Colonel Frank White, the ground commander at Kandarin, was the first to greet the Cy'tan who had arrived.

"Glad you're here," Colonel White said.

"Of course," Jeodan replied. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain the situation. The Kyrozch are in orbit right now. Battlegroups Foxtrot and Juliet are engaging them, and we see that you've brought reinforcements. Thanks for that, by the way."

Jeodan nodded in acknowledgement. "What does the ground look like?"

"Our priority is the orbital battle. The Kyrozch brought a group of landers along with their main fleet, and we have to make sure none of them get through. If even one lander is allowed to touch down, the Kyrozch will fan out and quickly grow a ground encampment the size of a small city. In the meantime, we have ground and air forces ready to deploy anywhere on the planet at a moment's notice in case the Fleet fails in its objective."

"Where do you need us?"

"Go ahead and set up camp... wait a moment..." Colonel White took out his radio. "...what's that... what the hell, Fleet Command's having us recall _again_, looks like another Kyrozch group's deep-striking Phobius... and just our luck, the Kyrozch are jamming both hyperspace and the jumpgate system." Colonel White sighed. "Set up camp wherever you feel like, just don't get in our way. Maybe we'll even survive..."

"It looks like the Scion are to be taken seriously," Carl reflected. He was back in the office, talking to Administrator Julius Bridgetown of Blacken V.

Julius nodded. "With the political turmoil between us and the Talus right now, the Scion are rapidly gaining followers - mainly Talus. There is concern, though, that the Cybrans are considering defecting outright to the Scion, and to be perfectly honest, even a few of our outpost commanders near the Border are openly voicing their wishes to join them."

Carl sighed. "I've never had a problem with civilians choosing to join the Scion, but now you're talking about military personnel - _our_ military personnel. It seems they're trying to subvert us from the inside."

Julius nodded again. "Suggestions?"

"We need to talk to the Scion. We need to let them know we're perfectly fine with civilians being given free choice, but that our military needs to stay at the front line. We need to have them understand the seriousness of the threats we face - both from the Star-gods and from the Kyrozch."

"Not to understate the gravity of the threat they present to us, but the Scion seem pretty powerful. Is it likely that the Scion will see the Star-gods and the Kyrozch as any threat at all?"

"The CotC - in fact, any state media, including our own - only emphasize the good news. Never the bad. If bad news makes it into the paper, it's never front-page. That's a rule. I've had people conducting their own observations on the Scion, and it looks like the Star-gods are starting to get to them too. They won't admit it - they'll act like there aren't any problems - but there are already at least three underground groups with suspected Star-god involvement."

"As to the Kyrozch?"

"You don't know what the Kyrozch are capable of. I've seen what they can _really_ do during my time on Rubi-Ka. The Kyrozch are gearing up for a full-scale invasion, not only of this galaxy, but of the entire universe. Once they start, no power, not even the Scion, can stand up to it."

"And you know how to stop them?"

Carl nodded, his eyes momentarily flashing pure white. "Yes. But the Star-gods must be dealt with first. Only then can Robert Grimnar, free of their influence, banish the Kyrozch from this plane."

Logan had his first uninterrupted sleep for a long time and when he woke he was wide awake, something he hadn't felt for even longer. But little did he know he would need all the sleep he could keep in the day that would unfold. The first thing he learnt was Robert Grimnar was no longer possessed by the Demon, and when he had recovered enough he told them everything he could remember, that the Star-God was getting nearer, but had been delayed somewhat and he didn't know why. The Shadows they were fighting were fragments of the Star-God it self, and could not be reunited with the main body. One thing they learned and were shocked to hear was more Star-Gods were arriving within the next few weeks.

The command crews were seated once more and were in discussion.

"We will not be sure if our plan will work untill the Star-God gets here, and that will be very bad news for us." An officer said. Logan thought for a few seconds.

"The Arnaya and the Prometheus will have to be abandoned if anyone wishes to get back. We all know what will happen when it gets here..." Logan said. "The stealth units we have been researching are almost complete and they will not be able to find the shield generator and if they do then they hopefully will be slowed even furthur by the self destruct." Everybody nodded and agreed to leave aboard the Heleriya when they could.

