It had turned out that Pictor wasn’t pleased with the result of the operation. Once Kronos had gotten a look at what had happened elsewhere on the station, he didn’t blame the bureau chief. The short of it was that it was a disaster. Due to a combination of sabotage and outright destruction of property, the toll was estimated above a million credits worth of damage. Not only that, but many of the spacecraft used to harvest on Uranus had been crippled. Most of them would require long months of repair before they would be considered space worthy. Finally, a large chunk of the Guard had been killed by normal civilians with knifes, plasma torches, and the age-old Molotov cocktail.

As a result, Pictor needed to report what had happened to his boss, the Planetary Bureau Chief, and wait for further orders. Pictor was in a foul mood while he waited, so Zhang and Kronos had decided to take some time off and get some training done.

The day after Operation Eagle Talon, Kronos was strapping himself into the controls of the Observer while Zhang was in the cabin going over the malware the ravens used to figure out its origins. The other man was relentless in his study of the virus and Kronos thought it strange. He hadn’t pegged his partner for someone who would go out of their way to bring the ravens to justice. Kronos had already settled on doing the bare minimum to make sure his family were elevated in status while scooping up any credits he found on the side.

“Your partner seems to be really focused back there,” Astra commented as she entered the cockpit.

Kronos was still wearing his armor but he had taken off the helmet and set his biosuit to sit just under his jawline so Astra could see his grin.

“Yeah,” Kronos commented. “I think he took them slagging the power core as a personal thing.”

He gently pulled back on the sticks and the Observer started moving in reverse away from the dock. Next to him, Astra ran through a series of diagnostics while making sure he didn’t crash the ship into something valuable. She needn’t have worried. With his armor on, Kronos felt like he was jacked into the ship itself. The same technology that turned his armor into an extension of his body, was working to acquint him with the Dorceus class starship, albeit not to the same degree.

When he cleared the station and was starting to settle into an orbit over Uranus, he noticed that his copilot seemed distracted.

“What’s on your mind?”

Astra looked started at his question and then gave a sheepish grin once she calmed herself. “I’m just thinking about how bad it’s about to be on the station.”

He nudged the acceleration on the Observer before replying. “What do you mean how bad it’s going to get? We caught most of the bad guys. Everything will settle down after yesterday.”

Astra gave him a level stare. “You don’t actually believe that do you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged. “The rebels are mostly beaten and they can’t hope to stand up to the Empire. Whoever survived will lick their wounds, go to ground, and business will continue as normal.”

Astra sighed at his flippant remarks. “You don’t know the Empire then. The amount of loss the station suffered is staggering. I’m sure Pictor will get sacked but he’ll have one final job to do.”

Her voice was grim and Kronos gave her a sidelong glance. “What job?”

“He’ll need to pacify the station. The halls will run with blood and the Empire won’t care who gets caught up in the crossfire.”

Kronos ignored her statement and focused on putting the ship through it’s paces. He started with the textbook evasive maneuvers he had learned during virtual. After that, he started incorporating his forward DEWs. He was blasting rocks into pieces. When he leveled out of a particularly difficult corkscrew turn he decided to address his nagging thoughts.

“You sound like you’ve seen them do it before.”

He tone was cautious. He didn’t know much about the woman, and it wouldn’t be good for him to reveal too many of his own thoughts about the Empire. He noticed that there was a conflicted look on her face as she seemed to be deciding what to reveal.

“I have,” she stated finally. “I was a little girl when the Empire enacted its second pacification of Titan.”

Kronos frowned and then pulled up the relevant campaign details on his HUD.

“That’s not possible” he said in shock. “That would make you a little over a hundred years old.”

She laughed at his open mouthed expression. “Come on, cowboy. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to talk about a woman’s age?”

Kronos still gaped like a fish and a floating piece of space debris impacted the ship’s shields while he was distracted.

“Shit,” he cursed as he turned his attention back to the ship. “How are you over a hundred years old? You look close to the same age as me.”

Astra leaned back in her seat, put her feet on the console, and put her arms behind her head. “I don’t know why you’re so surprised. You’re going to live longer than I ever will.”

The news floored Kronos. “What makes you say that?”

Astra shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious? The Empire stuffed you with enough tech that you’re practically half battle droid. Don’t you think they’d make you live longer as well?” She used an arm to gesture toward everything around her.

“The Empire owns all of this. You, me, the ship, the Zodiac Wheel—everything. People who serve the Empire faithfully get to live longer lives so that they can serve better and longer.” She shrugged as he navigated the ship around a communications satellite.

“I’m not even old.” She continued. “There are people at the highest levels of the Empire that were around when the Empire was established. Their like a coven of vampires feeding on the lifeblood of the citizens. The Emperor is even older. No one knows his true age. He is the first and only ruler of Sol.”

