[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/QVJPa75.jpg[/img][/center][hr][center][color=708090][b]Luan Fields; The Aftermath[/b][/color][/center][hr]
After the battle officially ended, Hal started to check up on his fellow teammates with Quill and assisted her with any medical matter that she needed an extra pair of hands on. Whenever he approached a hurt SOLDIER, regardless of the severity of the injury, Hal face expressed great concern even though his mouth would continue to crack jokes when he wasn’t talking about medical related topics to Quill or the patient. Only when both Quill and Hal were certain that the SOLDIER’s injuries were not life threatening or could not possibly lead to any future disabilities, did Hal allow himself to smile his usual goofy smile. Once the two were able to provide basic medical care to each of their teammates, Hal took all the items with the SOLDIER’s DNA on it, put them in individual containers, labeled them, and placed the containers in a large bag. 

The SOLDER’s DNA samples were not the only thing Hal collected, however. He went off wondering over to the bodies of the giant eagles and made sure he collected as much samples as he could from each one. When he was done with that, he walked towards the soldiers that had died from the eagle’s attack. It was much more difficult to collect and accurately label the fragments of flesh, so the scientist did not bother to pick up every bit of meat he found on the ground. He continued to acquire samples until the group was fed up of calling Hal’s name a hundred times and decided that it was faster to just drag the man into the Behemoth.

During the long travel in the Behemoth, Hal spend most of his time in the section of the vehicle with the most science equipment and analyzed the samples he acquired. Although he was not particularly secretive about the work, Hal would stop working every time someone—other than Evangeline—was nearby and would instead focus on starting up a conversation with them. Those who were not fond of Hal’s blabbering immediately vacated the area, but those who were willing to tolerate the man or even liked to talk with him, were welcomed by Hal with open arms. If someone was curious enough to ask what he was doing, they were treated with a straight answer—that he was analyzing DNA samples—, even though he did not give up specific details. Whenever he was fairly certain he was alone, or that Evangeline was the only person nearby, Hal carried on with the DNA analysis, talking to Evangeline if she happened to be there.

Every now and then, Hal took breaks and walked around the Behemoth to check up on his teammates, the injured SOLDIERs especially. He made sure he introduced himself to the newcomers. He talked to them enough to start listing up some potential nicknames he could call them.

When the announcement that they had arrived at Mrihl, and that the team needed to get outside, reached Hal’s ears, he immediately disposed the DNA samples he collected. He then inserted a small devise in the computer and when he pulled it out, all traces of the DNA analysis data vanished. 

[hr][center][color=708090][b]SOLIDER Base; Laboratory Conference Room[/b][/color][/center][hr]
The meeting went as well as Haziq expected: mass hysteria amongst the higher ups while everyone else stood around awkwardly in silence. With how much yelling the President did, Haziq was surprised that a blood vain didn’t burst or that Haziq or Athene were still standing, alive. They were, unlike some other scientists, replaceable, after all. But Haziq would rather not have his life end just because the President didn’t like what they found out about Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine’s death.

Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine, one of the pioneers of Aeon technology and close associate of the higher ups, was found dead in his house a few days ago. Considering his age, no one would have thought much about his death if it weren’t for one thing: his body was found being consumed by green greyish blobs. With the recent SeeR activity, the government feared the possibility of an assassination using bioweapons so decided to send the body to SOLDIER base to investigate the cause of death. Good thing the government made the decision as fast as they did, because the unknown blobs did not stop devouring the body of Ondřej the entire time. In fact, all traces of Ondřej vanished from the face of the planet in the middle of autopsy. All the scientists had to really work on were the blobs and even that ended up being a race against time.

The scientists discovered that the green-grey blob was a colony of flesh eating—although it ate more than just the flesh—bacteria in which their only source of sustenance was Ondřej himself and when Ondřej was gone, the bacteria started to eat each other. The results had some serious implications. For one thing, the chances of bacteria evolving naturally to eat only one man in the entire world was thinner than the bacterium’s cell wall, thus, it was highly likely that the bacteria was a product of genetic engineering. If this was true, however, it would mean that whoever made it has extensive knowledge in the field of genetics and also has the resources to create the bacteria. Secondly, there was a possibility that the person who made it was able to get close enough to Ondřej—a man who was constantly surrounded by top security and actually hired food tasters just incase his food was poisoned—to infect him with the bacteria. The other possibility was that the Ondřej-eating bacteria were the type of bacteria that could produce an endospore, in which case, the bacteria could have been created years ago, remained dormant through the years traveling from one place or person to another place or person, and it only recently managed to come into contact with Ondřej. If true, the person who made the bacteria would not have to be close to Ondřej to infect him, but the person still had to find a way to acquire Ondřej’s DNA so that he or she could genetically engineer the bacteria to target Ondřej. 

If the SeeRs were in fact the culprits, it meant that the rebellion might be more powerful and have more inside connections than the government had initially thought. [i]This[/i] was what scared the higher ups: the SeeRs could be anywhere, ready to strike at anytime. The higher ups were most likely going to start an investigation on potential spies very soon at this rate.

Haziq glanced over at Athene who had been staring silently at the data they had collected. He was about to call her name when he saw her lips move to form the words “Verts Gris.”

Where has he heard that before?

[hr][center][img]http://i.imgur.com/QVJPa75.jpg[/img][/center][hr][center][color=708090][b]Zalera Tundra; Mrihl[/b][/color][/center][hr]
Feeling someone’s gaze directed to him, Hal turned his head around just in time to see two little children ducking into the bushes. He continued to stare in the direction and saw their heads come up, then immediately go back down when their eyes met with his. Based on their expensive looking clothing and similar features they had with the Baron, it was easy for Hal to conclude that the children were the Baron’s—a close relative, if not the Baron’s own. They must have been curious to know who the foreign guests were, but were probably supposed to be doing something else—school work perhaps? 

Hal entertained himself by watching the children try and fail to be stealthy for awhile before deciding that he would go introduce himself the little misses and mister. Every time the children hid, Hal walked over to them and quickly froze in some ridiculous pose when the children stuck their head out again. It did not take long for the children to catch on what game they were playing and they were more than happy to play along. 

After a few turns of red light green light, Hal was at arms reach of the children when he wobbled. The children pointed at him declaring that they had caught him moving. Hal laughed as he admitted defeat and kneeled down so he could talk to the children at eye level. The three introduced themselves in turn, confirming Hal’s suspicions of the children being the Baron’s offspring. When Hal introduced himself as a SOLDIER, the children didn’t believe him, because he looked nothing like Luc, but they forgave their new friend for lying. The children had no one but themselves to play with at the Baron’s estate and an adult willing to play with them was a breath of fresh air.

[hr]
1 hour of fun and games later, the security mistook the children’s screams of joy with cries for help and immediately captured the suspicious man who was harassing them. He insisted that he was a SOLDIER, but the guards knew very well that the man was just making things up. They locked the intruder into a barred room until the proper authorities could arrest him.