"Two-Seven! Please stop!"

"I won't stop until I've seen their faces! They almost killed Twos and myself, dammit!"

It was a rare scene to see in the corridors of the hangars. Pilots of the same squadron, still in their flight suits, almost fighting between each other as one was trying to make its way towards the hangar of another squad.

"Stop! We shouldn't meet them."

"I don't care if we should or shouldn't. I want an apology!"

Of course, each time they passed next to other squadrons that had already changed into their uniforms, they attracted attention. The yelling and fast walking were not really helping going unnoticed.

Behind them was the rest of the team, barely able to keep up with the fast pace of their squad mates.

"I beg you, Two-Seven. You don't know anything about them."

"The only thing I need to know is that they got out of their way to almost crash into me and Twos."

Despite all her words, Three-Aught-Five just could not do anything but to follow him to try to prevent him from doing something even more stupid on top.

When they arrived in front of a door with the number thirteen taped on it, she did not even have the time to blink that Two-Seven had already starting angrily banging on the door.

"Come on! Open up! I know you're in there!"

At first, there was no reply.

"See? They are not here. So pl…"

But she could not finish her sentence as he started hitting the panel again. The rest of the team remained silent, as there really was not much they could do. And just like the first time, the door did not open. It did not really help with Two-Seven's anger.

"You cowards! Don't want to face the consequences, huh? You better..."

As he was barking, the panel quickly slid out of the way, taking everyone by surprise. In front of almost all the members of the twentieth squadron was now standing a young pilot, way shorter than all of them.

"Is there something wrong?" asked the boy almost naively.

"Who is the pilot of Thirteen X-Ray?"

Two-Seven had asked his question with the tone of an order filled with an anger that had boiled inside himself for hours.

"Huh… I am. Can I hel…"

The instant he heard the confirmation, the older pilot immediately reached for the collar of the younger one.

"Listen to me, you brat. You might be having a whole lot of fun with that fancy toy of yours, but you gotta learn to fly in your lane unless you want to kill someone!"

Obviously, this immediately caught the attention of the three other boys that were still in the changing room. They all immediately started to rush in an attempt to help their friend, but they did not have any option against a pilot several heads taller than them.

"I… I don't know what you are talking about."

"Oh? You don't know? Well let me tell you what you don't know. You almost killed four people with one maneuver! You better have an explanation to why you came so close."

"But I had everything in control."

It was the answer that finally made everything boil over. With his strength, it was easy for Two-Seven to violently push the boy against the wall. At this point, the entire audience finally tried to separate the two. However, it is hard to move something fueled by strong emotions.

"Don't give me this! The last time I thought I was in complete control, I ended up stalling my engines and I almost crashed into a Settlement! So you better apologize right here or I will…"

"Let go of my Darling immediately!"

The sudden appearance of a female voice made everyone turn their head. Standing in the middle of the corridor was a woman, two small horns poking of the unnatural pink hair. And while most stood confused, Two-Seven was just too angry to be in any other state.

"This is not your problem."

"If you have a problem with my Darling, then you also have a problem with me. So let. Him. Go."

"Oh I see how it is," replied the angry pilot before dropping off his prey and fully turning around to face this new challenger. "Let me guess, you are the co-pilot of that pathetic kid that almost killed myself, my partner and, if I'm correct, yourself. You better have something good to say for his defense or this could turn ugly."

The other crew members of Squadron Thirteen immediately reacted, helping their partner back on its feet while the hostile pilot was turning them his back.

"You should look at yourself before calling my Darling pathetic, you weakling."

With his height advantage of a good head, he just could not take those threats seriously.

"Unless he gives me an apology, I'll keep calling him however I want. And right now, he is pathet…"

The helmet Two-Seven was still wearing on his head only did one thing up to this point. Give him a false sense of protection and security. He did not see her rising her fist, but he definitively felt the heavy hit on the middle of his face. The explosion of pain in his nose immediately made him back off, a reflex bringing his hands up to cover what felt like a crushed stump.

