It came as a kind of relief when Jasken called Vanbrook and the others up to the Wingspan. The base had become too crowded lately. The command-tent-mess-hall-living-room didn’t feel like home anymore. As soon as he’d gotten through decontamination he gave Reclan a call on her comm.
“Van! Welcome aboard.”
“Ha, thanks. Where you at?”
“I can’t meet up right now. I’m on my way from my psych eval, which I nailed, I’m sure, to my physical. Maybe you and the others can watch from that creepy window Jasken will be standing in? I don’t know the rules.”
Asking a sailor for directions, they headed that way. Jasken waved them into the room. Doc Manford was already standing with him.
“Your squadmate is tougher than she lets on,” said Jasken. “I’m curious to see how this goes.”
In the room below, Reclan walked through a doorway, holding something in her hand. Talking to the medic administering the test, she casually slipped the object onto her amputated leg. It was a prosthetic foot.
“Ha!” snorted Doc. “So that’s what she’s been working on.”
Relcan proceeded to jog, run, lift, climb and swim like Van had never seen her do before. He was a bit shocked.
“That’s that,” declared Jasken. “We’ll have to take a look at the numbers and see where we land.”
Vanbrook was convinced he was just following protocol. There was no way she hadn’t just put a lot of competent athletes to shame. And he couldn’t imagine she hadn’t passed her psych eval. He walked down the steps to congratulate her, the others following along.
“Alright,” he said, “the squad is back together! What do you guys say we hit the galley?”
“I’m not hungry,” said D’Jarric.
“You don’t eat,” said Van.
“Now that you mention it, I’m not hungry, either,” said Doc.
“We’ll get you a nice can of oil then,” said Van.
“That’s an ugly stereotype. Robots don’t drink oil. Well. Some models do,” said Doc. Then, after a pause, “I don’t drink oil.”
Raivyn rolled her eyes and nodded to Reclan, who led the way to the galley.
***
At the Astralbian’s newly-held position by the pit, Traelby paced before the stretched membrane that served as a screen. The bioluminescent film behind it began to glow and the chromatophores in the membrane rippled in a rainbow of colors.
The pigments settled into an image of Lord Raelik. The eye above the membrane that served as Traelby's camera flashed green once and he knew he was transmitting.
"Lord," he bowed, "this site is useless to us. Any information regarding the Cornucopian Cluster was removed, either by the Republic or the Collective."
"I assumed that would be the case," Raelik said dismissively. “The true value is that we now have territory we won in battle against an entrenched force. That gives us political cover to claim ownership of the planet."
"Either way I am wasted here," crowed Traelby.
"Agreed. I'm calling you back to the mother tree. I have a much more pressing assignment for you. Brynel will be taking command of this encampment."
"Brynel is a fool."
"And holding this encampment is a fool's errand. But watch your mouth, Traelby -ears are easy to grow." With that old Astralbian proverb, Raelik ended the transmission.
***
Jasken sat at the head of a conference table, looking over Reclan's evaluations. She had passed her physical with flying colors. The psych eval had phrases in it like "attention-seeking behaviors" and "antisocial tendencies." There was nothing disqualifying, and it seemed par for the course as far as Talon Squad went.
He sighed. Talon Squad got results, and he wanted them at full strength for this assignment. They filed into the room, followed by Drixen and Viper, also known as Trikac, a Raki male and talented pilot. Raivyn flashed Drixen a grin, which he returned with a nod.
"Greetings, all," said Jasken. "As you may know, our satellites are finally up and running. Everyone in this room should also be aware -assuming they read the material distributed before this meeting - that we've identified what we believe to be the valley where the coordinates for the Cornucopian Cluster are located."
He was certain Vanbrook and D'Jarric, who looked at each other significantly, had not read the material.
"Talon Squad," he continued, "you will search the valley and locate the coordinates. In the documents you recovered from the pit, they are indicated to be hidden in a cave system under a pile of stones."
He tapped the table and the screen in the middle lit up, displaying a map.
"Here is Fort Bog Iron," the Admiral stated, pointing to a black dot on the map. Drixen and Trikac are going to fly you down here to avoid suspicion, then fly low up to here -" He tapped another black dot on the North of the map. " - hopefully with our enemies being none the wiser. Even if they see you depart from Bog Iron, they will be unable to track the ship, which has advanced stealth capabilities."
Reclan had her hand raised, and Jasken reluctantly called on her.
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"Yes, Reclan?"
"The valley location. It's, uh, white on this map. And we're landing outside the valley on the south end?"
"Yes," replied Jasken. “That's the closest we can safely land."
"And the white indicates ice and snow?"
"Yes. I'm afraid you'll be leaving the comfortable temperate weather of equatorial Hittania for this mission. And the path is too steep and rough at times even for the ATUC, so you’ll be doing a little walking. You will be outfitted appropriately."
Reclan nodded, some part of her regretting that she waived her leave of absence.
After a few more questions and answers detailing the logistics of the trip, everyone went to make preparations and get in what rest they could.
***
The next morning Talon Squad met up with Drixen and Trikac in the galley to have some breakfast before heading out.
Raivyn was disappointed to see that rakka was the only available tea, and even that was served out of a big vat. Life outside the rank and file military had its perks.
She sat at the table, unsurprised to find Vanbrook and Drixen talking shop.
"I'm just saying," Vanbrook was explaining, "that tiny raygun doesn't have the stopping power that a high caliber ballistic pistol does."
"Depends on the enemy," Drixen replied. "Ballistics are great against flesh and blood, maybe even machines, but is that really want you want if you're facing down a squad of Astralbians?"
Raivyn rolled her eyes and smiled. She didn’t mind having a solid firearm in combat, but she’d never exactly been a crackshot, and she couldn’t get into the kinds of technical discussions Vanbrook and Reclan had from time to time.
