Andromeda Burning (SciFi Char RP|IC, Open)

[Endem]

Kamell Zon ( Sinon )

Being the first on guard duty, and also being a sniper, he promptly climbed a tree to get a vantage point over the campsite, and yet, he managed to miss the hostile force sneaking up on them, to his defence, try spotting anything yourself in a thick jungle, but still, he worried this may damage his standing in the crew.

He soon took one of the assailants in his sights, noting they were Kiellar, corrected his aim for eventual spraying and the drop in altitude and distance between him and his target, then, he took the shoot, for nothing but a second a long beam of hot red laser filled and ionized the air between him and his target.

Then the beam faded, and the target noticed he had a rather large hole in his chest, presumably in the lung, even though Kamell was aiming for the heart, the target stumbled a bit forward and then collapsed to the ground, Kamell then reloaded his sniper rifle, unfortunately this types of rifles had very limited clips, one allowing for perhaps 5 shoots.

[Arengin Union]

A Rain of Fire and Ash

---

Blaster fire flew all across the jungle as both sides exchanged shots, with the attackers more numerous and heavily armed it was clear that this was not a matter of mere misunderstandings. Carter had already taken out one of them and several of the crew had done the same but the absolute barrage of continuous fire made it impossible to make any cohesive counter-attack. Sshalah had tried her best to fire back against the ambushers to little avail as she took cover against a large tree, she and Raoul were especially large and easy targets and despite their tough look Ragons were still mortal.

“Captain, we are outgunned here!” Sshalah called onto Carter through the comms, she managed to fire a few shots from her blaster but this had likely done little but force some attackers to take cover. The Captain himself had barely managed to shoot back as he now kept himself in cover, Alexander had also been able to fire a few shots before being forced into deeper cover as the enemy kept releasing volley after volley of death.

"Karesan here.", he said to their comms. "Hostiles spotted and engaging. I count no less than a full squad, judging by the amount of blaster bolts streaming through the air."

“I believe it is more than that!” Sshalah retorted back as she blind fired another shot.

Quickly, he fired another shot, this time hitting one of their assailants squarely on the chest. "We are outnumbered and outgunned."

“You’re not helping, Jokari!” Sshalah said once more, hissing deeply as she checked the energy count in her blaster cannon.

“Neither of you are, let me figure this out, they’re too many for us to fight head-on!” Carter said hurriedly, “Alex, Phoenix stay down!” he called onto the other two humans, within the Captain’s priority it wasn’t just a matter of keeping the crew alive but keeping both Alex and Phoenix alive especially, he knew the others could handle almost everything but he along with the Russian kid and a fellow veteran were merely human no matter what.

At that moment, Yare came into the comms. "Just to be clear, I do not want to cause a forest fire unless if I am told to."

It was on that moment that an idea spurred into Carter’s head, he looked around himself to find the various members of the crew either fighting back or taking cover. It all chaos and nothing short from complete and utter destruction of a luscious and once peaceful jungle, Carter knew that these attackers were more than likely not alone and wherever they had come from more were bound to come. They had no time to waste and hew knew it as the crew itself began to see casualties of its own.

“Ya-” As Carter was about to call on the Safuri for action several shots ringed close to his head and subsequently much more concentrated barrages of blaster fire were aimed at specific people. Karessan saw one of his arms hit by blaster fire, the hot and sudden impact piercing through as a large burnt area would be left having produced a hole cleanly through the limb. The wound itself wasn’t mortal thank god but Karessan would not have much use for that arm until Phoenix or Amlai could clean and bandaged it.

Suddenly several more shots came towards Raoul who had done his best to do suppressing fire onto the enemy. Shots rang out of the jungle and towards the large Ragon, thankfully he had been able to take cover but not before some of the shots impacted near his neck and part of his armor.

“Concentrate fire on the Ragon!” were words that Carter was able to make out, but whoever had said them had switched his attention to Kamell and the Tz’aths now.

“Up on the trees, fire!” Several of the attackers were firing up onto the surrounding trees, desperately trying to kill whatever creatures were outflanking them but to little avail as Khuzme, Sho, and the other critters once more proved their fast, agile, and skewering ways. But Kamell for his part had seen less luck as though he had been able to take out some of the assailants he would fall victim of a barrage of sheer concentrated and destructive fire in retaliation. The Gollar would see himself fall back onto the ground with grazing wounds upon his back and arms but no longer in any advantageous positions. This battle, if you could even call it that, was proving to be less than victorious for the Defiance crew and nothing else was left for the Carter to do but risk it all for the sake of his crew.

“Alright everyone, at my signal we’ll peel back and retreat towards a better position. We have to get out of here fast!” The human called on everyone through his comms.

“Captain, what of Mihal and Aarla!?” Sshalah asked with worry, she still tried her best to shoot back but the fear of being shot was unnerving to her.

“We’ll start heading out and continue on towards the pod, but the priority is getting out of here quick!” Carter answered back, all the while gripping onto his blaster carbine, he then looked up to Yare and speaking to her comms he made the order.

“YARE, GET THESE FUCKERS COWERNG. FIRE NOW!” With those words, a series of bolts of fire would fire onto the surrounding jungle and towards the attackers, the impact of the blasts was fast and engulfed the surrounding jungle in an orange tint of inferno. Several assailants frantically began to seek cover as trees and began to fall apart and the fire spread around overtaking anything ints its path and this was the chance for the crew of the Defiance to begin retreat as Carter stood up with his weapon ready.

“Team Charlie start heading out, team Beta fire at will!” With that the Captain fired his weapon, unloading an entire energy pack onto the assailant’s direction, meanwhile, Sshalah was quick to run back in retreat, rallying everyone else in her team she signaled them to follow the Captains orders. The Ragon approached the fallen Kamell, helping him up with ease and still fast in retreat she called on everyone on team Charlie to do the same.

“Go companions, we must head to the pod, follow the HUD markers!” The young Ragon spoke with an apparently stoic voice of leadership but deep within her entire mind was on a race and her heart beating fast as she felt the eerie sense of life or death that battle accompanied. She had never been used to combat, everything within her body was telling her to panic and yet she would soldier on, with thoughts of both home and of the crew that depended on her. She had to show she would not cower in battle, and so she did as she led team charlie on.

Carter and the rest of Team Beta kept firing onto the attackers as they slowly walked back in retreat as well. Carter himself was not sure he had even hit anyone but it didn’t matter as the attackers were now in cover and the fire from Yare’s fireballs was beginning to spread. It would likely not be a large fire but it was enough to give the crew time to escape.

“Alright everyone, start heading back now!” Carter said to the members of Team Beta as he reloaded an energy pack and began to run back into the jungle following the maker in direction to the pod.

[Brittaniastan]

Mechanical Delusions
Cowrite Between Brittaniastan and Bentus

As Etux stood on the engineering deck, looking between a number of screens running ship diagnostics, he found himself thinking about how strange it was to be seeing through so many eyes. The clarity was amazing, and he had managed to gain an impressive amount of control over the cameras that covered his face, but it always felt wrong in some way.

With the bulk of the crew having gone planetside, and the Defiance now resting in orbit with those that stayed behind, now was as good a time as any to learn more about the ship’s current state. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the kind of stresses the ship went under when travelling through a higher dimension to skip across spacetime, beyond the relatively obvious switch to a number of redundant electrical systems.

The almost relaxing isolation of the engine room was broken however, when the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted the dull hum of Defiance's drive. Turning his cameras around towards the interruption, Etux would have seen a Kiel woman standing in the room's entrance. Saesa was wearing her lab coat, having made her way to the vessel's underbelly straight from the makeshift laboratory that she'd established closer to her quarters. She'd been spending most of her time there recently, both in an attempt to avoid interacting with the others on board and to provide something to keep herself occupied. Under normal circumstances, she would have been ecstatic at the opportunity to study something like the Wormhole, even if it were with the most rudimentary equipment. But the events of the past few months had muted her excitement at even that.

"I need access to the engine's data logs." She stated bluntly, hardly offering the ship's new engineer a glance. With his appearance, Saesa assumed that Etux was a maintenance droid that the Captain had purchased during their stay at Beachhead. While she was as rightly suspicious of artificial intelligence as any kiel, automation and robotics had their place in modern society. She certainly wouldn't complain about being spared the tedious, manual labor of maintaining the ship's key systems. "Especially the diagnostics during our transit through the wormhole, both when we left Andromeda and when we headed back."

The machine paused for a moment, split between the surprise at finding a new face on the engineering deck and the images of bodies he had woken up to clawing at the back of his mind. He couldn’t ever make sense of it, but something about Kiels seemed to spark something in his fragmented memories.

Eventually, he would shake his head, moving in a more fluid, living way that would be difficult to program any machine to do. Then he would respond, in the same distorted, masculine voice he had always known, “So you’re interested in the wormhole too? It’ll take a minute, since I’m trying to figure out how exactly our ship handled the stresses of folding spacetime.”

“I’m Etux, by the way. I don’t think we’ve met.”

Caught off guard by the coherent, almost personal, response from the machine, Saesa didn't immediately respond. Blinking in surprise, she turned to offer Etux a suspicious glance as she ran her gaze up and down his figure. Pursing her lips, she slowly began to realise that something was off about the robot. Eventually, the woman offered the machine a cautious nod.

"No, I don't think we have." She stated bluntly. Even after having been onboard with the humans' intelligent shipboard computer, the kiel still could not shake the distrust that she'd been raised to hold towards such unrestrained applications of AI. "My name is Saesa."

Now that the machine had grabbed her attention, the scientist looked over the strange layout of his synthetic body with a more attentive eye. Having not shown him much interest when she'd first entered the room, Saesa had assumed that he was simply a customised kiel model - but now it was evident that his design was something else entirely. "Are you from the Milky Way? They seem to be far more liberal in their application of intelligent robotics than we are."

Between the advanced biomechanics and kieloid anatomical structure, his body from a design standpoint would be quite impressive. Built for power and longevity, it was easily military grade, but a hodgepodge of repairs done with scrap materials, the incomplete armor, and lack of any weapons systems would suggest a more complicated history.

When asked where he was from, Etux paused once again as his head tried to draw on broken connections. Different ships and stations, all without context to draw upon.

“Andromeda, actually,” his unnatural voice would respond, “Are you talking about the AI? I think I’ve heard about it, but I’ve been pretty busy down here.”

A look of surprise flashed across Saesa's features at the machine's words.

"Andromeda?" She replied, although her brow swiftly narrowed in suspicion. Offering the robot a frown, she bit back an instinctive retort. Having been brought up with the warnings and cautionary tales surrounding the development and usage of intelligent machines, Saesa was surprised to learn that a faction in her own galaxy had managed to develop the technology to such an extent. A part of her instinctively reacted with revulsion at the discovery, although another part of her couldn't help but be curious by the complex display of technology. Of course the Captain and Commander would have seen no problem with inviting such a dangerous device aboard.

"I see." Saesa said eventually, having learned that it was often better to keep her opinions to herself aboard the rogue vessel. Folding her arms across her chest, she leaned on the bulkhead as she continued to look at Erux with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. "I must admit that I'm surprised. I didn't think that anyone in Andromeda had the desire and capability to produce something like you. Where did you come from, if I may ask?"

A soft tone sounded from the screens running ship diagnostics, briefly drawing Etux’s attention from the Kiel. Across them was various information gathered by sensors across the ship, scattered from metrics on resources different sections were using to structural stability. And with a ship of their size, there was a lot.

He would only look at it for a few seconds before closing the program, since his digital mind possessed a photographic short term memory. Soon after, various logs popped up on the displays, and he passed over control to the curious woman.

“Produced?” his synthetic voice would ask in a more serious tone, returning to their discussion. “I’m not sure what you think is going on, but I’m not a machine.”

Saesa's eyes narrowed at the robot, her lips pursing into a frown as she reacted to his words with clear skepticism. Wondering for a moment if this was perhaps the robot's idea of a joke, the lack of any immediate follow up quickly convinced her otherwise. What did it mean that it wasn't a machine? Its whole body was a metal carapace as far as she could tell, and it would represent by far the most invasive suite of successfully implemented cybernetics that she'd ever seen. She struggled to see how that level of alterations would have done anything but lead to the subject's death.

"You're not?" She replied eventually, choosing her words cautiously as she wondered whether a few wires might've been crossed in the robot's CPU. A malfunctioning droid with delusions of sapience wouldn't have been the most surprising thing she'd met aboard the Defiance, after all. And the ship's current crew were hardly emblematic of mental stability, in Saesa's opinion, anyway. "I'm sorry, but that's clearly not the case. At least externally your body is entirely -" Saesa suddenly stopped herself.

