At an unknown secret location somewhere in Moscow, the lights flicker on in the medical lab. Harsh light fills the sterile environment as instruments and computer automatically come on-line recognising the biological presence of their owner. The tall and bald figure of Dr Yankovich enters with the elongated but stunning form of Dr Volyova both dressed in pristine lab coats. Volyova undresses and lies naked on the central operating table as Yankovich beings wiring bio monitors and preparing an infusion of nano medi-machines. Yankovich offers Volyova the choice of being unconscious during the procedure but she politely declines. With readout displaying every aspect of her bodily function and metabolism Dr Yankovich injects the embryotic clone directly into the womb. Volyova interfaces with the nano machines throughout her body and watches as the cells multiply at an accelerated rate already 100 times the original size. Yankovich beings using a combination of drugs and nanobots to accelerate Volyovas own metabolism to match the rapid growth of the clone. From Volyovas perspective the world around her slows to a crawl, it seems to take Yankovich hours to change the nutrient drip. The embryo continues to grow and the basic limbs begin to form. Every nerve in her body cries out in pain and shock but Volyova manages the agonising pain as she interfaces on a lower level with her body and the machines there in. Emotions surge and retreat like a stormy ocean, uncontrollable rage and hate washed away by a flood of pleasure and unconditional love replaced by fear and then finally numbness. The growth with in her already moving and showing signs of life. Volyova opens her eyes and is consumed by blinding light as her consciousness interfaces through the bio-monitors and nanotechnology and into the medical lab computers and becoming intensely aware of the lifeforces around her the presence of Yankovich shining like a beacon of light. The mind continues beyond the lab through the power and phone lines connecting through the Internet and web of technology around the world and then from there the short by profound leap to the planets biosphere. She hears billions of hearts beating, she feels raindrops on a trillion leaves. Her synapses fire in unison with the world and then as she begins to understand the connection between all life and all machines reality brings her crashing down the connection broken. She is lying naked in the cold clinical lab her belly swollen with the unborn clone minuets away from delivery. Yankovichs moves quickly slicing her open with the laser scalpel and removing the baby Markel clone. Volyova feels the loss of the child but also feels a new understanding of the universe. Yankovich tells her to return to the UMC he will take care of the clone which should be fully grown and ready for deployment in 24hrs.



Back at the UMC the rest of the amalgam have been recovering from the previous rescue mission, Hurst receives a coded message asking him to be at Vykhino monorail station for 4pm to meet Mr Umbridge. In the meantime the amalgam begins to gather down at Zukovs workshop first Hurst arrives and Zukov and Hurst discuss the Umbridge scenario as well as the possibility the something is up with agent Krenyenko. Oleg and Krenyenko meet in the corridor on their way there when Krenyenko has an unexplained change of heart and heads directly for the garage and his car. Zukov and Hurst send Oleg after him to see what his is up to.

Kreyenko feels the need to be somewhere but he does not know where. Climbing into his MANAR equipted car he begins to drive eventually pulling up outside a brand new apartment block a quick scan reveals minor primium activity. Oleg driven by Mikheil follow at a distance. Krenyenko enters the building and finds his way to an apartment where Vladimir is making a cup of tea. He sits with Krenyenko and tells him that the mission needs to be stepped up as Bogdan, the founder of the seven stars turned rogue is about to return to the world. Krenyenko must destroy the artefacts, Vladimir gives him a powder capable of dissolving one of the artefacts. He also give krenyenko a ring which he is to wear when he wants to be extracted upon completion of his mission. Vladimir is suddenly distracted and begins looking out of the window, telling Krenyenko to get out of here as it seems he was followed. Oleg is outside investigating the building. Krenyenko leaps out of a window and using a combination of anti-gravity devices and cloaking travels several miles away abandoning his car. Oleg detects the primium surge and begins a scan searching for Krenyenko, after finding the building deserted except for a couple of recently used mugs he leaps back in the car with Mikheil they drive "the fastest" to Krenyenkos new location. As they drive through the city they encounter Krenyenko calmly walking down the road, Mikheil pulls a handbrake turn pulling up next to Krenyenko. Oleg gets out and offers him a lift back to the UMC. Once in the car Oleg activates Zukovs hunter seeker and stealthily tranquillises Krenyenko.



Back at the UMC Hurst has been conducting an investigation of the unusually code he has found riddling the cities computer systems. Using all his knowledge of computers he begins to trace the source to a remote satellite uplink somewhere in a rural region just outside Moscow. As he begins to gather data someone uses his connection to loop back through his connection directly into the UMC systems, Hurst reacts quickly activating the alarm to shut down remote connection from the UMC but its too late a piece of viral code has already entered and then left the secure personal computer systems in Dr Vlads lab. Hurst traces the connection from Vlads lab directly to Olegs implants. At that moment a mile or so from the UMC Olegs implants overload and flood his brain with rage and destructive impulses. Without thinking he deploys his plasma cannon and opens fire directly into the dashboard of the car. The entire engine block explodes in ball of plasma and molten metal. The car goes from 150mph to 0mph in a split second, the back end flips over the top and the momentum takes the car and its passengers vertically spinning and flipping through the air until the car embeds itself in a nearby building.



