The various shades of Aerilia's green surface flew by underneath the Feim as it lowered on its approach. Del took in what sights he could, but as Poulja had said the ship was remarkable fast. Before long a series of tents and small structures came into view, setting up a white canopy in a rather barren part of a hill that was surrounded, much like the rest of the planet, by the lush green fauna.
The ship slowed and came to a halt just over the small camp and carefully landed itself on the ground. Del stood up from the pilots seat and descended the ships ramp to meet two full helmeted Drenzien guards at the bottom as well as a formally dressed, in white, Drenzien man having a lighter shade of purple skin, but the familiar jet black hair cut short and clean. He was waiting as Del walked towards him, standing still with his hands clasped.
"Which cabin?" Was all he asked once Del was in earshot.
"Oh, uh, storage A." Del replied, recalling the inventory manifest he'd checked earlier after Poulja had told him there were going to be multiple deliveries.
The Drenzien man nodded and snapped at the guards. The quickly ascended the ramp passing Del on their way into the ship, presumably to collect the cargo. The Drenzien then nodded towards Del and motioned for him to follow before turning around.
Del descended the rest of the ramp and followed the nah through the camp into a long white tent. The tent had a long table at its center with four other well dress drenziens surrounding it, looking over the table like a board game. The other four Drenziens also had the lighter purple skin.
A war map Del quickly pieced together.
"They're coming mostly from the west." One of them, a male said first.
"They're coming from all over we should be back at alpha presenting for solution zeta." Another from across the table spoke.
"Enough." Said the one had led Del here. He appeared to be some in some kind of position of authority.
"Inmate, forget what you're seeing here."
"Okay." Del replied.
"But then why am I… ya know, here?" He asked.
"Good question." The third Drenzien answered, a female this time .
"Kelvin.." she began.
"Adress me by my title please, this is not a personal setting." The leader snapped, interrupting her.
"Margrave Kelvin." The Drenzuen paused for a moment, leaving an uncomfortable moment of silence between the two of them. Then continued.
"Why bring him in here?" The Drenzien asked. The Margrave turned to Del ignoring the female Drenzien and addressed him instead.
"The reason you are here in this command tent inmate, is to meet this young aspiring diplomat." The Margrave, apparently called Kelvin, stated.
He motioned toward the third Drenzien, he had the appearance of a younger human but the same light purple skin and jet black hair as the others in the room.
"Good to meet you." The younger Drenzien said with a nod of acknowledgement.
"I'm called Raed."
"Hi, I'm Del." Del replied back to him. The Jourl then ushered Raed and Del out of the command tent to the center of the camp. The margrave offered no farewell or parting eirds, he simply left in silence once Del was in someone else's supposedly capable hands.
"You see I've brought you to me because I'm told your rather good at getting things where they aren't supposed to be." Raed said rather inquisitively, one eyebrow raised.
"That um, well that is why they carted me across the galaxy." Del shrugged.
"Excellent." Raed continued.
Unlike the Margrave the younger Drenziens accent was more smooth and pronounced rather than Kurt and short, but Del had already learned his lesson about asking too many questions with these people. Del observed as Raed looked to his pocket and reached inside.
"You see, there's someone, another
Drenzien, a female if you will." Raed began.
"Ah." Del said with a grin now seeing where this was going.
"Yes well, hang on, damn where is it?" Raed asked himself shuffling through all his pockets. He looked frustrated, this was clearly of some importance to him. A quality Del was seeing for the first time in a Drenzien since he'd gotten to the Adresta system.
Del was watching him but his grin faded a moment later after a large BOOM was heard followed by the sounds of alarms blaring from the camp.
Del was knocked down from the blast. He'd lost sight of Raed. He then heard what sounded like surprised gunfire and grunts from the Drenziens followed by a few screams and gurgled shouts. Green figures swarmed the camp and began stabbing and hacking left and right. Arrows flying through the smoke smashing through the guards helmets and the blades tearing into the Drenziens purple flesh.
The natives
Another round of war cries from the Drenziens and another burst of surprised gunfire, and then some of the green figures dropped, the others were driven back, only to return after another volley of arrows came from the other direction.
This is an all out ambush, they're trying to finish them.
Suddenly realizing that Del was going to appear one of these Drenziens to the natives, he feared he was in great danger. He sprinted back towards the Feim, figuring it was his best and only chance at escaping this slaughter. However much to his dissapointment he arrived to see it smoking with some sort of sticky corrosive substance coated on one side. The Feim had been sabotaged, they clearly didn't want anyoby leaving here.
The rest of the ambush lasted a little more than ten minutes. The remaining Drenziens seeing they were vastly outnumbered threw down their arms and surrendered. Some were taken captive, many were killed without remorse.
Del then saw one of the taller green figures that appeared to be a male approach him, spear in hand.
Realizing he had no other chance here, Del dropped to his knees and cowered, raising his hands trying to show he wasn't a threat. The green figure paused and looked at him a moment, then continued his approach.
Instead of stabbing him like Del had feared the figure instead grabbed his wrist roughly and dragged him towards the rest of the survivors. Their wrists were all bound as were Del's a moment later. A female native wrapping a tough vine like plant around his wrists and kicking him to the ground with the Drenziens.
The other survivors all looked either ashamed or angry, none fearful, which Del found rather odd. He also noticed none of the helmeted guards were here, he was starting to wonder if they were some other servant species to the Drenziens rather than just helmeted Drenzien guards. They didn't seem to be treated very well.
Del was the last survivor the natives had taken captive. The rest of the survivors were quickly slaughtered without mercy, and the camp was burned. The now prisoners were lined up and escorted out of the camp, Del being the last in line. He couldn't help but let out an inner sigh as a long march through the jungle began.