Danielle had walked into the same conference room early that next morning, finding Al the first one there this time. “So, what did they say?”

“I will run through the last of what has been arranged,” Al said as he pulled a set of screens up. “But you won’t be directing operations anymore. We are pulling you to work deployment coordination. Vrey and I don’t really see much eye to eye, but whether he wanted to accept it or not, our opposition leaves us with no choice but to adapt and that means more experience where it matters. But until that day comes, thanks to messy politics and just the mere thought that the moniker ‘Harbinger’ would cause a stir to be certain, we have to play this one step at a time.” He then pulled up squadron formation and grouping format screens to the front. “We are allowing anti-LTAC squadrons to be formed, each needing their own coordinator and trainer. This is where you step in. You will be the first to test this platform in Dhaka, but they did award us two weeks training and some new members.” He then pointed to the top formation labeled ‘Flex Four’. “This is what I could patch up based on what you gave me last night. Find a way to get this to fit in within your pilots personal attributes as best as you can.” He then let out a chuckle thinking of the irony of the situation. “I really would’ve had this sit down with people like you from day one if I truly took the time to realize how ridiculously ill-prepared each trained pilot was for anti-LTAC combat. Did Vrey honestly think there’d be only riots to control?”

Danielle let out a sigh as she took a seat two seats down. “I don’t know if these kids know what they truly are volunteering themselves for. I really need a sit-down real soon with them, but it’s just so hard to figure out the best way to be fully open and honest without, you know, scaring them. This isn’t a war, yet it still is.”

“You keep calling them kids,” Al noted. “Aren’t they mid-twenties?”

“Ha, they’re still kids to me, but you’re right. Kerry is engaged to marry someone across the globe next spring, and Andre has been working several full-time jobs over the years to support his sick mother. They’ve had more normal, adult lives than I ever got to experience. I don’t want to believe I am helping ruin their chances at returning to their much more normal lives, but damn it I can’t just let things go without getting my hands involved. Just like you obviously can’t, either.”

“It has consumed and cost me a lot on my end, I must admit,” he added with a troubled sigh. “But I fully understand where you are coming from. A little too well.” He then pulled up a training schedule that needed filling as he continued: “Anyway, find you some men. If you need help plugging in spots, don’t hesitate to reach out, but hopefully finding two good pilots who are available for transfer shouldn’t be too tough.”

▽　▽　▽

Later that morning, the three were on a flight to Singapore. They sat in a privately partitioned space, separated from the rest of the Infinity members who joined them on their trip. Danielle was half awake, attempting to benefit from the caffeine in her coffee. Andre was content to stare out the window as he listened to music through his earphones. Kerry was lost in thought, thinking back to the black box footage she saw of the last three shots Danielle took that cleanly took down the last three enemy LTACs in less than two seconds with nearly zero targeting assistance, which still had her bewildered.

The fasten seatbelt light went off with a ding, cueing the two younger pilots to remove their restraints as they stretched out, slouching slightly into a more comfortable position.

“Ms. Norris, what do you really think of your new job?” Andre asked after yawning, removing his earpieces.

“Doesn’t matter what I think,” she responded without looking up from her coffee. “I doubt it could have been any other way. I hold my promises, and I expect everyone else to hold theirs.”

“Ms. Norris,” Kerry interrupted as she decided now would be the time to ask what had been bugging her since that meeting. “What exactly is the whole story on you Harbingers? You never said you were one.”

Danielle closed her eyes as she sat back, taking a moment before looking back to her. She preferred the topic being brought up rather than trying to find a way to do it herself, after all. “What do you not know about the title? I thought you kids learned more than enough from your current events classes. Didn’t you graduate college just two years ago?”

“I got my degree in mechanical engineering, not political science,” she snubbed before straightening her posture. “I am talking about what you had us do. We followed you like you were the book, but that guy said you were training us differently. Does that apply to everyone you trained? And why? Why would it have anything to do with being a Harbinger?”

