The Helvatask-1 shuddered as it entered into atmosphere of the planet “Hello there Rasnessk, this one can confirm that the craft has entered the planet proper without incident” Sylksskra reported as a buzzing came from the comms relay in the cockpit’s instrument “We hear you loud and clear Junior, make sure that you can account for the wind and unique gravitational forces” Came a response in song.

“Affirmative, this one had made minor adjustments to the flight plan in order to account for the difference in atmosphere, pressure, wind and gravitational forces respectively” She sang back a report “Affirmative, what is the ETA to landing Junior?” Came another question as of protocol.

“Junior?” She accidentally chirped out in confusion, Antenna lightly touching the speaker a few times “Well, for every vehicular unit they have a sort of codename or nickname or something similar and this sounds fitting, also what is your ETA to landing Junior?” Sang an answer and repetition to the question.

‘Of course, they picked one such nickname for this one, and never told this one either before now’ She let out a low hiss as she pressed the side of her ear receptor letting the antenna shaped mic get closer to her maw “ETA IS IN AN HOUR SIRS” She loudly chirped her response as the songs go silent for a bit.

Then it came back with a noticeably shaken tone “We hear you loud and clear, TOO loud and clear Junior, mayhaps you need adjusting to your volume setting” A suggestion was sung as she thought about it for a moment and decided that it wouldn’t worth jeopardizing the mission for a few laughs.

“Affirmative sirs, has this one adjusted the volume to the liking and safety of your ears?” She sang a response as a bit of static came through, her tail swishing through the hole in the chair of the cockpit “Loud and clear and not ear shattering Junior, proceed with the landing” Came the response in song.

“Affirmative, this one will now take up on that enlightening order and make sure that nothing whatsoever explodes in the process” She sang her response as she checked a few parameters and subsystems “This one is beginning to regret your inclusion in this mission Sylksskra” Came a song from Rasnessk “Well it is too late to change it now, just remember to delete this part of the recording when you have to hand it over to the fleet command Rasnessk” She sang back as she trilled a bit.

A low hiss came through the comm system as further orders were singed “Very well Junior, make sure to recheck all of your systems and prevent any preventable disasters” She did so immediately as she checked up on everything she could in the cockpit before turning to the other 2.

“Sylksskra speaking here, can you 2 take up re-examinations on your particular subsystems and such whilst this one checked up on a few tidbits here?” She asked through the comms receiving 2 affirming chirp as she made sure the landing gear was working with a bit of diagnosis helped by the computer.

The craft’s mainframe was running at full efficiency and everything seem to be good as the thrusters burned hard to break their fall into the atmosphere ‘The craft is doing well, not as well as a dedicated in atmosphere craft or a drop pod but still quite well’ She figured as she finished her checks.

She leaned back as she stretched her body and cleaned up her antenna some before one of the others called back “Fallkschrimm here, all systems seem to be working as intended on this one’s end, nothing more to enlighten” Came the song from his end as Sylksskra’s crest feathers brightened some.

“Hey Sylksskra, we may have a bit of a problem here” They proceeded to wilt and darken as she heard Lorrisskr’s response “Lorrisskr, what’s wrong, is this one needed to come and help you with something?” She sang as then came a reply consisting of a negative chirp from the other end of the comms.

“No, it’s just that the top engine, the 3rd one seems to be a bit wonky since we entered the atmosphere, this one hypothesize that it may have some problems with the overall structure” Came the song from the comms as Sylksskra let out a low hiss and rubbed the bridge of her snout with a wing.

She stared at the speaker for a bit, contemplating how to actually respond ‘Of course something goes bad immediately out of the bag’ She composed as she tuned in her mic “Copy that, this one will file the complaint to the others but there’s not much we can do about it whilst in the air” Sang Sylksskra.

She then proceeded to connect to the comms of the KCN Valitasiea “This is Junior here singing, we have a minor problem with the 3rd engine, the one on the top” She sang into the mic “Affirmative Junior, we’ll speak to the hangarmaster about this bit of worrying news, many thanks for enlightening us about that problem” Came the response in song as she looked at the screen to gauge the altitude.

‘Still half an hour to go’ She composed as the comms flickered to life again “Hey there Junior, the hangarmaster sang that it was nothing to worry about, apparently that engine always does that when entering atmosphere and it’s been looked through by various Technomancers with no success in identifying the error as of late” The comms sang as Sylksskra let out a bit of breath.

“This one has heard you loud and clear, we’ll be set to land in half an hour so don’t hold your breath or anything” She sang back as the comms went silent again ‘Well, this one suppose that there isn’t much to be done for now… suppose this one can just go and read a media novel as the craft automatically lands’ She composed as she pulled out her holo pad as the craft descent the rest of the way without incident.

Matt gulped as the alien spaceship came into full view, it was less alien than he would’ve thought, then he would’ve liked as it reminds him of ships used by humanity in a variety of sci fi shows he watched ‘What if they are a subset of humanity that went to space millions of years ago’ His mind wandered as that was somehow a good bit more terrifying than the alternative that he was thinking a moment ago.

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It definitely had a sleek design as its landing gear seem to unfurl with 3 engines on its rear and 2 more near its front, 4 of which minus the 3rd back one which was on top inverted to face the ground as they burned with a purple plasma like matter as multi winged vessel seem to touch down quite hard.

He could’ve sworn that there was a blueish tint around the ship which disappeared as it landed causing him to rub his eyes but it could’ve been him seeing things ‘Or it could be that their advanced enough to have shields and all our weaponry are useless against them’ He figured as his mind wandered further.

A slap to the back put him out of his trance as he turned to see Phil staring at him with his normally bored look despite the circumstances “Don’t worry about it, whatever happens will happen, we talked about this so calm down a bit” He reassured him as Matt simply nodded along in response.

