To understand Dr.Mange of the flagship Vinegar, one needed to be either a thrill seeker like him or criminally insane. Benjamin was neither of them, but he had noticed a pattern which the insect operated on. Well, he and sub-captain Gouda. Gouda was a rare case of a plutarkian soldier, he was only 19 cycles old, and that had made him a regular customer in Mange's lab. And not in a good way either, Gouda suffered from a huge wound in his stomach. He told Benjamin it was caused by something called "Martian Sand Raider". Because there were so few men on Vinegar, Gouda was forced to stay on duty, and to have Mange inspect his wound daily. Mange hated it, finding a solution for the case Plutark was taking enough time as it was, but tending a cocky soldier was enough to make the insect throw hissyfits and take his anger on Benjamin. Not that the teen would mind these days, which was slightly disturbing to Mange. The boy had almost ceased completely from missing his home, and was now spending inspecting every aspect of the ship curiously. The change in the boy had been so great that Mange did few psychology test on him, just to be sure.

Not that Mange was in any stretch the sanest of the crew. Due some strange event in his past, the doctor had taken on living a life of pure enjoyment. For the East German born Benjamin, Mange's voyeur behavior was confusing and slightly annoying too. But who it annoyed the most was Laura Limburger. The female Plutarkian was truly getting tired of the pestering insect, and only put up with Mange because of Oltterman. But even Mange knew better than pester the woman too much. There was a rumour floating around the ship about a unfortunate captain that had decided to annoy Laura little too much. Next day he found his bed and cabin full of earth pig heads, and later got sick because his soup was spiced with arsenic. He should have never messed the the ship's both the cook and the weapon specialist. This double profession could have made a lesser woman seem mixed, but it fit Laura terrifyingly well. Some soldiers even said she was the third in command of the ship. Benjamin wasn't as afraid of her as he was surprised how could a woman handle such a job well, also a result from his Terran origin.

" You know Karbunkle, I think Valio is purposely leading us astray" Mange muttered to the teen one day, this came out of the blue for Benjamin.
" H-how so sir?" he asked, Mange turned his bug eyes towards him and sighed.
" We are the only line of defense between Plutark and Mars, and as you know..those martian rodents have caused hella lotta damage to us...I bet Valio is taking bribes from those Mice!" he growled, crumbling the plan he had held in his hand. Benjamin thought about it, yeah, he had seen it happen in his home planet, but a treachery like this.
" Likely possible sir, money talks in this universe" he said, Mange burst out laughing, it wasn't a nice laugh. The alien shook his head and looked at his plan. It could work.

" Are sure Mange, Valio is not going to swallow it nicely if your plan is a fiasco" Oltterman asked his chief scientist. Mange nodded.
" This synthetic water acts as a between-er when combining two different ground-types. In example, combine martian mud with plutarkian one, pour this in, and you have a perfectly fine plutarkian mud" Mange explained, his voice unusually stern.
" Is there in your mind Mange, you don't seem as insane as you normally do" Oltterman said, Mange snickered and shook his head.
" No my lord, I'm just happy we can finally revive Plutark to it's former glory" the scientist laughed. Then a almost scaleless hand was placed on his shoulder, Mange looked up into the yellow eyes of General Fiske. Mange wasn't the best person to tell how one felt by looking into their eyes, but Fiske's eyes were sad. Then the general turned his attention to Oltterman.
" My lord, are you absolutely sure this is the only option? I don't wanna lose more men to those rats than I already have" he said, Oltterman gave the general a warm smile.
" Don't worry General, we only need to take one football-field of earth, I'm sure you can do it" the old fish said, Fiske bowed and ran to ready his men to the invasion. Invasion to Mars.