File 4.8 - Reality from Fiction

The passage of a week was barely anything for them. Covertly sneaking out parts for the transport and spying left the team little time for any stray thoughts. Only when night came did they get any rest, unless they had a heist to carry out on a warehouse. In no time, their deadline came fast approaching.

That deadline was the reason they all gathered in the transport. Both Rinn and Wells took center stage. It seemed that the chance to cause trouble for the ‘demons’ improved his attitude, in addition to the time to let everything cool off.

Starting things off, Wells had his fist in the air looking pleased. “We’ve finally got enough parts to fix the ship!” Their last run just ended before the start of the meeting. Everything was already off loaded from the truck and packed around the Skins. It looked like an organized junkyard. The Skin almost looked bothered being in the presence of random parts, as though being considered junk.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Rinn reminded, placing a hand in front of Wells to curb his enthusiasm, “Someone still has to fix the ship.” He wasn’t sure if he liked the new Wells with steam blown off.

Adding shifting eyes towards the Lieutenant, Wells directed his words. “Someone will need to.” While not attempting to be subtle, it still looked like a failed attempt. However, not letting any of it linger, Wells refocused the topic to a new subject. “And thanks to someone, we’ve finished preliminary investigation of the defense of Yokatomo. We’ll need to move on to another city for a comparative analysis.”

Shifting to a holographic projection of the Earth, Wells began a summary. Details of their recently acquired intelligence hovered in text next to the Earth. “Additionally, according to the updated maps that we’ve managed to procure, getting into Antarctica airspace is going to be difficult. Command believes the bulk of the military force and headquarters are stationed here.”

“I was able to track back the direction of the cargo transport that carried the giant Skin that attacked us.” Following up Wells, Rinn projected his information on the holograph. Several different flight paths appeared along with markers noting the engagement. “Based on flight speed compared to our arrival, their response time correlates with this theory that Antarctica is their base. Add to the fact that we’ve yet to see any real military presence in the city would seem to imply they are centralizing their forces there.”

“So we’ll need to get as much information on it as possible for Command.”

Schir, the team newbie, stood up to call attention to herself. “Isn’t it strange for there not to be any military presence anywhere else in the world? Given they are united, wouldn’t it make more sense to have bases spread around the world for faster response times and global presence?”

“They’ve been focusing heavily on terraforming the Earth,” replied Elle. They gained access to some historical records at a library. What they found started to piece things together. “According to their history, nearly all of their resources have been funneled to restoring the damage caused by the nuclear holocaust six hundred years ago. There has not been a single war in all that time. So it is likely that a military presence of any sort was deemed unnecessary. This H.O.P.E. Organization seems to run the restoration efforts and act as the central government.”

Noinae spoke up, as the meeting turned into a group discussion. “But we know they have a military force of sorts. The giant Skin that attacked us is proof enough of that.”

“However, their official records state they have no ­real­ standing military, just a small group of volunteer enlisted soldiers. Everything’s handled by the policing agencies.”

“Official records. Governments lie all the time.”

“That’s right!” interjected Wells. He looked like he wanted to take command of the situation. “We don’t know what they have unofficially. None of our engagement made any of the media. Only some mention of an organization called Ragnarok from that day.”

“Media manipulation,” noted Rinn, his arms crossed appearing deep in thought. “It’s a pretty common tactic for military or government agencies in hiding the truth. Like Lellecausua said, they’ve never known war and it’s been centuries since. I doubt they want the public to know we’re roaming about. It looks like this Ragnarok group is an easy fall guy for them, since they are a known global terrorist group. However, they can still attack us by labeling us part of the terrorist group and the public won’t know any different. Not that we are planning on exposing ourselves anymore, currently.”

“Do you think they have hidden bases then, if they’re going to all this trouble,” asked Schir.

Neither of them had a good answer for her. However, Wells took it upon himself to give her one. “That’ll be part of the reason why we will keep searching other cities around the world. If it is hidden, it won’t be easy to find, but we’ll need to know about it.” Everything seemed settled. They still had many questions, but only time would reveal them.

A graver air surfaced from Wells, despite the already serious atmosphere. It brought an awkward tension to the room. “We have one last order of business to discuss.” He paused for a moment, but everyone already knew where he was going with the meeting. It was the main reason they all gathered. The most important discussion of the night. “The Commander. We need to get a plan together for breaking him out of the clinic.”