Planet TXVVB-044

The planet was breathtaking. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, the sun glistened just above the tall, mighty mountain peaks. The whole planet was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and trees covered the landscape, very large trees that reminded Raymond of pine trees. The whole area had that quietness that only fresh snow could bring. It reminded Raymond a lot of his home back on Earth, he would have loved to stop and stare at the view, but he was a little preoccupied.

Raymond trudged as fast as he could through the knee deep snow, breathing heavily as he ducked behind a large tree trunk. Raymond wore clothes for the occasion with all terrain hiking boots, thick snow pants, and a dark blue winter coat with fur trimmed around the hood, and a number of patches on his arms. On his right was an American Flag, and the symbol for the Galactic Committee Expedition patrol, on the left was a red M, the icon for the Marauders. Ray sat in the snow, trying to catch his breath as he took out his old revolver, and started to reload. His face was pink from the cold, his dark brown hair had spots of snow in it, and his right cheek was bleeding, painting the snow near him a dark red.

Captain Raymond Chase has been in this position many times in his years of leading the Marauders. The Monroe caught an undiscovered planet on its radar, and since the Marauders are an expedition unit, they had to go on the surface and survey it. Raymond decided to bring the team's scout, Talley, and the team doctors for safety, and their research. The rest of the team was put in charge of the Monroe.

The ground team accidentally stumbled upon what seemed to be a large nest, and when Dr. Buchanan wanted a sample for his lab, that's when everything went south. A ginormous bird the size of a building screeched and appeared in the sky, its entire body looked to be made of ice, it glistened pale blue but its eyes were as red as death. It started to attack their team until Raymond caught its attention by hitting it mid air with a fire bullet, and making contact with his whip... He was now running for his life, and hoping that the rest of his team was hauling ass towards the shuttle.

"Chase to Monroe. We have a Code 43, I repeat Code 43. Hostile native engaging the team. A huge fucking ice bird." Raymond said, as he tapped his ear, activating comms system to his ship. "Roger that, Captain." A robot voice responded in his ear. The Monroe was fitted with an AI system that helps control and maintain the ship, Ray named him Tango. "We need someone to distract the damn thing until we can get off this rock. Send O'Hare in a Fighter, give him some hell until we can get out. Have 8-Ball get an extra shuttle prepared just in case, Jolenar to punch in coordinates to get us the hell out of here, and if this thing can fly out of the atmosphere, tell Kaite and Stun to get the ship guns rea--"

A giant screech erupted, and Ray felt a giant gust of wind hit him that chilled him down to the bone. The Captain had just enough time to roll out of the way of a wing cutting the tree he was hiding behind in half. Ray tried to squeeze off a couple rounds as he got up and ran, hoping that Rae and the rest of his team were alright.

----

On the Monroe, Tango activated an alarm. "Alert. Alert. Code 43 initiated, all hands on Deck. Miss O'Hare, the Captain wants you to engage the hostile in your Star Fighter at his coordinates. Jolenar, the captain wishes for you to punch in coordinates and stand by for departure. XV888 and Makobi, the captain wishes you to prepare an emergency shuttle just in case of system failures, and the rest prepare for battle defense." His robotic voice echoed through the entire ship, alerting the crew.

Most expedition teams would be scared out of their mind, or die within minutes... But the Marauders weren't. They have been through countless of attacks and suicidal situations. They were born for this.

8-Ball gave a hard crank at the pipe with his wrench to stop the air pressure from leaking out further. This is the third one he's found on the ship in the last month. Sooner or later he would have to replace the whole system for the ship, and he was the one who was going to have to fix it... Another twist and the pipe was locked back into the main connector. A sigh of relief came out of him, before it blew open again. The air now coming out as a fog, concealing the bot. This time he gave it a hard turn and quickly reached in his shoulder slung bag to retrieve the bonding tape. With a couple of wraps, it stuck to the actual connector. Hopefully for good this time.

He carefully took out his ship scanner, before all the alerts started going off. Without question he shoved the scanner back in his bag and began to sprint to Hanger 1, now running on all fours. Opening a com-link with Makobi, 8-Ball informed him of the existing problem.

"Excuse me Makobi, but the only shuttle that is fully operational is Shuttle 2. It is currently behind Shuttle 1, which has a coolant leak and possibly electrical malfunctions. I will be in the hanger in a few minutes to prep it, but we will need you to move Shuttle 1 out of the way."

When they've landed on the planet, Tahillie never really thought that the place would be covered in a substance that would hinder his mobility. He snarled as the thought of leaving the warmth of the ship, but Raymond wanted him to tag along on the ground. He would've said no if not for the fact that Rae was going with him. For the most part, it was a wonder how this place can survive with a such cold atmosphere, then again he really never questioned anything that he thought was strange. It wasn't like him to do so.

For the most part of the surveillance, it went smooth. Nothing attacking them, nothing to harm the ground team, but that's where he was wrong. If it wasn't for the damn human researcher, they would never be in this predicament in the first place. The huge bird came out of nowhere, screeching like a blown out sub woofer, but that's not all. The thing came flying at them with a vengeance.