"Ah dammit!" he yelled. But before he was even able to make a step back towards the girl, Three-Aught-Five slipped in between the two, arms wide open, in an attempt to stop the fight.

"At least it seems that your friend is smarter than you," commented the pink-haired woman with a small smile appearing on the side of her mouth.

In between his fingers, Two-Seven started to feel a strange sensation. Something hot, a liquid, dripping down and sticking on whatever it was entering in contact with. And by just looking down, the red marks on his hand were giving him the answer to a question he did not have to ask.

"Please, Two-Seven, stand down. Just please..."

As much as she tried to keep her position as a buffer, Two-Seven had no trouble shoving her out of his way to get a free path toward his new target.

"Oh you're going to pay for this."

With only a single step, he had bridged the gap and was in range to launch his own punch. But his fist only met air at the place where her head should have been. Before he realized that she had dodged by a few centimeters to the side, she latched on to his extended arm. He did not know it, but it was already over. The next second, he was lying flat on the ground, his stomach burning in pain from the powerful kick he had just received.

"This is what happens to those that try to hurt my Darling."

This statement brought down a heavy silence upon the audience from both squadrons, as well as all the other pilots that had gathered out of curiousness and blocking the entire narrow corridor.

"Coming through, coming through."

Of course, such a situation was quick to attract armed guards. But making their way to the scene of the fight was not an easy task, pushing their way through the thick crowd. Just hearing them coming was enough for the woman to step away, leaving Two-Seven free to stand back on his feet, albeit not without difficulties.

With their tough looking uniforms and dedicated training, they had no trouble creating an effective separation between all the groups.

"Disperse immediately and return to your assignments!" shouted what was probably their leader with an integrated loudspeaker. It was aimed at the general public that complied with an overall feeling of disappointment for not really seeing much.

The members of Squadrons Thirteen and Twenty, however, could not move. Surrounded by armed guards, all where feeling uneasy in some way. It was merely an angry fist fight that had to be separated, yet they had sent in a full squad equipped with guns and ammunition of the lethal type.

"Are you just going to stand there? She broke my nose, dammit!" shouted Two-Seven toward the guard leader, still keeping his hand over his face to prevent himself from bleeding all over the place.

But the tall figure, its face protected by an armored mask, did not even acknowledge the words. It had more important things to say with on its radio.

"Oxide, Disciple Two One. Situation is under control. Elements have been pacified. Awaiting instructions, over." There was quite a long pause. "Copy that, Oxide. Disciple Two One out."

"Can someone actually tell what is happening here?"

It was only at this moment that One-Ten stepped back into his role as Squadron Leader. Things had gotten out of hand for him, and this was the opportunity for him to take back control, but the guard had something else to say.

"We are escorting you back to your designated changing room and then to your debriefing."

"And of course you aren't going to do anything about..."

"Shut up, Two-Seven. We're moving out."

One-Ten had barked his words to interrupt his subordinate. Now that he had taken back control, he was not going to let anyone under his command do another stupid thing. So, under the pressure of the armed men, the entire group of Squadron Twenty was forced to go down the corridor the other way around.

"Hey, are you alright, Two-Seven?"

Twos was worried seeing his partner still holding on his face and breathing with some light difficulty.

"No, I'm not! Dammit... And Eighty-Three hangs out with them. What the hell is wrong with him?"

"I imagine he did not meet them by rushing and threatening to beat them up."

"I was just asking for an apology... They almost killed us back there!"

"Yeah... Asking..."

Two-Seven and Twos might have had the reputation of being of being the jokers of the group, but here the pilot of the duo was clearly not in the mood for banter.

"Shut up... Who the hell is even that girl? She is not normal."

Nobody really replied, as nobody had any answer to give. They all had suspicions and theories, but they also all knew that sharing would not be helpful in any way. So they kept silent, only hearing the metal of the guards' body armor clicking as they walked.

And from afar, they were still being watched. Rubbing his neck, the boy only had one thing to comment.

