Initially, Kareet was worried about what Shirik might do. Yet another voice, pulling in a different direction. However, it did not take her long to see the value in it. These little dancing flames were more than just a simple trick for impressing children or peasants. Images could convey thought, to an extent, and Shirik could create them on-demand. This was actually useful, and it was probably the most progress they had made since they started.

“They are right. If we want to make any progress here, I am going to have to take some risks.” Kareet said, glancing to Nellara beside her. After a moment, she stepped out of formation alongside Nellara and instead approached Shirik. She pulled off her backpack, then sat down in front of Shirik. Strategically speaking, it put her at a disadvantage if a fight were to break out, but it also made her appear less threatening. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a parchment, then unrolled it on the floor in front of Shirik. No matter how strange these outsiders were, it would have to be obvious that it was a map.

“I want to get one of these Humans in front of a thought mage. Either by getting some of them to come with me to Lenkik, or as Kerchack suggests, using his shapeshifting to fly back there. If we can communicate clearly, we can clear up all of these misunderstandings. Can you help me convey that, Shirik?” Kareet asked. As she spoke, she magnetized her pen into her hand, then drew a small symbol on the map in their current location, in the rough shape of this crashed fortress. Then, she pointed a talon at a different symbol, which resembled a collection of buildings. It was labeled “Lenkik”, though they certainly could not read the writing.

“Lenkik.” Kareet said, loudly and clearly.

The situation quickly deteriorated, and Itxaro was caught helplessly in the middle.

A gravelly voice with an Israeli accent sounded off over her comms. "Two tangos are external." All the blood drained from Itxaro's face as she realized what was happening. Her idea, her stupid fucking idea to post guards around the ship, an idea borne of past trauma and paranoia, was now going to kick off the first human-alien conflict. She could only hope that Tamerlane mercenary would shoot her eyes out so she wouldn't have to see it.

Itxaro froze as she heard an electric thrumming that sounded like systems firing up behind her, accompanied by a metallic clicking. The natives all grew more on edge, and Nellara's metal spheres reappeared. Normally, Itxaro would have squealed with delight at her name pronounced by an alien tongue, but right now she couldn't fully appreciate the novel experience. The engineer slowly turned around to see Eva's javelin coming to life, and the spidery drones skittering around the shuttle bay's interior. Oh, that fucking kid. Eva wasn't to blame, Itxaro knew that, but she sure had chosen a bad time to reunite with the crew after being practically MIA for the past three days.

More chatter and movement from outside. Nellara was concerned, and in just three words Itxaro instantly knew what was happening. The Jo's crew had unwittingly surrounded their new guests, and as far as she knew, the natives thought it was a trap. Itxaro didn't know what else to do, so she slowly holstered her revolver into her overalls and held her hands up halfway, palms open to indicate she was unarmed. Of course, this gesture implied that the metal objects all the crew carried were in fact weapons to the natives, but Itxaro was sure they'd determined this for themselves already. But what could she say? What could she point to, indicating her peaceful intentions?

One of the natives started this game of charades first with a flurry of gestures. Head. Brain? Thoughts? Mouth. Speech? Us. Travel. He wanted them all to go somewhere, but where to? And what did the first gestures mean? Itxaro might have been able to figure it out, but not when she could be decapitated by a sword-wielding bird at any second.

The commander managed to calm the humans, no easy task in Itxharo's experience, but it was the charred tree-thing who had the final say. Itxaro felt a chill sweep through the room as the creature pounded the floor even through her thick sweater and chemically treated overalls. Her breathing slowed, and she felt the panic ebb. That wasn't natural. The thing immediately had the room's attention (or at least Itxaro's), and it chose to sit on the grated metal floor, joined by Kareet. The woody native reminded Itxaro of Cuba's elder statesmen, those who had sparked revolutions throughout South America and led the USASR in those first rough decades. Those legendary figures were seemingly ancient, yes, but commanded absolute respect despite their advanced years. Experience counts for a lot. Itxaro had a feeling this creature was old, with more experience than she could imagine, and she would be smart to listen to what it had to say. Itxaro mirrored the natives, sitting across from them with some distance, and listened.

As it turned out, the creature, named Shirik didn't have much to say. It identified the names of its comrades in a low, scratching tone, as well as what she assumed was their culture or species. Then it chose to conjure flames rather than waste time speaking. Itxaro was enraptured, eyes glowing from the brilliant fire as she took in the shapes Shirik made. She expected heat to wash over her face, but there was nothing of the sort. She didn't think much about how the creature made the flames; that could come later. For now, she needed to listen. Mountains. The Jotunheim crashing. Shirik understood they had crashed here. Then came the next barrage of images. Jotunheim again. Circle, dots, larger dot. Space? Arrow from Jotunheim to the planet. They understood that humans came from outside of this world. Then came rough sketches of Shirik's companions and himself within the circle, all on the same world. Kanth-Aremek.

Itxaro nodded to indicate her understanding. Perhaps nodding didn't communicate the same thing in their cultures. Perhaps it meant, "Prepare to die, dog," on Kanth-Aremek, but the gesture was too instinctive to prevent. Kareet produced a map of some kind, but Itxaro had already set to work of her own, eager to engage in this pictorial exchange with Shirik. She pulled a beat-up data pad, USASR tech, from her deep pockets, set it on the floor, and began to typing away. It didn't take her long to produce the final product; she had extensive experience with the program as a teaching tool at the Universidad de la Habana. A hologram suddenly emitted from the data pad's projector showing a simple, 19th-century house with a human family in front of it. The colors were muted and the resolution low, but everything was still identifiable. "Home," Itxaro indicated as the lights in the windows went out, and the house faded into nothing.

In its place rose Earth, the moon orbiting around it, and a distant sun, all floating above the data pad. "Earth," she said, pointing to the planet. "Home," she added, with an unexpected twinge of sadness. Following Shirik's example, faces appeared within the planet, those of the Jotunheim's crew in the shuttle bay, but only human faces. Just us. Well, the Yenge too, but we won't get into that yet. Then came a small figure from the planet's surface. "Jotunheim," Itxaro said as the planet shrunk in size and the ship grew. Multiple planets passed by the Jotunheim at increasing speed to indicate how far they were from home. "Travel," Itxaro explained, borrowing Kolvar's pantomime of a person walking with two fingers. Suddenly, an explosion on the ship. "Broken," Itxaro said, pointing to the pixelated flames licking off the ship. This word was a stretch, but worth a shot; they couldn't just communicate in nouns. The Jotunheim came to a nondescript planet. "Kanth-Aremek," she tested her pronunciation of the alien planet's name as the Jotunheim burned through the ship's atmosphere. The light show came to an end. "Jotunheim broken. Humans travel home," Itxaro finished, a smile flickering across her face that was quickly suppressed. She had just communicated with aliens. Whether or not it was anything intelligible to them remained to be seen. Maybe I should have consulted with the commander first. Ah well.

"Did I miss anything?" Itxaro asked her crew members, but kept her attention on Shirik's smoldering eyes, searching for comprehension in the flames.

