"All of you must prepare for the future, because not only we're about to enter a new age, but we must unite together as one, and face off a greater threat that's been long dormant for so long." That is what I exactly said towards mission control, once I looked at the surface, seeing faint lines of trailblazes coming from a cruise missile far from home. Not only that, but there are scores of explosions that rocked the Pacific Northwest, and Central America. But what did we actually do in making all this happen?

It was a tough question to ask about, now that we were about millions of miles away from the Earth overall. Moreover, I wasn't able to fully understand the truth about the war that was happing back home, since the last time the previous war occurred was weeks after the first war; and it was the defining moment that peace had fully returned between both worlds for the next 20 years or so. Fuck, man. I just wonder when all of this is coming to an end… *sigh* I just don't know why we have to be involved in such unnecessary wars that result in mass casualties along with their purposes as a whole…

Homecoming

Upon finishing my story and later returning to bed before midnight, I'd thought of something that's become such a rare oddity for such, as I remembered seeing some bleak images or so, picturing myself being with the same people that I met earlier fighting off against a greater threat that poised itself as a force to be reckoned with. I wasn't even sure if this premonition has to do something with the same people that I met. *sigh* I guess that it must've been an exhausting night for me, that I almost didn't sleep in overall.

I woke up about an hour before our guests would even arrive, as I made sure that everything was tidied up and was ready to take on a request that the pink-haired person aforementioned the previous afternoon. While mopping up the floor, overlooking at the Infinity being cloaked to blend itself from the environment, I heard a faint noise coming from the south, which gradually grew louder and landed about 10 meters away from the house, enough to blow the surrounding grass and other structures away from its radius.

By the time the helicopter had landed, it seemed as though, I would be expecting a welcoming committee, since it was literally the same crew that I briefly met before they took off. With all 8 of them leaving the helicopter, including the pilots themselves, I decided to become sarcastic at them, since they weren't aware that everybody except me was awake.

"Welcome, welcome!" I exclaimed to them, "It looks like you've awakened the entire house up!"

"Well, did we?" asked the medic.

Upon looking at her and the three others, I was stunned to find out that

"Wait! I thought you didn't work for any of the two that you talked about."

"Well, I didn't know that you'd be aware of this. How ya' guys doing?"

"Just had a quiet morning until the blades shook the whole house." I said to her. "What about our friend; is she going to make it alive?"

"Thankfully, she'll be making it out alive. She had some significant blood loss emanating from her brain and parts of her body. I'd say that she's already comatose at the moment. This is my squad commander. She'll be informing you about this little favor your friends had arranged with."

I looked at her pragmatic face while I heard the steps coming upstairs to discuss about our current state of affairs. She initially gave a keen look, analyzing some of the old patches that I wore during my time spent during the Joint Operation force, while the pink-haired woman maintained her distance away from the helicopter.

"Well then. You must be the same person that I met yesterday."

"You must be-."

"Journey, that's my call sign. My name's Rojas, warrant officer of the Escopian Global Ops team." She later paused for a moment and was able to look at way I was dressed, while I had my old helmet placed aside my right hip. She was reluctant at first, but later changed her mind and said, "You must be the Singularity, yes?"

"Yep." I replied before shaking her hand. "I'm Lieutenant Hawkins, former captain of the Type-3 crew."

"It must've been tough for you to lose a lot of your good friends, doing everything in your power to prevent the Federation in invading much of the homeland. Do you know by any chance that the Visitor's inside?"

"Like I said, you've awakened the entire house up, and they're gonna be whining about the engines of your helicopter making them piss on their apparels."

"Well, do give them my regards. Can my squad and I come in to your house?"

"This isn't a house, nor a cabin that used to host a ball or something, you know?"

"Hmph. Very funny. But maybe it could though, since this place's supposed to be some sort of fucking hotel or something."

"Well, hell if I know." She paused for a moment and looked at them. "Okay, then. Sergeant Artiaga, I need you to transmit the data Turk's sent to us now." *opens door and shows them our way into our room*

"Yeah, yeah…"

I opened the door so that they passed through, before I went upstairs to wake everybody up about them coming to see. Upon shaking a sleepy Visitor, he seemed to be unbothered by my shaking, since I was sure that he and Hana were night owl-ers, as I heard them doing their errands or play video games deep in the night amidst the serene woodlands that it brought.

I kept shaking him for about a minute or so before I gave up and instead went to Hana's bedroom after that. Upon quietly opening the rusty door, there was a foul smell that engulfed me and had to subsequently deal with it.

