Solomon held his tongue since he didn't want to anger Maya. He was disappointed to realize that although Claire had accepted his apology, she wasn't dumb enough to be manipulated as easily as he thought. Legion simply hid behind Obsidian while Asteria healed his arm.

Enemy forces continued to pile in; they knew that failure to defend this base would mean the end of their organization, so they were desperate to repel the Planetary Defense Force. The ones coming from the left and front were starting to overwhelm Nyx.

As soon as Claire was done, she got up and moved away a little from Legion, to give him enough space to attack without the risk of damaging Asteria. For once she didn't care if she had been kind: she had at least made her point clear.

As Blythe noticed the great amount of enemy forces at her left, a widely varied amount of swear words sounded through the comm link. She was trying the hardest she could, but couldn't avoid getting at least a bit of damage if things kept going like this. She hated to admit it, but they could really use Solomon's help now.

With its arm repaired, Legion immediately began to sear the forces coming from the left, being more efficient about it this time.

"Good job, Asteria, Nyx," Maya said, thanking Claire for healing Legion, and Blythe for managing to hold her own in such a tense situation. Realizing that Nyx was possibly as resistant to damage as Obsidian, Maya adopted a more offensive stance, making Obsidian pull out its hammer, and swung it around, helping Nyx clear out the accumulated enemy forces on her side and the front. "Asteria, my cog has sustained some minor damage, and I'm sure Nyx probably has some minor damage too. We could probably use some minor repairs, but keeping Legion healthy is your top priority, so only repair us if he's doing fine. Fury, if Mayura still hasn't detected any jamming signals, then I think it's safe to say the enemy isn't capable of it. So come give us some air support."

"Roger," came Sion's voice over the comm. Fury screamed by overhead, splitting into three separate strike craft and began gunning down enemies, relieving some of the pressure.

The team continued to advance, the enemy's main base was in sight.

Claire nodded, keeping an eye on Legion to make sure that the cog remained to function correctly. She assumed that everything had gone well when she repaired him, but she couldn't be entirely certain, so watching him for a moment would be the best.

Once the amount of enemies charging at them had decreased again, Blythe was again as quiet as she had been before. She had indeed gotten some minor damage, but doubted that it would cause serious damage.

With most of the corollary facilities destroyed, all that remained was the main base in front. But with most of mechanized units destroyed, all that remained of the enemy forces were ground troops, defending their base from the inside. Since the Planetary Defense Force wanted to storm the facility to capture potentially important information, and perhaps some of the leaders, the rest of the fight became one between ground troops, and the cogs were ordered to standby until the end of the operation. The pilots could hear on the comms, chatter from the PDF, something was making them uneasy, in particular, the insignia that seemed to be printed on many of the supply crates and shipping containers:



It was not the flag the enemy, 'Homeworld' used, though the Homeworld flag was also seen everywhere, and far outnumbering the unknown insignia. Due to the name 'Homeworld', and their stated mission of 'Independence from the Ascendancy', it was greatly presumed that Homeworld was secretly being funded by FAS in order to destabilize the Ascendancy. With the appearance of this new insignia, perhaps another party was involved.

The fighting soon ended, and all forces were ordered to withdraw. The general of the Cepheus PDF broadcasted a hearty statement of gratitude to the Incubator Concert and the cog pilots.

"Alright, let's head back," Maya said, leading the way back to the Incubator's hangar.

Blythe and Claire followed after Maya without hesitation. Blythe was still quiet, and now Claire was too, very much unlike her, and her face seemed to be paler than usual. During the battle between the ground troops, she had seen exactly the things she didn't want to be confronted with, the ugly truth of war and the horrible things it caused. She should've known that she would see this, still, she had been convinced that it wouldn't be the case... why did she have to be so naive?

On the way back to the hangar, Maya noticed Claire's silence and said, "You did a good job out there, all of you. And Claire," Maya said, using her first name, "I hope you don't resent me, but despite the fact that Asteria is more of a'medic'-type unit, your utility is best served in the front lines instead of the back. I mean, you kept the lance going and prevented us from getting overwhelmed. It's practically unheard of four mechanized units, no matter their power, to take on a force that size and come out of it practically unscathed. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you may have seen some things out there today that you didn't want to see, but if it wasn't us leading the offensive, then it would have been those Cepheus guys out there, and believe you me, they would have lost a lot more men trying to do what we did."

Maya wondered if such words would help. Was less people dying really that much better than more people dying if people died anyways? It was something that Maya, as a solider, tried not to think about, was conditioned not to think about, but she was well aware of the shock most people received when facing the horrors of war for the first time. Maya looked up at Orpheus, who was taking the elevator down, back into the hangar, and was glad that she had Israfil stay in the back, where as far as he was concerned, he was just shooting at some faceless, lifeless buildings. She could tell by the boy's demeanor that he wasn't mentally ready for this. Solomon on the other hand,hadn't surprised her, though that in itself was unsettling. The members of Homeworld were pretty much all Wildtypes, and Solomon seemed to have absolutely no problem gunning them down; she even heard a small chuckle as he blasted a small squad of enemy soldiers, their scorched and dismembered corpses plainly visible. Blythe seemed to be coping well, which Maya chalked up to Blythe being probably jaded. As for Tera, though Maya could tell she was a non-combatant at heart, she wondered if Tera had the ability to become a literal 'killing machine' the way she had seen Sion do before, them both being Quantums.