Carl had run the suggestion by the Alliance leaders to open channels with the Scion, to no avail. More and more, Carl sensed that the Alliance was growing weak, lethargic, and bogged down in bureaucracy; even the motion President Riley had put forth for admitting the Talus Republic to the Alliance had stalled. Princess Rhianne was the only other leader who had put forth a vote on the matter; the Cybran ambassador, Commander Byte7 Shkadov, was stalling, and the Blacken and Cy'tan leaders were silent.

Carl was now talking privately with General Stephen Clarke, commander of the UEF Military Service. They were at UEF EarthCom in Arlington, Virginia, on the seventh floor of a pentagonal building that had once served as command-and-control for one of Earth's most powerful countries.

"To be perfectly frank, Stephen, I'm starting to think that the Alliance is losing most of its steam," Carl argued. "The UEF is now allied with the Talus Republic, but the Alliance is not. The Cybrans are being unusually reticent, and Blacken Command and the Cy'tan have said absolutely nothing."

"You said it yourself, Carl," Stephen replied. "Cooperation is the only way to overcome the threats that stand before us."

Carl shook his head. "I've said that before, but that was when the Alliance was still efficient and responsive. Now, we have too many things being thrown at us. The Kyrozch slamming into our frontier... the Star-gods threatening to rip us apart... the Scion leeching off the Blacken and Talus population and inspiring full-scale revolts throughout Alliance territory. The Alliance is becoming slow, its leaders apathetic and unresponsive. I think it's time to secede."

"Do you realize what you're saying, Carl?" Stephen shot back. "Are you really willing to destroy everything we've fought for? The Alliance was your idea. To pull out now would be to betray the ideals we've worked for for the last two years."

Carl sighed. "At the very least, I don't want to see myself encumbered by Alliance politics. Receiving Alliance authorization for every single move is becoming restrictive and inefficient. If the UEF isn't going to pull out of the Alliance, then at the least I need autonomy."

Stephen nodded. "Sounds like an Outer Rim commander I once knew. But I'm not at liberty to grant autonomy to you - if I were to put in an application, then, as you've said, we'd need to run it by the Alliance. And autonomy, especially for a sharp commander like you, is not a matter to be taken lightly."

"I understand," Carl replied, "but our time is running out, and if I see further delay then it may be too late to rectify the whole situation."

Stephen thought for a while. "I'll put you in command of Arcturus Division, UEF Special Operations Service. You should have most of the authority you need." He leaned in and lowered his voice slightly. "If you overstep your authority, of course, we should be able to retroactively justify your actions to the Alliance, as long as you succeed in whatever you're doing."

Carl nodded. "I understand."

Stephen leaned back in his chair. "Very well, Carl. Make us proud."

Carl stood up. "Don't worry, Stephen. I'm a professional."

Bombs rained from orbit. Republic troops, flanked by UEF siege bots three stories high, surged forward. Artillery shells smashed into the last remaining Imperial city in the Temple system.

Inside his ACU, Matt waited with bated breath for a surrender, but none came. Before long, the city lay in ruins; there were no survivors. This situation had played out over and over again - the Imperial forces allowed themselves to die rather than face the shame and humiliation of surrender. They wouldn't even surrender to save their civilian population - not even children had survived the Talus Republic assault.

Matt sat there for an instant, remembering Katherine, then shook his head. "What's done is done," he whispered to himself, before opening up the commlink.

"Mission accomplished," he reported. "The Imperials have been purged from the Temple system."

"Well done," came the reply. "Are you up for another mission?"

"That's what I'm paid for."

"Take your people and go to the Gerudo system. A full-scale rebellion has broken out on the planet. Your orders are to assist the Republic forces in any way possible."

"Sounds like a plan," Matt replied, closing the link. He sent an order to the submerged Terranova to return to orbit.