---

Immediately after they were given orders, the soldiers rushed outside with their weapons in hand, quickly forming a semi-circle around the entrance in a defensive formation. Even though Nellara was firm and confident in her orders, it still didn't help much with the soldiers' nervousness and apprehension. They had absolutely no idea of what these humans were capable of. What kind of projectile weapons they wielded or even if their armors would be of any use defending against those and as such, it was understandable that they were rather nervous. It was only due to their training and discipline that they didn't get alarmed and ended up attacking when one of the humans, the one called Vigdis, suddenly appeared walking out from the opening behind them, and stopped in front of them.

While they had no idea of what the human was doing, it was obvious that it was signalling to the metal things that were approaching them. The fact that it was standing between them and the possible enemies also made the soldiers calm down a bit as they waited to see how the situation would unfold.

Fortunately, it seemed like the strange metal things understood her message, as they lowered the strange metal objects they had on their hands and slowly approached Vigdis, after being ordered by a strange human, vaguely resembling a human appeared, wearing some kind of black armor and a strange black mask over it's face.

After being ordered by the human, the metal things, which seemed to vaguely resemble humans, although made completely out of metal, waved towards the soldiers, which definitely helped to calm them down, enough for them to lower their weapons, even if they still were carefully observing the droids and the armored human's movements.

Inside the Jotunheim, Nellara was doing her best to try and salvage the situation, despite the trap that the humans had set by surrounding and trapping them inside their ship. Watching every movement with extreme care, she could feel the tension in the air as the seconds passed by. The bigger humans inside the ship were already pointing their weapons at them and Nellara already had her spheres ready to be shot towards the armed humans in response even to the smallest movement. She couldn't afford to take her attention off the humans to say anything to J'eon, who seemed to be walking away after their small disagreement.

While Nellara saw Vigdis suddenly running outside, both her tone of voice as she spoke something to her and the fact that Vigdis seemed to be unarmed were more than enough to tell Nellara that she wasn't a threat and seemed to also want to solve that situation without any conflict. Offering her a simple nod as she passed by Nellara continued looking towards the other humans, unflinching.

Thankfully, the spiders that the suit had released were quick to gather around the huge armor and suddenly stop moving, just before the armor opened up, revealing a petite human coming from inside it, definitely far too small for that huge suit of armor. Surprisingly enough, she also didn't have a hostile body language or tone of voice, making the same signal Nellara herself did when approaching the humans at first. Zeynap, as one of the humans introduced themselves, was also quick to confirm that the the small human that got out from the suit was also a 'human' just like them and apparently, part of their group.

Among the group of humans, most of them seemed to be quite willing to talk in an amicable way... other than the bigger human called Tyreese. Unlike all the others, it seemed to be quite eager to point it's weapon at Nellara and she was sure to let him notice that she knew what it was doing as she looked at him with a sharp, cold stare.

It was at that very moment that Shirik, the burning Iriad from before, thought it was a good idea to somehow give reason to the humans that had just trapped them, using his staff to draw attention, hitting it into the ground and making the temperature drop a few degrees.
Regardless of what nonsense the burning Iriad spoke to her or how arrogant it sounded, the fact that it thought it was a good idea to suddenly slam it's staff on the ground despite the very delicate situation they found themselves in made Nellara almost burning with anger.

"Silence, Iriad! This entire situation is one small, sudden movement away from turning into a bloodbath and you thought it was a good idea to slam your staff into the ground?! Only to draw an audience to see you acting pretentiously and condescendingly towards others? One sound, one sudden movement is all it takes for one of the humans to get startled and open fire!" Nellara said in a low but threatening tone, trying her best to control her temper and not make any sudden movements, despite the arrogant manner the Iriad spoke to her.

"These 'newcomers' not only had their weapons pointed at us for some time now, but they have us completely surrounded. My actions have been strictly defensive since the start and still, they continue to point their weapons at us. Should I send my soldiers away despite all that then? Should I take off my armor and offer them our weapons and our severed heads as a peace offering?" Nellara asked, completely unfazed by Shirik's actions or words.

"I care not who do you think you are or how little worth you give to your own well being and safety, but I will not tolerate any actions that might hinder our mission or put my soldiers, Seeker Kareet or any other civilians at risk. If we want to salvage this situation, we will need the cooperation from everyone involved. Regardless if they are a Tekeri, an Iriad or a Glen. Are we understood?" Nellara asked, her tone of voice sending a clear warning to Shirik as she continued.

When Kareet mentioned that she would have to take some risks, Nellara simply let out a deep sigh before replying.

"I trust your competence, Seeker, but I hope you know exactly in how much risk you are putting yourself into." Nellara said, as Kareet left formation and crouched down, pulling out a parchment to try and illustrate what she wanted to tell the humans.

"Tyreese!" Nellara said, pointing towards the big human with the weapon pointed towards them and then pointing towards the ground, demanding him to lower his weapon as she did the same with her spheres, making them stop spinning and putting them back into the small pouch where they were in the beginning.

Kareet, much like Kerchak, who mentioned earlier that he wanted perhaps to take a human into the city and put them in contact with a thought mage, Kareet also mentioned having a thought mage to help them. While Nellara agreed that it would be of great help, taking a human with them was a terrible idea.

"Taking a human, any human, with one of you to Lenkik is not an option. There are too many variables, too many risks involved and it would require a great deal of trust from the humans to take one of them from their ship, away from their companions to go alone with us to a city they know nothing about." Nellara said with a firm tone.

"Kerchak, you can take one of my soldiers with you back to Lenkik. Tell them that I requested for a thought mage to be dispatched to the crash site as soon as possible. My soldier will confirm my orders and that you are acting under my request." Nellara suggested as she turned to Kerchak.

"Humans, stay. Kerchak, go." Nellara said, pointing towards the humans and then to the ground before she pointed towards Kerchak and then to the symbol Kareet drew for Lenkik.

"After, we speak." She continued, moving her hand in a vertical circle to symbol the passage of time and then pointing towards her beak and towards the humans.

Having experienced the reaction that the humans had to magic, Nellara thought it would be a good idea to trying to be as simple as possible with her words, while using signals to try and communicate their meaning instead of continuing using magic to communicate with them. While it was unlikely they would be 'afraid' of Shirik's magic, she knew it would undoubtedly be very distracting for the humans. Maybe preventing them to concentrate in what was actually important.

Fortunately it seemed that Kareet's map was indeed able to draw the humans' attention as it became clear when Ixtaro, suddenly pulled out a strange metal tablet and started tapping on it. In no time, something which Nellara could only describe as a 'magical image' appeared floating above the metal tablet, showing a house as she said one word to accompany it... 'Home'.

The magic images continued to pass, with Ixtaro supplementing those with words in their language. 'World', she said, when the house shrunk into a sphere, a planet. Soon, the planet shrunk and a ship, vaguely resembling the damaged fortress they were now inside appeared. 'Jotunheim' Ixtaro continued.
The ship then proceeded to quickly pass by many other planets, before an explosion appeared and finally, it landed into a planet... 'Kanth-Aremek'... This planet...

It took Nellara a few seconds to process exactly what she had seen from the magic images. It was almost too much for her to believe. After a moment, she couldn't help but let out an incredulous chuckle.

