After days spent reading the ancient scrolls, JS finally got a pretty good idea of what had happened to the BAR empire. "The sudden vanishing of the bugs left the emperor and the entire BAR population in a state of perpetual waiting. The bugs had soundly defeated them, so the BAR scientists started looking for weapons that might give them victory when the bugs would come back. Choice fell on Bio-Chem warfare, an insecticide that could wipe the bugs out but harmless to the Rasharr." JS summed for Eve who was referring to Maurr. "But the BAR empire collapsed, why?" Eve asked. "In this millennia-old standby, the BAR lost sight of the ultimate goal, and the hierarchy's survival became its purpose. In the name of the bugs' menace they started to use allied peoples as guinea pigs and made genetic experiments on their own citizens trying to create Supersoldiers. At the end the BAR empire collapsed leaving the poisoned fruit of their space-labs throughout the galaxy." "It was all written, and we hadn't got it!" Yahrr murmured giving voice to the despair of all. "Look about the banning of foreigners from Rasharr." Wohrr said. "The wise Vihkr clearly refers to the bugs. They must not soil Rasharr ground." "Faceted eyes In my land must die, We'll kill the kin Of the scaly skin." Lady Tahrr sang and murmured; "Instead the allies were welcome: Set the tables, and toast to the braves the bugs' host sent to its graves." "A revolution!" Yahrr exclaimed, "It's a revolution!" That evening Rohrr told the others how JS had freed him, the battle of the ziggurat and the destruction of the bugs' starships. Yahrr and Wohrr almost came to blows for the honor of adopting JS as a brother. "Silly Men!" Lady Tahrr sighed. "He is already prince Maurr's brother, so ask him to be your sword brother!" Got their support, JS tried to convince Yahrr to leave his isolated residence and move into one of the areas under the de facto control of the rebels. "Nobody asks you to leave Rasharr and find refuge in a spaceship, but to go where we can protect you better." Yahrr agreed, and the group set off through the Rainbow Red Desert, a desolate land where hardly they might meet GHOUL or militia patrols. They had reached halfway when three herdsmen with their drolls popped out from behind a corner. The LRV were forced to stop and one of the herders recognized Yahrr. The man immediately lowered his eyes pretending that nothing had happened, but JS and Wohrr saw him. "What do we do? If they warn the GHOULs, we're doomed." Wohrr said. Now the shepherds had also noticed JS. One of them shouted: "We won't say anything, Lord Yahrr, we swear. Poor herders we are, who don't stick their noses into our lords' business. Just want to go home and mind our own." Yet JS mind-read that one of them was thinking to rat on them. "They are civilians, let them go." Yahrr suggested. Silently cursing, because he didn't want to argue with Yahrr, JS replied: "In a civil war, there are no civilians. In symmetric wars division between the civilian and the military is clear-cut, but in asymmetric warfare, this difference is erased. Not even an infant whose cradle conceals explosives is a civilian any longer. Anyway, they're your countrymen, it's to you to decide." "I say we should kill them." Wohrr said. "Me too." Rohrr nodded. JS mind-saw that one of the herdsmen had a GHOUL seal in his pocket, so when Yahrr said: "I'm in the minority, I give in, but I think these are unnecessary deaths." JS allowed himself to say: "Before you kill them, search them. We may find something that can save their lives." Hearing JS's words, the GHOUL apprentice tried to bury the seal into the sand, but Lady Tahrr saw him and shouted: "That bastard is trying to hide something!" At that moment, the herders' fate was sealed. "Now we have to run, the herd will return to the farm alone and this will raise suspicions." JS stated.