Shay'la, following the heavy tracks now dissolving with the rain, made her way through the rushing water of the river towards the cliff edge. Up ahead she makes out a form by the edge of the river. Quickly dropping to a knee while moving sideways out of the river bed and behind a tree, she brought her crossbow up to her eye and checked the scope sight. The thick canopy of the trees hanging over the edge of the tree line kept the rain off her scope, and she soon discerned that the figure was Darius. At least she hoped it was.

Darius never heard her as she approached though the undergrowth along the river, and ignored her form out of the corner of his eyes as she steadied herself over the edge of the cliff.
"Darius?" she said, unsure of him. "Is that you?"
"You knew?" muttered Darius through the tightness in his throat. "About Kordan?"
"Kordan?" she remarked urgently. "Where is…" She stopped herself as she pieced together what she had missed. "Darius?" He tensed as she spoke. "What happened?"
Without remark, Darius uncoiled like a spring at her before she could react and slammed into her with his full weight, pinning her to the muddy undergrowth at the side of the river.
"Why didn't you tell me!" he yelled hoarsely. Shay'la tried to force Darius off her, but he was too large. "Damn you! Why did you bring me here?!"
"What are you talking about?" she shouted back.
"Damn you! You bring me here to kill my own brother?!" Shay'la's eyes widened as shock crossed her face.
"You… he's dead?" she stammered. "You killed him?!" she shrieked, and began to squirm under him in an attempt to gain some leverage. Darius pressed down even harder, stopping her moving again.
"What? What are you hiding from me damnit? I have guessed you have other motives. Tell me damn you!"
"Darius, let go and I'll tell you everything, if we get out of here alive that is." Darius stared at her in silent rage, but slowly raised himself off her and took several steps backwards as she struggled to get a footing in the mud.
"You going to help a lady up?" she said with an indignation that made Darius want to punch her in the face. Instead, he snorted at her comment and looked for his weapon in the shallow river bed. Shay'la matched him and grabbed her own weapon that had been flung to the side when Darius attacked, unsure of his intention for the moment.

Darius was about to ask more, but they were cut short by a low and hollow sounding hum in the air, getting closer quickly. Shay'la motioned for them to get into the undergrowth, and a moment later, a small aircraft cutting through the rain above them heading towards the base in the valley below.
"Search and Extraction craft." Said Shay'la quickly to Darius. "Returning to base so they will have dropped a team somewhere. You can bet they saw your Wolf from the air." Darius nodded in agreement and checked his weapon to ensure it was not damaged. The time for grief and answers was quickly over, for now. Shay'la turned on her knee to face Darius. "Darius, I will tell you everything later, I promise. I have kept things from you, but I didn't want this." Darius could not decide whether to trust her or not, but right now she was right. They needed to get back to the ship and off the planet.

Zoolkhan's tempest flagship lingered silently around the jumpgate to the Jark system in Odatrik. Very much a figure of Zoolkhan's mood, the Tempest seemed to take on a brooding and impatient countenance in the dim light of the Odatrik star. Zoolkhan was not usually in the habit of grumbling to himself, but thinking of the two lovely and disappointed women he left behind in his cabin at the HQ, he could not help but continually curse Darius as well as the whole situation under his breath. Needless to say, the thought of skinning him alive when he finally touched down at HQ was becoming all the more tempting and, as time passed, all the more reason Zoolkhan was willing to wait a little while longer to help rescue Darius from this ambush; so he could have the pleasure of giving him a personal injury all to himself.

A check of the fleet status on his sensor overview showed no change. All hands were ready and waiting to leap into combat.
Back to brooding… thought Zoolkhan, as he once more affixed his camera drone on the Jark gate, and waited for the word from Drakus.

