The Next Day

— Monday, January 16, AD 2130 —

“Colonel! You’ve returned!”

“That we have…” Saito responded, stopping in the hallways of SERRCom’s Opportunity space station to address Director Scott MacTavish, who had just approached. Saito — as well as Hackett, Kirstin, Mote, Kate, and Danielle — had only just disembarked from Genesis after arriving back at Earth, and were now barely a few halls out of Opportunity’s giant spacecraft docks.

“Do you need something from us, Director?” Hackett questioned as she shifted the pack on her shoulder that carried all of her gear.

“Well, yes and nae,” Scott replied, looking over the entire group in interest. “You’re all back sooner than expected — given ye went tae check out one of the Dreadnought coordinates, I figured that meant something exciting had happened, or some new incredible discovery!”

“We sure did find something, at least!” Danielle remarked.

“Glad tae hear it!” Scott responded while rubbing his hands eagerly. “What’d ye find, then?”

“It’s not quite that simple, Director,” Saito said. “We found an Ark — an Aldredian Ark, meant to hold a ton of Aldredas in stasis. But there weren’t any Aldredian survivors.”

“The AI in charge of the Ark also attacked us,” Mote declared. “I was forced to defend myself. As a result, the Ark was destroyed.”

“She also wreaked havoc on Mote’s armor and Raenaros,” Kate stated as she held up the rhomboid containing Mote’s armor in frustration. “Not to mention trying to hack the Genesis!”

“My… cannae say I expected tae hear that!” Scott remarked. “There — there was an AI, ye say? And ye got tae talk tae it?”

“W-we did…” Kirstin replied.

“It was… very enlightening, regarding the Aldredians’ general attitudes,” Hackett added with a pained expression.

“Amazing!” Scott exclaimed, “a sapient AI, then? We’ve yet tae figure that out, ourselves! Fascinating!”

“It’s just a machine, at the end of the day,” Mote insisted. “And don’t forget that it attacked us.”

“I suppose. Cannae imagine it gave ye much trouble, though. I’m more concerned about your armor and the Corvette. Two advanced pieces of tech, and this AI still hacked them? I mean, I suppose they are Aldredian…”

“I don’t think it was a hack. It seemed more like the AI just took direct control.”

“Which is pretty fucking concerning on its own,” Kate pointed out. “If Aldredian AIs can just hijack this Raen tech shit, then that’s a massive fucking security issue!”

“Should’ve known there would be downsides to this powerful technology,” Hackett said.

“We already knew there were: the gene lock,” Mote stated. “And after talking to that AI, we know now that the gene lock really was intentional. A truly arrogant, foolish design.”

“Sae that really was intentional, then? Interesting,” Scott remarked. “I wish I’d had the chance to pick the brain of that AI!”

“She really wasn’t all that forthcoming,” Saito countered. “But either way, if you want to know more, then you can read my report, or drop in on our debriefing with the General. We’re headed there, now.”

“Ah, nae, I’ll just read the report,” Scott replied. “Still… ye say the AI tried to hack Genesis?”

“The Origin, too. Captains Krick and Mendoza say that, on a first glance, Maenikad wasn’t able to get into their systems. But they also said that they’ll need time for a thorough scrub here on Earth to be sure.”

“That is protocol for responding tae cyberattacks like this. And when dealing with an advanced Aldredian AI, we’ll have tae be even more careful! But…” Scott glanced toward Mote, and then at the rhomboid device in Kate’s hands. “If the AI took control of the armor and the Corvette as well, then we’ll have to scrub those, tae.”

“Huh? But why?” Danielle questioned, “the hacking happened days ago, and the AI was destroyed with the Ark! Right?”

“M-might still be, um, malware…” Kirstin pointed out.

“Yeah, the hacking itself was days ago, but who knows if the damned bitch left malware or a kill switch or something in the systems,” Kate said. “I snooped around myself on the way back, but you can only be sure if you scrub the systems from an external source.”

Scott nodded. “Exactly. Genesis, Origin, the armor, the Corvette — they’ll all need to be scrubbed. Unfortunately, that’s likely to take a month or so, at least.”

“Genesis would’ve needed repairs anyways, since Mote’s Corvette shot up the bay,” Hackett pointed out.

“I’m sure Krick will be thrilled to be docked for repairs for a month so soon after his last repair bay trip,” Saito quipped. “…Either way. This puts a temporary hold on the coordinate investigations.”

“Ah, sae it daes…” Scott muttered.

“What? Why?!” Danielle questioned.

“Due to the potential danger of these coordinates, only Genesis and Origin were alloted for investigating them. Smaller ships won’t do, and all of our larger ones are otherwise occupied,” Saito replied. “And even then — given the track record of these coordinates, we’ll need at least one of Mote’s armor or that Corvette to access anything. Until we can use them again, the investigations will have to be paused.”

