“Ms. Turner, I am Sergeant Louis. I will be escorting you to the Federal Court today.”

Two hours before the trial started, a convoy of 10th Division vehicles moved into the Warden entrenchment. An armored vehicle lead the way while another acted as the rearguard. Protected in the middle were three Humvees.

The convoy consisted of fifty 10th Division soldiers. All of them were armed with the Terran technology Jean provided. Jean didn't give them CMC armors because the size of these armors didn't suit the nature of the U.S.N.A. military. Instead, she gave them trooper armors, slightly less protective than marine armors but much more agile. For weapons, they were armed with CK-27 gauss rifles.

After three missions, Jean saw these basic Starcraft weapons as toys, but for the locals, they were cross-generation weapons of war.

As she listened to Sergeant Louis, Jean’s eyes lingered on the armored vehicles. They had twin gauss cannons and three additional gauss machine guns. This alone made the convoy deadly military presence...at least against the local rebels. Against the Romans or the Wardens, all it did was change the duration of the battle from ten seconds to fifteen. The bullet rounds could break through the plating of neither forces.

The President and Jean made a deal. Jean would arrive at the court under the protection of U.S.N.A. forces. After all, she was there to connect with the people. If she marched in like an ice queen, protected by armies of sci-fi mechanical robots, which would she inspire more? Respect and understanding or fear and alienation?

At least that was what the President thought. Jean didn't disagree.

“Very well, Sergeant.” Jean glanced at the man again. She could clearly see the layer of sweat on his cheek, as well as his shaking hands as he saluted. But she didn't do anything.

She wanted to let this play out.

Jean quietly got onto the back seat of the first armored Humvee. Sergeant Louis climbed into the passenger seat. There was a third person in the vehicle, a driver. The convoy started moving out of the Warden trenches and toward the nation’s capital.

The first hour went by smoothly. Before long, the convoy has entered the city. Jean watched through the bulletproof window as the car drove across narrow streets with towering buildings on the side.

“Sergeant, why are we taking the small streets and not the highway?” She suddenly asked, her eyes sticking to the road.

Sergeant Louis turned around slightly as he returned a perfectly innocent answer.

“This is the quickest way. The highways are congested at this time of the day.”

Jean nodded. The car moved for several more minutes. The Voyager could see Louis continuously look down on his watch. On his side, the driver’s hands were shaking so hard the car itself was moving uncontrollably.

Finally, she said something that made both men freeze.

“What do you people have against living?”

As if a bomb went off, Sergeant Louis turned around, pulled out his gauss pistol, and emptied the magazine at the woman she was sent to protect, but Jean’s Voyager armor was already on her body. The gauss bullets bounced off effortlessly.

But that wasn’t all. The driver suddenly pressed a button on the control board. His hands were still shaking, but he acted without hesitation.

“For freedom!”

At the last moment, Jean glanced at Sergeant Louis’s eyes. The obedience and respect they once held were gone, replaced by endless fury and hatred. It was obvious he never intended on getting off this car alive.

Sergeant John Louis. Served under Colonel Johnson during the first engagement with the Romans. Survived. Was transferred to the 10th Division per the suggestion of General Johnson...

The next second, the entire vehicle exploded in a wave of bright white flames. White Phosphorus Munitions. It was a type of incendiary munition capable of burning until all the air around was depleted. Conventional methods to put down fire would be useless against it. Supposedly, it was banned from the arsenal for the psychological effect it had on all parties involved.

And now, this forbidden weapon was used in the ambush.

The two rebels were quickly dissolved in the flames, but they were merely a tiny part of the bigger picture.

The convoy came to a quick stop, but not a single soldier came down to try and put out the fire. Instead, dozens of men got off their vehicles and pulled out their rifles and started firing at the wreckage of the car. Before long, the two armored vehicles turned around their twin gauss cannons and joined the party as well. Waves of armor piercing rounds went through the flames and ripped the burning car wreckage to even smaller pieces.

But out of the flames, emerged a figure in black.

Jean waved her hand, and all the firing stopped just like that. All the rebel soldiers’ souls were taken out of their bodies. Without someone to use them, the weapons were meaningless.

Jean glanced into the air. An observer was right on top of her. Its scanners covered everything within her three kilometer radius. She was safe. She quietly sucked the souls in and started to ravage through their memories. It would destroy whatever consciousness the souls had, but the information she could gain would be worth it.

Jean knew certain members of the U.S.N.A. Army High Command was planning for some sort of rebellion. Her observers above the 10th Division detected the commander of the division, General Johnson, going through the division’s ranks and finding out potential supporters of the rebellion and recruiting them. It wasn’t a challenging task as Jean’s tactics and actions weren’t exactly favorable. The fifty men here were just a fraction of the rebels Johnson managed to gather.

These rebels were spread out. While a small group of them were sent after her, most of them were on guard duty today at the Federal Court. Jean remembered how the President said he wanted to show off a detachment of the 10th Division to the people to convince them the government could still protect them. Unfortunately, the detachment of the 10th Division was filled with rebels pissed against the current government and the war between the Voyagers and the Romans.

