Schwarzes Marken

An East German TSF squadron, the 666th or "Schwarzesmarken", enter the fight against the BETA with their Comrade Captain, Irisdina Bernhard. Pilot Anett Hosenfield suffers a nervous breakdown and, in the chaos it creates, pilot Inghild Bronikowski is mortally wounded. Irisdina administers a coup de grace rather than leave Inghild to die on the battlefield. She castigates Second Lieutenant Theodor Eberbach for failing to help Annett, and assigns him to continue the mission while Inghild's body is recovered.

After finishing training for laserjagd, the squadron's technique for hunting Laser-class BETA, the Stasi arrive. They demand to take Katia to clarify some things because she is from the West and was admitted to the 666th with unusual haste. Heinz Axmann, of the Stasi, also states that the rumors about Irisdina are true, adds that she will someday kill her squadron, and tells Katia that they will see her soon.

Katia and the injured Pham are brought inside the besieged Fort Neuenhagen. Back at Bebersee Base, Gretel asks Theodor if he and Irisdina are plotting something. She reveals that five years earlier, a coup against the Stasi led by General Strachwitz was foiled, and the Stasi effectively erased him from history. Gretel also tells Theodor the story of Irisdina selling out her brother to the Stasi is almost certainly a lie. Armed with this information, Theodor arranges a meeting with Irisdina in an old church, where she admits her "dog of the Stasi" persona is a cover, and she's plotting to overthrow the Stasi herself, and recruits Theodor into her cause.