Kronos was surprised at her knowledge of the Empire. When he had tried to discover its history, his link had refused to pull up anything but a long list of battlefield victories. As far as he knew, the Empire had never lost. Now, he was starting to wonder whether he could trust the information.

Of course not, he chided themselves. History is written by the victor and the Empire has erased any mention of loss.

He put aside their conversation on age and returned to the more immediate problem. “So what’s going to happen on the Zodiac?”

Astra sighed. “It’s going to be a colossal drain on resources to get it back to normal operations. The Empire isn’t willing to spend that much unless it knows that they won’t just be throwing mud at the wall. They’re going to authorize a full pacification of the station. Anyone that even looks at a Guard with an off glance will be eliminated.”

Kronos thought about all of the people he had met on the station in the last months. Some were hard to get along with, but that was true of any group of people. Others were downright terrorists and Kronos didn’t feel any pity over their deaths. However, there were people like Maia who really shined against the bleakness of their lives. They were like twinkling stars that refused to die in the blackness of space. Each one was precious and beautiful in their own way. He didn’t like the idea of them being snuffed out so casually.

“I have friends on the Zodiac.” He said softly. He was surprised to feel the truth in his words. They weren’t his people. His people were stuck on Ganymede, but they were the kind of individuals who could become his people with enough time.

“We all do,” Astra said softy. “But that doesn’t change what’s about to happen.”

“I guess,” Kronos said noncommittally. He didn’t feel like talking or thinking about the subject anymore. He felt like he needed to do something, but he didn’t see any way of helping the people on the Zodiac. He had his own family to worry about. If he screwed up his chance with the Empire, then it was his wife and kids who would suffer. That fact had been made imminently clear to him. The only thing he could do was follow his orders and prevent what cruelty he could.

“Just promise me something,” Astra said quietly.

He looked over his shoulder at the beautiful woman and met her eyes. “What?” He asked, suddenly uncomfortable by the intensity in her gaze.

“If it seems like too much and the Empire asks you to do something you can’t stomach, talk it over with me first. I don’t want you to do something rash.”

He turned back to the controls. “Yeah, I can do that.”

The cockpit door slid open behind them and startled them both. Kronos looked over his shoulder and saw Zhang ducking his head in.

“Hey, meathead.” He grinned. “You check your HUD? Pictor just sent me a raving message ordering us to get our asses back to the station.”

Kronos cursed. He had been so engrossed in his conversation with Astra that he had missed the notification. He pulled it up and winced.

“Yeah, he seems pissed off.” He laughed nervously. “Let’s get this bucket back to the station.”

Astra punched him in the arm, but all that happened was a shower of sparks from his shield.

“Don’t call my baby a bucket!” She thundered.

Kronos and Zhang both laughed. “All right, All right,” Kronos raised his hands in surrender.

He toggled the controls and they were rocketing their way back to the Zodiac.

They hadn’t drifted too far so it only took them ten minutes to return to the station. When the connection was green. Kronos stood up and went to don his helmet. Astra got up and stopped him with an a hand on his arm.

Her sky-colored eyes stared deeply into his own. “Be careful, cowboy.”

He felt his skin tingle at her touch and had to remind himself that he was still married even if she was on another planet.

“I’ll be fine.” He returned with a cocky grin. “Take care of my baby until I get back.”

Astra rolled her eyes and dignify him with a reply. She turned to run the post-flight checks on the Observer, and Kronos finished putting on his helmet. He felt the biosuit slither over his head before the helmet adjusted itself. He went into the cabin, fished his rifle from the armory, and mag locked it to his back. Zhang was already at the hatch and ready to leave.

Zhang followed him out of the ship and into the station. The way to the intel hub was awkward to say the least. No one spoke to them and everyone, civilian or Guard, hurried to get out of their way. When they passed the commercial floor to take the lift up, he noticed that none of the usual vendors were out and about. Even the nightclub looked like it had been shuttered.

“It’s amazing what a few hours can do to a station.” Kronos commented privately to Zhang.

“They’re scared and they have a right to be.” His partner returned. “I discovered that the malware the ravens used didn’t come from the station.”

The knowledge caught Kronos off guard. “Where’d it come from?” He asked the obvious.

“Not sure yet, but there are markers indicating that it came from off-world. If I had to guess, I’d say Titan or Enceladus.”

Kronos wasn’t sure what to say to that. Zhang increasingly demonstrated more knowledge than he had a right to.

“What makes you say that?” He asked as they entered the lift together.

“The adaptability of the malware. Most of Titan tech resembles living things. This thing seemed to grow and adapt to the station’s systems. It was why I had such a difficult time putting a stop to it.”

