---

The truck veered hard as it narrowly avoided another large pine that had materialized out of the darkness. Whatever items or people that had not been secured previously were tossed around haphazardly throughout the interior. Steady hands expertly manipulated controls, as commanded of the powers that existed that the whole rig didn't stall. Somewhere beneath the roar and protest of the engine, the sound of branches and stone snapping and crunching in the distance, along with sets of glowing blue eyes let them know that they were still being pursued.

"Did she say p-prisoner?!" The princess' voice called out, somehow cutting between the din of the roaring engine and the steady blam of Morden's shotgun. Her voice held a mild tone of panic even as her arm gripped tightly at Justice's arm that kept her stable and still. "Is shooting diplomats out of the sky a normal thing here or- Ah! "

The entire truck bed shuddered and shifted again as Kali weaved through both enemy fire and terrain, the sudden shift silencing the princess. Gerard took that as his moment to chime in.

"Well they're trying to kill us too, so I wouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly your royalness." Gerard commented, using his telekinesis to hold a growing line of shotgun shells steady next to Morden's hand as he fired, so the larger WARDEN could reload without having to pull himself back into the truck. "That being said, I think third party might be a safe assumption at this point. But they have to be pretty ballsy to fly a ship into Rassvet airspace and start shooting."

The ground nearby them exploded as the ship shot at them again, nearly blinding them with the light of the detonation. This time close enough to knock the truck off its wheels for a second before it landed with a rough crash. Stone splinters ripped through the fabric cover of the truck bed and peppered their aegises, magical barriers flaring in response to the shrapnel. As though the explosion was a beacon of light marking their position, a volley of energy bolts streaked from the sets of blue eyes growing increasingly lost in the distance, a horizontal storm of lightning bolts streaking at their vehicle. Justice parried the bolt that was headed straight for the center of the cabin, as Silje's detonation caught the vast majority of the rest. The resulting air stank of burnt ozone, but at least they hadn't died.

This manic chase ontinued for what felt like an eternity. Eventually tires bounced from dirt and stone to slick asphalt, the truck cutting across a road to reach the nearby woods. The darkness gave way to the dim, spread out highway lights, a short bit of open ground before the relative shelter of the woods.

And then something strange happened.

Their pursuers stopped. Mechanical frames slowed at the very border of the preserve, their movements shifting from precise and calculated to jerky and unsteady before coming to a complete halt. Raised cannons lowered, eyes flickered for a moment, as though glaring at the truck, and very slowly they began to turn and disappear back into the darkness. The ship froze in the sky. Another low tone from somewhere within its bowels was sounding and seemed to stretch across the land and vibrate their very bones. The silhouette of the ship flickered and then vanished, taking its storm clouds with it- scattering like a disturbed reflection at the water’s edge, the prior drone suddenly replaced with a very noticeable silence.

They drove onward in continued silence, still on edge. A mile or so ahead of them were the clustered lights of a tiny rest stop and gas station. Gerard peered into the darkness, waiting for yet another surprise. All that was heard was the occasional cry of a beast somewhere in the distance and the sound of wheels against asphalt. The lights of the truck flickered and the engine began to cough as Val finally reached the limits of her ability. The sounds of the radio left on from before and seemingly forgotten in the chaos began to slowly fill the truck.

Collette’s hands were still shaking. Her heart felt like it was somewhere in her neck and refused to move down. Very gingerly she peeled Justice's arm off of her as the truck slowed from its frantic gallop down to a slow, exhausted trot. The old engine letting out a low sigh of relief as it did, only alive because of Val's magic. She flickered her head towards the wildly different looking WARDENs in the back of the truck with her and released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "They're just gone? Just like that?"

"Hey look, we have cell service again." Gerard commented to nobody in particular as he grimaced at his phone, it's screen having cracked at some point during the conflict and drive.

"...!" Outside of monitored experiments back at the Citadel, there weren't many instances where Valerie had to exert her power to the point of being pretty much incapable of doing anything else, still, it was at a time like this that Valerie's infinitely grateful there was at least one other person among the Barghests capable of functioning as a leader. With Justice at the helm, Valerie felt a bit more assured to risk pushing herself beyond safe limits.

