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Special Agent Beatrix Shizami decided to lose no time after the Leopard-class transport finally touched the makeshift landing pad in the Ghost Bear camp. She rapidly assembled the contact team, and led them to the airlock. Knowing very well how direct and no-nonsense the Clanner mindset was, Arthur Cassini could easily understand her hurry. He was nervous, though.

They lost no time leaving Tanh Linh once everyone was briefed and all assets were aboard the DMI's dropship. Apparently, Shirazi had a jumpship charted only for that mission. Rare as the interstellar ships were, such a fact only served to further remember him about how pressing that mission was.

For his surprise, once they arrived into the Krenice system, the Ghost Bears informed that they were still chasing the pirates across the planet. Truly surprising, if the Clanner fighting capabilities were taken into account, and something that only thickened the mystery around the whole incident.

Now, they were already on the planet's surface, and its current owners were still fighting the unknown pirates. Interesting, indeed.

The airlock hatch opened with a metallic sound, rising as if it wanted to touch the sky beyond the gigantic dropsip's hull. Fresh air purged in as the intensity of the sunlight flooded the chamber, forcing Arthur to squeeze his eyes momentarily.

Once he got used to the clarity, he was able to spot the welcome party, waiting in the bottom of the access stairs. A single figure stood in front of the boarding stairs, flanked by five elemental warriors in full body armour on each side. In the distance, near the warehouses on the edge of the landing pad, were two pairs of flat Huitzilopochtli assault tanks. Those Clanners seemed nervous…

"Colonel?" Shirazi asked Arthur. The spook seemed somewhat wary, and he could easily understand her. The Davion officer took a deep breath and walked down the stairs, followed by the DMI agent, and the remainder pilots from Anvil Lance.

The Clanner officer waiting for them was also an elemental, a big and powerful man, with strong chin and piercing eyes. Also, he was no simple officer, Arthur suddenly realized, but the commander of an entire Galaxy spread around a couple worlds on that sector.

"Colonel Arthur Cassini from the Federated Commonwealth?" The man asked.

"Galaxy Commander Aleksandr, I suppose." Arthur said, while saluting. The Clanner returned the gesture, in a very relaxed fashion.

"True." The man looked at each of Arthur's companions, and then added: "You took a great risk in coming here like this, Freeborn."

Freeborn… Arthur needed a moment to evaluate that word. So proud were the Clan warriors of their eugenics program, that they used any references to the remaining of humanity and their "natural" ways of breeding, as an insult, calculated or just plain offensive. He came to the conclusion that the way Aleksandr said it was more of a statement of a fact, thus stressing the differences between them both. He went on to add:

"As you were informed, the surrounding mountains are, at the moment, an active battlezone. Emissaries like you are not safe in such a place."

"I am fully aware of such, Galaxy commander. But landing here was our intention. To honour the good terms on which the Federated Commonwealth and Clan Ghost Bear base their relationship, I'm here to put my unit on your service. I bring with me this dropship, along with a full lance of OmniMechs and two aerospace fighters."

"That is interesting. What makes you think that your Freeborn warriors are good enough to join my troops in the sundering of those pirates?"

Arthur allowed himself a slight prideful smile.

"Our OmniMechs are all Clan machines, captured in combat against the Smoke Jaguars."

"If you say so…" Aleksandr took a deep breath, and then gestured to the Davion officers. "I would now ask you to follow me, if you do not mind."

"Of course."

The group followed the Galaxy commander to a warehouse, behind one of the Huitzilopochtlis. Behind it, they could start to see the squat buildings that formed the small town the Ghost Bears were using as their temporary headquarters. Like Redstone, it was also empty, the Clanners having moved all civilians to a safe zone until all the fighting was finished. How very thoughtful of them.

They walked in silence, and Arthur couldn't really think of anything to ask the big man leading the way. He felt something was amiss. Behind him, Pavlos whispered to Antonios, giving voice the colonel's concerns.

"I don't like this…"

"Keep quiet." Was Antonios quick answer, although the gabble gave Arthur the cue to rake some answers from his host:

"Galaxy commander, might I ask where we are heading?"

The other man kept walking, without ever turning to him.

"Do not worry, Colonel Arthur Cassini. All your questions will be answered very soon, and even some you still do not know you have."

Not a satisfactory answer, to say the least…

The warehouse entrance was guarded by a pair of heavily armoured elementals, and a few more waited inside, although those skipped the battlearmour for tight jumpsuits, which only made their powerfully built bodies evident, products of a superb program of genetic engineering. Things were looking quite hostile.

