Far from Tearmann, within three solar systems, on the three governing Kreel Hub planets, the Kreel Elite and their Marshalls had finalized and begun to execute their plans to expand their Empire. Their massive assembled Armada was then staging for its departure and conquest of multiple solar systems. The decision where and when the armada would first strike was firmly set. As an arrow shot from a compound bow, once launched, that armada would not be turning back. By fate and circumstance, five battle weary Guardian cruisers found themselves far from home and position to oppose the main thrust of the Kreel invasion. Their new orders were to make a stand. While waiting for promised resupply, and the vague assurance of whatever limited additional Guardian cruisers HQ might be able to send, the desperate defenders began seeking an elusive tactical edge that might permit them to survive the upcoming battle. As the five cruisers were bracing for battle, nearly one-hundred light years distant, a single Guardian cruiser on deep reconnaissance was executing its final two acts. Having come under attack by an elite Kreel force, outnumbered, and heavily damaged, the cruiser's single surviving crew was the ship's AI. Sending a Cobalt Blue encrypted message detailing its pending self-destruction, with its final defiant act it destroyed its remaining attackers, and itself. Contained within its Cobalt Blue message was a mystery that once solved would reshape Guardian Force, and draw it deep within the Kreel Empire on a covert Intelligence Probe in force. What could possibly go wrong?