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... An officer in a military uniform ran with all his might through the long, monotonous corridors of a military cruiser, holding his rifle. The walls around him were cracking and exploding, spewing flames, but he kept running, ignoring the obstacles. When he reached the bridge and headed towards Captain Ackerman, who was still giving orders to the surviving crew members and demanding the impossible – to save the ship – another high-powered energy beam hit the cruiser, accompanied by a torpedo salvo. The Lizard regained consciousness a couple of minutes later and immediately realized that he couldn't move – he was buried under the wreckage of the ship. Only his head remained mobile; his legs and arms were crushed by the heavy weight, too heavy for him to move. He looked around, but couldn't see anything – after the explosion, there were only a few sources of light left. He couldn't even hear the groans of the other crew members who had been on the bridge; it seemed they were all dead. The Lizard had already resigned himself to his fate when he heard a soldier approaching, holding an energy-powered cutter. It was Revan – his comrade and friend. He silently began to free his comrade, sawing through the heavy metal that was crushing his body. A couple of minutes later, the Lizard was freed from his prison, but he couldn't speak, although he was conscious. Revan hoisted him onto his shoulder and carried him to the escape pods... "It was just a dream," he said to himself as he woke up, not in the rocky terrain, as it had been the time they left the escape pod, but on a soft bed on the Arandor's ship. Today he felt much better, which meant it was time to leave this ship – it wasn't in his nature to take advantage of someone's hospitality for too long. He found the captain and his friends in the mess hall, where they greeted him warmly and congratulated him on his recovery. The Lizard felt a little awkward, as all these people were strangers to him, and he was a stranger to them. "I've been looking into the data..." the captain said to him, "you really were an officer in the Earth Armed Forces and participated in the war for the Sirius system?" The Lizard hesitated for a moment, but replied, "Yes, from the very beginning to the victorious end. Well, if you can call it a victory." "What do you mean? What war for the Sirius system?" Neyra asked, puzzled. Arandor sighed. "Neyra, if you spent less time in silly bars, like the Trinity bar, you wouldn't be showing your ignorance now. Almost everyone knows about this war. The war began..." the captain glanced at the guest, "well, let their direct witness tell about these events, you won't mind, will you?" "No, of course not," said the Lizard, looking at the listeners. He had never told stories to an audience before. "The war for the Sirius system, also known simply as the Sirius War, began in 3998, but it has deeper roots. Almost thirty years ago, the only planet inhabited by humans in the system came under the control of rebels, who had long sought independence from Earth. The state of the fleet at that time did not allow Earth to carry out a full-scale operation to 'liberate' the planet. Twenty years of inaction allowed the new government to greatly increase its own armed forces and consolidate its power on the planet. Eventually, the Earth government decided to take back the colony in order to eliminate the growing rebel sentiment among other colonies." "The Earthlings clearly overestimated either their own strength or the skill of their generals. The war lasted for five years and ended with our troops completely taking control of the orbit and bombing the planet to hell with nuclear warheads. Unfortunately, at the present time, there is practically unlimited nuclear weapons based in military warehouses..." he lowered his eyes, "on this planet, there are still people living, doomed to wander the wastelands for the rest of their lives. And who knows what impact the radiation has had on nature and people." Arien. Police headquarters. A huge number of dead, mutilated bodies – police officers and rebels – were scattered throughout the building. Just as the walls were decorated with bloody paint, the floor was flooded with a crimson river of bleeding bodies. Silverfail lay on the floor, leaning his back against the wall – he was wounded, exhausted, and covered in blood – both his own and others'. He reloaded his pistol and slowly, using the wall as support, got to his feet. Continuing to lean against the wall, he headed towards the exit, which was once a door. Once one of the largest cities in the colonized world, the metropolis had turned into a city of the dead. Among the half-destroyed, still smoking skyscrapers, the streets were literally filled with corpses. A squad of space marines, clad in powered exoskeletons, who had landed a few minutes ago, walked disdainfully over the corpses and inspected the buildings in search of survivors. Reinforcements arrived too late, but Silver couldn't imagine that all the rebels and ordinary civilians would be killed in this way – it was the height of cruelty. The mess hall, the Arandor's ship. After several hours of conversation, the captain decided that a person like the Lizard could be useful in his team, and therefore offered to become a member of his crew. The former officer agreed – in any case, life on Carradonne had become a bit boring for him. On the screen, another news report was playing, but its strange content attracted his attention, and he turned up the volume. A male reporter stood in front of a smoking city. "... Now you can see exclusive footage of the events that took place in the Alpha Centauri system on the planet Arien. The dead... the city is simply filled with the dead bodies of people who used to live in the largest city on this colonized planet. It is impossible to say for sure what happened here, but as the Earth fleet warned us, landing on the planet is prohibited. We had to resort to trickery so that you can see these shots now... hey... what's that?!" One of the soldiers mistook the reporter for another resident of the rebel city, so he simply shot him at close range, and then the recording device with the rest of the team. A brief silence fell in the mess hall; almost every member of the crew came from this planet, had family and friends there, including Arandor.