Feo gazed out the viewscreen as the Gladius prepared for re-entry to the universe from the Verge, but she wasn’t really taking it in. Instead, she was lost in thought, in memories, of her journey to this point. The first day after her body swap was met with a lot of confusion from her crew. Of course, many had heard stories of the infiltrator-class chassis that Aeteri Command would occasionally use to acquire technology no longer able to be produced locally, or to slip into populated areas in order to gain information, but no-one expected their captain to undergo the process.

And many had heard tales of their captain and her team’s exploits, both in protecting their civilisation while they slept, and in helping to rebuild after the war passed. They were regarded as legends, among those inclined to such beliefs, but they annoyed Feo nonetheless; she was just doing her duty, after all, nothing more.

And now, a full two weeks later, she couldn’t help but think back to Sam. There was something about him that she was missing, something on the very edge of her perception that she couldn’t quite place.

A soft cough next to her pulled her attention back to the waking world, however, and she glanced beside her to look at Kanire beside her.

“You okay, Feo?” he queried softly, looking at her with all the concern a brother would have for his younger sister.

She smiled a little at him and nodded, “Yeah, I guess. Just thinking,” she replied, almost as softly.

He flashed her a grin, “Well, that’s dangerous, isn’t it?” he countered, prompting a scoff from the Aeteri-turned-Eoburus and a light slap on the arm.

She stood up, adjusting her jacket a little, before turning to Lt Ashter behind her, “How far are we out from the target coordinates?” she asked him.

The Ilfemyoo was silent for a moment, “We’re approaching five parsecs, Captain,” he replied.

Feo nodded and turned to look at Ensign Jinser at the helm, “Alright, helm, bring us to four-point-five parsecs, then spin down our engines to idle. Start preparations to open a vortex on my command.”

She glanced back at Lt Ashter, “Bring our prototype sensors online,” she instructed, before turning back to face the viewscreen.

A few minutes passed, before their voyage through the deep green space of the Verge slowed to a halt, at which Jinser spoke out, “We’re here, Captain. Tunnelling drives are in the green and ready to activate. The drive core is at 25% charge and steady.”

Feo nodded, “Okay, open an aperture five metres wide, and start a sensor sweep directed at Zeroeth.”

Kanire beside her raised an eyebrow, “Just how far is the sensor range on this ship?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.

Feo flashed him a smile, “Well, standard sensors are limited to lightspeed. The further away they are, the further away in the past they are too. Pretty standard. But the Gladius has a set of prototype sensors installed that can reach as far as five parsecs away, in real time. Don’t ask me how they work, I’m really not too sure on the science myself to be honest, but they’ve already proven monumentally useful. Sadly, they can only scan real-space, not both like most sensors. And they generate an awful amount of heat too, so we can’t run them all the time…”

Feo trailed off, before glancing over at Lt Ashter, “Can you feed the scans directly to Sensors Operations,” she asked, then turned to Ensign Vara beside him, “And can you let Zarpa and Horon know to meet us there?”

At their nods, she turned around and surveyed the bridge, “Lt Milian, you have the bridge,” she instructed, before turning tail and walking out, with Kanire following close behind.

Sensors Operations was located at the fore of the ship on the Command Deck. So while it didn’t take Feo and Kanire long to reach it, the rest of her team were already waiting for her, courtesy of the elevator next to it. Zarpa was at one of the consoles, examining the sensor scans as they came in, while Horon had his eyes closed as he leaned against the wall next to the door.

Feo glanced around, before clicking her fingers, causing the lights to dim and a projection of the planet to appear in the centre of the room. She strode over to it as her AIs appeared around the globe, watching it carefully. With a glance at each other, her squadmates projected their AIs too; Kanire had one, which was now sitting on his shoulder, Zarpa had two, who had joined Feo’s by the planet, while Horon didn’t have one at all. Or if he did, he didn’t show it.

“Alright everyone, listen up,” Feo began, reaching up and tapping at one of the smaller continents near the equator, enlarging the area and bringing a massive satellite dish into view, “This is the Zeroeth Planetary Relay. Or, to be more precise, this is the main relay dish. It has been around for almost two and a half thousand years, at this point. There are five others all around the equator, identical to this one in many ways. But, annoyingly for us, this particular relay’s uniqueness is why we must go here.”

She tapped at the dish, which caused it to zoom out slightly, revealing the massive, sprawling complex buried deep underneath it.

“This is the Relay Archive. It stores a record of every transmission ever sent and received by the relay. Hopefully, this will include a log of who sent the virus that corrupted the Sarek’pa. And from that, we can use that to work out where it came from.”

