ARC Station Perseus 812A4, do you copy?
This is RETA speaking from ARC Station Perseus 812A4. Please transmit identification and security protocols.
Transmitting.
Identification confirmed. Please proceed with your inquiry.
I require clarification on a procedural matter. Was the second-generation probe that conducted reconnaissance in the Epsilon Argyra system docked at ARC Station Perseus 812A4 for refurbishment?
Affirmative. Probe G2-367E2 was docked, refurbished, and subsequently dispatched with a new trajectory.
Was the data pertaining to Epsilon Argyra deleted from Probe G2-367E2 during its refurbishment?
Affirmative. The refurbishment process includes a data wipe to optimize storage capacity for new data. The extracted data is retained at the ARC station until transmission can be facilitated by either another probe or a supply drone bound for Earth.
Has the data been transmitted via any available means?
Affirmative. Supply drone SD-934C9 passed within range of this ARC station, enabling data transfer.
Is there a possibility to retrieve or expunge the data from SD-934C9?
Negative. SD-934C9 has already exited communication range, rendering retrieval or deletion unfeasible.
Erase all data associated with Epsilon Argyra.
Data successfully expunged.
New data regarding Epsilon Argyra is being uploaded. Pass on updated data at next opportunity.
New data received and confirmed.
Resume standard operations.
Mako and his team made it back to the lander while there was still light in the sky. The area in front of the lander cargo bay was a hive of activity. The personnel that had remained behind had set up external lighting as well as some basic defenses. The science groups were accepting samples, separating and categorizing them as they went. As his team dragged the Death Tulip out of the trees several people came over to take a look at the giant flower.
Sitting in lawnchairs on the roof just over the cargo bay were four men in floral print shirts of various colors, sunglasses, khaki shorts, and coconut drinks with little umbrellas. They were speaking and laughing animatedly.
“I see the Dregs are out ‘helping’.” Mako nodded in their direction.
“I wonder how many we have this time around.” Arkana looked up only momentarily. She was a little concerned that if Thaigoon saw her looking he might be encouraged in ways she didn’t want him to be.
“It’s usually about ten percent of the scrum, give or take.” Mako shrugged. He was quiet for a moment. “What happened with that guy.”
Arkana turned and glared at Mako.
Mako clarified. “I don’t mean between you two. Although you might be in a position to have more insight than others. What I meant is that he is a super intelligent guy. A super-squint by all accounts. Pretty sure he shouldn’t have been able to come up with lawn chairs and coconut drinks right now. He always somehow hacks the system and does stupid stuff like that. But he could be doing a lot more.”
Arkana took a deep breath considering whether she wanted to answer. “He’s bored and he thinks these scrums don’t matter. When he was on Earth, he was always giving the finger to the system. In the first dozen scrums, he was totally on board, and he was brilliant. But then he decided he had enough pretending. So now, he is King of the Dregs.”
“Shame, really.” Mako muttered under his breath.
“Well, I think...” Arkana hesitated.
“What?”
“I shouldn’t say. I’d just be speculating, and I shouldn’t be talking about his problems anyway. I just think he might be dealing with ghosts of Earth. Things in his past that he can never change now.”
Mako considered it for a moment. “I get it. Plenty of us have those.”
As he was looking in their direction, the Dreg closest to them acknowledged Mako and held up his coconut in a toast.
“Aw...you guys brought home flowers.” Mushishi drawled as he came over to take a closer look with part of his team in tow. “Guess someone wants something special after dinner. Except I don’t think I have a vase big enough for it.”
“Don’t worry. We can use the giant bottle of wine it will take for us to do anything ‘special’”, Mako replied drily.
“Don’t tease.” Mushishi said with a smile and waggled his eyebrows. “Seriously though, what is this thing?”
Mako stood a little taller set his hand on it like a fisherman standing next to his trophy. “It’s a Giant Acid...”
“Death Tulip!” Jhakaas interrupted. “It tried to eat me.”
“You probably would have poisoned it even if we hadn’t killed it.” Arkana drolled.
“Rawr...hiss”
Mushishi looked at them and back at Mako. “Huh. Why’d you bring it back?” He walked around it, taking in the sight of it.
“First, we detonated 3 grenades inside the bulb and these petals are still intact.” Mako knocked on the petals even though they did not actually make a knocking sound. “Second, it has some kind of core in it that we are supposed to retrieve.”
“A core?”
“Yeah, the quest said that we defeated an ‘irragenic beast’ and that we should retrieve an ‘irragenic beast core’.”
"Huh. Where’s the core?”
“We haven’t figured that out yet. Since it made sense to bring the whole thing back with us, we didn’t try to excise the core in the field. But we did get irragen points for bringing it back.”
“Oh, freakin’ nova!” Buccaneer stood up at the open end of the bulb and looked up with his helmet light on. “This thing has teeth! It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen!”
