Avalice: A great change.

Shang Mu: Situated on the eastern shores of the continent of Avalice where the great river meets the ocean. Due to its location, the city is a major commercial port. Shang Mu is a city where money speaks loud! Shopping malls everywhere, commercials all over the place! The Current Mayor Zao. Is greedy and power hungry and cares about his own re-election above everything.


Shang Tu: Situated inland along the river, in a central location of Avalice. Nestled between the Jungles of the Jade-Creek and the serene Dragon Valley, it’s considered the spiritual center of Avalice and its people. Shang Tu is led by the Royal Magister, a person of high spiritual importance. His identity is not known and his face is always hidden as he must appear as the voice of the people itself.


Shuigang: Situated in the far north where the great river springs forth, Shuigang is a mountainous region. It employs a traditional monarchy. Shuigang is often referred to as “The City of Water” due to the great northern lake where the river springs.



                                           Geographic Locations

Dragon Valley: A valley covered in thick jungle and forests - a very serene place.


Jade-Creek: A large and wild jungle which the great river runs through, has the largest bamboo in Avalice, some reaching higher than any building.


Pangu-Lagoon: An area to the North-east of Shang Tu, covered in ancient ruins belonging to the Mythical Dragons.





There are several minor settlements across Avalice between the great cities. Many of these settlements tend to answer to one of the cities, usually whichever is closest to them. The settlements serve as stopping points for traders, travelers. But also serve to feed the cities with their produce.

Tel Hen Hideout: A simple hidden warehouse near the Pangu-lagoon where people who seek to explore the ruins tend to show up, rest, and discuss things.

Shang Fao: A Small city located at the edges of the Jade-Creek it serves as a major airfield for all the three cities airships and other various forms of air transportation.

Aqua-Tunnels: A large series of underground tunnel-networks from Shang-Tu to the ancient temple where the Kingdom stone is located.

The Ancient Temple: The Ancient temple complex nestled within the Dragon-Valley where the Kingdom stone is located. It is guarded by Shang Tu.





Technology of Avalice is all over the place, a mixture of suddenly advanced pieces of equipment next to fairly low-tech capabilities of a world such as pre-industrial Earth. Most Avalacian equipment is powered by energy containers in the shape and form of Crystals which store energy from the Kingdom Stone.

The Kingdom Stone is not only what provides most of the energy of Avalice, it is also an item of spiritual value to them as a people. It is however infact a power source used in the Starship which the Dragons arrived on Avalice with.


                                                                      Biology

Sentient’s: Avalacians appear to be anthropomorphic animals who stand upright on two legs, and have arms with two hands both having five fingers. Avalacians have the ability to mate with most of the other sentient species on their planet, even when their parent families e.g mammals differs from the partners. this probably accounts for the low rate of urbanization and resource consumption due to the low birth rates such pairings would give. Note: There exists a small minority that are related to the myths of this world. Scroll down for further information.

Rumors have started to spread of Aliens, Strange beings and other exotic happenings in the three cities. Time will tell if this is true or not.

Red-Leaf: This strange herb with the appearance of Red-Leaves appear to have healing properties, used to heal wounds and various other bodily damage.

Blue-Leave’s: A very mild smelling herb, Many of the villages in the countryside now recipes to turn this simple restorative into a very powerful stimulant.

Hex Flower: Tends to take place in old ruins or near them, is very hostile towards others and tends to spray toxic mist into the air.

Wasp: Oversized Aerial pests. Hostile to insane degree. Massive nest is believed to be nestled deep in the dragon ruins. Germination cycle is thought to be very fast or very few predators. May start expanding into the overworld.

Although not biology per-say, The gravity of the world is a bit weaker than that on earth, allowing those with sufficient acceleration and speed to run up wall and ceilings, before gravity says enough is enough. Thus do not be deceived by the apparent strength of the critters.













Dragon-Blood: In myth it is said when the Dragons came to Avalice that they mixed in with the Avalacians ancestors. This has led to after thousands of years certain individuals with special genetic traits and other powers. These individuals are called Dragon-Blood, despite their heritage they hold no special position within Avalacian society and generally just stand equal among other Avalacians. Dragon-Traits generally manifest in a set of horns. Dragon-Blood tend to be Cold-blooded and have extra traits dependant on how their other ancestry got mixed in. An example Water-Dragons have two long Tendrils from the back of their head, same color as their hair they can use as ‘whips’ or to help swim.


The Kingdom-Stone: The Kingdom-Stone is an Orb or high spiritual importance to the people of Avalice. It is however more to the people of Avalice than a mere holy relic, as it powers much of their technology. Its generally held at the Ancient Temple under the protection of Shang Tu.


Myths: It is said thousands of years ago a great ball of flame soared across the skies of Avalice, a majestic creature known today as a Dragon. It is said when it landed, the Avalacians were so captivated by its beauty they built three Kingdoms in its honor, Shang Tu, Shang Mu, and Shuigang. Upon the cities completion the Dragon transformed into the Kingdom-stone which the Avalacians hold deep to their hearts even today.


Avalice and Freedom Planet is copyrighted property of Galaxytrail.

It had been a long day for Lark, climbing the cliffside of the serene Dragon-Valley but it was clear the trip had been worth it. To sit on top of a cliff and look out over the distance where the jungles lay nestled in the valley, and the great river running through it. Lark inhales deeply, finally some refreshing air, and silence. Not all the noise from the Three Kingdoms like Shang Mu.

