There is an ancient problem posed by our Ancestors from Juno, from the days before the Glorious Unification. It goes this way. Long ago, the ship of the Great Warrior Ozma had been brought back by our people. It was too old and too precious to use in battle, so they put it in the Great War Museum. As time passed, and the wood that composed it rotted, we replaced the rotten parts with new ones until we get to where we are today, when all parts have been replaced. Is the ship in the Museum still Ozma's ship? And if not...what is it? What if we somehow...unrotted all the parts we replaced and put the ship back together? Which ship would be Ozma's ship then?

What do we cling on for identity? What makes...us...well, Us? What do you have left of yourself...when not even the flesh and bone that compose you can remain unreplaced?

The hoarfrost of the Solitas tundra was merciless. Cold enough to kill anyone that had made the stupid decision of trying to walk through it, not even tried to live. It was such a harsh cold, you probably would lose your fingers, your nose, your ears...and then die feeling the tightness...the cold...the frostbite on every inch of your body, eating your life away. Flying across that tundra, 4 flying ships. They weren't from Atlas. Atlas now was nothing but a smoldering ruin sunken beneath the molten ice. A transmission came through the communicator. Suidland-Pratt.

"Eksekuteur. Jou bevele is om die Atlesiese ruïne te verken vir enige oorlewendes. Sodra jy bevestig het dat dit veilig is, sal ons die hoofeenheid instuur. Verstaan?"

Man...What response was it? My Suidland-Praat surely has diminished over the years. Let's see...scout the memories once more...scout the ... terror...there it is

"Regstellende"

"Gloria Maelstrom. Oor en uit"

"Gloria Maelstrom"

Once done, I switched channels, now able to communicate with the other 3 ships

Although...perhaps you want to understand why we are here, don't you?

"So. We're now a cleaning unit for that Witch up the north?"

One of the 3 other pilots asked. As Commander of this unit, I'm obligated to respond

"No, we are here to retrieve something she wants, in case she hasn't taken it yet. The Staff of Creation"

My colleague then answers to me

"Well...if the column of smoke I can see in the distance is Atlas, then I sure hope that ... the Witch went down with it. I am not very excited at the thought that it may have acquired the Staff and lived to bring down the biggest military force on the planet on her own"

The column of flying ships circled around the burning ruins of what once were Atlas and Mantle. Standing tall amidst the water and the smoke...A tower that once floated high above the clouds

"Atlas Military Academy...A top-tier cybersecurity nightmare"

Said another one of my colleagues

"Not like you couldn't breach it during its time, right?"

She sighed for a good second or two then continued

"I lost many nights of sleep trying...but in its current vulnerable state I might be able to breach it"

Then, the last one of my colleagues interrupted. The stupid novice

"Well...That is if you don't drown in the attempt of trying to see if it can even be connected with"

I must now continue. Orders to accomplish

"That is what we are here to do, Crystal. Get on landing formation"

All of the ships began their descent onto the frozen wasteland. Mysteriously enough...there are no stragglers, no wandering vagrants, not even any Grimm...nothing. It is all desolate, not a single soul can be seen anywhere. Only the smoke, the water vapor, the rubble and dirt, the remnants of failure remain

"I still wonder if we will find any disgraced corpse down there" Asked The Novice.

He has a good eye, but he is still learning. It is still a good question to ask. Dead bodies tend to leak their contents into the water in these kinds of situations. Makes this type of work dangerous and unsanitary. I should give them advice

"A city this size and being the only real big settlement in this place...I would advise to be careful, we might find some bodies under the water, but I am concerned that there are no stragglers or anyone around"

I advised my colleagues, then began to switch out to my deep-diving gear while inside of the ship. I kept the ship turned on while I did so, just to keep the heat running. Once ready, air-reserve on and ready for timing, suit and mask ready, I simply give the signal, flickering one of the lights on my ship then turning the engine off for good.

"Gambit, why didn't we just land on the target area again?" Asked Psyche…. Annoying…Annoying, we will just say he is annoying okay?

We then began heading all together towards the edge, ready to jump into the water

"It is not stable, Psyche. It can hold the 4 of us but not the aircraft. Our mission is just to see if there's anything left behind that can be salvaged or utilized. Landing 4 Kråkevingers on a structure in such a state would jeopardize the whole operation…."

