There used to be several airports in the Seattle area, all of which could easily land the suborbital transport ship on their runways with how long they were. But that was what felt like a lifetime ago. A time even before Yuki could really remember, a time before the Heaven's Fall.

Instead, the transport has to land elsewhere, those former airfields and runways having fallen into disrepair as time ever moved on, or were submerged beneath the higher seas of the Pacific. There were other airfields that had been cleared in the territory around where Seattle used to lie, and the one closest to the known UFE settlement was where they were going to land. Keeping well clear of the Calgary airspace, and the Landing Castle that lay embedded in the ruined city there.

The flight from New Orleans to the ruins of Seattle took less than three hours. For most of the flight, Yuki spent asleep, having succumbed to the gentle rocking of the transport and the rumbling of the engines as it hauled itself and its passengers skyward, and towards the northwest. There was no need for her to be awake, so Jessamine let her get her sleep. Sleep that was well earned having spent the better part of the last few days working and when they weren't working, communicating, and interviewing those survivors who had made it this long. Jessamine didn't have as high hopes for how this week was to turn out. They didn't have the knowledge going into this, of the lay of the land. To her knowledge, Yuki had never been to Seattle, nor had she. Meaning that this was entirely new territory for the both of them.

Jessamine had to shake Yuki awake when they landed on the airstrip of Seattle. It was still midday when the pair disembarked with ponchos, although with the rain drizzling down on them and their supplies, it didn't particularly feel like midday. It was day, but in the gray sense of the word, the way that it remains day, but you can't tell where the sun is through the clouds above. There was nothing that they could do about the weather, except trudge between the buildings, following the days-old map that had been generated from the remaining satellites that hadn't been destroyed by the Martians during the onset of the war. There were more than enough remaining buildings in the remains of the Seattle metropolis, allowing them to keep marginally dry in the drizzle.

They moved northward from the airfield, following where the markers on the map had indicated where the UFE shelter, set up by the UFE during the onset of the Armistice, to try and keep those survivors away from any areas where fighting was likely to occur. It occurs to Yuki that it would make sense that a bunch of eggheads couped up during the armistice could come up with such predictions, based on where the fighting had broken out during the start of this war, but it doesn't make much sense to her why the UFE would set up these shelters, and then all but disregard them, as allegedly they had as the Armistice went on. Maybe it was the lack of supplies that they were trying to get to these places affecting supply chains — or maybe it was the fact that they were trying to keep these places relatively hidden from the Martian gaze, should fighting break out again.

It is against International Law to target Civilians, or anyone who cannot provide any meaningful form of resistance in actual combat. That includes Medics, Relief Workers, the Press, and many other groups that Yuki could rattle off from the top of her head, drilled into her mind through years of studying in the special officer academy for the UFE back in Shinawara. But she was also just as painfully aware how useless most of the information she had studied actually was when it came to fighting the Martians. Civilian centers had been one of the first places targeted by this dreadful operation undertaken by the Martians, and that had left possibly billions dead, and just as many displaced due to the Landing Castles, and the fighting that had surrounded them in the weeks and months afterwards. The only places that hadn't been targeted, seemed to be the places with the least amount of UFE presence, but since the UFE was centered around metropolises and cities that had survived the Heaven's Fall, in hopes that any following hostilities they could do the same — that meant that the civilian death toll was incredibly high. Medics and Relief Workers were indiscriminately targeted in the weeks following the landings, and the Press were shot in the street like dogs, their bullet-proof helmets and flak vests reportedly having been taken as trophies as if the ones wearing them were animals being hunted, rather than fellow human beings. The thought of the nondiscriminatory nature of the Martians sent a shiver down Yuki's spin as Jessamine led the pair the two miles to the UFE Shelter.

The shelter was settled in a former military airbase, from a time predating the UFE, that had been turned during those first days of the armistice into something more than an abandoned air base for teenagers to trespass on. Formally it was still owned by the United States, but in the wake of the Heaven's Fall, most of the United States had fallen in line with the UFE, having lost the proverbial head as Washington D.C. and other important beachheads of the former nation were rained down on with molten moonrock.

