Vigdis wasn’t all that useful in the first two hours immediately after the crash. Thirty minutes after the ship came to a halt, she found that she couldn’t really put any weight on her left foot. It wasn’t anything new, just the adrenaline of the attack and crash wearing off and her old injury waking up with a vengeance, but it would subside in a few hours. Although the crash was a violent one, fortunately she’d padded and strapped down Fritjof’s carrier enough for him to make it through all of that without any harm done, although he wasn’t happy about being put on house arrest since the crash due to hull breaches he could escape through into the inhospitable air outside. 23,6%. Just above the safe limit. It also told them something else: They weren’t anywhere in Sol anymore. Yay, drive works, I guess?

When the captain called a meeting once the chaos of the first day died off and opened the floor, Vigdis raised her hand. “How’s Varen and when are the coffee rations opening up?” She started with questions before moving on to comments. She could already see a lot of overtime in their future, “About the hull breaches, that might be worse than it seems. Any breach in a compartment on the dorsal half we can find easily enough due to the air composition differences, but any hole in the ventral hull will be sealed by the soil. We’ll have to use the smaller drones to go over it centimeter by centimeter from the inside. I also don’t need eyes on the heat shield to tell you that it’s gone. In the ‘educated guess’ department, the other outboard engines might be a bigger issue. Nevermind being filled with soil, we’re worried about the gimbal mechanisms, both structurally and functionally. Without a crane or a heavy lift VTOL, we might be stranded here. We’ll have details tomorrow.” Vigdis started with the bad news part of what the engineers already knew, which would likely only get worse once they actually had a look. Maybe they’d be able to rebuild one long range antenna, and the resource situation would also depend on how much of the torn off engine they could salvage.

“On the bright side, I had time to look over the structural members. There’s about thirty cracked or snapped ribs on the ventral and starboard side, most of which are repairable. Main girders running the length of the ship are okay, or will be with some reinforcement, except the ventral ones, both of which are snapped in two. They could be patched together, but it will be sketchy at best, but the Jo was built with redundancy in mind, so structurally, a week or two of work, she’ll be fit to launch, fly and land. If we have to, maybe even reach orbit, but the only way we deorbit safely is if we repair the heat shield. That’s a problem of accessibility and materials.” Fortunately, they wouldn’t need to deorbit or even communicate, they just needed to get to Sol. Someone would come investigate the silent ship and pick them up from there. Just as long as it wasn’t her old crew who came for them, she’d never live that down. All in all, it could’ve been a lot worse. Fuck it, they’ve built it once, they’ll build it again. The Jo would fly again one day, even if hunchback, limping and only once. The last part was up to whether the company execs and billing would decide to go with repairs or salvage.

“I’ll leave the good doctor to give updates on the crew’s health…” Zey quickly motioned to Duncan Feng with one palm. [@vietmyke]

“Though I do understand that he’s in better condition than some of our passengers who weren’t strapped in. As for your second question…we have more people aboard than our ship is equipped for. We need to take stock of all consumables and calculate rationing options before opening up shop - coffee included.”

Zey listened carefully to Vigdis’ initial assessment of the damage. Occasionally, she looked around at the faces of all the people she was responsible for keeping safe. Most of them were utterly intent on her every word. They had prepared for long periods away from home before, but not quite like this. Unnerved was one word to describe the atmosphere. She had to keep them calm, or the situation could spiral quickly out of control.

The lights in the conference room flickered for a second, before returning to normal.

“Thank you, Vigdis. Keep me updated; sound off whatever you need and we’ll get it for you.”

Zey smiled fractionally and nodded, then studied her team again.

“What else?”

"It's like a city made of metal! From the sky!" J'eon said in awe, taking it all in. These people knew grander secrets than even the guild!

"By what magic did it get there? Think of the wealth of knowledge of those aboard! I hope some survived!" the Glen wondered, turning to Kareet.

"But," J'eon went on, turning grim as he pointed at the stern. "There is damage that came from no fall from the sky. I think someone attacked them. They may have escaped, but for how long?"

"And what terrible weapons might their enemies unleash on us all?"

---

Jack grinned and nodded his head at the captain's words, his face a poker mask.

Yes, the damage could be repaired. The ship might manage to get into space - but then what? Against all odds, they managed to do an instant transition to an inhabitable world. Not years, instant! So were they even in their own galaxy? Or might they have jumped to another reality all together? Better to keep that to themselves and give the others hope.

There were other problems, of course. Higher oxygen meant everything was more flammable, so the fires around them were burning hotter. Not to mention oxygen toxicity.

"All this excess oxygen may make people irritable," he pointed out. "Pain, dizziness, tunnel vision, convulsions are all possible. If you feel dizzy, or think you're seeing a hallucination, stop whatever you're doing and and tell someone at once!"

About the only thing worse would be if there was intelligent life on this alien planet, capable of breathing in this soup of an atmosphere that was poisoning them with every breath.

"Working parties will receive masks, but we want to limit your exposure to the outside atmosphere to prevent complications." Like dying.

"Well, to be frank, Duncan chimed in, a hand massaging a thoroughly furrowed and stressed brow, "Everything- and everyone is a mess."

Ever since they took off, Duncan's eye-lenses had been scrawling with information and data, to the point that his irises were almost entirely hidden underneath the mountains of data scrolling across his eyes. The medical servers had somehow- miraculously survived their crash, with only enough hiccups to thoroughly bother him. His leg jittered rapidly and uncomfortably, very clearly having not slept at all the night before, instead relying on copious amounts of caffeine and stimulants- that he'd likely not be able to replace anytime soon. Sara and Richard- his assistants, while present at the crew meeting, were currently passed out from exhaustion in a pair of chairs towards the back of the room, getting some much needed rest while the droids took momentary care of the situation up top.

"Most of the crew is suffering from some level of injury, either physical or through stress. A few concussions, but most of the ones with treatable injuries have been treated or are currently being treated." he continued, his eyes watching the bouncing biorhythms of what crew remained. "Don't even get me started on the civilians."

Duncan was in a bit of a tough place- in the military world, casualties were either treatable or not. With few resources and less time, medical work in the military was more about choosing which ones they could save, and reducing the suffering of those he could not. In the civilian world, they were expected to go above and beyond the whole nine yards and attempt to save each and every person that came into their care. As grim as it was to say, Duncan knew he'd likely have to choose who he could save and who he couldn't.

