Upon Celestial Tiger: Chapter One

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A small, fast space yacht. The last owner named it Celestial Tiger.

Three small bedrooms (with bunks), one bathroom. Very small storage hold. combined dining/living area. Everyone's going to hate each other by the end of this road trip.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/46/08/46/small_10.jpg

They'd walk for a while. Ethan was tempted to sneak off, but not brave enough to actually do so. Tala sometimes had the group stop so she could sample the local foliage. Against park rules? Sure. Did she care? Naaaah.

After a while, the group might notice that the first was getting oddly quiet though. The birds seemed to all have left.

"What happened to the bird sounds?" Helen asked, looking up to the trees then around them again.

Starr paused and looked around too, getting a bit worried when it got quiet. Most animals only did that when danger was near.

Luka touched the gun at her belt. Quiet was never a good sign. She motioned to the others to gather closer together.

Tala nodded to Luka, but didn't speak yet. She knew her voice was too loud for uncertain situations. She couldn't smell anything yet, whatever it was must be downwind of them.
She reached for her own gun, and looked around to try and spot anything, but the forest was thick enough here that visibility wasn't good.

Ethan frowned and opened the panel in his arm, ready to reach onto his pocket space for his own weapon.

Something rustled in the brush. Whether it was sapient or a creature was still impossible to tell.

"Who goes here?" Tala called.

Whatever it was, it didn't reply.

Luka drew her gun, eyes narrowed. She looked pretty worried.

Helen shifted to a wolf-like creature then looked to the others before slipping into the forest to try to find whatever it was.

At first, Helen wouldn't be able to find much. Whatever it was, it was good at staying out of sight. Then the underbrush surged with motion, and out swarmed a large (but hard to precisely count) number of six-legged monkey-like creatures, teeth bared, and creepily silent.

Shane might have seen a picture of them while he was getting that map earlier. It had been accompanied by a notice that said that hikers were unlikely to encounter these creatures since most migrated south this season, but if the hikers did, they should run and not stop.

"Run" Shane said, looking around then shifting to his dragon form to guard the others, Scales were a lot harder to hurt than skin after all, plus he had magic. He would try to get the monkey things to chase him and leave the others alone.

Tala didn't know what Shane did, but she decided his order was probably correct, and repeated it loudly to show she approved. "Yes, run!" She'd let the others go ahead, her crew were hers to protect.

Ethan didn't need much urging. He ran, pulling his gun out of pocket space as he did.

Some of the monkey creatures would go after Shane, but there were a lot of them, and a good number were much more interested in the larger group.

Luka grabbed Starr's hand and urged her to run with them.

Shane made some little rocks to sent at the monkey things to get them to not chase the others and come after him. He didn't want to kill anything here, he just wanted them to be safe.

Starr glanced to Luka then let her lead her away with them. She didn't like running from a threat, but she wanted them and her egg safe.

Helen joined Shane in trying to get the monkey things to follow them, protecting the others in the only way she could without causing death.

Luka just ran, she didn't like running like this from a threat, but the priority was getting Starr and the rest of the crew to safety.

The monkey creatures were about waist-high, and with their four legs and two arms, they were fast. It pretty quickly became clear that the group wouldn't be able to maintain the speed to outrun these creatures long enough to get back to civilization.

"We must fight!" Tala bellowed. "Stay together, defend each other's backs! Protect Starr!"

Some of the monkey creatures were hurt by the rocks Shane threw and feel back, screeching eerily.

Luka stopped, stepping in front of Starr and training her gun on the monkey things as they approached.

Meanwhile Swarm coalesced nearby, letting out a low telepathic whistle to try to get the creature's attention.

Starr stopped with the others, turning to face the threat with a frown. She raised a hand in a 'stop' gesture towards the creatures then glanced to Swarm "Can you make them afraid?"

~~
Shane didn't care about hurting them, he just didn't want to kill without trying to get them away. He looked to Helen then the two of them took off, flying to get above the forest.

