Invasion Event: Do Bite the Hand that Feeds You: A Very Normal Interaction Between Wildlife Rangers and Army Rangers Pt.2/3

Thank you to u/SpacePaladin15

Thank you u/BainWrites for organizing the event.

And thanks to u/VenlilWrangler for working together with me! They were a blast to work with on this!

[Part 1] [Part 3]

Memory Transcript Subject: Veltep, Irritated Venlil, Temporary Volunteer, [Colony/Vishnu Ranger Service]

Date [standardized human time]: J̶̛̯͇̞̮͖̝͉̩̟̘͈̪̐͐͒͑̀̌̊̓̕͝͠ͅu̸̜͕̣̺̾̔l̶̢̺͚͉̘͚̫͊̊̌͐͑̓̓̋̄͋͛͝y̷̨̡̝̦̻̙͎̙̤̯̞̒̔̉̆̂͒̒̍͌͜ͅ ̵͇̬͔̟͕̞͎͚̠͕̼̲̱̈́͐̓̏͌̓̾1̶̧͗̊̋̓̑̚͝͠3̵̠̭͍͈̙̻̖̮͕̈́̐̈́̌̓͊̈́͘t̷̪̓̓̄̚̚h̸̬̥͉̗͛̑̊̍̆͛̚̚̕͝,̴̛̯͍̦̞͕͈͙̂͗́̍̈̊̉̈̎͛̐̆ ̶͓̱͖̙̤͔͓̫͈̮̀͛̽͗̑̍̑͘͜͝2̴̙̋͆͌̉̀͘͠1̶̧͚̥̝̭̱̘͙̣̠̟͚̇̓͗̍͑̔̀̀4̵̲͈͍͂͑̽̉̊̊͆͠͝͝3̶̟̦̟̟̏

We spent about an hour digging up the snowmobile. I made sure to keep myself between Drej and the speh-head of a human as much as possible. She was doing much better, but I didn’t trust him not to do or say something else to upset her. Of course, I was worried about Nova too, but he was currently more capable of managing the situation, as well as himself.

2160? Consortium? Esquo? If it wasn’t for the strange alien, the Jaslip, I would have thought that the pair had hit their heads too hard during the avalanche. It was all crazy! Some brahking, ridiculous, and contrived fantasy right out of a novel! And yet as they spoke during the excavation, they left little doubt about their circumstances.

“Swear the whole mountain was coming down on top of us.” Ullr grunted, scooping snow out from underneath the side of the machine. “Did my best to cut across and get out of the way, but it was too rocky to keep a straight line.” He paused, ducking his head down to check something. “Alright, I think it’s clear; see if you can tip it.”

Nova was on the other side. They had dug a trench along the bottom of the tipped-over vehicle, and the plan was simply to make enough space to push it over. The big issue was that the soldiers had guns strapped to the thing and were concerned about something going off if they just tried to yank on it.

“On three.” Nova called, planting his boots in the snow and getting a grip on the side. “One… Two…” Artaya, Drej, and I watched from the side as they moved, Nova pulling on the bulk of the snowmobile while Ullr shoved from below with his shoulder, making sure the guns were secure. It tipped over slowly, and soon Nova was holding it up instead of tugging on it, allowing it to settle on the tread and skis gently.

“Hot damn.” Ullr laughed. “Good job, looks like she’s still all in one piece.”

“And the guns?” Nova groused, glaring over the snowmobile at the helmeted human.

“Ah, yeah. Not to worry. No damage there either on the surface. I’ll want to make sure they’re clear before we head out, though.”

My ears folded down. I had gotten used to a lot over the past few years. Stars, I had changed more than most, considering my relationships. But the one thing that I had never had to confront was hunting.

“How long will that take, Captain?” Artaya asked, her tails twisting over the snow where she sat.

“Not long at all. Just gotta make sure there's no debris in the barrels and make sure they aren't bent or anything. ‘Bout ten minutes.” He spoke with confidence, already moving aside and getting to work. He removed his helmet to start, giving him an unobstructed view. He reminded me of the twins co-workers. Roger, Thomas, and Amanda. Around middle age, dirty blonde hair with a few hints of grey, but for the most part it was in the face. His features were lean, his skin weathered from constant exposure to the wilderness. Eyes sharply focused as he went to work, making sure his equipment was ready for the task we were about to begin.

The colonel had removed her helmet previously, keen eyes constantly sweeping the mountainside, while her nose twitched with nearly every breath. A frustrated growl sounded from behind me, ears turning back to check on Drej.

“Still no connection.” She said, stuffing her pad back into the pouch on her waist. “Shortwave signals work. I can still connect our headsets. But nothing is getting past the mountain range. Not even satellite signals!” My tail found her wrist, pulling her in closer. I felt the tension in her relax almost instantly.

