Although the hotel room did not appeal to Akame, Gromov appreciated the large comfortable bed with a soft cushion and a duvet cover, smelling by washing agent and freshness. Since his childhood, the sensation of digging in newly changed linen helped him relax and fall asleep easily.

Today was rather exceptional in this regard. For more than an hour, Gromov was pondering what had happened so far with an unpleasant conclusion: he did not like it. Although Andrey Jerzinski might have suggested otherwise, in fact, Gromov had never been too keen on Space Forces.

"For God's sake, I was just doing my job," he thought. "All the bossing around and bellowing, I didn’t enjoy them, but for good results, I needed to manage people so they could understand. Despicable greenheads! Always so stubborn for a more effective system of control; they promote idiots just to get rid of them, kicking them up and up. Just see Steiner. As a captain, should I have considered myself halfway to reach the ultimate stupidity?"

The security measurements, enforced by inexperienced cadets; the sky left almost unprotected, with just minimal personnel. Well, if this is true... The Plantarians were not the enemy that relies on collecting information. Nobody even knew whether or not they understood human civilization. After all, they were supposed of plant origin, with different evolution, which more than anything resembled unstoppable biological warfare.

Plantarians did not explore the Universe; they just have been colonizing adjacent planets, one by one. Their bombs have been spreading the “seeds”, devoid of any intelligence or will. The war with them did not involve negotiation, as they had nobody able to communicate, at least in a form comprehensible to human beings.

They were an invasive species, comprising viruses, bacteria, vegetative life forms such as plants, fungi, or even simpler organisms. Unfortunately, the “seeds” not only grew, but they used other species to create symbiotic high-level organisms. Originally, the term Plantarians was not referring to the aliens, quite the contrary, they were infested people who survived contamination and evolved into hybrid beings.

At the beginning of his career, Gromov and the others had to shoot down meteor bombs, full of seeds. Not the most difficult task under the Sun. But a few years ago, the circumstances have changed. The aliens infected one of a military base in asteroid rings. Consequently, the manner of space battles evolved into a more endangering experience, resulting in more deaths among pilots.

For some unknown reason, the alignment of soldiers changed as soon as they completed the transformation. No matter what their personal beliefs might have been before, after having become one of the Plantarians, former pilots adopted the procreational philosophy of the opposite side. The subjugated ones were flying the spaceplanes, killing human counterparts without mercy.

Q-Field attacks became the reality.