Sarah stared at the screens within the Dominion's Command Center on Sigma-64-2, a frozen world within the Dominion's galatically-southern territory. She and her Special Forces had been here for awhile, previously it was one of several training worlds for them, but recently the main base had been expanded due to a war declared upon the Dominion by this new nation known as 'The Inquisition'. Coming from the galactic south of the Dominion, they had blitzed several fringe worlds, and it was expected they'd next invade the Sigma-64 system, as on top of being a training world, it had a stockpile of resources that would be useful for any invader to seize to maintain momentum.

  Of course, that was a few days ago. They'd since arrived, and established their own operating base, from which they had sent several probing strikes against the Dominion base, command of which had been transferred from Sarah and the Special Forces unit, to the Dominion Army. Despite this, she still monitored the tactical data coming into her the command center, which was currently empty. "Colonel. Tell me about this person wearing blue plate armor. They seem to be part of most of the strikes against the base." Sarah asked to her executive officer, Colonel Kizoku.

  "Army's been calling them 'the Frozen Knight'. Seem to have mastered mixing magic with their sword, with a preference for making it look like ice. Whoever they are beneath the helmet, they've proven to be a menace to the army, single-handedly responsible for several defeats along the fringe." Answered Kizoku in his matter-of-fact style. "Their sword also seems to have been enchanted by the Minazuki Dynasty, though how they managed to get that sword from our northern neighbor is currently unknown."

  "An enchanted sword... explains how they've managed to slice through a tank according to these reports. Kizoku, where even is everyone?"

  "Ah? Did he not tell you, General? Apparently the Army General didn't like our setup here, so he had a different command center set up."

  "Of course he did..." Sarah sighs to herself, "Kizoku. How are the troops? MY troops. We both know the Army doesn't care."

  "Well... a bit on edge. They're not very fond of being under someone else's command, especially since they've had several close calls. The fact the enemy leader claims to be your sister isn't helping matters."

  Sarah gritted her teeth on that reminder. "She isn't. Thalia is dead. If she wasn't... if she wasn't they'd have told me." She changes the screen to display a different set of data, trying to remain calm. "This girl who accompanies the Frozen Knight. The young mage with white hair and purple eyes. Wearing the witch hat. What do we know about her?"

  Kizoku shot a sympathetic glance at Sarah, having worked with her since she was a teenager. "Aside from what's detailed in the reports, very little. Very, very little. Aside from what's in the reports, we only know that she has a fondness for purple fires."

  Sarah gave him a quizzical glance. "Purple? You're certain of that?"

  He nodded quickly, a confused expression. "Yes, why? Not a common color, but not unheard of. Don't know what it can tell us about their identity."

  Sarah frowned, beginning to pace back and forth before the screens. "Kizoku. You're old enough to remember the Bloody Hand, right? My Father's 'attack dog'?"

  Kizoku quickly shared Sarah's frown. "Yes. I was a child at the time, but I do. 24 years ago a man went around massacring anyone who spoke badly about Emperor Cygnus, wiping out entire cities for seditious thought. Lasted for four years before all sightings vanished, and the only known traits were white hair, purple eyes and-" his frown grew deeper as he spoke.

  "- and purple magic." Sarah finished for him. "This is a secret, Kizoku, but he didn't just 'vanish'. As far as I have gathered from what is available to me, he defected. Father has had people tracking down any sign of him for these 20 yeas."

  "...Do you think he had a daughter? Is that who we're dealing with?" Kizoku's frown snapped back to normal, realizing the severity of the problem. "If so, I don't think we can stop her. Especially not with that Frozen Knight here. We lack the equipment for it here."

  "Agreed-" Sarah was interrupted by an alarm activating and the screen snapping to a live feed of the Inquisition launching another assault on the base's perimeter. Sarah quickly looked over the footage before whistling as she holds up her arm, a hawk quickly landing on it. "Gale, get me a better view. This assault looks much bigger than before, and I don't think it's a probing assault."

  The hawk looked at her briefly before flying away. "General, I have no idea how you trained a hawk to be a camera drone... and I am still surprised it works. I'll confer with the Army General about the battle plan."