Glancing back at Etux, she bit back the words from the tip of her tongue. If this was a malfunctioning robot, then the last thing she'd want to do was antagonize it. Especially when she was alone with it in the engine room.
"Nevermind, I must be mistaken." Trying to shift the conversation away from her initial outburst, the scientist continued. "So how did you end up like this, in that case? If you weren't built as a machine, the process of installing so many cybernetics must have been traumatic."

He took a moment to think over her question, struggling to draw upon what memories he had. Exactly how he ended up in his situation always eluded him, but he had too many memories in flesh and blood to think otherwise. There were a few glimpses of a morning routine, carefully trimming his beard and dreading the slow greying of hairs, giving him a face to cling to as his own, others using tools that seemed so natural to him to work on various machines. All of it lacked solid context, seeming so native yet alien at the same time, but one thing he drew on was a familiarity with his current body.

“I’m not too sure, honestly,” the machine would respond, the stress of his thoughts sinking into his words, “Is it possible that the trauma could have done something to my memory? It’s all… scattered? It’s mostly my face, and Mol'ack-something.”

“I suppose it could have.” Saesa mused, her mind still pondering exactly how such a process could have been undertaken in the first place. Even with advanced medical technology, keeping a biological body alive while it was replaced piece-by-piece would be a tall order, to say the least. It would almost be easier to program a robot to think that it was -

The scientist didn’t even need to finish her own thought, her eyes narrowing as she considered the possibility. It certainly seemed more feasible than what the machine was claiming, and it wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference anyway. But as she noted the hesitant, scattered way that it referred to its own memories, she wondered whether it would be best to keep her thoughts to herself. But what if he’s not wrong?

“Well, I’ll let you know if I find anything about a Mol’ack. In the meantime, I better get back to my work.” Pushing aside the quiet thoughts in the back of her mind, lest she ponder on them for too long, Saesa turned to stride out of the room. She offered Etux a dismissive wave over her shoulder as she departed. “Be sure to send me those data logs, thank you.”

[Europa Undivided]

Hellfire in Lustriea

The Sarufi nodded at the captain's command as she sat upon one of the tree tops, effectively hidden from the view of their enemy. "Affirmative.", she responded as balls of plasma emerged from her throat. The bolts of superheated gas raged like furious poltergheists against the humid air and impacted against the green and purple flora, erupting into coronas of purple and orange sparks that quickly consumed everything in their path. With that done, she darted far above the tree line, registering the heat signatures of nearby hostiles before releasing another barrage of fire; this time being a furious firestream that she fired into a straight line as she flew, effectively dividing the battlefield with a blazing inferno of burning plants and trees. This was sure to delay their enemy for a while, but there was no reason to believe that these mercenaries or thugs were alone. There must be more of them from where these thugs came from, and that just meant they needed to find their resident accountant and psyker as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Karesan's left arm, the one with which he fired his trusty plasma pistol, was hit squarely by a blaster bolt. He looked at the impacted area, noting how it wasn't going to be a fatal one, but the pain was different. Jokari brains processed information and sense differently to the Kiellar and humans; their minds were more inclined towards extremes. As such, while a human or a Kiel would simply dismiss such a wound as non-consequential if not inconvenient, a Jokari would feel two to three times as much pain.

Karesan thus growled in apparent pain, switching his pistol to his prosthetic right hand. "Yare, I need a lift.", he said rather weakly into the comms. "I would rather not jump down this tree."

Surely enough, as the shots subsided due to the spreading forest fire, Yare broke into the treeline to take Karesan by the shoulders in order to fly him to safety with the others.

"Told you.", he groaned rather faintly. "Jungle planets are the absolute worst."

[New Udonia]

Characters: Mothlua of Vubhe
Location: Campsite 2, Lustriea

Successfully having gotten past the surrounding forces, she crept toward the nearest group of hostiles. She counted three, all with their backs turned. Don't miss.
She decided she would fire at the back of the central one before proceeding to blast away at the other two before they could retaliate. She had lined up her crosshairs when the doubts came. Even if she managed to down all three, the others would target her. Find an easier target. Further up the hill, one soldier was firing from behind a tree, his friend lying wounded beside him. Perfect.

Before she could act, the surroundings melted under the force of Yare's heat. Giving up all attempts at stealth she ran straight past her former target, who was now too occupied with dragging his partner to safety to remember whether or not that armor had been issued to one of his comrades. Mothlua had expected an opening to arise which would allow her to retrieve her rifle. That window of opportunity had clearly ended.

“Team Charlie start heading out, team Beta fire at will!”
Mothlua continued her mad dash for the team, locating Sshalah only because she towered over the brush. What rank do I call her?
Once she had rejoined the group she activated her radio. "Captain, I contacted Team Alpha, they know the situation!"

[Dragos Bee]

Alexander Nevets

Now that it was a literal firefight, Alexander fled with Sshalah, following her and taking cues from the rest of Team Charlie as they tried to survive this horrible ordeal while continuing their mission. More indications that it’d take more time before he caught up to the rest of the group, experience and expertise-wise. For a brief moment, he forgot to fire back at the enemy as he retreated, but managed to let out a few shots in the end...

[Nachfolgia]

Senseless Massacre

Ra'rannir stood on the edge of her village, frozen by sheer terror. Her village, home of the Yei'zunir Tribe was nothing but pile of smoking ash and bodies. Every tribe member, hundreds of Lustrieans wiped out in a senseless massacre. Ra'rannir had seen the smoke from miles away and rushed home as fast as she could, but she was too late to save any of them.

Walking among the countless bodies of her people, Ra'rannir was overcome with grief. Tears welled up in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks as she recognized many of the lifeless faces. Friends, family members, every one she knew well; all dead. A once lively place was now shrouded in silence and death. Ra'rannir could feel the terror and pain over every Lustriean she walked past, her metaphysical connection to them as strong as every. She could not hear their screams, but she felt how confused and terrified they were in their final moments. Ra'rannir's grief was overwhelming, making it harder for her to still move through the carnage.


Making her way up the hill, she finally spotted the bodies of the Tribe's Cheiftain and Shaman. Emotions overflowing, Ra'rannir finally collapsed in front of the Cheiftain's hut, succumbing to the pain and emotions she felt the entire walk up there. She gazed upon their bodies for a few moments, trying to take in all that was happening. Like every corpse in the village, the bodies of the Cheiftain and Shaman showed signs of how theyet their demise. Both had evidence of blaster burns on the center of their bodies with the shaman having partially caught fire as a result. The Cheiftain had his now tightly clenched in his hands, having been determined to fight against the murderers. Many of the others still held onto their weapons or being near they where they fell. The Yei'zunir were defending themselves in their final moments.

Visibly distraught, she tilted her head towards the sky and let out a long, sorrowful wail before collapsing further to the ground. Ra'rannir leaned back up and with shaky hands, grabbed the lifeless body of the Cheiftain and brought it closer to her and then the same for the Shaman. Ra'rannir then began to sing an eerie chant, her voice echoing through the village. The chant was incoherent as she tried to sing through her tears and sorrow, taking in sharp, ragged breaths. When she finished, Ra'rannir bit into the chest of the Cheiftain, tearing off a chunk of flesh from the body. She then began to chew and swallow the meat, blue blood gushing down her chin and chest. She took a couple more bites off of the Cheiftain before doing the same to Shaman. She couldn't perform death rites for every member of the tribe, but the least she could do was perform it for the " Body and Soul" of the Tribe.

Once finished, still crying and now covered in blood, Ra'rannir walked back down the hill to her own hut. Hopefully, there was still something left of it where she could grieve alone. It was there that she spotted something out of place. It was a dead body, not of a Lustriean, but of a Sky Demon. Wearing a greenish uniform and body armor, this person met his demise at the hands of a Lustriean arrow. She hadn't really noticed the body before, but upon looking around the village, there were couple more just like it, all killed by spear or arrow. It became very clear to her that these unknown men were to blame. The more she looked at this one body, the more it resembled the two Sky Demons she met months prior, maybe not family related, but definitely from the same tribe. The lone Lustriean felt a lot of anger and animosity build up inside her the longer she stared at the murderer's body. She wanted nothing more than to hunt every single one of them down and slaughter them just as they slaughtered her people. Hopefully this would bring some kind of balance to her inner mind and soul, still influenced by sorrow and pain.

Ra'rannir's ears twitched as she picked up a long distance sound. Turning her head towards the sound, she could hear faintly several booms and cracks in rapid succession. It was still a ways off in the distance, past the Great Vein and possibly the crashed Sky Demon vessel. The sound was unknown to Ra'rannir, being something she had never hear before, but she knew what it could be. She scowled, bearing her fangs as she rationalized that the sound had to be the murderers.

Commiting herself to enact revenge on behalf of the tribe, Ra'rannir ran back up the hill to arm herself. She grabbed a bow, several arrows, two spears, and a stone knife, all that she would need to kill her prey. She stopped before the bodies of the Cheiftain and Shaman one past time. Kneeling down, she pushed her fingers into the bloody chest cavity of her tribal leaders and painted her face and skull headdress in their bloody. She then proceeded to take off into the jungle in the direction of the firefight.

[Theyra]

Novo Vohru Andai

How many are they? That was the question that was going Novo's mind. He not sure how many they managed to kill but, the plasma bolts kept coming like there was no tomorrow. There has to be a end to them and this mission is proving to be more chaotic then he would have thought. When Carter gave the order to fall back, he said on comms, "roger that" and he fired another volley of plasma at the attackers. He was not sure if the hit anyone this time and tried to leave his cover to fall back with the rest. Only for a trio of shots too close to him and he stayed behind the tree. They have to let up sooner or later, Novo thought as he waited for an opening to leave. He did not have to wait long before Yare sprayed fire down on the attackers and for a moment the shots died down. Novo took the chance to fall back with the others and followed the best he could.

As he was following the others, a single plasma ran through the air and grazed his leg. Novo made a small cry of pain as he took cover behind a tree and inspected his wound. It was not bad and he might need medical attention, it hurts more then he would have thought it would hurt. Taking a deep breath, Novo beared the pain and to continued to follow the others. Hoping that Mihal and Aarla are not this trouble like they were.

[Grenartia]

Phoenix silently ate her food. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was decent. Some Kiel dish that she didn't bother to read the package of before cooking it. She was tired after a long hike, and knew that her time would be better spent getting rest than chitchatting with the others. She drifted off to sleep, wondering what Varvian tenders were, and how they tasted.

Her rest didn't last for long, however. The commotion of the ensuing firefight quickly roused her. No sooner than she made sure her guns and ammo were on her and she crawled to cover did Carter call for her and the kid to keep their heads down. Dammit, Nate, I'm no good to the team cowering like a kid. she thought to herself, not that she'd ever say that out loud. For one, while they were the same rank, he did have seniority. Secondly, she respected his judgement. So she kept her head down.

A few seconds passed, and amid the commotion, the jungle erupted in flames, and Carter ordered Beta to start firing. Phe opened up. She couldn't see targets behind the fire, but she was betting they were on the other side of it, although she kept scanning the parts of the jungle that weren't on fire to make sure. Charlie had finished their bugout, and now it was time for Beta. As Beta began following Charlie, Phe kept a sharp eye behind her, making sure the fuckers weren't following them.

[Arengin Union]

Captain Nathan Taylor Carter & Sshalah Krilin Ruul
Lustriea, The Chase

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Both teams led by Carter and Sshalah had managed to slip away and were now in full retreat back towards the pod. Shots from blaster weapons ringed all over as they pierced the trees and foliage around, the fire began to spread through parts of the jungle but the group had managed to evade it as the wetness of the jungle provided a good deterrent. Carter’s brow and entire body dripped in sweat and exhaustion as he repeatedly would fire bursts of blaster shots back. Sshalah for her part kept moving, her hearting running fast as she would clear a path for all to follow, truth be told, she wanted to be as far away from the fighting as she could.

“Everyone, keep moving!” Yare said to the ones in her team as she looked up to the sky for a second, “Yare keep an eye out for whatever is in front of us got it, captain how’s everything behind us!”

“We’ve seemed to have diverted them for a bit but don’t stop,” Carter spoke over the comms as he jumped over several rocks and roots. His chest pumping and his entire body pushing to the limit as the heat settled in.

Suddenly the words of Mothlua came through the Captain’s comm.

"Captain, I contacted Team Alpha, they know the situation!"

Through the quickness and heat of everything that had happened Carter had forgotten to notify the team back in the shuttle, to tell Thanica, he was glad someone had but he couldn’t set aside his mistake there.

“Good job soldier, keep your eyes on the front and we’ll cover the rear here!” Carter answered as he reloaded his carbine.

“Keep firing back if you see anyone chasing after us Beta!” Carter spoke up as he would gaze back constantly. He expected everyone to do the same and stay alert. At that point it seemed that more assailants were turning up, the dark armored attackers firing randomly as the Defiance crew kept retreating.

