Felix stirred in his sleeping bag, he was roused suddenly by a powerful and strange sensation he could not immediately identify. He sensed a ranging mixture of emotions he found quite odd grouped all together. In part there was sheer terror accompanied by amazement and other feelings of overall excitement and relief. Making it outside of his tent he found everything shrouded in darkness despite the morning temperature already rising, everyone he could see around him was staring upward. He averted his gaze skyward to find what was casting the tremendous shadow on the village in addition to much of the surrounding terrain. The Tarraxen ship, their only means back home to Gaia, had arrived. No one uttered a word as it slowly positioned itself away from the village and began to land. Easily five times the length of a Titan, the survivors were blown away by the sheer size of the alien craft. It came to rest on the surface and a small hatch near the ground opened upwards allowing a second to drop down forming a ramp. The entire camp rushed over excitedly to greet the occupants of the visiting ship.

Felix squeezed Maddison's hand eagerly awaiting their next adventure, as a figure stepped out onto the ramp. In the daylight they could see it was an artificial humanoid. Ronai, Argai and Emelia stepped toward the bottom of the ramp to greet the visitor first. From where they stood Felix and Maddison were unable to hear what was being said.

Felix spoke in a forced whisper to Lloyd standing to the other side of Eva, "can you hear what they're saying? I wonder if that's some kind of attendant, like a robot butler," he chuckled quietly.

"I can sort of hear them but I have no idea what they're saying, I think it's another language," answered Lloyd as Eva rolled her eyes. Then Emelia walked over to her pod with the visitor and the visitor stepped inside alone. Having remained inside for a grand total of two minutes the visitor then stepped back outside, much to the gratification of Felix and Lloyd who were almost contemplating sitting down for the rest of their wait. Now appearing to have a sense of purpose the visitor approached Felix and Lloyd with powerful strides. It had a masculine form and its armour was both sleek and contoured in a uniform translucent metallic colour appearing to both reflect and capture light in a rather mesmerising fashion. The face was plain, its only features were a triangular cluster of three small black lenses that sat centred in the upper half. The raw beauty of its form was captured only in its innate simplicity.

It looked them up and down briefly before addressing them. "Greetings. I am Erranos. I have been informed you wish to travel off this world," the voice was mono-toned and lacking inflection but for the most part still sounded rather human.

"Uh-yes," mumbled Felix, "we come from a space station," he continued but he was cut off.

"Gaia. Yes, I know this," interjected Erranos.

"But how?" questioned Lloyd with excitement in his voice.

"Like the Emissary, I too possess the memories of Maddison," responded Erranos causing Maddison's ears to prick and she stormed over.

"She has a name now, you may call her Emelia," Maddison informed Erranos politely trying not to be too brash as she then realised she may have finally bitten off more than she could chew.

"Understood. You may now load your people," instructed Erranos as the ship began to open from the side producing an ingress roughly half of its total length.

"Whoa, hang on a minute there," said Lloyd, "we still have many questions, are you the only one on that whole ship? Are you another Emissary?" Lloyd prattled on struggling to grasp their situation.

Erranos faced Lloyd quickly as if offended, "I am no Emissary. I am Tarrax. And yes, there are no others on board this ship," responded Erranos presumably insulted though his tone remained consistent.

It quickly dawned on Felix that he and the others had simply assumed the Tarrax were a biological race like themselves. Felix confirmed this to himself when he found he was unable to sense anything from Erranos. Eva was well trained to conceal her emotions and to keep her mind clear and focused but Erranos was completely vacant.

Felix was brimming with hypotheses. "Are the Tarrax cyborgs, or is that some kind of mechanised exoskeleton?" he blurted out as his curiosity got the better of him. Lloyd and Maddison's faces froze as they feared repercussions for Felix's pertinent questions. Lloyd turned his head slowly to look Felix in the eye. To their shock, Erranos answered willingly without hesitation.

