Shink!

Crash!

Cring!

The sounds of battle filled the hall, as the two warriors continued their duel. Neither had tired yet, even after five minutes of fighting. Fide found it impressive they had the stamina to continue their confrontation, and idly noted that her creator was doing much better than he had in his training with Goliath. True, he would likely tire before he could win, but that was besides the point.

Eventually, though, Fide was forced to leave stop viewing the confrontation and move on to other, less interesting issues. For starters, she set about examining Chiron's analogue for an internet, hoping to discover what people on the planet thought about her master. Her reports revealed that most people were still relatively ambivalent about the Commander, something she hoped would change soon.

An alert soon popped up: it appeared that Synais was attempting to order various items from some kind of online store, analogous to something her creator had called Amazon. She quickly canceled the order, while warning him that they could not attempt to buy things from this planet until they could justify possessing the native currency. Their power production, while effective, could not be used as a mint on this world. Additionally, some of Synais' orders were ridiculous. What usage did he have for women's underwear?! Though she wouldn't be surprised if he wore it on his head; he was rather childish at times.

A new alert soon replaced the old one. This time, it was a meteorological report: a meteor shower would make planetfall soon. None of their orbital facilities would be harmed by it, so it was something she would normally dismiss, but Fide made a note to tell the Commander about this. Rory had never seen a meteor shower, and she doubted her creator would want to deny him this experience.

Oddly, a feeling of dread filled her as she thought about the meteor shower, but it was soon quashed. Why did they have to fear in this universe from space debris?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The vessel could feel itself beginning to burn up. With its propulsion systems wrecked, though, it had no way of adjusting so that re-entry would be less painful.

It had been floating for a few hours since the collision, and knew that the end of its journey was near. Soon it would be on the surface of the world that contained the being it sought. Grimly, it wondered what kind of adversity it's defended would cause for the natives, for while all had been armed, was not a fraction had been activated. Of those that were inactive, though, many were likely to come online following the impact, to prevent unwanted boarders.

To some degree, the ship was glad that one of its defenses was incredibly effective camouflage, which allowed it to blend in with the space debris so well that not even the best telescopes would notice it. Stop, that might be a problem when it hit the surface.

Oh well. It is not like the shop had a choice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Planet sensed the new mind's arrival.

This one was...different from others, feeling more...mechanical, yet still emotional. Planet knew not how this was possible, only that it was. Besides, she was more concerned with what the new mind would do.

She had felt it arrive in the system a few hours ago, sensing it's presence in a ship trapped in a meteor storm. Oddly, it appeared that the mind was the ship's, as it lacked a crew. Though a novelty to Planet, she had reluctantly buried her curiosity as she watched the ship break through her atmosphere.

As it had descended, she had easily determined its emotions: fear, anger, and impotence had been the most common, but they had all given way to resignation, as the ship had come to accept its doom to die on impact with Planet's surface. This had made its survival all the ore surprising. Barring a jolt of discomfort when the ship hit the ground, though, and a ticklish feeling from the impact of the meteorites, the only thing she felt from the vessel was an overwhelming sense of worrying. Why eluded her.

Then came the pain.

Indescribable, unquantifiable, OH SWEET CREATOR MAKE IT STOP PAIN!

At first, the pain made it too hard to think, but gradually, Planet regained her faculties, and as she did so, she noticed that the pain seemed to originate from where the vessel had landed. Briefly, she wondered if the vessel was causing this, before that theory soon became fact: examining the ship's mind proved that yes, it was causing this, but not intentionally. Desperately, Planet tried to search the vessel's mind for some way to stop the pain.

Then it returned in full force and became the only thing she could think about.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Raptor Bug howled as it skull burned.

It didn't no what was going on. It's pack had been drinking when a huge falling light had impacted some distance away. Knowing that these lights sometimes exposed burrowing prey, the pack had advanced on it to search for food. Now, though, its pack was lying on the ground, simpering from pain that had just appeared without warning.

They were not the only ones in pain. Other nearby creatures had fallen over and were squirming on the ground, trying to make the phantom pain leave them. Yet strangely, more distant beasts did not seek to be feeling this agony. Instead, a strange bloodlust seemed to have overtaken them, as they were busy tearing each other to pieces.

All except for one, though.

A siege worm, for reasons unknown, was heading south. Most animals had avoided the South, as the new being had arrived there sometime before, and had lain the painful sounds that the animals didn't like. Now, though, they were dealing with pain that made even the painful sounds bearable.

Why the siege worm left eluded the Raptor big, and ultimately, it didn't matter. All that mattered now was making the pain stop.

XXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!