This particular chapter came out WAAAAAAY longer then I had anticipated. But it's finished and I am glad. I also went back and corrected some spelling mistakes and information from the other chapters, not to mention inserted definitions at the beginning of each. And, though I'm kind of hoping not, I think the next chapter will probably be a fairly long one, too. Oh boy.

I've included G.I.R. units because Gir's actual appearance is different from other S.I.R. units. And it also helps to explain why he was in the garbage can :P

…..I have a feeling there was something else I wanted to put down but I can't remember. Dammit.

Complex
3.The Final Stretch
Virgo

1. An entity made up of three or more interrelated components.
2. A group of individual structures known or believed to be anatomically,
embryologically, or physiologically related.
3. A group of related, often repressed memories, thoughts, and impulses that
compel characteristic or habitual patterns of feelings, thought, and behavior.

The entire class- those that survived, properly coped, kept all their vital body parts intact and had passing scores –were crammed into the assembly hall. On average, maybe half of a vat would pass Invader Training. Most got too hurt to continue or were unable to keep up (physically, mentally or emotionally) in training. Those that failed had their paks reprogrammed for drone work. A fairly small number, in all actuality, died during training.

As was tradition, the hopeful Invaders were brought before some high ranking military official who ranted and spieled on the greatness of the Irken race as a whole, the military in particular and the elite Invaders' hard work that helped to bring the mighty warmongers where they were today.

This particular speaker, however, had every individual's attention riveted upon him- including all the instructors, monitors and anyone else that was present. This particular speaker was the great Tallest Flitch.

Talk about the planet said he came to personally watch over the skill in which the famed students Red and Purple went through their final exam. This exam took place not only on a large asteroid that circled at the very edge of the system but also in the immediate space around it. Through random drawings, a certain number of students would set up a stronghold on the asteroid and the others would attempt to battle their way to a secured area from space. All of them received a squad of twelve G.I.R. - General Information Retrieval –units, who were being phased out of practical field use by the new and far superior S.I.R. units.

For three days this exam would last and each student would be evaluated on their skills repelling attacks and invading enemy territory- regardless if they eventually lost their stronghold or not. That still meant, however, that the ones that retained the largest territory and forces (asides from being able to destroy enemy G.I.R. units, given the student's hacking ability, they could defect their opponent's forces right out from under them) would mostly receive higher scores.

"This," Tallest Flitch told the gathered students, "is where your skills will truly be shown for the first time. This is where your training will make or break your future. I have no doubt you all will do impressively- your are some of the greatest students to come out of this academy in some time –but do not let that cloud your vision. Think clearly, quickly and ruthlessly. And Invader must never hesitate, you must never show weakness. Mercy is a weakness to us and the weak are only a liability. Be strong and grow mightily. You are the true driving force of our mighty empire. It is the Invaders who inspire the legendary fear that travels through the galaxy. And I will settle for nothing less than the greatest to serve in my military."

Tallest Flitch gazed out coolly on the crowd. He was the first of the Almighty Tallests to implement Invaders as spies and insurgents on planets and he only gave that glory to a select few Invaders. Though he conquered less systems then many of his predecessors, his methodical and surgically cold style helped to spread the Irken reputation as a merciless military force.

And when Red and Purple gazed up at him and heard his voice ringing through their heads, they never wanted anything so badly as to be the one up there, getting the attention and utter devotion they themselves held for him.

Tallest Flitch held out his hand and called out, "Instructors. Monitors. Carry on. And good luck to all of you. I look forward to seeing what you can do."

The class stood up, their antennae held up at attention as their great leader walked off the platform. Even after he left and they were given the command to go pick up their squad and get to their runners (small, one manned ships used for intrasystem travel modified with light weapons and plenty of armor), all of them moved as if in a dream. They had just been in the actual, physical presence of their Almighty Tallest. He was actually going to personally oversee their final exam. Heads were whirling with plans and aggressive anticipation. Red's hands were flexing, anxious to get his squad programmed to his specifications when a messenger got hold of him.

Five minutes later, he was standing before five guard drones, a couple lesser chairmen, Chairman Ley and, not surprisingly, Purple. It was only when they were ordered to attention and gazed, wide-eyed, as Tallest Flitch entered the meeting room, that they realized what was going on.

