In the hangar bay sniper had joined the other pilots as the front of blast and rainmaker opened up letting Rainor and Bertha jump out and give a high five.

“What was that phrase?” Rainor asked “Any landing you can walk away from?”

Jack opened up his mech still leaning back in his seat when he pointed to the remains of Hanz “He isn’t walking away from it.”

looking over at the rubble of what used to be the mech Hellfire, still containing pieces of its old pilot he saw the others approach the remnants. “Rest in peace mate.” said Rainor as he picked up an arm tossing it in what's left of the mech.

 Now that the crisis was over, they could mourn properly. But before Jack could even jump out of his mech, a message sounded over the speakers in the hangar “squads Hotel and November head to dropships for deployment. Pilots Jack and Sniper prepare for deployment. Pilots Bertha and Rainor secure the crash site.”

As the pilots looked at each other Bertha started “Well, looks like we don't have much time to mourn. Hanz I'll take good care of your flamethrower. I wish we could've blown more stuff up.” and she  jumped in her mech. 

Sniper grabbed his rifle and as he passed quickly stating “it was a pleasure fighting with you” and headed to the side doors of the mechdropper holding knives. 

Jack, being still in it, just shouted “Sorry Hanz you know how it goes. objectives first, mourn after.” and closed his mech. 

***

The 4 pilots connected to the commander to get a quick briefing “No time to rest pilots. As we landed Clara detected human life”

The pilots were taken aback. Rainer spoke up “commander you mean humanoid? because I was under the impression we jumped into uncharted space or did the blast knock us around?”

“As far as we can tell there's no sign of colonization on this planet but the scans only reach up to 20km so far due to heavy damage. In any case Sniper, Jack, I want you two to take the squads Hotel and November to this human that approached us. Rainor and Bertha will jump out the hangar and secure the area surrounding the ship. it won't take as long as you think the entire left side of the ship has hit some mountains. so split up and each check a direction. as soon as you hit a mountain report in and I'll send a mechdropper to pick you up.” 

the mechdropper holding Jack and Sniper took off followed by 2 dropships transporting the squads of soldiers.

Rainor jumped out the opened hangar door. When he landed he asked Clara “So how human is this thing?”

“Scans tell me this lifeform is 97% similar to a human female aged around 19-21 years…”

Rainor started laughing. “first contact with an alien chick. Lucky bastards.” 

***

The dropships flew smoothly through the sky. looking through the scope he had taken off his rifle, Sniper could see a dense forest. beyond that something they looked like a medieval city. “Clara, transfer footage to both Jack and commander.”

 Jack was in his mech. it was dark in there yet in the virtual space he was in showed everything around Knives clearly. A screen popped up showing footage from Sniper's scope. “a stone castle? Did we land on a roleplay planet? Those are always fun until you kill a monster and the metal bits ruin the magic a bit.”

Clara appeared beside Jack in a solid yet holographic form. He always loved seeing that figure in the mech's virtual space.

While Jack thanked the designers of Clara's form she responded to his query “Unlikely or we managed to miss every mandatory contact beacon and satellite during the crash. additionally, there would be emergency responders calling a halt to the planet's play. they would be very lacking.”

Jack's mental image raised an eyebrow “We traveled through time to ancient earth?” 

“Also unlikely. The initial images of the planet I have taken during the crash do not line up with any of earth's history. recorded or even theorized. In addition, to make matters worse the crew might be infected with something.”

The commander's screen popped in since he was following the conversation from the command deck. “How many are infected?”

“Since landing I have noticed a crystallization of the thymus in ... everyone. crew, colonizers especially the pilots and even you commander seem to have been affected additionally a weak signal is emitting from this crystallization.”

In the mech jack disconnected from the virtual space that let him control his mech. A pod opened up while the outer hull of the machine stayed shut. He felt his chest in the light of the alternate displays that popped up when he disconnected. “I didn't feel a thing” he said as he leaned back and connected his mind to his mech again.

 Clara looked at Jack's mental image appearing in the virtual space again and said “nobody has. nobody felt any kind of discomfort.”

 the commander worried. “I hope this won't have any Long Term negative effects. have the medical staff check it out as they tend to the wounded from the crash.”

“we're approaching the site,” said Sniper. 

Looking out the window he could see a young girl running towards the ship. when she suddenly collapsed. “Clara wasn’t kidding when she decided to call her human.” Jack said.

The 2 dropships landed near the girl, moving her pink hair slightly. The dropship containing squad H opened up to let a team of medics out as the mechdropper holding knives let Sniper out. sniper and the medics approached the girl they heard her speak “please gods, help the town.” before fainting.

 Sniper let the medics load her onto a stretcher and take her to the dropship. He looked out to the forest. and noticed some smoke “The girl talked about a town. role-players or not, something is going on there.”

on his comms sniper heard jack say “Clara is detecting fading life signs from that direction about 6 clicks out. Lots of fading lifesigns. Permission to investigate it commander.”

“Granted! go assist these locals with whatever crisis they're facing. we'll see what's next from there. Hopefully we can get some info on this affliction and this planet.”

Sniper stepped back in the mechdropper. The dropship holding the pink haired girl headed back to the ship while the mechdropper headed towards the smoke followed by squad N's dropship.

 Jack called Sniper saying “Sooo… did Clara note what language they spoke or did her translator always work that fast for new languages?”