[center][h3]Collab Between [@Raylah] and [@Kale19][/h3][/center]

The shuttle slowly swooped over the ocean and thick forests of the northern continent on its approach to the Omega station. “Home, sweet, home.” Jim peeked out of the window. It felt strange to be here again, taking a military transport to the front, as if nothing had happened. He looked over the horizon, almost expecting to see more aircrafts there, transporting an entire division to the front, and ready to bring the previous one home just as it had been done for years and years before the Gateway reopened.

But today it was just them, alone in the morning sky. Even the pterroes seemed to be occupied elsewhere and didn’t bother them. Nevertheless, the gunners still carefully searched the clouds and sky around them, just in case one decided to try and take them down. 

The Omega station was positioned on a steep hill, surrounded by steel and concrete fortifications, with miles of forests cleared around it to prevent the enemy from sneaking closer. Under normal circumstances, the airspace around it would be busy with transporters and fighters coming and leaving, hundreds of soldiers getting ready for hot zone deployment or just coming back from combat to rest and resupply. Since the front had been halted, there was only a small crew of a couple of dozen men guarding the outpost. Jim was actually surprised they weren’t overrun by the Screechers yet.

After landing, he headed straight to the command center, noticing that several squads were getting ready to go out. He guessed that would be his men for the rescue/capture mission.

“Welcome to the Omega station, sir.” A dark skinned woman with a deep scar running down her cheek saluted him just as he entered.

“At ease, Major Galeski.” He looked around on all the screens showing the current front information, latest enemy movement intel, various topographic maps of the immediate and wider area, even current weather conditions and forecasts. He had spent so much time in command centers such as this one he could move around blindfolded. So many memories. “Any updates?”

“Nothing new, sir. The Hyperion is monitoring the crash area, but due to the cloudiness they couldn’t get any specific images. The exact spot is here,” she brought up a topographic map to the main screen. “212 miles north-west off here, deep within the red zone.” 

“Any Screecher activity there? I am actually quite surprised that you guys are still holding this place. How many attacks do you get?”

“Actually, sir, since the front fighting stopped, the Screechers didn’t really show up here. We have had one or two smaller attacks which we repelled without any losses, but since then it has been quiet.” The woman shrugged. “Some men are saying that the natives are planning something big, some that they are too tired of fighting. Who knows what those primitives are thinking. We don’t have any scouts in the red zone, which means no accurate intel on the enemy movement. One of our pilots tried to do a flyover around the crash site, but the pterro activity there was very high, he barely made it back. I’m gonna send everything we have with you, but you will still have a hard time landing there.”

Everything was ready. Four squads, each in one transporter - they could fit way more men there, but since it was a rescue mission, they needed space to bring the survivors back. Each transporter had two gunners positioned at the sides of the craft. As an escort, they had six air-fighters, flown by experienced pilots. It was not much to go so deep in the combat zone, but it had to do.

Jim boarded one of the transporters and gave the signal to take off. “Hey guys,” he said to the radio open channel. “I’m Jim and I’ll be your Commander today.” He heard some quiet giggles in his earpiece. “Remember, we have no idea who or what was on the crashed ship. It might be humans from some other colony, it might be some weird-ass aliens. Our mission is simple - we are going to land near their wreck, pick everyone up and bring them to the transporters, willingly or not. No strangers are allowed to roam free on Ellara. So try not to kill anyone, that might be a bit problematic later, but if they resist, do not hesitate to use stun guns. We need to go in and out quickly, before all of the red zone hell converges on our position. Fighters will circle around us fighting the pterroes off before we are ready to go. Any questions?”

“Sir, I just wanna say that we are happy to go out again. Being stuck behind the walls was making us crazy.”

Jim smiled. “Let’s hope that feeling lasts when a horde of Screechers appears or a pterro tries to bite your butt off.”

“Ah, don’t worry.” The man slapped the exoskeleton over his buttcheek. “I got extra reinforced ass plating.”

