The cave by the mountains was a roughly circular hole about ten feet in diameter. Cool air poured out of it as Vanbrook, Reclan, and D'Jarric stood before the opening, with Vanbrook waiting impatiently for Reclan to stop playing around with her drones. He was eager to explore the cave in person.

"Hmm," pondered the Dromean.

"Atmo is breathable… and it looks like the tunnel slopes gently down into the roots of the mountain. Doesn't look exactly natural."

"Cool," said Vanbrook. "Some kind of animal den?"

"No. The floor is amazingly smooth. Sapients of some kind."

"That could be a problem," noted D'Jarric. "Claiming a settled world violates the Code." "Well, we'll certainly need to chec- aw, man! My drone lost contact. We'll have to go get it." Reclan stowed her tablet.

"Say no more!" exclaimed Vanbrook, grabbing his flashlight and walking exuberantly into the cave. One of the things he loved about being on a special squad was being the first to set foot somewhere new and exciting. The others followed and a few dozen yards in, they picked up the drone. Reclan stowed it with her tablet as they continued on.

"Check it out," said Vanbrook, pointing his flashlight at the wall. There was a ring of metal running up from one side of the pathway, along the ceiling and down to the other side.

"Looks like a doorway," said Reclan.

Vanbrook pointed his light down the hall and saw that it ended in a flat wall about 30 yards away, with a small door in the middle.

"You were right about the sapients, Rec," said Vanbrook with a sigh. The whole voyage would feel like a waste if they couldn’t claim the planet for the Republic. Making new allies was a desirable outcome too, but there were never any guarantees on how a newly discovered civilization would respond to outsiders.

"Shall we go knock?"

The group nodded their assent and walked to the door. No sooner had Vanbrook knocked than a grinding sound began reverberating through the cave, but it didn't come from behind the door. I came from the direction of the exit. The three turned in unison and watched in horror as the door frame they had noticed was closing them in. It was too late to run. The massive blast door closed, shuddering as it settled into its frame.

***

Back aboard the Wingspan, Jasken was walking back onto the bridge when a call came in.

"It's an Astralbian signal, sir," said Captain Hunt.

Jasken settled into his chair to answer the call. The Astralbians were a constant thorn in the Republic's side. The first known race to crack interstellar travel, they were haughty and self-righteous. It would do them well to remember that it didn't take other species long to replicate their technology and break the back of the Astralbian Interstellar Empire.

The call came through.

"Admiral Jasken! So good to see you," a saccharine voice cooed.

"Lord Raelik. Likewise," Jasken returned the lie seamlessly. The aethereal blue face needed a bullet hole between the eyes.

Like D'Jarric, the Astralbians were energy-based rather than material. However, sufficient kinetic force could still disrupt their form. Unlike D'Jarric, whose physical presence was a psychic projection originating on a distant star, an Astralbian's physical form was their actual being; a bundle of energy held together by a psychic force. This made them that much easier to pin down and kill. Sadly, Raelik was safe from Jasken for the time being.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We've heard you're having trouble with the Ramshackle Collective and wondered if you may want to make a trade for a less troublesome source of iron."

"Go ahead,” said Jasken, barely disguising his contempt. “Make your offer."

The elven figure flashed a wolfish grin that Jasken assumed was meant to be reassuring. Like most Astralbians, he was tall and thin, with pointed, almost crystalline features. The top of his head sported a crown of angular horns reminiscent of spiky hair, and his chin came to a knife-like point, angled towards Jasken. In reality, Astralbians were shapeshifters of a kind, able to take many forms, though they could not change their color or fully smooth out the sharp angles of their crystalline skin. However, they had adopted humanoid forms in the early days of the Empire, and still favored them.

"The Astralbian Kingdom has rights to an asteroid belt that is up to 50% iron. We're willing to trade you the rights to that belt in exchange for Hittania."

"Would this happen to be the Borspellin Belt?" asked Jasken, raising an eyebrow.

