You are making the final preparations for the upcoming launch of colony ship Homeward Bound, the last checks being performed, the engines warming up; the slight hum of electricity fills the room. Standing at the bridge you find yourself looking out the front view port. The other forty-nine crew members settling into place, one announces, "All systems within operating limits."

The captain, behind you, calls out, "Good, enter the coordinates Fragile."

You interface with the computer as you devote the majority of your body’s processing power towards rechecking your thrice checked coordinates. You're already certain that you've perfected the math on the jump, but one final check isn't time wasted. Well, not more than point-zero-two seconds anyway. "Entering coordinates now." You inform the others vocally while logging the data in the group chat. Your dexterous fingers dance unnecessarily over the analog controls while you use your direct computer connection to input the data instead. Appearances must be maintained, of course.

"Jumping in five," Captain Sharp calls out, "Four, Three, Two, One."

The ship lurches forward, its engines thrumming into overdrive, pushing the ship into faster than light travel. Everything is going as expected until your optical sensors pick up an abnormality, a body you haven't seen before with blonde hair and a purple dress plastered on the front view port of the ship. Alarms go off, signifying atmospheric reentry detected, the safeties activate, engines go back to a quiet hum, and the ship is telling everyone you have 10km to impact.

You can feel a vaguely disapproving glance behind you as the captain says, "Does anyone recognize that body on the view port? Also, please initiate proper landing procedures."

You find yourself feeling rather annoyed at the implication that it was your calculations that caused this, which is completely impossible as you made sure that they were perfect for entire minutes.

"It is not a body in my database." You inform the crew over the logs and vocally and quickly check with the main database as you casually watch the body slide along the viewports of bridge while helping put the emergency landing procedures into effect. "All thrusters activated and operating properly." You inform as you peer out the window as reentry begins to take effect. You also activate the clamps on your feet to ensure that you won't get jostled around too much.

Your 360' vision and sensor suite allow you to watch as your fellow bridge crew activate all emergency measures. The nearest crewmembers numerous tendrils lash around in mild annoyance as it activates and overcharges the kinetic barriers on the bottom of your vessel to absorb most of the blow from the landing. Ahead of you through the burning colors of reentry you can just barely make out the general shapes of the surface of the planet you're crashing into. You can see what appears to be a mountain looming in the distance, but you have enough time to make adjustments on your ships trajectory to avoid smashing through it.

Homeward Bound's decent slows from a crash, to a hard landing; the base of the mountain looking to be the exact location; the flare of the burning atmosphere dies out, Captain Sharp behind you calls out, "Brace for impact."

An unneeded call, as every member of the crew already is latched into place through various methods. A violent shake, cloud of dirt and trees, and the alarms ceasing later signifies that Homeward Bound has finished its descent.

"Any one suited for scouting, leave now and bring back a detailed report of 20km radius. Everyone else, prepare the immediate area with a defensive perimeter. Also wake and unload Megiddo Battler," Captain Sharp calls out as he looks over the exterior camera displays. The bridge bursts into action as everyone starts the task at hand.

You quickly tap a few final keys as you disengage your clamps from the floor and stalk out of the room in long, quick steps as you easily glide past your fellow crew. Your body is made with situations like this in mind, so you intend to be the first out of the door so you can make sure that this job is done properly. Your heels clink on the metal of the ship as you stalk along its long corridors, quickly picking up the pace as you loosen your joints with a practice jog to the nearest airlock. There are only three others whose bodies are capable of performing this scouting job properly. You interface with the air lock just up ahead of you and enter it, waiting as it seals shut behind you and locks off the ship from the exterior atmosphere. You hope this planet’s atmosphere isn't as acidic as the last one.

It took forever to get your detailing redone.

The air lock slides open with a hiss of air escaping, one thing quickly becomes apparent, this planet has locals and a small group of twenty-one white haired dog-eared people are standing swords and shields drawn, uncertainty painted on their face.

