Hoplite stared down at the strangers, his shotgun not yet aimed but ready to be if the need arose. Suddenly, the square-faced man walked forward to the base of Hoplite’s tree and moved to begin climbing up it. Hoplite aimed his shotgun down at the pale man and he froze. Even if he didn’t understand what a gun was, he clearly understood that whatever Hoplite was holding was a weapon.

“Identify.” Hoplite ordered.

The strangers all looked at each other, the two faced mutant staring up at him with those black eyes. That one he could put down with a blast of his shotgun, but Hoplite supposed the same could be said of all of these people. None of them wore armor that could stop these shells. The elf-woman in full plate stepped forward, placing a hand to her chest as the pale man stepped away from the tree.

“I am Twindil, a Paladin of Afina, the Pillar-god of tranquility.”

He searched those green eyes of hers but there wasn’t anything but confidence in those eyes. A paladin? She certainly didn’t look like one. The generation of super soldiers before Hoplite had been called paladins, but they weren’t all that common nowadays. Hoplite had met and even fought side-by-side with a few, and they shared a hoplite's disposition. After all, they went through the same training as hoplite's, just without the mutations that accompanied project CHIMERA.

This woman did not have those same cold empty eyes, indeed they seemed brimming with life. She actually smiled at him when she saw his head cock toward her, the small scar on her lip only pulling it down slightly. No, this girl was not Ternan personnel, not with those ears and that gear.

The pale man then coughed and rubbed the back of his head, not glancing up at Hoplite as he spoke.

“I’m Kid’ka. I uh… am a Tongue of Zodd.” He said, seemingly straining to speak the words.

Whoever this man was, Hoplite could tell that he didn’t speak very often based on the croak in his voice, either that or he smoked an unhealthy amount of tobacco like the sergeants onboard the sparrow. Kid’ka then lifted up the back of his hand, displaying it to show that it had been branded with the image of a tongue. He had heard mention of the Tongues of Zodd before in the Harkhall. Were these all tongues? Likely not, Twindil likely would have introduced herself as such if that were so.

The red-skinned mutant then began pushing the buttons on the keypad to Hoplite's pod, and Hoplite leapt from his branch. He collided with the ground with a resounding crash, landing next to Kid’ka and kicking up dirt and grass all over the man's clothing. Kid’ka grimaced and wiped away the grass and dirt, mumbling under his breath in a dissatisfied tone.

Hoplite raised his shotgun and aimed it at the red mutant “Step away from the pod now.” He ordered, approaching while keeping an eye on everyone surrounding him.

“Woah! Okay okay… was just curious was all.” The mutant said. His voice was light with a tone of mischievousness to it, like those privates aboard the Sparrow that preferred to goof off rather than be productive. “Names Elum, and anyway it's not like it’s yours, we were here first, so I call dibs!”

He scratched at one of his black horns as he backed away from the pod, compressing his lips to a fine line while somehow also managing to stare longingly at the crashed shuttle.

“That is Ternan property.” Hoplite said, seeing Lance emerge from behind her tree “There are no ‘dibs’.”

Elum lifted his chin "What about the international 'dibs' law? It dictates that... uh if I find a thing and call dibs that it's mine."

Twindil shot a glare at Elum "There is no such law!"

Elum then began grumbling 'goody goody' under his breath, Twindil maintaining the accusing glare.

He had heard that term before between a couple exo troops concerning a cup of ice cream once. The two had almost come to blows. Indeed Elum looked irritated that he could not claim Hoplite's pod for himself. It was then that Hoplite noticed the other watchers in the trees above them… it seemed as if around thirty were there, all staring silently at him and the strangers. Were they here before or had they followed these people? Lance had told him that one of the many watchers' duties was to observe trespassers until they left the forest, and that meant following them until they were gone.

Or had they been scheming a way to break into his shuttle?

He turned his attention back to Elum, who stared back seemingly unconcerned. He crossed his arms and huffed, turning away from Hoplite, seemingly irritated.