"We're not equipped to handle injuries at this scale." Duncan said grimly, "I don't have the manpower, I don't have the supplies and I don't have enough time. At present, there's just not a enough of anything. We had enough resources to handle our crew needs, but a few dozen additional civilians is going to stretch that supply real thin, real fast."

Duncan passed a very hastily written clipboard with barely legible handwriting towards Zey. The list was categorized into crew and civilians. While most were injured, some had green check marks by their name- hurt, but mostly functional and likely wouldn't receive further medical treatment. Others had treatment briefs written out, and while he didn't mention it out loud to the crew, the Captain could see several civilians with red circles around their names- ones with considerable injuries. It wasn't stated, but the implications were obvious. He couldn't save everyone, and they were going to have to choose some to go without treatment.

"I need blood- and lots of it, among other things. I'll be setting up one of the droids to start collecting soon. Everyone needs to go visit when they have the chance." While not the captain of the ship, from the way Doc Feng spoke, it didn't seem like he was asking.

“So much for stealth…” Kareet muttered once she and J’eon had crested the hill to see Shirik extinguishing flames very much out in the open. Regardless, the sight of this…machine pulled her attention away from anything else rather swiftly and completely. She had been speculating on what she had seen since the moment they left Ertiseda, but this…this defied anything she could have expected. Its size was unbelievable, its design entirely unrecognizable, and its source was even more mysterious. “This doesn’t look like anything from any place I am familiar with. Where could it have come from? Another continent, maybe, but…who could have built it? The kind of industry required, and the metalworking…it is in amazingly good condition for having fallen from the sky, I think. We…we need to be careful. Whoever created built this has considerable power, and we know nothing about them. We do not know if anyone aboard is dangerous, if they are still alive.”

Again, there was a pause from Kareet as she fell back into her own thoughts. She was, of course, greatly interested in the machine itself. Whatever it was, it represented a wealth of new discoveries. However, she was also just as interested in its creators. Looking at this thing now, she genuinely believed that no nation she knew of on Kanth-Aremek could possibly have created it. This was, at the very least, from someone beyond the continent. If there were still any alive on board, it would be perhaps of even more benefit to her to learn from them. Of course, as she had said to J’eon, she knew nothing about them. It could be dangerous to approach them, but she could not simply ignore this. The potential gain was too great. Given the severity of the crash, she could imagine that those on board would be in need of help. They could be in need of supplies, a guide, or of medical aid. Providing such aid could potentially ingratiate them with these outsiders, and make it more likely that she would be able to learn what she wanted from them.

“But…if there is anyone alive, they might be in desperate need of help. We should still try to do what we can, just…be careful.” Kareet added.

---

It took about twenty minutes for Kareet and J’eon to make their way down from their spot on the mountainside to the crash site. As she approached, Kareet already had her notebook in hand, furiously sketching everything in sight. At the very least, Shirik had made sure it was safe to approach. She did not stop for a moment, even after they rejoined Shirik. “We should look for some way inside. If there is anyone remaining, they could need our help.”

@EliteCommander @Blizz

Kolvar Stilmyst

Kolvar watched as more people were soon approaching the ship. Cursing softly to himself, it seemed obvious that other people would have seen this flying ship crashing into the ground. Two people had arrived to investigate the ship, a glenfolk and a Tekeri. Kolvar was not going to lose this potential discovery to these two. He flew up keeping himself in the air to further inspect the ship. Moving around and making sure he would not collide with the flying tree. Trying to figure out how to open the flying ship. But perhaps the others would be able to help him open it.

After finding no possible way to open it from the outside, he flew behind some trees transforming into a Tekeri male. Walking out from behind some tree to make it look like he just got here. “By the gods this ship is ginormous. Have you two travelled to investigate this flying ship?” He was addressing the two. Walking a little closer toward the ship, but kept his distance. “Have you seen a ship like this before? I wonder if they are from one of the other continents? I hope no one is hurt.” All of these questions were said to make him sound like a curious bystander.

“I wonder how we get in to help the people inside.” Kolvar did not have any faith that they would know how to get inside. But perhaps if they put their heads together they could find a way to open it. Carefully making his way over, already feeling the heat coming off of the ship. His eyes studying the ship properly. Trying to find any kind of door or mechanism to try and open it.

Kareet immediately seemed to go on guard as soon as they were approached. It was a Tekeri man. Her first thought was that he might be a local villager, but the accent was not right, nor did his feathers bear any of the expected tribal markings. He was more likely a traveler of some variety. The closest road was in the same direction they had come from, though as she had indicated to the others, it was not surprising to her that a Tekeri would be able to outpace their group. More pertinent than where he had come from, though, was why he was here? The average peasant would not go chasing down a fireball from the sky. Even without considering the potential risks of the object that crashed, travel itself was dangerous. There were few types of people who would feel comfortable traveling alone, so Kareet could reason that he was either not alone, or was something more than average.

“We are far from the road. Where did you come from?” Kareet asked. She was not going to show any aggression unprovoked, but she would be cautious. Still, she could not tear her attention away from this machine for too long. Something so exceptional and unusual, she would not waste a moment in studying it. Who knew how long she would have to make these notes? She could imagine many ways she might be interrupted. For now, she started to walk around the outside while observing and making her sketches.

Kareet was cautious while moving around to the opposite side, downhill from the crash. The fires were gone, but there was still an abundance of metal debris scattered across the landscape. Tekeri did have tough feet, but she still did not want to invite any injuries this far from town. There was plenty of surface damage all across the machine, but one scar in particular could possibly be useful to them. There was a large hole, like a gash that had been violently cut across the metal, which had been blocked by fire before Shirik arrived. Her first thought was that it might have been damaged by the impact, but it did not look quite right for that. The jagged edges of the metal looked more like it had been torn apart by something. Regardless, it would not be difficult to climb up to, and it looked big enough to fit through. “I think I see a way in over here!” Kareet shouted.

