"You're heartless Kerenai and you've known these men since you joined up"

"Just because I didn't show emotion doesn't mean I don't care. Everyone who's in the military has training to handle these situations Zira. I was in the Marines and they broke you down and then built you up and it was harsh but everyone besides me was eighteen at least. There was an instructor there one day who realized a problem neither side knew of until that day. You see I was setting myself up for failure expecting too much of me too soon but I didn't know it and neither did the other instructors because they had legal aged young adults to train I was the first and only kid as far as I know. She mentored me that day and taught me that I was setting my expectations too high and not realizing it. The reason she realized what the instructors didn't was because of the fact that the other instructors weren't around kids a lot while she had two nephews and a daughter of her own and she recognized the look in my eyes after I failed the obstacle course one too many times in my mind. She taught me to set reasonable goals for my age. I also got special instructions in regards to my emotional growth and handling of the situation I was in. I didn't fully learn the lesson about emotional control until I lost a family member myself but I had learned over the years by attending other military funerals. It just didn't hit me until that funeral that I had to remain control at all times because otherwise lives might be lost, even if I wasn't there when my family member dies I realized that lives were saved because my family focused on the task first and mourning later. Your Captain has been through that situation a few times as well where emotional control is paramount especially when the tactical retreat isn't exactly in a safe place"

"You heard about that?"

"Yes but to be fair you were dealing with officers that had incomplete training and that was because of the situation in your country at the time. Zira the reason we don't show emotions during battle is because often times things are happening too fast, afterwords it's because we have to be in control at all times so that any survivors remain in control as well. After everything though especially after a funeral we're allowed the chance to mourn properly, we may not get long to mourn depending on the situation but we are allowed the chance to mourn"

"There's also the fact that even years later something might hit us at a random moment for whatever reason. Did you know that right before the coup I was simply on regular patrol and suddenly one of the people with me did something and part of me remembered an old friend I had lost five years earlier and while it was a happy memory it was also slightly painful because the memory was the last time I had seen him alive"

"That's a surprise Captain"

"Well things are the way they are Zira, just understand that we are still human and we do mourn but it takes trained soldiers a lot longer to get to the mourning process because we have to stay under control for longer periods of time when it comes to the battlefield"

"I think I get it now"

Just then one of the EDC officers comes out and while most people don't catch what was said Karen did because of the language used

*Understood, stay here will do as ordered. If not back in twenty-four hours tell leaders checkpoint zulu and failing that checkpoint radon after those checkpoints fail MIA/KIA *

*Attack when intel gathered, will hope you join if MIA/KIA *

*Understood *

"Something's up I don't understand what you just told that EDC officer but something is up"

"Yes it is, Captain I know you need to go out frequently to check on the communication system that you're somehow managing to keep from being hacked but I need you to stay at the camp for a few days. I normally wouldn't do this since you're from this country and I'm not and you also technically have a higher rank than mine anyways but I am getting a very bad feeling about this whole situation and I want someone other than EDC officers that has training to protect the camp. I know you haven't fought against aliens really but you're the highest ranking officer in this camp and as such that makes you valuable. Trust the EDC in matters regarding the Nakodians but don't forget that you know the country better than they do and as such you should make them listen to your ideas in regards to plans especially when they don't factor in the terrain"

Just then the EDC captain spoke up again

"Kerenai one more thing that we must check with you"

"What is it Captain?"

*Mandatory sedatives, you have? *

*At all times per orders, you? *

*Critical low, last shipment contaminated, almost lost people due to poison. Still looking for culprits *

*Steal ours when possible, leaders don't know because I make sure of it, haven't needed in two months *

*Lucky *

*Agreed, thought I would after bad battle recently *

*How recent? *

*Two weeks ago *

The other EDC officers were paying attention to the conversation to make sure Karen was taking care of herself and everyone winced at how recent a bad battle had been before this one

