Semo can't grab any of the bug-things, but he does have presence of mind to slide a 18-inch shard of the shipwreck into his spare barrel bag. The material looks like it has a bit of heat stress at the fracture points - like metal in a fire, but the break looks more like ceramic.
At Semo's words, the animal hops off its branch, wings flapping once to cushion its landing 6 feet away from the big operator. It cocks its head, not entirely unlike a bird but also strangely like a monkey. It seems to sniff the air, then takes a hop back warily. Kilgore and Cavanaugh approach from the fuselage side of the overgrowth, but the thing seems fixated on a spot right between Semo's neck and stomach.
Luis hears some commotion over by Sumo and sees two of the docs head in the big man's direction.
Strangely, the bird-creature moves closer rather than farther away at the sound of his voice. Semo watches it patiently, though ready in case it should happen to decide to attack him.
Seeing the eggheads approaching, Semo speaks softly. "I think we got here a living example of, whataya call it, indiginous fauna. Seems to be able to change color and such, like one o' those little lizards we got back home."
The creature's hairy feathers are indeed changing with its background - the color change seems to be limited to just the feathers. The beak remains its natural dull bone color, the ends of the feet are a dark green. It has a vestigial finger at the wingtip joints. It spares a glance and a sniff at Max and Kitty, then turns its attention back towards Semo. It takes a hesitant step towards the staff sergeant, then another. Kitty's got her specimen bag ready. "I can get it if it stays on the sergeant," she whispers to Max.
Luis nods as Greene passes by on his way back to the Gate and the scientists, musing to himself at the use of Greene's nickname for him. As the sounds of Greene's passage fade into the background, he nervously settles in. Luis can't pin it down exactly, but something's...off somehow, and not just the lower gravity or the different noises or the climate. It's the whole wierd odor to the place, not even the lush smell of a jungle back on Earth. He can't pin down what's off about it, just that it is, and that makes him uneasy. He checks his weapon again, and keeps it ready, eyeing the jungle warily. This is the part where it all goes sour in the movies, he thinks. Nothing hapens immeadiatly, though, except for some commotion over where Sumo is, but some of the nerds head out to take a look, and Stanhill returns to his nervous scanning.
Watching the bird's behavior, Semo begins to wonder if it's more intelligent than what he expects from a bird. Squatting down slowly to get closer to it's level, he holds a hand out the way he would with a dog or cat.
The creature's hairy feathers are indeed changing with its background - the color change seems to be limited to just the feathers. The beak remains its natural dull bone color, the ends of the feet are a dark green. It has a vestigial finger at the wingtip joints. It spares a glance and a sniff at Max and Kitty, then turns its attention back towards Semo. It takes a hesitant step towards the staff sergeant, then another. Kitty's got her specimen bag ready. "I can get it if it stays on the sergeant," she whispers to Max.
Sumo glances up at Max's terse command to freeze, his fingers still outstretched towards Toucan Summer Of Sam. The creature stabs its beak forward just as Sumo swats at it reflexively. A hollow, tube-like tongue darts out as its beak snaps into the Samoan's vest. There's a quick *slurp* before Semo knocks the thing the hell off him and then Kitty's got the bag over the writhing "bird".
The thing's making a hell of a racket, mercifully muffled somewhat by the specimen bag. Sumo looks down at his chest and doesn't see any cuts or scratches - but the thing tore a hands' breadth of fabric off his Dragonskin covering. The covering that, until just recently, had more than its fair share of Sumo's leftovers on it.
"Jesus H. Christ, people!" shouts Tupolev from the clearing. "I'm trying to see if we're all going to die slowly or quickly out here, and you're trying for the Darwin Awards!"
At Andy's (and the "bird's") frenzied shouting, maybe a handful of similar - possibly identical - avians take flight from the treetops, giving Luis quite the scare. He snaps his weapon up and sees them translate from green-brown to sky blue on the bellies, lush green-blue on their dorsal sides.
