The group of aliens gathered about the Gnar'lak vehicle clustered together like a group of gore horns about a patch of amber moss.

Chalan stuck purposely to the back of the group, watching with great interest and the captain was called forward. She did not know what to expect, but kept silent so as not to disturb the proceedings. The last thing she wanted was to be pulled away before she could see what was going on.

Chalan was aware that the humans were looking for something, ironically the same thing that she had been looking for: other humans. From what she had gathered, the missing humans were members of the human military force: the UNSC – the same ones that had come to the aid of the GA when they had invaded her homeworld.

Apparently, these humans had gone missing without any warning and without any explanation all in a place where disappearing was almost impossible, for there were careful monitoring systems in place for most of the humans who left their planet.

Humans were almost as new to the galactic battlefield as the Drev were, and they were not yet spread across the galaxy in bulk.

At least, that is what she had learned from whispered conversations between the marines inside the shuttle.

The captain leaned forward over the side of the vehicle, looking towards where the Fnnari and the Rundi had indicated.

She stepped forward, using her superior height to see over the rest of the heads.

The little bluish screen lit up before them, and Chalan only momentarily wondered how either the Finnari or the Gnar'lak could see the screen, considering that neither had any color perception to speak of.

However, Her musings were quickly evaporated as the Finnari began to speak, "This is entrance to the global Gnar'lak mainframe, each of their vehicles, each of their homes, each of their personal devices and each piece of their other technology is affixed to this network -- designed by the Finnari of course. Since each piece of Gnar'lak technology is connected to the same mainframe, you can easily access any piece of information from any given moment as long as you too are within reach of this technology." The aliens muttered leaning forward in interest, "All the information you could ever need is contained in one vast network that spans the entire planet."

"So, the internet?" Captain Vir interrupted.

He got a lot of looks, as no one understood what he was talking about.

That seemed to be a theme with captain Vir. He was always making references that others had no hope of understanding.

Though, despite his social shortcomings and seeming absentmindedness, Chalan had to admit that he was a more than passable warrior. With his human weapons he was very good, and had covered her back better than many Drev on her home planet had done. Even when he had been stripped of his human weapons and given the electricity spears, he was still rather useful: untrained and lacking in discipline and form, but useful none-the-less.

He had potential.

And she found that she had almost enjoyed their time in battle together.

It had been a long time since anyone had bothered to take up arms with her, and for a moment the feeling had been exhilarating.

She tried to push those musings aside, of course. That is not what she was here for. Despite her pathetic desire to be worthy enough to fight alongside competent warriors, she had to remind herself to keep hold of her mission.

The man sighed and waved the others on, knowing that his reference had been lost on the non-humans around the site, "So they are keeping all their information in the same place? For anyone to just come in and take?"

The Finnari shrugged, "They have no one to conceal it from, until now, and they did not bother to conceal it from us, as they consider us greatly inferior to themselves. The Finnari have used this platform to communicate with each other for the last few hundred years it has existed. We share plans from one location to another, and this included shipments of Finnari slaves. Using this, we were able to keep most of the families together while the Gnar'lak remained blind to our intentions."

Captain Vir nodded, "It is a clever system."

"Yes, and it is what we eventually used when we staged our escape attempt. Of course, the Gnar'lak also had access to that information, but they relied on us too heavily to notice before it was too late. It is probably their unfamiliarity with their own equipment that has allowed us to survive this long."

Chalan grunted quietly, unfortunately for the Finnari, it did not matter that they had managed to escape. Their enemies had greater weapons capabilities and firepower, there was nothing they could do against superior numbers. And though they would be free for the last days of their lives, those days were few in number and far from true freedom. They would be free, and they would die free, and sooner rather than later.

It was a real pity they had never learned to utilize military strategy. Even without knowing their full situation, Chalan could see the usefulness of the unified mainframe. Using that it would probably be no end of easy to determine the Gnar'lak weaknesses, or even shut down all their assets in one precise strike. She would even wager she could have the entire Gnar'lak population on their knees within the week.

