PART IV: DoubtRAKONBERG, GELRA

  After the matter with Sireli was settled, the CSS Legend was immediately sent to Gelra for their next mission.

  For years, the Gactic Confederacy and a separatist faction, the Rebellion, have fought over the contested city of Rakonberg. The struggle had been going on since before the official decration of war. To make matters worse, both sides have been fueling a civil war also taking pce in the region.

  Hoping to bring an end to the long stalemate, troops from the Regis and Fontem Fleets were sent to Gelra to re-establish Confederate authority by wiping out the Rebels. The Legend was joined by the Fontem fgship, the CSS Capitalist, and both were constantly sending shuttles full of munitions and supplies to reinforce the run-down GSAF post.

  While the higher-ups discuss tactics, Raine and a group of soldiers idly chat around a burn barrel while eating grilled meat of questionable origin.

  RAKONBERG, GELRA, GSAF OCCUPATION BASE (3 WEEKS AFTER STAR’S RECOVERY)

  “Gimme two of the kabobs on the far left!” Raine barks to the soldier in front of the grill. “No, my left, dumbass!”

  Sitting down, Raine takes a few puffs from a cigarette while struggling to stomach the kabob. Whatever it was made from, she wouldn’t even feed it to a starving criminal. To add insult to injury, despite being a self-styled xenohunter, Raine hates meat. Smoking while eating helped dull its fvor.

  “Goddammit, I can’t believe we got deployed here,” she compins to the group. “It’s only been three days, but it feels like a friggin’ month!”

  Currently, there were two others with her: a dark-skinned scout with her hair tied back with a bandana and a bald Silencer soldier with cold eyes chewing on a toothpick.

  “I feel you, sister,” the scout agrees wearily. “I just wanna sleep in my bed again. The bivouacs gave me eczema.”

  “By the way, are the rumors true?” Raine asks her. “Are the Reds really trying to take Rakonberg so they can rebuild the city?”

  “I dunno, but I kinda hope they are,” she answers. “After that st civil war, these locals have it harder than most. Especially children, the warlords have started preparing them for war since all the grown-ups are dead.”

  “Yeah, and with Broken Rings Mafia backing the Monarchs…” Raine trails off, choosing not to finish her thought. After all, due to being a country girl, she didn’t want to try empathizing with those living in an urban warzone. She may not be wealthy, but compared to the citizens of Rakonberg, Raine had a sheltered childhood.

  “Well, I don’t,” the Silencer said gruffly in response to Raine’s previous question. “Regardless of whatever pity potatoes the Rebellion’s doling out, they’re traitors squatting on Confederate nd, nothing more. Once we give ’em the boot, anyone who took their handouts will be treated as a colborator.”

  “But in all the time we’ve been here, we haven’t done so much as offered a bag of chips,” the scout argues back. “Isn’t that, y’know, unneighborly?”

  “We’re here to keep the city out of enemy hands, not solve their food crisis.”

  Seeing that tensions were escating between them, Raine quickly changed the subject. “Speaking of a food crisis, these kabobs taste like sand! Where the barbecue sauce at?”

  “The base used up all condiments a week ago,” the Silencer replied. “Sorry.”

  “Hey there,” piped a familiar voice. “Got room for one more?”

  All the soldiers except for Raine jump at the sight of Valerie, her long shadow stretching over them. Based on the fact her clothes and boots weren’t covered in dirt, it seemed she just nded.

  “Sure, pull up a box, V!” said Raine. “And you gotta try this.”

  Raine hands her little sister the unfinished kabob. Valerie sniffs warily but shrugs and takes a bite. “Ugh, yuck!” she retches. “Why’d you give this to me!?”

  “I never said it was any good,” Raine confirms. Valerie was still spitting bits of it onto the ground, and the other two soldiers struggled to hold in their ughter.

  “Seriously, what’s this stuff even made of…?” she groans before flicking her kabob into the fire. Raine just pats her on the back while continuing to smoke. “Anyway, Raine, I didn’t come by to eat mystery meat. I’ve something to tell you. In private.”

