It was the day that Heaven left him. Kasper remembered it well, in vivid detail, even years later. He was a hot-shot security officer in the JERICHO project. He was a tough guy. At six feet tall, with a robotic arm and leg (which he lost due to nervous system damage on the left side of his body), he was intimidating. He had gone to the spaceport with Heaven, who was scheduled to go to the JERICHO station. He kissed her, said goodbye, and was hoping to see her in a couple of days when he went to the station himself.

       But then everything went wrong. Just as the shuttle took off, an explosion rocked the spaceport. In horror, Kasper realized that the explosion was coming from the shuttle. A small vessel had left the shuttle. It belonged to the Dashiell Syndicate, the greatest organized crime group in the Alterius system. Kasper watched in shock as the explosion sped towards him, shooting through the hardened glass, straight into his eyes. Everything went black. His ears were ringing, and he could feel the ground beneath him. His face and eyes burned. He felt himself being dragged away from the wreckage. He didn't bother getting up. He woke up hours later. He could see again, but it was all grainy, out of focus. He felt his head. His eyes had been replaced with sensor machinery.

        "Kasper, get up!" The voice was that of Heaven's sister, Tamsin. Kasper slowly got up. His face had been restructured, but his eyes were beyond normal medical help, so they were just replaced. He was lucky he didn't lose any of his brain. Kasper slowly got up. He was sore all over. He slowly got up and began to refocus his eyes. They were a military model (or they'd made a new civilian model), and he poured over the features. High magnification, thermographic and ultrasound vision, and a Targetlight Weapon Integration System. He'd been contemplating getting Targetlight goggles with his next bonus, and he hoped the eyes didn't cost him as much.

          Kasper went down to the Missing Person Bureau, to try to find if they'd recovered Heaven's remains. "What's your name?" "Kasper Stefan" "Whose remains are you looking for?" "Heaven Tiana" "May I see some authorization?" Kasper slid his ID card over, then said: "She's my fiancee, and I think she was hit in yesterday's attack." "No remains have been matched."

          Kasper walked off. What did that mean. Could she be alive? Kasper didn't even dare to hope for her survival, but deep down he knew that if she hadn't been matched to a corpse (or ash) yet, she was probably alive. A smaller ship had left. Maybe she was on it. But it was Dashiell Syndicate. She couldn't be working with those criminals. He was up to go onto the station still. He was called to a briefing.

          "Kasper, you're late." My boss, Jameson. Should've hurried if I knew he was going to be at the briefing. "Sorry, sir, I was investigating the crash." Is it just me or is it dark in here. "Don't worry." "You'll be sent to JERICHO on the next shuttle. The Dashies are believed to have infiltrated it, and we've lost communication." The blue lights of the room  dimmed further, and a holographic image of the JERICHO station was projected into the small room. "Your job, and I'll be simply clear here, is to eliminate all the Dashies on JERICHO," I was planning on something like this. "and we have something to show you. Before the Dashies turned off communication, we got a security recording." They have Heaven. If they do anything to her... "It's Heaven, your fiancee, am I right?" "Yes, sir."

           In the dim light of the ship, Kasper pondered the mission. They'll probably use Heaven as a hostage. That's why I'm being sent alone, right? To make sure that they don't kill the hostage by sending such a small team? Or am I just expendable and loyal? Either way, I'll get Heaven back. The ship buckled as it came into JERICHO station's dark landing bay. It was left open when the station was shut down. Kasper was left in a spaceworthy suit, and the stealth shuttle took off. When Kasper opened the airlock, he was greeted with blood. All over the passageways was blood. This is where the security footage was, but what is all the blood about?

           It's dark. I'll switch to thermographics. The blood's cold. It was spilled just after the recording was taken, to have gotten this cold so quickly. But what spilled it? There's no bodies, and no bullets. Projectile weapons would be suicide this close to the ship's exit, and lasers don't cause bleeding, or at least not much. What could've happened here? It looks like it had to be spilled with a knife. But it wouldn't splatter that much. It's not all pure human here. Either they have a biomodded guy, or they've spilled a lot of blood. None of it is Heaven's. I have her DNA on file, and it's not a match. I'll move on. Thermo should detect anything. No, ultrasound. There's not much moving any more, just life support. Why not ultrasound with normal vision? That would look weird, but I'm not anticipating combat. The air is cold, but breathable. What did they kill everyone on the station? There's a lot of blood here, and the life-support doesn't seem to be on. Either they're using other life-support, or they've killed at least half the population. Those frakkers are gonna pay big time for this, if I find them. "Stand down and wait for security teams to escort you." What? Oh, just the recording. This place is going to give me a heart attack if I don't find the light switch. Or Heaven. The station's not worth keeping. It's been trashed. It's gonna be cheaper to melt it down, if this much damage is normal. Then again, they came through here originally. The air's gotten worse, and I'm not using it. There's something alive here, outside of a space suit. I hope Heaven's safe. "This is Tommy Alfonso of the Dashiell Syndicate. Unknown boarder, surrender and you will not be harmed." I'm gonna bet that's likely. "Come get me!" Where's my laser rifle. Did I leave it on the ship? Oh, right, it's on my back. Zero-gee gets to you sometimes. I hope the body armor works in zero-gee. One way to test. Znch. Nope, it does not work in zero-gee. I'm gonna be very mad at whoever makes it when I get back. May as well take it off, if it's not gonna do anything. How could body armor not work in zero-gee? Ultracomposite- way of the future, do not use in space. Heaven and I are gonna have a laugh about this when we get back. "Stand down. We have hostages." "Like who, Tom?" "We know more about you than you think, Kasper. Why else would we take Heaven?" Kasper's heart sank. Frakkers took Heaven on purpose.

           "We have a problem for you to solve, Kasper." "If I can have Heaven back, I'll do it." "Surely you noticed the blood in that passageway. There's something here. When we killed the scientists, one of them opened a containment system. It released a biomod. It's not friendly, as you can tell. It's killed many of our men. You get to take it down, you get Heaven back, we leave. We're done here anyways." "Fine. Where is this creature?"