Skeet uploaded a 3-dimensional image to a virtual screen that all the team members saw. It was a hi-rez scan of the tower and surrounding areas. It felt as if they were floating over the area.

“As I said before, there are no obvious ways into the tower. I suspect that there is a door that blends in with the rest of the structure. I highlighted areas where we think they might exist. But it’s pure speculation.” Their perspective shifted to the southwest side of the tower where it met with the foot of a mountain. There was some type of collapsed entry there that was large enough for them to pass through. Skeet continued, “There is a door here and we’ve attempted several times to move drones and relays into that area.”

The camera flew in through the doorway. “The long and short of it is that they are always stopped sooner or later by this guy.” The camera stopped at what was one of the goat people with a brown hooded robe and a gnarled staff.

“Hmmm. Hooded robe. Gnarled staff. It’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?” Jhakaas scoffed.

“Watch. This is what happens every time.” Skeet said.

The hooded goat holds up the staff and lightning shot out from the head and the image went black. The scene went back to a still of lightning reaching out from the staff.

“So unoriginal.” Jhakaas mutters in disgust.

Skeet ignored him. “I’ve tried multiple types of drones including camouflaged ones at different times of day. The shaman catches every single one. I can only tell you that this tunnel goes on for some way. At least 15 meters. There is a branch ahead. But I suspect you guys will be met by the neighbors before you get that far.”

“You said ‘shaman’?” Ceridwen asked.

Skeet shrugged. “Just a guess. Seemed apropos.”

“I guess if they meet us that works just as well for a place to start.” Mako sighed. “I hope we didn’t make an enemy already by trying too much.”

Skeet held her palms up. “I admit. I probably tried 2 times too many. Maybe the gifts will help?”

“All we can do is try.” Mako clapped her on the shoulder reassuringly.

----------------------------------------

They had made good headway. A couple of previous expeditions had cleared the jungle a bit. Plus, Skeet had found something akin to a game trail that headed in the correct direction. Calling it a game trail was generous, but they didn’t have hack for every meter they moved. There were a few creatures or groups of creatures that were easily handled. It was an otherwise uneventful journey.

When they were only a couple kilometers from the tower, Skeet hailed them.

“Mako? Do you copy?”

“Mako here”

“A group of...other... people? I guess. They are leaving the tower and heading westward.”

Mako looked at a couple of the others in confusion. “What do you mean other people? Humans?”

“Uh no. Definitely not humans. Let me send you a cut.”

A few moments later a video played on a small screen. There were a group of bipedal reptiles, maybe, dexterously climbing out of the mountain entry. There were 3 that were armored in metal and leather. 2 of them had spears and one had a sword with more elaborate shoulder armor. Pauldrons, Mako supposed.

Mako paused the video and zoomed in. The proportions of height to leg and arm length were very similar to humans. Their exposed skin had a shimmer that looked like they were covered in a fine scaly type of skin. Their heads had a crest of feathers that kind of reminded Mako of a peacock's crest. Except this wasn’t a few stalks like a peacock. The crest of thick four-pointed stars was nearly as wide as their head and went down their backs like a wild mane of hair. Mako couldn’t see if they had a tail.

They each had multiple bright colors. It was almost like looking at a field of flowers in bloom from a distance. Though each one also seemed to have a dominant color. Pauldrons was mostly a medium blue. One of the others was mostly a bright green and the other was a goldenrod color.

Their armor wasn’t shining or gleaming. It had sort of a rough but unrusted finish to it. They each wore a helmet that allowed their crest unfettered freedom. The helmet bent around their head and covered their face but not their mouth chin. The eyes were in the same place as a human. They each had different markings on the metal of the helmets. Mako supposed they were really masks. He also noted there was no nose protrusion or holes.

One of them had a grimace on its face which revealed close spiked teeth. No incisors or canines or hardly any teeth of different length as far as he could tell.

They each had a breastplate, armor strapped to the outside of each arm and front of each thigh and shin. Each wore gauntlets that extended over the back of their hands. Mounted to the side of each gauntlet was a spike that protruded out and forward so that the point would be even with their wrist. There was something different about their hands, but he couldn’t make it out.