"We are what you would define as androids. Long ago the Tarrax were a biological species not dissimilar from your own. Over time we lost our ability to reproduce sexually and began to extend lifespans through bionic alterations. For a time we were classed as cyborgs until eventually we discovered how to transfer our living consciousness and our forms became completely inorganic and truly synthetic," Erranos explained.

"Remarkable," Felix claimed trying to suppress his excitement, "how long ago were you still completely biological? If you don't mind my asking," adding the last part to keep Lloyd off his back.

"By your system of enumeration around twenty thousand years ago." Erranos' answer was followed by the collective gasp of all those in earshot.

The group took a moment in an attempt to process the new information thrust upon them. Not only had intelligent life been discovered and first contact made but now a third race had entered the fold. The very concept of living machines with consciousness was staggering, even before factoring in the aspect that the Tarrax were both ancient and highly advanced technologically.

With a simplified story sorted they called all the survivors together to inform them of the good news. Lloyd took centre stage to address the crowd. His words were met by cheers from most, a few on the other hand were reluctant to climb straight back into another ship after having so recently watched three Titans be obliterated within a matters of minutes. The issue of trust was also raised. The Tarrax were completely unknown, as were their intentions. Felix was probing the crowd as best he could, there was mass anxiety and fear as the general consensus. Some people were bordering on the hysterical.

Felix decided to jump in hoping to console them, "everyone please remain calm." They directed their attention towards him, "I know this is a daunting situation and many of you are scared. That's completely normal, you've been through a lot, we all have. But the simple fact is, if you ever want to see your loved ones again this is the only way." The crowd murmured, mulling over his words. He drove the point home with a simple question. "Would you rather take your chances here where everything wants to eat you?" he said as seriously as he could but Lloyd still snickered. The crowd fell completely silent, Felix could feel as more of them were now coming around. Close enough he thought to himself. He was ready to leave with whoever was ready to go.

Lloyd directed the group to wait around while they loaded the Behemoth and some supplies for the journey.

"There is no need to bring food," Erranos informed Lloyd, "this is a Lotar class transport. The primary role of the Lotar is to evacuate refugees from worlds under siege."

"So it already has food you mean?" Lloyd questioned with scepticism.

"Not on hand, however I will synthesise something to meet your needs. The Emissary pod provided all the data for which amino-acids your species cannot produce and other vital nutrients required for nominal function," assured Erranos.

"Oh, well I guess that covers it then," Lloyd answered slowly as he looked for Felix to nod approvingly. "We do however have another item to address."

"And what would that be?" enquired Erranos.

"Well we had mutiny in our ranks so to speak and North of here on the plains there is a crashed ship with our captives held there," Lloyd explained.

"Yes, I scanned that wreckage before landing. I detected energy signatures from Tarraxen weaponry and concluded the Emissary had nullified it," replied Erranos.

"That is certainly the case, and she saved us in the process," added Felix cheerfully.

"Indeed," Erranos concurred, "fortunate you raised this issue now, I intend to remove all traces of your visit here. Do you wish your captives be eliminated?" asked Erranos.

"No no no!" Lloyd exclaimed almost falling over, "we wish to transport them home with us to face trial and punishment. Will that be a problem?"

"Not at all. The Lotar class is well equipped for thousands of refugees," said Erranos. He was very difficult to read, Lloyd thought it prudent to speak literally as often as he could to eliminate misinterpretations.

"Excellent, can we collect them before leaving the planet?" asked Lloyd feeling confident he was making good strides.

"Yes," answered Erranos.

"Thank you, well I guess that's everything sorted then," concluded Lloyd as Felix agreed with him.

Before they could move off and start to load everyone on board Maddison barged into their conversation dragging Emelia along with her. "Wait!" she called while pulling Emelia around and positioned her in front of Erranos, "what about her?"

"The Emissary?" asked Erranos presumably confused. Maddison cleared her throat loudly. "Emelia," Erranos corrected himself, "please elaborate, Maddison?"

"I'm asking you, what is going to happen to her now? Is she to be put to sleep back in that ball or something worse?" she asked frantically.

"To date there have only been two Emissaries commissioned and both were destroyed during the subsequent evacuations," Erranos paused, "protocol dictates that the beacon be reset and the Emissary pod will return to dormancy in high orbit."

