The Ether Conflict

by aGuestfromGreece45

One day...the Apocalypse came. Earthquakes shook the Earth, changing the planet's face. Law and order, ethics and morals just vanished, their meaning lost in the ensuing chaos and madness. But something darker lurks in the shadows, threatening to change our way of life forever. It needs to be stopped...though it might be too late for that. [AU story, fantasy elements included]

10. Chapter 10: Codename White

The Ether Conflict

Chapter 10: Codename White

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Wednesday 25th of May, 2 Y.A.

One hour after the conclusion of Operation Downfall

"Ouch," Miho groans as she feels a stabbing pain in her left breast and the area below it, at the place where she had been shot by Odysseus.

"Please be patient, we are almost done," the nurse that is treating her injury says, applying a bandage around her chest. "You are very lucky the vest managed to withstand the revolver bullet. It could have easily killed you."

Miho looks on her left from the box in which she is sitting and next to it on the ground lays the experimental vest with a deformed revolver bullet lodged in it.

"You don't say," Miho mutters, gazing solemnly at the ruined vest, her mind unwillingly wondering what would have happened if the vest had failed to stop the lethal projectile and had pierced through it. One thing's for sure, she wouldn't be standing here right now thinking of this alternative. "Say, do you know what happened to the enemy general? Tatsuhito's the name, if I remember correctly."

"He died due to excessive blood loss. He also had severe internal hemorrhage from a stab wound that pierced his liver and a completely destroyed elbow. Whoever stabbed that guy with the sword, they made sure he wouldn't live."

With one final tug to make sure that the bandage is tightly secured, which causes Miho to grunt slightly in pain, the nurse pats Miho on the back to indicate that she's done.

"We are done. The bruise should be gone in about four to seven days, just make sure not to aggravate it any more," she informs Miho, who nods back as she puts on her uniform's shirt and jacket that she had removed for the nurse to check on her injury.

"Thanks and have a nice day," she says at the nurse, before starting to walk towards the lowered ramp of the massive helicopter she has found herself into. She silently wonders how these behemoths can even fly, let alone for what they have been constructed to transport. As she steps out of the massive helicopter and down its loading ramp, she spots three certain girls approaching her.

"Miporin!" Saori waves at her, as she, along with Hana and Mako, approach their leader.

"How are you feeling, Miho?" Hana asks politely with a calming smile.

"I'm fine, just a bruise here," Miho points over her uniform at where she was shot.

"You know, if the bullet was of bigger caliber or you had been shot at a closer range, you could have died," Mako says in her usual monotone voice.

"But luckily I didn't," she sighs, but then notices that a certain someone is missing. "Say, where is Yukari?"

Before anyone can speak, Mako raises a finger and points behind Miho towards her left, and something slams at her side, almost tackling her to the ground and causing her injury to flare up with a little bit of pain.

"Miss Nishizumi, I'm so glad you are okay!" Yukari almost yells in relief, wrapping her hands around Miho and squeezing her tightly.

"Y-Yukari, you are hurting me," Miho says quickly and so Yukari reluctantly lets Miho from her hug.

"I-I'm sorry, Miss Nishizumi, I was just happy to see you are fine," she says with an awkward smile.

"Don't worry about it. Are you girls alright?" she asks her friends and they all nod in response. As the girls keep chatting, a man that wears a black military uniform almost similar to the one the girls wear approaches them and coughs once to get their attention.

"Ahem, are you Miss Nishizumi?" he asks Miho politely.

"Yes, how can I help you?" Miho asks the man.

"We are starting to load the tanks for transport, so I'd like to ask you to move your tank for loading," he says and points with his thumb over his right shoulder in the distance, where one of these massive helicopters Miho was a few minutes ago slowly descends to land and unload its cargo. Though frankly speaking, these helicopters look more like huge boxes that someone took massive rotor blades and slammed them on top of it and hoped they would fly. Or Chinook helicopters on steroids, whichever fits your fancy.

"Girls, can I ask you to take care of it?" Miho asks her friends. "I want to go check on my sister and the others."

"Leave it to us, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says excitedly, snapping a rather professional salute for a moment.

"But I want to sleep," Mako grumbles.

"Mako, you can't sleep during work! What would your Grandma say!?" Saori berates her, before dragging her towards the tank.

"But I am an adult now, I can do whatever I want!" she grumbles back to Saori.

"We will catch up with you once we are done," Hana says, before she and Yukari follow Saori and Mako.

"Before you go, can I ask you to find the commander of the Antelope team and inform her about the loading?" the man asks Miho a final time. "I looked around the helicopters, but I couldn't find her anywhere."

"Antelope team?" Miho gives the man a confused expression. "Oh, you mean Odysseus! Yeah, I'll keep it in mind."

"Thanks. If you'll excuse me now."

The man snaps a salute and goes away, so Miho starts walking to the helicopter that is next to the one in which she was inside a few minutes ago.

Entering the helicopter from the rear loading ramp, Miho scans the interior and notices that there are a few differences from the one she was inside before. In its floor there are built-in collapsible medical beds that can be set up at a moment's notice. There is also a cabinet full of medical equipment and supplies at the end of the loading bay near the cockpit, clearly indicating that the interior has been modified to act as a field hospital. Scanning the interior, she spots Rosehip sitting on the edge of one of the collapsible beds and next to her is sitting Darjeeling and Assam, who quietly converse with her. On the bed across them sit Nonna, Klara and Katyusha, with Katyusha sitting between her vice-commanders, all of them listening to the conversation of the St. Gloriana girls and making their own remarks here and there. Looking around the interior a bit more, she also spots a few black body bags further inside, which contain the bodies of the ones that didn't make it...or parts of the bodies in some cases. So many lives lost in a matter of mere hours, it really weighs heavily on her shoulders, and the constant questions of "what if she had done something differently" that pop in her head constantly are definitely not helping her either.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, she starts walking towards the girls and soon gets spotted by the bandaged Rosehip, who has bandages wrapped around her head and right hand.

"Miss Miho!" Rosehip waves at Miho and the rest of the girls turn to look at her.

"Hey girls," Miho greets the girls as she reaches them, who in turn greet her back. "How are you, Rosehip?" she asks, seeing Rosehip's bandaged head and multitude of bruises her arms, and probably legs, have.

"I'm fine, just a few bumps in my head and a couple of bruises here and there," Rosehip says, though less energetically than usual.

"You call a light concussion a few bumps? You were unconscious for almost half an hour. Not to mention you should be resting right now," Assam says to Rosehip.

"But I feel fine! Well, except for the slight headache I have or this nauseating feeling that seems to be gripping my stomach."

"You should do like the nurse said and rest for the next two days."

"How are you, Pirozki?" Katyusha asks Miho, as Rosehip keeps talking with Assam, trying to convince her that she doesn't need to rest. "Getting shot with a revolver must have hurt, no?"

"It hurt a lot, but at least the vest managed to withstand the hit. Though it gave me a really big bruise," Miho points over her left breast and under it to show where the bruise is.

"What I'd like to know is why would Elpida shoot you," Assam inquires quietly. "Me and Darjeeling where with the wounded girls, so we weren't able to see what was going on at the time. We only heard the gunshot and your sister screaming your name."

"From what the girls told me, it was a plan she came up with on the spot to cause the enemy leader to lower his guard and take him as a hostage to buy more time for us until the reinforcements arrive."

"But couldn't she come up with another way to buy time?" Katyusha asks with curiosity.

This time Darjeeling speaks up.

"Although I don't condone her actions, they can be justified. Think about it, Katyusha. We were surrounded by armed soldiers, outside of our tanks and with no way of defending ourselves. The circumstances didn't allow for any means of buying more time for us, much less escape. Yet she managed to come up with a plan to save us."

"What are you talking about, girls?"

Turning to she who spoke, the girls spot Kay approaching them.

"Oh, Kay, how are you?" Miho asks as Kay reaches them.

"Fine, though not in the best of moods," she states in a grim voice. "Anyway, what are you talking about?"

"About Odysseus and why she shot me with a revolver."

"Ah, that blonde commander with the weird Panther. I'm more amazed that she convinced that enemy soldier with the sword to side with us."

"Actually, that was the gunner of her crew. His name is Reiji, if I remember correctly."

"But wasn't he wearing the enemy's uniform?" Katyusha blurts out. "And he was acting like he was one of them."

"Kid must have some serious acting skills," Kay comments.

"Excuse me, Miho, but how much do you know about her?" Klara asks out of the blue.

"Hm? You mean Odysseus?" Miho asks and Klara nods. "Not much, only that she and Annabelle, who is her driver, were transfer students in St. Gloriana. They joined Blackout about one month ago, so not much are known about them. Though Yukari had heard about an incident both of them were involved." At this, both Darjeeling and Assam start paying more attention to Miho, interested in this accident. "Though we don't really know what kind of accident, or even if it was one. Why do you ask?"

"When she was about to kill the enemy general, just before that red-haired girl stopped her, she called herself 'White'." This time is Nonna who speaks up. "Klara thought that since you work for the same organization, you might have known something about it."

"Sorry, but I don't know anything," Miho shakes her head slowly. "Darjeeling, Assam, do you know anything about her past? Since they have been transfer students to your school."

"We tried running a basic background check on her, as we do with every transfer student, but we couldn't find anything, which is really peculiar. It's like she never existed before coming to Japan."

"Then this 'White' nickname might have to do something with her past," Kay suggests.

"What if it isn't a nickname, but a codename?" Nonna says and everyone turns to look at her. "Miho, from which country is she?"

"If I remember correctly, Yukari had told me she is from Greece."

"Three years ago, there was a really big war in the Balkan region. Klara has told me about it because it was all over the news in Russia back then. It might sound as a stretch, but what if she had fought in that war as a special operative?" Nonna offers a suggestion, but everyone forms an expression of disbelief immediately.

"That wouldn't have been possible. When she transfered in our academy, she was sixteen years old. It would be impossible for her to participate in a war as a normal soldier, much less as a special operative," Darjeeling immediately says, finding Nonna's suggestion implausible.

