Chapter 15: Desolation of New Hope

19:27; 24th June; 1648; Testament Era

Tyrus – New Hope Research Facility – Parking Lot

Amidst the chaos following the launch of their ambush, the tall lean figure that is a hideous creature among a sea of ugly trod into view, like its kin utterly undaunted by the presence of armed airships among the hostiles as it rose to its full considerable height and let out a deafening scream that to its heel called a small swarm of previously lethargic Tickers from hiding and sent them into a frenzied charge.

Its call to fight, to do battle, to slaughter, however, did not end. It continued to rally the forces around it to push against the pathetic force trying to defend against them. But in the middle of this cacophony there was one who decided to voice displeasure in the most direct of terms.

The Kantus' cry ended mid-syllable as the upper half of its head abruptly popped into a dispersing rain of blood and gore to the chagrin of nearby combatants. Its pets however showed no sign of distress at their master's abrupt demise.

Pad watched with satisfaction as the now head-less corpse sagged and fell with a satisfying thud, and he chambered another bullet into his sniper rifle to choose his next target, the only cause of worry being the encroaching swarm of tickers, each with a small Imulsion-based bomb strapped to their backs – several of which were already shot and stopped, first by how unnerving is the sense of being so senselessly charged, followed by a total focus of all riflemen facing their way as these fallen creatures detonated with startling force.

"Don't let those tickers get up close!" he cried at the mass of students who at the very start of the engagement had immediately and inexplicably collapsed into a miniature and slightly disjointed Tercio formation. In old times the formation of one required hundreds to several thousand men to form, these people tried to make a facsimile of it with a mere twenty it became abundantly clear he needed to take part in. Ten of them focused on the maintenance of protective blessings while the riflemen took potshots from behind these.

Pad was no fan. The shields are great, but only the Halcón's overwhelming presence above them dissuaded the locust from the idea of going close enough to pelt their packed and pinned position with grenades. It and the orbiting sister ships were for the moment all too occupied with the number of Reavers streaking through the skies trying to harm the frigates as much as possible, too fast for the turrets to reliably track.

Two times prior to the ticker charge had the locust tried to get up close, only to provoke the attention of the nearest airship's lower turret that made a mockery of their thick hides in a firestorm of ether-charged ordnance. Now they mostly kept at range, as much a blessing as could be hoped for.

Soon the last ticker had been taken out, and the riflemen could focus once more on the more distant infantry. Pad took a look through the scope and shook his head at the lack of results, and disengaged briefly to traverse their line, barking at them like a drill sergeant, "Focus your goddamn aim!" and for emphasis came up between two riflemen, raised his weapon, lined up a single drone that just poked out of cover to shoot back, and blew its brain out with the gentle squeeze of a trigger. "If we are going to get out of here without them putting more guys on our collective asses for the rest of our fucking trip," Pad continued to holler over the continued firefight, "you kill all them buggers before they get the idea to fall back!"

Several nearby students looked to him, briefly stunned, and complied. The Locust aptitude for psychological warfare had made them rather skittish, and it affected their combat performance. The lone student amongst them who groaned in pain while bleeding like a stuck pig right where a couple of rounds had town into his shoulder did not help too much either. "And get that wound treated soldier!" he shouted sternly at the girl who was desperately busy trying to stop the blood flow. Of all the things they missed on the ground it just had to be a medic.

Shit... Pad thought angrily at the precarious situation, but did not get any time at all to elaborate on it as a shrill cry pierced the air and made him automatically look up at what he already knew to be an ambitious Reaver as it descended close to the ground and darted along it – with every intention of either landing on their formation or strafe. Are you freaking kidding me?!

"Reaver!" he raised his voice again harshly and pointed out the tentacled monstrosity coming at them as he re-shouldered his weapon, trying to get a bead on the rider. "Everyone, shoot it! Frag the bastard!"

The weapon kicked his shoulder as a bullet was discharged and the rider lost an arm at the shoulder, but was helped as all ten riflemen lined up shots and let loose a withering barrage that punched through the creature's hide everywhere the rider wasn't. It annoyed him that the 'muskets' are entirely semi-automatic, with a firing rate not nearly that of even old Lancer variants, but the quantity of rounds from ten of them produced the desired result as the Reaver shuddered from the injuries and finally crashed, came haphazardly to a stop, and was finally put out of its mercy by a well-placed round from the Halcón - not about to trust it to stay down.

