"We were able to stop some of the enemy ships from jumping, but most of them escaped," Tera replied. "I'm not sure how many ships we needed to stop to constitute a success."

Blythe nodded without saying anything to show that she understood. Of course she hoped that it was a success, and if she were honest, that was the only question she had, since the others were obviously doing just fine.

"Sis, don't worry about it, I'm sure we did a good job. Just try to relax for now." Claire said, hoping that Blythe wouldn't be so stubborn and get worked over the mission anyway. That would be no use.

"Blythe seems to be doing fine," Tera said, "We should let the sisters have some privacy." She led Solomon and Israfil out of the infirmary.

Once the others were gone, Claire looked at her sister. "How are you doing?" She asked, knowing very well that Blythe may just pretend to be fine to keep up her tough girl act. Claire just wanted to be sure that she really was okay.

Blythe looked at her twin and shrugged. "I'm kind of feeling nauseous, and my head hurts like hell, but I'll manage." She said,not wanting to worry Claire too much. She was going to be just fine, after all.

After a while, both Claire and Blythe got a message on their drives from Maya: "Please report to my office for a meeting. Blythe, if you are not well enough to attend, then stay in the infirmary."

When Blythe was about to get up,Claire gave her a warning glare. "Stay down. You need to rest." She said, causing her twin to lie down again. Once she had done so, Claire left the room and headed to Maya's office.

(Wrong thread)

When Claire arrived at Maya's office, Maya, Sion, and Tera were already there. In addition, there stood Catherine Hargreaves, the captain of the Incubator. Solomon soon came in, followed shortly by an out-of-breath Israfil.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called you here," the captain began, "The heads of the Cadmus project believe that it is for the good of the project for the cog pilots to be as involved with decision-making as possible. Considering that you are in many ways, our tactical lynchpin, I don't think this is a bad idea. However, this decision comes at a bad time, considering the last mission. I have to ask, 'what caused the failure of the last mission?'" Her demeanor went from coolly polite to icily critical, and her eyes had a piercing quality.

"It was my decision to split into two teams," Maya explained, "I led one, RHS led the other."

"I am unused to leading," Sion interrupted, "as a result of my inexperience, one of our pilots was injured and we retreated."

"Is that all?" Hargreaves asked, looking at the pilots individually, seeing if she could coax more out of them.

"I don't think Sion and Maya are to blame. One of the pilots became injured and unable to continue to fight, so with one soldier less and the large quantity of enemies we had to face, it became a very difficult mission." Claire spoke up. Sion and Maya weren't to blame, they couldn't help it that Blythe had gotten injured during the mission.

Captain Hargreaves softened, "I'm not trying to place blame on anyone, I'm just trying to identify the root cause. Because from now on, you will all be more involved in tactical decisions."

"I set up an artillery position and asked Blythe Rivers, our injured pilot, to defend the position alone," Sion continued, "I have no doubt in her abilities, but I had hoped that with Maya's assault on their ships, the enemy forces would be split. We were wrong and the enemy deemed our position the greater threat, sending an overwhelming majority of their forces at us. Blythe took the brunt of it, and this was the result."

"As strong as cogs are, it would help if we had support from the rest of the fleet," Maya added with surprisingly no disrespect.

"I understand," Captain Hargreaves said, "The leaders of the project are finally starting to come around on that. They originally wanted to 'test' the cogs by themselves, without support, but are now saying that a 'synergistic' approach may be better." She said this with a little venom, it was clear she had her disagreements with science department.

Claire listened and said nothing, looking Hargreaves quietly.

Hargreaves sighed, "it's not going to get easier. What I'm about to tell you is top secret. Intel is fairly certain that we're not the only nation with cogs."

Maya and Sion were silent, but the shock was plainly visible on both their faces, even Sion's.

"But the Cadmus Reactor is Ascendancy technology!" Solomon blurted out.

"Actually it's not," Hargreaves clarified, "Dr. Stern was a Wildtype, despite what the textbooks say. But that's beside the point, you need to modify your training simulations. You're not just up against strikecraft and battlecruisers anymore."

"U-understood, Captain," Maya replied.

Claire was still keeping her mouth shut, deciding to just listen rather than comment on everything.

"Alright, then this meeting is adjourned," Captain Hargreaves said, "We'll be working more closely from now on, but stay safe out there." With that she headed out of the office.

"O-other cogs?" Israfil asked in alarm.

"Dr. Stern was a Wildtype?!" Solomon interjected, choosing to focus on a non-issue.

"We can't discount what intel the captain has," Maya said in response to Israfil, "But it's good to have her on our side."

"Why is dr. Stern being a Wildtype such a big deal to you?" Claire asked, looking at Solomon. He was being ridiculous.

"It just goes against what I've been taught," Solomon replied. "He's also attributed with the creation of the first Quantums."

"That can't be right," Israfil interjected, "The race wars are almost a century ago, and Quantums were invented before then. The Cadmus Reactor and cogs were only developed recently."

"Well that's the thing," Solomon replied, "people say that Dr. Stern had an unusually long life, even for an Ascended. No Wildtype could live that long."

"Maybe there are more things thst you were taught that are not true. Not everything you read is correct." Claire said, looking at the two.

"Must be," Solomon said, surprisingly, without any arguing.

"What are we going to do about enemy cogs?" Israfil asked.

"Well, we've already started having training matches between pilots, which was a fortunate coincidence," Maya replied, "We just need to focus a bit more on that and analyze how each pilot deals with fighting other cogs, and what are the best team dynamics for doing so."

Claire nodded, again remaining quiet, just listening to what was being said while Maya talked.

"If there aren't anymore questions, then everyone's dismissed," Sion said, "Feel free to continue training, and you have permission to challenge each other to simulation combat."