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The vague phrasing of both the woman and her apparent translator were yet to calm the two pilots, until one of the German soldiers mentioned the word Noble Arms. Ah, she was one of those folks. Cuong curled his lips a little, nodding with nothing but impressiveness. He had worked with Noble Arms users before, but he never was tired of seeing them and their powers. Each and everyone of them were so unique and frankly quite cool-looking. It's a shame a lot of them ended up letting that go to their heads. For what it's worth though, Sgt Marlena didn't seem like one of them. She looked like a chill and nice person.

[color=7bcdc8]"Senior Lieutenant Cuong Hoang Van."[/color] Cuong returned the salute with his own, as he spoke with a clear anglicized pronunciation of his name. Even then it might be a bit hard to pronounce the first time around. [color=7bcdc8]"Yeah, you can say it however you feel. No one has really gotten that right."[/color] He laughed it off, mainly as a jab towards people who kept insisting on getting names correctly and offered Marlena and the soldiers a handshake. 

[color=ed1c24]"Lieutenant Nikolay Phan."[/color] The Russian airman, after calming himself down, shadowed his partner. 

[color=7bcdc8]"His was pretty easy though, just 'Fan'...ya know."[/color] Cuong's hand swirled back and forth, imitating a hand fan. After making sure the lads understood his point, he gave them a smile. [color=7bcdc8]"Well, I certainly do not want to disturb the special forces on their duty, don't I? But if you're free for some quick snacks, you can find us here. Or visit us at the airbase. Always glad to receive a friend or two."[/color] 

The pilots glanced over at the owner of the vandalized store, whose confusion was masked behind his tended injuries. For his horrors, he would be treated well with some fancy purchases by the pilots, with good tips to go with it. It spoke much to their hospitality, and to the pilots, it was supposed to be a nice meal of respite before their next mission, and this incident would not affect that mood. They willed it.[hr]
Well, their peace and quiet lasted almost two weeks. It was a good run.

It was not because of a mission that got them tepid responses, it was because it was from the so-called 'Task Force Obsidian'. The victory at Lingayen was great, and a perfect demonstrator of how destructive and useful Noble Arm individuals are in combat, but it still wasn't enough to shake off the impression of disorganization that they got from the group. It felt like the high commands really were just putting all the eggs in one basket, poke it with a stick and hoped that it does something. 

Lotus Squadron was not technically part of this, but it seemed like the Filipino high commands really found them to be the salvation of the country, so they put as much support as they could around this ragtag group of Noble Arm users. Which is quite ironic due to this government being literally called the Government of National Salvation, and this task force is overwhelmingly foreigners. When that name was mentioned by Noel, the some of the pilots simply turned away or covered their mouth, clearly trying to suppress their laughter. They had heard of this new name for quite a while now, but it still would never be unfunny hearing the mundane Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore right next to the [i][b]PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL SALVATION[/b][/i]. Somehow it actually made this whole QRS being supposed Qing dynasty supporters who wanted to return the days of the Mandates of Heavens seem quite sane in comparison. 

Speaking of the QRS and their operations, so it seemed like Obsidian was there to relieve the QRS of their siege, and Lotus was just helping with air combat. The details were pretty vague, and the squadron's personnel's responses were indeed quite lukewarm. Discussions and doubts were raised, and the most concerning one was actually brought up first by Miss Qingshe, the apparent PLA defector and QRS member in the auditorium: there were [i]no[/i] mentioning of other squadron support involved. 

[color=ed1c24]"Miss Qingshe is right."[/color] Nikolay stood up and spoke. [color=ed1c24]"We only have eight aircraft in total. We may be used to fighting outnumbered, but we are not juggernauts."[/color] 

The squadron was also more capable fighting in a more 'insurgency' doctrine, but that was not too big of a deal to bring up. The more pressing point would be the concern that the high commands were thinking that this supposed ace-squadron was deemed so successful that they thought they could survive without proper support. 

[color=ed1c24]"Please tell us that we're not the only squadron in the air."[/color] They better hope that Noel had more to say because otherwise this would be a very pitiful display. 

Cuong simply let his partner spoke for the squadron, as he eyed other members of the task force in the auditorium. Many of them absurdly young, one of them, Nil, sitting close by him. She looked a bit familiar. 

[color=7bcdc8]"What's up?"[/color] He casually struck up a conversation with her. [color=7bcdc8]"Have we met before somewhere?"[/color]

[@Gerlando][@Letter Bee][@Lewascan2][@KaiserElectric]