The elf pouted slightly as she was lectured about her supposed 'soft-shelled' home, but gasped at the captians final words. "T-taste good!?" That just sounded barbaric to the elfenkind - she honestly looked slightly traumatized as she returned to the woods and thankfully found herself quickly distracted by the other new wildlife.

Sprinklestar was fascinated by the biology, making use of her headset to take various pictures of their surroundings. The girl did want to talk to a couple of smaller bits of wildlife, but them seemed nervous at her approach. She could try calming them with magic first, but the elves generally disliked forcing action upon any behavior.

Her slight sadness was the discovery of another ship! More friends? The elf seemed excited as she said, "I'll do it!" She tapped the device near her ear and quickly a picture was taken - the ship would be able to pull the picture from her archives if they chose to. "Maybe more friends? How exciting! I'd love to meet them ..."

Normally Sprinklestar may have started considering that the inhabitants were perhaps dead, but she found herself quickly distracted by some adorable monkey like creatures behind them. Without waiting for permission, the elf took a step forward and spoke to them with words of magic. "Elfen heart can see, Elfen heart can be, Elfen heart with me!" The incantation finished, the elf leaned forward and extended her hands. "Hello, friends! How are you feeling?"

Sprinklestar was fairly sure the Captain wanted her to get down to business, but that would be rude.

Restart:

---

"How far is close by?" Kiri asked as she stepped off the elevator, catching the end of Cherche's assumption before turning swiftly to Erka after Cherche answered. "Stealth systems engaged?"

"Affirmative." The Ant replied. "If human tech does what it says, the ship should have a chameleon effect going so anything visual won't pick us up easily."

"Good." Kiri looked out of the cockpit at the landscape, leaning over Erkas chair, studying the forest's edge quietly. "Keep me update on that signal, Kendrick. We'll conduct a preliminary investigation of this planet. I estimate our away time to be anywhere between three hours to six - so if we haven't radioed in sometime after that, assume something has happened." She walked away, turning from the cockpit and heading towards the cargo bay. "Tearch, you have the Bridge. Stay Alert and don't let anything on the ship without my approval. Stay alert." Pressing the button on her comm unit, Kiri spoke.

"Helmheim, Kriev'en, Cargo bay in five minutes!"

"Are we leaving that way?" Jessica asked. "Well. whatever. Guess you're the boss here." She added, shifting on her heels and wheeling over to the Cargo Bay. She made it there quickly since the Engineering Bay was close. "Hey, so, we gonna get going then?" Jess asked, "How did you want to proc--."

The Engineer was cut off by Cherche coming up on Comms. "CAPTAIN! We.. Uhh, well. Two things. First of all, I've located the position of the signal. Three or so clicks northwest, through the jungle. More importantly though... Well, the terminal down there. I'm sending a video from the front camera of the ship." She sounded worried, so it was good for the three to walk to the terminal in the bay. Usually, it was for taking stock of items... But...

Once the video started, it showed the trees slightly rustling in the wind. Nothing seemed amiss for the moment... Until the trees started to shake unnaturally. A shadow became visible in the shade of the trees as some of the smaller ones were pushed aside or toppled completely. The shadow exited the jungle canopy and looked around. By human standards, it was approximately seven meters tall and at least 2 across. It looked frightening yet familiar. "The hell... Is that a giant toucan mixed with a dodo bird or something?" She asked to herself more than the others.

It did resemble some unholy cross between toucan and dodo. It's eyes had a similar look to a felines though in the position of a toucan's. It's beak and head shared definite similarities with a toucan for the most part, aside the spike on the tip of the beak and the apparent teeth that seemed to line the top of it's slightly open beak, but not the bottom. The brown colored lower body was fat like a dodo, with small stubby wings that in no way could allow it to fly. It looked around, as if knowing that something had been here. After a couple of seconds, it seemed to decided that there were nothing here and turned back to the forest, angrily smashing into a medium sized tree on it's way back. "A giant... Toucan Dodo. Can't say I expected a giant one of those things. Or... That it looked so ready to gore someone to death. Teeth means it eats meat after all."

"It umm, it's heading the way you're going to be going. I don't need to tell you all to be careful, right?" Cherche added, "Play it safe out there."

