Commodore Lance Baker of the Unified Fleet walked onto his command bridge inside the warship

Jeodan entered a room that was shaped like half a bubble, It was the command bridge; several consoles were lit up in the far side of the bubble. Cy'Tan that could take control of the ship if the captain could not perform his duties. A single chair on an elevation stood in the middle of the room. It was a chair fit for a king. There were several engravings that showed pictures of several battles. It looked metallic but with closer inspection one could see what seemed like blood vessels originating from several big ones reaching up from the ground, splitting up into smaller ones until they disappeared.

Jeodan took his seat and leaned back. Immediately the sealing lit up showing a tactical map. The relation between ship and body was something of technological wonder. The mind of the ship itself and that of the one sitting in the chair literary melts together into one being. The sealing showed what the Captain was looking at.

He looked around and then ordered some ships to him. Immediately they responded and once in formation they left for a planet deep within Alliance territory.

Once arrived Jeodan left for a shuttle that would take him to the depths of the watery planet. Four homeworld ships had landed here and swelled up the oceans so that no piece of land was shown. Surprisingly the planet was completely self-reliant. Farming and mining underground, it could even make destroyers and smaller craft within the planet in the event of a siege. A true fortress.

"The briefing's not for another four hours," Carl reminded Logan. He was still in the office; he had been sleeping in the command chair in the same fashion he had become accustomed to during the long years on duty. However, he had been awoken by Logan's incoming message.

"I know, but this is important," Logan said. "Robert dropped by earlier this morning..." He quickly explained what had happened. After he explained, he asked, "Do the security logs show anything out of the ordinary?"

Carl paged through the log in milliseconds. "Hmm, interesting," he said. "The security system was disabled around the time you claim Robert made his visit." He analyzed the section of the log just before the security blackout, but could not find anything. "Other than that, I have no leads, but it is entirely possible."

Carl was interrupted by an automated bulletin from Command. Apparently, there had been some kind of disturbance in Settlement Two, on the other side of the planet near the Cy'tan sector. Carl looked through the bulletin, talking to Logan as he went.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Logan?" A military-grade explosive had been detonated near a hotel in Settlement Two...

"Can you do a scan on anything that leaves the planet?" Thirteen dead, twenty-five wounded...

"I can arrange that," Carl said, performing the necessary operations with his left hand. Evidence pointed to a Talus officer serving under Garrus Valkarian...

"Let me know if you find anything," Logan requested. Blacken investigators suspected it was a suicide attack...

"Will do," Carl said, closing the connection, then setting the system to forward an automatic notice to Logan if the scanners found any trace of Robert. The Blacken police force had requested a restraining order on Garrus Valkarian from Command... Talus soldiers had been sent in to investigate... the situation was escalating rapidly.

Carl received a priority message from Garrus; he looked it over. "We have a diplomatic situation..." Damn right, Carl thought, this was getting real ugly, real fast, and if someone didn't step in to defuse the situation, things could get so far out of hand that the entire Alliance could be destabilized.

Carl got up out of his chair; the power armor dematerialized, as Carl judged it would hinder him more than help. He put on a UEF personal shield vest; it would provide him sufficient protection without restricting his movement or weighing him down. Time was of the essence if he was to have any success in defusing the situation. He also packed his service pistol, just in case - things could get rough.

Thirty minutes later, Carl's personal shuttle landed near the Talus Embassy. Carl got out and was immediately met by three Blacken MPs.

"I'm sorry, sir, this sector is closed," the highest-ranking MP, a Warrant Officer, informed him.

"Then open it," Carl replied. "I need to meet with the Talus Ambassador."

"Sir, the last attempt to make contact with the Talus Embassy resulted in a bloodbath," the MP informed him. "For your protection-"

Carl raised a hand. "I can take care of my own protection, thank you very much."

Adamantly, the MP said, "Sir, I'm not going to let you in here without ID."

Carl reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out his military ID. "Will this do?"

The MP took one good look at the UEF Military Service identification card, then on the name printed on it, and his face became pale. "I'm sorry to hold you up, Sir," the MP said, stepping away; the others, taking the hint, followed suit. "You may proceed."

"Thank you," Carl said simply, walking through the security perimeter without a second thought.

It took a few minutes of walking to reach the Embassy proper. It was a mess; he could see energy scars and bullet holes near the entrance even from where he was standing.

"What happened here?" he asked a nearby officer, who explained everything. Carl closed his eyes with frustration. True, it was a credit to the Civil Defense Service that they had arrived so quickly, and the Civil Defense troops had done their jobs admirably, but he was still going to fire whichever officer of the Blacken Military Police who had called them in without notifying him first.

