Sitting by the water with a beer and a line
#5 of One a day, every day for a month, Monstergirl art
This time its a Merrow, a type of mermaid variant
My grandfather was a well established RAVEN, part of the old NEST, real tough old bastard. Loved to drink and smoke and eat, hell he didn't rule out drugs and after my grandmother died whores were par for the course. Now I'm not trying to paint him as a perv or a saint, he worked hard, made creds and supported his family and habits effectively until like any decent RAVEN, he took a mission he couldn't survive. Me, I'm much more badass than that old man, partially thanks to my parents turning me into a cyber-newtype in order to make certain I never failed to excel, you know ignoring the confusing semi prophetic dreams, need for maintenance and paranoia it can bring...But more so for the old coot's advise, solid training and just being plain fucking awesome.
So yeah, all that shit aside unlike what most kids do, I actually listened to my sin dripping overbearing elders. So when I say my gramps often said a man needs a place to relax, drink and fish...I took it appropriately seriously. As a LYNX pilot of an Armored Core NEXT the pressures I face are easily triple what the old coot could even imagine and as such, I took it to a higher level when it came to relaxation. Between loyalty rewards from my work with CREST, dueling bets and my time in the arena, I saved up a wad of credits big enough to secure me homestead rights on a fringe water world. No, I couldn't convince them to sell me the whole thing, but I do have a large patch of one of the few landforms on the planet to set up a home on and I'm the first to give a fuck about this planet other than scanning it for minerals. Apparently there are a large number of varied sea creatures, but the land is mostly small amphibians, rodents and birds...kinda makes me feel like a pirate...a pirate capable of destroying anything that even dreams of thinking the word booty in my airspace.
So anyway just touched down on the planet an hour ago, pressure is normalised and the air is breathable, if cleaner than what I'm used to, but the cyber gear should help me handle the nutrients and such. After that, nothing a positron rifle, a beam saber and a energy wall can't handle. Packing some gear into a sack as well as my deed beacons, I pulled down my cyclone suit and set it into motorcycle mode and set out to tour the area that was now mine, dropping beacons at the most fringe areas where someone might think to land and be out of sight of preliminary anti aircraft pods. This was mostly for the sake of the corporate survey teams that dip through on occasion, trying to find something another company missed. It basically let them know I had the legal right to shoot them first if they try to sneak up on me. If somebody with a twisted nipple and a decent rig came looking for me, sneaking was the last thing I needed to worry about.
With the tour over and a few assemblers working on fencing, turning soil, establishing a foundation and other automated tasks I couldn't give a flying fuck about, I stowed my bike and decided to hike down to the nearest beach and test out the fishing and drinking aspect of this trip. The terrain was easy going, the insects amusingly fat, lazy and curious, but thankfully most of them didn't look like they were made out of hate, murder and fuck you. Though it is something to see a fist size ball of fuzz, eyes and wings bob past when you were raised between the wrecks of earth and mars. The water here is this odd blue green with an oddly high phosphorous content, but nothing toxic, just a lot of things tended to glow.
But man, it is something to see sunset staring you in the eye, the water so clear you can actually see deeper dwelling forms swimming higher in the form of shadows. Setting my cooler down next to a convenient rock, I took in the view, trying to guess which shapes were predators and which were just huge plant eaters. Dropping a portable stove into place to serve as campfire and cookery, I cracked a few chemlights and tossed them in an idle ring about me to keep the lighting level stable, going as far as flinging one into the water in front of me to see how deep the water got this close to the shore and maybe a better look at a few of the things whirling around down there.
Imagine my surprise when one of the shapes dipped under the descending chemlight and abruptly began rising toward the surface, rapidly. Rising to my feet, I immediately reached for my sidearm, force of habit keeping a trimmed down slug-thrower there just in case something jammed the accuracy of beam weapons. As the head of the creature broke the surface, I already had my weapon raised, a flick of my thumb killing the safety and activating the daylight heads up display of the creature in question.
Sunset died the back and tips of her hair blood red, though the cool blue of the chemlight lit up her features in a smooth rational relief that allowed me to see it for the pink that it truly was. My targeting reticle danced between her greenish eyes, likely the colour of seafoam on earth before the pollution rendered it all grey. This...this girl could pass for human where it not for the fact when her belly breached the water, yep there were heart-shaped gills opening up to vent the water in her torso. Oh please let this be a female, I've found some...tricks or...ahem traps in my past, most of which turned out to be hitmen or bioweapons sadly. Flicking my eyes down briefly, I verified that there were indeed breasts in the proper place, kept modest by something like a bikini made of coral and some sort of shell.
