It was an uneventful day on Z52-48, the newest world in the Joint-Occupation Zone. Xal 'Kalek, a former Spec-Ops Commando who retired after he got too old to fight effectively, likes to train on days like these. Just because he's old doesn't mean he has to let himself go. He puts on his combat harness, the space-black armor of his old profession.
As he is finishing equipping the weapons he wishes to train with today, a beam rifle, an energy sword, and four plasma grenades, his door opens. Xal doesn't hear footsteps, his house is pretty isolated so the chances of someone he doesn't know happening upon his home are slim, and a customer would knock. Then he hears the warbling noise. It was just Floats Aimlessly, the huragok who lives with him, Xal didn't even know he left. Floats Aimlessly would sometimes go and explore the local area for materials to go into the workshop that they ran, and as usual Aims didn't drop by to say hello to the old sangheili.
Xal decides to postpone his training to see what that sentient balloon dragged in. Whenever Xal walks into the workshop he can't help but feel elated, he has acquired quite the collection over the years, he had vehicles, weapons, trophies, and purchases. Some of his collection were completely original, and some of them he heavily modified. His beam rifle is one such weapon, modified to have a larger battery size and an increase to its already impressive penetration capability.
And then he looked to the object on the workbench. It was a large, chrome sphere. Xal turned his head to look at Floats Aimlessly, who was busy inspecting the object. "What is it?"
The huragok only took his tentacles off of the sphere long enough to wave them around in a pattern that Xal recognized as, I don't know. Xal didn't exactly appreciate that answer as it was unsettling for obvious reasons.
"So you brought an unknown, possibly dangerous object into my house?" Hmm, Xal sounded far less angry than he was going for, strange, indifference wasn't his usual reaction to anything. Sometimes he would just shout for no reason at all, just the other day he got into a loud argument with a client about the existence of the color purple.
The tentacled balloon just looked at him with that permanently gleeful look on his face, and all he had to for himself was, Yes.. Now Xal was quite surprised by his own reaction. Next thing he knew he was running his hands over the sphere, marveling at its smoothness.
Then all of a sudden the top of the object opened, and slowly a flag began to rise from it, just a small red flag. Once the flag rose a few inches a blinding flash like that of a camera forced both individuals present to close their eyes. When they opened up again they were not greeted by the sight of the workshop, but a forest. The object was still present but when Xal went to pick it up it imploded and released confetti accompanied by a party noise. And now Xal and Floats Aimlessly were possibly stuck in an unknown region that might even be on a completely different planet from his house.
Xal was more than a little irritated, he would probably break down and scream if he had to pay for interstellar transit. Only thing to do now was seek civilization and get a ride home. He gestured for Floats Aimlessly to follow, unable to shake the feeling of being watched. After a few minutes of walking, Xal heard growling and breaking twigs, and he also noticed that at some point Floats Aimlessly wandered off, living up to his name Xal supposed. But back to the possible threat, he now saw red, glowing eyes, he held off on drawing his blade, no use just slaughtering animals. Then the creature emerged from the shadows. It looked like a jiralhanae, but its skin was blacker than Xal's combat harness, and it had bony protrusions and a bone faceplate, and its eyes were full of hate and murderous intent. As soon as Xal drew his blade the beast roared and charged at him. He easily sidestepped the beast, slashing one of its hind legs. The creature bellowed in pain as the blade burned through its flesh, it turned to attack Xal again only to have his sword thrust through its skull. The creature fell and began dissolving.
"Doesn't even have the decency to leave a trophy." Xal spat. He thought back to the fight, easy as it was, his movements were fast and smooth, he felt good, like he was twenty again, it seems the object from the colony wasn't just a total prank. He felt as if he could take on the whole galaxy, like he could win a fist fight against a hunter, like he- forgot about Floats Aimlessly.
If huragok weren't so valuable Xal would have just continued on his way, leave the troublesome creature behind, but he needs help maintaining his more complex equipment. That pink balloon animal couldn't have gotten far, but then again he could fly while Xal could not. Or Floats Aimlessly could just be cowering somewhere nearby. "You can come out now, it is safe." No response. "Please come out, I do not like for my time to be wasted." It seems that the gentle approach was not working. "Worthless cur!" Xal bellowed. "Get out here before I do something that we shall both regret!"
Xal didn't have time for this, so he just chose direction and began walking.
First chapter of a possibly long story, tell me what you think.