There were no planes littering the taxiways and tarmacs, just overgrown tugs and cracked pavement from where the natural world had slowly begun to push through the seams again, returning what man had once proudly put in this space, back to the earth. There were what looked like barricades that would've been from the time before the war, and plenty of hiding places that were seemingly devoid of any inhabitation. If they weren't following the map, neither would be that sure that they had actually reached the place described, at least until they came across barbed wire that seemed to be out of place at a cursory glance. It was bunched up, giving a somewhat walkable path, but surrounding the path was the closely wound bundles of barbed wire. A funnel, or a kill box for anyone trying to approach this particular hangar. There were no obvious guards, or any indication at all that a UFE shelter was indeed located here.

Jessamine and Yuki stood side by side, looking at the kill-box made of barbed wire and concrete, and neither stepped forward. Neither was particularly sure what to do, given the fact that they might very well be shot at if they tried to approach the seeming entrance to the shelter. There was no indication otherwise that the hangar beyond was inhabited.

"Um." Yuki began.

"I don't think this is right." Jessamine says, staring at the barbed wire and the walkway it made.

"What makes you say that?"

"Wouldn't there be like, some kind of defensible position inside the barbed wire? So as people trickle in, they could get shot at?"

"I mean, that would make sense. A simple defensible position, not exactly vulnerable to getting shot in the back, as the hangar is built into the rock—"

Jessamine turns on her heels, starting to turn away from the funnel in front of them, and Yuki starts after her. "Wait, what gives?"

"That's bait." She says, in a manner so sincere that Yuki can't help but believe her in this. That something is indeed wrong, something in Yuki's gut tells her this, but nothing outwardly indicates it.

They make it halfway across the airbase when the firing starts. A round implanting itself in the pavement in front of Yuki harmlessly, as Jessamine dives for the nearest tug for cover, is the first indication that they're not the ones being shot at, at least.

"What the fuck?!" Jessamine shouts over the sound of nearby gunfire.

Yuki practically slides across the rain-wet pavement beside Jessamine getting into cover. "I don't know!"

Jessamine fumbles with the holster on her leg, undoing the strap that secures her UFE standard issue sidearm, and drawing it. The minutes seem to crawl by, and the ringing in their ears overtaking the sound of gunfire is the only indication that there's any cessation in it. Yuki, still a little bit dumbfounded that if she had taken a step or two more forward than she had been, would've taken a round, doesn't notice the tense look on Jessamine's face.

She grimaces before tossing her sidearm aside and sticking both her hands up into the air; half-screaming, half shouting, "UFE Intelligence officers!"

There's silence for a few moments, and Yuki looks at Jessamine, horror-struck.

"Come out!" A voice shouts back at them, distantly, "Hands up and walk straight towards my voice!"

Jessamine is the first to her feet, standing up from behind the Tug, her hands still in the air. Yuki follows suit. As Jessamine turns, she notices the movement in the shadows of a nearby hangar but does not react towards it. She instead leads the way, hands still up, towards the voice that she traded shouts with. There are no more pockmarks of bullet holes in the pavement, just the ringing in the pair's ears.

Eventually, they cross to the other side the row of hangars, where the shadows still shift silently, this time the movement doesn't escape Yuki's notice either. "You said you're UFE?" One of the shadows, one with a gruff and masculine voice asks.

Jessamine nods and doesn't move her hands from where they are in the air. "We were looking for the Seattle shelter. But obviously it isn't there anymore."

The voice grunts in acknowledgment of what she's said. "You'd be right miss."

"Any chance we can speak without me being at gunpoint, since you've decided we're not Martians?"

"That girlie givin' you the eye hasn't talked. She got a voice."

"Yes. I do." Yuki looks a little surprised but tries to bite back the tone of it in her voice.

"Neither of you are from around here. But you're obviously not Martians, because Martians wouldn't lie 'bout bein' UFE. And 'sides, you did the smart thing, and Martians ain't smart." The voice responds. And after a sigh, moves from the shadow of the hangar, into the gray light of the sky.

He's an older man, scarred by a life of fighting — both the Martians and the Terrans — and has long since given up on understanding either. He bears an eyepatch over his left eye and is bald. There's no facial hair to discern the color that his scalp might have been, just the gray eyes and a bristle about him that betrays him as more than just being a soldier, but a warrior. Someone who has killed before and will probably have to do it again and again before this war is through. His rifle dangles from a strap around his neck and shoulder, and in this moment, the man almost looks like the soldier he undoubtedly was.

