Valiant: Tales From The Archive

[CURSEd #22: Feint]

Log Date: 10/23/12764

Data Sources: Ilyana Kemaim

Event Log: Ilyana Kemaim

Milgrihet: CURSE Storage Site 20

11:17am SGT

“Alright, we’re in.” I say as I drive the armored transport van past the checkpoint at the front gate. The road opens out into one of CURSE’s aboveground retention sites, where warehouse buildings hold some of the many and sundry items we’ve confiscated from criminals and illegal groups over the years. Security here is low, and guard presence is light, which is why, at least according to SCION’s intel, it’s about to be targeted for a raid. “Where am I going to?”

“The warehouse next to the central security building. Bay door will be open; the site supervisor has been informed why the two of you are here and that site staff are to assist if needed.” SCION replies through the van’s dashboard. “We will likely only require the site supervisor’s assistance for setting up a relay within that warehouse so that we have access to the site’s security feeds and system. Other than that, we want the rest of the site staff to continue about their jobs as if nothing unusual is happening.”

“And we don’t know exactly when the raid’s going to be?” I ask, turning down one of the roads leading between the rows of warehouses. The central security building is almost immediately in view; it’s hard to miss, given how it’s shorter and equipped with antennae and a couple of broadcast dishes.

“After sundown, before midnight. That is as much as our source could narrow the window.” SCION replies through the dashboard screen. “Rebels and insurgents are not known to operate with either precision or punctuality.”

“How many are we anticipating in the raid?” Kwyn asks. She’s sitting shotgun right now, and it seems like she’s been in a bit of a mood. She hasn’t spoken for much of the drive to the storage site.

“Two, possibly three. A small, light operation with minimal footprint. Unless they plan to hijack one of the site’s vehicles, we assume this will be a targeted raid, going after specific assets, and not a general grab-and-go.”

I start to slow the van as we pass the security building and come up on the warehouse on the other side. “This is a low-security site. What’s here that they could be wanting?” I ask.

“I reviewed this site’s storage catalogue during the trip here; there are many things that could be of potential interest to resurgents aligned with the Valiant. Nothing of catastrophic impact should be stored at this facility, but there are still items and equipment housed here that could provide slight benefit over typical military fare.”

“So basically just a supply raid.” I conclude as I make the turn into the warehouse’s loading bay.

“That is the most likely scenario, yes.”

“And the focus is on capturing the raiders alive so we can extract information about the Valiant from them?” Kwyn asks as the warehouse door closes behind us.

“Live capture is preferable. We do not currently have good visibility into the Valiant’s organizational web and the covert connections they are forming with groups across the galaxy. Once we understand their recruiting methods and their connections, we can start conducting counterops to damage and impair their ability to function and spread as an organization.”

I park the van, unbuckling myself. “You can run all the counterops you want, but it’s not gonna take them down for good. They’ve parked their asses in one of the Bastions, and so long as they’ve got that, they will survive. We missed our window for crushing them outright — at this point, if we want to take them down, it’s gonna have to be done from within, just like what happened with the Challengers.”

“The Administrator is aware.” SCION replies from the dashboard. “That is part of the reason for catching Valiant sympathizers alive. A better understanding of their organizational web will allow us to identify points of weakness that we can have our covert operatives infiltrate. We already have an operative inside the Bastion itself, disguised as one of their recent recruits, but the Administrator would like to have more covert operatives installed, as it is unwise to rely on a single spy.”

I puff out a breath. “Feels like we’re reliving the CURSE-Challenger covert war all over again.” Pushing open my door, I nod to Kwyn. “Let’s get to it. We’ve got plenty of setup to do before we’re prepared for tonight, and we should get SCION’s proxy frame out of the box so he can start working on the relay stuff for the site’s security systems.”

She gives me a mute nod, and with that, both of us hop out of the van, heading the rear so we can start unpacking our kit in the cool dimness of the massive warehouse.

Event Log: Ilyana Kemaim

Milgrihet: CURSE Storage Site 20

4:19pm SGT

“Is that everything?” I ask, folding my arms.

“It should be.” SCION replies. His proxy frame is a far cry from his humanesque Synthetic frame; though the voice is the same, the body is a hardframe, and a sparse one at that. The best way to describe it would be a red skeleton with a featureless, angled head that looks like a wedge-shaped polyhedron. All the important bits and pieces are contained within the ‘ribcage’, while the limbs are just the hydraulics, joints, and the metal ‘bones’ that hold it all together. “The relay is now set up to transmit all data and control from the security systems to this station. From here we can monitor the entire site.”

“Can’t say I envy guards that watch cameras all day.” I mutter, studying the screens set up across the long desk within the warehouse’s office room. The interior’s just as drab as the musty rows of shelves out on the warehouse floor. “Since it’s a low-security site, I’m guessing systems are limited to cameras, a few sensors, and an alarm system? No automated defenses, right?”

“The only lethal countermeasure is the fence, which is electrified, and the site staff, some of whom are armed with sidearms. All other protective measures are surveilling only.” SCION answers, starting to wind up one of the unused cables from the relay setup. “The vast majority of site staff head home before sundown. Night security works in shifts of six, but has been reduced to four for the past week to make the site a more appealing target to the resurgents. Once they penetrate the perimeter, your cloaking and the night conditions should allow you to sneak up on them and incapacitate them with ease, and Little Wolf will be on hand to provide backup in the event of an unforeseen complications.”

It’s odd, hearing Kwyn referred to by her new callsign, but endearing as well. Dare made a good call — it does fit her better than I expected it would. It’s not as edgy as some of the other Peacekeeper callsigns, but it suits the Kwyn we know and hang out with. “Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the sun to set, I suppose.”

“Yes. Sunset will be at 7:16pm SGT today, so approximately three hours. Perhaps another hour after that until light conditions outside truly become dark enough to provide substantial cover.” SCION concurs. “I will remain here and passively monitor the security system, and ping both you and Little Wolf once I have detected the raiders on approach. You are free to stretch your legs and go socialize with Little Wolf, though both of you are to remain within the warehouse now that you are both suited up. After the trouble we went through to sneak both of you in here covertly, we do not want to prematurely give away that there are two Peacekeepers onsite, as it may spook the targets we are trying to lure in.”

I glance to the pair of site security uniforms in the corner of the room, the attire that Kwyn and I had been dressed in on our way into the site. “It’s a lot of trouble to go through to catch… what? At best, these resurgents are ex-military or paramilitary, and probably not even the highly-trained kind. Couldn’t a squad of normal CURSE operatives have handled this?”

SCION’s wedge-shaped head turns towards me. “You feel this assignment is beneath you?”