"Hey, Hana." I quietly mumbled to her while I was shaking her. "It's time to wake up."

I kept shaking her softly, since I was certain that overdoing it would make her instantly pissed off, before allowing herself to stretch for a moment and uncover herself from her blanket to take a shower in the midst of a windy morning.

"What time is it…?" she groggily asked while she was looking for her phone.

"It's seven in the morning." I replied before I looked at her pajamas and her drool she put all over her pillow before she grabbed her clothes and immediately went to the bathroom to take another quick, but warm shower.

"Where's the rest of the others?" she asked.

"Scientist's back at that base and near the beach town, gathering some more intel in regards to transmitting some of the files back to the Infinity."

"But I thought that the Infinity was destroyed!"

"Well so did I. But I wasn't aware that it'd be there. Now come on, and get ready."

"Yeah, yeah." Hana hastily replied before going in to the restroom.

I went downstairs to make some breakfast and prepare some coffee for the others to eat and drink, since it was going to be another day of work. Upon looking at a reluctant marine who was sitting besides the medic, he gave me a dismal look before I asked him about what he was thinking about.

"What's wrong?" I asked him while grabbing some food from the refrigerator.

"It's nothing," he replied. "It's just some things that I had to take care of, since we just came back from another mission last night."

"To where?"

"To tell you the truth, I actually forgot where we went. Only thing that I know is that we raided some fucking compound in the middle of nowhere that must've belonged to former members of the Federation or Atlas."

"Wait! You mean that the Federation's still-"?

"Relax. Look, nothing happened last night. It was just some documents that we uncovered shortly before this "Zero Point" or whatever the fuck it was called. Thankfully, they were just some asswipes claiming to be from either side, to tell you the truth."

"Well, Lieutenant," said Rojas while introducing me the other three that were sitting on the sofa, doing some wetwork in the process. "I forgot to introduce some of my team members! Let me introduce you to our rookie, Aritaga. He's a great kid, overall." *shows hand to the medic* "And this is Remedy. Her real name's Fukanaga." *shows hand at the man* "And finally, my best man: Turk. His real name's Davidson."

The three later gave out their greetings to me, while I was making scrambled eggs. However, out of all the three that she introduced, it seemed to me that there was something strange with Artiaga, since I couldn't tell if he was in a bad mood or so. I asked Journey, "Is there anything wrong with him?"

"No, it's just he's a bit agitated after we had to go over through some pranksters thought to have been affiliated with either factions you've defeated." She replied before she began to eavesdrop to reveal his true colors. "Between you and me, he's a good kid; but at the same time, he can be annoying to talk to, since I had to learn the hard way." She later moves away from me and out of everything she chose to say to him, it when she decided to mock him. "Isn't that right, Sergeant?"

"Fuck you." He grudgingly said to her, while I was in the kitchen, cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast. "The only reason why you're talking shit to me is 'cause of what I said to you about their commander or so, having an organized unit and-"

"Goddammit, not now, Sergeant!" Rojas grinned at him in a grotesque manner, while she tried to look away from him.

"If it ain't me, then it's gotta be someone else that's gotta take the blame out of all the others."

"What's between you and him?" I asked her while cooking the scrambled eggs and looked at the fridge for additional food.

"Well, it's a long story." She replied to me as she looked at the refrigerator, looking for sausage. "Why don't we say this. You really know how to cook, don't you?"

"I mean yeah. Besides, I've been tired all night long trying to get some sleep after what I've been through. If I were you, then give him space to breathe through."

"I have to agree on what she said, commander." He interrupted.

"If you want, we can talk about it someday." Said Rojas while looking at I was cooking.

I looked at her once more, thinking that she might do something stupid. Feeling that she may have to do with something else, I decided to not say a thing or two before things would head south once more.

"I appreciate that your generosity," she said while looking at the refrigerated food that was ready to be cooked, "Do you want me to finish this, while you wake up our friend? I'll make you some breakfast for everybody to eat. It's my special that we eat in Mexico."

"Sure. And what is it?"

"It's some chorizo."

"What?" I confusedly asked at her. "What the fuck's chorizo."

"It's literally pork sausage enclosed with a special case that can be mashed over to make it with some eggs you're making. I think that you must've been mistaken in buying the wrong thing; but since I know how to make some, then I find it to be a great solution to make, even if you hate eating pork and meat in the morning. If you want, I can teach you some lessons on how to cook it."

"You sure about that?"

