No shocks there, either: nothing that could give away the location of an inhabited planet, no tech gear that didn’t include a self-destruct, nothing personal that was indicative of culture or language, etc. Also tediously routine for the team was the situation: Enemy forces: unknown. Friendly forces: none. Attached assets: none. They were needed at once and had only minimal prep time. There was never time to rehearse it properly, but there was always time to waste a team or two. They would at least get two days to shake down with their new member. The military was generous in its own way. Day One was today, all talk. Day Two would be a field exercise.

“The planet is quite Earth-like,” the team commander, nicknamed Bell Toll, said. “Climate is temperate and moderate. I hate to sound too cheerful, but altogether it looks like a walk in the park compared to our usual missions.”

“How do we insert?” Gun Doll asked.

One of the intel weenies briefing them replied, “A stealthed survey ship found an open tunnel to the system. It was quite unlikely, but there it was. The system they found contains both multiple Jovians and this high-quality planet. Sensor bots were dropped for their usual sweep, when faint energy emissions and hyper tracks were detected. The bots performed a cursory biosphere sweep and localized the emissions.”

“It’s our job to do a drop,” Bell Toll continued, “move to the area and determine, hopefully without detection, if there is or is not a Blob base in the area. There’s something there, but it could be Blobs, free-colonizer humans or pirates. Or even another, unknown, race. It’s up to us to determine which. And for that we’ll need our sensat.

“Tirdal, attention, please,” he asked, and Tirdal snapped upright. “Tirdal’s been in service for quite some time as an intel analyst and interrogator. He’s only recently been through the DRT course, but has some experience and time in grade, so, by the chain of command, he will be third in line of command, after me and Shiva. At ease, Tirdal.