On Saturday, I arrived early in the morning today at Gumi's request. With what we had discovered yesterday, I knew it was only a matter of time before we needed to head back out for a second expedition into the unknown.

Gumi told us yesterday as we were heading home from our research into Miku's home that she finally got into contact with the Rangers. We could finally make some progress in learning about this place. Especially with our last encounter, we could use all the information we could get.

I walked into the Operating Room behind Meiko. Gumi was sitting at her computer, tapping away.

"Well, good morning, early birds," Gumi announced as we walked over to her, "I hope you had a good night's sleep last night."

"Eh," I said, shrugging, "I've had worse mornings."

"I'm surprised you didn't nap on the way over," Meiko said, patting my shoulder. "If you're sleepy, you can rest your eyes on the train."

"Har har," I said, rolling my eyes, pulling her hand off my shoulder. "I'm way too wired to fall asleep."

"Well," Gumi said, "then I'm going to get things set and ready to go. You two get ready before the briefing starts."

"Yeah," I said.

"Roger," Meiko said.

We left, heading into the changing rooms.

A brand new set of jumpsuits were laid out next to the rooms. We each grabbed one and walked in.

Moments later, we walked out, fully dressed, and ready to go. I put my clothes in the duffel bag, folded, and zipped it shut.

"Hey," I said to Meiko as she walked out, "when do you plan on training me?"

"What brought this on?" She asked.

"We had this conversation here last time. I wanted to make sure you were actually going to do it."

"Well," Meiko said, "I could right now."

"Right now? But we have a briefing."

She changed into a fighting stance, with her fists raised.

"You're not serious."

"It'll be quick," she said, "come on, let me show you."

She walked up to me, and grabbed my wrists.

"The trick is learning to channel your energy. If you're in the middle of a fight, you're going to have a lot of adrenaline, and it might overwhelm you."

She adjusted my stance until she felt I was standing in the right position.

"You'll have an easier time channeling that energy somewhere if standing properly. Now, here's the really fun part, you ready?"

"I'm ready, what is it?"

"Breathing."

"Breathing?"

"Yeah, just inhale, close your eyes, and let it out."

I closed my eyes, and felt my mind empty for a second, and opened my eyes.

"Feel a little different?"

'Yeah, kinda, that's so weird," I said, tightening my fists.

"Alright, now hit me."

"What?"

She pointed at her cheek. "Go on, hard as you can, I can take it."

I hesitated. Most of my life I was taught to never hit anyone, especially girls. "Come on," she said, "go for it."

I breathed in again, and swung. My fist made a loud smack as it made contact with Meiko's face. She shook her head, and laughed.

"Barely felt it," she said, "told ya."

"What was the point of this?" I asked.

"Well, you felt it, right? That's what a good punch can feel like."

"But you said it barely hurt."

"It did, but I felt your fist. With a little more training, you could probably do some actual damage."

I laughed. "I guess that's high praise coming from you."

"I'll make you a fighter, don't worry. It might take a while, but I'll figure out a proper training regimen for you."

"Well," I said, "thanks for the lesson. I learned something new today."

"You're gonna learn a lot more," she said, heading to the exit. I followed behind her.

We came back to the main headquarters. Gumi was sitting in her chair, with a diagnostic running on what I presumed was the chip.

"Welcome back," Gumi said, "I hope you two like the new suits."

"I do," I said, "thanks."

'You're welcome, just don't tear these ones up this time. They take a lot of time to repair."

"I'll try to get it torn open as soon as possible," Meiko said, sarcastically, "it'll be easier that way."

Gumi giggled, "I'll be sure to take it out of your beer money."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would."

Luka entered behind us, also dressed in her jumpsuit.

"Ah, she's here," Gumi said. "We can get the briefing going."

Luka stood next to Gumi's chair, and Gumi began explaining.

"As of right now," Gumi said, "we have our meeting with the Rangers set up. We need to meet up outside near the satellite dish Griff got working. We don't know what they're about, or what they can do. I haven't really had time to pull up the info on them, nor do we have any intel on them."

