text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  "An Elojin eh? Kill him. Anything he's going to say is going to be bullshit anyway. I don't have time to decipher what's the truth and what isn't."
  "You could turn him over to the Indoctrinator sir. He is very efficient at that sort of thing." Alyssa points out.
  "Salo? Yeah, I could, but I don't feel like doing him a favor. Just shoot the Elojin. We're heading out, I'm sick of this village."
  "Yes sir."
  
  Alyssa leaves and you shortly hear a gun blast and a body fall. She certainly doesn't waste time. Speaking of wasting time, that's what this mission feels like to you. If you're stuck here for months, you'd at least like to be able to find something worthwhile.
  
  As you leave and march through more jungle, you eventually come across some dead Lizards.
  
  "Sir, we got some dead Lizards here." Alyssa tells you.
  "Damn, I do so like putting the righteous fury to these reptile heathens." Salo says.
  
  You examine the bodies, they're pretty sliced up. Could be another tribe, but usually there's more signs of arrow and spear wounds, these are more like cuts with a sword like weapon. Might be some sort of predator you haven't encountered yet, but then you find something embedded in one of the Lizard's heads: A black piece of chitineous material.
  
  "Great, there are Krik nearby." You say. "Everyone on extra alert, and start watching and listening carefully."
  "K...kkrik?" LaFleur asks in a scared voice.
  "Ah ha! The most demonic of the Empire's enemies! I shall take great delight in slaying them!" Salo says in anticipation.
  
  Alyssa doesn't say anything, you know out of everyone she came the closest to being killed by them, when they attempted to take over her home world. Her usual emotionless demeanor changes, as you see her eyes narrow displaying her hatred for them.
  
  The rest of your team stands ready, it's not like you haven't fought them many times before, it's just that you know they never come in small groups. They're going to have numerical superiority over you and they are excellent warriors.
  
  You continue on your way and soon you come across another village. And that's it. The Krik are here in full force. They've effectively taken it over, You see piles of Lizard bones, and some other Lizards being lead to a nearby cave by a few Krik Taskmasters. It looks like they're using them for some sort of labor, but you can't tell what, you don't see anyone carrying out of the cave yet, but if it's the Krik in has to be important.
  
  Well this would qualify as something "worthwhile."
  
  > sneak into the caves
  You aren't going to defeat them head on, this requires a little subtlety. You notice the cave is far enough away from the village that you could probably sneak in without raising an alarm. The plan is to silently kill the few Krik watching over the Lizards and see what's so important in those caves. If it's anything truly worthwhile you can ponder your next move, if it not, you can get the hell out and put a bunch of distance between you and this place.
  
  Salo isn't too enthusiastic with this plan, he wants to attack head on.
  
  "The Emperor will protect us! This creeping and sneaking is for Elojin!"
  "I'm still in charge Salo, and I'll decide what's going to work! We aren't all going anyway, I'll be going, Alyssa, and two other team members. Lieutenant, you hold down the fort here, and dammit I NEED you to fucking muster up ALL your courage for this alright? If something goes wrong you need to get in there and help us."
  "Um, I'll do m...my best sir." LaFleur says unconvincingly.
  
  You shake your head and hope for the best. You aren't worried so much that he'll run, Salo will make sure he doesn't, but you're more worried that Salo will act like the xenophobic hothead he is and start an attack without LaFleur's orders.
  
  You, Alyssa, and your other two team members stealthily sneak into the cave. There's a weird fungus in here that causes a glow allowing you to barely see, but at least its light. The cave seems to descend lower the deeper you go, eventually you reach where the Krik and Lizards are, you keep hidden on an upper level and observe what they're up to.
  
  You see the Lizards being forced to enter some strange doorway; it looks like they really don't want to either. A few go in, and some don't come back out. The ones that do are holding some shining crystals. They're Baz crystals. Figures the Krik would be able to find something of worth on this planet. You wonder how they found it though and what the danger is through the doorway that they're sending Lizards in there, let alone the fact that some of them aren't coming back.
  
  Time to ponder your next move.
  
  > Leave
  You decide to leave, there's not much you can do, even if you kill these Krik, sooner or later the others outside will suspect something wrong and come running. As you get ready to leave, Alyssa can't believe you!
  
  "Sir! We have to kill these...things!"
  "Shhh, keep it down. We can't do anything we..."
  "The hell we can't sir! I'm sorry but I can't stand here and do nothing!" Alyssa says and opens fire on the Krik killing one of them instantly. The rest of them are alerted and begin to fire back. One of them makes a high pitched squealing sound however, in an attempt to alert his fellows.
  
  You kill all the Krik, but you hear a bunch of them running down the tunnel, and it sounds like a lot. You free the Lizards in the hopes that they'll help, but they don't understand you, and they're too demoralized to fight. You try to withstand the onslaught, but they overwhelm you.