“Fire at will!” Carter ordered as he let out several shots.

Meanwhile Sshalah’s mind was in a race, “Come on Sshalah, keep on, you’ve got this…” she’d say under her breath while her mind kept fighting itself. You dont have this, you’re leading them to death! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Her blasters raised and ready to fire Sshalah called on Yare once more.

“Yare, any signatures?”

[Europa Undivided]

The Warriors Three

Yare-Lokem had already landed Karesan to the ground at this point, and the Jokari was keeping up with the rest of the group. Karesan used his low profile and small size to his advantage as he quite literally slide under a fallen log and got right back up after doing so. He sure looked like that he had an injury on his arm, but he did not act like he had one at all as he had injected a dose of painkillers into himself. The pain killing drugs are going to last a few hours. Either way, he needed to have this blast wound patched up soon.

“Yare, any signatures?”

"You just needed to jinx it, Sestra.", Yare answered as she was hovering far above the tree line. "A few dozen signatures have been detected by my sensors just a few clicks in front of you."

[Nachfolgia]

Sweet Revenge

Ra'rannir kept low to the ground, shuffling underneath the under brush of the jungle. She blended in perfectly in the darkness, keeping her bioluminescence low to remain unseen. She had been doing this exact thing since she was a child, hunting the most dangerous prey on the planet. The prey had changed now, being unworldly in their technology and ruthlessness, but the technique was no different. This was the Night Mother's jungle and her children were one with it. Surely She would guide her daughter on this hunt of vengeance. Balance had been disrupted and needed to be corrected.

The flashes of the blaster bolts luminated the surrounding jungle as they zipped through the trees. It was blinding to Ra'rannir for brief moments as she stalked closer to her prey. Through the brief flashes that messed with her dark vision, she spotted a several Sky Demons. They were divided up into two different groups and it appeared that they were firing at each other. Ra'rannir didn't know why they were firing at each other or if they were both involved in the massacre. She will confront that at a later time, all she was confused in was the ones in similar cloth.

Ra'rannir snuck up closer to the mercenary band, blending in perfectly and remaining silent. Moving slowly to a good shooting position, she spotted her first prey. The Sky Demon was closest to her, taking cover behind a fallen tree as he returned fire. While the Sky Demons were focused on firing at the other group, she notched an arrow and drew it back slowly, moving ever so slightly to the standing position. She took aim at the man's exposed neck and let loose and arrow. Before the arrow found its mark, Ra'rannir was back into the cover of the dark foliage, blending seamlessly into cover.

She silently moved to a new fire position and performed the same action to another victim. Every time she let an arrow fly, Ra'rannir moved to a new location, keeping herself well hidden. She was the hunter in this jungle, becoming like many of the Predator she knew well. Methodically stalking and killing her prey without remorse. The Sky Demons would pay for what they did.

[Arengin Union]

Beware the Jungle

Co-Written by Arengin Union, Dyelli Beybi, Endem, Lessoni, Kylantha, Europa Undividied, Grenartia, Theyra, New Udonia, Dragos Bee, Nachfolgia, and Bingellia

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"Oh by Andromeda!" Sshalah mumbled as she stopped herself and everyone else who was following behind her. Sshalah immediately took cover against a tree, glancing to the jungle as she gestured everyone behind to stay back. Looking keenly into the dense jungle the Ragon could make out silhouettes of unknown nature creeping around, obviously setting up a trap for them.

"Captain, it seems we've encountered some interlopers up ahead, I'd advise some quick counter actions or alternative strategies that you may have in your mindsent!" Sshalah came through in Carter's comms, so far it seemed the attackers from before had given up pursuit but now it seemed the group was more than surrounded. Letting out a tired huff Carter tried to think of something as he moved through the vegetation and up to Sshalah's position, everyone else in cover.

"Everyone keep alert." The human said through the comms to all members of the crew as slowly crouched to Sshalah's spot, Carter kept an eye out on the jungle as everything had gotten quiet all of a sudden.

"Sit rep!" Carter asked lowly.

With a confused hiss Sshalah looked at the Human, "Pardon?"

"What's the situation," Carter asked more clearly.

"It seems we've got hostiles in the vicinity Captain, by Yare's account several dozens and are waiting for our move up ahead."

Stealth was supposed to be Alexander's specialty, but nothing had prepared him for this. Nevertheless, an obvious thought occured to him, an obvious thought which could endanger his life if he failed. So he opined, "Sir, Ma'am, is there any chance we can counter-ambush the ambush? Send a member or two to get behind them and shoot? Or would that be too dangerous?"

He hated the implication that he was offering himself for such an assignment, hated the implication that he was going to put himself into danger which he was not prepared for. But Alexander knew he had to be a team player, not deadweight...

By this point, Yare-Lokem was up on the top of one of the tallest trees in the local vicinity. "They are maintaining their positions. If you permit it, Captain, I can take two of the smaller ones among us to attack the entrenched enemy from behind. Be warned, though. I would be dropping from high up so that I and whoever I am carrying will not be spotted-"

At that moment, she became quiet as she registered another signature. "Another life signature detected nearby. It's not definitely not Kiel."

Karesan, meanwhile, docked another cartridge into his plasma pistol. "What do you think it is?"

"Definitely Kieloid in shape, but it's larger and taller. Could be a native. And... its energy signature is slightly changing... could be sign either of psychic abilities or bioluminescence."

A pause. "Looks like a few of our mercenary friends are getting dropped by the new arrival."

Raoul looked around, taking stock of the situation. Wildly outnumbered, and in a bad spot. He had no doubt he could make it work.

He brought the huge rifle up to his shoulder, firing into the trees at anything that moved and wasn’t on his side. The deafening reports reminded him why he favored teeth.

“Carter, I suggest we make a plan beyond keep shooting!”

The words from Alex, gave pressure to Carter to come up with a decision and a plan asap, while Yare's statement of yet another life form around the jungle only brought Sshalah discomfort as she kept cover against the tree. Alex's suggestion of making a counter ambush seemed a rather sensible route she would wait for Carter to make the call. It was then that her counterpart Raoul began to fire rapidly at the trees in random directions, I can never understand this male's mind.

"Alright Raoul I think they get the point!" Carter said to the Ragon, he then gestured for everyone to listen up as the Human was about to make a plan, Alex's own suggestion seemed like a good layout for starters.

"Alright everyone, Khuzme and Sho I'll ne-"

Suddenly a voice unknown to all broke through the jungle, calling directly to the crew.

"Listen up," Fordul's shouted at them, "I've got gunships on the way! If you don't want to choke on nerve gas, throw down your weapons. I can still call them off if you do."

The officer's tone was stiff, though it wasn't clear he was completely confident in what the what he was saying. Whether it was a bluff or simple inexperience wasn't obvious, but it ultimately mattered little as an arrow ripped through the Kiel's neck before the Defiance team could reply. This sent the remaining soldiers in a panic as they looked around to see who had just killed their commander, the only deduction was it was the surrounded beings they had been chasing after and their lack of any response gave them the impression they were not here for a negotiated compromise.

After a few seconds passed since the moment that Fordul had gotten that arrow pierce his neck it was when the rest of his men went guns blazing. Shots rang out from the jungle now, forcing the members of the Defiance to once more seek cover and fire back at the assailants. Carter himself managed to fire a few pot shots buts little else while Sshalah would blind fire into the jungle, fearful to expose herself as she knew she was a rather large target.

Nerve gas... gunships... Mothlua was getting a strong case of Déjà vu. She confirmed that her communications were set to a one-way channel with the captain before she spoke her mind.

"Captain, you may want to ask Aethienn what is going on here."

Mothlua's mention of Aethienn made Carter look right at her, glancing right at the "attache" from the command, this was indeed a perfect scene of a set up but he also knew it didn't make any sense. How would the Command know where Aarla and Mihal were, why would they fire on the crew at the risk of a war with the Gollar and the Federation having worked hard to secure an already uneasy peace, and why would Aethienn still be here if this was a trap? As much as he wanted to point his weapon at the Commissar and demand answers he knew she had none, at least for now.

Sshalah did not feel excited to face any kind of firepower from gunships and especially deal with nerve gas, firing a few more rounds she joined in through the comms. "Yare could try to take out those gunships but it would a rather one sided battle even for her. We must make retreat fast, but it will require an offense most likely!"

---

The Tz'aths

The retreat was disorderly and in Pel and Anja's case, panicked. At some point, so great was the oncoming fire that Pel'churul grabbed Anja who in turn grabbed her shield before she was whisked away into the jungle. The tinkerer didn't bother firing back and focused more on retreating along with the others. Anja kept her shield up, but couldn't adjust it to full height due to being dragged along. She was terribly flustered, but wondered what Sho and Khuzme were doing, as it seemed they'd gone quiet.

Now they were hunkered down, apparently surrounded, and both cowered under some large, fan-like leaves. Neither were eager to take initiative, and instead waited for word from their superiors. In the meantime, Anja attempted to reach Sho, but there was no answer from him.

---

The Others

The firefight was somewhat chaotic, and not one that Aethienn was particularly comfortable with. There was so much vegetation it was hard to see your targets, you just fired blind, hoped for the best and hoped nobody spotted you. She glanced to her left where the green female had been a few moments before, but she was gone, fading into the undegrowth with remarkable ease. Whoever had said it's not easy being green was a liar.

The mention of gunships instantly brought to Phoenix's mind some of the heavy ordinance she had procured before leaving Beachhead. "Captain, I stashed some Stingers on the shuttle before we left. Recommend we get our fast mover to retrieve them." she said, cryptically referring to Yare.

"Always the forward thinking one Phoenix aint ya!" Carter said with a smile, a blaster shot whizzing against the tree he was up against. Gunships could have shielding, but yet again if we fire continously we may be able to disable it.

"What are these stingers, some kind of human weaponized stings?" Sshalah asked with curiosity through the gunfire.

"Anti aircraft missile launchers, similar to an Exhauster but more ignition based!" Carter responded, switching his comms in direct line with Yare he struggled to get a signal, he tried to connect with the shuttle but once more he was greeted by static.

"Fuck, comms are getting interference!" Carter said with frustration, sweat still dripping heavily through his face and his headgear visors being fogged up he removed them hastily to reveal a stern and stressed face yet he still remained steadfast despite the chaos. Once more another voice came in through the human's comms, Novo pressuring for a plan as things seemed to go from bad to worse, Carter was well aware that many in the crew were hurt and they needed a breather fast but now he needed to figure out a way out of here quickly, looking up to the trees and to the surroundings Carter's mind spinned into all kinds of possibilities and strategies.

"Alright, we'll stop firing for a few seconds, once things settle down we supress quickly and start slipping out in groups." Carter said through the comms of everyone around, checking his own ammunition count as he then looked up to the trees once more, he knew the Tz'aths were slippery and they had to be out there.

"Khuzme, Sho, you co-"

Suddenly shilling screams were heard as blaster fire stopped momentarily, Carter and the others were more than taken aback by this as there were more screams and shouts and yells from the attackers.

A voice was heard through the jungle, "What in al-" cut by a sudden scream and sounds of death from within the jungle. Blaster fire was heard but none was directed at the crew.

"What in god's name is happening out there," Carter asked no one in particular as he raised himself from cover, his weapon up and ready to fire if this was a trick. He took a step forward into the open, carefully and slowly the human tried to make out what was happening as there was more sounds of screams and blaster fire, it was a perplexing sight that caused every single fiber in him shiver with an eerie instinct of fright.

"Team, reg-" Carter's words were cut by the sudden appearance of an armored clad Kiel who ran through the undergrowth screaming like a maniac, he was unarmed and clearly in a fright as he did not react at all to the entourage of heavily armed aliens in front of him, merely scrambling away. Before Carter or anyone could react to what had just happened a creature leaped out of the dense jungle and stood right in front of the crew.

The animal was no more than six or seven feet in height, reptilian in appearance and it stood within two thin hind legs, four appendages retreated within his body with a praying mantis motion and its face was twisted and salivating. Sharp teeth protruded from the creature's maw while several eyes were visible within the underside of the head. The instant it layed its multiple eyes on the crew it got in a hunchback position, hissing loudly at them as its mouth opened up.

Another creature made an appearance directly behind the first, followed by another pair a few meters off to the right, then to the left and before they knew it the crew was nearly surrounded by these creatures reminiscent of a prehistoric appearance.

"Everyone stay cool, just have your weapons ready..." Carter said lowly through his comms.

Alexander blinks and says, "Roger, Captain," as he looks on at the dinosaurs with something resembling wonder. Okay, scratch that, it was wonder - Alexander looked like a kid again, a kid in a toy store about to get what he wanted. He looked at the creatures' backs to see if they had riders on them, and if they didn't, was tempted to ask an idiotic question about if they can be ridden...