"Why, yes it is! You're a sharp one, aren't you?"

"Sharp enough to know you control that entire star system, which means using one of your worlds as a base of operations for logistics, I assume at a high tax rate. Sharp enough to know that asteroid mining is expensive and exceedingly dangerous work. Sharp enough to know that neither the Ramshackle Collective, who prefer building using scrap materials, nor the Astralbian Kingdom, who nearly exclusively rely on biologically bred technologies, have any interest in iron ore. I am not sharp enough, I confess, to guess what you're looking for, though I'm sure the Griffin Republic will find out as we explore our new world."

Lord Raelik's fake smile faltered somewhat. "I will remind you, Admiral, that the Astralbian Kingdom does not consider one or two beacons to constitute ownership of a world."

"And I will remind you, Raelik, that the Republic and her allies do."

"Good day, Admiral," sneered the Astralbian. The connection was terminated.

Jasken shook his head. This was starting to get tricky.

***

Down on the surface, Raivyn heard a grinding noise coming from the cave, followed by a massive shudder that reverberated through the ground. It was shortly followed by a muffled blast.

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Oh, no, she thought to herself. Running to the cave entrance, she quickly saw the massive door that had shut the others in. She searched meticulously but was unable to find any mechanism to open the door. As she tried banging on different parts of the door, she realized someone inside was tapping back in Standard Republic Code.

…s that you Rai? the sender inquired.

Yes I am here.

No way out. DJ tried to blast it. Bounced off. Risk of cave in.

Any injuries?

No. But there is a back room. Will check for controls.

Okay. Need to get Drixen home. Will come back with tools. Call if you get out.

Okay. Wish us luck.

Good luck, don't die.

Hardy har. Get back ASAP. Reclan's gonna lose it.

Inside the cave, Reclan was pacing nervously.

"Dromeans are a plains species; plains," Reclan was repeating. "Not tiny little caves with no exits. Wide, open, plains."

"I understand that, buddy," said Vanbrook sympathetically. "But right now I need my favorite techie to focus and see about opening that door back there. It's locked, can you pick it?"

Reclan looked at him disdainfully.

"I can tell from here it's barely even a lock. You really can't pick it?"

Van shrugged. In truth, he could probably pick it. Heck, DJ could probably kick it in. But Reclan needed something to take her mind off her claustrophobia.

She pushed him aside and stalked over to the door. It only took a few minutes of looking for tools and grumbling before the door creaked open. With a flourish, Reclan invited the others to go inside.

"Woah," said Vanbrook, his nose wrinkling in disgust. Maybe the planet never quite got settled. Looking into the room for the first time, Reclan saw a skeleton slumped over a work station.

The muzzle of the skull was sharply pointed and the fingers ended in spade-like claws.

“Looks like a subterranean species,” said Reclan. “Talpidarian, I think.”

“Makes sense,” said D’Jarric. “They were quick to take to the stars after the Astralbian Empire fell. This also clears up any contested settlement claims, since Talpidaria is a founding member of the Republic. The current Prime Minister is a native-born Talpadarian, in fact.”

Vanbrook walked over to the skeleton and saw it was slouched over a notebook. He picked it up, jarring the bones, which went clattering to the floor.

“Oof, sorry buddy,” he said to the remains.

“Hmm. Anyone read ancient Talpidarian?”

“No,” said Reclan looking at the notes. Her eyes lit up.“But schematics are pretty timeless. Give me the papers.”

Vanbrook obliged, and Reclan unceremoniously swept the remaining bones off the table and flattened the notebook out, shining her flashlight on it. Vanbrook and D’Jarric exchanged glances but said nothing.

“Yes. Yes! This is good,” the Dromean said. “The blast door was supposed to close before someone went through it. Not sure why but that’s the design. Something got delayed accidently and… Yes! The door is locked and shielded, but we should be able to remove this capacitor and it’ll power down.” She bundled up the papers and put them in her satchel.