"I have a very bad feeling about them…"

"I must be honest with you two. Things are not looking good for you so far." From the two pilots sitting in front of her, no answer came. She was not sure if it was because they had nothing to say, or if they were too scared to say anything. "You already know that you are behind schedule. And by that, I mean that you have barely reached half of your objectives." Naomi was standing behind her desk, her hands holding tightly the back of her office chair. She could perfectly see the two, their heads lowered, looking at their feet. They were not comfortable, but to tell the truth, neither was she. "Is there something wrong happening that I do not know about? If something is wrong and you need help, you have to tell me."

There was a long pause. Kokoro and Mitsuru shared an unsure look, silently asking themselves questions that Naomi could not hear. Then, finally, the boy raised his look towards his officer.

"It's… It's that we don't really know who we are… Who we really are."

Naomi's heart skipped a beat. She had feared that they would start to understand, and here they were starting to doubt.

"I… Uhh… What do you mean by that? You already know everything you have to know, so I do not see wha…"

"But we want to know more."

"There is nothing more to say."

"We keep hearing that we have been taken…" Speaking out emboldened Kokoro enough that she almost jumped up from her seat, sending the chair several inches backwards. "We keep hearing that we did something bad, that we have been punished. We want the truth!"

Naomi tightened her grip on her own seat.

"You can't handle the truth! Whoever you were, whatever you did… It does not matter now anymore. What matters is that there will not be any problems if you go through training without issues."

"But how can we train if we cannot trust those we are supposed to follow?"

"Does that mean you do not trust me?"

Naomi did not like this. The situation had reached a stalemate where no one would reply to the opposition's statements. If she were to speak, everything would crumble, and the consequences would be terrible for everyone involved. Even simply telling them that she cannot say anything would probably lead them to ask even more questions.

"We don't know… That's the problem."

"You want the truth? Fine… The truth is that I do not know anything either. I am certain that if you asked me anything, I would be blocked by my lack of credentials."

"So there is no way for us to know reality? We just have to continue on without looking backwards?"

"Sadly, this is what I recommend. Focus on something that is currently happening, and you will have no more worries about things that do not matter."

Silence. For but a few seconds, things seemed calm inside the office. But inside the minds, it was the total opposite. Ideas were clashing, hopes were crushed and in the middle of it all, truth was getting more and more overshadowed.

The pilots shared a look and a nod before standing up.

"If this is how things are," said Mitsuru, "then I believe it is a good time for us to take our leave."

Both saluted their officer and turned around to walk out of the office. They all knew nothing useful had come out of this conversation. But they were all playing pretend just to keep things stable for just a bit longer.

"Does she know?"

Outside, the rest of their team had been waiting for them.

"It's… It's hard to say. She says she does not really know what has happened, but she kept pushing us towards getting better results in training."

Kokoro's response to Goro was enough to make all of them suspicious. But before anyone could really say anything else, Ichigo waved her hand, suggesting the group to move away from the closed door and back towards the elevators.

"Did she say anything else?"

"We asked her to tell us the truth…"

"And?"

"She told that we cannot handle the truth. Whatever that means."

"It means it is true." In an almost unanimous movement, all turned their head toward Zero Two. "It means it is all true and that there is perhaps even more behind it… We do not have much time left."

"We are the most powerful military force in the history of man. Every fight is our fight. Because what happens over here, matters over there. We do not get to sit one out. Learning to use the tools of modern warfare is the difference between the prospering of our people, and utter destruction. We could not give freedom to everyone. But we have developed the methods and the know how to acquire it. And that, my friends, is worth more than all the pockets of Magma. Sure, it matters who has got the bigger stick, but it matters a hell of a lot more who is swinging it."

The best way to describe the meeting room of the Entity's Board was cold luxury. Marble extracted more than a century ago covered the entire surface of the floor and ceiling, while the walls were all made of crystal-clear panels, revealing the beauties of the outside to the occupants of the room.

All of them were gathered around a large circular table, their uniforms of white and gold making them blend in with their environment. Most, if not all, were wearing masks, the reminders of an old time where keeping their identity secret was an essential element for the highest members of the organization. Some were seeing this as tradition, a base for the newer protocols and practices of the future. But for others, the wish of anonymity was something still real in their hearts.

