Jeanne looked up at the night sky, her mind wandering. She had seen Yuren's eyes turn red, and she was sure Trevor had, too. The way the red glow contrasted with the room's light had been unnerving. The three had barely spoken a word to each other since the incident; each of them was lost in their own thoughts.
The next morning, Trevor walked out of the cabin, with bags under his eyes, his hair disheveled, and a pensive expression on his face.
"Hey..." He said as he approached Jeanne and Vincent, "Do either of you have a canteen?" His voice was weak, as if he hadn't slept at all.
"Are you alright?" Jeanne asked. "You look exhausted."
Trevor sighed, "Yeah... I couldn't sleep... My head was racing, thinking about everything."
"You're worried about Shu, aren't you?" Vincent said.
Trevor nodded. "Yeah... She was so different, so... distant. She barely acknowledged us when we went to the repair center." He took a deep breath, his eyes looking at the ground. "I couldn't stop thinking about it last night. I feel like I'm failing her."
"I don't understand why you care about that android so much in the first place." Vincent said as he pulled his canteen from his belt, "Here."
"Thanks, man." Trevor took the canteen from Vincent's hand. He uncorked the cap and took a long drink. After a few gulps, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then stared at the 701st's insignia on the side. One of the androids must've given it to Vincent; it was probably the one from yesterday.
"So, how do we convince her to leave with us? I'm not leaving here without Shu." Trevor said, and Vincent looked at him in surprise.
"Idiot." Vincent sighed and shook his head. "You're just going to keep trying? They obviously know more about her than any of us do. All you did was find her in a container." He said with an exasperated tone, "Just drop it, what are you trying to prove?"
"I don't want her to be treated like an object," Trevor said. "I can't just let them take her away."
"That's exactly how you're treating her! You're making a lot of noise for someone who doesn't really understand anything, acting like she's your property and the battalion has to return her to you." Vincent crossed his arms and sighed, "You're being a hypocrite, man."
Trevor stood up and looked at him. "No! I just... I don't want her to be a part of their war." He said. "I don't want her to have to fight."
"You delusional motherfu-"
"Vincent!" Jeanne said, cutting him off.
He paused, then looked away and said nothing more.
Trevor looked down at his feet and took a deep breath. "I know she's an android. That much is clear... But I don't care; Shu is my friend, and I want her back." He said, his voice firm. He turned and walked off. Vincent and Jeanne watched as he left, the latter looking concerned.
"You shouldn't provoke him like that." She said to Vincent. "He's already upset."
"He just doesn't know. Garra enlightened me to a lot of things during our hunting trip yesterday, and now I know just how serious this whole thing is. There's no way he'll be able to get her back from them. This isn't something you just get to decide you want to take back."
"Vincent, you don't know that," Jeanne said, her voice firm.
"I do know that!" He snapped back, "They're not going to let us keep Shu. It doesn't matter if we're right or not, it doesn't matter that she's our friend or whatever the hell Trevor is thinking her relationship with us is. The whole thing with these androids is far bigger than he thinks it is, much more than I originally thought." He said. "We are way over our heads. And if he keeps up his antics he's going to end up getting us killed or arrested. I don't want any legal trouble and I damn sure don't want to piss any meteorn off."
"Legal trouble? Vincent, we're in the middle of nowhere. I don't even know where this place is, let alone the nearest town or police station. What are you talking about?"
Vincent stared at her for a moment, then he said, "We're citizens of the republic, Jeanne! Look at the symbol on that blanket around you, who does it belong to?"
Jeanne glanced down and noticed that she was indeed sitting on a thick wool blanket with the Imperial Union's flag stitched into the fabric. She had never paid any mind to the various supplies the androids had been providing for the three, only ever thinking that it was kind of them to offer the three some form of comfort.
"The Imperial Union..."
"Yeah, we're not at home, Jeanne. We're not in the Charstire Republic anymore. And if you didn't notice, those androids are heavily armed military androids. And if there's another unit that finds us? They likely won't be so nice, and they'll arrest us as agents or something and I don't want that." Vincent's eyes narrowed.
"Agents... You really think so?"
"We are literally behind enemy lines. We are so far behind enemy lines that if those androids weren't defectors, we'd already be in prison. And that's the best-case scenario."
