Tusker - one of the Vanguard warriors - was someone else who also enjoyed the music performed by Tanker. A big fan of Vanguard tribal music, some of the music made by this new species reminded him of his home, one of the early Vanguard colony worlds settled many thousands of years earlier. Although the science & communications officer on the bridge was beginning to make some discoveries about the new species, deciphering their language wasn't one of them yet. That didn't stop Tusker from jiggling his bits to the rhythm anyway as he finished making adjustments to his Shock-Lance.
Slash looked up from his workbench where he was checking over some of their assault rifles and eyed the grooving youngster with a disapproving glare.
"Damned kids" he muttered to himself. Fleet-of-Foot, working beside the grumpy old warrior, laughed.
"Leave the boy alone. You were young once - don't tell me you never wriggled your tail to the funky beats when you were his age." Slash sniffed and returned to his rifle, polishing the barrel with a bit more vigour than was absolutely necessary.
"I was never that young". He stopped polishing for a moment and winked at Slash. "Ah sod it, I'm done here. Let's go see if they've found out anything new on these aliens." They walked out leaving Tusker humming quietly to himself. Two-Talon, waiting in a side corridor nearby, watched the two older warriors head off towards the bridge leaving Tusker by himself. He peeked around the corner into the room and saw the young warrior preoccupied with some weaponry, singing along to some of the electronic-sounding screeching stuff that seemed to pass for music by the aliens. He crouched in the doorway then sprang at the warriors back, crashing into him with a cry sending them both tumbling into a writhing mass of arms and tails on the floor.
"Gotcha!" He hissed at the surprised Tusker.
Crater was standing at a console on the bridge, watching some rather odd-looking pictures on a screen. Although occasionally washed out by static, the screen showed two groups of the rather grotesque looking aliens battling it out in what looked like some sort of arena, attacking each other for possession of something small, dark and egg-shaped. Although several of the creatures attacked the others, it didn't look as if any permanent damage was being done as the creatures usually got up and continued running around. This was accompanied by the excited babbling of the high-pitched alien language. Odd. He looked around as the two warriors strode onto the bridge and made towards him.
"They call themselves 'humans' apparently," he said to them as they stopped beside him. "And it seems that most of the stuff they are broadcasting to the universe-at-large appears to be mainly what passes for entertainment - I think. Most of it is just plain weird and difficult to explain otherwise." The three of them stood around and watched the screen for another couple of minutes until the picture changed to what looked like a series of disjointed mini-stories.
"They are the dominant intelligences on the planet and appear to have two main sexes that I have discovered so far. There seem to be several different varieties in different skin pigmentations and languages but no major biological differences - probably evolved from a single ancestor type. Also something I think we'll have to be careful of - they're quite war-like and territorial." Crater tapped another nearby console and motioned for the Leader and the Engineer to join the small group.
"The planet appears to have a Nitrogen/Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide based atmosphere, with high levels of contaminants - which indicates they're still at an early stage of technological development. I've also detected slight levels of radioactivity. I suspect they may be experimenting with nuclear energy, which probably means they've developed primitive nuclear weapons of some type." Crater turned back to the console and continued to watch the screen, occasionally tapping commands into the computer.
Predator considered this latest information for a minute or so.
"Alright. Priority now is to understand their language, or at least one of the more common ones used there." He looked at the Engineer "We're still far enough away that I doubt they'll have seen us given their level of technology, however I suggest we approach cautiously anyway, we might need to disappear quickly." Spanners nodded and went over to finish repairing the FTL system.
"You two," he said pointing at Fleet-of-Foot and Slash "I'd like to put down a landing party. Take Crater and grab a few samples of various things, he can decide what and where would be best. Take Tusker as well, but I want you all to be careful - no contact with the natives. If this mission is compromised it has serious repercussions."
Tusker moaned as Two-Talon pushed him onto his back and proceeded to forcefully mount him.
"You like it rough don't you, you little slut?" the medic hissed at the writhing warrior beneath him. "Tell me how you like it!"