Atlas is not an architect state. It was a military…prostitute. Sold its army to the best payer, the best buyer. Soldiers of Fortune led by a psychopathic maniac is what they were. They had this coming.

Hence their buildings were basic…but their defense infrastructure was top-notch. Deprive the people, preserve the buildings. Deprecate individuality, favor efficiency, deprecate attention to architecture and focused, targeted designs to favor storage, defensive capabilities. Favor the…the bigger numbers, more soldiers, more ammunitions, more Dust, more security…but make the walls that contain them as frail as a sheet of paper. Houses of brick that relied on a supply of Fire Dust to remain heated…antique…unrefined.

That is what that psychopath had in mind all this time. Buildings over people. Numbers over people

A shake on my back. I'm back in the real world. My other colleague. Pygmallion

"Gambit…"

Crystal asks Psyche if I do this often. He says yes. They think I can not hear them. I assume I should just continue. It would be rather impolite to keep them waiting on this rather freezing climate

"Hence Team Intellect recommended we take a dive to find alternate pathways into it. Water pressure should not be a problem and there should not be any resistance, if that Damsel of the Scorched Wing is as fearsome as she is claimed to be"

Crystal is amazed. Gambit's accent shifted entirely. Before, it was a crude, cut accent, with bolder pronunciation and a lack of Rs and a heavier accentuation of the R. The type of accent one would have from years of living in Suidwes, if not the accent of a native Suidlander.

Now it was the accent of someone that sounded as if they had lived their whole life in Skyggehold's more privileged districts, the ones favored by the Collective the most.

To Crystal, this is his first time hearing someone change accents so quickly, to Psyche and Pygmallion…not so much

The 4 of them then jumped head first right after Gambit opened his left hand out flat then waved it forward twice. What ensued was a literal bucket full of freezing water. Or more accurately, lake-full of ice cold water.

They were now on 2 timed constraints. 6 hours of air, 2 hours before a certain death by hypothermia in a 270 degree lake full of smoldering ruins. Heat would probably not be much of a problem, since certain pockets of air also contained lots of fires in them, probably lucky building teardowns and other stuff that can be ignited underwater…And the heat supply grid's remains, now having constant short-circuits and bleeping alight from time to time.

But even then…swimming 2 hours under water in Solitas…at the very verge of a summer sunset if not pretty much the middle of the night was likely going to result in your death…unless you knew what you're doing.

The squad kept on swimming in formation. Crystal's suspicions were right. Lots of buildings, lots of particular cars and mementos of a life now gone but…no people, no corpses under the water.

The Novice was right. How did they evacuate so many people…in so little time? Where and how? There are no other cities to be found. Off-site Atlas Military Bases or Abandoned Mineshafts maybe, but not civilian settlements. You can't just evacuate thousands of people into a desolate ice tundra

And then…They found a corpse. A scorched one. From the petrified gesture it carried, the person must have suffocated before the fire consumed them. Then another corpse. Grimm wound, Atlesian Army. The battle must have been fierce. Another corpse, Grimm wound, Atlesian Army. Another corpse, Grimm Wound, Atlesian Army…and again..and again…and again. Only soldiers, no civilians other that probably that scorched corpse

If this Damsel of the Scorched Wing is this effective on her target selection…perhaps a pact with her would bring success to the Commonwealth's future endeavors.

No. Do not ally with that being. She can not be trusted

That destructive power…in our hands could give us an edge in the battle. Do not think about it. She can be an advantage. We just have to figure out how to control her. Do NOT THINK ABOUT IT

We then reached what we assumed to be the base of Atlas Academy. Amongst all the rubble, only one thing stood. An empty door frame, somehow not crushed by the water or the ruins, surrounded in a bubble of air. A strange, fascinating sight that I genuinely didn't think could be normally possible although…this is not my first Vault.

We have to keep swimming upward. Always upward. How long have we been here? I'm not telling you, it would make the experience too spoonfed for you, wouldn't it? What if I let you guess instead? Always upward. These laboratories look curious. Perhaps they managed to take the Winter Maiden with them…Although with her age, it wouldn't surprise me if she had a stroke the moment they took her out. Always upward. Another body. A suit…A tie. Glasses. Judging by the appearance, it was not the crash what killed this man. Always upward.