"Oh... I guess that's true." Jeanne sighed, her eyes lowered. "But I still don't want Trevor to feel like we don't care about him."
"Yeah, and the only person he's hurting is himself. I'm done trying to talk sense into him. I'm gonna go refill my canteen, the river's just down the hill. Do you want me to grab yours too?" Vincent asked as he stood up and stretched.
Jeanne looked at him. "Yeah, thanks." She pulled the canteen off her belt and handed it to him.
"Be right back." Vincent said as he walked off.
Jeanne watched as Vincent disappeared into the woods, and then she looked around at the various crates that surrounded her. Most were unmarked and unremarkable, but a few had markings that she could make out. They were filled with ammunition and supplies. She felt her stomach knot; it was clear to her that she and her friends had stumbled into something they had no idea how to handle. She felt a sense of helplessness wash over her as she looked around and saw no way to get home. The mountains that surrounded them seemed impassible without a ship, and even if they somehow managed to find a way through them, they didn't know exactly where they were and what lay beyond them.
Her mind was racing. What would happen if other units discovered them? How would they survive if their hosts decided they weren't welcome anymore?
Jeanne's eyes scanned the surrounding crates once more, her mind racing with the various scenarios that could play out. She stood and approached one of the crates. It had a large symbol stamped onto it. The 701st emblem with the large number '1504' on top of the symbol. She reached down to touch the symbol when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, causing her to flinch in shock.
"Curiosity killed the cat, ya know." Veili's voice spoke. Jeanne turned and looked to see her standing there. Her expression was one of amusement.
"S-sorry. I didn't mean to... um, I'm not doing anything wrong..."
"Those are spare high-explosive shells and other artillery ammunition. Obviously, we wouldn't keep boxes of our actual weapons out in the open." Veili said with a smile.
"I didn't think that... Um... sorry, I didn't mean to... I wasn't going to..." Jeanne's words were failing her.
Veili laughed. "Don't worry, I'm just messing with ya. But you really should be careful. Even though those shells aren't live, it doesn't mean it's completely safe to mess with them. We can repair an android but damage is often irreversible on a human body." She explained, and Jeanne nodded. Veili smiled and continued, "So, what were you thinking about?"
"About... how we're gonna get home. It seems impossible to get out of these mountains and... well, we have no idea where we are..." Jeanne said.
"Ah, yeah... well, I can assure you, you're not prisoners. But there are still ongoing fire fights in the area of the neutral zone where you were, so it's probably best to just wait until we can take you home, which probably won't be for another month. Skirmishes between Argentia and Charstire in the zone are usually about that long."
"A whole month?" Jeanne sighed. "That's a long time..."
"I guess... But in terms of warfare it's really short. Normal battlefield operations are typically three months at the very least."
"That long!?" Jeanne asked.
"Yeah... That's the reality of war." Veili replied, and then her cheery expression softened. "Battle zones are where androids can go to rid themselves of the curse of their immortality..." she whispered.
"Huh? I didn't quite catch that." Jeanne said.
"Huh? Oh! It's nothing. Hey, why don't you go talk to some of my friends. It's been a few days since we've been here, and they're all really curious about the three of you."
"Really? I mean, I don't want to be a bother or anything." Jeanne replied.
"Oh no! You're fine, trust me." Veili said. She looked around and pointed, "See those two?hat's Tanya and Estriv. Go talk to them. I bet they'd love to meet you!"
"Oh... okay... Thanks..." Jeanne said, then turned to walk away. She felt uneasy but also grateful. As she approached the two, Tanya was the first to greet her. Her face was bright and friendly.
"Hello!" She said and then paused. "Jeanne, right?"
"Yeah... Um, hello." Jeanne said and looked at Estriv. "And you are...?"
"I'm XMV14, Estriv, nice to meet you."
"Hi," Jeanne said. "Um...XMV?" she asked. The letter and number designation confused her. "What does that mean? I've seen it on several of your uniforms."
Estriv smiled. "Oh, that's just our model designation. I am XMV14, which is the fourteenth XMV model produced. Tanya's XMV17. XMV designs are progressive; each unit serves a different supportive or combat function, but all of us are designed as the same class of android. I am an XMV-1402, and Tanya is XMV-1703. I specialize in recon, whereas Tanya is a pilot for one of our Hyperion fighters."
