“The Rankless Initiative” is episode three of season one of Krypton.
In the previous episode, “House of El”, Lyta had challenged her Commander, Quel-Ul, to a duel to the death and won, taking his place as Commander of 4th Squad Sagitari. This was because she objected to how he was going to follow the Rankless Initiative, which was not bothering to discriminate between ordinary Rankless and Black Zero. Adam and Kem had gone into the Outlands, following up a report of a meteor shower. There, they had found something – and Adam stated that Brainiac was not on his way. He was already there. Seg had said he would join the Science Guild, but he wouldn’t wear the sigil of House Vex. The Voice of Rao had finally spoken, and he is definitely not a puppet of Daron-Vex.
Seg and Adam arrive at the Fortress with what Adam and Kem found. Adam is impressed with how super-realistic Val’s hologram is. They show Val what was found and he recognises it as being one of Brainiac’s probes, which are sent out to judge whether a civilisation is worthy of collection. They want Val to analyse it.
According to Val, the probe is simply a shell, a casing for another device called a Sentry. He can extrapolate the approximate size and shape of the Sentry from the casing. The Sentry is a parasite which seeks out a host, takes over the body and then uses the host to gather information about the planet being scouted. Afterwards, the Sentry leaves the host for dead.
They are going to extract the Sentry from its shell before it can find a host. Val tells Adam and Seg that it won’t be easy, as once the shell is opened the Sentry will do as any parasite would and seek out a host. Val points out that he is a hologram – not exactly a suitable host. It can be guessed what is going to happen – the shell is empty when opened. The Sentry has already got out.
The episode goes back three days and Brainiac’s ship sends out a cloud of probes. One arrives at Krypton and crashes into the Outlands. At Kem’s bar, he is serving food to a girl, Ona, who calls him uncle, and her mother, Rhom. Kem tells them that, no matter how hard times are, there is always a meal for them here. Rhom says she is just starting a new job. This is, no great surprise, in the Outlands, on a salvage crew. Rhom is naturally the one who found the Sentry’s shell, which opened.
Back in the present and Adam and Seg need to find the Sentry before it completely takes over its host. Not everything found in the Outlands is sold to the guilds; some is sold on the black market. Which is what Rhom did with it.
Nyssa-Vex seems to be manipulating Seg to a degree. She returned the ashes of his parents to him, so that he could give them a proper funeral, even though this wasn’t allowed. Nyssa had told her father that Seg turning down the opportunity to join the House of Vex meant that Seg now trusted her.
The Voice of Rao tells Daron that Black Zero has made attempts on his life and, if Black Zero doesn’t suffer the consequences of their actions, Daron will. So, no pressure then. Sector 19 is the one being invaded by the Sagitari, as there is believed to be a Black Zero stronghold there. Many of the leaders are known, so can be scanned if found. Of course, they first need to be found. Lyta wants a less brutal approach than is generally favoured, especially by Daron-Vex, who is now under pressure himself.
Sector 19 is Seg’s home sector. So, he and Adam have to try to find and stop the Sentry before it can broadcast information on Krypton to Brainiac, all while the area is being cracked down on by the Sagitari. Seg is not terribly happy to find out about the Rankless Initiative, when it turns out that Lyta had been keeping it a secret from him.