Darnell hissed as the cold pack touched the back of his head. It felt like someone had stamped on his face and back of neck, which is probably exactly what happened in that toilet as the Jotunheim crashed. He’d been on the floor with Ezra crouched over him, pushing at each wall. Then they’d been weightless, crashing around like they were inside a washing machine. Then he’d blacked out for a bit, and had only really just got his shit together now.

The med bay was overrun, so he was sitting on a couch in the corridor outside the mess hall. Ezra sat next to him, applying finishing touches to the stitched up cut on his arm. The mercenary had taken his helmet off and put it on the floor between his feet; this guy had greying black hair, dark searching eyes and moisturised, slightly paunchy skin. Paler and a bit older than Darnell had expected, but still undeniably fit and dangerous.

“We should go up there, straighten some things out.” Darnell said, dabbing the ice pack down his neck.

“You have a concussion, makes you not think straight.”

“If only they’d listened to me, we could’ve defended that hangar until Tamerlane sent troops.”
“You may be right.”

“Of course i’m fucking right, just look at you mate.”

Ezra chuckled - the first time Darnell had heard him do that. It sounded like sand dunes shifting in the wind, a dry crackling.

“Now we’re God knows where, probably some other solar system based on these masks they gave out.” Tyreese added.

“I thought that just equipment failure. We somewhere remote, not dangerous. Scotland maybe?”

Darnell paused, realising he may have not mentioned the FTL feature on the ship they’d been trying to stop.

“I’ll talk to the Captain, figure all this out.”

“That was not part of our deal.” Ezra growled.

---

Zey took the clipboard from Dr Feng and examined it quietly as Mallory said his piece. As a captain, she had trained for moments like these. But the prospect that she could have to do it over and over again until there was no one left made her feel sick. She grabbed a stylus, and angling the clipboard so it was hard for anyone else to see, wrote in small script at the bottom:

“ZK - conserve supplies.”

Zey waited until Mallory finished.

“Thank you, Mallory. I hope that is clear to everyone.”

She handed the pad back to Duncan. “And thank you, doctor. We’ll make sure you get blood. Please, go back to your patients now. That goes for the rest of you too, I’ll update you once we know more. Dismissed.”

---

It became clear beyond any doubt the next morning that they were on a different planet, with a different sun. They’d skipped straight out of the Solar System and ended up somewhere new in just an instant. The command crew couldn’t find a single point of reference with which they could reorient.

At dawn, the fires had died down enough for the survey team to venture forth. With morning sunrays peeking over the horizon, Zey stood by the pilot’s chair on the Bridge and gazed out of the scratched wraparound window.

The Jotunheim had rolled sideways up a rocky hill range, so the right side of the window afforded her a glimpse of the scorched earth and the massive divot the Jo had made before rolling back down and coming to rest on a craggy outcropping. Burning alien trees stood all around, sending up a plume of black smoke into the air. She could hear faint bangs and the whoosh of fire suppressants outside.

If Zey craned her neck looking out of the left hand window, she could still see the trail of destruction the Jotunheim had left in its wake. Upturned earth, jagged bits of metal and pools of flaming fuel meandered down the hill.

Beyond this devastation was a stunning vista out across a wide marshy plain. Strange rock formations and alien vegetation surrounded mossy ponds far into the distance. Stuck between the land and the sky along the horizon was the large body of water Zey they’d passed on their chaotic descent. She could just about make out a river that fed into or out of it.

“What can you see?” She asked the survey team over radio.

Turns out pretty much the entire sensory array had indeed been taken clean off or damaged in the crash. The team deployed a portable sensor bank outside, then got to work releasing Wodan’s repair droids from their nests around the hull. Some had taken a beating, but others were operational and immediately got to work spreading their eyes around the outside of the ship.

This short-range package of sensors picked up that the oxygen content was even higher than originally thought, at 29.1%. On Earth it was 21%.

Zey gave this news to everyone together in the mess room at lunch together. All the signs suggested they had accidentally jumped to some unknown planet. With FTL travel still a new technology, rescue could be some time. The crew had prepared for this eventuality; the civilians hadn’t. There was acrimony, accusations, threats. Zey understood how they felt, and did her best to calm them.

The next couple of days were a controlled process of taking stock of their resources, prioritising and planning a repair schedule that accounted for decreased headcount, and figuring out who they could spare to keep watch on the perimeter.

Zey needed all her crew and most of her robots doing their actual jobs - they were no good to her standing around in the cold. She considered creating a rota for the civilians, but discarded that notion as well. None of them had real combat experience - if something showed up, they’d be next to useless.

In the end, Zey was forced to ask Ezra to take watch, along with Wodan’s two androids. She didn’t trust the mercenary, but figured he was the only professional soldier onboard - that made him more valuable out there than handing engineers their tools. Her one condition was that he had to wear a Tamerlane patch.

It was just before dawn on the third day that Zey knew she’d made the right call. The whole command crew was woken by a loud notification from Ezra, who was hidden near the crest of the hill, that…something had flown overhead. Zey had been awake anyway, but resting her eyes. She opened them and stared out of the thick viewing port above her bed. Wisps of smoke and flame, left over from their crash, were rising up into the night in long tendrils.

“What the fuck…” Zey murmured, hauling herself out of bed.

“I can see something in the air. I have a shot.” Ezra followed up to her over comms.

“Don’t engage. Observe and feedback!” Zey hissed. She then pinged her whole staff.

“Everybody up and to the armoury! There’s something outside.”

@EliteCommander @Blizz

Kolvar Stilmyst

“I came from a village in the north. I am a travelling healer. I was heading to the local village to give my services, but I noticed this flying ship crashing and I wanted to help heal anyone that is injured.” He hoped this lie would be good enough for them to buy. He followed the others around the ship. For now, he was going to play along with his lie just so he could get inside the ship. He was excited by the thought that there was a way inside however, he was sure the aliens would be hostile toward them. Kolvar stood behind Kareet in case the people inside tried shooting at them. In that case, he could use one of them as a shield. From behind their shoulder, he could see the hole properly. Again he was quite hesitant to be the first to go inside the hole.

“Who will be the first to go inside?” He asked but had a feeling he would be the first because he’s a life mage. He nervously started fiddling with his claws, he was scared to go inside but also excited. He thought there would be a lot of amazing contraptions and technologies inside the ship. “If it is okay with you both, I would like to go in first.” He said before starting to approach the hole. Slowly and cautiously making his way inside the hole.

