3 days had passed since the incident in the ambassador's garden had happened and the Brykar and K28 representatives had patch things up... well, mostly.

With Anji's insistence, the ambassador had no choice but to change their policy of none interference in the Rashida planet. The ambassador sent a young highly motivated AI known as x22-sub binary 12-172.

"Fuck that," Anji said annoyed when the ambassador gave him his name. "From now on, you are called George."

And so, the acting representative of the Brykar was introduced to the lady and the prince as George. It was agreed upon that Brykar will praise the lady and the prince's move to give aid to the Barkers, however, the Brykar will say "no comment" to any questions by reporters about Brykar's direct foreign policy about the planet except for the fact that they support any moves by any party for a lasting peace on the planet and the system at large.

Mostly, the Brykars didn't have any problem with that. What they have problems with is the fact that the representative is going to join the lady and the prince who is going to used the stationed K28 destroyer parked in Unity 01 to get to the planet.

This is a problem for them since Anji is part of the representative's entourage as a junior assistant.

The ambassador offered the used of one of the modern and far more powerful and famous Nova class battleship to bring them or at least escort them to the planet, but the lady diplomatically declined the offer. The ambassador acquiesced graciously, but when they went to his room, Alpha Codex 4 and the ambassador, in conjunction with the station commander, already device a smaller cloaked Transport ship to follow the K28 destroyer plus the 4 Nova class in Unity 4 will follow the destroyer into the planet at a discreet distance.

*************************

Shulani-astanata sighed as he heard the beeping of the old fashion bus that brought more of his kinsmen to the spaceport. He heaves his large bulk up from the guard post and proceeded to amble back in front of the crossroad for inspection.

More and more workers are being hired for the expansion of the spaceport. Rumors said that a big shot from the doggies is coming over for some humanitarian aid. They are using the Eratix spaceports because the Barkers don't have a spaceport of their own yet. Whoever those bigshots are, they will arrive sometimes at midnight like a thief in the night then a convoy will bring them to the barker continent using the underground maglev trains.

He spat out his gum in disgust. As if the good humans will acknowledge those filths.

The bus slowed down and a familiar face came out. Shulani nodded to the young man named Askalar-Subana who easily hopped out of the slowing bus. "Eh Shulani, you still here?" Askalar said, jovially. Shulani first met the young man as a worker 3 months ago, but now he is promoted to foreman himself and is responsible for a team of 10 workers.

Shulani just grunted and grabbed the work order offered by Askalar to him. "Like everyone else, I need to work," He said. "I have 3 children to feed and a wife who needs expensive things."

Shulani looks back at the massive city of Arabex, the 4th largest city of the Eratix and the gateway to the Barker's continent. The thought of his family made him anxious again in what is happening to his country. At 43 years old, he always tried to be an honest man, and his greatest fear is that his teenage children will get involve with those terrorist thugs at Sons of humanity movement. He-

His eyes narrowed as he saw 4 more buses appearing on the road from the city and is coming closer to his checkpoint. He understands that the spaceport is expanding and therefore Askalar's additional bus, but there are already 4 buses inside and ANOTHER 4 buses are just too much, even for a busy spaceport.

"Hey Askalar," He asked with a worried look. "Are those buses coming here also yours?"

He never received an answer since his face literally exploded when Askalar pointed his plasma pistol at the back of his head and blew his brains out. 2 of the so-called extra workers came out of the bus and silently grabbed the dead guard's body and threw him inside his own guard post. Askalar in the meantime, tap the communicator in his lapel and said, "Gate 2 secured. Proceeding to phase 2 of the plan."

There was a double click in the voice box which signals the acknowledgment from the other side of the communicator before he and the rest of the men inside the bus started to don their lightweight blaster armor over their work clothes.

When they were done, Askalar's bus plus the 4 new arrivals went inside the spaceport without any other problem.

*****************************

Anji sat just behind the representative as he talks to the lady about the incoming protocol necessary for their arrival. both sides need to know the plan of the other so that there will be no surprises. Both sides are asking what the other is planning to say, and do, and possible reaction if this and that will happen.