"I know what you're thinking kid.", Karesan said as he stood up with his shot up arm hanging limp on his side, while he kept his other hand on the handle of his now holstered plasma pistol. "Don't even think about trying to ride these."

The ground shook slightly as Yare made a landing on a tree top. She look surprised as she registered the creatures that just came out of the jungle undergrowth. "Intriguing. They were attacking the enemy, but they now seem hesitant."

"Maybe because we didn't shoot at them the moment we saw them.", Karesan answered through the comms. "We best not provoke them."

Phoenix slowly adjusted her P90 towards the nearest group of raptors. "I hope these aren't clever girls." was all she could think to say, as she readied herself to react to any hostile movement in a split second.

Clever girls? Novo confused at the human's statement as he aimed his rifle at the nearest group of raptors. What did the human mean by if they were clever girls? He would ask but, now does not seem the time for it. As these raptors could turn on them once they were done with the mercenaries. Novo kept his guard up, watching for any sign that these raptors move closer and attack them.

Ra'rannir had taken cover behind the tree as the Kiel returned fire. After taking several of the mercs down, they found out where she was and tried to down her with blaster fire. As the tree began to splinter and burn from the shots, the Lustriea crouched down into the underbrush.

Moving prone to her next position to ambush the Sky Demons yet again, she stopped dead in her tracks. Hearing rushling and limbs snapping, she laid silently as several dark blurs bolted past her in the direction of the Sky Demons. She couldn't really see what moved past her at such speed, but the way they was very familiar to her. It seemed that the Night Mother isn't happen about the intruders either.

"It seems like trouble just keeps finding us" Kamell commented while readying his laser pistol, he got hit in the shoulder, besides, a sniper rifle wouldn't really be useful at this close range

---

The Tz'aths

The two Defiance squads were wedged between mercs and native nasties, it seemed, and neither Sho nor Khuzme were present. There was only static coming from their ends, possibly due to some kind of jamming or simply distance. During the firestorm in the clearing, the two Tz'aths were forced to fall back as blaster bolts peppered the canopy, tearing through the thickest tree branches and Yare's fires licked up to the roof of the forest.

There was a short and abrupt yowl as Sho'chavuk was hit in the side by a bolt. Fortunately it didn't do much damage, thanks to him being a Tz'ath. But now he smelled of burnt rubber, as his bristled fur and suit were charred.

"Bug out?" Khuzme called out from behind a nearby trunk. She looked warily below as fires crept up the tree to her position. Sho'chavuk only nodded, waiting for the right moment to get moving. When that time came, he gave a subtle signal to Khuzme, and they both kicked off of their respective trees and deeper into the dense jungle. They were followed for several hundred metres from below, and they returned fire as needed. They hardly realised that they were being forced in a direction away from their crew. Soon, both Tz'aths ran out of munitions.

"Dammit!" Khuzme allowed her rifle to swing freely below her waist. "I'm out!" She hissed to Sho'chavuk, who'd run dry only moments before her. Both were in close proximity to one another, keeping their bodies flat against the wood to conceal themselves.

Peeking out at the mercenaries who seemed to give up and go after the rest, Khuzme whispered over to her companion, "What now?"

A grimace etched into Sho's face from the sting of his wound and the frustration of not being able to strike back. Through clenched teeth he conveyed to Khuzme what they'd have to do from there. "We'll have to try and take as many as we can... As quietly as we can... The natural way..."
A look of shock formed on Khuzme's face. She'd been so used to wielding weapons.. "But the last time I did that was.."

"Come on.." Sho grinned at her, making her heart flutter again. "It will be great fun."

Suddenly, the female Tz'ath looked forward to hunting traditionally again. She gulped, then nodded. "What do we do with these then?"

Without a word, Sho looked around for a second before stopping at a tree trunk. He hollowed it out within seconds, then placed his boltcaster inside before holding his hands out to Khuzme for her rifle.

With their weapons now hidden, he unzipped the lowest part of his suit and urinated on the hole, looking rather pleased afterwards. Khuzme wasn't disgusted at all. It was... Normal..? You know.. For them to find later.

"Right then.. Shall we go?"

Khuzme felt nervous. But she nodded nonetheless.

---

The Others

"Captain, what is the course of action... These beings dont appear sentient!" Sshalah asked with a semi nervous voice, aiming her two blasters in different directions and slowly scoping her surroundings. She had picked up several raptors already but though her size was larger than them she was fearful of their superior numbers and a lack of self preservation that more intelligent beings tended to have when encountering heavily armed groups.

For his part Carter knew this was going to lead to a fight one way or the other, there was no scouring or talking out of this situation. Squeezing the trigger of his blaster, he wetted his lips as he spoke softly through the comms of everyone, "Just hold steady, aim at the head." The Human's blaster was slowly raised to aim at the head of the raptor directly in front of him as it continued to snarl and hiss at him, slowly approaching while the others followed.

"Steady..." He whispered once more, the creature was a mere ten feet from him, setting itself to pounce on the human as its next meal.

"Fire!" Carter's words were immediately followed by a bursts of blaster fire that pierced the raptor's mouth and pierced right through its head. The Captain immediately switched targets to another raptor which letting out a growl of anger began to run at the group as did the multiple other creatures, Sshalah did not hesitate one bit to fire her blasters as she managed to hit one raptor through its abdomen and then began frantically switching targets, but these creatures were slippery.

Alexander fired at the Raptors' heads as instructed, but was unable to do anything more as he was a newbie who was out of his league anyway, and only survived as far as he did by following others' instructions...

Karesan in turn fired a bolt of plasma into the head of one of the raptors, causing an explosion of pieces of skull and brain. He turned towards another... only for him to be greeted by a clicking sound as the plasma magazine rang empty.

"Blimey.", he muttered as he holstered the pistol and drew out the Kravsagar just in time to decapitate the raptor that was charging him, sending it tumbling headless towards a tree.

Meanwhile, Yare-Lokem swept towards one of the raptors, picking it up from the ground and then, with some difficulty, lifted the creature towards the sky...

Phe's P90 sprang to life, as she began firing short bursts at the raptors, the armor-piercing bullets tearing into their targets. After the nearest ones were dispatched, she scanned around for others that might have been on the sides, the integral flashlight being helpful in the perpetual twilight. Finding more, she fired a few more bursts. "Watch your flanks! Don't let them sneak around you!" she called out over the comms.

Novo fired his rifle at the raptor closest to him. The plasma bolts scorching the raptor as they connected and Novo then fire at the other raptors close to him. Scoring some hits and misses, as the raptors scattered from his view. Novo closed his eyes and used his echolocation to track any raptors that came near him. He sensed one coming up from his left flank and he quickly turned to the incoming raptor. Firing a burst of plasma fire as the raptor jumped at him. The raptor dropped unceremoniously to the ground dead and Novo tried to sense the other raptors.

Raoul was back in his element. He’d never fought these things specifically, but he knew the principle. Kill one, move on, repeat. It was a formula he knew well.

He tossed down his rifle. In a situation like this, it would only slow him down. Instead, he began ripping and tearing at any raptor that came into reach. He showed no favor between between teeth or claws, but grimaced at the acrid taste of blood. These things were no delicacy.

Exo yelped as a raptor dived on top of him. He held it back by more luck than skill and managed to fire a shot through its head, killing it. He let out a sigh, looking around in the chaos. He raised his pistol and began firing, hitting 2 but missing more.

Aethienn, meanwhile slung her gun back over her shoulder. There was a purple flicker as the dual energy blades she had used on the Defiance sprung to light; this combat was much more to her liking. Even in full armour the slightly built kiel was as nimble as a ballerina. She deflty swayed to one side as one of the creatures sprung at her, slashing it's flank open as it wheeled past. If these were like normal predators they'd hopefulyl realise that the crew weren't worth the effort of continued attack, though then there was still the issue of the mercenaries and the nerve gas, since it seemed a lot of the crew hadn't worn their standard issue helmets into the field, "What in all the hells is going on?" she demanded, stopping to stab the creature through the chest as it tried to get up before wheeling in search of more targets, "Did we get ambushed by some mysterious guys who then got ambushed by hungry mini-Ragons? We will require much more efficient placing of sentries tomrrow."

"It appears that is the case!" Sshalah said in response to Aethienn, the Ragon had holstered one of her blaster cannons and now held a raptor with her hand, slamming it against the ground with massive force. Carter for his part continued to fire in bursts, killing a few more raptors and missing several more, despite that the crew had done a good job at keeping the creatures at bay.

The cohesive actions of the group had managed to kill off a hefty amount of the raptors, whether it had been the perimeter they had set or that the creatures had not caught them off guard unlike the mercenaries was not clear but something had worked. After volleys of blaster fire, gun fire, fire blasts, and Sshalah's and Raoul's own brutal means of killing off these inferior beings it seemed it had all done the trick as the few remaining raptors ceased their attacks, now merely standing several feet away from the crew. Carter was still not convinced and he reminded everyone to reload and stay prepared.

"Don't let them catch you off guard, that's exactly what they want!" The Captain spoke over the comms as he reloaded an energy pack onto his carbine. The remaining creatures looked at the crew with curious eyes now, they had never meet such beings like this that were so small and yet so ferocious. But the Lustrearaptors did not give up easy, packs were not compromised of a dozen but rather of large numbers of them and where there was a dozen there was more, this was proven as a raptor began to emit a chilling shriek which was so high pitch that it even made Carter's own bones shiver. The human quickly realized what was happening and he knew this was a fight they could not keep up with, activating his HUD he looked at the path towards the pod, it was now or never that they took the chance to escape.

"Everyone, we move to the pod now, get moving!" Carter said as he took out an sonic grenade, activating it he threw it towards the raptors making the call to their brethren. The grenade exploded and sent the remaining raptors flying off several meters back, this would save the crew some time to confuse the creatures and escape.

"Go, go, get to the shuttle. Double time!" Carter screamed as he jumped over the foliage and ran in direction of the pod, looking back momentarily to make sure everyone was doing the same. Sshalah too called on everyone to move on.

"You heard the Captain, we must make way. Me and Raoul shall stay in the back Captain, we will slay any renegades that come before us!" Sshalah felt reinvigorated, whether it was the camaderie, inspiration by the captains actions, or her protective sense for the crew she did not know but she was now ready to fight and protect them all no matter what.

"Got it Sshalah, I'll try to reach Thanica for evac, everyone keep moving to the pod's location!" Carter said once more over the comms as he then switched to direct line with the shuttle, please baby, answer me!

"Thanica, do you copy, Thanica!"

[Kylantha]

Anja | Pel'churul

When it looked like the situation was calming down a tad, the two squads encountered another problem, this time with the local fauna. As the first Lustriearaptor appeared out of the brush and eyed them, she took the time to compact her shield so that it was more her size, and take her baton out. She was frightened almost out of her wits, wondering where the other two Tz'aths were, and Pel'churul wasn't helping her remain calm. He himself looked more than bothered. His knees trembled so much, Anja half-expected them to buckle under his weight.

As the first of the predators launched their attack, Anja was caught slightly off guard as she was busy looking to the treetops for any sign of Sho and Khuzme. She looked ahead just in time to see one of the raptors dipping its head to try and scoop her off the ground. With a quick strike of her baton on the shock setting, it yelped loudly and fell on its jaw, writhing for a few moments as it struggled to get up, only to be dispatched by one of the other crew members. Anja's breathing picked up and became more laboured as she backed up closer to the others, trying not to get snatched up by the increasing number of mantid hunters.

Near Anja, Pel had lifted the visor of his goggles. It was easier for him to sight the oncoming raptors and defend or dodge accordingly. He got lifted by one of them and thrown a few feet, but he managed to recover and quickly stagger after the rest of the team while using the mechanical arms on his back to swat the pursuant raptor away as it tried to get at his tail.

---

Sho'chavuk | Khuzme

Without the burden of their weapons, Sho and Khuzme fit almost perfectly in the darkness of the Lustriean jungle. Eager to hunt, Sho'chavuk leaned over a branch as fast-moving shapes streamed by. He almost jumped down on instinct when Khuzme grabbed him by the tip of his tail, causing him to flail widly and grab into the thick tree branch.

"My TAIL!" he complained in a hush yet urgent and irritated tone.

Khuzme snarled at him to keep it down. Narrowing her eyes as the new creatures below began to attack those that set upon the Defiance group, she spoke only when things quieted down and the hostiles cleared the immediate area.

"That suit, Sho'chavuk." she said, allowing him to clamber back up next to her.

"Yes, what of it?"

Khuzme crossed her arms and huffed at his face. "You don't think you're a bit too visible in that?"

Sho looked down at his suit with its reflective straps and bright orange color. "Oh. Perhaps I am. I shall take it off then."