"Computer link, activate! Cass, what the living fuck am I looking at here? The survey said only fish on this world, pretty sure this....this is a person staring me in the eye!"
My ships AI back in my AC Neon Knight buzzed into my left ear as the comms unit activated. A quick flood of data popped up in a holo panel off to my left showing survey data as having been largely mineral resource intensive. "Bitch, you know that isn't what I meant, are you seriously telling me they just skimmed this place for rocks and then told me it was all good because the tox screen was clear?"
The screen simply vanished in response, guess I had my answer. I was really going to have to adjust her settings later, I didn't mind logical and non repetitive, but this felt a bit like being shunned. "Fine, stay open for translation!"
Fully returning my attention to the alien which had been looking between me, my weapon and the various holoscreens I'd been arguing with, I found her looking me in the face with what could easily be called a winning smile. Then she carefully held out the glowing chemlight.
From her lips came the sweetest of gibberish, her voice alluring and oddly 'honest'. It almost felt like she were gushing about all of the things she didn't recognise or something like that but finally she wrapped up and looked at me expectantly.
"Cass I'm getting nothing here, what's up?"
A voice soft and petulant escaped from a sonic emitter in my gun and said simply "I don't have enough to go on...keep her talking, also calm down. Tox screen on her is clean for venom and while her tail could send you flying her upper torso muscle build is an inadequate threat. YOU are the threat here, MASTER."
Oh that sassy little slut, I see how it is. Well with that in mind I holstered the weapon and reached out to pluck the chemlight carefully from the alien's cool damp fingers. Dropping it on the ground casually, much to her seeming confusion I selected another one from my stash, twisted it until it was set to the color of my desire and then compressed it quickly to see the chemicals mix and the thing warm into soft pink light matching the hair of my guest. "Pink, just like your hair. You know, you are more than a little cute now that I know you can't kick my ass, though I suppose you could still try and drown me...Hmm. Well anyway, here take it, it should last for a few days without exposure to the sun and I have tons more."
I toss the chemlight to the fish girl and wait, watching her eyes literally glow with her new acquisition and the almost seductive way she tucked it between her breasts for safe keeping or worse yet the way she plumped those things up when she realised that I was showing interest in them. Whatever it is she was purring at me as she leaned on a hip against the shore sounded suggestive enough to be a come on line.
"Yeah, I think they are great. I'm a lower body man myself, you know, legs, ass, pussy. But I can appreciate anywhere I can rest my gun or lay my head."
Seeing no new signal from Cass I reached down and pulled out a new beer canister, though seeing my company was female I shifted the flavor setting to margarita and then pulled the plunger up, the sound file giving the nice crisp sound of a can cracking open that I was so used to hearing with my grandfather. Then I held it out to my guest before bringing another to my lips and drinking liberally." Let's see...I dig the soft pretty fins you have there and now that I'm looking at you, I can't help wonder if you spawn in mass numbers of eggs or if there is a slit I just can't see at the moment, but it is a point of interest."
"Traveler...you are so bold with your words..."
I stopped my sip of my drink at that moment, my gaze on the relatively petite female that was somewhat hiding behind her drink as she sought what to say next. Oh shit...how much of that did she understand?
"It is nice to know that even someone that came from the sky can appreciate my fins and tail despite lacking them...but to invite mating so quickly, you are bold...bold and perhaps smitten? Ah...I am saying things I wouldn't normally...you just have such a strong way about you that the other people of this world don't...It shames me to be so forward, but I can only think of you as a prospective after what you have said."
Pulling herself further from the water, she sat on her rump fully for a moment before turning to look at me again "For the gift of food and a shining trinket, I recognise your suit. My name Kee'ala and I will come to this beach with the next sun. Let us sup and speak again."
I felt a bit speechless, I mean I'd said that shit thinking she couldn't understand me, but I'll be damned if I was going to back down from some nice company at my fishing spot...though it seems I was fishing for...tuna? "Yes...well. My friends call me Voss! I look forward to our next meeting."
Man, fuck you Cass...stupid moody ass AI...but looks like I may get some fish head out of this...I wonder if I'll be the first man to get head on this planet. With thoughts like these I waved Kee'ala off back beneath the waves before settling back into a seat. Yeah, fishing was relaxing everywhere but one.