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The planet looks like an ideal spot for colonization from a distance. Covered with a range of biomes, from lush forest to long coastlines to roaring rivers. However, when the Amentans arrive they quickly notice anomalies on their scans.
A population of humanoids lives on the planet, scattered - sometimes individuals are spotted alone and other times they appear in groups of up to a few thousand. They appear similar to child Amentans, except for a general lack of bright hair colors. Civilization appears primitive - in some cases so primitive that it's confusing how they survive at all, with small groups managing to survive in environments as harsh arctic tundra huddled around campfires, in sandy villages in a desert with a single well. A small number of cities exist, most without obvious sources of sufficient food to support them.
As the Amentans investigate further they notice more anomalies of a far less consistent nature. There's an aurora in the northern hemisphere that shines continuously, day and night. One of the cities appear to change subtly in composition and position constantly, with no obvious construction visible. A group of the humanoids appear to live underwater, alongside a gigantic manta ray, hundreds of feet in breadth. A giant skeleton statue of green crystal seems to be moving. A blur of feathers and wings zooms across the planet like a missile at one point. Except for the humanoid species, none of the anomalies repeat.
These are just the anomalies they notice easily from orbit, more may be found on closer inspection.
After a few minutes of this a giant pelican-esque monster plummets out of the sky, crashing on the beach a few yards away from the Amentans and the jumping girl, sand being thrown everywhere by the sudden impact.
Miraculously, it appears unharmed, albeit rather sandy.
The Amentans yelp and duck for cover; the grey who's playing with the Amalien picks her up and sprints away from the impact site.
She clings to his leg a bit.
Meanwhile the winged monster appears to be getting ready to regurgitate something.
An improbably large number of Amaliens tumble out of the mouth - landing together in a pile. Thankfully for any squeamish Amentans, no food or fluids accompanies them - the new Amaliens are disheveled but clean.
The Amaliens disentangle themselves and stand up. They're an eclectic bunch - all look like children but aside from that they have little in common. Included among them:
- A girl with wild messy hair with dead leaves stuck in it.
- A slightly damp pair, a boy and a girl, wearing leathery wetsuits.
- A trio with bits of fluff stuck to their clothes.
- Another trio that appears to be covered in ash and soot, with singed hair.
- A girl with a wooden sword, standing slightly ahead of the rest, with a mouse on her shoulder.
- A boy skulking in the back, who at first looks a bit older than the others, but upon closer inspection actually just looks like someone who is sleep deprived but too busy to rest.
A few of them have brought very cozy looking blankets with them.
They begin looking around for the land-based recipients of the communication the Aurorite had told them was coming from a space object.
Well, the space object is over there, and there are tents spread out. Also some of the Amentans aren't hiding very well.
The group finds the Amentans and a few wave at them. They try communicating with a combination of words and gestures that the Amentans should bring the Cryptophasia so they can all communicate more easily.
The spoken monster that the other Amentans communicated with, the Amaliens struggle to convey. A few of them get distracted by dipping their feet in the ocean and watching the sand wash off their toes, but refocus on the first contact mission after a bit.
...well, if they want to supply the landing-camp linguists with more vocabulary they can work on that.
They work on that with more focus then the wave jumping girl did. They focus on building up enough language to explain to the Amentans that some of the other Amentans in the sky ship would do a better job of communicating due to something that was transmitted to them earlier.
They don't know! And they're sort of confused and worried because the ... they struggle to communicate... The transmitted thing is alive somehow.
The Amaliens nod and looked relieved at having been understood. Except for the tired looking boy who just looks a bit more nervous than before.
The amaliens don't know if it's been noticed and are quite worried for it! It doesn't seem dangerous to them?
The tired looking Amalien glares at them a bit more.
Well, they can tell the people up there that the locals think that a living thing has gone to the ship from the surface somehow? Does it go through places without air?
Yes it does and yes they should tell them! And, the tired boy adds, they should transmit it back here fast.
(They do take a bit of discussion among each other to figure out whether it transmits through places without air, but conclude that it does)
They radio up with this pronouncement.
They get a response back that really puzzles them. They are somewhat at pains to figure out how to ask the locals "is it a language that is also a person".