Content to enjoy his time on this cliff he lays back and decides to take a quick-nap unknowing of what was about to happen to him, and others in the Dragon-Valley at this very moment...

---

Deeper in the valley Three Combat Helicopters from the Kingdom of Shuigang is attacking a Red-Shuttle like craft, its wing blown off it is about to come crashing down. The ruckus this shuttle would make in the entire valley was about to happen.

Many things would be set in motion, all at this time...

In the aftermath of the Third Xenotech war, with birth world of the Patrian race, and much of the solar system left in desolation and ruins, it quickly became evident that the people of Patria would need to find new homes elsewhere in the galaxy, a requirement that suited them well.  'All your eggs in one basket' and all that.  Seeding colonies throughout the galaxy would help prevent their race from being easily snuffed out.

Re-purposed scout ships were constructed, small crews of explorers and specialists and, of course, the ever-present Patrian marines.  Pairs of AI escort ships were slaved to the exploration vessels, and they were dispatched into the distant corners of the galaxy.  Equipped with the fastest engines and the best stealth technologies of the Patrian fleet, the ships spread out to explore and find possible new homes.

The Patrian deep-space explorer, the Severity, sat hidden in orbit of of the planet, while it's two slaved AI escorts snuck about the rest of the solar system, scanning for things of interest.  The ships were hardly sentient, and simply sought to complete their pre-established directions from the science crew aboard the Severity, and were to rush back to its aid if needed, or if they encountered something suitably unusual.

------

The Severity's away team sat beneath a canopy of archaic camouflage netting, reinforced, a redundant layer of protection after the active stealth and false-image emitters, a Faraday Cage erected around the main camp.  It was their full intent to gather their samples, study the locals, and leave without ever being noticed.  A challenge considering how strangely the locals' technology seemed to have developed.

Four marines made up the camp's security, all fully suited in C2-D7 combat armour, while the three scientists in the team wore far more mundane fully enclosed environment suits of their own.  Between nanite-enhanced immune systems and the fact that they had evolved on a whole other planet, the local diseases were no threat to them, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

The team had been in place for the better part of a week, nestled away in a thick and thinly populated jungle region.  Distant memories of their homeworld remembered that such regions were hotbeds for biological diversity, a fine place to gather interesting specimens.

The camp consisted of a pair of small pre-fab modular structures, both fully contained and the only places the crew would break the seals on their suits, normally.  A single Razor buggy made up the brunt of the crews' exploration equipment.

Two of the marines stood in a small clearing, neither moving.  One stared at the sky, the interior screen of his featureless metal helmet displaying the three attack choppers that were picking apart an unidentified shuttle.  "Looks space-faring.  Not local."


The second marine's attention was on the thick jungle around them, various motion trackers locked onto some of the braver or more curious wildlife that had moved back into the area around their camp.  "Yep.  Not ours though.  We aren't supposed to get involved."  A proximity warning flashed on the man's screen and he frowned, stepping back and switching to his personal-space cameras; these were situated to give a 360 degree fish-eye view around the armour's immediate area, allowing the wearer to see down to their own feet or above their head, where the heavy armour otherwise made it impossible to see.  Some sort of snake like thing sat curled and ready to strike at his armoured leg, and he just sighed quietly and hoisted one armoured foot to shoo it away, sending the creature vanishing back into the undergrowth.


"She's hit.  Lost a wing.  Must not be a combat model.  I mean, why the hell did they stay in orbit?  Fire prow thrusters, hit the burners, punch into orbit.  'course, seems like most aliens aren't quite so gung-ho, right?"  After a decade of war, Patrians concept of acceptable risk had been markedly skewed to the extreme.  Such a maneuver would have proven dangerous for most races' equipment, let alone for the occupants.


The second man twisted slightly to turn his gaze to the distant ruckus; the motion wasn't necessary of course.  He could just as easily have accessed his partners' imagers and seen what the other man was seeing.  "Huh.  She's banking hard."


"Yeah.  She's...is she coming this way?"  The marine squinted his eyes, studying the telemetry and trajectory estimation of the hit shuttle.  "She's going to hit close.  A klick out from camp, best case scenario."


The marine let out a harrumph of agreement with the first; the shuttle was indeed going to splash down too close to their camp for comfort.  "We aren't qualified first contact."  He hoisted the assault laser to prove his point.  The weapon had been modified since the end of the war; a powered down, non-lethal setting included to keep predatory wildlife or angry locals at bay without leaving a charred husk.


"Dibs on the rescue op.  Probably tell the techies.  Get an update to Severity."  The two men grunted in agreement, tapping their weapons together, then turned to return to the camp, their heavy armoured suits moving with more grace then their size might have indicated.  Not much more grace, but at least they weren't a pair of bull elephants crashing through the jungle.

The crashing shuttle was a very loud affair, Lark immiediatly sprung up from his sleep on the nearby cliff looking down towards the jungle where fire and smoke was rising. Lark looked wide eyed down towards it and noticed the Helicopters circling for a while before leaving. "By the Kingdom stone what happened?!" Confused at what had just happened down in the valley, he couldnt just stand and watch when its obvious someone could be in danger! Lark began his descend down the cliff.