Far away, in a rush of water and sediment, the Terranova burst upwards from where it had been sitting, buried, at the bottom of a small ocean. With a mighty blast of its engines, it launched itself into the sky and was soon in orbit.

He radioed the rest of his squad. "Meet at the rendezvous point. The Republic has a new job for us..."

...locked securely in a facility on an icy world far from civilization, he sat there in his cell barely large enough for him to lie down within; there was no space for anything, the flat board they called a bunk was almost too short, and the lavatory and sink ate up what unoccuped space there was left. He sat there, behind a calcicrete wall and a securely bolted heavy metal door, in a six-foot cube with no windows and ventilated by ceiling vents too small even for mice. The only light he had known for years now was all artificial, generated by fluorescent lightbulbs that only offered five hours of darkness each day.

He no longer remembered the name of the prison, or the planet on which it was located. The compound was almost totally isolated from the rest of the Federation, serviced only by a single small starport over five thousand miles away. The UEF was not normally inclined to take prisoners, preferring simple citizenship revocation (often followed by execution) instead, but he was a special case. Classed as a potential re-education candidate, he had spent the last ten years in what was effectively solitary confinement. At a random moment each day chosen such that no prisoner was ever within line-of-sight of another, he was let out of his cell by a cold, silent, emotionless robot guard for a twenty-minute exercise period. He ate his meals, consisting of the tasteless, colorless protein and carbohydrate bricks that composed UEF emergency rations, in his cell; food was delivered on trays shoved through slots in the door by robot wardens at random times, though always during similar intervals each day.

Wednesday had been a monotonously regular day. The lights always came on at 0500 each day. His exercise period had occured from 0523 to 0543. Breakfast had been served at 0614, lunch at 1301, and dinner at 2055. He spent the rest of the time sitting, suffering from extreme boredom that bordered on madness, even hallucinating at times.

They came on Thursday morning at 0200 - a four-star General flanked by a small army of human and robotic bodyguards. The cell door opened, bright light flooding in and rudely interrupting his sleep.

"Are you Argus Kristoff Reddington?" the General asked.

Argus had not heard his own name for so long; he could only nod weakly in shock.

"I am General Stephen Clarke," the General introduced himself. "Do you remember why you're here?" Receiving no response, General Clarke continued, "You are here because, some time ago, you attempted to conduct an assault on UEF Military Service property. Normally, we would revoke citizenship and execute on sight, but as you are undoubtedly aware, you are still alive. Ever wonder why that is?"

General Clarke waited a few seconds for a reply, but none came; Argus stared blankly at the General as if he were a dream. The General continued, "You are in possession of secrets. Secret knowledge, secret wisdom, whatever you want to call it. And we know it." He turned around and nodded; the bodyguards stepped aside as a giant figure clad in heavy, blocky power armor strode forward, causing the floor to shake with every step.

As the figure came to rest, the blacked-out visor became transparent, revealing a face Argus had not seen for a long time.

"It's me again, little guy," Carl said quietly, to Argus's complete amazement.

"General Carl Albertus Reddington, Arcturus Division, UEF Special Operations," General Clarke announced.

At this, Argus's eyes became fearful. "You don't want me. I'm a bad man. I've done wrong. I've shamed the family name."

Carl nodded. "So you have, Gus. Attacking the outpost on Namidia II - what were you thinking? That was suicide."

Argus shook his head slowly. "All I wanted to do was make a point. That's all. I wanted to be heard. I know I've done wrong. I want to die..." His eyes were downcast; he was looking at the floor.

Carl considered his half-brother quietly, then said, "I know a way out of hell."

Argus looked up. "What is it?" He was pleading now.

Carl looked Argus straight in the eye. "I need someone who can help me crack the Kyrozch. Break their codes. Destroy their fleets. Stop them from their violent rampage across the stars."

Argus shook his head. "It's a trap. They're using you to keep me in here. Even if I help-"

Carl raised a hand, and Argus fell silent. "There are no traps, Gus. There is no shame. If you help me, you'll be heralded as a hero." Carl fixed Argus with a piercing stare. "Don't you want to make Mom and Dad proud?"