Hurst finds Zukov and tells him of the incident, they decide to split up Hurst heads to the crash site and Zukov heads to the source of the computer hack. Volyova also arrives back at the UMC in time to receive the report of an incident with Oleg and Mikheil. Volyova and Hurst take control of the crash site extracting the bodies and bringing them back to the UMC keeping the fact that Krenyenko was on board secret. Zukov takes a helicopter out of the city identifying 3 farms in the area from which the uplink was presumed to be. One of the farms seems deserted and uninteresting but two have minor residual primium signatures. Landing Zukov investigates on foot finding both farms deserted with no sign of recent vehicle activity but finding cables and leads running from the roof of each farm down into the basements where it appears recent workstations were set up. DNA analysis of the farms revealed two males with almost identical genes, most likely twins of some kind. Returning too the UMC Zukov finds Volyova and Hurst in the lab with the unconscious forms of Oleg, Krenyenko and Mikheil.



There is a knock on the door and Vlad enters the lab snivelling as always and demanding the return of Oleg to his custody and argument breaks out and Vlad is sedated and added to the group of unconscious bodies. Zukov removes some of Olegs core implants and replaces them with standard IterationX equivalents. Shortly after completing the procedure all the amalgam receive a communication requesting the immediate presence in the boardroom for briefing and also that if anyone should find Krenyenko they should bring him in as he has been off grid for several hours now.

Only Conrad is present in the board room today and he offers some lunch and vodka around the amalgam. He explains that the man Dmitry Egerov who was witness to the haemavore atrocity at the bar and later seemingly awoken during interrogation has been found. A surveillance team have been investigating him and it seems he has made contact with a cabal of mages in the city. This cabal could very well be the seven stars, the amalgam is to investigate and watch this Dmitry and see if he leads the amalgam to the cabal. If so the team is to continue surveillance and not engage the cabal until a report has been made to the symposium.

Meanwhile down in the lab Krenyenko comes around finding himself in a confined space. The voice of Vladmir speaks to him telepathically telling him to put on the ring. Suddenly he is lying on the floor of a wood panneled library...

Zukov floated high in the atmosphere considering the situation, invoking the machines cloaking capabilities and what ever technology he could to hide himself from the union, he descended back to the earth, landing in the barren polluted wasteland near the neutralised cairn. Searching the area and running scan revealed nothing no trace of the Monastery that he knew existed here a thousand years ago. Melding with the earth he found an invisible barrier blocking his descent, draining the field revealed its source a small statuette buried near the cliff face. Destroying the trinket allowed his descent down into a half buried chamber once a bedroom long ago. Amidst the rotting furniture and dead tree roots an large pristine leather bound book was lying on a crumbling alter. Taking the book which appeared to contain esoteric and undecipherable imagery Zukov left the monastery and ascended high into the Urals finding a small sheltered cave he hid the book and the piece of the machine asking it to do a intricate mind edit upon his next landing. With the items hidden safely he returned to the UMC headquarters to turn himself into the authorities as he landed his memories of the device, the book, the ghostly figure, the "KnossSolution" file, Autochthonia and any other incriminating evidence faded. He was quickly taken in to custody and after a brief questioning by Conrad, he was taken away for conditioning.



Hurst stood on the low rolling hill, the English summer evening buzzing around soothingly, in the distance the towers of Oxford University rose above the city reflecting the pink and orange light. Umbridge appearing next to him looked saddened and drained by recent events. The two discuss the recent progression of events, Umbridge convinced that certain members of the symposium where just waiting for any opportunity to bring in the amalgam for conditioning and how it is lucky that no one suspects the secret movement outside the symposiums tight control. Umbridge hesitates as to weather to let Hurst keep his memories but decides having someone in the field on his side is worth the risk. Telling him to act the part of a heavily conditioned agent loyal to the symposium and to the chain of command, Umbridge and the scene fades from Hursts mind.



Krenyenko awakened alone in a medical bay, feeling better than he had in sometime not pain or shakes and no evidence of any injury. Rising he realises that 36hrs have past, that last thing he could remember was setting up a cover for the operation against Sultan Engineering. Feeling a need to report to Conrad, he left the medical room and comes face to face with Hurst and Zukov as they two arise from another medical bay. The group report to Conrad and Markel (who seemed unusually happy) and after its explained how something seems to have effected them in the previous time travel incident most likely deviant magics encountered during the time anomaly and after they all collapsed during their duties a day and a half ago Yankovich has worked around the clock to revive them and restore them to health.



Having reported in the amalgam returns to its assigned operation to investigate Sultan Engineering, using the telecomms cover set up by Krenyenko the team sets up surveillance near the main offices of the company. After disrupting all the phone lines into the building and surrounding area Krenyenko goes in under the guise of a phone engineer and finds his way down to the server room and the switch board. Once there he set up a tap and began monitoring all communications. Meanwhile Hurst was co-ordinating operations from the van whilst gathering all information on the company. Zukov sneaked in through a fire exit finding his way to the CEO's office. Cloaked he waited for the man to leave before searching the room taking all relevant files digital and hard copy. The agents then regrouped at the van in time to see the CEO driving his executive Audi away from the building.



The amalgam decided to follow him but discover he is not heading home instead they follow him to a remote farmstead out side the city. After watching him leave his car carrying a package the group follow him into a barn only to find it deserted. As the amalgam conducted various scans the sound of the Audis engines interrupted them. The amalgam gave chase and the CEO (Mr Whistler) abandons his car and disappears into a nearby field. As the amalgam caught up there is no sign of the CEO just his abandoned car.