---

The Doors of the shuttle sprung open as smoke emerged, three Coalition Mariners rushed out...coughing loudly..some were badly hurt, the Captain amongst them was being dragged out by someone else, bleeding heavily from his side. "Torque....Do not let Brevon get his hands...On the locals power-source...we cant allow..him to..return to the stars..." the Mariner dragging the captain out looked shocked before talking "Dont die on me Captain! We cant complete the mission without you!" It was unfortunately already too late. With those final words the Captain withered away. The other Mariners looked to Torque "We cant stay here Commander! Scans indicate one of Brevons lackies near- It all happened so quickly. As Torque's fellow comrades got torn to bits by a large metallic Serpentine creature. Followed by a Serpent like Alien. Torque did the only sensible thing to give the mission a chance in the future and made a run for it. The Serpent rashed out "Grahaha! Oh no your not getting away Chaser! im comming for you!" He turned to the Robotic snake and uttered "Search the hills! Do not let him escape!" With that the Robot hurried its way towards the hills in the valley as the Snake took a more direct pursuit and chased after Torque...

---

Lark had finished climbing his way down and hurried towards the smoking crash-site who knew what he might run into?

The Razor buggy had little trouble navigating through the jungle.  Some effort was made to minimize the damage their passage caused, but there weren't exactly roads that they could make use of.  The two marines that had watched the shuttle get shot down stood on the side-rails of the vehicle, their suits easily fixed into place such that they had little worry of falling off, while two of the researchers sat inside the vehicle.

The driver was a woman, not that her suit gave much away to indicate it, and the other sat in the roof-mounted turret, although none really expected much trouble.  They were mostly moving up to assess the situation, and could do so from a safe enough distance to, hopefully, not draw any attention to themselves.  From how hard the shuttle had come down, they hardly expected their to be survivors anyway.

Audio sensors picked up the screams from further out then the Patrian ears could have hoped to have noticed them, and their response was palpable.  The two marines' weapons were raised, the and both flipped from the stun settings to lethal.  The researcher in the turret seemed to sit up slightly, his grip on the fixed weapon becoming more one of intent rather then simply 'holding on for dear life.'  The driver's chosen route became more direct, less effort put into minimizing the damage of their passing.

They came to a very sudden halt as they came upon a narrow river that left them just a few hundred meters from the crash site, still in the thick of the jungle.  The vehicle could have easily navigated the obstacle, but it was the thrashing underbrush drawing towards them that had caused them to stop.  The driver threw it into reverse and spun the vehicle around, the roof gunner spun his weapon around to the rear, facing towards the approaching...whatever it was.

The two marines dismounted, one crushing an old rotten log under foot as he did, and they swept out to the sides of the buggy, and watched the flanks to either side of the buggy.  "Check your fire up there, Jackson.  Don't want our first face-to-face to be with laser fire on a non-combatant."

The researcher threw a thumbs-up towards the marine, then settled the sights of the turret weapon just a little left of the thrashing undergrowth; no point aiming right at something if he had no idea what it was.

The woman shifted in her seat so she could watch with her own imagers, rather then relying on those of her team mates.  "We'll assess whatever this is, then you two can move in and secure the crash site, if necessary."

Lark was rushing his way through the thick jungle and its thick foilage and plants. Pushing it all out of the way, he didnt even have time for his sensitive ears and nose to pick up several things until he approached the great river which he would have to cross. Before he got to it however, his ears had picked up somthing unusual, the sound of others. Lark nodded to himself before talking normally to himself as if trying to calm himself down "Just someone else out in the Jungle..Someone else saw the crash clearly and decided to check on it.." Lark contiued rushing through till he did indeed reach the river, and glanced over it...And looked to his sides to see if he could find a way across



"Comeon there must be a bridge somewhere... How would anyone get to the Ancient Temple if they didnt build bridges here!?" Lark began running up the river, bringing him closer to the Patrians concealed location. Before emerging and putting a direct halt infront of the Patrians, looking around shocked. A hand at his hip where his pulser was just incase...However that idea might have been a foolish one in this situation, it seemed more of a reflex than anything.

The flanking marines didn't move as Lark emerged from the undergrowth.  Encased in the heavy armoured C2-D7 suits, they may have seemed like robots, an observation that had been made by no few members of other alien races they had encountered since the war.  It was often said that the Patrians had lost more then their homeworld in the war.

The two researchers tensed slightly as Lark appeared, the man swiveled the roof-mounted gun a hair closer to the alien as Lark reached for his sidearm.  There was a brief moment where no one seemed to move; even the researchers in their smaller suits may have seemed like strangely soft-skinned robots.

"Told you.  We are not first-contact qualified."  The marine continued to scan the jungle around them.  Patrian sensory equipment was not designed for such dense jungle terrain; the closest they had back home was on the garden or farm ships, maybe a few parks on the more important orbital colonies.  As such, he relied as much on his cameras as on the various built-in imagers.  He spoke aloud, voice emitted from an external speaker system, such that Lark could hear him.

"Can it, Nagi."  The woman spoke up next, and fully stepped out of the Razor's drivers seat, a move that drew the attention of the other marine, who turned to look at her.  Drivers stayed with the vehicle.  Always.  They were the teams' out if things turned sour, after all.  "No time to explain.  We are not your enemy."

