At first, Roman had his reservations about being cramped in an up-armored personnel transport for nearly a good hour; but he had been pleasantly surprised by how well the vehicle handled the narrow dirt path that had seen decades of erosion. The potholes and deep ruts had little effect on the suspension and large tires of the monstrous military transport, and there was a remarkable amount of room on the inside. Ten individuals, including himself, were comfortably fastened to their seats with harnesses. Five of them wore the black and blue uniforms and ceramic-plated body armor of the Expeditionary Apex Security Forces, while Roman and the other four wore civilian attire of their own choosing.

With two more E-ASF personnel up at the front to steer and navigate, their vehicle rolled along in a column formation of three transports and two scout vehicles. It was Professor Roman Sullivan's first outside-the-wire convoy since arriving on Astria two weeks prior. After crossing through the threshold of the Polyphemus Gate--an impressively engineered iris that forged a bridge between universes--Roman and his team of fellow anthropologists had been itching at the chance to dive right into the alien world that had been waiting for them.

Of course, they were not the first visitors from Earth of their profession to blaze a trail on the mysterious planet. Professor Sullivan's team had only just recently relieved their predecessors, and they have been tasked with picking up where the first anthropology team left off. Before they went to work, however, they had to finish a mandatory "acclimation", which served as a two-week period of security, safety, and intelligence briefings; as well as an opportunity to adjust to a planet with slightly increased gravity and atmospheric pressure, not to mention a less polluted ozone.

For the final part of the acclimation, the new personnel that arrived together, regardless of profession or affiliation, would be escorted by E-ASF personnel to a nearby village of indigenous. This would let the new arrivals meet the locals and practice speaking in the native language. It was also an opportunity for the villagers to befriend more visitors from Earth, which, in return, would continue to foster strong relations. The village in question was approximately eighty kilometers northwest of the Odysseus Expedition's base of operations, dubbed Ithica. Roman had learned in one of the earlier briefings that the village, named Vericil, was a deep-rural town that economically relied on its diverse livestock. It was also well within the borders of the Arcanaan Empire, whom Odysseus and the E-ASF were on good terms with.

An audible ping echoed from a hidden speaker inside the transport, beckoning Roman to raise his head from a computer tablet that he had been holding in his hands. The voice of one of E-ASF handlers, 1st Lieutenant Katelyn Becker, came over the comms after a brief pause that followed the ping.

"Alright, newbies, listen up," the woman's voice barked with a chipper tone. "You're about a minute out from Vericil. When the convoy stops, let the security detail do a quick sweep of the area before stepping out of your transports. We don't need any of you brainiacs taking a surprise arrow to the face. For the most part, we've established a great relationship with Arcanaanites, but there will always be some that don't want us here. That said... just because someone approaches you with a cheerful smile, don't let your guard down. Be polite, practice some daily conversation in Abian, and try not to wonder too far from your escorts."

"Entering the outskirts," exclaimed the driver from up front.

"Look alive, people," Becker said. "Rendezvous back at the convoy by fifteen-hundred local. Becker, out."

Roman felt the inertia as the transport slowed to a sudden stop. When the heavy rear door to the vehicle opened downward with a hiss of air, the five soldiers that had been sitting in front of him were on their feet and already moving. Each of them carried an impressive and deadly-looking battle rifle, designed by their employer. In fact, everything they were equipped with had been privately developed by the Apex Corporation. The men and women that used the technology were just as outstanding, with most of them being veterans from national military services. However, Roman only trusted them as far as he could throw them. At the end of the day, they were still the guard dogs of a commercial entity.

When the all-clear was given with a wave of one of the specialist's hands, Roman and his team unfastened their harnesses and awkwardly shuffled out of the back of the transport. Excitement surged through him as he anxiously stepped off of the ramp and onto another patch of new, foreign soil. The sun was high, and a calm breeze swept the cool air around him.

With a deep breath, he followed along with the security detail that had been assigned to his team's vehicle. After a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw that the other vehicles were disembarking their passengers as well.

