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***

- Hyarty, you said it was jammed," Joe said, watching another hysterical newscast.

- Yeah, we can't get through to anyone. But we're picking up a signal from Xandar.

- Things...

The sergeant clutched his head. I just sighed heavily. I mean, who said it would be easy? It was a good thing I'd stashed my ship in the woods - at least I could have flown away if I'd been at the base. We were just lucky - we were on a hunt.

The Maiden has gone into hyperjump. It should last two hours - incredibly short, but...

- Joe, go to bed. And get the lads to their bunks, as long as we're in hyper, we're perfectly safe.

- Where are we going?

- To a neighbouring system for now, we'll try and contact HQ from there. We're soldiers at war, Joe, so we can't just save our own skins....

The sergeant saluted and left, and I stayed in the deckhouse. I sat there, thinking, looking at the hyperspace haze.

The situation was most unpleasant - communication was lost with many colonies on the border with the Kria sector. The situation was dire - Xandar wasn't even going to war, just keeping a few soldiers on the border, but... there hadn't been a war in a long time - the soldiers of the last war with Kria were now generals and admirals, they knew how dangerous the enemy was. Younger officers are kicking arse, thinking the blues will honour the terms of the peace treaty. They did.

It was the lives of soldiers and colonists and labourers that paid the price for the army's excessive liberality.

- Bersih, what are your thoughts on the outbreak of war?

- The Kree managed to keep the preparations for the invasion secret. And also - to inflict tangible damage with the first strike, the colonies captured will be used in the war. The weakest link in the Xandar military is the junior officers, those who have not fought in the last war. They lack not only experience but also a realistic view of war and the enemy. Excessive liberality and "freedom" has led to partial degradation of the officer corps. The army's lack of control was reinforced by the Kree's means of jamming communications, which doomed the colonies to a quick demise. Parliament is now in session on the war, and the debate is heated, suggesting that the Kree will be able to advance far enough before the CCS can mount a serious resistance.

- So..." I thought for a moment, "that means we missed the strike. Then it's probably useless to search for communication with the command...

- The generals. No, it's quite possible, right now the General Staff and Admiralty are in the lead in the ranking of the most adequately reacting forces on Xandar's side. Lower level commanders are in a panic and trying to follow instructions, but it's not too successful.

- Getting into the army's systems again?

- Open source only, Captain. I don't have the ability to get into VCS systems yet.

I shook my head:

- Then we'll have to find a way in to one of the generals. So, what are your thoughts on what we should do? What should we do to do the most damage to the enemy?

- I'm guessing the Kree didn't expect anyone from the colony to escape and strike back. Based on what I know, the Kree are now operating on a complex plan and are most vulnerable to sabotage. However, I can activate LC310 and it will attack one of the Kree fleets head-on. With incredible gun power, invisibility and shields for this galaxy, the LC will be able to mix up the enemy's plans...

- That's not the strategy I'm going to choose," I refused, "You should only hit like that when all normal means of counteraction have been exhausted. Unmasking the LC, invisibility, its guns and all that... it could create chaos, especially among the liberal-minded public of Xandar.

* * *

The Blind Maiden went out into black space. Where there are no planets, no stars, nothing. Millions and billions of kilometres around - absolute emptiness. And in the middle of this gigantic void, there's a little ship dangling. Thirty centimetres of durasteel separates the inner world from the infinity, the abyss.

It's not for nothing that I made myself a powerful ship after all. I did it not out of necessity, but out of interest, learning the technique and practising on the Virgo all the technical innovations I had learnt. I thought about it for a moment - I didn't have any battle droids left. Creating new ones requires, first of all, complex electronics, which are available on LCs, but I don't have them. I won't even mention the destroyed reactors - it was a colossal expense! Droid reactors are priceless, each of them could power a corvette-class ship or even a light cruiser, or be the core of a powerful war machine. That's where it got tricky. NEWT was suffocating!

- Iskin, get me a link to Vigo.

- Just a second.

Vigo answered almost instantly:

- Roma?

- Hello, Vigo! - I couldn't see his face, the connection was only audio.

- What a relief! I thought you didn't make it. What happened to you?

