She wiped the fog from the mirror and looked at herself. What was it the medics had said? She was reconstructed with 99.6% fidelity? Even if she bore no external marks of what she had gone through, disturbances in the flow of the æther in her body meant that she could still feel every break and tear that had been inflicted on her. And as she thought on each of those breaks and tears, her hatred for the one who did this to her roiled in her gut.

The Lord Admiral had said that the rogue unit was destroyed in the purge of the city known as Aix-Clovin by the indigenes. If that were so, that was the end of it. She would not get the satisfaction of avenging her honor personally, which only added bitter frustration to the mix of negative emotions swirling around inside her, but she was not supposed to allow personal feelings to enter into the equation. It went beyond her responsibilities as a soldier. Hybrids like her were dangerous, and while it was possible to rehabilitate units that demonstrated a tendency toward going rogue, the standard procedure for more prudent commanders was termination. It was not so much that Major Yang considered her life all that precious than it was that she considered termination to be a waste of resources. She existed to serve the Empire, to serve the Lord Admiral, and for her to not give her fullest measure would be unthinkable.

And yet, as much as she knew she was duty-bound to reject her feelings, she could not. The humiliation of her defeat by an inferior unit was more than she could bear. Her finger traced one of the invisible fractures in her cheekbone. The phantom pain dug into her like a dull knife. Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable...

The black vortex within her triggered a wave of pain the surge through her entire body. She gripped at the sink as her knees gave way. A weaker creature would have broken down in tears, but Major Yang's pride forbade her from falling that far. Still, she did not know how much more of this she could bear.

It felt like she was being broken and torn all over again. She wanted it to stop, but a part felt like she had to cling to the pain. It was what she deserved. It was what she needed. She could not be permitted to forget. The pain would drive her until she could restore her honor.

And it was in that moment of acceptance that the oracle revealed itself to her. The pain transformed into a new sensation, sharp and clear. At first, she wondered what it could mean, but then her training and experience told her what it was. When Oberleutnant Van Houten merged with the Core Unit, there was a wave of energy that was released. Even though Major Yang had been buried under the rubble of the cathedral, that energy had washed over her broken body and clung to her even now. It created a link between her and the Core Unit, and when the dark energy welling up in her poured unbidden into that link, something unexpected happened.

There was a response. The energy reflected back to her like, almost like a sonar ping. The link was still active. Oberleutnant Van Houten was alive.

She was alive!

Major Yang slowly pulled herself back up. Her breaths slow and measured, she tried it again, this time deliberately. Again, there was a response. There was no denying it. Oberleutnant Van Houten, or rather the Irregular she had become, had somehow survived the purge of Aix-Clovin. No doubt she was avoiding detection by both conventional scans and Arcanic searching, but even if she knew of this link that the Core Unit had forged between them, there was probably nothing she could do about it.

The Major's conditioning told her exactly what she was supposed to do: report this new information to her immediate superior and request reinstatement to active duty so that she might participate in the punitive operation. However, if she did that, firstly, would she even be believed? To her knowledge, there was no precedent for this. She was the only one who could feel the connection and it could very well be dismissed as nothing more than a psychological aberration on her part. That would certainly be the most natural conclusion given her recent experiences.

Even if she could overcome the first hurdle and her story was believed, the operational planners were not likely to give her the chance to personally deal with Oberleutnant Van Houten again after what happened the previous time. She had failed once and Van Houten was significantly weaker then. After merging with the Core Unit, it was likely that Van Houten now surpassed the power of a Gamma Type and by no small margin. Even if all their fellow Hybrids in the Fleet were activated, it would not be an easy fight, especially if Van Houten had full command of her potential. No, they would likely just rely on targeted strikes like the one used at Aix-Clovin, but if Van Houten was able to elude one such strike, the odds of her doing the same trick again were high.

Major Yang then thought of where she was and considered the idea of bypassing the chain of command to appeal to the Lord Admiral directly. She shook her head. Any partiality the Lord Admiral had for her that she could exploit was more likely to work against her. He would not be willing to send her out again after her previous failure, if she could even hope to convince him that her claims of Van Houten's survival were true and not merely some fantasy cooked up in her overwrought brain.

And that was when a new thought came to her, an idea her conditioning should not have permitted. If she could not rely on others, then she could only rely on herself. Even in the most favorable scenario, she would not be granted the personal satisfaction of dealing with the rogue Van Houten herself. The only way she could have that would be to take matters into her own hands. Were she a normal human, she might have had enough operational latitude to conduct limited operations at her own discretion, but no Hybrid would be granted such latitude. The danger of going rogue was too great and that was the very compulsion that was creeping over her at the moment.

She shook her head. Even though there would be no other interpretation for her actions, she was not a rogue like Oberleutnant Van Houten. Ultimately, she was still dedicated to the mission. Yes, her personal feelings were seeping into her judgment, but her motivation remained pure and the results would be nothing but a benefit to the Lord Admiral, the Fleet, and the Empire.

There was no time to lose. Major Yang quickly dressed herself. As she was fastening her tunic, her eyes strayed to the Lord Admiral lying there asleep. She hoped that if no one else understood what she was doing. at least he would understand, even if he would still be duty-bound to order her termination for what she was about to do. A part of her wanted to make some small farewell gesture like a kiss on the cheek before she left, but her discipline rejected such open sentiment. Some of her inferiors were less capable of properly restraining themselves, but she was in a different class, and she would prove this decisively by putting down the rogue unit herself.