The village of Vericil was a quaint, humble town of structures made mostly out of logs, planks, and thatch. If Sullivan were to describe it in a single word, it would be "medieval". A small agricultural town in a pre-industrialized world would fittingly be without any impressive engineering capability to construct sturdier homes and other buildings. Architecture for the residents of Vericil wasn't about aesthetic so much as it was about necessity. As long as a home had walls that could withstand winds and a roof that wouldn't leak too much, then it was good enough to live in and that was all that mattered.

On the other hand, the town wasn't without its charm. Roman could clearly make out personal touches on the exteriors of different homes, such as neatly arranged flower gardens that primarily served as decoration, or fences that marked off property to espouse a sense of privacy. There were market stalls along the main road that divided the town into two distinct sides; one clearly for homes, and the other for the working citizens to toil about their day jobs.

Where some would probably see only a meager, forgotten town with nothing remarkable or outstanding about it, the professor saw a wealth of discovery and academic value. Roman could immediately tell that little Vericil was well worth the two-week acclimation period.

Abel found the experience... surreal, to say the least. Astria carried a lot of similarities to the Earth which they had left behind them, but there was such an evident disparity between the two planets, from the physical laws to the divergence in evolution. It was as though Earth had taken a different path and had later frozen itself in time. The air was so clean that it was almost euphoric to inhale, and Abel easily preferred Astria's climate to Earth's lessening, though still desperate, situation. The physicist took a deep breath inside the vehicle as his dark brown eyes traced the various individuals on board, a few of his own colleagues among them. Had younger Abel Schwellen known that he would take part in this expedition, he would be quite dumbfounded. To be one of the first pioneers of such an odd place was a tremendous honor.

Before embarking from Ithaca, Abel and the team had two weeks of 'acclimation,' a program of exposure to Astria's different, strange environment. The previous expedition's crewmembers explained away their group's findings as well as security and safety protocols to pass the baton. They shared all of the fascinating minutiae of this new land with Abel's team: the language, the culture and history, the ecosystem, the climate, and the physical laws. All of this was well and interesting, but as things would have it, Abel really just wanted to crawl out of this armored vehicle and start on the real expedition. He was prepared enough for what would come next.

It was not more comforting, having the E-ASF's troopers for escorts on the expedition. If that told Abel anything, it was that Apex needed a way to protect its profits. He did not feel any safer in the hands of a corporation, but his team received proper training by the ASF earlier which gave him no right to complain. So long as he could trust his team and their skills, Abel could guarantee their safety. He scrolled through pictures of his team on his computer tablet, and he stopped on a group photo of them from the Non-local Phenomena Detector back home. If the E-ASF failed or ditched, the team could fend for itself. All of them were multitalented individuals, all with a wide skillset, all with a vast collection of knowledge. Yeah, Abel could put his faith in them.

Becker's blunt, thundering voice killed the silence as the town of Vericil came closer in the vehicle's sights, and Abel put down his computer immediately to listen. The team was to stay put and wait until security sweeps were done. After that, safety and security would be the team's responsibility once they disembarked and entered the town. Their primary objective was to practice the language and gain a feel for the locals, and their secondary objective was to stay in one piece the whole time. Then, they would be back by a little past noon in the local time.

Once the rear door opened, the soldiers were already gone. They were quite impressive looking, armed to the neck with the finest technology, as they left to take a little look-see around the convoy. The expedition crew inside the vehicle remained silent, merely twiddling their thumbs. Some appeared nervous, others sat at the edge of their seat and looked to the door in anticipation. The moment of truth, Abel thought to himself, itching in his excitement. Everyone stood when the soldier appeared at the exit, signaling the OK, and their feet disappeared from the cold floor of the transport vehicle to the soft, rich earth of Astria. Although this was not their first time, setting foot on the planet, the experience was virgin and new, their first, real step into the next stage of the expedition. There were many surprises ahead.