And three more down, Pad counted the gunner in the equation. He did not know how many remained as he redirected the riflemen back to dealing with the previous objects of attention, but they got to be feeling the strain by now.

Especially as a series of explosions rocked the facility's interior and sent plumes of fire and smoke billowing into the air – most likely caused by a still active Gin. Pad did not at all feel sorry for whatever were forced to face her.

"Keep at it, and look out for boomers!" he shouted while reassuming firing position, and took the head off yet another unfortunate drone, his many years of experience put to good use. "If you see one, put it down like a bad hangover!"

"What the hell's a boomer?" a student sniggered at the apparent onomatopoeia, until a deep baritone voice shouted in child-like glee from the other side as a walking tower of flesh stomped into view, chortling even as a couple of neon-blue shots landed on its bulky frame.

"Boom!"

Pad did not have to point, "That."

"Oh..."

19:31; 24th June; 1648; Testament Era

Tyrus – New Hope Research Facility – Sire Storage

One could admit it readily, the locust were entrenched to decimate any foe stupid enough to amble into this section of the facility. The hard points established here were well-suited for the killing of any victim that get stuck between it and the ambush forces outside. And given the close quarters and the layered defense, just in case, most battles would end in a bloodbath.

It was well fortified, backed up by a full menagerie of monstrosities dedicated to the craft of murder. They were armed, aware, alert, ready for anything.

Correct it is to say, they were prepared for any enemy... except for the wife of Muneshige.

And the group of drones within the laboratory's control room were the first to learn why. Within it most of the computers had been torn away and replaced by a barricade made of overturned furniture, the remains of what used to be stasis pods and a single troika more than able to mow down anyone who appear in the doorway – a lethal place to be in any form of urban environment.

None of those details were known to the group, but all the noise that way carried the harsh implication of what might happen if they follow the path like proper prey.

Gin did not bother meet their expectations, "Arcabuz Cruz." and blasted to rubble the wall between them and the corridor that led to said control room, a barrage of artillery-scale rounds that as a logical consequence made parts of the ceiling collapse under the strain, but not before she pelted the wall beyond. What was left of the garrisoned force inside the control room after the inevitable shower of shrapnel made of what used to be a perfectly serviceable wall and three stasis tanks, were violently blown away with the prompt arrival of another round. She did not expect there to be anything left at that location, but was grimly disappointed with how the cries she and her squad heard did not diminish at all – at most they turned more subdued, startled by the what happened to their first line of defense.

"Men. Rearguard." the woman ordered tersely, and barely waited for confirmation as she stalked onward with indomitable intent, climbing over all manner of rubble as she made her way into the now very desolated room, covered in a thick cloud of soot and dust that offered a few mere feet of visibility. Visibility she momentarily wished was absent considering how the floor up to the far wall was coated with remains too pulped to resemble anything but mounds of pulped flesh.

Her attention was drawn to the sundered windows to her right, beyond which lay a large chamber full of additional rows of stasis tanks. There was no telling how many there are. And unfortunately, she did not have much time to ponder as the ceiling creaked dangerously. It was about time to move on.

Gin was about to give Takashi the order to form up on her when something stomped in. A monster which silhouette was too close to one of those things in the stasis tanks for comfort. It spotted her and gave a gargled cry as it rushed unhesitatingly.

In matters of pure physical strength, it would likely be a match for her. But its charge was ungainly and lacked finesse, most likely hindered by its plethora of physical deformity. Disgust played briefly down her spine as the hideousness of the creature was somehow made worse in motion than stillness, but was quickly displaced by impassioned confidence in her ability to deal with the monstrosity. Gin twirled around with acceleration system active and ran it through the gut on a pair of her twin swords before the beast could get its foul claws on her.

That should have been it. But instead of slumping over into its demise, it rose, clawed at, and grabbed the applied arm in a vice while its maw flew wide open and screamed what was probably meant as a taunt bathed in a shower of spittle.

Gin muttered an oath in flat disgust and brought her other arm and its blades into play, bisecting the creature in one clean swipe. It only had enough air left to let out a shrill gasp before it let go and crumpled lifelessly.