"Star commander, please bring me the prisioner." Aleksandr ordered to one of the unarmoured warriors. Then he turned to the Davion emissaries. "At this time I should tell you that the captain of the warship patrolling your jump point had orders to burn you out of the sky if you even shivered in the wrong direction."

"And why you would do such a thing, Galaxy commander?" So, those Clanners saw Arthur's party as a menace. He had to have in mind the wariness they should be feeling due to the war, but going from that to openly consider an ordinary emissary as a target…

"You will see." Aleksandr shrugged. "Of course that, given the situation, I thought how strange it was for you to come in with a single ship. Nothing of what has been happening for the last days makes any sense whatsoever. And I have my people to protect."

"Understandable."

By that time, the Ghost Bear warriors were back, dragging a man that was imprisoned in one of the abandoned offices on the other side of the warehouse. They threw him to the gound, righ in front of the Davion officers. The man was a mess, all beaten, with his uniform torn and stained with mud and blood. He looked up, to Arthur, and his blue eyes widened with the shock.

"You're… You're… from the Federated Commonwealth…" He seemed confused.

Arthur looked back at Aleksandr, with his mind filled with a whole lot of new doubts, just like the Clanner had said.

"Who is this man, Galaxy commander?"

The other man stared at Arthur for a few seconds, without blinking, totally immersed in his analysis of the situation. He shrugged again, before saying:

"This man, colonel, is Lojtnant Martin Strõmgren, of the 42th Combined Arms Battalion, 2nd Drakons. He told us, after some encouragement, that he and his men are here to open the way to an all-out invasion of Ghost Bear space. What do you have to say about this, colonel?"

Arthur tried to keep his poker face, but what Aleksandr said didn't make any sense. He turned to Shirazi.

"What he's saying… Holds any truth?"

The women closed her mouth, used less than a second to think, and answered:

"None." She gave a step forward and talked directly to the Clanner leader. "Galaxy Commander Aleksandr, whatever this man has told you and your people does not holds any truth. The Star League offensive concerns only Clan Smoke Jaguar. We do want to keep the terms between the Star League and Clan Ghost Bear as good as possible."

"I endorse those words." Arthur said, glancing again at the elemental. "Something is going on, and I believe it to be in the best interest of our peoples to work together and get to the bottom of this problem."

The man kneeled near him then squealed something. As the other looked at him he muttered:

"What are you saying, colonel? You should be here to kill those Clanner bastards… Why are you negotiating with them?"

It was a pitiful sight. The guy seemed to firmly believe that he was part of some grand invasion plan. As Arthur knew and didn't dare to tell Aleksandr, the destruction of the Smoke Jaguars was going within the plan, but with the Star league forces suffering staggering losses. Attacking any other Clan would be impossible, and if any of them joined the war to defend the Jaguars, the Spheroid forces would be hard pressed to defend what they gained. Simply put, any further offensive was plainly impossible.

"Can I talk to this man?" He asked Aleksandr. The elemental simply nodded, and with that gestured, Arthur descended over one his knees in front of the man. "Lojtnant, I'm Colonel Arthur Cassini, of the First Davion Guards. I need to know what you are doing here."

"How can you ask that? It was you who ordered us here."

"That doesn't make any sense. Who gave the orders?"

The man looked down, as if weeping.

"It was one of those spooks… He said he was DMI. He had orders about a second phase of operations aimed at the destruction of the Bears…It all seemed official, colonel. And…"

He went silent, but Arthur understood what he was trying to say.

"You hoped it would give you your home back…"

"We were held in reserve…" He shivered. "We are fighting to take back the Draconis Combine, but not the Republic? How fair is that?" He then started to grind his teeth. "You… you betrayed us!" And jumped, trying to grab Arthur's neck. "YOU DAMN FEDRATS!"

The colonel was faster than the tired and wounded prisoner, grabbing his wrists, forcing him to stay kneeled while he rose up.

"Hold yourself together, lojtnant! I'm not your enemy! Nor the Ghost Bears." Two elementals grabbed the prisoner, dragging him away, allowing Arthur to relax, and talk to Aleksandr. "Those men were wronged, Galaxy commander. Something's going on while we are losing our time with them."

"Maybe so, but no one is going anywhere until we have finished dealing with the rest of the marauders."

"Then I'll like to ask for your permission to join your warriors in the hunt."