The locals were hurrying about their business, he watched as one man exchanged what looked like a cage containing a slimy mammal for a brown sack which he presumed contained some kind of seed or animal feed. On the other side of the market square he could make out more locals trading goods and talking. He scanned the area looking for anything that seemed suspicious or out of place. 

He had been watching the same area for three Kkrag days and apart from a village youth stealing fruit from one of the market traders, nothing of interest had happened. He placed the Techbios to one side and looked towards the horizon, the sun was beginning to set and was creating beautiful autumnal colours over the distant sea. Nodding his satisfaction, it was time to call it in.

‘E16, end of day three shift, nothing of interest.’ He spoke into the comlink integrated into his helmet. 

‘Confirmed.’ returned a voice ‘I’m on my way.’ He nodded again and picked up the Techbios to continue observing the market. It was late in the day and most of the locals had already gone home, and the ones that had not, were now starting to pack up their belongings and place them into mule-drawn carts. Such a simple life, he thought. 

The Scytons lived on the planet Tern, they had little in the way of technology. The race was in its infancy and it was decreed by the Grand Alliance that they must be allowed to grow and develop on their own without any interference from the outside universe. E16 agreed with the good intentions but thought them somewhat short sighted.

Tern was in the outer rim and had only just recently been discovered. Maktin Yada was taken by surprise when her team discovered the world. It wasn’t unusual for new exoplanets to be discovered in a universe as large as Ulandi, but they were mostly barren of intelligent life. To find a planet with an emerging race was most unusual. Yada’s team spent months undercover investigating the local traditions before reporting back to the Alliance. 

E16 believed that they should just come clean and explain to them about the rest of the universe and invite them into the fold, but they were deemed too immature to handle the truth. Short sighted he thought, sooner or later someone else would tell them the truth. Someone would manipulate them, someone evil, and it would be another race that in years to come he would end up fighting. 

He let out a little sigh at the complexity of the situation. The governing politics had made Tern a haven for corruption. Smugglers and thieves who had discovered that Tern is a protected world were now using the planetary rules to their advantage. They had discovered that if they could sneak past the planet defence, then they could hide out on the surface indefinitely, or until a Casidan trooper found them. 

He carried on watching the square, waiting for his successor to take over the shift. The last of the market traders were now leaving, and the square was almost completely empty. He watched the last cart trundle down the dirt road when a shimmer of distorted light caught his eye. 

‘I have something.’ He said into his comm, something had just disturbed the air around a single object in space and time. They had traced an unnatural energy source to this area, but so far they had failed to pinpoint it. Whatever it was, it was sophisticated. He presumed a cloaking device of sorts, but it was giving off almost zero energy. He zoomed in to the exact position of the energy disturbance for a closer inspection. There, just next to an old corn barn was a shimmer of light that seemed unnatural and out of place. 

‘E16 reporting, I definitely have something, permission to investigate further?’ 

‘Permission granted,’ replied a voice. He picked up the Techbios and locked them into position on his Casidan armour.  

’I’m moving out, 540121, V243.’ he grabbed his Icus phaser weapon and began to make his way through the dense forest and down the hillside towards the market square.

He moved silently through the thick bush making quick progress down the slope, dodging and weaving in between the rocky outcrops to hide his approach. The terrain opened up as he neared the bottom, not much cover he thought and moved closer to the fence line and quickened his pace. The square was now only metres away, he scanned the area and noticed an abandoned market stall just to his west.

The Casidan trooper switched on his holosuit function, camouflaging him from any watching eyes. He leapt from the cover of the fence line and ducked under the empty market stall. Making sure his exit was clear he sprinted back out again to the east of the square, finally resting at the side of the corn exchange barn. 

Sneaking down the side of the barn, he realised that if the cloaking device was as sophisticated as he had suspected, then they must also have the tech to monitor the entire area. They must have picked me up, he mused. He was only metres away from where he had detected the energy signature. He stopped to contemplate his next move. 

He could either hide around the corner and scan the area one more time or aim for the rooftops for a surprise attack. His other option was to turn off his holosuit function, gaining full protection from his armour and step out of the shadows and confront the enemy face to face. He opted for the latter, convinced that they knew he was there. The situation was fragile, and he knew that he couldn’t be seen by any of the locals, but he thought what the heck, he had a job to do.