"And what about the chip?" I asked.

"Was getting to that," Gumi said. "I found out that this was given to Miku by someone, but not sure who. Another thing I've found is that it's heavily encrypted, and it'll be a good deal of time before I can see what it's holding. The good news is we at least have one. "

"Any idea what might be on it?" Meiko asked.

"First and foremost, it'll be access codes. Those are necessary to find out where Miku is, and those will help us free her, but if there's something else, well, that will be a bonus."

"Do you know how to decrypt it?" Meiko asked.

"It'll be a little while," Gumi explained. "I wish Miku had given Griff a little more information, but we're lucky to have this in the first place."

I nodded, and Meiko continued.

"So, what about our meeting?"

"I want you armed on the off chance things go sour with the Rangers. Be it they were followed, or they're just hostile to us. Since it seems humans are a rarity there, there's no telling how they will react to us."

We all nodded, and our operation commenced immediately.

I stepped into the scanner. The door shut behind me, and the familiar scanning process initiated. I stood at the center plate, and closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and allowed the machinery around me to do all of the work.

Almost in an instant, I felt the familiar rush, and was pulled into the system. I opened my eyes, seeing in front of me with blue streams following down a circular tunnel. I hadn't seen this before. I wondered, maybe, that my brain could process what was in front of me better this time. It felt incredible to actually see it. It felt even better to fly through. I stretched my arms out, and like a bird in the air, I felt free.

That would end as I came to the end of the tunnel, I pulled my arms back, and felt my speed slow. Once I had reached the stop, I felt as if I was landing. A white flash of light had overtaken my vision for only a second, and before I knew it, I was back in the room where our expedition originally had started.

Meiko and Luka were in the room as well. We were all standing on the pads at the end of it, and the door out was lit with a green light. Everything still seemed functional. It was nice to know it didn't all shut off as we left.

"You okay?" Meiko asked.

"Wasn't as bad of a trip this time," I said. "This virtual travel stuff is a little fun once you actually get used to it."

"Well, it's about to get a lot more 'fun,'" she said. "The armory is near the communication center, and then after that, we're meeting with our new friends."

"How long until they arrive?"

"Could be three minutes, could be three hours. All depends if they're still alive."

I nodded. It was still early in the day that we could spend some time here, and I wouldn't need to worry about home.

"Come on," Luka said, opening the door, "let's not waste time."

We proceeded through the circular hallway to the next door. Behind the door, the tram was docked at our station.

"Oh, good," I said, "it's still here."

"It wouldn't have left," Luka replied. "It's still here because it doesn't have anyone telling it to go somewhere else. Maybe once we can get this station occupied, we'll see a lot more activity around here."

"Good point," I said. "Hopefully that means we're not going to be the only ones here. This place feels creepy without anyone else around."

The train started, and moved along its path to the armory. All three of us sat down, relaxing until we arrived. We all sat in silence waiting for our intended destination.

The armory was a shorter distance from our entry point than the Comms Station was. It stopped right at the door, and we all hurried out. Meiko and Luka led the way again, and opened the door. The inside of the armory was bright blue, the same as the Operating Room. Multiple pod-like devices lined up against the farthest wall, with computers all reading off various pieces of information. On the left was a wall, lined with weapons. Rifles, pistols, shields, all sat behind light barriers, and they all looked unused.

Meiko walked over, and took a look at one of them.

"This is definitely nice," she commented on one of the rifles. "I'd like to use some of these."

She looked like a kid in a candy store, eyeing all of the tools in front of her.

I stepped up to one of the pods. The cylindrical station had warm air emanating from it, with a consistent hum that filled the silence in the air. I had no idea what this even was, and it intrigued me.

I looked over at Luka, who wasn't preoccupied with anything in particular. I shot her a glance that said, "any idea what this is?"

"From what I'm reading here," she answered, "it looks like this is the armor station."

I looked back over at the machine. "Ah," I said, "do we know how to use it?"

