Moonhawk 2 - The Blackcrow

Chapter 47 - Glitching Caves

"Miss Jouly? We're all ready to go now." Zylda explained to the tan colored bean and was more than ready. She nodded and looked over at everyone else on the cockpit of the shuttle. "Everyone is on board, I take it as well?"

"Yes. I saw Miss Starla a few minutes ago. She's camped out in one of the cabins at the moment." Arven explained as he sat down at the navigation station. Dr. Jouly nodded. She checked around one last time before announcing that they should get going. Within a hot second, the crew started the shuttle's engines, and the ship shuddered into life. Slowly but surely, the crew managed to pilot the shuttle out to space.

Just like every other trip to a planet, they took a few hours until they had arrived around its solar system. A system which looked somewhat unnerving to the few beans who observed it with their own visor: but then again, planet Umbrus wasn't the only weird planet that was amongst the galaxy. Dark matter surrounded the shadowy planet. Umbrus was familiar like Zudak, yet different planets. Although, there was one thing they shared together: darkness. This was supposed to be an easy mission but the white bean Arven was sitting at the controls practically panicking.

"Grr! The sensors are not gonna tell me where I can land this thing, are they?!" He grumbled as he wrestled with the navigational controls to keep the shuttle from crashing. They eventually broke through the cover of mysterious dark clouds and saw a dark purple field of strange dark grass. The shuttle was shaky when landing, but it landed with no real issue.

"Our objective is to find a mineshaft where we can extract a sample of Umbranite. All I need is a sample of roughly 50 grams." Dr. Jouly explained as the crew filed out of the cockpit behind her.

"Copy that. Do we need any weapons?" Ochre was wondering, having an unwell feeling upon looking at the planet.

"Not that I know of. As far as the scanners said, there seemed to not be any immediate signs of danger or presence of locals." Arven then explained.

Starla noticed the five adults wandering past the cabin, and was about to join them when Zylda interjected. "Hold on here, Miss Starla. We're gonna see if the coast's clear, so stay here, okay?"

Starla nodded, returning to sitting at the bed in the cabin as Zylda and Jasper walked by. She didn't bother to move from the cabin as she felt a small sinking feeling... something she wished she had felt as a warning when she visited Zudak.

Up until this moment, Dr. Jouly and the rest of the team tentatively stepped out of the shuttle. So far, so good. The short grass was a beautiful deep purple, with the wind shimmering the rolling hills. The sky was both light and dark, and the whole atmosphere of the planet felt unsettling. But the four beans repressed that unnerving atmosphere and scouted the area. At first, they saw nothing, which they felt as a good thing.

"It's quiet. Too quiet..." Ochre grumbled to himself as he glanced around. He was a natural warrior with a sense for combat, but even he felt his senses dulled by the dreary atmosphere...

From behind, a small errant breeze blew past. And suddenly, turning around on one foot, Zylda came face to face with a dark figure. She nearly screamed, but the figure swiftly held her in a lock to stop her from calling out. She could only watch as the rest of her fellow crew were subdued all of a sudden.

Arven didn't see it coming and didn't have enough time to react. Ochre attempted to fight back but he soon found that he couldn't even land a hit on the specter. Jasper, seeing all of this, just put his hands up and surrendered. Dr. Jouly, not at all ready for combat, cried out in shock as she was suddenly cuffed.

"You're under arrest for trespassing on our planet, strangers!" The growling voice echoed as, out from the shadows that manifested from the air, a figure dressed in wear that denoted some kind of Sheriff stepped forth. He paced around the five strangers with a scowl on his face. "And don't think we hadn't noticed your haphazard little landing either."