Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Vexton System; Vexton 2

Lucy is the first one to leave the yacht, I'm right behind her, followed by Tim, Nick, and Lydia. Alina brings up the rear. Both our A&D Mages have defensive spells ready to cast, but so far nothing has ambushed us.

According to Clara, the coast around the yacht is clear, but one can never be too careful. After one tense minute of waiting for ambushes, we slowly calm down and spread out a bit.

When still nothing happens, I signal to Clara to get our supply crate out of the yacht. It barely fits through the airlock, but another minute later, it floats right beside us. Nick looks like he's ready to plunder the crate for his science equipment, and Tim does a very short teleport to test if everything works as it should. As soon as he gives me the go-ahead, I speak into the spacewalker suit's intercom for everyone to hear.

"Alright, guys, looks like we're secure for now. If you need anything else from the yacht, now's the time. Otherwise, Clara can get her back up to space and we can get started."

They all shake their heads, and Clara takes her clue. Slowly and silently, the yacht lifts off the ground. Once she's far enough away from us, the main drive ignites and the ship zips away.

Nick immediately opens various shutters at the crate and takes out his equipment. After that, he gets to work. Lydia joins him to assist – just as we planned.

I stroll over toward Lucy. "Hey, what's your assessment of this place now that we're actually here? Is it good to set up camp?"

She looks around and slowly shakes her head. "No, not really… There are too many trees and bushes all around us. We don't have clear lines of sight. Hostile fauna could basically approach unseen until they are right on top of us. While it's technically not necessary for us to have access to fresh water, it would still be something nice to have…" She points at the nearby small stream to our right. "Unfortunately, this one doesn't qualify. Its flow rate is way too low, and the water is full of algae and other things we don't want in it. Sure, we could cook it but combined with the other factors, I'd say it's not a good idea to set up our camp here."

She has some valid points here. With our spotty scans, this place looked actually decent but now that we're here… Well. While we would probably be okay here, I think we can find someplace better. "Alright, then we move as soon as Nick is done here."

"Agreed, can you get Clara's drones out to scout? I'd rather stay vigilant."

I nod and turn around to walk back toward the crate. Once I'm there, I take out a mid-sized suitcase and set it down on the ground. I flip it open and look at the small black balls. Inside, there are six of them, all about the size of an orange. I tap each of them to activate them. They start hovering above the suitcase, waiting for instructions.

I take the shortcut and talk to Clara. "They are all yours, Clara. Please use four of them for close surveillance of our surroundings and the other two to scout for a suitable camping spot."

She replies with a grin in her voice. "Aye, captain! Actually, three drones should be enough to cover all angles around you. That way, I have an additional drone for scouting."

"You're the expert. If that's really enough, do so. The faster we find somewhere to camp the better."

Alright, I'll keep you posted."

"Thanks, Clara!"

During the next two hours, I circle our perimeter a lot while coming back to Nick and Lydia every few minutes. I think they are annoyed by my constant presence, but they keep it to themselves. It's just that I don't have anything to do right now…

Clara's drones are still out scouting, and Lucy has security well in her hands together with Alina. Even Tim found something to do and is now playing assistant to Nick and Lydia. They have him running back and forth, putting things in and out of the crate.

At least they tell me what they've found so far every time I ask. For now, it's mostly the confirmation of things we already knew: The air is clean and breathable, which means we technically wouldn't even need our spacewalker suits. Of course, taking them off would lead to an automatic fail of the Exploration course. There are expectations of course, but this is not one of them.

Other than that, they took a lot of ground samples. Mostly, it's just plain earth or stone, but at least Nick found something interesting here. Apparently, Vexton 2 wasn't always like this. Within the ground samples, Nick discovered traces of a terraforming process, which means this planet was made to be like this. Lydia ran a few more tests and managed to narrow the timing down to somewhere between two and one thousand years ago.

Normally, this means the planet was meant to be inhabited, otherwise nobody would have bothered with terraforming… So what went wrong? This also brings the whole reptile theme into focus. If the planet was terraformed, someone placed the reptiles here after the process was finished. It all doesn't make sense. At least not yet.

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I'm about to join Nick and Lydia for another round of questions when a buzzing sound interrupts me. I look up and notice one of Clara's drones returning.

As she's already linked into our suit's comms, she just starts talking to everyone. "I think I found a good spot to set up camp for tonight. It's about three kilometers to the west and on a small plateau. There is only one way up, which should make it easy to defend. But don't take my word on it, as some reptiles are good climbers. Unfortunately, there is no running water nearby, but this place is the best I was able to find."

A plateau sounds good, especially if there is only one way up. I also don't think we have to worry that much about climbing reptiles. I can only think of geckos again, and they should be harmless. The water is a bummer, but I guess we have to just accept that… Not that the water here is useable.

"Thanks, Clara, that sounds like just the spot. Nick, how long do you think you'll need to finish up here? I think we should move sooner rather than later before it gets dark. Who knows what comes out at night."

Nick gives me a thumbs-up. "I hear you. I'd say twenty minutes tops, then we can go. You and Tim can already start to load up the big guy over there." He points at one of the machines they pulled out of the crate earlier. Big guy defines it rather well… It's almost as tall as I am.