The first thing that wanted to do was strip down and blend in with the surrounding area, but that would never work due to the snow tracing their every movement. He gave a quick glare at Raymond before they started to run. The cold was working against him. I am going to kill him when we get back!

Tahillie was seething with anger, he lost sight of the rest as soon as they started running from the bird. He shivered from the cold air, he hated this planet as soon as they've landed on it. The bird screeched again, this time, to his left. He saw the bird literally cut the big tree like it was liquid. He cursed under his breath and kept running.

He pressed on his visor for the comlink. "R-Ray, when we - we get off th-this forsaken planet..." He started, God it was cold. "Remind me t-to kick your ass!" He yelled over the link.

Laying on his bed for once, anyone could mistake Kaite for sleeping as his only visible eye remained closed. Coat tossed over an upside-down chair and boots set neatly to the side, he had gotten comfortable some time ago. However, an ear flicked as he watched the situation begin to unfold through the HUD of his eyepatch, slipping on the tasteful snow white control gauntlet and making a fist to activate the device. Pressing a thumb and index finger together before parting, he zoomed in the bird creature.

Curious as I was, the dull amber accent of the display dimming to a rich crimson with the number '43' blinking in the corner mere moments before the alert rang through the ship cemented the situation. The only discoveries to be found with the beast would be from afar or dug out of its corpse. Gripping another fist and lifting a thumb, I selected the targeting subsystems while slipping into my boots. The perspective seemed skewed and Sir Raymond was likely closer than it seemed, so, extending an index and middle finger, I figured the vulcan would suffice. Worst case scenario was that a few licks of molten steel pelting the beast would only piss it off...nnooo, worst case scenario was an errant wind carrying a few of the bullets off target.

With a small 'Hrmph...', Kaite threw his coat on and repeated the command with only the thumb and index to instead select primary cannons. Nifty as the gauntlet/eyepatch combo was, it had no triggering system for safety reasons. The actual triggers were at the terminal on the bridge.
Now, what wasn't the best idea was to go running through the corridors with one eye closed. Even though he was doing business, forming a circle with the ring finger and thumb to track the bird, he was still mostly blind save for the haze of reality behind the display. Were it not for his keenly discerning hearing and the threat of being alone in proximity with a robot, Kaite would have likely darted out into the intersection only to be ran over by 8-Ball.

Instead, the Aylv pressed himself to a wall as 8-Ball roared through the intersection. Content with hopefully not being noticed, Kaite picked up the pace, making record time getting to the bridge and still trembling lightly with adrenaline as he synced with the ship-side weapons centre. Nervously glancing over his shoulder for a moment, he began cycling through ammunition while realigning the cannon now loaded with a scattershot warhead. He imagined the opportunity could be found to fire without the risk of striking the captain or hopefully anyone else. 'Close enough' was more than likely, though Kaite was darkly curious what a direct-hit on something that size would look like.
"Zero-Seven-Three standing by!" He chirped into the comms, having taken position though uncertain of the endgame after having taken position. The Code 43 specified that relevant operators report to their stations on the bridge, outside of this, Kaite was indecisive with pulling the trigger, let alone what kind of shells to use.

"Oh, geez." Makobi groaned. "Thanks for the heads up, 8-Ball! You're a cybernetic saint!" He took his hands away from the joysticks controlling the arms of his exosuit and began tooling with the gadget interface on his wrist. "That shuttle's leaky faucet is worse than a Tu'Veeri bladder. I say we either gut it for parts, or sell it at the nearest trade outpost. I guarantee I can sell that lost cause for a pretty penny. Maybe even get a lil extra coin to replenish our small stockpile of alcohol." After keying in a few commands, Makobi activated the crane controls. Four giant steel clamp mechanisms dropped from the high ceiling of the hangar bay, latching onto the problematic shuttle and redirecting it to the far corner of the room, out of everyone's way.

"Alright, 8-ball. Shuttle 1 is tooted and booted. Shuttle 2 is waiting for you on the dance floor, over." He then recalled Captain Ray's orders to send O'hare off in a fighter. Makobi glanced over at a sleek space ship across the way and punched a few more keys on his gadget interface. Three yellow drones with distinct shapes and sizes started buzzing around the ship, scanning, tinkering, loading rifle munitions, and filling its fuel tank. "Hey, Cas. Edgar Allan Poe will have Landslide ready to fly by the time you get here, over."

Makobi grabbed the joysticks of his exosuit and flexed his hips and feet into the hydraulic controls of its legs, fully engaged. With more grace than a Walipo (A very smooth walking monkey type of creature from Makobi's homeworld), he elegantly strolled over to double check his trio's handiwork on the Landslide before heading over to Shuttle 2. "8-Ball, I'm disengaging the docking clamps. Ya know, one less thing for you to do and all..." Makobi reached out with his exosuit hand. He pulled back a latch from a standalone console protruding from the ground in front of the shuttle. Four large mechanical locks released its hold from the ship, their hydraulics whirled and fizzled, echoing throughout the hangar. "I wonder how big that ice bird is." Makobi said on the coms to no one in particular. "Hey, if any of you see any ice bird eggs, bring some back! Maybe Kaite can whip up those human omelettes you keep talking about, Cap!"

