Chapter 13

07:56, February 18, 2262.

"What do you want," Susan demanded. Having been warned moments earlier by one of her bridge crew that the Psi-Cop was looking for her, she didn't even bother to look up as Sarah had entered her office. Susan had been busy with some vital paperwork and was not in the mood to speak with the Psi-Cop this morning.

"I need to discuss an important matter with you Captain," Sarah replied, taking one of the three seats on the other side of the Captain's desk. Then she hesitated, wondering how Susan had known who had entered her room when the Captain had still been occupied with the pile of reports on her desk.

"And what might that be Ms. Chang?" Susan said, still not looking up from her work. "Do you need more information about Arisia 3, because if you do I have already told you everything I know about that world."

"No, it is not that Captain," Sarah answered, sounding more than a little hesitant to continue further.

Susan looked up at last from the report she was reading and glared at the telepath. "Well, what is it then?"

The Psi-Cop hesitated a while longer before the angry glare the Rasputin's Captain was giving her motivated her response. "I need this ship to take me to Arisia 3."

Susan would have laughed if she didn't realise that the telepath sitting in front of her was serious. Instead, she just tried to hide her amusement behind a deepening frown. "Well, you can't have it," she replied curtly and returned her attention to the data pad currently in her hand.

"I am afraid that Psi-Corp has made an official request to Earthforce that you assist me in my investigation," Sarah informed Ivanova, the young Psi-Cop's confidence growing slowly with every word. "In fact I have just had word back from Mr. Bester that Earthforce command has agreed to his request and signed your vessel over to me for the next five days."

Susan looked up again and stared at the Psi-Cop as if to try to determine if she was telling the truth or not. Finally, Susan said, "I have other orders I am afraid Ms. Chang. I have heard nothing about this from Earthforce."

"You orders have been changed Captain," Sarah replied, a little more harshly than she had intended. The Captain's attitude was beginning to annoy her and Sarah's next words came out sounding haughty and disdainful. "If you contact Earthforce you will find out that what I have told you is correct. I suggest you call them at once, I have no intention waiting around for half a day, wasting what little time I have."

The Psi-Cop's tone was nothing new to Susan. In fact, it was exactly what she would have expected. She just stared back at Sarah, her gaze withering, letting the Psi-Cop know exactly what she though of threats. "I will do that Ms. Chang," Susan promised her, her voice leaving Sarah in no doubt that she would call Earthforce when and if she was ready, and not a moment before. "But, until I do and get proper confirmation of this claim of yours from my superiors, you will have to wait. I suggest you get something to eat, or maybe read a book."

"I will wait Captain," the Psi-Cop replied, now annoyed at herself for losing her temper with Ivanova. She knew the Captain was difficult, and making threats, even if heavily veiled ones, was not going to help matters at all. "But not too long. This is important to both Psi-Corps and Earthforce and every moment wasted is one we can not afford to lose."

"Very well Ms. Chang," Susan said, knowing that even if she did wait it would only be putting off the inevitable. "I will make the call."

"Thank you Captain," Sarah said, although there was little genuine gratitude in her voice.

Susan stared her again, but when the telepath didn't get the message, she was forced to say, "Outside please Ms. Chang. I prefer not to make important calls to my superiors knowing that my every thought is being listened to." In truth, Susan already knew the telepath wasn't scanning her, but wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of watching while Susan argued with Admiral Mellor.

"I don't make illegal scans of anyone Captain," Sarah tried to argue. However, Susan wasn't listening, just looking pointedly at the Psi-Cop and then at the open door. Sighing in annoyance, the Psi-Cop dragged herself out of her chair and marched off towards the door. Just before she left, she paused and looked back at the captain. "I expect you to make that call to Earthdome at once Captain. There is little enough time to waste as it is, without you deliberately stalling. I know you don't like me, or the Corp but this is important to both the Psi-Corps and all of Earthforce. After all, would your superiors loan out your destroyer to us if it wasn't important."

Leaving Susan to consider those words she marched off towards the officer's dining room, deciding that eating a late breakfast wouldn't be a bad idea after all. Behind her, Susan watched for a few moments before tapping the switch that closed the door to her office and turning to the communication screen mounted on the wall. Ivanova didn't want to appear too eager to assist the Psi-Cop, but if Earthforce thought it important enough to hand over control of her vessel to Psi-Corps then she had better find out exactly what the terms of that agreement were.

At the same time Susan was calling Earthdome to request confirmation of her new orders, the warship Enlightener and its crew were still making their way across Hyperspace. Slower than most other vessels due to its size, its crew and commanders had plenty to time to discuss the upcoming attack.