I snort at that. “Yes. Am I gonna get in trouble for being honest? Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“I lack many of the organic idiosyncrasies needed to take offense so easily.” SCION says, the wedgehead turning back to the screens. “I was the one in charge of making personnel recommendations for this assignment, and the deployment of Peacekeepers on this assignment was a matter of convenience and scheduling. You and Axiom were returning from Charisto, and Milgrihet is not far from it. Axiom’s presence is required for a media piece back on the HQ, and the vessel that Little Wolf was on was close by, so I diverted it for a rendezvous and had the two of them switch ships so that Axiom could return to HQ, and you and Little Wolf could take care of this assignment.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever. I get it, you’re maximizing efficiency or something like that.” I say, waving off the rambling as I turn towards the door. “Just sayin’. Sending a couple of Peacekeepers feels like overkill for a couple of Valiant wannabes. This probably could’ve been handled by a squad of regular operatives, and besides, you should never use an ace when a two will do.”

That causes SCION to tilt his head as he processes the expression. “An interesting saying. I will give it consideration and apply the sentiment where possible in CURSE’s tactical and administrative philosophy.”

“What can I say, I’m a font of wisdom.” I say as I pull the door open and step out. “Give us a ping once the raiders are on approach. I’m gonna go see what Junior’s up to.”

Letting the door swing closed behind me, I make my way back out into the warehouse proper. It’s a big building, with rows of shelves that tower almost to the ceiling, and a grid of catwalks built through the shelves at the second floor to access the stuff that’s been stored on the higher shelves. Most of it looks like it’s boxes or crates, contents obscured by containment. Some have locks or code latches on them; others look like they could easily be flipped open. For those items which were too large to fit within crates, they’ve just been stuffed onto the shelves as they are — walking down the rows, I see at least one partial cockpit from a combat walker, what looks like it may have been a prototype cannon for a strike fighter, the wrecked chassis of an experimental combat drone. And every item on the shelves, whether in a crate or box or just sitting there as it is, has been tagged and labeled, meticulously catalogued.

“Kwyn?” I call as I wander through the rows of shelves. “Hey Junior, where’d you go?”

There’s no response, and I quirk my mouth at that. It’s not like her to be the way she’s been — she’d been moody and withdrawn ever since we arrived in orbit, and that had continued all the way til now. Granted, Kwyn wasn’t the chattiest person to begin with — as far as I could gather, she was kinda shy in group settings and had a tendency to retreat into the background of most conversations — but this went beyond the usual bashfulness. Something was up, and since we had a few hours to burn before sundown, I figured I may as well track her down and try to figure it out.

“Kwyn?” I call again. “Hey kid, where’d you go?”

My voice echoes out into the warehouse, still with no response. I pick up the pace, my stride growing more purposeful; I find my way to one of the aisles cutting through the shelves, glancing to each side as I pass through them. She shouldn’t be hard to spot, dressed as she is in the standard light power armor for operatives, and it isn’t until I reach the back end of the warehouse that I spot the telltale flash of white-hued armor down one of the rows of shelves. She’s got an arm outstretched towards one of the crates on the shelf.

“There you are.” I say, turning and heading down the row. “I was wondering where you got off to. SCION’s got the relay all set up, so now we’re just…” I trail off when she doesn’t respond, and slow down a little. I didn’t see it before, but now that I’m closer, I can pick out an outline in the gloom of the warehouse, just beyond Kwyn, on her other side. It turns, as if it heard me, then fades away, leaving Kwyn alone with her arm still reaching for the storage crate.

“Kwyn?” I repeat, leaning forward into a sprint. “Kwyn!”

She doesn’t respond until I reach her and grab her armored arm, at which point she draws a sharp breath. Her pupils, which were so dilated that her iris was just a thin rim of pale yellow, start shrinking back to a normal size as she blinks, shaking her head and looking at me.

“Whisper?” she says after a moment, sounding confused.

“Are you okay, Junior?” I say as she starts to lower her arm. I look around her, and over my shoulder, but can’t see any sign of the outline that was just here.

She looks around, then locks onto the crate that she was originally reaching for. “It was calling me.” she says faintly.

“Calling you?” I say, looking towards the crate on the shelf. It doesn’t look like anything special; just another grey storage crate like countless others in the warehouse. “How do you mean?”

“Calling me, like I needed to go to it.” she says, pulling her arm back now and holding it close to her chestplate. “Like the whispers you hear near unmarked graves.”

I stare at her. “You hear voices around unmarked graves.”

She glances at me, then quickly looks away. “How long were you looking for me?”

“A good five minutes; you weren’t answering when I was calling your name.” I answer, looking back to the storage crate. “What were they saying?”

“I couldn’t make it out. They just wanted to be found.” Kwyn says, looking back to the crate. “I dunno. Maybe I was imagining it.”

“No, you weren’t imagining it. Something was definitely messing with you.” I say, remembering how far dilated her eyes were. Moving to the shelf, I reach in and grab the edges of the crate so I can start to pull it out. “We’re here, so we might as well find out what it is. You’ve got your pistol on you, right?”

“Yeah.” she says, her hand going down to the plasma pistol holstered at her thigh.

“Power it on, just in case.” I say, setting the crate on the ground and looking around it until I’ve found all the lid latches. No locks on this one, so we should be able to open it right up. “I didn’t think there’d be anything really dangerous stored here, since this is a low-security site, but I could be wrong.”

She unholsters her pistol, powering it on as I start opening the latches around the edges of the lid. It doesn’t take long, and once I’ve got them all undone, I carefully lift the lid off the crate, sliding it to the side. Within are an assortment of smaller boxes, some bagged hard drives, and—

“That’s it, right there.” Kwyn says, leaning down without warning and grabbing what looks like a lump that’s been wrapped in a dusty old Krysmis scarf. I stand up at the same time she does, staring at the dusty lump.

“That’s what was calling to you.” I say skeptically.

“Yeah.” she says, turning the lump from side to side, looking for the end of the scarf.

“Well, let me open it, since it was playing havoc with you. Having you handle it doesn’t seem like a good idea.” I say, reaching over and taking it from her. It’s heavy — it feels like there’s something dense in the center. “Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

Finding the end of the scarf, I start unraveling it, letting the length drape towards the ground as I get closer and closer to the center. When the last fold is finally pulled away, what I’m left holding is a smooth, matte-black sphere that’s perfectly circular and about the size of an apple. As I stare at it, a pulse of green-blue light flows across its surface in a series of circuit patterns, completing a single orbit and then fading where it started.

“Gah!” I yank my hand away, letting the sphere drop back into the crate, where it dents the box that it lands on.

“Are you okay?” Kwyn asks, reaching for me.