Even before she had stepped out of the Lord Admiral's quarters, Major Yang's mind went to work devising a way to pursue her quarry. She had no authority to sortie a scout ship or even arrange for an orbital drop. Her rank was little more than decoration, only useful in distinguishing herself among her fellow Hybrids. Rather than nurse her frustration there, she shifted her way of thinking. Unconventional situations require unconventional solutions. And that was when it came to her.

To catch prey, you have to think like it, at times even act like it. Therein lay her solution. She would use Oberleutnant Van Houten's own methods against her.

The Major made her way to the head in a relatively low-traffic area of the ship. It and the showers were among the few places where the surveillance systems were more restricted. Only IR sensors were used, which was only a single layer of security she had to counteract.

First, she closed her eyes and let her right hand hover over her left wrist. Her hand slowly glided up the length of her arm, over the shoulder, then around the trunk. She found it, under her arm, around the sixth rib. Tracker implantation was randomized to make it more difficult to remove them without proper detection equipment. Fortunately for Major Yang, her abilities could act in the place of all manner of technical equipment.

She took off her tunic and shirt, then peeled off her skinsuit down to her waist. It would have been more convenient if she had done this after her shower before she had gotten dressed, but the loss of the biometrics from her tracker would be one of the many alerts she was about to set off and she had a very narrow timeframe with which to act. According to the report, Oberleutnant Van Houten had removed her tracker at some point between the time she boarded her escape pod and when she made planetfall. Major Yang, however, did not want to attempt this operation in the escape pod, especially given the location of her tracker.

She took out her tactical knife, ran her fingers along the edge to heat it, and paused to take a breath to prepare herself before digging into her side. She gritted her teeth as she made the incision, then fished around a little with the point of the blade until she found the tracker. Once she had removed the tracker, a little silver tablet about ten millimeters in diameter, she flushed it down the toilet.

There was a little chunk of flesh she had cut out along with the tracker. Rather than flushing it as well, she closed it in her fist and began to channel her energy into it. It did not take long for that little chunk to grow and expand into a large misshapen heap of meat that plopped down onto the toilet seat.

Looking at her handiwork, and not with much admiration, she put her hand to her side to close up the incision and then slipped her skinsuit back on. Next, she held out her hands, looking as if she were carrying an invisible ball. What she was actually doing was generating a distortion field that would disrupt all sensors within a five-meter radius. As if the loss of biometrics from her tracker and the fact that it was currently travelling through the ship's plumbing were not enough, this would set off further alerts and a response team would arrive in minutes. She would need to hurry.

She took her tunic and shirt under her arm and then turned back to pile of flesh and stretched out her hand, setting it ablaze. Although the electronic fire suppression system was being jammed by the distortion field, there was a mechanical backup that would soon deploy. Major Yang made a point to be out of the head before that happened.

Dressing as she went, the Major made her way to the nearest muster point. The manual override for the hatch to the escape pod was designed to be operated by two people, but one could manage if needs be. First the outer hatch, then the inner one. Once she was inside the pod, she closed and sealed the inner hatch, then activated the explosive bolts to release the pod from the ship. She was clear, but her work had only just begun.

Escape pods were designed to be found, so they did not make for an ideal mode of transportation when stealth was desired. The few things Major Yang could do to avoid detection was to keep the pod's internal power shut down and maintain her distortion field to prevent the transponder from sending out its signal. She could only do it for so long, however, as she was going to need the pod's systems for the planetary insertion. That was one thing she could not expect to do manually.

Though a portion of her consciousness had to be devoted to the distortion field, Major Yang allowed herself a moment to sort out her thoughts. Though she had taken steps to confound her pursuers, it would not take them long to be on her trail. Unlike Oberleutnant Van Houten, there may not be any attempt to recover her alive. In fact, she might find herself shot down before she could even attempt entry. After that was the risky prospect of the planetary insertion, and even if she could survive the atmosphere and the landing, she would then have the great challenge of finding Oberleutnant Van Houten and confronting her.

It was foolishness. It was madness. She knew it, but she also knew that there was no other path she could have taken. If she did not do this, she would be driven insane. She had to defeat Oberleutnant Van Houten by her own hand or else she could never rest. Up until now, she had been a model soldier performing above and beyond all standards set for her kind, but then, so was Oberleutnant Van Houten before their last mission.

It was the Core Unit. Not just the fact that they had to terminate the Core Unit but its very existence. So long as the original Core Units continued to exist, the legacy of the Skyfall Calamity would continue to infest the latter-day children of Tara Ma. It would not take too many more incidents like this for the High Command to reconsider the viability of the Hybrids. They could all be purged. Surely the High Command would see that as preferable to a repeat of the Skyfall Calamity.

It would be comforting to give herself a sense of noble purpose for what she was doing, but Major Yang knew better than to coddle herself with such delusions. It was pride first and foremost that was driving her, and going rogue as she had was only likely to further imperil her sisters. She knew this from the start and it did nothing to deter her. She could bear the dishonor of being branded a rebel and a traitor, but what she could not bear was the dishonor and humiliation of defeat. It swelled inside her like a metastasized tumor and she would be rid of it or die in the attempt.