The occupied Territories, Maramanakama.

5:59 Local Planetary time

Kalynka and the others that had barely managed to escape the enemy’s encirclement were now deep in another part of the city and away from harm. They were in one of their safe houses and were having a little celebration/wake for the battle and their fallen comrades, hugging and giving each other a pat on the back. Kalynka who was just as cheerful and at the same time as sad as the rest of them walked towards Ahmaianos who was in a corner away from the main festivities and as she approached him she noticed he was crying.

“Hey is everything alright?” she said with concern in her voice.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m okay, I thought that today we would all die&h.e.l.lip;..because of me&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;if we hadn’t raided that column a week ago, this wouldn’t have happened&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;..the others would still be alive.” he replied half elated and half in sorrow.

“We all decided to do that raid and we all decided to stay and fight here, what happened today wasn’t your fault!” she said and gave him a hug to rea.s.sure him that everything was alright.

“Looks like we had ‘n.o.body’ to thank for that, whoever he is I thank the Great Catcher for him!” Ahmaianos said and returned the hug from Kalynka, he then got up and went to join the other in celebration, regardless of who this mysterious figure was, or how he managed all that had transpired today, one thing was certain namely that although the immediate future had up until this point always seemed to be bleak for them, now for the very first time there appeared to be a silver lining, a way of salvation for them and their people.

Volunian Federation Southern flank.

6:00

“Yes everything’s alright.”

 Hannibal said in near perfect Imperial, he then gave a small report to the man on the other side of the communication crystal and ended the conversation.

“Where did you learn Imperial common?” Lance asked him, with a surprised expression on his face.

“There were a couple of Imperial girls in some of the ports I was stationed at, I’ll tell you about it some other time, now we need to send a message to our headquarters and

sneak back to our own lines.” Hannibal said as he surveyed the landscape, trying to find a way out of this.