  Raine nods knowingly and puts out her cigarette. She stands up and follows Valerie to a more hidden area behind the barracks.

  “So, how’s it looking, little sis?” Raine asks. “Are we gonna win this soon?”

  “Yeah,” Valerie tells her. “Now that the GFB received our weapon caches, they’ll take care of the Rakonberg Monarchs. Meanwhile, we got stuck with the hard job: driving away the Rebellion.”

  “GFB?” Raine tilts her head curiously. “The hell does that mean? ‘Girls Fucking Boys?’”

  “No, you whore! It stands for ‘Gelra Freedom Brigade!’” Valerie scolds. “But it is a stupid name. If I decide to rebrand, remind me not to use a misleading acronym.” Realizing she’s getting off-topic, Valerie clears her throat.

  “Besides, that doesn’t even concern us right now. I’ve been given a special assignment by the big brass,” she continues. “We think the Rebellion is receiving a QFBM with their next supply drop.”

  A QFBM is a Human WMD simir to a hydrogen warhead from the Dark Era. However, by harnessing the power of quantum fusion, QFBMs can fly faster and cause more damage than their ancient counterparts. Some missiles can even travel across pnets to destroy their target.

  “What!?” Raine gasps.

  “Hush, keep it down!” Valerie hisses. “And don’t get your striped panties in a twist. They don’t have a silo to unch it, so they’re going to build one deep in their base.”

  “Bull and Lieutenant Lynch are leading the main assault, but my orders are to form an elite team.” Valerie pauses and gives Raine a knowing look. “We’re gonna sneak through their walls to destroy that silo and their warhead.”

  “Gotcha,” Raine replies. “So, how many we taking?”

  “Four: me, you, Khan, and Lewis. And we’re traveling by hoverbike,” said Valerie. “Oh, that reminds me, my license is about to expire. Remind me to renew it the next time we get shore leave.”

  Normally, Valerie expects Raine to chortle, but this time her face falls. “But V, shouldn’t you be taking it easy?”

  “Why?”

  “You know why!” Raine yells again. “Like, it hasn’t even been a month! If you overexert yourself again–”

  “I don’t think a rge amount of power will be necessary for this mission.” Valerie takes Raine’s hands in hers to comfort her. The hardened veteran looks up and lets herself get lost in the deep blue eyes of her silver-haired best friend. “Just trust me, like always.”

  All active personnel report to designated briefing locations. Repeat all active personnel to briefing locations.

  The sound of the PA system makes both women perk up. “That’s our cue,” said Valerie. “Put on your big girl pants, Raine, ’cuz it’s time to go to work.”

  Raine smirks and jogs after her, excited to fight side-by-side with Valerie. Four words: friends to the end, she says to herself. That’s what me and V are. ’Nuff said.

  RAKONBERG, GELRA, REBEL OCCUPATION BASE CENTRAL

  After disabling the perimeter’s security systems, Valerie, Raine, Lewis, and Khan charge in through the entrance. However, more than a dozen Broken Rings soldiers were waiting for them.

  “Aw, fuck!” Raine swears. Using one of the Rings’ trucks for cover, she fires her gun blindly from behind it, signaling for Khan and Lewis to go around. As she reloads, she spots a ser dot aimed right at her chest.

  “Fuck…” she swears again.

  *whoosh* BOOM

  Valerie fires a psionic bst at the sniper tower, destroying the structure and saving her friend. Meanwhile, Khan snipes stragglers while Lewis skillfully assassinates a few with his tomahawk, using his armor’s cloaking device to move around unseen. By combining their abilities, the four of them make steady progress.

  “I see the silo! 10 o’clock!” Raine yells while pointing.

  “Roger!” Valerie answers. “I also see their QFBM, but it looks off… I can sense something’s not right. These gangsters are hiding something.”

