The Eisendrache landed at the Zone T431-A, where the Nova Genesis Research Facility stood tall in the snowstorm. It was an immense research facility towering eight storeys over its immediate vicinity and surrounded by anti-ship railcannon defenses and several drones patrolling the skies.
"What an ominous building..." Kuno mumbled. "Don't you think this is a bad idea? It's a little too heavily defended."
"It'll be fine, it'll only be a moment. Lina and I will be back shortly." Yuren assured her, but the concerned android refused to believe him. "Naiola, Reila, Remain on alert. Notify me immediately if imperial ships or soldiers show up. Don't engage them I'll deal with it myself too."
The commander led the way with Lina closely following behind, her rifle already loaded, scanning ahead as she placed one palm on the cold steel gate.
Yuren paused once they reached the entrance and used his authority to unlock it, an enormous pair of heavy doors clunked apart as the two entered the facility.
However, against his expectations, it was silent, and the lights were out as if it were a dead building. The large corridor leading deeper into the station seemed dark and gloomy as both marched forward with some degree of uncertainty.
"Where's the researcher that was here...? What happened?" Yuren called out, scanning the area with a tiny beacon hovering before him; no other readings other than their own showed up in the area.
A terminal confirmed all of the machines and equipment in the facility had been shut down, with power only being supplied to the storage area.
Lina knelt and spotted a boot print on the dusty floor. "Maybe they relocated Aiden to somewhere in the Empire's limits?" She spoke, dusting off her trench coat as she stood up and began her own check on the nearby terminals.
"No... because they wouldn't have been so bothered by us leaving. If they had already uncovered the Project they would have just made more androids." Yuren shook his head as he marched down the hallway to the storage room at the end.
Pulling on the cold and heavy door latch, its hinges gave a loud metallic squeal as he opened it.
Just as he remembered, it was the storage for cores that were collected from Meteorn bodies. Long rows of containers stacked on top of each other along the walls, the ceiling, and at the center, a large vat filled to the brim with a purified synthetic infused with resonance used to imprint the core signatures into machine bodies.
Turning on the overhead lights, the entire chamber was illuminated, and the cores seemed to give a faint glow at Yuren's presence. However, what came as a surprise was a message flashing at the terminal near the entrance.
'NO DATA - SYSTEM OFFLINE'
"The data was wiped?" Lina whispered.
"So it seems. The terminal and network hub are wiped clean. It appears the last remnants of the Nova Genesis Project is the facility itself and the android management system located on my nuwa..." Yuren murmured as he scratched his chin, raising an eyebrow at the situation.
"Naiola, is it possible to backtrack what happened here?" He sent a message through the Nuwa to the AI. "I suspect the administrator might have fled. Please have a look at the data and let me know if you can figure it out."
"If you permit me to connect to the facility, I will look into it for you." Naiola spoke calmly.
Yuren paused and blinked, "The same sort of remote access I'd normally grant you? Or do you need to manually connect?" He asked, not quite understanding how the AI might run the analysis when the entire databank was empty.
"Please use a syn-link cable and connect to a terminal. Remote analysis can be done through your nuwa, I can rebuild fragmented erasure data to determine the nature of the facility's shut down." The AI elaborated.
Though suspicious of this strange request, he decided to follow the AI's instructions, "Lina, hand me a syn-link cable." He ordered while kneeling at the terminal.
The android complied and pulled one from her pack, handing it to the young commander.
He took it and immediately plugged it into the terminal, feeling a direct connection. He immediately recalled the actions of when he'd upgraded his Nuwa. "Now what?"
"Allow my remote connection and I will handle everything."
Yuren agreed, and less than a few seconds later, he noticed her remote connection was successful.
Moments of silence passed, the computer monitor stayed dim, and nothing else occurred until Naiola's voice returned and spoke, "Information parsed from the fragmented residual data shows that the Director's termination code was use to end the facility's operations. The termination protocol also erased all data regarding the project."
"Huh? The director?" Lina let out, tilting her head slightly, wondering why and when it happened.
"The Director of the Project was the vice minister, Amalia VolStenthorn." Naiola continued explaining.
Yuren remained silent at that detail and slowly took the cable out of the terminal, wondering why the vice minister had chosen to terminate the project personally. "Are you able to find out when this happened and or why?"
"Timeline fragmentation shows it was roughly three hours after the your initial departure, long before you decided to leave the Empire. It is possible she may have encountered difficulties within the grand council. However, regardless of the cause, it remains that the project's termination is completely unrelated to your recent actions." The AI added.
unrelated to your recent actions." The AI added.
Yuren became more concerned about the vice minister's sudden disappearance and the abrupt conclusion of the Nova Genesis Project. "Naiola, radio silence until I get back on the ship." He rose to his feet with his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Lina, remain calm. I'm going to call a few Meteorn here."
Wasting no time, he hastily put the back of his hand to his head, and not a moment later, two individuals came inside, moving behind him quickly.
"N-nidhogg and Crystal Chamber?!" Lina gasped in shock as the two white-haired women frowned, red eyes piercing the area with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity.
