The briefing room was silent as images of the events of the town played out on screen. Around the table sat pilots, officials and anyone involved in the situation. like Natlee, who sat at the end of the room with a bearman and Antonywho was there too. still shook by everything but he was there since he was the highest authority they knew. at least one that was alive. when the recordings were over the screens filled with images of more people who were connected. Most of them needed a moment to process what they had seen. 

The commander led the meeting with “thus, first issue. the crash. When we jumped towards uncharted space, we were shot by raiders in an attempt to sabotage us and steal everything on board. Clara cannot determine what exactly happens when the shot hits but we can say this. most fuel converters are wrecked and those left are only sufficient for dropship refuels.”

one man raised his hand “so you're saying we're stuck here? after what Jack did?”

“I regret nothing. the bastard had it coming.”

The commander shook his head at Jack's outburst “while saying 'he had it coming' may fit the situation. I authorized the wipe of the group when Natlee was enslaved. regardless, this is for later.”

 a woman on one of the screens noted “Clara should have blueprints for replacements. we could get some resources, fix it and take off.” 

Clara popped up on the screen “The navigator was built in space. It was never designed to lift off through the atmosphere. The only options for space travel are dropships for short trips, repair deep space comms and attempt a rescue call or build a new ship in orbit." 

The people discussed their options. Some people on the ship had hoped to visit multiple strange planets. not just be stuck on one. Many words confused Antony and the bearman. the latter nudged Natlee “miss what is an at-me-spear?” 

“it's a layer around the planet filled with gas. what's your name by the way?”

“slave guard 1 i guess”

“Huh?”

“The guy you killed told me on the first day to forget my old name. So I did.”

 “Those purple things can do that?”

“Anything the wearer is capable of can be commanded. at least that's what his sister said.”

Natlee sighed in relief of the bullets she dodged “i'm just going to call you Bob”

Antony collected himself as much as he could and asked “then, what is expected of me?”

Natlee looked at him, a bit puzzled by his phrasing. “The heads of each department will ask questions and you can answer them honestly to the best of your ability.” He still looked incredibly nervous so she just said “If you're worried about your wife and daughter we can ask doctor Yoshiko about them when it's over. the commander might ask before asking you anything.”

Soon the discussion about the crash ended. the commander led  “now the other issue. After the crash we encountered a town under attack by local wildlife. Sniper if you please.”

Sniper stood up as images of the direwolves popped up on the screens located at  every seat. “These wolflike creatures are locally known as direwolves. I've noted some the size of a common room. their strength is not that impressive, their claws are quite sturdy and sharp.”

An image of knives in its repair station popped up. it was covered in scratch marks

“while this barely counts as scratching the paint on knives. this is nonetheless impressive considering mechs are built to withstand  heavy explosives”

“It's like I've been cutting up my baby with one of its own blades.” Jack interrupted.

Sniper coughed “As for the locals, the man with bear features was noted during the fight to also have an above average strength. it also involves the purple crystals since it was apparently withholding him from retaliating.”

“THATS RIGHT!” the bearman shouted. 

“I guess now's a good time to ask him. Natlee, can you bring him up?”

Natlee walked the bearman to the open end. a man at the edge offered to have a chair brought up for them but the bearman declined "I'm used to standing. so it's ok.”

 “You seem quite friendly considering the people that enslaved you look a bit like us.” 

“you got me out of his control. seems to me you guys are alright.”

Natlee took the offer and a stool came from the floor where she could sit. The commander was the first to ask “squad captain Natlee, can you tell us what happened to you?” 

“SIR! When I shook the man's hand he placed that crystal on me. I heard him say ‘enslave’ and soon I felt like all my muscles just froze. It was like I became a robot. anytime  he commanded me to say something it felt like a malfunctioning medbay. needles poking me. telling me to hurry up. When Sniper shot the crystals everything returned to normal. The bearman here told me it could've been worse”

Bob felt like that was his signal “right. Hi, I'm Bob.”

 “i thought you didn't remember your name”

“You said you'd call me Bob. It's the first decision I've been able to make in a long time. I like it so I'm Bob now.”

After explaining this little confusion to the officials Bob continued where he left off “so i'm bob but for 6 years now i've been slave guard 1. had the miss here resisted the crystals she'd be in more pain. the more you resist the more pain and if you fail a task you'll be in pain until the crystal owner commands something else.”

some officials muttered amongst themselves. until the woman Natlee pointed out as Yoshiko spoke to Bob “what can cause these effects. Clara detected an unknown energy signature coursing through the captain.”

“uhh i guess thats the mana chaining the core.”

“What's a core?”

Bob put his band on his chest “it's a crystal that all living things have.”

Now the questions came flying from everywhere “the infection that crystallized in us?”

“everything? even microbes?”

“mana? like the fantasy energy for magic?” 

“How come we only got it when we arrived?”