The message had arrived at his terminal moments earlier. Ramar finished reading it and leaned back in his chair.
They took the bait. He mused to himself, satisfied that the plan worked, and yet taking little pride in it since it was not entirely his own device.
"Hah, no matter." He muttered out loud, swivelling his chair round in his office to be greeted by a view of the stars and a pleasing swirl of nebula gasses that weaved through the void. "I still get what I want and she gets what she…"

Ramars train of thought was interrupted by a subtle and unobtrusive tone from the terminal informing him of an incoming transmission. The tone was a series of multiple short blips telling him it was a priority message from official channels within the Ammatar Mandate. Turning back to the desk, he quickly pressed his thumb to a pad on the desk for a security scan while speaking his personal identification code, and the screen came to life with the face of Ammatar Security Major General Memphos' face. A small and discrete notification tag occupied the lower right corner of the screen scrolling relevant data like name, rank, standard and local time and date, as well as the ship he was on; The Constantine. His Armageddon class command flag ship. There were other small icons on the lower left, all of which were inactive given his level of security clearance, and if active would supply him with detailed information about the Major Generals personnel file, the capabilities of his ship, the ships currently under his command and even access to real time data showing the space around each ship wherever they were in Ammatar space. Ramar wished he had been granted access to that one facility alone, just to watch the end game from his own office.
"Director," began the gruff and firm tone of the Major General's voice, "we believe our positions may have been compromised by a covert scout using a high technology cloaking device."
"That is not a problem Major General." He said dismissively. "You and I both know a fight is coming soon. Just stick to your battle plan and complete the objectives. Both of them. Do I make myself clear?" The Major General's face flushed with anger.
"Do not take that tone with me civilian!" he spat with venom. "You do not give me orders, understand? You may have had authority over my brother, and you could issue him orders like that. But you are not military so do not presume to talk to me in that manner." His voice lowered, not so much to afford a measure of dignity in front of his own men, and more to strike the right tone with Ramar as to send a definite chill down his spine. He did so expertly, combined with the look of dark malice in his eyes. Ramar battled to maintain his composure, and nodded his head in admittance.
"You are right. My apologies Major General. But I was merely reciting your orders that were given to you by your own superiors. No offence intended." Ramar knew he was dancing on thin ice with Major General Memphos. His brother was Tourvil, the Ammatar agent Ramar was working with when Darius stumbled on their operation long ago. Darius killed Tourvil, and since then his elder brother has not looked on him too kindly.
"I have called you to ask for an update on one of the targets." Continued the Major General, with intent of cutting off further verbal sparing with Ramar.
"He is on the planet surface now, and teams have been deployed to back up my asset. Beyond that we know nothing." The Major general snorted in contempt.
"Your asset? He is simply a brainwashed puppet. Why sugar coat it?"
"Call him what you want. I am not confident in his success either way. He served his purpose as a simple lure to land a fish. One thing for sure is that fishing never ends out too well for the bait. Besides," A twisted grin crossed Ramar's face as he concluded, "at least they will get to work out their family issues and have one last little reunion together." An uncomfortable pause ensued as the Major General withheld his opinions on the matter. It made him sick that Ramar was actually getting pleasure from this.
"Speaking of which," said Memphos to break the silence, "what do you plan to do with the woman?" Ramar sat and considered a moment before leaning back in the chair.
"She is a mole, nothing more. And as attractive as she may be, I will deal with her like I deal with the common garden rodent; by bringing the shovel down on her head." Ramar left the conversation there by terminating the communication. He remained reclined in his chair as he turned back towards the window, to view the stars once more.

The thickness of the undergrowth gave way to the broken tree line and the plain beyond where Darius' Wolf assault frigate was. Darius and Shay'la came to a halt behind the last furrows of tangled long grass and bushes to survey the scene. Shay'la pointed out several figures in the open around the ship. There were five in total that she could see. Darius silently hefted his automatic handgun with every intention to use it. Shay'la, with equal quietness, motioned for him to stop as she slowly unslung her crossbow and loaded a dart. Darius did not fire if only to witness what was about to happen. He was taken back by her choice of weapon for a moment, a crude and antiquated form. Even so, he admired it all the same. If anything else, he realised people have become over dependent on high tech but loud weapons. A laser rifle is hardly discrete after all despite its destructive capability. And weapons like the crossbow were killing people just as effectively for hundreds of years before modern weapons were even made.

Without even noticing it, as Darius contemplated the choice of weapon, the point of the choice was made clearly and silently as the troop close to one side of the frigate, standing with his back to them looking out towards the jungle's edge beyond them, dropped to one knee clutching his neck. Darius could clearly see a long steely bolt through the side of his throat and a crimson stream of blood spewing from either side of the wound staining the ground and his combat fatigues. As expected, no one was alarmed by his death throws. The bolt had pierced the neck below the vocal cords avoiding any gargling noises he would have made as blood and air escaped the wound and he died quickly and quietly while his fellow team members had their eyes fixed in the other direction. Shay'la made a quiet gesture in the direction of a section of tree line that curved around the side of the Wolf where one of the troops was heading towards. Without further instruction, Shay'la secured her crossbow by its straps and made her way round the other side, keeping low and moving quickly thought the undergrowth.

