"Company..." Marcus raised his voice. "Atten-tion!"

Instantly, everyone in the 5th Company snapped their feet together and planted their hands by their sides. And as Idriah fully-descended from the transport, Marcus, Jennifer and Leon, who all stood in front of the rest of the company, saluted her.

"Major Winter..." Idriah said sternly as she stood before him.

"Marshal Idriah." Marcus replied, hiding his nerves behind a blank face that looked straight ahead. "Welcome to Sirtha Prime."

As he spoke to her, Idriah's hard, cold expression suddenly shifted and her gaze lowered slightly. It was only for a second, but it caught Marcus' eye, sparking a burst of confusion inside him.

He didn't know Idriah well enough to call her a friend... but he knew for certain that she wasn't one to feel ashamed about anything...

"I see they haven't updated you, Major," a voice came from behind Idriah, its words punctuated by the gentle thumping of footsteps upon metal. A man of average height, his head pale and hairless as a duck egg, followed Marshal Idriah out of the craft and stood just beside her. His chest was also decorated with medals, though nowhere near as many as Idriah had, but what marked him out to Marcus were the other details of his uniform.

The man wore black and gold - the exclusive colours of an Orbital Commando's parade attire. And upon his shoulder was his epaulette, marked with two studs and one star; the rank of Colonel.

Marcus still stood bolt-upright, but turned his head towards this newcomer, his eyebrow twitching ever so slightly upwards.

Idriah then spoke up. "Major Winter, this is Colonel Chambers. One of Commandant Androslava's chiefs of staff," she said, gesturing to the man as he stood beside her. "He's come to represent the Commandant's concerns following the Embassy Attack."

Marcus' mind suddenly flared with nerves as he heard this. Commandant Androslava was the leader of the entire Special Orbital Strike Corps - the highest-ranking member of their entire unit, one of the most veteran of their kind... and an absolute no-nonsense man.

Colonel Chambers gave Marcus a look - one that was either of contempt or loathing. "At ease, Major." he said, lifting his hand slightly as he said it before immediately scanning the 5th Company. When he saw how few of them were left, his eyes widened. "Is this your entire company?"

His words bore an interrogating, scathing tone that made Marcus's heart flinch, but the Horusan's face remained unmoving.

"Yes, sir. All that's left of us, at least."

The Colonel blinked as he saw the number of lost personnel that Marcus' unit had faced. But instead of voicing any words of sympathy, his brows furrowed into a vicious and venomous glare.

Beside him, Idriah's mouth fell slightly open, her eyes meeting Marcus' with a look that spoke volumes.

"How am I supposed to explain this to the Commandant, Major Winter?" she asked sternly. "Over half a company gone, a vital hostage lost to the Xan-Klar, and nothing else to show for it?" she asked rhetorically. "What exactly happened out there?"

Marcus was about to reply, hoping to explain what had occured, when Colonel Chambers abruptly cut him off.

"A vital hostage given over to the Xan-Klar." He corrected Idriah, his mouth slithering across his face like a viper as he dared overrule what his own superior had said. Then, meeting Marcus' gaze, he tilted his head back and stared down his long, aquiline nose. "That's what the report detailed, Major. That you willingly handed over the perpetrator of a vicious attack on humanity over to another nation - one likely to simply execute him when he possesses vital information." The man folded his arms, his eyes glistening brighter than the skin of his bald head. "You better have a damn good explanation."

As Chambers recounted the events of the Embassy Attack, Marcus' fingers tensed by his sides and his molars pressed together inside his jaw.

"The Xan-Klar were threatening war, sir..." he began. "Lady Taneera openly denounced the Union and stated that if we didn't give Haraq over to her, Emperor Skaldrak himself would -"

"I wanted an explanation, Major, not excuses!" Chamber interrupted, raising his voice. "You failed to stop an open terrorist attack in the centre of a civilian area, endangering any positive relations we may have had with the Xan-Klar, and the Union only barely managing to stop the enemy from achieving their original objective!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, breath and flecks of saliva grazing Marcus' skin. "And then any success we may have had was trounced when you handed the enemy over to a foreign power, with no regard for what your superiors and the Union government regarded as best!"

Behind Marcus, the line of remaining Orbital Commandos shifted nervously. Jennifer's blue eyes burned with anger as she watched Colonel Chambers scream into her friend's face, and two meaty fists balled up as Ferro growled under his breath.

Meanwhile, Marcus himself did not respond at first. Instead, he blinked once, then removed his gaze from Colonel Chamber's presence, staring into the middle distance as he refused to look the man in the eye.

"With respect, Colonel... you're acting as though I wasn't there myself." he remarked, his face blank and calm, but his voice baring a tint of wry, creeping anger. "As if it wasn't my men who died, and if it wasn't us who saved the ambassadors from being kidnapped." He said. "What would have happened if we weren't there?"

The Colonel's laugh lines burrowed into his face as he sneered. "You've a lot of nerve, Major. And frankly, given how much of a failure your command was, my response would be this - if you weren't there, anything better could have happened." Standing back, the Colonel appeared to compose himself... only to then say. "I only Kleber were alive to see this..."

Marcus felt anger scythe right through him when he heard that comment. He looked back at the Colonel, his eyes dangerously dark, while every muscle in his body went tense with rage.

He wanted to punch Chambers then and there, to knock him to the ground and break a few of his teeth for good measure.

But he knew that if he did so, the consequences wouldn't be worth it... even if it would feel so good to beat down the man who spoke as if he knew Kleber. To teach him a rough lesson...

"Enough," came a female voice - one calm, but stern and full of authority. "Both of you. This is not the time or the place. We have a problem to solve - deal with that before you start bickering."

Her words were simple, but the gravitas that laced every movement of her mouth quietened the men down. Marcus knew better than to disobey Idriah, and clearly Colonel Chambers did as well.

They weren't fools. In Idriah's presence, the two of them were dogs barking at a tigress.

As they went quiet, the Strategos continued to speak. "Major Winter, your company is dismissed. Colonel, you and I will go to the briefing room at once." She then said to Marcus. "You will come too."

Marcus looked into the older woman's eyes. Her pupils and irises saw no hint of anger, or even of disappointment. There was no smile or anything to denote happiness, but nothing to denote rage either. And in that moment, he understood.

Idriah bore him no ill will. Her mind was only focused upon one thing right now - how to amend their current situation. To do what they were supposed to do.

Be soldiers.

Marcus didn't deny that their current predicament was because of him, but he also wouldn't be ashamed of his actions. But as ever, Idriah was unpitying, unangered, unphased by anything that stood against her.

Not out of apathy. But she saw mistakes, and felt nothing for them. She just filed them aside, learned from them, and moved on with a new plan. Just as she was doing now.

Idriah walked past Marcus, followed by Colonel Chambers, while Marcus turned and dismissed the 5th Company. He watched as Jennifer gave him another look of 'take care of yourself' before she turned and walked away with the others.

Behind Marcus, another ship touched down in the hangar. It was another transport craft, like the one Idriah and Chambers had just arrived in. However, this one bore different insignia, and there was something different about the coat of dark paint that covered its armour...

Marcus didn't pay much attention to it at that moment in time, as his mind was focused on both his next talking-to from Idriah, and something else...

Something important and horrible that had just crossed his mind in that very moment, and yet had filled him instantly with the slithering sensation that was the fear of the unknown.

It had been two weeks, and the Xan-Klar didn't seem like those who would treat prisoners well.

How did they know Haraq was even alive?