"Hello, Lieutenant. Captain, I hear the two of you are going to a rather dangerous planet?"
Vega nodded. "We are… A planet apparently inhabited by humans."
The manager tensed a moment. "Goodness! Is that what the Council called you for?" They asked, and Vega nodded once more. He looked over as the ship worker waved to them, and he patted Beta's arm. "Let's go."
Their eyes refocused, as they were jolted back to reality by the station manager's touch. "Oh! Yes, yes, of course," they grabbed their stuff and walked over to the ship.
The worker gave Vega a rundown of how the ship was functioning, and Vega thanked them. The ship's door slid open to reveal a small set of steps, which he climbed up, then he loaded his things into a compartment in the back.
Beta did the same, and sat down in the co-pilot's seat in the front. Giving a small sigh, they glanced down at the controls, getting a feel for how they worked. Different ships had different controls… they'd seen these ones before, they'd have no problem getting used to them.
Taking his place in the pilot seat, Vega took a deep breath. He reached out for the controls and double checked with the ship worker that everything was proper before the ship door closed, then he started up the main engines and nodded to himself as he sat back and looked over at Beta. "Are we ready?"
Beta took in a shuddering breath before responding, "Y-yeah, I guess so…"
Without another word, the Perion-1 was lifting up and out of the station; they were steadily zooming through space towards the human planet within moments. Vega input the coordinates from before and let the ship's autopilot take over so that he could check the information that had been sent to them.
Planet Designation: MW-3-Sector 5 - Terra, "Earth"
Primary species: Terran, "Human"
Habitat: Varies
Humans are ultimately dangerous in nearly every way. Intelligent and typically unpredictable, with a vast array of weapons at their disposal. Lacking protective exoskeleton, they are soft-skinned and seemingly vulnerable, but humans have been recorded to last days on their own with injuries that could be fatal to most other species. Their young are small, soft, and defenseless, and an adult may resort to killing to keep them safe. Some humans may act violently or in an otherwise strange manner without reason.
DO NOT engage a human without proper analysis.
Vega made an low, uncomfortable noise in his throat as he slid the information over to Beta's screen.
Beta's throat seemed to close up at the info being slid over to them. "I… I know…"
–Timeskip–
Back on Earth, Stephanie Landon was lying on the ground in the park staring at the sky. Suddenly she sat up, having seen something strange. There was an object flying through the sky, and as she watched, it shot over her head, heading over to the fields of grace. She immediately jumped in her car and followed it the best she could.
Emanuel hummed to himself, the Zelda theme playing in his Bluetooth as he walked down the street towards his brother's apartment. The song ended just as a bird chirped nearby, so he took a glance up as something - definitely not a bird - crossed through the clouds. His calm expression changed to one of surprise, and then confusion. Taking his earbuds out, he headed in the direction it went, wondering what in the world that could've been.
Vega scanned the ground as he slowed the ship. "Lots of grass and trees…at least this place has some things in common with Tillion." He muttered to himself. There was a break in the trees, and he checked that there were no humans or other Terran creatures around before taking the ship down and landing in the large clearing.
Stephanie stopped in front of the park and jumped out of the car, running towards where she assumed the object had landed. Pushing some bushes, her jaw dropped. "Woah. This is amazing!" she exclaimed.
After they landed, Beta lowered the boarding dock and walked down but stopped short. Humans! "Vega, I request assistance here," they said in a clipped tone, not his usual voice.
"Holy smoky cheese…" Emanuel stared wide-eyed at the sci-fi-looking vehicle. He hid partially behind a thick tree and spotted a girl through the foliage a few meters from him. "Hey! You see that too, right?" He whisper-yelled.
Vega stuck his head outside the ship, but backed up once he saw the issue. "Oh dear…" He grabbed Beta and pulled them back inside, then closed the dock and turned on the ship's cloak; the humans already knew they were there, but he figured if he could get back in the sky without any problem, he could find somewhere else to land. "T-they don't look like too much trouble…they're smaller than what our info says an adult should be…adolescents, perhaps?"
"You mean that spaceship thing? Of course!" Stephanie replied. She marched up to the where the boarding dock used to be. "Hello?" she yelled. "Anyone there?"
"P-perhaps? What do we do?" they asked, worried. Hearing Stephanie's voice, they got even more worried, turning to stare at where the boarding dock lowers.
Emanuel followed her over, brushing a hand through his hair. He reached forward and padded at the air before his hand hit something. "Whoa. Okay, what is this thing and…who do you think could be in there?"
"I don't know!" Vega hissed, his tail stiff. He watched through the glass at the front of the ship as the pink-haired human touched it. "…What if we fire the ship's laser? As a warning?"
"But what about the other humans? What if others come? We have to keep a low profile!" they hissed back, and recoiled as a small hand reached up to sit next to the other one.
"Huh, maybe aliens?" Stephanie reached a hand up to where his hand was. "Wow! It's like it's invisible!"
