Worlds Beyond Our Own

1 : Note to Self - Don't do it you son of a

{ Music is Alive by Phil Lober }

A set of sharp grey eyes scanned over the horizon, looking for any signs of life. Said eyes belonged to a human male dressed in a form fitting black body armor. His scanner, a sleek black model with a curved screen that went around his forearm, showed no signs of larger organisms, though he'd long since learned that scanners don't pick up everything. The landscape behind him was thick jungle, though he was perched on a branch at the canopy's edge. Before him, massive plains of vibrant green and blue grass sprawled outwards, only clumps of trees and earthen mounds serving to break up the monotony.

For a jungle planet, the plant life wasn't all that diverse. And the animals seemed far too small to fit in with the setting. That grass had to be at least ten feet tall, and there was plenty to feed a group of extremely large herbivores. Though the only things he'd seen were dog sized reptilian creatures with just enough feathers to make a crest from the tops of their heads down towards the middle of their spines. They had odd whistling calls and practically ignored his presence. And there were those primates, their red and brown fur matted in areas so that when they puffed it up it looked like they were covered in spines. Their dexterous fingers were tipped with long and sharp nails. A scratch from them would certainly give anyone a nasty infection, but even then, they were skittish, and had kept their distance from him as he moved on with his exploration.

One thing that truly bothered him was the lack of insects on the planet. He was alright with the lack of tiny parasites nipping at his exposed neck and face, it was a welcome relief, really. But this was a jungle. There should be some sort of parasite or pest, or even a predator. Leeches, ticks, worms, arachnids... Something that silently preyed upon the lizards and primates. The fact that they were missing was very peculiar. He frowned softly, his sharp eye spotting a glint of metal entering the atmosphere.

"Landing craft spotted, point of touchdown approximately three miles west of my current position. I'm moving to intercept." His voice was barely louder than the breeze that swayed the canopy around him as he spoke into the scanner. He carefully climbed down the backside of the tree, mindful to avoid getting caught out in the open, lest he get caught on a visual scan.

Encountering other scouts was risky business. Some organizations were known to be lethal.

Having experience on his side helped him quite a bit when it came to encounters like this. He had a fair amount of blood on his hands, but when faced with a kill or be killed scenario, Ahi always found a way out. Not dying was his extraordinary talent. He detached his combat visor from his tactical belt when he was certain he was drawing near, sliding the lenses over his eyes.

The world was plunged into reddish hues, though a bright yellow form became visible in the distance. Human female, average height and build from what he could tell at this distance. His scanner picked up on some sort of robot accompanying her. He began to move towards one of the large earthen mounds, aiming to get the high ground and sufficient cover should this turn into a hostile encounter. The red earth nearly matched his hair color, a mixture of red and deep maroon, with the faintest tints of purple.

His scanner blipped to life, revealing a high organic count on the mound. He rolled his eyes slightly, of course.

"Tundra, would you quit fussing? We'll be fine. The commander said we had an outpost here, we can grab a new thruster for the deployment pod once we find them." The woman's voice snapped him into focus, and he grimaced at their proximity. She must be right on the other side of this shit pile.

"Lacy, I don't recommend climbing that." The voice sounded almost natural, though Ahi could pick out the metallic echo and grit to it, that had to be a powerful AI installed in whatever sort of bot she had with her. The clanker was modded out for sure.

"Why not?" She asked, voice getting closer. "I need a good vantage point anyways, and this is the highest elevation we've spotted so far."

"It's a mixture of dirt and dung."

"Nevermind, then." Her voice became more muffled, presumably turned away from Ahi's vantage point. "Can you scan for any organic life forms?"

A faint grimace crossed his face and his hand immediately went for the taser gun attached to his hip, debating whether or not he should take out the bot. Of course, that could open him up for attack from the woman.

Then there was the always fun plan: pop out of hiding and play the nice guy.

He hated that plan. It had a tendency of getting too many plasma guns pointed at him, and on several occasions there were subsequent blasts. It was a far too dangerous plan when dealing with unknown parties, but rookies were an exception. She sounded too hopeful to be an experienced, well, anything, so there was a good chance that Plan H wouldn't get him killed and probably wouldn't result in him killing anyone.

"Hey guys please don't kill me!" He announced as he walked around the mound, hands in plain sight and an easygoing smile on his face. The girl had her gun trained on him in an instant.

"Human male detected right in front of us." Tundra spoke dryly, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. His metal paws carried him to stand directly in front of the woman, offering a small amount of cover. "Identify yourself." The bot ordered, a metal grinding of a growl beneath his words.

"Easy there clanker, I don't mean any harm. Just passing through." Ahi spoke with ease, his grey gaze focused on both the bot and the young woman hiding behind it.

"Judging by your equipment, I'd say otherwise." The bot stated after a cursory scan. "You appear to be working for Regent. The orders they operate under state that all threats encountered, be they sentient or not, are to be eliminated during exploration."

"I guess you two don't really look like a threat." Ahi fired back with a smaller grin, his posture relaxing slightly as he saw the woman's blue eyes softening just a little bit, before they narrowed back in on him. "The name's Ahi. And I'm not exactly one to follow orders with extreme precision."

"That doesn't sound like something you should be announcing so proudly." The woman spoke up, her gun lowering as she rose to her full height. Her blue eyes were sharp and calculating, and the fact that her weapon wasn't put away yet showed that there was at least one brain cell bouncing around that head of hers. "I've heard of teams killing off scouts for less. And you have a scanner on you, no one else except for a scout would have one in the trade."

So she's smart. Dangerous, but the good kind of dangerous. The probably not as fatal kind of dangerous when compared to stupidity, in the way that she would probably look for information and a reason to pull the trigger as opposed to just blowing him into cosmic oblivion right then and there. "Well, I'm pretty hard to kill." He replied with a shrug and an easy-going grin. Something vaguely sinister crept into his grin as he looked over the situation with careful scrutiny. "...You know, rookies usually don't pick up on that little fact until it's too late." He paused, thinking for another moment. He took in a sharp breath, his gaze darting back to her after having wandered off to the side as he'd been thinking. "Did you mouth off your commanding officer too? Or did you catch them screwing around in the maintenance cupboard with one of the recruiters? Because if so, twinsies!"

He could just see the confusion and obvious dislike blossom on her face as she lowered her weapon, not holstering it yet. "What the hell are you going on about?" She grumbled, over exaggerating an eye roll for good measure. "No, I haven't done anything to get on Commander Diavel's bad side. We just had some technical difficulties upon landing."

Ahi's gaze wandered over the junker of a drop pod that she'd arrived in. Seriousness crept back over him as he took note of several problems with the craft. "I'm honestly surprised you survived the landing in that thing. Looks like the launching and landing mechanism was tampered with." His bluntness didn't go without reaction, he could see the faint tints of red beginning to stain her cheeks. Either embarrassed or angry, but either way, she was caught off guard. "Clanker, you're being awfully quiet now."

"What's your directive?" The bot asked, not moving from his spot in front of the woman.

"I'm not looking for trouble, if that's what you're looking to hear." Ahi begins, keeping his body language open. "I am just here getting the feel for this planet."