Darren Anderson and Harvey Kiel were doing just that on the bridge. Kiel, careful to keep at least one eye on the bridge crew at all times, had taken to even sleeping in his seat on the bridge. Anderson was a little worried that perhaps his superior was feeling the pressure a lot more than he said, but Kiel seemed to be relaxed in his throne, sitting comfortably while eating his breakfast.

Around the gigantic warship the chaotic mists of Hyperspace spread in all directions, while somewhere far ahead of them was the beacon that was even now pulling them closer and closer to the next target. Until that beacon was almost within sight, it was just a matter of waiting and planning for the coming battle, however short it might turn out to be.

"Sorry to disturb you Sir," Anderson said as he came up to Kiel side.

The former Psi-Cop was just finishing off his breakfast, and did not seem overly concerned about the interruption. "You are not disturbing me Mr. Anderson," he replied as he put the breakfast tray down on the console in front of him. "What can I do for you now."

"I have just had a disturbing report from some of our agents on Earth and Proxima, Sir. I thought I should inform you as soon as possible."

"I see," Kiel responded aloud before converting to telepathic speech to keep the rest of their conversation more private. 'And what does this report say.'

Anderson fished it out of a pocket and passed it over to Kiel, while at he same time filling in the former Psi-Cop with the basics of the information contained on the data pad. 'It seems that Earthforce has somehow learned of our existence. The first base we destroyed managed to get off a short message, and although it didn't contain much information it has Earthforce worried enough to start organising a fleet to come and look for us.'

Kiel shrugged. 'I don't see the problem. As long as they are looking for us then they won't be gathering to stand against us. In fact, as far as we are concerned, if Earthforce sends all its ships out searching for us, then that will only assist our cause. I assume they will start looking at the place where the listening post was destroyed.'

'That would be my guess Sir,' Anderson agreed, suddenly seeing the logic in Kiel's argument.

"Then I don't see the problem," Kiel said. "If they are all out along the border looking for us, then they can't be used to stop us. I would take any destroyer at least three days to reach the Alliance border from Earth, maybe even more. Based on that it would also take them the same amount of time to return once they learn of our attack on Proxima III. I don't intend on sticking around waiting for them though, and shall instead jump straight for Earth. Two days later we will be in position to attack Earth, while any ships they send out to the border sectors will still be at least a day away.'

'And, no concern of ours then,' Anderson finished.

'That is right Mr. Anderson. So tell our agents in Earthdome to keep an eye on what's happening, but I don't think we need to worry too much about these reports.'

'Yes Sir,' Anderson said, still looking a little worried, despite Kiel's reassurance. 'There is of course the matter of the other report.'

'Other report?' Kiel asked, looking down at the data pad in his hand.

'Yes the report from our agent on Proxima,' Anderson said, pointing to the second file on the data pad. 'Mr. Hill has just send a message to say that a Psi-Cop is on to us, a Sarah Chang I believe he said her name was.'

'Sarah Chang?' Kiel asked with a strange look on his face. When Anderson nodded, he smiled grimly. 'So Bester is finally getting close to us it seems, Ms. Chang is his latest assistant, the one who was hanging around outside my apartment on Mars for the last two weeks I was there.'

'I didn't know that Sir,' Anderson said with a frown spreading across his face. 'You should have mentioned it to me.'

'I didn't think it important enough to comment on,' Kiel replied. 'As long as we only communicated telepathically she could not pick up anything, and anyway, my office was shielded against any sort of listening devices. Did Hill have anything else to report?'

Anderson looked down at his own copy of the agent's message. 'Yes, Sir, he said Ms. Chang showed up at his dwelling in Reagan Dome and scanned him. He isn't sure but he thinks she may have found memories linking me to Arisia 3.'

'Well that isn't a problem then,' Kiel replied, tossing the data pad onto the console in front of him. 'No-one will find anything there.'

Anderson looked confused. 'But what about the factories and all the slaves we left behind. There are still those two Centauri destroyers the Regent sent us there as well.'

'You don't need to worry about them Mr. Anderson. Our allies have promised to take care of them. Even if Bester's assistant finds her way there, she won't find anything that will point out our location. Just sit back and relax, and leave the worrying to those who are looking for us. We have nothing to threaten us now. Which reminds me, how are our financiers enjoying their quarters.'

'Complaining of course Sir,' Anderson replied, glancing briefly at the door that led from the bridge towards the guest quarters. 'Mr. Tamuil from Microtel was demanding to know what listening post we were going to destroy next.'