Strangely enough, Vigdis expected her scheduled work in the next few days to be enjoyable in a way, although when she mentioned it to the table during the first meal after the crash she got a few looks as if she needed her head examined. Working outside, in the breeze, with birds - or so she assumed, who knew what taxonomical classification the things would get - singing throughout the day, great views as the sun - were they still supposed to call it ‘sun’ even if it wasn’t ‘the Sun’? - set… She’d take that over the enclosed docks at Stavanger. At least while the local summer was going. Or maybe it was spring, it was hard to tell.

As soon as the sun - fuck it, it was the local system’s sun, someone who cared enough could name it later - was up, Vigdis was outside, sealing the two smaller hull breaches to make the most of space available inside the ship. The one in the hangar was a different beast, with a decent chunk of the wall missing, likely due to a missile exploding nearby. The Jo wasn’t a warship, a direct hit at that angle would’ve probably stopped in front of the captain’s office and then blown off its entire chin, bridge and all. It was further complicated by the damn air, meaning she would first have to seal it from the outside, then fix the breach from the inside once the air wasn’t a fire hazard in an enclosed space and then go back out and replace the temporary seal with a proper hull patch. At least that was on the schedule before ventilation in the forward quarters died. And then the door to one of the aft quarters. And then lights in engineering in conjunction with heating. The power fluctuations and impact made a mess of the power grid, cables and wires half melted, contacts shaken loose and circuit boards damaged by heat and failing with additional use.

All in all, morning of day three and Vigdis finally had time to get back to the shuttle bay breach. She’d woken up about an hour ago, picked up her meager breakfast ration and went straight to the gear locker before stopping at the armory, as anyone going outside had to bring something to fend off potential wildlife. Hauling the welding rig behind her with one hand and adjusting the parts bag with the other, she hadn’t yet had the time to turn her personal communicator on, missing the Captain’s alert. She hadn’t even had the time to actually load her weapon, something she deeply regretted as soon as she stepped out of the airlock and saw something approaching the breach, evidently looking to get in.

She left the welder where it was and stumbled backward, hands fumbling to reach the Jackal. Then she noticed it: As the creature came closer, light from within the bay revealed it was wearing clothes. That calmed her down somewhat, enough to keep the weapon at low ready and pointed at the ground. Still, she was holding the creature at bay with an unloaded weapon, even if it was unarmed - who the fuck was she kidding, the thing’s face was a weapon! - and banking on the fact that it wouldn’t be able to tell. Rather than further manipulate the object the alien might infer to be a weapon, Vigdis tapped the side of her headset, turning it on. “Shuttle bay, shuttle bay!” She let out a panicked whisper, unsure of which channel she was on and who it went to.

If she were to be completely practical about it, Kareet would reason that J’eon should be the first one inside in case of any potential dangers. Shirik was the more interesting of her two companions to her, and if this new Tekeri was a Life mage, as he claimed, then his skillset would be more useful to them than a second Heat mage. Regardless, Kareet would not say any of this aloud. She would rather just get inside as soon as she could, so having the Tekeri go in first was sufficient.

Kareet was not entirely sure if she could trust the new arrival. If he was coming from the north, that meant he was coming from Mythadia. The nearest village in their lands was farther away than Ertiseda, though she also recognized that a Tekeri would be able to cover that distance faster than she had with Shirik and J’eon in tow. If he was a Life mage, his justification did make sense, but Kareet would be cautious regardless.

It was an easy climb up to the breach, after which Kareet stepped inside just after the other Tekeri. Somehow, as she could see on approach, it was quite bright inside. Her eyes would take some time to adjust, but what she could see was something entirely alien to her. The room that the breach led into was huge and made almost entirely from metal. Perhaps that should not have been surprising, looking at it from the outside, but she could still hardly imagine the craftsmanship required to create something like this. Just the materials alone would cost more to build than all of Arcaeda, and that was not even considering the skill required to make it. Ignoring damaged sections, the walls and floor were so…precise. Every metal panel fit so precisely with every other that it was hard to tell where the separations were. Kareet had seen that kind of precision before, but never on such a scale.

Unfortunately, it was hard to see some of the details with how cluttered the room was. There was debris everywhere. It seemed like the crash had thrown and scattered about anything that had been in the room. Some of it was metal debris, probably from the damaged wall, but most of it was just objects that had been thrown around, hardly any of which she could actually identify, aside from broken glass. Though, she could only guess at what they might have been before they were broken. Just at a glance, some of the objects looked like they could have been tools, but she could only guess at their purpose. This might have been a storage room of some sort, given the number of boxes and crates scattered around. Even the crates themselves were metal, or…maybe not. Upon closer inspection of one of the crates, she found it was made of something solid and smooth, yet clearly not metallic.

Of course, what drew Kareet’s eye most readily was what looked, to her, like a suit of armor. If it was, then it was the most intricate and robustly crafted armor she had ever seen. However, she could not imagine how any being could actually wear it, purely for its size and weight. It was the height of a S’tor, but it was too massive for even a S’tor to move in. Not to mention, its shape was entirely wrong for their anatomy. A particularly large Tekeri could potentially fit inside, but again, the shape was wrong for them. An Iriad would have the right shape, but it was far, far too large for any of their kind. The sheer physical might required for one to don this armor actually made her worried to meet whatever sort of being it was that had built this machine.

Kareet had not heard the whisper, but eventually, her eyes adjusted to the light enough to see the movement off to her left. She turned to see a being. Something new, something she did not have a word for. She could see hairless skin, except on top of the head, and strange clothing. It held something she did not recognize. It was also much…smaller than her mind had imagined.

There were many things that Kareet could, or perhaps should have done first, but when faced with something like this, she simply could not help herself. Her first reaction was to flip to a new page in her notebook to sketch what she saw.

---

The barge Nellara and the small unit of Tekeri soldiers took had left them as close as it could from the site of the crash, while still maintaining a reasonable, safe distance from it. The very first thing Nellara and the soldiers saw just as they disembarked the barge, before they could even see the crash site properly was a strange figure in the air, hovering above the location. Tendrils of smoke, embers and fire seemed to rise from whatever it was that crashed into the soil, being absorbed by the figure.

