CMP Detention Facility. Location: Classified. 04:03 AM. 

Multiple footsteps scurry headily through the thick forest that surrounds the military facility of the CMP, as five men try to get away from the loud yells of military personnel trying to chase them down. "Stop! We will not hesitate to shoot you down! Return the prisoner now! We order you to halt!" One officer shouts from a few hundred meters away from them. 

"Tell me again why we couldn't just use our transporters to get in and out of this bloody planet!?" Wonho shouts behind him. "I told you... once we use the transporters to find the place they were locking the captain in, it would immediately deplete all the energy stored in it. We used the beacon we gave the captain as the source and end point of our jump. Jumping by the use of a beacon requires more juice out of our transporters compared to when we just input the coordinates ourselves--"

"--Since we had no idea where they were going to take her, it was the only choice we had in reclaiming her," Minhyuk replies. Why do you think we had to take a ship here, Wonho? 

"Enough talk and more running, yeah?! We've got to lose these bastards and return to the ship where Changkyun is waiting for us and get out of this wretched hellhole." Jooheon yells at the two. "Over here, follow me!" Kihyun instructs them and takes a left through the giant forest. Jooheon feels a weird sense around him that he's never felt before as if something familiar is nearing towards him only for the feeling to disappear seconds later. He shakes it off and continues running.

"Captain, we're losing sight of them what do we do!?" One of the CMP officers yells in desperation as it doesn't seem as if they're gaining ground on the mercenaries when all of a sudden a three hooded figures run through them in a flash. "What the f--!" the captain yells in surprise. 

Seola, Xuan Yi, Bona, Exy, and Luda are in a military armored truck, accompanied by the general and Shownu in the driver seat, drive through the edge of the forest as they relay information back and forth with Soobin, Eunseo, and Cheng Xiao who were tasked to chase down the mercenaries through the forest. The eight girls were picked up almost immediately from their barracks and were hurriedly rushed to the scene to take chase of the men and make sure Kim Jinyoung doesn't make it out and escape. 

"Where the hell did they go!?" Cheng Xiao shouts having lost sight of the men just a few seconds after thinking they were gaining on them. "They made a left! Three hundred meters out!" Soobin with her eyes like of a hawk, scouts through the thick terrain and informs the group of the move the five men just made seconds ago. "Soobin-ah!" Seola, calls the attention of the younger girl.

"Listen, tell Xiao to climb up the tall trees and scale the forest from above and have Eunseo outrun you and have her chase those guys herself. With those two taking pursuit from two different positions and you being able to see farther than anyone else, you'll be able to scour the forest much more efficiently through three different angles!" Seola informs the girl of her strategy and immediately Soobin instructs the two girls of the plan.

"Xiao, you think you can take to the trees and see what's going on from above? We're gonna have to give the lead to Eunseo from here since she can outrun pretty much the both of us. Seola-unnie suggested we take the chase from three different positions. She believes we'll cover more ground that way and honestly I think it's a pretty good move. What do you say?" Soobin suggests.

"Well thank god for that! I'd thought I'd have to keep pacing myself for you two!" Eunseo utters with a cocky and smug look on her face and begins to outrun the two girls in a flash. "Tsk. Show off," Xiao scoffs under her breath before nodding at Soobin and starts quickly climbing the trees like a giant squirrel. As Eunseo begins to widen the gap; Soobin keeps her eyes glued to the tall girl, making sure she doesn't lose sight of her. 

"That was some pretty quick thinking, unnie. In a situation like this, stuff like that wouldn't cross my mind so briskly." Soobin commends the older girl as Seola pats herself on the back with a wide grin on her face but only to be erased quickly after Exy scoffs quietly that if Xuan Yi didn't mention the three girls' abilities, Seola wouldn't even have thought of an idea like that. "Ya, shut it. I don't see you making any great battle strategies here."

"Battle strategies?" Exy teases before bursting into a laugh. "Yeah, sure, Hyunjung. Whatever you say."

"General, what exactly are we going to do once we manage to pin them to a corner?" Xuan Yi reluctantly asks, unsure if whether the answer she will receive will be in favour of Bona who is just beside her. Even if she opted to join in this pursuit and insisted her duties as a soldier are still where her priorities lie, it's not hard to tell that she herself is a little unsure of what she's gotten herself into. "Don't die." The general response is quick but straight to the point.

The girls all shift their attention towards Bona who seems unfazed. All of them unsure whether Bona will be willing to pull the trigger on her own blood if the situation calls for it. "I trust you'll make the right decisions, miss Kim." The general calmly voices out from the front of the armoured truck. "Yes, ma'am," Bona replies quickly with no second thought and receives worried stares from Xuan Yi and Luda while Seola and Exy gaze at her unsure whether they can take her word for it.

Seola's words are still ringing in the ears of Bona from hours ago, recalling everything she said as verbatim: "Jiyeon... Being a squad leader entails you the heavy responsibility of making decisions for your entire squad. There's going to be a point where their survival will solely depend on you and your choices. You have to make it clear that you are trustworthy enough for them to be putting their lives in your hands..."

She gently lays a hand on her cheeks, still red from the slap she received from Seola. Xuan Yi takes it upon herself and finally acts without hesitation. She places her hand on Bona's knees and Bona just idly gazes at it. Luda, who sits across the two girls, watches the kind gesture unfold right in front of her eyes that are filling with subtle jealousy. Xuan Yi takes a firm grip on the girl's leg to reassure her that she believes she'll do the right thing.

