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Chapter 2
"Oh spirits" thought Felcina, "This is it!" she was still trying to believe this was real. As the drop ship hurtled through the strange planet's atmosphere to recover the lost probe she could barely contain her excitement. This was why she'd volunteered for the expedition, to explore and find new planets.
Suddenly the pilot buzzed her helmet comlink. "Sir, it seems that the planets inhabitants have found the probe, there's a small crowd of them around it and even more in the flora on the edge of the area." Felcina had thought for a moment, she had with her a squad of six Turian marines as well as two artificers, there was also that Salarian who'd demanded the probes be sent in the first place.
"Try and scare them away if you can" she eventually replied, "We don't want to cause any problems, especially as we'll be vulnerable while getting the probe on board."
"Yes ma'am" said the pilot and a few seconds later the blast of the landing jets reverberated through the vessel. As soon as the vessel was still Felcina had unbuckled her straps and was standing by the door, "Come on people!" she called, "Let's get this done fast!" she turned and punched the control panel to open the main bulkhead and stopped dead as she saw it at the bottom of the ramp.
It was a strange creature, it looked only a little shorter than a Turian, she couldn't make out too many details as it was covered in dust as well as a very strange looking black garment. She hefted her rifle in her hands and took a firm step forward. She'd half expected the creature to turn and run, instead it stood up tall (The strange tall black and silver helmet added to the effect) and aimed what looked to be a kind of pistol at her while making strange deep sounds with is pinkish rather strange looking mouth. It would almost have been cute if it hadn't been for the suspicious pistol looking object pointed at her.
"Oh well" she thought, "He's only one and that probe won't load itself." As she stepped forward though, the creature not only stood its ground but also began to lower the hand holding the pistol. "That's a good start," she thought. She reached the bottom of the ramp stopping about five feet away from the strange black and pink thing. From this distance she could make out finer details, the black was definitely a kind of uniform, the silver on the tall dome like helmet looked to be a sort of badge, she could also the that the thing in its hand was most definitely a pistol, though obviously not one that employed mass effect tech. the creature was staring at her and slowly reaching its other hand up towards its chest where a silver chain hung. "What do I say?" thought Felcina, she could hear the Turian marines edging their way down the ramp. "Oh well," she murmured in her sub-harmonics, "I'll play it like the old alien vids I used to watch." "Greetings Creature." She intoned, trying to add to the effect with her best mandible-spreading grin.
That was a mistake. The moment she spoke the creatures eyes went wide and it wrenched out a small silver object at the end of its chain, put it to its mouth and blew hard, causing a shrill shriek to echo through the evening air, while the sound was easily with in the Turians hearing range, it still was enough to startle everyone and before Felcina had finished talking the strange creature had been tackled by the nearest Turian marine who bore it to the ground. Within seconds a Tarct storm had started, cracking sounds echoed from the tree line not far away and seconds later a Marine's shield failed as something impacted hard against it, the Marine cried out as he was hit, causing him to collapse, another marine's shields failed as everyone dove into cover, a distant tatatatatat sound began and rapid spurts of earth made their way straight towards Felcina. She dove for cover, recognising machinegun fire when she saw it, as small projectiles pinged and sparked of the hull of the ship. She landed flat on her stomach and turned to see the creature pinned beneath two very angry marines. The creature looked furious as was struggling like a freshly caught Poulti. Just as the opened her mouth to speak a dull boom echoed from the trees followed by a distinct whistling sound and an instant later the whole world had dissolved in a burst of light.
To say Hacket was nervous was an understatement. He stared up at the alien creature holding his pistol. He couldn't hear anyone behind him and he didn't dare look round. It was his duty as a Constable to ensure all civilians had as much time as possible to escape.