The monkeys seemed confused by Swarm's telepathy, they hadn't heard anything like that in their minds before. They faltered momentarily, trying to find the source of the sound, which they didn't think was coming from the group.

They chittered in confusion, before beginning to close in on the group again, albeit more cautiously this time.

"I wonder if they're endangered," Ethan muttered.

"If they are endangered, the Terran Empire must forgive us for valuing our lives above theirs," Tala proclaimed. She snorted and pawed the ground, aiming her gun at the nearest creature as it prowled closer.

~~
The ones that had been chasing Shane and Helen watched them fly off, baring their teeth. Apparently despite their monkeylike appearance, they couldn't actually climb the trees to follow.

Swarm continued to try to distract the monkeys, moving away from the group and attempting to lure the things away.

Luka looked worried. "Who cares if they are." Nope, she fully intended to shoot these things regardless. Self preservation was way more important than ecology to her.

"They are responding to the telepathy though" Starr said, frowning a little and looking at the monkeys then trying 'push' them to leave mentally. She didn't try words, she didn't think they would understand, but she tried sending the feeling to 'leave' and a 'nothing to see here' as she would when talking to the dragons as infants, though she was careful to shield the egg from such feelings.

Shane and Helen would make a very wide circle in the air once they were out of sight of the monkeys to get back to the group

The monkeys were definitely confused by the telepathy from Swarm and Starr, and continued to falter and hesitate. Their drive to attack was pretty singleminded though, and they kept coming at the group, before one came bounding forward at Starr when it realized the telepathy was in part coming from her. The others followed its example, charging at the group silently, to try and grab with their hands and bite, in an attempt to overwhelm the group.

Tala bellowed and opened fire.

Ethan followed her example. If they got themselves fined for this, well, at least they'd be alive.

Starr jerked back when they grabbed for her, cursing. Their silence was odd and made the attack more scary than it should have been. She pulled a knife out, cutting any that got too close to her and growling with one hand protectively over the egg. They were making her angry. She was tired of being attacked every time they landed on a planet and she was still angry at the last attackers. That made it harder for her to control her magic. She tried to focus it though, putting the monkeys in bubbles as they came at them.
She did try to keep reminding herself not to kill, though some of the bubbles with the creatures vanished despite the admonishments to herself.

Luka opened fire too, not caring if she hit the stupid animals or not, they attacked, they deserved death in her mind.

Swarm scattered as chaos erupted.

"There's too many!" Luka cried.

One tried to bite Tala's leg, and she trampled it under her hooves. "We shall prevail! They cannot defeat us for we are great warriors!"

Ethan didn't entirely believe that, but he kept firing, aiming to kill. He guarded Starr's back, she and the baby took priority here, Tala had ordered it and he felt kinda protective of Starr anyway.

The creatures did die easily enough when shot, and fell back somewhat at the sound of gunfire, although they didn't yet flee. Apparently they weren't entirely suicidal.

Luka was terrified but doing a very good job of hiding it. She was a soldier damnit, though she had a healthy fear of being attacked by wild savage beasts in forests, as all of her race did.

The ones she had in bubbles, Starr pushed back, sending them miles away before the bubbles would vanish and let them fall wherever they were. She kind of hoped there was a river there, but she didn't care if it was or just a gorge

Shane and Helen dropped in, facing the creatures and throwing bigger rocks than the pebbles Shane had used before to drive them off.

The ones in the bubbles ended up over a cliff edge, and fell several hundred feet to land on rocks. Oops?

The mixture of bubbles, bullets, and rocks proved to be effective. The creatures probably got few, or any, bites in at the group before being killed or driven back. They were vicious, but by no means accustomed to fighting a group of trained soldiers and magic users.

"fall back!" Luka shouted as the animals began to retreat, they needed to take the opportunity to escape, before the survivors regrouped and decided to attack again.