As the group exited the main section of the museum, they found themselves outside looking at a large field. It was expansive stretching for what seemed like miles. A large stone block was set in front of the field with braziers alight under the flapping of a blue EDF flag and flowers at the bottom. Pina was the first to walk up and read.

"Here lay the unnumbered dead, gone but not forgotten. May they never grow old and rest with the peace that they deserve. Donec iterum convenient (till we meet again)," a tear fell from her eye before the sound of music met her ears. "We shall never forget,"

The group moved up see the mass of graves. Even without knowing the religions of this world they could tell that the crosses that marked some of the graves had a religious meaning. But not all were crosses, some were simple headstones and others had more or less decoration. However, all of them had a rifle shoved into the ground, barrel first with a helmet sitting on the butt of the rifle and a blank dog tag hanging from the handle. Even the graves were blank for the most part.

Rory walked up to one of the graves and squatted down looking at it. Reaching out, she stroked the grave which gave her a flood of emotions but not as bad as before. Unlike with the walls of names which had more emotion and memories behind them, blank icons didn't have them because they were blank. No names to connect them, no memories to hold even if they still held a meaning. She stood and walked back to the others.

"It seems that the EDF have made their point," she said not stopping as she headed for the exit.

The others took a quick glance at each other before joining the oracle. Walking though the exit door they then saw Kyon, Itami, Davies and Bond waited for them.

"Ahh," Bond said as he saw them walkout. "Had fun?" he asked but got a slap on the head for that.

"I wouldn't use fun," Leiei countered. "But it was intresting,"

"D…" Chuka then tried to say but couldn't get the words out for a good moment. "Did all four of you fight monsters?"

Bond opened up his jacket and pulled up his shirt to show a bite mark on the side of his torso. Davies pulled back his sleeves and showed all of his wounds. Kyon turned around and pulled up the back of her uniform to show several slash and bite marks on her back. Itami also opened up his uniform to show the right side of his body that turned out to be burns.

"Laser it from a nearly dead Aggressor tank," he said before buttoning up his uniform. "Good think that lasers cauterise the wounds that they make,"

"For me, I got into a bad fight with some giant wasps," Kyon said as she let her uniform fall back into place. "PA Gear is good, but cannot 100% protect you,"

"I just got into a fistfight with an ant," Davies said as he let his sleeves fall back into place.

"Same," Bond said as he let his shirt fall and fastened his jacked up.

"Wow, you have been though so much," Pina muttered.

"Well we don't like to talk about it," Itami smiled. "So, who's hungry?"

A that moment the group's stomachs began to growl making Bond smile. "Well I guess, that answers that, I know a great British restaurant near here,"

"What are you trying to do to them?" Kyon asked. "British food is bad as it is, Korean would be better,"

"We don't need them burning their mouths out," Davies countered calmly. "What they need is a good cheeseburger,"

"Come on, your American food is only going to add a found pounds on them," Bond nearly yelled as the group began to argue making the visitors just look at them with a deadpan look.

Itami sighed. "Stop it guys, we're in Japan so we'll get Japanese ok," he essentially ordered.

"Fine," Kyon said with a sigh. "I guess that makes sense and is a good compromise," the other two just nodded as well.

OOOOO

Ever since the war parts of Tokyo had been left to decay. This was unintentional as the government was trying to focus on the main residential and commercial areas as well as landmarks. But these left sections of the city untouched by redevelopment, for now. This allowed for criminal groups to hide out in these areas undetected by anyone.

A group of three people walked down the street with weapons concealed in their clothing. Cops didn't patrol this area often, but even then, it did them well to be cautious. They turned off into a back alley and moved to a broke down vending machine and knocked on a hollow wall. It opened up and the three walked inside and down a set of satires to a basement level filled with computers and more.

A man sat in front of one of the computers not turning around to face his guests. "I know why you are here," he said in a bland tone before turning to face them. "Do you have the money?"

"Do you have drrrive?" one of the men asked in a thick Russian accent.

The man held up a small portable disk drive in his hand. The Russian nodded as he pulled out a large leather pouch and opened it. Inside wasn't money, or gemstones but something else. Inside the leather pouch was a blank, almost crystal-clear stone. The computer man smiled. This particular stone was rarer than diamonds. Known as a blank en-gem, the Aggressors used these in very limited quantities and very small and for good reason.

The power output on these things would be able to power the entire EDF military for 10 years even with growth. But they were a major hazard due to instability. Anything larger than a baseball, and the blank en-gems would explode. So, the smaller the better. The EDF had placed an outright ban on the sale and distribution of these for obvious reasons. But local Warlords had little interest in doing what the EDF said. If they want it, they got it regardless.