‘Yeah, I should be calm here, the aliens are touching down on Earth not with an army for a reason, they probably want to negotiate a peace… yeah that’s it, a peace so they can more easily disperse a virus to wipe out all of humnity’ His mind refused to stray from such thoughts as he failed to calm down.

“I am so excited, I wonder what they look like” He heard Ellie murmured from the side “Horrible tentacle monstrosities that can appear in a Japenese hentai” Matt muttered a response as his mind was on edge “No way, I’m thinking their cute quadrupeds that are equally fluffy as they are cute” Ellie replied firmly.

“Cute space raptors” Phil simply stated as he sipped his cocoa “Where did you even get that?” Matt asked as he turned to him “I got it when you two were busy goggling at the spaceship when it was some 2 kilometers off the ground” He replied as he raised his mug of hot cocoa “Oh I love your idea Phil” Came Ellie’s remark “No I mean your idea” Matt pointed out as Phil just shrugged.

“I don’t know, just suddenly occurred to me, it’s just a spur of the moment idea” He promised as he took another sip “Well I like it, because that would mean they’re cute and adequately cuddly as well” Ellie replied as she flashed a genuine smile at him as he simply smiled back nervously.

‘Well whatever forms the aliens take, if they try to lay a hand one me or my friends, they’ll have to mess with me and my trusty handgun first and I’ll swear to god to uphold my oaths and defend our lands from potential invaders…’ He mentally prayed as he stared at the obvious airlock doors of the spaceship.

The aliens were probably waiting for all the ice and snow being blown up to dissipate to make their dramatic entrance so he waited as he let his right arm hover over his concealed carry as he turned to see Phil take a particularly long sip and Ellie practically ready to explode though she is trying not to.

A minute past and then another and then there was a bang on the door followed by more as all the tension faded into nothing in anti-climactic fashion “Uh I think they have problems with their door there” Matt pointed out as he scratched the back of his head still poised to be ready for an alien attack.

A slurry of what was obviously curse words even though they sound incoherently alien and muffled was shouted loudly enough that it passes through the dual doors made up of some alloy or something as another bang was heard “You don’t think… I’m gonna grab another cup of cocoa, call me when the aliens managed to finagle their way past their doors” Phil stated as he left without another word.

“See Matt, they’re not dangerous at all, it’s actually a bit cute that they can’t get past their own door” Ellie pointed out as Matt relaxed a bit ‘Yeah… I guess they are unless they are fooling us by trying to make us think that they’re harmless and a joke’ His mind raced further as he intently stared at the still alien ship with a gaze that can cut a melon in half as things seem to fizzle out a bit on the field.

“This is unacceptable, this one can concur that she knows about the faulty door system on Helvatask ships but this is just pure insanity!” Lorrisskr sang loudly as she watched Sylksskra tried to bang a particular part of the door “It’s not working, it should work but it’s not and this one has no idea why” She seem to mutter as Fallkschrimm tried to help in any way whatsoever.

Lorrisskr struggled to not try and destroy the door itself as her antenna glowed in annoyance and anger “Well try to fix it, there must be a way to deal with this without actually destroying the door” She sang as she tried to think of something up but failed to compose of anything useful.

“We could use a plasma torch to cut through the door” Fallkschrimm sang a suggestion as he stayed silent after the 2 of them glared at him “That is for emergency only and though this is an emergency, it is not that kind of emergency, if we break it out, they might think we wield it as a weapon not a tool” Sylksskra sang an explanation as she kicked again ‘Well sung’ Lorrisskr composed as she simply watched.

She tilted her head as Sylksskra managed to finesse her way through a panel on the wall “Okay, if the kicking doesn’t trigger the mechanism than that means that it may have loosen up the wiring a bit so that is the second thing that we’ll try in order to fix this thing” She sang the process as she worked on it.

The wiring as always looked like a mess to her ‘This one never understands the process of these kinds of things, it all look like a mess either way, perhaps if one cuts a red or was it a blue wire thy could disable a bomb or was that how it went in a film’ She composed as she watched her sister battle the wires.

It took a moment but he put the panel back onto the wall “Nope, not the wiring those are all good which means it is the hydraulics that is an issue, perhaps the cables were disconnected somehow” She narrated as she removed another panel from another part of the wall “This one will be useful and mayhaps go find a manual” Fallkschrimm sang as he went away with a wave from his tail.

“Sure, go ahead” Lorrisskr chirped as she waved at him with her tail as well “Damn, not the hydraulics either, perhaps if we take a look at the…” Sylksskra went on as she put the panel back on probably not noticing that her brother went away ‘This is going to take forever’ Lorrsiskr composed as she watched.

It was a process that was seemingly taking forever even though only 4 minutes has passed since the issue with the doors were noticed, still it felt like forever “Mayhaps you should try to kick it again” She suggested on the spot as she spotted Fallschrimm entering from behind her on her peripheral view.

“Bah, what’s the absolute worst that mayhaps occur” Sylksskra agreed in song as she wound up a kick and as soon as it connected, the entire door automatically opened “OH COME ON! Why did this one even attempt to fucking fix the bloody door when… fucking shithole!” Her sister cursed loudly as soon as she registered the door opening ‘Mayhaps we have bigger issues than the door’ Lorrisskr composed.

The airlock opened into what seem like a frigid, frozen ice sheet as what was out to greet them all was what seem like a small residency for some and 3 of the native primitives standing outside ‘Well… mayhaps the Glow bless us on our path and may things go swimmingly well here on planet Dirt’ Lorrisskr prayed as the team exited the craft some hundred or so meters from the research station as this is the day that things changes for the good or the bad as both side promptly approached one another silently.