- It's easier to say what didn't happen. I was stationed on Karsan IV, by the way. Garrison.

- Karsan-Karsan. I don't remember it.

- It's a small colony on the border with the Kree. We're in their occupied zone now.

- Roma? Are you all right? - Vigo asked surprised, 'I heard that all the colonies on the border with the Kree have been invaded.

- In full. Yeah, the Kree jammed the comms and killed everyone almost instantly. Me and four other guys were lucky, we were on a hunting trip. I parked my ship in the woods near the colony. After the Kree took over the colony we gave them a beating, overloaded the power plant reactor... well, there's no more Karsan-4, the whole place blew up. However, we have no contact with command and we're hanging out in space, in an occupied zone. Vigo, I need your help...

- Anything I can do, Rom," Vigo said cautiously.

- 'I need to transmit a hyperlink transmitter to the Xandar command. My ship, as you realise, is not integrated into the military communications network, so we're flying blind for now. As for the rest, I can manage on my own, I'm not a small man.

Vigo just sighed:

- Okay, Rom, I'll pass it on. You go back to Xandar....

- I can't, there were no orders. I'm a soldier after all.

- All right, I'm off. The connection's gone.

But half an hour later, HQ came back on the line. This time there was a picture. Skype's working!

- Who's there? - I answered the call, sitting relaxed in the pilot-captain's chair.

The picture showed a middle-aged, middle-aged man wearing a commander's uniform.

- Commander Malkiss. Vigo handed me this device...

- 'Ah, yes, splendid,' I rose and saluted, 'Commander, Private Hyarty, 677th Division, KD VCS.

Malkiss nodded:

- 'Soldier, let's keep this short, we've got such an emergency here... what's yours?

- We were garrisoning a Korsan 4 colony, from the information we had, it was one of the first to be captured. All personnel and civilians were wiped out except for five soldiers, including me. Judging by the fact that the enemy did not use heavy weapons, the Kree hoped to get the colony for their own use. We made the decision to destroy Korsan 4. We fought our way into the colony's power plant and caused damage to the power plant's reactor, resulting in a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed all aluminium mining and processing facilities. We left the planet in my personal ship, the Blind Maiden, currently in the Kree occupation zone. We await further instructions.

The commander was silent for a long time. After a moment, he asked:

- There are five of you out there, right? How did you manage that?

- I'm paranoid, Mr Commander. Even on a peaceful planet I brought a ship and several tonnes of armaments, we had several combat drones. They self-destructed on the planet, but thanks to them we managed to distract the Kree from the power station and take it over for a while. We did get smoked out, but it was too late.

Malkiss looked very pensive. On his rough, angular face, it looked strange. He asked:

- What resources do you possess at the moment?

- Five personnel, weapons and armour somewhat better than standard models, the Blind Lady is a heavily armed fast ship, equipped with an analogue of the stealth system, designed for sabotage operations. We've got enough provisions for another six months. Plus I'm a little more capable than the average fighter.

Malkiss looked pleased:

- Who's in charge?

- For the moment, I am, as captain of the ship.

His silence did not last long - he clarified something on the terminal and immediately turned to me in a completely different tone:

- Good. You must understand that you are in the zone of occupation, which is valuable in itself. We are just at the end of the confusion and panic, so there is no plan of action yet. I would ask you to stay where you are for now until HQ analyses the situation.... However, I don't think that the remnants of your division, and even in such a modest size, will attract the attention of the command.

- Should we return to one of our bases? - I asked hopefully.

- No, not yet. The Kree are watching us closely, so it's impossible to get a sabotage team into their space. There's no way out, we'll have to rely on what we have.

- You mean us..." I mumbled, but the commander heard me:

- Yes, you. Listen to me, I have a mission for you. While there is war and confusion, while part of our territory is under occupation, the border is not so clearly controlled. Although the Kree are sure to have a roadblock at every fork... Our army needs a little time to get back in order, and the fleet is trying to buy that time. If you can divert the Kree from the offensive, it'll help us a lot.

- How exactly, Mr Commander?

- As you wish. Intelligence is giving us very mixed reports right now, so we don't know what's out there. We need a diversion, and the Kree don't expect it. The emperor will have to divert his attention to domestic issues. If you succeed, you'll have done a great deal for the Republic, I guarantee you won't be left without your due reward....