In distaste she retracted her blades from the newly made corpse and considered cleaning the blood off when the screams renewed, both in the chamber below and beyond at such a volume that the woman momentarily flinched, just enough time for a bloated little beast that sounded distinctly like a ticking clock to charge in and rush past her.

Not having seen her in this deluge of dust, it simply dashed on through, toward Takashi's group, only to explode at a safe distance between them as the bomb on its back finished its countdown, and brought the ceiling down with it.

Gin acted fast as the demolition quickly expanded in scope and made it all come crashing, and launched herself out the window, down into the chamber beyond, landed atop a stasis tank, hopped onto the floor, and crouched with prosthetic arms covering her head – thumbs articulated to cover her ears till it was over.

"It would seem..." she frowned at the minute detail of being cut completely off from her only backup in here, "... I need to make a deeper inquiry when this is over..."

"My lady!" Takashi's voice came via divine correspondence, his face an almost invisible outline in that deluge on his end, "Are you alright?!"

"Yes. I am fine." Gin shrugged and stood to look warily around this now darker place as what little light previously existed lessened, "Your status?"

"Got one casualty. Nothing serious, but we cannot proceed!"

"Tes. Hunker down and hold position for now."

"Hominid!" shouted a distant voice like it tried to gargle rocks.

"What was that?" the Corporal asked.

"Company." Gin replied as she looked at where it came from, only to get yelled at by a wretch as it tried to pounce on her from behind, only to get its head impaled through a quickly drawn blade, "Honestly." Unfazed by the swift demise, two more jumped at her, this time from above. Gin accelerated herself from the impaled creature and in a quick spin and flash of swords did to them what he once subjected the then unfortunate Francis Drake to before she fell back and left the creatures to bleed out on the ground.

Cruel perhaps, but time is too valuable a commodity to waste.

No further word given to the Corporal, she closed the sign frame and moved on through the chamber. With all the soot and dust coming from upstairs, the place had gotten an almost ghostlike quality to it, and was not helped as stasis tanks broke from further arrivals. Wretches and those deformed beasts came in equal measure as if summoned from hidden places in any direction. Both cannons were placed over one another and used to bar advances from behind in one direction while exercising her brand of violence in any other more manageable direction.

With a cruel backhand she crushed a wretch into the remains of a tank and disemboweled another, each left in her wake in all promptness. And as the number of encounters grew, it became all too obvious to her that the Locust probably established holding pens or dug small tunnels which they could covertly release these creatures through to harry an unsuspecting enemy.

As it stood, Gin continued her relentless advance, her prosthetic arms and clothes quickly covered with blood as she slaughtered her way through the brutish creatures. Years of her life had been laid down to master all manner of weaponry. Compared to most battle oriented name inheritors, these beasts were no more than lesser thugs. Only the deformed creatures slowed her down, if only because of their incredible capacity to ignore injury and keep coming – no amount of blood loss seemed to hinder them all that much, like they were marionettes dancing to the tune of an unseen hand. She had to double back twice to make sure they would not get up again – preferably by the removal of their misshapen heads.

"Those are... priceless specimen..." the AI squawked in protestation at the killings, "Genetic bridge... to our future!"

"What are these creatures?" Gin asked as another came at her, spittle flying from its maw as it howled. She stabbed through its chest with all four blades, twisted, and sliced them free. Overwhelmed by the whole sensation of being cut to pieces, it fell limply – instantly dead. A deed that earned her another distasteful scoff from the program.

"Sires... of course..." it growled, "Killing them will...consequences... most dire."

Finally, she cleared the rows and came to a stop before a wide and heavy door that opened as though it sensed her coming.

"Dire... consequences."

Gin understood the meaning, and crouched with arms arrayed in front of her, just in time as she was pummeled by the next Locust hard point. A barricade complete with three turrets and two massive figures armed with heavy machine guns peppered her with rounds that would have rendered an unprotected human being into chunks of salsa in an instant.

Believing that her unusual wall made of prosthetic limbs would give away if they kept up the barrage, that she would finally exhaust herself after having fought all those beasts they released, the scaly creatures chuckled darkly. Amused as they expectantly awaited her imminent bloody death.

Complicating her situation further, additional wretches gathered along the sides. They stalked amongst the tanks and paths, awaiting her brutal demise likely so they could finally do what the earlier beasts could not do and close in to feast on whatever is left.