Stun was not in the mood to enjoy idle time while a squad of the crew did its scouting trip on the planet surface. It had little interest in being part of the survey group, knowing well how bothersome wading through knee-deep snow for hours on end could be, but the hybrid was still restless. It had been pacing the corridors of the Monroe since the captain and his group left the ship, patrolling in order to escape the mind-numbing inertia of waiting for something to happen. It was tapped into the comm-traffic but remained a silent listener to the banter of this group it was supposed to be a part of, for now.

Stun hadn't seen a soul (and neither one of the two AIs) in about an hour, as everyone was either busy with their specialised job or slacking off in their respective quarters. Besides the constant ambient humming and bleeping of the ships systems there was very little sound on the Monroe, as if the ship was breathing in, preparing to hold its breath in anticipation of an impeding storm.

Then suddenly, sirens blared all over the ship while Tango announced a code 43. It took the Pho Arghos a mere second to stow the rifle it had been carrying on its back before bursting off to the weapons deck in full sprint. The 6.5 feet tall creature left minor scratches, dents and claw marks on the floor and walls of the Monroe as it propelled itself through corridors of the ship in wide leaps. It heard the characteristic noises of other crew members scuttling to their posts through the sound of the alert and the ships AI orchestrating crew movement.

Stun arrived at the weapons deck seconds after the small creature it successfully identified as "Kaite" did, but didn't take the time for a comprehensive greeting. It jumped into one of the weapon stations and synchronised with its visual feed. Somehow it managed to make its anatomy work with the station designed for smaller, more humanoid life forms. "Stun standing by." it reported via comms in a dry voice that had a decidedly insectoid resemblance, but a distinctly mechanic reverb implied that its vocal chords were only partially organic. Analysing a visual feed of the "huge fucking ice bird" for the first time, something like a snarl escaped its throat. While cycling through the selection of ammunitions the ship had loaded, it addressed the Aylv indirectly without averting its gaze. "That layer of ice is a problem. It should be less massive at the joints, maybe we can break it off with concussive rounds here and here." The Pho Arghos visually marked the area where the wings connected to the birds shoulders on the feed and shared it on an open channel, so everyone at the weapons station and on the flight team could access it. Stun readied the weapon systems under its control, ready to spew volleys of explosive pain to cover the ground teams retreat, awaiting further commands.

This planet made her homesick and long for a past she had left behind. It was not completely the same as Pluvia for the skies on this planet were clear and the glaciers on her HomeWorld were not present though the trees almost felt like they were glaciers with the height. Rae found this planet completely serene and was comfortably trudging through the snow, far less bundled than the rest of the ground team as the temperature was no bother to her. She was pleased with this kind of weather, only second best to rain in her eyes.

It has appeared that all would go well with little to no incidents but obviously, Rae should have know that nothing seemed to go right with the Marauders. It all started when the researcher decided to get samples and explore a nest of some sort. This had prompted an attack from a giant ice bird that had turned its attention towards the Captain after it was attacked by said man. Rae knew it was to buy them time to get to the Monroe and that was all well and good but if he thought she would leave him to deal with that creature alone than maybe she should check his brain for damage.

She had headed out with the rest at first before looping back to find a good view point of the creature and a clear shot. An arm reached back, grabbing her bow and a single arrow before notching the string with arrow at the ready. Rae's vision shifted, the world becoming black as every living thing lit up to her though her focus was only on the bird. The ice made it have little weak points but there was one place that was vulnerable to almost every species. She lined up her shot, ready to sprint since the creature would ultimately not appreciate what she was about to do. Once the creature swiped down the tree, she had only a second to look over Atlas and analyzing that he was indeed mostly uninjured. Orange irises turned their attention towards the creature once more, following its movements a few moments before letting her arrow fly.

It was easy to say that the loud screech and it wobbly flight had meant her aim had been true or true enough to dig into that beautiful ruby eye of the beast. She disliked cruelty of animals but in this case she had to make an exception and if all went well than it would keep its other eye for vision. She tapped her com to speak to the rest of ground team and anyone tuning in,"Ray, I believe the creature is thoroughly distracted at the moment but it will get its barring soon enough. I suggest we make haste to the ship. O'hare can distract it the rest of the way."

"Most appreciated. I have just left the armory and should be there in a few seconds."

As soon as 8-ball's robotic voice was transferred to Makobi, the bot entered the hanger on all fours, sprinting at the Shuttle 2. Now with a large black bag resting on his back. He hoped back on his two legs as he approached the shuttle, shuffling to it so he could lower his speed. Almost instantly as he reached the shuttle he pulled out a meter long cable from his tool bag's scanner, the end containing a half foot data spike. 8-Ball drove it into a opening on the side of the shuttle. The scanner began to load all the ship's data and began to run a diagnostic of Shuttle 2.

