Three hours had passed since our encounter with the whale and our radars were yet to pick up the biological signatures of the caravan we were tailing. The encounter with the flying behemoth thought us a lesson that this world had much more dangerous creatures than what we initially thought.

We had covered thirty-five kilometers of taiga thus far but no signs of civilization still. By 1530, however, Yeti had detected a new biome.

“We seem to be approaching a temperate region,” Yeti said, “There is a change in the readings of the Taiga 25 kilometers to our south with temperature increases up to 10 degrees. If I am correct, we’ll be coming across a temperate forest by nightfall,”

“You seem to be disappointed?” Snake asked.

“Just because I love the cold, arctic, taigas, and tundras does not necessarily mean I wanna stay in them forever,” Yeti answered. The two spent the rest of the trip to the temperate forest engaged in harmless bantering while Diplomat and I were fixated on our surroundings, I for one was always checking my radar for anything that would try to jump on us.

The AI we were given was supposed to assist us as soon as we got into the field but for some reason, none of our personal AIs had activated meaning we could not access some of our suit’s abilities which require the AI to function. This was a major setback for now but we had been doing pretty good so far.

Yeti’s calculations were right. As the sun drowned on the western horizon, the snowy terrain that greeted us was replaced by a wet grassy plain that separated the two regions. A few kilometers ahead of us was the temperate forest Yeti had predicted. Our visors automatically switched to night-vision and thermal scanning, which was convenient.

“The temperate forest, my radar is detecting an odd collection of structures by a large body of water southwest from our position. I can also see a long line of dirt, probably a dirt path that leads straight to the collection of structures. This may very well be signs of civilization and the odd collection of structures is most likely a settlement of some kind,” Yeti said. After almost a day of wandering, half a day of tailing a caravan, we had finally spotted civilization.

“Finally, I’ve been yearning to engage with the locals,” Diplomat said.

“As long as you don’t seduce the settlement leader’s wife then we should be fine,” Snake teased. Diplomat did have a tendency of seducing the women of enemy leaders that would cause such a ruckus. We would always be forced to kill the leader whenever that happened to prevent further damage or inciting a scandal.

Now that Snake had mentioned it, I believe the last time I spoke was when I got fed up with his antics and scolded him, I think? The memory is blurry but I am sure I spoke to him about it. After that, he stopped, out of fear I guessed.

This world, however, did not function the way ours did. It was feudal backwards fantasy hellhole. Maybe Diplomat seducing the leader’s wife would be beneficial after all? I would have to wait and see.

“I won’t be doing that anytime soon, not without Ghost’s permission,” Diplomat smirked and looked at me. I ignored him and we continued our journey southwest. We were to follow the dirt path towards the settlement and make contact with the natives in the area. That way, we’d be able to learn about the natives, the region, their language, their culture, and the ruling polity in this area.

In situations like these, Diplomat would be the one to handle it. Fluent in almost every language on Earth and a charming gentleman, he was always the perfect man for the job and he was the perfect man for interaction with the natives.

We found the dirt path, it was more like a dirt road similar to the dirt roads back on Earth.

“We only need to go straight and follow the road and we should come across the settlement,” Yeti confirmed.

“Alright, let’s go then,” Diplomat said.

“The homewrecker is excited to wreck another home,” Snake teased.

We followed the dirt path through the early hours of the evening and it wasn’t too long till we saw a group of lights that bloomed from afar. We then stopped on our tracks and decided to observe from afar for the time being. The settlement was surrounded by a wooden palisade until it reached the coast where the large body of water served as its moat. We could see several tall wooden structures and we reckon the other structures were small houses.

The dirt path led to a wooden gate that served as the only way to get in or out of the settlement. The gate was open and was letting in a group that looked awfully familiar.

“That’s the caravan!” Yeti pointed out. Indeed, it was.

“I am detecting no biological signatures in and around the settlement at all,” Yeti continued, “Something must be interfering with our sensors, that’s the only plausible explanation.. unless they literally don’t have any biological signatures and function differently?”

“That’s too far of a stretch, we were detecting their biological signatures a few hours back so the first theory is the most plausible. Something invisible surrounds this settlement and distorts our radar,” Diplomat said.

“They’re very much alive, At least can see their heat signatures using our thermal scanning and.. wait…” Snake noticed something, “One of the women is pregnant, I can see a bulge on her belly and smaller heat signature,”

“A pregnant lady traveling? Well, that is barbaric,”Diplomat said.

“Maybe they didn’t have a choice? That or maybe women are expected to work even when pregnant?” Yeti said.

The gate closed behind the caravan and silence befell the night. The chirping of crickets and singing of the owls followed by the occasional howl of wolves gave the night its life.