Then a monster avian with a wingspan maybe seven feet across and a tail like a bird of paradise slams into one of the fleeing toucan summer of sams with a shriek. The predator carries its meal over the clearing and away across the canopy.
Greene starts saying something about the smell to Hugh when he shouts "Holy shit!", bringing his weapon up as well.
Then a monster avian with a wingspan maybe seven feet across and a tail like a bird of paradise slams into one of the fleeing toucan summer of sams with a shriek. The predator carries its meal over the clearing and away across the canopy.
Greene's starts saying something about the smell to Hugh when he shouts "Holy shit!", bringing his weapon up as well.
"Now, that is something I'd be worried about." quips Max, looking up at the giant bird while helping Kitty subdue Toucan Sam.
The bird suddenly lunges for him, and Semo automatically swats at it in self-defense. He sees the beak latch onto his Dragonskin and a tongue slurp at the lunch he lost earlier.
The lady egghead pops a bag over the bird, which puts up quite a fight. "I think it was just hungry..." Semo says to the Doc. "Didn't hurt me none. I better wash up, though," he says, indicating the mess on his chest.
Just as Semo moves to get cleaned up, a much larger bird sails over the clearing, snatching one of the smaller birds in flight. Semo pulls up his Mk 48, but it's soon gone from sight.
Once he gets a moment, Semo will wash up as best he can.
The excitement subsides and those with soiled garments make an effort to clean up. Max helps Andy finish the environment tests while Kitty jabs a tranquilizer into the specimen bag to quell the avian's thrashing.
Semo continues his perimeter sweep but doesn't find anything else staring back at him. From what he can tell, it looks like the Gate site is at the top of a shallow valley that heads down into a basin. The running (possibly) water Luis heard might be a river or creek. Before anyone can get too far from their perimeter, the nerd herd announces the test results.
The air, the soil, it's all clear. It's not only clear, it's like this bacteria growth is nowhere near as advanced as Earth's microbiology. The bacteria on any team member's skin alone could beat the native microbes like Evander Holyfield vs. Emmanuel Lewis. There's traces of more advanced bacteria, sure, but the amount is consistent with what they brought with them and besides, it all matches Earth microforms.
"All right. Now that we've fed the animals and figured out the air won't kill us, what's next, Max?" asks Andy.
"I'd like to try and get inside that crash site, see if we can't find any records of what happened - like a black box or something," Kitty adds.
"Like the aliens are gonna have black fuckin' boxes," Greene spits, wandering his patrol route within earshot of the science team.
"Hey, meathead. Go catch some xenomalaria," she retorts.
"Whatever. Xenomyass." Greene stalks off.
"Well, I'd like to collect some plant samples for the return trip. Find out how close this vegetation is to ours," Andy says.
Max is making some connections in his head and formulates a possible theory. The vegetation, as it were, has long fronds instead of broad leaves like on Earth. The large 'insects'. The underdeveloped bacteria. The white sun, which would burn hotter, bigger - and faster - than Sol. It's too soon to be sure, but it's possible this is a very young planet, more akin to Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Sentient life may not have had time to evolve here.
At any rate, Mesas Negras should be opening the Gateway in a few minutes.
"I believe what we're dealing with here is an old incarnation of our Earth. The flora and fauna suggest a Mesozoic period of evolution going on here. For those in the studio audience; that's about two, three hundred million years older than the rock we just left. I'm sure Dr. Cavanaugh could expand on my Reader's Digest version of planetary evolution."
(turning to Hugh)
"Captain, I hope you brought some heavy-duty hardware in the event of a native incursion. I doubt the spitwads I'm packing are going to much more than piss them off. I recommend we just sit tight until the next Gateway opening...That includes you two!" adds Max, looking over to the Nerd Herd.
Hugh gives Kilgore a strange look, then taps his rifle.
