Alan sat reclined in a control chair. Before him was an array of holographic displays that lit up the dim room with images and text. Maps of different kinds displayed as colorful holoprojections of the area around what used to be Aurora Outpost. It was a pool of intelligence of what was known surrounding, and under the surface.

A globe of Hespara hung in the air, ever so slowly rotating. In it’s orbit it showed the handful of satellites that Aleiria still controlled with the help of the scattered outposts she had Saru occupying around the planet.

The Vault of Galthierian wasn’t just this underground facility, but a network of others planet wide that served different purposes. The planet itself was considered the vault. Aleiria was even broadcasting that fact to anyone within transmission range of this planet in the Master’s language.

Alan realized the broadcast may have been what was holding back a complete invasion. If the Ungar thought it was in control of the Masters already, and further were warned to keep away, the only reason they might breach that is to chase down stray invaders like himself.

A few days earlier, he had searched out the interstellar communications relay Gallithar had established upon his arrival. Gallithar had been using it this whole time to transmit to home. It was a well established space station. It showed as if it was still online and fully functional to Alan’s initial surprise.

However from here it looked to be surrounded by several Ustobo ships. Alan guessed it was probably the Ungar working with the Ustobo that simply captured it and might be using it.

The network of known tunnels under the surface of where the Aurora Outpost had been looked like an underground insect nest that could be wrapped up in a cone shape. Alan had the Saru deploy a lot more spy insect drones to map out the place. They managed to get a lot of basic shapes and directions of tunnels before the Ungar there caught on. Those spy drones stopped working shortly after that.

The whole nest was just above a massive water table deep below. They had discovered that the Ustobo had tapped into the water main, that was originally for the mine, and rerouted what they needed to the lower levels. They were growing food in some of those tunnels. It answered why the Saru were never successful in starving them out.

He looked to the blue and red dots on some of the maps. Alan had the Saru deploy a lot more sensor equipment to monitor movement and get a better picture of what was going on. He sighed. It’s something that should have been done by Gallithar a very long time ago. Alan knew how key information was to winning a conflict. He’d heard military leaders talk about it often. Soldiers often cussed operatives that gave bad info.

The Ustobo had more free reign of a larger area on the surface than they had ever had. It was resource poor as far as raw minerals went. The Ustobo had stopped trying to push out further though. Alan hoped it was because they weren’t ready to lose what little resources they had. He hoped the situation was a stalemate and would stay that way for a while longer. His plan was more or less a siege to buy himself time and keep the enemy Ungar from expanding anymore than possible.

He had weighed the options to putting an end to this.

Sara walked in and stood behind him putting her hands on his shoulders. “Aleiria agrees with us that the other Ungar could be compromised by the Ustobo, or whatever is behind the Ustobo. She has agreed to end all transmissions to the Master’s home world for the time being. I think she would have done it anyway. I get the impression that being a Keeper of this place is like being a sort of override.”

“That makes sense from what I’ve seen.”

“The weapons modifications for the Saru are going well. I’d guess by morning we might be at 31% refitted. First units with the refit are already on their way to the Outpost site.”

“How is the morale?”

Sara laughed. “Imagine giving a pyromaniac a flame thrower so he can go burn down the house of the person he hates most. The amount of glee and excitement over the new equipment and modifications you provided them might go a touch beyond that.”

Alan tipped his head back to look at Sara with disbelief. “Last week there were a growing handful of Saru ready to burn me at the stake! That’s a bit of a turnaround.”

“It is a little unnerving how quickly their attitudes turned around. I assure you, when they saw that you modified their weapons to be on par with the spider things they encountered, and then you gave them the dozen or so modifications to make things easier for them, any doubt that you might be working against them vanished.”

Alan looked forward again at his displays. “I guess I can stop thinking about one of them trying to sneak in here to assassinate me then. For now anyway.”

Sara laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “Looks like your engineering a battle plan? What’s next?”

“We need this war to end... for all of our sakes.”

“So a big plan then?”

Alan took a deep breath as he looked back to the screens. He was a little nervous about how she would respond. “We go all in. Use a majority of the Saru, build and deploy as many drones as we have operators to run them, portable turrets... everything we can possibly put on the field. We take this thing down with overwhelming numbers just like they do. Only this time we have that Ungar’s grade of weapons to do it.”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”

He didn’t say anything.

“You realize we commit all of that, if we fail...”

Alan turned his seat to face her. “I know. Believe me, I don’t want to be responsible for the deaths of an entire people group again. If we don’t do this and get it over with, more Saru could die over time because of my unwillingness to fully engage. I don’t want to go through that again. I would rather die trying to save them and have this be done and over with.”

Alan could feel a heaviness fill the room. He had a hard time reading Sara’s expression.

She looked down at the floor. “Your planning on participating in this,” she looked up at him and folded her arms across her chest, “even if you come to the place you may not survive it... aren’t you?”

Alan just nodded.

She stared at him for what felt like an eternal moment. “You realize I’m not staying here. That I’m going with you.”

“I figured you would tell me that. I’m also guessing there is no way for me to dissuade you otherwise.”

She shook her head. “Where you go, I go. I will not be left behind.”

“Even after what I’ve told you about underground combat?”

“Especially because of that!”

Alan still wasn’t sure about that part of the operation. Maybe they could manage without having to go all the way to the depths of who knows what was down there in the lower levels.

“Okay,” Alan said before he turned back to his displays. He felt like there was an answer to his problem of how to deal with the underground warfare just staring him in the face. He had been trying for hours to put his finger on what it was. Often it was something that was so glaringly simple right there in the midst of complexity.

He eventually gave up and started putting together logistical lists to make the assault happen. Sara took a seat next to him and without a word spoken between them, she began to assist. The plan began to take form with time tables for accomplishment.

Sara filled in estimates for training the Saru based on what she had already done. Long into the night the two of them finish a majority of planning that was needed.

Alan found it interesting that even though Sara was essentially a walking machine covered with flesh, she acted just as fatigued as he felt. He wasn’t sure if it was an actual requirement or just something Gallithar incorporated for her to stay mentally stable or just to make her act more human.

It didn’t matter. After long hours of working and planning the two of them dragged themselves to bed exhausted. Plans were now laid and the war machine would begin to roll in the morning.