"Remember, we are here only to investigate the crash site and report our findings. Do not engage unless strictly necessary." Nellara said in a low tone as she looked to the soldiers.

Not knowing if the strange figure would be hostile to them or even if it was responsible for what happened, Nellara quickly judged that the best course of action for now would be to approach in silence and evaluate the situation before acting.

"We will move in silence. Spread out in a delta formation. Keep each other in visual range." Nellara said as she looked towards the small hill separating them from the actual crash site.

"Move out." Nellara said, her final verbal command as she crouched down and started moving towards the crash site, followed shortly by the other soldiers, moving in a delta formation, keeping a distance of about five meters between each other.

Cloaked by the night, Nellara and her unit moved in towards the crash in a steady pace, carefully watching their surroundings as their did so.

The moment Nellara got on top of the hill, she raised her hand, signalling for the team to stop as she looked towards the crater in front of them. What Nellara and the soldiers were seeing was something beyond belief. In the center of the crater, a huge, imposing metallic fortress resembling a ship stood remarkably intact, despite having fallen from the sky. Even a quick glance was enough for Nellara to tell that no nation she knew about had the capability of building something like that. The fact that it was somehow capable of flying was an even bigger mystery. What probably made Nellara even more shocked by the size of the fortress-ship was imagining what was capable of building something like that. How strong were they and which weapons they had used to defend their fortress-ship.

If whoever was responsible for that metallic structure ended to be an enemy, they could pose a serious threat not only to the city of Lenkik, but even to Arcaeda itself.

After taking a moment to properly take in what she was seeing, Nellara continued, signalling to the soldiers to follow after her.

As they continued to approach the crashed ship, they were able to identify that a number of people seemed to have already approached it. The strange figure that was absorbing smoke, embers and fire from the crash despite it's appearance, didn't seem to be hostile to the other people nearby, which were two Tekeri and a Glenfolk. Judging by how it seemed to be observing the metallic structure together with the others, Nellara quickly disregarded the possibility of it being responsible for the crash. Still, what exactly was that creature was still unknown to Nellara, despite being able to see it a bit better than before. Among the group, the only one that didn't seem to be a normal civilian and drew Nellara's attention, other than the strange creature, was the glenfolk, which seemed to have a rather well trained body.

As Nellara and her team approached the ship, they could also see that it wasn't exactly as intact as they previously thought. While the structure was remarkably resistant and was able to retain it's structural integrity despite the heavy impact, the damages it had withstood were obvious once they took a closer look. It was exactly on one of those the strange group encountered themselves. The big gash on the side of the ship was big enough for them to go in.

Surprisingly enough, instead of the dangerous looking, charred and burning creature or the glenfolk being the ones to go in the crashed ship, the one that went inside first was the male Tekeri, which didn't seem to be anything more than an unarmed civilian. Which would probably be enough to alert whatever it was inside the crashed ship. The rest of the group soon went after the male Tekeri, entering the ship one after another.

Raising her hand Nellara signaled to the soldiers to move closer, as she stopped just outside the entrance.

"Two of you, guard the exit, the remaining will move in with me." Nellara whispered to the soldiers as she began moving towards the big opening on the side of the crashed ship.

Arriving just a few seconds after the other group had entered, Nellara and the soldiers carefully entered the ship, leaving two soldiers behind as the others moved together behind Nellara in a delta formation, making as little noise as possible.

The moment they got inside, there was little time to react before they noticed that the group from before, particularly one of the two Tekeri, had already made contact with the beings that were inside the ship. Nellara was surprised to notice how small the strange, hairless beings were, compared to the size of the ship and the strange suits of armor lying around inside the ship. The female hairless creature seemed to be somewhat nervous as it looked towards the female Tekeri, who was... for some reason, sketching in a book despite the tense situation she encountered herself in.

Noticing the strange metallic object that was being held by the hairless being and fearing it might be a weapon, Nellara silently crouched down, getting a four metal orbs from a leather pouch in her belt and laying them down on the ground.

"Stand guard behind me. Prioritize the safety of the two Tekeri civilians and don't take your eyes off the glen and the charred creature with them. Keep your guards up, but don't unsheathe your weapons." she whispered as she stood up, showing herself and began approaching, raising her hands in a signal of peace. Using magnetism, she made the four small, metal spheres move with her, rolling beside her.

Being the only one among the soldiers that was technically 'unarmed', Nellara chose to approach the strange creature herself.

While her steps were slow, careful and calm, she still didn't take her eyes off the strange being. Stopping just as she got nearby the female Tekeri, Nellara slowly lowered one of her hands, holding the female Tekeri's shoulder.

"No need for panic. Don't make any sudden movements and stand behind me." Nellara said in a low tone before she started moving the female Tekeri until she was in a safe position behind her.

Meanwhile, the four small metal spheres continued rolling until they made a line between Nellara and the being, the last sphere standing just a few centimeters away from the it's feet.

The three soldiers that entered behind Nellara, while instructed to not unsheathe their weapons, still had their hands next to them as they approached the Glen and the charred creature.

"Calm down, we are here to maintain order. Please make no sudden movements and identify yourselves." The soldiers said to the glen and the strange, charred creature.

"I am Castigator Nellara. I was assigned to the city of Lenkik. Calm down and lower your weapon. Don't do anything you might regret." She said, keeping a respectful distance from the strange female being, while watching every movement she made with a sharp stare.

"Do you understand me? There is no need for violence. We came here only to investigate the crash and talk." Nellara said, slowing down her words as much as she possibly could, trying to communicate with the creature and potentially deescalate the situation and avoid a fight against those creatures. Especially since Nellara had no idea of what they were capable of.

"Who am I?" J'eon snorts with a scowl, turning to face the soldier that spoke, pointing to his guild crest. "I am Master J'eon of Mythadian Blacksmith Guild! Who are you that you would be interfering in guild business?" He hoped his words would carry to their leader. He didn't like ths place much, the air seemed thinner inside this skin, and there were many strange and foul smells.

"We are here to render aid. Why are you here?" he demands, staring down at the soldier, then shifting his gaze pointedly at the soldier's hand, posed by his weapon's hilt. "Was it you, then? Did you attack this city? Force it down?"

