-“YOU DID WHAT?!” Says Sylvia, angry.

-“Look, she’s perfectly fine, anatomically whole, and she can fucking see now, she got blinded  by the flash of the nuke but I healed her.” Says Fedora.

-“Healed her!? Sylvia lightly slaps her face and turns away from Fedora, then back again to face her “How would you even do that? You should have left her in the care of the actual doctors not storm into the hospital and kidnap her!”

-“Come on now kidnapping is quite the exaggeration wouldn’t you say? She’s a part of the team, I saved her from whatever wrong treatment they were giving her.”

Sylvia glances at Linn, her face slightly uncomfortable and lost in thought.

Just as they were arguing they hear the ringtone from the living room.

-“Looks like the Ergarch knows about what you did last night, must be for you.” Says Sylvia.

-Don’t be so sure, geez so quick to judge.” Says Fedora as she walks into the living room and picks up the call, it was indeed Catherine who was calling.

-“Dahlia Fedora speaking.”

-“Dahlia, I have received news of your actions from last night at 00:12. I was informed that you not only you took Orchid out of the hospital without the doctor’s approval, but you also threatened him with a weapon conjured up using your Ergal abilities, is that correct?”

-“Yeah.” Says Fedora calmly.

Hearing this Sylvia turns around and walks to her room, running her hands through her hair in an exasperated gesture.

Linn’s expression remains unchanged, Mary’s expression was one of shock.

-“The doctors appointed to take care of Orchid Linn were not qualified. The Azak hospital has been only treating high interest investors and individuals with high status who wished to receive premium care. Despite being an institution which belongs to the Kola Base, since there have been no cases so far of Ergals needing medical care, we were not prepared with experts in Ergal biology. Finding an expert for Orchid Linn for example would require weeks of searching, each Ergal’s biology is vastly different from the other’s. Therefore, due to exceptional circumstances, no measures will be taken against you Dahlia. Whether it was instinct or thought, you were not wrong. Mind is Might.”

-“Mind is Might.” Says Fedora placing 4 fingers of her right hand on her forehead as Catherine hangs up.

-“See? What did I just say?”

Sylvia sighs deeply, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

-“I can’t believe you got away with this?”

-“Got away with it? I literally saved Linn from a bunch of entitled idiots who had no idea what they were doing.” Says Fedora angrily.

-“Hey hey hey how about we go have breakfast? Fedora got Linn proper care and nothing bad happened to either of them, so how about we stop talking about it now?” Says Mary, her voice weak and fearful as she stepped in between the two.

Sylvia steps away from Fedora and heads into the kitchen.

-“Right…” She says, barely audible.

-“You comin’ Linn?” Says Fedora

Linn suddenly snaps out of her trance hearing someone calling her name.

-“H-huh? Oh yeah sure…”

They eat breakfast and get dressed in their uniforms.

A few hours later they were again present in the large dark room where they usually meet with Catherine.

-“Ergals, today is the most important day in the history of the Kola Base after its creation. You 4 will be the first counterattack against the invaders, today marks the day when we are no longer defending ourselves but actively pushing back against the ones who try to conquer us.”

She turns around, takes out her remote and turns on the large screen behind her.

On the big screen, a map could be seen.

The said map was showing drone images from the first hive. The hive itself looked just like a enormous hotel, a huge tall building with countless windows, on top of a lively grassy hill, the vegetation was a bright green that was full of life.

-“This is hive no.1, we believe the Selvim disguised it as an apartment complex to try and fit in and go unnoticed, thinking that a structure that looks human made would allow them to seamlessly fit in, but their errors are apparent. No human would build such a large structure on a hill that is so close to a cliff like structure.”

The screen switches to other images, showing that the hill the structure was on had a huge view on an abandoned city.

Catherine turns around to face them.

-“The hive is located 1642 km north-west from the Kola Base. You will be dispatched right after this meeting via the HGT, the Hyperspeed Global Tunnels. Thankfully, after extensive research, we have found out that these underground highways, remnants of the old world, still work properly.”

Catherine takes another deep breath and looks at the girls with an even more serious look.

-“Snowdrop Mary, Dahlia Fedora, Orchid Linn, Rose Sylvia, this is our only chance to end humanity’s purgatory after all these years of suffering and our numbers diminishing. The universe has lent out its hand to us, and we must not slap it away. Mind is Might.”

-“Mind is Might.” Says everyone else in the room as they place their hands on their foreheads.

Catherine walks out of the huge door she came through, the door closing behind her.

1 solider comes up to the 4 girls to lead them to the HGT, through another smaller door in opposite side of the room.

HGT itself was nothing the girls expected, it was a small pod, the size of an average car, and an old dusty white tunnel which seemed endless in its length.

