Oxenstierna through the now useless carbine to the blood soaked ground. Pulling out his sidearm, he fired a series of random shots in the direction of the largest concentration of Relephon soldiers. The E-Web had fallen silent; Cyto had passed on along with everyone else in the unit. Oxenstierna was alone with the Prince, sinking into despair as he sunk down in the trench, looking at the Prince to avoid the continuous stream of fire the seemly inexhaustible forces of Relephon were sending his way. The small autoturrets placed around the team’s perimeter would keep them back for a few minutes later.

Oxenstierna pulled out his datapad.



Mission unsuccessful. Intel extremely inaccurate. Relephon army and naval forces in numbers far beyond estimates. Patterns do not align. Outside sources are a definite. Heritage Council eliminated by Prince. Autoturret feeds attached. Please give my best wishes to my family and the families of the men who served under him.

- O


He relayed the message and its attachments to the vessel that his Hapan issued communications device indicated was in orbit.

It was a sorry lot that put a commander in a situation like this. Conditions and circumstances beyond his control had led to the destruction of his force. Being a commanding officer of a wiped out unit and the sole remaining survivor could push people over the edge.

“Fuck it…”

Oxenstierna pulled out his sidearm and pointed it at the Prince’s unconscious form. Stroking the trigger lightly, he aimed for the monarch's chest.

Then his world became darkness as a well aimed and well timed blaster bolt to the forehead sent him instantly into the Beyond.

Diplomatic Frigate, Hapan Fleet

“The situation is worse than we had expected,” Jonas growled after the message from the Relephon fleet had been replayed for the third time, “We’ve just walked right into a shitstorm waiting to happen.”

“The situation is indeed…delicate,” ‘Derrik Sorn’, the ambassador’s aide, admitted, “But it is salvageable. With the right words, we can sow the seeds of uncertainty amongst their ranks. Now, before we go about doing that we need to get the facts straight ourselves. Was the special forces unit given orders to neutralize the members of the Summit?”

“No,” their military advisor, the Commonwealth Lieutenant Jasen Ade, replied, “They were only cleared to neutralize Lucian D’alaetos, and only then if the circumstances deemed necessary.”

“Could the team have interpreted the orders as clearance to neutralize the Summit?” Sorn asked.

“No,” Ade reaffirmed sternly, “They were only to monitor the situation. They could not have interpreted it any other way. And these aren’t dull brained grunts we’re talking about here, these are Commonwealth elite.”

“Obviously not elite enough to realize that assaulting the Summit with a Relephon fleet in orbit would be a bad idea,” C’aelis muttered, “And a little too dull brained to forget to take off their Commonwealth uniforms.”

Lieutenant Ade shot a cold glare Jonas’s way.

“Like I said, they were only to attempt neutralization if the circumstances dictated it was necessary. If they had been discovered or if a special opportunity had presented itself, they would have had no choice, “ Ade growled, “And they did take off their uniforms.”

“Wait,” Sorn looked up at the lieutenant, “They weren’t wearing Commonwealth uniforms?”

“No, of course they weren’t wearing uniforms,” Ade hissed, “They were wearing fatigues suitable to the foliage. Anyone could have been wearing what they were wearing. We’re not new to this.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Jonas mumbled.

“What was that?” Ade growled.

“Nothing,” C’aelis shot back cooly.

“Enough,” Sorn said flatly, ending the confrontation between the two men, “If they weren’t wearing uniforms, how did Relephon pin them as Commonwealth?”

“Who else would be taking pot shots at their beloved Prince?” Jonas countered, “Their list of enemies is a little short. Namely, us.”

“I agree,” Ade nodded.

“So what you’re saying is,” Sorn began slowly, “That they don’t actually know its us?”

“How could they?” Ade asked, “Unless they got one of our boys to talk, which they couldn’t possibly have. Teams like those are especially trained not to reveal information under any form of torture. There is no possible way any of them would have given us away.”

“So they’re just guessing?” Sorn asked for confirmation.

“Yes,” Ade nodded, “There is no possible way they could know for sure.”

“I imagine they’ll be singing a different tune to the Heritage Fleet,” Jonas muttered.

“Right, you heard them,” Ade nodded, “They confirmed with ‘one hundred percent positivity’ that they were Commonwealth.”

“And with the political stance of most of the members of that Fleet, they’re likely to believe anything they hear from Relephon,” Sorn nodded, “Even if not, it wouldn’t be too hard to dress the soldiers up to look like Commonwealth. Which means we’ll have to play ball with that.”

“What, you mean admit that it was us?” Ade’s eyes widened, “Are you serious?”

“Not quite,” Derrik shook his head, “We know they’re going to dress the soldiers up like Commonwealth. Why not beat them to the punch? Tell them that it was someone else posing as Commonwealth, and provide evidence supporting the claim.”

“They’d have to run with that,” Jonas nodded, “They’ve already confirmed with ‘one hundred percent positivity’ that the forces were in Commonwealth uniforms.”