"Fortunately, we had the presence of mind to bring a technological marvel called 'assault rifles'. You may have heard of them - there's a loud bang and then there's a few new holes in something."
He points to the '7.62x51mm' label on the side of his SCAR-H's receiver. "Big holes," he adds. "Now, does anybody else feel the urge to run off and play with the cute monsters, or can we sit tight and wait for the next bunch of tough people to come through the portal?"
There's no warning. The Gateway activates with a whump and a golden flash of light. Whatever small flitting creatures settled back down in the tall growth around the Gateway take to the sky once more in a brief but startling cloud.
*Mesas Negras to away team. It's good to see you. We'll send the second team once we download the probe data.*
The probe's transmitters upload the various test results through the portal, and roughly a minute later:
*Second team, you have a green light.*
You see the two Humvees and deuce-and-a-halfs start up silently and roll forward from the freight tunnel connecting the Pit with the eight-story elevator to the surface. The first Humvee, SFC Taylor's ride, breaches the portal. As it starts to drive through, the outworld Gateway creates some sort of golden phantasmal hologram of its representation on your side. Taylor's Humvee passes over the threshold and the entire vehicle, driver, equipment, and all, appears with a *bamf*. The rush of air moved by the displacing vehicle rustles the wheat-grass around the Gateway.
The three remaining vehicles come through just as Taylor's did: a holographic ghost image, then the entire vehicle instantly appearing once it fully crosses.
Chuck opens the lead Humvee's door and stands on the runner, waving to the more-or-less bedraggled away team. He looks a little shook up, but nowhere near as bad as you guys had it. "Dramamine, baby!"
Irving Mellish, Junior, and Specialist Riviera pull their vehicles around in a perimeter, with the two generator trucks flanking the Gateway on either side.
*Portal disengages in 3 minutes, Captain Verrill. Status report.*
"Encountered local fauna: small insect-like beings; one medium bird-like being, probably carnivorous, captured; very large bird-like being, definately carnivorous. Noteable: captured specimen described as curious, displayed no innate fear of human presence. Environmental conditions as probe readings indicate. Passing through portal...causes symptoms akin to acute seasickness, disorientation and upset stomachs. Portal is situated in what appears to be the wreck of a large vehicle, possibly airplane or spacecraft."
His report done for the minute, Hugh turns to SFC Taylor.
"Check your team, then move out and take over perimeter watch. Send my boys back, we'll set up camp here. Once we've got the tents up, we'll start the UAV, get the lay of the land. After that, we dig in and call it a day. Make sure everybody drinks."
Once he's cleaned up and (mostly) presentable, Semo approaches the nerd herd. Pulling the hunk of alien metal from his bag, he offers it to Dr. Kilgore. "I found this lying over among the wreckage an' thought you might wanna look at it."
That done, Semo returns to perimeter. Due to the previous excitement in that area, he positions himself on the side of the camp facing the area of forest where the birds were. This position also gives him some shade and a good view of some of the wreckage.
Angel sighs and double checks his rifle before trotting out and tapping one of the already deployed riflemen on the shoulder.
"Boss wants you to head back."
Taking the mans place, Angel frowns slightly. Crap position he picked, especially considering there is a perfectly good one 2 meters that way...sliding over a bit to what is, in his opinion, a much better spot, he raises his rifle and surveys the landscape through his scope.
"Gate Command. This is Dr. Kilgore. I'm forwarding our up-to-date data on the Gate site."
fanchergw wrote:
Once he's cleaned up and (mostly) presentable, Semo approaches the nerd herd. Pulling the hunk of alien metal from his bag, he offers it to Dr. Kilgore. "I found this lying over among the wreckage an' thought you might wanna look at it."
"Amazing. Andy, Kitty...take a look this!" ignoring everything Semo said after I found this.
"What do you think? Composite construction? Some sort of monomolecular seamless design? This is phenomenal considering the evolutionary scale of the surrounding planet."
Admiral Duck Sauce