"Harder! Uuuungh, fuck me harder, love. Fuck me!" Tusker hissed through clenched teeth as the Medic brutally ravaged the willing warrior. Finding his rhythm, Two-Talon picked up the pace and soon Tusker's horns were banging against the bulkhead as his tail-hole was fucked vigorously by the horny medic's engorged cock. The panting warrior was going out of his head with pleasure as the ribbed invader pummelled the pleasure spots inside him just so. Two-Talon started pulling all the way out then thrust back in with a vicious growl as he bred the young warrior beneath him.
"I'm gonna fuck you so hard you'll be able to taste it!" He poked out his forked tongue and started licking the large tusks that protruded from Tusker's lower jaw which were matched by two equally large fangs poking out of the top jaw. Larger than any others the medic had ever seen before, Two-Talon found them extremely erotic and had learned that's how the warrior had come by his name a few years back. The warrior roared loudly and his equally impressive cock exploded sending his cum flying into his partner's face, sending Two-Talon over the edge himself. With a grunt and a thrust burying his cock as far up as it could go into the spasming tail-hole of the pinned warrior, the medic filled the churning guts of his squirming partner with his own load.
"Oh yessssss, that'll fix what ailssss you!" Hissing like a locomotive as recovered his breath, he pulled out of the warrior and rocked back onto his heels and sat there smirking at the dishevelled warrior, tongue hanging out of his mouth and panting.
Slash and Fleet-of-Foot rolled their eyes at each other as they passed the two youngsters in the Weapons Bay.
"There will be time for that later you two; right now we need to finish landing preparations." Fleet-of-Foot extended one of his arms to Tusker and pulled him to his feet, before heading over to a bench to finish reassembling the rifles with Slash. Two-Talon scrambled to his feet and with a parting lecherous look at the dishevelled warrior, slunk off back to his quarters to clean up. Tusker dressed himself and limped over to the bench to assist the other two.
"You better go and see the Medic for that limp of yours, boy" Slash commented, sending both him and Fleet-of-Foot into a fit of laughter. Tusker hissed at the two and struggled back into his skin-suit before half-heartedly helping with the weapons, occasionally casting sullen glances at the two older warriors.
Several hours later the Vanguard ship coasted into a stationary orbit behind the moon. Crater had managed to partially decipher several of the human languages and had cobbled together some basic translation devices that could read and speak the alien language. Their physiology meant they wouldn't be able to speak the human languages themselves, apart from maybe a couple of basic words.
"But that shouldn't be necessary, as you're not supposed to have any contact with the natives anyway. The atmosphere is breathable, but I've found some trace amounts of various toxic gasses, so limit your exposure to no more than a few hours at a time." The assembled warriors nodded as Two-Talon continued "We shouldn't need to worry too much about micro-organisms affecting you, our biology is sufficiently different for them to have little or no effect. Just don't go eating or drinking anything you find there."
As the hatch for the shuttle opened, Predator again reminded the team about the need for caution on the trip.
"Avoid the natives if possible, and whatever happens don't get captured. Crater has rigged the power-packs on your weapons to overload and explode if you need them to, just try and avoid getting into any situations where you do." Fleet-of-Foot stepped into the shuttle followed by Slash and Crater. Tusker was about to enter, when he was stopped by Two-Talon.
"Be careful and don't do anything dumb down there, I want you back in one piece. It's a long flight home and I don't intend on spending it by myself." Tusker nodded and licked the Two-Talon's face with his tongue before ducking into the open hatch and securing it behind him. Predator followed Two-Talon out of the shuttle-bay and closed the airlock door. Standing beside a small viewing port he looked out and spoke to the medic.
"Your warrior is young but capable - I wouldn't have chosen him for this mission if I had any doubts about his abilities. The other two will keep him out of trouble." He stole a quick glance at the young medic before looking back to the viewing port. You're the one I have concerns about, he thought to himself. They both watched as the shuttle emerged into view and then shrank into the distance, finally disappearing against the backdrop of the rocky moon they were hiding behind.
Predator had major misgivings about having Two-Talon on the mission and regarded the young medic with suspicion. Although his credentials were impeccable, there was something about him that Predator just didn't trust. There were growing problems at home amongst the younger generations, discontent and mistrust of the basis of their entire culture and history, the gathering clouds of which signalled a storm on the near horizon. He was concerned about the effect this could have on Tusker, an impressionable young warrior who showed much promise - the last thing he needed on this far-flung mission was unrest amongst the crew.
