A bleak atmosphere radiates over the makeshift cemetery close to the Base Complex Facility.

Julian, in his PCS-MD-102, stares blankly at the nineteen tombstones each denoting the imprisoned personnel who died in the underground prison cell of the Federation outpost.

His eyes were tightly glued to Doctor Steve's, a lifetime of secrets buried beneath that moist earth.

Avina walks to his side in the presence of an automaton. Her bald head was like the rest of the automatons but was covered in an additional layer of fair skin made from bioplastics that Hesab worked for. 

Her pink digital eyes look at Julian, devoid of emotions.

"Successor, Unducel has reported that that girl named Tasha has recovered."

Julian takes in and exhales a deep breath. His mind begins to clear, still bitter about the events that had transpired. 

"There would have been more of them in that lab if I wasn't so stupid." He snorts and starts mocking himself. "Rooks was very decisive in his actions, far too different from me."

His eyebrows twitch in discomfort. "Maybe I would have the answers that I needed now..."

Avina backs away and remains silent.

"What are you blanking in space about, brat?!" 

Julian found himself going back in time several years ago. "Major..."

A tan-skinned muscular middle-aged man mockingly grins at him. "Don't be too distracted by your mistakes, you fool! Not everyone is perfect, if you fuck up, deal with it!" 

"Our lives are too short to wallow in regrets! If you have time for that, better waste it on something else! Now get back there and finish your damn training!"

The major slaps his head, a cue to bring him back to the present.

'Thanks, major...' He shakes his head and smiles, turning around to face Avina. "Sorry about that, Avina. Let's go talk with this Tasha girl, shall we?"

Julian re-enters the Medical Lab Building, stepping into the mint-colored sterile tiles once again. He proceeded to the door opposite the one leading to the medical lab tank.

"This section of the Medical Lab Building is the hospital, successor." Avina points to the private rooms with wide transparent glasses and a single sliding door. "The structure may be peculiar for the successor but rest assured that this is not a prison cell."

Julian investigated the well-ventilated rooms from the outside through the glass. "Can the patients see us out here?"

"That will not be the case, normally. However, if the successor wishes to, then they will." 

"So, where is Tasha?"

"End of the corridor, A-029." 

Julian was confused about why she was placed so far away. Reaching room A-029, he stops for a moment and stares at the redhead woman sitting on the comfy white bed.

Her crestfallen expression was partially concealed beneath her wavy red hair.

A moment later, her body jolts and warily looks at the glass pane in front of her. She crawls back away, tightly gripping the bed covers as her brows twitch uncontrollably. 

Julian noticed the strange scene and tried to move to the other side of the glass where the sliding door was. 

Tasha's eyes followed him, and he couldn't help but suspiciously glare at Avina. 

"Avina is not sure of what is happening, successor. Avina is certain that Tasha should not be able to see through the glass."

"No, maybe it's her psionic powers..." Julian checked his VNI and was dumbfounded. "No, the sensors are not picking up anything either. Then what is it?"

The two stared at each other for a while, making Julian embarrassed and turning to Avina for assistance.

At the same time, another automaton walks into the long corridor and arrives before Julian and Avina. 

The white automaton's green eyes blinked monotonously, bowing in respect to Julian.

"Successor, I am Unducel, your medical attendant." 

"Hm." Julian nods and points at Tasha. "You know what's the deal with her?"

"Tasha is a sound-type mental ability user, successor. In your world, she would be called a psionic." Unducel clarifies. "Her brain has recently been induced with trauma, a result of the over-exertion of her powers. She will have to recover first before she can talk to you properly."

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about how she can see me behind this supposedly can-hide-me glass pane." Julian shrugs.

Unducel straightens before turning her head to look at the frightened Tasha. She takes her time to solemnly speak the words out of her program.

"That is because she is suppressed by your Ancien gene, successor."

Julian and Avina gasp at the same time. "She... she is Ancien too? Then it's not her hidden psionic power?"

"No. That is a different matter, successor, which I will explain later." Unducel turns around and beckons for the two of them to follow. 

They return to the medical lab tank room and go past several layers of plastic flaps until they arrive inside a room with several computers installed in the ceilings and walls.

Julian scrutinizes each video playback being flashed by each monitor. However, he could not get himself to understand any of them at all. 

One showed countless gunfire, while another showed a dark room with indistinguishable objects scattered around.

"These are?"

"The memories stored in Tasha's brain, successor. There is even digital data mixed in there, a very surprising matter indeed." Unducel responds. "All of these are already extracted from her, successor. There was a module attached to her brain that seemed to recognize Ancien hardware after I connected to it. The data extraction process followed smoothly thereafter, resulting in the videos that you are seeing on each monitor now."

She powers up one of the unused monitors and transfers data from her into the attached computer. 

"What? Who would be able to create something like that?" Julian was taken aback. "Aren't the Ancien Regime's bases hidden well?"

"I am unable to verify the source of that module, successor. I can only conclude that whoever did that must have planned for you to view the data stored in Tasha's mind."