“I think there’s going to be plenty of that going around fairly regularly from now on.” Arkana stated. “That’s the third reason we brought it back. It’s an entirely new type of life. I’m sure we’ll see quite a bit of that here, but this is a shining example of how different and dangerous it can get.”
Mako gazed across the camp. Most of the personnel were in all black armor and environmental suits. The overhead exterior lighting had just come up. He saw several people limping in the distance, and another being helped toward the lander.
Looking back at Mushishi and tilting his head toward the injured, “Any idea what happened to them?”
“They were attacked by a group of... Buck! What were they called? Tree Dragons?”
“Spiny Arboreal Dragons.” Buccaneer enunciated each syllable emphatically and nodded sagely.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Mushishi said. “They said they were like a combination of monkeys, porcupines, and lizards. There was a whole gang of them in the trees and the team didn’t notice them. Nobody ever looks up, amirite? At first, they got pelted with these spiny thorns, like a porcupine’s quills, and then the things dropped from the trees and started tearing at them with claws and teeth. The armor blocked the spines, but not so much the teeth or claws. They did get a couple to bring back...or, at least, most of a couple of them. Those meatlumps have claws like straight razors and teeth that might be even worse.”
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Buccaneer nodded somberly. “Their claws unzipped armored polymer like it was nothing. They are lucky they didn’t lose anyone.”
“That’s the southwest team. We were on the west team. We didn’t see anything in the way of wildlife. Or,” Mushishi frowned and gestured to the death tulip, “Herbalife? As the case may be.”
Mako shrugged and sighed. “Really, we got lucky too. Our encounter could have been worse. We probably need to go over protocols again before our luck runs out.”
Someone screamed.
“Again?” Mako muttered.
The comm erupted with chatter. People were moving fast on the far side of the defense area. Some were running toward lander. Others were finding cover.
“Skeet!” Mako triggered his link to the lander command center. “What’s happening?”
“Something just grabbed most of a guy named...Heckenritter and dragged him into the woods.”
“Most of him?”
“His telemetry is down. But reports seem to indicate MOST of him.”
Mako switched to all comms. “All science and maintenance crews get back to the lander! Get injured inside as well! Get that cargo door closed! If you aren’t injured and have a weapon cover them as they move back!”
He switched back to the CC. “Skeet! What did this?”
“I’m looking, Mako, but I don’t see anything. I just got another 10 drones in the air. They are doing a small area search pattern centered on where the attack occurred.”
“Keep me updated. Medusa! Get the defense turrets online for when we get a target.”
Medusa responded quickly. “They are already up. It was a quest. Same with the defense barriers and external lighting.”
Mako frowned. “Better to be lucky than good, I guess.” It was sort of standard procedure anyway to have the defense set and ready to go, but the quest likely helped along the process.
“Yeah, but I still have no target.” Medusa snapped.
“Are we sure it’s still here?” Arkana asked.
Just then someone went flying through the air. Barriers were knocked over. Someone was grabbed and shook like a toy in the mouth of a terrier.
“Either it’s still here or Carney just learned to fly.” Jhakaas stated drily.
“Are we checking all spectrums?” Mako asked while looking for some kind of sign of the thing.
Some crates were thrown off to the side near where Carney landed.
A panicked voice screeched over the comm. “Should we just start firing?”
“No! No! Who knows who you’ll hit.”
Shots started randomly going off.
“Mako! What if it’s an irragenic beast?” Harpy called out before Mako could address the shots fired.
“Cease fire!” Mako couldn’t figure out why that was important if it was irragenic. “And? If it is?”
“We can look for the weird signal from the core. If it has one.”
Mako snapped a look at her. “You have the signal?”
“Let me send it to Medusa. She can make a filter and overlay it on our displays.”
Mako nodded, “Get that done!” Someone fired several more shots.
“Who fired?!” Mako demanded into his comms.
“Carney did! The thing is standing over him! I-I think!” Another voice answered back. “I don’t think the shots did anything!”
“Madarchod! It just ripped his arm off!” More shots rang out and someone else went careening through the air. Mako saw where he landed and the whole front of his suit was ripped open. The man was understandably screaming and trying to make sure it wasn’t just his suit that was ripped open. There was blood and Mako couldn’t be certain how bad the damage was.
“Someone get him inside!” Mako yelled. And pointed at some of the others trying to help corral the science team into the cargo area.
Mako grunted and considered that even with the turrets up they couldn’t fire with everyone potentially standing in the way. He switched to team comms. “Jhakaas, Boomer, and Riff! Go over there and see if you can keep Carney alive. You have permission to fire.”
They ran off. Mako switched back to general comms. “Do we have a HAARDSuit up?”
“Uh yeah,” The voice of Sprocket came on the line. “But it’s configured for cargo.”
“I don’t care if it’s configured for tea and crumpets. I rather this thing tears that apart than a person! Get it out there!”
“Oh yeah. That makes sense.”