“That’s a Dragine artifact!” I hiss, rubbing my hands off on my stealth suit. “God, those things are— something like that should be in shielded containment, not a plain-ass storage crate!” Looking around, I reach down and grab the scarf, wrap it around my hand, then pick up the unnaturally heavy sphere, starting to wind the scarf around it again. “I’ve only ever seen these things on display in research facilities, and in pictures. Something like this should not be stored at a site like this; we need to get this back to the HQ as soon as possible.” I look back to Kwyn. “How long was it calling to you? When did you start sensing those… voices, you called them?”

“I didn’t hear the whispers until like… the last hour or so. But I’ve felt weird ever since we arrived in orbit, and it only got stronger when we came to the surface and then came to the site.” Kwyn says, rubbing her knuckles over her brow. “But there’s no way something that small would affect me all the way up in orbit, is there? That’s just… that’s not possible.”

“You don’t know much about the Dragine, do you.” I say as I finish wrapping the scarf around the artifact. “You can put your gun away for now. We need to take this to SCION and see if this site has a proper storage unit for something like this. I doubt it, but at the very least we should be able to get something that can dampen the reach of its influence.”

“What about the crate, shouldn’t we pack it back up?” Kwyn asks, holstering her pistol as I start to walk back down the row.

“No, leave it. SCION’s going to want to have a look, and leaving it out makes it easier for him to figure out exactly what crate it was stored in, so he can check the site catalogue and try to figure out why something like this got missed.” I answered, motioning for her to follow me. “And you’re staying with me for now. No wandering out of my sight. That way if you start to go all weird on me again, I can snap you out of it before you wander off and start digging up more rare artifacts. Got it?”

She nods quickly. “Yeah. I understand.”

“Good. Now let’s get this to SCION. I’m more worried about this raid now that we’ve found something at this site that’d be worth sending an entire battalion to secure.”

Event Log: Ilyana Kemaim

Milgrihet: CURSE Storage Site 20

10:06pm SGT

“They didn’t teach us much about the Dragine in school.”

“And you grew up in a…?”

“In a ‘Riginal system. Kenterbain, but not on Coreolis.”

“Really? I didn’t know there were other habitable worlds in the Kenterbain System. Which planet is it?”

“It’s a moonworld called Tareya, in orbit around the gas giant Kerala. Small population, low temperatures. The moon is sixty percent covered in ice. Not a place most people want to live unless they’re working there.”

“Ah, okay. That makes sense. The school system probably didn’t get as much funding as it would on a metropolitan world, then.”

“Yeah.”

“That would explain why they never taught you about the Dragine. I could easily see a rural school system not having a xenoculture course.”

“Aren’t the Dragine just a myth?”

“No, no no no. They’re very real. It’s just that the younger races rarely see them, and that’s mostly because the Dragine don’t want to be seen. They’re like older siblings that have already grown up and left the house; you only see them every now and then, and they’re typically not interested in the squabbles of younger races.”

Kwyn mulls that over. We’re both lying on the roof of the warehouse, staring up at the stars above and talking to pass the time until the resurgents try to raid the site. “So kinda like the wereckanan?” she says.

I shrug. “Kinda? I mean, I can see the similarities. Both the wereckanan and the Dragine try to stay out of galactic politics, and individual members of our races mingle among the younger races, although wereckanan do it a lot more than the Dragine. But the Dragine are a lot more advanced than the wereckanan, and I think they’re a lot fewer of them. They’re basically, like, weak demigods. Which is why their tech is so coveted; younger races can barely understand it, but what they do manage to glean from it often supercharges their research.”

“So if the Dragine can mingle with younger races, they must look like some of the common races in the galaxy, right?”

“Oh, yeah. They look human, just like you and me. At least from what I’ve seen and heard. They can change their appearance, but at default, I think they all have black hair and these green-blue eyes.”

“Are they an offshoot of humanity?”

“I think so? I’m not sure. I think they are, but they branched a long, long time ago. Don’t quote me on that, I’m not a scientist or a historian.”

“Alright.” After a moment of silence, she asks the question that’s been on both of our minds. “If their artifacts are so valuable, why was there one tucked into a storage site like this? Do we know where it came from?”

“SCION’s working on finding that out. Trying to track back that crate in the records and determine its provenance.” I explain. “But from what I saw of the site catalogue, it looks like a good chunk of the stuff that’s stored here is Challenger junk that was deemed not valuable enough to be stored in one of the bunker sites. So there’s a good chance it came from a Challenger facility or site we took over after the fall of the program.”

“It just seems odd that something that valuable would’ve been overlooked.” Kwyn says, lacing her armored fingers behind her head.

“Well, it was wrapped in a dusty old Krysmis scarf.” I point out. “I could easily imagine some jobber just chucking it in a storage crate without bothering to check what was in it. Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t go in the trash instead.”

Kwyn shakes her head. “It sounds like the plot of a superhero webcomic. Powerful artifact gets thrown in the trash unawares, then picked up by someone later, kickstarting their hero career.”

I smirk at that. “Truth is stranger than fiction, innit.”

“It really is sometimes.” Kwyn agrees.

We both fall silent for a stretch. Overhead, the night sky is incredibly clear and crisp; since this site is located in a rural area, out away from cities and other developments, there’s very little light pollution to compete with the stars. You can see some of the galactic structure in the way the stars are banded across the sky, along with little smudges of color here and there from nearby nebula.

“Whisper?” Kwyn says eventually. “Can I ask you something?”

I turn my head to look at her. “Sure, go ahead.”

“I’ve heard that wereckanan only do flings with younger species because they’ll always outlive their partners.” she says without looking at me. “Is that true?”

I hadn’t quite been expecting that. I don’t answer right away, considering how to respond; it isn’t a subject I like discussing, but Kwyn’s young, and she doesn’t know me as well as Dare does. I figure she has a reason for asking, and sincerely wants to know, instead of simply asking for curiosity’s sake.

“Mostly true, yeah.” I answer after a moment. “There’s no other species that has lifespans as long as the wereckanan do. Aside from Shanarae and vampires. And the Dragine. And that’s… it is what it is, I guess. There’s just not much to be done about it. It makes it hard to build families and have long-term relationships with members of younger races. The elders in wereckanan society usually advise us to avoid trying to build families and relationships with younger races because all of the complications that come with it. It can get real messy.”

“But your elders are okay with the short flings?” Kwyn asks. I can tell from her tone she’s trying to make sense of it.

“Well, no. They advise against that as well, because sometimes short flings can lead to something more even if you didn’t plan for it.” I explain. “But they know they can’t stop us. Wereckanan are pretty horny, if we’re being honest, and I think the elders are more permissive of the short flings because they think it’ll help us get it out of our system. We have our fun, but most of us — the wereckanan, that is — we go into relationships with an exit plan ready. And that usually gets communicated to whoever the partner is. It’s just… better for everyone that way. To get it out of the way up front, make sure those expectations are set and that they know we’ll be leaving one day.”

