Michelle along with more than 200 Shadow Units left Dove in order to find the Head of Chained Souls, the Inner part of Chained Souls HQ is a lot bigger than it looks, it actually has 3 huge underground floors and each floor is at least 200k to 300k square meters in diameters. If it's an open field it's nothing much for Shadow Unit but the underground floors of Chained Souls Main HQ. It is full of corridors and rooms searching through them one at a time will be a pain.
Michelle ordered the Shadow Unit to spread out in pairs to look for the Security Control Room. After one hour they finally manage to secure one floor, two more to go. the search is slow so dove gave orders to all Shadow Units that stayed with her to help Michelle in searching for Big Budda he only asked 10 shadow units to stay surprisingly Yuri volunteered to stay but Mikasa and Mikhail went to help search.
Dove asks the retrieval team to transport all prisoners but didn't allow for Bell to be moved just yet.
....
Surprisingly after more than an hour of searching. The head of Chained Souls is nowhere to be found even after Eve took over the security in the whole base, three hours later they found a narrow tunnel that can only fit 2 people somewhere on the lower floor, the tunnel leads to an underground lake and a small pier is indicating a submarine used to park there.
The Shadow Unit released a number of underwater drones in order to map or maybe find traces of Big Budda Submarine or where it was heading.
But because the underground lake is deep and wide the deeper ones go it will take a long time to completely map it. But even so, the Shadows Unit released thousands of underwater drones, each drone is only a palm-size and completely round it's like a tennis ball but jet black and it looks like a hybrid of metal and plastic.
Each one is capable of scanning a 100-meter radius from its body and can detect and recognize all kinds of species and materials it can also move in about 100 to 300 knots per hour...
But after 12 hours of searching they failed to find a single trace of Big Budda, so the Shadow Unit stop searching and just alow the Drones to do other works. The Shadow Units didn't immediately start the take over process first they all gather inside where Bell's body lie, there's no more traces of blood in her, and she looks like she was just sleeping.
Ruby and Jem are also there as well as all Shadow Units who participated in the operations luckily the place is big enough for all of them to gather.
"Today we lost a sister, but she will never be forgotten, death is part of our job, we trained and I trained all of you for it, none of us is afraid of death, none of us fear it, in fact, we marvel in it, we embrace it this is what makes us Shadow Unit." Ruby paused for a bit. she sigh.
"But separation is different as we are a family it will always hurt to lose someone, but we know this is part of our journey and more and more brothers and sisters will be lost along the way, I can't promise to keep you all safe but I promise ill never forget you. Just like Bell, she will never be forgotten, to Bell! Ruby shouted and put her weapon to her chest and bow."
"To Bell!! Everyone shouted and mimic Ruby's action.
After that, some cried, some just reminisced their memory of Bell, most just silently stand there vowing to get stronger. they just silently remember Bell in their own way, and maybe pray. Then one by one they left. Soon only Dove and Yuri remain as they volunteer to escort Bell's body back to the HQ. For a proper funeral arrangement for Bell.
Arc silently watch the ceremony the Shadow Unit did for Bell without saying anything, he was surprised to notice he wasn't very sad or angry but actually quite calm, of course, he was sad and maybe a little angry too but overall he was just calm.
"Make arrangements for Bell. And take the implanted chip from her head it will be kept to our vault, it will be our way of keeping her memory as it contains some of her memory."
"...." Nine
"Yes Boss," said Tiffa.
"Eve give me suggestions in order to prevent this kind of situation in the future."
As soon as he said it, Eve put a diagram in a projection.
"Hmmm, a new armor design?"
Arc looks at it, Looks cool especially with the black helmet, and looks more robust compared to skin-tight thin suit before. This one looks like skin-tight leather armor with matching black helmet.
There are more variety of armor others look like heavy armor there are at least 10 types of armor.
"This is all for Shadow Unit?" Ask Arc.
"Yes we need different types for different occasions, we should start training specialize units." Said Eve.
"Huh? But aren't we doing that already, with saboteur and supply unit?"
"Yes, but we need more than that as Shadow Unit grows in number we need specialize teams that consist of different specialists."
"So what you mean is we need to create a fixed group instead of mixing them up for every mission?" Ask Ark.
"Yes"
"Alright I'll consult Ruby and Jem about that, as having a fixed group has their own merit, like being familiar with the person fighting style and habits, can make fighting a lot smoother, as supposed to a makeshift team. Got it, make a different design armor for the Army as well."
"Yes Boss," said, Eve.
"Well, we already have a rank 5 military-grade armor Factory might as well make full use of them." Said Arc in his mind.
"How's the search for this so-called Big Budda?" Ask Arc.
"Nothing yet, looks like he managed to escape," said Ruby.
"Shit! Find him we can't let him go for he might know more about us when we attack his base"
"Yes, Boss! We'll find him for sure. Replied Ruby.