Roman Darossa pressed downward on the brake on the rover vehicle. The road was starting to get bumpier and it was getting more difficult to see even with his IR goggles as night had now completely fallen over the vast badlands of Galileo. He looked very briefly at the navigation screen. It was about twenty more miles to the base. He was behind schedule somewhat but not enough so to be a serious problem. The drive was quite mundane, and while he could see the road fine, none of the exquisite features of the landscape the badlands could really be seen or appreciated.

After driving for what seemed like several minutes, the engine and the rover computer abruptly cut off. The rover coasted for a while before finally coming to a stop. Roman jiggled the ignition switch. The engine would not come to life and showed no hint of trying to come to life. He felt around and found the switch for the emergency power and pulled it. Nothing happened. Suddenly, the power was lost in his IR goggles. He removed them quickly and peered out the windows but could not see much. There was almost nothing but starlight to illuminate the area. He felt around on his side and picked up his radio.

"Beta base this is Agent Darossa, I've lost power. I'm about 10 miles south-southwest of the base. Do you copy?" There was no response, just some light static. Darossa jumped as he heard a loud thumping noise coming from the rear of his vehicle. He quickly felt around on the ceiling of the vehicle and grabbed his pistol from the overhead compartment that contained it. He slowly opened the door of the vehicle and jumped onto the ground, squatting in front of the large front left tire that was about 4 or 5 feet in diameter.

"Colonial Forces!" Darossa yelled. "I am armed. Show yourself!" There was no response. Roman squinted as hard as he could and could not see anyone. His radio was still dead. He was just about to walk around to the rear of the vehicle when he felt a sharp prick in the side of his right arm. He immediately turned his body to see what was there but lost his balance and fell to the ground, with his gun falling somewhere to his side. He tried to feel around and grab his gun but had a funny feeling in his muscles. He could move both his legs and arms but did not seem to have fine motor control and he could feel some light tremors. Darossa felt someone grab him and push him up against the tire in a sitting position. Roman could see that it was bald muscular man of average height. He could not make out his facial features but noticed but noticed he was carrying a gun on his shoulder…it looked like standard issue for royal soldiers, but larger.

"Give me your weapon" the man said in a deep and soft voice that he was not expecting. Darossa raised his hands over his hands as best as he could to show that he did not have the weapon. The man took a flashlight from his belt and shined it on the ground around where Darossa was sitting. The man picked up the pistol and looked it over. "Harmless" the man scoffed. "Hope you people don't ever plan shooting at any hoplites with those toys." The man held the gun by the muzzle with the handle facing Darossa. Darossa sat still, unsure of what he should do.

"Well, go ahead and take it back" the man said. "You aren't going to shoot me even if you weren't buzzed right now." Darossa took the gun from him and holstered it.

"What do you want?" Darossa said finally speaking up.

"I know that you're CIA and not with the colonial army or rebels. I have a knack for sniffing out snoops like you. If we could skip the denial portion of the conversation and cut right to the chase, I would appreciate it."

"Who are you?" Darossa asked periodically checking his muscle movement to see if he might be able to knock this man's legs out from under him.

"You don't need to know who I am. Surely you at least understand from my equipment that I'm official and not some garden-variety bandit here to rob you. And you are?"

"Private Trey Redden of the Galileo colonial army. Just returning from a routine patrol." Darossa said removing his dog tag and extending his hand to show it to the man.

"Ok, I get it. You've got amnesia. Maybe we need to just stand here until you get your memory back" The man snarked back at him. At that moment his face was close enough to Roman's that he could make out the pointed ear flap and the heart-shaped face of an elf, not a man.

"You're in the Royal Armada" Darossa said in a surprised voice.

"You wish" he said after a brief pause. "I report straight to her highness and have carte blanche beyond what you know is possible."

"I don't have anything to tell you, I'm just a lowly private" Darossa said trying to think of what the best move could be to get out of the situation.

"I have the jurisdiction to take you into custody right now and have you interrogated by the Royal Intelligence officers. I would recommend talking to me. I'm a bit more pleasant to talk to."

At that moment Roman got the most clear view of his face and bald head and knew who the guy was. He knew he would probably not be able to get away without telling him something that he was not supposed to tell, but he had to try. "What do you want with me?!" Darossa finally asked trying his best to sound like a frightened and clueless soldier.

"Was the Morian carrying some kind of gray device and who has it?"

"I don't know a lot about that. It was just a simple mining expedition and something went wrong. That place is cursed."

"Stop trying to play the scared, superstitious grunt!" the man spat. "You are not going to fool me!"

"I don't have any information for you. And you have no reason to believe that I do."

"Then what is it that you are doing here? You need to start talking and give me something to work with, I don't want to make you disappear into this night but I will." Roman could see that there was no real point in going on with the charade.

"So you're going to kidnap a Union intelligence agent operating just a few miles from a base? What will the sector commander think about that?"

"My orders are coming from the princess herself. I can basically do what I want to get the information about the incident I need. So I'm asking you sincerely, tell me what it is you can about the Morian and the survivor. Is he involved in outworld rebel groups?"

Roman knew that this elf was serious. He knew he had to give up and buckle a little bit to get out of the situation.

"The survivor's name is Matt Snedecor, and it might be an alias. I don't know to what degree he was involved with rebel forces. I do not know anything about any weapon or gray device that was recovered by the Morian."

"You have any information about his whereabouts?"

"No, and I'm not looking for him as of right now."

"Then what are you doing here now?"

"Not anything related to Snedecor. And to my knowledge the CIA has not gotten involved with this, yet."

"Anything else?" Of course there was more that he could have said, but he had to try and see if this was enough to placate him.

"That's all I know."

The elf looked him over for a moment. He took a syringe out of a cargo pocket on his top and dropped it on the ground next to Darossa. "This will restore your motor coordination back to normal, but it will take a few minutes. And I think this should go without saying, but if I have reason to suspect you know more than you've let on, I'll be paying you another visit." The elf turned around and quickly disappeared into the darkness without any visible lights from any kind of vehicle. Darossia picked up the syringe and jabbed himself in the arm with it and put the syringe in his pocket. He felt a burning sensation all over his body. He felt like a failure for having been able to be trapped like that, but did not know what he was supposed to have done. He would definitely need to report what had happened to someone at the CIA, but what would they say?

As he was thinking this over, he was startled by the lights on the rover flickering back to life. He heard a voice from his radio. "Agent Darosa this is Beta base, please respond if you can hear me." Darossa picked up the radio.

"I'm here, Beta base." Darossa said unable to hide the heavy breathing that he was doing. I just broke down for a minute. I will be returning now. ETA 15 minutes."

"Ten-four" the voice on the radio said. Darossa climbed back into the driver's seat of the rover and buckled his seat belt. He turned the ignition and the engine came to life without even a sign of a struggle. He turned the navigation computer back on and started heading in the direction of the base.