Her teeth gritted as her wide-opened unblinking eyes and skin started showing the ugly signs of mist overdose. Her constricted pupils were jerking erratically as purple bloodshot veins pretty much covered more than half of her sclera, and her pale skin started becoming more and more violet in hue. Now, being too pale wasn't a good sign, but it sure as hell wasn't as worse as turning goddamned purple. If she succumbed to her body's demands, she'd disengage her power now.

However, she felt that even with Kalina's masterful defensive driving, Morden's rapid sabot fire, Gerard's telekinetic support, Silje's explosive countermeasures, Justice's deflecting barrier, and Collette's emotional support, even with all those, Valerie had the distinct feeling that if she stopped now, they'd all end up dead in a smoldering crater. So, there was no other choice, she had to push over her limits and accepted that she'd likely suffer from a certain condition all mist-users should dread, the one aptly called 'Mistburn'.

With each chaotic second passed in the speeding, swerving, and jostling mist-empowered truck, the worse Valerie's conditions became. Though for some inexplicable reason, their pursuers eventually gave up as the airship abruptly vanished with an otherworldly groan, sending no more bolts, nor warbots at the WARDENs. Regardless of the reason, by then, Valerie had passed her power's safe threshold, well past it.

As the truck slowed down to a crawl, "...ffffh..." a weak, pitiful hiss slipped out of her clenched teeth as the Nephilim disengaged her power, the vein growths swiftly receding from the vehicle, reverting its performance back to the old well-worn truck it originally was. "..." Then, Valerie spent almost half a minute in eerie, unmoving silence... "...!!" before she suddenly jerked up, her cheeks bulging slightly and a gloved right hand snapping up to cover her mouth while her left opened the nearest door. Immediately after, she lurched to the side, putting almost half of her upper body to hang out of the vehicle.

"Uuuuuurgh...!!" Without further ado, the petite WARDEN heaved and expelled concerning amounts of blood, glowing purple-red blood out of her mist-burned body and onto the uncaring ground below. The noises she made were unnervingly visceral as if she was on the verge of death - she certainly felt like that - but finally, after a combination of rough gasps and harsh coughs, Valerie pulled her shaking body back into the truck as trembling hands closed the door.

"..." The horned soldier's purple eyes were empty, now only half-conscious as she laid limp upon the passenger seat; her ethereal halo and wings had long since vanished. Yeah... best just to let her squadmates handle their next move for now, they could at least do that... right?

---

The cannon fire from the sky did not deter Morden, nor did the shrapnel of stone, dirt and metal that flew up into his face while he blasted away into the night. He merely blinked the detritus away while keeping robots on the backpedal. Valerie’s use of magic in this case was keeping them just ahead of everything that “third party” could throw at them. And Morden wasn’t surprised. For one thing, Barghest was not to be fucked with. They had Valerie, they had Silje. The robots were good high speed target practice, but Morden only had so many shells. He stopped his assault on the machines after firing no less than 20 sabots at incoming robots.

As they rode off, he allowed his mist-derived strength to wane.

Valerie stopped the truck, and stopped using her magic on it. Morden watched her lurch out of the truck and hurl up blood from mistburned blood. Morden, having a higher tolerance for mist than most Wardens of his level, knew all too well how rough the overwhelming pain could be. So he slung his shotgun over his shoulders by a sling, and climbed out of the truck. He let a plastic case and a flask full of water fall into his hands from his mist pocket, and walked up to Val’s door.

Valerie. Morden opted to use the telepathic spell connecting them all through Gerard, so she didn’t have to speak, and so they could do so without the princess of Vangar eavesdropping. He calmly sat the case down on the hood of the truck, and withdrew a dose of mist-burn medicine.

You are suffering mist burn. Be still. Breathe, compose yourself. Stepping around the pool of blood, he opened the door with uncanny gentleness for a brick shithouse of a man like himself. This will only take a moment.

"Yes, I said prisoner." Kalina confirmed for the princess's benefit as she continued driving, her foot not leaving the gas pedal. "What did you think was going to happen when a Vangar royal showed up with a dead escort?"