"I have to agree with Darjeeling. It wouldn't make sense for someone who is fifteen or sixteen to fight in a war," Kay agrees with Darjeeling.

"But her movements were too...how should I describe it...fluid," Klara says, trying to defend Nonna's idea. "Either she is a veteran of war or she has received advanced training in hand to hand combat."

"Furthermore, she seems to be mentally unstable, which suggests that something really traumatic must have happened to her," Nonna adds.

"Mentally unstable? Why would you say that?" Miho asks, curious why Nonna would say Odysseus is mentally unstable. Sure, she might act in a childish manner, but that shouldn't guarantee such characterization.

"When she was interrogating the enemy general, she treated the whole interrogation like a game. No sane person should ever draw pleasure or entertainment from the suffering of others."

An eerie silence fills the air between the girls. Only the voices of the other girls that are lying or are seated in some of the other collapsible beds inside the interior of the massive helicopter can be heard for a few moments, before Katyusha speaks up.

"Nonna, Klara, let's go and find Odysseus and ask her about her past!" she exclaims, so Nonna picks up Katyusha and puts her on her shoulders, before walking out of the helicopter with Klara walking besides them.

"This can't possibly end well," Kay says slowly as the rest of them follow the Pravda Girls with their gazes.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Miho suddenly says, then turns to face the others. "I need to inform Odysseus of something, so I'll talk to you later. If you'll excuse me."

And with this, she quickly exits the helicopter and starts looking around for her. Not seeing the tall commander or her tank anywhere, she goes over to the massive helicopter that is next to the one that she was in and peers inside, quickly scanning the interior. Finding only a few wounded girls from Pravda, along with two nurses that watch over them and more black body bags, she quickly continues her search by walking towards another massive helicopter that is, yet again, next to the one she has just checked, but before entering, she spots Reiji exiting from it, holding a bandage roll.

"Ah, good afternoon Commander Nishizumi," Reiji greets Miho politely when he sees her.

"Good afternoon, Reiji," Miho says back. "Do you know where Odysseus is? I need to inform her about something."

"Odysseus? She is with Annabelle at the edge of the forest," he informs Miho, pointing towards the edge of the forest that is about two hundred meters away.

"At the edge of the forest? What are they doing there?"

"I don't really know, but Annabelle did tell me to bring them a bandage roll, so I guess she wants to treat Odysseus' injuries, if she has any."

"But, couldn't one of the nurses in the helicopters treat them?"

"They could, but Odysseus...let's say that she has her own reasons for not wanting to get treated by them," Reiji says slowly, which Miho finds rather weird. "Since you mentioned that you want to speak with her, do you mind giving them the bandage roll too? I need to go check something on the tank and I have no idea where Tyler is, since I haven't seen any hordes of girls running around." Reiji says the last part so seriously that Miho isn't sure if Reiji is making fun of his friend or he really means it.

"Sure, I don't mind," Miho tells Reiji and he hands her the bandage roll.

Waving goodbye at him, Miho starts walking towards the edge of the forest, where Reiji had pointed. After a minute or two of walking, she reaches the forest and immediately hears two familiar voices talking.

"My back hurts so much. That bitch just had to tackle me on top of a fucking rock!"

"Well, you should have seen this one coming, cause you totally deserved it. And please don't use profanities."

"I'll curse and whine as much as I want, alright? You aren't my mother to tell me what I should and shouldn't do!"

As Miho passes through the first few rows of trees, she spots both Odysseus and Annabelle sitting next to each other on the trunk of a fallen tree. Besides the two girls sits a bucket full of bloodied water and a bloodied towel. Odysseus' vest, gloves and some parts of her pants are still covered in the blood of the guy who tried to stab Odysseus with a sword, though the blood has long since dried.

"What are you, a twelve-year-old rebelling against its parents?" Annabelle snickers lightly.

"Fuck off!" Odysseus yells at her friend, crossing her arms and turning away from Annabelle.

"Ohhhh, Odysseus has devolved into a lil' tsundere."

"Shut up! It's not like I like you or anything, b-baka!" Odysseus says in a stereotypical tsundere fashion that has the desired effect of making Annabelle burst into laughter.

"Uhm...what are you doing girls?" Miho asks with a puzzling expression. Since both girls had been talking in English, Miho wasn't able to fully understand them thanks to their accents; she only understood a few words here and there.

"Oh, hey Miho!" Odysseus greets her excitedly. "We were just messing around with each other."

"We are waiting for Reiji to bring a bandage roll so that I can treat Odysseus' injury on her back," Annabelle says and then notices the object Miho is holding. "What a coincidence, you have brought a bandage roll yourself."

"Reiji gave it to me. I was looking for Odysseus to inform her about something and happened to find him by chance. Since I told him I was looking for her, he asked me if I could bring you the bandage roll," she says and hands Annabelle the bandage roll, who takes it and thanks her for it.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Odysseus asks as she starts removing her vest and the top of her uniform for Annabelle to be able to bandage her bruised lower back at where the rock hit her.

"A soldier came up to me and told me that they were starting to load the tanks in the helicopters, and since he couldn't find you he asked me if I-" Miho abruptly stops when Odysseus removes her shirt, the words getting stuck on her throat and her eyes slowly widening.

"If you...?" Odysseus asks as she sets her shirt over the vest that is next to her on top of the trunk she is sitting.

Miho doesn't register Odysseus' words at first, her eyes glued on Odysseus' body that is littered with scars that range from tiny grazes to gashes. Two particularly deep gashes seem to run from the right side of her lower abdomen all the way up to her left collarbone, forming a really crude V on her. Also, there is a small black tattoo on the side of her left upper arm that comprises of a small cross that has a pair of small, feathered wings behind it and is inside a hollow circle.

"Earth to Miho, do you copy?" Odysseus asks, waving her hand in front of Miho.

Snapping out of her shocked surprise, Miho quickly composes herself.

"S-Sorry, I was just-"

"Surprised by the scars?" Odysseus cuts Miho short, gesturing at her own arms and front of the body. "Yeah, most normal people react that way, nothing to be worried about. Anyway, what did you want to tell me?"

"W-Well, the soldier asked me if I could inform you that you need to load your tank in one of the transport helicopters," Miho answers, looking at Annabelle who is wrapping some of the bandage roll around Odysseus' waist and abdomen.

"That's it? I thought it was something more serious. Whatever, I'll just have Annabelle go and move the tank-ouch!" Odysseus suddenly yelps as Annabelle tightens the bandage, causing it to press against the bruise.

"Hey, what was that for!?" she demands from her friend who finishes treating her.

"Hmm? I just tightened the bandage to make sure it won't come off," Annabelle responds with a polite smile that is anything but polite.

"Suuure..." Odysseus says dryly, rolling her eyes lightly. "Before I forget it, Miho, I'm really sorry for shooting you with the revolver, but it was the only chance we had at buying more time for the reinforcements to arrive and save us."

"You don't need to apologize for it," Miho say quickly with a smile. "From what the girls told me, it really does seem like it was the only viable tactic at that time. Though it did hurt a lot."

"Yeah...it must have...ehehehe, sorry," Odysseus laughs awkwardly, then swiftly puts on her uniform's shirt, jacket and her bulletproof vest and then quickly stands up.

"Anyway, let's go load the tank and get the hell out of here. I still reek of blood," she grimaces as she takes a lock of her hair and smells it, the scent of blood still in it even after Annabelle's successfull efforts of wiping off the blood stains that marred their blonde color.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Annabelle interrupts.

"Uhm...no?"

"Uhm...yes? You still need to apologize to Maho, I think was her name, for shooting Miho. Not to mention you kinda pushed her on the ground and pointed the revolver on her face."

"You pointed a gun at my sister?" Miho asks with a surprised tone, since no one told her about that detail.

"Yes I did, but it was in order to dissuade the other girls from running to you and probably give the enemy a really good excuse of starting to spray bullets everywhere. Let me tell you, when your sister tried to run to you, I spotted at least half a dozen people who were about to raise their firearms at her," Odysseus quickly explains in order to avoid any misunderstandings that might be created. "It was all an act to keep up appearances."

An awkward silence ensues between the three girls, which quickly is broken by Annabelle.

"Well, before things get even more awkward, do you know where your sister is, Miho?" Annabelle asks.

"No," Miho shakes her head. "Though I think she might be in the helicopter with the wounded from Kuromorimine."

"Could you accompany Odysseus there, then, since I need to go and load the tank? Annabelle asks politely with a smile. "I don't trust Odysseus in going alone."

"Hey, it's not like I'll run away!" Odysseus says in her defense, though Annabelle's piercing gaze quickly makes Odysseus to look away from her. "OK, maybe I will if Erika is there."

"There you go, wasn't too difficult to admit it, was it?"

And with this, the three girls exit the forest, but not before Annabelle empties the bucket with the bloody water and takes it along with the towel to get them back to their tank.

As Miho and Odysseus silently walk towards one of the massive helicopters that Miho hasn't checked yet, she notices something rather worrisome as they pass near some girls that are from the carriers.

"The others don't seem to like you that much, do they?" she says quietly at Odysseus, noticing the sour expressions the girls make upon seeing the blonde commander.

"With what I did and said, I'm surprised they aren't throwing rocks at me."

"Isn't that a bit...extreme?"

"When I said that I view them as nothing more than mere assets to advance my own agenda? Hardly," she says with a serious expression, turning to look at Miho. "And it seems like it really got on the nerves of the girls from Kuromorimine. Do you know anything about it?"

Miho shakes her head slowly.

"I haven't been in Kuromorimine for three years now, and the last two I had no contact with them. So I don't know why it would affect them more than the others."

"Whatever, then. Though I'd expect at least some of them to understand that it was all an act! Sure, I'm really good at deception, but they can't be that dumb!"

