Heroes of the Sky.Dr. D and some Republican officers are waiting for two people to arrive. They see a truck in the distance, and wait for it to arrive. They then let the two people, a man and a woman, get into two Storm Sworders. The Storm Sworders are launched into the sky, and then they fly off. Meanwhile, Van and the others are traveling towards Guygalos City. Van and Irvine have a fight about which route to take, which ends up with Irvine strangling Van. After a long discussion, they decide to split up, with Irvine, Moonbay, and Rudolph taking the long but safe route, and Van, Fiona, and Zeke taking the shorter route that has one Imperial base along the way. They split up, and shortly after that, it turns out that Rudolph snuck into the Blade Liger so he could go with Van. At the Imperial base along Van's path, Major Karl Schubaltz is training with three black Redlers. He does some impressive maneuvering and shooting in his modified Saber Fang. Later, he and some other Imperial officer are talking about Prozen and what they think about the Empire. Then they go into the base, where they detect Van's Blade Liger running along in the distance. Karl recognizes Zeke from when Van, in the Shield Liger, and the organoid ran past him in a battle. Black Redlers are sent out to attack Van, and Fiona manages to contact the base. Rudolph talks to them, and Karl, being the only smart person in the ENTIRE Imperial army, recognizes that Rudolph is not a fake. Rudolph remembers Karl, and they start talking, but the rest of the Imperial officers still think he's a fake. They cut off the transmission and seize Karl to restrain him...