Gaston recovered his strength. Although there was safety here in the outpost base of the Babaika Lions. The thread of the Ahra Cult lingered. Gaston didn’t want to be caught unprepared. He didn’t want to be surprised by anything.

He readied himself. Made sure that the exoskeleton he was wearing was functional. Under the light he looked seriously stared at his exoskeleton-clad hands. The lackluster expression that Gaston had was long gone. If before he was always looking like was half-bored. The Gaston who was calibrating his exoskeleton was a face of coldness.

Although the nation was currently fighting the storming events. There was no reaction here other than the grim looks they have on the TV’s mounted on the wall. Ever since Gaston had connected his line back to the worldwide net. All the shows were focused on the calamity that the nation was resisting with their best.

Gaston stayed in one place for an hour before he moved around. His first stop was the command center where he would be able to monitor the drones that were capturing footage all over the country.

On the screen was the amount of cameras that they were using. Gaston dragged the cursor to the application software and booted up the footage. He took the swivel chair, and browsed through the feed data. Most of the country was still in terror. If there was one pattern in the screen he was watching then it was the amount of damage that has been done to the automated defense grid system repelling the damage.

Each storming event damaged the systems. Most of the area facing the behemoth-class is also on the brink of being broken. The system might overload if this kind of external pressure keeps up. Gaston thought.

The overloaded defense system. The constant extermination of the biomass entities. And the spreading beyond storming happening in the branch of the consortium. Gaston took a clip of the footage near the storming event. He cut off most of the footage of his actions towards the corvette-class ship and decided to send it to the authorities in the UEDF. This action was rather a breach of his contract, but he also knew that there was something that needed to be done in order for Neo-Tokyo to survive this excursion.

It was a golden gate incident waiting to happen. Gaston did not wish such a thing happening and so he thought of sending the UEDF of the footage. Sending such footage was equal to pointing a big target on the base of the consortium. It was the same as asking for the people of the UEDF to destroy this area with or without the consent of the government of japan. It was an awful agreement that took two years for every signed nation to agree with. The UEDF was willing to offend the nation if it meant that they could destroy the source.

The split-realm was still a concept that little did they know about. It was not time to hesitate. He only gave what he saw. It was better for them to decide earlier than later. Nonetheless they would decide the fate of the branch once they get a hold of it.

Gaston felt no pleasure in doing it. He held his head with one hand. The feelings of bioenergy rumbling in him. The stirring of his insides made him want to puke. It has been long since he was able to fully use some of his bioenergy after all.

I still know how to control it. Good. Thank God that the Golden Gate incident didn’t cause me the inability to use my abilities. Gaston thought.

Gaston was not a fighter. He repeated that to himself as he adjusted the exoskeleton that he was calibrating. Gaston thought that Ayumi would probably keep it a secret that he was an Exemplar.

She should be safe. I can’t imagine what the network is. Does she have the ability to pass on? Are there backups if she passes? Or does it only activate when there is a sign of it being deactivated?

The Overwatch control method of the defense grid was in the hands of Ayumi. With most of the Consortium crew missing-in-action or killed. There was a need for Ayumi to stay alive and keep the nation of Japan defended from split-realm anomalies. It was an odd choice to make for the Consortium. But the role of the Manager and the vice of the Consortium was rather strange. They were somewhat loyal to the nation while Ayumi has some clear circumstances on why she was continuing to provide the overwatch with the Consortium of the Nation defeated.

As for me it was a matter of keeping aware of my contracts. Indeed, he was hired by the Consortium and the Babaika Company, but it didn’t mean that he had true loyalties to them. It was only because Lady Romanov had ideas about their debt that made her secure Janna as well.

The question here is how much did he spend acquiring two exemplars? I doubt she could benefit from us and experimenting with exemplars was impossible because of the difference in how an exemplar and a breaker function.

But Gaston had an idea on why they were taken by the Lady. She wanted the strongest men and women to join her. She was planning something. And even without the disasters. Gaston could guess that she wanted to expand beyond earth’s borders.

The shifted continental plates. The disasters that appeared left and right. It was clear that earth was undergoing an unstable period. And there was one place in the solar system that could somewhat give them a breather from all the troubles on earth.

What the Lady wanted was probably to have enough Capital to make a mars base and extend the reaches of the Babaika Company to the populace of Mars. Mars might have a problem with some of the creatures appearing in the desert and having a mercenary company on Mars would be quite the achievement for any company.

