The Kalash-Quovo had been in orbit around Thenegris Glang when they had received news of a daring robbery. A pack of Nagathi had stolen a legendary Universal Matter Printer from the Glang. Somehow, the thieves had known exactly when and where the new UMP was to be initialized and programmed—a closely held secret—and had interrupted the process in a daring raid. Not only that, but at the same time they seized control of an advanced portal escape system, turning the Glang's own technology against them.

The thieves had crossed light-years in an instant, not once but twice—first to a branch world, and then from there they could have chosen any of several follow-on destinations. Killish didn't know how the Captain had found out the location of the branch world, but when there was no announcement that the UMP had been recovered, the light cruiser had immediately set out in pursuit. Captain Foh was determined to steal the UMP from the Nagathi before the security forces of Thenigris Glang caught up with them.This might be the Goldaskian Empire's only chance to obtain a UMP.

It had taken half a season to reach the branch world, called Earth by the locals. (Primitive civilizations almost always named their homeworld some version of Dirt, Water, or Sky.) Earth turned out to be a handful, eight billion beings with a moderately sophisticated technological base, who had already begun sniffing around the portal location. Rather than engage with that many heavily armed primitives, they had ignored the natives and simply scanned the planet for any sign of a UMP. While it could not be scanned directly, its products tended to reveal their origins.

There was no sign of it on the branch world, however. Enough scans of the closed spatial fracture had given them a list of seven possible destinations to search. The crew was disappointed, because it would probably take them a year or two to travel to all seven, and if the thieves ended up on a world with an interstellar civilization, the trail would be completely cold by the time they finally arrived. They would have lost their chance.

None of the worlds were close to Goldaskian space. While many civilization shared basic astrographical information, it was common practice to introduce inaccuracies if there was a world you wanted to keep others from knowing about. If a world was not in the ansible-net, you couldn't be sure what you would find until you got there.

The first of the branch worlds turned out to be a nearly featureless desert, with low oxygen and water content in the atmosphere. The thieves wouldn't have taken that route if they had had any choice, and there was no sign of the UMP. There was nothing for it but to head to the next destination.

* *

Many days of travel brought them here, to a world that was apparently dying off from a stellar fluctuation. At first it seemed that this world would be as barren as the desert world, but their scans had revealed a single modern underground complex, and the external signs matched the style of the UMP.

Strangely, when they contacted the base, a native had answered, not a Nagathi. For whatever reason, primitives had the UMP, which should make it all the easier to retrieve. Finally, the crew smelled blood and wanted their victory in this quest.

The mission seemed simple enough. Lieutenant Killish led a detachment of twenty marines and three support down to the surface in a drop shuttle. Taking no chances, he made sure that his men all wore powered armor. He warned his men not to embarrass themselves by dying at the hands of primitives.

Scans showed the base had twelve floors. The first floor was tiny, and empty except for a single native, who stood there babbling in its language until one of the privates shot it.

The second level had a couple of tricks; a spiked rock trap managed to crush three of his people even through their armor. At the stairway down to the third level, a native threw a flash-bang, which caught some of the men unawares. A second one followed a moment later, and Lieutenant Killish had shouted the order quickly enough that most of his men had been able to activate their filters in time. No attack followed the flash-bangs; just another example of a native handling tools they didn't understand.

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They made it to the third level, and the eight coming in the second entrance encountered a primitive ground vehicle that managed to kill one hapless soldier before the others shot the driver, taking the vehicle out of the fight. Killish was investigating one of the rooms on the third level when another flash-bang was thrown up from below. It was a pointless gesture that didn't even delay them. The follow up, however, turned out to be a fragmentation grenade, followed by another. His eager men had foolishly bunched up at the top of the stairs and paid the price.

Another rock fall trap killed two and pinned one near the second entrance, and Killish realized that he had just lost half of his fighting force in the first few minutes. He had to lead these idiots to victory, so he took a moment to warn them more carefully.

"These creatures are simple but they have a random assortment of high-technology weapons. Yet five men have died in rock falls. Rock falls! How foolish do you have to be to die that way? Don't shame your clans with an embarrassing death, while your comrades return hailed as heroes. Slow down and be careful! Scan every room's architecture in detail before you enter!"

The Captain was irritated at their slow progress, and Killish was tempted to call for reinforcements, but he knew that Razaan would be leading those and, being of higher caste, would manage to steal all the glory while Killish's men paid the price. Better to push on more carefully. The aliens were clearly running out of tricks.

A few of the primitives managed to hide, and the close-in bio scans were being blocked somehow. It was clear that most of the aliens would be in the lower levels, which were significantly larger and divided up into many sleeping areas. They were probably the noncombatants, so Killish decided to give his men the confidence boost of a good slaughter.

They killed twenty on the fifth level, and morale improved with the progress. Five men continued down to clear the sixth level the same way. They reported finding a lone primitive with a spear trying to stop them, and Killish let them have their fun. All that changed when an augmented EMP took out a large fraction of the base, and most of their powered armor.

It was a suicide move—the defenses would be knocked out as well! Gods, even the lights and air filters were out. It was alarming, but his men should be safe inside their armor while it rebooted. Then Hawakzo started shouting that his helmet was off and the primitive was going to kill him. The idiot!

Missions turned into cullings more often than Killish would like, but the survivors would be stronger and smarter. That was the way of Goldaskian warriors. It was just painful to watch a culling take place among the men you were leading. Or at least, it should be. So Killish thought, anyway. He tried to be a better leader than most.

His armor and those of the two with him had been far enough away that they only needed a partial reboot, which took a much shorter time than the full reset. It wasn't quick enough, though, as one by one his men started yelling about a monster removing their helmets and killing them slowly while they were helpless.

Killish was frantic to stop the native that was destroying morale by making his warriors cry like frightened children, and also to save some of his fighting force. Setting their armor for manual quick-release, and shifting their hand weapons to a better shielded but less powerful configuration, took but a moment. Ready in the case of a repeat, the three of them charged down the stairs shooting, and took out the alien, but not before it had killed four of the five fools who had thought to toy with it.

Once Higgo's armor rebooted, Killish had four effectives left inside the complex, including himself, and four outside. He was glad the Captain had apparently opted to show patience and wasn't nagging him for updates. This looks really bad, Killish had to admit. But all would be forgiven if he walked out of this pit with the UMP.

He looked down the now-undefended corridor full of natives cowering in their beds. Time for another slaughter? Killish debated with himself mentally for a moment, before deciding against it. The lowest level had heavier shielding than the rest—undoubtedly the final retreat. The UMP was sure to be in there. He ordered his men to head for the bottom. Let's get this over with.

Ulgoni warned them of a water trap in time—some large tank up above had just been dumped, but failed to catch any of them in the flood. You're out of tricks, animals. He smiled in anticipation as he walked down the stairs behind his subordinates.

As he descended past Level 11, a stone slab abruptly started to slide into place, trapping them inside. Killish was having none of it, though, and used his armor's strength to defeat the mechanism before it closed all the way. And just in time—because another augmented EMP went off. Congratulating himself on not getting caught by the same trick twice, Killish and his men got out of their armor in moments and descended into a room that was not quite dark.

Alien laughter echoed off of the walls, and Killish had just enough time to recognize the glow of concentrated radioactives. Then Higgo shot blind, trying to end the alien, and before the radiation could work its deadly horror, a blast of superheated steam killed everyone on Level 12.

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