"It seems these 'humans' came from much farther away than just another continent, Seeker Kareet..." Nellara said, with an shocked expression as she looked at Kareet.

“How…” Kareet stammered. It seemed this Itxaro could create a show of lights with some sort of object, much like Shirik. It was more clear and detailed, though, and it painted a picture that she could not rationalize away. Not another continent, but a different planet entirely? That was not something she had ever even considered. Not only were there entire other worlds out there, but it was possible to move between them. This planet of theirs seemed to be named either “Earth” or “Home”, based on what Itxaro indicated. This flying fortress of theirs seemed to be called a “Jotunheim.” There were other words too, but Kareet could not guarantee she understood their meaning. “Travel” they associated with the same motion Shirik had used for walking. Or maybe just moving in general? “Broken”, they said alongside what looked like an explosion, so perhaps the word meant “explosion”? In that case, the Human was saying their fortress exploded, then the Humans moved to their planet “Home”. Or maybe that they wanted to go back to Home? That would make more sense in their circumstances.

Once she was spoken to, Kareet seemed to be shaken back into reality. “I don’t understand how this could be possible. It couldn’t mean anything else, could it?” She turned her head towards Kerchak. “Yes…do what the Castigator says. Take a soldier back to Lenkik, hurry. We have to be able to communicate. You’ll need to go to the Inquisitors’ Guild there. Let the soldier guide the way; they’ll know what to do.”

“That’s the point, guy. I know you’re just doing your job, but right now you’re making things worse. We’ve got their version of you in there and it’s just as twitchy.” She replied to Ezra when he complained that she was in the way. The expression on her face when Ezra waved was a mixture of confusion and unease so strong even the birdman might’ve found it funny. That was not a human, that was a skinwalker trying to figure out how fingers worked. Turning to the soldier, Vigdis pointed at the droids and showed him two fingers, then at Ezra and showed one. To help drive the message’s intent home, she pointed at the soldier she was standing beside plus one of his buddies she picked at random and showed a number of fingers corresponding to their number before turning back to return to the shuttle bay at a leisurely pace. Since she couldn’t hear weapons fire or screams of agony from inside the ship, someone had managed to keep the peace in there. Good.

Although she used the fact that the local soldiers were paying attention to Ezra and the droids instead of her and finally put an armor piercing magazine into her weapon.

Returning into the shuttle bay after announcing her presence by knocking on the remains of the wall with her fist, she had half a mind to give Nellara thumbs up to show that the error had been rectified, but decided against it. Who knew what that gesture could have meant to the locals? The last thing she wanted was for someone of Nellara’s stature to think she just told it to sit on it. Instead she repeated what she did with the soldier, seeing that it had seemed to work, and parked herself between Darnell and Nellara, who seemed to have calmed down a bit while Vigdis was outside. “A few rules of firearms safety: Don’t point it at anything you don’t want to kill and keep your booger hook off the bang-bang switch until you want to shoot.” She calmly addressed the Tamerlane suit. Although she hadn’t been a trooper of the fighting sort, weapon safety was drilled into the heads of everyone serving aboard ships that were full of things that didn’t react well to bullets. “Stop breaking two of the basic four and tell me what I missed while I was out there instead.” She gently guided the muzzle of his weapon toward the floor with her left hand while gesturing to Shirik, Kareet and Ixtaro with her right. She knew from recent experience that having that pointed at you wasn’t pleasant, and maybe if Darnell was busy talking, he wouldn’t have time to do something stupid by accident and Nellara would stop seeing him as an unpredictable variable.

Ezra carried on waving until Vigdis went inside, then gave her a finger of his own - the middle one. After that, he put his hand back on the gun’s foregrip and watched the aliens closely. He’d had standoffs like this before with all sorts of Humans - Mexican federal police, Kazakh freedom fighters etc, but never bird-soldiers before. It made him smirk under his mask. Were they afraid, or were they just naturally skittish?

---

“Hey, easy on the details! They need to back the fuck up tell us what’s going on here before we just roll out the welcome wagon.” Darnell snapped at Itxaro as Vigdis re-entered.

“Shut up man, I know how a gun works.” Darnell kissed his teeth at Vigdis as she started pushing the end of his shotgun. His South London dialect was more pronounced now he’d had a few drinks. The dawning realisation that they were stuck God-knows-where had really hit home last night. He was just a fixer, not an explorer. He shouldn’t have to deal with all this alien shit.

“The aliens just confirmed what we already know - we’re stuck somewhere off all the charts. Now she’s giving them all invitations to follow us back to Earth, completely disregarding the fact these things have some advanced tech or, or fucking MAGIC. Whatever it is, it's dangerous is all I'm saying.” Darnell pointed to Dr Ibarra while speaking.

“Now it looks like they want us to go somewhere with them to do God knows what.” Darnell continued.

“No one is going anywhere.” Zey said firmly, arms crossed. The aliens had shown a willingness to communicate and be peaceful, but she still wasn’t clear what they were capable of or exactly what they wanted. It seemed this ‘Kerchak’ was instrumental somehow.

“Mr Darnell is right - we can’t risk them finding their way to Earth. Nobody is to give usable reference points for our home until we know more about them, is that clear? Now, how do we ask them about these metal spheres and the fire show?"

She looked around. "Mallory, Eva, how long on those trinkets?”

Itxaro suppressed an urge to scream at Darnell, the Tamerlane parasite who'd latched onto the Jotunheim, and smothered some choice words for the commander as well. If she'd been among comrades, the engineer would have spun around in a heartbeat and given Darnell both barrels without a second thought, but she wasn't even sure all of the Jo's crew were on the same team. Hell, this thing seems like my best friend in the room, Itxaro thought, glancing at Shirik. Instead she played it cool, having learned long ago to mask her feelings around foreigners.

"They won't be able to find Earth from that," she stiffly reassured the two. Of course they wouldn't, she thought bitterly, that fucking lightshow was the equivalent of a fucking Treasure Island X-marks-the-spot map. I couldn't tell them how to find Earth even if I wanted to.

It didn't take an expert to see that some of the natives were shocked by her little lecture. Itxaro doubted they'd received intergalactic visitors before and likely didn't have the technology to do so themselves, let alone even consider it a possibility. She determined Earth was in no danger here, but the same couldn't be said for the Jotunheim's crew.

"Commander, I'm worried about that one," Itxaro said as she nodded to the soldier Kerchak. Nellara had told the humans that Kerchak was going to leave, perhaps to find someone who could translate for them in a city called Lenkik, judging from Kareet's map. Go. Stay. Speak. After Three new Kanth-Aremek words to weave into her growing lexicon. However, there was no telling Nellara's true intentions. Perhaps Kerchak would return with a legion of warriors like Kerchak and just kill them all. Itxaro thought it would be smart to send one human along with them who could warn them with a comms notification at the very least. Better to lose one than lose them all, she thought but Zey was in charge and Itxaro wasn't. The commander asked about the metal spheres, and Itxaro racked her brain for ways to communicate this. She noticed Kareet seemed confused. Maybe my little lecture wasn't as clear as I thought, Itxaro considered, before setting to work on her data pad.