Except I'll be a sworn enemy of the Kree, the commander forgot to add. Well, we have to think. We can try to rustle behind the Kree's back, so that they'd walk with a lookout.

- Iskin, what do you think?

- I believe the commander is right. At this point, the enemy is better prepared for military action and is waiting for a counterattack. It's useless to try to attack Kree military forces. They'll be most vulnerable to sabotage operations.

- Can you plan such an operation?

- No problem, I have the information I need.

- Then should I go along with it? Because the Kree will be after me!

- They've never been known for their friendliness. But I believe you are in a position to defend yourself, captain. Trying to remain incognito, by the way, will fail with a ninety-nine per cent probability - you're part of the Xandar war machine, and the Kree will do anything to find out your name..." the ISKIN said meaningfully.

- You mean the Xandarians won't keep it a secret? - Doubtfully.

- Ninety-nine per cent probability. I recommend you keep your face and name secret. Experience in warfare tells us that a material enemy is more clearly feared than unknown faceless saboteurs. The same could be said of the emperor.

- Aren't we swinging a little too far? - I was horrified.

- I don't know. But in this case you will certainly not die in obscurity.

- Yeah, I don't need that kind of fame. A dilemma... and I can't refuse....

The seeker did not respond. Our entire dialogue took a few seconds, after which I returned to Malkiss:

- Yes, Mr Commander. When do you want me to start execution?

- The sooner the better. Why?

- We need to gather information and get weapons bigger than standard rifles. I suppose it'll take some time, but without that, I'm not taking my men to the slaughter.

- Sure, Private, that's out of the question. We'll deal with your legal status later. I'll contact you tomorrow, try to think of something with the weapons....

We said our goodbyes.

* * *

And I sat down to think. I really thought about it. So, there are four muzzies besides me - special droids were lost on Karsan, weapons - from serious - only one machine gun-relsotron I have. And that's it, no other equipment, no explosives, nothing. Proton torpedoes, missiles and MANPADS don't count. And it takes a lot of explosives to blow something up!

- Iskin, any idea where we can get some quality weaponry?

- LK310 is right where you left it. Or perhaps we could make the weapons and equipment ourselves, but that would take time, and your electronics skills leave a lot to be desired....

- You're right. However, a machine gun doesn't need sophisticated electronics. No, I need droids. And commandos at that.

- Then we'll just take the LC. The cruiser can synthesise enough reactor material to power 100 reactors. However, after that it will be necessary to restart the reactor - for this purpose it will be necessary to find two stars and squeeze them into black holes.

- Can't we make smaller droids?

- Reactors, Mr Captain. The process is irreversible, unfortunately. With a backup reactor, the LC will not be able to engage in more or less serious combat. What are your instructions?

- Send a message to the LC seeker to synthesise matter for the reactors and gather all materials necessary for crafting in the main hangar. Also, analyse the Kree Empire's vulnerabilities. Their strategic installations, colonies, weapons factories, military-industrial funding streams and technology centres...

- Already on it, Captain. But there's too little data to fully analyse.

- What are you waiting for? - I was surprised, - data from intelligence? There is only access to the Internet, so use it.

- All right, Captain. Shall we set a course for LC310?

- No, we're heading for Oblivion. First, we're gonna drop off our woeful hunters. Unlike me, they haven't had military training since they were little. I don't want them involved.

- As you command. Set course for the Oblivion. We'll be there in four hours and eleven minutes.

The ship has gone into hyperspace.

* * *

- How? - Joe asked puzzled.

- It's like this. The train's not going any further.

- Hjarti, you can't leave us here!

- How am I supposed to leave you here? - I looked round at the boys. Young and stupid, though I'm the youngest here, I guess.

- But where are we going? Where are you going?

- I have orders from Commander Malkiss. And believe me, it's better for you if you stay away from me. I'll give you money for the journey, you can fly to Xandar no problem.

Joe seemed offended. But there's no need to be snotty about teamwork, no friendship magic. I'm the captain here, I've made my decision, the team will only get in my way. Just in case of emergency I need those who can be sent to slaughter and walking bombs - that is droids.

