//------------------------------// // I would say it looks annoyed, sir. // Story: And they speak English? // by Imperaxum //------------------------------// You know, a thermal scan would've helped. - Kapitan Arnhem Zorner's captain log "Clear the loading deck!" Zorner glanced up sharply at the pronouncement from the wall speaker, as did every other man and woman around him. Loading decks were no joke, especially on the Vorreiter. He'd seen once what the deck could do to a man if they weren't paying attention . . . He shook his head. Oddly enough, his thoughts were wandering when he thought they would be sharply focused, being on an alien planet and all. On with the offloading, then. He tapped his earpiece. "Commence." he ordered. The rear eighth of the ship's bottom promptly gave way and swung down. Quickly. Way too quickly. Zorner winced as the loading ramp smashed into the grass with a thud. Thankfully, there wasn't any visible damage. "Scheiße." Dewitz observed. His earpiece crackled. "Uh, the servos gave out, sir." an unusually sheepish Strasser said from the ramp control console. "We noticed." Zorner dryly observed. "Hey, at least the ramp managed to lower." "That is a valid point, Herr Kapitan. I'll get the first of the helos off now, then." Zorner turned and strode away as a venerable Tiger attack helicopter rolled down the somehow functioning cargo rails. He needed to find Teske and Beigel, who had managed to wander off somewhere, probably with the two marines Dewitz had assigned to protect them. In fact, there came the marine Oberst himself, running up to talk to him. "Herr Kapitan!" he called out. "Ja?" "Sir, instructions for the helo? It's gassed up and'll be ready to go in a couple of minutes." "I'm aware of that." "Well, sir . . . I'm qualified as a gunner for the Tiger." "Oh, really? Is there anyone else?" "Nein. Jais is the pilot." "Excellent. She exhibits common sense, good judgement, and well-placed humor in her daily life aboard the ship." "And I don't?" "Humor perhaps." he shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Let's get this operation looking like it's run by Germans, shall we?" "Of course. I have pre-flight checks to go through, if you'll excuse me Kapitan." "Sure." - - - - - - - - Zorner stood in the bridge of the Vorreiter, gazing over a scattering of video screens that had been brought up to coordinate the exploration of Adequate-928. "Ready?" he spoke through a radio. "Ja. This is Tiger-1, over." "Acknowledged. Flight status?" "All pre-flight checks performed flawlessly, sir. Ten foot test hop achieved as well." "Excellent. Proceed with lift-off. You will be monitored closely. Operations out." - - - - - - - - "In case we crash." Jais observed over the intercom. Dewitz had to stifle a chuckle at that. "At least you didn't say that to Zorner. He'd throw a fit. He's in that serious mood of his, eh?" "And you aren't?" she asked, flipping the switch to the ignition. "Not one smoke cloud on the horizon to be seen. I can't take this seriously. None of us can." "Except for the scientists." "Got that right!" Dewitz laughed. "The rest of us see butterflies ignore them. They ask 'how the hölle did they evolve here?'" "Alright, bringing her up." Jais said, easing up on the throttle. The attack helicopter slowly lifted off the makeshift landing pad with an unmuffled roar. "All systems functioning properly." Dewitz reported, opening the comms channel back to the Vorreiter. "Excellent! Proceed to waypoint Alpha, in that case." Zorner ordered, relief evident in his voice. Jais grinned to herself as the gunned the engine, sending the Tiger hurtling through the air for a briefest of seconds before it slowly decelerated to a more normal speed. "And that's the power of German engineering!" "Speed test completed. Everything but the verdammten Vorreiter, eh? Everything." Dewitz sighed, pulling out his old but nevertheless deadly Heckler and Koch MP7 out of a slot in the side of the gunners cockpit. "Waypoint Alpha." Jais stated, bringing the conversation back on track. "Ja. Two klicks to the north." Waypoint Alpha was a thick forest near the estimated location of the buildings they had spotted from orbit, from which the ship had tried to land a close to as possible. No machine was perfect though, even a German machine and especially the Vorreiter, and the actual landing site in the little field was some ways south of the area. "Waypoint Alpha half a klick out," Dewitz reported, "Infrared sight on." he noted a moment later, thumbing the switch on the gunner's console for the infrared sight for the 30 mm nose cannon. "What the hölle?" he exclaimed a moment later. A series of bright splotches were clustered around what appeared to be a blanket of some sort on a nearby hill where the forest ended. He rapidly switched infrared off and grabbed a pair of binoculars hung around his neck for the trip, as the second-rate Tiger hadn't come with a working zoom for the 30 mm. "What do you see?" Jais called up from her position. "Horses? Four legged creatures, with a discernible head, it appears." he observed, mouth agape. "Slow down!" he ordered sharply. "Don't let them see us!" The Tiger shuddered as it slammed to a halt in midair, but it was too late. The horse-things looked rather startled to see the attack helicopter hovering over the forest, and started to flee. All except for one. "Heilige scheiße! Bandit inbound!" Jais screamed. A bolt of color, rainbow, accelerated towards them at an impossible rate of speed, and halted right outside the cockpit. The creature gazed in at them, tapping on the glass, mouth moving. "What's happening!?" Zorner called from Operations. "It looks . . . annoyed, sir?" Dewitz said with as much disbelief as the people back at the Vorreiter had. - - - - - - - - - - Outside the glass, the blue, winged quadruped tapped impatiently on the hide of the strange beast. "What the hay?" it asked in perfect in English, voice laced indeed with annoyance "Don't you see we're eating here?!"