None of them had seen the weapons with which she demolished a whole section of their defenses though... those were ready but idle. And with a flick of a finger they uncrossed from where they previously hovered and arrayed themselves at her sides – to the momentary puzzlement of the Locust, till an especially tall creature with a wide maw apparently comprehended and yelled for the massive brutes to redirect their fire.

But too late.

"Arcabuz Cruz." Gin directed, and the fortified position was borderline disintegrated as the weapon system opened fired. Freed from the compromising position, she flipped the guns around and accelerated into the next chamber.

Enraged and too excited to stop, the wretches swarmed in after her. Or at least they did until she without looking blasted the wall over that door and brought it all down on them. Gin hoped to clear this chamber without incident, but that was not to be.

Apparently understanding now that just sitting back would put them at the mercy of her heavy guns, every other passage were opened and spilled into the place a stream of troops that immediately fanned out to surround her.

"For Queen!" many of them cried, and gunfire subsequently filled every space at shoulder-height.

Gin made a running leap onto one of the tanks, spread the cannons wide and dealt a round to the closest passage that immediately turned it inside out to the detriment of those closest to the carnage, and another to a batch of the gun-toting beasts trying to get in behind her.

And doing so, the chamber was wreathed in a steadily growing haze of fire and smoke that she was about to deliver herself onto another stasis tank when a booming "Grind!" was called, followed by the perforation of six pods, including the one under her feet, and threw the woman off-balance into the newly made mess of shattered glass in which several shards dug painfully into her legs.

Pained, harried and with injuries piling up, Gin decided that enough was enough. Threatened with death and patience drained, the woman finally threw all caution to the wind. Only the utter obliteration of her immediate surroundings would mend her situation.

By Tsirhc, it would have to do.

Thinking her weakened, the Locust closed in from all sides, weapons arrayed. They however halted when the air above her shimmered, and two cannons even more massive than those already out were drawn into the physical world.

From her position on her knees amidst the broken tanks, Gin arrayed her arsenal to face in each their cardinal direction – the great barrels of the newly summoned cannons doing their part to spook the creatures that surged in to deal a killing blow. The woman momentarily forgotten, all of them opened fire at once with an assortment of Hammerbursts, salvaged Lancers, Gnashers, Mulchers and Boltoks in a fevered attempt to destroy her ominously hovering weapons – growing more desperate as each weapon lit up from within.

Gin bit, "Quatro Cruz!"

And for a single instant, outside her circle of armaments there was nothing but light, noise and death.

19:35; 24th June; 1648; Testament Era

Kashkuri Highlands – Anvil Gate

Juana burst into Felipe's office like a projectile after she and Katakane who followed up from right behind her were pinged by the Chancellor via Chat message. The sudden following dash through several uneven streets left her legs aching a little, pain largely ignored as she did the presentation, "Chancellor. Vice-President and Vice-Chancellor accounted for." Much to her chagrin it came with a few pants, but her subsequent question thankfully proved fully coherent; "Has something happened?!"

"Come, sit." Felipe ordered from what has become his usual spot behind the desk, his expression a solemn frown distinct from his normally kind mannerism, "We got a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Katakane inquired as he and she sat.

"Gin's Scout Fleet has come under attack." the Chancellor opened several frames that put on display a scene of chaos. Images of all three frigates scorched from several hits – one of them close to the ground retrieving beleaguered troops carrying with them several apparent wounded whilst assailed by an assortment of... creatures. Juana had to restrain herself to not show abject revulsion as more precise pictures of the various monsters were provided. Though anthropoid, their appearance were like a caricature of the form, disturbing and menacing to a point even archdemons could never hope to compete. Felipe continued, "By the Locust."

"So those are Locust huh?" Katakane muttered, his distaste quickly gone in favor of a more analytical countenance.

"Indeed. Tried to contact Pad and Gin before I called for you, only to find they were in combat and unable to reply." the bespectacled man replied, "They went there in pursuit of their objective, but found all the Stranded who were supposed to be there dead... along with a sizable ambush force."

"Is there any reason why the frigates haven't initiated a bombardment yet?"

"Until now they have been busy protecting themselves and ground forces from an aerial assault." Felipe put on display another image, one of a hideous flying creature with two riders on its back pelting the nearest frigate with grenades while it and other ships tried to shoot it down. "There are fewer of those now, but in retrospect... we should have assigned a God of War for escort."

