Cayden was suspicious. She knew that the role Director Murphy has laid out to her was not the real plan. There was an underlying agenda to which DiNay realized she was not privy. She knew this because that is how SHE would have devised the mission, and she guessed that Murphy was at least as good an infiltrator as Cayden herself.

She followed the other two agents to the south side of the Compound, which covered at least 40 acres of property. It was surrounded with force fields and sensor systems, not only to warn of intruders, but to supervise, survey and control the training of Militia troops. She knew the Compound well, as she had trained and worked from this location for more than eight Aldean years.

If she were discovered leading this group of infiltrators INTO the Compound, she would be executed, after extensive debriefing. She had a twinkle of an idea how to avoid that scenario, but she kept that to herself.

The land to the southern and south-western perimeter of the Compound was rugged. Dry, deep, course sand, impossible to run through, and fields of jagged rocky foothills had provided more than one challenging field exercise for the students of Gor Zikmit, known to the humans as Red Sigma. She had ‘died’ numerous times on this field, the victim of a training level energy shot used to ‘alert’ trainees to the fact that they would be dead in a real battle.

She had bled plenty of real blood out here too, since the energy shots did break through uniforms and skin. Gor Zikmit had excellent medical skills that healed one of such mishaps within hours, but indeed, her blood was sprinkled over these sands and boulders.

She did not like being the leader of these humans. She preferred them ahead of her, where she could see them, but such was not her lot in this ‘exercise.’

Akoval – or Fayol as he now called himself – had spent several months on Aldea and reached the rank of Brevet-Tankor after their former O/C mysteriously disappeared thanks to an SDA intervention.

He had never been to this complex before, but his rank allowed him to walk into quite a few restricted areas on the planet.

They reached the end of another corridor and spotted two guards. Instead of asking Cayden for another way or opening fire on them, Misato grabbed Cayden's wrists with one hand and put the other hand over her mouth at the same time. She whispered to her to be silent before releasing her mouth and slowly walking towards the guards.

Akoval approached them first and presented his ID. “I need to speak to the commandant.”

Cayden nodded in agreement with Misato’s orders and they moved toward the guards. Both straightened with surprise when they recognized Siktor Cayden DiNay.

Akoval approached them first and presented his ID. “I need to speak to the commandant.”

“Yes Sir,” replied the taller of the guards, who keyed his comm unit on his ear for permission to lead them to the Commandant’s office. “For the Commandant. I have Tankor Fayol and another soldier here. They have Siktor Cayden in their custody. The Tankor requests conduct to the Commandant’s office.”

“Come ahead,” was the reply.

“Follow me,” he said to Fayol and led the trio down the corridor. Two other guards had arrived at the entry, and they fell in behind the visitors.

Cayden was not sure of her standing with Red Sigma, at this point. Misato had inferred that she was a wanted criminal and the current scene they were playing out seemed to support that possibility. But it could be another of Misato’s, or SDA tricks. For while the SDA had seemed to understand her situation as a brainwashed victim of Red Sigma, they were themselves a cunning organization not above bending the rules to suit their goals.

“Najor, you know me, I am not a traitor,” Cayden said quickly.

Misato pushed her to the ground and put a boot in her neck. “Shut up!”

Akoval did not react and instead addressed the Najor. “Sir, Tankor Fayol. I have with me the traitor Cayden DiNay. She was captured by one of my company's NCOs during transfer from holiday.” He turned towards Misato and back. “With your permission, I will promote her to Tamsik for her bravery.”

“Mmmm,” grunted the CO, “It takes bravery, does it, to secure Prisoner Cayden?” He walked around the desk and looked down at the child-sized woman gasping for breath beneath the sole of the red haired woman’s boot. “Perhaps.” He kicked Cayden in the round of her hip. Not has solidly as he was capable, but effectively assuring her of his disgust. “Tell me, DiNay, does this woman deserve a promotion for dragging your traitorous little ass into my office?

“I am not a traitor,” she replied. The triggers of pain and anger redirected all her energy toward focus, toward sensitivity, and she became hyper vigilant and aware. She had been trained very well.

“These people are false. They have rigged everything, including this apparent arrest,” she insisted.

The Najor now focussed on Misato. “Where did you capture her, Tamsik...?”

“Macid, sir.”, Misato took the foot off Cayden's neck to address the Najor with the proper respect. “I found her on a Federation shuttle on a course to Aldea. On my way back from holiday, I picked up an unusual signature and went to investigate. It turned out to be hers.”