“So we’re cut off.” Nova sighed, walking around to us, arms crossed as his tail hit the snow with a hollow thump.

“No GPS, no calls.” Drej confirmed, moving in closer behind me, her arms slipping over my shoulders in a hug. “It’s like we’re in a bubble.”

I reached up with a paw, cupping and softly stroking her cheek above my head. “We’ve been out here nearly… two hours?” I asked, double-checking I had the right conversion as I looked at Nova, getting a nod in return. “And with no contact. Amanda would have checked in way before this.”

“Yeah, she’s probably having a fit right now.” He looked concerned. The only reason she was even handling dispatch for Drej right now was because of her health. She’d taken a serious fall last month while in the field.

I shook my head. “But that’s the thing. Last time we needed an emergency shuttle out here, it took them less than 20 minutes to get to us, all the way from the capitol. Shouldn't we have seen a search and rescue zipping around by now?”

That made everyone pause, even our two ‘guests.’

“What’re you gettin’ at sh-” Nova’s head snapped around so fast I thought I heard his neck pop. “Uh, Ven…tep?”

I sighed. “Veltep. And what I mean is that we shouldn't be this isolated. There should be shuttles, drones, or something to show that we’re being searched for. It’s like we’ve been cut off from the rest of the world.”

Artaya cocked her head to the side, ears twisting in unfamiliar gestures. “Some anomaly occurred that resulted in us ending up here. Do you think that it has something to do with the situation as well?”

“That’s a better explanation than anything else I can think of. Whatever it is that caused you to literally jump from Esquo to here might still be happening. It could be interfering with our signals, but I still don’t understand why it would be keeping people outside of the area from searching for us.” Drej spoke while trying to check her pad again, messing with the settings. “It’s not…”

She trailed off, her face going slack as she stared at the screen. My wool flared as I watched her grow pale around the eyes. “Drej?” I hurried over, boots crunching through the snow. “Drejana, what’s wrong?”

Nova moved in, quiet as he placed a hand on her back and tried to look at her screen. I got a paw on her arm at the same time, and the touch seemed to snap her out of it, though she was still clearly panicked. Her head snapped up, eyes darting over the sky frantically.

“No, no, no, no… We’ve been here for hours now. That can’t be right.” Her voice wavered. I noticed Artaya’s tails flare as she watched us, keeping her distance. Despite his focus on his work, Ullr's eyes flickered to us frequently.

“Jana, what did you figure out?” Nova asked softly, peering at her pad for whatever clue she had found.

“It’s still 11am.” She whispered. My ears perked with confusion, even as Nova’s eyes widened to match his sister, darting up to the sky.

“What do you mean, it’s still 11?” I asked. I tilted my head back, wondering what they were trying to figure out. The sun was still close to the edge of the mountain just as it-

“... Oh, Brahk.” I felt stupid. Even with multiple visits, both here and to Earth, I still wasn’t used to the sun moving through the sky. I never even noticed that it had been in the same spot for more than half a claw. “That… That’s impossible though…” I whispered, my tail coiling around my waist. My ears were pinned back, and I could feel myself shaking all over.

Artaya stalked forward, her ears folded back as she looked up at the sky with us. “It hasn’t moved… We’re in some kind of time distortion?” Her voice trembled. No one answered. All of us simply staring up into the unmoving sky.

I don’t know how long we stood there in disbelief. It could have been minutes. It might have been hours, or a whole claw. There was no way to actually tell. But eventually, Ullr spoke up.

“Heh… heheh… HahahHAAHAHAA!” The four of us looked at him, startled, as the small chuckle quickly shifted into manic laughter, his hands clutching at his head. “HhhAH, ‘G-Great Scott!’ I can’t fuckin- AAAHHHHHHGH!” He fell into a primal scream, making the twins flinch as mine and Artaya’s fur flared out.

She hurried close to him, concern obvious in her posture, if not in her ears and tails. I wasn’t sure how to read her signals yet. “Captain!” She barked out, interrupting his crazed mumbling before it could really start again. His head shot up, eyes focused on her.

“This is fucking ridiculous!” He laughed again but managed to choke back another fit before it could get worse. “Ugh… This is crazy. How the fuck did we get here? How do we get back? Why the fuck am I stuck in some shitty reboot of ‘Back to the Future!?’”

“I… what? What is- No, not now. Later.” Artaya shook herself. “Ullr, I don’t know how any of this happened. None of us do.” She looked back at us over her shoulder, as if to confirm. After a moment, Nova shrugged, still rubbing Drejana’s back. I simply shook my head. “But we are capable. These three seem to be capable as well and know the area. If we can find our way around, we might be able to find some clues.”