Luka nodded, tapping on the keyboard. "It's pretty straightforward," she explained, "you just step in and the device does everything for you. Foolproof, at least, that's according to what I'm reading here."

"What about personal information? If I'm going to suit up, I'm hoping I'm not wearing anything too heavy."

"Yeah, it looks like it already has it."

I raised an eyebrow. "What, really?"

Luka squinted at the monitor in front of her. "From what I can see, this is from your bio-scans."

I had completely forgotten about those. "Is that why we did them? Or, are we all just finding this out?"

Meiko added, "Actually, Gumi sent those this morning. It'll take a lot less time to get armed up with the information we already have on file. Might as well make the most of it.

I stepped closer to the machine, gliding a finger over the cold surface.

"We're not going to find out anything by standing here," Luka said. "I say we all get dressed and ready to go. The sooner we've got our equipment, the sooner we can relax for a bit."

"Alright, then," I said, walking into the chamber, "I'm ready when you guys are."

"Beginning armoring sequence," Luka announced. "Griff Darhen, aged 16, weight: fifty-seven-point-five-four kilograms, height: one-hundred-seventy-two centimeters…"

She continued reading out everything until the door closed. If she was still reading, I couldn't hear as everything powered up. Mechanical arms had placed themselves around me. They stood still as another device lowered, with a screen displaying an outline of a left hand. Below it, the text read, "place hand here."

I slowly planted my hand on the screen, and felt a pull on my wrist as a device wrapped around it. It stung a little, like having a needle jabbed into it. I winced, gritting my teeth as it attached to me. A calming, mechanical voice began speaking.

"Biometric link confirmed. Subject Griff Darhen successfully established Operator Link."

I rubbed against my wrist. It felt sore, and I felt like the pain would follow for a while. The device that had been attached to me looked almost like a watch, with an on-screen display of my medical status. I stretched my fingers out, and then gripped my hand into a fist. It didn't feel tight around my wrist, but fit almost naturally.

"Initiating armoring sequence," the voice continued, as the array of arms started grabbing pieces of armor, and started grafting them over my jumpsuit. They attached like magnets, with each piece being placed on my body individually and carefully.

From my legs and upwards, the robotic devices installed the pieces over my suit, wherever it was necessary. Armor padding was installed over my feet, with metallic boots being encased over them. Then over my knees, with armor padding that connected with my thighs, and moved upwards to armor around my torso. The torso pieces connected to my arms, and then over my gloved hands. The arms would stop at my neck, attaching a device at my neck. It looked like a locking mechanism of some sort.

Then finally, lowered down from the armor station's ceiling, came the helmet. The visor was matted with a bluish glass texture, and the outside of it was a gray metallic paint. The set of hands holding it, placed it right in front of my face, with my reflection clearly visible. I placed my hands on the helmet, and pulled it off. The device retracted back up into its home.

I rubbed my hands over the visor, inspecting it further. It felt light, but also very sturdy. However long it had been sitting here, this helmet was mine, and it felt almost like it was waiting for me. I turned it around, visor facing forward, and placed it over my head. The locking mechanism at the back of my neck clicked when the helmet attached. The sequence had finished, the station's noise had ceased, and the doors opened.

Meiko and Luka stood directly outside of the station, both wearing an expectant look. I walked out, and let out a loud sigh of relief.

"How's it feeling?" Luka asked.

"Good," I replied, looking at my left hand, "doesn't feel all that heavy. My wrist still feels a little sore."

I rubbed my wrist, observing the device that was attached to my hand. Whatever it was, it had been almost drilled into my hand, at least, that's how it felt when it was attached to me.

"It said something about an 'Operator Link,'" I said. "I wouldn't know where to start with how it works."

"Well," Luka said, "that seems to be part of the suit. Let's get ours on and we can fiddle with it later."

I nodded, walking over to the computer Luka was operating. "Just let me know what to do."

"Just follow the screen, it's pretty self-explanatory."