“Never heard of Terbutt or whatever the hells you called it. Keep it then. Fine.” Elum said, as if it were his to give away in the first place.

Hoplite looked to the blonde man wearing the red headband then, who stood next to the two-faced mutant with a hand on a sword at his belt.

“I’m Alistair.” The blonde man said “This here is the angel and my eidolon Baomiel.” He finished, gesturing with a nod to the two-faced mutant.

Hoplite was of a height with the creature that Alistair had named ‘angel’. It glared at him, those arms crossed over its broad chest.

“That,” Hoplite started in a deadpan “Is a mutant.”

Alistair stared confusion at Hoplite, and Baomiel’s upper half frowned at Hoplite as the lower half continued to lick its own eyeballs.

“No,” Alistair said with a shake of his head “See, he is a summoned angel from the astral plane. I can summon him and dismiss him at will. I am Atheyare, golem.” He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Hoplite did not argue the point, nor did he explain that he was really a human, not a golem. He instead turned his attention to the woman with the eerily symmetrical face. Her blue and green eyes found him, seeming to try and bore into his very soul. Uncanny indeed, there was some kind of mutation besides the heterochromia there, though he could not place it purely based on her appearance.

“Oh!” She said, as if she only just now noticed him “I’m Nolvi. I can stare pretty alright I guess.”

With that, Nolvi began staring at the forest floor, seemingly zoning off the very instant those eyes found the ground. Alistair shook his head and removed his hand from the sword hilt.

“She is… er, a bit… vacuous, do not mind her.” He said sufferingly.

Lance was speaking to Kid’ka now, who was looking more drained talking to her than he had speaking to Hoplite. These people did not seem hostile but that didn’t mean that she should have broken her orders to leave cover. After all the situation was still unresolved, he needed to question everyone and then clear these people out of here. At least from his shuttle, if his hunch was correct, then they would be heading for the Fiendwall that had collapsed.

A thought then occurred to him, but he would act on that after this was all said and done.

The sixth man, an old looking elf wearing a black watchers outfit approached, big dark bags under aged wise green eyes. Furrows carved their ways through his skin and he held himself in a slight hunch, bushy dark eyebrows drooping down. His long dark hair was held back in a single ponytail, not a single gray among that head of black despite the wrinkles on his face. An old elf? Seemed these had a lifespan after all.

Instead of saying anything, the old elf simply sat on the ground, staring uncaringly at Hoplite for a moment before looking to Alistair.

“Got any food?”

Alistair then compressed his lips in a tight line “No! You eat enough already Theopalu! We do not have enough rations to make this trip if you keep eating the way you have been-”

“Yeah I got some.” Kid’ka said, leaving Lance’s company and lightly jogging over to where the old elf sat.

Hoplite stared as he pulled out a large piece of hardtack, handing it to the old elf while Alistair glared daggers at Kid’ka. The old elf - Theopalu, wasted no time in consuming the fist-sized morsel. Hoplite stared in near-bafflement as he saw the elf swallow the hardtack without chewing it. It was as if Theopalu’s throat had expanded to allow it to fall straight into his stomach.

Perhaps elves were more mutated than he thought? But then why was Lance staring in near-horrified shock at Theopalu? If all elves could eat like that then she would not be staring at the old elf in such a way.

The blonde elf girl; Twindil, then gently grabbed her by the arm, giving a small smile.

“He just does that. I’ve never really had a chance to… uh, talk to one of you before.” Twindil said with brief hesitation “Well, besides Theopalu anyway,” She said quickly “But he doesn’t like to talk. See, I’m actually half-elf and I was wanting to ask if-”

“That’s enough.” Hoplite cut in “What are you all doing here?”

He noticed that around twenty of the watchers had left the trees above. Why would they do that? The threat wasn’t gone yet.

Twindil actually jumped, her plate armor clinking together as she stared at him with surprise “We heard that the Fiendwall fell. We hired Theopalu to guide us through the Faewood to reach it.” She smiled again “After all, Afina wouldn’t approve of such chaos spreading through the land, I will purge it.”