"So," he said pleasantly to them, indicating for them to sit, "you two certainly are something." They were nearly as tall as he was- a fact that he did not miss. "I do look forward to the outcome of this exam. Now, confidentially, I know about the rumors and about the betting pool. However, I'm just going to let you know right now, even if one of you were taller than me at this moment, you wouldn't become the Tallest. Not yet at least."

He curled his long fingers together, narrowing his green eyes (calm, level-headed, less prone to the maniacal tirades of their kinsmen) slightly. "You don't have enough field experience at this point, you don't know enough about the universe outside the academy to lead the entire armada." He smiled warmly and the two students felt their squiggly spoog flutter. "Don't worry. You still have plenty of time after you've graduated. Whoever graduates second still has a chance to prove themselves the better Invader. Now," standing up, Red and Purple stood in reverence as the Tallest headed toward the door. The guards bowed their antennae and heads in submission. "I've kept you long enough. Go and prepare for your exam. I'll be watching you two closely."

After their leader and his guards left, the chairmen filtered out afterward. And when all that was left was Red and Purple, Red said, "Wow."

"Yeah." Purple agreed.

"I feel like I could take on the whole damn universe right now."

"Yeah."

According to the chronometer he had a little over an hour until the exam began. Red crossed his arms and lounged back in his seat. The students on the ground were given two hours to get to their allotted plots of territory and set up their defenses while those in space had an hour to get to their positions and plot out their assault.

Red, through his top grade hacking skills, had managed to pull a full diagram of the asteroid from the monitoring ship (it wasn't cheating, it was thinking out of the box). After extensive scrutiny, he noticed that apart from the natural gaps that pocked the asteroid, previous students had dug tunnels through the ground. The asteroid was, in fact, a web work of tunnels and he knew where each one of them went.

This, he decided, was going to be easy.

On his way into his plot, Red had managed to identify one of his immediate neighbors, a fairly competent and slightly above average height student called Glack. He was a much broader and sturdier Irken than Red was- his body mass indicative of his combat skills –but he was fatally inferior to many of his more intelligent classmates and tended to get over zealous when he attempted to compete with them.

Rolling a plan around in his head Red smirked casually to himself. If he took out Glack's position, he'd expand his territory and not only have an unscaleable gorge to one side but also access to the tunnel network below.

Oh yes. This was going to be very easy.

This was too easy.

Less then twenty minutes into the exam and already Purple had not only taken out one over ambitious classmate but taken all twelve of her G.I.R. units and her runner to boot. Despite all their fire power and programming, G.I.R. units didn't communicate well with each other. Purple took care of that with some careful tweaks in their communications system.

So, while his would be attacker was screaming orders to every individual robot, Purple had his set up in small teams and every order he gave one, the other three in each team responded in the same. He sat back, cackling, as he watched his units swarm about her ship, dismantling the response chips of her forces and runner. Within moments she was forced to jettison herself back toward the monitoring ship.

After finishing to reprogram the last of the captured G.I.R. unit, Purple took control of the runner from the robot he placed at the helm. Now, to go straight to the surface and to take out and assimilate any of the other bothersome creatures still hanging back in space?

After all, there were those that would think an easy way to pass would be just to hang back and let everyone else exhaust themselves in their three-day war. Just how would they take it if someone came from nowhere and took them over unawares?

Deciding he liked the cruelty of that plan, Purple moved his runner to circle the asteroid, every robot's scanner set to long range.

Perhaps knowing about the tunnels made everything too easy. Of course Red lost a couple units and there were some that made a valiant and (in rare cases) surprisingly good struggle, but all in all, everything was going too easily.

Every opening almost always lead to a student and most of them didn't even realize that there were tunnels around. In the first day alone Red managed to amass a rather impressive army of knee-high robots and a good percentage of territory. He set up his main base in the central opening of the tunnels and kept G.I.R.s posted at each entrance, reporting in any signs of movement or- in case there were none –reporting in every half hour.

If there was one thing that helped to make him so successful, should Red ever look back on this event, it was the fact that Irkens were so damn stubborn. They were prideful and vain, to cooperate with another- especially among the elite –was to admit to weakness. If those that were still on the asteroid's surface had joined together, they would've crushed Red through sheer numbers alone. But they were too full of themselves to realize this and so Red went, pulling the weak little Irken in, one by one and growing stronger every time.