Argus trembled for a moment. "I can't. I'm a failure. I want to die."

Carl became enraged. "And I won't tolerate that sort of self-destructive behavior from someone who calls himself a Reddington." He turned to General Clarke. "You were right. He was marked as a re-education candidate for a reason."

"Does that mean you have no more objections?" General Clarke asked.

Carl sighed, allowing himself to calm down a little. If he gave the word, his younger half-brother would cease to exist, and a completely different person would replace the shell he left behind.

Carl turned back to Argus. "You're not a failure, Argus. You're a bright, strong man. You just had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can still fix that. WE can still fix that." Carl regarded Argus quietly for a moment, then said with finality, "You have 24 hours to think about it. After that... you know what happens."

Carl turned around, along with General Stephen Clarke; the heavy metal door swung closed and the door, indistinguishable from the wall from the inside, bolted shut. Argus didn't notice that the fluorescent lamp had been turned on until it switched off again, plunging the cell into pitch blackness once more.

"Carl? Are you sure?"

"Yes, Sir. General Reddington has been put in command of the UEF Special Operations branch of their Military. We're certain."

"At least we've got friends in high places... and word from the Aeon? Or Colonel Bloodmoon on Gerudo?" Garrus asked the officer.

"None from the Aeon so far. Colonel Bloodmoon entered the Gerudo System with our reinforcements. From what he tells us, the situation is far worse then we feared. Gerudo I, II, and III are all combat zones. We hold most of Gerudo I, but the Imperials have taken hold of all of Gerudo II. He says he is headed for Gerudo I, where we are doing the best. Our Fleet reports that on Gerudo III our forces and the Imperials are fighting everywhere. Civilians are either picking sides or getting caught in the crossfire. Due to our success in the space battles so far, the Imperial Army believes it will lose the System and has done something rather rash."

"Like what, Wrex?" Garrus pondered.

"Like ordering that all forces on Gerudo III give no quarter, fight to the last man and take down as many of us as possible." Wrex replied.

"And on Gerudo I?"

"The Commander there is far less suicidal and shot down the order. There may be a chance of negotiations of Gerudo I... hopefully Bloodmoon can see them through."

"Agreed. Good work, Wrex. Keep it up. I'm leading the next wave of troops into Gerudo, you'll be in charge of holding down the fort while I'm gone." Garrus said.

"It's your call. Good luck. If Septimus comes by, I'll tell him to leave a message." Wrex added with a small smile. Few people saw him smile, which led to many questioning if he had a conscience at all. Garrus simply chuckled, cut the link and got his things ready to leave. It was about time he went back into combat.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Argus," Carl responded. "I don't want to do this to you. But, considering the magnitude of the situation we're all facing, you leave me no choice." Carl closed his eyes. "I'm sorry I have to do this, Argus. Please forgive me."

He turned to the robotic guard that accompanied him. "You have my permission to proceed with the re-education sequence." He turned and left.

Two other robotic guards, heavily armed, took Carl's place; they entered the cell and grabbed Argus, forcing him out into the corridor. Argus looked around wildly to see where Carl had gone, but he was already out of sight. Had he been a hallucination?

He felt himself being inexorably dragged along; he looked around, acknowledging himself to be somewhere on the middle floors of a ten-story cube. The entire center part of the cube was open; the cells on his level were connected by a walkway with a metal railing.

Heavy sliding doors unlatched and slid open, and he was dragged into the next cellblock. He looked around and saw much of the same: featureless metal doors hid cells, with no way to determine which were empty and which were occupied. Presumably, only the robot overlords who ran the place knew.

He was dragged up four sets of ramps to the very top level of the cellblock; he suddenly realized what was about to happen. He tried to fight, but it was useless; he was too weak compared to the cold, unyielding strength of the robots leading him on.

He was pulled through another set of heavy sliding doors into a large room with a single chair in the middle. He tried harder to fight, but could not overcome the robotic guards now shoving him into the chair, binding his arms, legs, and torso. Panels slid in from somewhere to the sides of the chair, fixing his head in place, and a mask folded down from somewhere above, covering his eyes and ears. Electrodes attached themselves to key points on and around his head.