However, the Finnari were not soldiers, they were slaves: A concept Chalan was still having trouble wrapping her mind around, and their survival had likely been far more important than any fleeting thought of military strategy.

Of course, she thought, there was the little problem of the Gnar'lak being all but invisible to them, which she was sure could put a damper on battle. She tried to imagine what it would be like to fight an enemy she could not see, and had difficulty in even conceptualizing the idea. All her life she had fought those who were much larger than her, sometimes larger than life, or so it seemed. But, despite their size, at least she had been able to see them and predict their movement.

She supposed that gave the Finnari a pass.

It would be difficult if not impossible to fight something that you could not see.

"And would this system also contain information about who they are trading with?" The human asked, leaning further forward over the vehicle.

"Well yes, that is what we wished to show you." The Finnari stretched out a finger to point at the screen, "Do you see this?"

"Yes." The human responded shifting back and forth nervously on his feet, clearly impatient for information.

"This is all the Gnar''lak shipping manifests. As you know we have not yet bothered to create the technology to leave the planet, and so most of the shipments are tracked across the surface of the world. We have fiber and textiles from the south, and then we have crops from the east. Finnari slaves would have been shipped along these lines from the north going south as we were often breed in the north."

"I see."

"However, these shipments here do not specify an end location, which is strange because they would at any other time."

"And what does it say they are shipping?"

"This looks like it is shipping biological material."

"That seems like a good way of saying a Gnar'lak biological agent if I ever heard it." he leaned in a little more, "Does it say with who or what they were trading?"

The Finnari nodded and turned the dial to switch the screen, "That would be over in this section." The Gnar'lak were and are still very skeptical about outsiders. They keep information and observations about every species with which they interact, and they made the Finnari keep very stringent records about every interaction. These are their shipments with the GA, you see natural fibers and some chemicals taken from our seed pods." They turned the dial again, "And if you go down here you can see some of the observations they have made about the GA, general information that would help anyone else who was interested in bargaining with them."

The captain nodded, the strange fur on the top of his head rippling slightly in the breeze, "And what does it say about the GA?"

"Not much other than you should not be trusted. They know that you have a powerful galactic empire, they know you can travel through the stars, and they know that you are more powerful than they." The Finnari paused, "This is how we found out about your existence, and this is the reason we were sending out a distress signal. We knew that the GA did not know about us, and we knew the treaty that you had made with the Gnar'lak. We assumed that if we could prove our existence, then you would have no reason to trust our enemies and that we might find allies with you where we could find allies nowhere else.

Captain Vir leaned his weight against the side of the vehicle, "That was a good assumption."

"I would wager to say that you are correct, Captain."

The little creature scrolled down just a little more, "And here, you can see information about another outside source." He pointed at the screen, "This is likely the creatures they have been trading with."

"And what do we know about these strangers?" He asked leaning forward, 'Where are they located and who are they working for?'

The Finnari shook his head a little bit but leaned forward to look at the screen for a little longer, "Let me see if I can find the answer to your question Captain." Their eyes ran in quick darts over the screen as they read down the line of information. The Captain watched impatiently as did the rest of the humans and Chalan kept quiet watching the proceedings as they unfolded, not sure what she was supposed to think. She still didn't understand why someone would want to do anything to the humans, but what was she to know? Things continued on for a few moments before the Finnari leaned back to look at the commander, "I see...." Their voice trailed off slightly towards the end.

"What?"

"Yes, they are trading in human weapons. The Finnari had our suspicions of course considering those weapons were not of Gnar'lak or Finnari make."

"Shouldn't you have known about these weapons beforehand, if you were the ones looking at and receiving the information on behalf of the Gnar'lak?" The captain pointed out, "I mean you were the ones that ran their mainframe, weren't you?"

The Finnari general shook his head, "Not so, Captain. We only noticed their change in weapons after the start of our rebellion, at least thirty solar days after our bid for freedom. I believe it is likely they retrieved these weapons in response to our rebellion."