Clara sounded a buzzing sound. Everyone quieted down as the commander spoke again. “I believe Yoshiko can reveal some initial findings about that.”

She nodded and began “First thing the body part that crystallized still functioned as it always has. but now it emits an energy and a signal. Before you ask, we have not decoded the signal but Clara pulled this from Sniper's signal.”

The screens revealed something that looked like a status document but in an unknown lettering. 

Bob raised his bearlike hand “why is his class also his name?”

The conference room stared at him. of course they couldn't decipher it. The document was in the local lettering. Clara popped on a screen nearest to Bob “would you be willing to teach me the local writing methods? so I can translate these in the future.”

“"sure wall-lady.”

“So can you tell me what my document says about me?” Sniper asked.

Bob nodded and read out “name: Sniper, class:sniper. I have to say it's the first time I heard of this class. abilities: fast-reflex, fearless,... you have a lot of good skills.”

Sniper pumped his chest “I am quite skillful.”

Bob continued“age:.... huh?”

“Is something wrong?” 

“I may have not seen many guild forms but this doesn't seem right. It says you're 588 years old but it also says you're human”

“I am human.”

Bob looked stunned, “you’re sure you're not an elf?”

Sniper fell off his chair shouting “you have those here?”

The commander raised his voice “it would seem there's too much information for just one meeting. Bob, we would be grateful if you would tell our xenobiologists everything you know but for now. what would you note as the most notable races, countries and the current situation for these.”

“yes sir. I know there's still more beastmen out there. Mermaids have retreated to deeper waters, harpies have headed deep in the mountains but need to fly down to search for food and…partners , beastmen like me are spread out but I heard most bear-,wolf- and bunnymen & women have retreated to the icey area in the west. they would need to pass the dwarven kingdom and the mountains behind it. the dwarves have shut down the gates to their capital or so i heard during a meeting, there's the elves in the east and in between is mostly human lands. I heard there are more lands far across the sea but few people go that far.”

everyone had a lot to process Antony stood up “Bob since you know everything the prince had discussed can i ask? did he ever even think to keep his word? the one about raising a village with the people we rescued”

without missing a beat. Bob had responded “he never planned to. everything below his status is just a pawn to use. I heard him say that once.”

Antony, in a frustrated mood, tried to get out of the room while some guards tried to calm him down.

 “you're the pink haired girl's father right?” Yoshiko asked. 

Antony could see she had a man in white standing behind her. “she just woke up. As for your wife, her situation is stable but not responding. I can however safely say she'll survive.  you have around 20 other survivors of your village just as confused and terrified all hoping you can figure it out. Now calm down and help us figure this out so we can get to helping you because so far everything is sounding to me that you and your people need our help.”

Antony would never have imagined a woman looking this voluptuous to emit this much authority. He was about to sit back down as the commander called him “Lets keep the meeting short and since we reached the subject of the local political situation. Mr Antony, you can come and tell us 3 things: how did you end up leading the outpost? how many rulers are there and the last one ... well i'll ask at the end.”

Thus he told the meeting how he was approached by the prince to build a new settlement. He was promised resources, support and ultimately a nobility status. The first he got just enough to get by. As for the other two everyone could guess. as for the rulers as predicted it was a monarchy with nobility working under them. They heard the king was the sole ruler and did not keep a spouse to speak of. but through many concubines he had 6 children

“Now down to 5,”' Jack joked. 

“perhaps only 4 the 3rd princess has been missing according to some rumors”. Antony replied

He continued to explain that each of these offspring was trying to be in the king's favor to have a chance to be the next king or queen. The last part went smoother. 

“So I figured this royal douchebag thought to use this outpost for what then?” Jack asked 

“to hunt down beastmen that fled to the desert probably” Bob responded. 

Jack gave him the thumbs up shouting “thank you. so with all this slavery, backstabbing and general tyranny tends to be a big no-no for our society. I can say we aren't going to get along with them.” 

“Regardless, it seems most local civilians have little say in the matter. that is if they are even informed properly. This does mean we'll eventually clash with this monarch and while this world's medieval setting would present little opposition. there is the matter of civilian casualties if we were to go in full force. not to mention the idea of magic and foreign races tossed into the mix.” the commander stood up “for now since there were no survivors of the prince's group we can hide our existence for now. That said, I'm sure they'll send people this way. we'll have the mechs approach them since they can be confused for what they call golems so to not completely scare them we'll need someone to pose as its creator.”

Natlee piped in “As long as Clara can detect any of those slave crystals I can keep posing as its summoner. Bob wants to help, he said we can pose as a traveling party. we will need some fake chain necklace since there seems to be no free beastmen in the human kingdom.”

The commander nodded, “That's settled. Now it is clear eventually we'll be facing this kingdom but this leads me to my last question to Mr Antony.” Antony could feel everyone's eyes on him as the commander asked “knowing we will fight the kingdom you're from. Are you and the other refugees willing to integrate with us?”

“Is there even a choice?”