And then, we finally came out to the surface. Well…what could be one. It's difficult to tell. It is dark and there's no way to tell where we are. No windows, no natural light. Only a cave of debris…and a shard of Fire Dust to light our path ahead

"Ahh…Pezzo di merda, It is cold in here" said the Novice. Typical Juno trainees, with their sunny beaches.

"I'm surprised you're not used to the cold, Novice" I told him. Considering he passed selection, I assumed he would have been through this before

"I am not, I'm more of a heat person" he replied. We then helped Psyche and Pygmallion up. Psyche lit the way using his Semblance. He can use the Jorgensblod in his blood stream to clean impurities from stone…or add new ones, but of course he can not do it too much.

There he goes again

"I remember you were issued a restraining order for alcohol, Psyche" I told him

"I was. But it only stops me from requesting alcohol, not from using the one I already have"

Clever

The effect of light on your surroundings is important. It determines what color things get. Right now, it was either red or pitch dark. No in-betweens. Red or Pitch Dark, tunnels of endless claustrophobia to walk, crawl, squeeze through. Tighter. Red or Pitch Dark. Tighter. Looser. Red or Pitch Dark…sunlight white. A crack. The outside

"Jackpot. Novice, take a peek through that thing. See where we are now" I told Crystal

Crystal then went out of the water and looked through the crack

"We are…out on the surface, right in the middle of the lake" He reported back as we began coming out of the water. Still red but not dark anymore

"Well. I'm not going back out wet. How about we climb from here?" said Psyche

Could work. Rubble for foothold might make it tricky, but it can work. Oh…someone is stepping forth. Pygmallion took the first turn and began climbing. Not quite like her, and it would be insubordination, but Psyche is right. Going outside in this cold might be suicide after swimming for that long.

Psyche goes right after Pygmallion, then the Novice…then I began climbing. Higher. Higher. The wall slowly begins to tilt. Higher. More tilting. Higher. Then, a sudden crack. A small step and anyone could tumble down. Then a zap of lighting for a split second

"Agh! Damn static" said Psyche. Solitas is a cold, desolate tundra. The colder and drier a place is, the more static electricity your body stores since it can not rid itself of it like it usually could. Well, I made a slight mistake. You don't store more static, you store static for a longer time. Either way that is an issue.

"Psyche, what can you see? Any metallic footholds?" I asked. The moment I take any static, the climbing will turn 10 times more difficult, since one of my arms will be incapacitated. Static does not treat electronics kindly

"Uhh, yeah. Hmm…Fuck…Or- Pygmallion, you there or did you speed climb this?" Psyche screamed out. Then a loud thud

"Agh! Hey…We are still climbing here" He said in response. Then something fell on my shoulder. Slim, long, gritty, hairy. A rope?

"I know. Just grab the rope and keep climbing then" Pygmallion responded. Psyche didn't even consider anything, he just went for it. Some rubble landed in my eyes but…not an issue. Rope didn't cut off and there are no screams. Guess I will grab onto it. Novice will too. More climbing, more height.

We manage to reunite at the top. We then cut the rope. We won't need to climb back anyways. Clothes and Capes have dried up just a little but have gathered a lot of dust and rubble onto them. But its no issue.

We got to our objective. A ruined office, obviously disorganized and chaotic…but it clearly belonged to the man in charge of this place. And stand tall between the it…A round stone table..displaying a light

I press the intercom. There is no signal but…There is no problem. The broken windows will give me space to catch signal. I try the intercom again. Suidland-Praat

"Eksekuteur na CP, Oor?"

A response comes through. You may want to understand this. Conventloc is not a common language for you, is it?

"Executioner, this is CP. You know operations like this are to be managed in Conventloc, right?" said … clearly not the same command post people from before

"Apologies. Previous operators addressed me in Suidland-Praat. I assumed protocol was not to be applied"

"Don't assume. Follow the rulebook. Did you find what we are looking for?"

"Yes, Ma'am. It is here. It works"

"Good. We will send occupation units to your location"

"It won't be necessary. There is nobody but us in here. No civilians..no corpses. I will give more details in my report"

"Alright. Then we will send recovery teams. Have a good day" the voice on the other side says

"Gloria Maelstrom. Over and out"