Umgul Defense Force Headquarters

Intelligence Department

"Dismissed." Said that familiar voice to the officers that had just been briefed and assigned to sectors to focus on. Lieutenant Horsea Aestrea had been the center of attention of every operatives in this command center room. While usually she despised the attention that was poured upon her, Horsea, who still currently held that position in the Kiffars chain of command, was in this room and in this facility the higher up of the Intelligence Department. She had no safety net so to speak and while she had been trusted in this position, she had one apprehension every day and every minutes she was here. That apprehension; to mess up.

As the crowd dispersed to resume its duty and execute themselves with their orders and cover its assigned territory, Horsea looked up to see that familiar figure that was leaning against the farthest wall. Smiling warmly at the person, Horsea made her way towards her. "Been here long?" Asked Horsea dubiously before she watched the figure pushing against the wall to stand upright.

"The beginning of your briefing." Replied Mace with a noticeable smile, a smile that could mean so many things but Mace wasn't really known to speak much, or at least that was before until lately. Noticing the surprise look on Horsea's face, Mace just shook her head and added. "Oh don't worry, I wasn't about to interrupt something important, besides, what I wanted to speak with you about could and can wait." She reassured her friend and it was the truth, Mace had that philosophy that everything would happen in its due time. A moment earlier or later wasn't going to kill her.

"I have time now before getting to the nitty gritty part of my job in here."

"Very well." Said Mace with a warm smile. "First things first, happy birthday which is the most important thing. I am actually surprised to not see Kes around." Added on Mace with a knowing and meaningful expression, it was almost a teasing one.

"Oh please. Knowing you, you already know that he has something up his sleeves." Horsea replied as she narrowed her eyes and looked at Mace suspiciously. "You are after all one of the mind readers on this planet."

"I do not know what you are talking about." Said Mace nonchalantly while she and Horsea walked out of the command center after the latter grabbed the stacked files on the table.

"Lousy liar. . ." Horsea muttered under her breath before hearing Mace chuckle briefly but it soon died down, which caused Horsea to look at her although before asking the question, she waited that they were in her office. Once they were there, she shut the door behind them and looked at Mace dubiously. "Something is going on?"

Mace who had grown accustomed to this office, due to the fact that it was here mainly that she along with the other Kiffars worked on those artifacts and other texts that they had been gathering for that other matter, still glanced around this place as if she was discovering it for the very first time. Everything was exactly the same though, Horsea was known to be orderly when it came to her. Mace turned around nonetheless at Horsea's question and looked at her quite seriously but still with a placid expression.

"Your brother still can't get over the fact that Forcias is still fraternizing with Lieutenant Lyn." Mace pursed her lips and shut her mouth momentarily to order her own thoughts and try to find the best approach on how to say the next part. It was no secrets in the Kiffar chain of commands what had been going with those two. Even she was growing weary with those talks and from the looks of it, even Horsea still couldn't believe her brother's sentiment about that when everything had been all so clear from day one. Mace, personally, was fine with that. Honoros was a different matter. "I was with all of them earlier before coming here, for some training and a fleeting, for the time being, thought passed through your brother's mind."

"Wh-. . ." Began to ask Horsea before seeing Mace's drop dead serious expression. "NO!" She exclaimed a little too loudly before covering her mouth with her left hand. She just couldn't believe that her brother would even think that.

"I know I have just ruined your birthday, and I am very sorry but I want to hear from you here and now what you think, although you have just given me enough reasons." Said Mace. She was still the mind reader in this room and the Kiffars' thoughts were ones that she really couldn't and wouldn't shut off.

"Honoros cannot do that. He would dare do that?" Horsea still couldn't believe that his brother would go to that length to emphasize a point and get it across. "But we need Forcias here. . ." Added Horsea softly, she was still in shock to find out that her brother was considering of assigning Forcias to a different sector in the galaxy and maybe tell him to return to Kiffex to guard those prisons.

"Yes and I will remind your dearest brother that we actually do, even if I have to pull ranks again." Mace muttered under her breath, she despised pulling ranks especially when most of the Guardians and particularly the higher ups were older than her. "Besides it wouldn't be the same without him around."

"It's going to cause a friction. . ." Said Horsea regretfully before sighing softly and going over to her desk to put the files down. "Half of the Guardians are siding with Honoros at least and is expecting for him to take a drastic decision to fix that."

"Yes. . ." Concurred Mace before she shook her head and gritted her teeth slightly.

"And if you stand up against him with Ayla, your reputa-. . ."

"I never cared for my reputation." Said Mace quickly cutting Horsea off knowing where her statement was heading. "I neither have ever asked them to follow me. They did it because what? It is their duty?" Seeing Horsea's expression, Mace only shook her head. "If a schism is going to happen, so be it. I am so used to it now with everything that is going on between the Vyridian brothers and Jade. So one more or one less, at this point, I am up to. . ." She raised her hand above her head. "There." Dropping her hand again Mace just looked at Horsea and shrugged, she wasn't about to fix them for those three but when it came to the Kiffars, they all could choose also, she would leave them the choice to either leave or remain.