There was a device on its hull he'd seen before he entered, which he did not like the looks of. Nor, he wagered, would any of them should the sky people (he just decided to call them that) decide to use it.

---

"Vigdis?" Jack said, raising his right hand to press the earpiece closer. He had just reached the shuttle bay airlock in response to the captain's command, pausing to take a look through the airlock hatch window.

"Captain!" he called out. "Vigdis is in the shuttle bay - she's got company!"

He was eerily aware his oxygen sensor was not chirping because of the higher oxygen - whatever those creatures were, they were not a hallucination.

Circumstances were quick to pull Kareet away from her sketching. There were, she supposed, more important matters to deal with immediately. She just hoped she would still get a chance later to continue her notes. She had not noticed the arrival of the other Tekeri initially until they were right on her. Though, introductions certainly eased her worries. A Castigator? She and her soldiers would be quite useful. Or at least, they could be useful, as long as they did not hinder her efforts at first impressions.

“Stand down, Castigator.” Kareet said after Nallara. “If they come from beyond our continent, they probably do not speak S’toric. Nor any other of our languages. If our words cannot help us, we are going to need to be very careful about how we present ourselves.”

Once she had the Castigator’s attention, Kareet reached back and flicked her wrist, magnetizing her medallion into her hand from one of the pouches of her backpack. Or more accurately, the chain it was attached to, given that the medallion itself was made from tungsten. The metal was quite difficult to work with, which made forgery all the more unlikely. She held it up to the Castigator so she could see the intricately designed insignia it bore.

“Kareet of Arcaeda, Seeker of the Order of Sages.” She announced. Shirik and J’eon both had chimed in as well, but she could not take the time to deal with their questions. “Let’s all stop questioning each other and focus on what is in front of us. This being, whatever it is, we outnumber it. We may intimidate it. Let’s remedy that. Names…let’s see if it has one. An introduction, and it may be less hostile.”

Looking away from the Castigator, the gaze of all four of Kareet’s eyes settled onto the small being. She held up one finger, then pointed to herself. “Kareet.” Even without a shared language, she felt this could be a relatively simple exchange, as long as they had some concept of names themselves. She repeated it two more times, pointing to herself and saying simply: “Kareet”.

So far first contact was not quite what she imagined. An unassuming, yet tall and vicious looking bird. Maybe a Peasant? Another just like the earlier one, but writing into a book. A Scholar. But the next one that entered the Jo made her gasp in abject terror. Tweety’s gymrat cousin, clad head to toe in armor. Even though Vigdis knew it was a bad idea, panic took the helm as soon as the Paladin entered her field of view and she raised her weapon, aiming for center mass while backing up even more until she tripped over a box she couldn’t see and spilled M8 hex nuts everywhere. Now practically squished into the shuttle bay’s starboard fore corner, Vigdis was running out of options. And what the fuck were those balls doing? No, correction, how was it doing that?

Although the Paladin was under the mistaken impression Vigdis would understand Alienese, it fortunately had enough sense to stop next to the Scholar and keep its hands visible, and after a few seconds where one could hear a pin drop, Vigdis slowly lowered the Jackal again, although she nudged the nearest metal ball away from her with her heel. The arrival of Human(oid) Torch shattered her theory that the birds were the dominant species as the local human-equivalent but otherwise did not add to the pile of terrifying bullshit fate had heaped onto her, since it seemed more interested in its companions than anything else. Alright, she was still alive, although hyperventilating in this damn atmosphere was making her light-headed already. She felt like she had to do something before the locals would decide she was boring and try to figure out what humans taste like.

It was then the Scholar spoke again, clearly addressing her as she made a motion with her finger that Vigdis could reasonably assume was trying to get her attention, making the Venerian desperately wish she was a chameleon and could observe something else with each of her eyes. She didn’t want to leave the Paladin unobserved, yet the Scholar was attempting contact. “Kareet?” she tried pronouncing what the Scholar had said, hoping it didn’t include any sounds she couldn’t hear and therefore replicate. Reasoning there wasn’t much else that could mean when coupled with such gestures, she mimicked Kareet’s gesturing. “Vigdis.” But then the Scholar gave her another idea.

Writing!

The fact that one of the aliens was writing meant that they wouldn’t take objection to her doing the same, right? So, very slowly, Vigdis pulled a black marker she normally used to mark damaged sections of hull and material for cutting out of her harness, removed the cap with her teeth so as to keep her shooting hand on her weapon and took a few cautious steps off to the side, keeping her eyes on the aliens until she reached the nearest undamaged wall and started writing:


Still moving slowly even as she wrote to avoid startling the locals with sudden movement, she even managed to write legibly with her left hand. Once she was done she beckoned the Scholar to come closer with her hand, holding the pen out on an open palm and gesturing to the alien, the writing and the marker, hoping the intent was clear enough and the alien wouldn’t suffer anaphylaxis upon contact with the aluminum marker.

---

“Vigdis. Okay, that is progress. It calls itself Vigdis.” Kareet remarked. Though, what Vigdis did next was more complex. It moved over and started writing on the wall, so naturally, Kareet flipped to a new page in her notebook and copied every single thing it wrote, just as it wrote it. It started off with simple lines, though all the symbols beyond that were completely unrecognizable. But Vigdis could write, and it was a part of the species that had made this machine. It had to be intelligent, which meant it had to expect that they would not be able to understand what it had written. If Vigdis was showing them this, then there had to be something they were meant to be able to figure out from it.

“These symbols…maybe their language? But how would we make any sense of it? We don’t know their language; how would we put symbols to words? Let’s see, it starts off with these lines. They’re separated out, one more each time…counting, maybe?” Kareet spoke aloud to no one in particular.

Kolvar was impressed by the architecture and how technologically advanced the ship seemed. “Wow.” Muttering this to himself as he was now standing side by side with Kareet. “These foreigners have a fascinating method of building their ships.” He took a moment to touch his claw to the cold metal of the shuttle bay. Kolvar wanted to know how they were able to make this ship fly. Which he would need to ask if these people could even speak the common tongue. Something that seemed highly unlikely.

