did; the motorized cable did all the heavy lifting.
Jason locked the winch in place, powered it up, and hoisted the expedition team members up one by one, along with two heavy equipment crates.
Fifteen minutes later, the ten-man squad stood in a tight formation on the metal platform, sweeping their weapons across the dark expanse. The three engineers immediately got to work assembling a portable signal relay. Once it was online, they popped open the crates and deployed a swarm of automated recon drones. According to standard operating procedure, these drones would act as the vanguard.
The Federation was taking every possible precaution to ensure the expedition team's safety.