Everything that could be checked was, from fuel levels to the hydraulic pressure for the shuttle's landing gear. After each item was checked, he double checked it. This was his sole purpose and if anything would go wrong it would imply his existence was pointless. Or something like that... After every single diagnostic was finally done, the shuttle's back door slowly fell down to the hanger under it. 8-Ball recalled the cable and headed to the back to look for any interior damage and to check if the physical steering controls were all compliant. He dropped the large bag behind him and started taking out the equipment that they would only need as a last resort.

All ready to go, 8-Ball covered it back up in a black tarp and ran out of the shuttle contacting the Captain. "Captain Chase, the Evac shuttle is all prepared to go. I will be breaking orbit shortly and standby for further instructions ."

Cassie sat at one of the sleek, white desks in the dining area of the Monroe. Her frustration was obvious, if not from her slumped and sad demeanor then from the numerous scratches and carvings she was making half out of boredom and half out of anguish on the table. Ground missions always excited her, coupled with the fact that she hadn't had a good fight in months meant for an anger filled Cassie.

She was close to falling asleep, her half curled brown locks falling over her scarred eye just as Tango alerted the crew to the captain's situation. Finally something interesting was happening, and she got to use Landslide for what felt like the first time in years. Makobi already had her ship ready with those weird little robots he always had around. She rose from her seat, sliding the knife into her belt and walking rather quickly out into the hallway, only to be met with the shocking sight of 8-Ball sprinting through the hallway like a leopard on cocaine.

She gave a confused look before a slur of voices came through the comms. She began jogging to the hanger before she spoke into them.
"Why is everyone calling me O'hare all of a sudden? It's making me feel like I'm back in 'school'." Cassie hadn't revealed much about her past to the crew, and definitely nothing about the training program she had been forced into all those years ago. She made her way into the hanger, jokingly giving a short salute to Makobi as she boarded the Landslide. Her strange, Spanish/Irish accent picked up on the comms again in response to Rae. "I'm not just going to distract the thing, Rae I'm going to kill it, de-feather it and bring it back for dinner." She half-joked, as per usual not bothering to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

She took off and was on the planet in a matter of minutes, skimming trees and melting streaks of snow through the pure speed of the Landslide. Soon enough, the bird came into view. 'Big' was an understatement, the thing was a behemoth. Cassie pulled down the roll cage over her seat, this would be a bit more bumpy than she expected. The Landslide wasn't exactly accurate, but it didn't need to be with the size of the bird. She flipped the casing over her joystick and pressed down hard on the button it previously concealed. A flurry of bullets pounded on the bird as Cassie managed to dodge under it before looping back around for a second assault.
"Might wanna get outta here quick guys, not sure how long I can keep this thing distracted before it starts looking for you guys."

Although he was running for his life through snow, he made sure to listen to every voice on the comm link. He managed to take cover behind another tree, smirking a bit. "Watch your tone, Talley, our big friend might beat you to it. Copy that Monroe, do not engage the target. We are on its turf, it's protecting itself. Do not kill the hostile until I say otherwise, that includes you, Cassie."

The screech the bird gave could make ears bleed, and when Raymond peered around the corner he soon realized why. An arrow was in its eye, and it was even more mad than before. "Good shot, Doctor. And copy that, ground team get back to the Shuttle--"

The bird focused on Raymond's voice and sent a gust of wind and shot towards the ground, straight for Ray.

The captain was staring at his fate head on. He was cold, and tired, and beyond scared. But that fear was good. There was a story his mother always told him when he was a boy, hiding from his step dad while he was in a drunken rage. The gods of War and Love, Ares and Aphrodite fell in love, and Aphrodite gave birth to Deimos (fear) and Phobos (Panic).

"Every time you go to war, Aphrodite, and her children are always there. You fight for the ones you love,because you're afraid of losing what you have. And although war is terrifying, and will never be easy, you will always be a fighter, Ray. It's okay to be afraid baby. You're so much like your father... please don't ever stop fighting."

Raymond got into a stance, fighting back the wind as the glove on his hand hummed to life. As the beast got closer and closer, Ray thought of his sister, his mom, all the people he lost during his time in the military, all the people he lost while serving as Captain... he thought of butting heads with Talley, and trying to teach Poker to Makobi and everyone else who liked a game of luck, he thought of helping fixing the Monroe with 8-Ball and testing weapons with Kaite and Cassie. He thought about Rae and the way she would give Ray one of her rare yet beautiful smiles.

At the last second Raymond's fist made contact with the tip of the giant beak. A huge bass-y sound erupted, pain shot through Raymond's hand, but the power and force of the glove dazed and bird and sent him sideways, crashing into the trees. Ray flew backwards, the snow breaking his fall. "Ground team, move!" He managed to say as he stumbled up, seeing the bird in a massive mess of trees, snow, and dirt. He trudged through the snow, knowing the ice bird won't stay down forever. They had to leave now!