He heard the door shut, sensed the room go pitch-black, felt the floor lowering. Even if he managed to break free from the chair that restrained him, he would not be able to escape the soundproof, lightproof chamber into which he was being placed. It was a cruel way to ensure the success of the re-education process, but it worked.

He was blasted with a series of harsh sounds and images, felt forbidden memories being accessed and downloaded, filed away in the UEF's fractal-like data hive for later use. Everywhere he looked, he saw images that contradicted everything he had ever known; the randomness and discord being pumped into his eyes and ears drove him insane almost immediately.

A blast of mind-altering chemicals and sedatives rushed into his bloodstream, and he lost the urge to resist. The pattern of the images and sounds changed, and he could feel himself being reprogrammmed, old instincts being literally overwritten, replaced with the UEF ideals.

He heard someone speaking. "You are now a citizen of the UEF. As a citizen, you must understand and abide by our morals and ethics. You must learn how to serve the UEF better, in order to make your second chance more fulfilling and productive..."

He could no longer recognize the patterns of most of his brain; the reprogrammed consciousness was spreading rapidly, remaking the rest of his mind in its own image. He could think faster. He was smarter. He knew the difference now between right and wrong...

He now had the framework in his brain. The chair was now feeding him skills, knowledge, teaching him in the span of mere minutes what would have taken twenty years to accomplish. He sat back and let it fill his mind, because he had no other choice. He sat back and watched himself, as if he were a detached third person observer, as if it were all a dream...

Felicity watched Argus. Quietly assessing the instrumentation that this clandestine facility was using. She was dismayed. She knew of the technicians that were silently observing of the execution of this process in the control room. There were only two.

She moved thru the building to behind the two technicians. Observed their protocols, what they were loading into the mind of Argus. Visions of the once robotic universe flashed before her eyes. In a previous age, the sentient beings in the universe had grown so advanced technologically, that they and implimented systems which eventually detroyed the entire collective sentient lifeforms from existance. The Scion had only interviened when there was no one left, the the mechanical beasts born of this age then looked at all life as a threat. They had began to prey on lesser advanced forms of life, and threatened the few marker races that were in development stages. They too had a similar measure to ensure their dominance prior to the Scion intervention. That was to dumb down or retrograde the species.

This technology that the UEF was employing, was too famaliar to this once past age. The technology of couse was utterly crude, but in a few million years it could have rivaled what once was. This was unacceptable. Unacceptable for the UEF to meddle like this. They did not have the right. Freedom of choice was only the way for any measure of success. Even in the age past, those sentient creatures resisted the programming efforts. She dediced this had to end.

Argus was still recieving the programming from the UEF facility, when his mind began to clear. Before him was a being of apparently immense power. Though he was conscious of the effects that the UEF devices were doing to his body. His mind was free of it. He was aware of this form, but now as nearly etherial. Much in the same manner as the creature before him. But no where near as radiant. A tremendous amount of power seemed to radiate from this being. The more he watched his being. The less and less the effects of the reprogramming had on his mind. Yet he seemed to retain the attributes of the new skills, and knowledge that the machine was programming into his body.

"Argus, before you lays an opportunity. Seize upon it. I will be there with you."

In the control room, an alarm sounded. The power conduits were overheating. This was creating such hear that it was melting  the UEF data core. No data could get in or out of the core. All at once the systems stopped working. The controller starting banging on the monitor. "Damn it, what is wrong now?"

Emergency lighting came on. Shortly later, an man dawned in firefighter garb bust in the door. "Guys get out, they gave an evacuation order."

"Who gave the order, declared one of the technicians?"

"The Scion."

"We have to get everyone out. So grab your weapons and armor, we will have a number of prisoners here to escort out."

"The Scion? Here? My god!"

They all scrambled from the control room. Small fires erupted from the controls in the room immediately after they opened the door. By the time they were down the hallway, they could feel and immense heat radiating from the room. Strangely, there was no smoke. The two technicians looked puzzled. "It has been like that everywhere. Nothing we can do will stop it, we've tried. So The general ordered us to comply with the Scions order."