“We have secured the shuttle at our compound. It is guarded by my men.”, Akoval actually referred to the shuttle Jandre and Cayden had come to Aldea on and that was about to explode, taking mentioned compound with it in few hours. “It appears that she has been working for the UFP all along, how else would she have had access to such a vessel.”

“So she is now a Federation pilot, too. My, climbing the ladder of importance,” the Najor growled at Cayden, who adjusted her position on the floor in preparation to stand. She was welcomed with the hard backhanded slice of the Najor’s hand and flung backward a full 2 meters. But she wasted no time in jumping to her feet, out of reach of both Misato and the Najor. Cowering on the floor was not part of her training. The two guards stood ready at the door, but made no move to restrain her.

“I was a prisoner on that shuttle. My failure was to be captured on the Destiny, not to defect from my duty to Gor Zikmit. I am guilty of capture, but no traitor.” She fairly spat the words at Misato’s feet.

“You Siktor will shut up unless I speak to you.” The Najor pulled a pistol from his hip and shot DiNay in the centre chest. She collapsed. He turned to Tankor Fayol, “How did you get the Federation shuttle here without clearance?”

“I took all necessary security precautions before clearing the shuttle to land. The ingenious part is how the shuttle was landed. Tankor... I am sorry. Tamsik Macid.”, Akoval stressed the rank as if he was used to calling her a different Aldean rank. “Would you please explain...”

DiNay’s head spun as she tried to breath, the world swelling in and out of a white haze. The he stun blast had completely knocked wind out of her and she erupted into a fit a coughing when she finally forced air into her lungs. The shot had torn through her jacket and left an angry red welt above her right breast, little rivulets of blood drizzled from dozens of burst capillaries. She forced herself to listen with audio memory what was being said, in hopes she could piece together the conversation in retrospect.

Misato blushed “Of course.”, she turned to the senior officer in the room again. “Federation shuttles apparently do not require authorisation codes as Intelligence often proposes. Her shuttle was easy to commandeer...”, she looked at Cayden. “Maybe too easy...”, Misato stood in thought for a moment and then turned back to the Najor in surprise: “Sir, are you implying she wanted to be captured?”

The Najor smiled, “Well, if that were the case, you certainly don’t deserve a promotion for your bravery in capturing her, do you Tankor?”

“You trick ...” Cayden could not finish speaking, and fell to coughing again. She could taste blood in her throat.

"Did I not say you should shut up?" said the Najor, and delivered another shot to her right shoulder. It slammed her over onto her side and he drove another round into the back of the shoulder. She lost consciousness.

She came to as someone grabbed her by the upper right arm of her pulled her to her feet. She yelped and fought valiantly to escape the excruciating grasp and when she realized she was standing on her own power, she found the strength to slam a snap kick to the thigh of whoever was hold her. The hand let go and she spun out of reach, only to fall into a wall, but at least it did not hold onto her. She shook her head and saw the Najor on his knees, blood flowing unchecked down his chin, a glassy, unseeing gaze focused already in the afterlife.

She looked for the door and saw one guard leaning against the frame, holding his ribs with both hands. The other was no where in sight.

“Secure her.”, Akoval ordered Misato as the Najor collapsed on the floor.

Misato pulled her weapon, looked at Cayden and aimed for her. Cayden stared at the woman. She would not let the woman kill her without watching her eyes. After three seconds, Misato shifted, fired a single shot, and the remaining guard dropped dead on the floor. She went to check if the Najor was really dead.

Akoval walked over to Cayden and kicked her in the hollow of her knee to force her down on her knees. She cried out and slammed her elbow back into the flesh on the side of his thigh. It was perhaps a bit painful, and no where near deep enough to disable him. But she made her point of fighting to the bitter end. He pulled his weapon and placed the muzzle on her neck, but Misato objected: “wait, she might be of further use. We will just have to keep a closer eye on her.”

He holstered the weapon again, but tied up Cayden's hands. “They will probably be back with reinforcements.”, he said.

“Why?” snapped Cayden, “We are all dead now.”

Misato walked over to them. “Stand up!”, she ordered Cayden, before the alerts of the base went off.

“Fayol, turn that off!”, Misato shouted at Akoval, who ran to the next console. It took a moment before he replied: “That is not about us. The base is under attack.”

Cayden’s attention was riveted to Fayol’s face. “Who?”