Instanced. The HUD meshing with the station's display blurred some sensible line where Kaite reached through with a free hand to gently graze over the cold buttons of the terminal. It was fantasy to imagine getting to take a shot at something outside of simulations and weapon tests, and the more his fingers lingered...the heavier they grew over the commands to initiate a firing sequence. 'I vouldn't kill eit...right? Just-' his thoughts shattered by the heavy metallic scrapes and clunks of Stun as they entered the bridge. Kaite's ears folded back, watching the monolithic construct out of the corner of his eye as he slumped down in the seat in an instinctive way to make himself less noticeable

The hollowness of machines was respected by Kaite, and granting them sentience was any number of problems waiting to happen. Bias plays out more than 'racism'; the tools back at the labs were these large pyramid contraptions that were launched into holding cells in response to a few humans on the receiving end of the start of the rebellion. Autonomous drones programmed to seek and extract subjects by any means necessary. It starts with a question, and if the subject wouldn't step forward, they proceeded to terrorize the lot until they found who they were looking for. Having never been on the receiving end, Kaite had still been witness to the remorseless cruelty at the ends of steel claws...and had no intention of meeting such fates deemed 'less-than-lethal'.

"Ah...I-iz a solid plan" Kaite softly agreed, glancing at the highlights after blindly agreeing. With a flick of his gloved hand, the cannon munitions selector swiftly cycled until he held a splayed open palm to stop it on concussion rounds. "Vehn do vee-" he began before the voice of Raymond rang through the comms, expressly instructing them to stand by and therefore answering the bunnyboy's question.
"Zehy should be fine, ah?" he asked aloud, refraining from looking over to Stun in fear of direct 'eye' contact setting them off in some way. It seemed that it was answers abroad, today, as the tracking sensors picked up the glint of an arrow impacting the face of the beast and sending it into a writhing path in response. Through its violent motions and agile swerves to turn for another pass, the lock broke and began recalculating trajectory while the beast bared down on Captain Raymond.

On the edge of his seat, shaking lightly, Kaite gave the targeting reticle a bit of lead to hopefully find the lock once more as it was all he could do with his instructions. He bit his lip, considering breaking command to risk dumb-firing the concussion rounds for the sake of the man's life. Thankfully, indecision played into the captain's hands while Kaite watched the resounding thump of fist impacting beak.
Ears stood up along with raised fists as Kaite cheered a soft "Yiss!" as he watched Raymond quickly pull himself up and hurry off through the snow. Automated targeting quickly found the bird, though the Aylv expected the beast to have learned its lesson after being shot in the eye and slugged out of the park.

Jolenar floated idly in his new home. The collective requested the largest room that could be spared to be converted into his tank. No expense was spared to ensure his comfort by the committee, Who were quite eager at the prospect of a Xreene finally volunteering to cooperate with the other species and didn't want to spoil the opportunity for diplomacy.

As it turns out the largest room available to him had to be a special made tank that took up the largest observation lounge on the entire ship. Intended for important ceremonial functions or some such nonsense. It served a far more practical purpose now than merely a place to consume liquor and hold dinner.

Offering it's occupant a very reasonable amount of space(though nothing compared to the literal planet wide ocean he was accustomed), relative safety and a viewing of the stars and the beautiful scenery of deep space. Not merely confined to a cargo hold where boxes and noise were his only company. All human furniture was removed and the habitat itself took up nearly ninety percent of the entire lounge. The rest was taken up by either his dormant robotic suit, powered down onto its haunches and a raised platform that lead directly to a thin podium and a special window that would allow those who desired it, to speak to Jolenar in person. The podium had the necessary hardware to translate the conversation.

Floating freely and lazily in the murky waters as the the text of what was supposedly a great Forgei epic played out from the computer inside the tank. He found the tale rather uninteresting and many of the critical points of plot and development to be predictable. Supposedly this was a much lauded piece of work amongst their kind. Maybe he would have to rethink how much credence he could lend to any Forgei's opinions on artistic tastes.

He was almost thankful when the voice sang through the water and declared the emergency. Giving him the opportunity to collapse the projection of that book. Book marked against picking up again. Tentacles moved gracefully through the murk to swipe and prod at new screens being projected around him.

Elsewhere in the ship the eerily dormant android that had since been standing perfectly still in the mess hall started to move again. It's previous task to record the eating habits of the crew overridden (much to the delight of the crew, who found being watched by a faceless machine while they chewed a little creepy.) and synthetic muscle gave motion to artificial limbs. With a grace that bellied it's existence(but only added to it's creepiness) as a machine it walked straight for the bridge. Most people made way for it, which made it easier and faster to reach it's destination. Those who did not make way were moved aside. They grumbled and one even spit in its direction once she thought it was far enough away not to notice. But their feelings and damaged senses of pride were inconsequential to Jolenar at the best of times. During a declared emergency even less so. If they had to be pushed aside than they shouldn't have been standing in the way of his machine to begin with.

Arriving on the bride the android made its way to the navigation station. Ignoring the existence of the chair which for a humanoid might be a comfort but to a synthetic being only served to be an obstruction. Fingers touched and illuminated strangely designed buttons and controls and soon new coordinates were entered for the Monroe. All without a noise being made from the droid or its operator.