"Hindsight's a lousy mistress." Katakane shrugged, and blinked.

They all did so.

All of a sudden, a giant plume of fire exploded from the facility's heart, tendrils of it rapidly spreading to other sections, setting them on fire. And as though triggered by what happened, several points along the sides collapsed and let out a tidal wave of creatures that defied all description. Bastardizations of life so deformed that one would wonder how they could even function, each of them with more than a dozen torn tubes protruding from their backs. Many of them simply dispersed into the woods, but many more still charged like madmen at either Locust or the Tres Españian troops still evacuating.

So many carpeted the grounds that the locust were overrun shortly. A hefty price were paid, but no amount of weapons available could stop that flood, especially as many of those abominations fell, only to get up again like their wounds meant nothing.

"Er... they don't really seem to be much in league... do they?" the Vice-Chancellor commented on the proceedings.

"In league?" Juana voiced in disbelief as several brought a huge and heavily armed creature down and swarmed to tear apart and devour it, "I see rabid beasts there, and nothing more."

Finally, the one frame of two that seemed unresponsive switched over to Pad's worn face as he came to lean on a bulkhead as the last students were brought on board behind him so the hatch could be closed, "Present and accounted for." the native man coughed as he wiped sweat off his tattooed cheek, "One hell of a day... and it just can't stop getting worse."

"A real tragedy." Felipe sighed in lament, "Where is Gin?"

"Woman's inside the facility with four men." Pad said grimly, "She found what was left of the Stranded who came here. And now that hell of a fire down there... what in the world just happened in there?"

"Quatro Cruz is the reason for it I suppose." Juana spoke her mind.

"Quatro what?"

"Gin's most powerful artillery array, reserved for heavy combat..."

Pad punched the bulkhead, "Shit, I should have gone in there with her."

"No use for self-admonishments." Felipe waved, "Clean up the sky and prepare to extract them at first moment possible."

"Aye. On our way!" he turned to yell down the hall as the connection terminated, "Get your asses off the floor! To the upper deck, now!"

And left Juana and the others to watch in silence until Felipe broke it with a sigh, "Given what has happened, let's make sure to close the gap in their defenses post haste. Can I leave it to you to dispatch the necessary package, Katakane?"

"Tes." the Vice-Chancellor smirked with a thumb up in a sporty fashion, "Leave it to me."

19:39 – 14 A.E.

Tyrus – New Hope Research Facility – Sire Storage

What just happened was unthinkable, and its consequences unimaginable. The obliteration across such a wide area in that fourfold blast ruptured containment and allowed the Sires trapped within the facility's sub-levels to escape and run rampant.

But even more than that was the shock of the massive firepower boasted by the female that lead to it. They thought of her as little more than a gnat, just slightly more troublesome than the other humans slaughtered in this place since the garrison was established.

Until the female proved just how wrong they were.

And it was not just her, but all the others she arrived with. The airships were a surprise, but otherwise they seemed to be no more than humans with ridiculously colored armor. Oddity aside, confidence was high that they could handle these with no more than a little greater bit of difficulty than the barely organized throng before. But the humans had held them back until the Sires broke out, and their airships proved sturdier than expected.

Now all that mattered was to get the word out as four survivors of the debacle within the Sire storage dashed into the AI Core room where all their communication gear lay. The extremely distorted face of Niles' glowered from every functional screen, every one of them flatly ignored as one drone detached from the rest and rushed to the transmitter at the behest of their surviving kantus that shrieked and gesticulated with all of the due urgency this emergency required.

To either side of the wide door they entered, the remaining two drones hurried as much as possible to close the shutter.

With all the chaos outside, the space filled with rioting Sires, they thought the female in red might have finally died off in the blast's wake. And with the shutter soon half-closed without incident, safety was thought as assured.

So the surprise was absolute when a mass of red clothes and pale flesh saturated with black-red blood swept in, and before the drone at their transmitter could properly focus on what just attacked them watched with a strange nonchalance as its two comrades at the door had their heads lopped off in a flash of spinning blades that glinted as they passed purposefully through the air. And the kantus had its head smashed into the wall by the print of armored boot to its face before another cry could be uttered - brought about by the momentum of her arrival.

