The hanger is abuzz with activity. Jirac calmly watches, appearing quite disinterested but hiding a deep well of anger and excitement. The buzz and stomp of exoskeletons pulls her attention to a small detachment of Dominion troops coming to check in on the Ynidon intrigues.
"How goes it?" the Dominion officer asks, her voice without affect while her piercing eyes glance around the business around her.
"Quite well," Jirac says, turning to her new allies. This officer did not want to be here, she knew. Like most of her people, she wanted to be on the frontlines of their war with Skion. "Have you gotten used to those jump jets, Mirana?"
The officer nodded. "Yes, thank you for the suggestion."
Neither woman spoke for a moment. Behind them a few Ynidon were struggling to load some crates into the husk of a hovercraft. The insides are stacked in a haphazard pile across the hanger, the interior now open to stuff material and troops for a surprise attack.
"It can't have been easy to steal that," Mirana said.
"We are resourceful," Jirac replied, "the lots weren't even guarded full time. It was reported stolen, of course, but by then we were long gone."
There was another long pause. "It won't be much longer," Jirac said, "we just need to finish the final surprise."
That got Mirana's attention. "More surprising than the crates of Fleebnorks?"
"There's fleebs in here?" An Ynidon trooper said with alarm, nearly dropping the crate. A look from Jirac put the trooper back to work.
"Yes," Jirac said, "they need time to burrow and reproduce and feed. If they are discovered too quickly the whole plan falls apart. If they all assimilate there won't be any way to spread beyond a minor crisis."
A man stepped up to the conversation, a data pad beeping in his hand. "My lady," he said awkwardly. The previously alarmed trooper gasped again before he could continue. A murmur of concern started to cloud the hanger as the work slowed to a halt.
"The zombies are ready," he continued. Soft snarls rose from the shambling corpses as they were led gently toward the bus. They were surrounded by armed troops, faces quite grave.
"This is the surprise?" Mirana said, "I'm not sure how this helps us."
Jirac motioned for the newcomer to explain.
"Well, thanks to your assistance with data analysis and computation we were able to modify the fleebs assimilation biology. It can spread person to person, and it greatly increases their local processing power."
"Person to... person?" Mirana said quietly, gripping her pistol a little tighter.
"They are sedated," the science officer interjected, "we'll hit them with a little drug injection when we land and let them loose on the citizenry. While the assimilation causes a catastrophe we can seed the fleebs in the area and, in theory, inflict massive harm to the biosphere."
"You people certainly hate them more than we do," Mirana said.
"They deserve nothing less than all they have done to us," Jirac said icily.
The zombies were pulled into the bus under the direction of the science officer.
"Will all of you fit in there?" Mirana asked.
"We'll make it work."
On top of the bus, a trooper was fiddling with a construct.
"That drone should scramble local communications enough for all of us to get to the landing zone," Jirac said, "but I'm sure Skion has dozens of local troops ready to respond. It's critical you guys take control of the landing pad."
Jirac had reiterated this to Mirana at least a hundred times. Mirana didn't complain. The Ynidon had suffered greatly and if saying the same thing over and over helped Jirac maintain control of her wits then that was fine with MIrana.
"Don't worry about us," Mirana said, "we have our own scores to settle."
--
Aboard an Imperial Magikstrate starship, Irwyn pulls one of her junior marines aside.
"We are to arm and assemble, quickly," she said secretively, "there's some kind of plot to destroy a Skion colony. I can't tell you any more than that, but we must go."
The junior marine looked around nervously, "Why aren't we being briefed like usual?"
Irwyn scowled, "Do you want to wait for orders or do you want to see the Brikverse drown in death? Get the men ready, we leave in an hour."
--
"This is highly irregular," the M-Throne hero said.
"I understand," the video feed cackled, "but this is for the greater good."
"I thought finding the Kore was among the greatest good we could be doing. This is all very strange."
"I'm sorry for all of that, truly, but the budget is what it is and I barely had enough resources to contact you at all. You must leave at once."
--
"Wait, where are we going?" a USA trooper asked.
"To fight Skion," the officer replied.
"Yes sir."