His attention turned towards something hiding in the corner of the room. Turning his body so he was facing them. It looked petrified seeing them. He slowly pointed a single claw towards himself and spoke slowly. “Kerchak.” He just came up with this fake name, and now both Kareet and the pink thing knew his name. His intention was not to scare or be killed by this fleshy looking S’tor.

He watched as the hairless started writing something on the wall. He squinted his eyes trying to figure out what it meant. “Some sort of mathematical equation, but what could it mean? Do you know what it means? Maybe this is how they communicate, though math?” He turned towards Kareet hoping she knew what it meant.

Kareet tilted her head slightly towards Kerchak. “Communicate through mathematics? I hope not. I’m not sure what that would even be like; that would make finding common ground quite a bit more difficult. Let’s just figure this out, though. If we’re going down the right path with this being mathematics, then these symbols in the middle here might be associated with the count of these dashes up here. It starts with none of them, so zero, and in increments up to…hmm.” Kareet crossed her arms. “There are ten symbols here. Zero up to seven, then two more. Why is that?”

“I have no clue what it could mean. But…” He trailed off for a moment to look back at the equation .”Could it be these numbers match where their alphabets are? Five, four, ten, nine, six, four, thirty four, and six. Perhaps it is some kind of code that they use to communicate.” He places his claw on the metallic wall, tapping it the number of times of the answered equation. Hoping the thing would know what he means.

“Maybe, but…why would they start with that? They have to know that we have no concept of their language. If they’re expecting us to understand a code, it would have to be a code based on something common between us.” Kareet replied, letting out a sigh. “I can see how these dashes match to these symbols, but if they are numbers and these down here are equations…not all of these work out. I mean, look at this one. The symbol for 1 and 7 go together, then there is the symbol for two, then 3 and 4 seem to be together here. But in what way can 17 and 2 make 34? If it’s addition, it would be 21. Subtraction would be 15. Multiplication would be 36. This can’t be like our number system.”

Kolvar was rubbing his beak, math was not really his strong suit. But someone like his master could probably figure it out. “Perhaps their numeral system is much different than ours. So certain things would not make sense with our mathematical basis.” He once again squinted his eyes again. “Perhaps we could use our numerical system to try and figure out this equation?”

For a few more seconds, Kareet just stared at the symbols in front of her. “A different system? Mathematics is universal. It should always be the same, unless…you mean it could be a different base?” She revisited the symbols above the equations. “Of course…our number system is base eight, but it doesn’t have to be. Mathematics are the same no matter the base, it’s just another way of writing it. If these two symbols are just two extra numbers, then this would be…a base ten system. So 17 multiplied by 2 in base eight is 36, but in base ten the answer is…34.”

Immediately, Kareet went silent as she checked several of the other equations, this time with a base ten numerical system. This time, she could find some way to combine two of the numbers to make the third. That also told her the meanings of the symbols they were using to denote mathematical operations. At this point, Kareet was looking visibly excited.

“Okay, okay, we have something here. Numbers, mathematics, that’s…something, at least. I think you’re right. We can do the same thing they did, and put up these same equations with our numbers.” Kareet said, nodding in agreement.

Reaching out her hand towards the pen Vigdis had left on the floor, Kareet tried to magnetize it into her hand, only to find that it would not move at all. Curiously, she reached down and picked it up to get a closer look. “Wait…is this pen made from aluminum?” Considering that aluminum was a metal more valuable than gold in Kanth-Aremek, her surprise was understandable.

Kolvar looked over at the pen Kareet was holding. “Aluminum? By the gods these foreigners must be very wealthy to have such a mundane object made out of such an expensive material.” His face was quite close towards the pen Kareet was holding. Looking quite mesmerized by it. “I believe that would be a good idea. Perhaps doing so would help gain a connection to this pinkie thing. I shall help you.”

The pair of them soon got to work on writing their own version of what Vigdis had given them. Or rather, versions. By Kareet’s suggestion, they first wrote out a copy with the same symbols Vigdis had used, except in a base eight number system. The dashes at the top went from zero, to seven dashes, which were associated with the numbers 0 to 7 beneath them. They then converted the equations to base eight as well. Afterwards, they wrote it out again a third time, but using the S’toric numerals that were commonly used across the continent. Hopefully between the three, Vigdis too would be able to understand how their mathematics were different.

Itxaro had been playing detective.

Well, warp detective anyways. She was scrambling around the ship like mad, interviewing key crew, running diagnostics on ship systems, and begrudgingly consulting the ship's AI to piece together what exactly had gone wrong with the Jo when they left Norwegian airspace. Her task was made even more difficult by constant power fluctuations and her unfamiliarity with the drive. It boiled down to this: alien and human tech don't play well with eachother.

The doctor was now discussing her findings with wounded lead engineer Zhao Jiayin, the two women lounging at the Jo's docking rampway as they waited for the foreign sun to rise and their shifts to begin. They'd tried smoking in the open air of the new planet but quickly discovered their cigarettes ignited into flames, rather than gently smoldered. "I've been looking for reasons to quit anyways," Itxaro said as she flicked the burning butt to the dirt, where it reduced to cinders and blew away in the ashen soil.

The conversation, carried out in Mandarin, had wandered from the Jo's warp drive to home, perhaps inspired by the Earth-like landscape that stretched before them. In truth, there wasn't much like the untouched marshland on Earth now; most of it had been stripped for resources or polluted beyond repair. Almost all "natural" spaces back home were in fact manmade ecosystems, attempts to repair the damage done by decades of abuse. It was fitting that mankind's first step on a habitable alien world resulted in several hundred acres going up in flames. Judging from her calculations, Itharo determined that the planet had gotten off easy, too. Exiting warp in atmosphere meant a good chance there would be super-relativistic displacement of volumes of space, which could have a catastrophic, atomic-scale impact on any matter that got in the shield's way. Either the warp bubble had degraded slowly enough, or the Yenge's drive had some sort of fail-safe to prevent them from destroying every planet they exited warp next to. They'd been lucky.

The pair of engineers discussed the planet's similarities to their home countries; Zhao pointed out the wetlands that were reminiscent of the Zoigê Marsh, while Ibarra spotted trees in the mountains not unlike the Caribbean pine. Their ecological study was cut short when Itxaro caught sight of a smoldering mass floating through the sky. At first, she assumed it was some burning detritus floating in the breeze, but the shape moved slowly, and with too much purpose. A drone. Itxaro and Zhao exchanged a look of pure disbelief before they scrambled into the metal hull of the Jo.

