Upon return to Riax, Theofrastus left the group to go bud an offspring, and another member of THEM returned to the group. Anaximanda, a Takolee sniper, returned to the group after being in therapy for compulsive shopping. They were given a small job involving roughing up a mill forman named Dragus (a Hylosus) who wasn’t paying his Mafia fees (protection credits, extortion, y’know what we mean) Anyway the mission sorta succeeded. They battled through Dragus’ goons and two Redeemer bodyguards. Unfortuantly they killed Dragus as well, and they were suppose to let him live.

For the mission they hired a few underlings - Kolum (an Anurian) and Sozen (a Human) - both shock troopers in training and Bob (a Droid). Bob turned out to be a walking assault flame-thrower.

Time passed and soon they discovered some competition. A mercenary group of Trops had been offering their services for next to nothing fees. They had been nicknamed UGLLY for UnGrateful LowLife Trops. They seemed to have an inexhaustible money supply, but it wasn’t from being mercenaries for hire. Upon a little investigation they found that they were associated with the Kvankii-Lood mafia and that they had a number of underlings of an unknown ape-like species. The two groups met, talked, and eventually tried to kill each other. Combat ensued with the three leaders of UGLLY - Maragrak, Bodora, and Sho. The toughest of them, Bodora - a Yiptak seasoned shock trooper was assassinated by Anaximanda early in the combat and the remaining Yarks were swiftly dealt with.

The group laid low for a little while, re-equipping themselves, healing, eating and resting. Not too much interesting was happening on planet Riax. There were a couple of large cruisers orbiting the planet that were fairly unknown, but they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary. At one point the members of THEM received a message from Heliozoan the scientist they rescued from the Trupepol. It was an urgent plea for help - she said that the Trupepol was after her. THEM chose to ignore the message. A few days later, Heliozoan returned to the group - she explained that she got really drunk one night and sent the message.