A tone of amusement came across loudly in Kiel's thoughts. 'So he doesn't know then.'

'No Sir, after you informed me of the next target, I thought it best to keep it from them. It would do for them to get anxious now and start talking to Earthforce.'

'No, that would not do at all,' Kiel agreed leaning back in his chair to contemplate the view out of the front of the bridge. He didn't like the businessmen he had been forced to deal with to complete this vessel, but soon they would be no longer any use to the project and could be deposed of. Then, all that would be left were those loyal to the cause, those who know what they have to do is right for Psi-Corps, right for Earth and right for the entire Alliance.

Susan sighed wearily as she turned away from the screen and back to her desk. Admiral Mellor had confirmed Chang's orders, much to Susan's extreme annoyance. She had attempted to argue her case; pointing out the fact that with her ship gone there would be nothing left defending Proxima III. The Admiral, though, had dismissed that argument and ordered her to follow the Psi-Cop's orders. 'After all,' he had said. 'There is nothing I can do. T he joint chiefs have approved this mission, and neither you or I can go against their orders." Reluctantly Susan had agreed.

The last thing Susan wanted to do right now was to be working for Psi-Corps, despite the fact it was only for five days and for four of them the Rasputin would probably be in Hyperspace. Still with any luck, they would only be asked to transport the Psi-Cop to her destination and then, if no enemy was found, turn back and rendezvous with the rest of the fleet that was gathering at Proxima III.

Not really wanting to summon the Psi-Cop and admit that Sarah had been right, Susan turned instead back to her work, wanting to complete the last of the reports before meeting again with the telepath. The sound of someone clearing their throat suddenly broke her concentration though, right when she had been about to move on to the interesting topic of plasma cannon accuracy testing. Looking up she found Commander Petrov and Major Logan standing just outside the door, the Commander looking unhappy about interrupting her work, the Major looking fit to burst as if she had some important news she could not wait to pass on.

"I hadn't expected you until later Commander," Susan said. She wasn't overly upset to see him. After all, it could have been the Psi-Cop returning to gloat. "Come on in anyway. I have the reports with me now so we can discuss them now if you like."

"Thank you Captain," Petrov replied, taking his usual seat by the wall. "Actually it is not about the latest crew reports that I came to see you." Seeing Susan's questioning look, he quickly continued. "I was speaking to Major Logan a little earlier and, well perhaps she had better explain what she told me."

Susan looked over at the Major, who was still standing by the door, two data pads clutched in her hands. "Major?" she asked, sweeping her hand toward the empty chair next to Petrov's.

Lily needed no second invitation and hurried over to the seat, pausing only to hand over one of the data pads to Susan who took it briefly and then placed it on the desk in front of her. A little hesitantly at first, but slowly gaining in confidence she began her tale. "Do you remember back on Mars that I said I would look into that matter for you Captain?" she asked. When Susan nodded, she continued. "Well I wasn't having a lot of luck until that Psi-Cop mention that Mr. Anderson was interested in Arisia 3 then all things seemed to fall into place. I spent most of last night on it, but finally came up with what I think is the solution this morning."

She paused for a moment to take a breath and then continued. "I had to do a lot of checking around various financial organizations but it all began to make sense. You remember that I said that it might be a corporate war or something like that."

Susan nodded. "You also said it involved Psi-Corps as well," she pointed out.

"That's right," Lily agreed. "And although I am not sure if it still involves the Psi-Corps organization itself, I am certain that at least Mr. Anderson is involved."

"Anderson?" Susan asked. "What does he have to do with it? I don't remember you mentioning him before."

"Well, I didn't know he was involved then Captain," Lily explained. "It wasn't until last night that it all made sense. Anyway, as I was saying, Psi-Corps isn't involved, but I believe that several major companies are. I have been checking records on Earth, some very hard to get hold of financial records by the way, and have found that several major companies have spent a lot of money recently. JMC, the Mars Corporation, and Microtel are the three highest on the list."

"Those companies are always spending money though," Susan said. "They are the three largest Earth based megacorporations around. If they weren't spending money then I would worry."

"True," the Major replied. "However they usually spend it on something tangible. There has been something like twelve billion credits, maybe a lot more, that has just vanished. It took me a while to work out that something was going on, as the missing money was all labelled research funds. However, after some digging I found out that all those funds were going to a single account on Mars, one run by our friend Mr. Anderson. Don't ask how I got this information, but I can assure you it is accurate."

"Twelve billion credits?" Susan asked incredulously. "What the hell does he want with that sort of money."