"I do not understand why we cannot do a small press conference at the spaceport after we arrived? If we do not give a statement, they might speculate for hours and our message might get lost on whatever they speculated about. Those reporters are stupid enough to claim that we are here to invade them."

"People who need to know about our arrival have already been warned, but the truth of it is that whatever we say in the local press will not come out good for the Eratix people. So the best option is to get out as silently as possible and make our own statement when we get to the Barker territory. At least Barker Press might like us for helping their people."

The last statement came from the lady's own advisor and the representative agreed with him wholeheartedly. A quick chirp from the lady's communicator interrupted them. It was the captain of the destroyer informing them that they are about to arrive in the spaceport within the hour.

The meeting ended and to the lady's silent surprised, her son the prince came bounding up excitedly to meet one of the representative's assistants, who to her utter surprise turned out to be the same robotic maid her son had bitten 3 days ago and almost ruined everything.

When did they become friends? Well, at least Burgo seems to be aware of it. She did remember that Burgo explained to her before they left that her son made an initiative and actually gave a formal apology to the maid, who accepted it graciously.

That is good and all, but I am not sure I want the prince to be associating with an android maid. It will not be good for his image and position in the future.

"Come on, Anji!" said Prince Bentong, excitedly. "I have permission from the captain to check out the bridge and I want you to come with me!"

"I do not think that is a good idea prince," said representative George. "my assistant might break something and-"

The representative stops talking as he received a pointed smile from his "assistant."

"You don't need to worry about me, high representative George, you have fully trained me for etiquette and decorum, remember? Besides, I don't think I'm THAT clumsy to damage a warship."

"errr.."

"So it is settled then!" The prince said, almost bouncing around. two of his tentacle whiskers grabbed Anji's arm excitedly and pulled her towards the door.

The lady couldn't help sniffing the droid's butt as she went past her.

She smelled differently from the other androids. I just can't put my nose on it.

**************************

The pretty young woman was on her knees. The green mascara she wore and very popular this days is ruined as her tears fell freely on her face as she begs for life.

"Please! my parents are sick and they have no one else but me!"

She was still begging when Askalar put two needles into her brain and she was dead even before her body slumped into the wet bloody floor of the spaceport's command center.

A young gunner, Leto, look over Askalar's shoulder and grinned. "That's the last space controller, only two technicians are left and they barricaded themselves in the girl's bathroom in the 3rd floor."

Askalar turned his gaze to the modern spaceport C&C center. His men are silently pulling the dead bodies and dumping them in a nearby storage room while the special group is settling themselves down into the various consoles in the room.

"Deal with them," Askalar said coldly. "I want this operation to be perfect."

The boy named Leto gave him a lazy salute then jogged out of the room to kill his prey.

*******************************************

"Eratix tower this is the K28 Destroyer 'Butt Scratcher' requesting permission to land, over," Said the Bulldog-faced navigator of the Destroyer. He was so focused on his controls that he absently started scratching his back with his hind legs.

Unknown to him, two pairs of eyes are watching him right that moment. One was the brown mastiff-like captain of the ship who sighed and felt embarrassed by his own men. He saw the Brykar watching his navigator and misinterpreted the look on her face.

Anji meanwhile could not help biting her lower lip as he watched the young navigator scratching an itch behind him. He is so damn cute! She thought longingly.

"Anji! Anji! look at the console to your right! The one with lieutenant Bulihasa! They told me that that console is the one that controls scanners. The K28 have the best scanners in the world! Well, maybe not the human, but they don't count. And now that I think about it, maybe not the Brykars as well, and the Velashan, and the Kalkuni, hell maybe even the Vocaris in the next continent."

The little prince betrayed his own surprised to himself that he actually understand that now. He remembered that his tutors were explaining to him about military hardware and tactics and it was always just gibberish to him, but everything makes sense now. it's uncanny to him.

Anji smiled at the funny face of the prince and patted him on his big head. This is what she normally likes about dogs, since their emotions are always right there in their sleeves, their cute doggie face always betray exactly what they are feeling at that exact moment. These guys will suck big time in poker.