The formation moved slowly over the thick forests and swamps, fortunately without any incidents. The wilderness might have seemed beautiful from up here, but all the men knew what dangers hid in there.

“Coming up on the crash site,” the transporter pilot reported. A thin pillar of smoke was visible  from a distance, blackened parts of the ship scattered all around.

“Circle around, let’s see what we have here.”

[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

	Kfuu looked down from the arms of a Pterro. “Ah man, this isn’t fun.”
	
“Not fun for you, worse for me.” This remark came from SGT. Jodie scott, who’s midsection was currently being slowly torn apart by a Pterro’s razor sharp teeth as she was carried off further from the crash site.
	
“Must be even worse if anyone else survived, the whole ship was filled with geyser gas, it’s probably starting to leak so-” The engineer was interrupted by a loud explosion, followed by a rain of debris.
	
“It would explode. Luckily most of the ship could handle that, just the damaged section would have any trouble.” Kfuu finished, as they began to go through a cloud.
	
“Wait Kfuu, shit up for a second.” Said Ralo, currently being held in the arms of a struggling pterro. If the guard wanted he could probably just snap the creature's legs, but he had loyalty to the group. “Do you hear aircraft?”
	
“Can’t say I do.” Responded SGT Rodgers, who managed, even with two broken legs, to clamber to the back of his pterro. “Although if there are, I hope they can help.”

“No, that’s definitely aircraft.” Argued Ralo.

“Uh, guys I think we're headed down.” Kfuu interrupted.

“Do you think they’re here to help us?” Asked SGT Scott.

“I’m not sure but I would hope so.” Said SGT Rodgers, continuing to ignore Kfuu.

“GUYS!” Yelled Kfuu, “We’re going down-” And with that the unlucky survivors were dropped in a large nest. All except SGT Rodgers, who had somehow managed to get a piece of rope in the Pterro’s mouth and was attempting to ride it.

“Just like… Riding… A bull.” Stammered SGT Rodegrs, on top of the bucking dinosaur like creature.

“Sergeant, you’ve never ridden a bull.” Just as SGT Scott reminded him he fell into the rocky nest.

“The least they could have done was made it comfortable, Eh Sarg?” Kfuu said, elbowing the bruised body of SGT Rodgers.

“Hopefully those aircraft will come soon.” Said SGT Scott looking off into the distance.

“I sure hope they don’t have anything to do with those monsters we encountered before.” Mumbled Ralo.

“I sure hope not.” SGT Scott agreed.


[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

The transporters were coming closer to the crashed ship while the fighters stayed up, circling around them, searching for potential enemies. “Sir, we have some movement down there,” Jim’s pilot reported. “But… nah, it’s just a couple of crocoes. They do appear to be fighting over something though.” 

Jim shivered. These beasts were native to the northern continent, discovered only after the first soldiers disembarked on its shores. It seemed that Ellara always had a way of throwing some new monstrosities in their faces. “Let’s go down and see if…” His orders were interrupted by a loud explosion that shook the ship violently. Jim hit the side wall, then the ceiling, then the floor, then the wall again before the pilot got the craft back under control. The rest of the men were no better, one big pile of metal stacked up on the side of the cargo space. Thank god they have been wearing their combat suits, which dampened most of the hits.

“Shit, what was that? Everybody alright?” After receiving a quick report, he had to admit they were lucky. All the transportes were at a safe distance, so the blast wave roughened them up a bit, but didn’t send them crashing to the ground. The exoskeletons prevented any serious damage to the men - out of 24 people that were going on the ground, only two were no longer in a fighting condition, and it was only due to a broken arm and a concussion, nothing serious.

The pilot kept scanning the wreckage to see if there would be any followup explosions. “We can’t say what caused it, sir. It might have been some sort of a reactor overload, weapons malfunction, an explosion of whatever was in the cargo hold.”

Jim sighed, knowing that due to their orders, they will still have to land and go check the site for survivors. Although he had no idea how anyone could survive [i]that[/i].