One in particular stands in front of the group, a woman, calls out, "H-halt! You are trespassing on Tengu land! Leave immediately!"

This is certainly a modestly concerning situation. You quickly uplink your visual and audio links with Captain Sharp's displays and flag them as 'Urgent' as you stalk out of the Homeward Bound's airlock that you are in and allow it to seal shut behind you, confident that you'll not need the avenue of retreat and determined to maintain the Homeward Bound's safety. Nothing's ever gotten into it when it was buttoned up before.

...Of course, you were also fairly certain that the Homeward Bound has never actually landed in atmosphere before either.

Now to deal with the other matter of importance; you turn your gaze onto the odd white haired, dog eared humanoids, nearly classical human really. Tengu? Perhaps you landed on a lost colony. It would explain why they're speaking an ancient Earth dialect.

Deciding to wait and observe for the moment, you take up a guard position in front of the airlock and gather what data you can while waiting for a respond from Captain Sharp as to your situation. If he tells you to do something and it doesn't work, it'll be his fault after all.

Captain Sharp's command comes down, "Try to communicate with them, explain the impossibility of that request, and gather information; keep hostility to a minimum if possible."

The group of people before you shuffle uneasily, and spread out, forming a half circle around you leaving the one that initially spoke to you directly in front. It speaks up, once more, "We are not afraid to use f-force!" Your sensors pick up moderate shaking in the surrounding people's hands.

You stare at the so called Tengu as you quickly put together a plan to pacify the locals until someone else more suited to the job can take over for you. Raising your hands up in a placating gesture and accessing the database you speak in their ancient tongue, "We come in peace." You try to soothe the locals and keep them from doing something they'll regret.

It'd be terrible to have to clean all the mess up off of your body again.

The Tengu's circle closes in a few feet, "T-That doesn't matter!" The leader shouts at you, "This is Tengu land! You must leave, or we will force you too!"

Your patience rapidly wears thin with how these uneducated locals are behaving and you turn your head to 'look' at the massive body of the Homeward Bound, which is currently dug into the earth from the impact, and then look back at the Tengu. "Do you want to help push?" You ask them, shifting your stance into a prepared one as they try to intimidate you by closing their little circle on you. You're not some non-combatant, and if they try something you'll be happy to make these yokels regret it.

The leader tengu looks down the length of Homeward Bound, the majority of its length obscured from view by the remaining dust cloud. "It was flying before!" she bites her lip, "Can it not still?"

Your optical sensors pick up distant flying humanoids, all closing in on your position. Captain Sharp passes down another command, "You are attracting life forms attention to that location, keep it up so the others can work in peace." You can practically feel the smug amusement emanating from him.

Well, if that is the way that this situation is going to go that is the way that this situation is going to go. You focus your attention on the sensible local and continue to converse with them, "Negative. Time is required before flight will be possible." You decide to not tell them everything, such as how the Homeward Bound is not designed for atmospheric flight and that 'flight' will involve getting the massive ship back up into space.

The leader frowns, "How much time?" her guard lowers some, taking a more relaxed stance but still keeping her distance. The other 'tengu' keep their guard up, some nervously shifting their grip on the oversized weapons they all have.

A few more life signs just outside of the half circle these tengu have formed show up, their forms easy to pick up for your sensors. An incredibly fast moving figure flies by you laughing, "Ayayayaya!" going down the length of Homeward Bound.

You're forced to engage the full extent of your sensor suite to get a proper read out and examination of the high speed target that's circling your vessel armed with an odd contraption that doesn't seem to be doing anything. Well, it's not his problem anyway. Let Captain Sharp deal with it. You just focus on the tengu in front of you as you consider your response, "...I cannot give you an accurate answer. Damage must first be ascertained. Should we be missing the entire bottom of our ship, lifting off will take considerably longer than if we simply needed to reapply the racing stripes."

"... an estimate then?" The leader asks, "Please I need something to tell my boss."

Captain Sharp, "Megiddo battler is awake and headed towards you, give them a ten year time estimate to keep them off our backs for a while."