A glance up in the rearview mirror showed no further pursuit, and there was a rest stop ahead. She pulled in, and any option of continuing on was cut off as Valerie lurched out to throw up. Kalina blinked, but left that matter up to Morden and Silje to deal with. No point in her crowding Valerie when the other two had it handled.

Instead, she turned around in her seat back in Gerard and Justice's direction.

"Orders, boss? We've got one of Vangar's princesses and a bunch of robots after us. Should we call it in? Either way, looks like the road trip's cancelled."

Although Valerie was perfectly content to 'sit this one out' so to speak, she couldn't really shut herself off when someone decided to directly speak to her now, could she? Especially not when that someone had caring nurture in mind. "..." The horned WARDEN was slow to respond, needing a few long seconds to finally stir and slightly turn toward Morden, it was as if simply turning her neck was an astronomical task. She had never felt so grateful for Gerard's telepathic field, allowing her to bypass the labor of speaking, "I'm just astonished I'm somehow still alive..."

She'd more than allow Morden to administer the Astral Reducer to her arm and water to her lips, meanwhile, Silje literally hung down from her perch to... check up on her, she supposed, in the Battlemage's own way. "Uuh... thanks." While she could be snarky and mention something along the lines of headpats were the last thing she needed at the moment, but she decided against it. With Morden already attending to her, what else could Silje do? And besides, Valerie was just glad that Silje and everyone else in the squad didn't succumb to mistburn; it wasn't something anyone should be looking forward to, speaking from personal experience.

"Thanks, Morden." Attended, but still exhausted, Valerie let the squad deliberate about what they'd do with the princess. Man, this little road trip was proving to be a lot more than they bargained for...

It was heavy. Even for a single deflection, it felt as though her blood vessels would shred and pop. Still, she was nowhere near as brutalized as Val, who was out of commission after fuelling their getaway. The worst that Justice had was a buzzing feeling on her arms, something that she could minimize by clenching her fists in response.

Morden was left to look after Val. "Good job." She flatly said to the two of them as she finished her cursory status check.

Meanwhile, Silje had immediately pulled out her phone the millisecond there wasn't something interesting happening and said a cursed phrase. She half expected the truck to immediately kick it and any cell service to die once again. But she was right. It could have gone worse. They could have had to actually fight the birthing of all of those robots, or she could have been forced to write eulogies in her report.

"Not a prisoner." Justice replied to Kalina. "That applies to enemy combatants, not diplomats. As fun as it sounds, I'd rather not deal with creating a diplomatic crisis just yet."

Justice ran her hands through her hair. Really, she just had to be the one to deal with a scenario where so many things went wrong, huh? Some vacation.

"That mess is one of three things. First is a third party that managed to sneak through our airspace undetected, but that doesn't explain why they stopped at a border. The second is seditious, so I'll skip that one. The third is that something kicked off an ancient civilization's security alarm centred directly on that preserve, but I'm just making shit up at that point."

She weighed her options and the probabilities of each scenario. Really, she just had to avoid an immediate court marshalling, didn't she? That would be more troublesome than anything else. And for that, she'd need to call in what just happened and who they were with now.

"Gerard, call it in. Attacked by unknown entity. Diplomatic vessel destroyed, diplomat found and secured."

---

"Ah, say it ain't so. I was just starting to enjoy this little vacation." Gerard sighed as the others began to filter out of the truck. Morden went to move and aid Val- they all more or less knew each other's Astral Reducer dosages by heart, Gerard's magic was more for damages of the flesh, which they had surprisingly sustained very little of. Gerard swung himself out of the back of the truck, glad to be out of the stuffy back and breathed in the cool air. Looking up at the sky now, no one would've been able to guess that a ship was up there shelling the crap out of them no more than a few minutes ago. It was like it had up and vanished. "Whatever those things were, they're gone now." he muttered.

Much like Silje, one of the first things Gerard did was check if the ship made any news, or if anyone else had caught a sighting of it- which shouldn't have been difficult given it's size, but both WARDENs disappointingly found nothing on social media or news. Either truly no one had seen anything, or Rassvet censor nets were already hard at work.

"What I'm curious about," Gerard called out to the group, "Is why princess here crashed here of all places. The peace talks weren't set to happen until tomorrow- and even flying we're a good few days west of Orestia. That's a pretty far distance to fall."