"It's like…it feels warm and cold at the same time." Emanuel moved around the vehicle, keeping his hands wherever it was solid. "You think aliens are real?" He looked over at Stephanie.
"We can make the blast small; I have no idea how these two found us, but I don't think we'll attract any more of them." Without waiting for a response, Vega took the co-pilot seat and activated the ship's defense. The Perion-1 wasn't meant for intense battle, so it should be easy to make a contained blast. He looked over at Beta and stated, "If you have a better idea, Lieutenant, I'm listening." His ears perked up for emphasis.
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe," she replied. "Careful, though. We don't want to set off any security systems or anything of the sort."
"Perhaps they can be double agents… working for the humans but really working for us undercover. I don't know if that would work well though, considering they are humans." Beta voiced aloud.
"Right, right…" Emanuel tilted his head a little and tapped the vehicle a bit before knocking on it. "Hellooo?"
"How could they be on our side undercover?" Vega continued to watch the humans. "We're the only ones who were sent to this Star-forsaken planet, weren't we? And I'm not hearing a direct objection to the laser."
"I'm going to scout around, keep an eye out for me?" Stephanie asked, and didn't wait for an answer before putting one hand on the vehicle to guide her.
"Well, no, the laser might work…" Beta said. "I guess we could do that…"
Vega huffed as he dialed down the laser's intensity. He aimed at the ground in front of them and fired twice; as he hoped, nothing caught fire, but there was a dark, smoking singe in the grass now.
Emanuel watched her, glancing around every now and then to make sure they were still the only ones around. Then a blue light shot out from what he guessed was the front of the vehicle. "Whoa- jeez!" He jolted backwards and rushed over to grab the girl, pulling her back as well.
"Hey what-!" she started to protest before realizing why he'd done that. "Oh, um, thanks…" she said, but trailing off when she realized she didn't know the guy's name. "What's your name again?" she asked a bit more quietly.
"Well, that seemed to scare the humans," Beta remarked.
"Oh- uh, Emanuel." He let her go and gazed at the scorched ground before looking back at her. "And you?"
"Good." Vega left the co-pilot seat and sat in his own, taking a breath. "Should…we wait until they leave to take off again?" He wondered aloud.
"Yeah, thanks Emanuel," she said quickly. "Stephanie," she returned.
"That might be a good idea on one side, but on the other side, the humans might tell other humans," Beta replied, conflicted.
"Nice to meet you, Stephanie." Emanuel smiled briefly, then looked nervously between the grass and where the blast might have come from. "S-so, I'm guessing that was the possible security system you were talking about?"
Vega nodded. "They don't seem to be going anywhere at the moment, though… Beta, what if they don't leave? Wh- what if they're too curious to leave and end up staying longer than needed just to see if we'll reveal ourselves? I wouldn't put it past them, given what we know about human endurance."
"Per-perhaps we need a cover story?" Beta offered up. They didn't really have any ideas either. For the moment, they seemed to be stuck.
"Probably?" Stephanie said. She wasn't sure. "Well… I don't know about you, but it's going to take more than a laser blast to scare me away," she said defiantly, her mind already made up, and half hoping the aliens could hear her.
"Ugh…" Vega sunk down in the seat, putting his head in his fuzzy hands. "Not even one day in and we've already been compromised." He complained.
"Well, someone's persistent." Emanuel crossed his arms and took a few steps towards the direction he came from. Instead of leaving, though, he sat down against a tree. "But I'd rather not challenge the may-be-aliens, so, y'know, I'll be over here."
"Alright then," Stephanie laughed and felt around the spaceship in the opposite direction.
"Well this is… not going according to plan," Beta stated the obvious aloud.
"Be careful." Emanuel called, leaning to keep his eyes on her. After a moment, he pulled out his phone to look up what to do when you find something like this.
Vega huffed, looking up to watch the human feel around their ship. "The smaller one seems to be more interested than the other, now." He glanced at Beta. "Maybe we could try communicating with them, somehow? Is there any way we can tell them to stand down without showing ourselves or…upsetting them?"
"Hmm?" Stephanie looked up. "Oh, yeah, of course," and she continued exploring the ship.
"Is there a speaker on the ship?" Beta wondered. "And if it comes to one of us has to go out, at least we could be disguised, perhaps."
"There is, but it may be too loud; our ships' speakers are meant to carry through space and are typically not used on a planet like this." Vega checked the system anyway. "We could possibly lower the volume enough to not reach outside this small area."
Emanuel scrolled through a website - one of the very few he found about dealing with an actual spaceship. "Hey, so, what I'm getting is that if we're certain this ship contains extraterrestrials and not people - like if it's a satellite ship or something - we should stay at a distance. Some aliens can be hostile, some are friendly, some can understand our language…we're taking this much better than the internet says we should be."
Stephanie wasn't really paying attention until she heard the word "hostile". She withdrew her hand and took several steps back. "Oh. Um, you can explore the spaceship then. I don't want to get blown to pieces."
"Perhaps," Beta mused. "Let's try anyways."