Tim looks at me and I nod, then we walk over and start disassembling the device. Luckily, there are quick disconnects, and we manage to pack everything away within ten minutes. After we're finished, Nick wordlessly points at the next devices. They are smaller, and we're able to pack them away in one piece.

Nick finishes a few minutes ahead of his proclaimed twenty and both he and Lydia help us pack away the final things. Then we're all packed up and ready to go.

A short discussion later has Lucy take point again, and we slowly make our way toward the place Clara found. So far, there is still no sign of the reptiles that should be here on the planet…

As we're going slow, our trip takes another hour. The final ascent is hell, as it's way steeper than Clara made it sound. We're also higher up than I thought. The trees end a good five meters below the plateau, so we now actually have a very decent vantage point.

Before we take advantage of that though, we first have to check the location for dangers and then set up our tents.

Our resident A&D Mages do a quick circuit around the plateau and cast a few spells. When I ask them what they did, Alina answers with a big smile. "You could call those kinds of spells Wards… They mostly just warn us if something's crossing them. It's a good early warning system, think of them like motion sensors. Lucy put a few different Wards out as well. Hers will shock and hopefully daze anything that comes too close to our camp."

She pauses when she sees the worried look on my face. I don't want to be shocked if I walk around our camp after all.

"Don't worry, we're all excepted from the spell and even if not, it's just a very light shock that wouldn't get through our spacewalker suits."

"Alright, thanks for letting me know. Does that mean we can start with the tents? I really want to try them out after everything Tim told us about them."

"Yeah, let's go!" Alina replies and grabs my arm. Then we're off toward the crate. As soon as Tim sees us giving him a thumbs-up, he jumps up and takes out three square boxes. They are around half a meter long on each side and completely black. He actually struggles a bit to lift them without a Telekinesis spell.

Taking my clue, I cast the spell and float the boxes to the middle of the plateau. I'm about to set them down in a circle when Tim's voice stops me.

"A bit further apart, Sara! The tents are bigger than they look right now."

I thank him and expand the circle. When he tells me the new distance between the boxes is enough, I place them down on the ground. "What now?" I call out and Tim walks up next to me.

"Now I do this," he waves his hand dramatically, but I notice him tapping something on his interface at the end.

Suddenly, all the boxes come apart and fold out into a large square on the ground. Tim was right, even after I put them further apart, the edges are still almost touching now. Next, there is a loud whirring sound, and the squares start to inflate. Slowly but surely, the tents expand in height and stop after they've reached three meters. The roof is slightly inclined so that rainwater can flow off the roof.

The whole process is finished with a pulse of magic that encompasses the whole tent. I reach out and touch the outer wall. It's hard, not soft as one would expect from something filled with air.

I look at Tim. "Was that the Reinforcement spell?"

He looks taken aback. "Huh, you know that spell? But yes, it is."

"Yeah, both Lydia and I do… It's from Improvised Combat."

"Ahh, yeah, that makes sense. Wanna check out the inside?"

"Sure, lead the way."

Suddenly, all the others are next to us, as if they've just teleported. I stifle a laugh and follow Tim through the entrance of the first tent. Inside, I stop and my mouth drops open. Lucy bumps into me which shakes me out of it. But boy, I can't even call that tent anymore… It looks like a hotel room and even with the six of us inside, it's still spacey.

"Wow…" I say dreamily. "That's even better than I expected."

Inside the tent is everything we might need. Two beds, a bathroom, and even a small kitchen. And everything is just inflated and then made solid with the Reinforcement spell. Just crazy.

"Glad you like it," Tim replies.

"Are the other tents the same?" Lydia asks with stars in her eyes.

"They are. They come like this straight out of the factory and due to the way they are made and the Reinforcement spell, we can't change anything."

"Cool! Come on, Alina, let's check out our own tent!" Lydia grabs Alina's hand and they leave through the entrance.

That leaves Lucy, Nick, Tim, and me. "Soo, are we going to do a boys and girls tent?" I ask.

I notice Tim's face falling, but he hides it behind a grin. "Fine by me. Do you want this one? I'll take the other one with Nick."

"Sure, thanks, Tim."

The boys leave as well. Once they're gone, Lucy bops my head. "You're an idiot, Sara. That was the perfect opportunity for you and Tim to talk things through…"

I lower my head. She's right, that was dumb. But I also still don't know how to approach this relationship stuff… It's so complicated and it's not like I can't get Tim out of my head. Sure, I like him, but do I like him that much to start dating him? I just don't know… And that doesn't even consider all the social ramifications… With him being the Silvani heir and well me. The non-existent Sara Valterion. Ugh!

"I know Lucy… It's just… I don't know if I even want to date him. With you and Nick it all looked so easy. I feel like I'm still not ready for a relationship…"

Lucy hugs me. "I understand. But I think you should tell him that sooner or later."

"Yeah, I know."

When I step back out of our tent again, I notice Nick already working with the next analytical device. Everyone else stands around him. With a shrug, I join them. "Hey guys, Lucy is cooking dinner for us, so I hope you're all hungry!"

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