By the time Kiri had made it to the cargo bay, she was greeted by Jess. Easiest way out of the ship - the Airlock was built for docking with another ship or a shipyard. Inefficient and a security hazard to make multiple ways onto the ship. Some might also say it was a safety risk, but you couldn't have everything.

But of course, things couldn't go so smoothly to start with.

"Look at the size of that thing." Kiri chuckled, folding her arms across her chest watching the video. "Hmph, if I wasn't on duty I'd take me home a hunting trophy." She chuckled, pulling the lever to open the cargo bay doors. "Don't worry about us, Kendrick. Focus on staying safe yourselves."

"We run into anything intelligent, don't do anything reckless. We don't want to needless get into conflict with some natives." Her tone of voice was light, but there was definitely a serious and no nonsense inflection to it. "Lets move out. Three clicks isn't too far, but we'll need to get to walking. We run into that bird, don't do anything reckless but we're not going to let it stop us either." Walking down the ramp, her feet were the first to hit the foreign soil

Several fast paced foot steps could be heard in the lead to the cargo bay as a large heavily dressed humanoid man stepped into the the room. If one didn't know the wet suit of an Equariel better they'd think it were just another human with an over active sense of caution, or maybe even a gaudy taste for armor wear. But in this society the sight of the suit and the heavy scent of saltwater was a dead giveaway to the wearer's identity. This was a being of Opecularis, a fish man that would have been considered an oddity to many some years ago but now was just another aspect of daily life. It was none other than Kriev'en, totting a large plasma tech rifle in both hands as he walked to the group that had gathered as ordered.

A deep crackling click could be heard beneath the mask, a result of his deep injuries after a battle with a large predator on his home planet as he had explained it. Soon after his voice groaned through.

"Quite a large beast, if the planet has more of those in store for us perhaps we should equip ourselves with more appropriate weaponry." A deep inhale followed his statement and his grip settled into a more comfortable position before he continued. "Should the occasion arise for it, it's best not to tempt fate by being unprepared. From what I hear birds on the Human world like the taste of fish, and I don't plan on being a meal today..."

"Don't mind him, he's always been rather quick on the trigger." Another familiar face stepped in soon after the Kriev'en made his statement. It was the ship's brought on Doctor, Doctor Ballik. A specialist in the field of medicine and biological research. Like normal her face was exposed and she wore her standard labcoat with shorts combination that seemed soaked through where the sleeves made contact with the arms. Each foot step she took left large rectangular spots of water on the floor along with a trail of drips as if she had just stepped out of the shower with no effort to dry off. Without much hesitation she began to go through her standard check of Kriev's gear, making sure he would be sufficiently moisturized for at least the next 5-6 hours if needed. "Just be sure to find some kind of water source Kriev. You don't want to dry out again, you'll get a infection rash at this rate."

"Alright, let's go." Jess said, following behind the group as they left. [color=green]"Come on, fish boy. We're going to leave you behind."[/green] As the group left the cargo bay and peaked around... There was nothing but a southwesterly wind and the sound of the waves washing against the cliff they were situated on. There was a slope down to a beach one way, but that's not where they needed to go. Instead they headed towards the signal, through the jungle. The heat was high, though their proximity to the ocean helped on the humidity front. There were some signs of small animals. They seemed to be birds, though there was a possibility of reptiles as they could notice things rush up trees. Obviously, nothing wanted to entertain guests. If Sprinklestar tried moving close, they'd run away in an instant.

After about one click, they found something interesting. A wreck of some starship. A small fighter by the looks of it. Easily enough, this was not what they were looking for by distance. There was nothing growing on it, indicating that it was relatively recent. There was a small fire in the rear... Or at least, what appeared to be the rear. It was mangled up, so it was difficult to tell what the make was. "I don't think that's Myrkith or Human. I'm not the most familiar with ships. Hmm, captain, did you have a camera or something? We can send a picture back and I think Harisa is fairly knowledge in that department. Did you guys want to take a look or move on?"

Meanwhile, a group of small mammal like creatures started to gather off behind them. They were cute lemur-like things that had a total of three eyes. They didn't look hostile, perhaps more curious. By count, there seemed to be five and all stood on their hind legs to get a look.