"Name's Tigh." The man pulls his hand out of one of his gloves and offers it.

"Jessamine Ainzel." Jessamine responds first, and takes his hand, "And this is Warrant Officer Yuki Kaizuka."

"Pleasure meeting both of you. Sorry for taking a pot-shot at you, Warrant Officer Kaizuka. One of our freshies got spooked by you." Tigh explains.

"I… Uh."

"Not the best with words?" Tigh asks.

"No, I'm fine with words. I'm just not the best with being shot at."

"Fair 'nuff." Tigh motions behind Jessamine. "Here's your sidearm, Miss Ainzel. Thank you for throwin' it away instead of keepin' a hold on it." Jessamine holsters it again.

"I didn't want to be shot at again." Jessamine explains.

"So what brings you to nowhere, Seattle?"

"We're on an information gathering mission for the Armistice Council." Jessamine motions to her bag on her back. "We have orders to meet with the survivors in the shelter here in Seattle, and then continue onwards in a week."

"Survivors, eh?" Tigh rubs his chin with his now free hand. "Well, 'bout half of 'em are here with me. The other half are held up down in Seattle proper."

"What about the shelter here? At the airbase?" Yuki asks, and Tigh laughs at this.

"The first clandestine place where you can land supplies and soldiers without being in range of the Castle at Calgary? Not a chance."

"Where are the rest of the survivors?"

"The Old Man moved them around the time the Martians started shooting at our scavenging teams." Tigh explains.

"'The Old Man'?" Jessamine asks.

"You'll meet him soon enough, Miss Ainzel. C'mon, if we loot those Dusties and get going, we won't leave tracks before the rain gets worse."

"'Dusties', huh?" Jessamine says, giving Yuki a look, as if the word on her tongue is just as foreign as it feels. "Sounds good to me."

"You ever looted a body before, Miss Kaizuka?" Tigh looks at Yuki with a curious look on his face.

"No, sir, I haven't." The honorific rolls from Yuki's mouth before she realizes that she's said it.

"You're going to get a lot of practice then." Tigh moves between the two women, who make space for him as he does. "C'mon, we're burning daylight."

From the other hangars, others emerge from the shadows, and start to follow Tigh as he moves to where the Martians had been — on the other side of the airfield. The soldiers had been caught out in the open, but had dug in on the flatness between runways, and tried to defend themselves as best they could. They did not succeed, as it turned out. The Terrans had come away from the gunfight with no injuries, and the Martians had all been wiped out. It hadn't been exactly one sided, but it hadn't exactly been a fair fight either. The Terrans certainly had the home-field advantage in this case. Jessamine was no stranger to looting corpses, but to the unexperienced Yuki, it was a far different ordeal. There was the benefit of the soldiers by-and-large being faceless, their expressions hidden behind faceplates and scarves. But most of the soldiers remain lifeless corpses, being picked through by the survivors like vultures, if vultures could wield firearms, and steal supplies from backpacks and waist pouches. There's an untouched, sealed, Martian first aid kit among the supplies that are looted from the corpses. By the time Tigh calls out for everyone to wrap it up and head for the shelter, Yuki is visibly shaken.

"Hey, you okay?" Jessamine asks as they walk among the other survivors, all of whom carry differing brands and sizes of firearms.

"…No… Not really." Yuki admits.

"Not your first time seeing corpses, but that doesn't make it easier, does it?" Yuki shakes her head no. Jessamine takes her left hand and gives it a squeeze. "It'll be okay. It's just something we gotta do out here."

"You've done it before too?" Yuki suppresses a look of horror, but Jessamine catches it.

Jessamine doesn't respond right away, after a tense second, saying, "That wasn't my first time, no."

"Oh."

"But it'll be okay. Hopefully we won't have to do that again."

Jessamine gives Yuki's hand a squeeze, Yuki smiles a bit at this and nods.

Jessamine lets go of Yuki's hand as the moment passes, and the pair continue walking along with the rest of the survivors, well into the night. Tigh was right about at least one thing though — they weren't leaving footprints in the dirt and on the pavement that they crossed as they moved further and further into Seattle from the air base. The walk was by and large silent. Only some slight murmurs from the periphery of the group as they moved along hills and through wooded areas, following Tigh's lead as they made their way further into the city.