Vericil came closer with each step, a city with no real significance to national matters, but it meant everything to this expedition, to the group as it entered the city without a hitch. Like the people of Safe Haven, the people of Vericil were all so appreciably human – the things they saw as theirs, their desire for the ornate. Fences, gardens, engravings, signs, even domiciles and markets. At first glance, Vericil was a town of squalor and unimportance, but to a humble eye and, more importantly, to the expedition, this was the best which they could conscionably ask for. With wide, curious eyes and open, awe-filled mouth, Abel saw that he had much to learn from this place.

With the tour of Vericil officially starting, Roman raised up the small single-eye visor device and snugly fastened the plastic clip around the back of his ear. He then pushed in the audio bud that dangled from a tiny wire connected to the visor's main stem. For decades, major tech companies had tried to create slick-looking communication devices that consumers could wear on their person and effectively phase out cell phones, but no one could compete with Apex's own ergonomic and fashionable design for the market.

A single transparent display, no bigger than a standard glasses lens, was suspended over the wearer's non-dominant eye to relay a flurry of desired information. A wrist watch, that used haptic adaptive projections, handled commands that the user would input. This base technology supported the Linguistic Retro-Analysis software that the OEF relied upon for communication with Astrians. LRAs were ultimately simple in the long-run, and most certainly shouldn't be used for advanced conversations without a reliable interpreter, but they did an otherwise fine job of real-time language recognition and translation.

"I wish I had one of these on my first trip to Egypt," said the young brunette woman standing beside the professor as she fastened on her own LRA.

Clara Sandiego, an archaeologist that was as ambitious as she was impatient, was Professor Sullivan's star pupil. Even though their talents greatly differed, the two of them made quite the duo on several previous adventures.

"It wouldn't have helped you, you know," Roman said.

"Of course it would have. These things are freakin' awesome!"

Chuckling, the professor said, "We were in a traditional Islamic area for that excursion, remember? You refused to wear a hijab. No one wanted to talk to you to begin with."

"Well, at least women are treated as equally as men in Arcanaan," she commented after a brief sigh.

After moving further into the village, Roman noticed a local stall vendor waiving over to them. He appeared to be selling woven baskets. Even though neither of them had been given any tradable currency, Roman decided to be polite and investigate anyway. The encounter would also mark his first interaction with an indigenous Astrian. He would be foolish to pass up the opportunity.

The gutteral greeting that immediately came from the man's lips as soon as Roman and Clara approached was recognized by the LRA. A rectangular text cursor briefly flashed on the display before darting across, revealing a simple "Hello!" as the English translation. It was immediately followed by a recommended response in Abian.

"Well met," Roman replied in the man's tongue with a somewhat practiced dialect. If he were to compare Arcanaanite Abian to a language from Earth, it would be Italian or one of the other Romance languages. There were striking similarities beyond just sound, one of them being that it was an inflected language--where meanings could change by altering the ends of words and phrases.

"Terrans I haven't seen before," the man said with his eyes darting to other OEF members that were enjoying their walk about the town. "Have you just recently arrived from your own world?"

Nodding, the professor simply returned, "Yes. We are new." Gesturing toward one of the baskets that the man was selling, he asked, "May I look?"

The stall owner excitedly grinned and nodded. "Yes! Please! For you, new Terran, it is only thirty crowns!"

Upon closer inspection, the wicker weave seemed to have been made from a fibrous plant similar to bamboo, but there was a noticeable difference in both the color tone and the physical rigidity. The plant material felt even tougher than its terran counterpart, which was truly difficult to believe at first. Then again, everything about Astria was still a genuine puzzle.

"I'm afraid we don't have any money," Clara had replied while Roman admired the man's handiwork.

The merchant seemed disappointed, but he put on a charming smile and insisted, "Then come back when you have some and I shall still be happy to sell it to you!"

With a cocky grin, she said in slightly broken Abian, "I'll hold you to that, old man."

After reading his protégé's translated words on the LRA lens, Sullivan replaced the basket and spat out with wide eyes, "Clara!"

"What?" she innocently asked in English with some concern written on her face. "Did I say that wrong?"