Oliver Hunt CEO of hunt metals and current political candidate for the people's world party sit at the head of a large, dark holographic conference table. All around him, ringing the fringes of the room, hundreds of monitors and open computer stations house the men and women that comprise his own personal intelligence network.

They sit in their chares bathed in dim blue light frantically converting digital information to usable intelligence. Some of them decode satellite imagery, the vast majority of them intercept signals in the radio currents of the universe, dangling their bait in the water and waiting for something to catch. Soon their shift will be over and they will retreat back into sunlight blinking like the nocturnal, subterranean creatures that he has made them.

He does not sit alone at his table.

They are not his friends, but these UN congressmen and women were bought and paid for by his cooperate mining operations in the asteroid belt, and they cannot afford to loose his alliances, least of all his funding. Among their number sits news anchors and media personnel and journalists, none of which he trusts, but some of which he knows are a necessary evil.

A holo-projection over his head shows the face of a beautiful, but severe, blond woman. Her hair is cut short and pulled back from her eyes. Her face shines in the poor wan lighting over her head, and her image flickers on occasion. She is wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The room is silent as the two factions stare at each other.

The other faction sitting just at the end of the table, Mr. Hunt doesn't want them here, but he knows they are a necessary Evil.

The Tesraki sits with his feet up on the table, unlike most of his kind, he is wearing a pair of lace-up boots, utilitarian cargo pants, a striped shirt, jacket and a scarf which he has dangling around his neck. He is the most human alien Mr Hunt has ever met, with the mannerisms of a back-alley mobster who has run into a little too much power for him to handle. Beside him sits his loyal dogs, The big beetle calls itself Geea and the human that sits beside her is Beatrice.

The woman is bat shit insane, and isn't afraid of showing it. She too sits with her feet up on the table, strongly blonde hair hanging down to her shoulder, half of her head is shaved and the other half dangles with loose braids weaved with feathers.

She wears too much leather to be taken seriously.

They are the most shocking addition to their number, by all rights their paths should not have aligned. Hunt eyes the woman, Beatrice, she's exactly the kind of crazy he would expect of an extrial, and the seductive way in which she licks the flat of her knife makes him cringe. Images cross his mind, unbidding, of the pair....together, and he has to shake it off as bile rises into his mouth.

They are a necessary evil, he repeats to himself.

Besides them, sits two others, A Rundi wearing a monocle under his HAZMAT gear, and a Silent Kree hunched back in the shadows.

He is a strange looking creature, an outsider to their intergalactic politics. With his beakish head and feathered body, he reminds Hunt of a vulture.

And lastly, another holo projection, depicting a large, sunlit room encircled by massive glass windows. Sun rolls in from somewhere, making it difficult to see, but silhouetted by the light he can see multiple spidery figures floating just off the floor, haloed by light. They don't speak much, and he's glad that they don't since every time they do he wants to find them and pop all of their helium sacks one by one just to watch them squirm.

But he wouldn't, not even if they were here.

He needs them.

After today he will never have to see any of them again.

"Do we all understand?" He asks evenly trying to keep the contempt from his voice as he leans on his hands.

"Understand, yes, but trust you, no." That was Geea, her voice rumbles across the table like a rockslide causing his bones to tremble. He fights back a shiver, hard to believe that this.... THING is female, not when she has a voice like that.

"The benefactor has vouched for me enough."

"And how do we know we can trust the sponsor eh?" Beatrice says pricking her finger with the tip of her blade and licking the single bead of blood from her finger.

"Because, I am talking with you in person rather than over a holographic projection like I am with Amelia. By all rights you should still be rotting in Turma supermax after what you did."

They remain silent.

He composes himself turning and looking over at the wall where the last and largest monitor sits. On its surface glow statistics highlighted in Green and blue, Green for their party and blue for the opposition. All around the world votes are flooding in to determine who will be the next UN president.

He already knows he lost.

Admiral Kelly has taken strategic Swing countries, by storm, Mericanda, the Slavic States, and the Brazilian Core. He was hoping that Admiral kelly's history in the Pan Asian war would ruin her popularity on the Asian continents, but alas it seems that he is somehow falling behind there too,

He will lose.

A part of him wants to rage in annoyance, to take the picture of Admiral Kelly sitting on the manilla envelope in front of him and rip it in half.

But he doesn't.

It doesn't end here.

***

The sun rises high over a world holding its collective breath. Blue sky lights the horizon. Airplanes lift off from the runway at fort harmony.

Admiral Kelly sits with family, political allies, and campaign assistants in a large room.

They are waiting for the phone call that is going to tell them the fate of the UN, the fate of her future. She clasps her husbands hand in hers, and despite her hand being so small, in his massive palm, she does not feel small.

When he smiles at her, she is filled with his joy and pride.

He is proud of her, and she is proud that she can make him feel that way.