The two walked into the separate armoring stations, and the doors shut. The monitor brought up two separate names: Meiko Sakine, and Luka Megurine.

Sakine, I thought, that's your last name? I chuckled, realizing I never actually learned her last name.

A confirmation appeared on the screen for both of them. "Begin Armor Sequence?"

I pressed yes, and the two stations started whirring.

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I waited by the station's computer. While they were getting ready, I inspected the device on my wrist again. Did this do anything else aside from read my medical history? I ran my finger along it, thinking it behaved the same way a smart-watch would, or even my phone.

As soon as I ran my finger along the watch's screen, my helmet's interior started flashing. Green and blue lights were blinking rapidly, and then stopped. Shortly after, the interface came online.

"Initiating user interface…" It displayed loading bars that went from zero to one-hundred percent, followed by, "Done." A map, a compass, and my vitals all appeared afterwards. I think I had just found the on switch.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called from inside my helmet.

"Looks like you got it working," Gumi said, "I was a little worried I'd need to come in and help you out there."

"Sorry we didn't radio sooner," I said.

"Figured I'd let you guys figure this one out," Gumi said. "What I'm more interested in is the Watcher you have there."

"Watcher?" I asked. "You mean my 'Operator Link,' here?"

"I'm calling it a Watcher. It's a watch that watches you," she said, chuckling to herself.

"Clever," I said.

"Ain't it? I just thought it up."

I rolled my eyes. "Anything else I should know before the others get out?"

"Not really," Gumi replied. "I will say, for something so small, the architecture of the Watcher is rather fascinating. I might need to research this before the day is over."

"Can you do it after we've made contact with the Rangers?"

"I can do both, you know," she said smugly.

I checked back over on the computer. The armoring sequence had finished. I was almost excited to see what they would look like in their new suits.

The doors opened, and Luka and Meiko walked out. Meiko's armor looked heavier than Luka. The armor was just a formality at this point for Meiko. She was always intimidating, but the armor she was wearing made her stand out.

Their helmets were still off, so I motioned my finger over my Watcher. They both cocked their heads, and then observed theirs.

"You got it working?" Meiko asked.

"Without really thinking about it. I've got Gumi talking in my ear, now."

They both ran their fingers along it, followed by their visors leaving brief flashes of blue light.

"Bingo," I said, "looks like we're all set."

"Not quite," Meiko said, "we still need guns."

Meiko attempted to open the weapon cases, but they were locked. Gumi chimed in over the radio.

"I'm starting to think you guys wouldn't be able to get anywhere without me."

"If you're offering a hand," Meiko replied, "save the witty banter until after you get it open."

"Fine," Gumi sighed, "one armory unlock coming right up!"

The keypad next to the armory locker flashed, before coming up with an "error." It reset, and then the barriers flickered before deactivating.

"Thanks for shopping with Gumi Gadgets," Gumi said, cheerfully. "If you'd like, I can add on an extra service for picking out your guns!"

"That's okay, Gumi," Meiko said, "I know what I'm gonna grab up."

Meiko grabbed a rifle, and held it out for me. I grabbed it with both of my hands, and inspected it. It was colored gray and black, and it had a switch on it. Once I pressed the switch, the rifle powered on, with an ammunition readout on it. The gun had the same glowing blue lines that connected throughout the weapon.

I loaded a new magazine in, and kept the safety on. It seemed all the weapons here functioned the same way, because the pistol I had was built the same way.

"We don't exactly have time to learn all the functions," Meiko explained, "so here's the basics: Trigger shoots bullets, safety stops bullets from firing, and aiming where you want to shoot is always a good idea."

"Thanks," I said, sarcastically. "I feel better about this already."

"You'll be fine," she said, "it's unlikely we'll be using them today anyways."

That just filled me with even less confidence. I hoped she was right, though.

All three of us left the armory, and walked towards the offloading bay where the satellite was. I kept fiddling with the handgun, left in awe by how all of this worked.