And so he did. Rather slowly, too. He folded it neatly before putting it into the hollowed tree trunk, right atop a collection of his urine. Great.

Now naked as the day he was born, Sho'chavuk stood proudly atop the branch, finding it strange yet refreshing to feel the air reach parts of his body that it normally didn't with the tight bodysuit on.

"Now.." he grumbled and looked at Khuzme over his shoulder, "can we go..?"

Khuzme laughed, walking past and punching him in the shoulder. "Yes. Yes we can." Then promptly allowing herself to fall to the ground below. Sho'chavuk soon followed.

The female Tz'ath used passing branches to slow her fall while Sho... He sort of just fell through them, bringing down with him a rain of debris. Once both were on the forest floor, they took a moment. Khuzme was expecting an attack immediately considering how much of a ruckus Sho had made, but nothing came. The two then began slinking through the undergrowth, completely concealed by all the plants.

Since they both had an idea of which way to go, neither communicated much except with very brief barking noises every few minutes. As they followed the unmistakable scent of the others, they eventually came upon a confrontation between warriors of three different races and some of the local predators. Sho'chavuk was fascinated by the sight of the large creatures which were both fast and strong. Khuzme felt the same and reminded her companion not to underestimate them for any reason as they watched the struggle. The armed mercenaries fought well, but were eventually overwhelmed.

"Incredible.." Sho'chavuk mumbled giddily. "I would certainly like to taste one of those."

"Tsk. We need to go and find the others. There's no time for that you oaf!" she hissed at him before moving around the feeding frenzy that soon took place. Sho'chavuk watched for a few seconds more before following.

As they moved through the undergrowth, they came upon another group of mercenaries who seemed to have the same idea as them. Quietly they moved and low they stayed. It was going well for them so far, as none of the raptor-like creatures had taken notice of them. In fact, they all started going in a single direction after a loud noise from afar rang out. Khuzme knew they were being called in as reinforcements and knew they had to hurry. But Sho was more interested in the four, five, six, seven mercenaries that were creeping through the bushes. Khuzme sighed internally. I suppose it'd be good to get rid of this lot while we're at it. With an irritated look, she gave Sho a nod of approval, to which he replied by rapidly bobbing his head with excitement and vanishing abruptly into the nearby plants.

To the mercenaries, it was clear that the raptors had all vacated the area. The apparent team leader recognized that they had gone off, presumably after a more desirable kill. Good riddance, he thought. Maybe their targets would be softened up enough that he and his could pick them off when they finally got there. With a brisk hand signal, he got everyone to stand up out of the underbrush, hearing sighs of relief as they gathered themselves up. There was a short discussion over their comms as they started making for the direction of Carter and the others. Khuzme was able to learn that their friends were up against two forces now. But those two forces weren't exactly working with each other. There was frenetic talk about how the mercenaries on the other end were having to deal with the native predators now as well, followed by curses and regrets about taking this job.

None of the seven mercs noticed Khuzme as she jumped from tree to tree with surprising silence for a creature of her density. Below, Sho'chavuk moved quickly across the ground, just out of sight. Soon, another unfortunate slaughter would commence.

Observing that Sho'chavuk was now in position on a small ridge, Khuzme tensed herself up and began to make sounds. Of course, this got the attention of the mercenaries who, not only looked over where she was at, but shot at her. She was much too fast though, and there was too much cover. Menacingly, she circled them, dodging every single shot. She reveled in the panic that soon began to set into the group of mercenaries whom she had successfully broken up. Each one was now at least 10 feet from the other. And one unfortunate mercenary had back up against the ridge that Sho had flattened himself against, like a frog. She watched as his arms slowly appeared on both sides of the poor creatures neck and pulled him into the plants, screaming in terror. When the sound of crunching and tearing began, the captain of the squad yelled for the rest to get moving. They started to run, which was a big mistake. It triggered the Tz'aths' predatory instinct.

The mercenaries were moving slower than they would have liked, as they had to watch where they were going the whole way. They could barely turn back and shoot as the sounds behind them combined with the dark seemed to chase after them. The two at the end of the column were starting to fall behind. The gruff-looking Qaz'in at the end kicked at the Kiel in front of him, who was slowing down. The Kiel stumbled forward, cursing. He was just about to turn around and insult the Qaz'in, but something flew out of the amassed plants to the right and sent him hurtling down a small incline. The Qaz'in unloaded an entire battery down the slope, but accomplished nothing by it. A voice came from behind him suddenly, sending a chill down his spine.

"You should have kept running, morsel."

He turned around to yell and shoot, but was unable to do either as he had emptied his gun and Khuzme pounced down on him from an overhanging branch. The others kept on running in fear, with the exception of the squad leader who had a plan brewing in his head. There was a good spot just ahead from which he and his remaining team members could defend from what he assumed was just another local predator and not the tree-hopping rodents they'd been shooting at.

"Quick! Up on those rocks!" he pointed ahead, to a collection of boulders covered with some spongy blue moss. The mercenaries struggled to get up, but most eventually did. The last one however, didn't quite make it. As she reached out to grab one of her comrade's hands, she felt a firm grip on her ankle pull her back into the dense underbrush, screaming bloody murder. Now more angered, the remaining mercenaries unloaded a hail of plasma rounds into the surrounding forest, destroying much of it. A few minutes of calm passed, and the squad leader was almost sure they'd either got the creature by sheer luck or had scared it off.

"Hold fire." he said, but kept his gun aimed forward. Perhaps shooting all over the place had not been the best thing to do, as now there was a cloud of smoke from plants that had caught fire. Now worried more than ever, he got his two remaining squad members to move closer to him and watch each other's backs. Looking ahead, both Sho and Khuzme had to admit that it would be hard to get these three without sustaining some form of major injury. Keeping a close eye on the mercenaries for mistakes, they started moving in a wide arc again, awaiting the right moment. But it seemed that wouldn't be necessary. The two Tz'aths froze where they stood as another change on the wind came.

The squad leader heard the subtle clicking noise before he was grabbed by his head and lifted into the air. The two immediately spun around to see the massive Ukysol uncloaking itself and looking down at them. Sure that this was what had wiped out their squad, the remaining two broke out in fear. One of them fell backwards down onto the rocks while the other made it away. The Ukysol then ate the mercenary squad leader in two big chomps before going after the one at the bottom of the rock formation. Once he was eaten, the Ukysol stopped in its tracks. Khuzme and Sho prepared for an attack, but they were ignored as the Ukysol took off after the more obvious target who was barreling through the forest at full speed, turning back every now and again to shoot. He wasn't going down without a fight.

Khuzme was astonished. This larger creature must have come from not far off at the sounds and smell of death. She could tell from looking at Sho'chavuk that he either wanted to get a bite out of the beast or adopt it as a pet. Grimacing to herself, she watched carefully for now as he did. Once it was at a safe distance, she rose up slightly over the grass and Sho followed suit. He looked over at her and she raised her hand to his face.

"Tss.. I know.. You want it. Well? Shall we go after it then?"

Sho'chavuk nodded rapidly again, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. "YEsyESYeSyES. Mhm, mhm!."

"Ugh."

---

By the time Sho'chavuk and Khuzme catch up to the Ukysol, it has just finished its meal. In turn, they had formulated a plan which they think will work on it. The hulking beast just begins to cloak itself once more, but it is interrupted by Khuzme calling to it. She had a bundle on her back, having gone and retrieved their stuff.

"Hey! Over here!" she waves at the beast, which growls and orients its body towards her, a severed arm in one of its hands. Khuzme exhales sharply, putting on a disgusted look immediately afterwards. "Gods, you're even uglier than Sho'chavuk!"

That seemed to get the creature riled up, as it bolted for the Tz'ath with surprising speed. Khuzme was too fast for it though, and she darted into the nearby grass to escape its grasp. It rummaged around where it saw her go, unaware that something was about to fall on it from above. When it hit, the creature staggered slightly from the sheer weight, then immediately thrashed about and reached behind its back. Sho was holding on tightly however, hooting and laughing loudly as the Ukysol spun around, in slight pain as Sho'chavuk's claws dug in deeper. While the monster was looking away, Khuzme jumped off a tree trunk onto the back of the creature's head. She then started bashing at its armored head enough to daze it while Sho moved up close to her. He unknowingly damaged the creature's strange eyes as he did though, sending the Ukysol into a frenzy. While Khuzme was worried about being flung off into the forest, Sho was clearly enjoying as he howled and cried out even louder.

A loud and distinct cry rang out through the forest as Sho grabbed onto the spines on the back of the Ukysol's head. The pain and fury was evident by how forceful and intense it was.

The Lustriearaptors heard this, and they all stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction from which the sound came. Seconds after, they began to disperse, tripping over one another, some of them running in between the Defiance crew to get away. As the heavy steps come closer to the crew, tey begin to hear sounds of enjoyment as Khuzme joins in, using a branch she'd grabbed to swat at the Ukysol's hands as it tried to grab whatever was on its head. It kept running forward as Sho pulled on the spines on its head, until it broke out into the open through some large ferns. Two raptors were unfortunate enough to be running in front of them and were grabbed and chucked out of sight, letting out piteous yells as they flew through the air. Another was thrown violently into a tree, dying upon impact.

The Ukysol with the two Tz'aths swinging around on its back roared once more as fire from mercenaries pelted it. At this point Khuzme let go and called for Sho to do the same before he got hit. He didn't do that right away however, first pulling back on the Ukysol's head. Once it was faced where the blaster fire was coming from, he jump-kicked off the back of its head to send it rushing forward towards the approaching mercs. He then landed on his belly near Khuzme who had immediately taken cover.

"HA!" Sho laughed as the Ukysol continued on its blind fit, calling out after it. "Good-bye forest friend! It has been fun!" He then turned to the others, still stark naked and looking very happy. "It is good to see that you are alive! Now then, shall we continue with our little excursion?"

[Nachfolgia]

Ra’rannir

Ra’rannir heard the call of one of the raptors and knew that only meant one thing, a distress call to the rest of the pack. Having grown up around these creatures her whole life, she knew that they were pack hunters. The few members that the Sky Demons were battling with were just an advancing scouting party. Their purpose was to find possible food sources and signal the rest of the pack. Ra’rannir had heard stories of some of the larger, more ancient raptor packs leaving entire forests devoid of animals.

Knowing that the pack could number in the dozens, Ra’rannir knew she had to make herself scarce. Hiding wasn’t going to be enough given the raptor’s keen pit glands that pick up body heat. She would have to get as far away from the area as she could. The long legged Lustriean took off through the forest, much in the same fashion as the Sky Demons were. She knew she couldn’t have been too far from the pod at this point.

Ra’rannir heard a strange sound coming from behind her, the guttural clicking of a predator and the mix of screams and blaster fire of mercenaries. Stopping and turning around behind her, she caught an unexpected sight. Two Sky Demons of an unknown species were riding on the back of a Ukysol, the apex predator of Lustriea. They seemed to be guiding the predator through the jungle as it thrashed about, trying to rid itself of the riders.

The sight and sound of the Ukysol caused the raptors to scatter, getting as far away from the creature as possible. Ra’rannir would have been done the same if she wasn’t perplexed by the sight. The Ukysol was not a creature to be trifled with, being the creature that young Lustriean hunters had to track and kill as the ultimate test of their skill. Ra’rannir still had vivid memories of her ordeal with a Ukysol, the beast that caused the large scar on her leg and who’s skull still adorns her head.

Ra’rannir combined to watch as the two Sky Demons man handled the Ukysol with ease before sending it rampaging through the jungle. Those two seemed to be much stronger and capable than the two in the pod, having shown their capacity of being great hunters. Ra’rannir stood there and admired the traits the two possessed...before she realized what was going on. She was standing in the open for the Sky Demons to spot her. Feeling incredibly vulnerable in the face of Sky Demons with capacity for cruelty, Ra’rannir took off into the darkness. She hoped to get ahead of them so she could confront the two at the pod alone.

She wanted wanted revenge and no one was going to stand in her way.

[Arengin Union]

An Unexpected Encounter

Co-Written by Nachfolgia and Arengin Union

---

The crew kept running and shooting, retreating back and towards the crashed pod as the mix of Lustrearaptors and unknown mercenaries kept running amok through the jungle. Sshalah had picked up Anja during the scuffle to retreat, keeping the small Tz'ath on her back as she ran across the jungle slamming down any Lustrearaptors that got close with her bare hands. Carter for his part frantically tried to connect with the shuttle, calling over to Thanica as he shot bursts of blaster fire at incoming raptors.

The scene was a hectic one and it seemed the Defiance crew was about to meet its end either at the maws of raptors or the blaster fire of mercenaries. But little did anyone know that salvation was upon them brought by an unlikely ally, as a loud roar echoed through the jungle the Lustrearaptors that now numbered in dozens lost interest in the chase in mere seconds as they let out distinct shrieks of panic and began to scatter. A few raptors even ran past Carter without even trying to bite at him, Sshalah for her part knew that whatever had frightened these impertinent creatures was likely of no friendly demeanor to them.