“Because it’s painful to watch your partner grow old while you barely age?” she asks.

“Yeah.” I say softly.

Silence falls again, and it’s nothing but the sterile hum of the site floodlights, mixed with the distant rustle of the wind over the trees. I don’t say anything more, mostly because I’m preoccupied with my own thoughts. Thinking about my recent talks with Dare about kids, and families, and legacy.

“Sorry if I brought up a tough subject.” Kwyn apologizes eventually. “I just wanted to know because… well, you and Kent and Dare will razz each other about being single whenever we go drinking at Gritter’s, but I hadn’t really seen you with anyone outside our group. Not like that.”

“Oh, no. It’s fine.” I say quickly. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it. ‘Sides, it’s not a crime to ask questions or be curious. At least for us. Might be a crime in certain authoritarian regimes.” I take a deep breath, staring up at the sky and its numberless stars. “I took a bit of a break from picking people up around the time that Dare and Roya had their falling-out. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened. The time I’d spend fooling around with other people felt like it’d be better spent being his friend and supporting him through that.”

“Can I ask what the deal with that was?” Kwyn says. “I’d heard bits and pieces, I knew that he was a little broken up after that, but what was she? A girlfriend, or…?”

I shake my head. “Just friends, but it… they were really close friends. I think Dare loved her without realizing he loved her, if that makes sense? The emotions were there, but he didn’t know what they were, so it hurt a lot when she cut ties with him, and he was really confused about why it hurt so much.” I explain, then quickly add: “Don’t tell him that I told you any of this, and just generally — don’t bring up Roya around him. I think he’s gotten over her, and he’s recovered from that friendship, but reminders can make it easy for bad feelings to come back. I don’t want him to regress.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. I won’t say anything.” Kwyn says. “I just wondered, but it always seemed like a sensitive subject, so I never tried to push it with him.”

“Yeah. I wasn’t happy about how that went down, but he’s over it now, so there was no point in staying pissed over it.” I say. “At the end of the day, he—”

The sentence peters out as there’s a sitewide khhthunk, and site’s floodlights shut off. After a second to process that, I start to sit up, hearing Kwyn do the same next to me.

“Oh.” I murmur quietly as I start to get to my feet. “That’s unexpected. I thought…”

“Did the raiders cut the power to the site?” Kwyn asks as she starts to get to her feet as well.

“I think so, but I didn’t expect the raid to be this sophisticated.” I say as I hear the site’s security start to call to each other, shouting about the backup generator. “I thought they’d just grapple over the fence, or drone-drop in; not go through the trouble of finding the site powerline, digging it up, and severing it. All the security systems are going to be off. We won’t know where they’re coming from or where they are on the site.” Sprinting over to the hatch door on the warehouse’s roof, I yank it open and get on the ladder, starting a controlled slide down in the warehouse. “SCION? You in here? Can you hear us?”

“I am here. Power to the site has been interrupted.” SCION’s voice echoes from the side of the warehouse where the office is. “The relay we set up will be useless, since all the site’s security systems are offline. Until they get the backup generator running, we are blind.”

“Yeah, I figured.” I say as I hit the ground, quickly moving away from the ladder as Kwyn slides down after me. “We’re gonna have to change tactics — we won’t be able to trap them; we’ll have to actively hunt them, and it’s not gonna be easy. This place is big, and we don’t have the people needed for a full site sweep, even if the site security weren’t trying to get the backup generator up and running.”

“Agreed. I will assist with sweeping the site.” SCION says as I arrive to the warehouse’s loading bay, and he comes into view, opening the back of the van that we’d originally driven here. “This proxy frame is equipped for combat and has infrared perception in its sensor suite. It will allow me to sweep a much larger range in the dark than standard visual range.”

“That’s great and all, but you still only have a single frame onsite.” I say, checking my wrist pistols as I walk past the van.

“If we need more eyes, I can do that.” Kwyn calls from behind me. “I can get up to five spirit wolves running, but I need to be able to stay in one place and focus. I can’t be walking around while I’m doing it.”

“That would help a ton.” I say as I reach the warehouse door and shove it open. “SCION, do we still have our CURSE comms?”

“We will shortly.” SCION says, starting up the armored van. “With the power out, we will have to rely on our van to power our local comms field. Allow me a moment to configure it for our needs.”

“Let me get settled. I’ll have my wolves out shortly.” Kwyn says, climbing into the back of the van and putting on her suit’s helm as she does so.

“Understood.” I say, digging around in my cloaking jacket until I come up with one of my comms buds and tuck it in my ear, turning it on. “I’m heading out; once you get the comms up and running, start giving me instructions. Until then, I’m going to be checking the perimeter and seeing if I can figure out where the raiders are breaching.”

I step out of the warehouse with that, pulling my hood on and turning my cloaking on as I go; nothing looks much different to me, but anyone looking in my direction would only see a faint distortion, and in the dark of night, they’d probably see nothing at all. Checking my gloves to make sure the taser claws are primed, I cross the road between warehouses, heading for the electrified fence that surrounds the site. As I go, I make sure to stay close to the sides of the buildings, where there’s less chance that my distortion will be caught in profile.

“Comms are up and running.” SCION’s voice comes through my earbud as I reach the fence. “Whisper and Little Wolf, can you confirm?”

“Confirmed.” I reply quietly, quickly tapping a finger on one of the bars of the fence to see if there’s a charge running through it. “Fence is cold. Might stay cold even if they get the backup generator on. Keeping it running would probably drain the battery well before they got the power line fixed.”

“Confirmed.” Kwyn replies, albeit a little delayed. “Wolves are up and running; I’m sending one to each corner of the site and will have them rotate clockwise around the perimeter. I’ll have the fifth patrol the main road running through the site. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Would be nice to have an eye in the sky right now.” I murmur as I back away from the fence, turning in the direction of the only noise I can hear at the moment — boots over gravel, towards the central security building. I suspect it’s just site security bumbling around, trying to get the backup generator online, but I may as well go check. “You happen to have one of those in the van, SCION?”

“I do not. I was not expecting this assignment would require the use of drones, so they were not included in the equipment we deployed to the surface.” SCION replies. “Now that comms are up and running, I will start sweeping the site as well, starting in the center and circling outwards. Whisper, you will remain on standby and passive watch, and respond if Little Wolf sights any of the raiders.”

“Noted.” I reply, reaching the main road running through the site. Across the way, I can see the dim outlines of the site security roving around the central security building, their flashlights casting spots of light across the walls and road.