"Well I don't know that for sure yet Captain," Lily admitted. "However I do know that the money hasn't been remaining in his account long, and most of it was quickly transferred on to another account, this one in the Thrakallan city of Gistuelin."

"Which means that it is now impossible to trace," Petrov cut in. "Those insects are notorious criminals and experts at hiding things from the authorities. So if anyone can hide that amount of money, they can."

"All of which starts to make the whole situation very suspicious indeed," Susan said grimly. "There is a lot they could do with twelve billion credits."

"Like construct a fleet of fighters for instance," Lily said.

"You don't mean…" Susan said, her eyes opening in surprise.

"Exactly," Lily replied with a triumphant smile. "Those fighters that attacked Proxima might have been what the money was spent on. After all they do contain Microtel parts, not to mention other Earth technology."

"Are you sure though?" Susan asked her. " I mean something like that is ambitious even for the Psi-Corps."

"Well I don't think the Psi-Corps are actually involved. After all, we have a Psi-Cop running around here trying desperately to find Anderson so obviously not everyone in the Corps is involved. In fact, I think probably only a few are involved. Most likely only those who were working for President Clark."

"I am still not sure that I understand exactly what you are trying to get at Major," Susan said.

"Well, I haven't worked out all the details yet Captain," Lily admitted. "But I think I have enough to come up with a reasonable hypothesis."

"Then lets hear it," Susan urged. "This whole thing is beginning to give me a headache."

Lily smiled briefly before pointing to the data pad she had given Susan. "All the information I have discovered is in there, however I can give you a brief overview. What I think is happening is this. Those companies I mentioned were all strong supporters of Clark and his regime. When he committed suicide they lost a lot of contracts they had been promised."

"Like the contract for the Warlock destroyers that Microtel was bidding for," Susan said, remembering that little fact that Dr. Kozlowski had pointed out when he had examined the crashed fighter.

"Yes, contracts like that," confirmed Lily. "This allowed smaller companies like Futurecorp and several based here on Proxima to get a lot of business that had gone to the megacorps during Clark's rule. Of course the big corporations were most annoyed by this and had to come up with something to turn the situation around."

"Why didn't they just try and trade their way out of the situation," Susan cut in. "Buy out the smaller companies and that sort of thing. I mean that is what most companies would do."

"True," Lily agreed. "But we are not dealing with normal companies here, we are dealing with three of the biggest companies on Earth. Despite their size, they are mainly Earth companies, and it is well known that they are starting to have trouble competing with the off-world competition. Do you know what the fastest growing company in the Alliance is at the moment?" When Susan shook her head, Lily told her, "Proxima Mining. They used to be just a small company with assets only in this system, but over the past few months they have signed up deals with four alien government worth potentially billions to their company, and to the Proxima economy."

"I still don't see what that has to do with Anderson and those fighters though," Susan said, anxious for the Major to get to the point.

Lily didn't want to be rushed though. "I am getting to that Captain. Anyway, as I was saying, the companies of Proxima and the other colonies are growing at least twice as fast as those based on Earth. In another five, maybe ten years at the most, the old megacorporations will be little more than memories, unless they take action now."

"By attacking the holdings of their opponents," Susan exclaimed, understanding suddenly welling up inside her. "They are going to use those new raiders to attack holdings of any company that threatens their interests. They can blame it on raiders and while their competition is reeling from the losses the raiders are causing, they can move in and snatch up the business for themselves." Then she paused and a puzzled frown crossed her face. "What does that have to do with Arisia 3 though?" she asked.

"Well I am not too sure about this yet Captain," Lily replied. "But I checked with navigation and I noticed something interesting. Care to guess which alien race's homeworld is closest to Arisia 3?"

"Thrakallan," everyone in the room said at once.

"That's right Captain," Lily replied with a broad smile. "The Thrakallan system sits right between the Earth Alliance and Narn space, a little under three light years from the Arisia system. It is closer to Arisia than Proxima is to Earth."

"So, you think something is going on there?" Susan asked.

"I am positive something is. Do you remember what that telepath in the casino on Mars asked you about?"

Susan thought back for a moment, "Project A3, or something like that."

Lily nodded in confirmation. "That's correct Captain. As we worked out then, I suspect that Project A3 actually applies to something happening on Arisia 3. I don't know what they are doing there though, it could be something as simple as a site for their meetings, or it might be something more significant."

"So what ever is happening, it has something to do with that planet," Susan mused.

"That would be my guess," the Major confirmed with a nod.