  "Inform him of our conclusions and that we're leaving, Kizoku. Make it clear to him that I am NOT sacrificing my special forces soldiers for his mass produced army men. If he objects, remind him who's taking over for Father."

  "We'll put aside how smart that is from a political aspect, we don't have the time for that. Order acknowledged and understood, but we're going to need more time to evacuate. I'll give the order, however." Kizoku hesitated before leaving to relay the message and give the order. "...Please make sure you don't get shot before you become Empress, General. If anyone's going to be able to reform this place, it's you." With that, he left.

  "Reform it... that's all anyone can do, huh, Kizoku?" Sarah frowned as she continued watching the feed. The Frozen Knight was ripping apart Dominion Grunts like they were nothing, waves of ice spreading from her sword to extend her reach. She then pressed a button on the console in front of her, connecting her to one of her primary engineers. "Lloyd. Please tell me your latest experiment is done."

  "Done? No, your majesty, it is not. I've been working overtime, but it still has several kinks to work out and-"

  Sarah interrupted the man. "Does it WORK?"

  "...Work? Yes. I haven't managed to perfect it, but the G.M.R.-001 does work. Giant Murder Robot. I thought it was cool." The light purple haired man shrugged over the screen upon seeing Sarah not finding it funny.

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  "How fast can you have it deployed? I don't have time to extract it with everyone, and it should buy me time at least."

  "Hmmm? Ten minutes. Five if I ignore some of the safeties. If we don't expect it to come with us, nor expect to keep the base, it doesn't matter if I cause some of the systems here to explode!" Lloyd grins.

  "Fine. Five. Once you got it going, get to evacuation. You're still assigned to work with me, so I expect you to come with me."

  "Of course, Your Majesty!" Lloyd quickly disconnected to get to work, just in time for Sarah to get a call from the Army General.

  "Sarah! The hell do you think you're doing, evacuating your forces without permission?!"

  She sighed. "General. I am preserving the lives of my men. Unlike your army, the special forces are engineered to exacting specifications, and each life is thus much more important than those of your army." She hated herself for saying that, but it was true from the Dominion's perspective.

  "What, because of your theory that this mage is related to your Uncle? Too afraid to fight them?"

  Sarah gritted her teeth again. "General. I do not take kindly to the accusation that you think I would put a distant family relation, that I have never known, above my duty. Certainly not an unproven family relation. No, I simply do not think we have the resources needed to win this engagement." She planted her hands on the console in front of her, as a way to avoid clenching her hands into fists.

  "Then get out here and fight! Do your JOB!"

  "My job is to ensure maximum gain for the Dominion for minimal losses. You will note that I have managed my job better than the rest of you old men! Or do you forget who claimed the world of New Paris for the Dominion?"

  "And then lost it!"

  "Yes, because YOUR forces and the Navy failed to follow through on my beachhead. My special forces are not supposed to engage in a standup fight with the entirety of the Guardians of Sol's Offense Fleet!"

  "Yes of course, you always like to blame others for your failings. Now let me make this clear, either you get out here and help, or I am going to have you censured."

  "If Alexis, she would be asking to shoot you. And she never asks for anything." Sarah spat out through gritted teeth. Was it wise to continue insulting the man? No. She could of course wrap him around her finger, she was engineered for it. But she didn't care anymore.

  "Because she's a defective weap-" Sarah hung on him. Nobody treats her family like that. Nobody. She gave another glance at the screen, where the Frozen Knight was slashing a tank's main gun into pieces, a view she saw from her hawk flying overhead. "...I get your goal. I do. You're not going to win, though. The Dominion can't be beaten. ...no rebellion or war has ever won for a reason. This dystopia can only be fixed by taking it over..." She then left, recalling Gale back from the tiny speaker the hawk wears.

  Heart kicked against the tank, using magic to propel herself away from it as it exploded. They never learn, do they? Don't try firing once she's cut it to pieces and filled it with ice...

  "Heart, we have activity in the enemy base," came Morgan's voice through the speakers of her helmet. "Looks like one of their military divisions is evacuating. Thalia wants your input on whether the fleet should engage them to prevent it, but she's leaning towards no."