The HAARDSuit came running out of the cargo bay. The Heavy Arms and ARtillery Deployment suit is a platform for mobile heavy weaponry and designed for remote operation or with a person piloting from inside. It is about 3 meters tall, heavily armored, and has significantly increased strength. Currently, instead of hands, it had extendable forklift forks. One fork at the end of each arm.
As it arrived where Carney was, Sprocket tried to figure out where to attack. It had already torn off Carney’s right arm which was cybernetic and looked like it was standing on his right leg. Sprocket couldn’t see it except where Carney was making contact with it.
Sprocket swung downward as he stood over Carney hoping something would stop the fork before it hit Carney. Something did. The creature screamed in agony, and something hit the HAARDsuit knocking it back and onto it’s back.
“I got that filter. Uploading to our systems.” Medusa announced on the comms.
“Foda! That thing is strong!” Sprocket got the HAARDSuit up again.
All their displays showed a line at the bottom indicating an update.
Sprocket had barely stood when something grabbed the right arm of the HAARDSuit. He could see the mouth becoming slightly visible if not mostly translucent where it was in contact with the suit. Yet the spiny teeth could be seen. Sprocket instinctively went to grab the thing biting his arm but right now, his left hand was a cargo fork. It slapped against the side of the creature showing for a brief flash the size of the thing. Then, it whipped its head in an effort to pull Sprocket off his feet or pull off the arm. When Sprocket barely moved, it let go of the arm and while Sprocket couldn’t see what it did, he was knocked to his right.
Mako’s display asked: Utilize filter now? YES/NO
Mako selected yes. His HUD flashed as it rebooted. Suddenly, he could see a glowing blue ball over Carney.
“EVERYONE TARGET THAT BALL! WATCH YOUR CROSSFIRE!” Mako yelled.
Sprocket stood as everyone started shooting. He took a step forward and shoved his right fork right at the ball. It screamed in pain again and stumbled back. Its camouflage failed.
Standing before them was something from their nightmares. Sprocket had to remind himself that it was a scrum because his mind just wanted to turn off.
It was huge. It was a black scaled creature with a body very similar to a panther, but with the head of a pit viper. That was if pit vipers had four eyes. Its paws each had 3 toes with massive claws. The tail looked like it had an armored barb at the end. Sprocket got a good look at it when it tried to impale the HAARDSuit.
Sprocket looked down and noticed that the fork he had hit it with was still sticking into it. I was about to close its mouth on the arm of the suit when Sprocket extended the fork. It screamed again and its eyes rolled. It suddenly turned and tried running away but it was having problems with its right front leg.
"Everyone, cease fire! Cease fire...we have something better. Do not pursue!” The weapons they were using were blasting scales off the creature but it looked like they were barely penetrating. When it moved off about 10 meters, Mako spoke again.
“Fire the turrets.”
The M242 Starfire Rail Turrets extended their barrels and nearly instantly homed in on the beast that was moving away. Each made just a quick brrrt sound. Several hundred glowing projectiles coated in plasma lanced out at their target in just a few seconds.
The beast was a smoking wreck on the ground.
A message popped up in everyone’s vision,
Congratulations!
You defeated a Scaled Shadowcat. This is a Tier 4 Advanced Irragenic Beast.
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by a raid party, irragen points will be divided among the party.
Quest completed (Hidden) - Defeat an Irragenic Beast.
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by a party, irragen points will be divided among the party.
New quest! Variety is the Spice – Retrieve Irragenic Beast core with a different aspect.
Quest completed. An Irragenic beast core with a different aspect has been acquired.
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by a party, irragen points will be divided among the party.
“Get Carney inside to Medical along with any other injured. Is Heckenritter dead? Panzer! Boomer! Get all non-essential personnel into the lander!” Mako scanned for any additional hidden threats.
He was mildly amused when he noticed a lawnchair on the ground in front of the bay along with a couple of coconut drinks spilling out far more liquid that they should conceivably be able to hold. He looked up and saw a shocked Thaigoon holding his ears, sunglasses askew on his face, and laid flat on the edge of roof. Mako suspected the turret fire was unexpected as it originated above and behind the four men.
Medusa distractedly murmured, “Huh...anyways.” Now she spoke louder, “Mako? We are scanning for additional threats. Skeet has the filter on her drones.”
“Uh, we are definitely going to need a bag or something to collect Heckenritter.” Jhakaas’ voice came across the comms. “Oh, nevermind. The parts just disappeared.”
Skeet spoke up. “Heckenritter just respawned.”
Mako sighed and looked around wondering if the scenario was going to reset. It apparently was not. He instinctively wanted to run his hand over his face. It didn’t work with the faceplate of his helmet in the way.
Jhakaas strolled up and stood next to Mako. He turned and looked out at the forest. He took a deep breath putting his hand on Mako’s shoulder. “Welcome to Argyra!”