"Well, first off, my pistol packs plenty of punch to disrupt an Astralbian, permanently. But, second, that's why I carry a few of these."
He popped a cartridge out of his belt and put them on the table. It looked like a normal round, but where the bullet should be was a polished glue gemstone. Drixen picked it up, awe on his face.
"Is that a nova crystal round?" he asked.
"Yup," said Vanbrook proudly. "Load it in like a regular round, pull the trigger, and that baby'll fire a bolt of energy that hits like an ATUC. Set it out in daylight for a while and replace the primer and you can use it again."
“You mean get Reclan to replace the primers,” interjected Reclan. “I pretty much get to play quartermaster for all our guns, aethersuits, drones…”
"Man," said Drixen, handing back the round with a smile. “Special squads get all the cool toys."
***
Back at the pit, Traelby watched as the smaller star tree landed in the field, standing at a safe distance from the root thrusters and accompanied by his top soldiers.
No sooner had the tree settled than a mouth-like door opened at the base. Brynel walked out, adorned in the green cloak and silver armor of a noble.
"A fool, am I?" he demanded.
"Sir Brynel," said Traelby, smiling, "you got my message. If you don't wish to be called a fool, don't listen when others are discussing you."
Traelby threw a primitive auditory organ on the ground. He had found it growing by his viewing membrane, allowed himself to be listened in on a little and then cut it off after his conversation with Lord Raelik. He knew Brynel was behind it, the treacherous fool.
"It's a duel, then!" declared Brynel.
Traelby grinned and bowed.
"As you say. I will stand my ground,” Traelby had made sure to take an advantageous position prior to insulting Brynel.
When Astralbians dueled, the challenged party got to choose whether to start from where they stood or switch positions with the challenger. After that, all use of terrain was fair game. The duel was to the death. Both knights pulled their sabers and donned the bucklers slung on their back. The preamble was over, the duel had begun.
As expected, Brynel led with a cry and a lunge, stabbing at Traelby's torso. Traelby deflected it easily. His moronic attempt at a surprise attack done, he began striking in a more exploratory manner, but Traelby's blade and buckler made for an impenetrable defense.
Then Traelby began striking back. Brynel was a competent duelist, if not an imaginative one, so he managed to block Traelby’s attacks. For the next few minutes the two duelists took turns probing for weaknesses and defending themselves. Traelby was certain he could wear down Brynel’s defense with time, but he was getting bored.
He waited for Brynel’s next attack, slapped it aside with his buckler and thrust out his saber. At the same time, he reached out with his mind, concentrating on Brynel's form and pulling it towards his blade. The psychic attack worked, and his saber pierced through the weak point of the armor just below the breastplate. Brynel gasped, a buzzing pain jolting through him as his energy field was breached. Traelby pulled the blade out and sliced through Brynel's neck, muscling the blade through the electromagnetic resistance and cutting through it completely. Brynel’s form shuddered, crackled and then erupted.
The explosion was not large, but it caused the capes of the knights and their attendants to flutter in the wind as a blue shockwave spread out rapidly, quickly dissipating. In the center of the eruption, the forces pulled back inward. A blue, fist-sized crystal, glimmering with a rainbow iridescence, materialized. The death crystal, as it was called, was all that was left of the dead Astralbian.
Traelby sheathed his saber even before Brynel's clothing, armor and death crystal hit the ground.
"Well," he said cooly. “Congratulations to whichever of you just earned a promotion."
"That would be me, Sir," said one of the men. "I won't forget it."
"I suspect you won't," replied Traelby snidely. He stopped down and fished the death crystal out of the cloak and armor to return it to Lord Raelik.
With no further remarks, he marched to the star tree to go see about his next assignment. Hopefully it would be a bit more exciting than this fool’s errand had been.
***
Talon Squad's trip down to Fort Bog Iron went smoothly. The plan was to spend the day at the fort and then make the northward trek at night to avoid detection.
They were greeted by Captain Fenrik, a Dromean male who was in command of the fort. Fenrik was a captain with the Griffon Republic Army, overseeing terrestrial fortifications and troops. However, he still took orders from Jasken as a member of the Blue Griffon Fleet.
After welcoming Talon Squad, he proceeded to give them a tour. The mess tent was still the mess tent, but a number of modular buildings had gone up to fulfill the various needs of a full fort.
Gray-black walls surrounded the compound. Reclan eyed them with interest.
"Fungal structural material?" asked Reclan, examining the wall closely. It was made up of thousands of dark fibers, all climbing up and over each other to form a rough surfaced but uniformly thick wall.
"Yes," replied Fenrik. “We applied a spore paste when we got here. The soil is really fertile and iron-rich, so the wall is a lot more solid than it would be in typical soil."
"Yeah, the fungus would incorporate local minerals," Reclan said with a thoughtful nod.
"Obviously," replied Vanbrook, with a dash of sarcasm. Fenrik chuckled, his colorful feathered crest rising a bit with his good-natured humor.
“I take it you’re the squad technologist, then," he said to Reclan.
"Yup! Even built my own foot!" She stuck her foot out in front of herself to display her craftsmanship, wiggling the toes a bit. She had told Vanbrook that the prosthetic hurt her ankle sometimes, but she was getting used to it. However it felt, Vanbrook could see the pride in her eyes when she talked about her creation.
"The wiring ties into the nerves through a bioelectric interface in the ankle, but I have it spring loaded and articulated in such a way that it can passively mimic a natural Dromean gait even if it loses power."
"Impressive!" said Fenrik.
Vanbrook rolled his eyes and smiled. He had seen the same demonstration about seven times at this point.