"We never made it to the Rassvet border." The princess replied, also stepping out of the back of the truck, watchful eyes prevented her from straying too far away, so she made do with sitting on the truck's bumper, hands running through her hair to shake off untold amounts of dust. "We were about an hour or so away from the border before we ran into a mist storm. We were only in the storm for a few minutes. When we came out we were- wherever here is, it was dark, and then we were attacked moments later."

"I've heard of mist storms displacing objects- chairs, wallets, keys, but a whole ass ship?" Gerard couldn't help but chuckle out of the sheer absurdity of such a thing, "I've never heard of such a thing."

He sighed but nodded as Justice told him to call it in. Looked like their vacation might end up being cut short after all- great. They' d only just pooled up a bunch of money for this sort of thing anyway, and it's not like Rassvet paid trainees much either. As Gerard walked a short ways away to make the call, the Vangar princess turned to Justice to address her and the rest of the Barghests milling around the truck.

"With all the chaos and running, I hadn't thanked you properly yet." Collette said before giving them a short bow, So thank you, I don't think I would've survived the night if you all hadn't come along."

"I'm guessing you all already know who I am, but for the sake of formalities, my name is Collette van Skymning. I was supposed to be arriving in Orestia to facilitate peace talks between Vangar and Rassvet. For whatever that's worth."

" -no I don't know what they are, that's why I called them unknown entities." Gerard's voice carried through the relatively still air, frustration apparent in his tone. "No sir, we didn't take secure lines with us when we left- we weren't expecting to get into combat some hundred miles or so inside the border. Yes sir. Yes sir. But- Yes sir."

Returning back to the group, Gerard sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, no one whose worth a damn is awake right now, but I managed to get on the line with Lieutenant Setzer, the training company XO. He said he's going to report to relevant parties ASAP, for now we're to hold fast and lay low."

Glancing down at the rest stop a few miles down, Gerard shrugged. " Can we a least lay low with four walls and beds? Rest stop looks like it has a garage, and this junk heap isn't gonna last much longer without some repairs."

After the administration of the anti-mistburn drug, Valerie immediately felt better, at least on the mistburn aspect, alas, her physical exhaustion and mental fatigue still remained. Mistburn or no, she'd still needed rest after such an exertion. Her limbs felt like jelly and she swore she wouldn't be able to hold a small sidearm steady right now, let alone Haylel. If those hostiles decided to return - hopefully not - then it'd be in everyone's best interest for her to stay out of the fight, she'd be more of a liability than an asset.

Justice had her theories about the assailant's nature, but regardless of which one was closest to the truth, one thing was crystal clear, whoever or whatever they were, they had no qualms in attacking both Rassvet *and* Vangar. She'd say foolish, but after seeing that titanic porcupine of a vessel... and assuming they had more of those, Valerie wasn't so sure anymore. In the face of such a threat, not to mention the princess being here, continuing their road trip was obviously out of the question.

The enemy princess' side of the story seemed to support their squad leader's first hypothesis. Someone out there was hellbent on preventing any peace talks between the two nations, enough to veritably declare war against both. Give us a break... That pesky empire was one massive thorn on Rassvet’s side, they really couldn't afford to have another, especially if this third party seemed to operate on "the enemy of my enemy is my enemy" principle. In light of this, Collette's gratitude seemed to ring a bit hollow, like a celebration after a pyrrhic victory; they rescued a diplomat, but discovered a new threat in the process.

While Garreth was doing his report with what she assumed to be a very punchable military officer, Valerie shuffled her way off the truck, shambling like an emaciated zombie toward the group before sitting down on a random object that could serve as a stool. "Sounds good." But really, right now, any place free of things trying to kill them would do just fine.

Kalina listened quietly as the princess detailed her version of events. Being attacked through a mist storm? And from an apparent third party to the war, at that. As some others in the squad would say, this was a shitfest. Gerard's follow-up didn't make things any better. Not a single person was on the horn? Wake them up, then.

If Lieutenant Setzer had any balls at all, he'd contact a colonel or someone to push this up the chain of command. Unfortunately, she already knew the LT was just a bit of a dick. The way she saw it, Setzer would probably wait until morning to call this in. Which left them with hours on hours to kill.

