Man, Mare, Machine

Crnl Gd-2: Scout-one, status.

Sct-1: Successful rendezvous with Valkyrie squad.

Crnl Gd-2: Good, anything to report?

Sct-1: No new developments. Valkyrie seems distracted.

Crnl Gd-2: Something to report?

Sct-1: Something has alerted the Valkyrie, assisting in investigation.

Crnl Gd-2: Do not engage, flee if locals.

Sct-1: Yes sir.

"Something wrong?" Asked the scout as he approached the Valkyrie, she had been spacing-out for the last few minutes, looking very concentrated on something.

She jumped a little at his appearance but quickly calmed herself. "Sorry, I didn't hear you." She was probably more easily startled by things sneaking up on her than other people, considering that she could probably hear things coming ten times better than the average person. "I can hear something in the woods. It sounds similar to the locals from the audio recordings but a different inflection, like a foreign speaker."

"Can you grasp any of the meaning?"

"The translator is still rough but it sounds like they're... sad."

"We were told not to address locals."

She looked at him, a fairly flat expression. He really did wonder what her parents were, he had never seen any species come close to perfecting a poker face like she had. Maybe it was one of those secret racial traits, like seeing in the dark, or maybe he was just terrible at making out faces.

"We should still probably investigate, if it's another equine, we can just leave."

They slowly crept through the underbrush. The scout was impressed, he hadn't expected her to be so quiet in that armor they stuck her in, maybe they received stealth and forestry training during their regime, she was far from noiseless, but the rain helped muffle the occasional rustled brush. They were close enough now that they could both hear the sound very quietly. He had to stop himself from blurting-out a question about how she heard the local through the rain, realizing that it would likely be taken as inappropriate. After a little jury-rigging of the communicators, they had managed to find a way to feed the translator output in the scout's helmet as well.

Eventually they came upon a clearing. Inside was another strange creature.

"It's fascinating..." Commented the scout, he had seen nothing similar to this creature while he was here and hadn't heard anything form the other scout's reports. It had what seemed to be a black exoskeleton around it's entire body which still allowed free movement. It possessed both wings and a horn, an event that he had not witnessed yet. He had noticed the fangs but they didn't look like meat-eater fangs, more venomous, but that didn't make sense, how would venom help this animal find food? He doubted it was actually a meat-eater, considering the still relatively equine nature, maybe it was just defense.

"How beautiful." She agreed, she found the creature enthralling, the large, expressive eyes that were currently looking downward showed that this creature was both intelligent and downtrodden. The mane was a beautiful shade of deep blue which sank under the weight of the rain. It was marvelous and mysterious. It was like something out of a children's book, a slightly deranged children's book, like the ones you could buy in Germany.

"Almost all *zzt* *zzzttt* are gone..."

They jumped a little at the sound of the translator, they had forgotten that the creature could talk. The translator had missed some of the words, but it was working fairly well.

"Did *zztt* *zzztt* all this?"

"It looks hurt." Observed the Valkyrie. Indeed the creature's legs seemed to be slightly bent, resting in a clearly uncomfortable way that couldn't have been by choice.

"It won't last long if it can't defend itself, I doubt it can stand." He knew that these woods were teeming with those wood wolves he had observed and if they were anything like normal wolves, they wouldn't miss an easy opportunity like this when they found it.

During their conversation it just stayed there, laying on the ground.

"Should we help it?" She asked.

The scout stayed silent, this was a complete mash-up of both direct orders and moral duty. It was sometimes difficult to tell which was more important in fleet matters.

He finally spoke. "I guess we should, if it's intelligent. You go, it'll be more trusting if it can see your face."

Slowly, she stepped out from the trees, trying to be obvious-enough to make it clear that she wasn't trying to sneak-up on it. It noticed her and went from a surprised look to one of intrigue very quickly. It looked her up and down, examining her and checking every detail.

"What do you want from me?" She asked with a certain edge. She seemed to be down-playing the fact that she had no idea what she was.

She really hoped this translator wasn't cheap. "I am... a friend."

"I have none." She responded quickly, apparently quite assured of that fact.

"Are you...hurt?" She asked while keeping her distance.

"None of your *zzztt*."

Pretty sure that was business "I am here to help you, but you have to let me."

She locked-eyes with her for a long time, looking for something. After a tense while she finally spoke again.

"I could not refuse you if I wanted." She didn't sigh she just... deflated, switching back to the sad state she was in before.

"Is it okay if my... friend helps?"

"Do what you will." She spoke as she turned her head, betraying her curiosity.

Although she clearly tensed a little as the scout emerged, she calmed-down little by little again. They each assisted in lifting her up and beginning the slow trek back to the cave... the cave that was up the side of a mountain.

"I don't know anymore. One moment there are three species, then there are five, then there are ten. I can't work with this many variables." Stated Jeremiah from his seat, hands linked in front of his face, he would almost prefer a battle to this, not a big battle mind, just a small one, anything to get away from this dreaded long-term planning he was forced to do.

"Peace, Jeremiah. We know your plight, leading a diplomatic mission in your shoes would indeed be difficult."

"Difficult? Try impossible, I don't even think all of the species on this planet are aware of each other yet, how are we supposed to get them all in a meeting?"

"Jeremiah, you have handled more than this with less to work with, you can handle this." Asserted Marco.

"This will be impossible to vote on, the citizens hate it when the politics get too confusing... that's why they're here after all." He muttered from beneath his hands, his voice low.

"Then forget formalities."

That got him to look up. He hadn't expected that statement from Angelica of all people. "What do you mean Angelica?"

"I mean just send a ship down to the leaders, one at a time."

"No no no, that wouldn't work. If we go to the peaceful civilizations, the militaristic ones will feel threatened and make things difficult."

"Then do the opposite."

"Then the more cultured civilizations will be offended, even if the leaders aren't the people most certainly will be."

"I hate to impose-" a voice stopped Jeremiah's thought-process. He knew that voice wasn't one of the other delegates, it was coming from behind him.

"but perhaps I should just handle this myself?"

Jeremiah was silent, not turning to face the man. "That's odd, I was almost sure only council members were allowed to sit-in on meetings. What do you want?"

"I don't plan to stay, I just came to say I have an idea that could fix this whole problem for us." he tossed a file to Jeremiah, as he read, he couldn't help but feel both hopeful and full of unease at the same time. The file was filled with information on a new species confirmed as 'Changelings', complete with a satellite image of one of the scouts carrying what was identified in the file as a queen.