unstable expedition 7

start: https://pastebin.com/j81r9nCF
pt. 5: https://pastebin.com/EM0fs07M
pt. 6: https://pastebin.com/ah9B6Syr

Marty stepped out of the rover and onto the grassy land around the ditch surrounding the wall. He was followed shortly by Janet and Kevin. Janet held a laser gun--an emergency supply brought along as a precaution. The whole EVA party kept their visor shades closed for protection against reflected laser light in the event the weapon had to be used. Janet was rather hoping that would be unnecessary.

The crew hiked along the side of the ditch around the long wall of tree-spires, until finally they saw what they were looking for: an entrance. There was a large roofed structure built into the wall, and from depressions in the ground it was clear that there was a drawbridge there which was currently raised.

"Should we go up to it?" Marty said.

"And do what, knock on the door?" Kevin said.

"Well, as a start," Marty said.

"I can't think of a better idea," Janet said. The three walked up to the ditch in front of the drawbridge. "We can't get across the ditch," she said, but studied the ditch up close, "I think this land is made up of solid rock rather than the soft dirt of much of the region. That must be why the castle was built here."

"How can you tell?" Kevin said.

"Look, see the bits of rock poking out of the sides of the steepest parts of the ditch? Looks like granite," Janet said.

"What if we just threw a camera over the wall?" Marty said, pulling a small camera out of a patch on his arm.

"No, I don't think that's a good--" Janet started, and then she noticed the gate lowering. "Look!" She stepped back as the drawbridge lowered, opening up the inside of the bailey.

Ten aliens revealed themselves. They had four legs, long necks, flattened hamburger-bun-shaped heads with six arms dangling beneath their heads. Each alien pulled a sled with some tools--pickaxes and shovels, some rope, and each was wearing simple brown clothing--except for three of them, two of which wore bright silver shining armor and the other of which wore bright ornate red and blue and was riding in a wheeled cart connected to the sleds.

"Oh my god!" Kevin said. "They look so--"

"They look so alien!" Marty said.

"I was going to say familiar!" Kevin said.

"They're iron age!" Janet said.

"This information is invaluable," Kevin said, "everyone be sure to record your perspective with your cameras and scanners continuously."

The red-clothed alien made a high pitched screech, and one of the armored aliens responded, and brandished a whip. The other aliens started forward, pulling the sleds of tools out of the shed.

"I wonder what those sleds are for?" Marty said.

"Could be for carrying mined minerals--they have shovels and pickaxes," Janet said.

As the aliens came out of the gate and over the drawbridge, the red-clothed alien noticed Janet, Marty, and Kevin. It emitted a low rumble at the armored aliens and one of them walked over to the group.

"They must be very curious about us," Marty whispered.

"Hello," Janet said, "We are humans from the planet Earth. We come in peace." Janet knew perfectly well that they wouldn't know what Janet was saying, but she wanted to start her first contact off right. She stood her ground as the fairly huge alien, about the size of a horse, clad in armor and carrying swords in several of its hands, approached. The alien reached its hand out to touch Janet's helmet.

"That is my helmet," she said, "my brain is in here."

Upon hearing Janet speak, the alien recoiled its hand slightly. It shouted a screeching, warbling noise back at the sleds. Another screech was heard in return from the red-clothed alien.

"Maybe if you try to mimick it?" Marty suggested, and made a loud screeching, warbling noise which hurt his throat. It just about approximated what the armored alien had said. The armored alien recoiled, stepped back, and then approached Marty. "Hello," he said. The alien vocalized again, and Marty attempted to mimick it.

"I'm not sure that's a smart idea," Janet said, "it might get the wrong idea."

The red-clothed alien approached the three cautiously. It squawked and warbled at the armored alien, who screeched back.

"I'm going to try something," Janet said. She held her hand out to the red-clothed alien's face arms. It brought its head closer, without moving its arms. Then it grabbed onto Janet's arm, and tried to shove the arm into its mouth. "Woah! Hey! That's not what this is for!"

"That was a bad idea!" Kevin said. "Were you trying to shake its hand?"

Marty pulled his equipment pack off of the velcro attaching it to his chest, and foraged for his computer tablet.

