"Dizzy?"

On a flat horizontal computer terminal, a projection beamed up, the light molding into the shape of a simple blue orb. It was a rolling, boiling mass in appearance, twitching and changing shape with every word it ever spoke. This object was called Dizzy, the name it had decided to chose, its voice sounded cynical, and the voice always taunting and teasing. Only those with a sick sense of humor, or a lot of patience were able to really put up with it.

"Hello Yuriy."

"How are our oxygen levels?"

"Perfectly fine, really. I don't know why you're worrying about it; there is a big green and blue planet right below you."

"We have no idea what's down there."

"Actually…" If it had a humanoid appearance, the way it lilted its voice would have matched a smirk most likely. "We've gone over this before Yuriy." The voice changed to that of a mother talking to a young child. "There are several species below; aqua, air, and terrestrial. Hundreds of kilometers of foliage. Specifically forests."

"Can you show me?"

The rotating ball in the screen glitched out of existence, the projected screen flicking into a sort of camera mode that panned over the tops of lush green canopy. Everywhere there were giant trees, trees bigger than what was ever known on his home planet; Earth. But much else from within those trees couldn't be seen, and no wildlife was seen soaring above the trees. The terminal panned to what Tala assumed was the ocean of this planet; it was a clean blue green, shimmering under this planets sun, that star keeping it constantly warm. The computer was able to zoom in closer to the water as it raced the image across the terminal. In the clear surface of the water, sleek, silvery blue porpoise like creatures were dashing below. Their noses were exceedingly long, serrated on both sides like a saw, their bodes undulating rapidly as they swam after a school of yellow and green medium sized fish, their resemblance to tuna was uncanny, though their fins were longer and sharper, and when the fish breached the surface, seemed to skim above the water as though easily flying. And then a porpoise would jump from the water, give a mighty shake of its head and lash the fish to ribbons, flopping down on its pieced up prey and quickly snapping it up.

"They don't look too terribly different from the sea creatures on earth."

"You're right, but I sense greater creatures far below where my cameras can't see, when you breach the planet, skim the ocean and drop one of my wireless mechanical marbles in it."

"Roger. How's Ivan and his team doing by the way?"

Suddenly a screen flashed from what had been panning multiple views of the inactive forest and then of the ocean and pod of porpoise they'd found-to a blank shuttle compartment. It wasn't as spacious as his own, but the team it housed was generally smaller of stature, and smaller of crew. A face suddenly popped into view, breathless and red cheeked.

"Ivan, get your big nose out of the lens, I can't see a thing."

The one called Ivan stepped back, ruffling his hair and scratching his nose in embarrassment. "I came as soon as Dizzy called." Yuriy nodded on his side, looking around the terminal on Ian's side. "Well? Status update?" Ivan jumped, stumbled over some words before able to spit everything out. "Upon landing we ran into a multitude of non-sentient species. Some aggressive and others not. We have taken samples from the ones that we can get close to, the aggressive ones we have tracked and simply picked up left behind DNA. We are trying to keep a constant feed of information streaming into Dizzy. "A lot of the feed I'm getting feels like simply overgrown hampsters." Ivan chuckled and nodded, "Honestly, that's what a lot of these creatures are looking like."

Yuriy nodded, expecting an online document to be uploaded once Ivan compiled the complete list of species on the planet, or as complete of one he could get. "Good," Yuriy nods, "keep it up, and watch your selves. Don't get too comfortable with the masses there. If it's anything like earth, they could turn at the drop of a needle. Watch your back." Ivan smiles balefully, nodding. "You too, Captain." The redhead only nodded and manually clicked the screen closed; Dizzy came back, its rotund shape orbiting in view again.

"So are you finally going enter and do /your/ job now?"

"Yes, I'm going to suit up with the rest of my team and then we will land. Prepare the ship and list to me pertinent details about the planet."

The many cabins of the ship very large as it had to be both fast when fleeing other ships (if any were ever encountered) but convenient for housing a small family sized crew. The ship was named the Blitzkrieg. While at light speed travel for short distances at a time, it also had a small arsenal of powerful weapons-allowing its crew to be confident in their survivability.

Yuriy entered one of the cabins that was obviously the locker room. That was where the rest of his crew was. Sergei, the tall heavy infantry man was the brute squad, stoic face, all brawn but not too terribly stupid. He always stood fast, strong and sturdy when faced with opposition. Geared up in a protective suit of white, orange and blue. Layered atop it was his thick protective armor. His blond hair mused and sticking to his forehead. Helmet in his lap as he checks all of its components for safety. He looks up when Yuriy entered and gives a curt nod of respect to his captain. Sergei was his most loyal as far as Yuriy was concerned.

Boris, prematurely grayed from the Siberian conditions of his home country on his home planet of earth. He was also donned in the white, orange and blue jump suit. Helmet under his arm, resting against his hip as he stood facing another of the members, having been talking to him. Boris was medium infantry, also part of the brute squad if only because he was completely merciless. His face constantly curled in a condescending expression, but it fell to a more confident smirk when he saw Yuriy.