The scene of destruction was no less orderly when Carl entered the Embassy building. The lobby was devastated. Furniture, windows, and even walls had been completely destroyed by CivDef gunfire - a credit to the effectiveness of their weaponry - and there were even massive holes in the floor.

He looked around warily, then called out. "Don't worry, it's Carl. Where are you?"

He held his breath, waiting for a response, hoping it would be friendly.

By the time Carl got out of the air car and arrived at Blacken Starport, the sun was already setting. Carl could hear shouts in the distance and knew he was running out of time. He needed to get to General Camore's office. General Michael Camore, commander-in-chief of the Blacken Colonial Command, needed to be informed of the situation and convinced of Garrus's innocence before things escalated out of hand.

He hurried to the nearest teleportation pad and was at General Camore's office in seconds.

"Carl, how can I help you?" General Camore asked.

"Did you hear about the bombing in Settlement Two?" Carl asked in reply.

"Of course," General Camore responded. "Do you know something we don't?"

"I'm confident that no Talus were involved," Carl explained, "and that someone is using the incident to frame them."

"A reasonable concern," General Camore noted, "but all the evidence we have so far suggests Talus involvement. The identification tag of a Talus officer was found on the scene-"

Carl shook his head. "I'm willing to bet it was planted. The Talus are big on honor, I know because I've spent a lot of time with them. If a Talus had really sunk so low as to bomb innocent civilians, he'd have left his ID at home."

"That may be true," General Camore said, "but-"

"What's more," Carl cut in, "on my way here, I reviewed the logs for the officer whose ID they found. He hasn't been anywhere near Blacken in a week - in fact, he's stationed halfway across Alliance territory and reported for duty at his post five hours ago. You can check for yourself."

That caught General Camore's attention. He turned to his computer console and typed in a few commands. Then, he turned back to Carl.

"You're right," General Camore said. "I don't doubt you anymore, and I don't think the rest of the Command staff should be difficult to persuade. The local residents, however, may be another matter."

They turned their attention to a holographic display which was projecting a bird's-eye view of the sector containing the Talus Embassy. The Talus defensive line, along with the MP platoons, was clearly highlighted. But something else caught Carl's eye...

"Civilians," Carl said. "We have a riot on our hands." Carl and General Camore turned to each other.

"This could get ugly," Carl commented.

Camore nodded. "We need to disperse them before any damage is done."

It was too late. As they watched helplessly, they saw the civilian mob throw improvised incendiary devices; one of them struck an MP platoon. Two Talus soldiers with buckets rushed to the MP's aid, triggering the mob to attack the MPs.

"We have too few men down there," Carl said. "This is escalating beyond anything civilian law enforcement can control. We need to send in troops."

"Agreed," Camore said. As one, they ordered soldiers deployed to the tension zone.

They could do nothing else but watch as the MPs were forced to retreat, then as the civilians rushed at the Talus line, then as one of the civilians fired a shot at a Talus soldier, then as the Talus responded with massed gunfire, then as one tank gunner accidentally destroyed a shop, then as the mob overwhelmed the Talus defensive line and forced its way into the Embassy.

The troops arrived, and Carl and General Camore directed their units to break up the mob - but by the time they had succeeded, over a hundred civilians had already been killed.

As they watched the mob disperse, Carl placed his head in his hands, closing his eyes in pain. "Why did this have to happen?" he asked no one in particular. "Who would want to provoke such a thing?"

He deliberated for a few seconds, then raised his head and turned to General Camore. "Whoever it was, I intend to get to the bottom of this."

General Camore nodded. "Do whatever you need to. I'll try to spread the word and see what I can do about the civilian population. I can't promise anything, though - xenophobic sentiment has been stirring within the population base for some time now."

"Thank you," Carl replied. "The other thing we need to do is to place the settlement on lockdown; I don't want any more undue loss of life. Also, we need to keep diplomatic channels with the Talus open, and we need to also maintain channels with the other Alliance members. The situation is unstable, and any uninformed moves could lead to disaster."

"Will do," General Camore assured him.

"Thank you, General," Carl said, his gratitude apparent. He left General Camore's office, considering his next move.

The shuttle buckled from the weight of the ocean above it, so Jeodan ordered it to stop and adjust before going further. I should have taken a civilian transport. Jeodan thought. The alloid used in the civilian transports was found here and was strong enough to ward off anything they threw at it but it was incredibly hard to mine. Jeodans personnel fleet had fragments of this metal incorporated throughout their large ships but not in their shuttles.

