Once the examination was done and the report was sent, Sam's day went on as usual, except for him having to stop by his room to shower and change his clothes.
He spent the afternoon reading a book and then met with Shizuru for dinner. Alice didn't call him that night, which he thought was odd, but he doubted she would commit suicide just because her engagement was broken so he went to bed without checking on her.
After a night of sound slumber, morning soon came. Same as the day before, he went through his new routine; eating breakfast with his girlfriend, spending some time in the gym then going to the library. Everything had been normal until that point. Just when he sat down with his book, however, he noticed a certain orange head enter the library.
"Sergeant Clementine. Fancy seeing you here." Sam said, his voice full of sarcasm.
"We need to talk," Jordan said, glaring down at him while desperately trying to hide his anger.
"Take a seat, then."
Seeing how relaxed Sam was, with his eyes still on the book even while being talked to, only served to fuel Jordan's hate even more. Nevertheless, he pulled one of the chairs and sat down facing him.
"I'll get straight to the point." The orange head spoke. "How did you two get together?"
Finally taking his eyes off the book, Sam gave the soldier a surprised look.
"For a moment I thought you were going to threaten me into breaking up with her."
"I'm not that petty," Jordan said. "I know when to give up."
"Then you should've done so much earlier," Sam sighed. "You knew from the start that she wasn't interested yet you continued to persist."
"She was single so there was always hope."
"I see. Well, I wouldn't fault you for that." Returning his gaze to his book, Sam spoke in a dismissive tone. "In fact, I should be thanking you. If it weren't for your actions I would've never got my chance."
"... what?"
"Everything you did made me look better in comparison, and if you didn't annoy her so much she wouldn't have agreed to date me."
Jordan stared at Sam, seemingly dumbfounded. Then, after he processed everything carefully, he suddenly snapped, standing up and slamming his hands on the table.
"You bastard!"
"What are you getting angry about?" Sam met his glare with one of his own. "After doing all of that to make me look bad, you think you have any right to complain? You're a grown man for god's sake. Learn to behave like one."
Jordan had no response. He could only glower for a few seconds before turning around and storming out of the library. Seeing him slam the door behind him, Sam let out a long sigh and put his book down.
"What an idiot." He said, taking his glasses off before massaging the bridge of his nose.
As if to add to his annoyance he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Only one person would try to contact him around this time, and when he saw that the message was from her his frown only deepened.
"Damn it…"
The sender was none other than the base commander. Though he didn't have much to do at the moment, Sam still found having to deal with his weeping childhood friend quite the chore.
He reluctantly returned the book to its place then left for the administration building. Soon enough he was standing in front of the commander's office. Heaving a long sigh, he prepared himself to once again be a shoulder for that woman to cry on. He then made sure to erase his annoyed expression before raising his hand and knocking on the door.
"Come in."
To his surprise, a reply came right away. Going by the tone of her voice, Sam didn't need to see her to know whether she was in the same state as that night or not.
'Well, it's the middle of the day.' He thought while twisting the door handle. 'Even if she'd lost her fiance she wouldn't dare drink while on duty.'
Inside the office, Alice was sitting behind her desk looking over a stack of papers. She was sober, as he had guessed, and her focused gaze told him that whatever she was reading must be quite important.
"Sergeant Sanderson, you're already here," Alice said, taking her eyes off the papers for a moment.
"Since you bothered to use my name, am I right to assume this is an official meeting?"
"Take a seat."
The way she coldly ignored his statement gave Sam a bad feeling. Taking a deep breath, he walked to one of the chairs in front of her desk and sat down.
"Word came from the HQ that our Valkyrie physician sent a weird report," When she said those words Sam felt his heart stop, but fortunately it wasn't what he had in mind. "It said that the weapons were acting strangely, saying unusual things and acting in unusual ways. Now, Sergeant Sanderson, why am I only hearing about this now?"
"Uh… I actually forgot that I sent it…" Sam replied with a nervous smile. "Oh! But you don't have to worry. Turns out it was all just a misunderstanding on my part."
"Well, you would've known if you reported to me first instead of informing the headquarters!" Slamming her hands on the table, the white haired woman stood up and pointed a finger at him. "Do you even realize the amount of shame you've caused me by sending such a report!!? I was the one who recommended you for this job!!! Anything you say or do will reflect directly on me!!!"
The report made it sound as if the Valkyries were gaining sentience and overcoming their programming, which is something that could only happen in science fiction movies and novels. The people at the HQ probably had a good laugh reading it.
Sam was stunned. He had never seen Alice so agitated and he understood the kind of trouble facing him. Still, a moment of thought allowed him to get a better grasp on the situation. Glaring back at the base's commander, he shut down her argument right away.
"Ma'am, you know the details of my job, right?"
"Hm?"
"I'm tasked with operation Eir, performing the examinations and sending the reports to the Resistance HQ. Unless you specifically order it, delivering such information to you isn't my responsibility."
"What are you-"
"If it bothered you so much I could let you check the reports before sending them." Sam interrupted with a sigh. "However, you have to understand that this wasn't a part of my responsibilities before so you have no right to complain to me about it now."
"Well, that's not exactly wrong…"
An awkward moment of silence passed as the two spoke nothing. Sam knew he was a bit rash when sending that report. Nevertheless, no one could fault him for it; he was dealing with highly advanced AI loaded into weapons that could break humans with no effort. The worst-case scenario was too easy to imagine.
That said, Alice wasn't wrong in that he should've checked with her first before informing the HQ. She is his superior, after all, and deserves to know what's going on in the base she's responsible for.
"Did something happen?" Seeing the difficult expression on Alice's face, Sam eventually gave in and asked.
He could tell that she was on edge, so much so that she yelled at him a couple of minutes ago. He didn't believe she was taking the anger from her broken engagement on him so the real reason must be something else.
Alice's eyes swam from one corner to the other, and after pondering it over for a while, she finally decided to tell him.
"The formal announcement will be made tomorrow anyway." She said, closing her eyes and letting out a long sigh. "We've finally managed to reclaim western Europe."
Sam's eyes went wide only to be lowered in the next.
"Why are you talking as if it's not good news."
"That's because…" pausing for a moment, the commander looked him in the eyes, her dry voice shaking a little as she delivered the news. "We lost the second base, along with the seven Valkyries stationed there."