  “Hmm, indeed.” Crouched in a safe spot, Lewis has his phone pointed at the missile. “Each radiation scan I take returns a slightly different value. Whatever it is, it isn’t a normal nuke.”

  “Let’s get a closer look,” Valerie commands. Taking the lead, she teleports into the air with a flip and fires both her guns as she falls, nding with her knee on the ground like a superhero. Not only was the move dramatic, she also cleared the path to the silo.

  “On me!”

  Eventually, all the Rings in the base were killed with bdes, bullets, blunt force, psionics, or a combination of the four. A dying ringleader was one of the st ones still alive. Raine recognized him as the one she castrated just for kicks before chopping off his left hand with her machete. She was surprised he hadn’t passed out from pain or blood loss yet.

  “No… no…”

  The wounded Ring crawls away pathetically on three remaining appendages in a pointless attempt to escape, leaving behind a slick trail of gore. Raine stops him by stepping on his back, crushing him with the weight of her power armor.

  “Give up, crook,” she sneers. “Your goons are dead, you’re bleeding out, and honestly, you ain’t my type.”

  Not like I can get much fun out of you anyway, dickless… she thinks. She then takes her foot off and lifts him up by his hair while pressing her dirty machete on his neck.

  “Start talking if you want me to end it quick.”

  “I… owe…” Out of spite, the ringleader tries to shoot Raine with his sidearm. She swiftly kicks it away–

  CRACK

  –and stomps on his other hand.

  Valerie cringes at the ringleader’s piercing wails of agony. She may love Raine to bits (ptonically, of course), but for all her loyalty and mellowness, her big sister also has an intense sadistic streak. Raping, pilging, and torturing may make her smile, but not Valerie. And that’s just with Humans; she’s even worse when fighting aliens.

  “‘Us an expnation?’ You bet your ass you do!” Raine shouts.

  “Stand down, Raine,” Valerie orders, unable to watch anymore. “‘Truth or Punch’ doesn’t seem to be working here.”

  Kneeling down, Valerie puts a hand on the ringleader’s blood-soaked head. She closes her eyes and focuses her telepathy, forming a direct link between their thoughts. Compared to verbal communication, telepathic links were both faster and infallible.

  You and I both know that isn’t a real missile.

  Fragment came up with a pn to bluff GSAF with decoy QFBMs. That was a prototype we received for evaluation.

  My scout called your bluff. This pn wasn’t very well thought out. Did your boss think she could fool us that easily?

  We just wanted GSAF to leave without causing too much damage.

  So your boss could have a stable position in the Taecho Sector? From here, she can strike at Eagle Collective, right?

  So… the city… knows… freedom…

  Once the ringleader finally succumbs to his injuries, the link automatically ends. Valerie opens her eyes and sighs. He may have been a criminal, but the sadness she felt with him during his death brought her to the brink of tears.

  “He’s dead,” confirmed Khan.

  “I got what I needed,” Valerie responds. “Khan, head to the front and inform the General that these warheads are of no threat. It was all a ruse, a very bad one.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Khan slings his rifle over his shoulder and leaves. Now, Valerie can be alone with just her friends, her Mirror Squad.

  “What about us?” asked Lewis. After taking off her helmet, Valerie faces them and lowers her voice.

  “Come with me. I saw something in that gangster’s mind that I want to look into.”

  RAKONBERG, GELRA, REBEL OCCUPATION BASE OPS CENTER

  For the st few minutes, Lewis and Valerie have been hard at work, breaking firewalls and downloading data into their armor while Raine covers their exfil. Eventually, Lewis is the first to speak up:

  “Vice General, I have good news and bad news.”

  “Good news first, please,” she tells him.

  “I was able to download some Broken Rings files before I got locked out. Mostly inventory records, but I did swipe some tactical information.”

  “Forward those to Bull,” Valerie replies absentmindedly, still focused on her on her own console. However, she soon gets locked out as well. “Damn!” she yells before hitting it with her fist, leaving a big dent in the top.

  “And the bad news?” asks Raine.

