//------------------------------// // Encounters of a mythical kind... and manticores. // Story: And they speak English? // by Imperaxum //------------------------------// Zorner strode purposefully through the halls of the Vorreiter, eyes closed, in apparent deep thought. He was thinking, yes, but there was no way in hölle he was lapsing into deep thought with his gottverlassenen crew about . . . as a matter of fact, here comes another one. "Herr Kapitan, did you-" the poor man started. "YES! I AM WELL AWARE THE WINGED HORSE SPOKE FLUENT ENGLISH!" Zorner screamed, patience entirely destroyed by the hundredth time a German had posed the question to him. He had counted. The man scurried down the hallway past him, as Zorner continued toward the main briefing room, making up his mind. ~ The "briefing room" was no larger than a primary-level schoolroom, with the exception of the wall-sized video screen. Dewitz and his Marines, Strasser, Teske, Beigel, and fourteen other G-46 toting crewmen who had prior ground experience sat in folding chairs, staring at him expectantly.He complied. "Gentlemen, we have a unique situation on hand." he said, immediately regretting his painfully obvious word choice. "To put it lightly." Dewitz observed smiling, as if to complete the stereotype. "Curse, ze Amerikaners got here first!" "Almost everyone knows English now. We can focus on how they learned it later. Let's start with the basics. I see two ways this obviously-present civilization can work out." Zorner again. Beigel cut in, nodding. "Classic. We've observed it with human castaways after the Great Collapse stranded on planets and reverting to primitive methods. They were either highly hostile, or they were docile in the extreme." Maps and pictures that the ancient Tiger had taken were displayed on the screen. Dewitz filled them in with his report. "I wouldn't venture to guess either way on military capabilities. No visible guard towers in the strange mountain-city or nearby village, but we have this disturbing photo. He clicked a button on his PDA, and one of the sections of screen zoomed in to show a blurry image of one of "The Equines", as the crew had dubbed the aliens. Clear enough, however, was the floating object in front of the creature." "Levitation?" Zorner asked. "Biological or technological, yes. I would assume the former, since I can't fathom how they go about their daily lives with hooves. They level of civilization they show would require greater dexterity than they would lead us to believe." Teske commented. "Right. And this means they could probably levitate knives and hurl them at us, right?" Zorner said, rubbing his temples. "Uh, perhaps. If they have knives." Teske replied cautiously. "They speak English. We saw them carrying freaking picnic baskets. I honestly won't be surprised if we see a verdammt version of the Statue of Liberty here!" Zorner nearly yelled. "That thing is overrated." Strasser said. "True." Zorner conceded. "So, we play first contace by ear. A proper military kommadant would court-martial for my conduct." Zorner observed sadly. "But it's all we can do. We know next to nothing, and they seemed peaceful enough fleeing from out helicopters. Sitting here for days discussing our situation won't help." "Rightly said. We're quite unmilitaristic in our bearing here, but it can't be helped in any way." Dewitz reassured him, glancing to the rest of the Germans to find nods. "Besides, if they really are peaceful, it's for the best we don't look extremely militaristic." "Hm?" "Look at us. Humans. We've fought wars since the beginning of our existence, razed cities and invented weapons they might only think in nightmares. How could we explain why we built nuclear bombs?" Dewitz looked like he was going to continue, but he stopped suddenly and nodded to Zorner. "We'd better bring a TV and our whole standard-issue "Human History" DVD collection, sir." "Noted. Load the men in the Dingos and get ready to roll out to that road we saw earlier. No helos this time." Zorner ordered, and people started to move. ~ It had been a scratch operation, but that was true with the rest of the ship they came from. Five heavily armored infantry mobility vehicles, Dingo IIICs, purred softly as men and women in Klasse IV Forest Camouflage and combat armor climbed into their vehicles. With customary German efficiency, the column quickly rolled with a full Armed Recon load of ammunition and rations. Zorner himself rode in the second vehicle with Strasser and the scientists, while Dewitz and five of his marines crammed into the lead vehicle armed to the teeth. The five other marines were manning each of the vehicles' top mounted machine guns, keeping an eye out for trouble. Before ten minutes passed, they pulled out onto a fairly nondescript dirt road, heading in the direction of the nearby village. Outside, the vista rapidly changed from lush fields to a unusually thick