It had been three years since that fateful winter day in Berlin. Three years since those prophetic words left her lips.

The man suppressed a shudder in his train cabin. It had been three years yet he still couldn't help but react at the thought of her. The piercing red eyes. Although the Americans and NATO pushed back the BETA in the nick of time, it was only a stopgap solution. The Oder Neisse absolute defence line had been breached and with the activation of the Rovaniemi Hive, it was an inevitability that the line would fall.

The man sighed as he lay his head back. Memories of the time just after the fall came unbidden to the forefront of his mind. Germany was a nation that no longer existed in this world. The BETA ruthlessly destroyed everything despite the valiant efforts of the defenders. He had been one of them. His comrades were either dead or broken. And...

"Katia," the name slipped from his lips as a whisper.

He was grateful he was alone in the cabin. He looked out the window as the scenery all blended together. He was going to bring her back. He saw her get on one of the trains to evacuate. She was still alive, that he was sure of. Perhaps she was already in Britain or maybe she was in one of the last human holdouts in Europe, being as foolishly optimistic as ever in her quest to unite humanity against the BETA.

Theodor Eberbach smiled to himself as he remembered that smiling, optimistic, foolish girl...

Well, no matter, he was going to bring Katia home.