She feels tight as her system reboots. Something is restraining her. She feels her arms hanging over head. She looks up as her vision returns. They are tied above her. She was tied to a tree in a sitting position. The restraint is pressing every inch of her body. She looks down. Even her thighs are tied together. Her left leg isn’t there. She wishes it still is. But now there’s a dressing that covers the bottom end of her left thigh. It is meant to shut wrapped pain receptors and comfort the wearer. The excruciating pain isn’t there anymore.

It is still dark. Caitlyn can’t see a hundred meters without her night-vision filter. Amidst the darkness, she finally realizes it.

Caitlyn never think highly of herself because she is the cheapest Android around. That’s why she could barely get anything done at that time. She never thought that she could. And the constant scolding by her sisters made it worse. She left her family to earn wages to pay their debt to Prime Respite. But that mindset tagged along with her.

She is pathetic because her mind said so. The accumulation of her sisters’ mistreatment of her is responsible. She never has any initiative because she did once and it ended up disastrously. She is always afraid to take actions. She is afraid that it’ll cause destructive consequences to people. Just like what she had caused to her family. She saw seclusion as a solution. But she tasted it herself that it didn’t take her anywhere.

And the hollowness in her is Gvozdika’s compassion. She was her only comfort. Yet Caitlyn ditched her when everything was falling apart. And because it’s Caitlyn’s fault, she can never rest her worries for her. She only wanted to make things better for her sister. But she worsened it instead. Even though Caitlyn longed for her sister, she never took a ride home when rotations came. She feels ashamed for leaving Gvozdika on her own against the problem she had created.

Alezia was a gift. She was the support Caitlyn always needed. She pulled her out of her miserable hole and showed her the world. And she was devastated by her loss because she lost the light that has guided her up to this point. Her effort wasn’t in vain, however. Caitlyn can now emit her own light and navigate on her own. After a bit of a struggle, she found Genesis, Charlotte, PT, KP, and even Hassle. Until situation calls, she will walk with them through the horrors of war.

“So,” Caitlyn heard a voice. “Who’s Gvozdika?”

Someone shines their torch to her face. She squints to resist the glare. The silhouette that holds the light source approaches. Their figure slowly becomes visible.

“Is she your relative?” The man crouches.

He wears a ghillie suit. And it’s not just a regular ghillie. They could set them to not interact with light, completely concealing their presence. The Cloakers as Command named them. Caitlyn didn’t see them because they were invisible.

“She’s my sister.” Caitlyn bitterly replies.

“Is she beautiful?”

Caitlyn frowns at him. “You’re not getting your hands on her.”

He shrugs. “I’m just asking. How old is she, by the way?”

“She should be thirty-three by now.”

“Okay, no thanks.”

Caitlyn looks past him. She notices PT sitting still ahead. His power core was hit. But she is not sure what hit it. She has never seen it before. There’s a hole on his side hull that’s protecting his core. It’s too small for telve’s Pilum anti-tank guided missile.

“Private!” Another man walks up to him. “Are you seriously mingling with our prisoner?”

“We have to show some hospitality, don’t we sir?” The man with the flashlight shrugs.

“Hmm, yeah you’re right.” He snaps his fingers. “Hospitality from my arse.” He immediately follows it up with a stomp on the dressing covering her knee.

Caitlyn twitches her head up; her face crumples as the pain flares again. She presses her left thigh against the ground to ease it.

“Sir…,” The private looks up to his superior in disbelief. “She is tied from head to toe already.”

“Do you still believe in The Primus’ favor, private?”

The private stands up. “No. But that seriously didn’t represent what The Sentinel had taught us.”

That man seemed to be the squad leader. A sergeant maybe. He seized the torch from the private and orders him to get back in line.

“Alright, let’s make this quick.” He says, crouching before her. “I ask. You answer.”

“And you’ll kill me if I don’t.”

“Probably. But I’ll start with him.” He points his torch at PT. “At him boys.”

Caitlyn looks to the left. There are two men there in the bushes. One is crouching with what appears to be an ammo box. The other is prone with a large-caliber rifle that she is not familiar with. He cocks the rifle and aims it at PT’s engine. When he pulls the trigger, it shrieks with an increasing pitch. The chamber glows crimson. The rifle spits its cartridge in a jarring blast. The projectile punctures through PT’s engine compartment, leaving a cavity with glowing edges.

“No…leave him alone!” Caitlyn lurches forward, her fist is clenched as if she would outright thrash the man’s face. But she is snapped back to the tree.

“So,” The sergeant points his torch at her again. “Our Thorn spotted an armor column twenty hours ago. You’re part of it right?”

Caitlyn nods.

“What were you up to?”

“We were ordered to assault a Thorn’s nest. They told us there were three of them ready to fire at Patih Tread.”

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The sergeant turns to his boys with the rifle. A shot is fired. It penetrates right beside the cavity where his power core is residing.

“Wha…I gave you what you want!”

“Yeah except that we have none of those around. You must be making up things.”

“It’s what I was told!”

“Oh well,” He shrugs. “We can’t pull out that bullet now, can we?”

The man inches closer. Caitlyn imagines herself on his neck while stabbing it repeatedly with her bayonet. She can only squirm at the moment, but that doesn’t stop her from doing it.