Kalina looked between Gerard and Justice, nodding.

"Agreed. Truck won't survive another firefight. Between me and Valerie, engine won't last much longer. I'll take us up to the rest stop once everyone's recovered, but we might have a breakdown. Might have to push the rest of the way up."

With that said, Kalina looked aside to Justice, murmuring quietly to her so that the princess didn't overhear.

"You're sure, boss? If you say so, but I think we're being a little soft on her, off the record."

The princess's etiquette was lost on Justice. While she would have begrudgingly saluted someone of higher rank, "Princess" was not a military title. Add in the fact that she was from an enemy nation and the most that Justice could muster was an inattentive nod.

"We'll try to get some rest. Get up the road to somewhere safe, then take it in shifts. Wait for further orders and all that." She announced the plan. They were basic, but basic was what they needed--especially after everything that just happened.

Kalina's aside certainly got Justice thinking. Kalina's view of war was a bit expected. Though, Justice wasn't personally sure if it was an adherence to numbers or an instilled jingoism that most WARDENs had.

"It's better to be soft than cause a diplomatic crisis. Even nations at war have basic decorum when it comes to that kind of shit. It's part of the reason why prisoners of war aren't summarily executed. Neither nation wants to cross the Stygian river and they certainly don't want a bunch of rookies to do it. Plus, if we push things too far, it's our asses being court martialled. If they tell us to do something, we do it. If they don't we just make sure we don't do something irreversible."

---

The truck managed to sputter the last mile and a half to the rest stop before the engine started belching black smoke. The more mechanically minded among them knew it wasn't permanently disabled, but it wasn't going to be moving any more that night. It took a combination of Morden's bulk and Gerard's telekinesis to get it the last two dozen meters into the waiting garage bay door, attended to by some old timer severely lacking in sleep, but with enough wits to know better than to ask a half dozen youths in a military truck to ask any probing questions. The area itself was sparse enough that there wasn't even much in the way of a motel, just an oversized RV for renting. Luckily for them, the old timer running the place was partial to cash payments and said little more than a number before taking the cash and quickly scurrying away to his own bed for the night.

"I guess we can call it lucky that just one old man runs this whole place." Gerard commented idly, "Just a single geriatric- perhaps memory addled witness. I wouldn't believe him if we questioned him."

"Sleeping situation though..." Gerard glared idly at the unoffending RV that sat on one end of the driveway waiting for them. Single bathroom, 2 bedrooms- one with a bunk bed, the other with a single twin. A table and a quartet of folding chairs sat in front, and a portable firepit sat not far away from it. Otherwise the lot had plenty of space for the squad to fan out and find their own space- be it the garage, the roof, or the robot-run gift shop. Though after that night, Gerard was less inclined to trust even the auto-cashier.

Distrusting of machines or not, Gerard returned to the group with a pair of jeans, t shirt and a trucker cap. Rather unceremoniously pulling the cap over the princess' head, Gerard shrugged before tossing the rest of the clothes at her. "Better for all of us if no one recognizes you, yet." The princess grumbled but nodded as she disappeared into the RV to presumably change and sleep.

"Who wants first watch?" Gerard asked aloud, magnanimously not offering his own presence. Holding his phone up to whomever offered. "Just in case we get a call in the middle of the night."

Amongst the squad, Valerie was one of those who had a more sympathetic outlook about Collette, especially with all that had occurred so far. She's a peace-loving diplomat in an otherwise warmongering nation and the one time she tried to prevent further bloodshed, she almost paid for it with her life. Hindered by both her own people and whoever was behind that warbot-birthing porcupine airship, the princess really didn't deserve any unnecessary roughhousing. "She had gone through enough for one night, guys..." Valerie croaked out each word, hoping it'd be enough.

Not wanting to make Gerard and Morden's job harder than it should be, the white-haired WARDEN remained outside of the truck while it's being moved into the garage despite her aching... everything begging her to use the passenger seat to rest. Instead, Valerie dragged her feet into the RV, not even caring if she stumbled upon an undressed Collette. They were both women, no need to make it weird.