Kid’ka nodded in agreement but didn’t say anything more.

“We came upon this… did you call it a pod?” Alistair asked before continuing “On the way there. And, I’m going to be completely honest with you here, we were going to loot it.” Alistair said with a shrug “We didn’t know it was yours okay? No harm, no foul. Gotta ask though,” He said, lifting an eyebrow at Hoplite “Is this one of the falling stars? Pretty much everyone saw at least a few of them. Can’t help but notice that this place looks like it got split down the middle, like it crashed here.”

“They weren’t stars. They were escape pods.” Hoplite told him “Have you found any others? Were there humans in them?”

The party then all stared at one another before turning back to Hoplite. Kid’ka then cleared his throat, wringing his hands nervously before speaking.

“Not humans exactly,” He said, pulling something out from beneath his cape “It was these four armed monkey things.”

Sitting there, attached to Kid’ka’s hip was a completely cleaned Yugoro skull, the ape-like alien enforcers of the Final Kind. Hoplite stared in bafflement at the thing. That was definitely a yugoro, but how had these people managed to kill one of them with such primitive technology? He could not believe that they had tried to fight it with swords and such, perhaps the ‘angel’ Baomiel could, but even then that seemed unlikely. Hoplite had seen a Yugoro tear a Paladin's arms off with barely any effort, getting into melee range of one was idiotic, unless you were a Hoplite.

“There were two of them. I only wanted one skull though.” Kid’ka said “We killed them and took their stuff.”

Two of them. If there wasn’t proof of at least one before his very eyes Hoplite would have dismissed the idea entirely. They must have been severely wounded when these locals had found them, otherwise they would have-

“They were tough too,” Twindil said, pulling out a massive sword sheathed at her back “Could barely cut into them with this thing after they left that… pod of theirs.”

Hoplite stared at the dainty (compared to him anyway) woman. This had to be some kind of mistake, one yugoro should have been more than a match for this entire group of mutated misfits. But perhaps that was it? They had to be much more powerful than a normal person to be able to kill two yugoro’s with just swords and bows.

If they took all of their gear as well after killing them, then that meant they had taken their plasma guns as well. Hoplite considered confiscating them, but held off. If these people weren’t hostile and were killing Final Kind, then perhaps they should be allowed to hold on to them in case they ran into any more. Anything and everything should be used by humanity to defend themselves from Final Kind invaders. Based on their earlier reaction, Hoplite also guessed they had no idea what Terna was either.

“Well I helped.” Alistair said “I made you bigger than they were and I sucked away their essence with this.”

Hoplite then saw as Alistair seemingly summoned golden flame from the palm of his hand. Civilian bionic in his hand that produces colored flame surely. A strange bionic to have but civilians were prone to installing useless ones. Strange that it didn’t burn his hand… even more strange that there was nowhere the flame was emitting from on his palm. It simply was.

Just a strange trick, maybe some advanced holographs? Yes that had to be it.

Elum sniffed then “Yeah? I melted them, I think that's way cooler. Check this out!” He said, aiming a single red finger at the ground in front of him.

A stream of green bubbling fluid emerged an inch from his finger, pooling onto a tree branch and eating away the bark rapidly. Hoplite resisted the urge to raise his shotgun. It was just some kind of strange bionic he hadn’t heard of. Why he could see no tube emerging from his finger didn’t change that, perhaps it was… cloaked?

There really was no other explanation-

“Ow!” Kid’ka suddenly shouted, sticking a suddenly bleeding finger into his mouth.

It seemed as if he were trying to pluck a bright red rose from a tangle of plants nearby and gouged it on a thorn by accident. Twindil then sighed, walking away from Lance, who stared in open amazement at Alistair and Elum as well. Whatever it was they were doing to produce those tricks, it must not have been a common sight for her. Twindil reached Kid’ka then, pulling the finger from his mouth and giving a small sigh as she put a hand to a golden chain around her neck.

