Division-A

Episode Five. (July 7th, 2118. Division-A, Northern District.)

Makina remained crouched underneath a massive slab of concrete as she watched the sky fall on top of her. The smoke of the attack was slowly pulled back down to ground level, suffocating her along with the appalling smell of baked corpses. Her sleeves had been torn off from her body, and her shorts barely remained functional. Balled up hair caked over with ash fell over her eyes, sheltering her from the various horrors in front of her.

The young girl panted hard as if every breath she took was just out of reach. As Makina cried, her arms wrapped around her for comfort and for warmth- for the crisp, cold air brought along by the rain didn't offer much heat. It was only the hug of her own arms and the puddle of her own blood that offered it.

A breeze escaped from the mountain of crumbled buildings surrounding Makina. A shiver crawled up and down her spine as her hair was pushed over her shoulder. Her big, blue eyes were exposed to the environment she hid in. Down the pile of rubble that she sat on was a mangled mess of an Omega's corpse. The Omega's arms were twisted in a comically obscure way. The neck was twisted twice over, draining the grief-stricken face of all its color.

She cried out. The shriek echoed through the surroundings and crawled in between the crevices of the buildings.

Several blocks away, on top of a lopsided and nearly collapsed building, a squad of uniformed men and women stood. The man in front, a tall, able-bodied man, squinted his tired eyes while he pulled his cap down over them to hide from the glare caused by the blinding white sun.

The man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a thick, metal device, almost like a radio. He held it in front of his face, looked through the green panel inside of it, and examined the area.

"Captain," a young man said from the back, "the terrain robots haven't found any sign of life here. Should we move forward?"

"No," the Captain said, still looking through his device, "the terrain bots are meant for recovering valuables and cleaning up, not for searching for dead civilians. However, the Royal Ambassador gifted me her limited-edition thermal survey cam. With this, I can see through buildings up to ten kilometers and detect and identify any living things."

"...and she just gave it to you?"

"Correct. But I don't see any living people here. Let's move forward!"

Suddenly, a blood-curdling shriek ran with the wind and passed through the squad's ears. The Captain turned and looked to the side with the thermal survey cam, catching sight of a warm figure squirming about the premises.

"Captain!"

"Yes, I know." He turned towards his fellow piers. "Cadet, direct the terrain bots in that area. Find us a safe way to get to them!"

"Sir!"

One Day Later

"There were survivors?!" Hetsu shouted after she jumped up from her seat.

The Captain nodded, maintaining eye contact with her. "Yes, but there was only one. It's truly remarkable, she shouldn't have survived. The Compactors destroyed a metropolis fifteen miles in diameter and every single person had perished."

"Why her? Why did the Compactors spare her?" Hetsu questioned, sitting back down and cradling her head in her palms.

"They probably assumed she was dead and left her under the rubble. If they thought she was still warm, they would have eaten her. It's sad really. But, what do we plan on doing with her? Leave her to die?"

"No," she replied. "That's a waste of life. Let's use her. We can perform the Omega Operation."

The Captain stepped back, shocked. "You're kidding, right?! We've never performed the operation on a living person!"