"It is a good thing that we are about to make a short visit to that system then, isn't it," Susan said as a smile spread across her face.

"Captain?" Petrov said with a puzzled frown. Major Logan looked almost as confused.

Susan quickly hurried to explain. "I have just received new orders from Earthdome. For the next five days, we are being loaned out to the Psi-Corps, and more particularly Ms. Chang. Apparently she wants to make a visit to Arisia 3 to look for Mr. Anderson."

Petrov let out a short laugh. "So that solves that problem then. We can help her look for Mr. Anderson and at the same time test Major Logan's hypothesis about what exactly Anderson has been up to."

Susan nodded. "That is my plan Commander." She looked up and noticed the Psi-Cop approaching down the hallway. "In fact, here is Ms. Chang now."

The dark-haired telepath looked a little annoyed to find the other two officers in the room with Susan but accepted the Captain's offer of the last available seat. "Have you checked with Earthforce yet Captain," she asked, taking the seat.

"I have Ms. Chang," Susan confirmed. "And they have confirmed your request. We depart for Arisia 3 as soon as possible."

Sarah had been all prepared for a long and drawn out argument with the Rasputin's Captain, so was caught completely unawares by Susan almost complete turn around from just half an hour earlier. "Umm... I... Good Captain," she managed to get out. "I am pleased that you see it my way."

"As you said Ms. Chang, Earthforce would not allow you use of this vessel unless it was important. So how could I refuse your request?"

"I see," Sarah said, getting back up out of her chair. "I will go and inform my superior that we are on our way then." She paused at the door and looked back as Susan. "Thank you Captain," she said almost sincerely, before walking away from the Captain's office.

"Looks like we have some work to do then Captain," Petrov said. "Half the fighters are still out on drills with those from Proxima."

"At least we hadn't got around to authorising shore leave yet," Susan said. "Get everyone back on board and prepare us for the jump to hyperspace as quickly as we can. I want to be out of here as soon as possible."

"Give me ten minutes Captain," Petrov replied with a salute before he hurried out of the room.

Susan turned to Major Logan. "Perhaps you would care to join me on the bridge Major," she said. "I would like to hear the rest of what you have discovered."

"Of course Captain," Lily replied eagerly.

As they left her office and walked the short distance down the corridor to the bridge, Susan could not help but be amazed at the way things had worked out. She was a little worried though about what they might find on Arisia 3. If the planet was the source of the fighters that had attacked Proxima III, then they may have a fight on their hands. However, if there was something going on then she had to find out what and not just because the world had been Marcus' home, but also because of the way those involved had tried to kill her, twice.

The Thrakallan crime lord j'Sill watched as the first of the factories began to explode into a cloud of flame and twisted metal above the huge red planet. Resembling a giant praying mantis, he was unable to smile, but instead his green-brown exoskeleton flushed pink on the sides of his head, the Thrakallan equivalent of pleasure. He had much to be happy about, the deal he had signed with the human telepath had bought him nearly thirty million credits in profit, almost twice what he had originally expected.

The Thrakallan cared nothing for the ten of thousands of lives on the factories that came to an abrupt end the two Centauri destroyers blew them apart. Instead, he turned his shuttle away from the devastation and towards the jumpgate. Thrakallans didn't have much of a conscience when it came to making money. They would do anything, sell anything, and even kill anyone to ensure a profit for their business ventures. Therefore, when j'Sill had been approached by the humans with the offer of the job, he had jumped at the opportunity, and his efforts had been well rewarded by his employers.

He clicked his mandibles together, letting out a laugh, although no one who heard the noise would ever image the horrible grating sound was laughter. Soon he would be back on his homeworld, and with his payment stored safely in his shuttle's cargo hold, he would be able to buy a floating palace to live out his days in luxury. With such a wonderful home, he would have a choice of mates and all the best food. Truly, life had picked up since the human had first approached him, and now it was about to become positively joyous.

A sudden alarm on the console in front of him drew his thoughts away from how he was going to spend his money though. He looked at the flashing red light in confusion for a moment, wondering what it meant. The Thrakallan had little experience with flying shuttles, so it took him several more moments before he realised it was the attack warning, indicating that an enemy vessel was about to fire on his ship. By then, it was too late and his body was already being scattered across space by the explosion that tore through his small shuttle.

The Drakh fighters swept past the remains of shuttle at incredible speed, faster than almost any other vessel in space, before spinning around to look over the carnage behind them. The last of the factories had just been destroyed and now the two destroyers were turning their attention to the planet below. Rock melted under the furious assault of their weapon, and the huge robot miners sitting idle on the planet's surface exploded as their fuel tanks were ruptured.