Almost annoyed by this development, Red caught himself wondering where Purple was. He could use a little challenge.

As it turned out, Purple was simultaneously thrilled and bored. Most of the students that didn't head immediately to the planet had the same idea he had and was trying to pick off anyone else that hung behind. Purple, for all his craftiness, had developed a plan that he couldn't get enough of watching.

G.I.R. units, when not programmed to a certain individual, would follow any order given to it by anyone. When programmed to a certain individual, they were given the identity tag from the individual's pak. That way they would know who their leader is and their leader's superiors. In battle this gave Irkens an edge because G.I.R.s could be told to attack any biological being that didn't give off a certain coding.

Purple, taking advantage of this, would spend his time on the fringes of his opponents' scanners and shoot out a small transmission device that would attach to the hull of his target's ship. The transmission it gave off, of course, was a coding from his own pak. His target's robots, programmed to attack anything that didn't have their master's signal, would literally tear apart the ship, trying to get to the transmitter. And all the while, Purple would curl up in hysterics watching the hapless Irken try to regain control.

With his miniature fleet of ships (all but three runners he attacked in that manner were still salvageable) Purple continued to make his rounds of the asteroid. After three revolutions around the space body and not a blip on the scans, he decided there was no one else to oppose him.

He turned his sights to the surface.

It was halfway into the second day before Purple managed to get a stronghold on the asteroid's surface. The main disadvantage about being an invading force from above was the lack of cover he got. Those that were on the surface had not only picked off and assimilated the weaker students but had a day and a half to strengthen their positions.

Purple (who was unable to create more transmitters until he managed to capture another ship because he didn't want to lose any of his robots needlessly) had programmed one ship on autopilot to strafe a student whose base was set up on a ridge. Not only did he have the greatest vantage point on the entire asteroid, but it was near impossible to climb up and the harsh ridges gave him almost complete protection from enemy fire.

But, using the spare ship as a distraction, Purple sent another ship- loaded with G.I.R.s –to ride the uprising of the ridge. By keeping low to the ground and moving at a face pace, it would be difficult to spot the ship while the target was being kept busy.

As the second runner shot over head, the robots leapt from the ship and fell on the fortified position. The other ship- though badly damaged –still had one rail gun working and the defender, hopelessly overwhelmed, was forced to surrender.

After giving the allotted time for the defeated student to clear out, Purple rubbed his hands and set about to secure his new base. Now it was time for some action.

"How many students have returned to the monitoring ship?"

"78 percent, my Tallest."

"Oh?" Tallest Flitch rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The time on the chronometer said that the second day was drawing to a close. "That's a record of some sort, isn't it?"

"Yes, my Tallest."

"What's the status on Red and Purple?"

"Student Red has taken over 32 percent of the asteroid and amassed 63 percent of the units of his enemies. Student Purple has taken over 18 percent of the asteroid but has amassed 76 percent of the units of his enemies and 81 percent of their runners as well."

"Have they engaged each other yet?"

"Not yet, my Tallest. They're currently practically on opposite sides of the asteroid."

"Oh, good." Adjusting his armor, Tallest Flitch made a move to the door. "Hopefully this meeting will be over with before they start anything. If not, notify me immediately. I don't want to miss anything."

"Understood, my Tallest."

Circling high over the asteroid was a lone, unmanned ship that Purple had spent a majority of the day heavily modifying. But, due to the sever rewiring, the only purpose it could now serve was a mapping satellite.

With it far overhead and out of range of untampered scanners the ship plotted out the terrain of the asteroid as well as the positions and defenses of his fellow students. It took dozens of passes to get such a detailed layout from such a weak scanner, but it did its job.

Purple studied the holographic map intently, both in a global and flat view. An odd thing he noticed was strange openings in the ground. The scanner showed the vast gaps went further into the asteroid but wasn't strong enough to map out exactly how deep. Frowning at this, he sent to scanner on another pass. This time sending a small transmission, requesting an acknowledgment communication from the various G.I.R. units on the rock.

As the frequencies came back to him, Purple labeled them with classmates' names.

