It was to be a quick mission. The Alliance had determined that there was a cache of illegal weapons being stockpiled on Shadow. They needed a team to go in, get the evidence of it and then destroy it. It had to be done with the utmost precision. That is why they turned to Kane.

Kane was loyal, patriotic and on a mission, absolutely reliable. In the dozen or so times he had been sent out, he had not failed to complete the all assigned tasks. He had showed such potential while in the Alliance Academy on Ariel that he was recruited into the Special Operations branch of the military directly upon graduation. High honor indeed since that had happened only three times in the history of the Alliance military. Short of some sweeping change in the political landscape or other unforeseen event, Kane’s military career was set.

Now, tensions were high. The Alliance for months had been reaching out to the so called Independents with overtures of peace and good will. The remote independent planets were savage and often ruled by ruthless despots. The Alliance wanted to offer everyone in the ‘Verse safety, security and protective freedom. They had the best food, the best medical and the most advanced culture and they wanted everyone to enjoy those things. But it seemed that the malevolent rulers of those savage ‘Independent’ worlds would rather brutalize their citizenry that enjoy prosperity as a member of the Alliance. What was worse is those same citizens appeared to have been brainwashed to the point where, by and large, they accepted the way things were and even supported their Independent rulers. Because of this things had come to the point where the patience and benevolence of the Alliance had been stretched to the breaking point.

All of this was part of why Kane was here now. He and his team—Schmidt, Wallace, Sing and Lopez—were here on Shadow to try and remove a threat to the peace of the ‘Verse. They had been set down three days ago and since then had been working toward the objective that loomed ahead. Kane