“I see what you mean, and I knew it’d come to this one day if I lived through it,” Danielle responded with a chuckle. “I had made some poor, poor decisions before, and ever since making things right, I continue to do so without feeling like I have to announce my position on everything to the world. The world never wants to understand, anyway.” She then looked back at Kerry, seeing she wasn’t going to be satisfied without a direct answer. “We were the ones to survive the first interspace war with certain records. Government propaganda or sense of pride amongst the surviving pilots? Make your pick. We got our titles. Come the second interspace war? We already got pre-sorted into our custom-tailored messes, survived those, kept getting better, more efficient at things we never asked to become skilled in. It really got us screwed up in the head over time. What is a Harbinger, you ask? You are asking that question in the wrong era. Mr. Knight is one to stick to concepts he works comfortably within. Me being one means nothing to me. Bringer of change? That’s what we all should be striving to do, not just the ones with a convenient label.”

“So, you are trying to do your own thing even if it endangered the lives of others because you felt it was right?”

“Damn right I was,” Danielle subtly shot back. “You know you weren’t brainwashed. You knew exactly what to do to survive and here you are. Why else would you be? Same for Barakat, who’s still alive and breathing, right? I knew things would become what they have one day. We just live in a different era with different names for the same human problems. I saw who I worked with when I worked with you all,” she continued in a more lecturing tone. “All thirty-six of you. Even though I am only looking at the last two I remained in contact with, I saw kids looking to be tossed in similar situations with… the book, the only thing to depend on. What we are about to take on in the next two weeks is proof that what Hexa up top has you doing should be labeled as dangerous at best.”

“To be completely honest,” Kerry responded while keeping her eyes at level, “I felt there was no other choice given the situation. I have spent the past month at the squad leader level that was forced onto me. I didn’t mind in the end, I guess. I know what you mean when you say all that- I feel the same way, too, in a sense. But…” she trailed off as something made her feel defeated and look away. “I see. If we followed protocol, that first attack had us regroup center. We’d have been picked off like everyone else who followed protocol, almost like they read us beforehand.” She then thought back to the last encounter with the attackers before she lost contact with the two:

-----------------------------

“Hold position!” Kerry heard Danielle shout over their channel from within her Ap-50.

The skies were starting to darken as storm clouds rolled in, cutting out what visible sky was left between the tall buildings that surrounded the street from which she stood. Using the LTAC’s feet, she slowly inched her way back towards the intersection that split three different directions, one being towards a drainage ditch and a bridge over it. “Ready to fire the bait shots. Let me know the coordinates.”

“Incoming NOx trails two blocks northeast of you,” Andre spoke over the same channel. “From their patterns so far, this means Cloak should be-”

Kerry heard the sound of shots fired, severed metal and split concrete, triggering her instincts to run. Instead, she bit down, fighting off the fear just long enough to drop her rifle, grabbing two grenades. She heaved one directly toward the sound of the noise before dropping one at her feet. She quickly hit the boosters towards the bridge, hearing both explosions go off, knowingly putting all the nearby buildings to the blasts in a state of crumble. All she could think to do then was trust the process she had built in. She then heard a familiar pair of explosions not too far from that intersection she abandoned, knowing that was Danielle, but needed to check on Andre once she found her way under the bridge. “Andre! Do you read!?” She checked the corner of her screen to see both of their radio lines weren’t active anymore, sending panic through her nerves. “Director Norris! Andre! Are y’all still with me?!” An ensuing explosion had her feel a sinking feeling before the louder sounds of crumbling buildings had her return to finding a safe position under the overpass.

Unbeknownst to Kerry, the grenade she threw to Andre’s location knocked an enemy LTAC to the ground before the building toppled on top of it. On the other side of that same building, Andre’s Ap-50 had just edged itself far enough away to avoid the same fate.

The Cloaked LTAC that had dove into Kerry’s original location was now too clouded with dust to see due to the grenade she dropped before retreating.

-----------------------------

“I have to admit, I was really scared. I heard that building fall on y’all. I thought it might’ve been me causing it. And then I thought I was dead for sure. So, now I can’t help but think that… all this kind of stuff… just… comes natural to you?”