Captain Vir tapped his hand against the side of the vehicle, "And how long has your rebellion been going on?"

"I would say at least 200 solar days at this moment if not 250, though the dates are fuzzy to me. In that time they received the weapons about thirty days after we left, and with them they came through to decimate our people. They found us with their technology and used the weapons to completely wipe us out. There was nothing that we could do." The Finnari general said with a soft sigh looking down at his hands.

Captain Vir crossed his arms, "So the Gnar'lak made a deal with an unknown entity to trade their biological anesthetic for superior weapons in order to wipe out your rebellion."

That seemed about right to Sunny, knowing what she did about the Gnar'lak she almost assumed they might have been in the bargaining phase with this other entity long before the rebellion had begun, but being as suspicious as they were had not agreed to anything. When the Finnari revolted, they needed a way to control them, and the opportunity presented itself. One would have the others back and vice versa. One would be supplied with a chemical agent not regulated by the GA and one would be supplied with illegal weapons in order to take down their enemies. It was a good strategy, and mutually beneficial for both sides.

Chalan tapped her fingers against her carapace. Though whatever both could be gaining, she wasn't entirely sure. She knew that the Gnar'lak were getting superior weapons, but what would someone want with a biological anesthetic? Sure they were probably using it to knock people out outside of usual medical practices, but to what end that was, she could not be sure.

"Does it say when they receive their weapons?" The captain asked.

The Finnari nodded, "It is every thirty days in exchange for about 10,000 tubes of the anesthetic.

Captain Vir raised an eyebrow, "Ten thousand of the little vials. Why would someone need that much!". His exclamation seemed to be mirrored by the rest of the human crowd who glanced around at each other nervously. Captain Vir shook his head, "And what does it say about the people they are selling it to?"

The Finnari glanced over the screen for another long moment, their head tilted slightly to the side in interest as they went through, "They speak of someone that calls themselves the Burg."

"The Burg." The captain whispered, "Those are those things that look sort of like giant centipedes." No one else disagreed or agreed with him, seeing as none of them really knew what a giant centipede looked like, assuming it was some sort of human reference.

Chalan crossed her arms. She may not have known what a centipede was, but she thought she knew of the creatures about which they were speaking. They had been the ones that had tried to bar her way into the slave market, and the ones that she had so handily demolished. They were also the ones that were working for the Tesraki, Noctus.

Evidently the captain had been thinking the same thing, "I seem to recall that our Tesraki friends kept company with some of the Burg."

The marines turned to look at their captain, "And what do we know about the Burg, sir?"

He shrugged, "Well interestingly enough they aren't actually part of the GA. They have been working on peace talks for a very long time, but as far as we can tell, they aren't really getting anywhere. I would wager to say that the Burg are very similar in terms of the Gnar'lak they are very hard to work with and tend to get offended very easily. The GA has been having trouble working with them. Really the only thing that has been accomplished is some kind of trade agreement. The Burg are allowed into the GA empire as long as they follow all of the rules of conduct that everyone else does, though they tend to cause more trouble than they are worth.... at least that being what I have heard."

Chalan nodded silently to herself. That would all make sense, she supposed. For the Tesraki to be working with the Burg, it was safe to say that he was relying on their relationship with the GA and the tentative terms of the peace agreement to keep them above suspicion in some way or another. It was very similar on her planet at the moment. Tensions were high and there was a treaty in place, but the GA didn't want to cause more issues than they already had for fear of infighting some kind of insurrection on behalf of her people.

Again it made some sort of sense she supposed. It was definitely best to have contacts outside the GA who weren't entirely under GA law.

Captain Vir nodded, "Does it say where they were going and how many weapons were being shipped?"

The Finnari took another glance back at the screen, "As I said 10,000 vials in exchange for 100 human weapons, but it does not give a location where the weapons are coming from or where the vials are being taken to."

