Behind The Castle Wall By: Skybox Monster Flying high above the beach, my aircraft exploded flinging me out of the it. While falling I lost conciseness. I slammed into the beach hard sending up a cloud of sand. But aside broken leg I was unhurt from the fall. The local, uh... wildlife. must have heard the explosion and saw my jet in flames in the sky falling and saw the second larger explosion that sent my aircraft to the ground were the crash must have made quite a crater. They also must have seen me fall from the aircraft and crash on the beach in a spray of sand where they found me. Being kind in nature they attempted to bandage my leg. They also left me where I lay in case I had broken something. Which I had. I woke later that night; I noticed that my leg had been mostly fixed thanks to the Nanites in my blood speeding up the healing process. Without moving I looked around, near by I noticed a large reptile like figure similar to a lizard. The creature was standing upright, it had long legs and a tail that reached to the ground, there was several of them surround me and they appeared to be studying me. These lizards appear to be the dominant species on this planet. Hours earlier I left the space station in my spacecraft I called Firefly to investigate this planet's hospitality for human life. No major colonies but an encampment large enough for a spaceport. Simply enough, a fuel station for spacecraft because storing fuel in orbit is hard to maintain because that weight changes would decay the orbit and it would crash down to the planet. While scouting out a location near natural resources I found formations that weren’t natural to this planet, like caves that show well used going trails in and out. Scout protocols say that a spaceport cannot be near large numbers of wildlife so I moved toward the ocean looking for a location, for some spacecraft still use the splash down method. I set autopilot to follow the coast north away from the caves. I was looking out the windows to a beautiful landscape similar to Earth's coastlines but with broad hot beaches, with mountains in the distance. I heard and felt a blast and saw smoke pouring out of the right engine, the computer shutdown the engine and extinguish the fire. But unknown to me, the fire was also in the fuselage and making its way to the fuel tanks, when I discovered this it was too late to stop the flames because the fire retardant was already used on the engine. I now had to abandon my aircraft on a remote planet. I set the auto pilot to make an emergency landing, which also sends out a distress signal. Then I ran as fast as I could to the rear cargo hold and tried to get my survival gear on, but just as a reached for the parachute I saw a bright light come from the front of the aircraft and watched the shockwave speed to me. I jumped out of the jet but was caught by the blast and shot out of the aircraft like a bullet, which probably saved me because the jet was traveling north at a high sped but the blast wave pushed me backwards so when I started falling it was straight down. The ground was a few hundred feet down but the gravity is less on this planet and the air is denser. So I survived the fall with just that broken leg and a gash. This brings me back to where I am. On the beach with three intelligent reptiles that don’t seem to freak out that there is an alien in front of them and probably a large smoking crater that was my jet some distance from here, I can still see the glow of the fire in the distance. I could hear the creatures speaking which meant that they at least used sound for communication. And probably smell. The air was now cooler than it was in the day when I crashed. It’s about 60*F now, which far from the 90*F infra-red sample I got from space. I noticed that the reptiles were sluggish but showed no signs of real discomfort as far as I could tell. They seemed most interested in the fact I was generating heat being exothermic, because one would take the temperature of my skin every so often. I shivered, the creature taking note of my temperature noticed and spoke, and got the others attention. It showed the others its notes and they all started talking. The sounds they made I guess I could probably copy myself, I could speak to them if I could just learn the language. I was cold and I guess that the reptiles could see my body heat going down on there notes. they must of also found out other facts such as that I breath using my lungs, through my nose, I had two eyes, hair, ears --which they could only guess what they were for--, I walked upright same as them, and my body was covered by a thin flexible material. For the reptiles had no clothes and no idea what they were for. But they had cut through my pant's leg to get to my wound to treat it, And got a cloth and blood sample in the process. My survival pack was a few feet away, still closed. I noticed that some crates were scattered around when they fell out of the plane during the explosion. Most were broken, and those that were not, were opened and the contents removed for study. I needed to get to the crash site and see if I could salvage anything from the wreckage. The fire was out now and it was really dark but I figured that my eyesight was better than the reptilians so I could make my way to the site. The temperature felt like 50*F. The lizards left to a tent that they setup earlier in the night, and there was a weak red glow, a heater maybe? But for the moment I was unattended so I made my move. Still sore from the fall I was sluggish in my escape, but I still managed to grab my pack and sneaked out of the camp without being noticed. I headed north to the crash site. The debris-field was about the size of four football fields; beating my old Captains’ record by at least double. The aircraft itself was now just a partially melted steel frame. Well I could not salvage anything but at least the reptilians could not steal our technology. But that also means the distress beacon was not transmitting anymore. I needed to get a radio from one of the crates in the cargo hold which was now strewn all over the beach. Finding nothing else of interest I decided to go back to the camp, but I heard shouting from the camp, my absence was discovered, and the reptilians