As they went deeper and deeper sounds of huge sea creatures filled the insides of the shuttle. Some strafed the shuttle at very close range. Jeodan was getting worried. Maybe the shuttle was damaged and leaked its blood; maybe they think they just saw the biggest eatable thing in a while. Or maybe the shuttle was just a sitting duck such a sitting duck they could not resist themselfs.

A huge thud sounded through the shuttle and the ship tilted before returning to it's original state. Another thud sounded and Jeodan saw no other option then to activate the weapons systems. The weapons sprang out of the ship and were crushed in an instant.

"Crap."

My name is Wartefu[War-te-fe] Deathsquad, Ward to my friends. My last name is the same as that of our greatest hero, Jeodan Deathsquad. I chose this name because I am of the same generation as he is. Only I have to be content with a lot less power. But still I am happy being the main trader between Cy'Tan and other species, to add to that I am the sole diplomat on this planet.

What now, Wartefu thought as he received a mental newsbullitin. The new system of delivering news had just been put into place and it was already relaying important news. "An explosion rocked a nearby settlement, one Cy'Tan dead, another injured. Up to 20 other humanoids were killed. The one killed was not old, 200 years, he had yet to serve."

He would never receive a name Ward thought, got up and prepared to go to the site to claim the Cy'Tan body. He opted to walk to the site. It would give him much needed time to better study this planet, the humanoids and who knows what else. He was halfway to the site when he was contacted again about riots and their tragic outcome. He picked up the pace.

"I count our dead at thirty-seven, about nineteen Blacken Military Police also died in the fight.

Carl was back in the office, paging through information, looking for any evidence that could help the search. He went through the civilian database, but could not find anything out of the ordinary. He checked the personnel records; everything seemed in order. Wait a minute, he said suddenly, midway through scanning the deployment records. Something's not right.

Around 2200 the previous night, the UES Loki, in the system at the time, had launched a shuttle with the serial number 1048299. That shuttle had been launched with two crew and one passenger. The pilot, Corporal Jason Traylite, and the copilot, Private Desmond Quaker, had failed to report for their scheduled after-flight checkins. The passenger, Commodore Lance Baker, however, had reported in as normal.

If a disaster had happened aboard that shuttle, none of the personnel would have reported for their checkins. The fact that the passenger, and the passenger alone, had checked in was highly abnormal.

He scanned the troop movement logs for the exact shuttle. The shuttle had been on a direct vector for the starport at Settlement Two, but halfway down, its military transponder had been deactivated.

Carl scanned the available logs uploaded from the shuttle just before military deactivation, life signs in particular. Commodore Baker's life signs appeared consistent with someone who was moderately agitated, perhaps a bit nervous. He played back the log, monitoring the life signs of the pilots.

22 seconds before the end of available data, Corporal Traylite's life signs spiked, then cut out abruptly - he had been killed, perhaps instantaneously. Less than a second later, Private Quaker's life signs showed the same pattern.

Commodore Baker's life signs, however, remained the same throughout, perhaps even stabilized a little - clearly the sign of a deliberate, premeditated murder.

He uploaded a message to the investigation team. "We have a lead," he informed them. "Investigate Commodore Lance Baker."

"Sir, we have a message requesting us to head back to Blacken." Lander said. Lance cursed, and then remembered his back-up plan.

"But first, anything else from the facility?" He asked as he felt around for the pistol in his desk.

"No, Sir." Lander said after a brief check on the latest update from the landing party sent in to check on things.

"Very well, I need to speak with you privately if you don't mind. Also, put Lieutenant Dicola on the line." He said as he found the pistol and silencer. As Lander stepped off, Lance looked down and attached the silencer, and then Dicola came on the screen.

"You asked for me, Sir?" He asked, with a knowing look of what was going to happen.

"I want you to upload the 'TacPlot' file onto your database and link us both in, I'll take it from there. Once the shooting starts, we'll improvise on how to get out of here and onto the Anvil. From there we can trust the men I have put in place, several of them were either with me or with you the last time we acted against the Blacken scum." Baker said, and put the pistol into his pocket as Lander stepped in, "Continue your work, Lieutenant." He said and saluted Dicola, then cut the link and rose to greet Lander.

"What can I do for you, Sir?" Lander asked.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Lance asked as he headed into an adjacent room.

"A glass of water would be fine, thank you." Lander answered and took a seat. Then he heard something crash and stood up, "What happened?"