They arrived at their stop and got off the lift. “Did you already send the info to Pictor?”

“Nah, he doesn’t give a shit about it. I’m sure the planetary chief has his or her fist so far up Pictor’s ass right now that he’s afraid to fart without permission.”

Kronos laughed at the image just as they reached their destination. The doors slid open and they walked into the room. The analysts were waiting in a semicircle around the chiefs office and the two operatives took their places at the back of the crowd. Even though Zhang was average height, the armor gave them both another seven centimeters of height which allowed him to see over the analysts. Kronos was even taller than that, so he towered over the normal humans.

They didn’t have to wait long before the chief door opened and he waddled outside with a grimace plastered on his face. The murmuring among the crowd dropped away and an awkward silence permeated the air.

Pictor looked around the assembled crowd and his gaze paused on the two trainees before moving on.

“We’ve got our orders from the Planetary Chief.” He said finally.

There was an expectant hush from the crowd as they hung on their boss’ every word.

“The Guard has been authorized for full pacification of the station. As we speak, battle droids are being activated and assigned to points around the station. They’ll be providing security while the Guard starts looking through everyone’s quarters.”

He took a breath before continuing. “What that means for all of you is that we’ll be running analysis support. If someone even breathes the wrong way on the station, I want analysts tracking their movements and anyone they could’ve come into contact with over the last six months.”

Pictor glanced at the two trainees. “Kronos and Wei. You two will accompany the guards, and act as a quick reaction force in the event of any determined resistance.”

Kronos nodded and then raised his hand. “Chief,” he said through his external speakers. “Are you expecting any determined resistance?”

Pictor wiped the sweat from his brow before answering the question. “Before yesterday, I would’ve told you no. I was under the impression that the ravens were a relatively small group. Determined, but ultimately impotent. I was proven wrong.” The chief sounded pained to admit that.

Kronos raised his hand again. “Sir, most of the damage was done by normal civilians. How do we identify a combatant from the normal civilians.”

Pictor shrugged his thick shoulders. “You don’t. The ravens have grown under our very eyes and are hiding among the normal population. We can’t afford to miss any of them. If a citizen so much as looks at you the wrong way, you’re ordered to neutralize them.”

Kronos kept his hand down but his mind was reeling. If we do that, hundreds will die for no reason. This is going to be a disaster.

He opened a private line to Zhang. “How are we going to keep the innocents from dying?”

Zhang’s helmet turned toward him and it’s featureless exterior chilled Kronos.

“We don’t.” He said simply. “We follow our orders, Kronos. Sometimes things like this have to be done for the good of the Empire.”

Kronos felt confused. His friend had never been so callous and he thought that the other man would sympathize with the position he was in.

Pictor interrupted his thoughts and he had missed whatever the man had just said. “Well, if no has any questions then get some rest.” He clapped to punctuate the order and the crowd started milling apart. He shouted one last thing before the completely dissolved.

“Operation starts at 0600 IST tomorrow. Be at your assigned duty stations by then.”

Kronos didn’t feel like talking to Zhang or to anyone else. He separated from the pack and made his way to his berthing. When he arrived, he stripped down to his biosuit and lay down on his cot and looked up at the ceiling. He accessed the Intranet and started compiling all the examples of Imperial pacification in the last one hundred and fifty years.

The list was staggering. He started diving into the details and became horrified at what he found. In most cases, the population was literally decimated. The Empire had a heavy hand with rebellion. Any resistance was crushed without mercy.

He thought about what Astra had told him earlier in the cockpit. If he was going to measure his life be centuries rather than decades, he wondered how many times he would have to pacify a civilian population. In each of the historical examples, the IID had a big role to play. They not only collected and analyzed information, but their operatives were front and center in every conflict. They were the ones that took on the dangerous missions. They infiltrated behind enemy lines, caused havoc behind the scenes through assassination and hacking, and then they melted away like ghosts.

Part of that life appealed to him. It resembled the life that he had led on Hod. He had always been more comfortable on a raid than he ever was at home. However, back on Hod the enemies were easy to separate from the friendlies. He never had to worry about killing someone or something that didn’t deserve it. On the Zodiac things were different. He had laughed and broken bread with these people. They weren’t the dead-eyed demons of his home world, they were flesh and blood people who worked hard and had dreams of a better life.

No matter how much he tried, his thoughts kept circling back to his family. He didn’t have a choice in the matter. He either did what the Empire told him to do, or it would be his family that suffered. The pacification of the Zodiac would weigh on his conscience, but dooming his family to poverty and starvation would be an even bigger blow.

With a gesture, he turned off the lights in his berthing and rolled onto his side. He would try to get some rest, but he didn’t think that sleep would find him easily.