And among the latter was the Chairman. None but a very select few knew his real identity, and most only had the extremely complex mask and uniform to base their memories upon. However, despite all of this, its figure was standing strong in the middle of the meeting room as he declared his speech to all the other members of the board.

"We have reached a key moment in our history, gentlemen. The final stage of our struggle is finally coming to an end. In only a few days you will all see, from your windows and your monitors, hundreds of pilots taking off to face our enemy for one last battle, and for the first time in the last century we have the advantage. By the time they will be done, the largest nest of Klaxosaurs in history will be nothing than a crater, the center of their system will be burning down, and we will have taken back our planet."

A whisper of agreement quickly circled around the table as Board members nodded. They all had their own personal reasons to hate the blue monsters, but the joy of their upcoming destruction was widely shared. However, it seemed that one had something else on his mind.

"But then what comes afterwards?"

This question, as simple as it seemed, was enough to turn all heads in the direction of the one that had asked it.

"What comes afterwards?"

"Well we keep talking about how to fight the Klaxosaurs, and now you are telling us that the fight is almost over. So what gives?"

"Well I can tell you that, Admiral. We will be the only one left, with an entire planet worth of land and energy to settle. We will have road to build, infrastructure to restore and we will have to oversee everything."

"And what about all the equipment that will no longer be useful?"

This question came from the opposite side of the table, where the civilian part of the Board was sitting. The Chairman quickly turned around to answer.

"Very good question, Chief Engineer. But you should probably not doubt the speed and consistency of progress. We already have the new generation of combat equipment on plan, leaving you with tons upon tons of steel and wires to recycle and to use. And truth be told, one day we will find a new force that will try to attack us. And we must stand ready for any possibility." Another wave of agreement swept through all those at the table. "But it is not good to get too ahead of ourselves. Now is a good time to… take inventory. General."

The Chairman pointed towards one of the military leaders who stood up. After some interactions with the set of buttons that was before him, fancy projections appeared in the middle of the circle of Board members to illustrate his words.

"The upcoming operation will require the use of twenty fully equipped squadrons to destroy the main Klaxosaur colony. We are positive that the core of the Klaxosaur species-wide neural system is located inside, and that its destruction will lower the threat level enough for us to sweep out any remaining hostile creature within two weeks. The area has an extreme density of Klaxosaurs, making any attack impossible at first glance. But we have enough resources to punch right through. By neutralizing priority targets along this path, squadrons can open a clear path to the target." As the General talked, his graphics changed to reflect the progression of events he was describing. At this point, it had turned to a map of the area where the fighting was soon about to take place in. "This open crack in the ground leads to a vast array of caves that host even more hostiles and the core. Codename Princess. The objective is to get a N-class bomb down here, detonate it, eliminate a high number of Klaxosaurs and destroy the Princess."

This announcement was met with the reaction of dumbfounded silence. While the Board was made from a mix of representatives from the various civilian and military branches of the Entity, everybody had clearly understood what was happening.

"Are you crazy?" finally commented a member from the logistic branch. "You want to put a N-class on a FRANV?"

But it was the Chairman who stepped in to reply.

"It is not that we want it. It has already been done. The FRANV Mark Two is no longer a prototype. We finally have all the data we need to start production. Why do you think we have been working so hard to develop a smaller airframe with much more advanced control systems? This location has been continuously surveyed for decades. You would be surprised by how many drones we were able to send there without issue."

"The only physical obstacle in our way is the opening itself that is not wide enough, even for a smaller plane. Using a larger opening would take us more time and force us to dive deeper into hostile territory. So a ground team will be dropped in to blast the way open for the FRANV Mark Two that will go in there."

"But by the time they get back out, wouldn't the Klaxosaurs have the time to neutralize the bomb? They just have to crush the communication system of the detonator..."