The man stood and handed them the drive while he got the gem. "Pleasure," he said before turning around and sitting back down.

The three men then exited, one of them was on the phone. As soon as they got outside, he turned to look at the other two and nodded. One of them pulled out a glowing blue grenade before throwing it down the stairs. It detonated with the man screaming in pain. The three then re-entered to see the computer man on the floor convulsing. All the computers were now off due to the grenade thrown.

One of the men then fired a few rounds into the computer man killing him outright while the other recovered the blank gem and left after setting a timed charge.

OOOOO

After a short while, the group found a good place to eat and they made their orders. Rory, Leiei and Chuka knew what to expect with Japanese food but Pina and her retinue didn't know what to expect. They looked around at the strange food house. It was well lit with images of food on the walls. Their Japanese wasn't good, so they had to ware beads in their ears so that the language could be translated for them. But they didn't need to wait long as their food arrived.

Bozes watched as the three EDF soldiers cracked open their eggs and poured them over their food. "What is this?" she asked. "Do we eat it raw?"

The others shared similar looks but did what the EDF did and cracked their eggs over their food. They took a gulp before they began to eat. After the first bite, they looked up at each other with surprise at how good it was. As they ate Bond's phone then rang making him answer it.

"Bond here," he said before his voice went dark. "That joke has been used once too often, keep using it and I will make your life a living hell," he warned. "Ahhh, ok… what… damn it I'll be there soon," he then hung up. "Chef can I get a doggy bag?" he asked.

The Chef nodded but Itami just looked to the intelligence officer. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, Intel just picked up on something that requires my attention," Bons said as she chef brought up a bag with his food in. "I'll see you some other time," he said before leaving.

"I wonder what that's about," Kyon said but just shrugged and continued to eat.

OOOOO

"Open the gates!" someone yelled and the gates of Alnus base opened up.

Several raven transports rolled into the base and began to unload their cargo of slaves. As the EDF soldiers began to help them out General Hazama walked up to the Captain in charge while not taking his eyes off as medics and others began to bring medical equipment and food.

"What happened?" the General asked.

"We ambushed a slaver caravan and camp," the Captain said in a thick Norwegian accent (A/N couldn't find a generator for the accent, sorry). "These are the ones who we found. They said that their towns and villages have been destroyed due to bandits. It seems that the bandits sold them off,"

Hazama nodded and rubbed the back of his head. "Well this is probably a good thing. High Command have authorised the use of the Wasteland Protocol,"

The Captain looked to him in surprise. "Really?" he asked. "It my not be my place to ask but why?"

"High command had a long debate about this, but they did agree on one thing. The bandits that are roaming the place, well we caused them due to the attacks on the gate. They have no local leaders left to guide them in a time of crisis. So, we'll take them in and give them citizenship," the general said in a serious tone but the latter of what he said raised come questions with the Captain.

The Captain gave a slight frown. "Why do I think that high command just wants to populate the world with catgirls?"

The general just sighed as he shared the same thoughts. "That had crossed my mind a number of times, but given that we still don't know anything about the aggressors…" he trailed off his mind filled with images of the war.

"They want more of a population base to recruit soldiers for the EDF," the Captain finished. "And the fact that they are demi-humans adds to the decision to add them into our ranks due to their natural skills," he nodded understanding the logic. "Makes sense, but still,"

"I share the same feelings you do, but there's little to what we can do about it," the general sighed.

OOOOO

Night was approaching as the group checked into a hotel. While Rory, Leiei and Chuka relaxed almost instantly, Pina and her group looked around.

"This is some fine decor," Bozes said as she sat down. "You must be quite wealthy to rent a place like this,"

"I don't think so," Hamilton countered. "If what we have seen is any indication, tis is standard," that made the group shiver.

"What's this?" Panache asked as she picked up a long silver piece and pressed something on it.

A screen set in the middle of the wall opposite her came to live scaring her and making her drop it. Pina turned to look at it.

"Oh, it's one of those videos," she said as she made the connection.

"Must be more common than we thought," Bozes said as she watched and realised that there were some similarities between what was on now, and what she saw. "Is this part of the museum?" she asked.

"No," Hamilton said as she got a closer look. "They don't have those PA gears and those aren't ants,"

Just then Kyon walked in. "Hey girls," she said with a smile before following their gaze. "Oh, Starship troopers, I love this movie," that made them turn to her.

"You know what this is?" Pina asked.

"Yeah, let me just get it to the beginning and get some popcorn,"

Codex:

Wasteland Protocol:

When refuges have been found, but no one takes responsibility it is the duty of the EDF to take them in as citizens of the nation they found them in.

En-gem:

A shortened version of 'energy gem'.