Looking further down the road, I can see the pale, numinous glow of one of Kwyn’s spirit wolves trotting along the asphalt, head swiveling to the left, then to the right, then to the left, as it patrols the center of the site. It’s moving in my general direction, but as I watch, I see a silhouette lean out from between two of the warehouses behind, wait until the wolf is well away, then start to cross the road. Sliding around the corner of the warehouse, I move towards the silhouette, angling for the building it’s moving towards.

“Raider sighted.” I murmur. “Moving to apprehend. Will be running silent for the next sixty seconds.”

I pick up the pace with that, transitioning into a half-sprint across the road. While a full run would get me there faster, the raider might hear me coming, and I’d prefer to take them down without much struggle or fuss. By the time I close in on them from behind, they’ve gotten the warehouse door open, and are about to step inside; before they can, I wrap an arm around their waist, yanking them back as I swing my other arm up to sink my taser claws into their neck. There’s a grunt and the raider goes rigid, limbs locked and yet trying to thrash; after about five seconds, I jerk my claws away, and they collapse to the ground, still twitching.

“One raider down. Cuffing him now.” I say, crouching down and rolling the raider over on their front. From what I can tell, it’s a he, and he’s wearing the sort of gear you would expect out of someone with a military background. Though he’s prone, he doesn’t seem fully unconscious yet.

“Noted.” SCION replies over the comms. “Return him to the warehouse that we’ve been operating out of. All the raiders we capture will remain impounded there until further notice.”

“I’ve found where they breached the perimeter.” Kwyn adds a moment later. “They appear to have cut through the fence, possibly with a plasma torch or some other heated implement. I’m posting one of my wolves here to keep watch and the rest will start combing the site now that we know where the raiders got in and where they’ll be trying to get out.”

“Are we going to be leaving as soon as we’ve caught all the raiders, SCION?” I ask as I drag the raider I caught back to the warehouse we’re operating out of.

“Yes. I had originally planned for us to stay for the extradition process, but with the discovery of the Dragine artifact, it is more important that we escort it to a secure location as quickly as possible. We will leave behind a detachment of CURSE personnel to continue the extradition process for the raiders, and if Milgrihet will not allow us to extradite them, those staff will conduct interrogations here, instead of at a CURSE detention facility.” There is a break in his monologuing, occupied by a brief hum of static and the faint, distant sound of something hitting the ground. “I have located and stunned another raider. I will cuff him and return him to the warehouse shortly.”

“You said there’d only be two or three raiders, right, SCION?” I ask, shouldering open the door to the warehouse and dragging my raider inside to sit him against the armored van.

“That was the estimation based on the intelligence we had received, yes.” SCION replies. “If, after a thorough sweep of the site, we have not found any more raiders, then at that point I believe we can say we neutralized the threat.”

“Found another one.” Kwyn’s close enough now that I can hear her both on the comms and in person; sitting my raider against the side of our armored van, I walk around to the open back of the van to see Kwyn sitting just within, eyes closed and legs pretzeled. Her hands are resting on her knees, fingers twitching every now and then. “Having my roaming wolves converge on her. She’s trying to run, but she’s not going to get away.”

I want to say something, but I don’t want to startle her or break her focus by revealing I’m suddenly right in front of her. Instead, I quietly move back around the side of the van, checking on my prisoner, while SCION replies with the offer I would’ve made. “Will you need assistance in subduing that intruder, Little Wolf?”

“I’ve got it. Four wolves is more than most people can handle.” Kwyn says. “I won’t be able to cuff her, obviously, but I can drag her back to the warehouse.”

“I’ve got a second pair of cuffs. Drag her to the door of the warehouse and I can take it from there.” I say, turning off my cloaking as I head back to the warehouse’s door. “I wonder what’s taking them so damn long with the backup generator. Are they reading through the instruction manual or something?”

“Raider cuffed. Returning to warehouse.” SCION says over the comms. “Remain alert. Just because we have located and captured three of them does not remove the possibility that there may be more.”

“C’mon, SCION.” I say, pulling out my second set of cuffs as I reach the door. “What’s the point of intel if it ain’t gonna be accurate?”

“Intelligence and tactical analysis is, unfortunately, not nearly as precise as it is portrayed in popular media. High-confidence assessments are rarer than is commonly perceived, and much of the intelligence department’s work is extrapolation based on available data, known behavior, and past trends. We do our best with the resources available to us, but not even an angelnet like myself can guarantee a hundred percent accuracy when working with an incomplete dataset. There will always be a margin of error, of unpredictability, that cannot be accounted for.”

“Shame. Here I was, thinking you had a crystal ball that could tell it all.” I say, then push off the doorway when I heard the sound of gritting gravel and struggle. A glow is growing around the edge of the warehouse, followed a second later by a gang of transparent wolves dragging another raider that’s still trying to fight and kick her way free. “I see it, Kwyn. Heading over to help cuff her.”

“She has been resisting the entire way.” Kwyn warns over the comms as I move to meet the group. “Be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a way with people.” I say, making sure my taser claws are out on one of my gloves. Upon reaching the pack of wolves, I reach down and jab them into the woman’s neck for a second and a half, then grab her and roll her over on her front while she’s still recovering. Kwyn’s wolves stay close by, planting their paws on the raider’s shoulders and legs to keep her pinned down while I grab her arms, pull them behind her back, and cuff her. As I grab the neck of her combat jacket and start dragging her to the door of the warehouse, there’s a clunk that echoes through the site, followed by a static hum as the lights in the site start to come back to life.

“About time.” I remark. “Power’s back on. I’m sure you guys noticed, though.”

“I’m sending my wolves back out to conduct another sweep of the site.” Kwyn says as I drag the second raider back into the warehouse, sitting her next to the one I’d captured. “I’ll do a double crosscheck from end to end. If I don’t find anything, are we allowed to call it?”

The silence on the comms only becomes noticeable when there’s no response from SCION after half a minute. Reaching up, I tap my earbud to make sure it’s working. “SCION? Did you hear Kwyn? Can we wrap things up if she doesn’t find any other raiders on her next sweep?”

There’s still no response, and that starts to concern me. SCION is typically prompt with his responses, and if he needs a minute to compute, he’ll usually let us know. Delayed responses are not normal for him. The familiar sound of a body being dragged over gravel and asphalt draws my attention, and I look towards the warehouse door to see SCION stepping in, dragging the third raider behind him.

“You good, SCION?” I ask as he marches towards the van. “You didn’t respond on the comms— whoa!”

I scramble to get out of the way as he marches through the spot where I’d been standing, throwing the unconscious raider to the ground next to the other two. The wedgehead tilts downwards, sizing up the three raiders, before he reaches down and grabs the woman by the neck, who looks to be the most conscious out of the three given her light tasing. Lifting her up, he slams her back against the side of the armored van, and though the motion is stiff and mechanical, it’s an unusually emotional action from someone that’s clinically sterile to a fault. More surprising is the fact that SCION’s tone actually matches when he speaks.

