CYCLE 4 - MEETING OF THE DIVISIONS
Involved parties: 4th Division, 2nd Division, 9th Division, 27th Division
Location: Sehigama
A few days earlier the officers of the 4th Division received notice of the scheduled joint meeting of the four divisions in the base of the 4th near Segihama City. Organized by the initiative of the Chief Commanders of each involved division, this meeting was meant to share information and facilitate coordination in future operations.
Which brings us to today. All ARM teams were out to welcome the guests of the division, the ARMs neatly standing at the side of their Handlers while the Commanders stood in a row next to the Chief Commander and the Chief Operator. It was sunny outside and even though everyone was in the shadow of a building, it was still very hot outside. An armored convoy was in view.
The first to arrive were those of the
27th Division, in charge of the adjacent Sector N. As they had been briefed prior on the personnel of the other divisions, they recognized
Chief Commander Franz Orca of the 27th: a very tall man with his short red-hair left in a loose style. His beard was unmaintained and his cap seemed about to fall off, which was in line with Chief Commander Braern's description of the man: unbearably nonchalant yet surprisingly competent. At his side were two ARMs, with their Handler each.
[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Heey Tal! How are you doing buddy! Congrats on the promotion to Sector O by the way! Oh and Lia, you look as charming as ever."[4th Division Chief Commander] Talaros Braern: "Chief Commander Orca. I see you haven't changed, for better or worse. Let me introduce you rapidly to our capable officers: Commander Lanceheart of Team Scarlet Star, Commander Deer of Team Green, and Commander Belov of Team Gunmetal Rose. Then we have-"The officer of the 27th cut him off in the middle of the introduction, looking at each Handler.
[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Handler Argis, Handler Smith, Handler Walter, Handler Flinch, and Handler Thompson. Don't worry Tal, I memorized it all. Sorry for cutting you pal! But it's just too hot today, you know I can't handle the heat! I can't believe you are all standing there so squarely without breaking a sweat. Now that's what I call tough."[4th Division Chief Commander] Talaros Braern: "Chief Commander Orca. I would appreciate if you behaved yourself in the base under my supervision, in front of my subordinates. Do I make myself clear?"[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Eeh how mean... is that any way to treat a guest?"The temperature was rising, and the Chief Operator wedged herself in-between the two. She was fuming more than them.
[4th Division Chief Operator] Lia Valie: "You two stop acting like children. Chief Commander Orca, should I personally inform Chief Operator Baker of your conduct?"[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Ahem... My apologies."[4th Division Chief Commander] Talaros Braern: "I'm sorry as well."There was no further incident after this sorry display, and the introductions resumed in a hall cooled by air conditioners. The other present members of the 27th were the
Handlers Doma and Macraz in charge of
2nd Gen ARMs Mordi and Franscesca of Team Apricot Leaf. The two other teams,
Lime River and Orange Blaze, had remained at their base to ensure they could response to any emergency and would be briefed on the contents of the meeting later.
A few minutes later, several NRCPF armored transport crafts landed on the tarmac of the 4th Division base. They belonged to the 2nd and 9th Divisions, who were in charge of Sector U. Unlike the prior Chief Commander of the 27th, the personnel had a professional attitude and their arrival went smoothly.
- From the 2nd Division were
Chief Commander Hiro Narajima and Chief Operator Lizbeth Cruz, accompanied by
1st Gen ARM Tsubasa from Team Crystal Wings, and
2nd Gen ARM Eliza from Team Cobalt Crown. Tsubasa did give a nod to Baretta and Capella, who could hardly hide how overjoyed they were to see her again.
- Then in the 9th Division, the
Chief Commander Meredith Moira and one 1st Gen ARM representative of each team of the 9th Division:
ARM Joker from Team Lucky Clover, ARM Lotte from Team Rose Fortune, and ARM Selia from Team Moon Orchid.
Situation of the Sectors
With the introductions out of the way, the division representatives moved to the meeting room where they would discuss each items on today's agenda with first up the current status of the Sectors each was in charge of. The situation was as follow:
- Sector O and N were stable and under control, but the divisions still had to remain vigilant.
- Sector U was in a complicated situation. Decontamination efforts and reinforcement of the damaged fortified cities were still under way, but progressing slower than expected due to an intensification of Spectre attacks. They were slowly managing to revert the Red Zones back to Orange level or lower.
[9th Division Chief Commander] Meredith Moira: "Even with the support of the 2nd Division, we are stretched thin in Sector U. The smallest mistake could lead to the whole Sector turning Red, and I'm not exaggerating. After discussing with Chief Commander Narajima, we decided to seek the help of the 4th and 27th Divisions of the adjacent Yellow Sectors."[2nd Division Chief Commander] Hiro Narajima: "We don't intend to send your ARMs out to deal with spectres though. Assisting with the decontamination of the less critical zones would already greatly lighten the load on our ARM teams, which are constantly rotating fighting off Spectres of Class C or above."[4th Division Chief Commander] Talaros Braern: "There should be no issue with us providing assistance if our ARMs are kept away from the frontline."[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Yeah, if it's only cleaning work, we will help no problemo. Speaking of, any news about Sector Y and Sector Z?"[9th Division Chief Commander] Meredith Moira: "Worst case scenario, the two sectors turn Black in four cycles. If we can continue progressing at the same steady rate, we have at least eight cycles until the situation worsens."[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Sheesh."Results of the Sector Wall investigation
Thanks to the investigative work of Team Gunmetal Rose, it was discovered that a malicious actor had sabotaged the Wall of Sector O, leading to the sector breach that caused a ton of headaches to the 4th Division. With this information in hand, the NRCPF intelligence division managed to find and apprehend the culprit. However, the situation turned out a bit more complicated than what everyone expected.
Keryl Nelva was just another false identity of the culprit, whose real identity was protected due to classified reasons. Not even the Chief Commanders knew its name, but what they could piece out was that the culprit was working for the NRCPF, and that the breach had indirectly been caused by internal politics and an experiment gone wrong.
[4th Division Chief Commander] Talaros Braern: "The investigation results will be covered up. Fortunately... We did manage to recover something they wanted to hide: they were testing a device called a PEA, Phantasmal Entity Attractor. I think its name is telling enough."[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "And I am the bad boy? I don't even wanna know what kind of unsavory things you had to do to obtain that bit of info."One could only speculate the intentions of the one who used this device. Some believed the breach truly was an unintended consequence of the test as the culprit had apparently been mostly left off the hook. Others believed the breach was intentional, and that this was the result of some bigger cover-up. Either way, they decided to drop the issue as they could only speculate.
Results of the Area O-11 Survey
The reports of Maiden activity in Green Area O-11 led to the same result as the prior investigation: classified, and told to drop it. Now that they knew of the experimental Attractor, everyone suspected Area O-11 had been used to test this device. Then they proceeded to decontaminate the area in order to hide any trace of the experiment, most likely because they didn't want to risk someone figuring out the Apparitions movement patterns were highly unusual.
[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Okay so they are paranoid. How does a Maiden fits in all of this?"[9th Division Chief Commander] Meredith Moira: "It's obvious. Maidens leave less traces than using an ARM. Because of their nature, ARMs are heavily monitored. Everything they do is logged."[27th Division Chief Commander] Franz Orca: "Man, some people are crazy."(...)
Those were the main subjects tackled during the meeting among others. The Commanders and Handlers were free to intervene or ask questions if they wanted.
Author
Topic: ARMs: Artificial Maidens [Recruiting a Handler] (Read 10762 times)