[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/442796000676151296/776246342632472654/vol7.png[/img]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/418451634885230593/732110599051411456/volana.png[/img][/center]
[hr]

Volana watched, with growing apprehension, as the mass of sand and dust being kicked up by whatever was approaching rushed closer and closer to their location. Vaguely, she could comm traffic from the science team as they made their way back onto the landing craft, though their words weren't entirely registering at the moment. No, her focus was on the phenomenon ahead.

<<[i]As of this second I am confirming a Case Siberia, and your RoE changes with it. Don’t start anything if you can help it but you are not, I repeat not, expected to let them take the first shot. If they look nasty you are cleared to engage.[/i]>>

Those last few words resonated as the COO's orders came over the comm. Giving voice to what they were probably all thinking at that moment. In terms of welcomes go, the billowing cloud of dust was-

At that the two forms burst to the surface, and froze in place. Volana felt her heart jump and her breath catch as the two gleaming alien forms caught the yellow-orange glow from the unfamiliar star above. They were massive, nearly reptilian in their basic forms. Sleek and seamless, though unmistakably metallic in construction. If such things were even constructed, their hunched posture and clawed limbs sowing doubt that these were machines like the one she had just unearthed.

Utterly alien.

The was a moment, the only motion visible was that of the pair of... entities scanning their surroundings with an unnerving precision. Volana didn't breath, scarcely blinking as she stared at the identical pair of towering [i]things[/i] before her.

She watched with growing confusion as their search snapped upward, towards what Volana could only assume was one of the Orbitals currently patrolling the airspace above. What was-

A wave of sound hit her square in the chest, broadcasting over the [i]Aurora[/i]'s internal speakers as much as it was seeping into the cockpit itself. A high pitched, metallic tone that made her jaw ache. Her proximity to the two screaming alien contacts only intensifying the auditory assault. Through narrowed eyes Volana watched as a pair of brilliant golden beams of light lanced out from them, tracing a path that followed whatever had disturbed them in the sky.

Things happened quickly after that.

Volana dropped low as instinct overrode conscious thought, a wave of dust and sand rising up from the [i]Aurora[/i]'s armored feet as the Orbital mirrored the tensed crouch. She was almost entirely certain this counted as [i]looking nasty[/i] as the COO had put it. That, and the fact that one of the pair had suddenly shot forward [i]directly[/i] towards her, propelled by some unseen force and gaining ground at an alarming rate.

No time for thought.

As far as she knew the shuttle had yet to clear the AO, and the [i]hostile[/i] contact charging towards her was on no uncertain terms not to get any closer. It made Volana's next course of action clear, as she pushed off the sandy ground to lunge forward to meet the gleaming alien form. Sparks whipped in an arc around the Cytherean Orbital as Volana ripped her blade from its sheathed position in a single motion that accompanied the [i]Aurora[/i]'s next bounding step.

<<[color=aquamarine]Aurora, engaging![/color]>>

Thirty meters.

Twenty...

The gap between them was closing faster than Volana truly felt prepared for, but that thing couldn't be allowed to get any closer. Even as its looming form grew even larger in her panoramic view.

And they met.

Gram's prismatic edge refracted a kaleidoscope of color that danced across the surface of her Orbital's armor as she pivoted hard into an arcing swing. The final step that the [i]Aurora[/i] took throwing as much force behind the strike as Volana could leverage as if attempting to completely cleave the metallic alien in two.

Above the roar of automatic explosive weaponry rained down in waves, though the majority of her view was occupied by the bulk of the entity before her, so their target wasn't entirely visible.