Jeanne nodded; it made sense, but she didn't fully understand how the androids could have such specific functions.
"What is it that you do for a living?" Estriv asked.
"I'm just a student designer; I attend university back in the Charstire capital." Jeanne waved her hands in front of her.
"Oh, that sounds fun. What do you study?" Tanya said, her smile growing bigger as she leaned closer to Jeanne.
"I want to be a designer, and create outfits for models to wear at fashion shows." Jeanne replied, and then she paused. "Wait... You guys don't really have clothes do you?"
"Not really but some did sneak stuff on base and hid it on the Eisendrace. No one hid things in the barracks because there were always inspections. Hilarious because most of the inspection officers couldn't activate the Eisendrace's doors." Estriv said.
"Only maintenance crews could do it, but they'd bring generators so resonance factor wasn't an issue for them." Tanya said, nodding along with Estriv. She turned to Estriv. "Hey! Speaking of, we still need to move the crates that are on the second level!"
"Tanya, the Eisendrace left..." Estriv pointed to the sky.
"O-Oh..." Tanya's expression faded. "Well, then that means someone else will find them eventually. Just gotta avoid Ester for the rest of the day."
Estriv sighed. "Good luck."
"Ester?" Jeanne asked, and Tanya looked at her.
"Ester is our logistics officer and accountant, she's been with us for a long time and has an eye for detail. She'd always get in argument with the brass about supplies and spending allocations, but she also always managed to get more funding than the other units so that's probably the reason we always had so many extra resources and supplies." Tanya explained.
"Oh..." Jeanne replied, her brow furrowed. "So... what exactly is this place?" Jeanne looked around.
"What do you mean?" Tanya asked.
"Well... this area. The camp, the mountains, and why are there so many meteorn around just... vibin' without a care in the world?"
Tanya laughed. "Oh, that. Yeah, it's kinda crazy isn't it? I don't know either to be honest. We used to go to great lengths to fight them not too long ago, and now we're just all here coexisting like nothing happened."
"It's because this place is a blackout zone." Estriv spoke; her tone serious.
"What does that mean?" Jeanne asked.
"Meteorns and certain androids both have a certain resonance signature and that's how the empire's scanners and monitors can identify us from humans. Blackout zones are regions of land that the military has designated where there's too much Resonance from the local area to make anything out, it's kinda like trying to find someone by listening for their voice, while they're standing in the middle of a stadium with ten-thousand screaming fans. There's just no way to distinguish our signals and signatures in areas like that."
"So, the meteorn are just living here because it's a place where the government doesn't know who is there?"
"Not quite, it's because of the level of resonance that is present in the area, there's a high likelihood of the resonance becoming so strong that it would actually harm a human's health and mind, but it doesn't affect androids much if we aren't actively utilizing it, and it has no effect on meteorn at all. Meteorn practically radiate resonance from their bodies naturally so for them it's not an issue at all." Estriv explained
"So... how can we humans stay here without getting hurt or sick from it?" Jeanne asked.
"Because of Yuren's resonance, I don't know the details but it's apparently a purified form of resonance that seems to regulate and balance the resonance the others expel. An analogy for it would be... what did Aiden say in his notes again... Oh, right, a forest. Yuren's Resonance is like the trees, converting the resonance in the atmosphere to a safer and purer form, much like the carbon dioxide to oxygen process, so it's safe to stay in his vicinity." Estriv said, and Jeanne nodded her head in understanding.
"I thought Aiden's notes were strictly classified?" Tanya said, her eyebrow raised in confusion.
"They are... but I was an administrator for the Royal Court, remember? Before I was selected for the testing program and remodeled into an XMV, I was one of the staff who handled and applied the classification levels on the Nova Genesis reports. It was all just another loophole Amalia used to keep things secret." Estriv replied and then turned back to Jeanne. "But that's beside the point."
Jeanne nodded her head. "Oh, right." She said. "So, is there anything I should know about the others? Or any stories? It sounds like you guys have a lot of history with one another."
"Let's go chat inside, Estriv will call me if she needs, right?" Tayna looked at Estriv.
"Yeah, sure." Estriv sighed.