He stepped out to discover what looked like a burnt out shack, it had been there all along but he never noticed the energy fluctuations until now. Looking up he realised why. A piece of timber from the side of the corn exchange had come free and was now resting on what seemed like thin air. 

‘Not as sophisticated as I thought, you can hide your energy signature but you can’t hide from bad luck.’ He stood staring for a moment at the broken wood resting on seamlessly nothing, smirking to himself at the irony of the situation. He unclipped his phaser rifle from the magnetic attachments and held it across his chest. 

‘Are you going to come out willingly or have I got to blast my way in?’ He announced, seemingly talking to nothing and no one. There was no reply. 

‘I can wait all day,’ he said and adjusted his gun across his chest. A few moments later he heard a hiss of air. A plume of oxygen danced free from a shimmering light that appeared unnaturally around the bottom of the hut, the flare of light then grew larger and shone to reveal what was hidden under the cloaking device. There, sat in the market square was a pristine white habitation pod, the same type that were made at the factories on Trinyadd. The habitation pod began to pixelate itself, the hard light projected image slowly disappeared upwards returning back inside a hover drone that was elevated 5 metres in the air. Once finished, it then fluttered down and rested on the open palmed hand of its owner.

E16 and the hover drone owner both stood in perfect silence for the briefest of moments as they tried to figure each other out. He didn’t recognise the species, but it seemed female to him. 

‘Execution or Detainment?’ the alien figure said. 

‘Detainment.’ replied E16, keeping one hand on his rifle. 

‘I see.’ nodded the alien, who gave a brief smile to the Casidan trooper before bending Its tall slender legs and bounding onto the roof of the corn exchange in one single leap. 

‘What the…no time! In pursuit, unknown species, possibly female.’ 

He engaged his holosuit function again and began to run after the outlaw. He darted through the village silently and invisibly, passing the locals who were unaware of his presence. He followed the alien as it skillfully navigated the roof tops, jumping from one to another with an elegant grace. She wasn’t firing back at him, so she either had no weapons or she knew the Alliance directive about Tern. 

‘I have her in my scope E16.’ came a voice from his internal comm. ‘I can take down the felon if needed.’ 

‘Negative, I almost have her.’ He didn’t understand why he had just said that. If K4 had the target, then it would be more efficient to execute the stun. He was a Casidan and efficiency was in their blood, but something about this alien made him doubt himself. He shook his head to clear his mind. 

‘K4 do you still have the’…the comm went dead and static filled his ears 

‘Arrr somethings blocking transmissions, K4 do you still have the target?’ His question was answered with silence.  

‘Dam it!’ he looked up in time to see her jump from the last roof top in the marketplace and back down onto the dirt road. She began to head out of the village in the direction of the farm lands. He followed in pursuit, this new direction suited him more. Once away from the populace he could use his equipment to finally end the hunt. He chased her up the dirt track and despite her agile frame he seemed to be catching her. It was almost like she wasn’t trying to escape, like she was toying with him. She suddenly turned her head and looked straight at him, catching his eyes. Startled, E16 glanced down at his holosuit function to check that it was still working correctly. 

Suddenly she darted from the trail, heading east and jumping over a wooden fence and into an open field. E16 followed suit, he could see on the other side of the field there was a wooded area. ‘Perfect,’ he said to himself. Once in the cover of the woods and hidden from the outside world  he would use his phaser weapon to bring her down. 

He quickened his pace to reduce the gap, hoping to catch her before she reached the tree line, but despite his best efforts she got there first. 

At the edge, she nimbly leaped into the air and over the tree top canopy, dropping down somewhere out of sight in the forest. E16 was not as nimble; he crashed through the wooded doorway with his shoulder and tumbled into the forest, landing on his back. When he looked up again, he discovered she was standing over him.

‘Don’t worry, I’m not armed,’ she said, and offered E16 a hand to get up. He dismissed her offer and scrambled to his feet, grabbing his phaser rifle at the same time and aiming it at her chest. 