“Yet another point against the foolish designs of this Raen Technology,” Mote muttered.

“In this case, I disagree!” Scott remarked. “These Aldredian sites only opening tae specific pieces of Aldredian tech is pretty standard security!”

“At least it means we get a break,” Kate said, and then passed Saito a glance. “Maybe we can get some real fucking leave, this time?”

“I’ll see what I can swing, but I wouldn’t hold your breath,” the Colonel replied. “There’s still plenty of work to do.”

“That’s fucking bullshit.”

“It is what it is. Either way, I think we’ve stalled here for long enough.” Saito nodded toward Scott. “Director. We have a debriefing to get to. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ah, of course!” Scott responded as he stepped aside, allowing CSF-1 and the Eximius Vir to continue on down the corridors. The Director then began marching off towards Genesis’s docking bays, eager to take a look into the Battlecruiser’s systems himself.

---

— Isdia, Colyath 16, 8034 —

“Alright… we’ve landed. Be careful as you get off, everyone.”

“Back in Treséd, once more…” Austin muttered as he began preparing to disembark the landing craft, along with the rest of the Earthians and Kaoné. “Never thought I’d be happy to be back…”

“Our trip to Oriciid’kas was certainly… sobering,” Mark commented.

“I do apologize for dragging you all into that,” Kaoné responded, bowing her head apologetically towards the Earthians. “I really didn’t think there would be a Critical Infection Incident…”

“Sure seemed like no one did,” Pierce snarked.

“At least the situation was contained, in the end,” Luke stated, and then began ushering everyone out of the craft. “But let’s get out of this little aircraft, shall we?”

The next minute passed with everyone disembarking from the small transport craft, stepping out into the dreary heat of Compound Tresnon. Late afternoon sunlight shone down on the Compound’s tiny airport, as well as the two individuals waiting off to the side of the aircraft: Davídrius, and Liask. The former remained standing to the side, but as the Earthians all disembarked, Liask eventually approached.

“Pierce!” she exclaimed, drawing his attention just as she walked up to him. With a smile, she remarked, “you’re back! Glad to see you’re lookin’ okay!”

“Who…?” Sky began to ask, but before she could finish, Liask had latched onto Pierce’s arm.

“Hi, I’m Liask,” she commented. “And I’m Pierce’s girlfriend!”

“Wait. What?!” Phoenix questioned incredulously.

“Uh… ha, yep! That’s right!” Pierce replied, quickly overwriting the confusion in his voice with his typical confidence. He then leaned toward Liask and lowered his voice so that only she could hear, saying, “you’re, uh… you’re really committed to this, huh?”

“I told you I’d help you win, right?” Liask whispered back. “That means I gotta be convincin’! Your friends won’t believe you if I’m not, right?”

“What the hell are you two whispering about?”

Pierce and Liask both turned toward Phoenix, who was regarding the couple with an annoyed glare.

“I think I’ve seen you around with Pierce, before…” Phoenix muttered as her gaze lingered on Liask. “He didn’t trick you into this, did he?”

“’Trick’?! Oh, come on,” Pierce retorted. “Are you really so jealous that you need to come up with excuses, now?”

“What do you see in him…?” Twy questioned toward Liask.

“…Oh, you know…” Liask replied, glancing up at Pierce before turning back to Twy. “He’s just, you know—“

“Ahem! Anyways!” Pierce cut in, “enough about me! C’mon, Liask, let’s leave these losers be.”

“Uh, right!” Liask remarked as Pierce began leading her off. She offered a brief wave towards the Earthians before the couple left the airport.

“…Since when did Pierce not like talking about himself?” Austin questioned incredulously.

“I was just wondering the same,” Conrad remarked.

“This is just… ugh,” Phoenix groaned in frustration. “Damn it, coming back from that shit show on Oriciid’kas was bad enough, now… I need something to raise my spirits. Conrad! Kestrel! We’re going to the bar!”

“’We’—?”

“Yes, ‘we’! Don’t drag your feet, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“…Welp,” Conrad muttered, watching Phoenix storm off. He then glanced up at Kestrel, who returned the look blankly. With a resigned shrug, Conrad then began following after Phoenix, with Kestrel tagging along beside him. “Guess I’ll see you guys later,” he shouted back at the rest of the group.

“…At least they’re going back to normal, I suppose,” Mark commented after Conrad and Kestrel had left.

“It’s like they don’t even care about what happened at Oriciid’kas,” Austin muttered.

“I think it’s for the best…” Kaoné commented, briefly eying Davídrius as he finally approached before turning back to the Earthians. “This kind of situation is unfortunately common for Chaotics. I’m not about to tell you to forget what you saw on Oriciid’kas, but you also can’t allow it to dominate your thoughts. If you let every incident do that, you’ll fall into a spiral of cynical depression.”