"For now, this is not your issue. But don't worry. This has been taken into account. Overall, our casualty figure is expected to be around forty-two percent of the deployed forces. It's a sacrifice, but it is necessary." While many board members were not paying much mind to that detail, some seemed visibly disturbed by that thought. It was not really the fact that pilots were going to die that was the problem. It is to be expected to have casualties in war. But such a high number of casualties to escort a suicide mission seemed too much. However, if the chairman had decided it was bound to happen, who were they to oppose it alone? "The operation will be ready to be launched in five days."

Silence fell on the room again as the General sat back down and the fancy animations disappeared, leaving only the Chairman standing.

"This is the time for heroes. A time for legends. History is written by the victors. Let's get to work."

The library of the Garden can be both a very wonderful place and a room full of boredom, depending on who you ask. Many of the pilots, regardless of their age, have seen it as the latter. At best, they would tell you that they can go there to find some story to read to pass the time, but at worst they would completely ignore it to focus on other and more interesting activities.

However, if you were looking for something in particular and approximately knew where to look, then the library could quickly become a place full of treasure awaiting to be found. This is what led Eighty-Three to spend a lot of time there, piecing together as much information as he could find. And by pushing to the side all the books and records on irrelevant subjects, it did not leave much to look through, making his task a bit easier.

Although some pieces of information were obviously missing, it was enough to patch together something that vaguely felt like a backstory for the Entity. Something about powers collapsing in front of a large threat and people banding together to face that threat. And obviously, the Entity was depicted as the best hope of humanity, doing no wrong as it saved all that it could.

It was hard to tell how much of it was actually true, how much were lies and what was tweaked to fit the agenda. Sometimes, the name of a country or the name of a person would appear, but without much context to make anything useful. Instead, with earbuds in his ears and more classical music playing, Eighty-Three had turned to something else.

Maps.

Maps of all kinds, shapes and sizes were available to those that wished to consult them. Yet few ever made that request. What most interested the pilot was the important database of satellite pictures. On the small computer keyboard, he was quick to enter the coordinates of the crash site that he had remembered by heart.

In his memory, the site was this enclosed space of ruined buildings and vegetation, where the two places where they had hidden were opposite of each other. He knew that there were things beyond the few streets, but he could not really say he was expecting anything in particular. Yet there he was, his heart skipping a beat when the distinct shade of the ruined church appeared on his monitor. It was hard to look at it and not think about all those that lived inside, oblivious to all that was happening outside of their safe settlement.

But there was also everything else. Everything that was outside of the small plaza was part of the unknown. From the layout of the streets and the shapes of the building, Eighty-Three could only imagine what had happened there and what was currently happening. Maybe there were more people living in those buildings as an extension of the church settlement, maybe they were full of interesting objects to discover, or maybe they were just empty shells of an era gone for more than a century. As he moved away from the center of the town, buildings started to change shape and size, to the point where they seemed to look like the industrial facilities of the Entity. Those sights of the old industries were most probably empty as well, stripped of all valuables either through their looting by people seeking tools of survival or through pure and reckless destruction during combat.

He kept looking at those satellite images for so long, not paying any attention to the passing time, his mind wondering off to come up with explanations to all the details that caught his eye, however small they might have been. He only stopped when a strange shape appeared into view. A long dark strip not yet overrun by vegetation, next only to a few small buildings that it dwarfed in size. The white paint that covered had almost completely faded with time, but the shapes and patterns were distinctive enough for Eighty-Three to immediately recognize a former runway.

"I knew you'd be there."

The sudden sensation of someone pulling off one of his earbud made Eighty-Three jump in his chair and turn around. And apparently, it seemed that Fifty enjoyed doing that kind of prank very much as she started to laugh her heart out.

"Ah, dammit! Can't you just tell that you are there or something."

"Well I finally managed to sneak up on someone for the first time since I got that damn chair. You have to be more aware with all the noise I make." While she was very much so amused, it was a bit annoying for Eighty-Three to be interrupted at the exact moment he had finally found something very interesting. "What were you doing to be that much focused on a screen anyway?"

