While the battle of Molorx rages on, Bushiyon and Bartholomew remain in a bunker on Evac-12, huddled over a metal circular table, manipulating a 3D digital map to direct the fight. "Ok, understood, thank you," Bushiyon secures his pager in the pocket of his robe.
"What happened, Commander?"
"Mei Hikami has defeated the Last Super Specimen."
"Good, we knew they'd be a serious problem to handle during this battle. It's good we had the higher-ups give the entries a hand. Otherwise, they would have lost."
"Yeah, but there's still a bigger issue lingering on. The whereabouts of the apocalyptic weapon are still unknown. Even with Arturo searching the entire base using his All-Seeing Eye Spell, he couldn't find any trace of it."
"That's not good that me-"
The sudden burst through the door catches the attention of Bushiyon and Bartholomew, who look over in concern. Jax steps through the door frame, sweat glistening on his forehead and his chest heaving after a lengthy run. "Commander Bushiyon, Admiral Bartholomew... I.. I," Jax struggles to speak as his words come out in a jumbled mess of stammers and stuttering.
Bartholomew fills a foam cup with water from a dispenser. "Mr. Okayasu, you look parched. Come get some water," Jax takes the foam cup from Bartholomew and drinks the ice-cold water, feeling reinvigorated. "Ok, what's so vital you had to interrupt our meeting?"
Jax gets his pager from his pocket and presents them with the energy signature Navar sent him. "Look, Navar sent me this an hour ago, and he claims it's some sort of energy signature."
"Energy Signature? Let me see that," Bartholomew takes the pager from Jax's hand and dons a pair of gold-rimmed circular glasses to give the image a closer look. He tilts his head and furrows his brows, looking perplexed. "Hmmm, quite peculiar. This energy reading is incredibly unorthodox."
"Should we send this to our R&D department? Maybe they can decrypt what this energy signature is," says Bushiyon.
"Yes, we should. Even through all my years of being an admiral, I've never seen an energy reading quite like this," Bartholomew activates the radio setting on his pager, and static fills the air. "May someone from the R&D Department assist us with investigating this energy signature?"
"Sure! Come to room 99D! Helga will give you a hand!"
Jax, Bartholomew, and Bushiyon emerge from the bunker and enter a dimly lit room. In the back is an enormous projector screen that dominates the space. Standing beside the projector is a towering human woman with a muscular build, black hair in pigtails, and gray eyes. She wears an Academy uniform, but the sleeves are cut out, revealing her toned arms. She greets them by holding her hand out. "Helga is pleased you can make it! Now, let me see the picture!"
"Sure thing," Bartholomew hands Helga Jax's pager, and she slides it under a lens on a wooden podium.
Helga brings her face closer to the image and focuses her gaze. "Hmmm, Helga will need a book to read this!" Helga strides to the right side of the room, her fingers trailing along the spines of the books until she finds the one she wants. She races back to the lens and flips through the book, her eyes darting back and forth between the pages and the lens in front of her.
"Helga, what are you doing? Have you figured out what it is yet?" asks Bartholomew.
"Don't rush Helga! I will figure this out!"
"Alright, my apologies."
Helga flips between the book and the lens for thirty minutes until she realizes what it is, causing her eyes to widen. "This isn't good at all!"
"What's the matter?" asks Bushiyon.
"This energy signature… It's the same as AC-X!"
Bartholomew and Bushiyon both shudder with fear. "No way!"
"What!"
"So, what do we do now?" asks Jax.
Bartholomew furrows his brow as he devises a plan, and suddenly, his eyebrows shoot up as he settles on an idea. "Jax, meet me in meeting room 37D."
"Ok."
Bartholomew and Jax arrive at the meeting room with a large circular table of grey wood surrounded by many blue chairs with four legs. Bartholomew presses his pager. "Will the newest cadets and Officer Haru please meet me in room 37D? This is urgent," A few moments after requesting their presence, Rojo, Yuki, Soma, and Haru arrive in the room.
"Ummm. What are we doing here?" asks Rojo.
"You're all going to Molorx to figure out where the energy signature for the apocalyptic weapon leads to. If the signature traces where we think, which should be on a space station not far from there, you'll have to get on board and disrupt the signature by implanting a virus into its programming. This should obstruct the communication between the apocalyptic weapon and the enhancer it needs to activate. However, I'd be wary. There are bound to be Goblin and Elf soldiers patrolling the station. If you are to run into any enemies, your Ion Blasters should be an adequate defense if you run into any conflict. Any more questions?"
"How will we hack into the system?" asks Jax.
Bartholomew reaches into his pocket and pulls out a narrow metallic red device with a textured grip and two silver prongs on the bottom. "This should go to the team's hacker, who is Yuki. This device is a Viral Mainframe Injector, also known as a V.M.I. We will use the virus to hinder the signaling between the enhancer and the apocalyptic weapon. Yuki will inject the V.M.I. in the mainframe for the enhancer and hack through the signal using his computer. Hopefully, that'll stop it from activating. Does anyone else have another question?"
"..."
"Good, you're dismissed. This mission will start immediately, so go to Evac-12's docking bay. You all will fly your very own stingers for this mission."
Haru, Jax, Rojo, Yuki, and Soma arrive at the docking bay, and one by one, they climb aboard their stingers. Haru presses the golden R button on his stinger's control board. "Are all pilots ready for liftoff?!"
"Yes, we are!" They say.
"Good! Let's roll!" The spaceships blast off from Evac-12's surface, leaving behind a trail of smoke as they set course for Molorx.