Kanire hummed to himself, “How recent are these scans we’re using now?” he asked, glancing over at Feo.

She replied with a shrug, “These particular ones are from a decade before the war. It was an important military installation, so most of the general population were kept away. I really don’t expect much to have changed in the meantime, so we’ll be looking at a standard military infiltration op.”

Zarpa spoke up suddenly, “Err, Captain? There might be a problem with your plan…” he said worriedly. His two AIs rushed over to him to peer over his shoulder, closely tailed by Feo’s.

She raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?” she asked, confused.

He picked up what appeared to be a holographic bubble from the console he was at, before throwing it at the planet in the centre of the room. It shimmered and distorted as the new information was integrated into it, until, in an instant, it fell still.

Feo’s heart sank as she gazed at the updated map of the planet. Around each of the relays on the planet’s surface, there seemed to be massive, sprawling shanty towns.

She sighed quietly, “So much for an easy op…” she muttered, before looking around, “Any ideas?”

Feo’s AIs had turned their attention away from her and were now inspecting the complex as more information streamed in from the sensors.

Zarpa shook his head, “We can’t land the Gladius now, they’d detect us for sure. And after your encounter with Sabre, they’ll have scans of the ship…”

Silence fell, before Horon spoke up, “Take a shuttle,” he mumbled.

Everyone turned to look at him, surprised, before Kanire nodded, “That could work,” he spoke in his low, slow voice, “Have the Gladius open a portal for us, then wait for our signal to return.”

Feo smiled a little at them, “Good idea. By my estimates, it’ll take roughly 30 minutes to reach Zeroeth. Gear up, change into some clothes a little more fitting for our destination, then get ready to launch.”

They all snapped to attention, even Horon, before filing out past her, the door closing with a soft hiss behind them. Feo sighed and leaned back, her eyes closed, while her AIs vanished for everyone but her, “So, what do you make of this?” she thought, glancing at her AIs in her mind’s eye.

Errea sighed a little, “Sadly, I think it’s our only choice,” she replied, to which Feo just shook her head.

“That’s not quite what I mean… Something about all of this just feels… I don’t know, off, maybe,” Feo responded, opening her eyes again, “I can’t help but feel like we’re walking into a trap of some kind…”

Feo fell quiet, before sighing and shutting down the projections in the room. She raised the lights again, back to their normal level, then turned tail and made her way to her quarters.

She stepped inside and stripped off in a matter of seconds, before going to the wardrobe hidden in the wall and looking through it. She pulled out a pair of dark grey cargo pants and tossed them towards her desk chair, followed soon after by a simple, black, full length shirt, then a long, black coat with a hood hanging behind it. She completed the set with a pair of boots specifically designed for Eoburus feet; while they were starting to feel a little more natural now, they still felt incredibly weird. She walked to the bathroom and peered into the mirror, running a paw over her fringe-like bob of hair and noting with disdain how incomplete she felt without her horns tucked among it.

But she pushed that from her mind as she emerged from her room and made for the shuttle bay at the fore of the Engineering Deck. Her coat fluttered behind her as she rushed to the fore elevator and made her way down. Upon entering the shuttle bay, she glanced around for her squad, looking first off to one side of the massive room, at the shuttlecraft sitting by the wall. It was small and sleek, with an angular design reminiscent of Aeteri shipwrighting; it was also, she noted sadly, completely unarmed.

Zarpa and Kanire were leaning against the side of the shuttle chatting with each other, with rifles slung across their backs. They were both wearing casual clothes similar to hers, and glanced over at Feo’s approach. She smirked a little and beckoned for them to follow her inside the shuttle, where Horon was already seated and waiting for them. Zarpa and Kanire stowed their weapons and joined Horon, while Feo made her way to the main controls.

She sat down and flexed her arms a little, before tapping on the holographic console to activate it. She leaned back as cables plugged into the ports on her neck, then turned her attention to the comm system, “Gladius, this is the shuttle Fallen Heaven, do you read me?” she called out.

“Affirmative Fallen Heaven, we read you loud and clear,” came Lt Milian’s reply, “We’re approaching the target coordinates now. Are your pre-flights complete?”

Feo smiled and tapped a few panels as she ran through the systems in her mind, “Indeed they are. We’re ready for launch.”

A loud klaxon alarm began wailing overhead as the main doors of the shuttle bay slowly folded down, revealing the emerald-green space outside. The shuttle lifted off gently as the loud whine of the ship’s impulse engines powering up filled the air. It suddenly shot out of the bay like a bullet from a gun, passing through the air barrier effortlessly as it zoomed into open space.

