"Giant enemy crab /Maybe it's friendly!" Soundbyte chirps up, though the way he's preparing himself for evasive maneuvers lends doubt to his belief. He takes to Krizen's suggestion and tries to angle the craft away from the crustacean in as non-challenging a manner as possible.
The color of Set's oculus quickly shifts to an orange-red and the garish colors of his armor become somewhat muted. "That is an unfriendly organic. But, it seems... curious. Does anyone know what it might be? Perhaps we could give it something to eat?"
Bravo holds his fire at S.E.T.'s suggestion.
"All I know is it looks like a big shrimp."
Despite his piloting skills, Soundbyte isn't exactly sure how to seem like a submissive shrimp monster, and the creature shrieks again before advancing.
The S.E.T.'s operating parameters fully transition to security enhancement. It grabs the broken computer danging about it's chest, causing the glamer to break and reveal a tactical pistol. As STEVE jostles about in the current and its manipulator arms swing to and fro, Set waits for when the creature seems to be focusing on a different threat, then fires.
Krizen moves to one of the gunports and brings his nanite thrower to bear on the shrimp. "BBQ time! I wonder if it's edible... I didn't get a chance to finish snacking...
"I don't suppose you brought cocktail sauce?" Bravo asks as he takes a shot out the gun port at the colossal crustacean.
Nalun’s shot with his pistol goes wide. S.E.T. lines up what he thinks is a perfect shot, firing with his normal gusto. His bullet lodges in the beast’s chitin, ineffective. The cloud of nanites from Krizen miss as well. Bravo’s hunting rifle strikes true, and the beast screeches.
It advances on the ship, slamming a massive claw into the side. STEVE, though tough, takes a little damage.
"Edible? Cocktail sauce? UGH! Organic habits are disgusting. Kill it first! Eat it later!"
The S.E.T. takes another attempt at pegging the giant shrimp.
"Sir, yes sir," Bravo replies as he fires off another shot.
Krizen tries to focus on the (large) target, hoping to hit it this time...
"Engaging evasive maneuvers /buckle your seatbelts folks!" Soundbyte called out to the cabin, disregarding his initial plan to avoid conflict by escaping the creature's clutches instead.
"Already buckled, Soundbyte," Bravo deadpans.
S.E.T, though able to hit the crustacean, can't find a weak spot to exploit. Krizen and Bravo, too, miss the beast.
It advances even further, and despite Soundbyte's evasive maneuvers the creature slams a massive claw into STEVE once again. A small crack forms on the window, and a few screens begin to flash red.
"Oh skôr," Bravo mutters as he provides covering fire for STEVE.
"Erm. Those amphibious upgrades you skipped look to be coming in handy shortly here, Bravo... " Krizen mutters, focusing through the gunport on the giant shrimp and taking another shot.
Set tries another round of attacks but, at best, manages a glancing blow. ”This one is not edible and did not want to eat you! Go! Away!” More quietly, it grumbles to himself, ”It’s angry about the cocktail sauce comment.”
"Sorry, Cap," Bravo comments.
Soundbyte was quickly starting to gather that this creature was simply far faster then the STEVE in every sense of the definition. He partitioned a section of his mind and dedicated it into "Autopilot" while he focused the rest of himself elsewhere. This creature was no doubt a strong predator of this world, but how would it react if something much larger made an appearance?
Picosends were spent feverishly searching through his catalogs of audio clips until he found one that might do the trick. Aiming his spell deeper downward into the darkness, a terrifying sound came up from the depths.
Not realizing what Soundbyte's doing, Bravo mutters "There's always a bigger fish..."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not realizing what Soundbyte's doing, Bravo mutters "There's always a bigger fish..."
The beast seems to pause for a moment as a mighty roar comes from the depths. All is quiet for a moment before something resembling a javelin jets out of the water, lodging itself in the creature's side.
The javelin is followed by another, then a third. The beast dives beneath the surface, and after a tense few minutes, it floats to the surface, dead.