Its hand hovered just millimetres in precise location over the command key. Waiting for the confirmation order to initiate propulsion.

All he wanted was a sample from the egg. Eggs were easier to get genetics from then from the giant bird thing. It was amazing that a bird of this size could survive in such a planet like this. Giant birds like this should be rare on planets this far from the star it orbited. Logic dictated that this bird should be small. So that was interesting in its self. Then there was the idea of the idea of large bird meant that there had to a complex web of prey animals to support this thing. That meant that the food web was huge and this place was not a wasteland. It meant that the predators had to be rather large too.

All he had done was take a single egg from the nest. There was nothing illegal about it. He wanted to study the egg. It was not that big of a deal but the bird definitely thought that it was a huge deal for stealing the egg. "This thing is just protecting its young! Don't kill it!" He yelled as he hightailed it for the ship. He sighed and pulled the egg out of his bag. He cursed softly to himself as placed the egg in a bush and kept running. he made sure that the bird had seen it.

"Just run! Don't fight it!" He yelled into the radio still running for his life. He did not want to be bird chow. He also had gotten some blood from a little rat looking thing. He could do something with it. He doubted that it was anything useful.

"Watch your tone, Talley, our big friend might beat you to it." Was all that Talley heard over the com. Damn that human Captain and all of his stupidity!

Once Tahillie had turned around to see what was happening, something jumped onto his back, making him fall face first into the snow. His body stiffen from the contact with the cold substance to the face, he really hated this planet. It was after his face plant into the chilling snow, he heard clicking and squeaks on his back; he really hoped that it wasn't a carnivorous. Whatever was on his back began to climb into his jacket, the scaly appendages were cold as cold can be, but he felt the soft fur of it on his scales shortly afterwards. The small being was warm, considering that the scaly appendages were cold. The thing crawled around in his jacket as it made it's way to his stomach, which he rolled over and opened his coat to see an ape like alien settling down inside of his coat. It seemed to be no more than a foot tall, but with the poofy fur, it made it look bigger. He gave a hard sigh and couldn't care less about the ape creature right now.

Zipping his coat back up, adjusting a little to make sure that the critter would be comfortable, and started to tread his way to the shuttle. Hopefully that Ray, Rae, and the human researcher would be okay. He didn't want to think of the worst. Today was not his day. Once he started to tread in the snow, he heard growls from the tree tops, and glanced up to see a group of the ape aliens. Tahillie remembered reading once from an article of Earthen Life forms and came across the species known as Baboons, and the earth animals in a group were known as a troupe. They would attack anything that harmed or threatened the troupe, and he assumed that these creatures would do the same thing. The troupe, as he tries to count, the numbers were at lease over forty of them sitting in the trees. He opened his coat a little to see that this one was attached to him, even his own thought process failed him at a time like this, he started to run again. This time for the shuttle.

"I fucking hate this planet!" Tahillie yelled at the top of his lungs. He didn't bother to say anything to Raymond's order to get to the shuttle. Talley almost completely forgotten about the giant ice bird, booked it across the field, almost running on all fours at this point as this giant troupe of alien apes began to chase after him.

Makobi watched as the Landslide slipped out of the rear docking gate. Monroe's magnetic field barrier shimmered as the small vessel flew through it. As it did, the barrier made a prismatic ripple effect before returning to its muddy transparency of Planet TXVVB-044. The onrilian gazed at its beauty. TXVVB-044 was like one spherical egg with cloistered bits of rich blue ocean as weather patterns swirled about its natural surface like hazy phantoms. He was elated to know that the ground team was nowhere near the largest storm cloud, which was stuck in perpetual motion on the planet's southern hemisphere. They already had enough on their plate trying to fend off TXVVB-044's wild life. Battling the elements on top of that would just be cruel.

The onrilian half-listened to the ground team's open channel as he motioned over to the hangar's main control console. Makobi could've tapped into the ground team's HUD feeds, but their shaky first person view angles would've given him a headache. Most of the radio chatter was heavy breathing, cursing, and squawking - both from the ice bird, and the poor saps that were running from it. Then he heard the Furtim, Tahille, yell: "I fucking hate this planet!" with what sounded like screaming hominoidea chasing him in the background. It all sounded terribly chaotic. Makobi silently nodded to Logalu of Dice*, thanking the star spirit for his good fortune of being within the safe confines of The Monroe.

---

*Logalu of Dice - In Makobi's homeworld, Giom, Logalu is derived from an old tale of an onrilian who sacrificed his own probability of having good luck for the sake of everyone else. When something bad happens, onrilians usually accept it quietly, believing that Logalu is merely overwhelmed by how much bad luck he's carrying on his shoulders, and would like nothing more than to lighten the burden.

Raymond was surprised he was able to get a hit on the ice bird. Up close the thing was much more menacing. Its "feathers" looked like slabs of solid ice, a pale blue. Its gray beak was cracked where the glove made impact, and its eye was bleeding where Rae shot the arrow. Ray didn't leave unharmed, though. His right arm was throbbing in pain, his vision was blurry, and his whole body ached. He couldn't stop now. "You heard the doctor, no killing." Raymond panted, tapping his comms system. "I hope this really goes to ground breaking findings, Nathan." Ray added with a bit of bitterness. Ray had known the doctor for a very long time now. when he found out about why he was put in prison, Ray was a bit uneasy, but he was smart, and although he isn't much of a fighter, he has saved the crew on many occasions.

