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Only 25% of their scouting party remained
Of the 25% there was the co-captain(now captain) a senior medic, one scout and three general soldiers, their Terran guide had died earlier into the mission when the now-dead-captain had been attacked by a "hie poe" one of the new scouts had shot the Terran guide claiming 'he' had planned for it to happen before promptly being trampled into the ground by the now rampaging "hie poe".
The mission rapidly went worse once their guide died, another three of the scouts succumbed to what we believe to be a 'snake' based on the descriptions in the imperial 'Terran life guide book' and two quickly got pulled into bodies of water by large reptiles.
What was left of the scouting party were quick to set up camp in the safest spot we could pick in this izari hole of the earth Terrans called a 'savanna'.
While the chief medic had set up a fire to cook a black and white horse like creature the party had killed before the sun had set, the rest of the scouts set up a perimeter to keep a lookout for any of those "rhine oes" or liêra forbid "hie poes".
Nothing happened when the scouts swapped shifts on look out and nothing happend when the smell of cooked meat wafted through the air while the party started eating, nor did anything happed while most of the party settled down for a rest after agreeing to look out times, nothing happend when the fire died out and the rich smell of meat still lingered in the air while the stars twinkled on.
The ex co-captain now captain, jolted awake with a start, the warm light of the fire had died out and now even the embers were dark, the lookout on duty acknowledged them before going back to staring at the dark horizon, the grasses around the party shifting slightly with the faint breeze, confused the captain lied back down to go to sleep, thats when it started.
It was feint at first, could be considered a trick of the night then it grew, low giggles turned to deafening cackles, jolting awake the rest of the crewreached for their blasters, there was no Terran settlement near and yet the sound could only be described as that of a Terrans laughter.
The cackling grew louder, grating at their ears and now coming from multiple directions, the party huddled near the middle backs toward each other with blasters facing out, the laughter, if it could be called that, seemed to draw closer, the grasses no longer rustling in the breeze but shuddering with movement, the cackling was all around them now, the chance to escape long gone.
The noise seeped into every pore, with no end in sight, the lights attached to their blasters sweeped over the perimeter they had set up at the start of the night, quickly catching sight of movement.
In an opening between two sets of particularly thick grasses the light beams caught a dog like creature, frozen in the light.
The cackling had stopped.
The air seemed battered after it, weak and shakey after an onslaught of noise had attacked it.
The dog creature, although obviously not a dog when shone with better lighting, had a strange humped back and an ugly face, its legs looked short and stubby with an even stubby-er tail, when the light hit its eyes they appeared red, wounds and scabs scattered across its hide.
With a chocked gasp one of the general soldiers let out a faint giggle, relief instant, the rest of the party joining in with small huffs of laughter, relieved it was just a dog creature.
Then the creature started to laugh too.
The cackling that had stopped starting again with more intensity, its strange back seemed to heave as the dog creature cackled louder while creeping closer to the party
~~~
The high general looked at the mission report, only one of the party had survived to make it back to the mothership, a scout, and even then they had died a few hours later due to the bacteria in the bite wounds, similar mission reports were coming in from all over the planet and when the Terran prisoners were interrogated about it they started to laugh a similar high pitched, ear melting laugh.
The general stamped 'do not investigate further' on the mission file, starting to doubt if conquering Earth was worth it.