Meanwhile in Dornthant, Erma's homeworld, we see both Eda Felna, her mother and the currently nameless mother of Itzak Arrat discussing about the whereabouts of their respective sons, while Eda complains why Erma doesn't returns to someplace close to home. now that she ended her tour of duty in Derzon.
Regarding Erma, we see her in the next scene formally dressed in a party organized by the Ekosiaki government, along with Col. Onni Hitzok, also dressed in a formal military suit. Hitzok discuss with Erma that there's a lot of VIPs in the party, many of the are people Erma should not ignore. One of those VIPs is a Mustelid (otter) named Dael Valderzha, a quite remarkless higher member of the EDF who is also a Fanboy of Erma, and he wanted to dance with her. Erma politely asked him to wait a moment while dealing with other people.
Erma manages to impress her hosts, despite having no formal training in diplomacy, and one of the people she managed to get his attention is a Canine journalist named Laslow Kosak, who wanted to get an scoop directly from her in a very direct manner, especially regarding her role in Derzon and the fact she was surrounded by males, but he's stopped by Col. Hitzok, who gladly describes him as nothing more an annoying paparazzi who is in parole due to similar antics. Erma thanks Hitzok for saving her from Laslow, while Hitzok was putting his eyes on another female (very likely, Dea), a fact lampshaded by her. Meanwhile, Erma has to dance with her dance partner, Dale, while enduring both his dancing style and his non-stop babblering regarding her.
Despite not being able able to take anything straight from Erma, Laslow Kosak managed to milk the whole deal regarding Derzon from whatever info he already had in his hands. Suddenly, Laslow and the staff of his news network received a videocall from an unknown source threatening the whole city of Hicho with a nuclear bomb set in downtown, and the authorities only had one hour to defuse the bomb before it explodes. While that was happening, we see Erma training with aerodynes, when her training is suddenly interrupted when the whole deal with the nuke became public to everyone. Erma ask for the whereabouts of Col. Hitzok, and she also asked why there were no security cameras that could have detected those responsible for putting the bomb, a fact lambasted by an Ekosiaki soldier, since the Ekosiaki people doesn't have a police state mentality like her native Dornthant (or the rest of the EDF, for that matter).
While in the Hicho control center, Erma controlled the Ekosiaki forces, along with Col. Hitzok who was already in downtown Hichoo with his men, who already found the nuke, but they were afraid to do something about it, since probably had safety devices that prevented it from being tampered with, while the rest of the city was slowly evacuated, just in case.
Thanks to a quick idea from Erma, they decided to defuse the bomb using a very risky, but simple procedure: Using a fire truck and a soldier with a rocket-launcher, they neutralized the bomb by shooting the bomb with an armor-piercing missile and immediately hosing the bomb with water and anti-fire foam before the detonator could react and set it off the bomb. The operation was a great success and they managed to save the city, but Erma refused to receive any kind of recognition for it, partly because she thought Col. Hitzok and his men did the most dangerous part and also to avoid any kind of involment from the EDF in Ekosiak, a very hot situation in that planet right now. She also requested to delete any info regarding her participation in the mission. After that, Erma returns to her bunk, complaining in her mind about all the unneccesary attention on her and the fact the Ekosiakis let some terrorists to set a bomb in the middle of the city, and how this whole situation could probably cause an intense social polarization in the already divided Ekosiaki society regarding the benefits of freedom versus security.
After taking a bath, Erma takes a walk on Hicho, and she finds Col. Hitzok again, who already read Erma's report regarding the whole situation. He also tells Erma a rumor regarding the whole incident that whole thing may have been an ConFed plan to scare the Ekosiakis, albeit Erma think it could be a work from the local Freedom Party, who want their independence from the ConFed and retaining their civil rights, and the whole incident was their creation in an attempt to put the blame of the ConFed and scaring the local population along the way. She also puts the blame to another political party, the Security Party, who could used the incident for their own means, by manipulating the local distrust on the ConFed for their favor. Hitzok gladly hears all Erma's ramblings regarding the topic, but Erma refuse to take part on the deals of the Ekosiakis, since it is forbidden for her anyways, but Hitzok told her she is already involded by helping them to solve the incident, but Erma still refuse to accept her participation, since she though the only thing she did was giving some tactical advice, a she warns Hitzok she already deleted all the info on her participation in the operation, and she tells Hitzok he is the real hero, not her, while Erma herself will try to keep a low profile in Ekosiak. She also tell Hitzok that her whole assigment to his homeland is mainly punitive due to her participation in Derzon, as the EDF doesn't want women in leadership positions.
Hours later when Erma was still in her sleep, she receives an emergency call from Col. Hitzok once again, because an unruly group of 2000 protesters gathered at the entrance of the Home Guard's base. They were angry due of the whole incident of the nuke in Hicho and the presence of the EDF in the planet, despite Erma's role within the Ekosiaki army was supposed to be top secret. To make matters worse, many of those demonstrators were armed and eager to enter to the base violently. Despite trying to convince them with non-violent methods, the protesters refused to heed his words, so Hitzok didn't have other choice to order his men to open fire against the crew.
But before anyone could fire a shot, Dael Valderzha, the Mustelid guy who danced with Erma in the party days ago, appeared out from nowhere in an aerodyne, and using the engine exhaust from hsi vehicle, he dispersed the demonstrators without having to shoot a single bullet. Unfortunately for Hitzok, a random armed protester opened fire against him, taking into advantage the whole chaos created by Dael, injuring him in the gut. Luckily for him, he was wearing a flak jacket as well, but it managed to seriously hurt him, but even with that, he order his men restrain themselves, so ending this issue.
Tropes:
- Attention Whore: Lazlow Kosak, according with Col. Hitzok.
- Chekhov's Gunman:: Dael Valderzha, big time at the end of the issue, since he prevents both Col. Hitzok and the protesters from scaling the situation to a full bloodbath.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: The mysterious terrorists who set the nuke on Hicho warned about the bomb this way by hijacking Lazlow Kosak's news program in the news network by some means.
- Fanboy: Dael Valderzha is really a big fan of Erma, much for her chagrin.
- Fanservice: This is the first time we see Erma naked when she takes a bath after the whole nuke incident.
- Mundane Solution: This is the way how Erma solves the whole Hicho nuke incident: Since the bomb had anti-tampering devices, she orders a soldier to shoot it with a carefully aimed rocket launcher and hose it down with fire foam regardless of what happens next to destroy the bomb's mechanism without detonating it. It works.
- No Name Given: Itzak Arrat's mother doesn't have a name, not to mention this was her only physical appearance of her in the comic.
- Pimped-Out Cape: Erma wears a formal cape with her formal dress in both the dance party and also when she takes a walk in Hicho.