"You'll want to keep up, Griff," Meiko said. "I know they're fun to look at, but we've got something to take care of."

I holstered my sidearm, and quickened my pace behind them. We moved back towards the train, and set course for the comms station.

Silence, for the moment at least. I took a deep breath, relaxing before the excitement would kick up again.

We arrived at the comms center, and stepped out of the train. Meiko took the lead, and opened the door.

"Anyone around here, Gumi?" I asked.

"Nope, not seeing any activity since you've gotten here. I think our 'friends' from earlier were a one-off party. I would like to know where they came from, though."

"Alright," Meiko said, "let's get going."

We opened the door back into the cave system, our weapons were drawn now, and we steadily approached the freight elevator that would take us outside. We were playing it safe this time. If anyone was here, we'd know, and they wouldn't get the drop on us now.

It wasn't as dark in the cave system now, due to the fact that my helmet was illuminating darker places now. If only we'd had these suits the last time we were here, we wouldn't have been ambushed quite as easily.

Meiko signaled forward, and we all ran over to the freight elevator across the catwalks. Once there, Meiko and Luka would keep their weapons trained, facing opposite ends of each other. I walked over to the control lever, and pulled it.

"Clear," Meiko stated. "Doesn't seem to be anyone around."

"At least we're being careful," Luka said. "The last thing we need is more obstacles to get over."

Once the elevator arrived at the surface, we radioed Gumi that we had arrived.

"Alright," Gumi said, "I'm sending the transmission now. Let's keep our eyes peeled."

After a couple of minutes from when Gumi had sent the transmission, we received a response.

"This is Captain Strafford," the voice said, "current acting leader for Ranger Fleet Squadron Delta. We received your transmission, and are heading to your location. Can we get confirmation?"

Meiko took over communication. "This is Meiko Sakine, acting member of the Expedition Research Team. We'll be waiting for you here."

"Understood, we'll be there. E.T.A. twenty minutes."

They seemed to trust us already. I wonder what Gumi had sent them to convince them that we were worth trusting.

Meiko looked back over at us. "You heard the man, we've got twenty minutes. Make sure your gear is checked properly, and everything's working. We can't rest yet until we know we're in the clear."

Luka and I both nodded. We would wait until Gumi could see their ship on her scanner, and those twenty minutes would feel like an hour, almost. We waited, silently.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a loud roar could be heard nearby, with a sizable ship, colored with a glowing orange and matte gray paint.

"Whoa, I didn't think they were that close," Gumi said, surprised.

"What do you mean?" Meiko asked.

"I mean, the ship just now came on my scanner. I'm looking into that. You guys go get acquainted with our new friends, I'll look into this."

"Roger that," Meiko said, and we got moving.

The ship landed about a hundred feet from where we were standing. The back door of it opened, and about five well-armed men, all wearing armor with glowing orange lines, poured out. Two moved to the front of the vehicle, while three stood back at the door. A final figure walked out, holding only a pistol. All of them had glowing eyes that peered out of their helmets.

We approached slowly, with Meiko at the front of us, holstering her rifle to her side.

"Captain Strafford, I assume," she said.

"Yes," he replied, "I take it you're Meiko?"

She nodded, holding her hand out.

"Glad to know you guys are real," Strafford said. "We were starting to lose hope."

"We ran into a hostile ground team here a day or so ago," she explained, "but they were only a force of about only five. Definitely a threat, do you know anything about them?"

"Were they scavengers?"

"Better trained than scavengers, probably. They seemed to have some training."

He grimaced. "That might be a problem, but we can't be sure. Do you have any evidence they were here?"

"Plenty, their bodies are probably still around here. I can show you."

"Alright," he signaled his troops to follow with us, "lead the way."

We arrived back into the caves, moving along the catwalks until finally arriving where the three bodies had been left.

"Here," Meiko said, pointing to the bodies beneath us, "you can see them over there."

We moved below to investigate, with Strafford's team following in tow. They all ran ahead of us to check it out in groups of two each.

