Hex had been absent from the Association compound, and it's usual duties, for over two days. Ever since speaking with Ammy and Street about Fen Stridar, the machine had not even been on the planet. In point of fact, Hex had taken it's shuttle back to the frigate in orbit of one of the moons, there to contact it's home and Mother, Ark Vesuvius.

During those two days, Hex had reported everything that had happened since the first appearance of the deity-class being known as Fen Stridar, including the probability that Fen had been to Vesuvius and stolen Marduk technology. To say that the Ark Mother was upset would be an understatement, inasmuch as a machine over ten centuries old can be 'angry'. Hex had been ordered to wait for the task force before returning to Rhydin's surface, and now at last, the Marduk were on their final approach.

*********

Stars End had fallen into a rather sad state of affairs, at least compared to ten years ago when the spaceport was frequented by ships numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands, per day. Nowdays though, the port traffic control personell were lucky if they saw a hundred ships pass through in a month. Jeff was unlucky enough to get the weekend shift this week, and sat at his console bored out of his mind. The last traffic through had been almost four hours ago, and nothing else was scheduled till late night.

About to get up and go for more coffee to keep his mind alert, a different sort of stimulant brought him sitting upright in his seat. Where two seconds ago had been an empty screen showing the approach paths from deep space, now over fourty contacts had suddenly shown up. Two of them measured almost two thousand meters long, and the smallest was about two hundred.
His coffee forgotten, Jeff slammed the comms headset over his head and started trying to hail the incoming contacts, for they were definately on an approach path to the planet.

"Attention unidentified contacts! This is Stars End Traffic Control. You are not scheduled in our shipping pattern, please halt at outer beacon and identify yourselves immediately!"
Normally this kind of formality wasn't necessary when it was just one or two ships, even a small handfull could just come down the approach lanes. But this? This was the closest Jeff had seen to a true fleet in some time! People from outspace just didn't bother with Rhydin anymore, what with all the Nexus flux these days.
For a long moment Jeff was holding his breath as the blips approached the outer beacons... And slowed to a precise halt, the contacts spreading out into a perfect geometric shape, some kind of hexagonal fractal pattern, almost like a snowflake. Well, at least this wasn't some freak meteor storm, which Jeff had been half fearing till just now.

Finally Jeff let go of that held breath and opened the comm channel again, "Attention unidentified contacts. Please transmit some form of identification before approach clearance can be granted."
Jeff waited a full minute before he got an answer, a digital stream encoded as text and images, no audio. The message was easily deciphered and the display came up:

~To: Stars End TraConn~
~Identity: Marduk task force originating from Ark Vesuvius~
~Intent: Pacification of fugative currently located on planet Rhydin.~
~Query: Request clearance of task force fleet to lunar orbit.~
~Awaiting response. End of line.~

Following the text was a three dimensional image, the same 'snowflake' pattern, in dark blue and red chasings, slowly spinning on the vertical axis.
Jeff stared at the screen for another long moment. Finally he typed out a response, "Please await clearance, stand by." and sent it back to the alien fleet. That done, he grabbed a cigarette from his pocket and lit up, leaning back in his chair. He wasn't even sure who he should call, but he certainly wasn't about to be the only person responsible for allowing this 'task force' to approach the planet.

Ammy pulled a Hell Knight helmet off of one of the pikes in the Dens town square. She studied it. Her left paw told her the energy matched Marduk Bio-Metal and something else. She put the helmet back on the pike and poked through the rest of the captured armor.

The Lupinossai workers kept working but they watched their leader investigate the war trophies. Some were betting the meager silver pieces they had on what she was doing.

Ammy's white frost rimmed eyes inspected the torn chest plates and disintegrated arm stumps. She wasn't aware of this ability in Fleet. She peered through a massive hole in a chest plate and saw something crystalline embedded in the armor. She transmuted a diamond knife and dug it out. The crystal pulsed weakly, and she about dropped it. Chaotic's energy was all over it.

A series of booms caught her attention. She looked up expecting rain. Instead, she saw ships plummet to the SA compound. They were no ordinary ships. She knew them. Marduk frigates. Six of them. She tucked the crystal in her flat space pack to keep it isolated and took off running. Her Marduk prosthetic legs pumping away. We would have been much easier if Street was around. But he was reported to be Fleet at Suedes Clinic tending to Fleets injuries.

This made her run all the more faster to the SA compound. One person would know what's up. And that was a Marduk named Hex.

Much had happened in the handful of days since the Marduk arrived. An army of machines descended on the Lupinossi enclave, rapidly and efficiently erecting a series of defenses. The immediate perimeter of what was by now a small town was encircled by a twenty foot tall guard wall, patrolled from on top and outside at all times by various models of combat Drones. Some where the low, sleek forms of the Hunter models, designed after various predatory animals; others were the bulky forms of Gunners, fitted with all manner of long-range weaponry.

At regular intervals along the wall were guard towers, manned by more Gunner model Marduk. The towers themselves were fitted with various weapons, from impacters, proton cannon, missile racks, anti-air guns, plasma napalm ejectors, and even close range proton lances. Beyond the wall itself was a twenty meter no-man's land, with every square meter of land riddled with anti-armor and anti-personell mines, all save the four roads leading from the gates of the enclave on to the outer perimeter, each only ten meters wide.

The outer perimeter was a simple fence, more a decoration and landmark than actual defensive measure. No, the real defenses were the regularly spaced bunkers, armed with all the weapons the inner wall towers had; these combined with the even larger patrols of Hunters and Gunners which randomly roamed the outer perimeter. The entire Lupinossi enclave had been turned into a fortress town. The Marduk were preparing themselves for a war, and they expected the enemy to target the Lupinossi.

For the moment things had been quiet, but that could not last so long as Fen Strider was free and able to plan his next attack. To that end over two hundred Marduk had been formed into patrols and set loose in Rhydin city, each linked to a comms network and given the orders to search for any sign of Fen Stridar. None would initiate hostilities inside the city, but rather attempt to lure any hostiles either outside the city, or else to the corner of the Market district where the Shaved Kurii lay. Hex had been preparing for that too, purchasing most of the buildings in the immediate area and erecting hidden defenses and fire containment systems to prevent damage spreading to the surrounding city.

A few weeks had passed since Street found Ammy in his bed at the Den Compound. She just wanted a place to rest. The battle with Fen in the short span of time had worn her out.

When Street finally woke her, it had been a few days. Fen Stridar was either laying low for good or was dead. Nothing had happened in a while. The Den was now prospering with their versions of medieval technology and wares.

Rumors spread that Hex was pulling out of the Association and taking most of the Legion of Chain with him. She wasn't sure what to think about that, though she herself no longer viewed herself bound to the Slavers Association anymore. Her people were free and had a home on this realm.

All things seemed to be going well, with only one problem. Fleet never did return. She was going to attempt a trans-realm contact spell later in the week to find out what happened to Fleet. He shouldn't have been gone this long.

She rubbed her forehead and closed her little leather tome. She sat in her own quarters at the Den. She finally had an alchemy lab to call her own, and was opening an alchemy wears shop to cater to all things magical and healing. Maybe it was time to say goodbye to Fleet if he never returns.

They had no pups. She was not carrying a litter of his, so their mating union was just words at this point. She closed her eyes and flicked the thought away. She wouldn't let him go so easily. He was out there. Somewhere.

She opened her eyes and stood. She better go catch Hex one more time before he too disappears into the realms of mercenary. So much had changed in the few months she was hear. She couldn't help but feel that she brought chaos to a well run organization. It was now coming unhinged, or maybe, just maybe, it was time for everyone to move on to new ventures.