"Hah," Kiri chuckled at Kriev's comment. "If worst comes to worst, we have ourselves a free dinner." Kiri mused, turning to the good doctor. "Don't worry about that too much Doctor Ballik." Kiri responded. "This planet looked to have plenty of water. He'll be fine." Stepping out onto the foreign soil, Kiri inhaled sharply, frowning slightly as her uniform pressed lightly against her body. Myrkith clothing was made to be light, easy to breathe in, and baggy as to not hinder breathing too much, but it still was mildly uncomfortable. "We should be back in a few hours." With that, the group left the

The trek through the forest was easy enough, far less intimidating than the jungles of Kythphus. Several smaller critters moved by, though none seemed inherently dangerous. For the most part it was uneventful, until they came across the wrecked remains of a fighter of some sort.

"Definitely not Myrkith," Kiri frowned, taking a few steps around the ship. "Not enough metal plating. Fairly recent judging from the lack of plant growth...Helmheim, take a look at its internal systems. See if you can find anything." She turned to Kriev. "Kriev, stand watch in case that bird comes back. I'll send some video feed back to Yamada to see if she can identify it."

With orders give, Kiri pulled the data pad out of her belt pouch, booting it up as she started to move around the ship, taking a slow, wide angle of the ships exterior. The video should be directly uploaded to the ships internal systems.

"Yamada, you getting this?" She asked over the comms. "I need you to identify this or tell me if its alien." If they had too, they could mark it and send the information back to the Confederacy so a more dedicated research team could look into it.

Harisa answered over comms. "Oh! Umm... Maybe... Let's see..." The human woman fumbled with some computers. "Take a look at this, newbie." She said to her fluffy new teammate. "What the hell is that? It's not Terran. Too janky to be of common Terran make... Not armored or militarized enough for Myrkith. Unless some pirate made vessel has been here, that's as alien as it gets. Not that I know what kind of alien, mind you." Harisa added with slight concern. "Well, the signal is further out I think. Cherche told me what's going on exactly."

The masked figure strode out towards the planet's surface with an unwavering step as the crew began to move out, leaving the Doctor half way through her inspection before he so rudely tore away from her checks. Just the normal routine, the worst he would get is the age old human expression of rolling her eyes at him. It was a pointless gesture from her part, nobody would ever see her do it after all. Without much else to do she turned back into the hall of the ship trailing behind the regular trail of water and called something into a communicator to her assistant.

As Kriev passed by Jess he turned his face so his gleaming helmet showed her reflection and gave her a quick quip back accompanied by his typical deep clicking growl. "Best you keep up with me.... Ape woman."

The walk through the forest passed relatively quietly for Kriev, he would calmly stroll through and look at the foliage around him and never take his right hand off the grip of the rifle. Before they had left the Doctor gave him a few sample tubes that she had instructed him to fill with soil from any sites of interest, but as usual on these kinds of errands what "interested" him was subject to discussion. But he wasn't really bothered to stop and collect for her until the opportune moment. But that time would quickly come when they came upon the ship and the captain gave him instructions to keep an eye out. Beneath the mask, Kriev gave a slight smile as the crackle of his voice came through the mask. "Aye. If something comes up I'll let you know.... Before I shoot it this time."

With that he made his way to a large rock a few feet away from the crash site and hopped up onto it, taking a perching position facing the opposite direction of the group to keep a lookout on things. In the meantime after periodic sweeps of the area he would take out a vial and grab a small sample of soil from the base of the rock, but only enough to keep the Doctor happy with the results he would deliver to her.

"Eh, what's that?" Malia's voice echoed over the intercom when he was told to come over. It certainly didn't seem to be of any familiar make.

"Hm." Kiri frowned. "Helmheim, you find anything?" She asked her companion, having now taken a full circle around the downed ship, taking a slow video feed of every angle of it she could from the ground. "Analyze this video then, Yamada, and mark it in the star map. We'll send the data back to the confederacy once we make a report for the planet." Turning off the video feed, she closed the comms and turned back to her current companions.

"See anything Kriev?" Kiri called over, taking note of those lemur like creatures at the edge of the clearing. They didn't seem to be too hostile, at least immediately. Curious perhaps, but she was still on guard. Looks could be deceiving. The jungles of Kythphus proved that more often than not.

