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Description
"Having desended into the atmosphere of the planet, the two explorers activated their ATTs (atmospheric thruster turbines) and jet-glided for awhile in the upper stratosphere. Below them was a great ocean. It covered the planet to the east, but to the west... There at last was the continent they came here for. Even from up here thay could make out the river; it seemed like a fantastically huge snake winding its way down the the sea. Most of the continent was covered in dense jungle, fed by the great river. The pair banked and desended further... The size of the river below became more appreciable. The dirty-brown river, ladden with sediment, mixed with the deep blue waters of the ocean. From up here, the mingling waters looked like an abstract masterpiece by the greatest artist of all... the Creator..."
"Lower and lower they swept across the surface of the alien planet. Now they were a mere fifty meters above the waters of the beach. To one side was jungle, to the other, endless sea. Then the pair glimped their first extraterrestrial wildlife. They had read all the manuels and fieldguides concerning the organisms here. But nothing could have prepared them for the first, real-time/place sonar images being processed by their ships' artificial booms. Two gawky-looking vertebrates with disproportionally large, crested cephalons strided across the shoreline. They were flyers with a single huge phalange supporting a complex membraneous wing. Suddenly, a huge beast came crashing out of the jungle adjacent to the flyers (which it obviously intended to consume). The flyers were too quick, however, an barely escaped the horizantally hindged jaws of their persuer... The explorers recognized the grounded tetrapod as a 'spla'tu' (a name which in their language means 'sail back'). Completing their tour of the coast the explorers slowed down their vehicles to a hovering 25 mph. They turned inland and went out over the jungle, ready for even stranger beings on this alien planet they called Spec.

Description
"Having desended into the atmosphere of the planet, the two explorers activated their ATTs (atmospheric thruster turbines) and jet-glided for awhile in the upper stratosphere. Below them was a great ocean. It covered the planet to the east, but to the west... There at last was the continent they came here for. Even from up here thay could make out the river; it seemed like a fantastically huge snake winding its way down the the sea. Most of the continent was covered in dense jungle, fed by the great river. The pair banked and desended further... The size of the river below became more appreciable. The dirty-brown river, ladden with sediment, mixed with the deep blue waters of the ocean. From up here, the mingling waters looked like an abstract masterpiece by the greatest artist of all... the Creator..."
"Lower and lower they swept across the surface of the alien planet. Now they were a mere fifty meters above the waters of the beach. To one side was jungle, to the other, endless sea. Then the pair glimped their first extraterrestrial wildlife. They had read all the manuels and fieldguides concerning the organisms here. But nothing could have prepared them for the first, real-time/place sonar images being processed by their ships' artificial booms. Two gawky-looking vertebrates with disproportionally large, crested cephalons strided across the shoreline. They were flyers with a single huge phalange supporting a complex membraneous wing. Suddenly, a huge beast came crashing out of the jungle adjacent to the flyers (which it obviously intended to consume). The flyers were too quick, however, an barely escaped the horizantally hindged jaws of their persuer... The explorers recognized the grounded tetrapod as a 'spla'tu' (a name which in their language means 'sail back'). Completing their tour of the coast the explorers slowed down their vehicles to a hovering 25 mph. They turned inland and went out over the jungle, ready for even stranger beings on this alien planet they called Spec.