The scene outside the complex was one of organized chaos. Series of prisoners, medical patients and staff streamed from the facility. Several thousand guards and UEF personel were filing away. Others to temporary shelters on the surface. It was not at all a hospitiable place. Many people choked on the atmosphere.

The two technicans climbed up the rudimentary pathway to a shelter, overlooking the complex. They were dazzled turning around, to see this immense facility some ten kilometers high, burning. Glowing with hte blueish fire the saw in the conrol room. Even here, at over 15 kilometers away you could feel the heat slightly.

"Wow".

"Yeah, wow."

Turning around, to finish their way into the camp, before them stood Carl. They knew who he was, and was surprised to see him. The saluted and quickly made their way past. They didn't have to know that he was outraged. It was as apparent as the Sun rising on a cloudless morning.

Carl stood watching the the spaceport burn. His flagship sat on the docking pad, also enflame. They could not life off. All systems were fried in an instant. Only evacuation commands worked on the sound powered systems. All hands were able to withdraw, though some that had tried to salvage data off the ships systems had suffered burns when the devises caught fire in their hands or pockets. No word got off the system he was aware of. He has watched as escape pods ejected from the many ships in orbit, and even watched as several of them fell into the atmosphere from orbit. There had been a hundred some ships up there. And judging from the numbers of parachutes that dotted the skies behind them, each noting the presence of a escape capsule, there were not any now.

After a couple of hours, there was nothing left of the station, aside from some crumbling superstructure. The was no movement in space, denoting the presence of his fleet. There was only stars. And the night was dark, but beautiful, as a series of campfires could be seen from one horizon to another, which made the ground look very much like the night sky.

Carl too was seated around the campfire. Discussing with various staff what inventories they had left. He was engrossed in ensuring that food supplies would make it to his people on the surface, and that the prisoners were still confined. He was very distressed that Argus was not amoung those accounted for. He was letting any greif hold out for now, in the hopes that his brother would be found.

"Carl Reddington" the female voice said from a distance.

The guards all came quickly to attention, the members of the camp, quickly drawing sidearms. Carls guards knew the voice. It was the Scion who told them to evacuate the base, or be destroyed.

"We are very dismayed that you seek a means to stop the Kyrozch, yet you are willing to be as evil they are."

"What?" said Carl

"Yes Brother.. Evil" was the next voice. "The Scion told me of what path that facility would have led us down. It is best that they did what they did."

"And what exactly did they tell you." Carl responded angrily

"That you were right."

Carl was silent. Confused.

"I will help." replied Argus.

A wave of relief spread through Carl.

"Carl Reddington, for your troubles here, we will not take away, without giving you something back seven fold."

With that note, a beam of light showned down where the facility had been. Instantly the fires were extinguish, and the makings of a structure began. Carl had seen such a building being constructed on the video's from the Scion. Over and over the beam shown down replaced by a structure. Within a minute ten or so of this buildings rose up from the ashes. Carl looked down where his ship used to be, and saw another sleek vessel there.

"The buildings will give you all you need, Carl, they will confine and be custodians to your prisoners. And as a gift to you, Carl, to help you fight the Kyrozch. We have given you a ship capable. I suggest to get down there and learn quickly it's systems. For they are coming. Here. But for now, I must go."

"Here? Why?"

"I might know a little something about that.." replied Argus.

The Kyrozch Hive ship approached. Yet it did not launch any weapon systems, nor did it seem intent on attack. In fact, it did little more than continue to cruise towards the new Scion provided facilities.

The sensors abord the Icharyrs, which the ship had greeted Argus with.  The Icharyrs sensor package informed Argus that the Hive ship has scanned the facility, but did nothing more. It informed him, that they had broadcast a clearance code. And that they wished to speak to the leader of this facility.

"Carl!" yelled Argus, "Carl, someone wants to talk to you!"

Well, that surprised Carl. Talk? The Kyrozch want to talk?

