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"These weapons are meant to be simple, friend Neera. I have great faith in your ability to decipher their use. My intention is not that you provoke conflict with either our friends on the surface or any representatives of the Assembly who might happen to make landfall. If you are attacked, however, I wish for you to be able to respond decisively. I have requested aid from any nearby Unity vessels that might be better equipped for this encounter than my humble Good Tidings. Your task is to remain alive, and to prevent the Assembly from establishing a foothold on this planet while you await help's arrival."

"That's not our remit," Neera says. "We're scouts, Boreau. We're not trained or equipped to establish a mission here, let alone to fight off a crew of stickmen while we're doing it."

Boreau extends all four of his eyes, a gesture that can mean either disappointment or amusement. "I am well aware of your shortcomings, friend Neera. However, we have found something precious beyond measure in this place, and it cannot be permitted to fall into the claws of the Assembly. Help will come, by and by. In the meanwhile, I will do what I can to prevent such a thing from happening. If the day goes badly for me, the task will perforce fall to you. When our actions here are judged, I promise you that any lack of training or equipment will not be taken as an excuse for failure."

"Um... when you say 'goes badly,' you mean..."

"Fear not, friend Neera. If this day goes badly, you will be very well aware of it. Now go, both of you. I have preparations to make."

So," Neera says as the lander slips its moorings and falls away from the Good Tidings. "You think Boreau has lost his goddamned mind?"

"No," Dalton says, "but I do think there are probably a bunch more things that he's not telling us."

"Such as?"

He turns to look at her, one eyebrow raised."I don't know, Neera. He's not telling us."

Neera rolls her eyes. Dalton grins, then grits his teeth and checks his seat's harness as the ship hits atmosphere and deceleration begins to pull at them. He's built up a great deal of faith in Unity technology over his time with Boreau, but he's well aware that if you're going to die during space travel, reentry is the most likely time for it to happen. The g-force builds quickly from trace to three times standard or more. Dalton glances over at Neera. Her eyes are closed, her head pressed back against the cushioned restraints. After what feels like much too long, the pressure in his chest eases as the ship transitions from plunging through the atmosphere to more or less controlled flight.

"Was that worse than normal?" Neera asks."It's been a long time for me, but that felt a lot worse than I remember."

"Maybe. The gravity here is high, so deceleration is going to hurt a bit more than you remember. That said, I think that was a harder drop than when I came down a few weeks ago. I guess it's possible Boreau had the lander take a more aggressive angle of entry this time?"

"Okay. Why would he do that?"

"Dunno. Less of an opportunity for the Assembly ship to potshot us from orbit?"

Neera scowls and rolls her neck in a slow circle."Huh. I don't like that."

"Yeah," Dalton says. "Neither do I. Don't like those either." He gestures to the weapons racked on either side of the exit hatch. They're bulky, metallic-silver almost-rifles, though they lack any obvious way to either load or expel projectiles. Boreau said that their operation would be obvious, but the only obvious thing from Dalton's perspective is that they were not designed with human hands in mind.

"Boreau said they were simple. Think we can figure out how to make them work without killing ourselves?"

Dalton shrugs."I'm assuming we aim the pointy end at whatever we want to kill, and then trip the lever on the underside."

"You know what happens when you assume, right?"

"We accidentally blow ourselves into quarks and gluons?" 

"Yeah," Neera says."That sounds about right."

The lander sets down with a gentle bump on the same hilltop where Dalton first came to the surface, a half klick from the place where he met with Assessor. Dalton unstraps, stands, and stretches. Neera unbuckles, but gives no sign of moving. 

"Well?" Dalton says. "You coming?"

She looks up at him. "Coming where? We're sitting tight while Boreau tries to work something out with the Assembly boat. You heard what he said up there. We're strictly his backup plan. Until and unless we get some sign that whatever his primary plan was didn't work, we've got no instructions. What do you think we're supposed to be doing?"