  “Well, bad is such a subjective term and–”

  “Get to the point, kid,” Raine commands firmly. Being much younger than most of Mirror Squad, Lewis often feels like the odd man out. Often vexed with Raine and her teasing, he prefers Valerie, the woman who took a chance on him and treats him like an equal.

  “This ringleader was telling, or rather thinking, the truth,” he continues. “Your suspicions were right, Vice General. This base had far more food and nutritional synthesizers in storage than necessary. Almost double the amount required for an outpost of this size.”

  Valerie is speechless, but Raine isn’t so reserved. “Well, toss me a crayon and color me surprised,” she quips. “The Reds were trying to do the right thing.”

  “We don’t know for sure if that’s the reason,” Lewis adds. “The media could spin it as a–”

  “Who the hell cares what the shills say on TV? Once they see this, the public will come to the same conclusion,” Valerie interrupts callously. “Congress hasn’t been in their good graces, and something like this right after an election could be catastrophic.”

  “Hmph, I can see the headlines already: ‘Gangsters Rebuild Cities, the Military Lets Them Starve.’ Not very fttering, huh?” Even though Raine was being sarcastic, unfortunately, her prediction was valid.

  “Yeah, if something like that goes viral–” Lewis begins.

  “It won’t,” Valerie interrupts again. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  “Why do you two never let me finish my sentences?” compins Lewis.

  “’Cuz we’re bigger than you. We’re higher in the food chain,” replied Raine while puffing out her chest. At only 164 centimeters (three centimeters shorter than Raine), Lewis is quite insecure about his diminutive stature.

  “That isn’t how the food chain works,” Lewis retorts. “Shouldn’t you know that as a hunter?”

  Valerie holds up a hand to silence their quibbling before giving them an order: “Raine, Lewis, erase this moment from your suits and keep what we saw to yourselves. Got it?”

  “V, we can’t just–”

  “I hate this decision too, but it’s for the best.” Raine snorts dismissively.

  “Yeah, but it also ain’t the first time we’ve done something like this with you.” She looks to Lewis for support. “Right, Byleth?” He nods in agreement.

  “Every time we find something scandalous, you tell us to cover it up,” she continues, “It’s been happening more often, and we all got one question: you gonna do something about this shit, V?”

  Unsure how to answer, Valerie just looks at the two somberly, using her empathy to sense their feelings. Raine’s emerald green eyes burn with a desire to make a stand while Lewis’ artificially-colored neon green ones wait patiently for a more pragmatic response.

  “I… I don’t know,” Valerie finally stammers. “And I know you two deserve a better answer.”

  CSS LEGEND, STAR’S QUARTERS (2 HOURS LATER)

  ???: …And you kept this from Bull?

  Valerie: He’s a Confederate through and through. He won’t get it.

  ???: But he is your teacher and your significant other. He will listen to your opinions and attempt to understand them.

  Valerie: Hey, I love Isaac more than anything… but he loves the state more than me.

  Valerie: It makes our retionship challenging sometimes. Especially because he likes fighting, but I just want to settle down.

  ???: What is “settling down?”

  Valerie: It means to live a simple, happy life. For me, that means us getting married, buying a house, and having two kids.

  Valerie: Eventually, Bull will realize that’s far more fulfilling than being a soldier.

  ???: Be truthful about how you feel.

  Valerie: It’s not easy to do that! If you were in love, you’d understand, and I know how Veriyans think about marriage!

  ???: …

  ???: Our connection must now be severed. Will we speak again after one of your weeks like usual?

  Valerie: Yes.

  Valerie: It’s still hard to believe you’re still risking your neck just to talk to me. Worse, I can’t believe I’m doing the same.

  ???: You and I are alike. That bonds us.

  Valerie: Is this another Veriyan thing?

  ???: No, it is… my own “thing.”

  ???: Besides, I am confident this is a secure line, our superiors will never find out.

  ???: Aka’ilun, vaxa’kiv.

  Valerie: Aka’ilun, Sireli.