The ride through atmosphere was bumpy as hell.

“Experiencing heavy turbulence.” The shuttle pilot called through the radio. “We are heading through a storm front.”

“Looks like we will be fighting in the rain, Commander.” Gunny said as he was checking his machine gun one last time.”

“Rough weather, reminds me of Japan.” I nodded.

“That’s what you get when you fight in the middle of the rainy season.”

“Landing zone should be right ahead!” The pilot called out to us once more. “Opening side doors.”

The alarm in the cabin beeped thrice before the doors of the shuttle slid open, revealing the outside to us. Most of the area was flat and vegetation had been burned recently. It didn’t take long for us to spot movement. It was an entire swarm of those bugs that was heading parallel to how we were flying.

“Deploying side guns.” The pilot said as a machine gun slid out of the side of the shuttle’s hull, which got immediately manned by one of the privates in our group.

“Give them hell, marine.” I tapped them on the shoulder and they opened fire on the group. Thanks to the gun’s rate of fire, the bugs dropped relatively quickly, even if it took multiple shots to finally find their weak spot.

The shuttle slowed down as we approached the compound in the distance. From the compound itself, laser beams shot out into the swarm, which apparently had managed to keep the bugs at bay. And luckily for us, they didn’t seem very interested in shooting at us.

“Putting her down.” Our pilot said, parking us on the roof of one of the building while keeping the firing arc for the side-machinegun intact.

Everyone immediately dismounted except for the private who kept handling the gun. After which, the shuttle took back off again to keep hitting the swarm.

“Okay, everyone, set up a firing time on this roof, I want Gunnery sergeant Taylor and Private Houston with me to meet up with the locals.”

“Aye aye ma’am!” The squad called out. A couple of soldiers set up a heavy machine gun on the corner of the roof, while the rest immediately assumed their positions and started firing. The three of us prepared to repel down to the ground, and it didn’t take long at all before we had our feet on solid ground. Lasers were still being shot out of the building, but we couldn’t really see inside. Nothing on the ground floor appeared to be open.

“What now?” Gunny asked.

“I guess we knock?” I pointed towards the big steel door in the center. It looked quite rusty and battle worn, but it looked like our best course of action.

We walked up to it and I banged the door three times with my right hand.

There was no response.

“Uhm…” I took a couple of steps back and looked at the building. “Are they all gone? Maybe the message was automated?”

“Maybe we should try to get in through the gaps on the other floors, where the lasers are firing from?” Gunny stepped back with me.

“I don’t really want to get shot by one of those though…”

We started to discuss different ways on how to enter the compound, but every idea either of us had just didn’t quite cut it. In the end, we were left in front of a closed door.

“Should we just pull out before the other shuttles land?”

“That might be for th-”

“Commander!” Private Houston called, they ran towards us. “The door! It’s opening!”

Gunny and I turned around and looked at the steel door behind us. It was indeed opening, slowly but surely. Once there was an opening of a meter or three, five figures suddenly rushed out towards us. The figures were tall, easily three heads taller than me, had four arms and two legs and wore some kind of metallic bronze-ish armour that covered their entire body. A blackened visor in front of their faces. With their four arms, they were carrying bulky weapons that were clearly trained on us.

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They surrounded us in an instant, but no shots were fired.

“We are here to help.” I raised my arms, letting my weapon hang from its sling. Hoping the translator app did what it had to do.

The five figures looked at each other, seemingly confused.

One of them, the tallest of the group, poked me with the barrel of its weapon and said something. A second later, I got the translation. “You speak our language?”

I slowly pointed at my helmet. “We have a translation tool to help us understand. We deciphered your language in our ship.”

The figure tilted it’s head and then pointed one of its arms into the air. “Ship?”

“Yes, it’s in orbit.” I nodded. Quickly realizing afterwards that nodding might not be a sign that means the same in this culture.

The figure looked around for a second and then turned around towards the door.

“Come.”

The four others closed ranks behind us so as to coral us inside.

“Can we call in our other shuttles? To hold off the bugs.”

“Yes.” The figure replied as it walked forward.

That’s all I needed to hear. I opened the comms channel to contact the others. “Contact has been made with the local populace. You are cleared to land and commence defensive operations.”

The inside of the building was dark apart from a single light that was worked into the center of the floor. I saw other such fixtures, but they had been turned off.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked.

“Down, our leader is there.” The tall figure led us to the corner of the room, where a ramp led down to an even bigger area. This one was full of machinery, but only a fraction of it was working.

“Looks like a weapons factory.” Private Houston commented.

“Is this where you made your weapons?” I decided to ask our host.

“Yes… more or less…” It replied. “But power is almost out.”

That definitely explains why they are saving on the lighting.

We took another path down that led to a smaller door, yet still sizeable, guarded by two other figures. They let us in without any issue.

Inside the room there were three figures bent over a table, they were discussing something, but they were a bit too quiet to really be understandable.

Our guard told us to wait for a bit as they walked over to the table.

The middle figure that was standing at the table looked up at us. “Are these the strangers?”

“Yes, they claim to want to help.”

The figure walked away from the table and approached us. This one was even taller than the guard that had accompanied us. Maybe size was how their hierarchy worked.

“Who are you?” The giant spoke to us.

“We are explorers.” I replied. “We are from a planet called Earth.”

“Why are you here?”

“We were… exploring… and came across this system, we then heard and deciphered your distress call. So we came to investigate.”

The figure stayed quiet for a bit before continuing. “We thought none would come. Did you defeat the ships?”

“You mean the bug ships in space?”

“Yes.”

“We destroyed them.”

“Then your ship must be mighty.”

I wasn’t sure if I should tell him that we quite easily defeated the ships in orbit. It might have been an insult to them, so I decided to keep quiet about that. But I did decide it was my turn to ask a couple of questions.

“If I may.” I raised my hand. “Why are you at war with these bugs? What happened?”

The figure walked towards the table and signaled us to follow. On the table was a map, etched into steel. On top of it were steel markers. I could quickly tell that the sole marker of its kind still on the board was where we were, and the others probably showed enemy forces.

“One day they came. Not that long ago.” The figure spoke. “They quickly cut us off from our colony.”

“The other planet?”

“Yes.” The translator application couldn’t convey emotions, but the body language of the figure betrayed some kind of sadness. “It was quickly wiped out. Then they came here. We fought back, but there was no end to them. They reproduce too fast. Positions run out of power. Only effective weapons we had were these welding tools. But without power… they die. We are the only ones left. But even our power is almost out.” This somehow makes me feel glad that we’ve come from a place of conflict… They had to fight these things off… with welding tools of all things… Although something did bug me a little.

“Why aren’t they throwing everything at you?” I asked. “There were a lot of bugs outside, but if they had conquered the entire planet… There should be a lot more of them”

“Not worth the effort. Bleed us dry slowly. Conserve their energy. They still have plenty of food…”

“I see…”

“But if you took out their ships, they should have nowhere to go… we will be the last of their victims. That’s good.”

“We have found them on a different planet before. So that’s not really a guarantee. And there were only two ships.”

The figure looked down on me. “Oh.”

I decided to quickly change the subject. “How many people do you have here?”

“Twenty.”

Twenty people is all that’s left from an entire civilization…

“We will get you out.” The decision was quickly made.

“You will?”

“We have plenty of space aboard.” I nodded.

“Thank you…”

I opened a com channel to the rest of the troops. “Okay, everyone, listen up. We are evacuating these folks. Make ready for extraction.”