Feo tapped the comm again, “Gladius, we’re clear. Open the vortex when ready, then go to one of the planets at the outer edge of the system. Discharge the core as much as you can, there’s no telling what kind of storm we’re about to kick up.”

Lt Milian chuckled quietly from Feo’s seat on the bridge, “I mean, it would be preferable to not kick up a storm at all, wouldn’t you say, Captain?”

Feo shook her head, “I shouldn’t have given you the command, especially if you’re gunna sass me like that!” she replied, chuckling a little to herself. She paused for a moment, “I’ll send a subspace signal when we need to be extracted. But if I’m longer than a week, do a quick flyby. If you can’t find our signatures, get back to Kaara and let them know…”

Milian frowned a little, “I’m sure it won’t come to that, Captain.”

Feo growled a little, “Lieutenant, you have your orders, I expect you to follow them!”

There was a brief moment of silence, before a sigh, “Very well, Captain. Vortex is opening, good luck.”

Feo closed the comm channel as a rift in space slowly swirled into being in the distance. She turned her head back to her team, “Alright, we’re about to make the dimensional jump, buckle up!”

Their shuttle sped through the emerald-hued void, accelerating towards the spinning rift. In an instant and with a powerful jolt, the ship emerged back into the universe. Feo tapped at her console as she brought the ship into orbit around the planet below, her AIs lounging around her controls while the engines powered down.

Feo tapped at the comm system again, “Zeroeth control, this is Lieutenant Khali Lerantaro of the Eoburus shuttle Fallen Heaven, come in please.”

There was no response for a moment, before a raspy drawl of a voice replied, “Yeah, this is Control, we have you on our sensors. How’d a tiny little shuttle like you get all the way out here?”

Feo glanced back at her team, before back to the holographic controls, “Our ship dropped us off for a supply run while they discharged their core; Captain said something about not wanting to show off our ship while we’re still shaking her down.”

A thoughtful affirmative was their only response.

Feo rolled her eyes a little, “Are we able to set down near the main array? There are some tech components our Captain wants us to pick up.”

“Yeah, sure, pad twelve. Don’t mind the slums, though if you’re Eoburus, I’m sure you’ve had your fair share already,” came the snarky reply, along with a cruel chuckle.

Feo gritted her teeth and did her best to ignore them as she guided the ship down into the planet’s atmosphere. As they broke through the upper layer of clouds, their objective came into view. The massive satellite dish was easily a kilometre across, but it was dwarfed by the sprawling city beneath. Thousands upon thousands of roughly assembled buildings laid around the outer edge of the city, and became slowly more sturdy the closer they got to the centre, to the satellite dish.

“Fallen Heaven, this is Flight Control for Array Zero-One,” a voice suddenly spoke up from the comm system, “We have you registered for approach to pad twelve. Transmitting landing instructions. Please remain inside your vessel until given the all clear.”

Feo tapped in the commands and activated the autopilot, before she turned to face her team, “So here’s the plan,” she began, glancing between them all, “We’re going to split off into two teams and make out way to the perimeter of the complex. From there, try to recover whatever information you can regarding defences, shift rosters, guard movements, anything that we can use.”

She paused for a moment, “Any questions?” she queried. When shaking heads were her only reply, she turned back to the control panel.

The shuttle flew lower and lower, aiming for the landing pad near the outer edge of the city. From here, its design became obvious; concentric rings with giant walls between them, separating the poor, the downtrodden and the infirm from the more well-off in the city.

The shuttle touched down gracefully with barely a shudder, the dark-red sun of the planet starting to rise over the horizon and casting long shadows everywhere it touched. Feo tapped the controls as she shut the engines down, before unplugging herself and making her way back to the rear section of the ship.

Before she could do more than open her mouth to speak, there was a loud banging on the hatch beside her, eliciting a yelp of surprise and causing her to jump away from it. While her team snickered among themselves, Feo recomposed herself and opened the door, revealing a bored looking, grey-hued Quanoci, wearing a brown jacket over an officer’s uniform.

He cleared his throat, “Welcome to Zeroeth, Lieutenant, I’m Ensign Tharen. I’ve been directed to escort you to the markets, since this is your first time visiting our planet.”

Feo climbed down, an eyebrow raised as she looked at the lizard, “How’d you know it was my first time?” she asked as her team followed her out.

Tharen chuckled softly, “Well, we’ve got no record of you on any ship manifest to this planet in the last hundred years. We’re, well, we’re really good at keeping records.”