Dr. Ibarra set the tech down on the floor and let the hologram begin again. First, came an image of a spear, the most simple of arms. "Weapon," Itxaro said confidently. A sword and bow then appeared next to the spear, conveniently omitting any human firearms in the display. "Weapon," she continued, pointing to each item. All the weapons faded, save for the sword, which grew in size. The broadsword suddenly splintered into several pieces. "Broken," Itxaro said. The sword was placed on an anvil, and a hammer appeared that smashed into the broken fragments several times. The anvil and hammer disappeared, sword now in one piece. "Repair," Itxaro finished with her second lecture as the holograms faded. "Jotunheim broken. Humans repair Jotunheim. Humans go home after," she said, weaving in the local language wherever possible.

The next lecture came as per the commander's request. First, Itxaro used the data pad to capture Shirik and Nellara's likeness for the program; the images would come out flat in the hologram without a full scan, but it would serve her purpose. Nellara's compressed image appeared, but it wasn't recognizable as her. Itxaro had rendered it a simple outline, a stand-in for all Tekeri; that, and she didn't want to break any cultural faux pas by presenting Nellara with her doppelganger. Several spheres rotated around the outline, electricity sporadically jumping from one to the other. "Sphere," Itxaro pointed to one of them. "Sphere weapon? Speak," Itxaro asked in the tone of a question, accompanied by shrug and an open-handed gesture to them, hoping it was enough to convey their confusion. Next, Nellara's image was replaced with a human, and the spheres continued to rotate around them. A large X was drawn through the entire scene to indicate humans did not have this technology.

“And now for my next trick…” Itxaro muttered; she was least confident in this one, but orders were orders. The images disappeared, replaced with an outline of Shirik's head. Holographic flames lept around him. "Fire," Itxaro said. The flames took the various shapes Shirik had created. A human appeared in Shirik’s place, another giant X through the images. Humans don’t know this technology. Or magic, as Darnell so thoughtfully put it.

Next, came Shirik’s outline and a Tekeri’s, both acting out the mysterious skills they possessed in front of a group of seated holographic humans. Then, the humans stood up and joined the Tekeri and Iriad, drawing fiery symbols in the air and spinning metal spheres of their own. “Teach,” Itxaro said with a sweeping gesture to the scene before them. Tell us how you do this. “Teach humans fire. Teach humans sphere. Shirik, Nellara, teach, speak,” she finished, gesturing to them. Your turn now. She didn't necessarily want a lesson, just an explanation. At least, that's what the commander seemed to want.

Itxaro did succeed in clarifying, to an extent. The few words they had exchanged did become more clear to her, but understanding the words only ended up raising more questions for Kareet. It was fascinating beyond compare, but still undeniably confusing. As absurd as it seemed, she could not refute the conclusion Nellara and Shirik had come to. “How could they possibly be unfamiliar with magic?” Kareet questioned. “You mean to say that this ‘Jotunheim’ can somehow fly with no need for magic? I try to keep my mind open to things I do not understand, but that…is a difficult notion to accept.”

Kareet took in a deep breath and paused a moment to focus. “Okay, let’s assume for a moment that they do not use magic. I don’t know if we are going to be able to teach them like they want. If none of them have had an awakening, then nothing we could do will work for them. Let’s just…hope that showing them is good enough to sate their curiosity.”

The metal things coming down the mountainside were clearly machines, which intrigued J'eon. He wanted to take one apart, see how it worked, but such would have to wait until later. Still, he had some ideas... and concerns.

The sky person they'd surprised was talking to another of its kind, dressed in black. Perhaps that was normal among them?

Once word of this reached the capital, there would be panic, troops dispatched, representatives of the guilds sent. It would be best if he could establish himself here, get the sky people to talk to him. Good thing he knew a bit about opening new markets.

---

"Captain," Jack Mallory acknowledged, looking up from his phone that was connected to the ship's network. "I've requested a box of those souvenir pens and some commemorative patches what were to be distributed before the interruption."

Unfortunate they lost the keychains, but maybe some got buried with the shuttle?

He had no idea how the tree was doing that, much less not being consumed by the flames it contained. Did that last bit mean it was challenging the ship's crew to a fireball fight?

"Captain, we should encourage our... guests to leave, for now," he said. "Go over our recordings, and try to make sense of what's happened, here? Get our efforts a bit more organized, before the next surprise."

Like not admitting we're armed, or how many we are, or where we're from.

@13org @EliteCommander

Kolvar Stilmyst

Kolvar had a frustrated look on his face. Mostly from not being able to communicate with the hoomans. “I believe that would be the best course of action.” He nodded his head and started walking out of the ship. The shuttle bay was starting to become quite crowded and personally, it was starting to become quite tense. When he got out of the hole he was greeted by the platoon of Tekeri soldiers. Rolling his eyes and thinking that the arrival of Nellara’s goon squad would cause alot of issues. He made his way over to a soldier pointing towards him with a clawed finger, “I was told by your commander to go to Lenkik to fetch a thought mage, I assume you know where to find one in Lenkik.”

The soldier nodded his head before rubbing his head, “The inquisitors would be able to help you with your search. It would be best if I join you and help you find the inquisitor.”

Kolvar had no objections to this suggestion. He would be clueless trying to find the inquisitor by himself. “It would be best if we take the form of a bird like a creature, it would be a quicker form of travel than walking.” He didn’t seem to care if the soldier was hesitant about being transformed into an animal. Kolvar used his magic to transform himself into a large bird creature. Not caring he was doing so in front of the other soldiers. Doing the same process to the solider. The other soldier watched in amazement as they saw the true power of life magic.

The two were now flying towards Lenkik. During the course of the flight, Kolvar made no attempt to make conversation with the soldier. While he was flying toward Lenkik he noticed something strange moving in the fog. He couldn’t tell what it was so he turned his head towards the soldier. “Do you know what that is?” He said pointing towards the group.

The soldier squinted his eyes before speaking up. “It looks like Glenfolk, a whole pack of them. It looks like they are moving toward the others. We should turn back and warn the others.” A sentiment that Kolvar agreed with.

“Let us go back and warn the others.” The two then started flying back toward the crash site. Kolvar was worried that the arrival of another armed force would cause more tension between the foreigners and Nellara’s group. He did not want a violent conflict to occur, not wanting to lose the opportunity to lose the valuable information the foreigners had.

The two finally arrived at the crash site, of course it didn't take long for them to return. Kolvar didn't seem to bother turning them back into their original form. The soldier ran over towards Nellara. "Commander while I and Kerchek were flying towards Kenkik, we noticed a platoon of Glenfolk moving our position. What should we do?"

Kolvar then spoke up. "If I may suggest we should keep a level head, and speak with their commander about what their intentions are. I am sure you do not want a bloody skirmish to occur."