“Sir, this is Phantom 3,” one of the fighter pilots said into the comms. “I have a large group of pterroes leaving the area and they appear to be carrying something.”

Now this was finally some good news. Pterroes liked to bring their prey home alive, to let the young ones do the killing. A nasty death, being torn apart by their sharp claws and tiny teeth. They were pretty smart too, quickly learning that their claws can’t penetrate the metal of the combat suits, they flew the soldiers to a great height before releasing them. The exosuit cracked on ground impact, and the beasts had an open table.

“Phantom 3, follow them from a safe distance, and ping the nest position. The rest make a formation and follow Phantom 3.” The aircrafts elegantly assumed correct positions and slowly moved towards the closest mountain range.

“We’ve got at least eight bogeys in the air, one is hovering near the nest. I’m counting three figures in the nest. They look human from back here, although two of them are significantly larger. And there is… what the FUCK? Oh my, I don’t fucking believe this!”

Jim cursed. “Phantom 3, use words! Report what you see!”

“Uh, sir, there is a… man. Riding a pterro.”

“Come again?”

“I repeat, there is a fourth human, he is sitting on the back of the pterro nearest to the nest, and he is attempting to… ride it.”

Jim blinked a couple of times, speechless. Who the hell were these people? “Alright guys, let's focus and do our job. Phantoms, engage the airborne enemies, watch out for more taking off from nearby nests. Ignore the one with the human for now, we will try to help him from the ground.” Somehow. How, that was beyond Jim right now. 

“Nevermind that, sir, he fell off.”

“Limo 1 lands in this nest, Limoes 2 and 3 search the nests to the north east. Limo 4 remains in the air as backup.” Even though the nests were quite sturdy and spacious, it was not a good idea to put too many people in one.

Jim’s transport hovered just a few inches above the nest surface and seven men in combat exosuits armed with rifles jumped out. They could hear cannons and missiles from above where fighters were engaged in air combat with several adult pterroes. “Make a perimeter around the survivors, watch out for the younglings.” While the young reptiles couldn’t fly yet, they were still a considerable enemy. The worst part was that a nest of this size could easily hold more than two dozen of them. Jim’s men had to go in and out quickly.

“I’m Commander Harlowe from the Undefeated, the nation living on this planet.” Jim rushed over to the strangers, taking only a split second to notice that two of them were unusually large, pale and their eyes seemed… weird. “If you can get up and walk, I suggest…” His words were interrupted by gunfire. A bunch of young pterroes have appeared and started to attack his men. “I suggest you move to the transport, so we can get the hell out of here!” Jim yelled so they could hear him over the noise and pointed towards Limo 1, which was still hovering just above the nest floor, a few meters away from them.

[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

	The survivors of the “35” crash weren’t too surprised when the ships arrived. Three out of the four of them had heard them, and SGT Scott had seen them arriving from a mile or two away. The Abberians just squinted and tried to adjust their eyes. The virus was supposed to give them thousands of years of evolution on their side, but really it mostly just made them blind in daylight.
	
	“I told you, dudes, I knew they were peaceful.” Said Kfuu, trying to make out a better picture of Commander Harlowe.

	“Kfuu, the whole time you were arguing that they would try to-” Ralo started.

	“Well let’s not dwell on the past, am I right or am I right?” Kfuu interrupted. “Because I’m pretty sure they're not going to eat us.” He said slowly walking backwards into the aircraft.

	“Anyways, I’m Ralo and these two need medical help.” Said Ralo, gesturing to the two injured humans. Then he stood up, grabbed a Pterro who had somehow doged the gunfire and tossed it clean over the side of the nest. With one step he pulled himself onto the aircraft, and immediately banged his head on the top. Although being ten feet tall is okay in places built for you, a small aircraft is not.

	“Hi, um we’re bleeding to death over here so if one of you could like…” Said the almost dead body of SGT Scott.