The city itself had been abandoned following the Heaven's Fall, and the flooding that had occurred. Flooding that had swept away cars, small buildings, and people alike in its rip currents, never to be seen again. The death toll in cities like Seattle where people had no warning for what was happening was among some of the largest in terms of ratio of victims to survivors. There wasn't much anyone could've done. Search boats had searched for months on end, following the Heaven's Fall, only to come up empty handed. Millions of people, and trillions of dollars, gone in a single wave.

There were buildings that still remained in the city, skyscrapers that had somehow withstood the massive pressures and forces of the waves of the calamity bracing against their lower levels. And even making it possible for those buildings and those occupants to survive, if even just by luck alone. However, where the group was headed wasn't in the downtown of the city. It was on the other side of it from the air base.

As dark set in, headlamps, rifle lights and even hand-held flashlights came out to illuminate the darkened way. The clouds unceasing in their drizzle, before it started to come down more as a shower than anything else.

"How much further?" Jessamine asked one of the nearby survivors. Who stayed quiet, and just motioned ahead. Jessamine wasn't sure what to make of the signal, instead ignoring it and trying to make her way to the front of the pack to where Tigh was. "How much further?" She asked him, and he grunted before answering.

"Just a couple more blocks. We take the long way in case someone's tracking us."

Jessamine nods, and falls back into the group, where Yuki is.

He didn't lie, there were only a couple more blocks until they came across a flooded area of the city. They had finally moved far enough deep into the city to reach where the water had naturally come to rest. But there was something else here. A hospital that had survived the flooding and had made it through surprisingly well. Yuki could see where the floods had damaged the exterior of the building based on waterlines, and mold buildup that had never been cleaned as the city had been abandoned following the flooding.

The group filed in through one of the side doors to the hospital, trudging through a small layer of stagnant flood water that smelled faintly of chemicals, and deeper into the hospital, where the darkness crept further and further in, until nothing but the headlamps, and hand-held flashlights were being used. The rifles were switched off as they were inside a building, and didn't want to discharge, ricocheting rounds in an enclosed space like this wouldn't be good for anyone.

They walked through the halls of the hospital, and part of Jessamine's mind wondered if they were truly in the right place. There were no lights, no way of determining that they were actively in the right place. There were no bunks, no storage rooms, no kitchens that they had crossed. Nothing at all like the Survivor's camp back in New Orleans.

They walked through the almost labyrinthine maze of corridors and hallways, until they did come across a light. A single light emanating from a room down the hallway. They filed through the door into the light, and the headlamps and flashlights came down.

Inside this atrium, there were lights, there were bunks, there was what smelled to be a kitchen, there was the noise of people, and the feeling of being in more of a camp than an abandoned hospital.

Tigh stood near the door as Jessamine and Yuki filed in near the rear of the group.

"Either of you have anything useful that we looted?"

They both looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Good, follow me. You'll get to meet the Old Man." Tigh moves among those who are filtering to drop off the supplies that they had found, and moves towards another set of hallways, this set illuminated unlike the one that they had entered through. Jessamine and Yuki shared another look before following. This set of corridors seemed to contain most of the supplies, including an armory, where a few men were huddled around a makeshift workbench, working on a rifle of some sort. There were no water stains, or anything that indicated some sort of flooding. Almost like the hospital had just been up and abandoned.

That illusion didn't last very long, as they came to another atrium, and on looking down to the floors below as they walked along one of the railings, saw that there was water pooled beneath their feet.

They come across a room that was labeled as an office, and Tigh stops, and knocks at the door, before loudly saying, "XO".

There's a muffled response from inside the door, before it eventually opens of its own accord, an man, a little bit older than Tigh behind it.

He's shorter, has black hair that is graying, and a look about him that sizes up the two women with Tigh almost instantly, almost like he could see into their pasts and know who they were. He's dressed in a tank-top and cargo pants that look almost military in make.

"Tigh, who are these?"

"UFE Intelligence Officers, if you can believe it." Tigh says. The pair speak like old friends, and there's no doubt in either Yuki or Jessamine's mind that they are old friends.

"Hm. What're your names?"

