After healing in the EEE for a number of hours, the main members of THEM began calling the underlings not present to warn them about the resurgence of hostilities with Brute Squad. A call to Tapir resulted in an urgent plea for help. Members of Brute Squad had tried to kill him, and crushed one of his legs before he got away. He was cornered in a bar and it was only a matter of time before he was found by the Grotens. THEM got there as quickly as they could and killed all five Grotens without breaking a sweat. Tapir was put into the medical cabinet in the EEE for treatment of his leg.

Calls were made to Bob, Hecate, and Theofrastus. All were fine and had not encountered Brute Squad. A call to Thrombosis revealed an interesting story. Four members of Brute Squad and cornered him and were about to kill him, when Thrombosis convinced the Grotens that they had the wrong guy. He quickly pointed out another Equadon that looked similar to himself and convinced the Grotens that the other Equadon was himself. Well, the other Equadon was not pleased as he got his limbs ripped off. After the bloodshed, Thrombosis sat with the Grotens for a few drinks, waiting for the rest of THEM to contact him. THEM eventually arrived, and the following battle was easily won.

Healing, eating and rest followed. Then, the situation THEM were in took a turn for the worse. They got a call from Commander Saf who asked to see them immediately. A meeting in a bar followed. Saf showed them a datapad, slammed it down on the table, and told THEM that he regretted the decision it contained. He told them to read the datapad… if they survived. With that he leaped into the air, pulled out rifles and attacked THEM. Saf was a very adept combatant (a seasoned shock trooper) and had impressively powerful blast rifles. Fortunately, early in the combat, Yoyo managed to disable one of the rifles, halving the damage Saf could inflict. The battle was long and both Saf and THEM were heavily wounded. The penultimate action was Vasculus getting a good hold on Saf, intending to restrain the droid instead of destroying him. Unfortunately, Saf was able to signal his weaponry to overload. The resulting explosion destroyed Saf and all but killed Vasculus. Yoyo and Anaxamanda grabbed Vasculus' body and the datapad and left in a big hurry. Unfortunately, the EEE was nowhere to be seen. The underlings aboard had been told by Lidiak that Yoyo, Anax, and Vas had wanted to meet them in the bar. Once all members of THEM were gone, she took the ship and left.

THEM found a place to hide in a nearby university. Vasculus was treated to the best of Yoyo's abilities, but was still comatose. THEM stole an aerospace van and traveled to a desert planet either for Vasculus' recovery or his funeral. Eventually he revived, but having been blown up by a couple of overloading rifles caused a significant amount of mental stress. Vasculus and the other members of THEM decided it would be in all their best interests if Vasculus took an extended leave of the group. He stayed on the desert planet.

The datapad that Commander Saf had left them revealed the reason for the attack. The Tundak Mafia and the Kvankii-Lood Mafia had made a deal. In the deal, the Tundaks acquired control of the Chofnu planet and the slaving profits it represented. The Kvankii-Lood in return got a large sum of money, control of a number of previously Tundak controlled areas, and the death of THEM. According to Saf, Fabry, the leader of Brute Squad, somehow got himself present at these negotiations, and was instrumental in making sure that the death of THEM was part of the deal. Fabry and all of Brute Squad had recently been made part of the Kvankii-Lood Mafia. Upon learning of the situation, Saf insisted that it was he that carried out the executions. His superiors wanted to send battle suits, but Saf convinced them otherwise.

At the end of the message, Saf revealed that the cpu in his body when he attacked THEM was a copy and the original was contained within the datapad. He asked to be delivered to a trusted technician friend of his for implantation into a new body.