The second marine, Yannic, snorted and shifted his stance and grip on his weapon, the subtle whir of servos and artificial muscles barely audible in the quiet jungle air, "No.  We're just ghosts in the trees.  Heading for the crash site.  Rescue and recovery op."

Lark looked towards the Patrians, hard to tell if it his look was a mix of horror or shock, or perhaps both? They all looked so...Alien to him. His hand still at his hip where his small pulser was located his ears twitched to the sounds of the voices emerging from the loudspeakers, he took a step backwards before talking

"Ghosts in the Jungle...You're somthing else entirely..." He took another step back, looking around as if trying to figure out his options before stopping and raising his hand from his hip "You said you're here for rescue?....The red thing the Copters shot down?...I was headed there myself" There was a clear hint of fear in his voice. His eyes seemed to eye along the Patrians suit, takking small detail, clear indication of someone with very high senses.

To the Patrians he looked like a feline standing on two legs with human shaped hands, except covered in fur. He was wearing large pocket-filled pants, and a climbing-vest. His very large feline ears seemed to be twitching at every little sound.

The team switched to their internal mics, and to Lark it would seem as if they stood eerily still and silent.  None moved, but the discussion only lasted a minute or two, then the two marines turned and started lumbering onwards in the direction of the downed shuttle, while the two researchers remained with Lark.  The heavily armoured marines moved at an impressive pace for their size and bulk, but the buggy would quickly outdistance them if the driver wished to.  They were not silent in their movement; between the shuddering thud of their footfalls and the whine of servos, and the crash and crunch of branch and bush, they would have put a bull elephant to shame for the ruckus they made.

The woman mounted up, and turned the vehicle around again in short order, then seemed to realize Lark had no clue what was going on.  She waved towards him, indicating to the 'shotgun' seat next to her, although the weapon mounted there was disabled to prevent Lark from getting trigger happy. "Mount up.  Assistance of indigenous natives has been approved from higher.  Whoever is on that shuttle will probably trust you more then us.  Demetrios.  Introduce yourself."

The researcher seated in the roof turret cage raised a hand in greeting, then kicked the back of the woman's headrest, "Sure.  That's Agatha.  I'm Demetrios.  The marines are Nagi and Yannic."

Lark looked towards the Patrians slowly, before takking steps towards the vehicle to mount it speaking slowly as he approached. "Well...Eh...My name is Lark" Lark still seemed very cautious but mounted the vehicle regardless and took the seat that had been directed to him. Still he seemed rather silent, perhaps not sure what to make of these large strange metallic incased creatures...

---

Two Days earlier...

It was in the Avalice Solar-System The Coalition of Planets had finally caught up and cornered the Dreadknought of Lord Brevon. The Main batteries had opened fire to destroy his ship but had only succeded in damaging the Engine and Warp-Drive. This had led to Brevons Ship being forced to crash-land on the nearest planet. Avalice was this planet, an inhabitet pre-Space-flight World much to the dismay of the Coalition, as their prime directive forbade them from interfering with Pre-Space-flight Worlds. Unfortunately Brevon would do no such thing.

It had been the Coalitions hope Brevon would have ended up stranded on this world. But scans quickly indicated a power-source on the world of unimageneable power that could not only power Brevons warp-drive, but also double the size of his aritificial army. A small team was organized to head to planetside and stop him, a Small-team Brevon unfortunately had prepared for...

---

Present-Day
Lark looked around in the vehicle lightly, takking in its details, and again the details of the suits incasing the people around him. His long black-tipped tail swung behind him as usual, at least until he found the seat that was gestured for him.

Both Agatha and Demetrios watched Lark climb aboard, both wondering how he would manage to sit comfortably considering he had a tail.  The seats of the razor were large enough to accomodate a human in bulky powered armour, although the marines in their heavy combat suits were forced to ride on the side rails rather then the seats.  The Avalian would have plenty of space to work with to try and sit comfortably, but once Lark had climbed aboard, Agatha threw the vehicle in gear and it lurched forward, tires tossing up clods of earth as it powered across the narrow river.

Water surged up into the carriage, submerging the vehicle to mid-way up it's height.  Lark would, if he remained seated, be soaked to mid-chest, but neither Patrian seemed particularly concerned.  The vehicle had no internal combustion engine after all, so it being submerged meant little for its ability to operate.  The four Patrians were in constant communication, relaying information and marking out points of interest.  Fall back positions, open lanes of fire for a fighting withdrawal, but they did it all through their internal comms, again leaving Lark in silence.  Patrians were not used to interacting with other species, and certainly not working alongside them.  Speaking through external speakers simply did not commonly register with them.

Up the other bank and once more barreling through the jungle, they easily caught up to the two marines as their bulky suits cleared a path through the underbrush for the buggy to easily fall into.  Soon enough they emerged into the clearing caused by the shuttles' impact, and both  marines redoubled their speed as they entered open ground, quickly moving apart from each other and scanning the area ahead for activity, while the buggy initially headed for the downed craft.

Lark indeed had trouble finding a seat for him to work with his tail, and as water rose up to cover him halfway-up it was a clear look in his face he was not amused. His pants getting completly soaked and much of his lower fur dripping with water after the buggy came out of the water.

As it reached the clearing there was no movement, but multiple corpses indicated there had been a short battle of some sort, it was various alien species that had been working togheter. But no trace of survivors. A large trail of destroyed trees north indicated somthing big had been moving in that direction from here. However Lark's ears would rise suddenly to somthing in the distance, somthing the Patrians scans perhaps had already picked up? "Somthings comming from above, very fast too..."