  "I'm with the High Inquisitor here. Maintaining control of our side of the planetary orbit is more important. How's taking control of the Planetary Shield grid going?" Heart replied quickly, parrying a sword before impaling the attacker on a spear made of ice.

  "Good. We have control over their side as well, so they can't lower it to bombard us as they escape." Morgan's confidence was audible even without seeing her.

  Heart projected a wall of ice to absorb a series of bullets before teleporting behind her attacker and cutting through them, before unleashing slashes through several people. "Good. Get back over here as soon as you can, alright? Could use your help, because I expect they have more toys in reserve."

  "Certainly. Though I'm sure you'd be fine without me, sis." Morgan ended the call on her side, beginning the process of teleporting the distance to where Heart is.

  Heart in turn continued her blitz across the battlefield, creating shields when needed, vaulting over dying enemies to attack those behind them, and generally leaving a mess everywhere. Emerald's enchanted blade letting her cleave through armor as if it wasn't there.

  Then a giant robot came rising out of the ground as Morgan appeared next to Heart. "Heart. You didn't mention a giant robot!"

  "I didn't know it was there!" She threw herself to the side as it fired a massive shell at them, Morgan throwing herself into the other direction. Heart quickly fed her video screen to Thalia's command room. "Thalia, you're the robot expert. Can you help me figure out how to kill a giant quadrupedal killer robot?! Thing's like fifteen feet tall!"

  "Give me a bit to have the Caliburn run a scan of it for me to analyze! I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

  "Right." Heart prepared her sword again as she jumped back to her feet. "Morgan, I've an idea, if you can keep it busy for a bit."

  Morgan grinned, holding onto her hat with one hand. "Oh, I can do that. Especially if your idea is what I think it is!" Morgan began teleporting among the Dominion army, throwing giant balls of fire, and later lightning, at the robot to get its attention. The robot had little regard for friendly fire, and just began blasting into the Dominion's ranks in an attempt to kill Morgan.

  "...The people who design those things are sociopaths, aren't they?" Heart commented as began rapidly swinging her sword into the air in front of her, causing the air around her to begin whipping itself into a frenzy. As she did, she began channeling magic through Emerald's pommel, a large emerald gemstone which gives the sword it's name.

  "Yep!" Morgan called out. "What do you expect, with engineering people to be tools?" Morgan commented as she appeared in another group of Dominion soldiers, before setting fire to the area and teleporting away just before the robot's shot hit it. A painful way to go, that. "At least it means I don't have to feel bad!"

  Heart grimaced somewhat. Morgan's attitude was... something alright. She was right, their enemy designed soldiers to not really think for themselves, but that didn't make it sit much better with her. Not that it stopped her from doing what she had to.

  She did a final swing of her sword as she flipped backwards, the swing looking practically like she was throwing something, causing a tornado to begin generating in front of her and fly out towards the robot.

  "It was what I thought it was!" Morgan shouted in glee, blasting the tornado, already full of water and razor-sharp dagger-like pieces of ice from Heart's magic, with lightning, electrifying the whole thing.

  That was, of course, when Thalia got back to them. "Good idea, but it's probably not enough. The Robot's been pretty well insulated, but its back leg is fairly weak compared to the rest of the structure from what I can tell. Looks like a rush job. Though however did this on a rush job... I would love to pick their brain..."

  "Admiration later, killing now. You can even study it when it's dead." Heart commented, falling to one knee. "Ha... took more out of me than I thought, huh?"

  "I can knock it off balance, Heart. You get back to base to rest, their army is not doing well with a tornado amongst them." Morgan popped back over to Heart and began to glow a dark purple. "Come on, you stupid robot... shoot me. I dare you."

  Of course, the Robot did not reply. Well, aside from shooting her. A shot that Morgan teleported behind the robot's weak leg, causing its own shell to smash into it and break it, causing the entire structure to collapse and go off balance.

  Sarah watched the robot's destruction as part of the last of her forces evacuating. "...I need to demand some answers of Father, don't I?" she muttered to herself. "...Family, huh... ...then maybe Mom didn't kill her..."

  She was not looking forward to her conversation with her Father... but that was for future her to deal with, wasn't it? For now she had a lot to think about.