“What did you do?” he demands, the question coming out almost as a digitized growl.

“Whoa, SCION!” I say, edging around the pair. “Slow your roll, what’s going on?”

“Is something happening?” Kwyn asks, peering around the van’s back door. “I felt the van shake, it broke my concentration… SCION?”

The raider that SCION’s holding grins down at him. Judging by her pointed ears, now visible with the power back on, she’s an elf. “Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you? You’re not the smartest program on the block anymore.”

“What. Did. They. Steal.” SCION growls through the vocal box in the neck of his proxy frame.

The elf snorts. “Oh, like I know that? Please. They wouldn’t have told us the objectives of the other teams; that’s Intel 101. We knew only what we were supposed to know, and nothing more.”

“SCION, what’s going on?” I demand as Kwyn fully comes around the back of the van to join me.

“He just reconnected to the galaxynet and found out someone’s smarter than him.” the elf smirks. “Honestly, I’m surprised he fell for it.”

“I am still receiving updates from CURSE relay satellites, but there have been attacks on two other CURSE facilities in different parts of the galaxy.” SCION replies to me and Kwyn, and though his tone returns to being clinical, there is a tense, terse undercurrent. “Power to CURSE Storage Site 6 has been cut. Site status is unclear. And one of our orbital data centers has been breached and boarded.”

“Wait, this isn’t the only site that’s been attacked?” Kwyn says.

“Man, I just wish I could see the look on your face. That featureless triangle on your shoulders doesn’t do it justice.” the elf grunts. “I bet you’re gritting your teeth wherever your primary frame is right now. Back on the CURSE HQ, probably.”

“Your attempts to provoke me into divulging information about CURSE operations are unsophisticated, to say the least.” SCION says, his flat tone fully returning. In spite of that, he still hasn’t put the elf down. “I advise you cooperate from hereon out. Resistance and defiance will be grounds for further charges once you have been processed into the justice system.”

“You can try to hide it all you want, but we’ve already proved we can get under that metal skin of yours.” the elf grits. It’s obvious that the way she’s being held against the van makes it difficult for her to move her jaw. “If nothing else, it was worth it, just to see you lose your cool. I been waiting fourteen years to see that.”

The gears in my head start turning when I hear that. All of this is too targeted, too petty, too personal, to just be some rando radicalized on a chatroom on the galaxynet. “You’re Challenger staff.” I say out loud. Fourteen years ago was the fall of the Citadel and the formal shuttering of the Challenger program; sixteen years ago was the Songbird Incident that precipitated the downfall. Only Challenger personnel and historians would be counting the years since those events.

“Me? No.” the elf says, turning her head towards me, as much as she can while held against the van as she is. “But my daughter was. She worked IT in the Citadel, and you shits killed her when you stormed it. I been waiting years for this. I can’t tell you how giddy I was when I saw that the Valiant were giving you trouble. First bit of good news I’d had in fourteen years.”

“Yes, very touching.” SCION says flatly. “However, that does not warrant breaking and entry, and property destruction. We have the rule of law for a reason, and besides, these questions were settled over a decade ago in the galactic courts. CURSE’s culpability in all pending civil cases was discharged as part of the resettlement agreement, in return for amnesty for the majority of Challenger personnel and resettlement for the Challengers themselves.”

“You can’t grant amnesty to dead people, you daft hard drive.” the elf growls. “I don’t give a shit about the galactic courts, and I’m not the only one. The courts can’t give us back what you limey bastards took from us. There’s hundreds, thousands of us that lost loved ones because of your asinine crusade against the Challengers. And now that the Valiant have a Bastion and are recruiting, there’s people out there that can help us destroy the lie you built on the bodies of our loved ones. And you better believe we will be coming to collect on the revenge that the courts denied us.”

She finishes by spitting on SCION’s wedgehead, which probably isn’t as bothersome to him as she was hoping it would be; I don’t think SCION’s proxy frames have tactile sensors, outside of the hands and feet, for grip and balance purposes. He doesn’t bother to wipe it away; instead, he releases his grip on her neck, letting her drop, then lifts his stunner rifle enough to hit her with a pulse that has her slumping over on the raider next to her.

“We will need a muzzle for that one.” he states as he turns and walks past us, heading for the back of the van. “Having to listen to that on the drive back to the city would be irksome.”

Neither Kwyn nor I say anything to that. While it is troubling, it’s nothing that would move me; I’ve been around six centuries and I’ve seen plenty of people motivated by revenge and the desire to avenge a loved one. It’s not exactly a rare motivation. But looking to the side, I can see that Kwyn is clearly bothered by what she just heard. This may be the first time she’s encountered someone so wholly motivated by revenge that they would seek the destruction of their target regardless of the cost to themselves or the rest of the galaxy.

“C’mon, Junior.” I say, nudging her arm. “Sooner we get the cleanup wrapped up, the sooner we can get out of here, get back to the ship, and crash. I’m gonna be dying for some sleep after a night like this.”

“Yeah.” she says faintly, still staring at the raiders as I walk around her, following SCION to the back of the van. I feel some quiet relief when she eventually turns to follow me. “Yeah, let’s finish this and get out of here.”

Event Log: Ilyana Kemaim

Milgrihet: Charol Starport

10/24/12764 11:06am SGT

“Transport skipper should be down here shortly. It’ll be dropping off the away team that’s going to be working on extradition for the raiders, and picking us up.” I say as I return to the seating area where Kwyn and I have been waiting in the starport. The glass window runs the length of the wall, overlooking the starport’s runways and docking spaces. “I thought SCION would be staying to oversee the extradition process, but he decided to pack up his proxy frame and have it sent back to the ship along with the rest of the equipment.”

“He’s too bothered to stay.” Kwyn says. She’s standing in front of the window, staring out across the rest of the starport. “That one raider got under his skin pretty bad.”

I grimace at that, handing her the fizzwater I’d gotten her from the vending machine. “Yeah. Probably.”

Kwyn takes the fizzwater, looking the glass bottle over before cracking the metal top with the usual hiss of carbonation. “How many civilian contractors were killed during the fall of the Citadel?” she asks.

I know where this is going, and I crack open my own fizzwater. “I can’t say, because I wasn’t there. I’d defected to CURSE a little over a year ago at that point, and I think they still didn’t fully trust me, so they didn’t commit me to the siege of the Citadel. In retrospect, maybe it was for the best.” I take a swig of my fizzwater before I go on. “But what you’re really asking is if CURSE was okay with killing civilian contractors back then.”

“It was something I hadn’t heard about until now.” Kwyn says, swirling her bottle.

