***
"Excuse me. Are you Sister Charlize?" I asked the nun.
Lowering her knitting needles, the middle-aged woman in a simple habit looked up, her expression mildly confused. "Yes. May I ask who you are?"
"I am Sergeant Jason Osthez of Rogue Raven Battalion. I'm investigating the missing children's case and was hoping you could answer a few questions for me." I kept my tone polite, eager to get this done efficiently.
"Oh? You seem a little young to be a soldier." Rising from the bench, she motioned toward the church. "Come inside. I set the kettle earlier for some tea. You can have some while we talk."
A strange unease settled over me as I followed her. "You don't seem very bothered by this," I noted. "It's the children of your orphanage who are going missing, madam."
The interior of the church was just as worn-down as the outside. Stained-glass windows cast muted colours over old wooden pews, and surveillance cameras dotted the walls—just as they had outside.
"The investigators sent by the police station used to come by weekly, yet children kept disappearing. I've grown so used to their failure that it no longer surprises me. The last person to even come here thinking of adopting a child was six months ago," she said with a tired sigh. Reaching the kitchen, she checked the boiling kettle and waited for it to finish. "The kidnappings, the cruel pranks from outsiders, the city council cutting our funding month after month... I'm just very tired, soldier."
With a click, the kettle finished its job. She retrieved two chipped ceramic cups from a cabinet and poured hot water into them.
"Have you petitioned the solar system's government for relocation? Or even the planetary chancellor?" I asked, studying the cracks along the kitchen tiles. "Orphanages are under the Empress's protection. The planetary government should be prioritizing this investigation."
Sister Charlize dropped teabags into each cup, shaking her head grimly. "I've sent plea after plea since the first month this started. Every single one was ignored." She stirred her tea with slow, deliberate motions. "Even with the added surveillance cameras, children still go missing at random times of the day. The ones we've found... were all dead, discarded in sewer canals far from here." Her voice faltered, but her face remained eerily composed. "Let me ask you something, Sergeant. You're a soldier—why are you investigating this? Are you also an orphan?"
Something about her demeanour put me on edge. I hadn't touched the tea.
"My parents are very much alive, thank you," I replied coolly. "These kidnappings have been going on for four months, correct? This is the fifth month now."
She blew on her tea before taking a slow sip. "Yes. Five children vanish each month. As I'm sure the report you were given states."
"And how many have gone missing this month so far?"
"Three," she answered. "The fourth and fifth might have disappeared while you and I were talking." Her voice was empty, resigned.
Was this apathy genuine, or something more sinister? If I'd known what she was like before all this, maybe I could tell. But standing here now, next to someone who had either lost all hope or was hiding something... it was unsettling.
"Would it be alright if I looked around, Sister Charlize?" I asked, keeping my tone neutral.
She nodded without hesitation. "Of course. I pray the Empress's favour guides you to the truth, young soldier."
I turned to leave, but before I could step outside— A hand shot out from behind a nearby wall, waving frantically.
Ignoring it, I took a step toward the playground. Then, without warning, a silver-blonde blur darted out, strong arms clamping around my waist.
"What the—!?" The next thing I knew, I was hoisted onto someone's shoulder like a sack of rice and carried out the church to the other side of its outer wall.
"The hell are you doing!?" Nicole's voice hissed beside me.
"Wha— Nicole! Tell the AKP to put me down!" I barked, furious at being manhandled—again.
"Don't put him down yet, Firefly." Ignoring my protests, Nicole focused on me. "This related to that thing the commander sent everyone out on? What kind of side quest did you pick up?"
Still trying to wriggle free from Firefly's iron grip, I gritted my teeth. "Commander said to do something useful for the city before returning. While you two were playing around, I went to the police station and asked if I could assist with an ongoing investigation. Instead, they handed me a months-old, closed case about missing children from this orphanage."
"Children are going missing here?" Firefly asked, finally setting me down.
I dusted myself off and shot her a glare. "Yes. And whoever's behind it must be bold—stealing future soldiers of the Empire is no small crime. You said you saw me on the security feed?"
Nicole nodded. "Yeah, we could see you on the cameras, but we couldn't hear anything."
That struck me as odd. "No audio?"
"None. I checked for the input, but all we got was video." Nicole crossed her arms, her expression darkening. "Now that I think about it, that's strange. These models should have built-in microphones. The rotation's off too—like they were purposefully limited. The cameras themselves aren't old either; they're actually new." She frowned. "I'm starting to smell a conspiracy."
I exhaled sharply. "Alright. Nicole, find out who installed the CCTV and when. Firefly and I will check for anything unusual inside—strange sounds, hidden doors, anything."
Nicole smirked. "Shouldn't take me long." She waved as she turned to leave. "Have fun with Firefly~."
"Wait—" Too late. She was gone. Sighing through my nose, I turned to the girl beside me. "Guess you're with me, then. Try to be useful for something other than brute strength."
"Okay. That should be easy," Firefly replied, trailing close.
The playground had emptied while we were talking, making it easier to examine the area.
The wall surrounding the orphanage was eight feet tall, made of sturdy stone with no visible breaks. No dog holes underneath. The only tree nearby was too thin to support even a small child's weight. That left only two possible ways out—the front and rear gates, both under heavy surveillance.
None of it made sense. If the only exits were the gates and they were closely monitored, how were the kidnappers getting away unseen? Unless... they weren't going through the gates at all.
A cold realization settled in. Was Sister Charlize involved? Could there be a hidden underground passage?
A voice interrupted my thoughts. "Jason, look at this." I turned to see Firefly pressing her hand against a worn section of the church's outer wall, directly below a window. "These markings—at the training facility, cadets used to get dragged up and down walls with a rope. This looks the same."