From where she was, she did not have a direct line of sight on the device her pilot was using, and the wheelchair was far from making it easy to move around the relatively small space.

"I… I was looking at where we crashed back there… Everything there was so different that it remained on my mind all that time."

He did not have to say anything more to get his point across. After all, she had been down there with him, albeit without being conscious for most of it. However, it seemed that she was feeling a bit of disapproval about all of it.

"I don't know if it's a good idea keeping our head in the past like that, Eighty-Three… Everyday, every morning I have to face the consequences of those past events. Shouldn't we be looking forward instead? I feel like you are bringing yourself down with all of this."

"No… It's just… It's just that I am curious. I know I won't really get any answers to all the questions I asked myself back there, but I still want to try to learn something new about our past and the world around us. I don't want to find myself some excuses for the crash or anything, I just want to know to look forward better."

"And what did you find, then?"

"Not much… I just have the feeling that those that lived before the Entity were not that much different from us."

For now, it was better to keep her in the dark. Until everything clicked into place, it was safer for everyone this way.

"Hey, maybe one day you will understand all of that, but you should clear your head once in a while, no?"

"Eh… You are starting to sound like Three-Aught-Five. I am fine, I'm telling you. Hell, I am doing this to break off the monotony of the simulator sessions…"

"Well if that's so, then I have good news for you."

Eighty-Three raised a curious eyebrow. The way she had suddenly changed tone was off, suddenly acting as if something great had just happened that he was unaware off.

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't know? Hmm… I'd thought Maria would have sent you a message on your communicator. Not usual for her to…"

"The point, please."

"We are going back to real jets in two days."

Those words stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What?"

"We have been cleared for a real test. It's earlier than originally planned, but apparently if everything is fine we will be cleared for combat on the spot."

"That's… That's great."

At first, he did not know how to react. There was a strange sense of joy and success at first. Despite all the obstacles in their way, they had succeeded in bringing themselves back up to the level of all the others. Yet there was something out of place. He had spent the last weeks learning about lies from the Entity. What was the guarantee that what Fifty said was the complete truth?

"Hey, something is wrong?"

She had noticed his reaction, or rather lack thereof.

"Nothing… It just feels a bit surreal right now. It's been so long since… well the crash…"

"Yeah. I felt a bit like this when Maria told me. I am really excited about it right now!"

Her voice was full of enthusiasm, each word carrying such a positive energy that he could not help but start to smile himself. For the first time since he carried her out of the wreck, he felt that she was really happy with things. And maybe she was right to be this optimistic. Maybe that in the end, everything was going to be alright.

"Have you told the others yet? Maybe we could celebrate it together."

"Not yet. I mean, I only got the news just before coming to see you. But really I'll only celebrate once I get my prosthetic installed. This damn chair is going to drive me insane at some point."

Even when mentioning something that was an extreme annoyance to her, she still managed to keep herself smiling. It was probably a consequence of some other treatment she was also undergoing, as guilt undermined her performance during the earliest phases of testing.

Slowly, Eighty-Three's attention started to shift as they continued their chatter. His mind was wondering back in the past, towards the events that had defined the path he was walking on. Fifty's smile was making him ask a question to himself. Did he take everything too negatively? All the events he had witnessed, all the information he had discovered, all the people he had talked to… His entire struggle to find the truth… Did he really find it, or did he latch onto the first theory that crossed his mind and convinced himself it was the reality of things?

The more he was thinking about it, the more he felt as if the dots started to link up in his head. In a lot of topics, the Entity was not actively lying and spreading falsehoods, but simply not giving information that was not relevant to regular pilots anyway. But his wondering mind was brought back to the ground when he felt some rumbling in his pocket.

Fifty watched him as he pulled out his communicator to read the message he had just received. Of course, with the context, she was expecting something in particular.

"Is that Maria?" she asked as she tried to take a peek at the tiny screen. But she could not see anything but his face freezing. "Eighty-Three? Is… Is something wrong?"

Instead of replying, he stood up. Whatever he had seen, he was not believing it.