"Are you sure?" Asked Horsea.

"Watch me." Replied Mace with a determined tone before turning around to open the office's door to pretty much end that conversation.

Right then and there, Horsea just looked at Mace's leaving figure knowing that a leader, which she was as well in this facility, was always bound to make a decisive decision that could always change the tide of things. . .

Intelligence Department — Deputy Director's Office

Ayla Vos.

The supposedly second in command of the Kiffar Guardians. The supposedly tie breaker when it was necessary. The "supposedly" statements could go on and on but right now, Ayla Vos just shed that word out from whatever she was perceived as by the Guardians and had a very grave expression on her features as she stepped into the Intelligence Department. Usually she was one to stop and give a little smile here and there to the operatives in this facility but not today and certainly not this evening.

She had one goal and one goal only and that was to see the Deputy Director and it seemed like most people that were somewhat familiar with her already knew to not even get in her way. Ayla was thankful for that, thankful, not because she was going to lash out on them, and to be perfectly honest, there was no way she was going to adopt the Vice-Governor's expressions, but thankful because she had no time to waste currently.

She might have been on a mission, it might have been the case if one looked closely at her expression right now, she was harboring a grave expression but that was far from the truth. Right now she only needed, wanted to be near a sane person. That sane person she was referring to was Horsea Aestrea, of course.

Thus, before she even knocked on the door, it already opened and Horsea was standing there behind her desk with that same grave expression. Ayla just walked in and waited for the door to shut behind her before finally letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe she had been holding her breath and maybe she was trying to shut out every thoughts that were filtering in this facility which truth be told was easy enough for her but sometimes snippets got through.

"Likewise, Colonel." Said Horsea before she shook her head, she just felt the same way as her CO, she did not need to expand on that statement anyways considering that to Ayla and Mace, she let her mind be read whenever they were around.

Ayla winced at the thought that flashed through Horsea's mind, especially that conversation, or the yelling her friend endured coming from her brother.

"Yep. . ." Horsea said as she gestured to the seat in front of her desk before shaking her head letting out a defeated sigh. "And before you ask, no. . . There is no way I am about to sway you and Mace one way or the other because he is acting ridiculously."

"I know, that is not the reason why I came here." Replied Ayla while she waved her hand dismissively. Ayla knew Horsea that much, she cared about Forcias Kes and they all grew up together anyways, why the heck Honoros would try and break that bond? That was the General, if it wasn't by the book, it had to stop. That was then though and this is now. He, perhaps, should accept the fact that in the end they all knew where the top ranking officers of the Guardians would side. . . But that was a story for another time, as right now she could see Horsea's dubious gaze.

"I came here because I wanted to ask you if you heard anything from the Drakes?" Asked Ayla thoughtfully, she had received a communication a while ago from Lara but then nothing. Something just wasn't settling right with her, she couldn't pinpoint it exactly but she knew that whatever Lara and Keith were looking for, it could wind up dangerous.

Shaking her head at the question, Horsea was just drawing a blank when it came to Lara currently. "One of us should have gone with them. . ." Horsea was worried, how could not she be? They were tampering with things that were dangerous but not everyone was aware of that. . .

The dust from that proverbial wheel had been dusted off and it started re-spinning the day Crystal Kayne Solaris regained her abilities to manipulate the Force.

"Yes, and it's nearly time. . ." Finally said Ayla after a long pause as she exactly knew where her cousin currently was.

Intelligence Department — Deputy Director's Office

On her trip from the Vice Governor’s office towards the building which held her department, Horsea had received and encrypted message from Mace. Having heard briefly the reason why Ayla had shown herself at Andros’ office, Horsea wasn’t surprised that Mace was requesting for something that were either accessible going through city hall’s archives or through the military and therefore her department by extension. . . She told Mace that she was going to be on it and that she made Mace aware of the fact that Ayla was currently with Andros too. . .

She was stopped a few times on her way towards her office as some operatives were apprising her of a situation that concerned a certain head honcho of an organized crime, Horsea said to them that she was quite aware of that for having finding out relatively just now. . . But insofar all they knew was that Sike had been killed but as for who committed the crime or under what circumstances, they had no idea. Horsea dismissed partially the matter and told them that it was being handled by people already.

That was all they needed to know and everything that was of importance right now.

Finally when she got to her office, Horsea sat down to her seat and took a deep breath before accessing the census concerning this planet but also that targeted area requested by Mace, the wealthiest part of Umgul city but also the manifests from the spaceport in the last seven hours considering the time. . . Traffic had slowed down after a certain hour like it always did especially with the current time, but when she was done with all of that, she compressed the entire data and encrypted it before sending it to Mace with an added note, just a thanks.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes momentarily, she focused her attention back onto her data terminal to secure and upgrade all of the government networks, she knew that she was going to spend her entire night and even morning on this matter, but that wasn’t a problem, she figured that she would from time to time rest upon completing a segment of her coding. Although in between she called some of the techs to replace the servers that might have been compromised but told them to make sure to have the data backed up just in case. . .