I approached, giving the wall a second look.
At first, I dismissed it as kids playing, but... she had a point. If children had been climbing here for fun, the wear would be spread out across the whole wall. Instead, it was concentrated in one specific patch—as if something had been repeatedly lifted or lowered.
My eyes narrowed. "...Nice eye," I admitted. "Let's head inside. We need to see what room that window leads to."
Following along, Firefly entered the church hall with me, where we found Sister Charlize and the children gathered in prayer. The air felt thick with quiet reverence, the rhythmic murmurs of devotion filling the space like a ghostly hymn.
"What are they doing?" Firefly asked as we carefully moved around them.
"Praying to the holy bloodline of the Empress and the Nymphas Empire's founder, Albert Viator Horiver Trigrata," I replied.
"Oh... so the founding emperor is a god?" Firefly mused, her voice laced with innocent curiosity.
I staggered slightly at the sheer naivety of the question. "He's revered as a divine figure, yes. The Empire considers him a saint."
"I learned about the founder during pilot training, but I was never taught to revere him like a deity," she said thoughtfully. "Not from the stories my teacher told me, at least."
"Your teacher?" I asked, noting the odd phrasing.
"Yeah. During breaks, he'd tell me short fairy tales. My favourited was about this girl who chased after a black star, only to become a part of it—to give the star a golden smile. It was ridiculous, but the way he described her, how beautifully she shone in the story... I loved it. The twist at the end was the best part—she had been a piece of the star all along, something it had lost a long time ago."
I didn't respond right away, caught off guard by her sudden sentimentality. The AKPs I'd encountered before were nothing like this. Cold, efficient, deadly. But Firefly? She was strange. Almost... human.
I pushed past her as we reached the door leading to the room with the window. "I didn't ask about fairy tales. Just about your teacher."
"But I wanted to tell you," Firefly said cheerily, holding the door open for me. "You seem like a dependable ally, Jason. So it's okay for me to reveal a few weaknesses, right?" Her tone had shifted. It was subtle, but something in her voice—her entire demeanour—felt calculated.
I let it go for now. Instead, I walked to the window and looked down. Sure enough, it lined up with the worn-down spot on the church wall we had seen earlier. "Look around. See if you can find any clues about the kidnapper—"
"Shh!"
Firefly suddenly yanked me behind the door, pressing me down just as the sound of sluggish, heavy footsteps echoed through the room.
A child. A small boy, moving like a marionette on loose strings, dragging himself across the room toward the window. His movements were mechanical, his expression blank.
"Is the boy drugged?" I whispered, but Firefly didn't answer. She was watching intently, waiting.
The boy reached for something near the window—a thin rope tucked inconspicuously into the frame. Without hesitation, he climbed out, sliding down against the worn wall with practiced ease. As soon as he let go, the rope snapped back into the hidden slot, vanishing like it had never been there.
We rushed to the window, watching in stunned silence as the boy staggered across the garden, carefully avoiding the surveillance cameras. Then, just as he reached the outer wall, another rope was tossed from the other side. He grabbed it and, with an eerie precision, began climbing.
And then—he was gone.
"I'll follow him," Firefly said immediately. "Contact Nicole, tell her what's happening, and figure out where the brainwashing is starting."
She didn't wait for my response. In a flash, she leapt through the window, sprinting across the yard with impossible speed. Reaching the outer wall, she scaled it in one bound, vanishing into the alley beyond.
I stood frozen for a moment, watching the space where she had disappeared. "How can she...?" I muttered under my breath. That speed, that agility—it wasn't normal. Even among the Commander's elite, I'd never seen anyone move quite like that.
Shaking off my shock, I turned back into the hallway, retracing the boy's steps. If he had come from a specific room, there had to be something there.
At the end of the corridor, I found a small prayer chamber. As I stepped inside, a strange buzzing sound reached my ears—soft at first, like an insect hovering nearby. Then, Sister Charlize walked past the doorway, pausing when she spotted me. "Sir soldier? What are you doing here?"
My hand instinctively reached for the concealed gun on my back. "Sister, do you hear that buzzing?"
"There's a hornet nest in the tower," she answered, confused by my reaction. "I've tried to get rid of it, but I have no way to reach it. The wind just blows the bug spray away."
My mind clicked into place. That sound. That location. No. Not a hornet's nest.
"Six months ago, you said someone came to the orphanage looking to adopt. Do you remember anything about them?" My voice came out sharper than I intended.
Sister Charlize frowned, thinking. "Yes... a woman came by. But she never adopted anyone. A few days after she left, the wasps built their nest. Is something the matter?"
A sinking feeling twisted in my stomach. There was a banned technology—illegal, classified, nearly impossible to detect. A mind-jacker drone. Designed to burrow into a host's nervous system and hijack their actions without them ever knowing. I opened my mouth to explain— then a flash of silver caught the corner of my eye.
My instincts screamed, and I threw myself sideways just in time to swat something away from my neck. A tiny, metallic wasp-like drone hit the ground, its wings flickering in the light. A mind-jacker.
"Sister, don't let it near your neck!" I barked, scrambling to my feet.
The drone twitched, then shot forward like a bullet. Charlize gasped and slammed the door shut, trapping it inside with me.
"Wh-what should I do?!" she shouted through the wood.
"Find something—a bowl, a tray, anything I can trap it under!" My voice was frantic as I dodged another dive from the drone. "And get Nicole here the second she returns!"
I barely had time to duck before the silver insect launched at me again, buzzing hungrily as it tried to reach my spine.
"Damn it. This just got a hell of a lot worse."