"I'm sorry, that's great and all but… But I have to go. If you see the others before dinner, tell them about it."

He barely finished his sentence that he already disappeared through the door, leaving the computer and all the other documents behind him. At first, he was walking but quickly enough he started to jog. A jog that had become a run by the time he had reached the nearest set of elevators. Mashing the buttons on the wall controls were clearly not helping making the lift come any quicker, yet there he was, pressing the button repeatedly until the doors finally opened.

As the elevator started to take him down to the barracks, he pulled out his communicator again, just to be sure that what he had read was real.

16:41
Monday

One message by: Code 016

"We have updates on Ko. And Mi. Things are not turning good. You must come to see us. We need to act quickly or we will all be in great danger."

Human Protection Entity Research and Development Division

Report n°8742-[REDACTED] : Project Leviathan

Date : [REDACTED]

Testing ordinance has been detonated at the [REDACTED] research facility this morning at 1000 hours. The detonation took place five thousand meters below ground, the expected depth of use according to operation guidelines.

The N-class warhead delivered a force equivalent to [REDACTED] Megatons and created a series of earthquakes of magnitude [REDACTED] on the Richter scale that were later measured seismograms of various facilities around the world.

During the detonation, all rocks in a radius of [REDACTED] kilometers have been blasted into chunks smaller than five meters in diameter. This caused the destruction of all hardened targets scattered in the artificial recreation of the [REDACTED] cave system.

Radiation fallout has been measured to be minimal in the affected areas. Standard NBCR guidelines have been enforced during incursion within the detonation area and no signs of any illness or other negative impacts on crew health have been noted. Main concern about survivability of the detonation is currently the geological instability of the ground which could lead to damage and/or injury to any equipment and personnel going into the area after the detonation.

The detonated warhead had dimensions of [REDACTED] by [REDACTED] meters, including equipment only for testing purposes. By all accounts, the device will fit into the weapon bay of the experimental aircraft.

As planned, no release mechanism has been installed on the warhead.

With current production speeds, it will take [REDACTED] days to produce ordinance ready for deployment. All teams are currently on standby for further orders from the Board.

"Well finally here you are."

Eighty-Three was visibly exhausted when he dashed into the barrack of Squadron Thirteen. Sweat was still rolling down his forehead as he took back his breath under the look of all the eyes of the thirteenth team. And with the tone of Ichigo's remark, the tone was immediately set even though he still lacked all other information.

"What… What do I need to know that is so important?" he finally asked after catching his breath.

All the pilots looked at each other. They already knew, but it seemed that they were unsure from the way of telling it to him.

"Kokoro and Mitsuru had a meeting with our officer earlier today about their performance and everything leads us to believe that… How to say it?"

Ichigo's explanation was stopped cleanly as she doubted over her choice of words. But in those kinds of situation, they should have seen Zero Two coming with her brutal honesty.

"That Kokoro and Mitsuru will soon be eliminated for wasting resources and for being potential threats to the internal stability of the Entity."

And while the two concerned were sitting in the corner looking lost, Eighty-Three was frozen in place out of shock. After all that joyful conversation with Fifty where hope had started to reappear, this was just a pure slap to the face.

"What… What do you mean?"

"Lethal injection. They load a needle full of chemicals, they inject them in their arm and five minutes later they are dead. As simple as that. Body bags and a trip to the incinerator are cheaper than funding useless training missions."

There was a strange feeling in her voice. The sort of calm that comes with someone that had become used to something after a long exposure.

"And it also means that we need to do something very soon," added Hiro who looking worriedly at Kokoro and Mitsuru. Being told the grim things you risk over and over again does not really help in those kinds of stressful scenarios. "Seeing their upcoming program, our time frame is of only a few days."

"But what if they actually succeed in bringing themselves back on their feet? Don't they have a chance that way?"

But before anyone else could have any opportunity to even think and be hopeful about it, Zero Two's head nod immediately brought everyone back down.

"No. If they received a warning, then it's already too late. Believe me I know what I am talking about."