"So she does have to go back in there?" she sighed. Maddison's face was welling up, "I just can't accept that."

"Not necessarily. The function of the Emissary is to communicate with that native populace. Leaving a human-based Emissary for the Drusai would be both illogical and impractical," Concluded Erranos.

Maddison's face found focus again, "yes quite illogical," she agreed with a deep voice, "will she be going back with you then?"

"Emelia is, and remains the property of the Tarraxen Armada," Erranos stated so coldly, causing Maddison's hackles to flare. Before she could draw breath to scream in protest Erranos continued, "however, Emelia was commissioned using a human catalyst. Therefore she is an Emissary between the Tarrax and the humans. If she wishes so, it is acceptable for her to go with you."

Maddison took a moment to centre herself, "well? What do you want Emmy?" she asked now with a softer voice.

Emelia had remained quiet the entire time, like a young child eavesdropping on bickering parents. She would not defy Erranos, if commanded to she would destroy herself without hesitation. Luckily the Tarrax having lived so long, had grown somewhat benevolent, if not rather arrogant and a tad condescending at times. The core foundation of the Armada was to undo the damage of their ancestors and cleanse the galaxy of the Scourge. Despite generally seeing other races as technologically inferior, the Tarrax saw themselves as obligated to protect all life from the Scourge.

Emelia smiled at Maddison and lifted her head as she uttered her answer, "I wish to go back to Gaia and plant flowers with Maddison," she claimed proudly. Maddison was beside herself, her elated face could barely contain her enthusiasm.

"Very well then," responded Erranos without hesitation, "You may go live among the humans as you wish."

"Yay!" squealed Maddison as she leapt to hug Emelia and the pair jumped up and down on the spot. They finished their victory dance and Maddison found Felix smiling back at her. He moved in to kiss her then set off with Erranos and Lloyd to organise loading the group. "You're going to love it on Gaia, Emmy," Maddison added before taking her hand and heading over to explore the Lotar.

The remnants of the Hyperion started to embark onto the colossal mysterious new ship as the Drusai stood by ready to bid their new comrades farewell. Lloyd shook hands with Ronai and Argai thanking them deeply for their sacrifices and those of their people. Felix said his own telepathic goodbyes to the Drusai unbeknown to Lloyd at the time. Words not enough for him, Argus held out his remaining fist for Felix to bump, a mannerism Felix hoped the Drusai would continue long after their departure. Argus had little time to pull his hand back as Maddison came flying at him for a hug. She whispered to him and kissed his cheek. Erranos advised Ronai that the beacon would have now reset and presented Argai with his own, which he accepted graciously. Emelia's pod lifted off, empty and headed back to maintain its orbit on standby until one day called upon again to bridge the diplomatic gap between two races.

The gathered Drusai waved as the Lotar lifted from the ground with a deep rumbling, under low thrust it moved North toward the crash site of the Crius. The Lotar touched down two hundred meters from its target and Lloyd prepared to disembark and escort the prisoners.

"It would be an unnecessary risk for you to undertake this exercise without adequate forces," pointed out Erranos.

"Well yeah sure," grumbled Lloyd, "but this is all I have at my disposal," he admitted while waving at his twelve remaining Troopers with Felix and Eva to their side. "Besides, they already surrendered to me unconditionally."

"Perhaps it would be prudent to allow me to assist you," clarified Erranos.

"Oh, what makes you think that?" Lloyd enquired with genuine curiosity.

"Assuming they comply and leave the ship initially, they may panic at the sight of an unknown vessel and refuse to board," explained Erranos.

Lloyd remained silent for a moment weighing his options. "Shit, I hadn't even considered that. And much worse if they were to panic too," agreed Lloyd almost reluctantly, "but what do you suggest we do?"

"I will send drones in your stead," Erranos advised as he coaxed Lloyd outside to show him. Felix and Eva told the Troopers to remain in line and ran off after Lloyd and Erranos.

