Shi Lang raised his hands and put his handgun back inside the holster. He had taken a few steps forward to draw the attention of the creatures in front of him. The creatures were holding stone spears, although the spears did not look like hot weapons on the scan, it was possible for them to be spirit weapons, and the attack power would be enough to harm Shi Lang.
He might survive the onslaught but why take a risk? He said in a low voice, “Do not take off your masks and do not emit killing intent. They could be holding spirit weapons, we won’t even know how we died.”
He was not afraid of these weapons but his team was not as good as him, so he pretended to be possum to keep them in line. The last thing he wanted on this unknown planet was to go to war with the inhabitants.
One of the creatures opened his mouth and let out a crackling sound. Shi Lang could not understand what he was trying to convey, but suddenly, the eyes of the creature flashed, and Shi Lang heard a few things in his mind, this was telepathic communication.
Shi Lang cursed his luck, not only did he encounter an intelligent life form, but also one with great mental prowess. He calmed down and conveyed his thoughts to the creature.
The two stood still gazing at each other for a few minutes before the creature let out a sound, and his people lowered their weapons. Shi Lang sighed and said, “Guys, you all lower your weapons. They can communicate with us through telepathy.”
Milo said, “Shit, living lie detectors.”
The rest of the team nodded when they heard this. Shi Lang said, “They are intelligent but the level is primitive, however, do not provoke them, they will not take the initiative to engage in combat.”.
Everyone let out a deep breath, the people did not have any ideas to start fighting with any native, at least not until they have gained a clear understanding of this place. Sparrow asked, “What now, Sir?”
Shi Lang said, “We continue on our path.”
That said, he literally turned around and moved in the direction of the land selected by Milo. They needed a clear patch of land to build their camp. When they were moving forward, Sonic said, “They are following us.”
Sonic could hear a lot of things from a great distance, and he could emit sound waves strong enough to damage someone’s brain if needed. Shi Lang said, “I allowed them to follow us.”
Sparrow asked, “Why would you do that, Sir?”
She was purely driven by curiosity to know the reasoning behind his decisions. Shi Lang said, “He asked me a few questions, such as what we are and what we’re doing here. I told him that we are Terrans, a race from a faraway place, we came here to live and become stronger while protecting our people from shadows.”
Hawk said, “Boss, that is classified information.”
Shi Lang said, “Well-founded, Captain. Very well-founded.”
Everyone could sense the sarcasm in his voice. Shi Lang said, “You tell me if you come across someone who does not know shit about you, but can tell if you are lying or not. Will they trust you or not?”
Hawk and the others nodded, Shi Lang said, “You people need to learn about the brain and instincts of creatures.”
What he said was true, the instincts of a creature in wild were similar to that of a beast. Once they sense danger, the beasts will go in for the kill to save the rest of the people and die trying. After half an hour they arrived at the location and Milo said, “We are here.”
Shi Lang and the rest came out of the tree line and found a patch of land with no trees and just some boulders here and there. Hawk said, “Sir, I do not think this place is good to live in.”
The young general gestured to him and asked, “Why?”
“This place is the graveyard of our new friends.”, replied Hawks.
Shi Lang did not say much but sighed, Hawks had a special ability to look through things, that was why he scanned the land, and the result was unexpected. Hawks said, “The rocks we see, they have wooden creatures inside.”
This sent chills down the spine of everyone. Shi Lang turned around and spotted the natives looking at them with really curious gazes. He circulated the spirit energy and asked the leader from before, ‘Sir, can you tell us a place where we can find some vacant land?”
The leader was surprised to see that Shi Lang would ask him such a thing, however, he did not intend to help this guy and shook his head. After all, in their eyes, this land belonged to them the wood stumps.
Shi Lang sighed and said, “Milo, move back and reconduct a probe.”
Milo nodded and the team began to move back, watching them go back the natives followed for a distance and also separated. Shi Lang said, “Deploy a drone and monitor them, I want to know what is their strength and what are their weaknesses.”
The team knew that Shi Lang was up to something. He sounded cold, and this was not a good indication. Sparrow asked, “Boss, do you plan to take them out of the equation?”
Shi Lang blinked and said, “No, I will not shed blood or pulp, however, since they are not cooperative, I would like to know about them and be on guard.”
The team understood and they all made their way back to the shore. Hawk said, “Boss, how about we spend the night here? Going back to the ship will consume time, and we can eat fish.”
Shi Lang cast him a gaze and said, “Very well, get some wood, we need fire and some fish.”
The team took commands and they moved out to collect the said things. Shi Lang looked at the team and then using his communicator, he controlled a bot from the ship to deliver a few condiments. The setup was complete and they all sat down. The day passed away in a blink and after the sunset, Joan, a girl lit up a fire and roasted the fish over the fire.
Shi Lang and the team were eating when Sparrow said, “It would have been the ultimate meal if we had some brew with us.”
Milo said, “There we go again, Sparrow do you recall what you did the last time you were drunk?”
Sparrow scowled at him and the rest of the people laughed. They were all from the card class so they have a better understanding of each other. Shi Lang gazed at them and asked, “What did she do?”
Sparrow stiffened and Milo said, “Tired to take down Master X and marry him.”
Shi Lang was shocked to the depth of his soul, he looked at Sparrow, who stood up and charged at Milo, the young man also did not say much but ran away. The atmosphere was really harmonious. Suddenly, Joan asked, “General what did you do when you drank for the first time?”
Everyone became curious about Shi Lang and remembering the first date with Amelia he smiled and said, “I sang a song for my fiance.”
The team began hooting and cheering. Despite the gap in ranks, they were almost the same age. So bonding with each other was easy. Sparrow said, “Sister-in-law is lucky, I wish I had someone like you boss.”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “I am not all that good. I have a long way to go.”
Then he stood up from the ground and stretched his body. He said, “I will go and take the first watch, you all rest.”
He found a big boulder on the beach and sat down on top of it with his legs crossed and eyes closed. The spirit sense was spread all over the place, and as soon as he did that, he found a problem. He sighed, “If you dared to act superior, I will pick up the sword.”
In a distance, he spotted three creatures from the wooden species. He could tell they were here to scout them, but he did not know what their motive was. So if they tried to attack his people, he will definitely kill them all, not sparing one.
….
A few days had passed and Milo had spotted a lot of patches of land, however, the scans showed that all of them had some minor problems. Some were grazing spots for the herbivorous fauna, Shi Lang had also hunted one of these creatures and they found it to taste like game.
After a week, Shi Lang was at the watch, while the rest of the team was resting, tonight the sky was dim, as the moon was not visible. Suddenly, the young general stood up and said, “Alert!!!”
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