“We… We need to move.” My ears perked as Drej spoke, swiveling to her. “I don’t… I really don’t know what’s going on, but we do need to figure a few things out immediately.” She gathered herself back together as she spoke, her role as dispatcher and coordinator for the rangers helping to ground her. “We don’t know if we are in some kind of bubble or if we are… isolated some other way. But things are acting normally.” She kicked the snow, sending a small puff of flakes scattering into the air. “There’s no weird fuckery with physics. Things we interact with are behaving normally. Which might still mean after slides are a concern. We need to be careful moving.”

Nova grunted, looking around. “Great. There’s also the concern of your animal roaming around. It’s outside of its ecosystem. It could end up hyper-aggressive, especially if it eats something that doesn't agree with it here.” Speh. I had forgotten about that. Void it; we still had to hunt, on top of everything else. Neither of the twins looked comfortable about it, but I knew it had to be done.

“Fuck. Alright.” Ullr groaned, rubbing his face suddenly with both hands. “Right. Focus on what’s actionable. We got an animal running around where it shouldn't be. Could cause a danger to us. We need to take care of it. Once… Once we handle that, we should…” He trailed off, unsure.

“We should come back here.” Artaya said. “Whatever happened, this is where we arrived, so the answers to getting back should be here too. Let’s go get the job done and then figure out the rest later.”

“Agreed.” Nova sighed. “If we’re going to… Hunt, then we need to know more about this animal. Snow Splitter, right?” He asked, getting nods back from the pair. “Tell us everything you can.”

Artaya seemed to shift her weight back and forth on her paws before starting to answer. “What Ullr calls the Snow Splitter is was known as the Ketitat to Jaslip on Esquo. It’s a very large and woolly brown herbivore with a distinctive massive lower jaw made of two fused tusks. It uses this paddle-shaped jaw to move snow and gain access to root systems. In addition to the lower jaw, it also has two large protruding tusks on its upper jaw used for defense against predators. I think Ullr told me that overall it’s pretty close to what could be considered a small woolly mammoth on Earth.”

Ullr then chuckles before chiming in. “That’s a great explanation, Colonel, but it’s called a Snow Splitter because it uses that massive jaw to split the snow. Easy, right? Also forgot to mention, despite its size, those things are quick through the snow. Hence us chasing on a snowmobile till the whole mountain came down.”

“Actually, in our language, I guess that’s not too far off from the etymology.” Artaya mumbled, her tails seeming to twist.

Ullr then looks over at us. “Can you tell she was a designated cultural representative for the Jaslip as part of her previous assignment? Ask her how often she got to talk about it, though!”

Her ears and tails immediately droop in the snow. “Yeah, I’d rather not. Let’s just get going.”

[Advance transcript 5̵̦̮̮̟͉̺̮̟͌̔̃̓͆̋ ̸̡̧̼̥̦͖̮̙̥̇̇͊̐͜h̷̰̹͇͈̥͚̣͛́̇͗͐̆̑̕͘̕͠o̷̢̖̱͓͈̙̔̓̀̈́͠ṷ̴̼̽̓̔̍̿̕͜͝r̸̯͙̣̺̙͂̆͐̎̿͜͜͠͠ŝ̵̹̗̙̱̹̝̼̯͗͂̔̉͐́́̚̕]

It took us an hour to find the trail. The avalanche had swept the animal down the mountain, giving it a massive head start. An eerie stillness pervaded the mountain all around us. The sparse forests we trekked through were silent. I remembered earlier days exploring with Nova and the others. This planet should be so full of life. Even here. The absence of it wore down on us. The lack of movement from the sun seemed to disorient everyone besides myself. Novarra and Drejana stumbled more than once as we traveled, and Ullr had a few slips as well. I was starting to believe Artaya only kept herself steady due to already being on all fours.

“Enough.” I sighed, flinching as Ullr spun to look back at me and instantly lost his footing, falling back into the snow with a startled yelp. “Brahk. We need to rest.” I flicked my tail at Nova, silencing his protest before it could start.

“No, you’re all falling over yourselves as it is, and I’m not far behind. Our clocks may not be working, but I know we’ve been on the move for over a claw.” I looked over to Artaya, who herself was standing over Ullr, concern for her partner showing as he sat in the snow, grumbling.

“I agree.” She gestured with her tails. “We need to find a safe spot and get some rest. Maybe we can find a hollow in the tree’s nearby.”

Nova rubbed his face with both hands, groaning. “Hhhhhhrrrr… Yes. You’re both right. Fine.” My ears pinned back at the agitation in his voice. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but I hated seeing either of them like this. “Let’s… Fuck, this is awful.” His head twisted this way and that, his eyes squinting against the bright snow. “That way. There should be… if I’m not thinking in the wrong direction, there will be an overhang about 20 minutes out. It’s close enough to pick the trail back up easily, and should provide some shelter.” He looked around at all of us. “Might be a little tight though…”