"Alright, so I trust we're all on the same page now," said Garuru, finishing up the briefing for his platoon's most recent mission from headquarters. All of his soldiers simultaneously saluted and barked out a "Yes, sir" to confirm. "Very well then," Garuru began while nodding, "Tororo, punch in the coordinates. I have some work of my own to tend to." He began to walk away when the ever-curious Private Taruru interjected, "Lieutenant, sir? Is this that top-secret Keronian-Pekoponian invasion project you're helping Master Tamama's platoon with? Can I help?" he added, not waiting for an answer. "Yes, it is, and no, you can't," came Garuru's reply. Taruru angrily puffed out his lips, complaining, "Well, why not? I've been to Pekopon a buncha times!"

Garuru intimidatingly got right up into Taruru's face before explaining for what seemed to be the millionth time, "Must I tell you this every single time it's mentioned? This is a single-man mission. And I'm not helping Keroro's platoon with it like you seem to keep thinking, I'm doing this to test my own skills with interplanetary relations. And besides, if more than one person were involved, not only would it be more suspicious, but knowing how..." — he paused, searching for an inoffensive word — "excitable you are, it would be no surprise if you wound up leaking classified military information." Taruru dejectedly looked to the floor, understanding Garuru's concern, but still being hurt by his words. With this, Garuru resumed walking to his own quarters.


Garuru locked the door behind him and headed towards the personal computer he left on his desk. He pressed a button installed beside it. A beep was heard, and a holographic projection announced "ROOM SOUNDPROOFED". The normally emotionless lieutenant permitted himself to crack a small smile before adjusting settings of his computer; Specifically, changing the network it was connected to from the intergalactic web to the Pekoponian internet and plugging a spare PA microphone into an adapter slot installed in it.

Most of the information Garuru had told his own platoon about this need-to-know splinter mission was true: It DID involve Pekopon, and it WAS top-secret to all parties not directly involved in carrying it out, essentially restricting himself to the sole knowledge of it. It was not, however, to aid in the invasion. He was confident in Keroro's platoon, as not only did it contain his own flesh and blood, but they were able to pool their efforts to defeat his own platoon before, so there was no reason not to trust them in his own mind.

He clicked on a folder labeled "CLASSIFIED INFORMATION" and typed in the password he used to lock everyone else out. Even if Tororo, or god forbid, Kururu were to attempt to view these files, Garuru ensured that his personal computer was on a separate network to the rest of the army's, and he was behind approximately seventeen thousand military-grade proxies for protection. Inside the folder was not sensitive information, as you would expect, but rather a few programs, including a screen recorder and a video editor. He was given these specific files by Tororo, who would use them in tandem to create (often patronizing) tutorials for the rest of the platoon whenever the assignment de la semaine involved more than just him at a computer. He ran the recorder and another program from the veritable sea, which caused a window to pop up showing a logo. Then, he fed a small file of information through that executable, and the screen turned black for a moment before another logo popped up. Lastly, he pressed the hotkey on his keyboard that he linked to the "start recording" function on the screen capture program and began to speak.

"What's up everybody," he started, "it's Cr1TiKaL..."