That was when the last of their crew stood up. Two toned, wild haired Kai. Fiery eyes, all cold shoulder and icy words. His jump suit was only partially on; the belt was what held the lower half on while the rest hung down along his legs. He was a reserve special operative. Similar to Yuriy, both with roguish capabilities and secretive, spy-esque training. Kai was not nearly as loyal to Yuriy as the other crew was; he was a loner by nature. However these men he got along with solely because he'd been raised with them on a Russian satellite for the pure purpose of space exploration and if needed-war. If Yuriy was not around for orders, they would go to Kai as Kai knew best what Yuriy might want.

Their red haired captain joined them, striding to his locker so that he could get his suit.

"Put your chip in, Dizzy has shit to say." He commands them all while beginning to suit up. His soldiers obey him, as soon as all of their chips are locked into their ears—Dizzy begins to speak.

"Big, Blue. What more could you want? Never mind that it's at a consistent 32C to 39C, I wont even get into the humidity index, you'll just have to feel it for yourself. Aside from the temperatures of this area, it's mostly mountainous, hot, wet, and foresty. It's absolutely teeming with life. Omnivorous, Carnivorous, and Herbivorous."

There is a click somewhere in her speech as Boris grabs a Trench gun and begins to load in its individual rounds.

"There is plenty of oxygen and a considerably lower amount of pollutants, metals, and harmful gasses in their water, land, and air. My guess is due to the fact there is zero modernization. Of course, compared to you, that is. While you orbited I was able to pick up minute signs of humanoid habitation." This grabbed their attention, all of them looked up sharply from the weapons they were readying to stare at each other. "That's right boys, big bad aliens. But remember, you are the ones with technology they've never seen before. You're the ones with a foreign language. /You/ are the ones who look and act different. Who are the real aliens anymore?"

After that she went completely silent and they knew they wouldn't be hearing anything more from her. Her silence meant they better well make clear of the species that lived on this world, and treat it carefully. They didn't want to think of an existence where the smartest being they've ever met was no longer on their side.

Kai hefted a giant sniper rifle and snapped it onto his back and then pulled a FAMAS off of the rack. Then he strapped belts of rounds for all of his guns to his hips and thighs as a belt. Yuriy had seized a FAMAS, but also the ever reliable AR-15 and a small Ray gun. It was one of their more technologically advanced guns, medium sized pistol in shape, it had six rounds per charge, each 'round' was a beam that sustained for five seconds. It shot at incinerating heat. It's cool down period was a few minutes though, and that made it extremely unreliable at times. Sergei had a 'mountable', which he could also have strapped to his body; he was as sturdy as a stone wall and had two disks with its hundreds of bullets in each, he was the only one capable of handling the powerhouse. On his back was an AK-103 along side its accessory of a grenade launcher.

One would think that in this day an age, there would be a whole arsenal of laser capable weapons, but truth is, the majority of those had to be designed too large for singular human usage and were vastly made for air craft, space crafts and water crafts. And the weapons of so long ago had never lost their reliability, armor piercing, incendiary bullets, exploding bullets. Evolution wasn't much needed for weapons.

There had been a small bump during their dress down, Dizzy had guided the ship to a clearing and landed it for them. It was so smooth of a job they hadn't noticed they were even that close to the planet.

Comfortably decked in armor and weapon, Yuriy looked each of them over before nodding. "Let's head out." Their tall, muscular bodies loped to the end of the hold they were in. Yuriy was reaching for a gas mask by the side of a large door, his team following his lead when a static voice screeched in their ear. "There aren't any gasses in the air that human bodies cannot handle. Don't make yourselves look anymore inhuman and frightening." They paused, and frustration crossed Boris's features, but still Yuriy's hand then shifted from the masks to pressing a button on the side of the ship, a door was lifted upwards, in length of ten feet across while a bridge was lowered the remaining few feet to the ground. They were assaulted with all kinds of sounds, smells, and sights. Everywhere was bright, green, and glistening. The sound of buzzing from miniscule bugs, the squeak of crickets, and hum of lightening fast birds. The world smelled wet like fresh fallen rain, sweet with nectar from fruits and plants, spicy with ground rot and the scent of certain flowering plants. And all about them, everything simply towered like they had never witnessed before. The trees were all hundreds of feet thick and round, hundreds of feet tall, and still some were taller. Flowers which curled on vines in bright reds and violets seemed as large as their torso's. Leaves from drooping ferns as big as their heads. Sharp branches jutted out from every trunk of the tree at all kinds of height's, as they left the bridge of the ship to let it close, they had to duck under some hanging dead branches to get further into the forest. They watched in fascination, though with caution and raised guns as they suddenly were under inspection by three hummingbird like creatures; their beaks were long and pointed, their eyes black and beady, and their silky feathers glistening greener than the plants around them to help them blend in. They were half the size of the humans, and Yuriy had the impression these were some of the smaller species of life on this planet. The fan of wind from these gloriously bright birds pressed against them, the hum from their wings made their hearts flutter. On impulse Boris reached out to touch one, but suddenly their calm exploration of the humans turned frantic, they fluttered all around them before zipping off in the opposite direction they had come from, they had seemed scared to the troops. "Boris!" Yuriy had hissed at him, and the grey haired had hung his head. His affinity and love of birds had gotten the better of him. But it wasn't too long after the humming birds had fled that they would find out Boris hadn't been the reason of their fright. A low buzzing can be heard in the distance, it resonates through the forest, and almost seems to be coming from all around them as it grows closer. The sound is annoying, almost painful to the ears, and once more they take up arms. Sergei checks the straps of his mountable before leveling the gun at hip level and making sure the safety is off. Kai exchanges for his Snipe, and Yuriy seems comfortable with his AR. As soon as they've all shouldered their guns, from the bush gushes a stream of mosquito's much larger than life. Their abdomens are longer than a man, their heads the size of boulders, and their proboscis long and thick and sharply edged. They were a greasy, wiry black haired gangly legged monster. And the team wasted no time in gunning them down. Short gusts from the mountable spattered them in the doubles against the trees and ground. While Kai kneels behind the team, beheading them with a swift shot, quickly and efficiently. The short, loud crack of the Trench gun could be heard, Boris laughing as he guns down giant bug after bug with one effective shot each. The round splitting on fire and tearing the bugs apart on impact. Yuriy at his back, firing with much more reserve, and a much more determined and serious face. The bugs didn't let up until the last of their guts were hanging from the plants. Kai surreptitiously sweeps part of a shelled thorax and its hanging guts off of his shoulder. "Don't worry Kai, there's nothing in your hair." Boris sneers, his way of showing his good mood at being able to kill. Kai only rolls his eyes and checks discreetly to make sure his war-pain didn't smear.

