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Kinou didn't really know what he thought about the current situation. On the one hand, the task that is being assigned to them perfectly matches the kind of situation that they excel at. This is the kind of thing they train for. On the other hand, they are meant to be extremely discrete about everything they do. They're called the Shadows because they are never seen, always working behind the scenes to help keep everything together. To be given a job, knowing that everyone on the station will be paying close attention to what they're doing is definitely far outside of his group's comfort zone. He was assured the station itself would be fine either way. The only ones currently in any danger are his group, the fleet, and the Head Guardian. If things blow up it's either a result of a failure on his group or the Head Guardian losing her patience and turning everything sideways.

And of course that's another complication to have to worry about. Not only does his unit have to be at the top of their game to get in, incapacitate any resistance without alerting anyone to their presence and disarm an anti-matter bomb, but they have to do so before someone who can be a bit touchy about certain things and can at times have a rather short fuse does something that ends up causing the human to detonate prematurely. Thankfully, the human likely isn't to bring religion into the equation so they'll likely have a few minutes at least. Doesn't mean he has to like his chances. His initial assessment for the ship is that these people seem extremely underequipped to handle the situation that has been handled to them. Definitely not a well organized military force as his group is practically able to get through all of their security with ease. They didn't even have any guards or alarms set to go off when they entered the ship. If he didn't know any better he had half a mind to consider that this is going too easy for them and might actually be a trap. But based on their choice of weapon he's starting to lean more towards the notion that they didn't really think things all that through. That someone else did the thinking for them and has given them a ship or they stole the ship to follow out that plan and made do with what they had. Would definitely make a lot of pieces fit into place a lot better if this is an impromptu decision for them to go and hold the station hostage with an anti-matter bomb than if this was a premeditated act.

His group splits up immediately after entering the ship. They all had one instruction which was to fully secure the ship. Given the situation, there could be absolutely no margin for error when it came to dealing with the people on board. Didn't matter who they were, if they ran into someone they needed to take them out quickly and before they could sound any sort of verbal alarm. They weren't to bother trying to take prisoners. The lynx decided his own personal destination to start would be the communications room. Cut off that access, remove their ability to talk with the person on the station and they'll be far less likely to have any big booms befall them. When he gets to the communications room, he finds that there are a number in there, but they aren't there to guard the room. Instead it just seems like a bunch of individuals who are hovering over the monitors, watching the events on the station unfold. Does mean that they have a means to see if Anon screws things up. All the more reason for him to act fast. The lynx starts immediately taking them out from the back in. And they're all so engrossed in the events unfolding that they don't even notice him doing so. It isn't until they start cheering at seeing Anon seem to put on a pair of cuffs that they notice him at all, and only because there weren't as many people cheering as he had expected. But he had sent a silent request to the other shadows to help clean this room out and there simply wasn't anything they could do to really communicate. The moment one turned around and saw him they had a bullet in the head and his Kinou's daggers flying to the console to try and disable it from being able to broadcast anything. And then it was a quick rush to try and kill everyone left then completely disable all communications to or from the ship.

From there it was only a simple matter of redirecting them where they wanted. The level of skill and awareness of these humans was appalling and almost insulting that they should be required to handle this threat. And large bomb was still a large bomb, even when being run by incompetents. The bridge was the next primary point to secure but Kinou trusted his people to handle that on their own. His next priority was the bomb itself. With communications currently down they wouldn't be able to coordinate. But the two most logically defended areas would be the bomb and the bridge. And though he wasn't disappointed with their attempt to defend the bomb, he still wouldn't consider them to be at all capable.

As per the plan, once every one of the major areas have been secured, the specialists will come in from their ship and begin working on the bomb. Anti-matter bombs are always dangerous. There isn't really an armed or disarmed with them. If they are on, they're armed and will detonate over even small disruptions and take out large areas with them. So even a small mistake could destroy everyone on this ship and likely a good portion of the crew. And as the process of disarming them requires magic, HAPI's can't be used, meaning the bomb specialists must be physically present. Thankfully, disarming an anti-matter bomb is simple and straight forward, just not easy. On basic principle an anti-matter bomb is just an anti-matter engine, in this case seemingly all the more applicable in design. In a recharge cycle matter goes in, gets converted to antimatter then stored into containment. In a discharge cycle the antimatter is let into another chamber and normal matter is exposed to it a bit at a time. The model they're using is less mass efficient but would generate energy even in a recharge cycle, which is a bit odd. Making it a bomb just means not hooking the output into anything and flooding the exit chamber with normal matter rather than a vacuum. Thus they open the chamber for a discharge cycle and all the antimatter instantly is interacting with normal matter.

Disarming such a bomb is done in two stages. First they must disable the ability for the device to execute a recharge cycle, preventing it from making any more antimatter. And then they would need to simulate the discharge cycle manually, using Sym magic as containment. Expose a bit of the antimatter out into the discharge chamber a bit at a time and even potentially use the energy released to power the Sym magic. Of course for a device this big a Dis mage or two is also needed or else phasic imbalance would likely blow everything up. Once all antimatter is depleted, the bomb is rendered harmless.

But Kinou is neither a Sym mage nor a Dis mage. He can do both, but would only be getting in the way if he were to try and help. So instead he decides to make use of what he is good at and goes about wandering the ship, looking for any other potential hostiles that may have been missed. The whole thing strikes him as odd. A ship full of people who are completely human to the extent of having all their sensors set to human optimum. Though a few knew how to handle a gun, it was clear that none of them had any sort of military training. Most were so incompetent in regards to fighting Kinou was almost more inclined to consider them armed noncombatants and almost felt a bit guilty at killing them all. But that was the nature of the job, his group's job especially. They weren't chosen because they'd have a bleeding heart over some moral issue. They were picked because they would go in, get the job done regardless of who was in their way.