Pointing to a spot on a viewscreen, Crater leaned over and yelled through the howling chaos at Slash who was wrestling with the controls of the shuttle.
"Put us down near here if you can, there's what looks like a small settlement nearby that should be good for recon." Slash grunted and continued to guide the shuttle through the thickening atmosphere, trying to keep a path that would mimic a natural meteoric entry so as to avoid any undue attention from the natives. Once he gauged they were close enough to the ground to be safe from detection, he fired the retro-thrusters and attitude control jets to slow them to manoeuvering speed. They emerged through a cloud layer and could see the lights of the small town below through the view-screens, surrounded by dark mountainous terrain. Slash turned around and spoke to the other two in the crash-couches at the rear of the shuttle.
"There's a relatively flat spot in that mountain-range that should be far enough away from anything to be safe - but we'll need to do a bit of walking." He turned back and continued piloting the craft. Fleet-of-Foot looked at the younger Warrior beside him.
"Should be OK, the gravity here is a lot less than we're used to, so should be able to cover ground fairly quickly." Tusker nodded and reached for his pack and weapons secured in the equipment webbing beside him.
With a last series of sickening lurches, Slash put the shuttle down in the darkness into a small ravine running down the side of a mountain, and shut off the engines. Other than an occasional loud ping and creak from the cooling hull, everything was suddenly quiet. The occupants all looked at each other in the dim light of various control lights.
"So, who's first?" Crater asked in the dimness. Nobody spoke or moved for a few moments. Tusker sighed disgustedly and opened the hatch, which made a sharp hiss as the air pressures equalized, grabbed his pack and stepped out into the darkness.
"You old wrinklies coming or what?" He snorted derisively. The others gathered up their gear and joined the young warrior outside the shuttle. Crater sniffed.
"Smells funny. Air pressure is less than what we're used to as well." He pulled out a small scanner and tapped away on it for a few seconds. "Should be OK though, but we should limit our first excursion to no more than a few hours as per the Doc's orders. Shall we?"
Slash secured the shuttle and they headed towards the nearby ridge outlined by the glow of the nearby settlement, stopping occasionally to gather small samples which were packed away for later examination. Due to the lower than normal gravity they made good time and it was only a few minutes till they came to an unlit road which disappeared off into the distance towards the town.
Fleet-of-Foot lead the way along the side of the darkened road until they could see street lights in the distance. He pulled out his own scanner and studied the screen for a few moments.
"There are a few scattered dwellings in about 500 metres, and there are some larger structures about a K past those. Given that most of the natives appear to be somewhat nocturnal I suggest we head for the larger structures further in." Sticking to the undergrowth, they made their way into the town keeping quite a distance away from the dwellings - some of them had some rather noisy domesticated animals the natives called 'dogs' which had already on a couple of occasions noticed the presence of the large aliens nearby. After the first round of loud barking had roused the occupants of one of the dwellings they passed nearby, they wanted to avoid a second occurance.
Fleet-of-Foot stopped beside the window of what looked like a commercial establishment and looked curiously at the garish display inside. Several statues wearing strange looking skimpy clothing stood in various poses, surrounded by all manner of odd looking devices.
"This looks interesting. Can you get the door open quietly?" he asked Crater who was busy nearby mucking around with a small plasma-cutter on something inside a free-standing box by the side of the road. Pocketing the cutter the scientist wandered over and proffered a handful of small, round metal disks to the warrior who took them and looked them over before dropping them into a pocket for further study. After studying the door for a moment, Crater pulled out his data-pad and put it against the small electronic keypad lock - which clicked and the door swung open.
The four of them ducked through the doorway and looked around wide-eyed at the interior of the shop. There were shelves upon shelves of small packages with garish and mostly naked humans displayed on them, along with more of the strange looking objects displayed in the window. Opening one of the packages up, Slash pulled out a silvery disk and turned it over in his talons before pulling out one of the small translation devices and pointing it at the packaging and studying the readout.
"'Hot Cum-Gargling Sluts IX'? Perhaps these are reproductive guides... I didn't realize these aliens had sex organs in their throats?"
