Light-years away, on Giedi Prime, Mikhail Slavik was very, very annoyed. The two Harkonnen guards in front of him were the perfect personification of the Harkonnen military: big, overwhelming, and in no way relying on intelligence.

Slavik was tall, standing at exactly six feet, with dark blonde hair that he kept combed back and sharp, observant blue eyes. He wore a black cloak over a black Harkonnen tunic and pants. He was, or at least, he had been, the Harkonnen's head assassin, their "Angel of Death." He was quitting, though; House Harkonnen, after the loss of its Baron, was slowly dying, and he had no desire to go down with the ship.

Again, he attempted to reason with the guards to let him go. "Let me leave," he said in his surprisingly cultured voice. Not a voice one would expect from the person who was arguably the most talented killer in known space. "I order you to let me leave. I am your Field Commander; I hold rank over both of you several times over. Move out of the way."

The soldier on the left grunted. "Sorry, sir, but you are no longer Field Commander."

Slavik started. "I have not been informed of this," he said slowly. He had been planning on quitting anyway, but that was supposed to happen after he deserted.

The right soldier spoke up in a slow, monotone voice, as if he didn't completely understand all the words he was saying. "As per the Harkonnen Military Bashar's orders, you have been removed from the chain of command pending investigation of alleged traitorous acts during your last contract with House Harkonnen." Slavik silently cursed. Apparently someone had heard him speaking with the Atreides informant, despite all his efforts to thwart such an event.

"So… what's keeping me from leaving, anyway?" he asked the guards. This confused them for a bit.

"Uh… we are," the left one said none too quickly. This made Slavik laugh.

"You think that you two… can…. aheheh…. Stop me?"

The guards looked at each other. "Um… yeah," they said together. Slavik laughed again. "You poor fools."

At this, he flung out his left arm. A metal-fiber rope lashed out of his sleeve and wrapped itself around the right guard's neck. Slavik pulled at an odd angle and broke his neck. The other guard started to pull out his short sword, but Slavik already had his knife out. He quickly and silently slit that soldier's throat, and made his way through the door and onto the old castle's landing pad. Sitting on top of that was a Harkonnen gunship; their version of the ornithopter. This model, while somewhat slower, was more heavily armed and armored. Again, a perfect personification of the Harkonnen military.

Slavik entered the craft and started up the engines. He looked up to see a guard standing in the control tower pressing a button; the shrill wails of the emergency alarms starting screaming all over the Harkonnen Chateau located in a remote sector of Giedi Prime. Armed soldiers began running out of the barracks inside the chateau. Slavik piloted the ship up and away, leaving the part military base, part vacation spot in a state of pandemonium.

Infrix wiped his bloody katana with his cleaning rag as Karv stole money from the dead Harkonnens several feet away. "How many is that now, Karv?"

"Twenty-nine," Karv yelled back as he picked up a large gold coin. "Hey, Dave? What are we going to do after we're done hunting Harkonnens? I mean, we're gonna need to get off of this Highliner."

Infrix nodded to himself, pocketing the rag and sheathing his blade. "We'll get on the next Freighter we come to, let it take us wherever. There wasn't another Freighter on here going to Caladan anyway."

Karv nodded. He got up and walked to where Infrix was standing. "So… which direction do we go in now?"

Infrix nodded. "That way. I think that there's another Freighter over there." It took them ten minutes of walking to reach the Freighter, and every step was done in silence. When they got there, Infrix looked at the markings and insignia on the side.

"Guild Freighter 983… bound for Giedi Prime." He gave a short, dark laugh. "Oh, the irony."

Karv tensed. "Are we, uh, getting on anyway?"

Infrix nodded as he made his way to deployed entrance platform. "Yeah. I'm tired. Very, very tired. Let's just go and then we'll get on another Freighter for Caladan".

They shuffled onto the freighter, hoping to get some rest.