Walking out of the captains quaters, Carl took a moment to admire the way the door seems to open. "That's too cool", he muttered. Stopping only for a second to think, of all the abilities this ship could probalably do, it still had the ability to wow him with just the opening and closing of a door.

"Well, guess we should see what they want? Put em on."

Argus didn't really seem know know where the button was to push, but for some reason, the blinking button to the left of center seemed appropriate. So he pushed it.

"Please accept our unconditional surrender! This is the Mujigorev, we surrender! Do not fire, We Surrender!" the speaker repeated this over adn over, in the hopes that they could be understood." The translation of the speach was flawlessly handled by the Icharys. Of course, the mouth of the Kyrozch captian could still be seen with his mouth moving. It was obviously more laborous to speak in their native tounge than it was in plain English. The captain was looking down in a groveling manner.

Argus just looked at Carl. Carl just looked at Argus. It was quiet obvious they did not expect this at all.

"Ok...." Said Carl. I mean, why not. It had been a long long time since a Hive ship surrendered to the UEF, let alone one without a fight. "We accept your surrender".

At the sound of a human, the Hive Commander sat up, looking extremely puzzled. "What? What is this? Humans? Here, in control of a Ad'min vessel? What have you done! What have you done! You will doom us all! You must not use that ship! The lords have mercy on us,  you must not use that ship"

The Kyrozch captian continued to grovel. "Ahhh, why not?" Said Carl. "I find I rather like this ship?"

A change came over the captain. He looked pale. As if he realized he had no choice. "I cannot let you use that ship, humans."

The communique instantly closed. And before him the hive ship burst into life. Launch waves and squadrons of vessels.

The Icharys, screen showed some measure of tracking on the vessels. Each being highlighted for only a breif second. A small trace of energy streaked from teh Icharys, which once it made contact with the target burst into blue flames, or simply disentigrated. The only vessel left, the great Hive ship was now before them. It to, was targeted, and a single wave brust of energy from the Icharys split it in two, causing it's core energy systems to erupt in in a great blast.

The lights on the bridge of the Icharys shifted from a dark blue to a light blue hue. "Awaiting instuctions, Argus. What would you have me do?"

Carl and Argus both had a blank look on their faces. Still staring at the monitor as the flames and debris of the Hiveship expanded in space.

"Uhhhh....." said Argus, not really know what else to say.

The Icharys audiably then began to explain itself.

"That was a Mimic. They are a very ancient Bug. We would expect there tol be more in the vicintity. They ussually operate as a pod or colony with a queen and drones directing their activities. The settlement and this ship are safe, from the Mimics but if a queen or drone approach, there may be some risk.

The metal I have detected originated from their carapiece. They use it as a maniuplatable shell from what they have consumed during their puapa stage where they burrow and consume the inner core of metal planets. The Bugs use them as mining drones. They however, are still bugs, and very cunning. It was acting as if it was the Kryozach, inorder to approach within its attack range. If Felecity had not warned me, it is likely you two would be dead right now." The Icharys paused as if to let Carl and Argus assimulate the data. Just as Carl was about to say something, Icharys continued as if having read Carl's mind.

"Carl, this means at some point, that mimic consumed the original vessel. Felicity believes that it then assumed the role of the the Kyrozch Hive ship, and explains why then when the Kyrozch are attacking your worlds. We have conjectured that the bugs are behind this, and Captain, we apologize for having to take this matter into our own hands without explaination."

Again, the pause, and once again just as Carl was about to say something..

"Carl. The seek to call out the Scion agents in your universe, of course.. This would mean they plan to mount an attack. I'm sorry, if that happens, there is no power, aside the Scion, that will be able to mount a defense."

Again the pause, and this time, Argus was about speak, Icharys continued. "The ships incoming are their agents Argus. Did you not think they would not have their own agents about? Carl, please sit, the manuevering I may have to do, would be detrimental if you were not seated." Carl looked around, and had chair formed along side Argus. "Carl.... Sit."

With that, last comment, several vessels dropped before them from hyperspace and began firing.