*That's recent *

*Keep waiting for backlash. Keep sedatives as close as possible. if search party alert potential paranoia. Two days without sleep already, will get quick nap during mission then wake up. Hyper alertness and paranoia when not enough sleep. Will activate special weapons in said state. Lack of sleep due to how busy we are *

*You positive? *

*Proof during period of death. See emergency files under firefighter. Arsonist attack after forest service period. Stayed up two days straight each shift, barely slept two hours otherwise. Was startled suddenly one time. Suddenly had knife in hand. Chief to talk me down *

*OK will alert to paranoia then if search needed get going *

*Understood *

Karen went on her scouting mission and things went wrong and she had to fall back to one of the checkpoints she had mentioned during sign language period amongst the camp. When she went missing the EDC captain mentioned the possibility of Karen being paranoid

"If that happens it will most likely be an attack first ask questions later situation and she might use her abilities that she has to keep herself safe. She might suddenly have a knife or some other weapon so be careful"

"Understood"

The group took two days but finally they arrived at checkpoint radon seeing as how it was the closer of the two to the camp and discovered Karen there but she was as paranoid as ever because she hadn't really been getting sleep. When she noticed company she decided not to go for lethal initially instead she conjured up a bo staff for her "guests" and did indeed attack first, but she soon realized was was going on and made the weapon disappear

"Sorry about that"

"No problem, we were warned of potential paranoia how much sleep have you gotten?"

"Not enough trust me, I literally can't move here without jumping at every sound I haven't slept in almost three days now"

"Then we'll send a message back to camp stating you've been found and we're staying put in order for you to get some quality sleep"

"How?"

"Oh we have our ways"

"You're lucky I chose a non lethal way to subdue my "guests" which in my paranoid state was basically enemies. I almost thought of using two knives but for some reason decided non lethal was the way to go. Either it's because I don't kill without cause or I wanted to send a message but I don't know either way for sure"

"I'm just glad you did choose the staff, though you could have used a stick instead?"

"Wrong wood, it wouldn't have been sturdy enough to handle the abuse I could potentially put it through you don't know this but I am considered a weapons master for a reason. Now then I desperately need some sleep so that's what I am going to do"

"Okay any warnings we should know about?"

"Just the usual don't wake a sleeping soldier warnings trust me the last time I had a nightmare and someone woke me up they wound up in the infirmary and even though the base commander understood what had happened I was still punished though not as severely as I would have been had it been a willful attack"

"What was your punishment?"

"Extra night duty for the next week"

"How dangerous are you?"

"Well considering I can trash an EDC training robot at full power I would say pretty dangerous"

"Anyone can trash an EDC robot with their weapons"

"John I think she was talking about simple hand to hand training. She can be EDC training robots at full power with just her hands and legs and I'm also guessing a little bit of speed too"

"Just how long have you been training?"

"Since I was five years old and in all honesty my training has been the most complicated amongst the EDC kids"

"Get some sleep Kerenai, you earned it and you also look like you could use it"

Karen would sleep for two full days and not entirely by her own wish. What she and no one else initially knew was that a cut had gotten infected, a cut she herself didn't know about initially that she had gained during the scouting mission. The group with her fought the fever for sixteen hours and then Karen simply slept for another twelve peacefully the rest of the two days was spent recovering from her ordeal and regaining some strength through sleep and drugs

"Kerenai can you fight if needed?"

"Oh I can always fight if needed, unless I stay up for three days straight, even when I am recovering from illness I know how to fight when needed. I once broke an arm at a bad time and continued doing what I was doing because it was needed"

"Okay we have to get back to camp, now that I know you can defend yourself at need we can go"

Fortunately the journey back to camp was quiet and everyone was relieved to see Karen again

"What happened?"

"Well things are actually pretty normal for now the status quo I guess in regards to the situation. As for why we took so long getting back I managed to get a cut and an infection both of which I noticed too late"

"We're lucky we had the drugs needed to help get her better and even now she's not fully well and still full of infection but she can complete her healing here I believe"

(Sighs) "I'm afraid other scout reports aren't so kind to us, we might have to leave sooner than we want and we're also going to have to up a few time lines"

"What for?"

