Zamquin, freeman and war leader of the Veeroth clan of the Relainna, pulls on the reins and his kup'ech stops. It is a warm day, and a slight breeze blows. He is clad in a leather jerkin. His armament includes a bronze sword and a recurve horn-and-sinew bow and several wooden arrows tied in a loop. He doubts that his armament would be effective against what he is facing.
He was facing metal people. They are metal no doubt, though clearly not bronze. The metal people are as tall as hills, and they carry huge metal clubs. Though they only have two arms instead of four, they look as if they can easily carry much more than any man. Zamquin had seen many sights and smelled many smells riding with the Veeroth clan; but he had seen no sight like this.
If they are here to steal our food beasts, all I can do is slash their toes.
"Who could it be, sir?" asks another freeman mounted on a ku'pech. "Not even the brick dwellers had that much metal, before the fire rained from the sky."
The two of them had ridden out from the camp. The metal people could be seen far away, especially as one can see very far on the flat open prairie.
"They are very powerful," says Zamquin. "I suspect that the metal people would not fear fire, even if the grass was high enough for us to set ablaze." It was a tactic that the Relainna had used against their enemies in the past. "I will keep watch. Go back."
Ooooooooo
"It's almost like looking back in time," says Captain Lisa Hayes.
"If you replace the humans with four-armed lizards," says Commander Aaron Leibowitz.
The bipeds all work in the camp. Some of them attend to the tents, while others attend to the beasts, and others fix the wagons. A fire burns under a bronze pot.
Captain Hayes looks towards Colonel Amir Santoso. "It's your call, Colonel," she says.
"We'll continue," replies the Space Marine colonel.
Less than fifteen minutes later, First Lieutenant Kimri Fadora sits at the cockpit of the Frandlar Tiluvo re-entry pod. The re-entry pod is of Zentraedi designed, remodeled to fit human crews. The pod is loaded with destroids, support vehicles, supplies, and equipment. The controls look the same to Lieutenant Fantoso- he is a Zentraedi, having operated these pods before. Of course, back then he had been much taller.
He glances towards Colonel Santoso, and then picks up the microphone.
"Santa's Sleigh to Tokugawa control," he says. "We are ready to depart."
"Permission granted," says the control officer.
The re-entry pod goes out of its hangar bay- the pod has its own dedicated hangar bay, being about one hundred forty-three feet in height. It was originally designed to carry Zentraedi battle pods, so it is very useful in transporting far smaller mecha used by the UEF.
The exterior of the re-entry pod glows as it makes contact with the planet's atmosphere. The crew of the pod looks at the instruments.
"Everything's normal," says a Space Marine private.
"ETA to LZ is forty minutes," says Fadora.
"Everything okay down there, Knight Squadron?" asks Colonel Santoso.
"Copy, everything's okay," replies Lieutenant Colonel Akira Nomura. "The, uh, natives haven't launched an attack."
"Would you attack a fifty-foot tall metal giant with arrows?"
"Maybe, sir, if a girl offered to spend the night with me," says one of the pilots on the surface.
The journey to the surface is complete without a hitch. The landing legs of the re-entry pod soon touch the grass-covered ground, with the VF-4 Lightning veritech battloids circling around it.
"Outer hatch is open, sir," says a sergeant.
Santoso puts the helmet on. He is wearing an arming doublet over his MARPAT camouflage. The doublet is airtight, allowing a Space Marine to survive in a vacuum or a toxic atmosphere. While the crew and passenger cabins are pressurized, the main cargo hold is not.
"Here," he says. A parrot sits on his arm. They both descend into the airlock. The airlock is depressurized, and both the colonel and the parrot step out into the planet's atmosphere. Soon, Santoso's boots are on the ground.
He feels significant, as if he is making history. He looks at the parrot, who is doing fine.
"Holly's okay, so I'm removing my helmet," says Santoso. He undoes the seals attaching his helmet to his doublet, and then he removes his helmet.
Amir Santoso takes a deep breath, and then exhales.
"I'm all right," he says.
He is the first person from Earth to breathe this planet's air, to breathe the air of a world outside of Earth.