“Then act like it.” She shot back at Darnell’s ‘I know how a gun works’, “We are actually at their home. How would you feel if a bunch of Deep Ones crawled out of the sea and started waving magic tridents at you? You’re making them nervous. Look at them. They’re wearing 1600s-era plate armor and leather cloaks. They might be sorcerers, but how do you think a spaceship looks to them?” She tried to explain calmly, “And given how we got here, figuring out where we are in relation to Earth is going to be part of the ‘getting home’ equation. I don’t think she could point them home if she wanted to.” She shared her opinion on the matter. But Vigdis knew better than to argue with drunk people and idiots, and Darnell was definitely the former, even if she didn’t yet know enough to pass judgment on the latter.

The materials engineer in Vigdis winced when she saw Ixtaro’s hologram of a sword being repaired that way. So many people thought that was the way to do it. She blamed those old Lord of the Rings movies, but it was a good enough illustration for its purpose. Since it looked like Ixtaro had it in hand for now, she turned her attention to trying to placate Nellara. “I think I got something, hang on.” She grabbed a piece of one of the smashed boxes lying around to use as a portable drawing board. Give her a technical drawing and she would knock it out of the park, but she was terrible at what she was attempting.


“Friends.” She said, showing the drawing to Nellara for a few seconds before drawing a second picture, giving the side-eye to Shirik as it summoned more and more flaming images and praying to whoever was listening that Nellara wouldn’t take her next picture as a threat.


“Foes.” She showed Nellara the second picture and handed her the ‘board’ to free up her hands, “Work with me, Darnell.” She turned to the Tamerlane employee and extended her hand out to shake his. If he bucked, she’d turn to whoever was standing nearby. “Friends.” She repeated to Nellara, pointing at herself and her handshake partner. Bit of a lie in Darnell’s case. Then she turned to Nellara and offered her hand, hoping whatever preening oil these ‘Tekeri’ secreted, assuming they worked like birds on Earth did, didn’t contain anything she would have an allergic reaction to and that Nellara wouldn’t think the burn scars on Vigdis’ hands were some sort of skin disease. “Friends?”

The marshes of Sudenúr often made travel off the few main roads slow and tiring for Glen. It was part of the reason this March had been so difficult to control over the years. Several of his knights had urged Silbermine to use caution. It was much safer to take the long way round past Ertiseda; they could not protect their lord if they were shoulder deep in muck. Silbermine took no mind and ordered them through the swamps - he HAD to see this fallen empyrean body for himself. He felt a divine connection had been forged in that fiery moment when it roared over their heads and did not smite them.

So they had hiked in single file through languid pools and over fetid mounds, camping for two nights at some of the run-down family compounds that dotted the March. Sudenúr was relatively flat in the middle, so by the second day even the Glen’s relatively wide-angle eyesight could pick up a smouldering wreck on the foothills in the distance. Silbermine spurred them on, faster and faster until they got stuck in quickmud. Through a titanic team effort they got free, though another load bearer was lost and never found.

There were some accusatory glances around the campfire that night, so Silbermine judged they needed a reminder of the gravity of their quest.

“Brothers, these are hard times. Failed crops, pestilence, teeming hordes of demons in the dark at night. But let us not forget…Venurwreth’s Scripts tell of gifts falling from the heavens unto worthy Glenfolk on the cusp of greatness. The Running is nigh, and the time of House Silbermine has come again!”

Gesith continued on, speaking with the ardent conviction of a true believer. By the end, he was practically shouting into the crisp night air as embers from the fire floated up into the air. His knights and servants rose to their hooves and bayed wildly, eventually galloping in an instinctive circle around the camp with Silbermine, chanting the songs of their forefathers.

Fueled by the herd-fervour that Glen leaders had been putting to good use since the S’tor invaded, Silbermine’s group packed up camp before dawn to cross the final stretch to the crash. The load bearers washed the knights before securing their plate armour. Standards were attached to polearms that most of the knights held upright as they marched. They then fitted Silbermine with ornate barding that sported the red, white and yellow designs of his House. To top it off, they opened up his father’s helmet and carefully secured it around his head.

A dense fog had rolled in off lake Núr overnight, so Silbermine had his force mage lead the way. Using both hands to gesture, they forced the fog back to create a narrow channel. The swirling, roiling fog disturbance was clearly visible from the air, but that mattered not to Silbermine.

He galloped in the middle of his retinue with his eyes fixed forward, searching the soupy mix for any sign of the thing that had fallen from the sky. It seemed that over time, the heavy impact of their hooves on the ground merged into one continuous drum beat. The muscly legs of the Glen clattered in slow motion as the nobleman pondered what they might find.

As the first light of dawn probed through the fog, Silbermine felt the ground firm up. They were exiting the marshes and approaching the foothills on the border with the Ascendancy. He urged them on a final time, and the Glen formed up around him. Three knights and nine Glen-at-arms around their leader, plus ten warrior servants bringing up the rear.

Suddenly, the fog lessened. There it was.

Before them was a long and rocky incline, studded with violent divots where some vast bulk had scraped and rolled up it. Big shards of metal stood like small trees leading up to his prize - the fallen star. An enormous hulk with stubby wings sticking out from three corners. On the side, what looked like a Glen with a bow and arrow was painted in light blue. Some ancient lettering was scrawled written underneath. The Scripts were true!

Smoke still rose into the air around his gift; Silbermine’s keen nose picked up an acrid stench he couldn’t place. Something else too…

“Tekeri, my lord, and Glen.” one of the knights muttered as they approached.

Silbermine ground his tombstone teeth together. Someone had beaten them to it. “Sound the horn.” Silbermine ordered.

The Glen liked horns. Some old houses had created a range of unique sounds for their group that served different purposes. The House horn was meant to serve as an announcement of their presence.

The knight unclipped one of three horns from his harness and blew strenuously into it. Their group cantered forwards, climbing up the hill towards the ship. Silbermine’s eyes weren’t great, but eventually she made out a host of figures on the ridge in front of the star.

They stopped about a hundred metres away and spread out now they were on more solid ground. All of them were tense and ready to bolt if any on the ridge appeared to nock an arrow. The most senior of the knights present, Falgar Sweven, trotted forward a bit further and boomed in a stentorian voice:

“Greetings! We have come to claim this fallen star under the banner of House Silbermine. May we have safe passage?”

The words being exchanged between some of the Humans did not seem too calm. Perhaps Kareet was misinterpreting their outward attitudes, but it felt like they were having disagreements among one another. If that was truly the case, then perhaps they had more in common than she thought…

For the moment, Kareet was not bothering to focus on how this seemingly nonmagical object Itxaro was using was creating those images in light, and instead just focused on the content of what the Humans were trying to communicate to them. Vigdis used more conventional means to make an image for Nellara, though as she peered over to see what was being drawn, she was somewhat puzzled by what it was trying to convey. The images looked to be Human, but they were not very…detailed. Their hands looked to be together. For Tekeri, bringing the hands together and interlocking the fingers was a show of affection, so that was where her mind naturally went on a first reaction. Were they meant to be lovers? Is that what “friends” meant? The second image appeared to depict a fight, so perhaps ”foes” meant a fight or war? Was it intended to be something about love and war?

Kareet was distracted momentarily from Itxaro as she watched Vigdis extend a hand towards Nellara, seemingly to mimic the first image. Kareet hummed momentarily to herself. She supposed it did not mean “lover” after all.