Miho says nothing in response, opting to not continue the conversation. After a minute or two, she and Odysseus reach one of the massive helicopters and peer inside through the lowered ramp and luckily for Miho (not so luckily for Odysseus), Maho and Erika are , conviniently enough, sitting in one of the collapsible beds near the ramp, talking to each other. A few beds further inside lies a sleeping Ritaiko, with a worried Satsuki sitting at the edge of the bed, waiting for her friend to wake up. The medical team from Blackout had treated her wounds as best as they could and it seems like she will be fine, though it is a miracle how the shell performed such a clean cut on her leg and didn't rip off her knee too.

"Hello, Sister," Miho greets her sister with a bright smile to gain her attention as she enters the helicopter with Odysseus.

"Ah, hello Miho," Maho says back with a smile as she spots her sister entering, but when she sees who is next to her, that smile evaporates quicker than a drop of water in a desert.

Seeing Odysseus too, Erika stands up from where she is sitting and takes a step forward.

"What do you want? You are not welcome here," she says harshly.

Unfazed by the harshness of Erika's voice, Odysseus smirks at her.

"If I'm not wrong, this helicopter belongs to the company I work for, so by logical deduction I can come and go in it as I please. Or did you left your brain in one of the trenches out there?" Odysseus answers back just as harshly.

"Erika," Maho calls out sternly at her vice-commander, before the situation can devolve any further. Erika just glares at Odysseus for a second, before sitting back at the bed where Maho is.

"Do you have any business with us?" Maho asks Odysseus with her usual stoic expression.

"I came here to apologize for shooting Miho, throwing you on the ground and pointing a revolver in your face, and for saying mean things about all of you," Odysseus says with a serious expression. "Though, I do hope you understand all of this was mere acts."

"While I can forgive that you pointed a gun at me and for the things you said about me and my girls, for they were mere acts, as you said," Maho stands up to face Odysseus, though she has to look a tiny bit upwards, since she is still shorter than her, "but shooting Miho, my sister, is unforgivable. You basically gambled her life on a mere rumor you had heard and that's something I cannot tolerate."

"Well, shit, sorry for trying to save everyone's lives from a fate worse than death," Odysseus raises both of her hands at the level of her chest like she is surrendering. "It's not my fault there wasn't any better way to buy time. Or are you as blind as a bat and can't see even that?"

"Watch your tongue! Do you even know to who you are talking!?" Erika says hotly, standing up in reflex at hearing Odysseus insulting her commander.

"Maho Nishizumi, heir to the obsolete Nishizumi style that got demolished live on TV during the 63rd National Senshadou Tournament," Odysseus answers rather calmly. Although Maho seems to be barely fazed by her harsh words, Erika seems like she is about to explode. Miho just looks worriedly at them, since more and more girls turn to look curiously at them, wondering what all this commotion is.

"But that's a discussion that matters little now, doesn't it?" Odysseus sighs. "Anyway, I did what I came here for. Whether you accept my apology or not, I couldn't care less."

And with this she turns around to leave the helicopter, only to find Nonna, Katyusha, who for some reason isn't sitting on Nonna's shoulders, and a worried Klara looking at her.

"So...what do you want, shrimp?" Odysseus asks Katyusha.

"My name's not shrimp, it's Katyusha!" Katyusha grumbles angrily, but quickly composes herself, coughing slightly to clear her throat. "Ahem. Anyway, Odysseus, tell us about your past and why you called yourself earlier by the name 'White'," Katyusha says bluntly, almost in a demanding tone.

Odysseus expression darkens considerably, so much so that Nonna and Klara take a step forward subconsciously, in case she tries to do anything at Katyusha, who seems oblivious at this change. Even Miho notices this and takes a step closer at her.

"And why would you like to know?" she asks Katyusha slowly.

"We have reasons to believe that the name 'White' is a codename of yours. Also, you seem to have received more than just basic training in infantry combat," Nonna says calmly, her expression as cold as the Siberian wilderness.

"So it is simple curiosity," Odysseus says slowly, scanning each one of the Pravda girls carefully.

Nonna and the others simply nod.

"Then I don't mind!" she says rather cheerfully and points at Maho and Erika. "Go take a seat with them. Oh, could one of you go and get Darjeeling and the others? I'm sure they'd be interested in what I have to say."

And so Klara goes back to the first helicopter to get Darjeeling and the others. Odysseus then turns to Miho.

"And Miho, why don't you get your team here, too? The more, the merrier!"

"Uhm...sure," Miho says reluctantly and she, too, goes to get her team. After a few minutes, everyone has gathered at the helicopter, with Maho, Erika, Nonna, Katyusha, who is sitting on Nonna's shoulders, Klara and Hana sitting on one collapsible bed while Miho, Saori, Mako, Assam and Darjeeling on the opposite collapsible bed, and both Yukari and Kay are standing next to it. Odysseus is standing a little further away from the beds so that everyone can see her.

"So, everyone's here?" she asks.

"Won't Lady Annabelle and the rest of your crew join us?" Assam asks.

"No, they already know about my past, so there's no reason to listen at it again," she says and clasps her hands together.

"Now then, let's start with some basic info. First of all, my real name ain't Odysseus, is Elpida Papaioannou, with Elpida being my name and Papaioannou being my surname, since you Japanese tend to say them the other way around. For anyone that doesn't know, I am eighteen years old and my native country is Greece. I transfered in St. Gloriana two years ago. Before I proceed, do you have any questions?" she asks and looks at the girls, but the girls shake their heads.

"Okay, then let us continue. Second of all, and am sure you know, Darjeeling," she points a finger at the ever elegant commander who is currently seeping some tea, "but I basically hacked my way into St. Gloriana's servers to print the transfer papers. Or rather, I had a friend of mine do it."

To say that everyone has surprised expressions would be an understament, minus Maho, Nonna and of course, Darjeeling.

"What!? This is impossible!" Assam almost shouts, standing up immediately. "The carrier's security is state of the art! No one should be able to bypass it, however good they may be!"

"Really? Cause my friend said he could hack his way inside easily even if he was blindfolded and was typing at the keyboard with only one arm. He said that the firewall had so many security loopholes to exploit, it was a miracle no one had noticed." She then turns to look at Darjeeling. "But of course you knew about this, didn't you?"

"I will admit I had knowledge that a security breach had happened in our servers, but since all the logs had been erased, we couldn't really see what had changed. But I figured it out when you came aboard the carrier."

"Aren't you a smart one? As expected of the overall commander of St. Gloriana."

"So you knew, Darjeeling?" Assam asks a bit shocked, though she doesn't show it.

"I'm afraid I did, but she seemed to be an intriguing individual, so I kept it a secret from most people," Darjeeling answers back.

"And so, with these disclaimers out of the way, let's start our little story time!" Odysseus says with a smile that lasts only for a second, before giving way to a more serious expression.

"So, I was born in Athens, the capital of my country. Though, after a few days, I was dumped at an orphanage with only a small piece of paper that had my name and a small blanket that I was wrapped with. What great parents, wouldn't you agree?" The sarcasm in her voice is so prominent, that one could almost see it and touch it.

"But, what if they left you to the orphanage because they didn't have the money to support you and didn't want for you to have to go through poverty?" Miho blurts out.

"Two things wrong with this," Odysseus says and lifts two fingers. "First, the orphanage I was in was barely able to make ends meet, so even if their intentions were good, they ultimately failed. Second, I'd like to think that they just dumped me there cause their money weren't enough to take care of me and buy their drugs at the same time; it will certainly make it easier for me to put a bullet through their heads once I find them."

The bluntness and seriousness of her statement hits some of the girls like a bag of bricks straight in their face.

"But I digress. The thing is, when I was a little kid, I was just the most grumpy kid in the whole orphanage. Not making friends, always picking fights with the other kids and being pessimistic about everything. But misery loves company and I managed to make two friends that were as bad as me, if not more. One of them is the guy that hacked St. Gloriana. And that trend continued into elementary school too! Picking fights with the kids, disrespecting the teachers, all the good stuff! I remember one time where a girl tried to bully me for having no friends. I just dragged her from her hair around the school yard until a teacher came and physically separated us. I think I managed to rip a tuff of hair from her head at the end," she murmurs the last part mostly to herself. "Anyway, after a while the kids started avoiding me, so things got somewhat calmer for the rest of my elementary school years.

"And then middle school came. Since our school was one of the few ones that supported after-school activities, the caretakers back into the orphanage kept nudging me to join one of these activities. And so, while looking at the activities the school had to offer, like soccer or basketball, I stumbled upon Tankery and it was love at first sight. To be able to command your own tank, feel the thrill of the battle, it was right up my alley."

"Sorry for interrupting, but is Tankery any different than Senshadou?" Saori asks out of curiosity. "Aren't both about driving tanks?"

"Yep, but there are a couple of differences. Firstly, the sport is open to both boys and girls. Secondly, it isn't about making you develop your self-esteem, become an efficient citizen and develop the characteristics necessary for motherhood, however that is possible when you are driving a metal box that dispenses death every time its cannon is fired. Tankery is all about the thrill of the battle and the adrenaline that rushes through your veins during one. They also allow for more tanks per team to participate, some rules are different and you can even modify the vehicles to a certain extent. In other words, it is a lot more competitive and brutal than yours...and that's the reason why I liked it so much. So I grabbed and filled one of the forms that are needed to join and gave it to one of the caretakers back in the orphanage, since a legal guardian's signature was needed. At first the caretakers were reluctant to sign the form, but when I told them it would really help with my nerves and make me a lot calmer, the scale was instantly tipped in my favor and the next day I was part of the school team!

"But since most kids in the team were from my elementary school, no one wanted me to be part of their crew, and to be honest, I didn't want to be one either. And since rumors spread like fire in gasoline, even kids who didn't know me started avoiding me. Luckily, there were two girls that finally approached me, because like me, they couldn't find people to form a crew. The first girl was named Chara. A really shy and meek girl, always quiet and with really bad social skills, but my God, she had the eyesight of an eagle. The second girl was named Calliope. The delinquent of the school, always picking fights with other kids and promptly beating them to a pulp, and Chara's only and best friend. Plus, they were orphans, just like me. Needless to say, we became best friends instantly."