The cogs all docked in the hangar, so Maya dismissed everyone with, "Good job everyone. You can return to your routines until further notice. The Captain has notified me that the Incubator will be heading back into space. Get some rest."

Once they had gotten out of their cogs, Blythe walked over to her sister, looking at her. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked. Claire shook her head with tears in her eyes, even though she wasn't crying yet, at which Blythe pulled her into a hug to conform her twin. She would cope with everything herself later, her sister came first. She doubted if anything she said would help Claire to feel better, so she was simply quiet for some longer, just holding Claire for as long as she needed her to. Although she didn't show it too of ten, Blythe did have a soft side, though usually, she just didn't show it. But right now, she didn't care if others saw her like this. She just wanted Claire to be alright.

Solomon exited Legion with a wide grin on his face, feeling great after his first successful combat mission. He was in such a good mood that he had for the time being, forgotten that Claire had given him lip, and approached the twins, saying, "Hey, Rivers, thanks for the support out there..." but he trailed off seeing how distraught she was. "Y-you'll get used to it eventually," he said, somewhat awkwardly as he turned and left, not wanting his good mood to be spoiled.

Israfil, who acted more as a demolitionist in this mission than a combatant, didn't experience the horrors of war and so wished to celebrate their first successful mission together as a team. More than anything, he was proud he didn't screw up and didn't get criticized for anything. As he approached however, Solomon, who was heading in the opposite direction, grabbed Israfil by the shoulder to stop him.

"Don't mind them," Solomon said, "They're being unnecessarily emotional over there. We did good out there today, didn't we?"

Israfil wanted to ask what Solomon meant, but ended up just answering his rhetorical question, "Yeah, mission successful..."

"Right, so we should be celebrating," Solomon said, turning Israfil away and pushing him towards the rear of the hangar. Israfil looked back over his shoulder, trying to see what was going on with the twins, but Solomon said, "Don't worry, when they buck up, I'm sure they'll join us. let's go to the cafeteria!"

"S-sure..." Israfil said, and let himself get led away.

After Orpheus was moved off the elevator and locked back into its spot, Fury came down on the elevator. Sion came out of his cog and went straight to Maya to confer with her. While they spoke among themselves, they slowly headed away. Sion looked back at Claire and Blythe, with a surprising look of sympathy on his face.

Tera approached slowly. "Please let me know if you'd like to be left alone or comforted," she said awkwardly. Humans had many needs and often failed to communicate their needs. Guessing was a fruitless endeavor, so Tera decided to simply ask, though she risked seeming like an ass.

Claire looked up when she Howard Tera and let go of her sister, shaking her head. "No, it's okay, you can stay here if you want. It's just... I hoped we wouldn't have to see such kind of things, or at least not this early." Claire explained to her. Though she did need a moment to calm down, she didn't want to send her away.

"I know that what we saw was terrible, but you have to keep in mind that we're doing the right thing. If we wouldn't do anything, those people only would've continued doing things that are far worse than what we did." Blythe said. She wasn't sure if that would help Claire to feel better, but she didn't just want to stand there and do nothing to make her sister feel better.

Tera considered herself fortunate to have been allowed to stay in the backlines, but although she didn't see anything, she had broken into the enemy's communication channels and could hear everything. However, there was no point bringing it up right now; she was here to comfort Claire. "Maybe you can ask the Lieutenant to assign you to the rear next time?" she offered.

"I guess I could ask, but I doubt she'll say yes. When we headed back, she mentioned that nu cog's utility is best served at the front." Claire said in return to Tera's suggestion. Still, even if it wouldn't work, she appreciated that Tera tried to give her some comfort.

"Either way, Blythe is right," Tera added, "The organization known as Homeworld are responsible for much violence and suffering in this sector. To think that we were able to take down their main base, and capture some of their leaders. We might even figure out what other organizations they were acting in concert with." Seeing that Claire had calmed down a bit, Tera decided to leave the rest to Blythe. "I'll see you two later, I'm headed back to our room for a bit.

---

Claire was sent an email from the system that manages cloud data storage, notifying her of unauthorized access to her personal drive by an unknown device. The message stated that if Claire is aware what device it was, then she should disregard this message, but that if she wasn't, she should change her security settings.

Claire nodded, looking at her sister once Tera had left. "How are you handling this so wel?" She asked, ignoring the message for now. Upon hearing her question, Blythe smiled sadly. "I don't. Seeing things like that does effect me, too, I just don't show it." She answered. It may just be a slight bit leds difficult because it wasn't the first dead body she saw, but didn't want to bring that up. "Come, the others are celebrating. Let's join them." She suggested, to which Claire nodded. Maybe that would help her cheer up.