“Great!” Vanbrook interjected. “Where’s the capacitor?”

“Um…” Reclan stared at the schematic. “It’s not an architectural drawing, so it’s not really to scale or anything. Maybe… through that vent?”

She indicated a three foot by three foot vent in the wall. Vanbrook gave it a swift kick and it fell off. He clamored onto his hands and knees and shined his flashlight into the opening. He sighed and slumped his shoulders.

“Guys… you’re not going to believe this.”

***

Outside, Raivyn, Drixen and Doc Manford were piling into the ATUC. Much to Doc’s displeasure, Drixen got to ride shotgun, though the pilot slept for the entire ride. When they got back to the original base camp, Raivyn sent in a request for an engineering team to deal with the sealed door.

“Well, Drixen,” said Doc, “It’ll be a bit before the transport gets here. Let’s find you a comfortable chair in HQ. I’ll be wanting one myself.”

Soon Drixen was sitting silently, and awkwardly, next to Doc Manford, who was reading a book titled “Why Humans Break So Easy and How to Fix Them,” a medical text evidently written by a robot.

Raivyn walked in and cracked a smile at the scene.

“Drixen, how about a hot drink? We’ve got a few different herbal teas and the like.”

“Oh, that’d be great,” said the pilot, hoping his relief wasn’t too obvious. A quick glance at Doc found him still buried in his book. He got up to join Raivyn at the table. She got up and prepared some tea.

“Talvan blossom tea. Grown back on Aerat,” Raivyn said, bringing a hot teapot over.

“Wow, that’s something. Birthplace of our species and I’ve never been,” said Drixen as Raivyn poured some steaming hot tea into a metal mug. “I’ve gotta say, I’m a standard military guy through and through, I’m not sure I understand exactly what you folks are.”

He took a sip of the tea. It had a delicate floral taste, with a subtle herby spice to it. Considering what he’d been through over the past twenty-four hours, it tasted like heaven.

“We’re Talon Squad. A semi-autonomous special operations group for particularly dangerous or difficult missions that require a small, nimble team. We take orders from the Admiral but we exist outside of the normal chain of command. We’re hand-selected experts and specialists, designed to handle jobs like sabotage, item retrieval or, in this case, primary exploration and base establishment.”

“I see. How’d the team get together?”

Raivyn tilted her head in thought. “Doc was a skilled but difficult medic in the Navy. No offense, Doc.”

“None taken,” said the robot, not looking up from his book.

“But he’s nearly as skilled with a rifle as he is with a scalpel, so being on a team that required him to pull double duty made a lot of sense.

“D’Jarric wanted to volunteer with the Republic Army, but he’s foreign nobility, so he wouldn’t fit in well with rank and file soldiers. Given his incredible firepower in battle, he was a nice addition to the squad.

“Vanbrook was a professional duelist who got recruited in after an incident I can’t really talk about, but basic training only did so much to break his independent spirit. A team like this was a good way to channel his skills.

“Reclan was Vanbrook’s idea. We needed a techie and he assured us there was none better. She’s brilliant, but she barely made it through basic because she’s a nervous wreck. She was shunted directly onto Talon Squad.”

“I see,” said Drixen, giving her an amused smile. “That just leaves you.”

“Yes. Like you, my background is standard military. A gifted psychic, as well. Admiral Jasken thought the team could use a psychic, as well as a bit of structure, so I got stuck with these yahoos. Again, no offense.”

“Yahoos indeed,” said Doc.

An alarm sounded, and Raivyn heard an approaching craft.

“Ah,” she said. “Sounds like your ride’s here, hopefully with my team.”

“Great! I’m excited to get back up there. Thanks again to you and the rest of the squad for saving my skin back there, and thanks for the tea, it was excellent. Oh, and thanks for the medical attention, Doc.”

“Not a problem, son. You’re a cooperative patient.”

Raivyn gave Drixen a playfully impressed look as if to say, I think he really likes you. The two chuckled as they left the command center.