Bona nods in response and takes a deep breath. It's rare to see her so unsure of herself, she was always known to be quick on her feet and swift on making the decisions and making the right ones for that matter but these days it seems that she's been completely thrown off. No matter how hard she tries to focus, it's as if all those years of discipline and strict training regiments have all gone down the drain and she feels as if she's starting over. No one is as frustrated at her than herself, that's for sure.

As Eunseo rapidly navigates her way through the dense forest, a beeping wristband blinks on her left hand sends her exact location to the armoured truck the girls are in helping them drive just outside the forest and knowing where they need to jump out and help in case Eunseo needs it. "I'm gaining on them! I can see five of them and Jinyoung!" Eunseo informs her squad. "I might have an idea where they're heading!" she says.

"General! The foot of Mt. Shidae! By the river." Seola cries out after hearing Eunseo's suggestion. "You're sure about that?!" The general makes sure and with a nod of Seola's head, tells Shownu to head there as fast as he could. "Ya, Eunseo, exactly how sure are you about this?" Seola reiterates a little softer, as they make their way towards the base of Mt. Shidae, a mountain that resides five kilometres away from the edge of CMP Base. 

As Eunseo tries to control her breathing as she's currently running at the speed of like a wildcat she explains to Seola her logic, something that the girl isn't particularly known for. "Those guys could transport to any certain location whenever they please. We've seen it before and we've even tried it ourselves but it appears they have a device that makes it even more convenient for them to make jumps through various locations--"

"-- But I've been chasing these guys for almost ten minutes now and they have yet to make the jump which makes me believe something is stopping them from doing so. My guess is either their devices still rely on a signal which the thick forest is making it impossible for them to get one or that they're trying to get out of here by different means. If they have a ship that's waiting for them outside of these forests, the foot of Mt. Shidae would be the perfect place to park it in--"

"-- Not a single military outpost within a five-kilometre radius, wide grasslands, and open enough to get all the signal they need. If I were in these guys shoes, that would be the place I would go to as well." Eunseo explains remarkably her theory well enough to convince practically everyone in the armoured truck who are catching up to her as they scale the rough roads of the trail outside the forest heading to Mt. Shidae. 

Eunseo manages to reach the end of the forest, blinded by the rising sun, she stops for a second to adjust her vision and sees at the distance a light cruiser ship parked just a couple hundred meters from the base of Mt. Shidae. Down the ridge from where she was, she sees six figures hastily making a run for the ship and no doubt those are the men she's been chasing along with Jinyoung.

A few moments later she is reunited with Cheng Xiao and Soobin who is already out of breath as she was trying her hardest to catch up. "So did you see them? Did you manage to catch up even a little bit?" Soobin asks, desperately trying to catch some air in her lungs. "Yeah, they're over there. They exited through here just like you said.  Thanks to Soobin unnie's great eyes, I was able to not let them slip far away." Eunseo nudges Soobin at her sides with her elbow.

"Shut it, Juyeon." Soobin takes a look to as where the parked ship was. "They landed their cruiser near the ruins of an old Ujung sanctuary." She takes a deep breath and before she could ask where the others were the armoured vehicle drives by and takes a sudden stop and Luda emerges from the back door telling them to hurry up and get inside. The girls, sparing no second, jump inside the truck and continue to take the chase towards the six individuals who are nearing their escape ship.

Meanwhile, inside the mercenaries' ship, Changkyun receives a distress call on his radio informing him to start the ship. "We're a kilometre out! Have the ship ready for translocation, open the boarding dock, and have the EMP ready. We have a fight coming our way!" Jooheon snares from the other end of the line and Changkyun jumps from his seat and begins doing everything Jooheon just told him.

He pulls a gun rack from one of the columns of the ship and starts loading each one with ammunition and leaves one after the other next to the loading bay of the cruiser and presses a button that opens the entrance doors of their vessel. He then runs towards the cockpit and heats up the engines preparing it for startup and switches over to the co-pilot seat to input the coordinates that will bring them back to their home planet and begins building up electro-magnetic charges around the ship.

As the six runners manage to get within reach of their escape ship, the general instructs Shownu to stop the car as they are at firing distance from the mercenaries. She fires a warning shot before the rest of the girls even managed to get out of the truck and a bullet ricochets off one of the many stone statues in the open ruins beside Wonho. He drops to the ground and takes cover behind a broken wall and the rest of his buddies follow suit. 

"You're going to regret that, lady! I don't think you know who you're messing with right now." Wonho, aggravated at the action pulled against him, draws his gun from his sling and starts to warn the general. He glances over at his friends who are a little bit positioned forward from where he was situated and sees them cocking their rifles as well. He smirks at the sight of it all and ponders at the current situation they're in. 

As the eight girls take their position from where the ruins start, the general instructs them to spread out and make sure every broken wall is checked and they be vigilant in doing so. "I don't think YOU know who you're dealing with here, boy!" The general retaliates and Wonho feels irked even more by the tone she's using add to that the use of the word 'boy' to describe him. 

The ten members of the CMP inch closer and closer while the six runners wait for their opportunity to make a run for it or if they're desperate fight them off. "You and your friends have been causing a lot of headache for the CMP for quite some time now, you know that? From the attack in Loen to the kidnap of one of our cadets, to the murder of dozens of CMP officials. If we capture you, there's little chance the federal court would even allow sunlight to enter your cells," the general utters.

"Interesting offer, general, but we'd rather if you would be so kind to just let us off right now to fulfil our duties and maybe, just maybe, we might even consider letting you guys walk away with your lives and we can all call it a day. Huh?" Jooheon arrogantly teases a few feet away from Wonho. "What do you say, general?" he adds while placing what appears to be earplugs in his ears. The general, uninterested in his deceit, knows exactly what he's playing at. "He