---

Above the Dragon-valley an Alien Drop-Ship with green colors, and four mechanical legs was zomming ahead at high-speed towards the clearing, inside was 6 Shade-Troopers Artificial Troops produced by Lord Brevon, they had been given their objective get the Coalitions Drop-Ship from the crash-site and bring it back to him, destroy any opposition in their way...

Agatha brought the buggy to a halt near the shuttle, and eyed the scattered bodies.  The races present weren't familiar, but the Patrian people had only encountered a handful of other species, and all were through their interactions with the people of Alus.

The two marines swept the area once visually, keeping themselves well spread apart, then Nagi moved towards the obvious trail through the jungle.  "Demetrios.  See if higher can provide a visual on the inbound bogey.  And whatever the hell is down this trail."


The turret-seated researcher made use of a direct-laser communications device aboard the Razor; rather then broadcasting in a broad range like most radio communications, which was easily detected and intercepted, a laser communications system was a direct, focused beam, making it much harder to detect and harder still to intercept unless you were in it's direct path from origin to destination.  In this case, the Severity, sitting hidden in orbit.


"Got a live feed now.  A shuttle.  Unknown design.  Seems it may double as a quadruped walker?  Passive camouflage to match jungle canopy."  Which was to say, it was painted green.  "She's too fast to be something local."


Yannic audibly sighed and turned to face the direction of the inbound craft, "Orders from higher?"

Demetrios was silent a moment; the group fell back to their internal comms systems, then Agatha glanced at Lark.  "Alright cat.  Looks like a survivor from the shuttle is on foot that way.  And being chased by something big.  Higher has ordered our ground team to secure this crash sight.  We will be making contact with whoever is in the inbound shuttle and assess the situation from there."

If it came to a fight, the Severity would be of little use to the ground team.  The ship had been retrofitted for stealth and speed, and while she had weapon systems, none were designed for orbital strikes.  They were predominately defensive in nature, meant to buy the ship time to escape.  It was the two near-AI slaved warships that provided the bulk of the Severity's fighting power, and neither were anywhere close to Avalice.  If it came to a fight, the ship would simply gather as much information as possible, then flee the system back towards the nearest Patrian fleet base.  Reinforcements would be months in arriving.

The ground team would do what it could, while striving to keep the base camp secure and hidden.  Even if they were all killed, efforts would be made to keep the camp secure, and to keep its equipment active and functional.  Whatever information that could be gleaned by the camps equipment would be of great use to the reinforcing fleet when it arrived.  Patrians were practical people.  Duty unto death.  Death before defeat.  And if you were going to loose, make sure the enemy won less.

"Call me paranoid, but I doubt whoever is inbound will be friendly.  Higher thanks you for your cooperation, but encourages that you vacate the area.  Or at least, find cover."  Of course they couldn't force him to leave.  It was his planet, after all.  They were uninvited guests.  Spies, really, although their plans were far from sinister.  The same probably couldn't be said for the crew of the inbound four-legged shuttle.  But if he were present and it came to a fight, the strangers may leap to the conclusion that the Patrians were in cohoots with the locals, sparking a conflict that would include the Avalician people.

If it were only the Patrians, well...they were not the type to shy away from a war.  In fact, they were constantly searching for a new one.  Something to keep their people focused and engaged, to keep the memories of their own war at bay.  Peace had proven almost as costly as the conflict itself; depression and suicides had been common.

Lark nodded slowly and grabbed a hold of the side of the buggy and swung himself out athleticly and rushed for a few large trees still intact, he literally ran up its side at full speed till he reached the top and hid himself among the top leaves and brush, giving him a view over the area.

---

At that very moment the Drop-Ship flew overhead of the opening, and didnt stop, instead six green beams was shot from it which impacted below it in the opening. Each beam upon impact with the ground turning into a metallic Robot like Unit, Two arms, two Legs, all armoured to the teeth, The chest and 'head' of the things seemed to be large Vats filled with green liquid, with one Eye-Ball inside connected to the rest of the body cybernetically with wires visible in the Vat. They immiediatly took cover upon landing, holding their Photon-Rifles close as the Drop-Ship circled around.

---

Lark looked at this before uttering to himself "By the Dragons, whats going on here..." the Shade-Troopers did not take further action but to remain in cover for now as the Drop-Ships third circling within mere seconds shot down another green beam, upon landing turning into a floating drone, with two long tentacle like arms and a green Glowing Optical lense at its front, floating towards the Patrians slowly.

Everything was recorded and analyzed.  Probably firing lines were plotted from the strange bipedal combat machines.  The marines' onboard false-AI computers analyzed and extracted possible scenarios based on the enemy movement.  Patrians rarely utilized cover, in part for the sheer quality and mass of their armoured suits, but more because of their experiences in combat.  Their war with the Machine Fleet had been fought in space stations and aboard ships, in tight walled colonies.  Rare conflicts were held in the depths of space or in the open ground of desolate planets or asteroids.  Close quarters had led to the need of heavy, powerful armour, and the enemy's preference of melee combat had limited the effectiveness of seeking cover in battle.