"Roger that, Butt scratcher," a hiss in the navigator's console said. "Pease verify if your primary passenger is on board."

Anji, Commander Burgo, the Captain and the Navigator stared at the speaker. Even to a newbie like Anji, she knew that it is not standard protocol for the tower to ask that question. It's like asking a woman on your first date her exact age.

Nevertheless, the navigator, with a raised eyebrow, answered the question. "Yes, our passenger is safe and accounted for, tower."

"Roger that, you are permitted to land in hangar A-1B. Transmitting the code and location now, Good day Butt Scratcher."

The moment the tower signed off, Commander Burgo stepped towards the captain who is still frowning. "Is that a standard question?" He asked.

"No, it is not," The captain said.

"Captain, we are being scanned." The Navigator said baffled.

"Is it irradiated?" Anji asked. The captain turned to her sharply. so did Commander Burgo, then as one, both K28 citizens turned to the lieutenant in the scanner console.

"Why is it important to know if the scan is irradiated?" The prince asked quietly, instinctively understanding that something is up by how the way the grownups are behaving.

Absently, Anji patted the young prince's head who automatically raised his head to be patted even more. A dorky smile and a blush covered his entire face, forgetting all about the tension in the room.

Unfortunately, Anji didn't saw it and tried to explain. "There is two kind of scanning: one is the clean scanning normally used by the civilian sector. How it works is that a scanner machine sends signal outward until it hits an object who then bounces back the signal. That is how we know something is out there. then there is the military grade scanning wherein you irradiate the object your signal bounces from so that you can track it even if it is not there anymore. like if someone started jamming your scanner."

"It is normally used by the military for target acquisition," Commander Burgo added grimly. "Meaning..."

"We are being targeted," Anji finished for him.

"Activated low-level scanning of the surface, maximum power!" Snapped the captain.

The moment their own scanner activated, an alarm blared throughout the room. "Captain! We are being marked by 4 mounted Beam turrets and 2 missile ones!" shouted the lieutenant in the scanner, her hackles rising.

"Raised the shields! Navigator, take us back to space! Lieutenant Bulihasa jam their targeting scanner!" The captain said, firing off multiple orders and her crew raced to follow. Even with the professionalism of the crew, it was too late.

Massive explosions rocked the ship and everyone stumbled. red lights and blaring horns erupted and joined the chaos. the lieutenant manning the scanner flew by almost ten feet when her console simply exploded. Her body hit the bulkhead and she fell like a stone back to the floor unmoving.

The last explosion in the rear of the ship was so loud that even Anji knew that the ship was mortally wounded. "Activate any remaining guns and shoot those fuckers below!" growled the captain, his eyes blazing.

Anji is in one side of the floor and holding the shaking prince, her eyes observing the chaos around her. Suddenly, strong hands grabbed her like a vise and lifted her off the floor.

Anji looked over and realized that she is being carried by Alpha Codex 4. He ripped the blast door open and in a corridor, 2 K28 marines are guarding it. Their Bulk almost covering the entire corridor itself, but Codex 4 simply barrelled right through them and they both smashed into the opposite walls.

"Wait!" Anji screamed. "The Prince!"

"One of my warriors already grabbed him. As well as the Lady Kurda and the representative George. We are studying your personal behavioral matrix and there is a 34% chance that you will refuse to move if they are not also secured. But you are the priority!"

Alpha Codex 4 flew past the adjacent room then another until he is in the room for the emergency capsule. 2 blackguards are waiting for them and immediately showed Codex 4 the second to the last capsule.

"Bring her here!" the closest blackguard said firmly. "This one has the best electrical telemetry and the newest one as well."

Alpha Codex 4 didn't hesitate to dump Anji inside and close it. He was still pushing something in the console when for the second time in Anji's life, her surrounding was engulfed in fire as she lay trapped in a modern tomb.

There was an earth-shattering crashed and her capsule was freefalling back into the planet with Anji screaming all the way down, cut off from her bodyguards and protection.

Anji could do nothing but stare back at the heavens as her capsule dropped back to the planet below.

like a meteoroid.