"Nothing usable. The one hatch is... Unusable. Smashed in by what I can assume is a high impact shot." Jess said, studying the vehicle. The hatch which was supposedly on the side of the vehicle, was smashed in an inoperable. Jess touched around the area. It was metal and it was cold to the touch. It wasn't on fire inside then. "I could open it probably... but I don't want to damage the inside by accident. I say, mark it for recovery and we'll get going. The signal we're getting could be from this ship." She stands up and kicks the vessel. "I think we should get going."

Kriev scoped the area through his helmet, not seeing much more than a few bugs here or there and the occasional Lemur like creature. He slid off the rock and crouched to the ground as he communicated back to the group. "Nothing over here but me and the jungle. Though I'd make quick work of whatever it is you're doing. If a bird could get that big I'd hate to see a lizard."

His crackling and deep voice made it hard to tell if he was being condescendingly serious or just making a joke, but all the same he knew that he couldn't take this jungle lightly. Gigantism was a very real and very terrifying phenomenon that he was not keen on seeing go to work. The vast oceans of his youth taught him well that anything that's bigger than it should be can be dangerous whether or not it's threatening at it's smaller size. With that thought he took out one of the little vials from his pouch and scooped a sample of the soil before twisting it shut again and back into his pouch before returning his hands to a ready position on his rifle.

"Alright," Kiri punched a few buttons on the data pad. "Marked and coordinates sent to the Stellaria." Whatever it was, it wasn't Terran or Myrkith make. Curious as she was though, she couldn't stay and check it out. If they weren't in unfamiliar territory she'd tell Yamada and Russil to get their soft-shelled skin out here and take a look at it. For now though, she resigned herself to finding that signal.

"If worst comes to worst," She replied to Kriev. "I'll wrestle anything that tries to eat us, alright?" She grinned, before motioning them to follow, leaving the crash behind and keeping her hand near her blade and pistol. Forests and jungles like this one, one always needed to be careful in. No telling what was lurking out there in the forests. The jungles of Kythphus and basic training taught her that. One was dropped in a remote part of the forest for about two months by themselves with a group of about fifteen other people, and given the simple objective of surviving and some very basic supplies. Was a form of weeding out weaklings and separating the leaders from the grunts.

As large as that bird was, she'd seen worse.

"Alright. Let's keep moving. I think we're getting close. It's been a bit since we left the ship." Jess said, looking towards the direction the signal came from. When the captain left, Jess followed. They continued a bit and could notice the lemur things stalking the underbrush following them. Keeping a distance, but keeping an eye on them. Soon enough, through some of the thicket, the group notice a light flickering through. At this part of the forest, the sun doesn't reach below the canopy so the flame is easy to spot. "Oi. Captain, this is where the signal is leading us." Jess said in a low voice, even so, creaking and crunching is heard by the fire. Someone seems to have heard the human.

Worried now, Jess ignites her plasma blade and a voice calls through the foliage. "Jes ka no? Renran ka kelre!" A feminine voice calls out. A female, by looks alone, struggles through some shrubs. "Renran!" She exclaimed before seeing a being with short ears, a weird bug woman... And... A suited fish... Her eyes go wide and the walking stick at her side moves and the end of it points toward the group. "Elfke? Sho'e... Jes ka ra? Ra ka sho'e Renran!" The end of the staff seems to activate and the end split into three, circling the center.



"Woah! What the hell?" Jess said, freaking out at the staff moving. "Oh... She has pointed ears. An Elf?"

Nothing eventful happened. Aside from the lemurs stalking them from the underbrush, it was uneventful. Pack predators, likely. Or just too curious herbivores. Either case, they continued on without much trouble. The forest was easily navigated compared to the jungles of Kythphus, and made for traveling easy. Still taking point, when Jess said they had reached the point where the signal was coming from, Kiri held up a hand.

"Approach with Caution. Kriev go ahead and scout - " But before she could give further instructions it seemed whatever was giving the signal found them instead. Some fleshy thing, with pointed ears and blue hair. Quickly going into action, Kiri drew her own Tuharil blade, the polished metal glinting lightly in the light as she took an aggressive stance. She had no idea what the 'elf' was saying, but hopefully the auto translators would quickly solve that problem.