None of the Patrians were pleased by what they saw; it had been a hard fought war, one that had seen them on the verge of extinction by armies of near mindless, vicious machines.  These seemed little better at first glance; some horrid mad-scientist's wet dream of organic matter and unfeeling metal.

A lense popped up on Yannic's shoulder, and he spoke audibly through his suit's external speaker.  The same message was transmitted via radio, both in spoken language and binary, and the exposed lense flashed in a mathematical pattern representative of his spoken words.  Patrians sought a good war to get themselves into, but did not want to spark one because they simply could not communicate with aliens.

"Hold fast.  Advance further and be destroyed.  I am Patrian Marine Yannic.  Crash site secured.  Preparing to begin search-and-rescue operations..  State your purpose."  Both Yannic and Nagi adjusted their stance, positioning themselves in a wide spacing between the tentacled drone and the warriors, and the Razor.

Agatha had again positioned it that if things turned sour, she could speed away, while Demetrios kept the turret mounted turbo laser aimed above the unknown visitors' heads, where he could either quickly engage the shuttle or the ground troops, whichever proved necessary.  Agatha had a sidearm in hand, but sat facing forward; she watched what was going on through the cameras of the marines, rather then leaning out of her seat to watch.

None of the Patrians were tense.  Both marines sported the growing hints of predatory smiles, and both researchers were surprisingly calm.  Combat was nothing new to any of them, but they were all interested to see just what these things had brought to the playground.

Agatha's head turned to assess Lark's hiding place.  The resident humanoid species continued to confuse the Patrians; so many seemed to have something in common with the long extinct animals of their home world, things that hadn't been seen living since before the war with the Machine Fleet.  Some still existed, in the lone Seed Ship that had survived the war; genetic information from which the species could possibly be reborn one day, but no living Patrian had much experience with animals.

The strange floating Drone approached before a loud female metallic voice emerged from an external speaker "GREETINGS SPECIES P-87. THIS UNIT HAS BEEN TASKED WITH EXTRACTIONS OF CHASER SPACE-CRAFT FOR MATERIAL HARVESTING. SPECIES P-87 HAS NO AFFILIATION WITH CHASER IN DATA-BASE. PLEASE NAME PRIMARY OBJECTIVE ON PLANET M-516" The Shade-Troopers remained behind cover, Photon-Rifles charged up.


Lark looked down at the Patrians and the strange new machines and whatever else the rest is. He took great care to look over the strange flying Drone communicating to the Patrians. He would appear well hidden up in the tree-top among the leaves, his fur and clothing providing good camouflage.


Meanwhile the Dropship kept circling.

Patrians were practical; they had a strong distrust of AIs and machines, but they were still willing to work with, and even use them to at least some degree.  As much as Yannic and Nagi may have wanted to just blast the abominations to charred debris, they kept themselves in check.  They were professionals, after all.

Both marines were continuously scanning their surroundings, plotting firing angles and target priorities.  Their HUDs were busy with icons and aiming points, and they worked in unison.  Neither of the researchers had the advanced combat systems that the marines did, but it was simple enough to forward relevant data to the pair, assigning the target priorities as well.  The inter-suit communication was achieved through directed laser transmissions, in an effort to keep it hidden from their guests.  It would likely put a bit of stress on the discussion if the machines knew the Patrians were actively plotting how best to scrap the lot of 'em.  Of course, the turret mounted weapon's priorities were the hovering drone first, then the drop ship above.

They were silent a moment, actively discussing how best to answer the floating machine.  Yannic seemed to have been delegated as the group's speaker, at least for the moment.  "Our team is currently tasked to an extended research and observation mission of the planet Avalice and the indigenous species.  End goal is possible First Contact operations.  Identify yourselves and your mission objective."  He made it sound like the team was just the four of them, and that they were without any nearby support, as if they had been simply dropped off on the planet and left there for later retrieval.

The Drone hovered silently as the Patrians spoke to it, Lark still sat up in the tree hiding and watching at all that was going on, his sensitive ears letting him hear the conversation in full detail.

Suddenly the loud Metallic voice erupted from the Drone again "THIS UNIT IS SYNTAX. BELONGS TO LORD BREVON. APOLIGIES MISSION OBJECTIVE IS RESTRICTED. PASSWORD PROTECTED. CURRENT TASK OVERRIDE. CHASER CRAFT MUST BE SUBJECT TO MATERIAL HARVESTING." With that the drone just floated again infront silently. The Shade-Troopers remained behind cover in the best positions possible incase of a firefight. Lark seemed rather confused up from his tree. Suddenly from the side of the clearing a Serpent like creature with a cybernetic top-armor and metallic arms emerged looking shocked at the Patrians before speaking out loud "Tcha! Wonderful what is now all this with these Tin-Men!?" He looked towards Syntax then back to the Patrians, after noticing the Shade-Troopers in cover with weapons out, he almost in a split-second drew his two hand-blasters pointing them at the Patrians. "Theres a stand-off going on here or somthing!?"

The arrival of the giant snake-creature was not entirely a surprise; the Patrian's heard it coming thanks to the sensor suites of the marines' armoured suits, but the big reveal of a giant snake-creature-man was certainly interest peaking.  The two researchers stiffened up in surprise, but the reaction of the battle-seasoned marines was far more noticeable.  Some of the mechanical horrors the machine-fleet had unleashed on the Patrian forces could have been described as snake-like.  That this one had fleshy bits was ignored for the fact that the creature immediately leveled weapons towards the Patrians.  Both marines squared their stances, their weapons immediately snapped up on servo-assisted arms, and at their lead, Demetrios brought the turbo laser to bear on the snake creature, while the marines took aim on the closer drone and one of the tin-can warrior creatures further back.


