You are awoken from your doze by a knocking on the door, you check the time and see that it’s almost 13 O’clock, almost midday. The door knocks again, and you stumble out of your bunk and throw some trousers and a shirt on, shuffling over to the door and press the button. With a click it whirrs open to reveal the station commander leaning into your room, a look on her face that can only mean an assignment coming your way. “Hello Fyfe, are you busy? She asks politely. Not particularly. How can I help you?” You reply. Well... I’m afraid we’ve lost contact with tracked drone no.4 over at the other side of the lake during that last earthquake, and I need you to fly there and check on it.” The captain tells you.

“Yeah, what was with that earthquake? I’ve never felt anything like it. Do the science boys even know what caused it?” You say. “They don’t know, this planet doesn’t have any tectonic plates so it should be impossible to have an earthquake. And they still cant account for why it seemed to have a rhythm. So will you go?” She asks again. “Sure, no problem.” You say as you throw on your jacket and head out the door. “Thanks again Fyfe, I’ll make it up to you.” She says, wiping her brow with a sigh of relief. “Don’t mention it.” You say.

Then you hit the button to lock your room and stroll down to the aircraft hanger, arriving to see the CD-50 is still in the repair bay, some scrapes and bumps on the chassis and what looks to be bug blood on the undercarriage. To your left Keegan is sitting playing Halo 9 on his ‘Xbox Two 720’, once again wearing his trademark bright red shirt, a deeply unlucky choice of garment for someone in the space industry. Knowing Keegan’s gaming habits you decide to save yourself a few days and get his attention, tapping him lightly on the shoulder, near knocking him off his chair with the fright. “Oh! Hi Fyfe! You startled me. What can I do for you?” Keegan asks.

”I was just going to sign out my UH-44, I’ve gotta go check on drone four again. What’s the dropship still doing in the repair bay? I thought it wasn’t seriously damaged?” You ask, pointing to the 70 ton spacecraft dominating the room. ”Oh it isn’t, other than some surface wear and tear this tough old bird is good to go. The commander just wanted me to retrofit it with the new motion planning and pattern recognition systems while it was here.” Keegan says, nodding to empty packaging for the new scanners and processors piled up in the corner. ”Wow, those must have cost a fair bit, see you when I get back.” You say as you messily scribble your name down on the clipboard. ”Catch you later Fyfe.” Keegan nods, picking his game controller back up.

As you climb into the cockpit of your tiltrotor helicopter, one of the few British vehicles here in this joint venture with the US. You flip the switches and the computer blinks to life, booting the engines and spinning up the blades while the guidance systems bead onto the last known location of the drone. With a low hum the helicopter lifts off and flies out of the hanger, tracing its own route to the drones trail without any need of your input, leaving you time to enjoy the scenery of this strangely familiar yet different world. You really do love to be out of the station for a change, you pretend otherwise to keep your boss from thinking you are having a jolly, but you can’t help but admire the beauty and size of this familiar yet alien world.

After a few hours of flying the helicopter has found the drone, and has set itself down in a little clearing a few hundred metres away. The cockpit flips open and you clamber out, grabbing a few basic tools from behind your seat then trekking over to the drone. After walking twenty minutes or so, you find the drone in a large crater, or at least you think it’s the drone. It's far too crumpled and bent out of shape to even be recognized if it weren't for the model number stamped on the side. Baffled you look around, trying to figure out how something had crushed a two ton automated rover like it was a drinks can. In each direction from the smashed drone you can see two rows of massive craters, like giant paw prints a foot deep into the dirt, each one the size of a small truck.

But there hasn’t been anything discovered yet here that could possibly have made those holes, no signs of civilization, no large animals, nothing; just a large expanse of dry dirt with dense patches of tall plants offering you at least a modicum of protection from the sun. All growing around the colossal lake that the science team had set up their research camp on the other side of, a research camp which you had been unlucky enough to end up as the mechanical engineer on. The only animal life found so far being overgrown insectoid species, ranging in size between thirty centimetres and a metre, living off the plants that they pollinate and dwelling in vast underground hives.