Then, when every piece of the former construction site was little more than rubble and chucks of floating wreckage, the two Centauri destroyers turned away from the planet, opened a jump point and vanished into Hyperspace. They had other work to do now, the being who had loaned them to Kiel and his fellow conspirators had other plans and plots to conduct, most far more important that this little war that the former Psi-Cop was planning.

The Drakh fighters were still needed however, and instead of following the Centauri vessels, they turned towards the distant jumpgate and powered away. Behind them, they left thousands of dead slaves and engineers and a planet where raging fires still burned from the fierce assault that had just taken place.

19:45, February 19, 2262.

The EAS Gallant, an ancient Nova class destroyer, was no match for the huge warship that suddenly appeared out of Hyperspace almost on top of it. The old ship barely had enough time to manoeuvre before it was being torn about by the plasma cannons of a hundred or more tiny fighters. Although each shot from the fighters was only like a tiny nibble to the destroyer, a hundred tiny nibbles quickly added up and the Gallant broke apart shortly after getting off two shots with its own weapons. Both missed.

Several life pods were launched but once again, the Enlightener's commander ordered them shot down, not wanting to leave any witnesses behind to inform Earthforce what was coming their way. Beyond the wreckage of the Gallant was the Earth Alliance world of Flinn Colony, a world that was still unaware of the doom that was fast approaching them.

Flinn Colony had once been a mining colony, but, during the Earth/Minbari war, it had become a major military base. In the vast canyons, where the main colony had been built, powerful ground based weaponry were sunk deep into the ground. Protected and defended by these powerful guns, the colony was able to make a stand against the attacking Minbari ships, forcing the invaders down onto the planet. There, on the surface of the planet, one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war was fought out, as Minbari ground troops fought Earth Alliance marines for every inch of space and territory.

The Minbari has won, but their dead littered the surface of the planet. Even now, both sides still speak of the heroes that died in the few, brief, bloody days of fighting. Located on the border of Earth and Minbari territory the colony was important enough to rebuild after the war and the damage done by the Minbari had been repaired. This time though, settlers also came with the soldiers, turning the once military base into a proper colony.

When it became obvious that peace with the Minbari was going to last, most of the soldiers were withdrawn and sent on to other frontiers and outposts. More and more settlers had arrived from Earth, eager to make a new life on a new world, and so now, close to fifteen years after the war ended, most of the defences had been stripped away.

In fact, the single destroyer and two remaining gun emplacements on the surface were pretty much the sum total of the colony's defences against enemy attack. In the past more ships would have been posted here but during the civil war the ships protecting the system had defected to Sheridan's forces and followed him to Earth. After the war, every available ship was needed to defend the homeworld until the network of defensive satellites around Earth could be rebuilt, and only a single old Nova class destroyer was sent back to the colony.

That ship was now gone and there was nothing left to protect the base as Kiel's Enlightener slowly drifted to a stop above the planet, just out of reach of the planet's surface defences, and activated its weapon. Below, along the walls of the canyon, the people of Flinn Colony looked up in confusion as a bight light suddenly lit up the sky. The defensive weapons that could protect the base against almost any attacker, powerful plasma cannons capable of blowing apart attacking fighters and destroyers, were of no use against the huge chunk of rock that plunged through the extremely thin atmosphere to impact almost directly on top of the canyon where the colony had been built.

A huge mushroom cloud rose up above the canyon, carrying dust and even small slivers of rock into the atmosphere and scattering them across the entire planet. Below the impact site the wall of the canyon cracked and quickly collapsed, burying much the entire colony. Impressive and beautiful, the buildings carved into the sides of the walls of rock were swept away and deposited along the canyon floor. Thousands of lives ended in a brief instant of chaos and pain, but they were the lucky ones. The rest of the population was condemned to a slow, cold death as power failed across the colony, and life support slowly began to fade from their dwellings and work places.

By the time investigators from Earthforce arrived to find out why the colony was not responding to signals all they would find was a single large crater and a long, rubble filled trench where the canyon had once been. Of course, if Harvey Kiel got his way, by the time Earthforce learned of the colony's destruction, they would already know what, and who, had been responsible. However, Earthforce, like every other major power in this sector of the galaxy, would be incapable of stopping him.

A brilliant flash lit up space near the edge of the Arisia system, followed almost immediately be the appearance of a huge swirling, blue rift in space as the Rasputin plunged back into real space. The warship having completed the passage from hyperspace, the rift faded and the Rasputin was left alone, a long silver shape against the blackness of space. Then its engines flared brightly and, slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed, the warship turned toward the distant world.