It’s a minute before I answer, since I’m considering what I’m gonna say. What I want to say. “I ain’t gonna try to justify it, Kwyn. What I will say is that… tempers ran a bit hotter on the CURSE side back then. A lot hotter. We were in the middle of a minor war; a lot of people had visceral reactions and feelings towards CURSE or the Challengers. Before Tenji became the CURSE Administrator, the previous CURSE Administrator was someone that had lost someone to collateral damage during a Challenger intervention mission years earlier. And that showed in how they led CURSE and used the organization to confront the Challengers.” I take another swig of my fizzwater before going on. “I’m not a big fan of Tenji, but something I will say for her is that she was essential to lowering the temperature after becoming Administrator. Administrator Oruna would’ve never accepted the resettlement agreement; she didn’t just want the Challengers shut down. She wanted them stomped out of existence. That war probably would’ve gone on a lot longer, and a lot more people would’ve died, if Oruna hadn’t been assassinated, and Tenji hadn’t taken her place. And CURSE probably would’ve looked like the bad guys for going all genocide on the Challengers.”

Kwyn glances to me. “Administrator Tenji advocated for the resettlement agreement?”

“Yup. From what I’ve heard, she’s the one that came up with the idea, and within CURSE’s upper management, she was considered a visionary for it. The resettlement agreement did three things: it mostly ended the bloodshed and fighting, it gave most Challenger staff an off-ramp out of the conflict, and it made CURSE look good on the public stage for showing restraint and a certain kind of limited forgiveness. Put us in a good position to fill the void left by the Challenger program, and gave us the moral high ground needed to come down hard on any rogue Challengers that refused to surrender. We wouldn’t have gotten any of that under Oruna’s leadership.” After another swig, I bring it back around. “Point is, what I’m trying to say is that yes, CURSE probably did some things they shouldn’t have done fourteen, fifteen years ago. But it was a different galaxy, and we had different leadership. Things have changed under Tenji’s watch, and that’s not who we are anymore. We are not the CURSE of fifteen years ago.”

Kwyn looks down at her drink, nodding. “Okay, good. I was just… concerned.”

I give her a friendly nudge with my elbow. “That’s okay. I been around six hundred years, and if there’s anything I can tell you from that, it’s that every organization has skeletons in the closet. Every single one. Some might be recent, some might be dusty, but every single organization has skeletons. You’re never gonna find a company or institution that’s done no wrong, and if you’re looking for one, you’re gonna be looking for a long time. CURSE has made its mistakes, but they’re nothing compared to some of the slip-ups in the Challenger program. And you can trust me on that, because I was a Challenger.”

“I guess I’m just worried about what she said.” Kwyn says, rubbing her thumb along the rim of her bottle. “I get it; CURSE isn’t what it was fifteen years ago, but that doesn’t change the things they did. I mean, I hate to say it, but… the elf had a point. You can’t give amnesty to dead people. CURSE might’ve changed, but that doesn’t change the fact that they still killed people that shouldn’t have been killed. And we still might have to pay the consequences for that, even if some of us weren’t there at the time and had nothing to do with it.” She raises her bottle, taking a long draw from it before going on. “Do you think she was telling the truth? That there are thousands of people out there with an axe to grind with us because of what CURSE did to the Challenger program fifteen years ago?”

“People that have an axe to grind with us? Oh definitely, that’s in the thousands.” I scoff. “But the ones that are actually willing to act on it? Couple hundred, maybe a few hundred at most. There’s a big gap between being angry about something, and actually doing something about it. Most people, they’ll get angry over something, but doing something about it would cost them too much, so they’ll just ride it out or get over it. It’s the ones that are actually willing to act on it that you’ve gotta keep an eye on.”

“So you don’t think the Valiant will be as much of a threat to us as the elf thinks they’ll be?” Kwyn asks.

“I never said that.” I say folding my arms. “They might not have the personnel or the fleet, but they’ve got a Bastion now. That alone is enough to put them on even footing with us, even if they don’t have the other two things. They’re not just gonna fade away the way we hoped they would. But CURSE isn’t gonna fold, either. If the Valiant want space on the galactic stage, they’re gonna have to fight for every inch of it. We aren’t gonna yield them anything for free.”

“Okay.” Kwyn says, glancing back down at her fizzwater. “Whisper?… we are the good guys, right?”

I chuckle at that, shaking my head. “Junior. I worked in Accounting in the Challenger program and I’m covert ops for CURSE. You don’t want to me to answer that question.”

She gives a rueful little smile at that. “Yeah, fair enough.”

“I’ll just say that it’s never as black and white as the media office makes it out to be.” I say, licking a drop off the rim of my bottle. “And it’s not even shades of grey sometimes. It’s more like a rainbow, and as far as good guys and bad guys go, well… that really depends on what part of the rainbow you’re standing on.”

“Makes sense.” she says, before raising her bottle a little. “Thanks for the drink, by the way. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I didn’t have to. But I wanted to.” I say, shrugging. “This assignment was a lot easier than I expected. I still think that a regular squad of CURSE operatives could’ve handled it, but hey, what do I know. I’m not the one that has multiple data centers for a brain.” Draining the last of my fizzwater, I drop it in the recycling can nearby. “You wanna go grab a burger while we’re waiting for the skipper to get here? Starport food is always overpriced and risky, but I could really go for a Venusian whopper and some hot fries right now.”

“Honestly yeah, we’ve been awake for what, thirty, thirty-two hours now? Getting a hot meal, flying back to the ship, and hitting the sack sounds premier.”

“Perfect, it’ll be my treat. I’m not a big fan of Venusians generally, but damn, they do a mean burger and fries…”

Intercepted Transmission

CURSE Emergency Conference

3:17pm SGT

Tenji: Alright, I’m here. Apologies if I kept you waiting; the meeting with the Mur’ka System Authority went long. They don’t appear to have any new leads on the raid on our orbital data center around Wisconsin.

Nazka: Do we at least know what the damage is?

SCION: Less ‘damage’ and more ‘theft’. I checked the data center’s security systems and performed an audit of its infrastructure. Damage to the data center was minimal, but footage shows the intruders disconnecting and removing hard drives from two of the server rooms. The audit of the mainframe revealed that the targeted drives were backup drives for CURSE personnel files and location data.

Tenji: So they stole a roster of our workforce?

SCION: More than just that. These are Personnel Resources staff files; they contained birthdays, phone numbers, addresses, paygrades, emergency contacts, banking routing numbers, ID numbers and birth certificate information. It is the sort of data that can be used in blackmail, extortion, or identity theft, and it is the data we use for employee verification within CURSE’s authorization and clearance structure. Granted, the data is encrypted and deliberately fragmented across several drives, but with sufficient time and resources, the encryption can and will be broken, and the thieves will likely be able to piece together some of what they acquired.