"...I mean, of course skill is involved, but in the end, we really owe it to the Ascendancy's unmatched technology," Claire and Blythe could hear Solomon boasting as they entered the cafeteria. Instead of standing on a table and bragging about his heroism, he was 'playing it cool', and pretending to be humble, as he talked about the battle to a group of engineers and point defense gunners who happened to be on break. "Still, not everyone can pilot a cog, there are only seven of us in the universe, and we were handpicked to fight for the ideals of the Ascendancy, isn't that right, Israfil?" he said while giving Israfil, who was sitting next to him, a hearty slap on the back, causing him to choke on his drink slightly.

The amount of people crowded together in such close proximity and the attention he was receiving made Israfil feel very uncomfortable and awkward, but he stayed because of the social pressure and up and leaving would only be more awkward. "Yeah," Israfil agreed weakly, wiping his chin with a napkin.

"But now that we've demonstrated what cogs are capable of, I really hope High Command gives us the order to take the fight to FAS," Solomon continued, "I mean, we all know, as much as FAS officials deny it, that Homeworld is being funded by FAS. I wouldn't be surprised if Horizon was in on it too. As much as we conceded to them in the treaties, they still wallow in their inferiority, using their resources inefficiently, no doubt they crave more, while we've been sustainable, excelling even, despite our limited resources. I don't know why we even agreed to the treaties, we should have known that they'd never be satisfied until they'd fulfilled their hatred towards us and wiped us from the galaxy."

Upon hearing Solomon brag about his achievements, Blythe sighed and rollend her eyes. Of course he was bragging, why should she expect anything different? "And why exactly are they so inferior to you? Because Ascendeds are not the majority of those who live there, or because they are proud of who they are?" Blythe asked, looking at Solomon. His arrogance and pride was annoying,if not more. She decided to keep any insults to herself, not wanting to ruin the mood too much.

Claire said nothing, keeping her mouth shut. She wanted to avoid any conflict, so she sat down next to Israfil and showed him a friendly smile. "Hey."

Solomon launched into a smug tirade, refusing to let his good mood be fouled, "FAS is doomed to fail because it is governed by the people of old Earth, the same people responsible for mankind's long history of repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Whereas the Quantum ruling Horizon seek vengeance against all life; a pointless but dangerous genocide. Though it may seem so to you, Ascendeds do not hold a majority in the Ascendancy. What makes the Ascendancy great is that individuals are rewarded for their contributions, so everyone has a fair opportunity. Granted, some contribute more than others, but 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat', and 'to each according to his contribution'. It's not really my fault if some people are either too lazy to contribute, or are incapable of doing so. Ascendeds may hold more power in the Ascendancy, but that's a result of their contribution; I'm not saying anything against Wildtypes or Quantums, but you can't argue with results. Neither FAS nor Horizon have such a simple but fair system, they're stuck trying to establish some artificial form of racial supremacy, we're the ones giving everyone an equal chance. But don't worry, your contributions on the field today are commendable, as Wildtypes, I'd say you sisters have proven yourselves." This was probably the closest thing to gratitude either of the sisters had ever seen from Solomon.

During this tirade, Israfil was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. He looked over at Claire who had greeted him, and with a weary look on his face, said, "Hi...good job out there today."

Deciding not to ruin the mood for everyone, Blythe let out a sigh and just let him be for the moment. He was even almost giving them a compliment, so other than his arrogance, she saw no need to be a bitch to him. Not now, at least. "I guess you weren't doing that bad yourself, neither."

Claire forced a smile onto her face. She still was a little upset about what she saw. "You did a good job yourself as well." She said to Israfil.

Solomon was a bit taken aback by Blythe's compliment, "O-of course I did well, excellence is the Lear tradition." That last statement was something of a lie; his family had been among those that expected special treatment for being members of the founding race, so when that special treatment didn't come, they simply let go of themselves and slipped into obscurity, refusing to even try. Solomon strove to turn that around and earn nobility for himself; he would make excellence the Lear tradition. Solomon thought back to wha the had said previously, and decided to ask, "You have a lot of complaints about the Ascendancy. I'm not questioning your loyalty or anything, but I'm assuming your parents, or however many generations your family's been here, came to the Ascendancy for a reason?"

"T-thanks," Israfil replied, glad that things had slightly simmered down. "You really think I did ok?" he said, rubbing the back of his head, unused to praise. "Of course, it's nothing like what you pulled off, there's more glory being in the front," israfil added with a slight mix of admiration and envy. Though he intended to compliment, he was quite unaware of the potential to hurt that his statement had.

"I'm sure that my family had a good reason to come here, but their reasons do not interest me. And it's not the Ascendency that I have complaints about, but the fact that many Ascendeds tend to think of themselves as better than other races, and the bad habit some have to abuse the gifts they are born with." Blythe said, looking at Solomon. If he would take that as a personal insult or not was up to him, although it was not meant to be so.

Upon hearing what Israfil said, Claire's smile left her face. "I don't see what's so glorious about being forced to see the people that die right in front of you as bloody and horribly disfigured corpses." She said in return, definitely not taking it as a compliment.