Pretty simple

- Location: ogch, orbital base

Otis sighed "Didn't you get it? Augmentations should represent a big help. Unless you were fighting something like the big red...".

"..." Beatrice didn't know how to answer and lowered her gaze "..... As far as I remember, augmentations are of great importance and only a few get them.... Was it of any interest to a big shot?".

"Hum..." Otis withdrew his gaze to the wall to his left, hesitant on how to explain "If I had to say it somehow.... The biggest shot."

"I see... But he doesn't have enough accomplishments to be selected, Right? He's barely been registered for 2 years."

Otis looked at Beatrice "Two years? Officially, I'm afraid you've been separated for a long time. He apparently withheld relevant accomplishments from you, he probably also did so with medical reports once he was notified of the procedure."

"Officially? His records are from earlier?" she asked as, more nothing she could do to prove her confusion. She suddenly felt that one of her nearest and dearest was a stranger.

"I don't think you remember. It certainly wasn't long ago, though. You were still in training" Otis closed his eyes and held out his right arm, pointing to Beatrice as he leaned on the other arm "Does the sugar war ring a bell?" He opened his eyes inquisitively.

Beatrice tilted her head on her index finger, not much later, she pressed down, as her expression exaggerated the closure of her eyes "It really doesn't ring a bell.... It doesn't even make sense to me, the name."

"Well..." Otis rearranged his posture, retracting both arms and standing up straight, subsequently crossing his arms "Certainly.... It is but a mere nickname, at no time was there a shortage of sugar. Skirmishes, or rather, armed groups that wanted to drive the ogch away from their planets, broke out in the more remote areas..."

"Rebellions... How many exactly? Could not the ogch easily sweep them away?" Beatrice felt even more strangeness, the more she submerged, the less sense it made.

"That's just the problem. All the documents are confusing and contradictory, as if the emperor didn't want the truth to come out.... The only clear thing is that nearby settlers were compulsorily recruited and when adults were not enough, unofficially, children over ten years old were registered, being deployed as soon as possible".

"But how come there was no media attention? There should have been a radio nearby that took notice."

"No... On the other side was elecsias. It was the visible face of that moment, there was no person who was not attentive to the Deva front."

Beatrice covered her right eye with the palm of her left hand ".... So... Jack was recruited from a young age.... Why didn't he ever tell me?"

"I don't know."

Then she stared at him with her left eye "And, Why are you telling me all this untill now?".

Otis lifted his shoulders "There's no big reason, you're simply an adult now, you have a right to know."

Beatrice's whole body gave up her posture. Adopting a visibly droopy, listless one she headed for the nearest door ".... I guess there's no point in worrying.... I'll ask him straight out" She opened the door ".... Thank you for telling me the truth, at least."

And then she left, Otis kept waving goodbye with his hand. After several minutes he sighed and went back to staring into the void "I spoke too much.... I hope Jack will be able to bury the past, even if I don't like Kran.... There is no concrete evidence."

✠ - ✠

Clink!

From the young man's perspective, the door suddenly opened, with a loud but unvigorous sound "Well?" What peeked out of that door was a blonde woman, her face was covered by her hair "How's progressing the investigation?"

The young, red-haired man reacted timidly "Miss Beatrice are you all right? You don't look in condition."

Beatrice shook her head slightly "I just heard something that brought my spirits down, no big deal. More importantly, Keo, show your progress."

"If you say so... You see, our research shows strange energy readings in the core, however.... It doesn't appear to be organic material."

"And what does that mean?"

Keo began to construct an answer that did not seem complicated, after a few seconds of silence he said "Well at this point you are probably thinking of a mechanical creation.... However, the evidence points to the body being composed of a kind of ferrofluid, and the core a kind of magnetic field emitter, the only problem is that the core is only the size of barely ninety centimeters, I don't know how or what kind of structure it has to cover the rest of the body, without taking into account that, fields made with a specific shape would be needed.... Or well, the figure of the creature, besides, when leaving the field it keeps its shape and hardens.... None of this makes sense, especially since the core appears to be a solid structure.... It has not been identified whether or not there is intelligent life among the invaders so it is only speculation that they are artificial beings... On the other hand... Imagining an environment where they would naturally be born..." Keo gasped, not only the strain of his thoughts. Also, his little experience in the art of speech left him tired.

Beatrice made a gesture with her hands, consisting of pushing and returning "Calm down, calm down, I got it, rest for now. Afterwards we will continue with the investigation. When the information clarifies the matter".

✠ - ✠

A small group is walking on the great reddish desert that covers Mars.

From among them, a blond young man asked a very strange question.

"I wonder, Why the regular interspace time is that of the earth? I mean, every solar system should have its own regular time, Right?".

This young man is Brendan. Who at a slow pace was barely keeping up with the speed of the others.

Zeke sighed as he watched him out of the corner of his eye "Really.... It's simply more practical to use a single temporal measurement for infinite space, never mind that they are created from a reference point observable from anywhere, which doesn't exist."

Ledia touched her chin before saying "I'd say they do it to commemorate our home planet."

Jack looked slightly annoyed at the discussion ｢.... I wouldn't know who to blame, they didn't all originate on earth.... Is it normal not to know this ｣?

"Yes and no. The star time is the same as Washington on earth since it is the time of the most important point on our planet of origin.... On the other hand, recalibrating the clock when arriving at a new place is annoying and evading it would imply that the calculations will be wrong, complatium travel requires calculating the spatial position of the object and the destination place to then distort the space in understanding with the estimated travel time. So it would add a lot of extra steps".

Kelly frowned "And why is the reference point Washington?".

"Hum..." ｢Somehow I feel old...｣ "...Didn't they teach you guys about post-flare?".

"Post-flare?"

"To make a long story short, the first one got the biggest slice of the pie."

"Hum..." Kelly rocked back and forth, trying to get around the obstacles to her vision "All I see is orange sand."

"And with that, you've seen a large expanse of the planet...".

"Heh... How sad" Among the piles of sand something caught his attention "We're here!" he shouted after noticing a wall in the distance.

Kelly stared at the walls before turning to Jack, the familiarity she feels at the sight of those whitish walls made her stomach churn "Lucky for us. Apparently they haven't found every city on the planet."

Jack grimaced listlessly ｢All.... Heh, that's one way of putting it｣ "The planet is much larger than Earth and the habitable places, in the sense of generating food never expanded.... There were only three regions, I don't see any way for them to easily find the surrounding cities."

Ledia focused her gaze on the walls, undecided ｢I'm not sure.... I feel like if we go something bad will happen, but also if we don't go...｣ Without much conviction she said, "I guess we should warn them."

Jack already had that in mind "That would be ideal. For now I want to check... Do you all have the basic documents with yourselves?"