One of the other soldiers speaks up though knowing it was her place to report this to Karen due to the fact that the Captain couldn't currently out on a sabotage mission of great importance

(Sighs) "Captain came through and got a message out and finally received one in return unfortunately we're the lucky ones. The rest of the groups are having trouble just establishing a temporary base of operations which is why contact has been so sporadic and none since we got the suspicion of Nakodian hacking. Thing is that's not the only problem, the rest of the world is only now discovering that the coup was illegal and that the rightful government and the people are trying to reestablish order. The problem with that is America is calling for first dibs and while they have good intentions they don't know about the Nakodians or the fact that the military is using civilians as hostage and they won't be able to find out until it's too late due to the fact that we can't contact the outside world. If we can't alert American forces to the situation in time we're going to have a lot of innocent civilians as casualty and a government that's going to feel extremely guilty for something they had no control over, and the rest of the world won't blame them once the truth is out but they'll be more hesitant to follow America and we can't afford that at the moment"

"There's also the fact that both Japan and South Korea are dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake and have called for relief in the UN which is taking up some of America's military resources though other countries are also offering humanitarian aid including North Korea and China, those two countries are offering not only the most at the moment but also allowing temporary refugees in their countries due to the fact that they're the closest people available"

(Sighs) "I should have known things were too easy. Okay we'll see about getting information out to the rest of the world about the civilian hostages and the Nakodians after that the situation with Japan and South Korea will just have to resolve itself on it's own because we really can't do anything from here considering our own situation at the moment"

"How will we get the message out?"

(Sighs) "Remember that whole I am not to use sneak tactics argument that was used before the Captain of the guard mentioned he had a way of making contact without being hacked? I still don't know his methods but I am going to use my authority to sneak in and send out a message. Yes that means people who believe me dead will find out that I'm not but to be honest I am tired of being thought dead through my own actions"

"We're actually going to wait on that Kerenai for one very good reason"

"And what reason would that be?"

(Sighs) "I'm probably going to butcher it horribly and I don't even know the translation but your family calls it Korravanth"

"You're right you butchered it badly it's called K'or'ra'v'aa'nsth and roughly translated means Peaceful Rest it's a hold over from the time of one of the civil wars. During that time period there was to be no fighting between factions on pain of death if caught by the leaders of your enemy faction, meaning a Decepticon would be killed by the leader of the Autobots and an Autobot would be killed by the leader of the Decepticons unlike normal periods where your own leader killed you if warranted for an infraction. Now instead of no fighting between the factions my family does not intervene in human affairs unless alien influence is involved or extreme loss of life is imminent or happened"

"Which means we won't be breaking this Peaceful Rest because of the Nakodians"

"It's not that simple General, this time they aren't communicating with anyone. It started a few years ago when they were almost tricked into helping with a human conflict with a group pretending that there were Quintessons involved, now to get them involved during Peaceful Rest they have to know the group is on Earth themselves and also have physical proof of the claim which we can't get and the Nakodians are slippery. EDC didn't know about them until your message so the Cybertronians will not believe the claim especially since we have no proof, there's also the fact that Karen's supposed death came during the Peaceful Rest as well which means for three days they are out of contact period for a three day period of mourning"

"One day before and one day after I am declared dead that's why they're out of contact this time, normally they would respond to humanitarian calls like the situation in Japan and South Korea because of the loss of life but they might not even know about that for a few days this time"

"Exactly, this is one big complicated mess and no one is happy about it. I get now why you did what you did Kerenai but still"

"I know, looking back it was stupid but it was the only idea I had on such short notice that I was pretty sure would work"

"Just how long does this Peaceful Rest last?"

"The K'or'ra'v'aa'nsth lasts two months on Earth, it used to last the equivalent of six months because their months used to last a lot longer"

"It also gave those injured a time to recover a lot longer than during periods of battle"

"And how much time has already passed?"

Karen got the date and did a mental calculation and knew the answer