Your auditory sensors begin to pick up the resounding steps of Megiddo Battler making his way through the ship, and so do the tengu judging from how their dog ears are reacting.

You suppose it is a bit much to expect Megiddo Battler to be quiet when stomping across the ship while it's in the atmosphere. You know that these Tengu can apparently hear him as well, so you simply behave as if nothing is out of the ordinary. "At an estimate, only ten standard Terran years."

The tengu frowns, "T-ten years!? Can't you make it go any fas-" She is cut by a larger air lock opening and revealing Megiddo Battlers massive form. He drops down to ground level, sinking into the soil and creating another cloud of dust.

Every time you see his body in motion you can't help but be filled with a certain sense of awe as the massive hundred and sixty ton war machine moves with a sense of fluid grace and malice. Build like some sort of bastardized fusion of a spider and a crab, Megiddo Battler is likely the most immensely powerful and combat capable individual you've ever met. Able to move surprisingly quickly for his size on his eight legs, his massive pair of crushing claws are capable of piercing through almost any material and house a pair of plasma cannon in them, while countless other weapons are hidden in its body or dot its exterior. As it rises up to its full height, Megiddo Battle makes you look like ants as he looms over the Tengu.

According to one rumor you found drifting among the Netscape, he based his body off of a beast that destroyed his previous one.

The tengu merely stare, mouths agape. It takes a minute before the leader finally manages to speak, "W-what are you!?"

Megiddo batter speakers loudly proclaim, "Why, my dear lady, I am a Transhuman by the name of Megiddo Battler! Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"I-I'm Mokoto..." her face screws up in confusion, "transhuman...?" The circle of Tengu is slowly becoming wider, retreating away from Megiddo.

"Yes, Transhuman." Megiddo tips forward in a pseudo bow, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mokoto!"

Mokoto, the tengu leader, begins to back away as she notices her circle has more or less left her behind, "I will be back, I need to report this!"

All twenty-one of the Tengu retreat, quickly following after Mokoto, and up the mountain; Megiddo harrumphs, and begins to patrol around the one-point-five kilometer long ship. "I was even being polite!" You hear him say.

You just stare after the Tengu as they go before sending a 'mission accomplished' to Captain Sharp and start down the mount of earth the Homeward Bound is stuck in, building quickly up to a bounding jog as you map out a series of locations to hit on your circuit around the ship to best and most efficiently map out the area. You casually leap over one of the life forms hiding in the bushes and dash off past them, savoring the feeling of rushing past the trees and bushes of this lush world. What kind of luck do you all have to jump into a planets gravitational field and atmosphere, yet end up on a Garden World of all places?

The life form you jumped over squeals, runs in a circle before slamming face first into a tree and passing out, several other life forms chase after you, having problems keep up with your bounding strides.

You leave behind the locals and just continue to bound along your chosen rout, your reverse joint legs aiding you in your leaping job as you devour the ground ahead of you and allow your sensor suite to passively log the area and scan the local life forms as you pass by them, not bothering to pay more attention than you need to them. Tensing your legs you leap across a river, not even needing to use your thrusters to pass over it and immediately take up your sprint again as you land on the other side.

The figure from before, with the weird laugh, is quickly closing distance between you and it, the weird laugh being picked up by you auditory sensors, "Ayayayaya! This is a huge story!"

You devote a portion of your sensors to tracking the modestly speedy local as you slowly begin to up your pace, putting more effort into your strides as your bounding jog starts to become a bounding sprint. There's still no need for you to use your thrusters or any other assistance though. You're not trying to outpace her; you're just doing your job faster.

The life form still is outpacing you, not by much, before long she comes into range of visual sensors and shouts to you, "Hey! How 'bout an interview! I promise you will get front page!" she still has that odd device that appears to do nothing besides click.

[x] Ignore this local, it’s not your job.
[x] Converse with this modestly speedy local, while performing your job.
[x] Put local through its paces, see what it can do.