"Once this thing's over, then yeah. For now, try and wake up the Visitor. I'll have to set aside the eggs and place some new ones so that I could put the chorizo on the pan.
"I'm on my way."

I went upstairs once again and to his bedroom, quietly tapping him in his helmet visor and whispering to him to wake up.
"Hey!" I whispered to him while I quietly tapped his forehead. "Your friend's here. If I were you, I'd say it'd be a good time to wake up right nowand talk to your friend."

He was reluctant to wake up, but it wasn't until that I had enough of his antics in trying to wake him up that I started violently shaking him and raised my voice to him to wake up and get ready.

"Uhhhh!" he moaned disgustedly. "I need some extra sleep."

"I'm sorry…" I replied sarcastically to him, "but your friends from EGO showed up, and they want you to be downstairs by now."

"You're not serious, are you?"

I grabbed him by each arm and shaked him while saying, "You son of a bitch! You think I'm playing around?!"

"I don't know what got you in this mood."

Moments after waking him up, I went downstairs and into the kitchen to check on the scrambled eggs and the chorizo that Rojas made, which made my stomach rumble and the food would attract my attention. By the time I sat at the kitchen table, Rojas served me the food that she made before the rest would come downstairs or return home after finishing up their routine.

About a minute or so, I was trying to savor some of the scrambled eggs that was covered with chorizo and some tortillas aside. I know that I've never liked nor tried to eat any of that stuff, but asked her if this was her daily.

"I know every detail on how to make chorizo with eggs," she replied while cooking, "I remember my mama making it for us once my brother and I came home from school." *deep sigh and later smiles* "Yep, those were the good times…"

"What happened to your family?" I asked her.

"I don't know anything about my little Luis, but my mother's fine," she replied before she gave out a sigh and started feeling a bit sad. "I don't where he's at right now. I fear that he's been long dead. You knew about the Federation, right?"

"Yeah. A friend of mine said that her father knew about the man himself."

"Who? Captain Ramirez?"

"You mean Roxanne?"

"Oh, her… I didn't know that you've met each other in person. She's with me right now. If you want, I can bring her over and let you guys chat while we sort this out."

"It's okay." I looked at the food once again, and ripped off a part of the tortilla to try the pork sausage mixed with the scrambled eggs. Upon having my first taste, it initially felt an awkward sensation, since it tasted a bit sour but it was soft enough, that my taste buds were able to adjust itself and tasted delicious. I ate the rest of the mixed food and decided to grab another at full hand, while Hana exited and gave an awry look at the both of us while standing next to me.

While I was waiting for him to return back, I started to think about the baby Cattus once more, since the last time I saw the baby was when he being taken care of by one of the Sentinels onboard the capital ship. I was poignant enough to ask her, "You said that you were onboard the Infinity with us when it all happened, right?" all the while she was cooking.

"Okay… I don't where you're getting me into. If anything, I wasn't supporting the Federation at the time, since EGO's an independent organization that stemmed off from the government itself shortly before you had to deal with it." *looks at me* "What are trying to do?"

"Nothing." *suddenly becomes nervous at her* "Th-there's nothing wrong about what you did back there. I just wanted to ask you if you've seen this before."

I showed her a picture of the baby shortly after I finished with the breakfast she prepared, with the others sitting in the sofa, doing some work on the computer, or just doing something else. It took about a while to waits for a response from her, while the Visitor and Scientist returned from doing their errands.

I continued looking towards her, before she was able to give out a response.

"Oh, this. I've just seen him this morning."

"Really? Then obviously, you must know about-"

"The fact that this thing's supposed to be the last of the Devourer, huh?" *keeps looking at the picture and later puts it aside* "About the way it's supposed to be named, I feel that Cattus doesn't fit well, since he's supposed to look a lot like a cat, then?"

"That thing is supposed to be the Devourer's son?"

"Quite frankly, yes. Now obviously, it wasn't me that named Cattus as the Devourer; but I do feel that it's a bit off." *looks at the Visitor while preparing to eat breakfast* "Well, then? Shall we get started with the briefing?"

"Sure thing." He nodded.

"All right, then. Jennifer, let Hana and the Scientist know that they'd like to see them and have them talk."

"I'm on it." I went upstairs to tell them the exact things the Visitor said. While Hana finished checking up on herself and the Scientist uncovering additional papers that they found yesterday, I remained stoked over the choices I was making, since I began having a grudge with the Visitor over what he said to us, as I walked downstairs with them and wondered if all this was going to end…

30 minutes later…

I waited for the rest of the others having breakfast, while I was inside my room surveilling some documents belonging to a foreign organization that was left behind. In one of the documents covering some classified information about the organization, I was intrigued by the absolute secrecy that it talked about, since it covered a new type of weapon thought to be an entirely radical concept. I kept reading about the experiment, but I started to become stoic by the time I realized the classified documents must've belonged to the Federation, since it dated back towards the 1990s.

