Victor Devilleneuve, commander of Response Team Two, appeared as a hologram before her.

"Report," Jaya ordered.

Pirra watched, sitting off to the side. She'd rather not be sitting, she'd rather be doing something, but her leg was aching. She hadn't said it, but Jaya had noticed her limping; sitting had then become an order.

They'd been waiting hours, while Response Teams Two and Three conducted their forensic sweep of the combat zone. Everything had been taken and would be analyzed; weapons, ammunition, equipment, bodies. Anything could be the clue that might help them figure out what the hell these mercenaries were here for.

"We've found everything I think we can expect to find," Devilleneuve said. He was talking loudly, the cacophony of the nighttime jungle leaking through despite the acoustic scrubbing software. "We found enough clues to suggest that the first and second in command of the company were in one of the bunkers that took a direct hit. At first we didn't think there could be anything useful left - but then we found this."

From off-screen, someone handed Devilleneuve a helmet. "We believe the commanding officer removed his helmet before entering the bunker. When the kinetic spike hit, the helmet was flung away into the jungle. While it still suffered damage, we were able to recover some data - including some partial communications that were still in the active memory."

"Play them," Jaya said.

The man nodded, and the file stream was sent. The quality was poor, the audio damaged, parts recovered by AI. But the words could be understood.

"-repeat, we have visual confirmation that it's a Union Response Team." There was a pause, as if the man was listening. "That's right, they're Union. No mistaking it. They landed a few hours ago, and now they're about to enter our camp."

Pause.

"No, we don't know what they know. Our camp is as hidden as it could be. We can't be invisible against high-quality scans."

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Pause again, longer.

"I am not picking a fight with the Sapient Union. That's just bad business. I don't know how many there are up in orbit."

The man went quiet for a long time. Whoever was talking to him was saying quite a lot.

"All right," the voice said.

Then the line went dead.

"The second recording, made right after the first," Devilleneuve said.

There were two voices this time.

"We're going to attack. No prisoners," the commander ordered.

Another man's voice, gruffer and deeper. "Are you sure we want this fight?"

"We're offered generous compensation," the commander said.

"Yeah, but what good is that if we're dead?" the second replied. "There's at least one ship up in orbit, and we can't take that on."

"We don't need to worry about them," the commander replied.

It ended, and Pirra looked at Jaya.

"There we go," she said. "We've got them."

"Yes," Jaya said. "But who was he talking to? Why couldn't we hear them?"

"At first we were puzzled by that, too," Devilleneuve replied. "But then we discovered fragments of code within the helmet with security elements we couldn't account for."

"What do you mean? Encryption on the helmet's data?"

"No - something hidden on the helmet itself. It was very well-guarded, even launching attacks in response to our attempts to crack it." The man shrugged. "I turned it over to Commander Cutter, and he took a look at it."

The Bicet appeared. "Once defenses were breached, discovered self-deleting code. Replaced itself with offensive programming. But fragments of original code remained - enough to identify." Cutter paused, tilting his head. "An AI was installed to mercenary's helmet, without him knowing. While he believed that he was communicating with client from afar, he was instead being controlled by AI within helmet."

"Absurd," Jaya said. "How could he not figure this out?"

"AI was very cleverly programmed," Cutter replied. "Not perfect - but very good. Offered generous rewards for completion of important objectives. One such objective was, apparently, to protect their site at all costs."

"But why?" Pirra asked. "What was so valuable about it?"

"Unknown," Cutter said. "Equipment of unknown nature - but appearing to be data vaults - were found outside camp. They had been thoroughly destroyed, leaving no trace data to rebuild. We are without further clues."

Cutter seemed antsy in a way Pirra hadn't seen before; he was sitting back on his tail, all of his arms tapping together in a way that she knew denoted nervousness in Bicet. His gaze was upwards, lost in thought.

Jaya seemed to be finding her thoughts, though. "So it was only an AI that was assuring him not to worry about us. Still . . ." She trailed off.

"Commander, is there something else, sir?" Pirra prompted.

Jaya noticed how odd Cutter seemed. "Commander, if you have more to say, please do so."

"It is strange thing," Cutter said. His words were hesitant, slow. "AI in helmet - expertly made. Bears hallmarks of . . ." He trailed off again.

"Yes?" Jaya prompted.

"It was made by Bicet," Cutter finally said.

Jaya frowned. "I fail to see the significance."

"My people do not factionalize," Cutter said. "We are united. We are all beings of the Union. Who made this, then?"

"Perhaps it was just something more general, originally, then adapted for this mission-" Pirra began.

"No," Cutter said. His hologram turned. "That is all, Captain."

"Very well, thank you for your good work, both of you. Get the teams back up to the Craton," she added to Devilleneuve.

Jaya looked to Pirra. "Let us go have another chat with our prisoners."