Raymond was running alongside Nathan and Rae, and in the distance he saw Talley running, and distant screeches. The group kept running until the blood chilling screech erupted from the forest. The bird was awake. As they arrived at the shuttle, Ray had a lot of questions in his mind. A group of fluffy ape-chickens surrounded the shuttle. Before Nate could even think about asking for one, Ray pulled out his revolver and shot a round into the air. The fluffy creatures all jumped with a scare, and turned to face them, ready to attack, until the ice bird screeched again. The creatures obviously knew what the bird was, and started to scatter, running away from the shuttle.

Ray opened the door to see Talley already waiting inside, and in his lap was one of the creatures. "What the hell is that thing?!" Ray yelled, closing the shuttle doors as everyone was in, and climbing over to the pilot seat. He pressed a few buttons, and pulled a lever and cussed under his breath. He tapped on his comm link again. "Shuttle to Monroe, the piloting system didn't survive the temperatures. 8-Ball, I need you to fly this thing manually back. Giving you full control of the systems." Ray got out of the chair, and went to a window, seeing the bird taking flight and scanning the area.

"Cassie, keep that thing distracted! Its missing an eye and I socked it in the face earlier. Doesn't look like it'll leave the atmosphere. Worst case scenario the Monroe fires on it from above. Stand by fire team." Ray turned off the comm and looked at Rae, Nate, and Talley. "Next time we go on a survey mission, don't touch foreign nests!"

8-Ball yanked the black tarp that laid in the back middle of the shuttle. He quickly moved to the pilot seat and settled himself down. His head attached to the ship with a wire and his seemingly lifeless body sat in the chair. It was his version of "Manually" flying the ship. A simple "Roger Captain" could be heard over the comms, before a short burst of electronic scrambling came through. It was 8-Ball's transfer that caused a minor disruptions in electronic devices. It was enough to even turn off the shuttle for, leaving the team in the dark. Lucky for them in came on in just a few seconds. Then the relieving sounds of the Grav-engines began to purr, slowly lifting the team up.

Now 8-Ball's voice echoed through the ship, using the speakers of the ship instead of his own body. "Captain, I brought the Anti Air Light Machine Gun. I've assumed we plan to keep the avian alive, but if it comes to it the 15mm rounds should take it down. Alternately you could just aim for its wing's and just scare it off.". The shuttle began to head upwards and the rear hatch opened up, leaving a clear shot for the weapon to fire at anything behind it. He obviously couldn't keep it down forever, in just a few minutes they would need to be breaking the planet's atmosphere. Hopefully losing the Bird in it.

The shuttle started to take flight, and just in time. The robotic voice of 8-Ball sent a mental sigh of relief as the Captain then turned his attention towards the back of the shuttle, and the gun. Cassie's Ship "Landslide" flew right by the shuttle, She had done her job engaging and distracting the giant bird all she could, and the mission was successful. Raymond was about to give more orders to the group, until the ear bleeding screech was heard once more, and Raymond shoved everyone down onto the seats of the shuttle. "Down! Brace yourselves! 8-Ball dodge!" He screamed as the creature flew inches next to the shuttle, and thanks to the Monroe's Mechanic they were left with only a bump. Cassie's ship was not so lucky.

One of Landslide's engines were failing. the cockpit's window was crashed open, and Cassie looked unconscious. Raymond stared in horror, tapping his comms again. "Cassie... Cassie! Respond! Status report... Cassie!" Raymond yelled, looking helplessly on as Landslide drifted towards the icy ground. Raymond didn't waste any time. He ran to the machine gun in the back, moving the gun to aim at the ice bird who was circling around Cassie's ship. Ray shot off a couple rounds, the bird revealed his large talons, gave one last hit to Landslide, causing it to spin out of control.

Time slowed down for Ray. He had lost a lot of crew mates in the past as a commander. He was known as Atlas in the Committee Military because he was the soul survivor of an ambush, he was destined to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. Although he had lost a lot of crew mates in the past, none of them had ever been easy on him. Especially if they had been under his command for so long like Cassie.

The ship fell into the tall thick trees of the forest, and a loud explosion was heard, with a cloud of smoke soon following. Raymond stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds, but came back to reality when he heard his Crew's worried questions.

"Air Team... Cassie is down. Unresponsive. Tango...?" Ray said with a shaky voice. A few seconds later Tango's voice went through the comms. "Vitals are unresponsive. Landslide status is completely destroyed. I am sorry, Captain." Tango said in a calm voice. Raymond backed away from the gun, staring at the smoke then at the bird flying back towards the shuttle. Ray closed the back hatch, and walked back to the pilot seat, pressing his finger to his ear. "Monroe, open fire on hostile."