It looked as if she were clutching something, and she shut her eyes and uttered something he couldn’t understand.

“Afina, let him be tranquil in health...”

A golden glow emerged from the small injury, the wound sealing instantly when the glow dispersed. Kid’ka took his hand back and smiled, flashing her a thumbs up.

“You have to be more careful.” She told him seriously.

He sighed then “I know but I wanted it.”

Hoplite couldn’t believe it… but he thought his jaw might be agape. Surely that had to be- it must have been a- certainly it was-

Ah, that was it, it was nanomachines. True, nanomachines did not glow… or were even visible in any way, but there was no other explanation for how that wound had closed so quickly… without even… a small scar. Not to mention that nanomachines could not transfer from person to person. Each fleet of nanobots was 'tailored' for lack of better words; to the person hosting them, so that the users body wouldn't identify the microscopic machines as a virus. Transferring nanomachines in such a way always resulted in intense fevers and bacterial infections, leading to death. It simply had to be something else that Twindil did to heal Kid'ka.

But that begged the question.

What?

Lance cleared her throat nervously “So… some of you can do magic…” She said, clearly uncomfortable “I assume that- well you have to be sanctioned yes? You are not... pillar-born?” She asked, suddenly serious.

Glances passed between the group save Theopalu, who stared at a beetle crawling on a stump before grabbing it up and promptly eating it whole. It was a stag beetle.

“...Yes.” Twindil said after a moment's hesitation “I have my papers on me now if you must look over them.”

Lance gave a deep sigh of relief once she read over these ‘sanctioning’ papers. Hoplite himself saw the words ‘By the Head of the Cathedral of Tranquil Afina, Twindil Mermu is sanctioned as a mortal’. What did all of that mean? His eyes felt heavier than ever now as he gazed longingly at the pod. All he had to do was step inside and seal it shut, then he could take care of himself and be done with all this nonsense.

“Give them directions.” Hoplite ordered Lance.

She glared daggers at him then, though for what Hoplite didn’t understand.

“We do want to get to the Fiendwall miss Lance.” Twindil said with another small smile “Please we can help push back the fiends when we get there, we don’t mean any harm to the wood truly. Afina’s word on it.”

Lance turned from Hoplite and smiled back at Twindil.

“You are three days south, but old Theopalu there knows the way well enough. He used to be a watcher after all.”

“Lance, do you have control of this situation?” Hoplite asked as he approached the pod.

“Uh… yes?” She told him with an eyebrow cocked.

“Call out if they turn hostile. I’ll be in the pod.” Hoplite told her “Do not attempt to follow me in. I will open fire.” He warned the group.

Strangely, Elum smiled “You’re magic too? You sanctioned? I can open fire too-”

Hoplite aimed his shotgun as the horned mutant approached Hoplite.

“Back.” he ordered.

Elum shook his head, sighing as he looked to Alistair with a pouting lip “I was just curious.”

Their words became muffled as he sealed the pod doors behind him. They continued speaking for a long while, Hoplite clutching his shotgun and straining his bionic ears to their limit to pick up on any hostile tones. When the voices finally faded away without the sounds of conflict, Hoplite set about removing his armor, trying not to think about the things he had seen the strangers do.

He may as well take care of his every need, he would eat, drink, and sleep. Four hours should be enough assuming that nothing attacked the pod or Lance. If there was a body of water nearby, he may take the time to wash as well. That would mean potential exposure to toxins in the environment or an attack from hostiles, but he was fairly confident that he could rinse and be back to the pod before any kind of incident, and if other ‘normal’ humans could survive exposed on this planet, then surely he could as well. His immune system was incredibly deadly to all forms of contagions. When he was free of his armor, he tore into the rations and full canteens of water, guzzling them down as if he were drowning before slumping over on a row of the seats, sleep ready to claim him.

As his eyes finally shut, his thoughts drifted back to just what he had seen today.

His dreams were of magic, monsters, and elves. Like the book he read as a child over two centuries ago.