Staring intently at the readouts on her scanner, Amara didn't even notice the looks Cody was getting as he plodded around, trying to sniff at things though his helmet. It was only when chief addressed her that she looked up from the device and raised a slightly confused eyebrow at him. TreVayne's question slightly annoyed her. Of course Cody was here in an official capacity. Did he think she was the kind of person who would just bring a pet to a possibly hostile environment? Did he think she was that unprofessional? Martian medics often worked with canines during field operations. The Martian mentality was such everything needed to have a purpose. If anyone or anything was just there using food and oxygen and not contributing anything to society, then there was no place for them. So even the few dogs that were brought to Mars were put to work in various fields. Cody, though occasionally being a slobbering idiot, was an invaluable tool in these kinds of situations. Not only was he often the first one on scene when someone was hurt in the field, he could also reach areas that were simply inaccessible to a human rescue team. It made sense to utilise such a tool. At least to the Martian mind. Looking around now, Amara realised that Terrans perhaps didn't think the same way. She was just about to explain the benefits of having Cody with them when something raced past them, much to fast for anyone to see, and she quickly lost her train of thought. "What the..." she mouthed, not quite managing to get her mouth to make the accompanying sounds. She didn't even realise the laws of physics would allow anything to move that quickly. Cody seemed justifiably disturbed by whatever it was and after letting out a few barks of warning, he planted himself at Amara's side, leaning on her leg for some measure of comfort. Amara did her best to calm him, holding onto the side of his helmet to reassure him. Amara would have loved to track whatever it was down and study it's biological structure but no one had any idea where it had even gone. Not to mention that the chances of actually catching it where slim to none. Besides, her priority right now was the humans, not alien lifeforms. No matter how fascinating they may be. Plus, chief TreVayne ordered that the local flora and fauna was not to be disturbed. Disappointing. The group soon moved off and Amara tapped a command into the handheld controls of the three small environmental probe droids that she had sent into the air before the rest of the team arrived, ordering them to move slightly ahead of the group and scan for toxins in the air. The air where the Nyx had landed didn't seem hazardous (though is was far from perfect) but there was no telling what they might run into as they travelled. Gas pockets, spore clouds, really bad smells...Amara didn't really want to encounter any of them. As the goup moved, Amara became increasingly agitated by the science team wandering off. She felt like a mother trying to corral excited kids on a day out. The expression on the chiefs face told her he felt just the same. Being far more authoritative though, TreVayne managed to get them to wait while he set up his drones around the orb. Both he and Amara seemed to feel a lot more at ease after that and Amara sat cross legged on the ground as she watched the scientists go about their research with Cody lying nearby, tail gently whipping small particles of dirt from the ground. --------------------------------------- A short time later, Amara was still sitting in the same position but Cody's curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had wandered over to sit by the science team as they went about their work. He wasn't interested in their work or even the giant orb thing, having no idea what they were doing or what the hell that thing was. It vaguely looked like it may have been some kind of ball at some point but it was [i]much[/i] too large to chase. He didn't even want to [i]think[/i] about how he would bring it back after it was thrown. No, Cody's interest was in the science team themselves. He loved people. All people. Every time one of them passed by, he expectantly wagged his tail and then immediately dropped it when they paid him no attention. Each time this happened, he looked like his entire world was sadness but he quickly perked up again when another human came nearby, only for his hopes of interaction to be dashed again. It was a vicious cycle but one this dog would endure so long as there was even a hope of being petted. Amara, meanwhile, was once again reading the data sent back by her probes, just to quadruple check that everything was fine. She was 99% sure their environmental suits would keep them safe even if some deadly gas cloud was to wash over them but she had seen suits fail in the past so she wanted to get a heads up if anything [i]was [/i]on the way. Her attention was drawn away from her scanner when she heard someone call for chief TreVayne. Her eyes shot to Phillips and she followed his eyes up to where he was looking. Once she spotted the descending creatures, she immediately sprang to her feet and in her calmest but still authoritative voice said "Phillips, move away from them." Cody let out a whimper of discomfort as he spotted the creatures, torn as he was between chasing and eating them and running in the opposite direction. He shifted in place for a second then took a couple of steps back, just to be safe. Amara didn't want to take any chances with these things. Who knew what they were capable of. They were alien life forms after all. For all she knew, they could be capable of spitting acid that would eat through their suits. And if they could do that, the squishy meat inside didn't stand a chance. Maybe she was being paranoid but she thought it was better to be safe than a puddle of ooze and waved for the rest of the team to move out of the way as well.