Joe pressed his lips together in frustration:

- Hyarty, are you sure?

- Yes, I'm sure. You'll only die for nothing if you come with me. And if you don't, your life will be unbearable, not just in the army. So pack your things, I'll give you some provisions from the Virgin's supplies, and go to the nearest Republic base. I think there used to be a recruiting station here on Oblivion, you can try to apply there, they probably have a connection with the headquarters...

The farewell was short. Joe took charge of the others and in half an hour, with a thousand units per head, they left my ship. I left immediately, not wanting to stay any longer than necessary.

* * *

I needed droids. Not just any soldier droids, but saboteurs. They had special requirements - they couldn't just roll the enemy with heavy weapons - they had to be mobile, low-visibility, high firepower and resistance to enemy fire.

All of this forced the use of very expensive technology. Expensive even for me - clean energy reactor, juice and durasteel.....

I started designing it while I was on the LC. The basic droid was much more complex than traditional commandos. It was similar in appearance to a human, but there were differences in the details. Thanks to a complex system of muscles, he could, for example, twist his arms or legs backwards, at right angles. Say, to instantly aim a gun behind his back, for example. The reactor was hidden deep in the hull, and the hull itself was made of juice-durastal. The durasteel was used for the main components - the skeleton, secondary power elements - unlike juice it melted easily. Juice - a material that is not subject to temperature effects - this metal, thanks to some effects could safely withstand external temperatures up to five thousand degrees. It is clear that fire and plasma could not take it - to such a temperature do not glow weapons plasma - too great a risk to create a huge fire, after the thermal energy dissipated. A thousand degrees is its limit, but that's enough in most cases - matter either burns, melts, or heats up to critical temperatures.

The droid's mass was a hefty three hundred kilograms. This was completely unacceptable, so I had to put a repulsor in it, which could work downwards and at the right moment reduce the pressure on the ground, down to zero. The repulsor was one, where the hip bone would normally be. The droid had a landing gear platform there.

Externally, the droid had a female figure - simply because of my emphasis on plasticity and speed. The muscle stroke was large, but the ultimate load limit was considerably more than a human, but it was a long way from a commando droid. Lifting half a tonne, he could probably do it, but no more.

Reduction of arms, legs, in the waist area, where there are no important elements, made the droid with a female figure. I myself added a tiny thickening in the chest area - so that from afar it could be confused with a female figure. I didn't bother with the face - a plate with one big eyepiece of thermal imager and two small eyepieces of IR and conventional cameras. Vocabulator took a local - with a standard female voice, so neutral, belonging to a girl in her twenties, a little carefree voice. And finally, the armament.

The droid's primary weapons were two short swords. Since receiving mine, I had become well versed in these weapons and knew a lot about them. The swords were slightly curved, with a large serration in the front - the kind that inflicted more serious wounds at a more modest weight.

The droid's clothing had to be designed from a durable fabric used in the military. Coal black fabric with cut-outs in the right places for the jet engines to work, so that the droid could fly. A hood concealed the shape of the head. The clothes looked pretty stylish, what the heck...

The final blueprint had to be finalised - a backup power system, armament - light blasters in the hands. It was impossible to do more than that. Inertia. Otherwise you lose agility. But hand weaponry was a must.

* * *

- Are you sure about this? - I asked the seeker hesitantly.

- I'm sure. There are as many stars as there are drops in the sea. No one would notice a few missing.

- That's not what I mean. Are you sure you can handle it?

- That's a stupid question, Captain.

- Rom, don't worry, grab that star and let's go....

LK made the reactors I needed. But it cost all the remaining fuel - the black holes inside the reactor simply collapsed, leaving behind a cloud of hydrogen. No special effects. Naturally, the ship needed fuel - it had to fly to the centre of the galaxy, to a place where there are a lot of stars and very few to keep an eye on.

The giant carcass of the ship seemed insignificant, a bacterium against the elephant-star. I watched the takeover from the bridge. The ship fired up the fusion reactor to full power and generated a field of some kind that began to envelop the star. The captain, meanwhile, was commenting:

- The star is now caught in a compression field. Within this field the interatomic distance is changing, simply put - matter is being compressed without reducing its mass and amount of matter.