Strafford looked at the one we assumed to be the leader. His head was still in the same position Meiko had left it. It was a rough scene, and now that I had more time to examine it, I felt a little more unnerved about it.

One of the members of the Rangers moved closer to deceased, and slipped off the hexagonal faceplate. Underneath was a face, with gray skin and black lines that ran from his forehead to his neck. His eyes were closed. I crouched down next to the Rangers, and looked closer.

"Definitely Unity's Hand," Strafford said. "Armor checks out."

"Unity's Hand?" I asked. Strafford and his men all looked at me.

"You know who that is, right?"

I shook my head.

"Where exactly do you two come from?" Strafford asked.

I looked over at Meiko, and Meiko decided to not let things stay hidden. She grabbed her helmet, and pulled it off.

"Well I'll be," Strafford said, "I guess the stories were true."

"I take it you don't look like humans underneath your helmets," I said.

"Helmets?" Strafford said.

"Yeah, you know, what we're wearing?"

"These ain't helmets," Strafford said. "But I'll let that slide considering where you come from. I didn't think we'd be getting saved, but to get saved by someone who shouldn't even exist here, that's something else."

"All due respect, sir," Meiko said, "we're here on research. Would appreciate keeping our existence here a secret, if that's okay."

Strafford nodded. "We got no right to complain. So long as you're willing to help."

"We appreciate it," Meiko said. "If you could give us whatever intel you have on these 'Hands of Unity,' we'll try to help you the best we can."

"Well," Strafford said, "seeing as you're the ones who dispatched these guys, we're mighty thankful."

"Well, what's the story between you two? Blood feud?" Asked Meiko

"Guess you could say that," Strafford said, resting his pistol back in his hip. "We'd been trying to keep the peace with them for a good while. Our Interspace headquarters seemed to try the best they could to keep things together. As of now, that ain't the case."

I looked up at Strafford. Even if he didn't have a human face, his eyes told me everything.

"We lost our home station, and all of the colonies we protected were taken within days."

"Sorry to hear," I said. "And you think these guys are responsible?"

"We got no proof, nothing to go on, but we're just trying to survive. We're hoping that if we found a base, we could maybe rebuild, find any survivors."

He paused, and shook his head.

"I just want to believe we got more people out there than just us."

Meiko and I nodded.

"Look," Strafford said, seeming to snap himself out of his funk, "the work you've done here is more than enough for us. If you need anything, and I mean anything, we'll be glad to assist."

Luka stepped into the conversation, offering up something.

"Pardon my intrusion," Luka said, "but we do have something we could use from you, if you wouldn't mind."

"I'm listening," he said, looking over at her.

"Anything you have on the Hands of Unity and Interspace is what we're looking for. If you also happen to have anything in regards to a 'Duodecim,' we'll take those as well."

"Haven't heard of that last one," Strafford said, "that your group?"

Luka shook her head. "No, but they're important to our situation. They're the reason we're here."

"We'll keep you posted," Strafford said.

Suddenly, one of his men ran up to him and spoke something in his ear. Strafford looked back over at us.

"Sounds to me like we'll be stuck here a while once we commit to staying here."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"This base doesn't have a spaceport for our main ship. We're going to be here a while without it."

I cocked my head.

"You really are from another world," Strafford said. "If we weren't busy, I'd probably love to know what it's like on that side. Can't delay, though. We need to get our ship down and over here."

Strafford ordered the rest of his men to move out, but left a couple to take care of the bodies they were investigating.

"Guess that's that," I said. "So, I say we made some new friends."

"Glad it went as well," Gumi chimed in.

"Anything good on your end, Gumi?" Meiko asked.

"Quite a bit actually. I've sent a message to some of the Rangers for any and all information they have regarding whatever the 'Hands of Unity.' These guys are crazy. But you probably already knew that."

"If they're anything like what we ran into," I commented, "I'll believe it."

"Well, I'll have a full explanation back at base. As of right now, I figured out how this base has managed to stay so well hidden."