The Alien suddenly moved forward. Hacket whipped his pistol up ensuring that he could keep it at bay, his other hand began stealing towards his whistle, he wasn't keen on being alone out here thank you very much. "Keep Back!" he yelled doing his best to keep his voice even. The creature didn't raise its weapon, but slowly kept coming, its claw like feet clanging on the metal ramp. Hackett slowly lowered his weapon as he saw more armed Martians come out to the top of the ramp. "Oh hell" he thought, his hand finding the breast pocket containing his whistle. The first creature stopped at the bottom of the ramp almost within spitting distance. Suddenly it reached a claw like hand up and removed its helmet, Hacket gasped, it was a hard looking face with two deep-set blue cat-like eyes. It had horn like things on the top of its head and strange royal blue tattoos across its rock-like face. Not only that it had the sharpest teeth he'd ever seen and the creature was baring them at him, flaring pincer-like things on either side of its mouth in a terrifying display, all the while emitting a series of horrific hisses and cackles.
That was all he needed to see. Wrenching on his whistle he blew as hard as he could. He'd only been blowing a second or two before something hard and spikey bowled him of his feet, pinning him to the ground and knocking the air out from him.
The moment his whistle had sounded that troops in the trees had let ri0p with everything they had, using their brand new Enfield rifles to good effect, Sander's maxim started too, sending a hail of bullets towards the Martians. Normally the idea of being a target for several platoons of troops would have terrified Hacket but at the present he was more concerned with the two Martians pinning him down with their claws, hissing and rasping at him their eyes glaring. A Martian was hit, falling amid the hail of fire. Hacket was still struggling as the 12 pounder artillery shell slammed into the front of the strange vessel sending a wave of hot air and shrapnel in all directions knocking several of the Martians out cold.
The two Martians holding him however, were more fortunate. One immediately let go of him and rushed to the one who had come out first, rolling it onto its back. Hacket could hear a roaring sound getting closer and closer as the Martian on top of him looked up towards the trees. Seconds later human troops were pouring over the Martians bayonets glinting, their bright red uniforms glowing in the light of the fire raging on the Martian ship. The Martian on top of him lifted its claws in the air and climbed of him under the watchful gaze and barked orders of several soldiers.
Everyone turned as four figures stumbled from the burning wreck. The soldiers raised their rifles only to be stopped by a burly sergeant, "Hold your fire lads, these ones seem to have had it." A handful of troops dashed forward and quickly disarmed the aliens. While three of the aliens were obviously Martians, the fourth one caused quite a stir, it was shorter than a human, with huge black eyes and a distinctly frog like complexion. The walking Martians were herded into circle and surrounded by eager young troops, their spiked helmets and long bayonets giving them a tone of extra menace. The Martians who were still down were quickly loaded onto stretchers and placed in a covered wagon.
"Wait!" said Hacket, running to the captain in command, "Where are you taking them?"
"To the station lad." Replied the captain bluntly. "We've set up our base there, reinforcements are arriving by train in the morning and the Martians can't be allowed to run everywhere. Besides, seeing as half of them are wounded, we'd better get them somewhere close to where they can be treated." "You want to save them?" asked Hacket curiously. "Of course!" the captain snapped, "not only can we learn more from them if their alive, but we also don't know how many there are out there. And finally, no one's committing cold blooded murder while I'm in command is that clear!" "Yes sir!" gasped Hacket, slightly relieved at the captain's attitude.
As he turned away from the captain, the short frog-like alien caught his attention. It seemed to the gesturing at him. As he walked closer, he could see the alien was definitely beckoning him. Curious, Hacket walked up to the cordon of soldiers. "Careful sir." Muttered one of the soldiers, "e' looks like a slippery customer that one." Hacket ignored him walking up to the alien and crouching slightly so they were eye about an arms-length apart. The strange creature opened its mouth and a stream of fast paced incomprehensible noise flowed fourth. Hacket frowned bemused by the spectacle. The alien stopped, seeming to recognise Hacket's confusion. It started the noise again, and seeming to understand that Hacket was incapable of understanding it, it stepped back. Hacket sighed, so much for that idea. But as he started to stand up the creature lunged forward and slapped the back of his neck hard. Hacket gasped and fell to his knees, "God's wounds that stung!" the soldiers yelled and raised their weapons forcing the alien to the ground. As Hacket knelt beside it, his neck burning with agony the alien stared at him, and with sudden clarity and great speed begged, "Tell your warriors I come in peace! We're from the galactic council!"