had started to follow my footprints and were following them north to the crash site. I didn’t want to be found just yet so I stealthily ran to the rocky part of the beach farther inland and did a few tricks that raccoons’ use to throw hunting dogs off their trail, when the reptilians’ came closer I retreated south and hid just behind a dune and watched them get lost in my maze of trails. Eventually they gave up and started eagerly talking about and object one of them was holding. I saw that it was my handheld infrared camera. One of the reptiles had learned what it did and started using it. I was spotted before I could duck. I was hot and tired from all that running, so I must have shown like a beacon on the camera. Soon the chase started again. I knew I could not get away if they had that camera, so I walked back to the camp and sat on a crate. The reptiles, lead by the one with the camera, followed me back to camp and stopped some 50ft away from me. From where I sat I could tell they were breathing heavily and were about as tired as I was. It was getting lighter as morning came, so I could see the color of the reptile's scales. They were mostly green with lighter scales on there stomach than on there back, and each one them had markings unique to each. The one with the camera had red stripes on its arms, and legs, and also down its back to the tip its tail. Its markings seemed to have some feature that set it apart from the rest of the group, it seemed somehow female. Her voice soon confirmed this when she spoke with a higher pitch than the rest. She was pointing to the IR camera and was talking in a long monolog speech. [we mean you no harm, we healed your leg, and then you walked off and we almost lost you trail, but I used this machine to show me where you were, then we followed you back to our camp. so If you would just not move again I would like to try to communicate with you.] I didn’t understand a word of what she said but I could copy the sounds: “[to communicate with you.]” I got a big reaction from the group when they realized that I could speak there language, abet poorly, but we could work on that, I have plenty of time to learn because the crate with the radio in it had been smashed. Seems like there arguing if whether or not I understood what they said...there was something familiar about how they were speaking. I noticed that most of the syllables that they are using are similar to the ones that are in the English language. But aside from that there is something else that’s familiar to me... what was it? "Oh no, it can’t be!" I said out loud. That made a few of the reptiles jump and then they all stared at me. But I think I solved this communication problem. I start checking crates for my cache of old papers. Two of the male reptilians looked as if they were going to chase me, but when they saw I was checking crates they stopped. I found it! The Star fox: Adventures manual. I pull my notes from it and compare them to what I heard. Ill try the last part of the female’s speech "A neict cabo ke kh ke semmidasuko nakx 0ei" [I would like to try to communicate with you] I can’t believe it. They speak Saurian from Star fox... Well now I can reply "A neict ucje cabo ke kucb nakx ei uj nocc" [I would also like to talk with you as well] Now they are staring at me mouths open and wide eyed. I better explain fast. "Sucm tend, sucm tend. A veidt u nu ke khudjcuko eih jfoosx." [Calm down, calm down. I found a way to translate your speech.] I’ve gotten fast at translating now, the delay is a few seconds. Now the female, all though still stunned replies, ***#1 is the human, #2 is the reptile*** 2[how did you learn to speak so fast?] 1[it’s hard to explain, I heard your language on my home planet in the form of a 'made-up' language, I never suspected it was real.] 2[can you explain it better?] 1"uh"[our languages’ share the same sounds, so I can pronounce yours easily, but the strange part is that the only difference between your language and mine is that the sounds are in different places] 2[I think I understand now] 1[I'll speak this sentence in my language and you'll see what I mean.] 1"A'cc jfoub kxaj jodkudso ad m0 cudwiwo udt 0ei'cc joo nxuk A moud." 1[understand?] 2[ye-yes. This is kind of freaking me out. But why are you here?] 1[I was sent to find a location for a spaceship re-fueling station. this planet has a breathable atmosphere and a slightly lighter gravity than on my planet. so I came down to find a location] 2[and did you?] 1[no, I was scouting south of here where I saw caves with trails, but a fuel station cannot be near natives animals, so I moved north to this beach, and that’s when I crashed.] 2[crashed, that was more than a crash! that blast was huge, I can’t understand how you survived it, and the fall. I thought you were dead.] 1[I nearly did die, my spaceship caught fire, but It got to my fuel tanks before I could get it under control, I tried to escape, but the shockwave shot me out of the cargo hold before I could jump. and then I lost consciousness.] 2[that’s where I saw you falling from the blast, you hit the sand really hard *shiver* I heard your leg break.] 2[how are you standing!?] 1[while I was out Nanites sped up the healing process, but I understand someone set my leg straight.] 2[it was me, you may be an alien but I know a broken leg when I see one.] 1[wait I’m not...oh I guess here I am an alien. not a title I am used too.] 2[what is you name?] 1 *salute* [I am Lt. Baker from the U.E.D. Cruiser-class spaceship Norad II] 2[You are military?] 1[yes, but I’m only a scout. my ship doesn’t even have weapons, of course I don’t even have my ship anymore. I lost it along with my emergency beacon and my radio. all I have left is in these few crates.] 2[so you’re stuck now aren’t you?] 1[yes. but I don’t want to stay on this beach longer than I have to, its to hot for me here, unlike you reptiles I generate body heat and I am to hot now, I need shade.] 2[oh yes, um, the tent is still cool from the night you can go in there.] 1[thank you very much.] as I walked toward the tent I wondered where the two males went too. End Part 1. ***Teaser*** Part 2 will have the female’s point of view regarding the incident and the reason Baker was scouting her planet.