21/Kryo/2467 R.S. 00:47:58

Centralian Command Center, Centralia.

*Ten minutes before Detonation*

In a white room with large digital panels displaying graphs and statistics, Jade sits on her desk working on decrypting the infamous Data Pad recovered from Caloris. Every hour, a Suited Officer comes around and checks in on her to make sure everything is in order. Her concentration is interrupted as she hears footsteps getting closer to the door. It is that time again.

*Toc* *Toc*

"Everything alright in there?"

The man asks behind the door, and he stands by and awaits a reply.

Jade sets down the Data Pad and approaches the door, she opens it, sees the man and says: "Tell Dovyo that if he wants me to-" she stops abruptly as her eyes turn to the left and catch a glimpse of Dovyo walking around the corner towards her. Her eyes return to the officer, and she continues: "Ahem, never mind." She smiles at him and turns towards Dovyo.

As he is getting closer, he begins to speak. "I see you've met my new Assistant General." He says.

Jade looks back at the man, "He's the new AG?" She says and scoffs unimpressed. Dovyo tilts his eyes at her and stops walking.

Gen. Dovyo: "One of the many, yes."

12: "Wait, I thought there was just one Assistant General and their handler."

Gen. Dovyo: "Times; they are changing, walk with me."

12: "Yes, sir."

Gen. Dovyo: "Salem, guard this room with your life."

AG Salem nods in affirmation. He stands in front of the door and holds his hands behind his back.

The General and Jade walk together down the bright hallway, Dovyo has his full Gala uniform, showing off his commendations, badges, ribbons, and the Grand Star, carried only by Centralia's Greatest Generals. Jade notices this and sparks up a conversation as they walk around the corner, leaving the hallway in which Jade's research room is in.

12: "So, what's the special occasion?"

Gen. Dovyo: "I am glad you asked, you see, your squadmates are quite busy at the moment, in a matter of minutes Vera and Michael will bring me one of the most important diplomats the Republic has to offer, that is the occasion."

12: "Yeah, I heard Mike talk about him, Sagras, something like that."

Gen. Dovyo: "Sagras Nohem, I'd love to see the look in his eyes when I bring up all the atrocities he has committed against the Centralian populace."

12: "The world's populace, for that matter."

Gen. Dovyo: "That is correct, but we delegate for our own. The people of Centralia are and will always be my number one priority."

Jade is of Royal descent, both of her parents were from the Royal Mikan Empire and lived there before they fled through the Silver Sea via one of the many migrant fleets, eventually arriving in Centralian territory, many times throughout the Royal Empire's history it has been very common for the Royal populace to escape the Imperial way of life for a better future, seeking this in other countries and therefore, other governments, but at the time, the Royal Mikan Empire have boosted their people's morale, making them happy and complacent, Nationalism is at a rise.

This information was revealed to Jade by General Dovyo himself when she asked about her origins. Normally, this information will not be disclosed to the Troopers, but Jade was the first one out of all of them to ask. However, upon receiving this knowledge it created a spark of controversy in her moral compass, making her realize that ethnic origins do not necessarily contribute to a person's beliefs or political inclination, nonetheless she remains silent, she does not want to create an unnecessary argument.

Stolen story; please report.

They stand in front of a white metal door with a looking glass on the top left side, Dovyo looks inside and swipes his key card, and the door slides open, revealing the Central Command Center. Large screens cover most of the walls inside the room, technicians sprawling from left to right with Data Pads on their hands, sharing information with one another. This reminds Jade of the Pad sitting on her desk. She looks at the General.

12: "Sir, why are we in the Command Center?"

Gen. Dovyo: "I need to see what is taking 51 so long."

12: "Permission to return to my room, sir?"

Gen. Dovyo: "Denied, it looks like we pissed off the Republic by taking back what is ours. Jade, have you been able to access our datapad?"

12: "For now all I've been able to figure out is a set of coordinates, after that more encryption blocks await, could take me some time."

Gen. Dovyo: "Coordinates? Strange, regardless, take all the time you need."

12: "Sir, if I may ask, what do you think we'll find on the datapad?"