Fedora looked annoyed, she rubs her forehead and starts speaking once the solider is done giving them instructions.

-“Fuuucking great, now we have to climb inside a giant egg and be launched at the speed of the devil’s hooves through the Earth’s intestines…fucking great…”

Mary looked restless, she kept walking around left and right and in circles, while continuously fidgeting with her fingers, rubbing the side of her arm, holding her other arm around her stomach, Her face looked more pale than usual, as she was breathing hard, her hands visibly shaky.

-“A-are we sure this is safe? It hasn’t been used for decades and all the moisture underground, and there’s no way they could’ve checked all of the structural integrity all the way from the here to the hive, are they just hoping we’ll be fine? And think about how fast this thing would be going, if we crash into something at that speed we’re done! Red mist! What did Catherine say, like 20 minutes to get there? That’s faster than a bullet train…aww we’re so done for…”

Sylvia sees Mary walk around restlessly.

-“No matter what happens we still have one another right? You’re not going alone on the pod, none of us are, rummaging over it won’t lead you to anything.”

Mary smiles faintly, her anxiety easing up a bit.

-“I guess you’re right…but it’s not like that solves everything…”

Sylvia looks at her watch a few times.

-“Alright, we will get into the pod, and once we are all strapped in and ready we’ll pull the lever to signal the command center that we are ready for launch.”

All 4 of them walk inside the white pod, which did in fact look like an egg. The inside was nothing fancy, 6 cushioned chairs on the walls, 3 on each side facing one another, a huge glass front, and the door on the other side. The floor was a blank gray, and the ceiling had various buttons, as well as the lever Sylvia was talking about.

Everyone straps in, putting the X shaped seatbelt on.

Fedora huffs.

-“I feel like this is gonna be the most fun rollercoaster ride of my life.”

Mary was having trouble buckling her seatbelt, her sweaty, shaky hands being of little to no help to the specific angle of the buckle.

-“Aww c’mon…”

She whispers to herself, frustrated by her inability to do it.

Sylvia unbuckles her own seatbelt and walks over to Mary, and in one quick motion she buckles both sides of Mary’s seatbelt. Mary looks up at her surprised, her eyes starting to get watery from the frustration the seatbelt was giving her.

-“Thanks a lot Sylvia…what a bad design this seatbelt has…”

Sylvia walks back to her own seat and buckles her own seatbelt.

-“Alright everyone, be ready for anything now, hold tight.”

Sylvia pulls on the lever above her. For a few seconds nothing happens, then a sudden movement of the pod shakes everyone violently as it finally starts to move forward.

-“Guess this is the best they’ve got…” Says Fedora.

-“I suppose a gentler start would have been nice but yeah…I suppose this is the best they had…” Says Linn

The pod started to rapidly accelerate, the lines of the tunnels becoming a motion blur as they were moving at incredible speeds.

The pod passes through a dark region where the lights didn’t work and the lines were a bit rusty, which not only put them in complete darkness, but also made the pod shake violently.

-“Oh Mary look it’s a Selvim ambush I guess we’re alllll dead now.”

Mary’s body flinches as she registers and processes the thought.

-“DON’T SAY THAT! But you’re right…they maybe know we are coming for their hive and they decided to stop us before we can reach them and bury us under all this…oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no…”

She places her hands on both sides of her head as she starts to rock back and forth in her seat, her eyes wide and scared.

Fedora giggles to herself as the pod keeps going lightning fast under the ground.

-“Jesus relax I’m just kidding.” Says Fedora.

-“You’re not funny…not at all…” Says Mary.

Eventually the pod starts to slow down as they were approaching their destination.

As the pod finally stops, the place they arrived at was nearly identical with the room that the pod left from.

They unbuckle their seatbelts and walk out of the pod. Just outside the room they arrived in, there was a door, past that door were some stairs which seemingly led above ground.

They all walk together out of the underground room, and finally reach the surface.

The scenery was exactly as depicted in the images shown by Catherine. A massive green field, hills, a big abandoned city in the distance below their elevation level, and far is the distance, the hive of the selvim.

Fedora stretches, and looks around a few times.

-“Tell you what…this looks like everything but a Selvim hive…feels like I’m here on vacation…”

Even though Fedora was relaxed, Mary was still as restless as ever.

-“It’s too quiet…too quiet…it feels like we’re standing in the mouth of a huge shark and we don’t even know it…It feels like we are allowed to roam free only because we’re walking right into their trap….”

Sylvia walks over to Mary and places her hands on her face.

-“Hey, look at me. Breathe. I’m right here, right in front of you, not going anywhere, we are all here, together, you are not alone, we’re okay.”