The comm. system on the table beeped, and Ade leaned over to check it.

“Incoming from the Gladiator, urgent,” the lieutenant read.

“Put in on screen,” Derrik ordered.

The mini-version of Captain Artemis Ashanti appeared on the table.

”We just received an encrypted databurst from the surface,” Ashanti said, “The final report the special forces team. They’re been KIA. I’m sorry Lieutenant.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Ade nodded, his expression crestfallen. He had known it was inevitable, but it hurt all the same.

“Could the transmission have been intercepted by the Heritage Fleet, Captain?” Sorn asked.

“No,” Ashanti shook his head, obviously a bit perturbed to be addressed in such a way by what he perceived to be an ambassador’s aide, “The device was designed only to send to a special comm. system on a Consortium vessel. Because of this, encryptions and security measures are able to be put in place rendering it impossible to be intercepted.”

Sorn nodded.

“Send the communiqué, Captain,” C’aelis said, “And thanks you for informing us.”

“Sent, and I hope you put it to good use,” Ashanti replied, “And hurry up with a reply, they’ll be getting antsy soon. Ashanti, out.”

“The communiqué has arrived,” Ade confirmed, “There is a simple text message and a video feed.”

“What does the text say?” Sorn asked.

“Mission unsuccessful. Intel extremely inaccurate. Relephon army and naval forces in numbers far beyond estimates. Patterns do not align. Outside sources are a definite. Heritage Council eliminated by Prince. Autoturret feeds attached,” Ade read the next line and cleared his throat a little. He read more slowly, “Please give my best wishes to my family and the families of the men who served under him. O.”

“So they are getting help from an outside source,” Sorn murmered. And then, louder, “Play the video feed.”

It had been something Oxenstierna had forgotten about at the time of sending the communiqué, but had uploaded automatically along with the datapad message. The feed began from some likely well hidden spot in foliage, and from the view, upon a small hill. The video was looking at the prefabricated structure in which the meeting had been held.

From the time stamp on the bottom right of the feed, it was dated a few hours before. This was not the Summit itself, and Sorn cursed. Footage of the actual assassination would have proven infinitely useful in defending themselves. More than that, it would have ruined Relephon. What the video footage was, however, was still intriguing. It was footage of the preparations for the summit.

A man came into view on the screen, most obviously the one in charge. He was also very obviously not Hapan.

“I think we’ve found our Director X,” Sorn narrowed his eyes, “Run a check on that man.”

The footage cut off abruptly and resumed. It was aimed up at the sky; the night vision had been enabled. Just as abruptly as the footage had cut off, the face of a man appeared looking down upon the camera. Ade identified him immediately as Oxenstierna.

”Our presence here has been given away,” the man growled, “Fucking Relephon patrol nearly walked right over us, had no choice to neutralize them before they gave us away. The bodies are gonna be a dead giveaway to their buddies. We will be attempting to capture Lucian D’alaetos so we can salvage something out of this fuckup of a mission. Oxenstierna out.”

The video feed cut off again, this time for the last time.

“Still think they were a bunch of dull brained grunts, Ambassador?” Ade asked quietly.

“I…hey…” In one of the few times in his life, Jonas couldn’t think of anything to say, so he settled for, “Sorry.”

“So, what now?” Ade asked, stirring in his seat.

“We proceed as planned,” Sorn sighed, “The information the Master Sergeant provided us with is invaluable, but sadly useless in this situation. We cannot present any of it to discredit them without revealing that we actually were down there on that planet, and as soon as we do that it won’t matter what we say. They’ll likely fire immediately.”

“So?” Jonas asked.

“So,” Derrik turned to look at the ambassador, “Here is what you say.”


“Attention Relephon Fleet,” crackled the voice of Jonas C’aelis once more, “My apologies for the belated response. We were attempting to confirm if there was in fact any Commonwealth presence on the planet below. Bonadan has informed us that there was no Commonwealth special forces team dispatched to Dreena, and certainly not one with such hostile intentions as you describe.

But there was a raid on a Commonwealth supply base on Etti-IV last week, during which the only items stolen was a number of Commonwealth special forces uniforms. We thought the theft strange at the time, but now we realize the intent. I understand it may be hard for you to believe this, but I assure you that neither the Consortium nor the Commonwealth had anything to do with this tragedy. We stand by willing to render full assistance in eliminating the threat on the planet and investigating this matter side by side with Relephon.”


“Mr. Sorn,” Lieutenant Ade walked once more into the meeting room in which they had debated their course of action earlier, “The check just came in on the man in the special forces team’s video footage.”

“Any matches?” Sorn asked, curious.

“Actually, yes,” Ade looked down at the datapad he held in his hand, and grinned. He placed in on the table in front of Derrik, “That was none other than Xander Griff.”

“Well,” Derrik whispered, staring down at the image below him, “Things just got a little more interesting.”