The Streake finally looked up, as little Mikey tapped his shoulder and pointed to what was now a tree top on fire.
"Wha? UhOh!" he said, getting a firm grip on said suckling, before dropping down to the ground below, "looks like we better high tail it back to my camp and call this in." unfortunately, upon arrival back at his camp, he found out that all communications with the planets owners had been severed, and all he could receive was static. At least he found some diapers and formula for the little tyke. He also found a collapsible ship portable water bucket for fire fighting, which he blessed his wives for leaving on the ship after the last Family vacation, when one of his wonderful daughters was going through her Pyro Phase.
As for the other humans in the vicinity, curiosity was taken up with the immediate planning of populating the planet with humans. For some of the more unstable of the groups, the sudden storm was considered the beginning of the end. While the escape plans of a couple of teenagers, not to mention a hysterical mom, swung into motion, the thought of actually going after a crashing space ship, for some reason didn't click into anyone's brain.
Ohni-mai might have, had she not been undergoing some much needed pampering, as the Guardian program now deemed it to dangerous for her and Rose to be outside any more today.
Suffice it to say, our illustrious time travelers managed to actually land the craft, without to much damage, and unfortunately, all three were now in unconsciousness land.
"Are we close yet?" Isabelle whispered to Royce as the damaged trees led them closer to the crash sight.
"Almost there, judging by the damage Isabelle." he replied.
"Can you hear anything?" Hawk asked Claw, as the group moved in from the other side of the crash site.
"Mo, all I'm getting is static on all channels." he replied.
"Tammarhee, check out your masks sensors, can you see anything?" Paya requested, taking up point with Uhlsa, Wave and Ahnk.
"Nothing. What ever it was carrying, doesn't register hard meat yet." he replied, falling in with his brother, as the group reformed into Hive formation. "Not taking any chances either."
"Are we dead yet?" groaned Shorty.
"Mo." replied Topknot.
"At least it wasn't me ship crashing this time." piped up Machiko as she tried to move and found herself pinned rather intimately between Shorty and the crash foam.
"I'd laugh if my ribs didn't hurt." Shorty replied, discovering that he really didn't want Machiko to notice just how long it had been since he had a female.
"You two can talk about the first thing to pop up later, right now, I think we're stuck." groaned Topknot as he tried to sit up.
"Haha." replied Machiko with a raging blush on her face, having noticed something below Shorty's waiste.
"Moooo, you don't say!" quipped Shorty, as Machiko was able to shift a little bit off his lap, much to his relief.
"Oh, but I do say." smirked Topknot.
"Any idea where we are?" Shorty asked.
"Yeah," replied Machiko, "We're right here." which got some chuckles if a little strained from both males.
"At least she has a sense of humor." chuckled Topknot, smiling at both of his erstwhile companions.
Grins were his only reply.
Deep within what had first appeared to be an abandoned mining vessel, ancient computers slowly began to come to life. Ancient machinery began to flicker, cough and finally splutter into life. Energy waves, gravitational fluxes, atmospheric pressures, all of these readings including magnetic polarities were analyzed, as computers began to talk to each other, checking, formulating, ciphering, until a decision was made. Ancient power cores began to slowly come to life as the computers sent out messages to themselves activating ancient protocols to protect the fragile trinary system from the incoming wave of flux energy, which was just now beginning to exit the vicinity of the newly formed wormhole.
Had anyone looked up, no-one would have seen from the planet, the beautiful rainbow wave of energy heading their way in a massive planet wide swathe of doom. It was also definitely growing wider.
On Royce's and Tammaree's masks, a soft chime alert suddenly sounded as a new graphic image popped up on the lower right hand side. To Royce, it looked a lot like the derelict where he and his group had first taken shelter at with the scavenger. To Tammarhee, it looked a lot like a planet sized magnetic gravitational shielding machine, the sort not seen in operation for eons.
"Looks like something's activated the power for the derelict Izzy." Royce said.
"Uhoh! Umm Guys? We might have a problem!" Tammarhee said.
"Really? What?" said Isabelle and Tavarhee as both groups suddenly broke cover and were now facing each other with an obviously crashed ship B'ketween them.
Both groups stopped in shock, simply staring at each other as the small ship suddenly flickered out of sight and back again rapidly for several seconds, which got their attention, then began to register on both masks as if it had always been there.
"Ummm, don't make any sudden moves Royce." Izzy whispered, as her counterparts on the other side whispered the same thing.
