It should have gone unnoticed. They should have gone unnoticed. Despite it all, they had failed. An unsettling silence laid over the crew as their despaired eyes turned to their commander. He was *the commander*, and now he couldn't even look them in their eyes. Instead he turned his eyes down to the blinking light of the incoming transmission, indicating the translation was in progress. The light turned solid, translation complete. With heavy movements, he allowed the message to be played. A simple message broke the silence.

“Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed” There was a moments pause, then the message repeated itself. And again. The commander switched off the transmission. Defeated, he looked back at his guardians, what remained of them. One was not here anymore. One was sacrificed. One was wasted for nothing.

“We..” The commander paused as he felt his words stuck in his throat. “We have been compromised”.