Akoval was slightly confused, when Cayden suddenly looked at him. “Who what?”, he continued to push buttons. “Feedorans I suppose, who else. If that is what you wanted to ask. Defences have been activated. A few more soldiers running around randomly will not be noticed for some time, but we have to leave before they come and check on us.”

DiNay sorted through her mind. Would the Feedorans attack? Particularly the Compound itself. They couldn’t without help, big help. She weighed her options. Stay and let Fayol kill her, run with them and be killed at the hands of the Feedorans? Break free of these two spies and throw herself on the mercy of the Feedorans? That all assumed it was the Feedorans. More likely the Confederacy would attack the Compound, knowing it was the training base of the Resistance Militia. But of all the options, the one she chose was to be proactive. To take her life into her own hands and live or die making decisions for herself.

She knew this facility intimately. She clamoured to her feet and sprinted out the door and to the right.

Akoval followed her, so did Misato. “Stop her!”, Akoval shouted and one of the Aldeans caught her as she wanted to pass them.

Cayden gasped with pain as the woman caught her arm and spun her around. She chattered rapidly in native Aldean, hoping her authoritative tone and perhaps the recognition of her as a long time comrade would buy her passage. “The base is under attack. I’m going to secure the computer core, immediately. They are with me,” she added swiftly, indicating Misato and Fayol. It worked. The confused militiamen turned and raced down another hallway, one already on his comm relaying procedures to lock down the computer. The little Aldean woman ground her teeth against the pain in her shoulder, trying to avoid breaking into a fit of coughing, but pressing forward without a glance behind her at the two SDA agents.

“You should have let me shoot her.”, Akoval said to Misato. He stopped next to the guard who had let her go. “You just let a traitor escape. Consider yourself lucky I do not have the time to deal with you.”

The hallway led to a cargo lift that would take her to the third level beneath the building. That level housed an auxiliary sensor system, a garage for a variety of small personal vehicles, and the tertiary access to the computer, where she could determine what was happening and issue isolated, command level directions to both communications and weapons. With any luck, she could secure a hovercraft and escape the bombardment through the underground matrix of tunnels into the hills beyond.

They had lost her for a moment, but now she was only metres ahead of them. With one final leap, Misato brought her to the ground. “I should have known better than to trust you. Now take us to that computer core or I will shoot you on the spot.”

The coughing erupted again as Misato’s weight crushed her to the corridor floor. Searing agony wrapped her shoulders and constricted her into a foetal ball. “I am going,” she croaked almost unintelligibly. Her breathing came in shallow shudders, punctuated by quick moans on the exhale. “Level 4 down.”

The militiaman who stood nearby watched in nervous awe, "She's lying. The Core is on Level 3 Down."

DiNay's heart sank and she expected her life to wink out of existence, but a moment passed, and then a second, and Misato grabbed her by the arm, lifted her completely off the ground and shook her. "I'm not done with you yet."

Cayden did not hear what the woman said. Her entire being was fighting to either breath or break the woman's hold, and she wriggled like a mad cat, but she was held firmly by the red headed witch.

In spite of her fighting and twisting, DiNay was drug to the cargo lift where the other militiaman coded it to open and the four stepped inside. The doors shut and the only sound was Cayden's boot kicking the sides of the lift and her mangled screaming. The door opened on Level 3 and the militiaman led the way to a dark green door, coded it open and they entered the pristine tertiary access to the Compound's computer core.

Akoval needed to get rid of the soldier to start downloading the code, but Misato was faster. “Thank you for your assistance. Please escort the prisoner to a holding cell.”, she let go of DiNay for a moment to snap the soldier's neck. “Guess who will be blamed for that?”, she said and grabbed her arm again.

Akoval had started to download the data about attack plans and secret bases. After a minute or longer, he handed the device to Misato. “Good luck Macid. I guess I have to clean up that mess you left in the Najor's office, before this battle is over.”, he said and disappeared in the cargo lift.

“Down the hallway,” Cayden groaned, “double doors on your left. It’s the garage for private vehicles.” She tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. It hurt unmercifully just to breath, and she was beginning to feel very nauseated. “There are tunnels going out into the foothills. I hope you got what you came for.” She heaved and vomited, collapsing, light-headed from the pain.

Misato caught her before she passed out, carried her to one of the vehicles and drove into the tunnels through the opening doors.

Siktor Cayden DiNay

Pilot – Red Sigma

LtCmdr Akoval Adams as Tankor Fayol

Agent – Special Defence Agency

Brig Misato Murphy as Tankor/Tamsik Macid

Director – Special Defence Agency (played by Akoval)