"Whatever that was, I doubt it comes to give us rewards..." Sshalah said with an eerie voice. Carter himself nodded as he too realized the further danger they were in.

Suddenly the roars became louder as the floor began to tremble and without warning a large creature made its appearance, ramming through the jungle like nothing and killing raptors and mercs within its path it cut through the jungle like nothing. The sudden impact forced Carter to dodge and fall onto the ground, he was ready to fire at whatever had attacked but soon realized that the creature had bypassed the crew almost entirely. What just happened? the human asked himself, as he stood up he realized that the crew was scattered as well, hopefully not too far from each other but the creature had surely brought everyone a big scare.

Ra'rannir spotted the lone human running parallel to her several yard away. From all the gun fire and predatory noises coupled with the darkness, the man did not seem to notice the Lustriean. Crouching down in the brush, she observed him for a few moments. The man seemed to be talking to himself in an unknown language, his tone very commanding. Ra'rannir determined that this must be their chieftain, very similar to the other Sky Demon Cheiftain that she took down.

Seizing the opportunity to kill him, Ra'rannir slowly reached for an arrow to silently kill him. When she grabbed at air, she realized that she was out of arrows, having used them all against the other Sky Demons. She began to creepy closer to the man, silently getting close enough to kill him with a spear.

Closing the distance, Ra'rannir sprang from the shadows to ambush him. She ran towards him and smacked his weapon out of his hand with her spear before kicking him in the chest to separate him from it. From what she witnessed today, the Sky Demon's weaponry is deadly. Ra'rannir then pointed her spear at him and hissed before lunging for another attack.

Carter was taken by surprise at the sudden attack, his weapon kicked away and a spear thrust towards his neck the human survival instinct quivked in as he barely dodge the attack, the tip of the spear scraping his skin just barely. Grabbing onto the weapon Carter kicked back the female attacker relieving her off the spear.

"You done now!?" Carter said as he threw the spear on the ground, away from its user, his right hand edging slowly to his holster. At a quick glance the human could tell Ra'rannir was unlike the mercenaries from before, her attire was barebones and she was a species unknown to him. Yet again he was used to meeting new species every other day at this point.

Ra'rannir rolled back to her feet from the kick. The Sky Demon seemed to be a pretty capable warrior given that he was able to disarm her as quickly as she disarmed him. She pulled out her stone knife and crouched low.

She began to circle around him, still crouching low , waiting for an opportunity to strike. Noticing him slow reaching for his other weapon, Ra'rannir hissed at him. She didn't know what he yelled at her, but it didn't appear that he was backing down. She would have to out smart him if she had a chancing to reach him before she shot her.

Ra'rannir's hand, as it to her the ground, discreetly grabbing a clump of dirt. In one fluid motion, she threw the dirt in his face and rushed in, tackling him to the ground. Straddling him, she used one leg to pin one arm and her free hand to pin the other. Ra'rannir pressed the knife to his throat and hissed in his face.

It seemed that Ra'rannir had Carter at her mercy in that moment, and had it been a time before his training with Karessa it would've been true but the human was not going down this easily. With a light move of his ankles the human's PICAM boots activated, exhaust ports opening up and letting out a burst of impulse fire which propelled the Human away from the Lustriean. This caught Ra'rannir offguard as she saw the Sky Demon float several meters in the air, Carter for his part smiled with a sly face as he did not expect the PICAM to work as well as they did.

Descending down towards the ground Carter unveiled the Sturakasa blade given to him by Kaleso months ago. The sword glowed a bright blue as it activated and Carter was back on the ground, he readied himself in a position of defense. Ready to face anything else the native had to throw at him Carter gave the girl one last time.

"Listen, I know we all have our differences and what not but theres been enough bloodshed as is, how about you put the knife down?"

Much to Ra'rannir's surprise, the man rocketed away from her, causing her to jump back. She did not see wings in the man, but he was flying nonetheless. Sky Demons always seem to defy nature. The bright light immenating from the man's feet caused her some concern. It was far brighter than even the fire produced by the two at the pod, causing her to be somewhat blind to any of his actions.

She shielded her eyes from the light until he touched the ground again, the light fading instantly. Being able to see again, Ra'rannir returned to her combat stance, crouching low to the ground, the knife out in front of her. Once again the man talked to her and once again, the words were lost to her. She simply tilted her head to the side, curious as to why he continued his efforts to communicate.

" The words you speak are unknown to me, Sky Demon." Ra'rannir said in her native tongue before hissing at him again. She then ran at him another time, her long legs closing the distance fast.

Carter had little time in between realizing that the native spoke in a foreign language and thus more than likely didn't understand him and then the large knife coming at him once more. He managed to dodge the attack and soon a battle of swings and strikes began as Carter was on the defensive of Ra'rannir's relentless attacks and kicks. The Human did his best to implement his Jokari training as he blocked the attacks with precision and from time to time he would use his PICAM's to avoid kicks from the native girl.

"Well this is just tiresome now!" Carter said under his breath as he kept blocking the girls attacks, he didn't want to hurt her but at this point he was becoming irritated.

Alright I've had enough. It was in that moment that Carter himself began to go on the offensive as his Sturakasa cut through leaves and wood with ease, trying to strike at the native's limbs in an attempt to disarm her to little avail as Ra'rannir proved herself faster and more agile. For a slight second the chance came to both opponents to close the gap once and for all as Ra'rannir saw an opening in Carter's attack she readied to strike at his neck once more and Carter readied to slice the girl's shoulder clean off, it seemed for a moment that both would see their mutual end or perhaps they would retreat but it was then that a voice called through the jungle.

"Captain we must move on, the att-" the voice of Sshalah's came out of the foliage as the large Ragon walked into the scene stopping herself from talking as she looked down to see Carter and an apparent Native scuffling. The appearance of the large raptor like Sky Demon took Ra'rannir by surprise as she looked at it with caution, Carter finally took the chance to strike at the girls hand and swirl her knife out of her hand and quickly kicking her legs and forcing her to the ground, the human had his own weapon now pointed at the girl's neck mere centimetres off.

"Sshalah, you got a translator with you?"

"Certainly captain, learned from Gedawei that we need to have at least one of these at hand!" Sshalah said with a sense of pride at her foresight as she kneeled down to the native, taking out a small injector she carefully approached the native and held her down with one hand and approached the injector towards her neck and without warning pressed the needles in for a few seconds before pulling away. The Ragon kept holding her tightly as the human kept his foot on the native's abdomen and his sword at her neck still.

Ra'rannir, fearful of the strange weapon the large reptile brandished, tried to squirm her way free. She was desperately trying to save her own life, her breathing becoming rapid.

"[ Get off of me!! Get that thing away from me!!]" Ra'rannir screamed as she fought against their combined weight.

"She should come to sense in a few seconds!" Sshalah said.

Carter nodded looking down to the girl he still had his sword at her neck, careful to make any sudden movements he waited few seconds before speaking.

"You understand me now?"

She thought that the Sky Demons would kill her when they stuck the "weapon" in her neck, causing her to flench. She felt the pain, her body tensing up as a result. She thought for sure that she was bleeding out, but she did not feel the warmth of her blood dripping down her body or the darkness of death closing in on her. Instead Ra'rannir heard the words of the man speaking to her. She could understand him, clearly, as if he was speaking her language now.

Ra'rannir looked at the man, unsure of what she was hearing was correct or a delusion from the shock of her dying. How could she understand this Sky Demon when a few moments ago, she could not.

" Y-your words fall upon my ear clearly, Sky Demon. How do you speak my tongue?" She asked, calming down finally.

"It is the wonders of technology friend," Sshalah was first to answer as stood upright, pressing on her communicator she called on everyone else to assemble.

"I've found the Captain, and an unexpected entity, rally up on my signal everyone."

Carter for his part still had his sword trained on the girl for a few seconds before backing down, deactivating the blade he chuckled at the girl's remark, "Sky Demon?"

"We're not your enemy if that's what you think," he offered his hand to her, "my name is Carter, Captain Carter of the [i[Defiance[/i]."

[Dyelli Beybi]

Thanica Vari - The Shuttle


Thanica had been sleeping in her chair when the alarm call came through, slouched lazily with her feet parked on the console. The call yanked her into immediate wakefulness though it still took a few moments for her to process where she was, what was going on and the fact that it hadn't been a part of the dream she had been having. Nope, definitely not the dream. She was fully dressed and they was still a vista of a stinking jungle outside the front view screen. She blinked a couple of times, clearing her vision, she was getting slow, then quickly began running through the process of firing the engines up for flight, skipping her normal preflight safety checks.

"Sentries, get back inside. Everybody strap back in, we're taking off in two minutes!" Thanica called to the crew guarding the shuttle. Clearly something had happened to the away team, though what exactly it was remained a mystery at this point. Carter was also rather optimistic about getting a pick up - if there was somewhere to land, she'd have put them down closer, they didn't have parachutes or lines to rappel up or down with... and the shuttle was unarmed.

A few moments later they were in the air again, heading in the direction of the crash site, "Carter," she spoke over comms, sounding calm, though there was an edge to her voice that hinted at the stress under the surface, "There is nowhere for me to put the shuttle down safely in your vicinity. Unless the people involved happen to have wings, there will be no way to move people on or off the shuttle. I'm not sure if our winged crew members are able to carry others, though it seems doubtful, particularly when it comes to the Ragons. We also lack armaments to provide covering fire, though you might be able to bluff and pretend that we do."

---

Aethienn

Aethienn followed orders. It was what she always did, without complaint or question. She skipped nimbly over to the pod, moving over obstacles with the kind of fluid grace that would have been the envy of earth's parkour enthusiasts. She stopped as she reached the entry to the pod to sheath the two energy blades she had been carrying. It looked like it would be rather cramped in there and the blades were asking for injuries. She grimaced. This was a terrible plan, but orders were orders, "I imagine everyone realises we've lost Gebeth," she remarked. She sounded rather casual considering she was describing the possible death of one of the crew.

"No? Green female? Definitely smoking hallucinogenic drugs on the shuttle?" she queried.

[The Imarian Monarchy]

Cowritten by Imaria, Grenartia, and Khasinkonia

Aboard the Defiance
"Come on Zaru, it has been a few days, we should have been examined yesterday. I don't see what you are afraid of, for starters, I'm getting the same examination too, and these doctors will be our professionals for the next few months. Also I think I have heard that there is a Dhasath doctor aboard." Zaru sighed. After repeated haranguing, she was growing tired of resisting. She absolutely did not want to set hand or foot near a doctor, but at the same time, she hadn't been able to come up with a logical reason not to. There were a million and a score feelings telling her not to, but empirically, surely Vesia was correct. She slowly looked up at Vesia, and, after a moment more of silence, muttered, "I don't get why we need examinations if we're not sick..."

"I'm not sure why either, to be honest, none of us aboard should be sick, we were allowed on to beach-head Station, my best guess is because of those species from the Milky Way, just to make sure we aren't in the pre-symptomatic state of any sort of infection." Vesia starting to get frustrated as thoughts of having to go through this argument again tomorrow crept into her mind "Now come on Missy. I'm begging you, please, lets' not keep the doctors waiting. If you come, I'll get some sweets for you." Hoping the appeal to Zaru's stomach would aid in the argument.
Zaru looked away for a moment, hoping Vesia would just give up, as she had on previous days. But after a few moments of awkward silence, Zaru gave in with a huff. Candy was not an offer to be taken lightly. “Don’t leave me,” she responded, “I want to see you the entire time.”

Smiling because the appeal paid off, "Well come one", Vesia said before waiting for Zaru to leave the bunk room to proceed down the hall to the stairs to descend to the 3rd deck. "At the stairs Vesia turned and asked Zaru, "What sweet food would you like?"
Zaru followed Vesia. Her posture was rather curled inwards, as if she was cold. With what one might swear was half the crew's worth of uniform shirts, it was obvious that she wasn't so much cold as she was upset. About halfway down the stairs, Zaru muttered, "I want gummies...they remind me of vitamin treats..."

"Ok you want some gummies..." Vesia briefly paused thinking back to if there were gummies in any snack machines anywhere aboard, uncertain about it, she resumed "I'll see what can be done about that after our checkups..." Scratching her chin while hoping that Massi and the kitchen would somehow have the materials to make some in an amount large enough for Zaru. Zaru nodded placidly, and continued downstairs after Vesia. Soon enough, they arrived in the medbay.