Before Kareet could interject in any way, however, the soldier Nellara had sent out suddenly returned obviously having just been returned back to his natural form. Kerchak was not far behind, still transformed. He was quick to give his report, which spurred Kareet back to her feet. Glen, and soldiers by the sound of it. This interruption was the last thing they needed.

J'eon curled his lips and threw back his shoulders, and with great distain strode towards the edge of the hull where he tilted his head to see the line of House Silbermine and its arrogant herald.

"No," he bellowed back. "You may not! This is the temple of the Sky People, and I would not suggest incurring their wrath by trying to claim it away from them!"

A bluff, to be sure. Castigator Nellara and her soldiers were far too few to defend this fortress against House Silbermine by themselves, nor was he sure that the sky people could defend themselves right now. But if Shirik called down another fireball to wipe out House Silbermine, he feared the sky people would refuse to let any of them near.

Shirik's might, if truth be told, took some getting used to. Had he not been in so poor a state after the attack of that giant insect, he would have found the nearest hole to hide himself in.

---

With the situation outside having been dealt with, which became clear with her soldiers confirmation, Nellara turned her attention towards Tyreese, who still had his weapon pointed at her and her group. Fortunately, Vigdis put herself between both Nellara and Tyreese as soon as she returned from the outside and put her hand on his weapon, lowering it towards the ground.

With Vigdis' action visibly making Nellara calm down, she turned her attention back to the situation at hand...

While her idea seemed to be the one that would best respect the tenuous 'trust' that both the humans and her group had created after all this exchange, it seemed that much like Nellara's own group, there was some kind of misunderstanding between them, judging by the harsh tones they used as they spoke with one another.

After a brief... 'discussion', Ixtaro once again started using the strange floating images to communicate. 'Weapon', Ixtaro said as she showed a spear, then a bow and a sword. Little explanation was needed for Nellara to understand such a simple concept. Simple objects made for a simple objective. To kill. The words Ixtaro taught them next though were something a bit more complex... 'Broken' and 'Repair', she said as the the sword was put into an anvil and smashed, before it was made whole again.

"It seems that their main objective is repairing their ship, this Jotunheim... They seem to insist quite a bit on this part." Nellara said to herself, an observation as she continued paying attention to Ixtaro's images.

Curiously enough, after Ixtaro expressed the humans' desire to fix their ship, the next question was one that made Nellara a bit more... cautious. Using the same word from before, 'weapon', Ixtaro produced an image of a Tekeri, with spheres spinning around them and after that, one similar to Shirik, with flames jumping from the image. It was clearly curious about the metal spheres Nellara used and how Shirik was able to conjure flames, once again reinforcing Nellara's theory that the humans had no knowledge of magic... And they seemed to be quite interested by that knowledge...

That question, by itself wouldn't be something that would make Nellara careful, but the fact that Ixtaro conveniently didn't explain that the metal objects on their hands were also 'weapons' made her a bit more... careful regarding how she would approach that subject.

"Whatever it was that made these humans able to build such things, like this fortress-ship or these strange tablets that can conjure magic images... It doesn't seem to be magic..." Nellara said, replying to Kareet, which seemed to be quite shocked after being confirmed that the humans didn't know what magic was.

"Tyreese, weapon... Teach." Nellara said, pointing towards the metal object Tyreese had on his hands, making it clear to them that she knew what those were and using the same word Ixtaro used afterwards. The message Nellara wanted to pass wasn't hard to understand. If they wanted knowledge, they would have to give them knowledge as well. An equal exchange.

"The humans are still hiding things from us. Neither one of them showed how their weapons work, yet they want to know about ours..." Nellara said with a serious tone.

"Knowledge can be extremely dangerous... We should be careful in sharing what we know." Nellara said, with a sharp stare as she looked towards the humans.

Turning back towards the humans, Nellara thought for a bit, trying to find a way to explain them at least about the spheres, since they seemed to think the metal spheres were weapons themselves instead of being mere tools. When Nellara saw one small piece of metal in the ground, apparently coming from one of the many boxes that either Vigdis tripped earlier or that the metal spiders had opened, she calmly walked towards it, picking up from the ground and showing it clearly to the humans.

"Nellara, weapon." she said, as she dropped the small metal piece, making it float above her hand and raised her other hand in a closed fist, before opening, making her claws touch each other and slide, making an arc of electricity appear for a moment and then disappear.

After that small demonstration was done, she made the small bolt she got from the floor earlier to stop floating and put it back on the ground where it was before returning to her initial position.

Even though that exchange of 'knowledge', or at least the attempt of doing so by the humans made Nellara a bit wary, Vigdis, who previously cooperated with her, grabbed a piece of one of the boxes and made two drawings on it. One of them depicted two figures holding each other's hands. 'Friend', Vigdis said, as she held hands with the human named Tyreese, in what appeared to be a friendly exchange.

The other image was quite self explanatory. The two figures, which were holding each other's hands before, were now attacking each other with swords and spears. 'Foes', Vigdis said as she looked towards Nellara, before giving a step forward and offering her hand, repeating the word related to the friendly exchange she demonstrated with Tyreese.

Even though it seemed to be a simple enough question, Nellara still took quite a bit to reply. She had no idea of what the humans expected of a 'friend'... or even if they idea of 'friends' was the same of theirs. It was only after a good two minutes or so that Nellara finally replied, approaching Vigdis.

"Neither one of us seem to have the intention of fighting... There is much that can be gained with a fair exchange of knowledge..." Nellara said as she give a step forward and took Vigdis' hand, imitating the gesture she did earlier with Tyreese. Although her reply to Vigdis seemed to be a bit more... careful, than what she probably would have expected.

"Not foes." Nellara said, shaking her head from one side to the other as she repeated the word 'foes', before dropping the second board Vigdis had given her on the ground and breaking it under her feet.

"Friends...?" Nellara said, this time as a question as she shook Vigdis' hands. While she was still a bit wary about the humans, that demonstration was clearly showing that she was more inclined to be their 'friends' than their foe and she asked a confirmation of their friendly intentions as much as they did ask hers.

It was exactly at that moment that Kerchak and the soldier that Nellara had dispatched with him to Lenkik suddenly came back with worrying news... An entire platoon of Glen was approaching the Jotunheim... After hearing the soldier's report, Nellara gave a step back, letting go of Vigdis hand as she heard the soldier's words with a worried expression.

"Good job, soldier. Thank you, Kerchak." Nellara said, thanking both the soldier and Kerchak.

"It might be better for both of you to not go to Lenkik just yet. While we still need the presence of a thought mage... We might also need the presence of an army..." Nellara said with an ominous tone.

"They know this is Ascendancy territory and still they came with an entire platoon... I fear we might need to prepare for the worse..." Nellara said as she looked to the group.

Just as she finished saying so, the sound of a horn from the outside announced the arrival of the Glen platoon and a voice arrogantly asked for safe passage, expressing their intent of 'claiming' the fallen star.

Before going out, Nellara turned towards Vigdis and the humans once again, with a serious expression.

"Not friends. Humans, stay." she said as she pointed outside, insinuating that the new group outside was definitely not friends, although they couldn't be called foes yet, while asking the humans to stay inside.

