Night time was a little spooky. Thin fog formed around the area, and the moon was full. Howls of presumably wolf-like creatures could be heard. If I had hair, it would have stood on end at some point during the night. I kept my sniper rifle close.
Morning was clear. Not a cloud in sight for miles. The howling stopped shortly before dawn. I had been up all night, so my processors needed some time to relax. I removed my body armor and jumped in a nearby stream to clean off the dirt which had accumulated on my plating. The squad leader told me I needed to scout ahead for any civilization. I gladly obliged.
I scanned the radio frequencies for any civilian radio. I got a faint signal, but it was on the same frequency as FreeTec’s satellite orbiting the planet. I paid no mind to it. I chalked it up to being residual energy that was bouncing off the mountains behind me.
I decided to follow the river we camped by upstream. By sunhigh, I wasn’t finding anything. But right as the sun was beginning to enter the twilight zone, I saw a cottage with multiple birdhouses and beautiful landscaping out front. I radioed back to camp what I had found.
It was already well into the wee hours of the morning by the time I made it back to camp. I relieved the guard on duty, and stood there until everyone woke up.
I helped pack up camp. Once we were all set, I took point and led everyone to a new campsite about half a klick from where I saw the cottage. I chose the campsite, mainly because you still have to take a long winding path to get to the cottage, and it minimized our chances of detection. After setting up camp again, I was ordered to do a little more solo recon of the area. Since I had seen a house, someone must have built it, and a town may also be nearby. The locals may be human. I was to make contact if the locals are human, but if not, then I was to send my optical feed back to camp, so that pictures and other data may be extracted, and most importantly to avoid contact.
The sun was going down by the time I made it back to where I saw the cottage. There was some brush by the river. I decided to sneak into the brush, cross the river, and sneak along the path. Perhaps I would find a town where there are more creatures.
Turns out, I found exactly what I thought I would. Homes built with accents hearkening back to around the sixteenth century. I snapped some pictures and sent them back to camp. As I went into the town, the streets were bare, save for an equine-like creature sleeping on a bench. I deduced it must have been male due to the hard angles on the presumed head. There was a giant castle off on the opposite side of town that looked to be made of solid crystal. I ventured a little towards it for a better view and took a bunch of pictures, sending each one back to camp for my squad leader’s report.
I decided to go to the edge of town and wait for morning. Making note of the creature sleeping on the bench, I decided it would not be crazy for this type of creature to be the dominant species. I radioed back my plan, and got the OK.