//------------------------------// // English. // Story: And they speak English? // by Imperaxum //------------------------------// "What's going on, then, verdammt!" Zorner demanded through the radio. Dewitz averted his gaze from the alien. "Contact with a native lifeform, Herr Kapitan!" "What!?! How? Where?" Dewitz winced at the volume of his Kapitan. "It's tapping on my cockpit window, sir." he informed him, and was greeted by silence. Meanwhile, the blue creature continued to tap on the glass and move its move. "Is it . . . hostile?" "As I said sir, it looks annoyed. It appears to be flying next to our helo, and -" Beigel's voice cut in. "Wait, so it's facial expressions are comparable to ours?" "You could say that!" Dewitz yelled, panicking. "What do we do?" Heedless, Beigel continued. "Remember, Imperial German Extraterrestrial Rules of Engagement command that you cannot harm an intelligent alien unless it physically harms one of us first! "Yes, I understand! I'm useless in the gunner's seat! What do we do!?" "Lead it back to the ship!" Beigel advised. "No!" Zorner countermanded. "We're not ready to establish relations! We don't know anything about these things! Shake it off, then return to base!" "Will do, Herr Kapitan. Out." Jais said, then flicked the intercom on. "That thing clearly doesn't know how close it is to getting sliced up by the blades!" As she made that observation, the Tiger shot up, leaving the startled alien below and out of danger. She grinned under her helmet's mask as she increased speed, sending the attack chopper towards a series of nearby clouds. Dewitz smiled as well and sat back in his seat. There would be a time to meet these creatures, but only after careful preparation, observation, and above all cau- what?! The creature was flying right next to the cockpit as before, and clearly more agitated. Dewitz could swear that it seemed like it was quite casual in its speed of almost 120 miles per hour at this point. "It's still on us!" Jais gritted her teeth and aimed the Tiger straight for the biggest cloud, subtly decelerating in doing so. The second they entered the cloud, the Tiger ground to a halt, spun, waited ten seconds, and exited the cloud from a completely different direction. "Verdammt!" she growled as she noticed the creature still on their tail, apparently not thrown off by the helo's ability to hover in place. "It must have circled when it didn't see us exit in the right place!" "Right." Dewitz agreed, trying not to throw up all of a sudden. "At least it's fallen back some." The Tiger again ground to a halt, then angled tail-down and started flying in reverse straight toward it's pursuer. "Jais? The ROEs!" Dewitz yelled, panicked at the thought of the first meeting with apparently intelligent aliens by chopping one up in an attack chopper's rotors, not to mention destroying said chopper in the process. "It'll have to avoid us!" Jais assured him. Sure enough, the blue alien pulled up to avoid the machine hurtling towards it. Then came the shock. Both German's gazed in wide-eyed awe as the creature, not slowing down at all, looped in front the helicopter and back towards it, head on. "Fu-" Jais grunted as the helo slew to the side, itself avoiding the alien, roles reversed. "Canyon dead ahead!" Dewitz said, rather unnecessarily pointing it it physically. A massive gorge indeed filled the cockpit window, and started growing even closer as Jais angrily slammed down on the throttle. The Tiger barely missed hitting the canyon walls as Jais took it in fast and as low as possible, dodging in amongst the sudden edges and cliffs that seemed to rise up out of nowhere to dash the helo upon. Still, the blue alien followed. "Hündin!" Jais swore under her breath at the alien. "This one's tenacious!" "Er, it doesn't seem all that strained, Jais." Dewitz observed, still watching the alien's seemingly unconcerned chase. "Follow this one, Arschloch!" Jais spoke as she threw the helicopter into a half-roll, ending up flying low over the fields. What just flew by? Dewitz wondered, then it struck him. Trees! "Jais, you're pushing this way too far!" he yelled. "Look, we lost it! Oh, wait, dammit sie alle!" she said as the alien appeared at the side of the window, and waved. Rather mockingly, in fact. The next moment, it stuck its tongue out at the two, seemingly out of spite. Dewitz knew he should be mind blown at the alien utilizing such unique human facial expressions, but he was mostly angry at this point. Jais was far, far more so. "Verdammt that thing!" she cursed, and threw the helo sideways, more in an expression of frustration than an actual attempt to crash into the alien. It had already demonstrated rather convincingly that it was practically unshakable. "Stop!" Dewitz ordered. "We need to return to the Vorreiter. It beat us." "Remember what Zorner said!?" "The fuel, Jais." Jais glanced down, and the fuel was indeed in the red zone. "Verdammt." she finally said, and banked for their home-away-from-home. "Zorner, we're bingo and heading back." Dewitz said into the radio. "You didn't lose it, did you?" "Nein, Herr Kapitan." - - - - - - - - - - - - Zorner nervously adjusted the Glock jammed into his waistband as the Tiger appeared in the distance. Too little time, too little of everything. This first contact was not going to plan. Not that Around him, seven the marines and the scientists stood at attention. Guns were out and triggers fingered, but no one had their safeties off per captain's instructions. Unless the alien actually hurt one of them, they were under strict regulations not to show agressive intent. And even if the alien hurt on of them, they first had to try and stun it before switching There they were! The helo came in for a rough landing on the grass, but no one paid attention to that. No, the alien was far more more interesting. As it alighted down on the grass in front of the crowd of Germans, Zorner knew in the back of his mind that Strasser was sitting in one of the windows snapping photos on a high-quality digital camera. He also knew Strasser had an MG3 placed next to him, fully loaded. It was a quadruped, that much was certain. It was fundamental anatomy was apparently that of horse but . . . different. More rounded, shorter, barely coming up to his chest level, and the weirdest nose he'd ever seen. It was again, rounded, but . . . verdammt! What the hölle is wrong with this thing? A horse, yet not? From the looks on the faces of the men and women around him, their thought processes ended in roughly the same mental outburst. However, the oddest thing was the color of it's mane and skin. Light, sky-blue skin, and a rainbow mane. Rainbow! How did that evolve! That's nothing like proper camouflage! Then again, it could out-fly a German attack helicopter, so predators probably weren't a problem. Maybe they had a civilization? There were houses after all in the camera. Since they'd already blown their cover, they could probably, focus! Beigel had warned him that saying stuff to it wouldn't have any meaning since even if they had a language, it was statistically impossible that they should develop English or German as theirs. What mattered more, he had been told, was the tone of voice and posture that went along with his meaningless words. Calm, unafraid, friendly, were the adjectives that had been spoken. He raised his hand, nerves tingling. "We are representatives of Imperial Germany, and we come in peace, friend." The alien seemed surprised at the captain's greeting, shock manifest on its features. "Woah, who are you guys?" some idiot said, and the alien promptly flew off. Zorner whirled to his assembled command. "Who the hölle said that!?" Jais was the first to answer him, perched on the side of the landed Tiger. "Uh, sir, I think it said that . . ." "They speak English!?!" - - - - - - - - - - - A purple alien quadruped and the blue/rainbow one from before stood inside a tree. "They speak Equestrian!?!"