The vid continued and the three moved out and to the side. Several of the goats followed out. They were chained together with a collar around each of their necks. They were followed by 3 more reptilians. The vid ended as they were clearly herding the chained goats westward.

“These guys look badass.” Jhakaas bubbled. “I wonder if those spikes on their arms are for a shield or for stabbing.”

“I bet they are for stabbing.” Riff mused.

“Skeet? Can you show this to the leadership?” Mako asked. “We need a decision as to whether or not we try to intercept them.”

Achilles, Merlin, Hardtack, and a few others all joined in on comms.

“We are moving toward the contacts but won’t attempt to intercept until the decision has been made. If we don’t the decision will be made for us.” Mako stated and indicated to the others in the party to keep moving.

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“Understood. I think everyone has reviewed the cut.” Achilles stated.

Ceridwen spoke. “The question is not so much whether we should make contact, but also should we try to assert ourselves against a completely unknown enemy? I think we all are on the same page when it comes to slavery...”

Merlin interrupted. “We don’t know that this is slavery. These might be criminals, political dissidents, or maybe something of which we have never conceived.”

Ceridwen nodded. “Point taken. You’re right.”

“If we get there and it turns out this is their way of making friends and no one is hostile, I don’t think we have an issue and it’s worth making contact and learning more.” Mako said. “The question is hostility. We don’t know their strength or if there are a million of them 50 kilometers away. Any hostile action might bring down a war upon our heads. Not doing anything might make our first objective with the goats impossible or far more difficult.”

“Or easier.” Merlin pointed out. “If the goats are pushovers, they may be able to do nothing to stop us.”

“THAT is an unpleasant line of thinking.” Achilles said.

“Agreed, but it may be the reality.” Merlin added.

“Perhaps we should keep this comm open until we make contact, and the Archons make the call as it happens.” Ceridwen suggested.

“We can do that,” Merlin started, “But we need someone to make the call when the time comes. Achilles should make that call or Mako if he sees an immediate or eminent threat. For my own part, if this were not a scrum, I would recommend we do not interfere and proceed to the tower. Since this is a scrum with an allowance for failure and in the interest of learning about the local players, I advise we make contact. If they are hostile, we respond in kind.”

“Agreed,” Achilles stated. “If this brings a terrible outcome, we’ll have to reconsider our landing point or perhaps our focus. We could come out prepared to fight. I think most of us would agree that landing on a planet and fighting with the natives is not what we signed up for.”

The rest of the Archons murmured agreement.

“This planet keeps surprising us.” Achilles muttered. “Perhaps this is the other shoe falling.”

The party managed to angle northwest and arrive at a wider path. It was wide enough that Mako might call it a road. He stopped the party. They were west of the party and so the contacts were heading toward them. They knew the Reptilians had weapons at hand. He didn’t want to be completely caught off guard.

“Boomer and Riff have weapons out and ready. Set for subsonic burst. The rest of us will keep weapons holstered but hot. I’ll stay in front with Jhakaas and Zerk on either side of me. Behind us is Boomer, Riff, Howie with Boomer and Riff toward the outside. Flare out a bit when we come to a stop to make sure you have sight lines. Cerdiwen, Harpy, and Faelanx are in the back. Howie you stay with them. If there is hostility, keep moving back to put distance between you and us. Fire your weapons if you must.” Mako turned and started walking toward the meeting.

The party fell in line behind him.

“Skeet? Anything around us to be concerned about?” Mako asked.

“Negative. all clear. No critters and no other contacts.”

Mako could see them up ahead.

The reptilians were walking in 2 columns on either side of the line of goats. When they saw the humans, they changed and a formed a V with Pauldrons at the front. Pauldrons tilted their head to the side as they took in the sight of the humans approaching them.

Mako decided to remove his helmet to give them a face. “Removing my helmet so they can see my face.” And handed the helmet to Zerk to his left.

“They are wondering if you are some kind of elf.” Skeet said.

“Elf?” Mako was surprised. Wait. “You can understand them?”

“Yeah, the system is translating for us. I didn’t know that was possible. I didn’t know because I haven’t heard any other local languages” Skeet remarked.

“Well, that may make this easier.” Mako held out a hand to the side. “Hold here. I’ll move a little forward.”

“Are we going to skip over the whole Elves exist thing?” Jhakaas asked.

