The door opened one last time and a young boy, perhaps twelve or thirteen, stepped into the room. He started to stand at attention, as if automatically, but when he saw who was in the room, his body eased up and he smiled. "I been looking for you lot all morning. Walked into five wrong rooms, I did. Had to think right quick. Got a message from Rommy for ya's." He produced something similar to an ECHO recorder from his uniform jacket pocket and closed the door. The boy put the device on the floor in the middle of the room and pressed a button. Instead of audio only, as was typical from ECHO recorders, a small hologram appeared of a figure, lit from behind so as to be nothing but a silhouette.
"Greetings," an electronically distorted voice came out of the recorder, "You can call me Romulus. What you are watching is a series of recordings that I have prepared. It is designed to respond to you, but it can only answer questions that I predicted. I cannot talk to you in person, obviously because I don't yet know that I can trust each of you. And I cannot risk an open transmission, for fear of being intercepted.
"The first and most obvious: Why have I gathered you here? Young Luke here is a prime example. He is thirteen years old. In three years, if he continues to live on Actaeon, he will be inducted into basic training, and conscripted to fight in one of Dahl's many proxy wars. Dahl rules through military might, and not through the consent of the governed. This is wrong and I seek to correct it. Most of my supporters are not soldiers, they are every day citizens. Some old, many retired soldiers, and some young like Luke, who want to avoid the horrors that many of us have been forced to face in the name of the Dahl Corporation. How shall I oust this dictator? The power from the vault that has been revealed. It can only be opened with a key in three parts. I believe that Dahl has one, but I have tracked another one down. Retrieving them both is what I ask of you. The reward cannot be measured in dollars, the riches of the Vault are bountiful and strange, as we know from the events on Pandora. I will give you more information when you are somewhere safe. There are very probably soldiers on the way to investigate this unauthorized meeting as I speak.
"If you accept the job, take the recorder with you as you flee. Turn it back on only when you are safe and alone. To aid your escape, allow me to introduce a dear young lady I've made the acquaintance of. Meet Grendel." The recorder suddenly turned off, and a the same time, a hydraulic whirring came from the wall to the right of the door, as a secret compartment opened up. Steam billowed out, and as it cleared it revealed a girl with massive mechanical arms. She was held up by chains that ran under her arms, but as the secret door finished opening, the chains unlatched and allowed her to stand by her own power. Malachi was holding his gun, ready to aim it wherever he needed to as she awoke from her artificial sleep.
"What do you take us for?" Malachi asked, turning to the boy in the doorway. But he was gone now, the door was ajar, and as Malachi looked, a boot kicked it open from the outside and a uniformed soldier dropped to one knee in the door frame, aiming a rifle.
"This meeting has not been recorded and authorized under Discipline code Eight section Fifteen," As the soldier barked his rote, more could be seen behind him, pointing their own guns over his shoulders into the room. "Surrender your arms and you will be taken into custody to be executed officially."