Applause can be heard from the crew cabin of the re-entry pod as well as the Tokugawa's bridge.
"Okay," says the colonel, "let's move out!"
oooooooo
"It looks like they are setting up camp, sir," says Zamquin. "More of the metal people are coming out of the giant metal tent."
"I see no beasts," replies Dex, the Veeroth clan's war leader. "Wait, I see smaller people coming out. They look to be about our size, or maybe a little taller."
"Maybe the little people are servants of the big people," suggests Zamquin.
Half of the Veeroth clan's fighters had gathered here. A few of them are riding on the back of the ku'peches; others are standing on wooden chariots. Their armament consists of bows, swords, and axes.
"They do not seem to be armed with bows or swords, sir," says Zamquin. "They have those clubs, it seems."
"With those metal giants, they wouldn't need swords," says Dex.
"They have no food beasts with them."
"Either they wish to trade gold or tools with us, or just take our beasts." Dex puts his lower right hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Look," says Zamquin, "one of the metal giants is bowing down."
Ooooooo
The canopy of the VF-4 Lightning opens, and Major Kevin Landry steps out and climbs down the ladder extending down from the cockpit. He removes his helmet, breathing the air for the first time.
"It's good to have some fresh air, sir," says Landry as he faces Colonel Santoso.
The Space Marines are setting up the campsite, putting up tents and Quonset huts, activating the portable generators, and doing other things. A sergeant major barks orders. Destroids- huge machines that look like giant suits of armor- form a perimeter, relieving the pilots of the veritech guardians.
Colonel Santoso peers through binoculars. "So those nomadic herders haven't made a move against us," he says.
"They are keeping an eye on us, sir," replies Colonel Nomura.
There are three Quonsets that were set up. One serves as Colonel Santoso's private tent. The re-entry pod serves as a forward command center. The colonel enters the second Quonset. A few people are already inside, and complex electronic equipment sits on the floor or on tables.
"Is everything going okay, Doctor?" asks Santoso.
"Yes, sir," says Dr. Derek Lorne, the chief Spacy science officer assigned to the Tokugawa. "It is an honor making history here. We already set up some of the lab equipment. The air is sixty percent nitrogen, thirty-eight percent oxygen, and two percent trace gases including neon, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. Oxygen partial pressure is one fifty-five millimeters of mercury." He looks at a dark-haired young woman. "Crewman, I'll need a soil sample."
"Yes, sir," replies Crewman First Class Fatimah Abbas, a science technician.
"I'm just glad I finally hit pay dirt," says Dr. Lorne. "Just a few months ago I was teaching at a university in Calgary, when I was put on active duty and ordered to ship out. After a few months on a cramped ship, I am breathing air on another planet. In a way, it is even a greater accomplishment than what the astronauts who landed on the moon or Mars did."
"Maybe your next stop will be one of the moons around this planet," says Santoso. "Excuse me, Doctor, but I have other business to attend to."
"Yes, sir."
Later that day, dinner is served. And dinner is a fitting term, for the sun is setting. Beef stew is served; frozen beef was part of the supplies sent to the surface. Two mess tents were set up, one for officers and another for enlistees.
"Back during the Robotech War, every Space Marine above the grade of first lieutenant was an American," says Colonel Nomura. "Now here we have a squadron CO who is a Japanese lieutenant colonel, a squadron XO who is a Canadian major, and an Indonesian colonel commanding the detachment."
"Not to mention who first breathed this planet's air," says Colonel Santoso, sticking his fork into the bowl of beef stew. The beef stew is a little on the salty side.
"I wonder when Captain Hayes will be coming down here," says Major Landry. "We got this area secure."
"We might be here for a while," says Santoso. "She and the crew's senior officers may visit us when a tender shuttle delivers more supplies."
"It's a great assignment, overall," says Nomura. "But sometimes I still wish I would wake up next to my Keiko."
Ooooooo
Less than a mile away, the leaders of the Veeroth clan meet inside a huge leather tent. Their agenda for this meeting is of course, the metal people.
"I urge caution," says a member of the clan's council, sitting in front of a fire. "So far, the metal people have not made a move against us."