"Tani." He gave an approving noise out the back of his throat. "She's fairly competent. Ren, bah. Pirl… ah, he held promise. Dasi. He could be troublesome. Naka- the fact he wasn't dropped is amazing. Bon, oh how I'd like to rub her smug face in the dirt."

Part way down the list, names stopped coming. Or rather, one name kept coming up continuously. Purple narrowed his eyes and growled through a thin and malicious grin.

"Red… You would be a show off."

Turning his attention away from the list, Purple laid the transmissions on the map, each student's robots lighting up with specified colors. Purple's eye twitched at the sheer mass of Red's lights. Though there was still a large number of others holding their ground, a vast amount of the map was drowned in Red's markings.

Tracing a clawed finger into a cluster of red and turquoise lights, the hologram zoomed into the position. The legend read that Sal's units (in turquoise) had engaged Red's. Despite the excellent fortifications she had put up, she was clearly about to be overrun. Pulling the zoom out he moved to another patch of lights, this one showing Red cleaning up what was left of Naka's territory. Purple narrowed his eyes and bit his lip. He zoomed out again.

Studying the map carefully he took note of each location that Red was attacking. Despite his area curling a crescent around the other surviving students, these new targets were all taking place in the middle of the group. Red had somehow managed to take over someone's territory in the middle of the other students and was working his way outward. The odd part was that for the two Irkens he had attacked, Red also managed to breach them in the middle, capturing both in a pincer attack.

Confused at this information, Purple heightened his security and sat back, waiting for Red's next move.

Red yawned to himself, tapping a long finger against the ship's panel. He only needed to drive off five more classmates and he'd have control of half the asteroid. This news didn't excite him in the least. These nobodies weren't worth his time. He needed someone who was a challenge, someone who could put up a decent fight.

He needed, as much as he hated to admit it, Purple. HE kept things interesting. Even if he was a pain in the ass.

Checking the status on his units he sent group 8 to Pina's location. With him cleared out it would give Red full control of the gorge. The students on the other side of the gorge thought the sheer cliffs would give them protection. After all, there were still three other, open sides to secure. And that distance the G.I.R.s weren't incredibly accurate. Unless, of course, you had multiple squads of them lined up for a barrage.

Setting up the commands to begin his artillery attack on the foolish Irkens opposite him, Red's antennae pricked up slightly. Hand poised over the controls, he cocked his head to the side, trying to listen.

Because of the lack of atmosphere on the asteroid sound didn't carry. But Red had felt something… wrong. Something that he wasn't supposed to feel. It thrummed so deeply, so lowly he could hear the vibrations in his head.

Again he felt it and heard it, a faint pricking at the back of his neck. Eyes narrowing he set aside the half-formed command in favor of another.

"Perimeter squads," he barked, "report."

First and second squads came back with only static. According to the computer, each robot was still fully functional but, for some reason, they wouldn't communicate. Squad 3 crackled over the comm.

"Sir, Squad 3 is engaging enemy. Insufficient personnel. Requesting backup."

Red slammed a fist against his seat. "Engaging enemy? I didn't order you to engage! Fall back!" Across his screen he saw each unit taking damage. One of them exploded.

"Unable to comply. There are no avenues of escape."

More units were blown up. "Go back through the tunnel you moron!"

"Unable to-" In an explosion of screeching and white noise, the computer flashed a notice, claiming squad three had been annihilated.

Growling, Red hunched over the controls. "What the hell is going on?"

In Irk's long history, asides from their ability to crush any adversary, there was one other thing the race could claim was a constant among their people. The fact that each and every Tallest that had steered their might had some strange quirk. Tallest Flitch's quirk was bathing. He loved to bathe and would take two hour baths up to four times a day if he was able to. When he finished with a particularly stressful meeting, you couldn't get him out of the gel in less than four hours.

This was where he was when he got a communication feed from the bridge.

"My Tallest." Flitch, after the first embarrassment, had voice-only feed in his bath unless he instructed the computer otherwise. "We believe Purple has engaged Red."

The Tallest gave a skeptic look. "'Believe'?"

"Red has set up his command post in the underground networks. Purple has taken to bombarding the tunnel entrances. He is not only cutting off and destroying several of Red's units but also giving him limited exits."

Cackling to himself, Tallest Flitch gave his rubber duckie a sadistic squeeze. "Good, good! Computer, show me to video feed! This will be interesting!"