The worst part is the fact that there was no real coordination from them. It was like the captain just hired a bunch of random people and convinced them to go on this suicide mission. On top of all of that the ship they chose isn't even a full military grade vessel. It probably wouldn't even have been considered combat ready a hundred years ago. Absolutely no ordinance, no guns, only adequate shielding for a ship of this side. It just screamed of being a civilian craft repurposed for this effect. If they hadn't dropped out of FTL so close to the station they probably would have been destroyed before they would even be considered a threat. Their bomb wasn't even rigged as a bomb correctly. It was basically just a second anti-matter engine that just wasn't hooked up to anything and had the discharge chamber sabotaged.

It'll definitely make for an interesting discussion later, but that'll be for those on the top of the chain of command to worry about. All Kinou has to worry about is doing his job protecting the alliance and everyone in the station. Let the others worry about why this is like this. All he needs to concern himself with is diffusing the bomb. With the crew silently taken care of, he signals his team to begin the slow, arduous process of draining the reactor of any built-up anti-matter. And then while he starts patrolling the ship to make sure that there will be no surprises coming to them from the inside of the ship, the one thought that crosses his mind the most is will they have enough time before the head guardian loses her temper.

Mige looks out the nearest window. The little fox is floating around just above the general flow of traffic. Most would give him a strange look when they see him but otherwise don't pay him any attention. Theoretically, in the case of a crisis the windows would be closed and sealed over with blast doors to protect the people inside. The fact that they haven't been closed either means that the issue of that human ship appearing out of nowhere is not as big a threat as its appearance might imply or, as is more likely, the higher ups are trying to hide the fact that there is a situation going on. But Mige isn't concerned, he knows the station will be just fine. And after going through the process of getting himself a room he has started touring the station, not only to help facilitate him doing his duty but also just enjoy spending some time to take things in. There will be plenty of time for work, so why not simply enjoy things for a little while. A Jhereshii stares at him for a moment before floating up as well, putting him on the same approximate height as Mige.

"I notice that you don't have a translation orb," the Jhereshii says. Mige's ears twitch at the sound but makes no other notion of understanding. And so the Jhereshii repeats the statement. After the third time of repeating the statement Mige flicks his head and activates the Language of Intent spell.

"Can I help you?" Mige asks, not bothering to look over.

"An Intent user. Interesting," the Jhereshii says. "I was noting the fact that you do not seem to be carrying around a translation orb and found that rather unusual."

"I'm also way above everyone else. Perhaps as a sign of wanting to be left alone."

"That is not my experience in the matter. Those who wish to be left alone tend to go out of their way to be unseen. I'm quite positive that if you wanted you could probably blend in so thoroughly that no one would notice you. But those who don't walk around with an orb are either neglectful or do so deliberately. As you do not appear to be someone prone to being negligent, it has to be the latter. And that generally means you are trying to be seen. Further exemplified by the fact of setting yourself above the rest in this manner. You want to be seen, just that I am not the one you want to be seen by."

"Perhaps I just like the view from up here."

"I also notice that you have made no attempt at introductions," the Jhereshii says, "nor have you simply chosen to cancel out the Intent and walk away."

"There's never really any point in giving your name to a Jhereshii. They'll never give you theirs and if they really wanted your name they'd probably already know."

"I can too give a name. People here call me Ret."

"But that is a name, not your name, one that has no more significance than to call me Prince or Scout."

"You see, that in itself can sometimes give more insight into a person than their actual name. Like what would you be here scouting for? Or is there another context that I am misunderstanding?"

"You're trying to trick me into giving you information. It's not going to work. Why are you really here? Retired or no, there doesn't seem to be that little to do on the station that you have to go and pester anyone not walking around with a translation orb."

"Perhaps, perhaps. But of all of these individuals you do seem to be the most aware of the situation at hand," Red waves an appendage in the direction of the window most closely aimed at the new ship, the one Mige has been hovering by. "But I will admit you caught my interest when you were seen talking with the head guardian. I was wondering what all you were talking about."

"So we get to the crux of the matter. If you saw me talking to them, shouldn't you already know what I was talking about?"

"An unfortunate side effect of someone using the Language of Intent spell is that those not using it will hear nothing but a garbled mess of noise."

"I highly doubt that anyone would consider that making it harder for people to eavesdrop would be considered a flaw. But it was nothing of importance. I had given a potential thief in the market a case of stage fright and got them to leave without committing a crime and felt the need to inform security of that. That and to simply say hello."

"And that required using the Language of Intent?"

"Well, as you've said, I am not carrying a translation orb. I had not felt it needed on the flight here since it was a sleeper car and my luggage did not enter the station at the same time I did. So I manage as I need."

Ret stares at Mige for a good long while, as if trying to figure out just how much of what the fox has said is true and how much is obscured.

"Is there anything else you need to know," Mige asks, turning away and going back to staring out the window. "Cause I don't really have anything I feel I have to say about you."

"No, I suppose not. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on you. You definitely look like someone I should keep my interest quite a bit."

Mige doesn't respond but instead simply switches off the Language of Intent spell. Ret looks back up out the window, seeing if he can perhaps see everything that is going on out there despite knowing that such would be impossible. But when he glances back down he can no longer see Mige. The fox seems to have completely vanished from all sight, he can't even see any sign of him getting into the crowd or anything.

"Definitely someone to keep my eye on," Ret reaffirms as he floats himself back down and carries on with his walk, replaying the entire conversation in his head to see if he could find any hidden tidbits of information that would prove most useful for understanding the other.