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nOnce 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.

nHe spent the afternoon reading a book then met with Shizuru for dinner. Alice didn’t call him that night, which he thought was odd, however he doubted that she would commit suicide just because her engagement was broken so he he went to bed without checking on her.

nAfter a night of sound slumber morning soon came. Same as the day before he went through his routine, ate breakfast with his girlfriend then went 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.

n“Sergeant Clementine. Fancy seeing you here.” Sam said, his voice full of sarcasm.

n“We need to talk.” Jordan said, glaring down at him while desperately trying to hide his anger.

n“Take a seat then.”

nSeeing how relaxed Sam was, with his eyes still on the book even when being talked to, only served to fuel Jordan’s hate. Nevertheless he pulled one of the chairs and sat down facing the Doctor.

n“I’ll get straight to the point.” The orange head spoke. “How did you two get together?”

n“For a moment I thought you were going to threaten me into breaking up with her.”

n“I’m not that petty.” Jordan said. “I know when to give up.”

n“Then you should’ve done so much earlier.” Sam said, looking up from the book. “You should’ve known from the start that she wasn’t interested yet you continued to persist.”

n“She was single so there was always a hope.”

n“I see. Well, I wouldn’t fault you for that.” Sam said. “In fact I should be thanking you. If it weren’t for your actions I would’ve never got my chance.”

n“… what?”

n“Everything you did made me look better in comparison, and if you didn’t annoy her so much she wouldn’t have agreed to dating me.”

nJordan stared at Sam for a few seconds, seemingly dumbfounded. Then, a moment later after he processed everything carefully he snapped, standing up and slamming his hands on the table.

n“You bastard!”

n“What are you getting angry about?” Sam said, returning the glare. “After doing all of that to make me look bad, you think you have any right to complain? You’re an adult for god’s sake, learn to behave like one.”

nJordan had no response. After growling for a few seconds he turned around and stormed out of the library. Sam let out a long sigh and put his book down.

n“What an idiot.” He said, taking his glasses off before massaging the bridge of his nose.

nAs if to add on to his annoyance he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Taking it out he saw that he had received a message from none other than the base’s commander.

n“Damn it…”

nHe didn’t have much to do at the moment but he still found it annoying to have to deal with his weeping childhood friend.

nReturning the book he was reading to its place he left for the administration building and soon enough he was standing in front of the commander’s office. He knocked on the door just in case and to his surprise he received a response.

n“Come in.”

nGoing by the tone of her voice Sam didn’t need to see the woman to know she wasn’t in the same state as that night.

nWell, it’s the middle of the day after all. Sam thought as he twisted the door handle. Even if she’d lost her fiance she wouldn’t dare drink while on duty.

nWhen Sam entered he saw Alice sitting behind her desk looking over a stack of papers. She was sober, as he had guessed. The way she focused told him the contents of what she was reading were quite important.

n“Sergeant Sanderson, you’re already here.” Alice said, taking her eyes off the papers for a moment.

n“The fact that you bothered to use my name, am I right to assume this is an official meeting?”

n“Take a seat.”

nThe 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.

n“Word came from the HQ that our Valkyrie physician sent a wierd report.” Alice said, each word oozing seriousness. “It said that the weapons were acting strangely. Now, Sergeant Sanderson, why am I hearing about this only now?”

n“Um… I actually forgot that I sent it…” Sam replied with a nervous smile. “Oh! But you don’t have to worry. Turns out it’s all just a mistake on my part.”

n“Well you would’ve known if you reported to me first instead of informing the headquarter!” Slamming her hands on the table, the white haired woman stood up and pointed a finger at the Doctor. “Do you even realizeh 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!!!”

nThe report made it sound as if the Valkyries were gaining sentience and overcoming their programs, which is something that could only happen in science fiction movies and novels. the people at the HQ probably had a good laugh reading the report that implied the AI were going out of control.

nSam was stunned. He had never seen Alice so agitated. Still, a moment of thought allowed him to get a better grasp on the situation and how to respond. Glaring back at the base’s commander, Sam shut down her argument right away.

n“Ma’am, you know the details of my job, right?”

n“Hm?”

n“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.”

n“What are you-“

n“If it bothered you so much I could let you check the reports before sending them them out.” 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 complaing to me about it now.”

n“Well, that’s not exactly wrong…”

nAn awkward moment of silence passed as the two spoke nothing to each other. Sam understood that he was a bit rash when sending that report, however no one could fault him for it; he was dealing with highly advanced AI loaded into weapons that could break humans with bi effort. The worst case scenario was too easy to imagine.

nThat said, Alice wasn’t wrong to tell him that he should’ve checked with her first before informing the HQ. She is his superiors and deserved to know what’s going on in the base she’s responsible for.

n“Did something happen?” Sam asked, seeing the difficult expression on Alice’s face.

nIt’s clear that she’s on edge, so much that she yelled at him a couple of minutes ago. It was too early for her to get over the broken engagement so the way she’s acting was out of place.

nAlice’s eyes swam from one corner to the other and after pondering it over for a while she finally decided to tell him.

n“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.”

nSam’s eyes went wide only to be lowered in the next.

n“Why are you talking as if it’s not good news.”

n“That’s because…” pausing for a moment, the commander looked him in the eyes and delivered the news in a dry shaking voice. “We lost the second resistance base, along with the seven Valkyries stationed there.”

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