Walking outside, Nellara stepped forward until she could be clearly seen by the Glen of the House Silbermine.

When she got outside, J'eon, whom she thought had left, could be found already speaking with the Silbermine knights, denying their request of safe passage.

"Knights of the house Silbermine, you stand within Ascendancy territory, in the presence of Castigator Nellara, assigned to Lenkik under direct orders of the Ascendancy!" Nellara replied, with a loud, authoritative voice as she approached to back J'eon's words.

"There will be no claiming! This fortress-ship is neither yours to claim nor ours to have! This ship and it's inhabitants are under the protection of the Ascendancy. Acts of violence or aggression against them will be considered as a violation of the Ascendancy territorial hegemony and a direct aggression to the Ascendancy itself!" Nellara shouted with a commanding voice, letting the Glen know that what they were seeing wasn't a 'fallen star' and it couldn't be claimed, as it already had owners, which weren't the Ascendancy.

Itxaro felt like a child, sitting cross-legged as she watched in awe as Shirik's fluid motions called forth more flames from the air. There was something about the manner in which it moved that suggested this was not just elaborate smoke and mirrors; each motion seemed practiced, intentional. She still could not discern the nature of his abilities, try as she might, but unlike the commander, she was satisfied to leave it be until their shared language expanded beyond a dozen words.

Mages.

Despite a herculean effort on Shirik's part with such a limited vocabulary, Itxaro was unable to fully grasp the foreign word's true meaning. "Commander, they call people who can perform these... These abilities, mages." She'd wanted to use the word miracles, but had stopped herself short. Still, that was exactly what Shirik's image had described. "There's more than what we've seen here."

Healing wounds. Manipulating fire and lightning. Telekinesis. Even translating? All, as Shirik's firey pictograms suggested, without the aid of technology. Just the mage and their bodies, moving like water. Itxaro still doubted this, assuming Shirik was just as wary of humans as they were of the Kanth-Aremek natives. Hiding technology, like they were. Though these natives seemed to be less advanced, with their plate armor and steel swords, Itxaro knew this meant nothing. Not every society would advance in the same ways humanity did; the natives may lag behind in some fields, while leaping far ahead in others.

Maybe they found a new field.

Shirk had taken Itxaro's message to heart, literally offering the flame in its hand to her. She gingerly reached her arm towards his, feeling her fingertips grow cool as they edged toward the fire. Itxaro closed her eyes for just a moment. She felt something, not heat, but power pulsing out from inside her, like waves rolling into shore. The feeling crept up from her chest and out to her extended arm. Itxaro's mind could see the fire in her own palm, controlling it with a twist of her wrist. She opened her eyes and focused them on her outstretched hand. It bore no frigid flame like Shirik's. Well, it was worth a shot.

Still, Shirik wanted to teach her, or at least that's what she assumed; the Iriad had a great poker face to human eyes. Itxaro pulled back her arm, feeling slightly foolish, and listened to Shirik. This skill, and she was starting to believe it was skill rather than tech, could indeed be taught. But not for free.

"They want to know about the guns," Itxaro said flatly to whatever human ears were still listening. It'd been foolish to hide the concept from them after all, but had seemed like a good idea at the time; introducing firearms to a society that might not have even discovered gunpowder was a quick way to throw the entire continent into chaos and war. Still, they might not have a choice.

Itxaro had been so focused on Shirik that she'd hardly noticed the situation collapsing around her. The first hint was a trio of native birds that flew in through the hull breach; this behavior alone was odd enough to merit further observation, and when they began speaking what Itxaro recognized as the local language, she frantically whipped her head around to the other humans, as if to confirm they were seeing the same.

A horn sounded in the distance.

Either the horn indicated reinforcements, or some new group. Itxaro was suddenly trying to recall if she'd remembered to load her revolver. She turned to Vigdis, who had also been working on the translation front judging from the stick figures the engineer had drawn. Her ears were just sharp enough to catch Nellara's explanation: Not friends, humans stay. Bad news.

Itxaro quickly set to work on the data pad for a final time, punching out a crude hologram. A human outline with a bow, firing arrow after arrow at another figure, who fell after being turned into a pin cushion. "Bow," Itxaro said quickly, pointing to the weapon before the hologram changed. Now, the human held a rifle, and soundlessly fired the weapon at a man in the distance. Smoke emitted from the rifle as an enlarged bullet slowly flew through the air, and the man crumpled after it passed clean through him. "Gun." If any humans objected to this, she'd tell them to fix the warp drive themselves. If Darnell says anything, I might just give Shirik and Nellara a live-fire demonstration. Better their new friends know what the crew's armaments could do if push came to shove.

The hologram ended and Itxaro jammed the data pad into her pocket. She stood up sharply, a motion that shot a spike of fire through her injured leg as she let out a small yelp. Stupid. Itxaro turned back to Shirik after gently rubbing the flesh around the wound. "Itxaro teach gun later. Shirik teach... mage? Teach fire? Later." It wasn't what she wanted to say, but it was all their meager lexicon would allow. She pointed outside to where the commotion was and gave a shrug as if to say, "What the fuck is happening?"

Itxaro crossed the few feet that separated the two and cautiously held her hand out to help the Iriad to its feet. "Just don't burn my hand off, alright Shirik?" Itxaro said with a ghost of a smile, knowing the Iriad had no way of understanding, but saying it nonetheless.

---

Amid the relative chaos of this first contact, there was another set of eyes observing in silence. Or, an amalgam of eyes, watching and listening from every angle available. To the natives, Humans were alien, but they were still recognizable as living beings. It was best not to introduce additional, even more “alien” surprises on top of there. So, Wodan observed. Recorded. Analyzed. The phenomena he witnessed seemed to operate in defiance of wide swathes of his pre-programmed knowledge base in regard to physics. Huginn and Muninn scoured volumes and volumes of reference material to identify and rank possible explanations by their likelihood. Technologies existed that could replicate the observed feats. Powerful electromagnets controlled by simple AI systems, or perhaps neural links. Carefully controlled flammable gasses could reproduce the patterns one being was creating. Their attire and armaments would suggest a far more primitive society than such explanations would imply, but that discrepancy seemed more likely answered by bizarre societal restrictions than a complete defiance of physics.

However, each subsequent act that he witnessed created new problems; forced more compromises in the explanations. Answers, one by one, were being eliminated. The internal debate came to its peak when it observed two of the avian beings that had stepped outside the ship. While many of Wodan’s external sensors were damaged, he could view through the eyes of the droids that were currently standing idle. What he saw were two beings, both substantially larger than any Human aboard, that had their bodies essentially reshaped into that of a much smaller, flying alien bird.

It was the role of Huginn and Muninn to bring forth and analyze new information. However, in their current power-restricted state, this revelation brought a pause within Wodan’s mind that could be observed on the timescales of Human thought.