"Huh?" Royce grunted, taking his eyes off an obvious countdown to something just as Tammarhee was doing the same thing. "That's not what I was talking about, but ok." He and Tammarhee answered his companions at the same time.
Quickly looking at each other, both groups saw that the other wasn't armed, although what a human would want with a child's hunting equipment was beyond the Hish, and as for Royce and Izzy, it was a wonderment as to why a bunch of Hunting aliens would be running around the woods wearing nothing but knee length skirts! Rather colorful knee length skirts at that. Izzy suddenly felt rather overdressed for the occasion.
Inside the ship, our erstwhile time travelers were now back to the land of nod, as the flux energy finally dissipated, placing the group more in the now, rather than space.
Wave raised an eyebrow at the obvious female human who suddenly seemed uncomfortable in her rather male clothing, and he couldn't help but smirk, thrusting a hip out to the side, as though he were obviously checking her out.
"You don't suppose their dangerous do you?" Sham whispered, not trusting himself to speak, since he hadn't expected there to be humans in the immediate area.
"No, but I get the clue that this might be the humans Pearl was babbling about." Ahnk whispered back.
The soft chimes dinged again, bringing the attention of the two masked humanoids back to the immediate readouts. Which now clearly showed a countdown to planet wide activation, and a secondary readout showing 3 lifeforms inside, still alive.
"We got something big getting ready to happen in about an hour, and there are three survivors on board." Royce and Tammarhee both spoke, almost at the same time.
Isabelle took a chance, acting before anyone else could, she stepped forward, pointed at herself, then Royce, then the ship, and held up 3 fingers, pointed to the ship again, and mimed dragging something, then pointed at the Hish.
Wave stepped forward, pointed at Isabelle, pointed at the ship, held up 3 fingers, pointed at his group, then made a motion for the two humans to take a wide berth around the ship towards his group.
"I think he wants us to come over Royce." she whispered.
"Are you sure that's wise? I mean, these guys have been hunting us Izzy." Royce whispered back.
"Yeah, I think they're here for the same reason we are, to help what ever is in that ship." she said, taking his hand.
With a nod, Royce and Isabelle, took a chance that the strangely dressed Hunters would not harm them, and indeed were there for the same reasons. To help the survivors.
The group of Hish waited, wondering if the humans could be trusted.
Once Royce and Isabelle were close enough to speak without raising voice, Royce stepped forward, pointed to himself, "Royce", pointed to Isabelle, "Isabelle", then pointed to the ship "Help". He then waited, not knowing he was holding his proverbial breathe, until Wave stepped forward again.
Wave looked at the small human male, and wondered what the smaller female saw in him, that she would feel threatened by his presence.
"Wave" he said pointing at himself, his name spoken in a soft growl, almost a hiss. "Help" he mimicked, wondering if he should have taken Earth English instead of Vietnamese. "Help" he spoke in fluent Vietnamese, wondering if the humans spoke it as well. Although judging from the surprised looks on both of their faces, he didn't think so.
Royce and Isabelle quickly glanced at each other, then almost as one, ran through every language, each was fluent at asking if Wave could understand it.
Needless to say, the Hish were just as equally surprised that the humans were actually trying to communicate, rather than pantomiming. It didn't take long for both parties to realize that sign language and names were the only means of communications since neither groups spoke a common mimicry language.
Uhlsa cleared his throat, which made every one jump, then he pointed at the ship, as if to remind them that time was of the essence.
Nodding, Royce pointed to himself, then made a palms up gesture as if to ask who would go with him to the ship. Ahnk pointed to himself, "Ahnk" then signed that the group and Isabelle would remain outside. Royce nodded.
"Stay here Izzy, I'm going in with Ahnk." Royce said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Alright." she said, suddenly feeling rather uncomfortable in the presence of so many rather muscly males, even if they were wearing skirts.
Motioning Ahnk ahead of him, Royce stepped towards the ship, not knowing what they would find inside, and not knowing if it would have to be mercifully put down or not. Ahnk was thinking the same thing, even as he stepped next to the human male, and both proceeded to the small ships hatch. Unlike Royce tho, Ahnk had experience in merciful endings, especially since sometimes, no matter how badly damaged, an individuals will to succeed, often kept him alive, when he should already be with the Gods themselves. He wondered if the human was strong enough not to break should there be remains that once were people on board.
And as the two walked away, Wave did what Wave was known for amongst the females, and checked Isabelle out, rather obviously, and complete with a cute little wolf whistle, which Royce heard. The obvious goggle definitely got an eyebrow raised from Izzy.