Purple's attack did a lot more damage than he had expected or even knew about. Because of the vast tunneling done, parts of the landscape was unstable. Due to the blasts that caved in the openings, several tunnels also collapsed. Red, forced to uproot his command center, had little more than half his force join him in his exodus. Curling his hands into tight fists, Red knew who the only one remotely smart enough to figure out his location was and cursed himself for thinking of Purple's annoying presence as anything more than someone constantly in the way.

But, despite his low opinion of his classmates, Red always had a fallback plan. Keeping most of his forces at their perimeters to keep up appearance, Red and the rest of his G.I.R.s met at the second RV point. A tiny nitch surrounded by crags, looking almost like a flower. It would cover and conceal him while still allowing him to command his small army.

Checking on the status of his units, Red couldn't believe his luck! His units were still able to capture Pina's location despite the chaos in the tunnel. Good, with the gorge in his hands, Red still had another place to fall back to should the situation arise. Which there was no possible way it-

The runner shuddered violently and pieces of the asteroid crashed around him. Spewing out curses, Red tried to maneuver the ship, but the debris had knocked out the engine system. Without the ship, Red had limited control over his robots through his pak's uplink. Abandoning ship, a G.I.R. unit saluted smartly at him.

"Sir!" It said. "The assault is coming from above. It has been identified as a unmanned runner with two G.I.R. units dropping bombs on our location."

"I realize that." Said Red with deliberate slowness. "I want to know why no one has SHOT IT DOWN YET?"

"Right away, sir!" The tiny robot scampered away, instructing the others in its squad on their attack formation. Carefully floating over the asteroid's surface, Red came across another G.I.R. squad.

"You four. Find out how we're being tracked and destroy it. The rest of you, come with me. Once we've secured another RV, the rest of you will regroup with us there."

"Yes, sir!" The ranks saluted, eyes briefly glowing red before they dispersed.

After the barrage halted and the debris scattered slowly above him, Red's spider legs kicked him toward the opening. Spikes holding tightly onto the rock, he scanned around for any sign of danger. It was then he noticed a small sparkle above him.

A star didn't shine like that, not around here. And the monitor ship wasn't that small. Red narrowed his eyes, his enhanced optics focusing in on the spot. "G.I.R. unit."

"Yes, sir?"

"That runner, is it damaged?"

The robot focused in on the ship and studied it quietly for a moment. "Sir, it is just barely in scanning range but it is safe to say it is on autopilot and undamaged. It appears that it has been heavily modified but it is too far to know exactly for what."

Red scowled. "No need. I know exactly what it's for. Destroy it."

"Yes, sir!"

Under most circumstances, Purple would've probably been upset over the destruction of his hard-earned scanner. But, because he had enjoyed flushing out and chasing Red around, Purple's mood wasn't dampened in the least.

"All right." He cracked his knuckles. "Now we get down to business."

He watched Red's small figure leap over the rim of the rocks, long, slender spider legs sending him rocketing down the rise. Shifting his ship into gear, Purple took off after him.

Sure, he had plenty of other ships and any G.I.R. unit had the piloting skills to chase him, but this was special. There was no way Purple could beat Red and not be there, doing it himself in person. No. This was too important. He wanted this to be the end of everything. He would beat Red and Red would KNOW that it was Purple and not some handful of robots that did it. He wanted Red to look over his shoulder and see nothing but Purple's superior smirk bearing down on him.

But Red didn't have to look over his shoulder to know Purple was behind him. He didn't even need his robots (the embarrassingly few that survived) to report the ship to him. The spider legs pumped harder, pushing him faster over the terrain as he thought feverishly how to keep from losing. Even if, all things considered, he'd rather lose to Purple then anyone else, he'd really rather not lose at all.

He pictured the asteroid in his mind, trying to think of where he could go when one of the forward guards called out to him.

"There are currently two armies engaging each other over the next rise, sir! All together there are thirty four G.I.R. units and two runners present!"

A plan shot through his head. "All right, then. You!" Red pointed at the robot in the lead. "Fire a mix of missiles and illuminators. The rest of you, get ready for some serious moving." Putting his head down and gauging the distance, he hoped his plan was going to work.