We observed the settlement for an hour before making any moves. Our suits had the ability to shrink themselves but this came at a cost. We would become more flexible but also became even more vulnerable. We needed to interact with the natives as soon as we could so we decided to walk through the gate. We withdrew our weapons and prepared to shrink our armor. Our power armor were mostly made up of a billion nanites, and we had only found out about it an hour after we crossed the portal.

"Shrinking in three, two, one," Yeti said.

We shrunk our power armor at the same time. Our armor became more like a skin-tight suit that would inflate back to its normal size once we gave the order. Our helmets turned into a swarm of nanites that retreated to our nape, revealing our entire heads.

"It's a surprise that my donger is not bulging even though the suit is skin-tight," Diplomat said, "As for Snake.. uhm.. I think you'll end up seducing the leader,"

I turned to look at Snake and she was indeed beautiful, a fine shape, ample chest, and hips that gave her much sexual charm. Or so I thought, I lost my libido years ago so I couldn't really tell.

Yeti was a seven-foot monster, the suit emphasized his huge muscles. At least he had short hair.

Diplomat was a somewhat skinny yet muscular gentleman whose looks and charming personality made him the perfect candidate for our mission.

“Ghost, you look taller and bulkier than the last time I saw you without a suit,” Yeti said.

“Yeti’s right, you look more.. menacing? But I find that hot,” Snake said.

“Indeed, you excrete an atmosphere of dread and death, the workings of a true warrior and leader of our team,” Diplomat said. I didn’t know if they were praising me or was being teased.

“Let’s go, shall we?” Diplomat said.

We walked towards the gate and were immediately noticed by the gate watcher. We stopped at the doorsteps of the gate with it still closed. It seemed like our arrival was not going to be warmly received. Well, we were strangers to this place, aliens to be exact. I hoped that our first interaction with the natives would be a non-violent one. Unless they force our hand then we would not have any other choice but to burn their settlement to the ground. We could not risk letting any negative rumors of our existence to spread.

The gate then slowly opened, revealing what was behind the wooden palisades. There were small houses and a big wooden structure in the middle of it all. Presumably where the leader of the settlement resided and where their resources were stored. I also noticed that they had a dock, a fishing town maybe?

We were then greeted by a middle-aged looking with brown hair, somewhat fair skin, a short beard and was also wearing a brown tunic, accompanied by ten spearmen who each wore a blue tunic.

[Unintelligible Language] The man spoke, his gestures pointed to the assumption that he was greeting us. The problem was..

We couldn’t understand shit.

I rolled my eyes over to Diplomat and he answered my calling. He walked towards the old man, prompting the spearmen to point their spears at him. He raised his hand as a sign of peace. The man then gestured for the spearmen to lower their weapons.

“We mean you no harm,” Diplomat spoke.

The man and the spearmen behind all looked at each other in confusion, they didn’t understand us either.

“This situation seems hopeless,” Snake whispered.

“Shut it,” Yeti rebuked her.

“An-- Si- Ant?--” The man said.

“Ancient?” Diplomat asked.

“Yu-” The man replied.

Did Yu mean ‘you’ or was it their language’s ‘yes’?

“Huah! Ghontomnos!” The man shouted. We still had no idea what he was saying but one thing was clear, things got hot.

The spearmen rushed in front of him and formed a wall around him with their spears pointed forward. I then noticed these archers peek from the walls and drew their bows against us.

“This is bad,” Snake said.

As we were about to pull out our weapons, Diplomat resorted to one of the most ingenious but risky moves. He knelt and bowed his head until it reached the ground. For it to be effective, we followed his lead, knelt down and bowed our heads.

The man smiled with pride as if he was pitying us. Looking down on us behind his soldiers.

“Hayup!” He shouted at his men. The spearmen cleared a way for him while the archers lowered their bows. It was a confusing turn of events.

The man then stepped out of his pathetic defenses and walked towards Diplomat whom he grabbed by the shoulder. He then proceeded to lift him onto his feet, patted him on the back and smiled at him weirdly.

This was weird behavior on their part. Even I could tell Diplomat was confused as to what these people wanted or were doing. Their actions raised more questions than answers, our efforts to communicate via body language seemed to be working but it also seemed to be sending mixed signals.

“Are you fucking sure this is not a deranged cult?” Snake was not having any of it.

“I hope so,” Yeti replied.

Hostiles have been dealt with, sir.

Give me a brief report, I need to meet with the council to discuss this event.

Yes, sir. The enemy were far more numerous than last time. They breached the facility but couldn't make it beyond the defense line. The troops also reported encountering a flying creature, we have classified it as a dragon. We recovered several bodies which have been identified as a dragon with varying sizes. All were easily shot down by armor-piercing bullets. Casualties are at 23, no deaths.

Sigh.. until when are we going to endure this?

Until Pheonix Squad manages to stabilize the portal, I suppose.

They better do it quick.