In the neutral Piradin area, Kazaar and Domel recruiters try to enlist aliens for their troops. Cobra is there to retrieve a briefcase that thieves stole from the Merce Temple. Meanwhile a battle rages between the two forces and he finds a child with a dying grandfather trapped under rubble. Cobra agrees to take the child to Killadeen spaceport. They are captured by four Kazaar survivors under Lieutenant Shella. Cobra says he's Johnson, a scientist conducting historic research. In a struggle, the briefcase falls open showing the National Royal Rubies...