“Not the time.” Mako replied.

“I was just wondering if the elves they know are Tolkien or Santa?” Jhakaas considered.

“I heard that Tolkien probably adapted tall elves from ancient Norse mythology.” Riff responded.

“With Vikings, everything is tall.” Jhakaas said.

“Not. The. Time.” Mako repeated.

The rest of his party stopped. And Mako took another 5 paces forward. He made a show of displaying empty hands. He wanted to give the reptilians the opportunity to decide how close they wanted to get.

Pauldrons stopped their party 5 meters from Mako. This was closer than he thought they would get. He was even more surprised when Pauldrons walked right up to him.

They were notably shorter than Mako. They took in the sight of each other. Mako in his black urban armor with the Oracle patch and sidearm. Mako got a closer look at them as well. His armor didn’t reveal much about humans except basic morphology.

Mako took in a few differences now that he physically had eyes on the reptilian. There are shallow but ornate engravings on his armor, but it looked well worn. The helmet mask extended below Pauldrons jaw line by a few sens. The eyes were a little far apart, but still pointing forward on the face. The feet looked to be digitigrade but with 2 very thick toes with significant claws on the end. The reptilian had quite a bit of foot on the ground and the bone that led to the ankle was also relatively thick. There was a spur type toe with a pretty long claw on each side just below the ankle. The armor that covered the lower leg and foot was complex and impressive looking.

Their hands each and two main fingers in the middle of the hand with what looked to be an opposable thumb on each side. Each finger had a not insignificant claw at the tip. It wasn’t big enough to get in the way, but big enough to do damage.

“Why are you in my way?” the reptilian asked in a sibilant voice that Mako couldn't readily identify as male or female.

Mako was not prepared for that to be the first question. Who are you? What are you? What is your name? All typical questions. Not this one.

The reptilian face showed a hint of...well, Mako didn’t know.

Mako recovered. “We wanted to speak to you. To meet you.”

“Why?”

Again. Not what he was expecting. Time to take the initiative. “Who are you?”

“What does it matter? Move out of my way.” They spoke imperiously.

This was going downhill fast. “My name is Mako Nagata of the Colony Ship Oracle. Who are you?”

This seemed to interest them. “Colony ship? What colony ship? There is no ocean or river near here big enough for a ship.”

Mako saw an opportunity to knock them off balance. “We have our ways.”

The reptilian eyes narrowed. Finally, something Mako recognized. Well, maybe.

“You should not be here. This is the territory of the Shing’risgi. You are not welcome here.” The middle and end consonants were guttural fricatives.

Progress. “We may not stay here but we have a few things in the area we need to do.”

“What do you need to do?” The reptilian insisted.

Mako didn’t know if he wanted to answer that. “I told you my name. You have not told me yours.”

This seemed to make them think for a moment. “I am Sigroth, sixth of the Clutch Serendraga. You have taken up enough of my time. I have no business with you. You have now also been warned. You are trespassing on the territory of the Shing’risgi of Tedexa Goran. You should leave this area. There will be no additional warnings. Now, get out of my way.”

Mako held up his hands to try and placate them. “One more thing and we’ll be on our way. Where are you taking them?” He pointed to the captives.

Sigroth looked confused for a moment. It was probably a look of confusion. “The Dwellers? Why do you care? They are ours. All of the Dweller tribes are our property. If we find that you have poached any, you will be destroyed!” The leader seemed to be out of patience. The entourage was also getting twitchy as well.

“Property? They are slaves?” Mako tried to clarify.

“Slaves! Food! Resources! They are whatever we want them to be!”

Mako was taken aback. “Food? But aren’t they sapient?”

Mako found out the look of disgust appeared to be universal.

“Sapient? What does that mean?”

“They are people, aren’t they? They speak, feel, love, hate? They can reason? They are self-aware?”

Sigroth threw up their hands. One in the entourage twitched significantly now. “What do I care?”

“Would you want to be a slave? Do you want to be food?” Mako asked.

“You would not dare!” Sigroth moved back and unsheathed their sword.

Mako stepped back and held out his hands. “Whoa, I was just asking a...”

One of the rear spearfighters leapt at Mako, spear was pulled back to thrust at him.