"Step back Jess." Kiri ordered. Ugh, she would have liked to have some information before engaging this signal, but she couldn't account for everything. "Kriev, be ready in case." Approaching the assumed Elf slowly, blade still at the ready, Kiri opted for some forcefully friendly negotiations, narrowing her eyes at the elf.

"You are a native then." She mused, aware that the elf wouldn't understand her. Raising one of her arms slowly, Kiri quickly sheathed her sword with the other.

As the odd new human looking person stepping out of the woods spoke, Kriev's mind went blank and immediately he pulled forward his rifle. A loud Chak noise could be heard followed by the low hum of the rifle flowing into a loud high pitched charge. The Rifle was ready to fire, and Kriev could feel his eyes narrowing behind the mask. He let his finger creep onto the trigger, ready to pull it if he must as he was given the command to be ready.

Over the comm, the low growl of the marksman could be heard as if it were a predator anticipating a kill. ".... Aye." Notably, his tone and attitude was much less compromising than it normally was. To those with the authority to know it was negligible, merely a side effect of his past encounter and strong instinct for self preservation. But to the ones that wouldn't have known it might have come off as a rather unsettling experience, even for him. The low clicking continued as he breathed, his focus was pinpointed on the creature at hand though he waited for a signal to fire. "Ready on your command..."

Jess frowned, but did as Kiri said. She took a step back and put down her weapons. That didn't mean she couldn't keep an eye on the girl though. The "elf" meanwhile, took a step back while keeping her staff pointed at the group. "Y...uuuuu?" She said, confused. It was obviously no language she ever heard. Her facial features were racing, trying to make sense of this.

Kiri's comm sounded and Cherche came on. "Captain! We're reading some signals popping out from the canopy. They just activated. It's similar to the one you've located. Frequency and some other minor things are very different though." A loud roaring sound could be heard overhead. The elf girl in front of them seemed worried. Her eyes searched for some sort of solution that seemed out of hand at the moment. Whatever she was looking for up above was covered by the canopy. She looked towards the three in front of her and bit her lip. Resigned, she turned from them and pointed her staff towards where her fire was and the flame puffed out of existence.

The roaring overhead seemed to head in one direction, but sounded like it turned around. In fact, "Kiri, I think they're circling." At Jess speaking, the elf almost jumped, as if coming out of a daze. Seeming to have realized herself, she looked at the party and moved her head suggesting, "Come here."

"Sho'e Elfke... Sho'e Kelinth, jareska umos." She said to herself, walking back into her little camp area. It was mostly a small little area, one side covered by a large tree and the other a smaller one, all the while surrounded by bushes. She went around to her belongs, seeming to get some things together. She had a bag that seemed similar to a backpack that she stuffed some things in and she started to put somethings in it. Some bread-like substance, a knife, a number of small rocks with symbols on them... Though the weirdest thing in the little camp was the mound of disturbed dirt with what seemed like a helm resting on top. Tossing the bag over a shoulder, she pointed out to the distance. "Lenas kerl. Caula o irin e."

Staying on guard, Kiri lowered her hands as the elf seemed to try and make sense of their presence. Understandable. Honestly, Kiri hadn't thought she'd make a first contact scenario so soon after leaving. She was a little unprepared for it, even she'd say, but she'd do her best regardless.

"Understood, Kendrick. Everyone, stay on guard." Following the elf slowly, Kiri put herself at the front, making sure that Jess was behind her and Kriev was bringing up the rear. She seemed to have calmed down a bit, or at least was accepting of their presence. Good, causing an intergalactic incident at first contact would have been bad. "KRIEV!" Kiri barked to their resident linguist. "I wanted to know what this pointed ear was saying an hour ago!"

Perhaps that was an unreasonable demand considering things, but she didn't have time to be reasonable in this situation. More importantly, who exactly was this girl? Judging from the roaring noises - they could be engines. A ship of some sort, circling? Awfully convenient. Perhaps they hadn't been as stealthy as they thought, and had been detected on some of the natives sensors? Or perhaps they had something to do with their new friend. Either way she was still on guard.

"If you can, tell her what we're here for." Pointing at themselves, then out to where the elf was pointing, Kiri made her best attempt at sign language. "Does she want us to follow her?"