forest. Sunlight danced on the roofs of the vehicles, slipping lazily through the hanging vines and canopy of the forest. Zorner's radio crackled. "Great place for an ambush, sir." Dewitz observed. Had they been walking, they probably would have been struck by an acute sense of unease. As it was, the only ones to feel it were the gunners whose upper torso stuck out of the roof of the Dingos, Gripping their heavy machine guns with growing unrest, all they could do was intently peer around at the thick foliage. Had they been walking, they also would have heard the crash of a large creature in front of them. It didn't really matter in the end, as the horrific beast burst out of the underbrush about two hundred feet in front of them. "Scheiße! Alle raus!" Zorner and Dewitz screamed into their radios simultaneously, and the drivers hurriedly pulled their vehicles over, passengers piling out before they even pulled to a stop. "Everyone out!" someone repeated in English. "Delta and Bravo, cover the flanks! Echo, rear! Jauer, Muhr, go!" The comforting sound of Dewitz yelling militaristic orders ringed in Zorner's earpiece as he swiveled his personal H&K MP7 at the forest to his immediate left, dropping to his knee to stabilize his weapon. Within seconds, the entire column was in position for repelling an ambush. Zorner couldn't resist turning his head to look at the proceedings up ahead. That creature . . . "Herr Oberst! That is a manticore, sir! A mythical beast from the earliest of history from Old Earth! one of the crewmen yelled over the radio, probably some kind of mythology or history buff. The thing was terrible. The body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and wings!?! The startling fact that such familiar creatures apparently existed here was forgotten in the other fact that it looked rather angry. "Jais! Get the Panzerfaust-4 out!" Dewitz ordered. Zorner started to protest, before: "Backup only! Jauer, Muhr, you know what to do!" The two mentioned Marines stood stolidly a dozen feet from the lead vehicle, drawing the attention of the great beast. Krieg Feldwebels Arnulf Jauer and Ursel Muhr were both New Afrika Korps Schließen Assult veterans from Southern Kulmar, and both probably thought the creature little below the boots of the American Urban Teams that had taught them how brutal war really could be. In short, neither was visibly perturbed by the "manticore". Jauer expertly aimed his Latin Arms Co. Immoderatum V Tazer Shotgun at the beast. It began to advance at the pair, unconcerned by their weapons. It was soon disabused of the notion. "Afrika Korps!" he screamed, echoing the rallying cry of his famous desert force in its most brutal days. "AFRIKA KORPS! HOORAH!" the entire squad echoed, and Jauer pulled the trigger. Twelve seperate conducive pins pierced the manticore's skin, and delivered a shock capable of downing an elephant (it's actual purpose, coincidentally). The beast simply went limp in mid-stride, coming down nearly at the feet of Muhr. She moved with practiced efficiency, stabbing what appeared to be an oversized combat knife into it's thigh, ducking under the twitch-like swing of it's wing as she did so. Job done, she drew her service H&K P18 pistol, and backed away from the spasms of the manticore. The concentrated tranquilizer took nearly immediate effect. Within seconds, the manticore lay in an unconscious heap. Zorner stood up and wiped his brow, shaking slightly at the release of nervous energy. He'd never really needed to worry. Rumor was the pair had volunteered to help collection services round up crazed, hostile elephants in the aftermath of the Silj Gas Attacks on Kulmar. They certainly were very skilled at what they just did, in addition to their normal job of killing the enemies of the Kaiser ruthlessly and efficiently. Enough of that. He raised his hand to his ear. "Excellent work, you two. Non-lethal takedowns are our mode of operation at last resort, good example." To the rest: "The tranq should last for a few hours. Echo, send for assistance from the Vorreiter and guard the beast. Tranq it again if necessary. Everyone else, move out!" The Germans did not notice the yellow equine slip away in a state of shock at the scene. ~ Celestia would explain their presence in time, Fluttershy was sure. In fact, the Princess was about to arrive in Ponyville with a sizable contingent of the Royal Guard, along with Shining Armor and Cadance. No doubt Twi would be happy at that . . . . . . and happier still to talk to these bipeds, to learn from them. They spoke Equestrian, after all. Taking that further, Rarity would be positively delighted to inspect their clothing and garments. And Rainbow Dash vocally wanted to see the pilot of the great Blade-Beast. Applejack would want to learn about their food. And she . . . she'd like to know how they calmed that poor angry manticore so easily. If they were OK with that, of course.