‘You are in direct violation of the Grand Alliance treaty 748. No outer world beings are allowed to trespass on this pla….’ She cut him off before he could finish.

‘I know, I know, this planet is protected under the order of the Grand Alliance. Look you got this all wrong, I’m not your enemy.’ E16 paused before repeating. 

‘You are in direct violation of the Grand Allian….’ She cut him off again.

‘Look I know, I shouldn’t be here, I’m trespassing, you said that already. But you have to believe me, my intentions are honest.’ E16 raised his weapon and aimed it directly at her head. He had arrested many trespassers on Tern before, some like her, tried to talk their way out of it. Some tried to fight their way out of it, but they all failed and they were all brought to justice, but this felon somehow seemed different. Even though he had never met her before, he felt like she could be trusted. 

‘Who are you? What race are you from?’ enquired E16. 

‘My name is Reyin, you will not know my race, but I know yours, you are a Casidan trooper are you not? Feared protectors off the Grand Alliance.’

‘I am.’  He replied.

‘And I presume, being a Casidan, you have no name or rank?’ 

‘That is correct, but as I am the one holding the gun, I believe it is me who should be asking you questions. Now, what are you doing here on Tern, Reyin of the unknown race?’ 

‘I’m hunting mercenaries, they stole from my people,’ said Reyin.

‘Stole what?’ He asked, still aiming his gun at her.  

‘A wooden box, and we need it back.’

‘A wooden box?’ He replied questionably. ‘And what is so special about this wooden box?’ 

‘It is an ancient artefact…of religious value.’ She replied.

This he presumed was a lie, no advanced race believed in the old ways, but he would give her the benefit. 

‘Ok, fine, a religious wooden box, that sounds credible. And what does a religious box, a gang of mercenaries and you, have to do with Tern?’ He asked. 

‘They’re here on the planet,’ she said.

‘Impossible! We would have picked them up. How many?’ 

‘Six,’ she replied.

‘Six, here on Tern, that is not possible!’

‘I’ve been tracking them for over one Kkrag year, last month they made planet fall and I’ve tracked their DNA signature to this village. Look I know how politically sensitive the Tern situation is, which is why I’m here on my own.’

‘It’s a nice story,’ he said unconvinced. 

‘It’s not a story. It’s all true, trust me, I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here.’ 

‘Who do you work for, on whose authority?’ Said E16.

‘It’s complicated to say the least, let’s just say I am on your side, OK?’ 

‘Not good enough! Whose authority, give me names and numbers!’ Shouted E16, he was losing patience with the smalltalk and wanted some straight answers. 

‘Tell me straight, who authorised your passage to the planet, show me your credentials.’ Reyin was well trained, she knew that the Casidan trooper wouldn’t believe her without evidence. She had dealt with these soldier types many times before. She had even fought on the front line with them, but he wasn’t to know. To him she was just another rebel dodging the authorities, she realised that for the sake of the mission she had to come clean. The alternative was to kill him and she already had enough blood on her hands.   

‘OK, I’m going to get something out of my pack, don’t shoot me.’ She slowly slid the pack from over her shoulders and placed it on the ground in front of them both. She opened the main compartment and placed her hand inside. A moment later she pulled out a token of office and presented it to E16. 

‘Where did you get that?’ He asked. 

A token of office was a rare medallion made from Thrille, one of the rarest metals in the Ulandi galaxy. To be a holder of a token of office meant you were under direct instruction from House Trivian and you answered to no one. Reyin held her hand open, palm exposed so that E16 could examine the token more clearly. 

‘You know, I don’t have to answer that question, don’t you?’ She said in a quiet, calm voice, ‘but I need to gain your trust, so I will tell you. My name is Reyin, older sibling to a murdered sister, I am Dyrin, a daughter of Eldrin, from the planet Natel. I was given passage to the planet by Tunnii, brother of Dalion from House Trivian, leader of the Grand Alliance. I am here on Tern to recover an artefact that was stolen from my people during the battle of Nordel. I hunt four Corex warriors, a Thatching, and one Kkragian, and if I may be so bold I would like your help.’ 

E16 began to examine the token more closely, using the advanced vision that his helmet gifted him. After a few moments, he looked up in surprise and lowered his weapon to the ground…