I wasn't sure if this must've belonged to one of Rojas's men, but I eventually learned that this program was thought to have been Orchard all along, since I remembered one of the scientists, Dr. Yanez, I believe, talking about the project back during its hayday. It must've been so long for the entire format to be exposed entirely. But at the same time, I was worried enough about our fate of this new land, as I started to become suspicious and felt that I needed to closely monitor what these guys may be planning on doing.

In order to do so, I used an image scanner to upload the entire document format while the others were eating, including those that were onboard the helicopter and placed it all in a hard drive enclosed in my visor helmet and concealed it as a whole, before she came in knocking on the door, stating that it was time…

With one of the crew members escorting me downstairs to where the meeting occurred, I remained stoic about the whole thing, as I aforementioned earlier about what I said. But with everything that was about to unfold, I soon found out that I had to put my ambitions on hold and find out about their true intentions before it was too late.

"What's the current situation?" asked the Visitor, while he was sipping some tea.

"Nothing much," Rojas hastily replied. She later shows us some pictures and the UAV feed that was gathered a few days earlier via her laptop. "I was a click west from where the meeting was happening. Thankfully, my fellow agent Turk was able to gather as much intel as needed." She later closes her laptop and looks at her hand to remove a microchip that came imbedded in her gloves before installing it into her goggles to display the data on the wall.

I was amazed by how her goggles were able to display all of the exact on a small accessory; and with these stark innovations, I'm certain that we may be living in the future after all, because of how high-tech our bodies are starting to become. God knows what he may put on hold to us. Maybe we may have all the information right on our fucking brains, and make it seem that much of our bodies have been integrated with cybernetic augmentation.

"This here, is Steamy Stacks. Now I know it's been around before I was born; but one thing that stoked me here the most was how our engineers safely processed a new type of energy originally emitted from the Six-Sider. If I do recall, this power plant was nuclear-based; but for safety reasons, it had to be temporarily closed due to arising fears that it could've faced a nuclear meltdown, should a natural disaster occur at any time…"

"Right, but are you sure that it's sustainable? And if so, then are you sure that it will not cause a meltdown?" I asked her.

"Geez, how many questions can I answer?" she replied. "According to them, they were able to research some of its sample cells gathered upon the aftermath of the Nexus phenomenon. Which means-"

"It happened some 30-35 years ago, according to one of my commanding officers," interrupted Hana, while Rojas was amazed as to when it occurred. "according to my captain, she states that the Nexus phenomenon took place around the time the new century had started. It was thought that this occurred about 31 kilometers southwest from Busan."

"What? You mean there was another phenomenon taking place over there?!" I asked in shock, while I looked across the room to find that none of them didn't give a fuck…

"Pretty much." *looks at me before closing her eyes and hugs herself*

"But… but how didn't the… how didn't the UN become aware of it?"

"The UN and the ACD (Asia Cooperation Dialogue) subsequently knew that this was going to happen, since there were multiple Nexus phenomena that occurred over remote parts of the Eurasian continent," commented Hana before showing us an old document containing information about that said event, "And because of this, an agreement was made between all organizations in secret that in case a Nexus phenomenon should ever take place, then it was certain that the world's nations would have to cooperate in building a prosperous world."

"Wait, how do you know about this?" asked Rojas while reading some of her agent files obtained from an older flash drive.

"I've been living over there for nearly 20 years or so, but I wasn't able to live through all of it, since I was born 20 years after this happened." Upon pausing for a moment, Hana showed to us a picture showing Gwishin at the time we faced off the Federation.

"What you are looking at are what was left of Gwishin, a product of the Initiative, a government project launched by my government to build state of the art technologies thought to have never been useful. And with that, it was capable of self-producing omnics capable of aerial combat with manned and unmanned weaponry."

"Now that you're talking about Gwishin, uh, Hana, would you try and be specific about the omnics, first of all?" asked Journey.

"I'm getting there," Hana replied to her, "The omnics that I engaged during the skirmish in Busan contained a miniature warhead yielding Federation-spec chemicals that I didn't even thought of, since I was initially skeptical that it must've come from one of our nearby countries or Talon, which I believe they were allied with the Federation."