For the first time since she began narrating the story of her life, Odysseus develops a bright, nostalgic smile.

"Since we were a crew of three, we were given a Panzer II ausf L "Luchs" light tank to play with, which had a 2cm KwK 38 autocannon with a ten-shell clip. Anyway, because we were only three people, as I said, except for acting as a commander/gunner, I was also acting as the radioman. Though when the shit hit the fun, I'd change positions with Chara, since her skills as a gunner were far superior than mine. And so we were assigned as our team's scout unit, though we were everything but a scout. I remember we would always use APCR rounds and just go face the enemy head-on! In one particular match against another school we charged straight into a formation of five enemy tanks. Managed to knock out four of them, including their flag tank, before getting knocked out ourselves."

---

(FLASHBACK)

"I-I...I don't think we should do it, Elpida," Chara says to Odysseus, her shy voice barely audible through the humming of the Luch's engine. The tank is hiding behind two big and thick bushes that do a rather good job at concealing it as it stalks its enemies. The red flag that shows its flag-tank status gently sways at the gentle breeze that occupies the battlefield.

"Don't be like that, Chara. This is our only chance to win the match, since the idiots we call teammates managed to knock out only three enemy tanks!" Calliope says hotly, clearly expressing her "displeasure" towards the other tank crews of her team. "Like, c'mon, are they even trying!? We managed to knock out two enemy tanks from three hundred meters away!"

"Now-now, no need to be so harsh Calliope. The team just isn't as good as we are, nothing we can do about it. Anyway, Chara, we need to take the initiative here, we can't just run and hide. Either we achieve victory or fall trying. They are moving in a V-shaped formation with the flag tank at the center. Distance, four hundred meters, though it seems that one tank is missing," Odysseus says, then turns to Chara. "Switch places with me and try to see what kind of tank it is. I can tell it is a Panzer III, but I can't tell which variant."

"Why do you need to know?" Calliope asks, as she is looking at Odysseus and Chara changing seats.

"Because from the J variants and up, the tank got solid 50mm plates in its front and rear, which means our APCR rounds will do nothing at all."

"Uhm...I think they have bolted armor plates on their front," Chara murmurs quietly, looking through the gunner's sight at the approaching enemy. They must be the H variant, I think."

Odysseus just laughs at this.

"Well, we are royally screwed now! We can't penetrate them from the front or the rear, so we will have to hit them from the sides."

"So what should we do now?" Calliope asks, grabbing the steering levers.

"We are going full YOLO mode and eliminate as many of them as we can! Chara, this is our last belt of APCR rounds, so make the shells count! Calliope, try to circle around them with as much speed as you can and stay at their sides; it is the only place from which we can penetrate them."

"Dont pressure me, Elpida!" Chara cries out, as Calliope revs up the engine in anticipation. Even Odysseus can feel the adrenaline creeping slowly into her blood circulation and when the enemy is at a distance of two hundred and fifty meters away, she grins devilishly.

"Go!" she yells and the Luchs bursts through the bushes like an alien chestburster and starts heading directly onto the enemy. Chara takes a clutch shot and the shell manages to immobilize the tank that is at the front of the formation.

"One tank immobilized!" Chara yells and reacquires a target, though she refrains from firing until she can see the side armor of the tanks.

"Nine shells left!" Odysseus yells too, keeping track of the remaining ammunition so that Chara can fully concentrate on aiming.

Calliope suddenly turns the tank left and start circling the enemy. Mere moments later, shells land at where the Luchs was, throwing dirt and patches of grass in the air. As the Luchs circles and evades more incoming shells, Chara aims at the side of the immobilized Panzer and fires. With the shell traveling a distance of about two hundred meters, it has more than enough kinetic power to penetrate the 30mm of side armor the Panzer III has for protection.

"One down!" Chara says with excitement, a huge smile plastered on her face.

"Eight shells remaining!" Odysseus announces, as MG bullets start pinging the side of their tank.

"I can't acquire the sides of the other tanks!"

"Try to immobilize them like you did with the first one! Calliope, go for drive-by!" Odysseus orders.

"Are you crazy!? They will rip us to shreds!" Calliope immediately protests, but makes a sharp right turn and starts charging the enemy tanks, zigzagging to throw off their aim.

"Took you long enough to figure it out! Seven left!" she yells as she hears Chara yelling "Bounced". Firing another shot, Chara manages to immobilize one of the three remaining tanks that tries to cover the flag tank. As the distance between them reaches the fifty-meter mark, Calliope turns sharply left and then right and brings her tank parallel to the immobilized one. As the enemy shoots and one of the AP shells manages to ricochet at the side of the Luchs turret, thanks to the angle with which it hits it, Chara turns the turret ninety degrees to the right, nails the immobilized tank at the side, as indicated by the popping of a white flag from the top of the turret, fires another that hits the front driving wheel of the flag tank and dents it horribly, causing the right track to come off, and hits the other tank that tries to protect the flag and knocks it out.

"Flag tank remaining!" Chara announces, sweat dripping from her forehead, the pressure of their current situation pushing both body and mind at their limits.

"Three shells remaining! Calliope, drift it!"

Calliope performs an one-eighty turn to face the side of the enemy flag tank, Chara getting ready to fire the remaining shells and claim victory for them.

Boom

"Fuck!" Odysseus yells as she hears a cannon discharging somewhere in the distance from their left, followed by the violent shaking of the tank.

"Enemy tank on our left and we can't move, probably destroyed tracks!" Calliope yells as quickly as humanly possible, with more bullet-pinging rattling the left side of the tank.

"Screw the enemy on the left! Chara, dump all remaining shells at the flag tank!" Odysseus roars while Chara is already rotating the turret to the left. With adrenaline racing through her whole body and giving her the illusion of slow motion, the mere seconds it takes for the gun to bear on its target become like an eternity and the machine-gun like sound of her foot's heel hitting repeatedly the floor of the tank does little to speed things up.

It is a race against time. Will the Luchs manage to fire first, or will the enemies beat it to the punch?
The moment the gunner's sight rests upon the vulnerable side of the enemy flag tank, the autocannon roars three times as it releases the last of its lethal APCR projectiles. The first shell grazes the side of the Panzer III's turret, harmlessly bouncing to the right. The second shell lands square in the gun mantle, bouncing pitifully to the ground, but the third shell hits the side...just as two, big AP shells connect with the Luchs's frontal and side hull armor.

As everything comes to a halt and the siren that announces the match's end is heard, Odysseus and her crew exit their vehicle, gazing at the white flags that have popped in both flag tanks.
While Chara sits at the edge of the Luch's turret, lightly moving her legs back and forth, Odysseus stretches her arms up in the air and Calliope just plops down on the ground.

"That was fun! We should do it again!" Chara says with joy, smiling at her friends.

"I totally agree!" Odysseus nods emphatically.

"But next time we won't lose," Calliope grins and lifts a closed fist at Odysseus, who proceeds to fistbump it.

"You can bet on it!"

(END OF FLASHBACK)

---

"Since both flag tanks got knocked out at the same time, the judges decided that the team with the most surviving members would be the victor, so we were declared the losers. Though this particular battle remained as one of the best highlights of the tournament, so we weren't that saddened for our loss. These times...were the best moments in my life," she says with a nostalgic tone, her smile now showing sadness.

"Sorry for the tangent, I just really like talking about that particular battle. Anyway, for about a year, everything was fine. I'd do Tankery in school, spend time with Chara and Calliope, try to be nicer to other kids and generally do things that a girl of my age normally does. And then, at the age of fourteen, the universe said "screw you" and decided that Hell would be a better place for me."
Odysseus expression darkens considerably, silent anger emanating from her eyes.

"Political tensions between all Balkan countries were starting to get out of control and the military brass used this as an excuse to greenlight a confidential military program not even the government was aware of. On the surface, the program was the acquisition of several kids ranging in ages from as young as twelve years old all the way up to eighteen. Forty kids were brought in, and as the program said, they were all trained to be assassins. The training lasted for about seven months and turned most of the kids into killing machines, including me. They taught them how to shoot guns, infiltration, deception, anything an assassin can use in order to approach their targets and slay them."

"Isn't that illegal? Wouldn't the UN or the government intervene if they found about this program?" Saori gasps in shock, as several of the other girls have the same reaction or seem surprised to a degree.

"The government did hear rumors about a really questionable military project going on, but since everyone was holed up in an underground base in an unknown location, there were no evidence to its existence, so the military just had to say "what project?" and be rid of any suspicion on them."

"This is horrible," Saori says in a low voice and Odysseus smirks at that.

"It gets even better! After the training was complete, the real purpose of the program was revealed to us. And it was nothing short of a massacre."

Odysseus pauses for a second, taking a deep breath through her nose.

"The real purpose of the project was to create supersoldiers. In other words, a genetics experiment. All forty kids were injected with a strange liquid the scientists called Serum. I think mine was white; my memories from that time are really fuzzy, and if I'm honest, I'd prefer for them to stay that way. So, from the forty kids, only ten survived, myself included. And us ten that survived, the only things that we got were faster reflexes and different eye color," she says and points momentarily at her eyes.

"Mine was blue at first, not light purple. The good news is that I made even more friends! Four of them actually. Their names were Black, Red, Orange and Green. Obviously, these weren't their real names, but rather nicknames based on the color the liquid they got injected had. And now you know half the reason why I called myself White.

"So, about one year after we got dragged in this hell hole, a coup d'etat occurred in my country, just as the Third Balkan War began. The new government discovered the program, which was named the Reaper program by the way, and immediately thought of testing the fruits of it. Too bad we weren't what the program intended for us to be. In the end, we were branded as failures. Seven managed to escape the facility, leaving behind a trail of blood and bodies. Two were used as guinea pigs to another experiment, far worse than the first. And I got transfered at a military unit that contained people who the government considered a threat to their power."

"But wouldn't that be inefficient? If all the people there didn't like the government, why would they fight for them? They could just refuse to fight," Kay points out.