“You’re makin’ it sound like the galaxy is just a shitty place…” Spike responded.

“That’s ‘cause it is,” Davídrius remarked, now in earshot. He soon stopped beside Kaoné to join the conversation. “Lots of folks in this galaxy try to make it seem like sunshine and rainbows, but the reality is that shit sucks.”

“Davídrius…” Kaoné replied in an admonishing tone.

“Oh c’mon, I ain’t wrong, and you know it. Hell, y’all just got back from another fucking Critical Infection. What’s that tell ya?”

“You’ve heard about that, already?” Luke questioned.

“Rebehka filled me in as soon as y’all got back to Nimalia,” Davídrius answered. “She’s already back at her Academy, filin’ through everythin’ that happened on Oriciid’kas, I bet. Still, though…” He glanced down at Kaoné. “A Critical Infection? Really?”

“I’m afraid so,” Kaoné replied. “I didn’t see the dragon, myself, but Rebehka did. As did Mark, here.”

“It was pretty intimidating, I’ll admit,” Mark said. “Is that… common?”

“Common, no,” Kaoné said. “But Critical Infection Incidents are starting to occur with increased frequency, recently.”

“You don’t think there’s gonna be another war, do you?” Austin questioned.

“According to Pallan, we’re supposed to be the ones who make sure that doesn’t happen…” Twy muttered.

“Personally, I’d ignore anythin’ that old bastard says,” Davídrius declared. “This Nanocreature problem is a problem, sure, but y’all shouldn’t be focusin’ on that right now.”

“Yeah, the Bleeders are a lot more relevant to us, aren’t they?” Sky pointed out. Immediately, a pained expression crossed Davídrius’s face, as though he were reminded of a topic he had hoped to forget.

“Is something wrong?” Luke questioned. “I noticed while we were flying in that some of the defenses here seemed beefed up. Did something happen while we were gone?”

“Selind and the Defense Force have been workin’ on the defenses ever since Hunger’s Bane,” Davídrius pointed out, and then looked at Luke and Mark. “She’s been askin’ over an’ over about when y’all would come back, actually. Apparently, she thinks y’all can help a lot.”

“We’ll do our best to live up to that expectation,” Mark replied.

Davídrius passed Mark a blank glance. “…Right. Still… hate to say it, but somethin’ did happen while y’all were gone. Just last night, we got word that Compound Brukan out west got raided.”

“Brukan…? That’s just a day’s drive outside of Tresnon!” Kaoné exclaimed.

“I know…” Davídrius replied with a scowl. “We’d sent part of the Defense Force over there just a week ago to shore up the place, and they put up a damn good fight. But Strén and that Feral woman were there.” He stopped to take a deep breath before continuing, “in the end, the Bleeders leveled the place…”

A heavy silence befell the group in the wake of Davídrius’s words. It wasn’t until a couple seconds later that Kaoné broke the silence, asking hopefully, “were there any survivors?”

“Yeah, a few. We took ‘em in. Selind’s handlin’ gettin’ ‘em settled here in Tresnon,” Davídrius answered. “But… we only rescued a couple hundred. Brukan should’ve had a couple thousand people…”

“…Damn,” Spike muttered.

“It seems pretty clear that we need to do something about the Bleeders, and soon,” Luke declared. “Deans, what’s the plan, there?”

“That’s what I’m here to talk about,” Davídrius replied. “You, Kaoné, Mark — follow me. We need to talk about our anti-Bleeder efforts.”

“I wanted to talk some about the metallic infection, too, so this works out,” Kaoné remarked.

“What about us?” Austin questioned, “this involves us, too, right?”

“The whole point is to not involve you students,” Davídrius countered. “If we end up needin’ your help, then it means everythin’s gone to absolute shit.”

“Don’t worry, Austin,” Luke added, flashing a quick smile at his nephew. “I’ll take care of this. You and your friends just focus on school, for now.”

“And we need to get goin’,” Davídrius insisted as he turned around and began to leave. Kaoné quickly followed suit, accompanied by Luke and Mark.

“Things sure have gotten… exciting, lately, haven’t they?” Twy questioned as she watched the four leave the airport.

“That’s one way to put it!” Sky exclaimed. “I don’t even know what to expect, anymore!”

“I would’ve hoped we could expect safety…” Austin muttered.

“Unfortunately, that’s not what we got,” Spike remarked. “…But, in the end, it’s like Kaoné said: we can’t dwell too long on this shit.” He then looked over at the other three. “So how’s about we head back to the dorms and play some games?”

“…Well, I guess we might as well…” Austin responded as the four finally set out from the airport themselves, leaving the area empty once more.