Yannic's tone was clearly angry, even through the relatively robotic sounding speaker system of his armour, "Lower your weapons!  Stand down, and offline your droids or we will do it for you."

The Serpent laughed. "Tchahahahaha! Oh good! Your threatening the forces of Lord Brevon fool! You have no idea who you are messing with" His serpent like tongue flicked out teasingly before proceeding "So eager to open fire on an enemy which then would spell your end! Oh this day is getting interesting!" 

Lark grabbed for his pulser up in the tree, it looked like there might be trouble soon at this rate...Indeed with the Shade-Troopers peeking out of their cover with their Photon-Rifles ready to fire. The Drone however started to communicate again  "MATERIAL HARVESTING WILL COMMENCE. DO NOT INTERFER SPECIES P-87." With that the dropship stopped circling, and began lowering itself down towards the wreck. It was clear at this rate the Patrians would have to decide what to do quickly.

As much as they may have wanted to avert an avoidable war, Patrians weren't the sort to repeat themselves.  They had issued their warning.  Armed with VA-9 assault lasers, the marines were capable of laying down a withering hail of laser fire.  No single shot was likely to punch through more then a few centimeters of armoured plate, but but the weapons' accuracy made up for that, with each subsequent shot likely to hit on or very near the first, melting away armour in quick succession.  The thermal energy displaced by each hit would super-heat the interior of the armoured structure, causing further damage to unshielded electronics or mechanized systems.

Both marines brought their weapons to bear and started firing, their heavily armoured suits surging forwards in a slow, determined pace.  Yannic fired a three-round burst at the floating drone first, before switching to the snake-creature.  Nagi in turn began walking a steady hail of laser fire across the Shade-Troopers positions.  Wood would burst and explode as the moisture inside the logs or trunks super-heated and boiled, as would any moisture in stones.

Demetrios sunk low in the roof-mounted turret, bringing the turbo-laser to bear on the the drop ship, filling the air with a horrifying hail of energy bolts.  He hadn't the advanced targeting-assist technology of the marines' armoured suits, but the man was a decent shot, and what he may have lacked in accuracy he made up for in rate of fire, although he kept a careful eye on the weapons heat gauge.

Agatha kept to her seat, but one arm did snake out around the side of the buggy.  Aided by the linked camera systems of the marines' suits, she was able to aim with some semblance of accuracy and fire 'blind' from her seat.  Her side arm wasn't nearly as potent as the marines' rifles, but the added fire was not going to be turned down considering how thoroughly outnumbered the team was.  But, if worst came to worst, the Razor's Grav Train could be over-clocked to self-destruct the vehicle and likely take most of what occupied the clearing around the downed shuttle with it.

If you were going to loose, make sure the enemy won less.

Weapons fire of course wasn't the only trick up their sleeve.  Both the Razor and the marines' suits began filling a broad range of radio frequencies with chatter, a sort of 'active jamming' to try and scramble or block any communication between Lord Brevon's forces and the drop ship above.  It was an old trick from their war with the Machine Fleet; blocking the ability of the machine drones to communicate with their control ships had, for a time, rendered them unable to function, or at least hampered them to some degree.

The Drone was obviously not armoured as by the first shot the thing got takken down as coolant fluids sprayed forth from its hull and it crashed into the ground with a loud thud.

By the time the burst had been fired and then was directed towards the Serpent he was already out of eye-sight...Gone low to slither across the surface, around the edge of the clearing, firing purple colored shots into the air which suddenly started dropping towards the grounds around the Patrians. All this was however more of a distraction as he was makking his escape, he yelled loudly "Lord Brevon will know of this fools! Your lucky this time!"

The Shade-Troopers seemed to require abit more to kill, but a direct hit to the liquid vat at the top where the oculus was located seemed to destroy them instantly. However their Photon-Rifles pointed at the Marines and fired blue-colored Energy Bursts, four shots each. With extreme accuracy. The Drop-Ship simply took the shots as if it was nothign as its four legs, grabbed onto the downed space-craft like some sort of Crane.

The Shade-Troopers however may have been a strong opponent, they however might not have been anything like what the Patrian Marines have fought before. A few good Accurate Shots took them down. Unfortunately the Drop-Ship slowly kept makking its escape with the downed ship as if the shots didnt even bother it.

Lark kept watching the action from the tree, holding his small Pulser-pistol close to himself, he was clearly shocked at what was going on. To think somthing like this could even happen?

The Shade-Troopers returned fire, and both Yannic and Nagi continued to close the distance between them.  Bolts of energy tore at the surrounding jungle or burned away inches of metal with each shot, filling the clearing with acrid scents and the echo of battle.

Nagi, unobscured by the floating drone before it was destroyed, took the brunt of the fire.  The bolts of blue energy gouged and tore at his thick armoured hide, leaving rivulets of molten metal to spatter to the ground in his wake.  Warnings clouded the edges of his HUD.  Primary systems began to fail, the interior heat began to rise with each hail of near-speed-of-light particles the photon rifles fired at him.