"And get branded as traitors, punishable by immediate execution. Either they fight and die in battle or they refuse to do so and die by the hands of their own countrymen. Whichever way you see it, the government always win. Also, keep in mind that most of them had families, and as bad as the government might have been, at least they paid them.

"Shortly after transferring into the unit, my country entered the war. Serbia had been fighting Albania for a good month, since Albania had stationed troops in Kosovo and had ignored Serbia's demands of withdrawing them. Since the Serbians had a hard time repelling the Albanians for some reason, they asked us for help and the government gladly accepted, under the condition that Serbia declares war on FYROM. You might better know them as the Macedonia wannabes, bunch of fucking culture stealers. By the way, the Bulgarians joined in too, since they wanted a piece of the pie, and NATO was nowhere to be found, since papa Russia warned the US not to intervene. Anyway, the army amassed at the borders and my unit was at the Albanian ones.

"My first battle was baptism by fire. Sure, I had been trained to kill, but being a fifteen-year-old teenager, reality hit me so hard it almost shattered my sanity completely. When they say war is Hell, there is a reason they say it. I have seen and done things to survive that are better to be left unspoken. I would also constantly have nightmares and one or two times I snapped and proceeded to scream my lungs out till my throat would start to hurt really badly. Probably would have gone insane if it wasn't for a psychologist in our unit. That guy really helped me from losing my mind. Also, there was a medic in our unit that took care of me. Her name was Anna and she was the closest thing I ever had that I could call a family. I swear, one or two times my tongue slipped and I called her Mom, though she didn't seem to mind. She knew I was an orphan, so I guess she felt sympathy towards me." Odysseus says the last part with so much bitterness and regret, that one could probably taste it on the air. Even her eyes glisten for a moment, threatening to start tearing up. "Needless to say, I was really attached to her.

"But as always, the universe decided that I had to suffer even more and acted accordingly. The Albanians had bought from the Russians a couple T-90s and even acquired from the black market an A-15 Lightning II. My unit was in the frontline and our intelligence team had intercepted radio transmissions that indicated some of the T-90s were at a nearby plateau, waiting to ambush us. This was the perfect opportunity for the government to get rid of us once and for all, so they withheld these information from us. My unit also had a couple Leopards 2A6Hel, which were promptly "reassigned" to other units and gave us our own local-made tanks named Cerberus. It was a rather good tank, with a 130mm cannon, armor that could reach a thickness of about 200mm and it was fast and maneuverable. Problem is, the armor is RHA, which means that any modern tank can kill it instantly. See how things line up?"

She then turns and looks at the Pravda girls.

"Did you only heard calling myself White?"

"No. We...heard you speaking about a snowy plain of eternal silence," Klara says reluctantly.

"Cool. Keep that phrase in mind, cause it will make a sense after you hear what I have to say. It was at the day of my birthday when everything went down."

---

Three years ago

One hundred and forty kilometers inside Albanian land, Forward Headquarters

Second Mechanized Division, Fourth Brigade

"Why do I always have to run their errands? Can't these lazy guys do anything on their own?"

At the Forward HQ of the Second Division, which was a camp with some prefabricated buildings, a lone girl that wears a stuffy, white military uniform is slowly walking in the snow that covers the ground, leaving behind footprints of the soles of her military boots. Her silk blonde hair desperately try to escape the confines of her hood that covers her head to protect it from the chilling winds that sweep the area. Reaching one of the large buildings, she stops in front of its entrance, her light purple eyes gazing at the steel door.

"At least I won't have to freeze my ass running around and scouting the surrounding areas like yesterday," she sighs, her exhaling breath clearly noticeable due to the temperature difference between it and the air.

"If I wanted to be a scout I'd just apply to become one," she grumbles under her breath as she enters the building. Getting inside, she can immediately feel the warmth washing in her face, whose pale skin and rosy cheeks welcome it eagerly.

"Ahhh, the advantages of modern technology," she says pleasantly as she closes her eyes and lowers her hood, savoring the sweet feeling of warmth. Her mind starts wandering off to various things as she lets her head get warmer.

"Are you going to stand there for a long time, Elpida?"

"Huh?"

Hearing a voice calling out to her, Elpida opens her eyes and looks around the small lobby-like area she is in. She immediately spots a woman with short brown hair and brown eyes in a military uniform similar to hers, a warm smile on her face.

"Anna!" Elpida shouts and immediately jumps at the woman, giving her a mighty hug. "I missed you so much!"

"Well, being a medic can be quite time consuming, especially after a battle," the woman named Anna says, softly patting Elpida's head. "How have you been?"

"Fine. Though things could have been better," she murmurs quietly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Can you give me some chocolate?" Elpida says suddenly, looking up at the woman expectantly.

"Well...about that...you see..." Anna says with an awkward smile.

"You don't have any?" Elpida says in a saddened tone, making her best to look at the medic with puppy eyes in order to secure some sweet loot from her.

"Don't look at me like this!" Anna says as she looks away from the young girl, trying to resist her cuteness, but failing.

"Fine, fine, I'll give you some of mine, just follow me back to the dormitory," she finally relents with a smile.

"Yay!" she cheers and joyfully follows Anna. Walking through a hallway, both girls end up in front of a door that has a sign on the wall that reads: "Sleeping Quarters, Unit 13 and Unit 14".

Opening the door, Elpida finds herself inside a rather large room, which has two rows of bunk beds in it, one on each side. Most of the beds are empty right now, but there are some people here and there, either lying or sitting on them, talking to each other or reading books and magazines.

"I see our guest of honor has arrived," one of the men says from his bed and the others turn to look at Elpida and Anna, who closes the door behind her after entering.

"Hey, Elpida, there is a box with your name at this totally inconspicuous table in the middle of the room," another man says in a strained voice, trying his best to stifle the urge to start laughing for some reason.

Giving him a puzzled expression, Elpida misses the intense glare Anna gives the man, causing him to immediately retreat further in the room while laughing slightly. Shrugging, Elpida goes near the small table in the middle of the room and curiously scans the box. It is of medium size and its exterior is chocolate brown, with the name "La Soleil" printed on the right bottom side of it. A sticky note sits in the middle of the box's top and it reads,

"Prepare to be amazed," Elpida murmurs slowly, picking up the sticky note and gazing at the box.

"Unless it is a mountain of chocolate, I doubt it will amaze me," she says and crushes the small sticky note with her right hand. "So, who got this thing? And where are the guys from the fourteenth?"

"They have been reassigned elsewhere, so they won't be with us anymore. And we don't know who got this, we just found it sitting there when we came," a third man, who is sitting to a bed next to Elpida, says with an amused smile.

"Like what, is it a cursed box some ghost put here for no reason? Should I grab my camera and go around purifying spirits?" she responds back and some of the men inside the room burst in laughter at her reference.

"Open the box and find out," the man chuckles and Elpida does just that.

Opening the box, she finds her hands freezing in place, her eyes widening in shock at its contents. Inside the box sits a small chocolate cake, with strawberries decorating the edges. The phrase" Happy birthday, Elpida!" is written on the top of the cake with whipped cream and two candles have been placed on the center of the cake, one candle being shaped like the number 1 and the second like the number 5.

"Surprise!" everyone shouts the moment Elpida opens the box and one of the guys even whistles loudly.

"This...This is...for me?" she asks Anna slowly as she turns to face her, still shocked at what has happened.

"Yep! We all put some money together and bought you a birthday cake! Happy birthday Elpida!" Anna says in a cheerful voice and can't help but grin at the young girl who looks up at her in awe. "Do you like it?"

"I...I d-don't...its...I..." Elpida tries to talk, but she finds her throat throbbing slightly and her words getting stuck on it, so she bounds at Anna and hugs her, trying to hide her face at her chest as tears start running from her eyes.

"I say that this is a mission success," one of the men says as he lights the candles on the cake, looking at the silently crying Elpida who is sniffling every few seconds and Anna who is hugging Elpida back and pats the back of her head affectionately.

"Oh, little Elpida looks so cute when she is crying," another man says.

Are you a lolicon, Stavro?" this time a woman asks, looking at him in disgust and moving slightly away from him.

"What are you talking about, you weeb!?" the man says back in disbelief. "I have a wife and a daughter you know, no chance in hell I'd go after damn middle schoolers! Why don't you and your waifu go burn in a fire, you perverted woman!?"

"How dare you insult my beloved 2-D anime character! Apologize immediately you disgusting plebeian!"

"Anime is real, Earth is flat and all governments in the world are controlled by the lizard men!" a man next to the one called Stavros, shouts, putting a cap on his head made out of aluminum foil and starts waving his hands in the air. "The moon landings never happened, JFK was assassinated by the CIA and Bigfoot is real!"

"In case you forgot, guys, this is supposed to be a surprise party for Elpida turning fifteen, not a contest on who is the dumbest person in the unit," Anna sighs at the men, before turning her attention to Elpida. By now the girl has calmed down and a smile is etched on her face.

"I really like it. Thanks a lot, Mom," she whispers loudly enough for only Anna to hear her.

"You are such a cutie, you know that?" Anna says and playfully rubs her hair, messing them a little. "Come on, enough hugging me. You have a wish to make and a cake to eat."

Nodding in response, Elpida wipes her eyes clean from any stray tears that might still be lingering with her left hand, turns around, takes a deep breath and blows out the lit candles.

Everyone starts clapping and Elpida just looks around with an embarrassed smile, her cheeks blushing slightly.

"By the way, kid," the man that had told her to open the box when she first entered the room speaks up. "I hope you didn't wish for your breast to grow."

"W-W-W-What!? Of course not!" Elpida yells out in embarrassment and quickly hides behind Anna.

"Good, cause Anna has been doing this for 20 years now and her chest is still as flat as a plank."

"Any last words, Niko?" Anna seethes through clenched teeth and a really scary smile, her right fist visibly clenched.

"Totally worth it," Nikos says with the most straight face a man can make and raises his right hand to five a peace sign.