Julian suddenly reminisces about the name of a man who died not long ago. "Doctor Steve... Baker?!"

Unducel steps away from the computer and presents information about Tasha's biological characteristics, including some that Unducel managed to decode.

"She is 30% Ancien? And a Void being as well?"

The Voids, a general term for anyone who had survived the wrath of spatial anomalies and absorbed a small essence of the natural Universe as a consequence.

These small essences could result in minimal results, or life-changing events that may gather the attention of several civilizations at once. 

Nobody knows why that would happen and anyone recognized as a Void being was either hunted down or taken in by the special forces of any civilization.

"Does this mean that she is a successor like me as well?" Julian started to give more emphasis to Tasha's existence. "No wonder she was scared of me earlier. Wait, if that's the case, then how much of an Ancien am I then?"

"Eighty percent, successor. Based on the records left in the database, you would be considered a pure Ancien breed." Unducel's green eyes flicker in response, confident and prideful about Julian's identity.

Julian clicks his tongue in awe but is soon overshadowed by a wave of sadness and pity. "Damn... If Doctor Steve was still here, he would have..."

"Julian!" His voice reaches to his ears. Julian jolts and looks at the large monitor at the center of the entire room. 

The video playback was a recording showing Doctor Steve firsthand. 

Julian's interest was piqued, and he moved closer to the monitor, afraid that he may miss some valuable information.

"I will die not so long from now. No matter what happens, don't blame yourself for it!" He pauses, turning his head to the sides. Seeing that everything was clear, he continued and moved his head closer to the camera. 

"Listen, Captain Rooks has been in contact with the Authority, and they may have sent a sentinel on the way here! I don't know when that will happen, but when the time comes, don't kill the sentinel!"

He took out a flash drive the size of his thumb and showed it to the camera. "Inside this drive is the blueprint of a module that can control the minds of the weaker sentinels. Works like a charm, even the Authority's scanners won't detect it. I'll ask Tasha to store this later. For now..."

He hides the flash drive and focuses back on the camera.

"Once that sentinel arrives, just be careful, they're good. I am one of the people who designed them, this I know much. Capture them before installing this module into their brain. It doesn't matter what happens to the outpost and Captain Rooks, but the sentinel must make it back. Remember that!"

The door of the science hub starts to open, forcing Doctor Steve to end the recording abruptly.

Julian frowns after seeing the video. "Was that all?"

"That is the only data my program was able to decode, for now, successor."

"The newer it is, the faster it will be decoded, huh?" He mutters under his breath. Based on this observation, he may have to wait a bit longer for the rest of the older memories extracted from Tasha's brain. 

Julian had to give Doctor Steve a commendation, though. For him to have planned this much, Doctor Steve must have prepared for it a long time ago. 

"Get to Intellus and have him help you decode the data, especially that module Doctor Steve talked about. If Intellus objects, tell him it's my order."

Unducel bows, agreeing to Julian's request. 

"What about that sentinel?" He asks.

"The prisoner is kept underground, successor. Intellus had built a cold prison cell underneath." Avina responds. "He is unarmed but very dangerous. Unducel had to inject several inhibitors to tame his unruly nature."

"Keep him locked that way."

Avina and Julian left the medical lab tank room and stopped at the lobby. 

"Do you think I should talk to Tasha about it?"

Avina looks at her successor, her pink eyes blinking in confusion. "About what, successor?"

"Doctor Steve's death. I don't know if both of them are that close, but for Doctor Steve to trust her this... Fuck, what am I hesitating for?!"

He barges into the long corridor and arrives in front of Room A-029.  "Tsk!"

The door opens and Julian goes inside. Tasha had long retreated into the corner, knowing that that suppressing aura had come back.

"Hey, don't go cowering there, Tasha. I'm not some monster."

Tasha's shivering stops, warily examining Julian as he sits down on the couch opposite her bed. 

"Can you talk or still not? I guess not... You would have used your psionic powers if that was the case..." He bends over, clasping his hands under his chin. "You need to know something."

The grim atmosphere made Tasha drop all her previous subservience. She drops the blanket and assumes a cold expression, her red lips slightly opened.

"Doctor Steve is... dead..."

Her eyes widen and her brows twitch in disbelief. Julian could feel the invisible waves gathering around her body. 

She lets loose her rage, blasting everything except the glass pane and Julian, who remained seated and unaffected by her outburst.

Tasha's anger subsides when she realizes the unmoving body of the man in front of her. "You, how are you not affected?!"

Though her words were short, it proved that a fraction of her powers had returned.

Julian, however, ignores her question and stands up while shaking his head. "Captain Rooks poisoned him and it was too late for me to save the doctor. If you want to hate me about that, go ahead. I've prepared a cemetery for him, Avina will guide you through it."

He glances back at her, pity on his face.

"Come find me when you're ready, and we'll talk things through. And try to tidy this place up, will you? The debris is all around."

After exiting the building, his VNI suddenly beeps, identifying the caller to be one of the automaton squad leaders. "Fox 1, anything happened?"

"It's from Eagle 1, successor! They have encountered a scorpion nest nearby."