As Sol followed the "Changelings" as the lead one had called themselves, unless that was the name of their faction and not their species, but for now Changelings will do, he looked through Beck's optics and zoomed in on specific parts of their body. When he saw the holes in their legs, he was certainly surprised.
'How does that even work?' Sol shook his head and continued his observations.
Their whole body was pretty much a pegasus, unicorn and all the insects in the world put into a blender, and given life. Their horn was curved, it looked like a shark fin, their insect wings were small and tattered, and they had fins traveling down their neck. All in all, definitely much stranger than any creature Sol had seen in the Core Systems or the Frontier. Although their intelligence helped.
When they reached the entrance to the cave, Sol was relieved to find that the entrance to be just big enough to hold Beck. When they were inside, he was blown away, it didn't look like a cave, more like... a city. When you entered the cave, you'd see that the cave got deeper, much deeper. The city, with buildings made out of stone, was designed with levels. But as they got deeper, Sol finally took his attention away from the scenery, and focused on the people itself.
They were the same as the Changelings who found Sol, but now that there were so many of them, he realised a key detail. They were starving. They were as thin as sticks, Sol of course thought that could just be how they looked, but a quick scan from Beck told him otherwise. They were also terrified of him, which was of course an obvious reaction, since the soldiers were scared, he should expect the civilians to be ten times worse. But he was still not prepared for their reaction, since he was so used to the reaction of a Pilot and his Titan to be celebration.
They were quivering. Young ones hiding behind the older ones, Sol couldn't tell if they were parents, since they were obviously related to insects, they could have a Queen. The older ones themselves looked ready to shit their pants, if they had pants of course, but had to put on a display for the young ones. The display of course wasn't the best, since Sol got the shitting pants impression.
When they got to the bottom level, he realised his earlier guess about a Queen to be spot on. They came to two massive doors with guards outside. When they saw the massive bulk of metal that was Beck, their horns glowed, but a shake of the head from one of the Changelings escorting Sol had them opening the doors.
The first thing he saw was a throne in the middle of the room, with a tall Changeling sitting in it, when the talk one stood up, Sol listed all its features. As tall as a human, with a mangled horn protruding from its head, long wings from it back, a long "mane", he didn't know what to call it, and last but not least, a completely different facial structure from its subjects, with pointed teeth, at least he now knew he could get meat around here... or be the meat.
"Greetings metal giant," It spoke with a female voice, "I am Queen Chrysalis of the Changlings, and I thank you for slaying the Tatzylwurm that has been preying on my people, but first, who are you?"
"My name is Sol Cotter, Militia Titan Pilot, and I am no giant."
"Whatever do you mean?"
Sol opened the cockpit and exited, shocking the Queen and the guards.
"I am a human ma'am," Sol took off his helmet and exposed his face.
Sol was caucasian, with short brown hair, but not a buzz cut. He had brown eyes with bushy eyebrows, and light stubble on his face. He was rather pale from being inside a ship all the time, with the time planetside in a Titan with a Pilot Suit on.
"So you pilot this... golem?" The Queen asked with curiosity and a tinge of fear in her eyes.
"Yes, but she is no golem, she is BK-3891, or Beck, as I like to call her. Beck is a Vanguard Class Titan, Titans were originally designed for exploration of new planets, but humans be humans, so it wasn't too long until they were used in warfare," Sol answered with the pride in his voice whenever he talked about his partner.
"Did you say new planets?" Chrysalis asked with amazement and desbelief.
"Human's are a space faring race, wait, how advanced are your species?"
"Well us Changelings aren't the most advanced, but the Ponies have invented the train."
"Oh boy," Sol turned his head down realising that although he escaped certain doom on Typhon, he wasn't leaving where he escaped to any time soon.
"What is the matter?"
"Don't worry, is there a place we can stay?" Sol looked back up, "We'll talk more once I have rested."
"Of course, I will have guards escort you to your rooms, and Beck somewhere big enough for... her?" Chrysalis beckoned to her guards.
"Yes her, thank you."
"See you in a few hours?"
"Of course," Sol turned around to leave with the guards.
When he arrived at his room, he found the room to be made out of stone, but the bed looked like an actual bed. Before he lied down, he put his R-201, Smart Pistol and the B3 Wingman on the bedside table, keeping the Data Knife on him out of habit.
"Ah, this is bliss," Sol mumbled as he lied down in the bed, it had been some time since he had slept in a proper bed.
"Beck?" Sol asked through his neural link.
"Yes Sol?" After some time, a Pilot and a Titan's bond would grow to allow them to speak to each other through their mental link.
"Wake me up in 5 hours please."
"Oh I'll wake you up alright," Beck replied.
Sol chuckled as he fell asleep, knowing his wake up call wasn't going to be pleasant.