There wasn't much for Yev to do between arrivals, since most of the crew was either hesitant to get checked out, or on the rescue mission, so he spent most of his time on duty reading. His Gollar colleague and mentor, Dr. Saskem Bissik, had been recommending him trashy romance novels. They were quite fun, reading them ironically. The current book was called Temptation of the Night. Harlequin novels seemed to be a universal constant. As the newcomers entered, Yev set down his tablet. "Ah, welcome. Vesia and Zaru, right? I am Dr. Yevgeny Levenkov, but you can call me Yev." he introduced himself, with a smile. "Are you here for your standard examinations, or are you feeling unwell?"

"Hello Doctor Yev" Vesia said with a nod, "We're here for our standard evaluations, but before them I have some files to hand over, their about Zaru's physiological stuff, I pulled them from a Hsian Holistics Computer when I saved her from that damned station. These should help you and the other doctor, Also I've gotta tell you something secret Doctor." "Of course, of course." Yev said, pretending to know what Vesia was talking about. "I'm your doctor, and I take my patients' privacy incredibly seriously." "Now, this isn't for me. It is for Zaru's sake. If she asks, you are a Dhasath. OK? I told her you were to try and coax her here, she is afraid of most medical implements... I..It should be explained in the data files." Vesia told Yev leaning in as close as she could over the doctor.


The Russian man struggled to keep a puzzled look off his face. "I really, really, really don't think that's a good idea. Even if I were the only human on board, I have no knowledge of Dhasath culture. I just happen to look like one. I will look at this file, but I cannot in good conscience go along with this deception." He paused to sigh while transferring the file to his tablet for later perusal. "I don't hold anything against you for making this request. I even understand it. But the girl deserves to know the truth. I may not be a Dhasath doctor, but I am the next best thing, and that will hopefully be good enough for Zaru." He really hoped she didn't press the issue. As much as he hated the thought of giving any of his patients' bad news of any sort, he hated the idea of deluding them even more, even if it was supposed to be for their benefit.

"Well then, I can understand your integrity doctor. I don't think she'll ask to be honest, because she kind of follows what I say... I'm sort of her parental figure." Vesia replied to Yev, keeping her voice hushed as she continued; "I just wanted to let you in on the plan on the odd chance you would play along. Also, can you do my examination first, that should put her at ease." "Alright," Yev replied and nodded, as he pulled out a medical scanner and began taking readings of Vesia's vitals. "Have you ever been diagnosed with any medical condition? Any allergies that you know about? History of infection?" Responding to Yev's questions, "I haven't been diagnosed with any major medical condition, I have an allergy to some antibiotics, mostly the mold based ones, and I don't have a history of infection. "Well, I'll note the allergy down, but it otherwise seems like you have a clean bill of health." Yev said cheerfully. "



And now it's your turn, young lady." he said, looking towards Zaru. Zaru pulled in tighter, or, at least, as tightly as she could pull herself away from Yev. She glared at him but didn’t move. “Only what’s necessary,” she said gravely. "I promise, this won't hurt a bit." Yev said, reassuringly, as he began scanning Zaru's vitals. "See? Totally painless." Zaru remained tense, and did not respond, but allowed Yev to continue. Noticing her continued apprehension, Yev went on. "You're doing incredibly good right now. I'll give you a treat when we're finished. But before we finish up, do you know of any allergies, conditions, or infections you have or have had?" He hoped the mention of a treat would lift her spirits. "If I did, it would be in my file, I think," Zaru responded with a bit of a half-hearted shrug, "My body doesn't handle solid food super great, but it's getting better. I never had it when I was young...

Yev gave her a sympathetic look. "Alright. I'll look at the file when we're done here. I have one last thing for you both, and we'll be done." Yev opened a container, and withdrew three q-tips, each a different color, to distinguish them. "I'd like to take a cheek swab to cultivate some stem cells from you both, in case something happens that we need to regrow some tissues for you." He took one of the q-tips and ran it inside his mouth, along his cheek, as a demonstration to Vesia and Zaru of how simple it was. It's totally painless and noninvasive. "See? Totally painless and noninvasive. Of course, given your unique situations, I understand if you'd rather avoid it. But you have my oath that these samples won't be used for anything nefarious." His training had taught him that Dhasath were often distrustful of doctors, and for completely understandable reasons. And something similar probably was true for Zaru, whatever was inside her file. Hopefully, his demonstration and promise would overcome that distrust. Zaru closed her eyes tightly, but opened her mouth and clenched her fists. Zaru looked almost pitiful. Yev was expecting her to copy his movements, not anxiously wait for him to repeat them on her. He took one of the q-tips and swabbed the inside of her cheeks. "There, all done," he said, with a patient smile, as he bent over into a nearby cabinet to retrieve one last item. "And, as promised, here is your treat." he finished, offering the girl a lollipop.


"And I trust you can do the same on your own?" he asked Vesia. "I'm sure I can, it's just a cheek swab after all," Vesia replied while reaching for the remaining swab in the container. Then stick it in her mouth and rubbing against her cheek. Before holding the tip as far from herself and Yev to hand it to him, since she had no idea where to put it. Zaru took the lollipop from Yev's hands and inspected it carefully. She shot Vesia a look before she shoved it in her mouth, and yanked the stick back out, sans pop, having sucked it clean off. Yev took Vesia's sample and kept it in his other hand while he put the samples in storage for later use. Turning back around, he noticed Zaru had already finished her lollipop. "It must have been a good flavor," he noted with a chuckle, before continuing. "Well, that's all I needed from you two. You're both free to go."

[Europa Undivided]

The Jungles of Vietnam Lustriea

Just as Ra'rannir had come to her senses, the ground shook slightly; a testament to the impacted landing of Yare-Lokem, who just happened to have Karesan riding on her back. "Looks like we have a new friend.", Yare simply said as Karesan dismounted and landed on the ground with some difficulty due to this injured arm. The Jokari stepped forward, though he visibly winced from the pain he felt on his arm.

"Well, well, well, look at who we have here.", Karesan said nodded to Ra'rannir. "My, you're huge.", he then leaned over, lending a hand to help her up from the ground. "I'm Karesan. I am... the captain's swordmaster. You got a name?"

As that went on, Yare flew up to perch herself on one of the treetops. "That massive creature from earlier had scattered the mercenaries. It will take a while for them to regroup and continue their pursuit. We should have some breathing room for now."

---

The Sorcerer of the Defiance

"Sentries, get back inside. Everybody strap back in, we're taking off in two minutes!"

"Of course they will run into some trouble out there.", Kaleso muttered to himself as he jumped off the tree and slowly landed on the rocky outcrop. His armor had a clanking noise as he made his planetfall, indicating that it was doing its job of cushioning such an impact. "Aye, Commander. Moving to the shuttle now..."

---

"I imagine everyone realises we've lost Gebeth," she remarked. She sounded rather casual considering she was describing the possible death of one of the crew.

"Absolutely bloody yes.", Karesan said as he heard Aethienn remark that their Berdikon crew member was lost. "She wouldn't have lost her transponder, right?"

[Bingellia]

Mihal and En
Cowritten by Bingellia and Brittaniastan

In the Past

---

The blade he had been given as collateral for En’s presence in the camp had entranced Mihal since he first inspected it when the crua introduced herself. The Kiels themselves were a martial culture, but personal skill was always what was accented compared to the weapons themselves in the ever ubiquitous Keillar sparring rings.

Weapons are viewed merely as a means to an end for those who used them in traditional Keillar thought. This view makes them replaceable to a degree. Ornate weapons, like the tail blade he now had, signified rank of the bearer or held significant value to the holder but rarely were used in combat in Kiellar history.

The fact that En carried one, seemingly as her only personal arm, perplexed the Kiel With across from him at the campfire as a meal slowly cooked, now was his chance to ask the questions.

“This blade you gave me,” Mihal said as he looked up at the crua. The hint of a smile growing accented the warm interest clear in his tone. “It’s obviously beautiful, but what’s it’s story? Weapons like these are rare where I come from, so I’m curious about what it means.”

She looked up to him with weary eyes, resting almost face level with him from her sprawled out position. It was always hard to tell her exact emotion through her mask, but her illuminated eyes showed a hint of curious distrust before she spoke.

“You probably don’t know what I am, do you?” she would ask, her soft feminine voice hinting ever so slightly at her exhaustion. While she had been sleeping in equal shifts like everyone else, it was nowhere near enough for a member of her species, and slowly it was wearing on her. “I’m a Daughter of The Hounds, a small but powerful tribe on my homeworld, and that knife is a symbol of my status and rights among my people.”

She fell silent before saying anything more, shifting closer to the fire for comfort as a sense of dread wrapped over her. Most of it was regret, knowing that if she failed for whatever reason, her entire journey up to now would have been for nothing.

Mihal quietly nodded as the crua softly spoke, but his expression showed a genuine if subdued excitement at the prospect of learning something new. “Status from nobility or merit? The Command has both,” he gently pressed on, trying to avoid staring at the crua’s mask to avoid potential offense. “It’s an odd remnant from the past, but there’s little privilege to nobles as far as the legal code is concerned.”

There was a moment of silence after the Kiel asked his question, where En struggled to decide how much she should tell him. “If I fail to keep my end of our bargain, you would be the first outsider to become a Son of The Hounds, an adopted child of our chieftain. And as for me, I would have no choice than to serve you should I want to return home.”

Silence again fell between the pair as the crua answered Mihal’s question. Bringing his hand to his face, Mihal sighed. His gaze fell to the ground as he realized what exactly it was En’s answer implied. Was this a joke from the gods? Mihal certainly wasn’t laughing if it was.

“So,” he spoke quietly yet firmly as he grappled with the anger fate had sparked, “what would happen to you if I didn’t want you to serve me?” Yet, despite the anger of feeling like a slave holder yet again, the thought of reneging on the deal and giving En back the blade never crossed the Kiel’s mind. It was too valuable as collateral.

“That’s enough questions,” she answered simply, eyeing him suspiciously over his suggestion. If he were to abandon her, she would be less than a servant among her people, unwelcome and trapped among the stars. “You will get paid once we get off this rock, and I will take my blade.”

“Good. That’ll make both of us very happy,” Mihal replied, feeling more than a little relieved at the crua’s determination to see their arrangement through. It was something to look forward to if rescue ever came.

[Nachfolgia]

Ra'rannir

Ra'rannir remained on the ground, still wary of the Sky Demons as they crowded around her. They all seemed to be of different tribes, but were working together in unison. She became more confused as the more they talked, the more she understood them. She did not think it was possible for all these Sky Demons to know her language. What ever they stabbed into her, seemed like magic to her. Was this what the Night Mother wanted for her now?

When the large reptile spoke, Ra'rannir looked her up and down suspiciously. This particular Sky Demon resembled some creatures that called Lustriea home. Obviously, the large reptile was not, but it still make her uneasy. The human seemed harmless enough, the exception being his prowess as a warrior. The Ragon, however, was very much predatorial in nature based on Lustriea's examples. She would have to keep her distance from the Sky Demon, unless she'd want to get eaten.

The Bird-like Sky Demon held out his hand to help Ra'rannir up, to which she leaned away from. She wasn't sure of his intentions and could still be a threat despite his obvious injury. Instead, Ra'rannir rolled backwards until her feet were under her and stood back up.

" I am known as Ra'rannir of the..." She paused, thinking back on her massacred tribe. Usual greetings for Lustrieans included their tribal name, but without a tribe, she was effectively an outcast by definition.

" Just Ra'rannir." She muttered just loud enough for the others to hear, her head down low. She then at Carter, determination and anger refilled in her eyes.

" You. You Chieftain, correct? You say you not with pointy eared Sky Demons? Then why are you here...on Night Mother's sacred earth? Did you aid the pointy eared ones in such violence? Have you been stealing and killing my people?" Ra'rannir pressed Carter for answers, getting more aggressive in her tone.

[Arengin Union]

Captain Nathan Taylor Carter & Sshalah Krilin Ruul
Lustriea, the Jungle

---

Things seemed to have cooled down a bit now, at least no one was trying to spill each other’s brains out anymore for the time being. Carter still was careful with dealing with this rather aggravated individual he’d just been fighting a few seconds ago, regardless he wanted to offer her a chance to show good intentions if she had any.

It was then that Yare, Karessan, and several others made their appearance. At least it seemed Karessan was well despite his wounds. Still it was obvious that it had all taken a toll on him and even though Carter knew Karessan was a tough son of a bitch it was best he and everyone else got medical attention soon. Carter worried about Phoenix’s lack of familiarity with Jokari and most Andromeda species’s anatomy, but hopefully, she could patch everyone up until they were with Amlai.

"Looks like we have a new friend.",

“Correct!” Sshalah responded to Yare’s observation, “She and the Captain seemed to have brawled a bit before I showed up to save his skin!”