"Don't call them that. Don't use the military's code names for them." Yuren insisted on the aura of seriousness about him. "It's disrespectful."
Lina lowered her head, averting the commander's gaze and saying nothing.
Jytenreu silently gazed at Lina and turned away with a scoff, the tip of her tongue licking her white teeth in irritation.
Avenonia ignored the dismissive behavior, moving closer to Yuren's side, a curious gaze studying his face.
"This is where the cores were being kept. Take them and all the unfinished and deactivated androids to Esotonia. However, don't touch the cases labeled XMV04 and XMV22; I will personally take those two with me." Yuren ordered, and Avenonia nodded.
Yuren directed his focus to Jytenreu, but found himself startled when the Meteorn brought her face within an inch of his, glaring deeply into his eyes.
"W-what is it? Jytenreu?" He struggled, uncomfortably meeting her gaze as she leaned in so closely that he could feel her warm breath on his face.
"Resonance please." She held her arms out as if expecting a hug, her face even closer now that his body was so within her reach.
"Hug me, I want to take some of your resonance." Her words were strangely seductive, and she looked more like an innocent young woman than a nearly unstoppable war machine.
The young commander hesitantly embraced the taller woman, wrapping his arms around her. Her two cores immediately responded as Yuren's body let out light fluctuations of resonance energy.
Without so much as a sound, Jytenreu immediately parted after a moment with a huge grin and departed, giggling in an almost childish manner.
"What the hell..." Lina stared, nearly confused at what the hell just happened. "A-are they really-"
"L-let's go get Bei and Jia's bodies." Yuren rushed off to the cold storage room, a bit flustered over the sudden embrace.
Lina quickly followed suit, dashing along side him, "What was that, and Nid- er... Jytenreu is in a very good mood, isn't she... I heard something about her wanting some resonance. What did that mean?" Lina put her hand up her neck, but took it off to cover her mouth; it did seem that it might have meant a completely different context for the same thing.
He made no response; it wasn't that he had any details about it either, only that there was nothing suspicious behind the small request. "They just need my resonance sometimes. Nothing wrong with helping them if it means they'll help us in the future."
The woman scowled as she frowned, heaving out a sigh, "It just seems a bit weird, it wouldn't be entirely out of the question if it meant something more." Lina waved a hand, shaking her head. "She seemed a bit too happy about it, need I remind you that this 'Jytenreu' is one of the most aggressive of the Meteorn?"
Yuren stopped in the hall and turned to meet Lina, grabbing her collar and pulling her face closer to his, staring deeply into her eyes, "And you shouldn't forget it's their cores that made you. A Meteorn died so you could stand here." His irises lit up with glowing red and silver rings.
Lina trembled but held her ground and squinted as the glowing lights bathed her face, her anger disappearing upon realizing the mistake.
"I'm sorry, it was out of line." She promptly spoke, breaking eye contact, the dim glow slowly fading.
Yuren let her go as he was now satisfied that she had seen the error in her ways and walked towards the sealed doors of the cold storage bay. "And I'm one of them too..." He added, breaking the uncharacteristically long, awkward silence between them.
At the end of the hallway, the doors cranked open, revealing the bay where Bei and Jia's bodies were stored.
Several pods occupied the vast majority of the space; the two he was looking for should be on the second level if he recalled correctly.
Pushing past some of the mechanical crates and supplies, then making his way up the ramp, he eventually managed to find them, staring at the sturdy containers.
"Commander... is it even safe to move them?" Lina asked tentatively, thinking the sealed units probably could only safely open within the confines of this facility. "We have no idea the condition they are in."
Ignoring the question, he went to the terminal for Bei's pod and pressed the button to release her capsule. The unit hissed loudly as the frost fog dispersed into the chamber. "It'd be fine."
Yuren's attention lingered on Bei's body for several moments before he inhaled deeply and reached, the liquid boiling at his mere touch, bubbles rushing upward toward the surface.
He proceeded to slide his hands over the sides of her naked body as he helped lift her from the fluid-filled cylinder that had been keeping her in stasis.
Seeing his attention span more heavily settle on her unconscious body as if he was somewhat mesmerized, Lina was compelled to interrupt, placing her hand on his.
Yuren snapped out of his delusion and pulled the woman's soft body close, gently patting her back. "Come on, Lina, get Jia's body." He said gently before glancing over at Jia's container with a lingering gaze.
Skepticism came from the android, but she chose to comply with his request without complaint. "Fine... commander..." she grumbled as she took hold of Jia.
Yuren quickly wrapped his coat around Bei's nude body and then slung her limp body over his shoulder in a fireman carry before proceeding out the door.
She was as cold as ice, though her body was silky smooth and heavy, and as he held her, her faint core rhythms could be felt. The combination of all these effects made him feel an indescribable eagerness to keep hold of her. Perhaps he felt so strongly towards her due to the way he lost her.
The desire to simply stop and allow her to wake up must have been planted in his head, but he knew that to do so would only be a foolish decision, so he hurried back to the ship with Lina slightly ahead of him as he wondered what was to become of the 701st Assault Battalion moving forward.