WotH Chpt 4

==War on the Horizon - Chapter 4 -==
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===Troops Begin to Descend===
Surface - 30 BBY, Beloria system, Seswenna Sector, Outer Rim Territories
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I watched as the remainder of the dropships in our fleet began coming down through the atmosphere, the early morning light turning from a dark-lit sky to midday due to the fusion torches as they fell through the sky toward a clearing that we had marked out. 
 
"Good thing there were some plains nearby," I said to Peterson as we shaded our eyes. "Otherwise we might have started a forest fire with all of the brush around here."
 
"Yeah," the other man shrugged. "I'm just glad that we managed to work out the salvage with the locals. I'm just as happy killing pirates as the other guys, but I like getting paid for things too."
 
"Agreed," I replied. "We're giving the locals their goods back in exchange for setting up shop nearby until we get our bearings."
 
"Still freaks me out that there are real aliens around," Peterson said as the ground shook, the dropships touching down. "The fact that they're so human almost makes it worse."
 
"I'm just glad that the infantry was disciplined enough to not freak out when they first saw them," I sighed. "Admittedly though, that might have been because half of them were sexy blue women."
 
"It certainly doesn't hurt that a good portion of the rescued civvies makes for good eye candy," Peterson grinned. "We're lucky the Marines are guarding the Jumpships or someone would have already tried sleeping with one of them."
 
"Paige keeps her people on a tight leash." I laughed. "I'm more concerned about some of our dependents and civilians reacting violently to the surprise," I glanced at the Overlord that had just touched down, the mechs beginning to unload as the Buccaneers began offloading their cargo of dependents and prefabs along with the foodstuffs that would be supplying the entire group. "This world seems like a decent place to get established, with plenty of open space to set up our prefabs and start working on a more permanent base."
 
"Didn't the locals say this was located near a trade route as well?" Peterson asked with a raised eyebrow. 
 
"Indeed they did." I replied as I turned away from the ships unloading their cargo. 
 
"Not going to go down and directly supervise everything?" Peterson asked.
 
"No," I shook my head. "I'm going to delegate for once. Besides, we've got to finish working things out with the local civvies. And I'm going to have to find their equivalent to an elementary school teacher so we can start working on their languages."
 
"Yeah," Peterson scratched the back of his head. "I'll see if we can get one of those ships we captured up to the Argo, R&D will probably want to take a look at it."
 
"Just have Rook keep those datapads we took from the pirates. I want to see if there is any sort of compatibility between systems so we can try to communicate that way," I said with a shrug. "After you're done working that out make sure to get some rest, your wife is going to chew me out if I keep you too late."
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===Plans for the Moment===
Sanal walked out of the trees and stared in awe at the buildings that were being constructed, the soldiers that had helped kill the pirates were now assembling prefabricated metal structures and running power through what already was beginning to resemble a small town. As she looked on, a handful of tall bipedal droids began building structures that seemed intended to house more of the droids, the walls and beams being held in place as men and women suspended from cabling began welding everything together. 
 
"It's quite a sight isn't it?" The leader of this group asked, his words being translated by the rust-colored droid beside him. 
 
"Yes, it is." Sanal admitted, waiting for the droid to continue translating before she continued. "What is your plan for us now that you have established yourself here?"
 
"Well, we're going to be seeing if we can get some instruction on the local languages," the man replied. "Then we'll head over to the capital city and see what work there is for a group of mercenaries like us."
 
"If you are looking for another engineer, myself and a few others have been looking for work since the settlement was established," Sanal offered, wanting to get a crack at some of the technology she had gotten glimpses of. 
 
"We'll see," the man replied. "We're going to take time to get everything set up here first."
===Communicate Difficulties===
July 3rd, 3007 AD, 30 BBY, Beloria system, Seswenna Sector, Outer Rim Territories
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"I see we're making progress on the language front," I observed to Sheppard and Peterson as we watched one of the few linguists that were in our crew continued to work on a dictionary and translation book with one of the local teachers. "It's probably not perfect, but it'll be better than nothing until we can get more of those translator droids or learn the local language."
 
"Colonel, Captains." a voice greeted us from behind. 
 
"Lieutenant Hober," I nodded at one of the pilots that had been responsible for the initial Sting that we had refit. "There something you need?"
 
"We're receiving transmissions from space, but we're not yet able to translate what they're trying to communicate with us." the man stated. "We're sorting through various formats to see if there's a computer language that we can communicate through something that's familiar to both of us."
 
"Alright," I sighed. "I take it Rook is already on site?"
 
"Negative," Hober shook his head. "I sent one of the gunnery officers to track him down, so he should be there around the same time you are."
 
"Sheppard, Peterson, start getting our people into the shelters and organize our defenses. I don't want us to be caught with our pants down if things turn out for the worst." 
 
"Wilco," Peterson said as he turned to Sheppard who was still in a wheelchair. "Let's get you set up in the command center, I'll start getting the Partisans and Rifleman up and coordinating our triple A while you start getting the rest done."
 
"Right," Sheppard nodded. "I'll start communicating with our satellites while we're getting things ready. We know the Argo is hiding in the shadow of the moon, so I'm not worried about it, but we should be ready to send our ASF up to support just in case."
 
"Hull's already going to be on one of the Stings, so we're going to have to make do with what we have if he decides to take both of them up," Peterson sighed, "I wish we had gotten more of a break, but I guess we're stuck with what Murphy decided to hit us with."
 
"Let's hope things end up working out," Sheppard sighed. "And that Mark doesn't wind up pissing off whoever's up there like he did Colonel Wolf."
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===Note from the Author===
*; Chapter Note : Unless specified otherwise, the conversation between Sanal and Hull was translated using HK-47. I also went back and fixed chapter 2 to reflect the language barrier.
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Chapter 4