Purple saw the little robot preparing an attack and told his own units to ready their interceptors. He was completely prepared for any attack about to be thrown at him.

Except for the illuminators. That threw him for a loop. He recognized the smaller projectiles the moment he saw them, but the robots were already responding to the ground-to-air missiles and let loose round after round of interceptors. Purple barely had time to cover his eyes before the entire surface lit up like a solar flare.

Wincing at the pain and trying to blink past wobbling spots, Purple scanned the area for his elusive prey. He barely saw Red slipping over the rise. "You bastard." He growled, shifting the runner into a higher gear. "Move out!"

Purple knew about the skirmish on the other side from the last scanner readout before the ship was destroyed and was only partly surprised that Red hoped to lose him in there. He had no idea, however, that Red would make a move like THIS.

Neither, apparently, did the student whose runner Red had busted the left engine to and managed to steer in Purple's direction.

"Shit!" Purple's first instinct was to hit the weapon's panel but changed his mind and hit the eject button instead. The runners were designed especially for the exams so their armaments wouldn't be able to easily destroy each other. The force of the collision threw Purple painfully against the ground. Rebounding off the surface, a thin metal leg stuck in the ground, preventing his inertia from sending him into space.

Growling lowly in his throat, Purple rounded on his rival. "All right." He said. "I've seriously had enough of you. We're ending this for good, now."

Red similarly flexed his hands. "Fine with me."

They charged at each other, scrabbling and punching and trying to pin each other down. Red managed to grab Purple's wrist and nearly put him in an arm bar before a foot landed in his gut and Purple tangled their mechanical legs together, sending them both to the ground. It was only when Red tried to come in with a headbutt that they remembered they were trying to fight in zero G in space. The gel helmets connected several inches before their heads did, making a noise like a bell that made their heads wobble. That's when they noticed their scuffle had propelled them off the ground.

"Oh, crap!" Their legs reached out, trying to grab a hold before they got too far away from the asteroid. If they got stuck in space, they'd be forced to resort to their boosters which was an automatic white flag during the exam.

Purple managed to anchor himself and Red wrapped his arms around his rival's waist. "Leggo!" Purple shouted at him.

"Like hell!"

"Take your defeat with some sort of dignity, dammit!"

Red scowled right back. "I'm not beat yet and you know it!" Purple tried to shake and pry him off in response but Red still held on tight.

"G'ah, you're so annoying!" With no other choice, Purple jerked them in the middle of a mass of G.I.R.s, twisting so Red would take the brunt of the impact, the breath getting knocked out of them both.

For a moment they lay, clinging to the ground and panting before Red glared at Purple.

"You're in the middle of my units, you know."

"So what? I got more units then you do. I could just have them bomb the hell out of you and you won't have enough interceptors to stop them."

"You're too close. You'll get bombed, too."

Purple smiled thinly. "We'll see about that. FIRE ARTILLERY!"

"FIRE INTERCEPTORS!"

They lay, glaring at each other while nothing happened.

They blinked.

"Uh…."

"Hey, these aren't my G.I.R.s!"

"No, they're mine."

The two looked up at an Irken about three-fourths their size. It was Bon, one of the high and mighty sorts that said Purple and Red were getting some 'special favors' and that she was actually the best invader in the class despite getting merely above average marks. They both hated her more than each other.

At that moment, though, she was sitting on top of her runner, looking as if she were queen of the damn universe looking down on something she wouldn't even spit on. "While you two were having your little tiff, I've finished reprogramming not only Pirl's G.I.R.s, but both of yours, too. And now I've just captured you." Her arrogant grin was so large it nearly curled around her eyes. "Feel free to limp back to the monitor ship little boys."

"If we attacked her right now," Purple asked with a slowness that meant his restraint was one word away from snapping, "do you think anyone would be watching?"

"While I'd normally say I don't care, if we attacked her right now, we most likely wouldn't stop."

"Damn."

With a final hiss at Bon's back (turning her back? On THEM? Of all the insulting, conceited, self-absorbed-) the two stood up, their boosters propelling them off the asteroid.

"This is all your fault you know."

"MY fault?"

"If you just gave up with dignity like I said so-"

"I totally had you taken care of!"

"You did not!"

"Oh please!"