We all stayed silent, waiting for Gumi to explain.

"So it looks like the entire base is covered in holographic camouflage. It's virtually invisible, until we managed to find it from the inside. I would bet that the Hands of Unity guys were here on a secret assignment, which might explain such small numbers."

"Why not just lay siege if they can send a whole army, though?" Luka asked. "You'd think that they could do that."

"Why send in a whole army to a place you know next to nothing about?" Gumi countered. "Think about it: Someone wanted to keep this place hidden away. I'm sure their info was as limited as ours was."

"That's true," Luka said, "we should consider ourselves lucky they only sent five members of their group here. Though, I have my doubts that's the last we'll see of them."

"I would be shocked if we didn't," I said. "What's our next step?"

"Our next step is to let the Rangers get settled into the base. They can keep an eye on it while we're gone. Are we all good with that?"

"That sounds delightful," Luka said. "Could use a little bit of rest. Plus, I wouldn't mind seeing what it was you found."

Meiko signaled us to move, and we headed back to the transfer station.

"I have to say," Luka said, "I didn't think you knew how to talk to these guys."

"It's pretty easy," Meiko said, shrugging, "you just need to know what to say."

"Yeah, but, you came off like you were in the military," I said. "Did they ever teach you that back in Duodecim?"

"No," Meiko said, "like I said, I just know what to say."

"Well," Luka said, "you left a good impression on Strafford, I think. He seems to trust you."

Meiko laughed. "I prefer that over someone trying to stab me."

Meiko grabbed my shoulder, and I jumped.

"Whoa," she said, "it's just me."

"Yeah, still, you caught me by surprise."

"Just letting you know you're lagging. We'd like to get back, and would rather not end up losing you."

"Sorry," I said, "I just got distracted."

"I figured. Look, they may be hurt, but they'll be okay. These people are professionals."

I nodded, knowing she was right. "I'd like to help them somehow."

"You have plenty, trust me," she said.

We arrived back on the train, and set for the entry point. We all sat down, and relaxed. It felt like we had taken all day to do this. I stretched out my arms, and looked at the Watcher that sat on my wrist. I noticed it had a clock on it, reading "15:13" on it. Suddenly, I got curious.

"Gumi," I said, "what time is it over there?"

"3:13 P.M.," she said, "don't worry, you won't be getting home late tonight."

"It wasn't about that, but thanks for the concern," I said. "I just wanted to point out that my Watcher is saying the exact time."

"Huh, really?" she said. "I wonder if time over there functions the same way as here."

"It's worth an investigation," Luka said.

"I've got so much on my plate," Gumi replied, "it'll take me months to get to that, by then you'll have figured that out yourselves."

"Speaking of investigation," Meiko added, "didn't you have information for us?"

"Oh, right," Gumi said, "I forgot about that. Do you want to hear that now or wait until you get back?"

"It'll probably be easier if we see it in person," Luka said.

"Okay, how about you, Griff?"

"Seems like in person would be a better choice."

"Okay," Gumi said, "I'll be waiting here!"

We had arrived back at the transport hub, and walked over. I didn't even think about it until we had arrived at our exit. We were still in our suits.

"Hey," I said, "we're still wearing these, shouldn't we head to the armory and get out of them?"

Luka and Meiko both looked at each other.

"Worst comes to worst," Gumi said, "you'll just leave them behind. It shouldn't be a danger to you, so go ahead."

I stood on the pad hesitantly, letting the return send me back home.

When the sequence had finished, and I had been sent back to the transfer station, I looked at my arms, and saw I was back in my old jumpsuit. However, I also noticed on my left wrist was the Operator Link device. It had come back with me, but not my suit.

On it, it read "Transfer initiated. Suit deactivated."

I walked out, seeing that Luka and Meiko were looking at their devices as well.

We all showed Gumi, and her eyes widened.

"That's amazing!" She exclaimed, focusing her eyes on our devices. "I didn't even account for the fact that your devices would be linked to you. That is so much more interesting than what I thought it was!"