Captain Vir cursed slightly under his breath and leaned forward to look at the screen as if he could read it when everyone knew that he could not, "Ok, then what do we know?" He turned to look back at the other marines, "Where are they shipping out human weaponry?"

The marines shrugged, "As far as I know sir, only the Europa station supplies human weaponry, but as of yet we haven't divulged the location of the base to the rest of the galaxy."

"No that's not true, we have given them the Europa station's location, but we haven't given them information on earth or mars." Maverick corrected.

Commander Vir turned hands on his hips, "It can't be the Europa station. Everything that goes on there is far too heavily monitored for anyone to be doing anything outside the law. They have scanners and people who go through and manually check the boxes and then a few more people after that."

"What about traitors?"

"Are you considering some kind of corruption?"

"Why not, everyone has their price."

He grunted, "It would have to be a pretty large and extensive network for things to be working like that. I have my doubts." He turned to look at the Finnari again. "What exactly does all of this say?"

He turned to look at his list, and read through with his eyes, "They kept some of the transcripts of their conversation, captain. Do you want me to read those?" He wondered, and the captain waved him on in agreement, likely not sure what else to do.

Captain Vir turned in a tight circle and then stopped, "Wait."

The other stopped as well, looking on at him in curiosity, "The Europa station wasn't the only one to be manufacturing human weapons."

Maverick frowned, "Of course it-"

He waved a hand, "Yes yes it is NOW, but during the war just after the dark season, a lot of our equipment was being brought to us by Tesraki trading vessels. Apparently human ships were too slow, and it was taking too long for us to get our equipment, so for a while we had Tesraki manufacturers working with our weapons to supply the war. We were even giving lessons in using them to Rundi and Tesraki soldiers because their weapons weren't working well against the Drev army."

Chalan nodded again quietly, that part was at least true. Their energy weapons had dissipated rather lamely over carapace allowing her people to sweep through and slaughter the strange creatures by the thousands. Human weapons were much more devastating in comparison, as they used actual projectiles to cause damage, fracturing metal, and deforming lead.

Chalan lowered her hand towards her upper leg, where a faint discolored gouge marked the place where unseen fire had once scorched her flesh on its way past.

She shivered at the memory.

"Ok, so the Tesraki have blueprints for human technology." Ramirez finished.

"And then Noctus gets his hands on them. He works with the Burg and tasks them with dealing in it."

"I guess this leaves it down to where we are going to find the Burg." Maverick finished.

Chalan tilted her head between the group of them, trying to follow the conversation."

"Well the Burg are allowed inside the empire, but not towards the central planets. Irus and the Gromm home world are off limits, as is the Tesraki home world, but A136 is fine. However, A136 is at least somewhat monitored by the GA specifically for weapons, so it would have to be another location that the burg have access to, the Tesraki frequent, is big enough that it has manufacturing plants for weapons, but not too small that someone is going to notice the manufacturing. I would also wager to say that it is obviously somewhere that is not heavily regulated by the GA."

Based on the mile that had sprung to the Captain's face, Chalan had a feeling he had an idea where that was.

"What are you thinking sir?" One of the marines asked.

"Noctoplis of course." The human said with a grin, "I should have known from the beginning, what is an awesome space journey without a visit to the quintessential unregulated trade planet."

Looking around Chalan watched as the humans rolled their eyes, and the little doctor just stared on impassively.

She may have gotten a different impression during the war but, this human was a bit of an idiot.

The Finnari shifted nervously, "Does this mean you are.... leaving, Captain?"

He paused and frowned looking down at the little creature, "Well, I am afraid I have to, but..." He placed a hand on the general's shoulder, "You won't be alone. As a member of a GA protectorate, you have all the rights of any GA citizen. Ships will be arriving within the hour to protect your people and help set up something with the Gnar'lak if they can. What you need to do right now is find all the information on this mainframe that is going to help you help them."

The Finnari nodded rather nervously but agreed.

The captain stood turning to his men.

"We will stay here until reinforcements arrive, and then, our next stop... Noctopolis."