Janet tried to pull her arm out of the alien's mouth, but between the grips of six arms and a jaw, she couldn't. With her other arm she pulled out the laser gun and, set to a short low power burst, she fired it at the alien's face. It shut its eyes and recoiled, screamed an order at the armored alien, and the armored alien grabbed Janet. Marty dropped his equipment pack on the ground, and grabbed onto the alien's head to try to pull him away.

"Wait, Marty, stop!" Kevin said.

The armored alien removed the laser gun from Janet's hand, and looked it over, pulling his arm above his head so his eyes could get a good look at it.

"It has the laser gun," Janet said, looking at the laser gun as she said this, before looking back at Marty and Kevin, "be VERY careful."

The alien made a vocalization that sounded like if someone said "laser gun" while chewing rusty nails. The two aliens exchanged a dialogue of unpleasant noises. Marty figured it would be a good time, while the aliens were distracted, to steal back the laser gun. He jerked the gun out of the grasp of the armored alien, who caught it in another hand. They then shared an intense game of tug-of-war. Janet was able to escape the alien's grasp.

"Careful!" she said. Kevin was off to the side taking video of everything that was happening.

There was a bright flare! The red-clothed alien fell to the floor, screaming as it grasped at the severe burns in its neck. The armored alien immediately lost interest in the laser gun and ran to hold the red-clothed one. It shouted something at the other armored alien, who was now running towards the three humans with swords out.

"Run!" Janet said, and they did. The armored alien galloped after the lot of them and was gaining ground fast.

"Janet to Rover One! Be prepared to hit the gas as soon as we're in the airlock!" Janet said.

"Acknowledged," Emily said. As she saw the crew running around the wall, she turned the rover around and drove at the crew. She then saw the armored alien. "Woah!" She said, "Bob, look!"

"Holy cow!" Bob exclaimed.

Emily drove at full speed towards the crew. The alien was almost upon them. The crew scattered out of the way of the rover, and the alien skidded across the grass to a halt as the great rover hurtled towards it. It ran away, and the crew all ran back. Janet grabbed onto the airlock door, Marty onto the equipment rack, and Kevin jumped onto the ladder attached to the trunk.

"Now!" Kevin said.

Emily pushed the pedal to the metal as the rover jolted back. The rover skidded as she turned the rover round and pushed it into forward motion, and she could now see that three aliens--in blue, brown, and silver armor--were chasing them. Crossbow bolts flung past Marty and pierced the thin metal of the rover hull. "We've been hit!" Marty said.

The aliens, clearly in a much lighter armor, were gaining ground. "Good lord they're fast!" Kevin noted, holding up his camera. More crossbow bolts flung past and finally the aliens began to slow down. They finally came to a stop when they realized they weren't catching up. When they were beyond the horizon, Emily stopped the vehicle to give the crew time to board the rover.

"That was one of humankind's worst first contacts," Janet said.

"To be fair, it's also one of humankind's only first contacts," Marty said.

"We have a lot of data to analyze. Maybe I can even get an idea, from studying the videos, of how their language works. That conversation that seemed to be about the laser gun would definitely be useful," Kevin said.

"You guys have to tell us everything," Emily said.

"We will have a full report when we get back to the base," Janet said.

"Should we tell Carol or Scott about our encounter?" Marty said.

"We should wait until we can show them the video!" Kevin said. Janet nodded, though really she mostly wanted to come up with an explanation of the events which didn't paint her as a comically ineffective diplomat.

"I've been looking at the weather simulations, and given that we're approaching perihelion in a few weeks, I think we should return to the base as soon as possible. We want to get there before the storms start in the temperate regions, and I'm projecting they're going to be big," Bob said, "though it does look like the weather is much dryer and calmer up at these latitudes."

"Then we'll set a course for the base," Janet said, "even if there's no water from the sky to worry about, it seems that there's a lot of flooding at close perihelia, given the terrain in the area. I don't want to get caught up in a flood. And besides, it'll be good to put some distance between us and that settlement."

"We have to come back some time!" Kevin said. "There's so much to learn. So much to think about. I wonder how they managed to survive the rapid climate change. Where do they get their food? What is their culture like? What were those sleds?"

Janet had to admit that this raised far more questions than answers.