Demetrios continued to fire on the drop ship, even though the weapon system seemed to do nothing against the vehicle's armoured hide, even as a few bolts of blue energy carried past the two marines to strike the Razor, and Agatha at one point was forced to recoil back into the relative protection of the drivers' seat.


Another hail of photon fire tore at Nagi.  A concentrated burst of shots left his forward leg in ruins and the marine dropped to his good knee.  More shots impacted with his featureless mask; the sharply angled helmet allowed much of the abuse to glance away, but it wasn't enough.  Camera systems were burned out, leaving him momentarily blind before the suit switched to secondary camera systems.  He continued to fire, bringing down another two of the Shade Troopers before more shots tore into his chest.  Interior temperature spiked alarmingly; micro-fractures were registered across his chest area.  And then he slumped forward, the suit digging deeply into the jungle floor amidst a cloud of smoke and steam.


With the loss of Nagi as a front-line target, more of the Shade Troopers were able to fire past at the Razor.  It was the last of the Shade Troopers, it's nearest companion left a smoking wreck by a burst of fire from Yannic.  Before Yannic could shift his fire, the Shade Trooper loosed another burst on the Razor, and Demetrios in particular, one blue bolt snuck through the rollcage and armoured shield.  The two researchers' suits were not meant for frontline combat; they were of course reinforced, but more to protect against animals and natural hazards.


Demetrios let out a strangled, pained groan before slumping down in the seat of the turbo laser.  The weapon went quiet.  Yannic finished the last Shade Trooper, and with it's rattling collapse, an eery silence fell across the clearing, now left strangely empty with the loss of the crashed shuttle.



Yannic walked among the fallen Shade Troopers to assure they were all truly destroyed, while Agatha clambered out of the drivers seat to check on Demetrios, then began awkwardly dragging his body out of the seat.  Once satisfied none of the fallen robots were still a threat (a few earning themselves an extra shot into the ocular tank), he grabbed one of their rifles and moved to the fallen hulk of armour that had been Nagi.  "Razor still operational?  There may be more out there.  Don't want to be bogged down dragging this thing."


Agatha glanced towards Yannic, and carefully settled Demetrios' body in one of the back seats of the buggy, "Yeah. She's good.  You okay up there?"  The last was directed towards Lark, glancing up towards the tree the feline fellow had clambered into.

Lark jumped down from the tree and rushed towards the Patrians, he was extremly quickly and agile clearly, and without any artificial enhancements. "What by the sacred-hide of dragons is going on here!?" he glanced around at the destroyed Shade-Trooper husks and other damage and the Patrians who were hurt "Focus on your own, but i wouldnt want to stay here for long with all this ruckus. Even more so when i have no idea what is happening..."


Among the Shade-troopers, the alien corpses remain. Clad in heavy Nano-weave clothing and of various cross-world species. All of them had a Plasma-blaster on their person as well as several other alien looking gadgets.

---

Meanwhile to the north in Avalice in the Royal Palace of Shuigang...

A Green Drone hovered in the back-halls of this majestic Palace, towards a large green alien in fine armor and dorned with a large cape. "GREETINGS SIR, THE TASK HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED, CHASER CRAFT IS BEING LIFTED TO THE THERMAL BASE FOR MATERIAL HARVESTING, COMPLICATIONS WERE MET HOWEVER" the alien in silence looked straight at the drones oculus at the mention of complications... A hologram emerged from the oculus showing off the Patrians and the Razor-Buggy in detail, full 3D view. "FOREIGN SPECIES P-87 INTERFERED, DATA-BASE DOES NOT SHOW THEM IN AFFILIATION WITH CHASERS" the alien crossed his arms in silence before talking in his gutteral growl of a voice "They matter little to the task at hand, i have more important work to do" "AS YOU SAY, SIR" "What is the status on the locals power-source? The Sooner we can get off this barbaric rock the better."

---

Back at the clearing Lark still looked at the Patrians, his ears still twitching at every little sound happening around them...

The two surviving Patrians were of a like mind of Lark; they had little interesting in staying in the area long.  With Demetrios' body secured in the buggy, Agatha dismounted and crossed towards the destroyed drone, Syntax, where she knelt and began searching it for sources of useful information.

Yannick grabbed Nagi's armour from a metal rung on the back and began dragging it towards the Razor, tossing the photon rifle next to Demetrios' body before pulling the hook of the tow cable and securing it to Nagi.  It wasn't the most respectful of ways to return the man's body to the base camp, but it was better then just leaving him in the clearing.

"I'll pull this tin can's comms suite, then return to base camp.  Higher is going to use active scanners to sweep the area for anyone that may have survived the crash, and they are trying to track that drop ship to it's destination.  If the Severity turns up anything, you are to track them down, Yannick."  Agatha produced a sort of nanotechnology multitool with which to remove panels on the busted drone.

The marine, satisfied that Nagi's remains were properly hooked to the Razor, rose to his full height and turned towards Lark, staring down at the strange alien.  His armour was peppered with char marks from the Shade Troopers' weapons fire, and whisps of smoke still wafted from a larger hit in his shoulder where the suit's systems had finished extinguishing an electrical fire, "Well, cat-man..."

Agatha shook her head and began pulling a mechanism from the scrapped hulk of the drone, "His name is Lark, marine."

"Not First-Contacted qualified, Agatha.  Lark.  It seems we are not the only uninvited guests to your planet."