Mary’s eyes were restlessly scanning around Sylvia’s face.

Sylvia looks behind her at Linn and Fedora.

-“From here on out we are on foot, be on guard, we are in a completely open field, completely exposed and vulnerable, each of us should watch another direction, I will look forward, Linn backwards, Fedora to the left-“

Syliva turns her head again and looks at Mary.

-“and you to the right, got it?”

Mary nods, her breathing having slowed down a bit.

The walk so the structure was tense and slow, but uneventful, nothing happened.

-“P-please excuse me.” Says Mary.

She quickly runs off behind some push a bit further away without saying anything else.

-“Wait for me here, I’ll go check on her.” Says Sylvia as she goes after Mary to see what was wrong with her.

Linn looks at Mary as she runs towards the bushes, Linn’s expression was still a thoughtful and heavy.

-“Poor her, such a new and important mission like this one takes such a tool on her…” Says Linn.

Fedora looks after Mary as well, her expression slightly concerned to see Mary in so much distress.

Sylvia reaches the bush to see Mary crouching behind it with her hands on the ground, making gagging noises but without actually vomiting.

-“S-sorry…I’m s-s-so sorry…m-my anxiety is really messing with me…t-there’s no enemy yet…usually we would have been attacked by hundreds…but there’s not a single selvim around here…”

She makes another gagging noise as she hunches over the dirt.

-“I-I’ll be right back with you…just give me a second….”

-“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look well, do you need anything?”

Mary sniffles.

-“J-just give me a minute…I’ll be right back…”

-“Okay…” Says Sylvia as she stands up and walks back to Linn and Fedora.

-“She’s very stressed…a mission of this importance is expected to have such effects, we should just let her have a moment to breathe and calm down a bit.”

-“Did you try to give her something to calm herself down?” Says Fedora.

-“Yeah, she said she doesn’t want anything, she just needs to calm down.” Says Sylvia.

Fedora lays down on the grass, placing her hands behind her head and crossing her legs.

-“The sky is really nice here…”

Fedora turns her head to look at the grass beneath her.

-“It’s been so long since I’ve last seen such lively grass too…”

Sylvia looks around, crouching.

-“it really is a beautiful place…what a shame it’s infested with selvim.”

-“Yeah…” Says Fedora quietly.

 

A few minutes later Mary finally shows up, she looked calmer and ready to go.

-“Alright I’m back…let’s go inside.”

Sylvia stands up and looks at her.

-“You feeling better?”

-“Yeah I’m okay, let’s go in, the more we wait the more time we waste.”

Fedora raises her eyebrows, surprised to hear such thing from Mary.

-“I couldn’t have said it better, let’s fucking go.”

Fedora turns around, taking the lead, being the first to walk in front of the large main entrance doors. 2 beautifully sculpted shiny wooden doors.

Right after they entered the main door there was no hallway, no reception no elevator, no stairs, just 3 wooden doors.

 Above each door there was a sign, the door to the left had a dress symbol above it, the door in the middle had a tree symbol above it, the door to the right had a spyglass symbol above it.

Fedora rubs her temples in annoyance.

-“How come we always end up in the most fucked up places? This…this thing looks like someone told an AI to make a building seem like it was made for humans and this is what they got…”

Sylvia looks at the tree doors, and makes a decision.

-“It seems like every single one of these doors leads to a different section of the hive, we should split up.”

Fedora turns around and looks at her with a sarcastic face.

-“Really? We literally have no idea what could be hiding behind those doors, because remind you, this is the first time any of us have stepped foot into a selvim hive.”

-“The Ergarch’s orders, not my idea.”

Fedora shrugs and contorts her face in confusion.

-“Why does Catherine always tell you extra stuff she doesn’t tell us.”

-“Because I’m the team leader.” Says Sylvia.

-“And? Shouldn’t we all know what we are getting into?”

Fedora places her hand on her forehead and sighs.

-“You know what, forget it.”

Sylvia turns her gaze towards Linn and Mary.

-“Linn, since your abilities are at a 0 out of 10 magnitude, you will be paired up with Mary.  You will go through the door on the right, the one with the spyglass symbol, I will go through the middle one, the one with the tree, and F-“

Before she can finish her sentence Fedora cuts her off.

-“Yeah yeah yeah and Fedora goes to the door on the left the one with the dress, see ya.”

Fedora bursts right through the door without waiting for permission or anything.

Linn looks her way worried.

-“Can’t say I’m not worried about her…”

-“She should manage, as I know Fedora, the last thing she would do in battle is give up.”

Linn sighs and turns around, facing the door with the spyglass symbol above it, the images of Fedora’s bleeding body in the room under the church flashing in her mind again.

-“That’s what I’m afraid of…”