"These are our hunting grounds," says another councilor, a scar across his scaled face. "They trespass on our hunting grounds. They should leave or die."
"They have metal flesh," says the clan war-leader Dex. "We had enough trouble fighting the brick dwellers' bronze-armored warriors. Not only that, they can fly through the air like birds, making up for them having only two arms."
The others nod. The brick-dwelling tribes had those giant stone buildings along mountain passes and the junctions of rivers, driving the clans of the Relainna into the interior. It was not until the rain of fire, when the giant stone buildings were overthrown, that the Relainna clans were able to take the plains all the way to the crestline of the mountains and to the ocean. In fact, many of the brick-dwellers had been adopted into the tribe and its clans.
"And if they come to take our food beasts," says another councilor.
Oooooooo
High above the planet, Crewman Dan Milliome sits at his console on the Tokugawa's bridge, looking at the telescans of the world below. The bridge is lit dimly, and the crewman just had supper.
"I wish I could be down there," says Milliome. "The Space Marines and the science team must be having a blast."
"And don't forget the pay bonuses," says Lieutenant Vince Grant. "Don't forget that you'd have to go through decon. Who knows what germs there are down there? And if someone like gets sick and dies or gets maimed, then the planet down there will be quarantined, and everyone already there will spend the rest of their lives there. That is why they're getting the extra pay bonuses, Milliome."
"Never thought about it like that, sir. I was looking forward for some shore leave. Wait, I think I see something down there."
The image from the probe shows a few short trees. And it also shows something else. "I'm magnifying it, sir."
Grant takes a look. "Is it being recorded?" he asks.
"Yes, sir," replies Milliome.
"I'll inform Captain Hayes and Commander Leibowitz in the morning."
Ooooooo
The chair of the clan council stands before the clan's assembly. The assembly- every able-bodied adult, numbering some seventy persons- all stand in the night air.
"These metal people have no food beasts of their own, and they intend to take ours," says the council chair. "We ask for your assent to fight."
The Relainna clans have an element of near-anarchic democracy. Big decisions are voted upon in a general assembly of free persons- such as a decision to fight an unknown enemy.
The crowd shrieks.
"Get your bows and prepare the chariots," says Dex.
Ooooooooo
The door to the Quonset opens, and a Space Marine corporal enters.
"Colonel," says the corporal, "the locals- they seem to be riding towards us. We can see the cloud of dust. We think they'll be here in about three minutes."
"Dismissed," says Colonel Santoso. He walks out into the starlit night. One of the destroids shines a spotlight. The Space Marine colonel climbs into his own MBR-04-Mk VI Tomahawk destroid. He had not any time to properly button up- he is still clad in his MARPAT camouflage, minus the arming doublet destroid pilots usually wear. He presses a button, closing the cockpit.
"Okay, people," he says. "No one is to fire upon them unless they attack or I give the order. Everyone not in a destroid or veritech take cover. The locals may fire arrows."
The display before him reveals a cloud of dust. Magnification reveals several dozen chariots pulled by six-legged reptiloid creatures.
Colonel Santoso grips the joystick and pulls the trigger. The beam cannon on the Tomhawk's left arm fires a beam, going over the heads of the local charioteers, and cuasing an explosion in the distance, far away from the locals' tent camp.
"You might not understand what I am saying," says Santoso, speaking through a loudspeaker, "but you will understand this. We have the power to destroy you, and we choose not to. Steer clear of us and you will live. Attack us and you will die."
Santoso looks at the main display and can see the chariots withdrawing. He magnifies the image to see the individual chariot drivers.
They're not turning their backs to us, he thinks. I have to admire these…people.
Ooooooo
"The locals were trying to start a fight," says Colonel Santoso, speaking inside the command center inside the re-entry pod. "I fired a warning shot and they've stayed away from us. There were no casualties reported."
"Good," replies Captain Lisa Hayes, speaking from her office inside the Tokugawa. "Colonel, we've scanned the rest of the planet and we've found something interesting. We found the wreckage of an alien spaceship in a forest about four thousand miles from your campsite. It is night there right now, although it should be morning in two hours."