***

Time passed. The storm wrecks the country. A split-realm ship tore through the night and slowly it landed on the outpost of the Babaika Lions on Hammatsu. When the split-realm ship landed all the eyes were gathered on the passengers that came out of the rear.

The first one to exit was a woman with a buster sword she carried on the back. She was fully equipped with an exoskeleton. Her one eye was closed. She was a tall and toned woman. The staff of the Babaika Lions greeted them. They asked for their documents, identification code before they were allowed in the inner complex. Most of the guns were trained at them. But the woman with the buster sword looked at them with a blank expression.

When the woman entered the facility her opened eye went to one of the people walking over. She casually walked to the man with slow and lazy steps before nodding.

“Gaston.”

“Janna. Must be quite a fight.”

“Got out because of the ship. Told the UEDf folks to fuck off after this.”

The two walked out of this corridor and entered a less populated room. Janna placed her buster sword on the side, leading it on the wall. She retracted her exoskeleton armor on the back of her spine where it was held up together in this vest.

She wore a business suit underneath that mechanical vest.

“You fought again?”

“I did. Are we really fighting for Romanov now?”

“She’s our best bet to get to the red planet. She offered me a trip and residency to one of the cities there. No fighting. No more carrying around weapons after that. You saw those images, right?”

“Are they real?”

“Hope so. I managed to get a lot of merit from the UEDF. They’re going to approve of our papers. Then We can have some prefab homes there. Honestly, earth’s doom with all these creatures. I saw what was beyond the interstice. I would rather live on the red planet or in Ganymede if this is what our lives are going to be.”

She placed her hand on the flat of the table. Gaston leaned forward with his elbows on the table. She looked at him with her one eye. “You think they’d really let us go?”

“I don’t know. The UEDF and CERN liked their guard dogs. They aren’t maniacally evil. They aren’t at fault either. Remember, Gaston, it’s only us left now.”

Gaston nodded stiffly.

“The Ahra Cult is going to be a problem. If we want to get good graces from Lady Romanov. Then we must be good hounds.”

“Are we hounds?”

She didn’t answer. “We will get what we want. We just need to be strong. That’s that. Gee, why are you making me say sappy stuff?”

“It's not my fault that you always talk like that. You must be really tired as well.”

Gaston wiped his face with his gloved-hand. Janna pulled her hair back and lifted her head.

She vaulted across the table and sat next to Gaston and leaned her shoulder on him. She took out a lighter from her pockets, handed it to Gaston. He took it and lit the cigarette she bit on her lip. She took a long drag of the cigarette, then handed it to Gaston.

“I thought luckies didn’t exist.”

“There is always. Some are expensive but the client that threw us into hell was kind enough to give me.”

Gaston took a drag of the cigarette as well. He handed the cigarette back to Janna who looked at the burning tip. Her face lit by the glow of the bulb they were under.

“You could give me one.”

“No. You know my reason why I like sharing a single cigarette.”

“A very stupid reason, Janna.”

“Who did I learn to smoke again?”

“Me.”

“See? So let’s just share it. Luckies are very rare these days. I will never understand why they stopped making it or perhaps they just forgot.”

“Of course they forgot. Those imitations can’t compare to the real one after all.”

“Hey, are you going to join in the fight?”

Janna said to Gaston.

“If we are told to. We need to fulfill the contract. Don’t worry. I joined you here for the same reason. But mostly I don’t think I will fight as much. You hate doing it and hate seeing it.”

She blew smoke on Gaston’s face. He was unfazed. He took the cigarette from her and bit the wet filter. He blew rings of smoke. Gaston handed the cigarette back while not minding the smoke. The break room was empty and there was no one to bother them other than the flickering lights of the vending machine.

Gaston blinked hard before opening his eyes slowly. He clenched his hand and then turned on his heads-up display. The tired and longing face that was on him was gone, replaced with a steeled face. Janna as well wore her professional face, hoping no one other than Gaston could see it.

“It’s always good to fight near you, Gaston.”

“I know. I’ll watch your back and you watch mine. Same as ever. Or do you want the opposite this time?”

“No, I can do that. Besides, I always hated the arrangement. Also, I brought you this.”

She took a clawed chrome gauntlet and handed it to Gaston. Gaston wore the gauntlet on his left hand and attached it to the exoskeleton. Then it merged with his left arm and fitted perfectly.

“They actually allowed you to hand it to me?”

“I had it recovered since they were eager to get things done here. They want every piece that they have working hard to save this country. Right now, I want my monster.”

It wouldn't be long until the behemoth started moving. And when that happens there was going to be a need to fight as hard as they could to salvage this situation and get what they want.