Although Valerie didn't verbally respond to Gerard's generous offer, the fact her mistburnt butt had vanished into the mobile home was a clear enough answer.

Kalina didn't bother changing once they were settled in. Instead, she sat atop the roof of the RV, legs hung out over the side, gunblade laid across her lap as she tended to it with oil and cleaning cloth. She nodded absently to Justice's explanation. Sure, court martials were bad, and they should probably leave this sort of shit to the higher ups. If only they weren't asleep at the moment.

As Gerard brought up the topic of watch, Kalina dutifully raised a hand, waiting for him to toss the phone into it.

"Already up here anyway." Besides, she liked having an uninterrupted sleep cycle. What was a slightly later bedtime in exchange for it? "Want me to wake everyone up in case we do get a call?"

Once that was all sorted out, Kalina looked back towards Justice again, letting her gunblade fade away into her mist pocket once she was done with it.

"Your take on all this, boss? Convenient for us if this is internal and Vangar's killing each other over internal politics now, yeah?"

@OwO

It was better than having to camp outside of a crashed ship. That's all Justice could think about their current arrangement. She hated sleeping in anything stopped with a suspension. At least when a vehicle was moving, the movements blended together when she tried to sleep. When it was stopped? She could feel every single small adjustment in the vehicle. Truly, it was a miserable experience. She'd rather sleep outside under a bit of tarp.

Of course, Gerard didn't volunteer to take the first shift, nor did he request a specific time zone. That means he gets voluntold to take the worst shift.

Justice didn't blame Val for immediately going to bed. If Justice had to exfil the princess alone, she'd probably be in a similar position. However, she couldn't just let Val go like this. Moving in front of the entrance of the RV, Justice stopped Val from entering. "Aegis." She bluntly said. Placing her hand over Val's device, she repaired the damage. The mist shifted and aligned to form an orderly lattice: dozens of straight prismatic rivers that flowed above, below, and besides each other. The order would soon fade to a homogeneous store of magic as the damage was repaired. Without saying another word, Justice walked back towards the fire pit.

Of course, Silje running off was expected. At the very least, whoever was on watch duty wouldn't fall asleep with her around. Though, she'd probably have to give Silje a juice box and some crackers when she woke up. Something like that.

Kalina asking for Justice's opinion on the matter had the latter form an annoyed expression for a brief moment. Though, it vanished as quickly as it came when Justice.

"Convenient if your only goal is to fight. A civil war maybe causes a dozen micronations to try to claim some power. And that's if one of the sides doesn't crush the other. If that's the case, then we have to deal with robots too. And thinking about that gives me a headache. So right now, I think it's better if we treat this like it never happened for tonight. Get rest. Deal with it tomorrow."

Her hammer had been replaced by a familiar knife. In the other hand, she held a thick wooden stick she had broken off a tree earlier. Perhaps this time she'd carve a nice bullet shark.

"I'll take first watch with Kali." Justice announced. "Then Kali will swap with Gerard. Then Gerard and I will swap with Morden and Silje."

She gave a brief pause as she felt an absence around them.

"And charge your Aegis before you go to bed."

---

"I'll take em." Gerard commented as Justice reminded everyone to recharge their aegises. Those in his role- high mist aptitude, generally low mist usage, outside of bursts of healing, were usually the ones that maintained the squad's magical gear. Aegises, communication spells, and whatever else the squad needed. Truth be told, Gerard hadn't really expected to do any of this work until they got shipped out. Most of the squad Aegises were easy enough to keep in shape- Morden and Val's were considerably more complex, he should've counted himself lucky that Justice took care of Val's for him.

Normally he'd have waited until his watch shift to charge and redistribute the shields, but something about their previous experiences made even the ever reluctant Gerard kick himself into some manner of gear. He spent some time pouring over each of the Aegises, repairing damage wherever he found, Mist flowed into orderly lattices layered on top of one another, the support mage taking time to add an extra layer over the heart and head region of each person's personal aegis. By the time he'd finished, it was time for his watch.

"Well, fuck me I guess." Gerard grumbled to no one in particular as Kali turned in for bed. Taking Kali's spot on top of the RV, Gerard sneaked a glance at Justice's carving, before idly scanning down the road.