	“Wait, SGT Scott, I just got a message from the dead drift.” Whispred SGT Rodgers.

	“Never mind, we're not bleeding to death anymore.” Said SGT Scott, attempting to roll closer to SGT Rodgers.

	“It’s dated fifth hour, ninth day, cycle three.”

	“Okay, and?”

	“The date right now is third hour, first day, cycle one, but that’s not the important part, did you see the star go supernova?”

	“No.”

	“Well right before we left it did, and it’s pulling the dead drift into it.”

	“Ah… So… This is bad then?”

	“Real bad.”


[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

Jim watched as two of the strangers rushed to Limo 1. They seemed really weird - huge and strong, yes, but strangely primitive. Not even starting about their eyes. The other two, who looked much more human-like, stayed on the ground. Jim has only now noticed that the woman was bleeding profoundly from a deep stomach wound and the man who was previously trying to ride a pterro had his legs twisted in weird angles.

They were whispering something amongst themselves, but Jim found that understandable. He could see they were military people and they were about to be taken by another military force, potentially hostile, so they were probably debating which things they can divulge in case of an interrogation.

"Medic! You two!" He summoned two of the soldiers that came with him. "Help this man into a transport." Soldiers rushed in, carefully picked the injured man up, and carried him over to Limo 1. Meanwhile, the squad's medic knelt beside the woman.

"She needs surgery right away, there is not much I can do for her here," he said as he applied pressure bandages in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Even if we leave right now, she'll be lucky if she survives long enough to get to the Omega outpost. I can try to stabilize her while onboard the transporter."

"Do what you can." Jim saw and heard that a fight was going on in another nest as well. "Any signs of other survivors?"

"Negative. We're already one man down, we are retreating to the Limo."

"Sir, the airspace is filling with hostiles fast, we need to go now."

Jim expected to hear this report from the fighter pilots even sooner. This was obviously a huge pterro colony and they were determined to fight to protect it. It was time they got out of there. They held the fireline before the last survivor was carefully carried to the transporter and then jumped in. Jim was not happy about losing a soldier but had to admit it was a huge success to lose just one person on such a dangerous mission.

The aircrafts were heading back towards the Omega outpost at the top speed possible. Onboard Limo 1, the medic was desperately trying to keep the injured woman alive. The man with broken legs was given anesthetics, enough to dull the pain, but not too much to allow him to stay awake. Even though Ralo spoke to them first, Jim had the feeling that the big guys were just simple grunts and the broken-leg man was in charge.

“Welcome to Ellara,” he turned to him. “What brings you to our wonderful planet?”


[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]


‘Well, we’re not here by choice, I'll tell you that. We exited the gateway and managed to hover for a few seconds, before plummeting and crashing to the jungle floor.” Explained SGT Rodgers, Shooing off the person tending to wounds.

“Then we got picked up by those birdy things after watching a crocy thing eat an Abberian.” Added Kfuu, standing up to his full height, probably trying to intimidate some of the humans. “Then our ship exploded, which hopefully didn’t bother you guys too much.”

“Kfuu, Ralo get over here.” Whispered SGT Rogers harshly. 

“Sorry, we got some ‘our planet’ business to attend to. What is it Sarg?”

“Stop calling me that, long story short the Dead drift’s star went supernova. They're building a ship, but it won't be done in time.”

“Then send ‘em a message! Oh… sorry that was loud Sarg.”

“I know Kfuu, I know. And I can’t, by the time the message reaches them they’ll either be all dead or all gone.”

“What about the Abberians Sergant? Are they able to exit the planet?” Asked Ralo.

“They are, in fact they’re helping build the ship, not sure how that happened though.”

“Interesting.” Whispered Kfuu. “Nothing interesting over here at all guys! How ‘bout you just take us to your leader! 

“What the Heck was that Kfuu?” Asked Ralo, honestly not knowing what just happened.

“I think I just covered our tracks pretty well, Ralo. Even if I do say so myself.”