But as Anna is about to punch him in the face with the strength of a thousand men, the door to the sleeping quarters open and everyone turns to look at the new arrival.

In the door stands a man that is probably at his late 40s to early 50s and has gray hair with gray eyes. Like everyone else, he is wearing a military uniform, but the insignia on it suggests that his rank is at least major, maybe even higher.

"Sorry to crash the party, but Command has issued new orders. Get ready and report at the front gate in twenty minutes," he says in a rather bored voice, like he doesn't care if he is interrupting anything or not. "And Elpida, get ready and report at the motor pool in ten; You have been reassigned as a tank commander and will be in charge of a Cerberus tank."

"Wait, why!?" Anna practically yells at the major, who continues to look at her with the same, bored expression. "Isn't it enough that you dragged a kid into a war? Why do you have to burden her with even more responsibilities!?"

"Hey, I'm just the messenger. If you have any complaints, go report them at Command," he answers back in a neutral tone. "They are the ones that saw she had done Tankery in the past and decided to put her in charge of a tank. Personally, I think it's a waste of military assets, but that's besides the point. You have your orders, now get on with them."

And with this, the major leaves the room, murmuring about how he isn't being paid enough to listen to everyone's problems and complaints like a damn psychologist.

"That leech, when I get my hands on him..." Anna fumes silently, wanting to make that man disappear for good from this world, by drowning him on a lake or river, or any other body of water that she can safely dispose a corpse.

"Please calm down, Anna. As Major said, I have commanded a tank before, so this isn't such a big deal," Elpida says rather cheerfully, probably to make Anna less angry.

"But it is dangerous, Elpida! What if something goes horribly wrong!? And a tank is such a big target!"

"You are worrying too much, you know it? The tank might be a big target, but it also has armor, so things balance out. Anyway, let's get ready."

---

"I really don't like that we have to shield the infantry," Elpida murmurs worriedly, scanning her surroundings through her tank's cupola. A tank flanks her own tank at each side, the gaps between them being about five meters wide. Behind each tank there are several soldiers taking cover, slowly following them through the thick snow. All around them there is nothing but snow, with the occasional pockets of trees that inhabit this mostly flat place. The sky is covered with gray clouds and small snowflakes drop down on the ground, creating a serene landscape.

"And what's going on with the weather. It's the middle of October and it has snowed like it's the middle of Winter!"

"Don't forget, commander, we are at a rather high altitude and experts have been saying that this year's winter is going to be one of the worst we have seen," the gunner says at Elpida.

"This is so frustrating! The snow is at least half a meter high, the infantry is barely able to keep up with us and we have only covered three kilometers so far!" Elpida complains with a grumpy face. "And why the helmet they gave me is so large!?" she grumbles as she tries to readjust her helmet and its microphone.

"We have to go with the infantry's pace, whether we like it or not," the loader comments this time from his position. "So, why is a little girl like you in the military? Isn't it illegal for minors to be doing things like fighting in a war?"

"Does Unit 13 ring any bells?"

"Oh...my condolences. But then again, what could you have done to piss off the government so much that they'd try to silence you this way? And what about your family?"

"I'm an orphan, so no one will notice I'm missing."

The loader elects to say nothing more, seeing that he maybe entering a potential minefield. As the tanks slowly advance to the designated point, a radio transmission comes through.

"To all advancing units trying to link with elements of the fourth Mechanized Brigade, we have intel of an enemy detachment making a move towards the forward HQ. Alpha Squad, you are hereby ordered to stop them at any cost. They should be on your position in five minutes tops."

"Wait, Major, how the hell did they break through the front lines so easily?" Elpida asks urgently on the radio, but she gets no response back. "What the hell, he won't even respond back to me."

Meanwhile the infantry is starting to fan out behind the tanks, barely visible in their white uniforms that blend with the surrounding environment.

But as the infantry starts to spread out, one of the soldiers that is behind the tank on the left, notices something buried on the snow in front of him.

"Hey, there is something weird over here," he calls to the soldier next to him, but as the soldier next to him turns to see what he is talking about, a white canister with several small holes around it, about half a meter tall, springs into the air about half a meter, spinning clockwise. In fact, in the area where the tanks and infantry are, several of the same canisters are already in the air and are spinning.

"What the-" Elpida says as she spots the weird canisters through the cupola's vision ports, but then screams in shock and surprise as the canisters start spraying liquid napalm everywhere, setting the infantry on fire.

And as if this wasn't enough, a really loud clang is heard at the right of the tank, followed by the violent shaking of the vehicle.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" she screams in terror as she ducks down and covers her head with her arms.

"Hey, kid, this is not the time to be scared!" the loader yells at Elpida, seeing that she is curling up into her seat, trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Leave her be for now! We have bigger problems to deal with!" the gunner yells after he fires a shot at what he thinks looks like the turret of a tank.

"To all Alpha units, this is Alpha leader! Allied infantry has been eliminated! Enemy spotted at twelve o'clock, seven hundred meters! Three T-90s, they are taking cover behind the mounds of snow-"

The sound of steel grinding and shattering fills the air as the tank on Elpida's left gets penetrated through the lower armor plate at the front of the hull, followed by another penetration at the same plate and a shell that hits the front of the turret and gets lodged in it, but doesn't penetrate through it.

"One down!" the loader yells as she pushes yet another 130mm APFSDS shell in the breech of the tank's cannon.

"Shit! We need to get-" the gunner starts saying, but gets interrupted by Elpida, who seems to have been shocked back to action by the destruction of the lead tank.

"Driver, full speed backwards! Zigzag to throw the enemy's aim off!" she orders loudly through the intercom and the driver immediately complies, putting the tank in reverse and driving backwards at a zigzag pattern, which seems to do the trick of saving their skin, as the enemy's shells either miss or hit the front of the hull and turret armor at weird angles and bounce away.

"Alpha-2 retreat now, don't just stand there in the open like a damn pillbox!" she yells at the other Cerberus tank through the radio, albeit a little late as a heat round slams straight at the front of the turret and penetrates, the jet of liquid metal hitting the ammo rack of the tank and sending its turret for a short flight through the air, before hitting the snowy ground next to its body.

"He is a goner!" the gunner says and fires the cannon once more, this time the shell hitting one of the T-90s at its cannon and denting the barrel horribly. "Don't know whether this hit is a blessing or a curse." Having driven far enough so that the enemy cannot reliably hit their tank, the T-90s are forced to leave their cover to pursuit the lone survivor before it gets away and report their position or call reinforcements.

But as the T-90s start closing the distance, the Cerberus tank fires an HE shell and hits the leading tank in its left track, destroying part of it and causing the tank to drift left and stop moving, showing its weak side armor at Elpida's tank. The T-90 on its left tries to retaliate, but when it fires, the shell gets stuck at the dent the barrel has, and the gasses that have been created from the detonation of the shell's gunpowder in the shell casing violently enter the crew compartment through the breech and cook the three crew members alive in an instant, moments before the barrel gives in and violently explodes, severing at the place where the shell got stuck.

"One down, two more to go!" Elpida cheers as the gunner reacquires another target, this time the immobilized T-90 and fires yet another shot, landing square at the side of the hull armor and penetrating.

"Second one is down," the gunner announces, but when he tries to look around for the third T-90, he only finds a thick cloud of smoke in its place. "Third one has escaped," he announces, but keeps his guard up as he scans the surroundings in front of him.

"Probably retreated," Elpida says as she looks through the cupola, trying to avoid the black smoke that rises in the distance from the charred bodies of her comrades. Seeing nothing, she tries to contact the HQ for further orders.

"HQ, this is Alpha-3, how copy?"

"Alpha-3, this is HQ, we copy you loud and clear. What's the situation?"

"Major, we got ambushed by the enemy. They had rigged the area with a weird canister-like weapon that threw napalm everywhere. The infantry along with Alpha leader and Alpha-2 are gone. We also encountered three enemy T-90s that were waiting for the trap to be triggered. Two of them got destroyed and one of them escaped; should we try and pursuit the remaining enemy or return back to HQ?"

"Negative on returning, the enemy might follow you and report the HQ's position. Try to find the last survivor and eliminate them."

"We copy HQ. Alpha-3 out."

Terminating the transmission, Elpida sighs heavily, rubbing her eyes with her right hand's thumb and index finger.

"This day can't possibly get worse," she mutters loudly, really not looking forwards at what's in store for her in the near future.

"You just jinxed it," the loader says, while the gunner keeps scanning his immediate surroundings and the driver remains silent as always.

"What do you mean I jinxed it?" Elpida asks and several explosions occur to the ground next to the tank, throwing snow and dirt everywhere.

"What the heck was that!?" the loader yells as Elpida quickly opens the cupola's hatch and emerges through it, looking all around her for the source of the explosion.

That's it until she hears the telltale sound of a jet engine and looks up in the sky to find an airplane diving towards them to perform a strafing run with its weapons.

"A-15 Lightning II incoming! Driver get us the hell out of here!" she screams in fright in the intercom, as the enemy aircraft starts launching its unguided rockets from its rocket pods.

The tank immediately shoots forward and barely avoids the barrage of rockets that pummel the position where the tank was mere moments ago.

"HQ, this is Alpha-3, we are under attack from a hostile A-15 Lightning II! Requesting immediate air support!" Elpida says on the radio as she keeps track of the aircraft, before she finally loses sight of it as it rises beyond the cloud layer.

"Negative Alpha-3, there are no available air assets at the moment."

"We are going to die if we don't get any help!" she yells at the major, the pressure of a jet aircraft lurking somewhere above their heads ready to destroy them being a little more than what she can handle at the moment.

"This is war, soldiers die. And if you think about retreating back here, you will be labeled as a traitor and shot on sight," the Major says with a bored voice, before terminating the transmission.

"You son of a bitch!" she yells as she dives inside the tank momentarily. "We are on our own, guys, and we can't go back to base, lest we want to be shot on sight!"