As for our two heroes, fortunately, neither would be put to the test of mental endurance required concerning flux survivors. For as the hatch groaned it's way open, the cockpit could be seen from outside, and both exhaled a breathe, neither knew he had been holding. Inside, cushioned by crash foam, our time travelers blissfully snored.
Moving quickly, Royce and Ahnk, checked out what were now obviously 2 males, and a semi naked and bound, human female. This brought a chitter of curiosity from Ahnk, especially since the female was sitting on the lap of one male, with her arms draped around his neck. Which made him wonder if whether or not the two had been doing it. Looking at Royce, Ahnk pointed to the female, then Royce's mask. Grasping the idea, Royce stepped up, and let the mask tell him if the female was injured. Shaking his head no, he pointed to her, then mimed carrying her off. Ahnk nodded, then lifted Machiko off of Shorty's lap, and pointed to Royce, then the remaining survivors, before heading outside with the unconscious female.
Once outside, he carefully laid the female down on the ground. "looks like there are 2 males and this human female. I think she belongs to one of the males." he said to the group, while stepping back, allowing Isabelle to see to her. Isabelle was surprised as what the female was wearing, since the clothing didn't look anything earth made. She couldn't help but look up at the others in surprise.
"Are they one of us?" Wave asked.
"No, looks like the males are Yautja." Ahnk replied.
Wave didn't look to happy. "Alright. If she's Eta slave, we can't simply take her from them, not without a fight or payment."
Inside, Royce had scanned the other 2 survivors, and discovered that the shorter male had 3 cracked ribs, and the taller one a concussion. He was debating about whether he should simply slit their throats, when he heard Ahnk return. Looking up, he was rather surprised when Ahnk gently grasped his shoulder, and gave it a slight shake, almost as if he were reassuring Royce, not just greeting him.
Nodding, Royce timidly returned the gesture, and then pointed to the smaller male, then to his ribs, then to the taller male, then to his head. Ahnk nodded, pointed to the smaller male, then Royce, then to the taller male, then himself. Royce nodded, and stepping out of Ahnk's way, allowed the much larger Hish male to remove Topknot before he, now realizing that the unconscious male was not a lightweight, began to remove Shorty from the ship.
Once outside, the Hish relieved him of his burden, and motioning for Royce and Isabelle to follow, took up formation around all of them, and started heading back to camp, where a rather nervous Pearl had a whole lot of fun trip trapping the place, since he was there alone.
The Streake, now with little Mikey in a suckling carrier, had managed to hitch up the bucket, and was now flying over the tree tops dumping water to prevent the fire from spreading. He couldn't help but chuckle each time the little tot would laugh and point, trying to mimic words, as they flew slowly over the river and trees. He idylly wondered, if he could convince his wives to let him keep the little tot. Especially if his mother was already dead.
The Veil meanwhile had been in contact with the planets computer which had recognized the Veils protection protocols, and although the machine was organic, had begun to take the necessary steps to protect it's charges from the sudden atmospheric changes that were about to take place.
And as everyone headed back to the camps, said owners of the preserve were desperately trying to re-establish communications with the guests, to warn them of the impending energy wave and to take necessary precautions if not already on the ground.
The ancient machines detecting the new communications waves, sent out the atmospheric weather control alert, warning everyone that the weather control stations were now going off line, the energy to be shunted by the computers towards the shield and rotation stabilizers. Without this control of the weather, the combined atmospheres of all three planets would soon create a phenomenon known as atmospheric breathing, which could cause sudden extreme changes in both weather patterns, as well as temperatures. The loss of the rotation stabilizers on the other hand, could tear all three planets apart.
Had anyone actually been looking in the direction of the old derelict, would have seen the ancient magnetic pulse control generator slowly light up like a Christmas tree in July, as it came online, a laser pulse of target acquisition for planetary stabilization for rotation sent out, answered by others from the other planets. Which sent information back to the old program, informing it to initiate countdown to system wide shielding.
Unfortunately for Ohni-mai, and the others already on planet, once the weather control devices went off line, the resulting windstorm would prevent any but the most fool hardy from venturing forth, and as the alerts were sent out, folks already on the ground, began to anchor lock their vehicles to the ground. While those within range of the broadcast who haven't landed already, immediately began to land, warning those further out to vacate the area. While those closest to the incoming wave, sent recording and a few hardy souls, actually ventured forth into the wave to broadcast it's destructive nature. If there were survivors, they weren't found in this time line, or region of space.