By the time they managed to make it back to the monitor ship the exam was nearly over. This was caused by the embarrassing scuffle they had in the middle of their flight which caused the monitor ship to move in and the head examiner to yell them inside the ship.

After the exam finished there would be a day transition as final scores were calculated, any wounds treated, ships and robots retrieved and fixed and the triumphant gloating. Red and Purple, having already made fools of themselves twice in one day, spent that time keeping as far away from each other as possible.

"All students," the PA system announced throughout the ship, "be at the auditorium for graduation formation in one hour."

Each student was dressed in their formal uniforms- long robes and armored torsos filling the room. They congregated in cliques, talking and laughing and occasionally scowling at the ribbing of their friends. Red and Purple stayed at the edges of the crowd, imperiously above the others and too wary of each other to mingle.

From the large, double doors a guard entered and ordered everyone to attention. A moment later Tallest Flitch entered and motioned for the head monitor forward.

"Is everyone here, Monitor?"

"Er," her eyes darted for a moment, "not exactly all of them, my Tallest." She handed the data pad to her leader. "Student Bon has not reported in yet."

"Hm? Give her five minutes. If she's not here by then she is to be dropped." For a moment he looked thoughtful. "And then have her sent to three cycles at Dirt for punishment. Invaders are supposed to be the elite, after all. Being late for graduation gives a bad image."

"Yes, my Tallest." The rest of the class snickered. They'd gotten tired of Bon's better-than-thou attitude for an entire cycle. Their amusement was short lived, however, when said student came through the door.

"My Tallest." She called out, striding up to him directly and bowing. "Forgive my tardiness, my Almighty Tallest."

Making faces at her and rolling their eyes, Purple told Red, "Only she'd be contemptuous enough to make the Tallest wait on her."

Tallest Flitch stared down at her for a moment, noticing that despite her reverence, coming to him and personally addressing him as a student (and not being given the permission to speak) and the way her antennae were held up in superiority, he pressed his mouth in a thin line.

"Take your place." He said simply and handed the data pad back to the monitor. "Take control."

"Yes, my Tallest." The monitor saluted before turning to class. "You are here," she announced in a loud, clear voice, "because you have completed the most difficult course in all of the Irken Empire. You are now part of the most elite in the whole of the universe, you are now all Irken Invaders. However, there are a select few who have gained for themselves a respect higher than the rest of you. Student Bon, step forward."

With a haughty smile, said student complied. Tallest Flitch, who stood by the monitor, moved forward as well. "I congratulate you on coming out superior on the final exam. Not an easy task I can say from experience."

"Thank you, my Tallest."

Red snorted to himself. "You know she lost almost half of our units before the end of the test?"

"I know." Purple replied. "Makes me want to throw up."

He gave her a humorless smile in return. "For that, I have a special assignment for you. After your pak has been updated, you will report to my aid and he will brief you on your mission."

"Thank you, my Tallest. I will not disappoint you."

This time his smile had a dark edge to it. "No. I don't think you will." He dismissed her back into the formation.

The monitor spoke up again. "Students Red and Purple, step forward."

As they came forward, they bowed their heads and antennae to their leader. His green eyes crinkled in amusement at this. "Stand up straight, both of you. This is, after all, to settle everything since you two came to be in the same class." Straightening, the two exchanged glances as the Tallest continued. "You've both done incredibly well, never in all my long years have I seen such competitiveness and skill. But, unfortunately, only one of you can claim the title as top graduate."

Trying to hide their apprehension, the two stood ramrod straight. Tallest Flitch sighed. "As much as I'd like to give the title to both of you, I'm afraid Red managed to eke out ahead just slightly." Purple's entire body drooped in shock as Red's eyes widened. "Congratulations, Invader Red. You did well."

"Th-Thank you, my Tallest!" He was practically shaking with euphoria, not minding that his leader was chuckling good naturally at him.

"The rest of you," the Tallest said, "will report to the encoding rooms to update your paks and receive your next duties. Dismissed and congratulations." The group cheered and chattered happily to each other as they left, Red practically skipped his way out of the room. As Purple turned to leave, however, Tallest Flitch grabbed his shoulder.

"Now," the old Irken said, "I know you're disappointed about this, but don't let it bother you." He smiled kindly at Purple's questioning face. "I have a specially special assignment for you."