Carter merely scoffed at the Ragon’s words as Karessan dismounted from Yare and approached. He looked over to the native girl, she seemed visible uncomfortable and confused, he knew that look very well since he himself had it several months prior.

As that went on, Yare flew up to perch herself on one of the treetops. "That massive creature from earlier had scattered the mercenaries. It will take a while for them to regroup and continue their pursuit. We should have some breathing room for now."

“Indeed,” Sshalah commented as she looked to the path of destruction that the creature had left behind, she was personally glad that it had happened so. She didn’t exactly believe in any deity at all, but if there was any kind then at least she knew it was on their side that day, or at the very least luck was. Still part of her felt saddened that such an ecosystem had seen so much destruction and death but at least it all could regrow with time and care and hopefully they’d be out of this planet soon, with the help of the native maybe they had a better chance to find the still missing Aarla and Mihal. She thought of the two constantly, never forgetting the purpose of this mission at all, she was more concerned for Mihal and hoped the less experienced Kiel was being protected by the psyker, at least she hoped.

“Whatever that may have been, we have some time to rest and regain our strengths for whatever may come next!” Sshalah spoke with unusual stoic, forcing herself to show cunningness and decisiveness for the crew though perhaps it was coming off as a bit too much.

"Well, well, well, look at who we have here.", Karesan said nodded to Ra'rannir. "My, you're huge.", he then leaned over, lending a hand to help her up from the ground. "I'm Karesan. I am... the captain's swordmaster. You got a name?"

It seemed the native girl was in no business to accept anyone’s help as she regressed back and managed to get up on her feet on her own. Carter wouldn’t cry over it as he went over to pick up his carbine from the ground, all the while the girl seemed to be defensive and rightly so. But despite it all she seemed willing to at least talk things out now.

I am known as Ra'rannir of the..." She paused, thinking back on her massacred tribe. Usual greetings for Lustrieans included their tribal name, but without a tribe, she was effectively an outcast by definition.

" Just Ra'rannir." She muttered just loud enough for the others to hear, her head down low. She then at Carter, determination and anger refilled in her eyes.

" You. You Chieftain, correct? You say you not with pointy eared Sky Demons? Then why are you here...on Night Mother's sacred earth? Did you aid the pointy eared ones in such violence? Have you been stealing and killing my people?" Ra'rannir pressed Carter for answers, getting more aggressive in her tone.

“Chieftain?” Carter asked with a bit of a surprise, he chuckled before continuing on to answer Ra’rannir’s question. “If by ‘pointy eared Sky Demons’ you mean the soldiers from before, then no. We’re not with them and we didn’t help them do whatever they did.” Carter was trying to reconnect his earpiece as he spoke, it had taken a bit of a hit during the scuffle.

“We’re here to find a pair of our crew, they went missing some months ago and we tracked their pod here to your planet. We didn’t mean to intrude in… the Night Mother’s earth.” Carter tried to be as respectful as he could.

The term of “chieftain” brought a bit of a hissing laugh from Sshalah, she looked at Anja who had remained on her shoulders.

“I trust that Sho and your fellow Tz’aths are out there somewhere, you stick with me for the meantime!” Though perhaps her leader like attitude was something she still had to develop Sshalah still felt those protective instincts for those much weaker than herself and all others, she would not allow any harm to befall the small Tz’ath.

Catching onto the conversation between the Captain and Ra’rannir the topic of Aarla and Mihal was brought and Sshalah felt compelled to pitch in.

“They are Kiel, but they most certainly would not partake in any needless violence. We could really use your help if you have any information of they’re whereabouts!” The Ragon spoke up looking over to Ra’rannir. It was at that moment that a transmission arrived onto Carter’s earpiece.

A few moments later they were in the air again, heading in the direction of the crash site, "Carter," she spoke over comms, sounding calm, though there was an edge to her voice that hinted at the stress under the surface, "There is nowhere for me to put the shuttle down safely in your vicinity. Unless the people involved happen to have wings, there will be no way to move people on or off the shuttle. I'm not sure if our winged crew members are able to carry others, though it seems doubtful, particularly when it comes to the Ragons. We also lack armaments to provide covering fire, though you might be able to bluff and pretend that we do."

“Everything is under control now Thanica, we encountered some hostiles but they’re gone for now. I’ll send you our location!” Carter answered as he inputted the teams location and sent it to the shuttle through his techpad.

It was good to finally hear Thanica’s voice, though she seemed rather stressed and understandably so. Still everything was under control now and Carter hoped that could calm her down, they would have to figure out where to land later as they still had to get find Aarla and Mihal.

It was then that Aethienn spoke up. The last person Carter wanted to hear from right after the first, quite ironic.

She grimaced. This was a terrible plan, but orders were orders, "I imagine everyone realises we've lost Gebeth," she remarked. She sounded rather casual considering she was describing the possible death of one of the crew.

"No? Green female? Definitely smoking hallucinogenic drugs on the shuttle?" she queried.

Glancing away from Ra’rannir, Sshalah looked around to see if she could spot the federation attache that had gone missing. The loss of a crew member regardless of time with the crew was never something to take lightly. Carter for his part let out a small breath as it was already a problem finding Aarla and Mihal and now Gebeth was missing.

“Stay on course Thanica, we’ll find a place for you to land, over…” Carter said over the comms as he concentrated to what was happening now, looking around for any sign of Gebeth. The green nature of the jungle itself did not help things.

"Absolutely bloody yes.", Karesan said as he heard Aethienn remark that their Berdikon crew member was lost. "She wouldn't have lost her transponder, right?"

“God I hope not,” Carter said as he looked around, switching to direct line with Gebeth.

“Gebeth, Carter here. Where are you!?”

[Nachfolgia]

Ra'rannir

Ra'rannir looked to both Carter and the Ragon when the mentioned two of their missing crew. They must have been talking about the two at the pod that crashed. She didn't know what crew meant, but figured that the male and female were members of this strange mixed tribe of Sky Demons.

" The pointy eared Male and Female in the metal jar? They landed on Night Mother many moon circles ago. They are not far from here." Ra'rannir explained as she went to go pick up her spears.

Ra'rannir noticed the bodies of a few Kiel mercenaries near by, her arrows having dispatched them. She quickly made her way over as the other Sky Demons talked amongst themselves. She retrieved her arrows and placed them back in her quiver. Turning over one body, Ra'rannir took out her knife and began to pry some teeth from it. This was to serve as proof of her kills, a custom that all Lustrieans practice. It was seen as a testament of a Hunter's abilities the more trophies they possessed.

Ra'rannir quickly did the same thing to the other Kiel corpses, not bothering to wipe her hands of their blood. She ignored the possible looks from the Sky Demons and addressed them again.

" If you truly do not wish Night Mother harm, I lead you to missing tribe members. They act like younglings, not know danger. If not for me, they would have meet her long ago. I hope they did not help in death of tribe as you claim. I'd hate to kill those I had helped."

[Dyelli Beybi]

Tava and Aethienn

“God I hope not,” Carter said as he looked around, switching to direct line with Gebeth.

“Gebeth, Carter here. Where are you!?”

There was silence for a few moments, then Tava's voice echoed through the comms back to Carter, "Under a log. The bugs here are really gross," there was silence for a moment, followed by a grunt of exertion. "When we were retreating I dropped down and stayed still. I'm fairly small and when I'm camouflaged and not moving I'm pretty hard to spot. I figured I could wait until whomever was attacking us had passed me by, then circle around behind them, but before I had a chance to do that all those bipedal reptilians appeared and started eating people. I stayed still and gambled that as long as I didn't move I wouldn't smell like food; apparently the gamble paid off."

As she spoke a faint rustling sound had announced the fact she was moving through undergrowth. There was a pause when she finished, before, a few moments later, she reappeared on the edge of the clearing, looking muddy but otherwise unscathed. With the exception of the whites of her eyes there was nothing about her that wouldn't fade into the background in this environment, "I have been gloriously hiding under a log while you guys did all the work," she concluded, eyeing the strange alien that seemed to have joined the group with a suspicious frown.

"Wait, is that weird alien taking kill trophies? Whoa, that is super gross!" she complained.

Aethienn, meanwhile, had taken it upon herself to scan the treeline, dropping to one knee, blaster held at the ready, "Captain," she spoke over the comms, with her usual mixture of crisp professionalism and mild disinterest, "Might I suggest we leave this location promptly? We're in an exposed position here and we aren't sure of who the enemy are, where they are positioned or their strength. I would suggest we need to find a secure location to make a forward base... also, I'd suggest you leave Vari where she is. The shuttle is going to draw unwanted attention and we don't have another if it gets blow up."

[Bentus]

Aarla - Unit 067
The Crash Site

---

The sun had fallen low towards the horizon, leaving the clearing in the dim half-twilight that seemed to be the closest the planet came to a night-cycle during this part of the year. The crackling of flames echoed out from the trio’s campfire, though the sound of intermittent conversation occasionally rose above it. For her part, Aarla did her best to pay her two fellow castaways as little mind as she could. Seated on a large root near the edge of the clearing, she had her back to the fire as she kept watch on the thick foliage that made up the tree-line.

The girl didn’t trust the newcomer. Everything from the way she carried herself to the silly importance she placed on her weapon heightened Aarla’s suspicions. And the manner with which she stuck so close to Mihal, and seemed so willing to do what he said, consistently increased her frustrations. It didn’t help that the newcomer seemed to be more than capable of looking after herself, so the chances of her being conveniently eaten by the wildlife were depressingly low. But that wasn’t the main reason that Aarla had been acting increasingly distant over the past few days. No matter how much she tried to ignore them, there was no denying that her migraines had been getting worse.

Squinting as she concentrated on one particular tree straight ahead of her as if she could resolve the pounding in her skull by sheer force of will, Aarla tried to consciously regulate each breath. Breathing in and then out, the regular actions were supposed to be calming and help her deal with the headaches, but she’d noticed that the exercises had been becoming less and less helpful as their time stranded on the planet wore on. With her eyes fixed on the tree, she ignored the flickering shadows that danced in her peripheral vision. Cast by the campfire, the shifting shapes moved in and out of existence. Aarla knew that the shadows had begun to take on humanoid features out of the corner of her eye. Hollow eyes and wide grins shimmered in the harsh light, cackling silently at her before fading away with each flicker of the flame.

Aarla’s scowl deepened as she ignored the figures creeping at the edges of her vision, knowing that acknowledging what she was seeing wouldn’t do anything to help. But no matter how hard she tried, the jackhammer in her skull wouldn’t cease driving itself into her brain. Sighing in defeat, Aarla reached into her jacket to pull out the small pill container that she’d pulled from Six-Two’s body. Even from holding the container in her hand, she could recognise how much lighter it felt from when they’d first crashed. Opening it, she was greeted by the dismal sight that she’d come to expect. Inside, she could count the number of tablets she had left on her fingers. Despite her best efforts to experiment with rationing the regulators, her supply was rapidly dwindling, and she’d had no luck in getting used to living without them.

Grimacing, Aarla felt like the impish shadows seemed to become more energetic as she mentally tallied how many days she had left. Voiceless whispers that she’d been able to keep silent up till now increased their tempo in the back of her skull, trying to pull her attention towards them and away from the world around her. Scowling, Aarla tapped one of the tablets into the palm of her hand. Splitting it in half, she was about to take the reduced dose she’d been forcing upon herself when she hesitated. After a moment’s thought, she split one of the halves into half again and swiftly swallowed the quarter-dose. The effect was hardly significant, although it did make her headache at least that bit more manageable. Before she could be tempted to dig further into her supply, Aarla returned what was left of the tablet back to its container.

Tucking the container back into her jacket, the girl frowned as she realised that the whispers didn’t fade away. Rather, they seemed to take on a greater distinction. As her headache cleared, the haze that had been clouding her senses seemed to fade and she was surprised to feel a strong current from the Other Place. Narrowing her gaze in suspicion, Aarla turned to look at the shadows being cast by the campfire with fresh eyes. They all looked natural now, the twisted figures that had haunted her peripherals having vanished into the mist. Instead, the shadows were simply those that would be cast by trees and boulders. And yet, to the psyker’s mind there was a method to the chaotic movements, an undercurrent that pulled her gaze upwards and towards a specific section of the opaque jungle around them.

The whispers all ceased in an instant, leaving Aarla sitting in silence as she watched the patch of jungle. Time seemed to slow, and for a few moments, she didn’t even breathe as she stared unblinkingly into the trees. And then, in an instant, there was a flash of light as the setting sun reflected off of a scope.

Reacting immediately, Aarla swung one of her arms upward to summon a shield. Just in time, the barrier shimmered into existence, but it swiftly shattered under the high capacity round that slammed into it. By that point though, Aarla was already on her feet and bolting back towards the campfire.

“Mihal, get to the pod!” She called out, a second before the crack of gunfire suddenly erupted from the trees.