Across the room, Admiral Vir leans against a drowsy eyes bleary with lack of sleep . He is here to support her, though he has kept polite distance from her during the electoral process. It has taken him a while to learn, but as a military officer, he is determined not to take sides, no matter the outcome.

She knows he will pledge his allegiance to whoever takes control of the UN today. Since her campaign beginning he has not endorsed her publicly or privately, he has given her no funding, and he has made no comments over Chatter about her, though she is pretty sure the man does not have a Chatter account.

While it will always be his duty to fight for what he thinks is best for his planet, and his people, he will only ever do it militarily, learning the hard way that his involvement in public policy and politics only causes grief.

Those were the mistakes of a younger more naïve man, easy to manipulate.

He is older now, and his white hair gives him the look of someone twice his age when viewed from a distance.

He cannot support her openly, but when he sees her looking at him, he raises his drink in encouragement. He wants her to win, even thought he cannot say it publicly, and she is thankful for his support no matter what shape it comes in. he is an honorable man, and even if they do not win this, she knows he will do what is right.

The sun breaks over the horizon and fills the room with shafts of golden dawn light.

Despite her weariness, she takes to her feet to pace.

Her husband watches her with soothing eyes, and she is thankful for his presence.

She is always thankful for his presence.

She is just beginning to wonder weather soemthing has gone wrong, when her implant begins to buzz. Kelly looks down at the caller and knows immediately who is calling. She takes the call, her hands trembling in anticipation as she waits. There is silence over the line for a moment.

"Madame president."

***

A crowd gather, crowds are gathering everywhere around earth to witness this day. They flock to holoscreens, implants, government buildings, and they flock to the sprawling lawns of the Alexandrea congressional house, on the steps of which Admiral Kelly stands, waiting to shed her military mantle for a political one. Sun shines down from above and a thousand voices rise from the crowd before her. Un flags wave from the sides of buildings, and from the hands of those people waiting in the crowd. There are so many of them.

When she looks out over their heads she has a hard time distinguishing individual people, but rather a rising tide, undulating with waves like the waters of deep ocean. Political and military figures line the steps on either side, holding back at some distance as her new security detail surrounds her, they are men and women in dark suits, with shifting eyes, and weapons hidden on their persons.

One stands close at her back ready to pull her away from danger if something were to arise.

She did not expect this level of security, but she supposes it makes sense.

Looking down below her she can see foreign dignitaries from the GA standing on the steps.

The GA chairwoman seems comfortable in the blazing sun. Just to her right and Drev delegation member stands proud in his ceremonial armor. He has not been permitted to bring his weapon, which he understood glumly though accepted graciously.

Lord Avex has chosen to make an appearance, which pleases her.

It will be important to have the universe's most hostile warlord dictator on her side. She has to remember to give her condolences to him, as her triumph happens on the eve of his father's death.

There have been many speeches, plenty of words, and a lot of summer heat. Off to her side Upcoming vise president Oliver Hunt stands in a dark suit. He catches her looking at him and smiles at her with his perfect white teeth.

As second place candidate, he will now become her second in command. It is a good practice as it brings an opposing viewpoint into politics and she hopes she can mend any fences that might have been broken between them during the election process. She knows it must sting his pride not to have won, though he doesn't show it.

His face is as pleasant as ever.

As far as things go their campaign had been a cordial one in comparison to what had happened in the past, and she smiles at him as he is urged forward, raising his right hand to take the solemn vow to protect Humanity, her colonies, her people. The air is buzzing with an electric atmosphere of anticipation as the moment comes. Hunt is now acting vise president of the UN.

She raises her hand to block out the sun.

It seems rather odd, though the light is bright, it seems to glow, almost orange.

She is called forward to rest her left hand on a flag of the UN and raise her right hand into the air. The world is one of quiet as the crowd waits.

"Repeat after me."

"I Tala Masina Kelly as acting president of the United Nations, vow to protect humanity from all those who seek to destroy her."

She repeats the words.

"To uphold the rights and freedoms of all people across Earth and all her colonies."

The world around her is silent, overhead the sun burns orange, deepening to red. It seems as if she looks at the world through rose tinted glasses, in the literal sense, not the figurative one."

"On my life and my honor."

A flock of birds wheels from the trees, bursting into the sky and fluttering in a pattern of crazed confusion before dipping back down into the city. In the distance she can hear dogs barking over the sound of the quiet, barking and howling in unison.

She barely notices, but still she notices.

"Madame president." The man says, leaning in, with his back to the crowd, he passes her something small, a nondescript black holopad, "These are your launch codes, keep them protected."

She slips the small device into her interior suit pocket as the man pulls back, and she is finally allowed to take the lectern.

Acting president of the UN.

"Sons and daughters of Earth, Citizens of mars and all the colonies beyond, I am thankful to be here today...."