"What exactly is going on here?" Meiko asked.

"Well, from the links of it, your 'Watchers' are actually where everything is stored. Your suits, your database, your medical status, it's all on there. Now I'm really interested in these."

"Save it for later," Meiko said. "Don't you have something else a little more pressing to tell us about?"

"Aww, you're no fun," Gumi said, pouting. "Fine, let's get into that, but after, I wanna look at one of these."

"Yes, after," Meiko said.

Gumi pulled up a collection of documents on her computer.

"I'll give you the short and sweet version of this," she explained. "It looks like Unity's Hand, as some refer to them, are the exact guys you ran into on your last expedition. The specific group was a special operations team. The Rangers are handling the five corpses you left behind. Speculation leads the Rangers to believe that Unity's Hand came here to find this base. Though they're lucky we managed to recover the base for them."

She pulled up an image of a large station, with multiple circular formations around sections of it.

"This right here was a station that belonged to the Rangers," she continued. "It was called the 'Homeland Station.'"

"Was?" I asked.

"It's gone. It turns out Unity's Hand decimated it a matter of weeks ago. The station was home to sixty-thousand crew members, most of which are gone, and the rest are scattered."

We sat there in silence as she pulled up another image, which appeared to be the remains of the station. Debris floated about in space. It was almost angering seeing what had happened.

"So why'd they attack?" Meiko asked.

"The Rangers saw them as a threat. Tensions were starting to ramp up as the Hands of Unity started attacking civilian colonies that the Rangers oversaw. Eventually, the Rangers managed to take a diplomatic approach that would lead to less bloodshed. It seemed like it was working until one day, the Rangers were hit at their largest station. Unity's Hand never took credit for the attack, but the damage was already done."

I looked over some of the documentation. It made reference to the Rangers but another group also stuck out to me: the Interspace Collective Authority.

"Well, the I.S.C.A., they're another arm of diplomacy that the Rangers operate under. Though, oddly enough, they never sent military aid to the Rangers. Once the station was gone, the I.S.C.A. lost so much support."

"So the Rangers effectively have nothing," Luka said. "Those poor people. This is all they have now."

"What we just did today helped plenty," Gumi said. "We can't lose focus on our objective, and that's still Miku's recovery. Speaking of which…"

Gumi switched screens to the information in regards to the access chip we recovered.

"This bad boy right here is giving me more trouble than I'd like to admit. But I'll get this open, and when I do, we'll be able to do all sorts of damage. I did find an interesting piece of data hidden away in it, though. It wasn't encrypted, just hidden in a mess of code I had to clean up to get working. Check this out."

Gumi pulled up an image, showing a glowing green pod in the middle of a huge facility with monitors and wires wrapped all over. Inside of the pod was a girl, sleeping in a fetal position. With long twintails that seemed to her. The girl was Miku, almost without a doubt.

"I think whoever left this with Miku was there when she was built," Gumi said. "I think they wanted us to see this."

"Do you think that's who helped free all of you?" I asked.

"Can't say I know for sure," Gumi said. "Whoever left this chip with her had to have left this as a message. Something for us to know that this person was on the inside."

"Speculation, or are you certain?" Meiko asked Gumi.

"Speculation, but whoever this was, it's obvious they wanted us to know that Miku was given this by someone who had serious ties on the inside. Maybe we'll find out who they are if I can just dip deeper."

I patted Gumi's shoulder. "Just don't wear yourself out, alright? We're going to need you as time goes on."

"Oh, don't worry," Gumi said. "I live for a challenge."

I walked away, knowing that we were in good hands with Gumi at the wheel. I just needed to be patient. But seeing that picture gave me pause to think that Miku really was an artificial being. It still felt odd to see her that way. Heck, to see everyone here that way. They all acted so natural and human, I couldn't tell.

In the end, I'd talk to Miku about it soon enough, or so I would hope. It was still up to whether or not we would be able to find her. But I promised myself I would, or I would never be able to forgive myself.