"If so, then how did you know that it was them?"

"I wasn't aware about the Federation trying to gain their influence here on Earth," *points her hand at the Visitor* "…but it was them that told me about the Federation and Atlas in the first place." Hana later places both of her hands in the table, while trying to recollect some of the additional details that came to her mind, while I patiently sat there, thinking about what she was going to say.

"Back to what I was saying" I said to her, "Are you sure that one of your agents or recon assets are dealing with this? Because if so, does that mean that we'll be facing up a scenario containing specs similar to Orchard during the first war?"

"Currently, we're on top of this situation at this moment," she replied. "I may ask you to join us on a mission at the request of our commander callsign: Midas. Not only do we need you to infiltrate the facility inside, but we also need to confirm whether or not, ATLER has the means in mobilizing their troops and immediately launch a preemptive strike against our fleet scattered across the continent."

"And if we don't?"

"It's only a matter of time right now that we deal with this now, or tensions are going to escalate and it may intensify into an all-out war." Rojas turned her holographic display back on and showed to us their maps of the power plant and caches of canisters containing napalm or the new weapon alone, followed by a number of transporters and tactical vehicles patrolling the munitions plant.

"Are you sure that's all the information that you have at the moment?" I asked her anxiously while looking directly at the large display screen, "Because if that's all that you have at the moment, then already, ALTER will be planning on mobilizing their forces in no time."

"So, then? Will that be a yes?"

I anxiously nodded for a moment while looking at the others being impatient about being here for nearly an hour or so, waiting to get a response back. I stood up and went to get some fresh air before seeing the Visitor come right besides me as the morning breeze had begun to fade away in favor of a storm starting to brew immediately deep in the south. I kept staring at the forest nearby along with the storm moving close to where we were.

While I was looking at the balcony, the Visitor started chanting or mumbling about something that must've him, since I wasn't fully aware of his past except for the roles he played in those three wars that occurred. I somehow felt a bit weird seeing him go through this, but this must've been related to all the approaches he made, since I felt that much of the choices that we've went through must've engulfed him. I felt bad trying to look away from him, but I still had my tempers from yesterday, since I didn't know about our new enemies that we made; and I had to be sure I made the right decision, otherwise those same allies that we've fought alongside could turn their backs on us.

I looked at him once again, thinking about the entire thing going smooth before I patted him in the back and asked him, "Are you sure you're making the right choice? Because I don't want a repeat of what happened when Atlas betrayed us for disobeying orders."

"I understand, Captain," he replied, "But it's not how should work. I made that deal with her and told them about us not being caught in the middle of the crossfire."

"Honestly, I don't anything else to happen to you. But this is about the fate of the people that lived under oppression of any faction that gained control over a specified area. And I feel that whatever choice you're making, I only want to save those that have been oppressed, not those that are in favor of working for the enemy."

"Thank you for your concern. I'll do my best to not lose as many comrades as we possibly can, because if we do, then I can make the other lives easier by being a complete idiot and actually sacrifice myself to join the others for my valiant effort." *looks at EGO insignia at the helicopter* "I feel that it's important to join them and stop this madness from ensuing."

"Then it means we'll start actually fighting off ALTER? Not EGO? As I said, it's your choice in joining them or the others."

"It seems so," he says while looking at the darkness starting to thicken over the crisp forest in the background, "We'll have to join them overall, and check to see that they're really our allies, since I think they may be looking over the document that was left on the desk yesterday."

"Right. But I have the real one in my hard drive enclosed in my helmet," I said, "We just need to make sure that they won't be doing anything else stupid besides dealing with the threat we'll be dealing with in the future."

"Whatever it is, Captain, I thank you for sticking with me through the direst of times. Now let's head downstairs and accept the request."

By the time we made it back to the meeting room, I could only find a more reserved Journey waiting for the request to join us before seeing the others starting to board the helicopters outside. I had the urge of not joining, but given that I had to deal with this one last time, then I had to do it for the sake that Hana and the others would survive, since I wasn't sure about where the rest of our Sentinels were at the moment.

"What do you say?" she asked at us.

"We'll be willing to join you on this mission," I replied, "but on one condition. If this turns out to be a trap for us, then know this: we'll have no other choice but to withdraw in the future and place you on NATO's watchlist. You can count on that."

"Very well. I shall fulfill that deed in being truthful to our knowledge and know that we shall not break that promise you made. Now my men are boarding the helicopter and are waiting for me to get onboard. I only ask of you to join us and brief you over the situation more while we get to our GHQ."