"That was gruesome, I had no idea everything was so… fascinatingly huge."

Kai rolls his eyes, rotates his scapula and shakes out his legs. "Thanks for the heads up Dizzy." He yawns sarcastically, turning towards Yuriy. "If all of your ammo is alright, let's penetrate deeper into the forest. We need to be more careful this time, and Dizzy!"

"Yes Kai dear?"

"Warn us if you see any blimps coming our way."

"Awh, but that ruins the surprise. I have to keep you on your toes you know!"

But they all knew she would tell them if there were targets headed their way, so with unspoken consent, Sergei took the lead, gun pointed forward as he crept as quietly as he could further away from his ship, and deeper into the forest, Boris at his back, Yuriy following and Kai holding up the rear.

They saw many things as they trekked over root and stone, black, naked, leather hide bat like creatures hanging from the branches on long thorned tails, with large, bright red eyes and pointed snouts. They saw a few more colorful birds, with scoop beaks, or curved straw like beaks. All plumage bright, colorful, elaborate. The dull colored birds they knew to be female, though they seemed a tad bit bigger than the males. At one time they saw a black mantis sitting prone on the trunk of a tree, it was twice Sergei's size, the body was angled towards the ground, so when it felt them coming near, it had to lift it's head up so that it may watch them pass. It left them alone, and it's shining, knife like forearms remained embedded in the tree.

"This wildlife is amazing, they're so similar to things on earth, but appear vastly externally different. And-…" She went silent, this caused the sweating team to pause, suddenly concerned about the silence. "Dizzy?" Intones Yuriy with a bit of worry. "Right in front, fast moving targets. About eight of them. They're big. Hot thermals. Large brain waves. Be careful, boys."

They stop moving, muscles quivering, or they thought those were their muscles before they realized it was the environment around them. The bushes and vines and stones were all moving. A pounding sound reached their ears, the crunch of branches beneath feet; heavy panting reached their ears before with a roar from the trees broke muscled, bright tigers. The team of Russian soldiers staggered back as they were circled. Canines dipping from their jaws like sabers, their chests ensconced in protective elaborate metal, they were white furred with orange stripes, some had red stripes and yellow stripes, but one, the one at the lead, the biggest of them all, standing almost as high as a small house at the jaw-Was a black lion, billowing lavender mane. Its eyes an electrifying glowing hue similar to its mane. A rumbling growl came from its chest as it crouched. They saw their life flash before their eyes-thinking it was about to pounce; but it did not. Instead from its shoulder to its mighty paw slid a rather ethereal being. Tall, muscled leanly and glinting golden under the light filtered through the canopy. They all stared into slitted yellow eyes, before the head turned away from them, laying a clawed hand on the tigers forearm. Thick, black hair swayed against an obviously muscled back, shirtless but for the scars he wore proudly over his rippling body. Black trousers tapered at the knees, a red sash holding it up. Then it turned back towards them, raised its right arm which held a glinting spear and pointed it at them. The necklace of sharp teeth and stone beads around his neck rattled at the action, but his arm did not tremble in the slightest as he simply held it there. The humanoid creature didn't even try and speak, knowing there was no way they could communicate. So instead, this creature opened its mouth to show off sharp canines and hissed, his body practically bristling as he glared with thin pupils down the barrel of the guns. Body language was the best way of communication after all. He and his troop had heard the guns, the frightening crack of them like ominous thunder. Invaders, invaders that had to be destroyed and stopped before reaching the rest of their kind!