Nazka: Charming. Now our people are vulnerable to influence operations.

Tenji: And there is nothing we can do about it, since this is not changeable data? We can change passwords and logins; we can’t change birthdates and nation-issued ID numbers. Is the best course of action to try and recover the drives?

SCION: Ideally, yes. But since Valiant-affiliated forces carried out these attacks, those drives are likely already on their way to the Sunthorn Bastion. Our window for intercepting them would be very small, and that’s assuming we could find the vessel that carried out the raid on the data center, which the Mur’ka System Authority is apparently having difficulty doing. Once those drives are at Sunthorn, they will be beyond our present ability to retrieve.

Nazka: We have a covert operative within the Valiant, do we not? Is there a reason the operative couldn’t retrieve them?

SCION: This brings us to another issue that has arisen from our early investigation. Based on the conversations I have had with the captured raiders on Milgrihet, I believe that the Valiant are aware we have infiltrated their organization.

Tenji: How did you come to this conclusion?

SCION: One of the raiders indicated that the raid on the storage site on Milgrihet was a deliberate misdirect, intel that they allowed our operative to collect so that we would focus our efforts on Milgrihet while the Valiant were hitting the other two targets. I don’t believe they know who the operative is, otherwise they would’ve moved to contain them, but they are aware that we have someone on the inside, and they are deliberately clouding their operations as a result. If we ask the operative to try and retrieve the hard drives, there is a high risk they will be revealed, since the Valiant know that we will want those drives back and will likely use them as bait.

Tenji: Damn…

Nazka: Is there anything we can do to get ahead of this and shield our people from the Valiant trying to influence them? This will play havoc on our operations if our people are compromised. We know that the Valiant are still understaffed, and to make up for that shortfall they will be favoring disruption tactics that have low cost and high payoff.

SCION: It is impossible to completely monitor all CURSE personnel in all ways, but the intelligence department will monitor the most common or valuable threat avenues. If something slips through, then quick response time is vital to mitigating the damage done, but when all is said and done—

Tenji: This is a black eye we’re just gonna have to take.

Nazka: More like death by a thousand cuts, if these lost drives result in a myriad of smaller influence operations against our personnel. Do we know how long it will take them to decrypt these drives if we don’t recover them?

SCION: The answer is variable depending on resources and method, and normally I would say around two to three months. But if they have access to the Sunthorn supercomputing array, then they could have them decrypted in as little as ten days, and the fragmented data reconstituted in as little as three to four days. In a worst-case scenario, we could see them acting on this intelligence in as little as three weeks. But these are extrapolations based on theoreticals; it could be anywhere from three weeks to three months before we start seeing them acting on this. We simply don’t know for sure, and I don’t have the data needed to narrow it down.

Tenji (sighing): Okay then. SCION, you’re probably already working on it, but do your best to mitigate damage and try to set up countermeasures for the potential influence operations to follow. If an opportunity arises to recover the drives before they reach Sunthorn, give it highest priority and devote all required resources to it, even if you have to pull them from other assignments.

Nazka: What about the raids on our storage sites? What is the damage there?

SCION: So far the assessment is that they were inconvenient, but ultimately inconsequential. A prototype transforming strike fighter was stolen from Storage Site 6, along with a few other experimental Challenger designs—

Tenji: Wait, they stole an entire strike fighter?

SCION: Yes.

Tenji: How did they… nevermind. Continue.

SCION: We are still interviewing witnesses at Storage Site 6. I will have the report along to you once the initial investigation is concluded. At Storage Site 20, the raiders were intercepted and captured, and nothing of value was lost, aside from a cut power line and a hole in a fence, and we may have actually gained an advantage here. We will be interrogating the raiders for intelligence about Valiant guerrilla ops, and additionally, we discovered something of great value while we were at Site 20. Peacekeeper Little Wolf had an… episode, let’s call it, that led to the discovery of what appears to be a Dragine artifact hidden away in a crate of old Challenger junk.

Tenji: You can’t be serious.

Nazka: A Dragine artifact? You are certain?

SCION: My proxy frame examined it. It bears all the tells of a Dragine artifact. Further testing and examination is in order, obviously, but to my sensors, it looks, weighs, and behaves the way Dragine artifacts have traditionally been described by the scientific community.

Tenji: And we have it secured?

SCION: Yes. I had it transferred to a shielded crate and removed from the site at the conclusion of the team’s assignment there. The raiders were left with the Milgrihet planetguard; the crate is currently aboard the Mediator, along with Whisper and Little Wolf. I have scheduled its immediate return to the HQ, though it will need to stop over in the Grayspur System for resupply before continuing on the final leg to the HQ.

Nazka: And this has been kept close to the vest, correct? Does anyone else know about the artifact, beyond the team we deployed to Milgrihet?

SCION: We have kept this knowledge tightly guarded. You both know there are a myriad of actors that would break laws and customs to get their hands on a Dragine artifact. The Milgrihet government remains unaware, and the Peacekeepers on the Mediator have been instructed that they are not to discuss the artifact with anyone, CURSE personnel included.

Nazka: How strongly did you iterate this order to them? Though it pains me to say it, even our elite personnel have a tendency to talk more than they should…

Tenji: Nazka.

Nazka: It deserves to be asked, Administrator. Between Axiom, Whisper, and Little Wolf, our ability to keep top secret information top secret leaves something to be desired.

Tenji: They usually share with each other, not others. But now that you mention it; SCION, I want you to have Axiom and Surge dispatched to the Grayspur System as soon as possible to rendezvous with the Mediator while it’s resupplying. I don’t want to leave anything to chance; that artifact could tip the balance in our fight against the Valiant. It has to make it back to the HQ.

SCION: Understood. I will have them redispatched once Axiom has finished his media piece at the HQ. Low profile dispatch, of course; we do not want to draw undue attention.

Tenji: Good. Recent developments leave something to be desired, but this is a spot of sunlight in an otherwise bad forecast. If there’s any changes or updates let me know; for now I need to jump off and hop on a call with Prophet to see when he’s going to be done with his little… recruitment tour in the COS.

Nazka: I was under the impression that Mokasha was a lost cause at this point.

Tenji: It is, but try telling that to a born-and-bred ‘Riginal that recently had one of their systems snapped up by the Collective in less than two weeks. He’s Anayan on top of that, and they just despise the Collective. Moreso than normal people. Put those two things together and you’ve got a seething ball of Collective-centric hatred that could probably kickstart a fusion core.

Nazka: Ah. Noted. I will let you have that pleasure, then.

Tenji: You’re too kind. Gentlemen, have a good night. I’ll speak with each of you soon.