"Can you give me a hand here?" Lander walked over, saw nothing and looked in the closet. A soft sound came from behind him, but he never heard it. His dead body fell into the closet and Lance stepped forward and shut it. He reached the computer and saw the uplink was already in progress. He smiled and began his dirty work.

Carl was paging through Commodore Lance Baker's files. A little more than two years ago, he had appeared in UEF space, having escaped from Blacken during the defense at Blacken, and had filled out a provisional citizenship form. He had gone through the six months' provisional period, then become a full Citizen and attended Military Service training as was his duty. From the first day, his leadership skills had been apparent, and by the third day he had been moved to the Officer's Academy, where he took, and passed with flying colors, the exit exam immediately upon entering, joining the UEF Space Force branch of MilServ - one of the few citizens to specifically apply for a naval position in preference over the Army, which citizens were enlisted in by default - and commissioned instantly as a Lieutenant-Commander.

Lieutenant Commander Baker served with various navies and quickly was promoted to Commander, then Captain, then Commodore, accumulating an impressive service record in the process. He eventually was given command of a flotilla of three warships - the UES Loki, the UES Evening Star, and the UES Anvil - and was stationed at Blacken shortly after by special request.

Carl was suspicious. The UEF had its brilliant students, too, but not this good. By rights, Commodore Baker should still have been in the Academy - no one passed the Academy exit exam without at least one year's worth of study, and most students needed four. Coupled with that, it was exceedingly rare for any officer to be commissioned above lieutenant-grade out of the Academy; in fact, it was more common for officers to skip ranks during promotion, as he himself had done. Additionally, Carl noted another hole in Commodore Baker's file: he had not been recorded as seeing any notable combat action.

Carl quickly checked the engagement logs for the battles that Commodore Baker's ships were supposed to be at. The ships in question had always been deployed at the rear of the formation, and there was no record of any of the ships firing a shot at a Kallum vessel.

"Remind you of anyone?" Carl said to himself, suspicion already taking root within his mind.

He was interrupted by another incoming item on the network. He glanced it over. He scanned it over again, then played back the video file accompanying it. He raised an eyebrow at what he was seeing. Cy'tan construction methods, legendary throughout the Alliance, were one thing. Beaming down an entire civilization from orbit was another.

He forwarded the item to UEF EarthCom and Blacken Command, flagging it as a diplomatic matter, while he continued his investigation.

Captain Tranner, of the UES Evening Star, saw it first. A massive blip on the scanner appeared about 67 kilometers away from the mining facility. He looked up at the visual, but saw nothing, in his confusion he never noticed his ship's weapon system arming itself and turning on the UES Loki. Suddenly his ship began to rumble as it opened fire, people started panicing on the bridge and Captain Tranner seemed to be moving in slow motion. The UES Loki returned fire, with the Anvil, and the last thing to go through Captain Tranner's mind was that he dropped his coffee.

"Admiral Morna, welcome back." Captain Luchessi said. Lance and Dicola stepped off of the shuttle and saluted the Captain. Dicola was rapidly typing in commands to a datapad, which had full control of the two remaining ships. The trio of men quickly got out of the hangar, for seconds later dozens of UEF Marines came thundering in.

"Mount up, Marines! Go go go!" A Sergeant shouted out as the soldiers ran onto shuttles, whcih quickly departed the ship and flew towards the facility. Shuttles from the Anvil and the Loki raced towards the facility as reports of combat and weapons fire came from all over. Admiral Morna watched with a grin as special missiles flew out from the Anvil, cloaked, and then turned around to impact the Loki or incoming shuttles, making it look like the mining facility was firing back. By now, the men who believed Morna was going to help them with their weapons dealing, were preparing to defend the facility against the UEF Marines.

"Sir! You better see this!" A Blacken Officer told Carl and sent him a tag to a video and scanner feed of Lance Baker's flotilla. The feed showed the ship the Evening Star open fire on the Loki. In return the Evening Star was destroyed, then missiles began to come from the facility. Shuttles headed out to the facility and then a single shuttle from the facility docked with the Loki. A ten kiloton nuclear warhead suddenly exploded inside the Loki, rocking the Anvil and sending her in a dangerous spin. The waves of EMP and shockwave turned the swarm of shuttles into drifting hulks, the front half of the Loki slammed straight into the facility, destroying most of the shuttles in the resulting explosion.

The inhabitants of the shuttles had run out of oxygen by now and Morna smiled as the Anvil righter herself.

"Lets clean this up, shall we?" He said and grabbed a glass of Whiskey.