Lighting glazed down on the echidnas and Gizoids working furiously to complete their latest mission. Project: Surprise Party, directed by Prefect Emerl. The main assembly hall, normally very drab and plain even during meetings, was now decorated with black, orange and magenta streamers lining the walls and medium sized banners that read "Happy Birthday Imperatrix Shade." Large tables and matching chairs had been set up evenly along the perimeter of the hall, black tablecloths draped over each table. Colored light fixtures and strobe lights were being hooked up to the ceiling, and a DJ station was set up at one end of the large room, one of the Centurions having volunteered to DJ for the evening to Emerl's surprise. Preparations were almost complete, the only tasks left to do being to set the tables with the various foods that Emerl had prepared a few hours prior, and to set up the cake--which Emerl had baked himself--and any presents that had been brought on a particularly large table near the entrance. The prefect smiled to himself. Shade was going to love this.