The stars, the sideral void all around him, and below the capsule, a whole new world. Truly a breathtaking sight that was, of course not that it was Mitch's first time seeing it. The stars, planets, warships, pirates, and worse.
He had been one of the later members to join Mark's crew, and as he had to stay closed inside a healing casket for many, many years, Mitch was one of the less experienced members the explorer had under his command.
However, his was no ordinary team, not even one of their members could be considered a weak individual.
Mitch, was quite fond of the Ancient's technology design, it was much more simple and more direct to utilize than all others. While, on the other hand, was impossible to replicate.
Their most advanced devices had a minor inconvenience. It had a small chance to damage your neural system if your psychic sensitivity was too low compared to the complexity demanded by the machine. Of course, with extreme cases like the slarg Ugo, it wouldn't work, to begin with.
As a matter of fact, inside the Ark, most of the ship's modules were being operated by Olga and not Ugo.
Mitch dipped his hands through the console, as black nanites moved like a coordinated wave of black geometrical figures, coiling around his small green arms. What a marvel of technology that was, it perfectly adapted to his body size.
He then quickly adjusted their course, as the small vessel they had embarked on was about to drop them in the middle of a large body of water. Probably one of Gaia's Oceans.
The little elk instead decided to pick on the second smallest continent of the Planet Etesh. The little elk counted about six distinct continents on the planet, of course, the bigger it was, the more resources it had available.
However, Captain informed him they were the last contenders to arrive on Gaia. It meant that the first enemy faction to arrive had about nineteen years on them definitely enough to establish a medium-sized city, and the second generation of humans to become part of their fighting force.
Luckily, the strongest factions were the last to come, and whatever thing come out of this egg couldn't be weak. At least, little Mitch hoped so. In case of failure, he feared that madman vendetta.
Mark surely was a man of virtue no more, that tragic incident had changed him. In truth, most of the time, he still was a man of reason, even a positive presence aboard the ship. Yet once he snapped, he did not listen to anybody, he entered a strange trans that gripped him tight, till he painted everything red, with blood and fire.
Yet all these negative thoughts would not lead him anywhere, for anything he had to trust his own experience. They were scary beings, and for once he was on their side. Far too many times little Mitch, venturing deep down in the Ancient's mausoleums almost lost his life to one of their terrifying animated constructs, energized titans of various forms, directly connected to the energy stream and thus able to great psychic feats. War machines with the only desire for annihilation of whatever intruders dared to set foot in their masters' tombs.
Even if such horrors were true of the Ancients, this one will be nothing more than a newborn, naked in this foreign world. Even more, would it accept Captain's will? How could the man be so sure that this creature would behave exactly as he planned it to? It wasn't like they stipulated such a pact, right?
Mitch needed to stop this, all these questions he had to keep for himself, delegating them to the farthest corner of his elk brain. He was its guide, and guide it he would. Nothing more, nothing less. Then he would be free, to pick up his family and move to a resort-Planet and enjoy all the riches he amassed over the years.
It was marble white, much like the living metal composing their Ark, with various golden inscriptions plastered over its surface, wrapping all around the egg.
A few cracks began already to appear around the eggshell, as a shady figure was moving inside it with inexplicable vigor.
Yet the capsule was only about a few kilometers off the forest below, as Mitch collected the storage disks, their destination was imminent.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
" Some fresh hair does indeed feel good, with this big boy here I felt quite stuffed. From what I noticed the nearest settlements are quite far, we dropped right in the middle of this temperate forest.
Temperature varies from 293 to 210 Kelvin, quite ideal, 25 hours long rotation cycle and 370 days long revolution around this System's sun. The ratio between landmass and water bodies is forty to sixty respectively. There is also the presence of one moon, inhospitable for lass adaptable species like humans.
Very well, I'll set up camp and wait for it to hatch. Then I'll sit and enjoy these two years of vacation. I saw some truly beautiful places as well through the oracle. Such a marvelous item, now that I remember, I have to finish watching the last space opera made by the IHU, these crafty humans, they d have some taste. Gotta give 'em that."