Danielle leaned forward, placing her coffee on the table in front. “That’s what I have been trying to have you all primed to do. Just… handle business. You can’t think for even a second. And I figure since neither of you have run off with the chances given to just simply cash out, you must have something motivating you in ways I couldn’t have done myself.” She then sat back in her chair, crossing her arms. “I’ll be honest, too. I would’ve convinced anyone else to leave, but not you two. Seeing I am still in this whole deal for the longer run, you two kids don’t know how happy it makes me to see you still here.”

“Question, we really are going back to Dhaka, aren’t we?” Andre joined in, seeing Danielle nod. “Yeah, I won’t even try to be all philosophical and what not. Just worried about one thing, really. It’d better be more pilots than just me and Kerry this time around,” he said with a laugh. “I am not about to go through all that again.”

“No, of course not,” Danielle calmly replied. “I was promised two more. We got a lot to work on, but for now, let’s not worry about who it is just yet.”

Dhaka Arc Preface

It was the fall of the Confederacy that catalyzed economic crashes similar to what was experienced in Colombia, but in some corners of the world, it was much worse. For southeast Asia, the two largest spheres of influence during the height of the Confederacy were China and India. Once India had been no longer obligated to redistribute its portion of the larger region’s GDP, Bangladesh and Myanmar were two of the first to feel its effects in full. It was especially difficult for Dhaka’s residents, as a partially completed rebuild of the capital city had just hit its last phases before it came to a crashing halt. 90% of the city had its divisions redrawn and relabeled in precincts, receiving new construction of many buildings present including heftily upgraded infrastructure. Each reconstruction phase came precinct by precinct, and before construction the scheduled precinct’s citizens and businesses would be the first to relocate to the first cleared and rebuilt precinct. The abandoned area would be rebuilt, then the next would move in. The cycle would continue until the whole city was rebuilt. When the confederacy was dissolved, only 60% of the city was rebuilt, 10% in the abandoned phase. Demands to resume reconstruction fell on deaf ears as no one could draw up the funds necessary to continue them, and many angry political activist groups demanded compensation from the nations that were contracted originally. The ruling BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party), however, disapproved of pursuing such a route as it would cause further tensions in trade relations with India and China, leaving the activist groups no choice but to continue garnering attention through various means, both violent and non-violent. The government was quick to hire Hexa’s services to help keep the peace, but the abandoned precincts unknowingly served as efficient preparation grounds for an unexpectedly strong surge in anti-government and anti-foreign aid resistance. With their decline in popularity for using Infinity’s services, BNP politicians were quick to experience cold feet and are now moving to distance themselves from the partnership in order to keep their position as ruling party over the next elections.

Infinity had kept a persistent presence at first for the early months, but as of late had been suffering a wave of injuries and deaths, gravely tarnishing their reputation as providers of a marketable profession. But to Hexa, bowing to the BNP’s pressure and giving up on their contract might prove to be a greater blow to their reputation. The dilemma on how to handle the situation enters its final hours: push back with a ramp up in the use in violent force, or back out before events spiral out of control at the risk of other nations losing faith in their services.

●　● Dhaka, Bangladesh

The sounds of rain assaulting the windows and patios lining the restaurant where Marian had just taken her seat mixed well with the ambient noises from the crowds inside, creating an atmosphere she for some reason seemed to be soaking in. She looked across the table for two at the younger woman dressed in a seemingly expensive designer’s pants suit and began to speak: “I loved what I smelled walking back here; I think I was passing the kitchen just now,” she spoke of the restaurant located in the New Bashundhara Shopping Center.

The woman had long, coffee-brown, curling-ironed hair pulled into two trailing ponytails hanging over the front side of each shoulder, complementing the low hanging earrings she wore. Her returning smile also matched the strong gaze her dark brown eyes gave off as she spoke back with a stout Bengali accent: “So, I take it you’ve enjoyed your stay thus far, Ms. Cable?”

Marian was for once dressed up as well, unable to match the same level of flair but nonetheless paired up in full business attire. “I have, thank you, and I can’t wait to try this Kacchi Biryani you recommended. But at this rate, it might not matter what you got me as everything seems wonderful,” she responded, appetite fully aroused by the aromas of various spices, meats, and stews.

“It’s a shame your partner could not make it. There is so much to see here in this area, and I can only hope to be good company until you meet with my father.”