"Things got a lot more interesting all of a sudden, didn't they?" the gunner says, before the sound of a jet engine starts filling up the air again. Emerging from the cupola once more, Elpida looks in horror as the A-15 descends rapidly from the sky, shooting 30mm API rounds from its GAU-8/A Avenger gatlin gun.

"Turn right, turn right!" Elpida screams as she gazes at the small geysers of snow that rapidly approach her and her tank. Doing as told, the driver turns the tank right suddenly in an effort to throw off the pilot's aim, but unfortunately the pilot sees that and turns left in an effort to hit the tank.

Only two rounds manage to hit the tank, since the pilot's sharp turn threw off his aim, but one round manages to destroy the left track and the other penetrates through the roof of the hull armor, hitting the driver square in the head and promptly splattering it all over the place.

"What was that!?" Elpida asks in response to hearing the sound of something exploding and hitting the interior walls of the tank.

"We lost the driver for good!" the loader yells, grimacing at the sight of blood, brain matter and small chunks of the head having been thrown everywhere.

"What do you mean-" Elpida starts saying, but then makes the mistake to look at the driver's headless body and immediately regrets it as she shoots out of the cupola, leans to the right and vomits the rising contents of her churning stomach over the edge of the turret. Wiping her mouth with the right sleeve of her uniform, instead of diving back inside the tank, she keeps track of the ground-attack aircraft, which instead of rising beyond the clouds, simply chooses to turn for another strafing run and most likely destroy the tank for good this time.

"Gunner, start tracking the jet with the cannon! Loader, load an AP round; we are bringing that bird down!" she yells at her helmet's microphone.

"Are you serious!? How will we bring down a jet!?" the loader yells incredulously.

"I have to agree with him, Commander. Bringing down a jet with a cannon is near-impossible," the gunner comments, but does turn the turret to start tracking the jet, which is now finalizing its approach, this time electing to fly lower to the ground than its previous strafing run.

"If we abandon the tank, the pilot will most likely go after us and shred us to bits with the gatling gun, so either way we die! At least now we have a chance to fend for ourselves!"

"Yes, with the odds being like the ones when you try to guess how many beans are in a jar just by looking."

As the A-15 commences its strafing run and starts dispensing 30mm API rounds, Elpida looks nervously at the approaching horde of small snow columns that get kicked up in the air by the shells hitting the ground, feeling her heart will start beating so quickly that it will launch itself out of her chest.

"Hey, unless you want to meet the driver at the afterlife, I suggest you fire the cannon!" she shouts at the gunner, and when the jet closes the distance between them at about five hundred meters, the tank's cannon roars in response and out of it comes an APFSDS shell, heading straight for the cockpit of the aircraft.

The pilot breaks the strafing run and banks the aircraft to the right and narrowly avoids the shell, which whiffs between the cockpit and the left wing, as well as misses the rear-mounted left jet engine by mere centimeters.

"Reload again!" she says quickly as the tank's turret keeps track of the fleeing jet.

Though, the aircraft starts throwing flares all of a sudden, dumping as much power as it can to its engines to bug out.

"What the hell is it doing now?" Elpida wonders aloud, but gets her answer in the form of three F-16s flying past them and towards the fleeing A-15, which keeps dumping flares in an effort to keep the F-16s from locking on him and firing missiles.

"Seems like we are saved," the loader sighs in relief.

"Yeah. Thank God for air support, they sure as hell saved our skin," Elpida says back, but then notices something strange in the distance, at the tank's twelve o'clock. It's a tank painted white, but more specifically, a T-90.

"Enemy tank, twelve o'clock!" she yells in terror as she dives inside the tank. The gunner quickly rotates the turret and clutches a shot, but the shell hits the front of the turret and harmlessly bounces away. Seems like their luck has just ended.

The T-90 fires a shot and Elpida promptly hears the gut-wrenching sound of steel grinding against steel, as the shell penetrates and fills the crew compartment with deadly shrapnel. Thankfully, most of the shrapnel hit the gunner and the loader, killing them instantly, but a fair amount hit Elpida too, filling the front of her body with numerous cuts, grazes and even some swallow gashes here and there. Two particular pieces of shrapnel though give her two big gashes at the front of her chest, starting from the right side of her lower abdomen all the way up to her left collarbone, the two gashes starting from the same point at her lower abdomen and going away from each other as they go upwards towards her collarbone. At least her neck and face have escaped this onslaught.

"Aaaaagghhhhh!" Elpida shrieks in pain as she nearly faints from shock, the pain being more than what she can handle. Tears already pour liberally from her eyes, as she looks around the compartment.

"Guys, are you still alive?" she asks, but when she gets no answer, she merely clasps her right hand over her chest, trying to cover as much of the gashes as she can and uses her left hand to pull herself out of the tank and over the turret's edge, throwing herself down on the ground. The snow somewhat cushions her fall as she lands on her back, but it still aggravates her wounds, which flare up in pain momentarily, making Elpida feel like they are on fire.

Releasing a small yelp in response, she slowly and painfully stands up, groaning and moaning in pain, tears still running on her cheeks.

"It hurts...so much," she seethes under her breath, squeezing her eyes shut for only a moment. Turning to the direction from were she had been attacked, she spots the T-90 aiming its cannon towards her. Her eyes widen silently, an expression of grim realization forming on her face.

This is the end of the line for her.

She is surely going to die.

But then her face changes its expression to a grumpy one. Like hell she is going to stand waiting for death to come and get her.

Turning to run away, the T-90 fires an HE shell that lands about three meters away from her, and when it explodes, it showers the back of her body with hot shrapnel that once again cut and graze her, but miss the back of her neck and head. Elpida finds herself momentarily airborne from the force of the explosion, before landing on the snow in her back once more. This time the pain is so strong that she can't even lift her head, silently crying on the cold ground. Her ears are ringing, her head feels heavy and her back absolutely hurts her. She feels the urge to sleep, that by closing her eyes all of her problems will stop existing. But if she does that, she will never get to see Anna again.

And for her, Anna is more important than her own pain.

Silently lying on the cold snow for another five minutes, she decides to raise her head and look around for any hostiles. Seeing that the enemy T-90 has left, she makes her way towards the now destroyed tank and quickly looks through the supplies it has. She only finds some gauze and nothing more, so she uses it to at least patch the two large gashes on her chest that seem to be bleeding faster than her other wounds. After treating herself, she slowly and painfully starts walking towards the HQ, blood dripping from her wounds and marking her path in the white landscape.

---

After half an hour of walking, she finally manages to reach the HQ. Her whole body is trembling in an effort to keep its temperature at normal levels and her head feels really light and dizzy from the blood she has lost. Her body feels somewhat numb, which in turn numbs the pain of her wounds, so she doesn't have to deal with that at least. Honestly speaking, it's a miracle she hasn't yet died from hypothermia or blood loss.

Her face is emotionless, her mind blank. She feels that if she starts thinking about anything, she will crumble on the spot, since her body has been strained beyond its limits.

But as she passes the HQ's gate, a horrifying display greets her that easily shocks her back to reality, as her eyes widen as much as they can in terror, the slight dizziness in her head disappearing for a moment, before returning back two times worse.

"No..." she whispers in fear, refusing to accept that what she is seeing is real. In front of her, at a distance of 20 meters, the bodies of her friends from her unit lie in a line on the cold, snowy ground, their heads sporting a bullet hole at the back and the snow around them having a dark red color. In short, they have all been executed.

"No...wh-why...why are they all dead...wh-what happened here..." She says, every next word that comes out of her mouth being louder and louder, until she is practically screaming in a hoarse and stuttering voice. She tries to run towards them, but thanks to her body's weakened state and the general numbness that is grasping her extremities, she stumbles halfway and falls to the ground flat on her chest, aggravating her wounds once again. But she barely notices the sudden spike in pain, as her brain barely registers what's going on around her. Getting up and reaching the bodies, she falls on her knees beside a particular one and turns it upright, holding its head close to her bandaged chest. Her face is full of pain and devastation, and tears flow once more from her eyes, but this time it seems like they'll never stop running.

"Anna please say something! Talk to me, please, I'm begging you!" she screams and shakes the head of Anna's body, but as much as she shakes it, no response comes from it. "Answer me, Anna! Say something, anything! Just don't be dead, I'm begging you, please don't be dead!"

Her hands stop shaking Anna, instead bringing her head close to her chest, with Odysseus gazing at her brown, empty eyes, which look up into the clouded skies.

"Why!? Why, God, why!? Why did they all have to die!? Why did Anna have to die!? What did she do to deserve this!" she shrieks on top of her lungs, feeling like her very soul has irreparably been broken.

Her loud crying and wailing attracts the attention of the individuals who are responsible for her friends' deaths and soon enough, a squad of five soldiers that are donning uniforms similar to the one Elpida is wearing, minus the numerous tears and cuts her uniform has, and are armed with assault rifles appear from one of the buildings. One of the men raises his weapon to fire at her, but the soldier next to him puts his hand on his weapon and lowers it down so that it points on the ground.

"Don't shoot. Go and inform the major that we found another survivor; we'll keep watch over her," he says at the first soldier who nods in response and promptly goes away. The men keep watch over Elpida as she keeps grieving and sobbing over Anna's body, her screams having finally subsided because of the weakened state she is currently in.

After a few minutes of waiting, five more men appear, four being regular soldiers like the rest that are keeping watch over Elpida, but the fifth one has different insignia on his uniform and he is holding only a pistol.

"It seems that you have exceeded my expectations," the major says in genuine surprise. Motioning at his men to stay in place, he slowly approaches Elpida, who is still crying and sniffling. "I really didn't expect for you to survive. First the ambush, then the destruction of your tank; you are a truly tenacious girl that keeps hanging to life even if it is by a thread."

The major stops in front of Elpida, gazing at her with an emotionless expression.

"Though it seems this will to survive has backfired."

"Why!? Why did you kill them, Major!? What did they ever do to deserve this!?" she roars at the major with as much hostility and ferocity a human being can pack into words, causing him to be taken aback, if only for a moment. "They had wives, husbands, children to go back to and take care of! So why did you murder them!"