“Right, so…” The sergeant points at the Thorn’s wreckage. “It looks like it blew up from within and took the crews along. How did you do it?”

“I was lucky. I ordered my tank to shoot down the barrel of its gun and it just erupted.”

“Oh damn…” He glances at PT. “That explains why you had to get this close.” He then places his left hand on his chin. “Don’t you find it odd that they only sent you?”

“Huh?”

He slaps her. “Elaborate.”

“I…” Caitlyn huffs. “I don’t know.”

The rifle shrieks.

“Resting!” Caitlyn quickly exclaims. “They are resting! The others. They are recuperating their losses for the time being. That’s why they only sent me.”

“And how long you’re going to be licking your wound?”

This should be an opportunity for her to lie. She can take any numbers; any reasonable ones and hope that the army is ready to proceed before that to catch them by surprise. She takes her guess.

“Ten days.”

The rifle fires again.

“No!” Caitlyn cries.

“You suck at lying, aren’t you?” The sergeant mocks. “If that’s really true, the initiative would have been on our side since the first war. It should be around three to four days from now.” He chuckles. “I can’t believe you don’t know how your own forces work.”

Caitlyn glances at PT. That shot penetrated close to his ammo compartment. Her anxiety spikes. She remembers that PT let loose three rounds during the Thorn engagement. There are still a lot of rounds there. That rifle seems capable to pierce him with ease. If it shot through the ammo compartment, a cook-off will occur. Though it’s unlikely for PT to explode thanks to the venting, his systems will still die.

Caitlyn looks back at him with contempt. Her patience is running out. She feels that this man only wants to play around with her.

“What’s your unit?” The sergeant asks again.

“I’m part of a task force. Caution.”

“Hmm…nice. Where are your friends now?”

“The ridge south of Patih Tread.”

The sergeant nods. He then nods to his boys as well.

A shot fired again. This time it pierces the ammo compartment.

“What!?” Caitlyn shouts. “I was telling the truth!”

“Yeah, but we knew that already.” The man giggles.

The cook-off miraculously doesn’t occur in PT’s ammo compartment. But it occurs somewhere else. Caitlyn glares at the sergeant resentfully. Sinister voices are bubbling within. It’s not the voices in her head this time. Her conscience is actively pumping it. The heat boils her rationality. And with its absence, emotions rise, the terrible ones.

He said he isn’t going to harm PT when she cooperates. Caitlyn did for the tank’s sake, but the sergeant told his men to shoot him anyway. He is purposefully messing with her for his own amusement. And that enrages her.

Caitlyn wants to vent those voices out as loud as she could. But she can’t. They are stuck in her chest. She tries to push them through. But the more she struggles, the stiffer they become. Caitlyn looks down and shuts her eyes. Her face relaxes.

She remembers Gloria’s wrath. She understands her now. Gloria had to pay the price for an event she had no control over. And she had no way to get herself out of the suffering. Caitlyn can’t do anything about these men who are slowly killing PT. That wrath was manifesting. But she ran out of steam to unleash it. She had drained them out when she wept for Alezia. And besides that, she has been avoiding such manner because she knew that it would hurt people around her. She can’t let them out now because she is used to suppressing them.

What comes out is a mere echo of that wrath. A tear that trickles down her cheek.

“Oh, crying?” The sergeant mocks her. “You can’t be serious.”

It makes her sobs. An embarrassing look, but Caitlyn doesn’t care. At least she can calm and control herself.

“Quit it, sir.” The private objects from behind him. “She is still a woman. Let’s just get what we need and leave. Her friends might be coming.”

“Yeah, alright.” He says to the private. The sergeant grips Caitlyn’s cheeks and raise her head. “I promise we’ll go after this one.”

Caitlyn sniffs. She blinks repeatedly to wipe her tears. She suddenly sees an azure dot on the sergeant’s shoulder.

“Sir…” The private points it to him as well.

“Scatter! Scatter! Scatter!” The last things he says before he and his men disperse.

A barrage of 30mm rounds saturates the ground. Caitlyn glances away and cowers as it dices through trunks and vegetations around her. She tries to peek but the dust makes it hard for her to see. Then three missiles fall in a wide spacing. The explosion agitates her, but she holds on. A little closer and she would leave the scene covered with shrapnel.

As the dust settles, those men lay dead. The barrage spares only one with an intact body. The others have their limbs or head shredded off, or blown to bits and incinerated by the missile shot. Caitlyn looks up. The barrage has also caused an unobstructed view through the light forest’s shade. There’s a Kris hovering in the sky. It reduces its altitude the moment she notices it.

She turns to where the azure dot came from. Caitlyn hears a rustling and a rumbling. Two vehicles and an unknown amount of foot units are approaching.

A Crescent and a Seret emerge. Caitlyn is surprised to see Hassle and his men, along with Genesis hustling toward her.

Hassle orders his men to secure the perimeter. Genesis heads straight for Caitlyn.

“No place to die, Caitlyn.” Genesis cuts the restrains.

The restrains have been pressing her for a while now. Her entire body feel supple as Genesis break her loose. She can’t bring herself up.

“Genesis…” Caitlyn reaches for her.

The maid heaves her on her back and rushes inside the Crescent. Caitlyn can’t resist the exhaustion once she got inside. Hence, she let herself calibrate.