"Don't think we'll miss another half dozen of those robots dropping out of the sky." Gerard remarked with a yawn. "Other then that, I doubt we're gonna see anyone this far out in the sticks."

"Political shitstorm aside, I thought you'd be more excited about getting into some action so soon after we graduated. Mord and Kali seem to be taking to it like fish to water." Gerard chuckled. "As for the princess... Peace huh? That's a pipe dream if I've ever heard it."

"By the way- any idea about how we're gonna fix that engine?"

---

Collette made her way out of the RV camper with a short yawn, hair frizzled and in obvious discomfort, even if she didn't actively say it. The RV was small, and the bunks were barely long enough for them to lay down in- if not outright impossible for the taller or larger among them. She'd been awoken by the sound of shouting and almost had a heart attack thinking it was another robot attack, but found herself staring at the WARDEN squad squatting around Gerard's phone.

They'd finally gotten ahold of someone with actual authority- though where Gerard had been expecting Colonel Mathis, the commander in charge of the WARDEN platoons and their deployments, they instead found themselves face to screen with a man named Veld. He bore no ranking insignia, nor were there any identifying markers in his office, save for a badge that he flashed the squad, and his fearsome reputation. Veld was the director of field operations for Rassvet's Internal Investigative Branch. While technically part of Rassvet's overarching military structure, they didn't hold traditional ranks like the armed forces, but were known to regularly appropriate combat units for use in whatever plots they had going on. Part secret service, part special force, part intelligence agency, in a heavily policed state like Rassvet, it was common knowledge that the 'spooks' were generally not to be fucked with.

Veld's dark hair was pulled back and out of the way, and thick bears was all but shrouded by a pair of hands simultaneously clasped over his face and rubbing at his temples. "So let me get this straight. You all, while on 'vacation' ran across a crashing airship that somehow managed to come well past our air defense line, that happens to have been carrying a Vangar Princess responsible for the upcoming peace talks happening in 5 hours? And to top all of it off were attacked by a second, unknown airship deploying hitherto unseen combat mechanoids?"

Finally noticing a Non-WARDEN head in the group, Veld pointed at Collette. "This is her? Have you confirmed her identity?"

"I didn't think to run back to my quarters to grab my wallet while I was abandoning ship." Collette replied, a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice. "But I am Collette van Skymning. Whether you believe me now or in a few hours when the Palatine fails to arrive in Orestia is up to you."

The line was silent for a few long moments as the IIB Director was obviously trying to form some sort of solution or game plan. "The images and stills from the crash, you've shown no one else, correct? From this moment on, consider those as good as classified."

With a short sigh, Veld finally straightened up and addressed the assembled WARDENs.

"Alright, here's how this is going to go down." Veld stated. "You shouldn't be far from the city of Dunbarton, about a day or two's drive north-west. I have some ground teams stationed there already, I'll get in contact with them, and they'll meet you at a secure location. From there, they'll take the Princess to the airfield and back to Orestia."

"In case it is not abundantly clear, don't let anyone know where you are, or where you're going- don't let anyone know who you are. Don't let anyone know who she is. Don't let anyone know about the crash. Don't do anything stupid or get fucking arrested. Don't contact me, I'll contact you. The less who know about this, the better for all of us."

Seemingly satisfied with his impromptu plan, Veld leaned back and sighed. "Any questions? Say them now."

"So does this mean the road trip is back on?" Gerard asked aloud, to no one in particular.

---

In the aftermath of yesterday's incident, Morden had elected to stay in the vehicle the entire time. While he certainly didn't expect their prisoner of war to be able to operate the tattered truck, he also didn't trust Vangar royalty as far as he could throw them. And Morden could throw them pretty damn far if he wanted. So he watched Colette like a hawk until he was sure, without question, she had fallen asleep. Then, he traded watch shifts among his fellow WARDENs, and eventually got some sleep himself, waking up slightly later than the others.

By the time he had reached the group, he was wide awake and giving the princess a stoic glare. She was capable of using magic, the kind of magic with combat applications. However weak or potent it was, that was enough of a reason to treat her as if she were always armed. Morden leaned over Gerard's shoulder and tuned into the conversation with Veld. He caught the man's instructions, and then gave Gerard a look at his comment about the road trip.