All three corpses simply stood there dumbly as though they had no idea they were dead yet before they finally sank bonelessly. And between the corpses, the very same human being stood, impassively glaring at the remaining locust.

It reacted all too late, and reached for the Hammerburst it had put aside to use the transmitter. To pick it up and pop off a shot at her. It was a sound move, but it was simply too slow to act. With a strange light at the human's heels, she closed the gap in nearly an instant.

And the drone abruptly found its head tilted as a bizarre angle, barely noticing it had just been decapitated as its gaze span across the room. Unable to put even a grunt on the event as darkness set in, mercifully before its head met the nearest surface.

19:40; 24th June; 1648; Testament Era

Tyrus – New Hope Research Facility – AI Core

Even as the last apparent locust at the location fell limply away a head less, silence simply refused to settle as another quartet of enemies, this time of those so-called 'Sires' swept through the half-closed shutters and charged her rabidly, their powerful but haphazardly misshaped limbs swinging almost as wildly as the dozens of tubes that protruded from of their hunched backs.

In this narrow space that much more favored her rather than the bulky creatures. What they lacked in skill was made up by their brute strength, and ridiculous resistance to pain. Neither of which would avail them as she span and cut the first in clean halves - to its everlasting but brief detriment. Even soaked in globules of foul-smelling blood, her swords had not yet lost their edge, though it helped her keep the edge as she span the blades like twin rotary saws.

And now that the battle had begun to wind down, Gin started to reflect on a particular aspect that all these strains of monsters she so far fought had in common. Every time she landed an attack in melee, it slowed by a fraction as it met the hide. Whether Locust, their pets, or Sires, their hides were universally thick and tough. Almost rock-like. No doubt a regular would be hard pressed to even injure them with the standard issue combat knife.

She had no such difficulty, if only because of her powerful prosthetic arms and the blades made to withstand the force those could put out.

Still, a little caution was warranted. So each time she delivered a blow, it was dealt at a proper angle to ensure penetration.

Even without doing that, it was only a matter of time before the remaining three Sires were rendered dead before her, cut into more pieces than even their extreme tolerance could withstand. And with a distasteful look, she walked past the bodies and closed the shutter to keep more from pouring in, and then looked to the room itself.

It included what looked like a crude transmitter. Lit, but inactive.

She idly grabbed it as she strode past and tightened the grip enough to smash it into pieces - ensuring no surviving locust could use it to report back. Whatever leader that leads these creatures would not know anything's amiss at this location. By which time it found out, they would hopefully be far away.

"Failure... No one were... supposed to disturb... the Sires' rest!" the AI cried despondently.

Gin shook her head at it and traversed to exit the room when she found a massive computer sitting deep in a recess of its own, with a mess of cables that led high into the walls. It coughed, heaved and groaned with effort to keep functioning. Sounding like some dying animal. All the surrounding screens implied as to its purpose.

In the middle of it lay a single button, with another of those screens so all-present throughout this miserable place above it. The AI stared at her from it, "All we wanted... was to build... a better future."

"With such subjects, I would question the veracity of that." Gin said pointedly as she came to stand in front of the barely functional machine, staring at its blurry face, "But as it were, the world has gone down under, and the staff that made you will most likely never return."

Static belched from its speakers, uncomprehending.

"So rather than gripe over an inevitable failure, decide instead on your next course of action – if you are capable."

Slowly, some coherence seemed to come and its image froze stiff – processing her words like an awkwardly hesitant human being would. At length the AI simply stared before it finally answered, "If... for any reason... project suffer operational failure... all information... must be compiled... and surrendered to proper authorities."

"And who would that be?"

The AI seemed to blink, "Chairman... Monroe."

"Chairman of the COG?"

"... Yes."

"Tes." Gin nodded, "Are you, by chance, allowed to reveal that data to me for that purpose?"

"No. Proper identification... required."

She nodded again without a visible hint of disappointment, "Understood."

"Preparing encrypted storage device, T8301, for transport... Complete... Retrieve at your discretion." it droned, the expression sad as the distorted form turned more human by the moment. Its appearance that of an old man with spectacles, disturbingly akin to Felipe for a fleeting moment. The computer hissed as it worked before splitting slowly in half along a slit situated between the image and button. "Regardless... No matter the narrow minded views... we truly did work for the... greater good." it voiced its addendum, "The Sires' children... is mankind's future... That is what we believe."