On the bridge, Susan sat in the command chair, watching the slowly approaching planet on the holographic display. Not knowing what to expect she had ordered the Rasputin to exit Hyperspace a lot further out from the planet than normal. That way it would be possible to detect what was around the planet before getting too close. Even if there were an entire enemy fleet orbiting the planet, the Rasputin's jump engines would have time to recharge fully in case she was forced to flee.

No enemy fleet had appeared so far, not even a single scout or fighter. She was certain that anyone on the planet would not have been able to miss the jump point forming, it would have shown up on their sensors as a sudden, brilliant flare of energy, probably setting off every sensor and warning beacon in the system, assuming Anderson and whoever else might be around had an early warning system.

"Anything yet," Susan asked the crewman responsible for relaying findings from the ship's sensors.

"Not yet Captain," he replied. "The signal is very jumbled and hard to make out. Even the planet itself is difficult to register on the sensors."

Susan wondered for a moment why that would be. Arisia 3, as the closest planet to their current location, should stand out strongly against the background of space. She made her way down into the sunken operations area where the bridge crew were hunched over their brightly lit consoles. Leaning over the shoulder of the sensor operator, she scanned the information on his screen for herself.

"What's this," she asked, pointing out the myriad of tiny dots that orbited the planet, confusing the sensors.

"I don't know Captain," the crewman replied. "They could be part of a large dust ring, just a lot closer in than the ones around Saturn and similar worlds.

Susan considered this for a moment. "Unlikely," she replied with a shake of her head. "I have never heard of a world of Arisia's size having a ring, usually it's only gas giants." A sudden thought hit her. "Wait a minute," she exclaimed. "Could it be fighters? Maybe something similar to those we encountered at Proxima."

The sensor operator looked doubtful, but not wanting to annoy the captain by disagreeing with her idea tried to appear supportive, while letting her down gently. "They could be Captain. I t is possible, but some of those objects are a lot smaller than any fighter would be."

Susan nodded, seeing where he pointed out a collection of hundreds of even smaller dots, and others that were a lot larger, including one nearly the size of the Rasputin. She looked away from the sensors console and went over instead to the communication officer. "Can we enlarge that image at all Lieutenant?" she asked. "Zoom in so we can see what exactly we are dealing with."

The young lieutenant shook her head. "We can zoom in Captain, but it will only enlarge the current image, losing a lot of resolution. Therefore, while we can make the image larger we can't make it any clearer. Once we get closer we can see what is out there a lot better."

"Do it anyway," Susan said, a horrible suspicion about what they would find beginning to form in her head. "Humour me, and zoom in on one of those smaller objects."

The lieutenant looked a little confused as to why the Captain was ordering this, but she obeyed anyway, zooming in the tiny dot until the filled the entire screen. Despite the loss of resolution, it was plainly evident what the object was. "It's a body," the communication officer exclaimed. "Look you can just see the arms and legs. At least that is what it looks like to me. Humanoid too, although I can't tell what race from this distance."

Susan nodded and looked away from the screen, back up to where Commander Petrov stood watching what she had been doing. "As I suspected Commander," she said. "It looks like Mr. Anderson and his megacorp allies have been covering their tracks, the sick bastards." She turned back to the console and, after pushing the Lieutenant to one side, operated the controls herself, focusing in on one of the larger objects in orbit around the planet.

"What do you think that is Commander," she said, pointing to the screen, which was displaying the rough, broken shape.

Petrov eyed it for almost a minute before replying. "It looks a bit like the habitat ring of one of those big orbital factories. You know, like the ones you get near Io. It is a bit hard to tell at this distance, but it looks like something has shot it up pretty bad."

"Yes it does doesn't it," Susan agreed. "And I think I know what, well who anyway, might be responsible." She stepped away from the console, allowing a slightly anxious young lieutenant to resume her work and walked back up the short flight of stairs to the raised command platform where Petrov and her seat waited. After she was seated again, Susan continued. "I think what we are looking at is the remains of an orbital factory of some kind. Probably the one where they built the fighters that attacked Proxima."

"Why has it been destroyed though?" Petrov asked. "A factory that size must have cost someone a large amount of credits. It seems a waste to just destroy it."

"Well assuming the people responsible for the attack on Proxima were responsible for the destruction we are looking at, then I would say probably because someone found out we might be coming their way. An organization that could build something like an orbital factory this far from Earth and keep it undetected would probably also have spies in Earthforce and Psi-Corps and as soon as they learnt the Rasputin was coming this way they probably destroyed their factory and took off for a new location."