The star did indeed begin to recede slightly. The field continued to work - after an hour the star was already the size of a planet and shone fantastically bright. Even the light filters couldn't cope. I looked away.

- Captain, tell me, did this star retain its physical properties after the compression?

- So far, yes. But soon the interatomic bonds will begin to break down altogether, and the particles that make up the star will start to merge into each other, eventually merging into one supermassive particle. This particle is made of matter, so it has mass and gravity. And then it, being loaded into the reactor, will begin to vaporise, thanks to a special field inside the reactor its mass will be reduced to zero, that is, from a classic black hole, devouring everything, it will turn into a fairly safe source of energy.

- I'm not talking about that, - I interrupted his words, - tell me, is it possible to reduce something thanks to this field? Like, say, a droid?

The captain booted up. It booted up pretty good.

- I hadn't thought of that. When we left our galaxy, this technology was just coming out of the labs and into practice. I don't think anyone had time to come up with the idea....

- Just imagine - I smiled - thanks to this field you can reduce the droid to the size of a small dog, or even an insect. The amount of energy it produces would remain the same, and therefore it would be more dangerous in battle than a large droid. It's almost impossible to hit a small one.

The thought that came into my head made me immediately drop all the things - droids, lk, Deva, weapons, and get busy with the field of reducing interatomic bonds. And to my surprise, it was simple. Primitive. It took three days of experimentation to build a reduction device - similar to a weapon. I did the first tests on the objects that came up, but to do so I stepped out of the LC, onto its hull, on top of it. My armour easily worked as a spacesuit, and my powerful engines allowed for great speed in space - I moved easily. After flying away from the LC for a few kilometres, I took my test subject - an old broken armoured suit and used a shrinking rifle on him. The result - it immediately shrank in half. But after a second, it doubled in size again. I didn't give up - by adjusting the field parameters, increasing the power, I managed to shrink the suit to the size of a small doll's clothes. That was great - according to my observations, the suit retained its properties - it was impossible to penetrate it with a sword, the vibromech cut the metal very reluctantly. So it retained its properties.

Having performed a tambourine dance in open space, I kicked the old armoured suit in the direction of the nearest star, and flew at full speed to the LC.

- I did it! - The helmet and the whole suit disappeared, leaving me in my sports trousers and T-shirt, - I did it, it works!

- Surprisingly," said the Captain.

- On the contrary. Everything turned out to be ridiculously simple. Why did your engineers bother with it?

- I suppose shrinking a star is more difficult than shrinking something simple. By the way, will you show me your work?

- Sure.

The shrinker was tried on a nearby tech droid. He shrank in size to a toe-boy and twirled his head in surprise, trying to figure out what to do....

* * *

Kree sector.

* * *

The Blind Maiden ship, modernised and modified, entered the Kria sector. This time it wasn't just out in the sector, it was the size of a model. And generally resembled a model ship, with one exception - it was real.

Sitting in my chair, I puffed up with pride - I had managed to do the near impossible. Or rather, it was the Imperial engineers who had managed to do the almost impossible, I had only found a very good use for their ingenious technology!

Since the mass and power of the engines remained the same, there was no gain in speed due to the reduction. The ship travelled at the same speed as before. And manoeuvrability remained the same - inertia was not cancelled. But the Kree could not notice such a microscopic object against the background of space, and even if they could, they were not able to realise that it was a ship. There's a lot of rubbish flying around in space - pebbles the size of gravel, sand, gases, comets, and the like... the only thing that could give me away was a powerful hadron ejection from the ship's engines. But I tried to accelerate in the right direction and then immediately reduce the mode to minimum - so the ship continued to move with a slight acceleration, but almost no energy emission. I had to calculate my movements in advance, so that I wouldn't have to demask myself with manoeuvres later.

The Kree patrol corvette seemed larger than the LC310 - everything in the world is relative. So, I've done my homework.

- Iskin, give me the results of your thinking. What's the plan of attack?

