Short Story-Planet Expedition Force Intro

As the PEF, (Planet Expedition Force) it is our job too explore new planets and to see if they can be colonized. The reason we were sent here is because most of the world has been irradiated due to a nuclear war between the European Republic and the Republic of the America's. In the year 2132, the UN decided to join all continents into republics after the European Civil War, which killed nearly 250 million people. Also, they decided to join both North and South America into one republic. This seemed to be a great idea until the year 2174, when the European Republic began to build up a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons, all of which were prohibited as of the Founding of the Republic's. The America's noticed, and in response they also decided to build up an arsenal. On october 14, 2179, the European Republic's nuclear alert went off, and detected 3 nuclear missiles, heading towards London, Paris, and Berlin. This was a false alarm. They responded by firing all of their missiles, including an experimental one which could theoretically wipe off half of the world. Luckily, the missile would not launch, however, all of the other missiles hit the Republic of the America's, nearly completely destroying it. Only the eastern coast of North America survived, and was completely quarantined. The remnants of the Republic of the America's government was flown to California. they decided to look for any surviving astronauts to find a new and also habitable planet. They assembled a group of 20 astronauts, each good at varying things. Some were there for navigation, some were there for combat, which would hopefully not happen, and some were there for science and repairs to the ship. The nearest planet that scientists thought was habitable was nearly 30 light years away, so the astronauts would need to be frozen in Cryo Pods. Then, they froze them and they were on there way to the planet. I am on that ship. We have just woken up, and we are entering the atmosphere of the planet, which is good that it has one. We are about to see the planet for the first time, when suddenly the heat sensor goes berserk. We try to look out the windows, and all we see is molten lava and fire, fire is everywhere.