As if on cue, Commander Kadıoğlu's voice came through their comms systems. Itxaro didn't need to be told twice. Somehow, whoever had attacked the ship in Norway had followed them, and were here to finish the job. None of it made sense, but with adrenaline filling her system, Itxaro didn't have much use for sense. She dashed for the armory and briefly eyed the racks of heavy weaponry before grabbing a wheel gun and cramming some spare speedloaders into her overall pockets. Revolvers were easy to use, and the large caliber meant you probably wouldn't need to hit your target twice. Plus, it made you feel cool.

"Oh, why not?"

She also picked up a light carbine and two spare magazines, feeling like some supersoldier loaded up for a last stand. If she thought hard enough, she could just recall the single firearms lesson she'd received in school where they loaded and shot an ancient, wood-furnished gun. The sleek rifle in her hands now was a far cry from that derelict AK though. She jammed a magazine inside and hoped for the best, ready enough to confront whatever danger was outside.

A new voice hissed over her comms. "Shuttle bay, shuttle bay!" the woman whispered. Vigdis.

Itxaro dashed from the armory and around the corner, almost running into a large man already peering into the shuttle bay. She recognized him as Jack Mallory, the ship's X.O. "Jesus, Mallory, am I happy to see you," Itxaro said, immediately shoving the carbine into his hands. She remembered from his dossier that he had served in the military, so he was much better off with it than her. Why the hell did I grab that in the first place? Stupid!

"What's the plan Mallory? Are they in the shuttle bay? Is Vigdis OK? We gonna plug these fuckers? Can you believe these pendejos followed us all this way?" She fired off a flurry of questions, running a hand through her white hair as she drew the revolver from her overalls. Her body was pressed against the bulkhead, not peering through the airlock for fear of getting shot in the face. She knew Vigdis was in the shuttle bay, but she couldn't hear any guns going off. Itxaro ventured a peak through the window and slammed back against the bulkhead as if shots had whizzed by.

"Oh."

With the Peasant and the Scholar - who was named Kareet if she understood correctly - occupied by basic math, Vigdis turned back to the Paladin. She checked her wristpad to see her communicator was set to speak to the command staff. Perfect. Looking the Paladin straight into the eyes - or thereabouts, it had four of them - she slowly raised her left hand to her headset to speak. She spoke slowly and clearly to make it clear that she was not trying to hide anything. “So far it looks like Venerian isn’t on the menu. I’ve got six in here, three definitely armed, all looking potentially dangerous, but so far we’re keeping the peace. Looks like three different species. And there’s… some weird shit happening here.” Maybe the anomalous activity was due to some hidden tech, even if these people looked like they came from a renaissance fair. “If someone else is coming into the shuttle bay, let me know in advance so I can warn them. And if we have any linguists on board, find them. I can’t keep them entertained with basic math forever.” If someone told her they were coming, she’d try to draw the locals’ attention to the airlock door. Even though she was looking at an alien here, she felt a bit weird about giving some of them something to do while the others just stood there awkwardly. Well, suppose if she gave the nerds a puzzle, the soldier should get something they might find interesting as well. Taking a few careful steps forward, she stopped about halfway between the Paladin and where she stood before, slowly removed one of the AP darts from a magazine and held out her hand like she’d done with the marker, offering up the tungsten, press forged 6x50 mm projectile. Despite the kind of armor and storage media on display, an arrow-shaped object was still an arrow-shaped object.

By the time Vigdis turned her attention back to Kareet and Kerchak, they were already busy writing. Understanding, exchange, beginning of communication. She had to suppress a grin as the alien beings understood what she was asking of them, as many animals on earth viewed bared teeth as a challenge or a threat. If Aussies couldn’t win a war with Emus, what chance did she stand against these birds with an unloaded weapon? Perhaps it was a sign of bad character, but Vigdis couldn’t help but think about how, assuming she lived to return home, she’d just accidentally stumbled her way into history books. On second thought, the nerds did more than she asked of them as they also wrote a second set of Arabic numerals. She’d have to compliment Kareet's handwriting later, but why… Fewer numbers… She took a closer look at Kareet's hand. Four fingers, of course.

Now that the ice had been broken, Vigdis somehow felt safer, safe enough to adjust the weapon’s sling so it hung behind her, freeing up both of her hands. She unclipped a five-meter measuring tape from her tool harness and held it up for the greeting party to see. As all the tools she had were vacuum-rated, it too had an aluminum body and belt clip, but with rubber-padded edges and a plastic loop to secure it around the wrist. She pulled an arm’s length out to show them the markings on one side, then let it snap back so they’d know it could do that and hopefully avoid startling themselves with it. Then she pointed at the marker and held out the tape in one hand and an open empty palm, trading the two items.


She wrote to indicate that she understood before continuing. Fractions and the same basic four operations with them, numbers squared, numbers cubed, square roots, cube roots. She wrote everything in decimal first, then went back and added octal, writing notes ‘in the margins’ to help with the conversions and crossing them out once she was done with them. The manual conversions gave the nerds more time to examine the length measurements while she worked. Another suppressed giggle at the thought of doing God’s work by spreading the good word of metric units. This time she added a small test, drawing a circle with scratch marks at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions and marking them 360°/0°, 90°, 180° and 270° respectively. Then she drew a right triangle, marking the right angle with another ‘90°’ and its three sides C₁, C₂ and H.


She tapped the unfinished equation with her finger and stepped aside to find some more drawing space, giving them some time to think about the newest set of math. Figuring out the hypotenuse with the Pythagorean Theorem - if they knew of it, whatever they called it - was still elementary school math, so it shouldn’t be too difficult unless they got stumped by the letters - to them unknown symbols. If it looked like they were stuck, she’d wipe the letters off and replace them with actual numbers. But in the meantime, she prepared something else.


Then she maximized the clock app on her wristpad, handed over the marker and waited for the math to be solved or deemed unsolvable, then she’d add time to the list of human measurements they’ve been shown and look forward to learning the local ones. She’d give half of her liver to be able to know the locals’ thoughts when she’d show them the miniaturized computer.