Team Fugazi, after chatting with Karla Krace about the state of the Galaxy, took the vital information they had about the Imperial operations on Velke and returned to the Iron Fist. Under cloak, they flew close to De Foure's huge Slavemaster-class vessel that was commanding the operation and downloaded its tactical database. This included information about Element 414 (also known as the Cyberdread - the Imperial secret weapon) and plans for their use in conquering Guildhome.

Pleased with their results, they retreated to Spicer VII in the Demilitarised Zone to link up with the Paradroid. When they arrived, they found that the mysterious disease that has affected the crewmember Paresh Lallu had worsened. Although it initially appeared to respond to standard treatments, the Paradroid's medical staff were now at a loss.

Lord Sharris took over his treatment, and did a series of tests. He determined that the infection was a particularly virulent virus with a triple-helix DNA structure, capable of mutating and developing resistance remarkably quickly. Sharris, with a distressing sense of deja vu, had Lallu transferred to the sealed xenolab for further study. And treatment.

Drake attempted to make contact once again with the Arthirian authorities, even to the extent of transmitting to them certain details of Element 414, but again received no response. Whatever was going on, there was going to be no help from the Sphere.

The Paradroid set off for the House of Defiance base at Shallimar as quickly as possible. They knew that the information they were carrying was vital to the defence of the Guild. However, several days into their journey, they were forced out of hyperspace by an uncharted mass.

To their horror they found that the mass was a new class of Imperial ship - a Veto-class cruiser, which carried a massive gravity-well generating device which had the same effect on hyperspace travel as a small moon. Dozens of ships had been hauled out of hyperspace, and they were surrounded by an Imperial blockade consisting of several capital ships and their escorts.

A message was received immediately upon arriving out of hyperspace:

"This is Captain Skeats of the Glorious Imperial Fleet. All hyperspace travel through this area is embargoed. Prepare to be boarded and searched. Please declare all cargo. Do not try to leave this region of space or you will be fired upon. Please be patient - you will be permitted to leave when the search of your ship is complete."

They scanned the area and found in the order of seventy Guild ships - mostly merchanters, transports, and a few luxury cruise liners - in the gravity well. There was also a House of Defiance destroyer with its engines disabled and a small Defiance transport. The Empire was sending boarding parties in Bladeships, escorted in each case by two Swordships and a Ramship. There were three such boarding parties in action, and the length of time they were taking to search the ships indicated that they were doing a thorough job. Once the search was complete they escorted the ships to the limit of the gravity well and let them go on their way. Most ships appeared to have been here for quite a while.

Lord Sharris got a glazed look in his eyes, and immediately excused himself to his quarters, saying that he had important things to do. Drake and the others (including Epimenides and Euripides) discussed what their reaction was going to be. They could not afford to allow the Imperials to search the Paradroid.

In the end it was decided to send Drake, Ezreal, Treesh, Tok and Maki-ra-Kraa in the Iron Fist to make contact with the disabled destroyer. Under cloak, they approached the ship and Drake did an EVA and knocked on the airlock hatch.

After a while the hatch was opened. The Defiance crew of the ship treated him with suspicion until Tok, tiring of Drake's implied threats, showed them their Dha identification. The crew then recognised Drake, and he turned off his hologuise.

Drake outlined his plan to the captain, which involved downloading a copy of Euripides into the destroyer's computer and opening fire with all weapons and torpedoes on the Veto-class cruiser on a prearranged signal. The crew would be evacuated into the Iron Fist. The captain of the destroyer agreed to this, knowing that he and his crew were unlikely to be able to escape the Imperials even if they found what they were looking for. Euripides would be evacuated via a tight-beam comm signal before the destroyer was vaporised by the resulting Imperial barrage.

As they were returning from the destroyer, they received a frantic comm from one of the freighters. The signal indicated that the crew of the freighter were under attack by pirates, who were mercilessly killing the crew. Drake immediatly diverted the Iron Fist, but was unable to get there in time to save any of the crew. There was no sign of the pirates either, although a recent transporter signature was detected.

At that time Epimenides announced that the Imperials were preparing to board the Paradroid. They requested that the crew gather in the Upper Cargo hold and prepare themselves for inspection and interrogation. Sharris emerged from his quarters at that time and took on the role of the ship's captain. The Imperial search party beamed aboard and immediately split up into three groups to search all areas of the ship. The commander of the search party and a heavy-weapon-weilding marine stayed on the cargo desk and began interrogating Sharris and the crew. The first question they asked was 'have you seen this man?' as they held up a picture of Drake. Sharris replied that he had never met him, although he knew of him from news reports.

Meanwhile, Drake and the destroyer's crew tracked the pirates to another ship, but were again unable to stop the pirates. There was one ship between them and the Paradroid. Fortunately they caught up with them before they had slaughtered the entire crew of this ship and killed them all except for two Anthropos, whom they interrogated, then spaced. The pirates had with them a comm jammer and a short-range transport device, which Drake claimed as salvage.

The crew of this ship were decimated, but some of the destroyer's crew volunteered to stay aboard and assist, regrouping with the House of Defiance when they were able. A copy of Euripides was downloaded to the computers of all the ships that the pirates had attacked with orders to set a collision course for the Veto-class cruiser and detonate their reactors on impact.

At the same time another copy of Euripides was beamed over to the Imperial ship to try to get access to the gravity well generator. The idea was that when the generator was taken down, the destroyer would open fire and the six sleeper ships would collide with the cruiser. In the ensuing chaos, all the trapped ships would scatter, the Paradroid along with them. But they figured not on the thoroughness of the Imperial search parties...

The Imperials searched Drake's cabin. They found a copy of the biography that Trilby McGaw had written in a file marked 'Important'. They knew then that the captain of the Paradroid had some connection with Drake and that Sharris was lying. They found clothes in Drake's wardrobe which were definitely unsuitable for a Zin-shee. The Imperials became very suspicious, and diverted the other two search teams to the Paradroid for further investigation.

At this time Drake put into motion another part of his plan. He flew the cloaked Iron Fist close to a cruise liner which was a long way from the paradroid and transmitted a message to the Imperials indicating that Drake had just transported to the ship. Sure enough, the Imperials interpreted the message as coming from the liner and one of the search teams diverted again towards the liner to investigate.

At that moment, Drake gave the signal to Euripides. The Guild destroyer opened fire and the six sleeper ships adopted collision courses for the Veto cruiser. Euripides announced that he had infiltrated the commander's handcomp and was looking for a way into the gravity well generator's systems.

Back on the Paradroid, the Imperial commander started receiving a status report on his communicator. Sharris, overhearing, moved blindingly into action. With lightning speed he tranquilised the commander and disabled the marine, while simultaneously Epimenides transported all the other Imperials aboard the ship into the brig.

Finally Euripides was able to bring down the gravity well generator, just as the sleeper ships started impacting on the hull. In the ensuing chaos the Iron Fist returned to the Paradroid and they began the jump to hyperspace. Two Swordships and a Ramship tailed them and tracked their vector. These were foiled by using the same maneuver they used to escape from Aerris - a short jump, a sudden dump of vee and reorient, then a 'true' hyperspace jump in a completely different direction.

The Paradroid, and Drake, had escaped. They rescued many Guild civilian ships from an Imperial blockade and brought most of the crew of the Defiance destroyer with them. But they still have a brig full of armed Imperial thugs and a mysterious virus affecting one crew member.