The wind kicks up, tugging at her bun. Leaves from the trees roll past her feet. A small slip of paper is tugged out of an official's hand and skirts across the stone stairs behind her. The world around them darkens.

Admiral Kelly falters her eyes raised to the sky.

A mummer of shock and confusion rises from the crowd as they turn to see what she is looking at.

A shadow passes over the sun, and they are plunged into sudden twilight.

The crowd gasps in confusion, muttering to each other.

The secret service agent at her side grabs her arm as they look upwards.

She locks eyes with Admiral Vir, and sees the look on his face, and by that look she knows....

There was certainly not supposed to be an eclipse today..... yet something blocks out the sun.

The crowd is shifting now, sensing the confusion and concern from the officials atop the steps. Admiral Vir pushes past the line and starts towards her. VP Hunt is pulled back, as is she, the agents seeking refuge in the building behind her, but still her eyes are locked upwards as the world darkens even more.

This is no eclipse.

The word around them lingers at dusk.

The wind kicks up again tugging at her shirt as she is pulled back.

....

They don't make it two steps.

Not before a black rift is torn open in the fabric of space before her. She gasps, as the secret service agent shoves her back behind him blocking her body with his as the dark void vomits forth a malignant black shape, towering over her and the agent by three feet or more.

Kazna's eyes lock with kelly's over the shoulder of the secret service agent who is halfway through pulling his weapon.

Kelly knows it is too late.

Knows it even as the sharp steel of a spearhead pierces her heart, passing straight through the agent in front of her, out his back and into her chest. Like the two of them were nothing more than grapes stabbed through wit ha toothpick

It doesn't hurt, somehow, and she keeps her eyes locked on the yellow gold of her killer.

She can see the words there almost as if they were spoken out loud.

"you should have taken my offer."

But even now she does not regret her decision.

Even as her vision fades, and her damaged heart spasms her lifeblood into her thoracic cavity, she finds herself at peace. She is proud of the life she has lived, what she has done.

The spear is jerked from her chest, and the secret service agent flops to the steps before her.

She stands for a moment standing in the shadow of her killer before falling to her knees.

She coughs, and sees blood painting the steps where there once was none.

Her mouth is filled with frothing red foam.

It's in her lungs now.

And then Kazna is gone, sucked back into her dark rift.

Kelly falls to the side, but as she does, she finds herself caught. Warmth fills her from the hands that cradle her dying body. She is turned over, agents rush forward to help her pressing shirts against her gaping open wound.

She is lying in a puddle now.

Hands grip her arms, hold her head upright.

The world is chaos around her but.... Somehow, she is quiet, still in that moment, and she looks up to find the face of the man that holds her as she dies.

She wishes it was her husband, but this is the next best thing.

Adam Vir looks down at her from above, his sleek grey admiral's uniform now panted in her gore. His white gloves are drenched with her blood, and his eyes.... His eyes are so sad.

He is not shell shocked like the others.

Not panicked.

But sad.

She takes in his face pleased that his face will be what her dying eyes see.

When she looks at him, instead of the man, scarred by war, shaped by conflict, stress and mistakes, she sees the boy underneath, the foundational bedrock of who he is. She sees the young man that stepped aboard her ship on it's maiden voyage, she sees the eager student, she remembers how he tripped down the stairs of their shuttle on their first visit to proxima B. She remembers his excitement and energy as they spoke with aliens for the first time, and the tears that welled in his eyes when she handed over a ship that should have been hers.

He was like a son to her.

IS like a son to her.

And she hopes that she was someone he could have been proud of.

Instead of her own blood pooling around her body, she feels his tears as they drip freely from his eyes and down onto her face.

He knows he cannot save her.

It is a good thing she will die before she can see what is happening simultaneously to her death, that she won't have to deal with the massive political storm as classified documents are leaked onto the web, flooding sights in every corner of the universe before it can be shut down.

The entirety of the Eden project, and the truth about the makers.

Specifics about the Void sickness, and how Admiral Vir had been the one to spread it.

All intelligence on Celzex history and weapons capabilities, including how Lord Celex had glassed one of his own planets.

Smaug and Maleficent

Leaked video from the steel eye project, taken from Unit 15s visor camera.

And perhaps the most damning.

Intimate footage and still images of Admiral Vir and The saint of Anin.

But none of that matters just yet.

Not as her vision fades and the sun begins to return.

She feels the light on her face as it does, feels its warmth for one last time. Her husband is there now, she can feel his hand in hers, can see his face as he kneels before her. The fear in his eyes makes her sad, but she won't cry, she wont beg.

She won't die with fear in her heart, but love, because even as she dies on her back she wont let that bitch take her to her knees.

Admiral tala Kelly Dies unbroken in the arms of those she loves.

Having been president of the Un for only 3 minutes and fifty six seconds.