Crater blinked at him and turned to pick up a small cylindrical object off the counter he was standing beside, dropping it in surprise as it buzzed into life. Tusker whipped around at hearing the noise and jabbed at the thing flopping around on the floor with his Shock-Lance - the device expired with a sizzle and small cloud of smoke, smouldering quietly on the ground.
"Beyond weird," he muttered.
After exiting the building they wandered over to a large fenced-off yard on the other side of the road full of the strange-looking vehicles the natives used for transportation. Leaping over the fence they approached one of the vehicles and stood around it, looking it over. Tusker commented as he bent down and peered through the glass at the cramped-looking interior.
"Damn these 'humans' are small... How do you get inside?" Crater, standing beside the warrior, shrugged and pulled at one of the door-handles which broke off in his hand with a loud rending noise.
"Hrrr," he chuffed quietly. "Don't think it was supposed to do that!" Sheepishly looking at the scowling Warrior next to him. The door had swung open slightly after the locking mechanism had been ripped out, so they took turns examining the interior. Crater ran his scanner over the interior of the vehicle and started pulling the console apart, looking with wonder at the archaic electronics revealed in the destruction.
"If this level of technology is anything to go by, I don't think these aliens are going to be much of a threat." Crater noted as he scanned some of the electronics. After patiently waiting for a couple of minutes, the scientist was reluctantly dragged away by the others trailing bits of wire and plastic in his wake.
Back on the ship, Two-Talon looked up from his workstation in the Med Bay as the intercom chimed.
"Please report to the bridge, Two-Talon. We have new orders." That's odd, he thought to himself. He was aware that communication to far-flung exploration or military vessels was extremely rare and not to mention potentially dangerous. While it was unlikely these particular aliens would be able to intercept or understand any signals sent from the Vanguard communications systems, they were relying somewhat on secrecy for this mission, not letting the natives know they even existed. Activating the intercom, he replied.
"Understood, on my way" and left for the bridge.
Predator looked up as the medic entered the bridge and padded over towards him.
"This is going to complicate things somewhat. We've been ordered to bring some of the aliens back for further study and interrogation."
"Say what? What a minute, we're not equipped for that... This was supposed to be an exploratory mission? I still don't know a lot about their biology, has this even been thought out properly? How... where..." Two-Talon spluttered to a halt and blinked at the Captain in confusion. With a sigh, Predator handed the doctor a data-pad with the orders he'd received on it.
"They want the aliens alive, so I need you to make suitable arrangements. We can secure one of the storage areas - it wont be comfortable for them but do your best anyway. Get Spanners to help you set everything up." Two-Talon looked over the orders for a few moments and resignedly handed the data-pad back to the leader before turning away.
"Alright. I'm not happy about this and I'm not going to make any promises." he crossed both sets of arms and looked back at Predator. "And just thought I'd let you know that I've never had any luck with keeping pets when I was growing up either, they all died on me." Two-Talon turned and walked off the bridge back towards the Med Centre. Predator stared wide-eyed at the departing medic's back, before checking himself and laughing. Getting up, he strode over to the comms console and activated it.
"Hey, there's one of those mock battle-arena's that I saw not long after we arrived in this system. We should check it out, might give us some insight into what they were doing." Crater was pointing to a nearby sports-ground not far from where they were. Fleet-of-Foot hissed agreement and they set off at a fast lope towards the stadium. As they neared a locked gate, the Science officer pulled out his trusty scanner and motioned for them to stop.
"Strange, there are several life-signs in this area - it doesn't look like one of their normal habitations though." He hesitated and moved the scanner around a bit. "Over by the far side of this field, in those smaller structures. I think we should avoid this one, there are plenty of other things to look at." Pocketing the scanner, he turned to leave when his Ship communicator beeped urgently at him. Slash, Fleet-of-Foot and Tusker looked at each other with worried glances as Crater activated the communicator - breaking radio silence like this wasn't a good sign.
"Receiving."
"Crater, Slash. New orders. You're instructed to bring back at least two of the aliens with you. Alive." Crater looked nervously at Slash.
"This wasn't part of the plan -"
"Plans change. Finish whatever you're doing and make that your priority. Get yourselves and your... samples... back here as soon as possible. Predator out."