The rest of the shuttle ride was quiet as they mourned the death of a crew mate. The shuttle reached the hangar bay, going through the field, and landing safely in its designated spot. As the door to the shuttle opened, Ray was the first to step out. He still had a job to do. "Makobi, close hangar doors. Prepare for hyper drive. Jolenar, lock in coordinates and get ready for travel in one minute."

Raymond's left hand shook slightly as he made his way to the ship elevator to enter the Bridge. He had to make sure the crew and ship were alright.

Makobi's eyes widened. "We're not going back to retrieve her?!" Captain Ray somberly responded with an order to close the hangar doors and prepare for hyper drive. "Captain!" The human made his way towards the elevator and disappeared behind its sliding double doors. The onrilian angrily readjusted his comm headset and shouted into the small mic device sticking out of the singular headphone. "Captain Ray, Makobi is requesting permission to retrieve Cassie O'Hare and her vessel, over."

Silence.

The feeling of helplessness was like a swift kick in the groin. His entire world went topsy turvy as his heart sank to the floor. Makobi just saw her twenty minutes ago, casually jogging out into the hangar bay, jokingly giving a half-salute to him like she always did before blasting off into the stars. He refused to believe it, suggesting that the ground crew was trying to pull some sort of cruel prank. He looked out into space, waiting for her orange star racer to come swooping into the hangar. Edgar, Allen, and Poe gathered around the exosuited onrilian, murmuring to themselves in drone speech before craning their camera lenses up at the opened rear docking gates.

Makobi let out a sigh. He walked back over to the main control console and activated the lock sequence for the hangar bay gate. His mechanical hand hovered over the last button that needed to get pushed in order for the gate to start closing. After what felt like a lifetime, he slammed on the button hard and walked away. The caution alarms blared throughout the hangar bay and cargo hold. The pressurized hydraulic systems of the large gate sputtered alive, cranking the massive doors inward until it sealed the hangar bay shut. Makobi ejected himself from the exosuit, slamming his comm headset onto the ground.

"Edgar, prep the rooms for hyper drive travel." The docking drone chirped repeatedly at him as if to ask: Where are you going? He didn't respond. Makobi wandered off into the far corner of the hangar bay where his Crab Shack stood on its lonesome. He needed a drink.

Easing himself back down into the seat, Kaite watched as the shuttle took off with the added escort of Cassie. What came next all seemed to happen in a flash. A sweep of the monstrous bird's neck and a concussive reverb picking up on the scanners as a sonic blast tore through the fighter, and a wall of notifications lit up.
'Cerebral contusion' was soon followed by an oxygen-level warning, and a 'fire hazard' blinked onto the HUD for the briefest moments before the monitor in Landslide offlined.

It hadn't been his choice, but Kaite still accepted the mission he was acquired for, including all of its risks. However, some misguided optimism never imagined being faced with the reality of their sentence. While he expected danger, a dull gray x'd out circle over the obscured source of a trail of smoke rising from the forest was all that was left of Cassandra O'Hare. The unceremonious silencing of the woman made him tremble, ears folding back and going to work priming three of the main cannon's chambers before the order even came in.

_{"-You know...Kite. Like, head in the clouds while we pull ya along. Oh lighten up, it's a joke."}

My hands felt heavy, even as I armed the volly. The targeting reticle snapped from Lady O'Hare's grave to the looming bird and the resounding thumps of artillery echoed throughout the ship. Without a second of hesitation, I opened comms to simply respond "Engaging", though the words came as a choked whisper. Teeth already grit, I removed my eyepatch as the hud was becoming blurry from silent tears.

The burst roared past the shuttle in the distance as they punched through atmosphere on a semi-guided descent towards the reacquired target. Three percussion shells for good measure, it was clear the intent was past the point of being nice about the creature's fate.
Impacts from the glorified flack sent clouds of dust and hunks of crystal skyward, the beast roaring as it struggled to keep from buckling to the ground from the force. Harried from the assault, the third strike toppled the beast into the forest, below.
As the dust settled, a rustle of trees with a slight trail of blood painted a picture of a result. It would live, albeit with a limp and a grip of scars to show as a reminder of their dealings with the marauders.

Kaite fought to keep a track on the bird whose anatomy blended into the various shadowed rock faces, but he broke lock after the readings came in of the survivors' shuttle exiting gravity. Visuals still localized, his eyes discerned the parting of trees as the creature moved to inspect its kill and presumably left soon after finding only flames and steel...consumable remains likely atomized on impact.
The thought made him sick to his stomach, shutting off the feed at his terminal and standing. That was about as far as his plan went as he lingered before wiping his eyes in the scarf and making to leave. Coincidence would have him approaching the door from the bridge as they parted to reveal the captain. "S-sir Raymond!" Kaite stammered as he stood to the side at attention and let him pass, quickly wiping his face with sleeves. "Target successfully suppressed" they continued, trying to remain professionally subjective for the captain who he assumed didn't need to be exposed to his mood which he tried to hide by looking forward and therefore away from the man. The motions didn't stop the slight watering in the corner of his eyes and the slight tremor in his stance.