"I'm Jessamine Ainzel. UFE Intelligence Officer." Jessamine responds first again.

"And I'm Warrant Officer Yuki Kaizuka, UFE Armored Division."

"You're a long way from a Kataphract, Warrant Officer." The Old Man sizes up Yuki again, seeming to consider that she was a Kataphract pilot at some point in the past.

"Yes sir. I volunteered for this mission." Once again, Yuki finds herself referring to the man before her using the military etiquette that had been drilled into her mind.

"And what mission is that?"

"We're to meet with Survivors here in Seattle and gather information regarding 'on-the-ground' thoughts about a cease fire, or possible surrender of territory." Jessamine responds this time, and The Old Man sighs. "I take it you're the leader of this survivor's camp?"

"I am."

"Is it alright if we meet with the survivors here? Gather information as per our mission?" Jessamine knows that he'll say yes, but figures a man of his stature, a man of his assumed past deserves at least the respect of asked consent before she goes around interrogating those in his camp.

"It is, Officer Ainzel." He responds. "But you have forty-eight hours to do something for us first."

"Why and what's that?" Yuki asks.

"Because the UFE all but abandoned us here, and now they want to talk about surrender?" Tigh scoffs. "And where would that leave us? The little guys on the ground with no armor, just some rifles and scavenged supplies?"

"Sirs, I think that it's fair to say that I don't have all the answers. We're just here to gather information." Jessamine responds to this dismissal of her stance, "I don't have the answers, and I'm not one of the diplomats who're working to get this all situated."

"And I didn't accuse you of being so, Officer Ainzel. But I also don't want you to give those gathered here false hope, that the UFE will ride in on their golden chariot and bring back their old lives. No matter what way this Armistice goes, the old world is over. So, I'm giving you forty-eight hours to gather your intelligence, and then leave us alone."

"I understand, sir." Jessamine responds.

"Can I ask why you got into a shooting fight with the Martians first, sir?" Yuki looks between Tigh and the Old Man. "We're in an armistice with them for a while yet. Neither side should be shooting at one another."

"Do you know what it's like to be hunted, Warrant Officer?" The Old Man asks. Yuki blinks at him. "Our people here do. We started in that shelter that the UFE set up for us, and then when the Martians started shooting at anyone who was armed, even if they weren't in UFE uniforms, that's when we realized that the Martians signed a ceasefire with the UFE. Not with the Earth. The UFE didn't send defenses, they didn't send supplies. And when our last real defense team was cut down, we didn't have anyone to defend us in case the Martians came knocking. So, we did the smart thing and moved to where the Martians hadn't been bombing — the inner city. Our people know what it's like to live under the threat that if they go outside for a breath of fresh air, they may catch a plasma rifle beam that'll cut them down before they can react — or a Kataphract will turn them into paste. I don't want you giving them false hope about what might come next, or insinuate that there will be hope coming, or that we might just be turned over to the Martians as part of a ceasefire clause. They'll cut us down anyways for being third-rate citizens on their 'rightful land'."

"I understand sir."

"Then with that settled. What I'd like for you to do is go to where Tigh will point out, and have you gather 'information' on what happened to our initial defense team. They were attacked about 60 miles to the east of here. There were no survivors, so we don't know what happened, but we know that's where they went down."

"Sixty miles is an awfully long ways to go on foot." Yuki points out.

"We'll be giving you some of our supplies, and one of our quadbikes to get out there, and enough fuel to get there and back. It should only take you a few hours by the quad."

"Do you want us to head out tonight?" Jessamine asks.

"Not while it's raining as bad as it is. You'll get soaked and fall ill. And I take it your mission is sending you elsewhere after this."

Jessamine nods.

"You can set out at first light tomorrow. Until then, feel free to go get a warm meal, and find somewhere to rest for the night. Most people brought their own sleeping supplies, so unfortunately, we don't have anything we can spare as far as cots go. Colonel?" The Old Man turns to Tigh. "Please show these two officers where they can bunk for the evening, and then report back to me."

Tigh discernibly resists the urge to salute. "Yes sir."

The door closes in front of Tigh, Jessamine, and Yuki. Tigh moves back the way they came. "Follow me, I'll show you to where you two can bunk for the evening, and also where to get food."