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[b]— Chapter 01: Sunken Truths —[/b]
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A couple days before…

As expected, a whole weekend of leave was a luxury that was well used by most of the cadets, each in their own way. Be it making new acquaintances, like the soft-spoken Elysia who traded numbers with Lucia before going off on her own devices, or Mavis’ misadventures at the mall.

Among all of them, perhaps the only one who hadn’t had any time for herself was Subaru. The mysterious white-haired girl remained behind for “medical purposes”, isolated in an area deep in the laboratories of the Biomedical Research Center. The only things she remembered being the soothing coldness of the equipment she was hooked to and a few disorganized segments of memories like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

One could only wonder where this would all lead.

[center][b]Neo Kyoto - Offshore Processing Facility #01; a.k.a. “The Rig” - 04:30[/b][/center]
Present time.

[color=007236]“Alright, Cadets. The situation is dire so we don't have much time to lose. I'm going to be as brief as possible and [i]not[/i] repeat myself so, pay attention,”[/color] Lieutenant Isoshima said as she came out of the command sector of their transport and faced the Cadets under her command, all of which had been woken up by an emergency alarm before the sun even rose up in the first day after their leave only to be met with a ferocious stormy weather and their well-known transport ready to take them to god-knows-where.

[center][youtube]https://youtu.be/OIpOUSnLdSY[/youtube][/center]
[color=007236]“At 02:00 hours this morning, we lost contact with Neo Kyoto's offshore processing facility number 01 for a brief period of time. That in itself wouldn't be a cause for more worries given that we are in the middle of a typhoon alert. However, fifteen minutes later, we received one single burst of a class II emergency alert before OPF 01 went silent again,”[/color] the Lieutenant said, pointing to a monitor behind her back. As expected, it displayed the fact that a class II emergency alert was an Invader raid. In an offshore factory dozens of miles away from any traces civilization. During a typhoon.

[color=007236]“I know I might be asking too much of your this time. However, we are the only available first response unit in the area that can reach OPF 01 in time. Your priority objective for this mission is to find and rescue anyone trapped in there. The facility is mostly automated, so it runs on a crew of 12 officers and 30 technicians. Your Linkers will be given a list of the personnel as well as OPF 01's schematics. Once you've secured any survivors, bring them to Helipad nº03. It's the only place in the whole facility where this transport can land safely.[/color]

[color=007236]As a secondary objective, try to clean OPF 01 of any Invaders. However, don't get too hung up on this, since we have no information regarding the enemy forces.[/color]

[color=007236]Lastly, there's something else you must recover but Command didn't divulge any information regarding it. Team Arizona will be in charge of that mission since Subaru is the only one with clearance for it. The rest of you [i]must[/i] support them if needed.[/color]

[color=007236]“Now get your gear ready! You'll be rappelling in 30 seconds since we can't land when the place is this hot. One last thing, all Linkers will have to deploy to the field today. In order to make space for the victims, we had to get rid of any non-vital equipment so you can't help your teammates from the mobile command center.”[/color]

The silhouette of the massive Rig, roughly a 500 x 500 meters square massive industrial structure with at least 30 stories over the waterline, finally became visible right as Lieutenant Mako finished her briefing.

The door of the cargo bay was opened a moment later, buffeting the interior of the transport with stormy winds, rain, and saltwater spray right as they approached an area of the rig that wasn't crawling with so many Invaders yet. Even so, countless burning red eyes could be seen here and there when powerful lightning discharges hit the structure or surrounding water.

[color=007236]“Very well then, Cadets, you are authorized to begin your mission now. You have until daybreak, that is 06:00 on the dot. Anyone else who hasn't been evacuated by that point will have to be left behind since our fuel reserves won't last for much more than that. Now, go!”[/color] the Lieutenant ordered as she held tightly to the plane. The ice-cold rain and winds had already soaked her to the bones before the mission even began...
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