"No," that is the opposite of what this means, Gerard," He said. "It means we are doing what we are meant to do, following orders. When we are done, then perhaps we'll be able to continue. We are WARDENs for a reason."

And then, over the telekinetic spell, he added, And do not forget she's armed.

Morden turned back to the screen, addressing Veld. He kept his voice quiet, in case someone was spying on them right now. "In case the others have not informed you yet, the "Palatine" was armed with mechanical soldiers. Not the same ones that Vangar uses on a regular basis, but ones that are fully capable of replacing power armored soldiers entirely. Among the wreckage of that airship, many of them were still intact, with only superficial damage. They were armed with built-in weapons. Grenade launchers, gunblades... That was not a level of force one brought for diplomacy, Vangar royalty notwithstanding."

Nothing on the overly serious WARDEN's face, or in his grim tone of voice implied he was thrilled about this. "I personally engaged one, standard infantry would not stand a chance against them. They may have intended to spring a Trojan Horse upon arriving at their destination."

"I'm sure you will put that information to better use than us, sir."

After having her Aegis repaired by their squad leader, Valerie replied in kind by... shirking her nightwatch duties, being the only member of the squad to do so; not by choice obviously, her mistburn-wracked body couldn't wake up prematurely even if she wished to, that and the fact Astral Reducers had a sedative side-effect on her certainly didn't help her case.

Though she woke up as soon as she was able and resumed to being a useful member of the squad, helping with whatever chores and preparations needed to get them going. After everything was said and done, she was amongst the Barghests currently being addressed by one Director Veld, the one in charge of the Internal Investigative Branch, Rassvet's secret police force. The dark-haired man looked quite perplexed and stressed out, and considering everything, Valerie could empathize.

"Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction, this is definitely one of those times, sir." The white-haired WARDEN glanced at the princess, then mentally shrugged, believing the blonde woman was indeed Princess Collette. Then, she listened attentively as Director Veld briefed them on their next assignment, something that she already expected they should do for the sake of everyone involved, including Her Highness. Guess we better keep an extra eye on Silje, huh? What? The princess clearly could be relied on to not comically blunder into trouble, their battlemage on the other hand...

With the briefing done, Gerard's rhetorical quip aside, Morden responded with concerns of his own. The mountain of a soldier believed the diplomatic airship was hosting those warbots as a trap to unleash at the peace conference. The green-eyed vanguard obviously lacked trust in the empire and its people, even without the telekinetic message, and though Valerie wouldn't put it past Vangar's higher-ups to condone something like this... her guts were telling her that Morden was mistaken.

"At the risk of playing Devil's Advocate, I believe the Palatine was truly an unarmed vessel designed for diplomatic purposes," The shortest WARDEN spoke in response to the tallest among them, "The unknown airship that attacked us was capable of launching packed warbots as projectiles before they'd unpack themselves after landing. It's likely that they boarded the Palatine via this method. Related, if they were designed to survive a rough landing, then it shouldn't be too far-fetched to presume that they could withstand an airship crash and still be functional."

Was she correct? Was Morden? She couldn't say for certain, but as much as she abhorred Vangar, Valerie felt that Collette was being betrayed by her own nation for their nefarious ends and through that belief came sympathy.

Honestly? This was fine. This situation was fine. They were WARDENs. They were doing what they were meant to right now. Not wandering around aimlessly for the hell of it. Hell, at least Morden similarly didn't have his head up his ass about the whole thing. It wasn't the front lines, but at this point, this might as well be an op. Just...under the table.

Kalina didn't participate in the little debate about whether or not the attack was a false flag, believing there wasn't enough information one way or the other. The only pertinent matter was getting the princess into the hands of Rassvet authorities ASAP. Regardless of her intentions or importance to the throne, the girl was an asset in the right hands. To that end, Kalina saluted the image of Director Veld on Gerard's phone.

"Sir. Our transport took damage while we were extracting from the combat zone. Are there any available resources that can be spared for repair funds or sourcing an alternate means of transportation?" She glanced back in the direction of the garage with a doubtful stare. "We can't make it to the agreed location if our truck breaks down halfway there."