<H:Nanite swarms could have the theoretical capability to reform cellular structure.>
<The method for meeting energy and material requirements is not observed.>

<M:That would be far more advanced than anything Humanity has created or seen.>
<I reiterate, the locals have arms and armor consistent with Earth’s late Medieval period.>

<H:Incongruence between the local technology and societal progress is still more likely than a challenge to physical laws.>
<If we accept that the appearance of the locals as primitive is genuine, then there remains no possible explanation for the observed phenomena.>

<M:Perhaps it is time to expand our search criteria to include impossible explanations?>

Another alert: movement. After one of the droids noted a disturbance in the fog beneath them, Wodan focused its optics on the area. There were more natives of the species that had been identified as “Glen”. Given the current power restrictions, Wodan re-prioritized the majority of his thought processes onto what was potentially a more time-sensitive issue.

<H:Mobile platform observes 22 quadrupedal lifeforms on approach.>
<Armed and equipped in a manner consistent with already observed local sapients.>

<M:The other natives in the shuttle bay have noticed as well.>
<The two who had transformed returned to tell them.>
<Their behavior makes it seem like they are agitated or worried about the new arrivals.>
<They are probably not allies.>

<H:Not allies to these natives.>

In Zey’s earpiece, she would soon hear Wodan’s voice. “There are 22 additional natives approaching the Jotunheim. They are of the same species as what the locals referred to as a ‘Glen’. They are armed, but no differently from the natives you have already encountered. However, it is safest to assume they have similar capabilities.”

This situation just kept weirder and shittier for the Humans.

Ezra confirmed Wodan’s warning to Zey a moment later.

“We have two dozen foot mobiles approaching on the port side. They’re not here for a tea party - I see heavy armour.”

She swore under her breath, then addressed Itxaro, Vigdis and (to a lesser extent) Darnell.

“Guys, stop shaking hands with everyone for a sec. Nellara said whoever blew that horn wasn’t a friend, right? So are they not friends with these aliens, not friends with us, or both? I need to know which faction, if any, we can trust, because we’ve got twenty more soldiers on the way. We’re running out of peaceful options here.”

Zey then hurriedly turned to her XO. She spoke quickly and relatively quietly, poking his arm with each point she made.

“Hold the pens, Mallory. Fuck knows if this new group is friendly or even affiliated with our current guests.”

She pointed to the door with her free hand.

I want everyone awake and ready if they aren’t already. I also want everyone who knows how to handle a weapon tooled up and tactical, outside that airlock door in four minutes. Tell Feng to free up the med bay and get down here, just in case.”

She considered her other options for a moment.

“Is the nose gun operational? Check with Wodan. If it is, I want it pointed at them or over their heads. Got it? Let's go!” She lightly slapped Mallory’s arm as if to spur him on before turning again.

“Eva! What is the status of your mech? Can we have you looking big and mean and mobile in the next ninety seconds? If so, let's do that NOW please. Otherwise go grab a weapon from the armoury.”

Finally, Zey put the communicator back to her lips.

“Ezra, are you able to fall back inside?”

“Not without pushing past all your friends. Droid 2 is stuck close to the new group, hiding.”

Zey swore again.

“Ok, hold tight but be ready to retreat back inside. What are they all doing now?”

“Erm…”

---

All eyes of the Glen immediately fixated on J’eon as he shouted back from the edge of the outcropping on which the Jotunheim rested. Excited mutterings rippled around the group; many of the soldiers looked to Silbermine who had edged forward a bit more but didn’t speak. The Scripts of Venurwreth told of gifts falling from the heavens, not people.

“Who is this Glen?”

“The Sky People?”

“Have they come to help us?”

Sir Sweven turned to Silbermine as well.

“My lord, could these Sky People have the wisdom we seek?”

Silbermine held out a hand for silence as a Tekeri in dark armour with gold gilt emerged from the temple.

For a few moments after Nellara’s address, the only sound that could be heard was the faint rustling of leaves in the wind.

Then Silbermine disgorged a huge, braying laugh from inside his helmet. Laughter spread quickly across his retinue, continuing for ten heartbeats before dying away. The portly noble clopped forward, until he was level with Sir Sweven.

“The Ascendancy claims the mountains.” He boomed, before turning to his retinue with arms outstretched at either side.

“Does this look like a mountain to you?!”

“NO M’LORD!” They all shouted in unison.

Silbermine turned back to the Castigator.

“We have hills like this in Mythadia - intend ye claim those too?!”

The Glen laughed again. Silbermine pointed over Nellara’s head at the Tamerlane logo emblazoned on the Jo’s hull.

“This temple belongs to the Glen of this March, Sudenúr - just look at the painting on its wall.”

He then gestured behind to the trail of destruction leading up the hill, and the outcropping under the Jo.

“It is damaged after its fall from the heavens. The rock it sits on is not stable. I will have the best engineers from Keraknúr secure it for transport to safer ground. I would speak with the Sky People also.”

---

At first, Kareet was unsure of the approach that Castigator Nellara was taking. She moved up to the breach in the wall and took cover on one side, peering out only slightly to avoid exposing herself. She wondered if the Castigator was not overstepping her authority, as the Ascendancy would most certainly be interested in claiming this fortress. They would be interested in learning whatever they could about it, and as a bonus could provide ample protection for the Humans within. She was not sure that Nellara’s superiors would agree with her guaranteeing them such unrestricted independence.

However, Kareet also was not blind to the complex, and frankly irritating, politics surrounding this situation. As much as she hated to admit it, they were right on the border to Mythadia. As far as she knew, there were no precisely defined borders in this region. They could talk about who had the “right” to the land all they wanted, but ultimately, that right would lie with whoever could enforce their claim. This was a prize that was worth fighting for, but the Ascendancy had been involved for years with a territorial dispute with the S’tor over the Sovereignty to the north. Mythadia and Acanata, for all their flaws, were still a powerful force to be reckoned with. The Ascendancy would have to commit substantial forces to have a hope of challenging them, and if that happened, they would not be able to stop the S’tor from claiming everything they wanted. Of course, the Glen were also in a similar situation. There were other S’tor nations farther west on Mythadia’s northern border that would not hesitate to jump on the opportunity if the majority of Mythadia’s forces were tied up in a war in the east. In the end, only the S’tor would benefit from this escalating too far. No, war simply would not do. With the Humans caught in the middle, it could end up with neither nation being able to learn anything at all from the crash. There was no greater tragedy Kareet could imagine than that.

Perhaps the Castigator was right? The Humans themselves could be the difference-maker here. This Jotunheim was theirs, and they clearly had capabilities beyond their understanding. If they could not bring armies in so close to Mythadia, perhaps diplomacy would yield better results? They could be helpful and polite to the Humans, make a show of respecting their independence, and gain their favor. It might make it more difficult to gain some secrets that they would rather hold close, but something was better than nothing, and “nothing” would be exactly what they would get for as long as they remained in a standoff with Mythadia.

Cautiously, Kareet stepped up alongside Nellara. “We have a choke point here, Castigator.” She said softly, gesturing to the hole in the wall. “And several mages as force multipliers. But we shouldn’t fight them if we can help it, and certainly shouldn’t make the first attack. Too risky. Your approach may be the right one. We need to find a way to get the support of the Humans here. I suggest we send for a Thought mage as soon as we can. Perhaps invite this Silbermine to parley? At least something to buy time until we can communicate properly with the Humans.”