Alberto Cruz did not expect the grandiloquent security team brought by Juan Harabero and he almost dropped the valuable item delivered by López, in full consternation. He felt strangely comfortable staying near Santiago Rosario, who arrived alone. He breathed deeply and recomposed himself and, before he could form words, he read the comm-pad silently one more time, to be sure that the mission is exactly as he was seeing.
“Well, let’s get this started. We have some Maltese lost, but not common ones. They are our Asesinos…you know, the expendable ones. After a group of them was sent into an expedition deeper in Omicron Beta, we lost contact with them. Telemetry from Ruiz confirmed it…And before you ask…yes, an additional group of Asesinos were sent after them, to check the situation. They got lost, too.”
Ashamed of what was reporting, as if he was the one to blame for this; he continued:
“Alpha Command wants to know what happened to them. Of course, finding out if they are alive or not is not the main goal here, but we need to check what is going on in…”
Cruz displayed the small device to the rest; a map of the surveyed sector can be seen. He pointed out the zone with the precise coordinates, a sector located in the western side of Beta; a place beyond the mysterious alien gate.
“Have you been there before? Not really a transited space, it seems. Those guys went really far away. Do you think they tried to defect? No, that would be stupid. Why going there, though?”
Odd silence erupted from Cruz, as seconds passed, trying to think a possible explanation. Lastly, he simply said:
“Well, any questions? The transmission from the last Asesinos went out 1 hour ago. So, we should move on soon before the trace goes cold.”
![[Image: 0WfuF9g.png]](https://i.imgur.com/0WfuF9g.png)