The General sighs and looks away from Jade. This piques her interests. He looks at the large screen straight ahead and watches as the level of activity begins to rise across the board. As the Centralian technicians discuss between themselves, Dovyo leans forward, focusing on one blip on the screen. Suddenly, the room gets dark, and red strobe lights turn on. The technicians quickly bring up the alerted area to the big screen.

"Sir, we have multiple heat signatures spiking around district four!"

"CHP Units are responding. Do we send a quick reaction force?"

The technicians inform the General of the situation at hand, Dovyo begins to feel weary, and orders them to give him eyes on the scene. "Any live footage being transmitted?"

"Yes, Sir! Highway Patrol unmanned unit thirty-seven is on pursuit." The technicians tap into the vehicle's live transmission, showing the CHP unit's perspective as it chases a black SUV speeding through Central Highway, the surrounding buildings hints they are heading towards district four.

Gen. Dovyo: "Send the Quick Reaction Force, prepare to seal the Kalderag-District one borderline. No one gets in or out, and get me some eyes in the sky, this footage is horrid."

"Yes, sir!"

"Understood!"

12: "What do you think is happening, sir?"

Gen. Dovyo: "A complication, hopefully, 51 comes through."

12: "What about Vera?"

Gen. Dovyo: "I assume they're together, I can't see what's -"

The large screen changes into a live satellite imagery showing Michael pushing a Sedan in an attempt to stop its trajectory, behind the sedan a black SUV rams against it. From the SUV, two suited individuals board the sedan while Michael continues to push. Upon seeing this, the General's eyes grow wide, "This is an attack! I'm calling a full state of emergency!" He orders a full state of emergency for the whole Centralian Country, issuing the deployment of multiple homeland security teams. It is all hands on deck in the Command Center.

Gen. Dovyo: "Jade, you should return to your room and figure out as much as you can. We might not have that precious "time, " we discussed.".

12: "Are you sure you don't need my help here?"

Gen. Dovyo: "Go back to the -"

The whole room is whitened, a bright light emits from the large monitor, everyone in the room except Jade covers their eyes with their hands, her helmet's visor protects her eyes. The satellite imagery zooms out and captures the moment in which the explosion returns to its epicenter only to explode with twice the original strength, leaving a dark cloud of smoke. While the smoke settles, everyone in the room is rendered speechless, waiting to see the result of such an event. Jade quickly turns and runs towards the metal door, General Dovyo sees her and acknowledges that he continues to give orders.

"Get me anyone in the region! Greenlight for Trooper Squad Phaeton deployment, and get me the comms back in this area, NOW!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Proxy sensors are fried - I'll try the next set of sensors behind those."

The technicians chatter between themselves. Panic escalates inside the Command Center, the door opens letting Jade leave the room, the previously bright white walls are now dark and red light paints the atmosphere as it slowly pulses. Jade walks through the hallways, her heavy footsteps resonate in the silence, as she approaches the Assistant General, he moves aside and lets her enter the room before closing it behind her. After which Salem runs towards the Command Center.

21/Kryo/2467 R.S. 00:59:21

*Two minutes after Detonation*

Now inside, the room Jade leans over her desk and looks at the datapad. She presses the comms button on the right side of her helmet.

12: "Michael, Vera? Any of you reading me?"

"... That explosion, I've never seen anything like it...what if I could've done something? But no, I'm stuck with this, a stupid datapad."

Jade sits down and takes off her helmet in frustration. She continues to talk to herself as she works on the datapad. "You were interesting in the beginning, you little piece of junk, I wonder why Dovyo wants you so much! He sure seemed worried when I mentioned coordinates, hmm... The coordinates."

Jade enters the decrypted sections of the datapad and extracts the coordinates into one of her many monitor screens, the screen turns into a satellite image archive, and she searches closely for any image matching the coordinates given by the Data Pad.

"I think if I keep decrypting, I'll find more information...None of these are making sense."

She says as she begins to doubt these coordinates. Until finding an image with the same coordinates, Jade opens up the image of a vast desert. She catches a glimpse of two adjacent buildings lying dormant, slowly being buried under the sands.

Jade smiles, "Interesting... I may be on to something here!"

A faint voice comes from her helmet. This spooks her as she is concentrated. She walks over to her helmet and puts it on and sees that Ankiros opened a secure line between the two.