"It still seems a bit of waste," Petrov said, shaking his head at the destruction that was becoming clearer and clearer as each minute passed.

"Well they couldn't take it with them," Susan explained. "Even if they had stuck around and destroyed the Rasputin that would only exposed their operation. Our mission here was sanctioned by at the highest levels of Earthforce so if we went missing someone was going to notice. They probably wanted to try to hide what they were up to as well, and this was the only way they could see of doing it. I am willing to bet you almost anything that we won't find anything useful left, either in orbit or down on the planet below."

"Why are there bodies floating in orbit then?" Petrov asked.

"I don't know for sure Commander," Susan replied. "But my guess would be that those were the workers who build the raiders. The people responsible probably didn't want any word of their operation getting out so they left the workers in the factory when they blew it up. They probably promised them a lot of money for the work they were doing, but knew they couldn't trust everyone to keep their mouths shut. After all, they will assume that anyone taking a bribe to keep quiet, will open their mouths for a bigger bribe."

"I guess that tells us what sort of people we are dealing with here," Petrov said, shock plainly evident on his face.

"Yes it does," Susan agreed. "The sort that care nothing for human or alien life and only for their profits. The same sort that backed President Clark during his rule."

Petrov nodded his head in agreement. "I guess we won't find out exactly who is behind this operation either. There doesn't appear to be a lot left for us to examine."

"Well we will just have to wait and see Commander," Susan replied. "It is possible that they missed something during the evacuation of the planet and the destruction of their factory. Even just a tiny clue may point out where they have gone. I just hope we can spare the time it is going to take."

Anderson turned away from the viewscreen, looking a little sick. He didn't really have the stomach for such destruction and, despite the fact that he knew that some would have to die for the new order to be reborn, he still didn't like the killing as much as Kiel obviously did. Kiel on the other hand appeared to be enjoying himself immensely, looking on in pleasure as the colony was wiped out. "Another successful test," he said happily to Anderson.

Anderson looked back at the destroyed colony. "Yes it was Sir, but there were a lot of people on that colony that died today. Flinn colony was home to nearly ten thousand settlers."

"Casualties of war Darren," Kiel said casually. "Beside they were just mundanes, so it was no real loss. A few must die to restore order to our society. I have told you that often enough before."

"Yes Sir," Anderson replied, although his voice did not sound confident. The plan had sounded so nice and clean when it had been initially explained to him, but now with each death he was feeling less and less confident that they were doing the right thing. He pushed those thoughts deep inside though so the other telepaths on the warship could not notice them. Instead, he just kept reminding himself that each death was needed to insure the security of Earth. Only once Earth was back in the hands of those who cared for it, instead of aliens and alien sympathisers, would it be secure and its people safe.

One of the doors onto the bridge opened and a small collection of dark suited men and woman entered. They were the representatives of the various megacorporations that had financed the construction of the warship and they did not look very happy at all, as they hurried across the metal deck to the command chair where Kiel sat.

"What the hell do you think you are doing," the representative of Microtel demanded. "We said that this weapon was only going to be tested on small outposts, not on entire colonies. You can't go around destroying colonies. These are the people we are trying to sell to."

Kiel spun around in his chair to face the irate businessman. "I needed to see how this ship would operate against a larger, more heavily defended world." He turned back and pointed towards the cloud of dust still rising above the devastated colony. "And as you can see it works quite well. In fact I think you could say this has been a very successful test indeed."

The businessman's face went red with anger. "But there were over ten thousand people on that planet. We didn't sign on for that sort of murder. This weapon was only supposed to be used as a last resort. It is the raiders we payed you to construct, not this mass driver. This ship is supposed to be a carrier for our raiders, not an instrument of mass murder."

Kiel laughed. "And you think that just raiding a few worlds would have worked. Earthforce would have just sent their fleet after us. We need to crush Earthforce totally, destroying them so that we rule in their place. Then we can spread across the other worlds driving all our enemies before us. My agents are already in place across Earth and Mars and as soon as Earthdome surrenders we will be ready to move."

"You… You're mad," one of the other businessmen said, suddenly realising exactly what Kiel intended.

Kiel looked at him, a strange glint in his eye. "Not mad, just visionary, and by the time I'm finished, all of the galaxy will bow before me, and Humanity will rule, instead of the aliens. And if you do not understand that... Well, then I am afraid you will have to be replaced with someone who does."