"Whose is it?" asks Santoso.
"We have our suspicions, but we want a closer look to be sure," answers Lisa.
"Ma'am, I can go over there and check it out myself," says Colonel Nomura.
"You do that and take two others with you," orders Colonel Santoso.
Ooooooo
Lieutenant Colonel Akira Nomura makes a last minute check on the flight and engine instruments of his VF-4 Lightning veritech guardian.
"Knight Leader is moving out," says the squadron CO. He and two other Lightnings take off in guardian mode up to the night sky, and then the veritechs switch to fighter mode, looking like a fighter jet.
"Knight Leader, we are transmitting the coordinates," says Lieutenant Grant.
"Copy," replies Nomura. In a few minutes the three planes are flying over the blue ocean at Mach 3. "ETA is thirty-five minutes."
The sky becomes lighter and lighter, and then the red sun peeks over the horizon. "We're over the target area," says Nomura. "Reducing airspeed." The colonel watches his airspeed indicator. "Switching to guardian mode." The veritech's legs fold down, allowing for vertical thrust and flight at reduced airspeeds. "Airspeed is now 30 knots. Images are being transmitted."
Captain Lisa Hayes and the others on the Tokugawa's bridge look at the holographic image from Colonel Nomura's Lightning. They see a green, cigar-shaped ship. The rear is broken, exposing the ribs.
"That is definitely Zentraedi," says the captain.
"A Tou Redir Zentraedi scout ship, to be precise," says a staff sergeant on board the bridge. "Used for scouting space."
"We're going down to take a closer look," says Nomura.
The three Lightnings land next to the crashed Zentraedi scout ship in their battloid modes. The battloid mode of a veritech is about as tall as a macronized Zentraedi.
"So this is the inside of a Zentraedi ship," says Lieutenant Kathleen Taney. "Everything is so big."
The three battloids entered through a breach in the hull and are walking along the corridors of the scout ship. The only light comes from the veritechs. A room reveals several beds; presumably the sleeping quarters for the ship's crew.
"Maybe we can salvage this ship," says Third Lieutenant Juan Alavarez.
They continue walking along the corridors and enter a huge room with consoles and monitors.
"The ship's bridge," says Nomura.
The bridge looks pretty much the same as the Tokugawa's bridge- if the Earth ship's bridge was over one hundred feet from deck to ceiling.
"Where is the ship's crew?" asks Taney. "There should be bodies."
"Maybe they all survived," says Alvarez.
"But what would they eat?" asks Nomura. "Life here must have a different biochemistry from Zentraedi life."
After about an hour of exploring the crashed Zentraedi scout ship, the three veritechs go out into the forests.
"Knight Leader, I suggest we take samples of the flora here for Dr. Lorne's team," says Taney. "We are explorers here."
"You and Alvarez take samples," replies Nomura. "But keep your suits on. We don't need you two to get some rash- or to die because the plants' oil is a deadly neurotoxin or something."
The two veritechs transform to guardian mode, and the Space Marine pilots step out. They are dressed in airtight flight suits.
Lieutenant Alvarez cuts a leaf and places it in a plastic bag. He hears rustling.
"Wait, I think there's something there," he says.
And then he feels pain in his shoulder. He looks and sees the shaft of an arrow piercing him.
More arrows fly. Lieutenant Taney fires a few rounds from her pistol.
"Man down!" she yells. "We have a man down."
"Are you okay?" asks Nomura.
"Alvarez has been shot with an arrow," says Taney.
"Scout the area for any more hostiles. I'm going down."
Lieutenant Taney walks a few feet, and then looks down upon her.
She sees a four-armed, bipedal reptiloid form below her, lying on the ground.
"We have another wounded here," she says.
Colonel Nomura runs up to her and looks at the wounded alien. "Take Alvarez with you and head back to the beachhead," he says. "I'll take the alien."
Minutes later, two VF-4 Lightnings are flying in fighter mode. They are double-seated, allowing for an extra passenger in cases like this.
"Knight Leader to Beachhead," says Nomura. "We have two wounded."