Upon the green soft grass, and a few fallen leaves from the surrounding trees, Mich unloaded three heavy metallic disks from the module. Charred black in color, they had few light blue stripes of material more similar to glass than metal or stone. Their inside was said to bend space itself, making them capable of storing, apparently out of nowhere large quantities of inanimate objects. Putting in there anything alive was not a good idea, as they directly sap power from the energy stream, overcharging themselves to such a point that all that energy enlarged their mass to absurd degrees, thus bending space, in a weird way.
Fortunately enough, the devices were furbished with Ancient's technology, continuously phasing them in and out of the energy stream itself. Else, they'd cause considerable damage to their surroundings.
Surprisingly enough, the egg itself was not as heavy as he thought it would be. Still heavy, but not unbearably so for a genetically enriched body such as his. At this point, old, little Mich was to be considered one of the strongest among his race.
" On second thought, it was indeed a good decision to not sell the remnants of the cocoon we found down in the ruins. Perfectly conserved through the frigid temperature of Ur-Akhar, it would have fetched a very good bounty through the black market.
Yet, there was a dangerous pack of hounds hot on our tails. A good decoy, utilized at the right moment. Captain knows his stuff."
Soon after, Little Mitch threw a couple of small cubic devices, pre-mate tents of fine quality were soon to appear. The PT-1 was quite popular throughout the galaxy, as it was easy to use and was not as expensive. Yes, the tend was quite comfortable, and came with a built-in small table and stool, a small self-powered lamp, and a suspended hammock.
It also comes with a nice ambiance control feature, as now Mitch set it up to 'Chill spring breeze', as he felt like coupled with the rhythmic swinging of the hammock truly relaxed his spirits.
The little elk then took out from the disks a rectangular holographic screen, intent to resume the space opera from when he left it, a couple of days ago.
" I like it, how you breeeath. A small spongy apparatus, not capable of contraction on its own, auctioned thanks to the rhythmic complexity of muscle activity and relaxation.
Clever design, I'd say. A pleasure, Makhar."
A rough, metallic voice interrupted the small elk's entertainment, as without him noticing, the egg hatched, and a strange creature crawled out of it.
'Much smaller than I thought it would be, and very much weaker as well. But I guess to less experienced individuals in space exploration, it looks terrifying enough, a proper monster once could easily find in one of the system's dungeons. Still, not as scary as what the system cannot prepare you for, the 'real' dungeons.
On another thought though, its mental faculties seem promising, even considering it matured inside the egg. Incredible that it learned the universal language by hearing is talking from the incubator.'
" I appreciate the compliment, I guess, Makhar, Sir. This is Mitch, former member of the Nova exploration squad, our Captain, Dominus Mark has already predisposed some rudimentary information inside this holographic chip.
First and foremost, the tends and equipment here belongs to me and the team, the food and kitchen are ours as well. I will be resting inside here till you need counseling from me for anything the chip won't cover, as this is what I promised him.
Now, chop chop, that hologram won't transfer its information directly to your brain, this model is way too cheap for that."
It was a quadrupedal type of bizarre insect. Long for about 40 centimeters, it presented two pairs of hairless insectoid legs, a dark chitinous ebony shell with white lines of untold inscriptions, that formed perfect squares all around its surface. On the center of its carapace, stood the relief of a human-like face now motionless.
On its front was a pair of black mantis claws and, before its mouth, were a couple of strong mandibles. On top of its insect head, it also had a pair of thin, long antennas.
Still, the small Ancient, for some reason, made the little elk a little uncomfortable. He truly wished for this encounter to be as short as possible, so that he could be back to his more entertaining opera.
He did feel a deep sense of respect toward Mark, who had saved his life more than a couple of times, but still, this little 'adventure' was not his life-long mission. He joined the crew only for the money, no greenskin to ever exist was interested in ancient history, long-forgotten races, and their relics.
He won't babysit the youngling, Makhar would have to do most by himself.
' Just a bug meaner than all the others.'
At this point, not paying him much attention, Mitch got back on his sweet hammock. Triggering the soundproof option for its holo-tablet, to resume watching the opera.
Makhar had already climbed over the table inside, quickly snatching the holographic chip. Not concerned about the elk's inhospitality.