“He’s…” too busy to enjoy just a few minutes of his life… “just been tied up with projects that never seem to end.” She then thought back to the objective of her meeting with the woman. Her name was Taneesha Sur, and she was the daughter of the First Secretary of State of Bangladesh. Although she would admit to caving into her guilty pleasures of indulging in Earthside-only exquisite cuisines, she knew not to lose sight of the task at hand. “That does remind me, though. Ms. Sur, I do need to ask a personal question if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, Ms. Cable, of course,” she responded with a smile, leaning forward intently.

“You do realize your father has the power to help end the latest problems with the capital city here and it won’t have to involve the mayor whatsoever. Could you, in order to help me better approach this meeting in the best way possible, tell me why he’s so invested in the mayor as of late?” I have to be careful not to mention Hexa. Not sure who here could have any mixed feelings, after all.

“You have to understand,” she replied with a calm tone, “this is how our recent history has been and you should know that. People, especially politicians, think that any time we have a party change, it has to be counteracted with another party change. Our family wants to take caution and take the proper amount of time required to fix that, as does the Prime Minister. And because for once, unlike recent past, we actually agree on something major with the current and opposition parties: we want Hexa out.”

No shit. Tell me something we all don’t know.

“But we can’t just rush to emotional decisions like many expect us to, and this is still something we can’t let the public know just yet. Let me remind you that is why we are arranging this meeting. I trust you have the information we need. But you have to understand that we must support our current party’s constituents, including Dhaka’s mayor. All we need to do is give him your information after we determine how useful it is, and we can work on removing the biggest eyesore of a contract from our government’s spending. I promise you citizen and government relations will improve from that point.”

Before she could continue, two plates of biryani were placed in front of them, once again stealing Marian’s attention. “Sorry, I promise I’m listening,” she replied instead. “Is this… this is lamb, isn’t it.”

“Of course, marinated lamb for this one.” She waited to take her first bite, instead finding humor watching Marian so completely absorbed in the experience.

“I haven’t had lamb in more than ten years. This is too amazing…” Marian spoke with her mouth full, making up for the lack in manners with the compromise of holding a hand over her talking mouth.

After a brief chuckle, Taneesha continued: “Again, we want you to see how great Dhaka is on the verge of becoming. We can only do it with our mayor and our Prime Minister working together. Let me continue to show you after our meal, please, and you might change your perspective.”

Marian struggled to keep focus initially through the intense flavors and tenderness of the lamb, but the last statement had her thoughts gathered up once more. Typical blind party loyalty to the BNP, something to note. Will just have to wait and see how the Secretary of State reacts to the package we brought and see how pliable his direction is.

“What if my father remains firm with his support of Mayor Biswas? Is this going to trouble your plans?”

Marian swallowed prematurely upon hearing her called bluff.

“Isn’t your intention to ensure the removal of Hexa from Bangladesh? Or am I sensing something else?” she continued with a colder gaze.

“Ms. Sur,” Marian said as she straightened her posture, clearing her throat. “You threw me off with such a change in tone. You had me thinking you gravely misunderstood my message,” she continued firmly. “My one and only drive is to see Hexa gone from the face of the Earth. I have no interests vested in this country other than that one goal set for myself and my business partner. I came to ensure your father can deliver proof needed to do just that. Is that not why we met? Or could you explain how you misinterpreted my intentions?”

Taneesha now elected to take her first bite, relaxing her posture. “You must realize this is what I do for a living. I cannot afford to be caught off guard, so please excuse my reactions. No offense intended, Ms. Cable.”

Rex said specifically to work with this chick and her father, but something says this whole party reeks of political sidestepping and she brought it with her. Definitely something I don’t trust here… maybe I should venture out on my own a bit tomorrow and spot someone to speak with in the Awami League Party instead of sticking with her and the ruling BNP… someone who we know for a fact is ready to quickly and aggressively wash the slate clean with this country.

…

But I digress. She looked back up as she took a sip from her cup of tea, enjoying the moment sans anything to do with the person in front of her before continuing with a forged smile. “Apologies for the wrong turns in the direction of our activities. Let’s move forward as we arranged.”