Swift and silent, Shay'la was poised ready to pounce while keenly eyeing Darius' slower progress through the thick bushes. It was a wonder the troops here didn't see him and only because they were not looking in that direction. She prayed he had the common sense to watch for anyone turning towards him and stop moving for a moment. This was going to be tough without camouflage. She was poised less than twenty feet from one of the troops in the clearing. The remaining two were further to her right at the front of the ship watching the tree line from that direction. A quick check on Darius told her he was a moment away from striking the troop that was positioned across on the other side of the Wolf, now facing away from the tree line. As Darius exited the undergrowth, knife in hand, the troop nearest Shay'la turned towards his direction just in time to see Darius plunge his knife through the larynx of his fellow soldier and drag him to the ground by his head.

Simultaneously, Darius looked up to see the other troop fumble to raise his weapon. His face was clear even at that distance. A mix of determination brought on by his friends murder, and the raw fear that was a sure sign of unseasoned combat experience. Most likely this was the first time he had seen a man's blood spilt up close, and the first time he would raise his weapon with the intent of shedding blood himself. A fast moving blur darted from the trees behind the troop as Shay'la launched herself from the bush at lightning speed, covering the twenty feet in a couple of heartbeats. She leapt into the air, grabbing the troop by his hair and mouth from behind and yanked his head backwards. In that same single, fluid motion she drove her left knee high up into the back of his head. The soldier's eyes rolled back in reflex to the unexpected and sharp sensation of pain at Shay'la's attack and his whole body went limp as Shay'la, still at head height of the troop, wrapped her right leg around the neck of the her prey and allowed herself to topple backwards with his head in a firm lock. They both landed on their backs, followed by a sharp popping sound that punctuated the soldiers neck snapping as his head was jerked violently forwards.

"Huh?" came a distant voice to Darius' left. "What the… Target!"
Darius wrenched free of his own target's death clutch and turned to face the remaining two troops, now turning to face Shay'la having also heard her and the body of her victim fall to the earth. Shay'la struggled to untangle herself from the corpse of the fallen guard, frantically grasping to bring her crossbow round to her front. On pure instinct laced with adrenalin, Darius swung his own gun from its sling as though it was lighter than air itself, pulling the slide back and releasing the safety catch. The clink of the metal slide recoiling on its spring, driving a round into the empty chamber with a resounding metallic clap, echoed over the clearing getting the attention of the two troops poised to open fire on Shay'la just in time for them both to glance in his direction as the muzzle of his machine pistol flared. Sharp darts of flame shot out of the barrel and upwards from the compensator at the top of the barrel as white hot rounds of full jacket lead were spat towards the target, ripping chunks of body armour and clothing from around the wounds of the first man's torso. Sprays of blood trailed outwards from his chest as he staggered backwards and fell to the floor in a heavy heap.

Shay'la quickly scrambled to one knee and took firm hold of her crossbow finally, swinging it around to her front as she watched the second guard panic in futility to find cover in the open air. The hesitation was long enough for Darius to aim squarely at the second troop and cut him down like his partner. A bright flash of light arced towards Shay'la, followed by a sharp pain that flooded her senses for a moment, robbing her of a few seconds of sense as she let out an involuntary shriek from the intense pain.