- The plan is simple, Captain," the seeker unfolded a map in front of me on the centre screen, "the planet contains deposits of several valuable metals. Because of this, the planet now has the status of strategically important - it is guarded with special care. There are also six weapons factories here - they make components for Kree weapons and ships. The largest of these is Troken Surriga, a large industrial complex located on a huge frozen supervolcano. The Kree use the core of the supervolcano to gravity lift iron from the planet's core. Forty per cent of all hardware for the ships of the Kree fleet is produced here. The second complex is located on the site of an exploded mountain, where osmium is mined, a metal widely used in both the fleet and industry of the Kria as a whole. It is the richest deposit of this metal in kria space. Destroying these two complexes would seriously compromise the enemy's ability to supply and repair their fleet.

- Seriously. And how do we destroy them? - I asked, can the supervolcano be awakened?

- Exactly, Captain. A supervolcano can be awakened by a powerful thermonuclear explosion, for which I took the most powerful thermonuclear warhead that was on the LC. Half a gigaton, if we detonate it in exactly the opposite place, the blast wave will go through the planet's core and out through the volcanoes and supervolcanoes. There would be a massive earthquake, but it would be frivolous to hope that the ruthenium mines would be destroyed....

- If the supervolcanoes erupt, every living thing on the planet will be wiped out. So you can leave the ruthenium mines for later. So, we need to infiltrate a specially protected planet, drill a deep shaft and put a warhead in it? - I clarified.

- Exactly. The other targets are much more complicated, so I took the simplest plan for the first time.

- Okay," I agreed, "let's go. Can you burn through the planet?

- We'll have to get to normal size and use the full power of the reactor. It'll take about thirty minutes to create the adit.

* * * *

The planet was downright scary. One big swamp, as far as I was concerned - only the mountains and foothills were more or less pretty, the rest was swampy. The ship flew up to the right place. We were above the ocean - everywhere we looked there was water.

- You mean we're going to be scuba divers too?

- We have to.

Oh, Maiden went down to the bottom. Nothing happened to her - she went down easily, pointed her guns downwards and the turbolasers opened fire. The dense beam slammed into the ocean floor, beginning to scorch everything in its path. The water refracted the beam, but after five minutes it was clear - the water flowing down the adit was vaporising at the point of contact between the beam and the lithosphere and the vapour pressure was pushing the water upwards. The pressure down below was serious, but the vapour pressure was not bad either. I sat in the pilot's seat and just watched the situation. Intelligence satellites were flying overhead, monitoring every millimetre of the planet. But they didn't see us, probably because of the water. And the surfacing of all kinds of sludge was blamed on an underwater volcano.

Twenty minutes later I asked the seeker if everything was all right - he told me that it was almost finished. And it was time to have some fun.

I decided to mess with the enemy a bit, and thought I'd record a video message for Thanos. Why not, we could have some fun....

While I was trying to find the right words, the engine finished melting the lithosphere and the warhead went in. I switched on all cameras to record and rushed out of the planet as fast as I could, into orbit, even further. And I kept recording.

* * *

- Hey, Thanos! - A young guy in a paratrooper's combat armour waved his hand, hello. I just wanted to congratulate you on a successful invasion. No, really, the fact that you managed to hide the preparations is worthy of respect. And using the fact that the Republicans are playing with democracy and liberalism is admirable, and if I were your generals, I would have done the same. Except I'm not on your side.

Where do I start? Let me start at the beginning. There's a planet called Trocken. Frankly, it's a terrible place. Swamps, swamps, swamps. The only thing that helps is Trocken Surriga, you know it? It's a huge industrial complex where they make components for your fleet's ships. Hardware - armour, kit, that sort of thing... Or rather, they used to. Let's take a look together at this magnificent sight! - The guy smiled and the image changed. Planet. Suddenly, on one side, in the ocean, there was an explosion. A huge amount of water flew out into the atmosphere, though it was very modest against the backdrop of an entire planet. Suddenly the camera focused on another part of the planet - there was a famous steel mill. At first it was not quite clear what was happening, but then a huge explosion shook the surface of the planet. A giant pillar of fire erupted where the plant had been a second ago, and the planet slowly began to be enveloped in smoke.

A voice-over commented:

- You know, building such an important metallurgical complex in the vent of a giant supervolcano is a bad idea.

That was the end of the video, posted on the galaxy's most popular resources.