To this plan, Jean could only say the head of the conspiracy were completely blinded by their desire. Their plan was obvious. The heads of the current government would all be at the trial and the speech. The rebels there could form a coup and replace the current President with someone who would take a stronger stance on the Voyagers. The Romans have already given up trying to invade, so why should the Voyagers be allowed to roam free on the planet of Earth and do whatever they want at the cost of the people?

If the current President was too weak to confront the Voyagers, then maybe a new one could help.

Jean could only take note on how naive this idea was. First of all, only a fool would believe the Romans have truly given up. Plus, she was here already. She has taken losses to defend the locals, and now she was collecting the reward. Did they really think they could get rid of her with a single decree by the President? Well, that wasn’t exactly fair. They might have thought about the possibility that she would refuse to leave, but what did they do? They sent a few dozen assassins and tried to catch her by surprise and take her out…didn’t they see how she killed 20,000 Romans with a single move?

What could fifty men do?

Previously, Jean was willing to let this play out. Now that these rebels have exposed themselves, Jean was ready to go to the Federal Court and save the Voyager-friendly government from being overthrown. The President hoped she could convince the people nicely, but she felt like the sight of a thousand rebel souls burning would serve a better effect.

Fear might work even better than love, and at the end of the day, she would once again be the final winner.

Until an arrow came out from the side and shot Jean in the chest.

This time Jean was truly caught by surprise. Despite being right there in the streets, she didn't expect to be at risk. Her observer was zoomed in on her, and with that zooming in, it gained extra sight. She has pretty much seen the entire rebel schedule, and there was no one else positioned here. She knew Sergeant Louis took her through this narrow alley on purpose, but she thought it was just because he wanted to make this go down as quietly as possible.

Another ambush was not on the menu.

Fortunately, the arrow wasn’t enough to go through her armor, and the shot woke Jean up. Crushing the rebel souls, she immediately returned her consciousness back to the battlefield. A wave of Power of Death washed over the direction where the arrow came from, but the assassin was already gone.

Hit and run. That was Jean’s tactic all along, and it didn't feel good to be on the other side of the spectrum. Jean didn't take out her forces or call for reinforcement. She knew with the element of surprise on their side, the assassins wouldn’t be bothered by an army. If her observers couldn’t see the assassins, the Wardens and the Purifiers would be useless.

All she did was still her heart, close her eyes, and spread the Power of Death out around her.

Suddenly, she sensed a foreign presence appearing out of nowhere. It was as if the Power of Death disrupted with whatever cloaking method he was using. Immediately, Jean struck down on the exposed assassin like a fierce tigress.

Psychic blade! Soul extraction! Wraith strike!

Within half a second, the figure hit the ground. He was a man in his forties. His face was pale, a result of hiding in the dark for too long. A cloak laid on the ground beside him. It was what kept him in the shadows and out of the grasp of even the observers. A small crossbow that could be held with one hand rested in his hand, but it would never be fired again.

Jean could sense he was gone. Even his soul was ripped to pieces. Jean gave it everything she had. She knew the assassin would never make the same mistake if she failed to deliver the killing blow. Unfortunately, that also meant she couldn’t extract the information she desperately needed.

She walked over to the corpse and knelt down to examine the body. During the brief instinct when she ripped the man’s soul apart, she felt something familiar. It was the same feeling that the Romans gave off. She picked up the crossbow.

Its production confirmed her theory.

Roman steel.

Jean’s head turned as she tried to process what happened. She was right in that the Romans didn't give up. The crushing defeat taught them that a frontal assault was never going to work, so they tried the covert tactic. Somehow, an unknown number of their assassins sneaked across the portals without the Wardens knowing it. They have been plotting with the rebels against the Voyagers.

As she was deep in thoughts, three cloaked figures slowly approached her from behind. Their footsteps were dead silent. Daggers were gripped onto tightly. The green shade on it suggested it was poisoned. Another figure stood on the balcony of a building on the side.

Jean’s back was against them.

Suddenly, all four figures leaped onto Jean.

At the fraction of a second where they were in the air, Jean’s eyes suddenly turned black.

She was caught by surprise by the first assassin. This wasn’t her fault. She was on unequal information and the Roman assassin used it to ambush her. Fair enough. But this was the second time, and the situation was pretty much the same. She found a threat. She terminated it. She was thinking about what it stood for. If the rest of the Roman assassins thought she would fall at the same place twice, they were painfully mistaken about who she was.

A wave of psychic blades covered Jean’s surrounding. She couldn’t find the Romans, and if these assassins made it out, she would be forced to be constantly on her toe, watching for stray arrows or poisonous daggers. Thankfully, she could still sell a weakness and lure them in.

The assassins thought they were the hunters. Jean even suspected the one she killed chose to voluntarily be discovered and taken out so his comrades could seize the opportunity. That sacrifice was courageous, yet ill-fated.

All four figures collapsed on the ground. Their souls heavily damaged. This time, instead of delivering the killing blow, Jean stripped the defenseless souls into her halberd. She quickly consumed them while still keeping an eye on the surrounding.

The memory processing took a while, but when she was done, Jean had all the info she needed.

The good news was only five assassins were sent after her.

The bad news was the conspiracy was so much more complicated than she imagined, and by allowing it to unfold, Jean has made a grave mistake.