The sharp hum gave to a quick change in pitch as Kriev heard the call for his services, assuming this meant they were going to take a more diplomatic approach to this situation. He gave a low crackling grumble as he lifted the rifle, now not in full power mode, parallel to his shoulder and made his way around the rock and to his group. He turned his head to the captain, then the girl, trying to keep any sunglare off his helmet before beginning to take out the small device and speaking.

"This may take a moment to get anywhere actually helpful to us to do this..... It's not exactly very easy to decipher an entirely foreign language you know. Especially one with an.... Alien origin." He motioned to keep talking to the alien in front of them as he looked down and fiddled with the device. As he listened he watched the device, making some quick adjustments guessing at what certain things likely meant.

Jess followed in to the area, curious about what was going on. She mostly studied the area and looked to the helmet laying on what she assumed to be a grave. She wanted to ask the elf girl, but of course Kriev was working on it. She looked to the translator and it came up with an answer... A very... "Shoe Elf... shoe... What in the actual hell is that answer?" She asked Kriev. It was an obvious non-answer. To be fair, they had no Rosetta Stone for them to work off of...

The elf girl, on the other hand, seemed a bit frustrated that no one was trying to listen to her... Well, to be more correct, no one understood her. Out of apparent frustration, she took both of her gloves off and threw them on the ground and walked up to Jess who had the most skin showing. "Jona... Jona." She put her hands up in an attempt to show she was being gentle.

Jess took a minor step back and gave her a curious look. At first she was ready to run... But her curiosity took over and just stood her ground. The elf's bare hands touched Jess' neck where the most skin was showing and a minor glow flew between the two of them. The elf girl closed her eyes and she started to glow slightly brighter as the roar continued overhead. A bit off in the distance, the sounds of explosions could be heard. Bombs of some sort. The animals cried out. The lemurs that still followed them stayed around them though, but took refuge in the bushes. The elf eventually stopped glowing and removed her hands from the human's neck. Jess felt light headed and took a step back, catching onto the captain. "That was exhilarating." She noted.

The elf sighed, "Such a barbaric language. Well, so I thought. Your shared Terran language is... Frustrating. So many unnecessary tenses and forms..." She stated, in the shared common language. "My apologies, but if you don't wish to be eliminated, I suggest moving with me. Earless elf, Greater Opehl, Suited. There is a cave some distance from here. The Hierars will be here as soon as they can land."

Kiri was almost ready to pounce onto this elf the moment she touched Jess. However, it was quickly over with, and it seemed nothing adverse had happened. Kiri hesitated for a moment, eyes swiftly moving back from her friend to the new humanoid in front of them who seemed to somehow now speak with almost perfect clarity. Judging from the translator...it was near perfect english.

"You'll have to explain what in Arach's great web you just did." Kiri grunted, folding her arms. What to do? This creature hadn't attacked them and so far, she seemed pretty safe. "Fine. Everyone careful. We'll follow this sharp-eared human until we get some more information." She looked back to the elf, narrowing her eyes at the elf. "But I'll just say this...if this is a trap or you hurt anyone on my team...whoever you're running from will be the least of your problems. Kriev!" She motioned. "Bring up the rear and keep your eyes peeled."

As the translation came out nonsensical and foolish sounding Kriev turned his helm to Kiri as if he were waiting for an odd look. His voice clicked as he began to interject "... Well... I did say it would take some time." He tuned the machine as the conversation went on, occasionally smacking it as it fed back the strange translations. He took the time to tune it to the new female alien's tone of voice, prepping it to adapt her alien words more accurately but faster. Though by the time he attuned it precisely to learn her language faster, it seemed that another solution had given way. He let out a light sigh as he turned away from the group and looked at the surrounding woods.

It wasn't until his name was shouted to him. Soon he was given his orders to serve as the vanguard at the rear of the group as they moved. Once again his voice clicked before he spoke back, "Aye. As you say." As he accepted the orders he tossed the translator machine to Kiri before speaking back up. "Keep this close by, whatever the solution is here it may serve useful for the machine to finish it's learning processes. Maybe we won't have to... Rely on it again..." With the tone of his voice he hinted at the anger that was expressed earlier with how the woman touched Jess. But with his piece shared, he made his way to the back of the area waiting for the group to get moving. He raised his weapon and began it's charge, ready to defend the group at the drop of a hat if need be but not looking through the sights careful not to make it seem like he was going to fire on any of the alien's companions.