The men and women of Miendalya's Special Agency for Local Authority, like most Myaari officials, wore silver masks that concealed their identity and robes that were arranged to hide their sex while on duty. The intention was that they be seen as nothing more than servants of Lhasaram, the ancient and dusky temple-city from which the Myesa Muou, the Masked King, ruled. And beyond Lhasaram, the will of the Dragon Throne, one supposed.
"There are forces at work in the galaxy, ladies and gentlemen." The security officer stood behind his desk and looked down at the picked team he had been chosen to brief, "Their existence should be no secret. They are spoken of in the Lore of the Masters. Even the Rudanese, hard-headed and simple as they are, managed to find a passage or two in their precious Precepts. Their temple calls them 'Gods', while the men of the academy teach that they were mortals like us, who have stepped beyond their original station. Or were thrust from them. I tell you now, their excuses for themselves do not matter. And nor do their names." On the wall behind him, the planet's surface was shown. "Do not be fooled. They are no Spirits or Gods, good or ill. They do not serve and they do hold none of the balance of flame, earth and water. They are abominations, and it is our duty as servants of the Masked King to protect this world against them, and the commands of He on the Throne say that we are to destroy them whenever and wherever the opportunity arises."
The map circled around and zoomed in on a series of canyons and deserts in the uninhabited quarters of the world. "When the Masked King chose this world, the surveyors noted that there were unusual rock-carvings here, in the Forbidden Desert, and hypothesized that some of them were of artificial origin. The first Rima of this planet ordered the area surrounding them closed to the public, as was his right as the Masked King's representative, and so even the perfidious explorers have been kept away by the Secretariat. But the carvings have been visited, regardless. On five separate occasions in the past three thousand five hundred years, the most recent being six-hundred-and-fifty years ago, the Crystal Network has picked up unusual energy signs from the location we will call Site Hanu, here in the middle of the zone." The display zoomed out and was overlapped by a red marker. "That provided the boys in green with enough information to work out the pattern for these events, which frankly I'm not paid enough to go through with you. What's important, Ayghar of the Masked King, is that a repeat performance is on it's way, and the order from Lhasaram itself is that this is the last of them. This could be big for our home, especially if what I hear about some big collector on Rudan paying for initial excavation rights is true. Now, if you will each of you open your mission box..."
Two dozen golden hands reached into a dozen golden boxes and withdrew a dozen weapons. At the touch of their wielders, two prongs sprang out from the barrel.
"You have been issued a crystalline reasonator. The ISU wants these back, so don't do anything stupid, am I crystal?" Nods of assent. "You'll note the warning switch. I don't know how many of you can read that chickenscratch the Rudanese call writing, but you get four shots each. Pick them well, and don't press that trigger a fifth time. You know the drill. Now, the plan is simple. Team Scar will sweep in from the north. Knife and Hammer will take positions around the cliffs marked here. Team Monkey will wait in reserve at the point marked in red. The moment the energy signs seem most likely, they've got some clueless thing down from Jeok to mess with the crystal and do something that should force an appearance. This has been done before, if not by us. At which point, all teams will open fire. We aren't expecting enough of them to need to take prisoners, but I've been told there will be an ISU strike team on call if we need to dispose of any remaining monsters. Any questions? No? Good. Let's get going. The Rima wants us on the ground ASAP."