"And why that? How are you so sure about everything you are saying?"

"Because I have seen it before… Pilots coming to see if they were able to fit with me, failing to do so and then suddenly disappearing before someone else took their place. When it happened for the fifth time, I finally started to look up what was happening. And situations were the same as this one."

This time, that statement was news for everyone, and they all turned their heads towards her, surprised and shocked, especially the other members of Squadron Thirteen. They had just assumed Zero Two had learned this recently through her own research, not that she had lived through this scenario before.

"So what do we do, then? You should know this as well, no?"

Miku could not sound anything else other than unsure. There was not much she could do alone anyway.

"Well if someone here has a plan, then we should execute it without waiting any longer." Zero Two turned her head back to Eighty-Three. "I imagine that you have something in mind after all your research."

"I do. And it should not be very complicated to put in place."

"And what is that plan?" Ichigo seemed unsure as well, but more out of caution than fear or doubt. "As of now, it is hard to see any kind of solution."

"Simple. We all get the hell out of here. We set up a distraction, and as stuff starts to go down you rush for one of the transport helicopters and you go away. Just got to make sure you smash the tracking equipment and they will not be able to follow us. Nothing too complicated."

"You want us to fly one of the transports? We have not been formed to do that. We will crash before we can even leave the facility."

Some head nodded, showing those that thought Goro had a point.

"We are able to pilot planes five times as large and as heavy, it should not be that hard. They have a stick, a dash with the same kind of dials than those we know, an engine… You get my point. And really, Mitsuru and Kokoro are the most in danger and they can't fly safely. I don't really see any other alternative on that end."

"And what about your own partners? They made quite the impression earlier today. Have you planned to put them in the loop?"

Ikuno's remark made Eighty-Three turn his her in a confused manner.

"Quite the impression? Did they do something?"

"Well it was a guy… How did she called him? Two-Seven? Ring any bells." Eighty-Three quickly nodded. "Well when we all came back from sortie, he showed up to… How to say it nicely? To try to get excuses out of Hiro by force."

This statement left him completely dumbfounded. Out of all the members of the squadron, Two-Seven might have been the easiest to unnerve, but something really bad must have happened to spark all of this. As further explanations came around, things started to make a bit more sense, but that event had happened, and now he had to deal with the consequences.

"I don't trust them," concluded Goro. "If we just talk to them about this, there's a risk they could blow everything up just in spite."

"Or because we are planning something that would act against the Entity…"

Out of everyone he knew, One-Ten was probably the one that followed the Entity doctrine the most. And with him as leader, every order had to be executed precisely, nothing asked by Papa was impossible and failure was unthinkable. It was not much of a stretch to imagine him running to Internal Safety to tell everything out of pure loyalty and devotion.

"Nobody outside this room must learn what we are doing or what we will do, under…"

"Actually…" Ichigo was cut short by Eighty-Three that had something else on his mind. "There is someone that I trust that I want to bring along for the ride. My copilot. She was down there with me after the crash, I carried her to extraction and I trust her. For now, she is in the dark about all of this."

Again, many seemed unsure about this.

"You trust her… but can we?"

"She trusts me. I know she will follow me if I do anything. Plus, a lone co-pilot in a wheel chair without her lifelong partner? It would be a pure death sentence for her. If you trust me, then you must trust her."

The silence that followed was long and heavy. All the pilots were in their thoughts, weighing the positives and the negatives and by running various scenarios in their head about how everything would probably finish. And it seemed that Zorome was the first one to reach a conclusion.

"Well debating who comes along is nice and all, but if we are going to get away from here. Where are we going to go?"

The question clearly did not fall on deaf ears as Eighty-Three turned his head towards Zorome with a small grin.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I know a place…"

Hello and thanks for reading the eighth chapter chapter of Discoveries.

Let's be honest, this chapter was mainly set up for what is next, but I feel like it would be misguided to rush things and go immediately to the action sequences and plot twists. I also feel like it's a good opportunity to develop the world a bit more by giving some small details here and there.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.