<div style="text-align: right"><div class="bbImageWrapper lazyload js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0WXOPsj.gif&amp;hash=04561448d27f47f849af8df91e5b1bde" title="0WXOPsj.gif">
<img alt="0WXOPsj.gif" class="bbImage lazyload" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0WXOPsj.gif&amp;hash=04561448d27f47f849af8df91e5b1bde" data-url="https://i.imgur.com/0WXOPsj.gif" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" style="" title="" width=""/>
<noscript><img alt="0WXOPsj.gif" class="bbImage" data-url="https://i.imgur.com/0WXOPsj.gif" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0WXOPsj.gif&amp;hash=04561448d27f47f849af8df91e5b1bde" style="" title="" width=""/></noscript>
</div></div><div style="margin-left: 20px"><div style="margin-left: 20px"><div style="margin-left: 20px"><div style="text-align: justify">Missions always required a good head on one’s shoulders; and so far, Basche believed he was the only the one who possessed that type of composure aside from the Commander in this operation. Between Ylona’s unperturbed eccentricity and Mikhail’s predictable mischief, Basche’s empirical nature balanced out their little posse. In the years that they had worked together as a team, the habits and nuances of the squad were easily recognized by each member of the unit. Basche noted how their leader purposefully suppressed his reaction from <i>Avielle’s</i> response to his question. It was an approach Basche didn’t experience firsthand but he often saw the younger Nazarov bearing the brunt of it whenever he happened to overstep his bounds and disappoint the Commander. Needless to say, whatever Mikhail did to warrant that walled off disposition, it never happened again. He fared well against white hot rage and red klaxon outbursts, but when presented with a method that didn’t so much as acknowledge what he did wrong, Mikhail was disciplined in a way his father could never do.<br/>
<br/>
Although Avielle had only just been integrated with the team, Langdon sensed that she might not be dissimilar with Mikhail in that regard. Already the tech specialist could see the searching look in her eyes, scanning Commander Drennen’s features for any cracks in his façade that would hint as to whether or not her answer was accepted. She would certainly have a lot more luck in reading their superior than the rest of the squad. A part of Langdon thought the Avoxxis would call out the Commander’s blatant evasion and confront him but only a single word left her. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:#429aaf">“Understood.”</span><br/>
<br/>
As Ylona’s peal of laughter reverberated in the testing zone at her little brother’s expense once he was so aptly shut down, Langdon’s skylight eyes were transfixed on the bioweapon. The mirth that possessed Ylona’s form and the sourness that suffused Mikhail’s expression had snagged Avielle’s attention, enough so that her needlepoint focus on the Commander was severed as she turned to face and regard the siblings; their amusement obviously lost on her. Yet her succeeding words to the Nazarovs might have implied otherwise as it only caused Ylona to laugh harder and Mikhail to scowl further, drawing out even a chuckle from the tech specialist. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:#429aaf">“Officer Mikhail Nazarov, your training success rate in a simulated hand-to-hand brawl with an AXS-062 is 72.08%. In a melee death match, although I am not permitted to partake in such combat with classified friendlies, success rate is 19.33%. Choosing a cremation or a space send-off is advised to conceal potential graphic disfiguration.”</span><br/>
<br/>
The Commander’s words swiftly sobered them, though. Promptly, the unit moved out before long as last minute advices from the scientists were imparted, escorted out as they were by Dr. Kahn. Basche was keen to leave the curve-less facility; and no sooner than later, the imposing white building gradually receded as the military chopper the Commander and Mikhail arrived in departed for base with the team intact. During the halcyon days when McDermott was still alive, travel from location to location often had the soundtrack of the Nazarovs’ rowdy bantering with Basche and the Commander and First Lieutenant’s quiet discussion whilst they sat side by side. This ride was different, however. While the siblings maintained the tradition with Basche, the new fixture in their squad merely sat in silence beside the Commander. None of them could truly <i>read</i> what went through the Avoxxis’s circuitry upon their departure from where she was created.<br/>
<br/>
Yet at that moment, when Avielle slightly raised her hand against the noonlight that pored through the transport’s windows, the subtle lines striping her flesh radiating a prismatic gleam, Langdon liked to think that she was <i>happy</i> to leave SSAG.<br/>
<br/>
Back at base, once General Sugawara caught wind of their impending arrival, Private Russo welcomed them on the helipads with a curt directive to meet the General in his tent. The urgency of Sugawara’s mission allowed them no respite the moment they landed in DOD territory. Their appearance with a fresh-faced addition in tow did rouse a line of tactless inquiries from the young private, though—after all, it wasn’t every day an eye-catching lady in a white, skintight bodysuit meandered about camp. Fortunately, it was nothing that Ylona’s charm and prattling couldn’t avert. There was a restless energy that saturated the squad even though Basche and his teammates were silent throughout the march to Sugawara’s tent. First, Operation AXS-062 then a new one a few hours later. Were they the only unit working in DOD?<br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:white">“Is that it?”</span> General Sugawara questioned the instant the team filed into his tent, his chin aimed towards the bioweapon who stood tall yet out of place in her pale SSAG uniform. While Basche and his squadmates, sans Avielle, saluted Sugawara, the General rose from his seat behind the desk and posted himself before the Avoxxis. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:white">“<i>Damn</i>, SSAG outdid themselves with their new models. Dr. Won did mention a massive upgrade but this is impressive. The first generation looked visibly inhuman… this one here looks as real as any of you. Almost can’t tell it’s a machine if it weren’t for those lines.”</span><br/>
<br/>
Through his periphery, Basche glimpsed the tension that emerged perceptibly in Ylona’s jaw. Knowing her, it was likely the older Nazarov would blurt something uncalled for much like how she behaved earlier at the lab with him before the Commander and Mikhail arrived. With as much subtlety as he could, Basche elbowed the part-Russian female to thwart her from uttering something regrettable for the sake of a bioweapon who wouldn’t be able to appreciate the meaning of her actions. Despite the fleeting glare he received from Ylona in exchange, the delicate peace was preserved.<br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:white">“Private Weiss will be here to fetch the Avoxxis for outfitting shortly.”</span> General Sugawara returned to his perch behind the round table, briefly sweeping his hand over the holo-surface to conjure the details of their latest mission. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:white">“I’ll get right down to it. This is an S-classified mission that will take place two weeks from now in Japan.”</span> The mention of the House of the Rising Sun stirred an excited shifting amongst Basche and his peers. A neutral nation that wouldn’t receive the presence of USA Marines with artillery and antagonism outright was always a welcome change in Basche’s book. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:white">“Prepare accordingly and fully integrate AXS-062 into your team by then. Consider this your… comeback operation.”</span> Before the General could launch into the specifics of the assignment, the target corporation’s name floated into the holoscreens that manifested atop the desk and doused the vicinity in a cyanous glow for the second time around.<br/>
<br/>
<div style="text-align: center"><span style="font-family:assistant"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:black"><span style="font-size: 18px">VANTABLACK TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS</span></span></span>​</div></div></div></div></div>