Feeling somewhat unnerved by your discovery, you conclude that it’s time to walk back to the helicopter and report your findings to the commander. Shivering, you zip your jacket right up to protect yourself from the biting wind, the collar stinging your neck which has been burned by the harsh rays. You can't help but be astounded at how a planet can be both too hot and too cold at the same time, the blazing sun melting the landscape during the day and the howling wind freezing it at night. Only the hardiest flora and fauna have been found in this harsh climate, massive trees and ferns growing around any and every water source. The only animal life found so far being overgrown insectoid species, ranging in size between thirty centimetres and a metre, living off the plants that they pollinate and dwelling in vast underground hives.

Suddenly ground trembles beneath you, rumbling rhythmically just like last time, as a pounding becomes audible, growing louder like meteorites striking dirt to the steady beat of a drum. Feeling alarmed you look around again, and panic when you see a colossus bounding towards you from the blinding sun. You frantically try to run back to the clearing you landed the chopper in, but are instantly shaken off your feet, stumbling uncontrollably then falling face first into the dirt with a thud. As the deafening pounding intensifies, drowning out any inkling of a plan or thought in your head and practically bouncing you up and down off the ground like a bouncy castle.

It takes all your strength and concentration to struggle up onto your hands and knees when suddenly the pounding stops. Terrified, you roll over onto your back, and gazing up at the colossus towering over you; a massive humanoid kangaroo standing nearly 100 foot tall, a tail hiding behind earth shattering thighs which a pair cotton shorts struggle to contain. On her head pair of long ears atop a warm and friendly face, peering down on you over the creatures bountiful bosom, held in place by a strained T-shirt. A broad smile beaming across her face as she sees you beside the smashed drone.

"So it was your toy that I broke yesterday." The titaness says, reaching down she picks you up off the dirt and opens her hands to have a good look at you. You just sit there in the palm of her hand, frozen in shock, barely more than four inches tall to her. Poked and prodded as she gently toys with you out of curiosity. "So tiny... You're a cute little thing, ain’tcha! I've never seen anything quite like you before..." She muses, her voice rumbling you to the bone like an earthquake. When she brings you up closer to her face, she sees that you are shaking uncontrollably, something that in your current state you hadn't even noticed yourself. Partly your nerves, but mostly you were shaking from the biting cold that is chilling you to the core now that the sun has been blocked out.

"Aww, poor thing... You're freezing..." She coos as she holds you tighter between her hands, shielding you slightly from the cold. "What's a helpless little creature like you doing out here all alone?" She ponders, looking around for any others of your kind, hoping to find a tiny tribe or village nearby. All you can do meanwhile is stare up at her, her immense size and beauty captivating you. "Well, I guess I'd best take you home with me, at least until I figure out where you came from." She says looking over herself front to back for a place to put you.

"Ah-ha!" She says with vigor, picking you up by the scruff of your suit with one hand, and lowering you down just above her behind. "I know just the place to keep you~" She announces, pulling down the back of her shorts with her free hand then unceremoniously dropping you down her asscrack. As you try to get your bearings, caught between her massive cheeks and held inside by the shorts acting as her underwear, you manage climb up from between her cheeks and grab hold of the top of her shorts. "There you go... That should keep you nice and warm till we get back home~" She says and smiles down at you.

And you are admittedly much warmer and more comfortable now than you were outside her underwear, as undignified a place as it may be. Suddenly your world starts jostling as she starts walking, her cheeks bouncing with every step as you cling on to her shorts to keep from sliding back down between those enormous globes of flesh. However the walk is brief as you suddenly hear a metallic crunch from below, looking down from your perch in her undies to see your helicopter being crushed underfoot by the kangaroo. "Oops... I think I stepped in something~" She smiles, looking over her shoulder at the vehicle smushed under her left heel.

The vehicle crumbling under her weight, the computer boots up the engines according to the natural disaster protocols, the propellers kicking up dirt as the jet tries feebly to escape, until they are silenced permanently with a press of her foot. Effortlessly reducing this cutting edge piece of industrial hardware into a misshapen hunk of mangled metal and glass between her toes. "That's better~" She remarks with a smile as she twists her foot around and scrapes the shattered husk of an aircraft off of her sole and strolls away, your only way back to base turned into a metal filled crater as the kangaroo walks home with her new pet.

To be continued...