July 21, 11,958 CE
Southern Continent (Continent 3) of Geonosis, Geonosis System, Midgard Sector, Arcturus Stream…
URDC Survey Team 113, consisting of four Androids, walked carefully through the eerie geological formations of the N'g'zi Badlands, scanning and documenting what they saw, and transmitting the data to orbital servers.
"Damn insects," Antropoff cursed, clumsily trying to wipe the small clawed bugs cleaning to her uniform. "Why do they keep sticking to us? They should know we aren't edible!"
Chief Maya, the expedition chief, chuckled lightly at Antropoff's struggles. "Those are called Phidnas, a parasitic insectoid lifeform. Apparently, the heat signatures of us Androids vaguely resemble some of the animals they feed off of."
"I know that!" Antropoff squished one, which burst into a small fireball, the creature's internal fluids capable of ignition under the right circumstances in Geonosis' atmosphere. "They're just so annoying."
"At least you've never had to run into a Merdeth," Whitlam-3 added. "That's a real monster if I've ever seen one."
"I saw one eat three Androids at once!" Gurbanguly gestured excitedly. "Granted they all survived, but cleaning and repairs are a mess."
Antropoff opened her mouth to say something, but Maya gestured for the group to be quiet. "Shhh! Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Voices… I think… but not any language I know… Animals, maybe?" Maya led the team some ways off their original route.
"Maybe it's those aliens Team 68 was going on about!" Gurbanguly whispered.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Whitlam-3 cautioned.
Maya rounded a rock formation- and came face to face with a strange, gangly, bipedal insectoid creature.
Looking surprised, the creature made a series of loud chittering noises and lifted a strange claw-like device- a weapon, it seemed- which glowed green. Then a bolt of green energy shot out, striking Maya in the torso and knocking her over.
"Son of a bitch!" Antropoff lifted her rifle to fire, but Whitlam grabbed her arm.
"Stop! This is a first contact scenario! Protocol is to disengage if possible!"
"Bullshit! They fired first!"
Several other similar creatures now flew over, carried by four rapid-fluttering, insectoid wings, and began firing green energy bolts.
"Take cover! Limit to warning shots for now!" Whitlam shouted, urging restraint. "Try to avoid harming them!"
Gurbanguly grabbed the damaged Maya and dragged her into cover behind a rock formation. "Chief, are you alright?"
"Yeah," Maya grunted. "Nasty surprise… needed to reboot some systems there, but I don't think their weapons actually do much damage to us."
"Some superficial damage," Gurbanguly observed. "What are your orders?"
"Urgh… we stay with protocol and avoid killing them! Warning shots for now! It's possible they fired because they were taken by surprise, or defending their territory. Plus, those might be incapacitation bolts!" She glanced over to Whitlam and Antropoff, who had run to cover a couple hundred meters away. Antropoff was shouting profanities as she fired into the air, while Whitlam was struggling to control her.
"Alright," Maya looked to Gurbanguly. "You cover me- warning shots only. I'm going to throw a flashbang grenade and ward them off."
"Understood!"
Gurbanguly charged out of cover, firing, careful to aim well away from the flying insect creatures. Nonetheless, her fire caused the creatures to descend downward in search for cover.
Then Maya, following in her wake, hurled an M84 incapacitation grenade in the general direction of their alien attackers- before tripping and falling face-first.
The flash of white light and the loud bang appeared to have disoriented the insectoid aliens, who stopped firing, turned and flew off erratically, making loud noises.
Antropoff, who hadn't had time to look away, stopped firing too, and fell backward. She suffered slight disorientation due to the influx to her visual sensors, but recovered quickly. The M84- which Goddard-20 had insisted they all carry as a nonlethal option for dealing with organic lifeforms- was designed to incapacitate organics, after all.
"Well, that was exciting," Gurbanguly commented. "What now?"
"Let's book it back to camp," Maya sighed. "We don't know how many more are out there, and we need to report this pronto."
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July 22, 11,958 CE
Vytaka Station, in orbit around Pallatinos Fault, Pallatinos System, Betelgeuse Sector, Betelgeuse Space...
Jackass waved her glass around drunkenly. "... which was just like that time I shoved the bomb into Goliath Biped's ass! Wait, uh… what was I talking about before that?"
"You were talking about the proximity fuses on Javelin torpedoes, and then you were talking about that time your hand exploded, and now how you destroyed a Goliath Biped," 9S replied helpfully. "And maybe you should stop drinking so much Machine Oil, it's disrupting your cognitive and memory functions, Director."
"Not to mention she spiked it with vodka," 21B added across the table. She glared at Lavinia who was staring at the bottle with wide-eyed curiosity. "Don't you dare."
"Bullshit! I'm still way smarter than you!" Jackass pointed. "Look at-"
"Uh, Director, there's a call for you in your office," Jackass' assistant, Fibonacci-3, opened the door to the dining room slightly.
"Arghh…" Jackass sighed exasperatedly. "Who could it be at this time? Is it Gandhi again?"
"Uh, no. I think the dispute with the SCA was resolved anyway. It's from Pallatinos Fault- Deputy Director Goddard."
"Fine, fine," Jackass stumbled to her feet and made her way to the door. "Be back later, guys."
Once inside her office, Jackass received the transmission. "What the heck is it this time, Goddard?!"
"Greetings, Director. Sorry to perturb you, but it seems our survey teams have run into insectoid aliens on the southern continent. As I expected, the original civiliza-"
"Cut to the chase, would you? What do you want me to do?"
"Right, uh… a brief skirmish happened, but no serious casualties on either the delicate situation-"
Jackass was hardly paying attention, looking at video footage of the incident sent by Goddard. "Are you sure those ugly-ass things are aliens? Like smarty aliens? Not just some beasts?"
"Yes, we believe they are a sentient race, and indeed the one responsible for creating the ruins and underground structures we've discov-
"They are probably just bugs, feral wildlife," Jackass dismissed tiredly. "If they make trouble again, kill them. Otherwise, I don't care."
"Director, they were wielding firearms!" Goddard-20 protested. "They are almost certainly sentient!"
"Oh, oops, looks like there's something wrong with the transmission," Jackass feigned unconvincingly, and switched off the transmission. Shaking her inebriated head, she went back into the dining room.
"What was that?" 9S questioned. "Do you need to go deal with it?"
"Nah," Jackass dismissed. "Just some… uh, administrative stuff is all. Now, where were we?"
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July 22, 11,958 CE
New Wydnna Settlement, Geonosis, Geonosis System, Midgard Sector, Arcturus Stream…
Goddard-20 stared for a moment in both revulsion and dejection at his transmission tool. 'Jackass, what is wrong with you…'
Then he shook his head. No, perhaps he'd been wrong to look to Director Jackass about this matter in the first place. This may have been a URDC world, but this task was much better suited for the Union Diplomatic Corps to handle. He took out his transmitter again, putting out a call to Benning in the Euler System, the main UDC diplomatic world in Arcturus Stream, and requested an audience with Minister Kavar.