"Well shit," Slash grunted with annoyance once communication was cut. "That's gonna complicate things." Crater rumbled his agreement.
"Hrrr, since we're here, the aliens nearby are somewhat isolated from other habitation, this would be as good a place as any to go 'shopping'". Pulling out the small plasma-cutter, he sliced through the lock and chains that secured the gate. Fleet-of-Foot motioned for the Science officer to stay where he was.
"Wait here, we wont be long." The three warriors slipped through the gate and loped over towards the vegetation on the other side of the field. Approaching the parked vehicles and trailers, Slash motioned for them to slow down and move silently. Studying his scanner he pointed at one of the parked trailers close to the patch of bush they were hiding in.
"That one is far enough away from the others and has two occupants inside." Suddenly there was a loud snapping sound as Tusker stood on a dead branch he hadn't noticed lying on the ground.
"Crap." he muttered. Slash smacked the younger warrior across the back of the head and hissed urgently.
"Watch where you put your big clumsy feet you idiot!"
Soft snoring beside him roused Troy from a light and dreamless sleep. Huh - so it was real, he thought to himself as he lay in the darkness, his head cradled on the young roadie's shoulder. Things had moved very quickly from when they first started sharing a blanket on top of a truck a few hours ago. Damn... He realized that for the first time in ages he was actually happy. Surprised, but happy. The singing and performing gave him an outlet for his energy and his supressed feelings but it didn't make him happy. Tainui made him happy, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. Shaking his head in wonderment, he slowly untangled himself from his new-found sleeping lover, wrapped Tainui's discarded blanket around himself and made towards the door. He needed to take a piss and the cheap trailers that Gary Fielding had hired didn't have toilet facilities, damn the cheap bastard to hell! The nearest toilets were over by the stadium stands that were due to be packed with thousands of screaming fans the following night. Grabbing a torch and quietly opening the door, he padded over a few metres to the shadows cast by one of the large gear-trucks and relieved himself against one of the tyres.
CRACK!
Troy jumped, somewhere in a nearby patch of bush someone or something heavy had stepped on a tree-branch then stopped moving. Stalkers? One of the other roadies out having a smoke perhaps? Silence. Armed with nothing more than the blanket and a torch, he decided discretion was the better part of valour and started retreating back towards his trailer. He heard more rustling coming from the undergrowth, followed by some quiet hissing and rumbling and what sounded suspiciously like a slap. Three rather large shadows detached themselves from the bushes and moved towards him. What the hell? Turning the torch on and shining it towards the figures, he stared in mute surprise at the three large creatures partially revealed in the circle of light. Dropping the torch and turning to run back towards his trailer, he didn't notice a thick power-cable running along the ground which caught one of his feet and sent him crashing to the ground with a muffled yelp.
Awakened by the noise, Tainui noticed Troy wasn't in the bed, got up, pulled on his track-pants and pushed the trailer door open and peered out into the darkness. He noticed the torch lying on the grass and a rather frightened looking Troy madly scrambling back towards him in the dark.
"What's going on?" he asked as he stepped down onto the grass to give Troy a hand up.
"Lock the door, LOCK THE DOOR!" Troy wailed, the panicked tone in his voice making the hairs on the back of Tainui's neck stand on end. He looked over to where the torch-light was pointing and gaped - three large creatures ran towards him, moving very quickly in the dark. He instinctively grabbed Troy's arm and threw the boy bodily into the trailer and turned to follow when everything suddenly flashed very bright and he started falling, unable to stop himself. Then everything went very dark, although he thought he heard his name being called before conciousness faded completely. Troy went crashing into the small kitchenette inside the trailer and saw Tainui turn to follow when one of the creatures brandishing a long pole caught up with the roadie and jabbed the pole into his back, discharging with a loud CRACK and a small flash of light. Tainui to cried out and fell to the ground just short of the door.
"Tai! No!" The creature turned when it heard the yell and looked at the human lying inside the wheeled structures entrance, rumbled something incomprehensible and jabbed the pole at his chest. As well as having the wind knocked out of him by the thrusting pole, it made a loud cracking noise with a bright flash and everything faded mercifully into darkness.
To be continued...