"Drones? Interesting. What kind of machines are Tarraxen drones?" Lloyd asked as he imagined all manner of futuristic robotic war machines armed to the teeth.

Erranos chose not to answer, instead Lloyd heard the sound of the Lotar opening above him. The pair continued walking back from the ship and watched on as a patch of panels higher up the side lifted upward allowing internal sections to extend out telescopically. As the last leg unsheathed, the drones were revealed. They were identical to Erranos. The rack consisted of four rows at ten deep, all curled into balls with their knees up. Erranos, was able to control everything without the need to touch physical controls, he sent a command from his person and the drones animated. They fell five meters to the ground landing like veteran gymnasts only much heavier than the average person, each digging a few inches into the ground from their impact. The drones righted themselves in unison and marched outward forming ranks, and stood at the ready.

Lloyd watched on utterly mesmerised and speechless as Felix and Eva found humour in pinching one another to question the validity of their awe inspiring reality.

Erranos turned back around to address Lloyd, "they are at your command."

"Whoa!" Lloyd boomed still fumbling for a larger selection of words, Eva whispered something in his ear and instantly Lloyd snapped to as if jolted by a cattle prod. "Ah yes right. Amongst this wreckage are seventy-five humans. They are my prisoners and must be escorted onto the Lotar and be confined. Some are injured and may require assistance. So, get to it!"

The drones broke their lines and walked off just as Erranos did, they entered the Crius and a few tense minutes transpired.

"Get to it?" Eva teased Lloyd.

"Shut up. He put me on the spot," Lloyd blushed. Eva certainly was gifted at making him nervous, a quality Lloyd found both tantalising and terrifying.

"Look guys," Felix pointed as the first to emerge was one of the drones followed by five of the inmates then another drone. The prisoners looked terrified, and rightly so considering Lloyd hadn't informed them about the Tarrax. Like an entourage of ants the line of drones and prisoners walked along until they were lined up in front of Lloyd. The last few prisoners still unable to walk were each carried by drones.

Lieutenant Chu spotted Lloyd and called to him, "Sir, what is this?" Lloyd walked over to explain.

"Good day, Chu," chirped Lloyd like greeting an old friend, "you and your people will be boarding this ship, and yes clearly it is not from Gaia." Chu opened his mouth but was silenced as Lloyd continued, "do not ask questions! These are my allies and they have graciously offered to take us back to Gaia. If you comply no one will be harmed." Chu looked concerned but reserved. He said nothing as he awaited further instructions from Lloyd. "Erranos could you please have them confined now?"

Erranos nodded and the drones proceeded to herd the prisoners on board. The crowd began to panic, some felt as though they would rather take their chances in the wilderness than get onto the monstrous thing before them. Felix could sense the apprehension of the crowd but knew not how best to address it. Before he could advise Lloyd, a pair of prisoners gave each other a sign, then both darted away in opposite directions as fast as their weary legs could manage. Before Lloyd could even speak, the five closest drones changed in appearance instantly. Plating and panels on their chests, forearms and shoulders opened, revealing dozens of weapons systems. Lloyd's eyes widened but his mouth could not move fast enough. The pair of prisoners were cut down in a hail of fire from Tarraxen energy weapons.

The crowd erupted, screaming in horror causing the remainder of the drones to arm themselves.

"Erranos!" Lloyd yelled, "turn them off!" Within a fraction of a second the drones disarmed and returned to their previous, more relaxed forms. The prisoners had unknowingly split themselves into two groups, most had laid down covering their heads terrified of what may happen if they dared to move and the remainder had already bolted. "Erranos, they must not be harmed," he said desperately hoping to avoid a massacre.

"My apologies, you should have specified earlier. The prisoners were informed that they would not be harmed if they complied," affirmed Erranos continuing to speak in the same cold expression, seemingly uninterested that two people were just killed.

"Well yeah but," Lloyd paused, he pondered hoping that a diplomatic solution would come to mind so he would not offend their new host. "Please, just round them up without using weapons or causing harm. Just carry them if need be," He said as if pleading with a wayward child to behave.