16:20
Watson Estate, Pound Hill, Crawley
Sage got past the royal guards easily by showing her ID and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, the door opened and Sage saw a suited lady standing in front of her. The lady was tall and slim and had grey eyes and blond hair tied in a ponytail. Sage tilted her head in confusion, as she hadn't seen that lady before.
The lady said, "Welcome, General. Please follow me."
Sage said, "Uhm, I came to meet…"
"Princess knows about your presence. She'll be with you shortly. Please come with me," the lady interrupted.
The lady took her to a well-furnished living room and said, "Please, sit down. Do you like to have anything to drink while you wait?"
Sage asked for some coffee as she looked around the room. The room was carpeted with green fake grass carpet and had a large window on one side of the room and a fireplace on the other side of the window with a couch set in front of it. There were small 'tepoys' on each side of the couches. The door to the room was on the left side wall from the couch, while there was a large glass sliding door to the right that led to the garden.
A few moments later, the lady returned with a cup of coffee and a few pieces of cookies on a tray. She put the tray on the tepoy close to the general and said, "Please wait. The princess will be with you shortly."
Sage was getting impatient because of the message she got earlier and a little bit nervous about being in a princess's palace like this. It was a first time for her. She picked up the coffee cup and took a sip as she tried to calm herself by thinking, "It's okay, Kate. You got this. You always have. If you can handle a conference room full of angry state representatives, you can handle one princess too."
Same Time
01:48 (Local Time)
Student dormitories, Academy District, New Eden
An empty four-storey multipurpose building, mainly built for cadets gathering and other indoor recess activities, was turned into a makeshift prison for the POWs. The fighting had almost ended as the troop carriers had left, the jets either shot down or grounded, taking the pilots as POWs, and the infantry soldiers either dead, arrested or fighting in small groups on different parts of the island.
De Luca, Sifat and Elina came to the prison, hauling the thirteen prisoners. They were in a line. Sifat in front, the thirteen prisoners in the middle and Elina in the back. De Luca was walking beside the line, making sure no one broke the line. Even though they were tied together by their waists with a cargo rope.
As they reached the gate of the dormitory building, De Luca and a prison guard saluted each other as De Luca stood in front of him. De Luca said as he pointed towards the prisoners, "Got thirteen more guests for you."
The prison guard forced a laugh as he said, "Unwanted guests."
De Luca laughed back and replied, "Valid. You'll take them, or do I have to go inside?"
The guard replied, "Neither. Wait here. I'll call for someone from inside."
De Luca nodded.
A few minutes later, four guards got out of the building. They took the POWs inside.
De Luca looked at Sifat and Elina. Sifat was smiling a little while his rifle rested on his right shoulder while Elina looked blank. De Luca had noticed Elina hadn't said a word since the warehouse incident. He wanted to say something to her but didn't know what to say.
Elina was thinking the whole time. Thinking about why she froze. She cursed herself for not being able to work after being all excited about it before. She herself didn't know what to do. She wanted to ask her mentor, Blast, about it. She wanted to ask for directions, as she felt lost.
Just as if answering her desire, a voice came from her headphones. De Luca and Sifat heard it too.
"This is Watcher 4-1, to all available units in the Academy District and its surrounding districts. Get to the point, Eve Tower. There are interns pinned down there. They need backup. I repeat, get to Point Eve Tower now."
Sifat and Elina quickly got ready and started running. De Luca said to the guards, "Take care of the guests. See ya," before running behind Elina and Sifat.
02:03
Female Student Dormitory
The corridor of the 2nd floor was a chaotic mess. Out of the two stairways on the two corners of the long, narrow corridor, invading soldiers poured in like roaches while Jacob, other SNA soldiers and the cadets were using the rooms on the side and their makeshift melee weapons to fight off them. The invaders tried throwing grenades to clear the area, only for the cadets to hit them away like baseballs with their melees. Some cadets had snatched some rifles from the invaders and were using them to carefully thin the crowd one by one.
Luna punched an invader on his nose as she pushed away his rifle with his other hand as he was about to shoot. The invader stumbled back a little. Jacob used this opportunity to insert a skewering needle through his back followed by a body slam. Before the invader's lifeless body fell on the ground, both of them slid behind the wall.
Luna was panting from exhaustion. She rested on her knees as she looked up at Jacob, who too was resting against the wall and panting, and said, "You sure called for backup?"
"You have a doubt?"
Luna was about to say something when a female voice from the corridor said, "Luna, get back to fighting, please. It's not the time for chitchat."
Luna stood straight up again as he said in a lazy voice, "Yeah, yeah. We're coming."
Jacob and Luna came out of the room to fight again. But just as they got out, Jacob saw a block of primed C4 charge flying their way. In a split second, he turned around, hugged Luna tightly and tried to dive away. But he was too late, as the C4 charge exploded before he could dive away. The blast wave pushed Jacob and Luna away as the whole portion of the floor collapsed to the ground floor.