After half an hour the shuttles had been emptied of their rations, equipment, building materials and soldiers, the six shuttles soon set back up to their mother ships in high orbit. Solomon squinted as he watched the transports disappear into the blue sky, "We're alone for the next two hours, let's start clearing this crap, and get building." said Solomon as he heaved a large box of ammunition off a pile with Lyra and set off to the soldiers on the perimeter. As Solomon arrived with Lyra at the northern perimeter, three hundred meters from the landing point, the four soldiers there had dug half a meter down, forming their four fox holes into a small trench. Solomon and Lyra placed the box at the threshold of their dirt mound, the youngest had removed his helmet and nodded with a grateful smile before Solomon and Lyra set off back to repeat the action to the east, south and western perimeters.
They approached the Western Perimeter with their ammunition box when Lyra stopped so suddenly that Solomon jerked backwards with the box. "The Hell, Lyra?" asked Solomon, picked himself off the dusty ground, Lyra had already removed her white helmet and was staring in disbelief with her head tilted towards the sky. "Lyra?" asked Solomon impatiently before he saw the problem. The western perimeter soldiers were slowly walking backwards, towards the landing zone with their weapons raised high, towards the oversized, long necked creature, standing ten meters tall, Solomon looked in bewilderment as the creature made its way towards him, he was so distracted by the pale grey creature he didn't hear the quick footsteps of the blue armoured figure of Sandra, gasping for breath "A Brachiosaurus?... here? no... it can't be! We are too far north"
The team of four soldiers on the western perimeter had closed in on Solomon, still backing off, away from the creature, "Lower your weapons." said Sandra softly, the soldiers quickly looked at her with fear and confusion, as if she was crazy, then looking at the open mouthed Solomon, who absently nodded to confirm the command. The men quickly disarmed themselves, much to their dislike. The large grey creature closed in slower than before, its head low, cautiously sniffing the air, judging the small puny humans. A rustle in the trees to the right caught the Brachiosaurus' attention, as the creature turned its head, Solomon could see the intricate armouring of the spine where the colour turned almost as blue as his armour, the creature grunted and snarled, the noises made Solomon feel uncomfortable, the feeling was mutual amongst the soldiers as they peered into the trees fifty yards away. The Brachiosaurus backed away and began to turn fearfully, Solomon felt the need to raise his weapon. Suddenly, the trees separated as a large crimson predator charged through the foliage with an almighty roar that forced three soldiers staggering back and one to fall to the dirt with a fearful scream, Solomon instinctively opened fire and Lyra quickly drew her pistol and released her own barrage against the charging predator. The sudden crack of gunfire caused the Brachiosaurus to flee with a whimper and a defensive slash of its monstrous tail, throwing Lyra across the field with a crash.
The dark hulking mass of Lucius stomped across the threshold of the embarkation deck, grunting at the lack of speed from the transport crew as they re-loaded the landing craft. A well built young man ran towards the pacing grunting monster of a man, sweating, he breathlessly told Lucius the ships are ready. With a broad smile, Lucius ordered his company to board the fleet of transports. Lucius only feared one thing; missing out. He hated the fact Solomon was chosen as the first, he always liked been the first, you always get the juicier kills then. But, he shrugged to himself as he remembered transports full of foods and building materials, and relinquished his resentment of not been first.
The trip down was rough, low orbit launches always had so much turbulence to deal with. The second company had been thrown violently around inside their restraints. The Gryph had allowed the Evergreen to enter into the low orbit of the planet as the other ships dealt with the pain in the arse security checks. One by one the transports came down, to allow the decent of the rations and building material. Kyril sat brooding in his chair. He knew why they were doing this now. The landing party had to be small, if they did anything wrong, and the Gryph attacked, or we attacked them, the human reinforcements would only trickle down and the men on the ground would very likely be outnumbered.
Lucius, still impatient, waited for the pilot to make an announcement, it took a lifetime for the Captain of the Second to see his dream of the landing to come true. "Ten seconds!" came the distant voice of the pilot over the headset, Lucius kept his helmet upon his lap, he always hated wearing the heavy metal container on his head. "oh... hold on..." came the pilots voice as distant as the last time, Lucius glared at the ajar cockpit door, as if it had taken his favourite toy away. "we have a hot landing zone, rules of engagement from the ground: weapons free, weapons free" and without pause the lights turned from the warm bright light to the night battle red. The rear ramp opened quickly, showing a strange battlefield. blue figures scattered around the dust and grass, rations piled around the landing zone with gunfire echoing over the plains. Large crimson reptile creatures bled into the ground as the blue armoured figures scuttled around firing their weapons at the predators. At least fifty beasts lay dead and twenty more were trying to eat the soldiers of the first company. Lucius looked to the tree line and saw more crimson beasts shuffling the green sea of leaves. "Take us down! Now!" He spat at the pilot, who turned to argue about the location but quickly obliged after he caught a glimpse of the murderous scowl Lucius cast him through the gap in the ajar cockpit door. Without fear, Lucius jumped from the ramp with an almighty thud the second he was within a range that wouldn't kill him.