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hiking to get here,” the lieutenant finished. The man sitting at the large, map-filled table stared at him, and not in a particularly friendly way.
    “I see,” the man said heavily. “And now you’re here, what exactly do you plan on doing?”
    “I was hoping you’d be able to give me some insight on the situation here, sir. The information we currently have is not particularly up-to-date.”
    “Hmph. Well, I suppose I can do that, at least.” He waved his hand a chair, advising, “Take a seat, Lieutenant, as long as you’re sure you won‘t break it. It can’t be comfortable to be standing around in… in that thing .”
    Frank gave a small polite laugh, and took a chair, as instructed.
    Before he could say anything, the other man morosely continued.
    “Starting from the beginning, as it were, I was informed by my uncle that a pirate ship had been seen hiding itself on the planet. I am General Juan Gawain Val’gor, and my uncle is - was - the planetary governor, Ferdinand Winston Val’gor,” he clarified, then continued.
    “I am in charge of the planet’s defenses. Such as they are,” he added, with an undertone of bitterness.
    “At any rate, I had used our three gunboats, and whatever else I could get my hands on, to scout the location we thought the pirates had landed at, in the hope we might be able to catch them before they could do anything.”
    “What happened? Did they ambush you?”
    “No,” Juan snorted. “In fact, I’m not sure they even cared about us in the slightest. At any rate, we didn’t find the ship where we had thought it landed. I suppose it had crept away, hiding itself under a sensor-cloak.”
    “That would be common pirate procedure,” Frank agreed.
    “In any case, nothing happened for the next week or so. I kept sweeping the planet for the pirates, but… My gunboats were junk, and their sensors were worse.”
    “So, we had no idea where they were. Then, six days after they landed, they attacked. From these very mountains, as it turned out.” The irony and disgust in his voice was obvious.
    “They knew exactly where my gunboats were, and all the other, few, defenses Kzarch had. And so their very first action was to wipe out them all.”
    Though he said nothing, Frank privately sympathized with the older man. To have all his forces wiped out, without accomplishing anything? Without being able to defend his own planet?
    He could well imagine how he would feel in a similar situation.
    Juan gave a forced shrug.
    “After they removed any possible opposition we could mount, as little as it would no doubt been, they proceeded to the governor’s mansion, the center of the planet’s government. They seized it without much trouble, and killed everyone there. Including my uncle the governor.” The guerrilla leader stared broodingly at the table for several moments.
    “Once they had accomplished that, they settled themselves in, and began broadcasting their demands that the planet submit to them. And when people didn’t comply fast enough, they killed them. I believe you said you visited High Cliff? Then you know more or less what they did.”
    “I, fortunately, hadn’t been in the mansion, when it had been attacked,” Juan continued, backtracking a bit, “-but instead in Newholm. After I realized what had happened; the attack having been so quick that no-one knew much about it until afterwards, I gathered what people I could, what remained of the Kzarch’s military forces, and struck for the mountains.”
    “We’ve been here for about the last month, doing what we can. Striking back using guerrilla tactics, spying on the pirates, and so on. Although the pirates have done their best to wipe us out, we’ve been holding on and have had some successes.” The last part was said almost defensively.
    “I see, sir. May I ask what you’ve found out about the pirates, their forces composition, leaders, aim?”
    Juan snorted.
    “Their aim seems obvious enough!”
    “What