Gin was about to ask what it meant by 'children', but as the split in its middle widened the computer shut itself down and the image of each screen winked out peacefully – the AI smiling contently. And with the machine opened, she was granted full access to its interior hardware. At first she could only stare blankly at the mess of primitive electronics, until her gaze was drawn to a rectangular black box designated in bold as 'T8301'.

"I cannot help but say I very highly doubt that. At the very least, this might answer a few things." Gin hummed as she extended an arm to carefully detach the component and buried it in her artificial grip. And with the newest acquisition, a sense of completeness settled in along with pain and exhaustion accumulated across this ordeal. Together with the apparent conclusion to the battle they were so abruptly embroiled in, she deemed it was time to leave.

Some would be unnerved by the unnatural silence that had settled on the facility with the Sires' departure and the AI's deactivation. It remained obnoxiously large and foreboding, but that was it. The bleeding woman showed no sign of being effected by how eerie it all was. Far as she was concerned, if there was ever a ghost here it had finally departed. New Hope held many bad memories... but it was only an empty building now.

20:06 – 14 A.E.

Tyrus – New Hope Research Facility Airspace – Kraken Class Warship Halcón – Hallway

"Altogether, including you, we've got seven injured, two critical but stable... and one dead. Poor bastard got fragged by a boomer."

"... I see."

"Had it missed him by as much as an inch, we probably would have had three body bags filled up by now." Pad replayed the memory through his mind and shuddered. He would not had slipped clean from that one either. It was a really close one. Not very fair to the dead, but small blessings needed to be counted.

The man sat listlessly outside Gin's cabin, slightly exasperated by the girl cleaning up grime and blood off the deck as part of these people's meticulous sense of cleanliness. Normally he would just have been down at the infirmary, or at the nearest bar – God knows he needed a strong drink to wash this all down.

Instead, he followed up the only one of them who voluntarily marched right into the midst of a locust stronghold after she got separated from her squad and blew it to kingdom come. With the wounds on her legs and a couple other places, she was just two steps from profuse bleeding. Almost a miracle she could still walk by the time she was extracted.

And because of the extra space and special equipment needed, she's now receiving treatment within her own cabin. By virtue of being a man he could not exactly walk in, and had watched as a trio of female soldiers walked in and came back out carrying a bundle of Gin's torn and bloodied clothes, along with her prosthetic limbs for checkup and cleaning. No doubt about to go through every effort to restore the owner's flatteringly immaculate appearance for the sake of showcasing the might and majesty of their nation.

They were charmingly old fashioned like that.

"Such is war." came Gin's answer from inside the room, her tone not without a pained edge to it, partly from the ongoing treatment, "One cannot plan for every eventuality."

The ship doctor in there with her snorted a remark, "For one thing, my lady, you could have stayed and waited for us to bring a stretcher."

One could almost sense her shrug, "It was unknown territory with much narrow space, doorways, and places to ambush from. Still able to defend myself, I concluded the safest option was to get out on my own. For several reasons I need not state, transport by stretcher in such an environment would be... unwise."

"What was it you found in there anyway?" Pad voiced curiously, "Corporal Takashi said something about monsters in stasis tanks."

"Indeed. Far as we now know, New Hope revolved around the creatures – Sires – they sealed within." Gin replied, the sound of her voice accompanied by clinking noises that made Pad wince – the sound of glass shards falling onto a metal plate. "I extracted from a still-functional security AI's mainframe a data disk that might answer everything about the facility and the research its personnel conducted, but clearance is unfortunately required."

"From who?" he held little hope for that resolution.

"The Chairman of the COG." she replied succinctly, "Yet another reason to find them. So regardless of our losses, we must push on. Have you decided on our next destination?"

"... We need answers, and we can only get them from Stranded." the man said plainly what either of them already knew, "Would rather avoid another stinking ambush, so it has to be somewhere out of the way. It's a shot in the dark. We'll just have to pick a place and hope."

Gin was silent for a moment, "What place do you have in mind?"

"... Halvo Bay."

Author notes: It became a rather short chapter, but it seemed just right to end it there for now.

wunwong: It's just a skirmish, an isolated incident for now. The real war will come eventually, but not anytime soon.