Darius looked towards Shay'la, startled at her scream. The dying troop had let off a couple of stray shots in his death throws, one striking Shay'la in the side of her mid section. She keeled over on the dirt clutching the wound that was already smouldering from the heat of the light laser rifle beam. Wasting no time, and putting to use the extra vigour instilled in him by the rush of adrenalin still pumping through his veins, Darius sprinted over the wet soil and patchy grass towards Shay'la, dropping by her side. Her eyes and mouth were clenched tight from the pain, shaking slightly as she tried to move.
"Stay still." He said, pushing down on her shoulder lightly to keep her from trying to move even more. She groaned through clenched teeth as she settled back down again and let Darius examine her wound.
"D…d… Nnngh…" she strained, trying to speak.
"Damn it, lay still." He retorted firmly. "The beam cut all the way through to your back by the looks of it… Hell… It has a lateral span of at least an inch. Not much but the beam sliced sideways. You need medical attention right now."
"I… ugh… Kor..d…"
"Tell me later." Darius slid his arms under her body to scoop her up.
"My… broth..er…. he… Aaah…" Her eyes clenched once more from another wave of pain. She had said all she needed to get Darius' attention. He paused for a moment, hoping she would say more. Another throw of pain creased over her sending a shudder through her body. Darius knew now wasn't the time to press the matter and scooped her off the floor. She grimaced in protest from the sharp white hot pain coursing through every nerve in her body as Darius steadied his hold on her before making his way to the ship hatch as quick as he could.

Quickly, Darius made his way through the hatch at the rear of the ship, pausing briefly to nudge the flat panel on the side of the door that sealed the bulkhead behind him. A second switch below labelled 'R.P.S ENACT' illuminated once the door was secured and the seal checked as green. Darius hit the switch with his elbow, and a short burst erupted from the ships klaxon accompanied by a stern female voice speaking in Matari.
'Attention. Rapid Action, Reactor Pre-Start enacted. Buffers disengaged.'
The warning was intended to let any crew working in these areas near the reactors to evacuate or take anti-radiation precautions as the control buffers had been removed. Fortunately he had no other crew aboard as he could manage the systems of such a small ship himself through his pod interface. Darius' Wolf was built around an old model Rifter, bought from surplus with the intent of being modified by his contacts. Some of the old systems were still in place, and this one had been outfitted with a quick start procedure, showing the ship had been used on a rapid response line at some point in its life. Normal start ups for a cold reactor would take around eight minutes as the reactor was warmed slowly to prevent damage. This cut out all the slow start ups and brought the reactor to life as quickly, and as dangerously as possible.

Darius could contemplate the potential problems all he wanted, but did not dwell on them as he made his way through the lower deck. Heading into the vacant bunk room, Darius rested her gently on the single bunk against the far wall. Her groans of pain were becoming quieter. Not being a doctor Darius could only guess that either her pain was easing or she was slipping into unconsciousness. Given the kind of day it has been, Darius would bet good money on the later option. Her forehead and brow were beginning to gleam with sweat under the small florescent light against the wall and her shivers had returned. Some indescribable feeling passed over him for the second time today as he watched the waves of agony express themselves on her face, emphasised in unison with her sharp erratic intakes of breath. He grabbed a handful of slack from the thin bed sheet and brought it to her face, dabbing away the sweat that was building up. For a moment, Darius caught her scent. Through the smell of rain water, blood and burnt flesh, her own scent - the scent of her skin - endured through all.

A sharp and piercing buzzer broke Darius' concentration as it resonated through the hallway outside the bunk room. This was the perimeter alarm now active when he brought the ship online, letting him know something large was approaching the area. He had no time now to be filled with remorse for Shay'la as well as other feelings. There would be time enough to deal with all this, if they survive the day. Darius secured the bunk door on his way out and activated the safety dampeners in the room before charging through the short and narrow passageway, past the main external hatch door that was now sealed, and onto the lowered platform lift. He slapped the button to activate the platform, and it quickly ascended to the upper command deck where his pod was situated. As there were no windows on the deck, the pod was his eyes and ears to the world outside. He quickly situated himself into one half of the open pod, grabbing the neural connection wires in his fist and yanking them out of the socket on the pod inner wall, connecting each one to the back of his neck in turn as fast as he could. Wasting no time now his physical connection to the ship was complete, the pod snapped shut with a hiss as the seals connected, and the pod begun to fill with Hydrostatic fluid. Darius could fee the Wolf begin to hum as the generators, now warmed fully from the RPS system, fed power to the whole ship. The hull reverberated deeply as the engines pre-started, fuelling the drive manifolds with plasma. It felt very much like a slumbering beast stirring, reluctant to be disturbed and angry now it was awake. Darius powered each system quickly, starting with the sensor array, now firing bursts of LADAR energy around each emitter on the ships skin, hunting for the pray that had dared to wake it. At the same time a small drone fired from a compressed gas tube on the top of the ship, taking to flight as a small camera lens flicked open, giving Darius his sight back. He tracked the LADAR return on the horizon, and panned the camera drone to face the incoming aircraft. Zooming in all the way, he could see it was a stubby jet of some sort, sticking close to the tree line.