Something else rises to the surface as well. A long sheet of brightly colored coral shaped almost like a boat breaches to the surface, with several humanoid shapes on it's back. One standing at the front sets down it's javelin and raises two of six arms above it's head and knocks together what might be fists.
"...Orders, captain?"
Set observes the development for several seconds before withdrawing its pistol from the gunport. "Soundbyte, that is an extremely useful ability. You should summon assistance like that whenever we encounter a hostile crustacean. In the meantime... this one thinks we should surface and try to speak with these javelin-tossing organics." The SRO 'holsters' his pistol and the glammer returns as it shifts back to the appearance of a busted datapad. "Perhaps they have cocktail sauce."
Bravo lowers his gun.
"Oh, great. Out of a fight and into a first-contact situation. Soundbyte, you got that translator thing ready?"
Krizen nervously eyes the newcomers. "If you do, make sure it's set to polite, right? Because those javelin-tossing organics just killed a creature that was about to eat us... Hopefully they don't believe in life debts..."
The missionary nods, taking out the little device and hooking it up to himself. "New Audio input/output device detected. Installing drivers... Complete. /Ready as I'll ever be."
Once on the surface, the S.E.T. opens whatever hatch or mechanism the STEVE has and clambers out to where it is more visible to the other organics. It brings its appendages together above its head, mirroring the other organics gesture -- Holiest Besmara, please do not let be a challenge to a duel... -- then moves to help lift the others, whispering, "Try to avoid conflict... this one has nowhere to hide."
As Soundbyte or others try to engage with the strangers, Set will try to run its culture subroutines and see if it can deduce anything useful.
The creature standing in front begins to speak in a guttural and fluid language that S.E.T. thinks is related to Aquan, "Hluuuursh. Shuwulunthulyir. Munulunyaolbuun."
It pauses, seemingly waiting for a reponse.
Bravo waits for the synthetics to begin their parley, nodding at S.E.T.'s request to keep things as non-violent as possible. This wasn't Apostae, after all, these folks were probably just minding their own business and didn't deserve to get punched in the face for that.
Coming closer into the light, Soundbyte takes a momment to feel the sun's weight upon his solar panels. Lights accross his body come alit with the surve of energy. Now's not the time to focus on his goddess's blessings however.
Moving to just being his fellow SRO, the missionary takes a momment to look at the incoming linguistics data. "Insufficent data." He emits in monotone. He steps a bit closer to the edge, and places hand to his chest plate. "My name is/ Soundbyte of Sunlight."
Looking to his captain, his optics carry the meassage to copy his introduction.
Set watched Soundbyte with an unmoving oculus, then whispered, "They are speaking something akin to Aquan... This one does not speak Aquan." The iris cycles shut then opens; something like a shrug.
"Insufficient data/ repeat after me." He spoke more clearly, as SET hadn't gotten his meaning. If the translation device were to work they'd need more information, such as getting the being to introduce themselves.
Set continued to stare at Soundbyte. It didn’t have a name so much as a designation. It was probably the same thing for the other’s purposes. It turned to the natives, held an appendage to its chest as Soundbyte had done and said, ”Insufficient data. My name is Set.”
"Uluuuwaglalaaash? Mlaoyulwaw? Shulubunsulnir?" The creature seems confused by the appearance of the two metal beings. It pauses before saying, "Set? Hlukkulsushbul."
The translation device chirps into Soundbyte's audioreceptors, "Sufficient data parsed to process speech."
He nods to his captain, "I think I'm starting to get it."
Krizen whispers out of the corner of his mouth to Bravo. "Should we do anything? I don't know if a smile or introduction from us could ruin what Soundbyte's doing..." Krizen deliberately keeps his arms clear of his side and in view, away from his weapon.
Set whispers to Krizen and the humans, ”Come up and introduce yourselves. Other organics might be... good? Ask them if they have cocktail sauce.”