The major patiently waits for the young teenager to stop shouting, before answering her question.

"Direct orders from the government," he says bluntly, causing Elpida to stop crying altogether, her sorrow and sadness immediately turning into wrath and rage that fuel her weakened body with strength, the desire to seek vengeance more prevalent on the furious expression that is slowly forming on her face with each word the major speaks. "They ordered the guys on top to take care of Unit 13, saying that they could become a real threat to their regime. So, they ordered me to take care of this little problem, unless I wanted to "disappear" from the face of the earth." The major watches as Elpida slowly lowers her head until he can't see her face anymore but can hear her clenching her teeth as hard as she can.

"But the official story that will be released to the public states that the Second Division's headquarters got attacked by an enemy detachment that had managed to find themselves behind enemy lines. Unit 13 fought the enemy's forces, buying enough time for all high-ranking officers to be evacuated and all important documents to be moved or purged. In the end, though, they got overwhelmed by the enemy forces and were eliminated, even the captives. As you have already guessed, they want to use this cover-up as a means to recruit more people in the army."

Pausing, he raises his pistol and rests its sight unto Elpida's head.

"But we both know this is bullshit. The real reason they ordered their deaths was because of you, White."

The mention of this name causes Elpida to freeze in place, the anger and rage that were boiling inside her evaporating immediately.

"You were a threat of exposing to the public the existence of the Reaper program, so they wanted for you to be dealt with. You could say that you were a loose end that needed to be tightened. But since you were close to several people," he points at the bodies of her dead friends, "if they killed only you, the others would raise a concern over your disappearance, which could lead into your real identity being revealed, and in time, your involvement at the blacklisted project. So it was decided that the whole unit would be exterminated under the pretext that they were a threat to the government."

Elpida says nothing in response as her brain starts connecting the dots and soon enough comes to a conclusion about everything that has happened.

Her friends died because of her, because she chose to be close to them.

Anna died because of her.

She killed her.

The one she loved the most out of everyone.

The one that took care of her when she couldn't stand in her own two feet.

The one she considered as her own mother.

She must pay for this.

She doesn't deserve to live anymore.

She doesn't deserve to exist anymore.

This world doesn't deserve to exist anymore.

Everything must be purged, like these vermin did for her friends.

Yes, everything must die.

Unbeknownst to the major, with his little explanation of why the purge of Unit 13 truly happened, he has effectively broken the mind of the young girl in front of him, her already warped perception having thrown her into an endless abyss of insanity that she cannot escape.

"But I think I have wasted a lot of time. Any last words?" he asks the girl that has forfeited from holding her best friend's head in her arms, choosing to hang them limply on her sides.

"Haha..." Elpida laughs quietly, but loud enough for the major to hear her, so he abstains from pulling the trigger, in case she has to say more.

"I killed them all," she says quietly.

The major isn't sure, but he thinks he can hear her giggling in amusement. He thinks that something is really wrong here, because he can clearly hear her giggling happily now.

"Haha...ahahaha...AHAHAHAHAHA!" Elpida laughs like a deranged individual and when she looks at the major, he instinctively takes a step back.

"Why are you afraid, Major? Hehehe...I only want to PLAY with you like you played with my friends~," she says in the most twisted and sadistic grin a human can exhibit, her eyes brimming with warped excitement, the lust for a bloodbath clear as the day. Her eyes start crying blood and her irises change color to bright magenta. She slowly rises to her feet, her body twitching slightly like she is getting shocked.

Both the major and the soldiers that have rushed besides him, having seen the young girl that could probably star in the next Exorcist movie, raise their guns to open fire, but an invisible shockwave that originates from Elpida knocks them down on the cold, hard ground, which is now devoid of any snow.

"What the..." the major trails off in confusion as the snow in a radius of thirty meters from Elpida has mysteriously become weightless and now floats in the air, slowly slithering its way towards her, and upon reaching her, swirling around her clockwise.

"Major, what the hell's going on!?" one of the soldiers asks as he gazes at the swirling snow that forms a pillar that has a height of at least ten meters and completely covers Elpida. Another soldier fires a whole magazine's worth of bullets at the snowy pillar, but it seems to have no effect whatsoever.

The major doesn't respond as he watches the pillar of snow swirling faster and faster, until it suddenly stops and the snow gets thrown everywhere, revealing Elpida and another figure that wasn't there before.

Elpida still grins back at the major maniacally, but she has stopped crying blood and the bright magenta color of her eyes is slowly reverting back to their original light purple. But that isn't what has stunned the major and his men.

It is the two meters tall figure that floats behind Elpida, dressed in a white hooded cloak. Inside the hood resides a skull, its eyesockets filled with two wisps of red light, emitting nothing but death as they slowly gaze at the soldiers, who freeze in pure fear as they look at this monster. It really does look like a replica of a Grim Reaper, further reinforced by the two meters tall scythe it holds in its skeletal arms.

"M-M-M-M-Monster!" one of the soldiers starts stuttering really hard, slowly and shakily raising his assault rifle to point it at the Grim Reaper that stands behind Elpida like some kind of guardian angel that watches over her.

"Well then, Major..." Elpida starts saying as she feels her whole body growing heavy and numb, keeping herself standing becoming increasingly more difficult. "...shall we play a game?"

Elpida finally gives in and crumbles to the ground face first, losing consciousness immediately.

The Grim Reaper simply gazes at the men, before releasing a terrifying screech and launching itself at the men, waving its scythe like it weighs nothing. The sounds of gunfire, screams and flesh getting cut fills the air momentarily, before silence returns to the base once more.

---

"-and after hearing him calling me White, my brain was like 'Nope, fuck that shit, I'm outta here' and promptly blacked out. Woke up a few hours later in the infirmary with a ton of gauze around my whole body; a doctor had hid in the base and somehow managed to avoid the major's men. Told me he found me out in the front entrance and dragged me all the way to infirmary to treat my wounds.

"After that, we took all the supplies we could and got the hell out of there. Spent the next few days trying to make our way back to civilization and upon reaching a small village, we took our own separate ways. At first, I tried to locate my friends Calliope and Chara, but when I couldn't find them, I assumed the government killed them because of their involvement with me. So I then searched for my friends from the orphanage and actually found them. Called a few favors from them, such as getting me a new identity and hacking your servers to get me as a transfer student."

"So your real name isn't Elpida?" Assam makes an inquiry.

"It is my real name; the fake identity was used at my country. Funny thing how you can become a whole other person when you dye your hair brown, change your haircut and wear colored eye lenses," she chuckles in slight amusement. "Anyway, that concludes my past. Any questions?"

"How do we know you aren't lying to us?" Erika asks immediately, though it isn't in a confrontational manner. "If your past is so horrible, why are you speaking about it so openly?"

"Well, it has been two years since then, so I have mostly gotten over it. Plus, even if I bitched and moaned and got all emo about it, it wouldn't change the fact that it happened," she answers back. "Also, it might help people understand why I am behaving...in certain ways, you could say." Odysseus taps her the side of her head slightly. "And if you still don't believe me, my whole body is covered with scars. Miho can confirm this."

As the girls keep talking, a man from Blackout approaches them.

"Excuse me for interrupting your conversation, but I have a message from the Director," he says as he presses a few buttons at a tablet he is holding and passes it to Odysseus, who is the closest girl in him.

"Test, test, one-two, one-two, is this thing on?" a voice says from the tablet and Odysseus bursts in laughter, causing the girls to look at her with confusion.

Except for the Anglerfish team who are sweating a little.

"I can't believe it, the old man has finally learned how to use a recorder!" she laughs loudly, unaware of the consequences her words might have. "Thought he would keep using vinyls and gramophones till the end of his life!"

"I can assure you, Odysseus, I know how to use technology like most other people," the voice says coldly and Odysseus simply freezes in time and place, her eyes shut and a hollow smile etched on her face.

"Hey boss, how have you been?" she says slowly, as her hands start shaking slightly.

"Flattery won't work, Odysseus. You might be exempted from some rules, but that doesn't mean you have free reign over everything. I'll need you to come to my office when you come back to base."

Odysseus is mentally screaming, the blood from her face rapidly draining and her brain is already considering what is going to happen to her and if running away is a better option.

"Also, I'd like to ask you too, Miss Nishizumi, to come to my office. I'd like to discuss a private matter with you."

"Eh? Ah! Y-Yes, Director!" Miho quickly responds.

"So, introductions first. Although I will not disclose my real name yet, you can call me by the name 'Director'. I am the CEO of the private military company Blackout. I would like to invite all of you to come visit my company's headquarters and if possible, I'd like to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?" Maho asks immediately with suspicion.

"If am not wrong, your carriers have been beached in the so-called 'New lands' and you have claimed parts of them as you territories, right?"

"That is correct."

"These new lands that were created after the earthquakes contain a high amount of resources, such as steel, oil and more, which are crucial to any serious military force. So I'd like for you to allow Blackout to mine the resources."

"What's in for us?" Kay asks interestingly.

"I believe it would be better for both sides if you presented a list of demands; I was thinking for the meeting to be held tomorrow. This should give you plenty of time to form one."

"St. Gloriana will accept the invitation," Darjeeling says calmly after seeping some tea, and everyone turns to look at her.

"Darjeeling, are you sure about that?" Assam asks in concern, since she isn't used in Darjeeling making decisions so fast.

"I think it is a really tempting offer. Not only we don't have the means to extract and process these resources, the Director is giving us a blank check on our end of the deal. Or at least something close to it."

"Pravda also accepts the invitation!" Katyusha pipes up, not wanting to be seen as a scared little girl in front of the other commanders.

"It might be beneficial for the girls back in the carrier, so I'm in too," Kay responds.

"Then we accept too," Maho curtly replies.

"Excellent. There should be a helicopter arriving within an hour to pick you up and transport you here to the base. I look forward to working with you in the future."

---

A/N: And this rewriting is finally done. Took more time than I thought it would, but I believe that the end result justifies it.Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!