Most likely carrying additional troops to secure the ship. Darius thought. He designated the target on his tracking system and cycled through his autocannons as they tracked the small craft. Darius diverted part of his attention to his scanner feed again and did one last long range sweep as the ship got closer to his guns range, severely limited in the gravity of the planet compared to what they would be in space. After two long range sweeps, several more targets filled his mental display at a long range of nearly 400km, though moving very fast towards him. If he had to guess, they were some kind of fighter aircraft or maybe more frigates from the Ammatar Security. Either way, his ship was a sitting duck. Out of a last furious act of vengeance, Darius ordered power to the lower thrusters to lift the Wolf off the ground. As before, the landing gear groaned in protest from movement as the weight of the ship eased off them, letting them extend fully beneath the ship. Rising above the tree line to meet the oncoming ship, he spread all four autocannons across the small jet crafts line of approach, and gave the command to fire. The entire side of Darius' wolf flared bright orange as the guns cut a stream of hot fusion warheads across the jungle canopy and towards the small ship now making a futile attempt to break off from its approach. Too late, and at too close a range to make a difference, the Wolfs cannon fire tracked ahead of the jets line of flight, shredding the entire left side from front to back. An engine pod on the left exploded causing the jet to roll to the right and forwards, pushing it towards the jungle. Before reaching the tree line, the small craft exploded in a ball of burning fuel and metal that spread a long line of fire across the jungle below. Darius spotted several faint dots higher up in the distant sky. His sensor feed showed the craft he was tracking to be as close as 50km. In one more minute they would be on top of him. He powered the main thrusters to full and picked up speed, pointing his Wolf in the opposite direction.

Quickly gaining altitude, a warning flashed across Darius' vision as the incoming fighters closed to ten kilometres, and locked his ship. Now they were closer and giving off signals from their radars, his computer identified them as 'Viscount' model atmospheric interceptors. Very fast but small, with limited electronic packages. It was just a shame that Darius didn't have any form of anti-radar ECM installed. Being designed to render the powerful radars of space craft useless, it would have no problems spoofing their own targeting sensors. Their top speed in the thick atmosphere was much higher than his Wolf too, as they closed to five kilometres and held their distance. Darius' LADAR read six of them, formed into groups of three, stacked on top of each other by nearly a kilometre apart. The aircraft above him began to move over his ship, intent on blocking his ascent. Moving at these speeds, it was unlikely he would strike a hit with his guns. Still, if they scattered he would have a clear run above him. Darius designated his forward turrets to aim above him and sweep the air with gunfire. Angry, hot yellow streaks spread through the sky as the large autocannons of the Wolf unleashed a hail that swept close to the fronts of the fighters, forcing them to split off to either side to avoid the bullets. Darius commanded the ship, now at escape velocity, to pull up towards the outer atmosphere and begin the quick climb into space. His threat warning indicator flashed a message across his visual feed.
MISSILE, MISSILE
His LADAR display showed two blips behind him, closing rapidly.
MISSILE, MISSILE
A second pair of missiles appeared on the screen behind the first. Darius checked the shields were up fully and instinctively braced himself mentally for the impact. His powerful engines made short work of hauling the Wolf near vertical towards the edge of space, leaving his pursuers behind and unable to follow. The missiles, however, continued to twist through the sky behind. The first missile closed to within twenty metres and detonated, ejecting a payload of small charges towards the Wolf that splattered the shields with small explosions. The second missile detonated, again dispensing a payload that impacted the shields, focusing on the same region that was now weakened by the first missile. A noticeable drop in shield power caught Darius' attention, as they began to suffer from the friction of his ascent through the atmospheric layers as the third missile closed in on his ship. It detonated further away, and the payload failed to fully impact as the final missile struggled now to keep track in the dense layer of the upper atmosphere and toppled off course from the turbulence whirling off the back of Darius' ship. The warhead self destructed at a harmless distance from the Wolf as it tore through the thermosphere, protected by its shields, and reached the near limits of space.